I mentioned in the sticky but... I'm hesitant, since it seems one has to not only pre-order, but also qualify for beta. My computer is nearing a decade in age, and modern games laugh at me and deny me playability so I don't know if I've enough RAM or a good enough GUI.
As much as I hate the idea of this shameless cash-grab built upon the hard work of modders who have already provided this content FOR FREE...
An engine port is a lot of work to do, and as far as I'm concerned I'm paying for the BG:EE engine with Icewind Dale in it, which is the best thing that could happen to IWD. Dual-wielding, kits, zoom, the quick loot bar, a faster renderer, and the less intrusive interface are a lot of good stuff for $20.
Could anybody let me know if preorder and beta access needs to be confirmed by @Dee first? If so, damn the weekend:P And if there is a possibility to get access to standalone installer instead of Beamdog client version? I have standalone version of both BG:EE and BG2:EE and would like to have all 3 regular (not beta) versions as standalone installers and all beta accesed versions as Beamdog client installers.
I've never really understood the viewpoint of those who claim that Beamdog is "stealing" the hard work of modders etc..
I've been playing IE games since Baldur's Gate first came out, with and without mods, and I've bashed my head against the wall trying to get everything in working condition every time I'm doing a new playthrough on a modern computer. The joy I felt when I first saw the announcement of BG:EE was quite the jolt, and so far I haven't been disappointed. The state of the games today is close to perfect (patiently awaiting the BG2:EE 1.3 patch), and in short I can summarize this rant with one single sentence:
I would never go back to the original games with the Enhanced Editions available!
As much as I hate the idea of this shameless cash-grab built upon the hard work of modders who have already provided this content FOR FREE...
As the modder who probably has the most work (FOR FREE) that went into IWDEE, let me express my outrage:
No disrespect intended, Mr Dawg. I've been a great admirer of your work for over a decade now. I guess I'm just unimpressed with the lack of new content for a 20 dollar price tag... Hell trials of the lure master is in there and that was free too! It feels like this is an expensive widescreen mod. I just feel like this is really profiting from the hard work and creativity of others.
Probably not - I can't imagine it will cost more than it does at pre-order. In fact likely a few months after release there will be a price drop at some point - for a time at least.
Likely on release date the servers will melt again meaning you will be lucky to even play it on that date (pre-loading will help with this).
However pre-ordering does show support for Beamdog.
I just feel like this is really profiting from the hard work and creativity of others.
The other way to look at it is that players finally have a way to pay modders for their work over the years. So the moderns are finally profiting from their hard work and creativity.
As much as I hate the idea of this shameless cash-grab built upon the hard work of modders who have already provided this content FOR FREE...
As the modder who probably has the most work (FOR FREE) that went into IWDEE, let me express my outrage:
No disrespect intended, Mr Dawg. I've been a great admirer of your work for over a decade now. I guess I'm just unimpressed with the lack of new content for a 20 dollar price tag... Hell trials of the lure master is in there and that was free too! It feels like this is an expensive widescreen mod. I just feel like this is really profiting from the hard work and creativity of others.
I'm sorry but I disagree 20$ price for all their hard work isn't much, not you nor I know how much they put into the game and I bet they put a lot to make it what it is now, and they won't stop working on the game not IWD nor BG series till they will be in a nearly perfect state (can't be perfect).
I don't pay in dollars it mean that in my money it a lot more then 20 buck, but I pre order the game because I think it worth it and as @decado said it does show support for Beamdog that I think doing a great job even if they are slow with patch and with delivering new stuff and I sure wanna see more from them maybe even a new game of the forgotten realms in the spirit of BG and IWD.
As much as I hate the idea of this shameless cash-grab built upon the hard work of modders who have already provided this content FOR FREE...
As the modder who probably has the most work (FOR FREE) that went into IWDEE, let me express my outrage:
No disrespect intended, Mr Dawg. I've been a great admirer of your work for over a decade now. I guess I'm just unimpressed with the lack of new content for a 20 dollar price tag... Hell trials of the lure master is in there and that was free too! It feels like this is an expensive widescreen mod. I just feel like this is really profiting from the hard work and creativity of others.
Trials of the lure master was free because one of the common criticisms of HoW was that it was too short given its cost. Back then the expansion sold for $30 (which inflation adjusted is like $40 today). The base game retailed for $40 back then ($55 today).
Today the game sells on gog.com for $10. So basically for $10 extra from that you are getting
BG2 spells/kits/race (half-orc) 60 new items Reworked unfinished business Zoom Quick loot bar (which in my opinion comes in pretty handy given the number of monsters faced) Updated UI/Resolutions Other improvements
I mean sure you can get some of this through mods, but as I understand it for instance if you want to make your own party (more than one person) while using the IWD in BG2 mod you have to make a multiplayer game and then move the save file over to single player. So there are tradeoffs.
I mean if you already own IWD then I can totally see price being an issue, but considering what other companies have charged for enhanced/extended editions (Age of Empires 2, Rise of Nations, Age of Mythology etc) and what gog.com is charging for the original game I think its a fair price.
No disrespect intended, Mr Dawg. I've been a great admirer of your work for over a decade now. I guess I'm just unimpressed with the lack of new content for a 20 dollar price tag... Hell trials of the lure master is in there and that was free too! It feels like this is an expensive widescreen mod. I just feel like this is really profiting from the hard work and creativity of others.
I'm not going to dispute that content is important, and whether a price is good value relies heavily on the individual. I just get frustrated seeing this brought up because it relies on two flawed assertions.
It first dismisses offhand a ton of improvements standard to the EEs (higher res, multi-platform, UI improvements, etc.). Stated another way, it's an assertion that content, no matter how poor, is the only important factor. While this is certainly true for some players--the popularity of some really terrible NPC mods is evidence enough--I don't think it's broadly true, and it certainly isn't true of the modders and Beamdog folks working on the EEs. None of us have an interest in adding low-quality or rushed content simply so we can say we have something new.
The second assertion is that the quality of mods is on par with the QA process involved in something like this. I've spent a lot of times on both sides of this, and I'll just say that it's not remotely true.
I've never really understood the viewpoint of those who claim that Beamdog is "stealing" the hard work of modders etc..
I've been playing IE games since Baldur's Gate first came out, with and without mods, and I've bashed my head against the wall trying to get everything in working condition every time I'm doing a new playthrough on a modern computer. The joy I felt when I first saw the announcement of BG:EE was quite the jolt, and so far I haven't been disappointed. The state of the games today is close to perfect (patiently awaiting the BG2:EE 1.3 patch), and in short I can summarize this rant with one single sentence:
I would never go back to the original games with the Enhanced Editions available!
Agreed 100%.
EE has introduced better graphics, a zoom in feature (this alone was worth the price IMO), new NPCs, and new spells and weapons that were not previously available from any mod, and the devs generally handled the transition between BG1 and BG2 rules much better than mods like Tutu IMO (which actually handled the transition rather poorly IMO).
Although I won't claim that EE is perfect, and there are some things that I miss about the original game (namely, the problem with custom soundsets is a glaring flaw IMO), it still has introduced enough unique improvements over any version of the original game that I probably won't ever be able to go back to it again.
Comments
That and for people to comment on how well done the EE for IWD is. Because I'm not parting my wallet for promises.
... I just put my IWD1 disc in my computer and it won't read it...
... You may win this round yet Beamdog...
And if there is a possibility to get access to standalone installer instead of Beamdog client version? I have standalone version of both BG:EE and BG2:EE and would like to have all 3 regular (not beta) versions as standalone installers and all beta accesed versions as Beamdog client installers.
I've been playing IE games since Baldur's Gate first came out, with and without mods, and I've bashed my head against the wall trying to get everything in working condition every time I'm doing a new playthrough on a modern computer. The joy I felt when I first saw the announcement of BG:EE was quite the jolt, and so far I haven't been disappointed. The state of the games today is close to perfect (patiently awaiting the BG2:EE 1.3 patch), and in short I can summarize this rant with one single sentence:
I would never go back to the original games with the Enhanced Editions available!
Likely on release date the servers will melt again meaning you will be lucky to even play it on that date (pre-loading will help with this).
However pre-ordering does show support for Beamdog.
I don't pay in dollars it mean that in my money it a lot more then 20 buck, but I pre order the game because I think it worth it and as @decado said it does show support for Beamdog that I think doing a great job even if they are slow with patch and with delivering new stuff and I sure wanna see more from them maybe even a new game of the forgotten realms in the spirit of BG and IWD.
Today the game sells on gog.com for $10. So basically for $10 extra from that you are getting
BG2 spells/kits/race (half-orc)
60 new items
Reworked unfinished business
Zoom
Quick loot bar (which in my opinion comes in pretty handy given the number of monsters faced)
Updated UI/Resolutions
Other improvements
I mean sure you can get some of this through mods, but as I understand it for instance if you want to make your own party (more than one person) while using the IWD in BG2 mod you have to make a multiplayer game and then move the save file over to single player. So there are tradeoffs.
I mean if you already own IWD then I can totally see price being an issue, but considering what other companies have charged for enhanced/extended editions (Age of Empires 2, Rise of Nations, Age of Mythology etc) and what gog.com is charging for the original game I think its a fair price.
It first dismisses offhand a ton of improvements standard to the EEs (higher res, multi-platform, UI improvements, etc.). Stated another way, it's an assertion that content, no matter how poor, is the only important factor. While this is certainly true for some players--the popularity of some really terrible NPC mods is evidence enough--I don't think it's broadly true, and it certainly isn't true of the modders and Beamdog folks working on the EEs. None of us have an interest in adding low-quality or rushed content simply so we can say we have something new.
The second assertion is that the quality of mods is on par with the QA process involved in something like this. I've spent a lot of times on both sides of this, and I'll just say that it's not remotely true.
I haven't been this excited about gaming for decades! Thanks Beamdog!
EE has introduced better graphics, a zoom in feature (this alone was worth the price IMO), new NPCs, and new spells and weapons that were not previously available from any mod, and the devs generally handled the transition between BG1 and BG2 rules much better than mods like Tutu IMO (which actually handled the transition rather poorly IMO).
Although I won't claim that EE is perfect, and there are some things that I miss about the original game (namely, the problem with custom soundsets is a glaring flaw IMO), it still has introduced enough unique improvements over any version of the original game that I probably won't ever be able to go back to it again.