GameBanshee exhaustive review of Baldur's Gate Enhanced

GueulEclator

I just thought it might be worth it to share this here.

LINK : http://gamebanshee.com/reviews/110209-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-review.html

The guys at Gamebanshee are usually known to know what they are talking about when it comes to old cool RPG (they are one of the main sources for all the reviews/walk through/manuals for the IE games after all). This review is a complete and well informed comparison with the old Baldur's Gate.
Much more informed than the other reviews from Ipad websites, or Big corporate reviewers (IGN, gamespy...) where you clearly see that the authors have only played Mass Effect and dragon age.


AND PLEASE : moderators, do NOT merge this post with the other reviews thread : 2 reason :
1. Ipad reviews and PC reviews should be clearly separated (obvious reason)
2. This review is one of a kind in terms of quality (it does not compare to uninformed reviews like the gamespy one) and shouldn't be put in the same basket. It's not even a matter of subjectivity, Gamebanshee are one of the authorities when it comes to old school rpg.

IkonNavros

There is already a post about that here

And yeah, this guys do know about what they are talking. True Fans are always right!

GueulEclator

where is this post?

IkonNavros

already disappeared to page 2

ended in a discussion about if there is a fixed zoom level you can not skip when playing

GueulEclator

Well if a moderator ever merge this thread he better keep me OP : my title is way more visible and appealing, and I'm more to the point (I give the link in the beginning and I'm more concise)

marfig

You title does speak of an "exhaustive review" though. GameBanshee's review is anything but.

GueulEclator

marfig said:

You title does speak of an "exhaustive review" though. GameBanshee's review is anything but.

3 pages of point by point review is not exhaustive?
You can disagree with them,,but they covered EVERY single new feature of this enhanced version.

IkonNavros

well, there is much to read But it is full of important and true details

marfig

GueulEclator said:

You can disagree with them,,but they covered EVERY single new feature of this enhanced version.

I didn't say anything about disagreeing. (But since you mention it, I disagree on some points, not on others).

Saying those 3 pages cover every single new feature of this enhanced version, is just not true. And I suspect the review author would agree with me on this.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/2041/bgee-please-read-list-of-things-that-have-been-announced/p1

GueulEclator

If this review isn't exhaustive, then I wonder which one is. Most of the other reviews are one page crap, most of the time without any comparison with the old one (which means they don't even bother reading the feature). Of course, Gamebanshee won't cover every bug fixes, that would be silly, but they pretty much covered the main remarkable changes : how it feels in the end, compared to the first one.

Avenger_teambg

It is exhaustive and more or less correct, but this "For instance, item stack limits in the inventory have not been increased as far as to what I'd consider convenient" is a bit weird, considered ammo limits have been changed to 80.

marfig

GueulEclator said:

but they pretty much covered the main remarkable changes : how it feels in the end, compared to the first one.

Ok. So now, they don't cover every change, but the most important ones. That, it seems to me, is a much better way of putting it; A non-comprehensive review of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition.

And there's no shame in it.

IkonNavros

At least with the statement about the graphical problems the review nails its point.

GueulEclator

IkonNavros said:

At least with the statement about the graphical problems the review nails its point.

pretty much. That's what prevented me from buying it. I didn't care if there was only a few new features, but the fact that they made the graphic worse than original + TUTU is what made me change my mind. + the new cinematic are ridiculously cheap out of place (but that's a detail)

Debaser

@Avenger_teambg Yeah the ammo increase to 80 is one of my favorite features. Honestly...so far it's been a fantastic experience for me considerng TuTu didn't work very well for WIN7 platforms....I do however think the modding community and subsequent patches and DLC will make the game feel "complete".

Arsene_Lupin

GueulEclator said:

If this review isn't exhaustive, then I wonder which one is. Most of the other reviews are one page crap, most of the time without any comparison with the old one (which means they don't even bother reading the feature). Of course, Gamebanshee won't cover every bug fixes, that would be silly, but they pretty much covered the main remarkable changes : how it feels in the end, compared to the first one.

It's the only review I've seen (other than that one GameFAQs user review where you can tell they're reviewing BGEE, not just BG1.

And apparently I don't know how to embed URLs. That review is here:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/663933-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/reviews/review-152577

It's pretty good.

In fact, I'd say most of the legitimate reviews I see these days come from blogs or gamefaqs or Amazon--places where the actual reviewer isn't writing the thing to make money off Internet traffic.

IkonNavros

GueulEclator said:

IkonNavros said:

At least with the statement about the graphical problems the review nails its point.

pretty much. That's what prevented me from buying it. I didn't care if there was only a few new features, but the fact that they made the graphic worse than original + TUTU is what made me change my mind. + the new cinematic are ridiculously cheap out of place (but that's a detail)

@GueulEclator The cinematics are not THAT bad. I like the style in general. I just would wish they would have used a bit more advanced animation technic instead of only optimizing it for Tablet use.

I have bought the EE but i really do not play it, but i will take a look again at the EE in about one Year. If they perhaps have added a higher res gui and changed the zoom completly user controllable then i am willing to play it, if not, then the Delete Keyboard Button will hit the EE directory and i will remember that spent money as a warning sign and give up gaming again completly like the countless years before the release of the EE

GueulEclator

@IkonNavros I too will wait, except I won't buy the game for now. When I come back in one year, I will see if they have significantly fixed those major issues (graphics being the worse) and if they put it on sale i will buy it.

But with all those kickstarter project that will begin to pop up after one year, I'm not even sure. I will vastly prefer Project eternity (or wasteland) to this EE. Especially considering that the project eternity staff really worked on infinity games. Trent Oster doesn't tell the truth when he said he worked on infinity game, I took a look and apparently he was simply a production manager for BG1 (he didn't took part in the creative concept at all). He didn't even took an active part in any other IE games.

IkonNavros

@GueulEclator As sad as it is, i believe you are right and Project Eternity will be a way better value, since it is made by a real Game Company.

But who knows, We should also give Beamdog/Overhaul a fair chance to proove that they can do something right.. with enough time!

GueulEclator

Well for now they have proven pretty much the opposite. They seem to get inspired much more by mass effect/ dragon age Hollywoodish style than old school RPG.
The 3 new NPC's they add are uninspired jokes : One Mary Sue, One Kawaii Desu Moe girl and one mass effect style vessel for a gay romance.
The cinematic are also very ''new gen'' with cheap motion style comic and cheesy ''intense'' animation/pace. And a ''dark'' feeling to make it look ''mature''. And the new environment/level don't even compare to the beauty BG serie had got us used to : Ust natha, Trademeet...
Overhaul failed hard when it came to creativity.

For me, today, the real RPGs studios are Obsidian, InXfile and CD project Red (the ones who are closely associated with GOG btw). Bethesda could also get a mention for their effort to keep the old school formula even after growing so big. Overhaul is a joke.

Arsene_Lupin

@GueulEclator: you playing the same game? LMFAO at Beamdog "failing hard" for making cinematics that are faithful re-creations of the original CGI movies. Really?

And you seem to be reaching for (and failing to grasp) the word "cliche" when talking about the characters. It's like you somehow expect a fantasy RPG, or a story of any sort, not to use certain archetypes. Beamdog is not the problem here... you are the problem for holding BGEE to standards that quite literally no other game ever made could live up to.

GueulEclator

There are bad cliche and good cliche. The new NPCs fall in the first category. ''New gen'' mass effect style character + plot. 2 of them also follow the diablo 3 like insecurity and psychological trauma and you, as the main character, must comfort them. Weak personalities.

They aren't on the same level of personality and originality as Minsc, Edwin, xzar, xan, jan jansen... Those at least had strong personalities. They weren't just psycho on the surface, like those ''new gen'' insecure NPC.