The leading theory, at least the last time I checked, points at an HD remake for tablets, but references to the game in the Steam registry led some people to conclude that a Steam release is imminent. That claim was quickly denied by Beamdog, a studio founded by BioWare veteran Trent Oster which is apparently somehow involved in all this. Beamdog, for the record, has previously ported the BioWare game MDK2 to the Wii; Oster was a modeller on the original Baldur's Gate.
"Atari, Wizards of the Coast, and Overhaul Games are pleased to announce work has begun on the Enhanced Edition of Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II.
Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition™ and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition™ will feature a re-forged version of the Infinity Engine with a variety of modern improvements.
He said Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is "going to have new content for the game you love, made by some of the original team members."
Additionally, the developer revealed that the enhanced edition will include the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion. As for Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, it will include the Throne of Bhaal expansion and will ship at a later date.
Expected:
16:9 support
Redone interface/menus
No more EAX
5.1 audio support
Redone multiplayer
Possible:
Scaling to different resolutions
Redone and/or 3D modeled characters/animations
Redone graphic effects
Updated/new ruleset
"Baldur's Gate III has been our long-term goal," Overhaul Games chief operating officer Cameron Tofer said. "We have a lot of things to put in place before such a project can be launched. So currently there is no such project but that's the one we want to do. Our thoughts have been that Enhanced Edition for [Baldur's Gate] and [Baldur's Gate II] just make sense before there's any Baldur's Gate III."
I'll say it. I'm terrified that the "new content" they are putting in their will be horrible. Unless they are taking examples from some the BEST mods available to the game now, I just don't know. They need to leave the way the game worked alone, no update to another rule set.
This news both terrifies me and has me in state of wonder. Perhaps my wonderment is purely to see if this is too good to be true.
Professional... well I'll figure that out.
"I sense something, a presence I've not felt since......."
I'd certainly be interested in touch support for BG. I tried it on a 7" tablet using gemRB and it was painful due to the UI which is a shame as it was perfect for pre-sleep in bed gaming.
Beamdog wants to work with modders, using some of the old code they've developed over the years, to get the enhanced editions of both games to the point where neither one needs to be modded at all.
The desktop versions of both games won't be changed much, Tofer says. They'll have higher resolutions and full-screen modes, as well as "working" multi-player, but they won't look too different from their original incarnations in 1998 and 2000.
Ooooooo! Cespenar gets fullscreen!
I fondly remember playing BG and wishing, hoping, dreaming, ...maybe just being damn foolish... one day I would be able to play in fullscreen. Fullfuckingscreen. A reality upon us! At our door!
On the other hand, Tofer says the iPad version will be a "radical departure from the interface." The text will be bigger. You'll be able to pinch the screen to zoom in and out. You'll be able to gesture between screens instead of clicking the tab. The whole game might be zoomed in a little more.
Maybe they should rename it Baldur's Gate IPad Edition
Im fairly sure that you could have run baldur's gate 2 in any resolution you wanted without any major issues. I guess it is the same for BG1 - I bet there is an easy ini edit which would allow to change the game resolution to any desired one.
I kinda feel like dusting off those 6 cd with BG1...
Im fairly sure that you could have run baldur's gate 2 in any resolution you wanted without any major issues. I guess it is the same for BG1 - I bet there is an easy ini edit which would allow to change the game resolution to any desired one.
I kinda feel like dusting off those 6 cds with BG1...
You needed a mod to run it at any resolution, otherwise it was capped. and when you did use a mod, nothing would scale, everything would just get smaller at higher resolutions.
That being said it looks very disappointing so far.. they should just skip the PC version till they can get some 2012 graphics. I'm not asking for Witcher 2 here, but at least Trine quality.
If you've been waiting with bated breath for the release of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition this summer, you'll apparently have some more of the game to look forward to in the form of downloadable content. Overhaul Games' Trent Oster, who founded its parent company Beamdog, announced that the game would be supported with paid DLC after release. In a tweet this morning, Oster stated, "We'll be doing free feature improvements and existing content improvements as we go, but we are also planning some paid DLC."
Good to see they are focusing on finishing the original game before cranking out the DLC.
PC and Mac versions of the game will run you $20 unless you pre-order, in which case they'll be $18. They'll come with three new playable sidekicks: half-Orc Blackguard Dorn (whose head is pictured below), half-elf Wild Mage Neera, and human monk Rasaad. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition will also feature a new dungeon called The Black Pits, set within the Underdark, that tasks you with fighting your way through fifteen levels of arena-style battles.
This version of Baldur's Gate will also feature the classes, kits, and races that were available in Baldur's Gate II. It squashes a whole bunch of the original version's bugs and also offers cross-platform multiplayer among all versions.
We recently removed Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition from sale on Beamdog and the Apple App Store. We've taken this step at our publishing partner's request as we attempt to resolve a number of contractual issues.
This also prevents the launch of Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. I sincerely apologize to the series' fans and promise we are working diligently to remedy the situation.
