Baldur's Gate 3 Catch-All

Duffman wrote:

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.

Yeah, someone commented with that in the Kotaku post.

For all those worried folks, it sounds like this is IN ADDITION to the PC version.

From Trent Oster's Twitter:

@martin_hult We'll be talking more on platform in later weeks. Right now we're focusing on the PC #bgee

@MCDReichardt Of course #bgee will be on PC. We're adding #iPad as a platform, we're 100% supporting the PC.

That's good to hear. All they had to do was mention that on their web site and there would be no Internet concerns about it.

I'm glad it's coming to both, so if the iOS controls suck, I can just go PC.

PA: Is there a 3rd party website we could rely on to judge whether it runs well on the iPad 1? The idea of wagering on something as subjective as acceptable gaming performance may not have been one of my best.

it would be a phenomenal feat of software engineering to port a Windows game to iOS without also having a version that works in Windows, but I wouldn't put it past them. I don't care what they say it's coming out on; people lie about that stuff all the time.

I do not understand why people think this won't be on the PC. First and foremost, they are using the original Infinity Engine that was used to create Throne of Bhaal. It would be impossible for it to not be compatible. They would have to actually make it not compatible. Regardless, why would they forsake the largest audience for a Baldur's Gate remake? PC players are the only audience BG has known, aside from the awful ARPG games on the consoles.

IGN has gone hands on with the iPad version!

EDIT: In the build they've seen, presumably the current build, the interface is unchanged so far.

It would have been nice to have seen some real changes made, but I suppose that will have to wait.

I'm a lowly iPad 1 owner, but even if I had a new one I'd still go for the PC version. To me Baldur's Gate is all about settling in with a snack and a nice drink, and absorbing the story and characters at a leisurely pace. I can't see getting that experience with a tablet. But hey, diversity is always good, and I hope they sell millions of copies on every platform.

Although please, don't get cartoony.

I think my biggest concern is their supposed custom content. The original writing team on those games was quite good, and the characters and dialog were excellent.

I can't help but wonder if they're going to pull a Peter Jackson LOTR move, "improving" the original plotline with their own ideas. The LOTR movies were quite good, but their worst points were almost invariably where Jackson changed the original story. (the sh*t job he did with Eowyn, for instance, and bollixing up the Ent plotline were both particularly egregious gaffes.)

I sure hope it can be played in 'purist' mode, if what they add sucks. I really, really don't have high hopes on that score.

I was going to replay BG1 and 2 using BGT, but now that this has been announced, I might pick this up... so long as it's on the PC. Any further details on if it's JUST BG1 or if they're adding BG2 into it as well?

Malor wrote:

I sure hope it can be played in 'purist' mode, if what they add sucks. I really, really don't have high hopes on that score.

I imagine you could simply avoid the quests and characters they introduce, if that is your wish; I doubt they're going to weave them directly into the critical path.

Well, other mods are easy to turn on and off with the WEIDU framework in BG2. If they don't provide an easy way to omit their changes, whether or not their changes are good ones, I'm unlikely to buy it. I wouldn't mind having their stuff as an option, on the chance that it actually is worthwhile, but I'd also want the ability to play the game with purely the original story content.

I agree with you, Malor - people thinking they can improve on classics annoy the hell out of me. See also the Harry Potter 7 movie, and everything George Lucas did after RotJ.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm glad it's coming to both, so if the iOS controls suck, I can just go PC.

PA: Is there a 3rd party website we could rely on to judge whether it runs well on the iPad 1? The idea of wagering on something as subjective as acceptable gaming performance may not have been one of my best. ;)

Oh, I see how it is now.

I actually have no idea if such a site exists but an idea for an iPad Compatibility Index type thing (though isn't the whole idea of iPads that we're supposed to get away from complexities like system requirements?) would be a very neat thing. Now, if I only had the time and you know, knew how to build a complex web site worth a damn...

It's not the money, I'm a bit fanatical about making sure the terms of my (extremely rare) bets are spelled out to a T.

In any case, if it helps, when I make my next donation to the EFF I'll think warm thoughts of you.

So, am I getting this wrong or is the 'updated engine' simply just BG1 running on BG2 engine, which you could achieve through mods like 10 years ago.

Hype gone...

I wonder if the extra content is really just old mods too.

Just fyi, Impulse has the the Anthology (BG1/2/Expansions, ID1/2/Expansions, Planescape, and ToEE) on sale for $6.79 right now. No idea if the mods work with this or not.

McFinn wrote:

Just fyi, Impulse has the the Anthology (BG1/2/Expansions, ID1/2/Expansions, Planescape, and ToEE) on sale for $6.79 right now. No idea if the mods work with this or not.

They work excellently with this release. They are basically patched up to the latest versions with CD checks removed (worth buying for that alone to protect my old CDs). I have Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod installed, with resolution mods applied. Works like charm.

There is resolution mod for BG1, right? Does it scale well up to, say, 1680x1050?

I liked it better at lower resolution -- 1280x800 was perfect on my 2560x1600 screen. It was written long, long before the idea of resolution independence, and things get awfully tiny any higher than that.

Shadout wrote:

So, am I getting this wrong or is the 'updated engine' simply just BG1 running on BG2 engine, which you could achieve through mods like 10 years ago.

Hype gone...

I wonder if the extra content is really just old mods too.

Yes, you are getting it wrong!

Malor wrote:

I liked it better at lower resolution -- 1280x800 was perfect on my 2560x1600 screen. It was written long, long before the idea of resolution independence, and things get awfully tiny any higher than that.

In the Big World project (or just the high resolution mod), I believe that's about the size they recommend.

http://kotaku.com/5896565/baldurs-gate-ipad-will-support-multiplayer-cost-less-than-10

More news from kotaku - price on the iPad will be less than $10, it's going to include multiplayer support, and they're working on Baldurs Gate 2 as well. Sounds good to me.

$9.99 was the high point for me.. so I'm pleased.. even if I don't play it that much it will be an excellent time waster on the plane.

TheGameguru wrote:

$9.99 was the high point for me.. so I'm pleased.. even if I don't play it that much it will be an excellent time waster on the plane.

My wife saw an Ipad in the wild over the weekend. She didn't know what it was and when I told her, I knew that the seed had been planted. We will get an Ipad, and I will play BG1 and 2 on it. MWUHAHAHAHAHA!

Yoreel wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

$9.99 was the high point for me.. so I'm pleased.. even if I don't play it that much it will be an excellent time waster on the plane.

My wife saw an Ipad in the wild over the weekend. She didn't know what it was and when I told her, I knew that the seed had been planted. We will get an Ipad, and I will play BG1 and 2 on it. MWUHAHAHAHAHA!

Don't get too excited. I have a feeling that this is one of those games that everyone *thinks* they want to play on their iPad and then when they start playing it they run into the limitations of the iPad. I was super excited for Avadon on the iPad and when you're holding the iPad which after a little while gets bulky and heavy, and trying to control a party based game with your finger the frustration really sets in. The big thing they have going for them is that it's $10 so people aren't going to have really high expectations.

While it won't do much for the bulk of the device, one of the things I see mentioned a lot to help with accuracy is to use a stylus of some sort.

I'm quite surprised by multiplayer support on iPad. Did any of you play multiplayer back in the day? I feel like I always heard it was janky.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I'm quite surprised by multiplayer support on iPad. Did any of you play multiplayer back in the day? I feel like I always heard it was janky.

I played and it was pretty janky.

Yeah, our efforts to play multiplayer were very shortlived. I've had many beers since then, but as I recall it paused the game for everyone when you talked to an NPC, but only the person who initiated the chat actually got the dialog.