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Lets address the legendary elephant in the room...Why are we not seeing any threads on the previous games? This IS Baldur's gate series after all?!
Does everyone here HATE these previous games? Or even played them?

I still play quite a lot of BG2 smile (classic version running great on Wine, M1 max MacOS Monterey). I like <old> and <modern> games alike. And I think BG2 holds up more than enough to <modern> standards (lol).

What did you like about these classic games them? What would you love seeing back in BG3?

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I played them ALL - and when I say all I also mean every addon and extension.

Now, years later - I don't play them anymore, but trust me, I have played them more than anything else, and are on the very top of my fav list of best games of all time.

let's venture on...

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I mean a great record/band stays that way usually? Yea its old but its also timeless.
I am totally for moving on, THEN CHANGE THE NAME. Would a new band call themselves Pink Floid v.2 and be like a boys band R&B group playing bango and cosplaying?
Its like stuff in the last 20 years is basically rehashed/repackaged with just the name to bring sells while shitting on the original IPs. True for the gaming industry as well as the movie industry.
Star trek, Terminator, Star wars, Halo, for instance.
And guess what, we also have amazing stuff like Expanse, Breaking bad, Disco Elysium...

Last edited by mr_planescapist; 07/04/22 10:27 AM.
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<3 those prerendered graphics.

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I started playing BG II again in 2020, thinking that the full release of BG III would be a matter of months. I wanted to get myself in the mood, and to remember all the little story nuances so I could look for connections and Easter eggs in BG III. But here we are in 2022 and I am still waiting, waiting, waiting ...

BG II Shadows of Amn and the Throne of Bhaal expansion still hold up. The area graphics are indeed beautiful, and the 2D animation is good enough where once you get playing, you don't care that it's not 3D. Many of the map areas are used by multiple quests, which gives a good sense of non-linear action and "life" in the world. Some of the dialogs and voicings are just awesome; I could listen to Renal Bloodscalp talk all day. And overall, it is a great story being told through a D&D experience.

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I still play the Infinity Engines games once in a while, and yes, BG1-2 still holds up. Mainly because top notch graphics is not necessary for a great game, and is very secondary to gameplay and story, in my experience/tastes.

The same phenomenon happens for films and series. A great story, with great dialogues, is what does the heavy lifting. Game Of Thrones seasons 1--4 would have been nearly as good without the great soundtrack. Meanwhile, despite having the same great soundtrack and increasingly better visual effects, seasons 5--8 became worse and worse as the story (and dialogues) became shit.


Originally Posted by mr_planescapist
What did you like about these classic games them? What would you love seeing back in BG3?

I liked plenty of things in BG1-2, but here are some of the things that were great and that I would love seeing in BG3.

UI, CONTROLS AND PLAYABILITY.
  • The party controls. I know, they are just the standard control scheme used in so many CRPG and RTS games, nothing really special there. In fact, I didn't even notice this when I first played BG. I had to meet Larian's much inferior chain system to appreciate how seamless the rest of the industry makes moving a bunch of units around in a video game.
  • The clearly organised "hotbar"/action bar. With a special menu for spells ... It is also customisable with Quick Access Spells and Belt Items. The icons are sorted. They do not move around when I load a game.
  • Looting : the Display All Loot function (which appeared in the Enhanced Editions, wasn't there in the original games). Such a QoL improvement after slaughtering a whole of camp of baddies.
  • Looting : One-click pick-up of item. I would love it if BG3 removed the stupid double-click requirement for those players who don't want to use Take All in each loot window.
  • Looting : the loot window close immediately when moving away from a body or chest.


IMMERSION.
  • Time is actually a thing. The in-world time is displayed in the main screen. The journal records the days of events.
  • There is a Day/Night cycle . It adds a lot of atmosphere. You even have some differences in NPC availability (no merchants at night in the small villages).
  • Camping takes place on the spot. It's very natural. There is no pocket dimension (except when the story clearly introduces one in ToB).
  • Credible sense of distances and travel time. No convenient teleportation portals that nobody uses except the heroes.
  • Living world : wild life and monsters are renewed when we come back on a previously visited map. Little squirrels, wolves and bears are found roaming around. They are not waiting for us.
  • Credible sense of time for some quests. Whether it's those who want to go to Nashkel in BG1, or Nalia who wants your help to combat the invasion of her castle in BG2, NPC Companions will get annoyed if you keep not doing what you said you would.


COMPANIONS.
  • A cast of 17 decent Companions in BG2. I hope that Larian can give us at least 12-14 of them.
  • Not every companion is a Bhaalspawn. Some just follow us because we helped them. Or they care about us.

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BG1 was the very first RPG video game I ever played, and as such is the game that introduced me to the genre (on computer; I'd been playing TT D&D for several years before BG1) and also made me love that genre forever. I subsequently played both BG games dozens of times, although I have favored the first game over the second game because I love that feeling you get playing low level where everything is dangerous and scary and death can come at you from around every corner. I also love the open exploration areas in BG1, because for me the joy I get from playing these games it is not just about combat encounters or even quests but actually role-playing my characters and my party.

The games themselves have not become "old" for me yet. However, certain mechanics and gameplay elements, quality of life elements, and to some extent the low-res graphics have caused me to dial down on playing them these days, because I do now have games like the PoE and Pathfinder games I can also replay, which I enjoy playing a lot too. So it is no longer only the IE games that I have to rely on for scratching that old nostalgic itch. I now have additional choices. smile

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Originally Posted by mr_planescapist
Lets address the legendary elephant in the room...Why are we not seeing any threads on the previous games? This IS Baldur's gate series after all?!
Does everyone here HATE these previous games? Or even played them?
Btw, this is a very valid set of questions, OP. I also have been wondering about this. If BG3 is a legitimate third installment of the BG video games franchise, why are we not seeing much, if any, discussion in this forum of those older games?

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Originally Posted by kanisatha
Btw, this is a very valid set of questions, OP. I also have been wondering about this. If BG3 is a legitimate third installment of the BG video games franchise, why are we not seeing much, if any, discussion in this forum of those older games?

If I was being harsh, I'd suggest that is because Larian are appealing mostly to a different demographic with their rendition. Quite a few posters here have alluded to their love of the previous games but I have also noted several who have never played them (I do seem to recall a few studio workers in Panel from Hell saying they had never played the previous games too.). I'd also imagine a fair proportion of people posting across various forums are fans of Larian's previous work or just attracted by the cinematics, as well as the obligatory D&D fans looking for a CRPG experience. So for many people the previous games would be of little interest I guess.

I've certainly seen plenty of posts highlighting issues/mechanics such as Drath's above and I agree with every single one of those points. I don't really know what more can be said in that respect; they wold add immeasurably to immersion and the user experience but bringing them up sort of feels like having a conversation with a wall because we have no idea what Larian thinks about them. Some might say, 'not very much' because they were never implemented from the outset so they must have considered them obsolete.

I still play the original games from time to time though overfamiliarity can slightly taint the experience because nothing can quite match the sheer joy I had playing them the first few times.
You never forget your first time, as they say.

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No I don't play it long time, there is just nothing new and exiting for me, all things known...but there are also people like Davaeorn(twitch streamer who only plays BG again and again)that probably doesn't matter to them. But for me it's just looks weird, like people stuck in their past some sort.

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I played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I. and II. ... does that count?
Some people say those games are basicaly the same with different asets. laugh


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Played the hell out of every IE games since their debut. I've realistically done between 3-5 playthroughs of everything from Planescape to SOD, every sequel, extension, vanilla, EEs, litterally thousands of hours of playtime. I own them on multiple platforms and I still play today. In fact, I'm in the middle of something I've never done so far: a COMPLETE walkthrough of the BG saga on iOS. Fun times smile

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I played BG 1& 2 many times. Last time was last year. I like a lot of things about them, but I'm not a fan of the child of the god of murder premise. I like more down to earth character concepts like Hawke from DA2, who was just a normal girl in the wrong place, no chosen one crap.
And I will never ever forgive BioWare for Anomen, the worst and whiniest character ever - and then they made him the only love interest for women. WTF? Thank Cthulhu for mods.
I like the world, most characters ( apart from the A- word, I don't like Minsc and Aerie, they are super annoying for me), the storyline mostly and most of the game mechanics.
I like the party of 6, day and night cycle ( and that events are happening based in that) and the tons of mods.
Speaking of old and in this case flawed games: The game I played more often than the two BGs is Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.


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BG 1 & 2 are too outdated for me now. I am very happy I got BG 3, though!😊

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Baldurs gate series has there own forums, I think its beandog or something like that. Personally haven't gotten around to play them nor did larian make them, hence why there is more talk about bg3 on here.

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in all honesty i would like to see a bg2 remake and perhaps latest ruleset?. unfortunately that will never happened in my opinion. i love the OST i still have them. gotta load it up to my phone and listen to them someday.

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Originally Posted by Icelyn
BG 1 & 2 are too outdated for me now.

Icky old visuals, dearth of voice acting (comparatively speaking, anyhow), no trendy modern humor, gameplay that doesn't hold your hand, etc. Agreed!

Originally Posted by mr_planescapist
Its like stuff in the last 20 years is basically rehashed/repackaged with just the name to bring sells while shitting on the original IPs. True for the gaming industry as well as the movie industry.
Star trek, Terminator, Star wars, Halo, for instance.

Don't forget Resident Evil: that series - once a fixed-camera angle methodical horror movie experience (with the exception of Code Veronica, which used a moving camera) - has now mutated into either a third-person shooter with martial arts or a first-person whatever-the-hell-it-is. I wish more developers embraced the idea of "Ending on a high note.".

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Originally Posted by mr_planescapist
I am totally for moving on, THEN CHANGE THE NAME.



^ Jump to 3:30.

Originally Posted by Swen Vincke
... so, the chance to do that, and to bring what basically is our RPG identity to Baldur's Gate as a franchise was an opportunity too good to resist. And so, what it will do for us... uh, what we think it will do for us is it's going to show a larger segment of people, because I think Baldur's Gate 3 will reach more people than Divinity will have done... it will show a larger segment of the population what our RPGs feel like and hopefully bring them to play our other games also.

I am really not interested in a new(er) studio trying to push their identity through the name of a beloved established series. Sadly, this only confirms my initial suspicions of BG3. The game could still be decent on its own merits, sure, but it won't be Baldur's Gate.

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It's been a long time since the last one !

I'm still playing BG1/2 too, but less often than before. But BG1/2 are still the best RPGs of all time imo, the most immersive and the best role playing experience.

I like BG3 a lot and finally, I'm not against big changes.
But BG3 has too much DoS inside it (even if some people think it's not true) and not enough BG.

The biggest thing BG3 lack imo is a coherent and a believable world... A world in which cows doesn't climb ladder, in which everything (time included) is not waiting for the player and in which goblins aren't stupid to the point that they don't find their ennemies 150m further.

I'm so sad they haven't been inspired at all by BG1/2 !

Last edited by Maximuuus; 08/04/22 04:16 AM.

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I also love BG1 and BG2 and have been playing them since they first came out (although I play on the iPad now). These games brought D&D back into my life. Some posts here last fall inspired me to fire them up again on the iPad. I still love them, BUT…. After playing BG3 EA this past year, I miss having verticality in the game. I miss having interactive environments. I miss having fully acted dialogue encounters. I miss having trees and grasses blowing in the wind. I miss having a 3D view that I can rotate. I miss having the 5e rules (wait did I just say that!?! I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.)

As much as I love(d) BG1 and BG2, I am so much more looking forward to a completed BG3 even though Larian has a different feel than the original.

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