Skip to content

Zero visual improvements?

124

Comments

  • OremusOremus Member Posts: 15
    It's interesting for me coming upon a thread like this. The main reason is that I started on BGII and never played the original. Because of this, my perspective is probably slightly skewed (for a low price I'm getting a "new" game that I've never played in an updated and possibly easier-to-mod form). I don't mind about any lack of graphical improvement for the second iteration, because BGII has remained one of my favorite games of all time, and now it may be even better (and this is without considering the numerous mods that I've missed over the years). I play the entire game through over and over simply to test out a single new mod each time.

    I can understand, in a sense, being disappointed about paying for a game that one has already played and doesn't consider amazing (or, at least, when considered next to BGII). For me personally, in this case, I would be paying for an updated game that I probably enjoyed as well as investing in the hope it paves a golden path for a possible BGIII (eventually) and beyond.

    Hopefully nostalgia, a desire for the great writing of the past, and opening up people's hearts to this kind of game through the mobile market will give the company the support that it needs to thrive.
  • Fake_SketchFake_Sketch Member Posts: 217
    I agree with Arsane_Lupin, I just don't say it in topics because I'm just going to get the same answer over and over again. This bureaucratic stuff makes me think that Hasbro or who ever has the license doesn't take this project srsly.
  • GueulEclatorGueulEclator Member Posts: 175
    @Arsene_Lupin I agree with everything you wrote.
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    Considering that BGEE is running on the BG2/ToB engine and the original content isn't being modified, the ESRB has more than enough stuff to go on to rate the game (if the game even requires an ESRB rating). It has also already been stated that the Mac/iOS versions aren't being released on the 18th anyway, so I imagine that BGEE will only be sent for approval after the game is finalized.

    Is the game in a state that there can be screenshots? Certainly. But it doesn't depend solely on Overhaul, and whether we like it or not the bureacracy is there.
  • RazorRazor Member Posts: 436
    edited September 2012
    Most of you are blaming Hasbro and the others for not allowing changes. I think this is for the best, we are lucky the situation is as it is. Too much overhaul and BG might have changed too much. Hasbro and the others intentions might have been "not the best" but the end result is perfect to me.

    I expect those visual improvements (that many wanted now) in BG3.
  • KnettgummiKnettgummi Member Posts: 152
    Honestly, I understand very well that the Beamdog team would rather spend their time polishing the game than deal with the bureaucracy of getting approval to release screenshots, etc..

    Sure, it seems like it would be a good idea to release game previews/trailers/screenshots/whatever in terms of business and marketing, but think of it this way: as soon as the game hits, those screenshots are going to be all over the place anyway, without the hassle on Beamdog's part.

    Being in development is probably quite costly for a small company, and I can understand the need to finish up the core game and get it out there. Working on new content that can be released "post-ship" is probably going to be more comfortable in that respect.
  • triclops41triclops41 Member Posts: 207
    What this tells me is that the game will not be ready 9/18. I hope that means they will spend the time to get it right and release later. Hopefully they won't just push it out 9/18 in whatever state it is in.
    Other than the fact that I am jacked up to play BGEE, this isn't the end of the world. They are a small team and cannot just throw more people at the problems that inevitably arise.
    I have waited a long time for an updated BG, I can wait some more if it will mean it will come out ready to rock.
  • immagikmanimmagikman Member Posts: 664
    @Triclops, I think you need to do some more reading before you make those kinds of statements.
  • CCarluNNCCarluNN Member Posts: 200
    @triclops41
    In case there really is a reason to worry here, I will try to conjure up some wise words:
    When the 18th comes,
    do not cast haste,
    cast time stop instead,
    and use it to polish the result.
  • reedmilfamreedmilfam Member Posts: 2,808
    I'm not getting the bit where there's a need for screenshots yet. Not that people shouldn't be able to preview - more that they can just wait without pre-buying until they see the finished product. Or am I missing something?
  • immagikmanimmagikman Member Posts: 664

    I'm not getting the bit where there's a need for screenshots yet. Not that people shouldn't be able to preview - more that they can just wait without pre-buying until they see the finished product. Or am I missing something?

    It appears to me to just be people looking for reasons to be upset...looking for conspiracies....due to some companies actions in the past I dont really blame them except the whole question of screen shots has been asked and answered so.... uhhh lets move on?
  • cloakanddaggercloakanddagger Member Posts: 111
    @arsene_lupin the funny thing is, if everything you said is true, i wont give a damn. I love the old game, im sure ill love the enhanced edition even more. And buddy 20 bucks AINT bad. And I would consider myself to be quite poor at the moment.
  • Arsene_LupinArsene_Lupin Member Posts: 181
    A few points:

    1.) No one here, not in this thread, not in the forum, not in the whole of the Internet is making any claim or conjecture of conspiracy. Hell, I'd almost call the mere act of stating something like that a serious indicator of mental instability, or at the very least of massive reading comprehension issues.

    I say almost because I think a civil discourse is important, and belittling people you disagree with is crude, crass and more than anything else--silly.

    2.) The issue of why we haven't seen screenshots--real screenshots that adequately represent the product--has NOT been resolved. A question was asked, and the only reply is seemingly disingenuous--as I've already explained. (Just scroll up). Several of you are assuming that EVERY SINGLE LICENSE HOLDER INVOLVED has to sign off on every single piece of media released.

    That is absurd. I used all caps to highlight how absurd it is: it is very absurd.

    The facts at hand are: when asked to explain why there were no (real) screenshots of the game in circulation (all of the released screenshots being low-resolution shots with zero UI displayed), a Beamdog representative stated that it was simply "too hard."

    The facts at hand are: Beamdog is either unwilling or incapable of sharing with its current and prospective consumers -any- details of what the final (likely already-finished) product actually is.

    The facts at hand hare: Beamdog has already made more than thirty-thousand dollars (USD) from pre-orders.

    As a consumer, and as a human being, I find the current state of affairs to be extremely worrying. Maybe I'm making a fuss about nothing. Maybe, come the 18th, all will be well and good. But maybe it won't. Whether it will or will not is not the point here: the point is that these are the kinds of questions that consumers should NOT be asking in the first place.

    If you're selling a game, if you're making tens of thousands of dollars in sales in the span of a few weeks... you do not refuse to share screenshots with the community, media, etc. And you don't tell people it's too hard, either. It's unprofessional and unwise. Like I said before, I want to love Beamdog, I do, but it's hard to love a company that treats its consumers with such an unprofessional disregard.

    3.) A single screenshot is not too much to ask for. Especially when the only real, tangible improvements they're making are a new UI and the ability to display properly at high resolutions.

    Without those screens, it just looks like they're taking the original game, adding some mods to it, and selling it for twice as much as GOG.
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    @Arsene_Lupin All we've eaten mate for the last four bleeding weeks is lupin soup, roast lupin, steamed lupin, braised lupin in lupin sauce, lupin in the basket with sauted lupins, lupin meringue pie, lupin. sorbet... we sit on lupins, we sleep in lupins, we feed the cat on lupins, we burn lupins, we even wear the bloody things!

    No but really I only bought BG:EE to support it. I bought it on the off chance I won't have to mod anymore, if it sucks I'll be disappointed.

    1PP and new GUI is not a good sign so far.
  • Excalibur_2102Excalibur_2102 Member Posts: 351
    Well, we know what we're getting for sure by looking at the main website... New characters, new adventure, 400+fixes, better multiplayer support and mod support and smoother operation on newer systems. Which is more than "adding a few mods and selling it at twice the price".

    If this is not worth the money for you, then I say dont buy it. They have always been a bit unwilling to come forth on the visual improvements with solid information and I myself am a little suspicious. But I do believe this is because they are still working on it, tweaking it etc.

    But yeah. Dont buy it, wait for release and then base your decision off what everyone elses screens look like. However for beamdog to say all the stuff they have been then release it looking rubbish with exactly the same UI and the higher resolutions looking like the widescreen mod would be suicide for them probably.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited September 2012
    If they're not releasing screenshots this close to the release, I would have to assume that they wish to keep customers in suspense. It isn't that it's too difficult technically.

    It doesn't make sense that they would be contractually limited from releasing screenshots. Screenshots are obviously required for marketing. And, clearly, internet marketing is crucial to an enterprise such as this.

    I can only cross my fingers at this point that BG:EE will look noticeably prettier than tutu or BGT via

    - higher native resolutions
    - zoom feature
    - source area art filtered via hardware to scale it as required and enable the zoom in/out feature
    - flipbook animation transparency and alpha blending for BAM files
    - new hi-res GUI
    - new hi-res cinematics

    If these improvements are too intangible to really register then I think Beamdog will have a problem.

    Here's hoping that those improvements will actually exceed expectations! (Expectations that frankly are not all that high compared with an HD re-rendered game.)
    Post edited by Lemernis on
  • KnettgummiKnettgummi Member Posts: 152
    From what I've gathered, they are not prohibited, but they do have to go through a lengthy approval process where the larger companies, WotC and presumably Atari, have to sign off on any game material that is released. If this takes a couple of weeks to do each time, then there's no point in spending the effort to go through that process this close to release.

    And, frankly, they have released screenshots (albeit from earlier in development) and music, and a lot of information about their process via these forums and twitter, etc..
  • PoulsenPoulsen Member Posts: 10


    The facts at hand are: when asked to explain why there were no (real) screenshots of the game in circulation (all of the released screenshots being low-resolution shots with zero UI displayed), a Beamdog representative stated that it was simply "too hard."

    There are at least some pics of the new UI, displayed on ipad, here:

    http://baldursgate.com/ipad.en.html
  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455

    Like I said before, I want to love Beamdog, I do, but it's hard to love a company that treats its consumers with such an unprofessional disregard.

    I just want to say that I wish EVERY DEVELOPER will treat its consumers "with such an unprofessional disregard" like Beamdog does!!!!


    If screenshots is what you worry about, than wait for the release date to decide. but most of us who pre-ordered know what we are getting, as @Excalibur_2102 said:

    New characters, new adventure(s), 400+fixes, better multiplayer support and mod support and smoother operation on newer systems, more modding friendly, no loading screens, new world map, improved journal, new portraits +voice sets.

    If all the if this things I listed above are just "taking the original game, adding some mods to it" for you, so even a screenshot wont convince you to buy it- I suggest you just to wait for reviews after the release at the different gaming site, as reliable as they are....



    Do I need as a Baldurs Gate Fan screenshots to know that this are great additions and well worth my money?? NO

    Would I like to see screenshots of the game before release? yes - but as you said before, Beamdog IS a small company - and with a draconic contract involved BIG companies such as Wotc and Atari, this is the reality. You dont like it, I dont like it and everybody else dont like it, but there is nothing to be done about it but to wait to 18th September - And hopefully if BG:EE is a success the Devs will have more "freedom of movement" working on BG2:EE.








  • LekianLekian Member Posts: 108
    edited September 2012
    I am happy with my pre-purchase of BGEE as the last time I tried to install BG with Mods it was just unplayable on my PC, I know this has more to do with me than my own PC.

    IMHO, What I am getting for the 17,99 $ I paid including stable multiplayer is well worth the spent money.

    Having said this and as I have already paid for BGEE, I must say it is strange no new screenshots have appeared since the last Time Counter reached zero and pre-purchases were available. We did get an image on the AMMA from Phillip Daigle saying soon.

    image

    That was a week ago. I understand soon as before the 18th september.

    As for a Tweet from @Trentoster of the 24th August he said screenshots were weeks away. That was nearly three weeks ago and we are now only 11 days from release, I hope I am wrong but I really doubt we will see any before release.

    He also mentions on Beamdogs´ forum the following:

    http://www.beamdog.com/forum/forums/general-discussion/topics/screenshots

    21 days ago
    Screenshots are a little away yet. We still have some real doozer graphical glitches to fix before we can take shots and then get them approved
    -Trent

    So unless they still have problems (which I hope not) I do not understand why we cannot have a sneak peek of what we are getting.

    Edit: Corrections
  • KnettgummiKnettgummi Member Posts: 152
    For all we know, those screenshots may very well be going through approval as we speak...
  • wpmaurawpmaura Member Posts: 30
    I dont care, I cant play BG easily right now and I will be happy to have it upgraded to windows 7, and made stable. and if this will go to fund bg3 adventure more power to it.
  • zarffynzarffyn Member Posts: 175
    Keep in mind that convention season in the U.S. is well underway, and WotC and Atari both have significant presences at many cons. When the powers that be are at cons, they don't have much time for discussing and approving screenshots and the like. Just another thing that adds to the delay.

    Beamdog is a small team, and I'd rather see them focus on releasing a BGEE they're proud of on 9/18, than get bogged down in screenshots and discussions and approvals, oh my.
  • KerozevokKerozevok Member Posts: 695
    edited September 2012
    Lekian said:

    Screenshots are a little away yet. We still have some real doozer graphical glitches to fix before we can take shots and then get them approved -Trent

    image
  • WardWard Member Posts: 1,305
    @kerozevok Nice. I knew they'd pimp it up.
  • Arsene_LupinArsene_Lupin Member Posts: 181
    ...And that would appear to simply be a less-efficient arrangement of the standard GUI. The opposite of an improvement.

    Can't say I'm surprised they didn't want to share it.
  • mch202mch202 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited September 2012

    ...And that would appear to simply be a less-efficient arrangement of the standard GUI. The opposite of an improvement.

    Can't say I'm surprised they didn't want to share it.

    @Arsene_Lupin - this picture is from the development of the Originial Baldur's Gate back in 1998 :-p

  • Excalibur_2102Excalibur_2102 Member Posts: 351
    oh god... Now that was funny :P
Sign In or Register to comment.