Beamdogs next project needs to be BGI

FinnTheHuman

Its due for a reboot. Worked for Spiderman, worked for Ghostbusters, worked for The Mechanic, Worked for The Hulk, worked for The Karate Kid, worked for Total Recall, worked for Clash of the Titans, worked for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, worked for RoboCop, worked for Red Dawn, worked for... well, I'm sure you get the point.

Think about it, you don't really want something new. Just better graphics. Maybe more first person shooter elements in an immersive MMORPG world.

Tarlugn

Well, I´d rather have remakes of the Gold Box series and Eye of the Beholder series in Infinity Engine, but I guess that´s not gonna happen. The Graphics of BG´s are fine. What I´d really like to get from Beamdog is some kind of statement for what they´re up to, if anything at all - this silence is kind of troubling.

Thels

They seem to be focusing on 2.4, after which they'll likely bring IWDEE and tablets up to speed. Beyond that, who knows?

Eye of the Beholder was awesome, but I don't see it working in the Infinity Engine. That would make it a completely different game.

Vbibbi

FinnTheHuman said:

Its due for a reboot. Worked for Spiderman, worked for Ghostbusters, worked for The Mechanic, Worked for The Hulk, worked for The Karate Kid, worked for Total Recall, worked for Clash of the Titans, worked for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, worked for RoboCop, worked for Red Dawn, worked for... well, I'm sure you get the point.

Think about it, you don't really want something new. Just better graphics. Maybe more first person shooter elements in an immersive MMORPG world.

Weren't many of the films you reference not actually well received? Ignoring the drama behind Ghostbusters (although maybe we shouldn't given that Beamdog has faced similar drama), Total Recall was a failure, I'm not sure The Hulk was well received, Karate Kid was a failure, same for Clash of the Titans. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo did well enough but not as well as one would think given the book was massively popular. The two remaining books haven't been greenlit for film adaptations AFAIK.

My impression of the general reaction to a lot of the remakes was "why remake something if it's going to be lesser quality, just better special effects?" I think a lot of audiences are tired of remakes/reboots/sequel syndrome and want something new.

Tarlugn

It was the first D&D crpg I ever played like two decades ago. The real-time combat system where one has to click a weapon to make an attack is too hectic, hence the remake might really make a difference. Gold Box series would, in turn, offer loads of content. but the few times I´ve tried the first one, Pool of Radiance, the no-mouse interface which requires one to make every action by pressing corresponding command, like A for Attack, and then selecting target with either crosskeys or pressing N for Next or P for Previous, makes the game manually hard. Of course, this is just a daydream, because I imagine the process would be something like making all-new maps, and then populating them with npcs, and then perhaps scripting them with dialogues and combat modes... something that requires abundant resources.

sluckers

Even more awesome would be if Baldur's Gate could become Call of Duty, with RPG elements. It would then be the pinnacle of gaming. You'd have to stop making games, because perfection would already have been reached.

Thels

@Tarlugn: EoB1 and EoB2 were my first D&D CRPGs as well (though I had been dabbling into tabletop already), and they gave me some good memories.

However, those games were specifically developed around the idea of first person gridbased gameplay. Move them over to an isometric gameplay, and they've become entirely different games.

I would love something like an EoB remake, or a game in the spirit of EoB, but they'd have to be first person gridbased games, or they wouldn't be EoB.

Also, there was an all attack button in EoB3, that was mapped to the space bar, where you could choose which characters were included in the all attack. It also had some other nice features, like attacks from the 2nd rank, and returning throwing weapons, but those features didn't really save it from it's boring maps.

I did enjoy Grimrock I and II, but their rather clinical world just didn't give me the feeling that EoB 1 and 2 gave me.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

mlnevese

FinnTheHuman said:

Its due for a reboot. Worked for Spiderman, worked for Ghostbusters, worked for The Mechanic, Worked for The Hulk, worked for The Karate Kid, worked for Total Recall, worked for Clash of the Titans, worked for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, worked for RoboCop, worked for Red Dawn, worked for... well, I'm sure you get the point.

Think about it, you don't really want something new. Just better graphics. Maybe more first person shooter elements in an immersive MMORPG world.

You completely lost me in the first person shooter elements...

Fardragon

Can't tell if thread is a spoof...

FinnTheHuman

Vbibbi said:

Weren't many of the films you reference not actually well received? My impression of the general reaction to a lot of the remakes was "why remake something if it's going to be lesser quality, just better special effects?" I think a lot of audiences are tired of remakes/reboots/sequel syndrome and want something new.

Bullseye.

Fardragon said:

Can't tell if thread is a spoof...

Yes. Just having some fun guys.

Congrats to @sluckers, Winning!!

Kisses.

batoor

Yeah I think sluckers won^^

I don't really mind stuff like Fallout New Vegas though or other stuff that stands out from the painfully hollow sandbox/open world trend nowadays.

smeagolheart

I'm intrigued by the gold box update idea. I could never get into them even back in the day due to the graphics and interface

Raduziel

@FinnTheHuman I'm not sure we watched the same movies.

Vbibbi

Okay wow, I swear I just felt something fly over my head...


EDIT: if anyone has played the Mass Effect series, there are rumors that the original trilogy might be remastered. Not that it's related to this topic at all, I just happened to randomly think of this...

FinnTheHuman

sorry @Vbibbi, another poes law victim. I gotta remember to be more careful with online satire.

1130210

I would rather they do something new. I want MORE Dungeons and Dragons games, not more of the same... They've certainly beaten BGI to death with tons of updates.

As far as I am concerned, I believe Beamdog has shown themselves to be competent game designers. They've done a phenomenal job with Baldur's Gate I, but Baldur's Gate II NEEDS an update bad.

Not to mention, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is in desperate need of some of the features that BGI and BGII share when Siege of Dragonspear was released.

1varangian

If their next game is (finally) Neverwinter Nights 3 with a toolset as powerful as Aurora, the community can use it to (re)create anything they want.

former_customer

1130210 said:

I would rather they do something new. I want MORE Dungeons and Dragons games, not more of the same... They've certainly beaten BGI to death with tons of updates.

As far as I am concerned, I believe Beamdog has shown themselves to be competent game designers. They've done a phenomenal job with Baldur's Gate I, but Baldur's Gate II NEEDS an update bad.

Not to mention, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is in desperate need of some of the features that BGI and BGII share when Siege of Dragonspear was released.

I think you and I have reached the same conclusion along different paths. There comes a point where an artist has to produce their own work in their own direction. Touching up the paint on someone else's work can only be so satisfying.

I may not like Beamdog's current direction, but I think they should produce games according to their artistic vision.

magisensei

Personally, my answer would be "no." I would want something new in order to really see if beamdog as a company can design and produce a crpg that can sell and that players will enjoy for years to come.

Quartz

batoor said:

Yeah I think sluckers won^^

I don't really mind stuff like Fallout New Vegas though or other stuff that stands out from the painfully hollow sandbox/open world trend nowadays.

See, I feel like Fallout: New Vegas blends in perfectly with the rest of the painfully hollow sandbox/open world games.

joluv

I've been thinking a lot about how Beamdog could build on the best parts of Baldur's Gate while moving forward from the really dated parts. Possibly my favorite battle in the whole game is that room in Durlag's Tower where there's a king and queen etc. on a big board with rules about which squares you can move to. I'd really like to see that concept expanded, Black Pits-style, into a whole strategic combat game. Ideally I'd like to see it be a turn-based head-to-head thing with refined rules of movement to bring more nuance to the strategic challenge. It kind of reminds me of a tabletop miniature game, actually. I think they could do something really cool with that.

Fardragon

@joluv How would that be different from the many fantasy strategy games that are available?

joluv

Fardragon said:

Can't tell if thread is a spoof...

Still?

Fardragon

joluv said:

Fardragon said:

Can't tell if thread is a spoof...

Still?

Always.

Thels

joluv said:

I've been thinking a lot about how Beamdog could build on the best parts of Baldur's Gate while moving forward from the really dated parts. Possibly my favorite battle in the whole game is that room in Durlag's Tower where there's a king and queen etc. on a big board with rules about which squares you can move to. I'd really like to see that concept expanded, Black Pits-style, into a whole strategic combat game. Ideally I'd like to see it be a turn-based head-to-head thing with refined rules of movement to bring more nuance to the strategic challenge. It kind of reminds me of a tabletop miniature game, actually. I think they could do something really cool with that.

This better not be a serious suggestion. :P

joluv

If your gripe is that it sounds too complicated, @Thels, I should tell you that I'm also working on a simpler variant that uses the same room. In this version, each side will get twelve identical soldiers who are only allowed to stand on dark squares, and they make captures by hopping over each other. I'm still hammering out the details, but I feel like I'm onto something revolutionary here.

By the way, my 3D modeling skills are weak, so for now I'm just using short cylinders as stand-ins for proper soldier models. If anyone wants to collaborate on this ambitious project, let me know.

Thels

@joluv: How many people do you know to actually follow the rules of the chess game? The engine is not based around characters having to walk around on specific squares, and having to babysit every tiny step that each of your characters make is painstakingly annoying. Not to mention that while it provides rules for your King and Queen, it doesn't even explain which of your middle characters is the King or the Queen.

Jouni

I always switch party AI off for the chess battle and kill the enemies from the starting squares with ranged weapons and spells. Much faster that way than by micromanaging the party.

batoor

Quartz said:

batoor said:

Yeah I think sluckers won^^

I don't really mind stuff like Fallout New Vegas though or other stuff that stands out from the painfully hollow sandbox/open world trend nowadays.

See, I feel like Fallout: New Vegas blends in perfectly with the rest of the painfully hollow sandbox/open world games.

Hmm well I'm quite fond of Fallout: NV, so I won't deny that I'm probably overrating a little due to fanboyism. Still I think the factions in the game allow for a great deal of reactivity later on, that seems to be absent from some other sandbox games. Sure there's a bit of overlapping in some quests and such, but it's far less linear than Skyrim and that's just in the vanilla without taking into account mods. I haven't played the game to death though, but I'll definitely replay it someday.

And overall I thought Mr. House was a great character.

Another thing that I really liked is that you can pretty much get rid of any critical character in the game and still have a way out to complete it. There are no immortal npcs to avoid breaking the plot.