Baldur's Gate 3 Catch-All

Mr GT Chris wrote:
psu_13 wrote:
Zelos wrote:

In terms of performance, the iPad is comparable to PCs from the BG1&2 era, I think.

No. Probably better than that. At least with the new one. The OS is also a lot more sophisticated than Windows in many ways.

Much better I'd say. Doubt my AMD K6-2 300 could have displayed graphics like Real Racing HD or Infinity Blade.

It probably could. The problem is that the graphics cards at the time couldn't display all the fancy "make pretty" technologies. I doubt that the number of polygons in Infinity blade is very high, it looks (from just looking at the screenshots on the internet) like it's all visual trickery using bump maps and other techniques to provide depth and detail to otherwise low-detail structures. Probably about the same structural detail as NWN, Dark Forces: Jedi Knight or Summoner.

Duoae wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:
psu_13 wrote:
Zelos wrote:

In terms of performance, the iPad is comparable to PCs from the BG1&2 era, I think.

No. Probably better than that. At least with the new one. The OS is also a lot more sophisticated than Windows in many ways.

Much better I'd say. Doubt my AMD K6-2 300 could have displayed graphics like Real Racing HD or Infinity Blade.

It probably could. The problem is that the graphics cards at the time couldn't display all the fancy "make pretty" technologies. I doubt that the number of polygons in Infinity blade is very high, it looks (from just looking at the screenshots on the internet) like it's all visual trickery using bump maps and other techniques to provide depth and detail to otherwise low-detail structures. Probably about the same structural detail as NWN, Dark Forces: Jedi Knight or Summoner.

Er, my AMD XP1700 had trouble with NWN let alone my K6-2 300.

Not so much. Take these wireframe views of some unreal levels:
UT99 DM-Morpheus (all 3 towers)
UT2004 DM-Morpheus3 (one of 3 towers)
UT3 DM-Turbine - Whole level, one room, the same room with static brushes turned off (not really much use, as the brushes are kind of what makes up a modern map)
UDK Epic Citadel (one street, and the wireframes aren't see through)

Don't have one, but I think the CPU in an iPad is probably about equivalent to a dual-core P3-700 or so, plus a graphic accelerator that puts anything from that era to shame. That's enough grunt to duplicate just about every truly great game, like, ever. The current gaming Problem Children, Metro 2033, Stalker, and Crysis 1, would all have real trouble running on that kind of hardware, but I don't think any of them are all-time classics.

Metro's the best of the bunch, and if it were ported to a more efficient engine, there's no real reason an iPad couldn't run it. (well, if they could work out the interface problems with a touch-screen FPS, anyway.)

Oh, edit to add:

Er, my AMD XP1700 had trouble with NWN let alone my K6-2 300.

Hell, my CURRENT system is sluggish playing NWN -- an i7 2600K at 4.4Ghz, with a 5870 video card. NWN is just a terrible program.

AndrewA wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Still hoping for iOS, then, but it certainly smells like PC.

Keep your stinky iOS away from my Baldur's Gate.

Sorry.

PC role-playing game Baldur's Gate will soon be living in a post-PC world. The beloved classic will be out for iPad this summer, developer Overhaul Games said today.

It will also feature new content (!) and a new party member (!!!).

Overhaul writes in a press release:

Running on an upgraded and improved version of the Infinity Engine, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition™ will include the entire Baldur's Gate adventure, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack, and never before seen content including a new adventure and new party member.

Miniature giant space tablets!

farley3k wrote:
AndrewA wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Still hoping for iOS, then, but it certainly smells like PC.

Keep your stinky iOS away from my Baldur's Gate.

Sorry.

PC role-playing game Baldur's Gate will soon be living in a post-PC world. The beloved classic will be out for iPad this summer, developer Overhaul Games said today.

It will also feature new content (!) and a new party member (!!!).

Overhaul writes in a press release:

Running on an upgraded and improved version of the Infinity Engine, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition™ will include the entire Baldur's Gate adventure, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack, and never before seen content including a new adventure and new party member.

Miniature giant space tablets!

Hooray! Time to watch the explosion in 3..2...

HELL YES. (Which is a great, evil song by Alkaline Trio everyone should check out.)

Btw did y'all notice that this week's podcast had the team unanimously hoping that this would come to iPad as well as PC?

Damn, I think they just sold me an iPad 3. Time to start subtly lobbying my wife...

I know I will pick it up.

Also: Now that I am elated at having once again gotten what I think I want, I can finally get down to hating it for not being done exactly the way I want, specifically in the area of controls (see also Final Fantasy Tactics iPhone).

If it doesn't work on iPad1 I'm going to kill somebody

I am happiness.

UCRC wrote:

If it doesn't work on iPad1 I'm going to kill somebody

For the price of a murder, you could probably get a used iPad 2.

Meh. Not interested in an iPad release. The new content and party member might be cool, but I'm not sure it makes sense for such an old game.

Why in the heck didn't they just say that to begin with?!?!?!?!

[size=8]Yes. Don't ask.[/size]

I still find it odd how the Internet and the press are losing their minds over this. I think it's great this is coming to iOS but it's a decade old game that you've been able to play on PC for years now (and as others have pointed out to me, with mods that add way more content). Suddenly, now that basically the same thing with a couple extra bells and whistles is on iOS, it's suddenly the second coming and everyone wants to play it more than anything. I now have the ability to take advantage of this release but it's a 100+ hour game, is an experience of that scope on an iPad something that's easily done? I mean I can see the game working with a touch interface but it's not really built to be played in short sessions.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I still find it odd how the Internet and the press are losing their minds over this. I think it's great this is coming to iOS but it's a decade old game that you've been able to play on PC for years now (and as others have pointed out to me, with mods that add way more content). Suddenly, now that basically the same thing with a couple extra bells and whistles is on iOS, it's suddenly the second coming and everyone wants to play it more than anything. I now have the ability to take advantage of this release but it's a 100+ hour game, is an experience of that scope easily accomplished on an iPad?

I found playing Avernum on the iPad to be difficult to control.. I'm curious to see how well this translates to the iPad. I would certainly give it a go provided its not $29.99 or some nonsense like that.. $11.99 is my max.

garion333 wrote:

Why in the heck didn't they just say that to begin with?!?!?!?!

Freaking exactly. And btw, have they said whether the iOS is the only platform?

UCRC - before your impending arrest, and I'm willing to bet money this won't run well on iPad 1, would you care to retitle this thread? Thanks!

TheGameguru wrote:

I found playing Avernum on the iPad to be difficult to control.. I'm curious to see how well this translates to the iPad. I would certainly give it a go provided its not $29.99 or some nonsense like that.. $11.99 is my max.

Yeah, the price will be interesting, especially since it's still Atari that's publishing it. I think this could get a lot of people into Baldur's Gate which would be a good thing but if they price it too high, only old school fans will be interested which isn't good for them. If it was $6 or less, I'd probably pick it up to try it out on the treadmill and see how it is. Much more than that, I'd probably just play it again on PC.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

UCRC - before your impending arrest, and I'm willing to bet money this won't run well on iPad 1, would you care to retitle this thread? Thanks!

I'd be shocked if this didn't run on every iPad. It's a game that ran on low-end Pentiums back in the day. If they can't make it work on a 2 year old iPad, that would be amazing.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I still find it odd how the Internet and the press are losing their minds over this. I think it's great this is coming to iOS but it's a decade old game that you've been able to play on PC for years now (and as others have pointed out to me, with mods that add way more content). Suddenly, now that basically the same thing with a couple extra bells and whistles is on iOS, it's suddenly the second coming and everyone wants to play it more than anything. I now have the ability to take advantage of this release but it's a 100+ hour game, is an experience of that scope easily accomplished on an iPad?

It's a convenience thing. I'll never be able to find that much time to game on my PC stuck in the corner upstairs. On the iPad I can play during the 1.5 hours a day I spend on the train, I can play anywhere.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

UCRC - before your impending arrest, and I'm willing to bet money this won't run well on iPad 1, would you care to retitle this thread? Thanks!

I'd be shocked if this didn't run on every iPad. It's a game that ran on low-end Pentiums back in the day. If they can't make it work on a 2 year old iPad, that would be amazing.

It didn't run well, that being the key word, on my computer when it was released, and didn't run particularly well on the next computer I built a couple years later. And now they are upgrading all the graphics and making who knows what other changes, as well as porting it.

But hey, I said I was willing to bet money; how about you?

Also: What Zelos said. My fascination with iPad gaming is the portability of it. There is almost nowhere I can't or won't take my iPad. My laptop stays home a lot now, even of I'm out of town for a week.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

But hey, I said I was willing to bet money; how about you? ;)

I'd bet a $10 donation to something worthwhile that it will run adequately on an iPad 1. I won't say that there aren't enhancements that may require a newer one but I think the game will be able to be played to completion (if someone could actually finish the full campaign in that form factor) on any iPad available.

I'm 95% sure they said this was coming to PC as well. I'll see if I can find a link...think it might have been someone's twitter feed.

There you go.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I still find it odd how the Internet and the press are losing their minds over this. I think it's great this is coming to iOS but it's a decade old game that you've been able to play on PC for years now (and as others have pointed out to me, with mods that add way more content). Suddenly, now that basically the same thing with a couple extra bells and whistles is on iOS, it's suddenly the second coming and everyone wants to play it more than anything. I now have the ability to take advantage of this release but it's a 100+ hour game, is an experience of that scope on an iPad something that's easily done? I mean I can see the game working with a touch interface but it's not really built to be played in short sessions.

I call people like that Wii owners. They so badly want certain types of games on their platform of choice they will excuse so much about it just because it is on their platform of choice. I played Avernum and it plays terribly on the tablet. The iPAd is heavy and awkward to control for a type of game that BG is.

If it's coming to iOS and that is their big reveal we're going to hear on the CC how amazing it is when they have put a few times but I doubt very much anyone will actually finish it on iOS. I just don't htink the tablet platform is suited for these types of games.

Ulairi wrote:

If it's coming to iOS and that is their big reveal we're going to hear on the CC how amazing it is when they have put a few times but I doubt very much anyone will actually finish it on iOS. I just don't htink the tablet platform is suited for these types of games.

(Full disclosure: I don't own a tablet)

I think I'd be more likely to complete it on a tablet than a PC, assuming a solid tablet interface. Some games I can actually dive in more on a handheld than on a PC or console. Persona 3 is a good example of this.

SixteenBlue wrote:
Ulairi wrote:

If it's coming to iOS and that is their big reveal we're going to hear on the CC how amazing it is when they have put a few times but I doubt very much anyone will actually finish it on iOS. I just don't htink the tablet platform is suited for these types of games.

(Full disclosure: I don't own a tablet)

I think I'd be more likely to complete it on a tablet than a PC, assuming a solid tablet interface. Some games I can actually dive in more on a handheld than on a PC or console. Persona 3 is a good example of this.

I don't put the iPad on the same level as the PSVita/PSP. The iPad is big, bulky and kind of heavy when you have to hold it there. Avernum pretty much killed any enthusiasm I had for iOS and what type of games I really love to play. I just don't see how they can do it and have it play as well as it does on the PC. I am sure it will be playable but I don't think it will play very well. I'll see a lot of people excuse the flaws and how poorly it plays because it's a "real" game on the iPad and I bet it comes in for a pretty good value (but more than what GoG charges)

The part I'm going to dread is the stories from lazy games journalists talking about how BG coming to the iPad signifies a shift away from traditional gaming platforms. No. It doesn't. We haven't seen a BG level of game built for the ground up for the iPad and I don't think the marketplace supports it. But, we'll get a lot of stories about how this "changes everything".

That's exactly why I prefaced it with the fact that I don't have a tablet. In my head it's perfectly comfortable to play.

I don't own an iPad, but I can't even imagine this kind of game on a smaller tablet, like the Kindle Fire.