Best version to get for (mostly) Mac user

icthy

I've been wanting to get this since I struggled to get my old copy working again on a PC. These days I mostly use a Mac, and it seems I have a few options: 1) I could get the Beamdog mac version, but I would like it to work on my wife's mac too, which I presume the App Store version would; 2) I could get the App Store version, which presumeably would work on my wife's mac, but I recall reading that the iPad app store version was not being regularly patched so maybe Beamdog does not keep App Store versions updated; or 3) I could get the Steam version, which I think (I've never used Steam) I could use on Windows, Mac, and Linux (I have a linux computer too). Can anyone offer a suggestion?

abacus

I use the BeamDog version on my MacBook and it runs fine... It's also easy to mod (which I'm not sure is the case with the AppStore version).

icthy

Thanks abacus. Are patches coming out regularly?

meagloth

patches are about a week late from apple because of the approval processes, and just so you know, the mac app store and the ipad app store are not the same. You have to buy them separately anyway. go for the beamdog version. the app store makes modding very hard as well.

elminster

Patches are going to be coming out for the game pretty slowly at this point, but at least BGEE is pretty well patched already so that shouldn't be too big of a deal. BG2EE is a different story as its 1.3 patch has not yet been released (and there is no known timeline on when that will happen).

GreenWarlock

If you are not tied to the App Store, get the BeamDog version. The Mac App store version for BGEE is the quite excellent 1.3, and arrived only a week or so later than elsewhere due to App Store approval - which is to be expected.

BG2EE is a very different story. You may hear that everyone is waiting for the next BG2EE patch, and that is true - but if you buy from the Mac App store you don't even get the original patch that shipped within a week of release. BeamDog forgot to submit to the app store, or lost track of who was supposed to submit, and since confirming in March, have deemed it better to simply wait for the (much delayed) 1.3 patch than submit the existing patch (available through BeamDog client) to the App Store. Among other things, this means living with a version of the game that can corrupt saves and throw away your game progress at any time.

So if you go with the BeamDog version, you get the existing patch, and should be able to gain access to the beta 1.3 patch when it starts testing. The last test for similar BG patch (which was smaller) took just over 6 months, so access to the beta program may be desirable.

I am still on the App Store as that is how I source all my Mac apps, and simply biding my time (impatiently) waiting for a patch I can trust, and I would definitely wait for a new patch to ship before buying from there. I would probably buy the BeamDog version in its current state, rather than try a GoG version running under a windows emulator, if the App Store does not matter as much to you.

icthy

Thanks all. If I get the BeamDog version can I run it on multiple computers that I own (which I presume would be the case if I got the App Store version)? Also, I was looking around last night, and it seems the Steam version for BGEE works on windows and mac, but there isn't yet one for BG2EE--am I correct?