I think Secret of the Silver Blades would be one of the better ones for that... a town brooded over by a castle frozen into a glacier... with iron golems and the mad Mage's spirit... and the mines full of monsters... and a set of portals and an oracle powered by gems...
I think my favorite part of that game is in the mines, where you find the tomb of the dead king (the fighter brother of the mad mage) and the Lizard King court on (I think) the same level. Level... 6, maybe?
How recently have you played those? Geeez that was back in the 80's for me....like I can remember what I played last month let alone remember that kind of detail
To answer the poll's question, which is what -remake- I'd like to see next... Icewind Dale would be nice. Never managed to play the first one much due to it being hard (maybe that's due to me never creating a full party though), using a bad version of the ruleset, imo, and having painfully low resolution. I'd also love to see ToEE fully realized as that's an amazing game. If only it wasn't so buggy and unfinished.
I'd much prefer a Baldur's Gate III though. Like others here have said, it wouldn't have to be centered around the whole Bhaalspawn thing. Wouldn't mind if it was, but I'm sure new equally good stuff can be written.
wow I played all those SSI games! on a commodor 64 and IBM 386 or was it 486 I wasn't even a teenager yet. Those were the days! Would be amazing if they were made into Isometric RPG's like Black Island games!
@Immagikman It's been a LOOOONG time. At least 14 years. But I played the hell out of those games. I think my biggest memories come from SSB because I played it something like 25 times. Curse of the Azure Bonds I have less memories of. I remember the Sewers leading to the thieves guild, Moander's temple with the Bit O'Moander (a triple strength Shambling Mound) and the Vegepygmies, and not much more, honestly. Pool of Radiance, well, I played that a lot, too. I remember the Ruins, the fight with the trolls in the Slums, Sokal Keep and the endless undead there, um, the Pyramid on the lake, the Lizard Man Keep and the Castle itself with the Pool and the Possessed Brass Dragon. And Pools of Darkness I remember a good bit of as well, and the music that played when the cities were first stolen from the Realms by Bane. Good times.
Similar to how BG:EE is adding three new NPC's to the mix, I would like a redone IWD with some NPC's. I remember playing through IWD the first time and it felt a bit dry in terms of my party. After playing through again with NPC's from a mod, I felt like I was having much more fun. Party members with banter and opinions about the decisions of CHARNAME (or in the case of IWD, perhaps the first character) seemed to make the game much more enjoyable. With all of that said, any of the other options seem fine to me, except for Neverwinter Nights. I enjoyed them for the first time only within the last two years and don't think they need to be revamped...yet.
I'm still playing NWN almost weekly with a group of friends after all these years. I can only imagine what it would be like if it was improved even further.
Dark Sun. Similar to the Baldur's Gate series, just a more primitive game engine.
I'd say that it was the closest thing we had to Baldur's Gate, until the BG release. Aside from recruitable NPC party members, it had all the basics down. I actually remember initial BG reviews saying "the best D&D game since Dark Sun" to convey its quality. Of course, Baldur's Gate had a ton more polish than Dark Sun, a more mod-friendly engine, more traditional fantasy setting - a bunch of traits which led to smashing success.
The two Dark Sun games (Shattered Lands + Wake of the Ravager) have plenty of cut content, some glitches needing fixes, and the same ruleset and player-perspective as the BG series. I know they probably won't get any love from developers given the age and missing features from the engine (DOS era - mediocre sound, relatively unimpressive animations and eye candy, etc). But if there's any series needing an enhanced edition, Dark Sun would be the most reasonable candidate, especially in light of gameplay similarities to Baldur's Gate.
I just can't think of a way to make it worthwhile and profitable, outside of doing some kind of bottom-up port to another engine. And none of the D&D engines around these days feature much support for psionics, from what I've seen (admittedly out of date, since I don't have a fancy PC). It would be a welcome change in setting from standard-issue fantasy worlds, were it ever to happen. Any BG players ought to look into Dark Sun games for the unique setting and similar playstyle, especially those looking for a distraction before the BG:EE release. I think both Dark Sun games may be either freeware or abandonware, these days.
My vote probably goes to Planescape Torment, simply because I haven't had the chance to play it yet... I remember installing it a few years ago, but I never managed to get it running properly. My computer weren't exactly healthy at the time though... an Enhanced Edition would be most welcome.
Planescape: Torment has *huge* potential for enhancements other than merely a better engine and such.
Just take Sigil's remaining city districts for example; the Market Ward, Guildhall Ward and of course the Lady's Ward would all make excellent additions for an EE. Another possibility would be to include the remaining eight factions (Athar, Bleack Cabal, Doomguard, Fated, Fraternity of Order, Free League, Harmonium, Mercykillers, Sign of One, Transcendent Order) and make them joinable for the Nameless One. Even simply deepen the already joinable factions with new quests (the Godsmen's secret project comes to mind) would work nicely as well.
Not to mention adding all content which were scrapped back to the game, such as the romance with dead-drop-gorgeous Fall-from-Grace and her mysterious "unlockable" diary.
One addition I'd especially like to see is the Priest class unlocked for the Nameless One. Aola, Hargrimm the Bleak and Fall-from-Grace for example could be trainers for the priest class.
Does anyone else find it funny than NWN, one of Trent Oster's potential targets for an overhaul, is last place in the poll by a healthy margin?
I'm curious as to what improvements are planned for that game, if they do it. Would we see something funky like "NWN1 into NWN2"? But NWN2, while pleasing to look at is slower and buggier...and it's Obsidian's brainchild.
Does anyone else find it funny than NWN, one of Trent Oster's potential targets for an overhaul, is last place in the poll by a healthy margin?
I'm curious as to what improvements are planned for that game, if they do it. Would we see something funky like "NWN1 into NWN2"? But NWN2, while pleasing to look at is slower and buggier...and it's Obsidian's brainchild.
Neverwinter Nights, while a great game, didn't quite have the same epicness to the main story line so it doesn't have a similar die-hard fan base. It's also not quite as much in need of a remake due to the toolset which has spawned dozens of additional mods, campaigns and persistent worlds. At least that's my theory.
Ya know I would not call NWN one of the better games I played...I did play it to completion...but never had the urge to replay. I guess it was an OK game to me, but not a great game....just from my perspective.
Dark Sun. Similar to the Baldur's Gate series, just a more primitive game engine.
I'd say that it was the closest thing we had to Baldur's Gate, until the BG release. Aside from recruitable NPC party members, it had all the basics down. I actually remember initial BG reviews saying "the best D&D game since Dark Sun" to convey its quality. Of course, Baldur's Gate had a ton more polish than Dark Sun, a more mod-friendly engine, more traditional fantasy setting - a bunch of traits which led to smashing success.
The two Dark Sun games (Shattered Lands + Wake of the Ravager) have plenty of cut content, some glitches needing fixes, and the same ruleset and player-perspective as the BG series. I know they probably won't get any love from developers given the age and missing features from the engine (DOS era - mediocre sound, relatively unimpressive animations and eye candy, etc). But if there's any series needing an enhanced edition, Dark Sun would be the most reasonable candidate, especially in light of gameplay similarities to Baldur's Gate.
I just can't think of a way to make it worthwhile and profitable, outside of doing some kind of bottom-up port to another engine. And none of the D&D engines around these days feature much support for psionics, from what I've seen (admittedly out of date, since I don't have a fancy PC). It would be a welcome change in setting from standard-issue fantasy worlds, were it ever to happen. Any BG players ought to look into Dark Sun games for the unique setting and similar playstyle, especially those looking for a distraction before the BG:EE release. I think both Dark Sun games may be either freeware or abandonware, these days.
I played through NWN 1 and its expansions a couple of times and then got into persistent NWN worlds and never looked back.
However in comparison to some of the others on the list in order of which I'd want to see them remade/enhanced:
Planescape Torment TSR/SSI Forgotten Realms GoldBox Series NWN/1 & 2 Series Dark Sun (Shattered Lands/Wake of the Ravager) IceWind Dale Series TSR/SSI Hillsfar TSR/SSI DragonLance GoldBox Series
Ya know I would not call NWN one of the better games I played...I did play it to completion...but never had the urge to replay. I guess it was an OK game to me, but not a great game....just from my perspective.
Even though my love for BGII pushes me towards BGIII, I decided to choose Planescape: Torment. I haven't actually played it yet (just bought it on GOG), but the only thing that I see is "best story ever" coming from BG enthusiasts. Because of this, I'd love to see Planescape: Torment updated in a way not possible with the BG games as a stepping stone for launching off into a BGIII attempt (or at least making serious headway in that direction), assuming that it's successful enough.
What I've seen from Wasteland 2 on Kickstarter (and other projects like Shadowrun) gives me the impression that the time is ripe for kind of thing.
Icewind Dale! I loved the fact that you could make an entire party at the beginning of the game. I don't know about everyone else but one my all time favorite things with any game is making new characters and parties. However counter productive it may be Icewind Dale fed that need of mine quite well. If we could enhance IWD I think I would love it as much as I love BG.
Planescape is up there too though, but I liked ToEE even with all it's many, many flaws. Done properly, that will be one of the truest to RPG D&D games ever. But it's 3/.5 rules, not the same at BG.
Comments
You almost make me want to get out the old apple IIe and try to get them running again
I'd much prefer a Baldur's Gate III though. Like others here have said, it wouldn't have to be centered around the whole Bhaalspawn thing. Wouldn't mind if it was, but I'm sure new equally good stuff can be written.
Edited to fix wrong type of Dragon.
I'd say that it was the closest thing we had to Baldur's Gate, until the BG release. Aside from recruitable NPC party members, it had all the basics down. I actually remember initial BG reviews saying "the best D&D game since Dark Sun" to convey its quality. Of course, Baldur's Gate had a ton more polish than Dark Sun, a more mod-friendly engine, more traditional fantasy setting - a bunch of traits which led to smashing success.
The two Dark Sun games (Shattered Lands + Wake of the Ravager) have plenty of cut content, some glitches needing fixes, and the same ruleset and player-perspective as the BG series. I know they probably won't get any love from developers given the age and missing features from the engine (DOS era - mediocre sound, relatively unimpressive animations and eye candy, etc). But if there's any series needing an enhanced edition, Dark Sun would be the most reasonable candidate, especially in light of gameplay similarities to Baldur's Gate.
I just can't think of a way to make it worthwhile and profitable, outside of doing some kind of bottom-up port to another engine. And none of the D&D engines around these days feature much support for psionics, from what I've seen (admittedly out of date, since I don't have a fancy PC). It would be a welcome change in setting from standard-issue fantasy worlds, were it ever to happen. Any BG players ought to look into Dark Sun games for the unique setting and similar playstyle, especially those looking for a distraction before the BG:EE release. I think both Dark Sun games may be either freeware or abandonware, these days.
Lots of famous NPCs there to exploit. Some cool class options, a badass circle of warring Gods and, oh yes, epic Dragons and nefarious Draconians.
Good luck getting the rights though...
I find myself no longer caring about Torment.
I'm curious as to what improvements are planned for that game, if they do it. Would we see something funky like "NWN1 into NWN2"? But NWN2, while pleasing to look at is slower and buggier...and it's Obsidian's brainchild.
However in comparison to some of the others on the list in order of which I'd want to see them remade/enhanced:
Planescape Torment
TSR/SSI Forgotten Realms GoldBox Series
NWN/1 & 2 Series
Dark Sun (Shattered Lands/Wake of the Ravager)
IceWind Dale Series
TSR/SSI Hillsfar
TSR/SSI DragonLance GoldBox Series
What I've seen from Wasteland 2 on Kickstarter (and other projects like Shadowrun) gives me the impression that the time is ripe for kind of thing.
Planescape is up there too though, but I liked ToEE even with all it's many, many flaws. Done properly, that will be one of the truest to RPG D&D games ever. But it's 3/.5 rules, not the same at BG.