Wednesday 21 March 2012

Baldur's Gate Re-opening

RPGers rejoice! Legendary pc role-playing game series, Baldur's Gate, is being revived with Enhanced Editions! Beamdog studios, purveyor of digital downloadable pc games, has obtained the license to make new games in the series, and is crafting two whole new games: Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, and Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition. Whilst the first game will be released this year, no release date has been set for the second one. Both games will include their respective expansion packs: Tales of the Sword Coast and Throne of Bhaal.

The Baldur's Gate pc games were celebrated for their in depth gameplay, absorbing storylines and memorable characters set in the swords and sorcery world of the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms setting. Players could take the role of a daring bard, spell caster, holy warrior or a plethora of other fantastical roles, and experience a storyline revolving around an ancient evil god, and his still extant bloodline in the mortal world. Characters with their own intrigues and motives would accompany you as you uncovered vast conspiracies, fought strange and exotic monsters in varying locales, and interacted with characters with the series’ characteristic well-written dialogue. Many dedicated RPG fans still play the game, and no doubt felt giddy excitement when the news was announced.

So what do the Enhanced Editions entail, exactly? They will still comprise the same original game, albeit with improved graphics and UI (user-interface) features; although there will be new characters and new content added by the developers. Oh, and Beamdog (the development team) will be acquiring the talents of quite a few people who created the original series. The original Infinity Engine will still be used and the top-down, isometric 2d view will be retained. However, the graphics will be vastly improved. We do not have details (or screenshots) regarding specifically what improvement will be made, as of yet.

As for sound and music, you will be relieved to hear that the original epic soundtrack and voice work will be retained. Some new voice work will be added for new characters, and hopefully it will be of the same standard as the seminal original voice work.

For those interested in the many mods and tweaks programmed for the original games by their loyal community over the years, Beamdog has said that they are venturing to make all mods accessible with the Enhanced games, and that some of the more popular and well-made mods may be incorporated into the core game itself. The many small bugs of the original Baldur's Gate games may be fixed in the core game, without the need for additional fix packs.

There is no detailed information about what new content will be introduced, how much of it there will be, and whether the new characters will merely be characters your protagonist interacts with, or full-fledged companions. The news is still exciting nonetheless. It will be a thrill to explore the expanses of Baldur's Gate and Amn once again with trustworthy companions (especially Minsc) by your side, and with many original devs on board I am sure the new content and dialogue will be as exemplary as that of the previous games.



Look out for the epic, dark fantasy ebooks of Goodreads-rated author T.P. Grish at:
http://booksoftpgrish.blogspot.com.au/ 

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