Baldur's Gate Promotional Demo from 1998
Permidion_Stark
Member Posts: 4,861
I'm sure someone must have posted this before but it's new to me so I thought I would share it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87bzCFGtlMs
It is interesting to see just how much the game had changed by the time of its release. Imoen (or at least the character using Imoen's portrait) is a mage in this. There is also a mage called Vicona. At around 3:13 there is a sprite that looks like sirine or dryad who fights unarmed (or possibly does aerobics, it's hard to say). I don't remember this animation from the original game but maybe it was always there?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87bzCFGtlMsIt is interesting to see just how much the game had changed by the time of its release. Imoen (or at least the character using Imoen's portrait) is a mage in this. There is also a mage called Vicona. At around 3:13 there is a sprite that looks like sirine or dryad who fights unarmed (or possibly does aerobics, it's hard to say). I don't remember this animation from the original game but maybe it was always there?
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Comments
Would have had all the females dying of hypothermia otherwise.
Interesting to see which voices were already recorded.
Xan dispensing wisdom there, that bit made me lol.
Does that dialog sequence ever happen in game?
I rarely use Xan but would a lot more just to have that happen.
Apropos: @JuliusBorisov, it's about high time we finally see all of the EE's ported to the PlayStation. And the Super Nintendo. And of course also the Sega Mega Drive console. Maybe even the Game Boy Color if the devs are willing to release their titles with extraordinary graphic updates as well!
I agree. I particularly liked the music in the Playstation version - especially during character creation (I think I would have re-rolled those stats though). The music put me in mind of me of the scores of epic action movies from the 60s and 70s like Zulu and The Man Who Would Be King.
I think, "Girl, you're about to die an ignominious death."
This did remind me that, back then, I was impressed that the demo wasn’t that far off from actual gameplay. At the time, the demo would look like some incredible mid-blowing Hollywood CGI, created with a warehouse of Silicon Graphics servers. Then the game itself would look like low-res Apple II graphics made by one of the executives’ six year old nephew. Apparently because all the graphics budget was used on the demo.
I also loved the gibberlings' disturbing gurgle cry at 4:09. That's what a creature called a gibberling should sound like! ^.^
It makes the game look really exciting (which of course it is). But does the action look slightly speeded up to you? It seems faster than when I play but that could be because they are not neurotically hitting the pause button every couple of seconds.
Luckily for people like me there's mods that restore the old cutscenes. The game just don't feel right to me without them.
They look dated because the game came out almost 20 years ago. It's unfair to judge them based on today's standards.
Replacing them was a terrible idea. They didn't have the budget to do it properly, and it shows. And I think the people at Beamdog know it, considering no other EEs have had their movies changed. And guess what? Those look just as "TERRIBLE" as the ones in BG1.
At the end of the day you need to decide whether BG:EE is an update or a completely different entity. According to Beamdog, it's the former.
When you're updating a classic game, you walk the thin line between improving and damaging the experience. If you want a perfect example of improving, look at PST:EE. If you want a perfect example of a studio taking far too many liberties with a game, look at BG:EE.