I didn't remember that everything was so close when I read books in the FR. Usually travelling means something and take time.
This is just one of those things that has to change for a game. Distance is not meant to be taken literally. It's just representative.
BG1 had big open, empty maps with lots of exploration. But it meant you just walked around for 10 minutes at a time without discovering much or even doing much fighting. Bioware was upfront about that being a mistake, and this was changed for the sequel. BG2 had packed maps where you only went a few steps to discover the next thing.
Books can gloss over distances. "They traveled for 2 days." And moments between the interesting stuff is filled with character moments and plot. In a video game distance is just filled with walking. That's boring.
