Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Beamdog’s remake of the classic RPG arrives on November 28th. With that in mind they’ve released a trailer to show off some of the improvements. These include: support for widescreen formats and resolutions that were imaginary at the time the game was released, new quests, new characters, and voices for those extras. They’ve apparently overhauled the original cinematics, and worked up the UI – something that’s very obvious in the trailer, below – to make everything a bit slicker now than it was back in the mist of the late 90s.
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I suppose it seems only proper that – in making its pleasantly prim and made-over debut on the modern stage – Baldur’s Gate will now suffer the most modern fate of them all: a last-second holiday season delay. On the upside, however, it’s for a good cause. In short, Overhaul Games has found itself buried under a mountain fan requests, so it’s decided to dig its way out and make the Enhanced Edition, well, more enhanced. So no, Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced-er Edition won’t be coming out next week like originally planned, but Overhaul’s hoping the final product will be well worth the wait.

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It’s not that difficult to “enhance” something. Recently, I “enhanced” my cereal experience by pouring milk into it. In the world of PC gaming, however, “enhanced” is a holy and sacred word. The Witcher 1 and 2′s Enhanced Editions, for instance, were the equivalent of sending my cereal bowl sailing into a nearby forest, flying in an Iron Chef, and telling him to make whatever his heart desired – so long as it included over 100 courses. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, meanwhile, appears to be taking a similar approach. And now, Beamdog’s announced a cherry for the proverbial cereal and ice cream and filet mignon sundae: cross-platform multiplayer.

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Quickly, someone carry me to an online petition site right away. I’d go there myself but I’m just so weak with shock. Do you know what’s happened? No, of course you don’t, you couldn’t even imagine such horror. Sit down. Hold onto something, like a pint of brandy. By God, this is even worse than when 5ive split up.

The pure, shining spirit of Baldur’s Gate is going to be tampered with by Beamdog for its Enhanced Edition. Steady, steady, it’s ok, I’ve got you.
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Generally, it’s pretty cringe-inducing to watch publishers get ahead of themselves. “Annual sequels, comic book tie-ins, and a movie deal that will pass across the desk of at least one noteworthy director before getting indefinitely shelved,” they excitedly proclaim. Then things inevitably don’t go as planned, and everyone has a good, long sob. I want to believe Beamdog when it says Baldur’s Gate 3 is more than just a Kickstarter-fueled delusion of grandeur, though. And what’s this about Icewind Dale?  I mean, what’s even left to be looted from Black Isle’s naked corpse? Planescape? Lionheart? OK, maybe we can just not take Lionheart.

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Oh boy. Here’s my theory – throughout the year there will be numerous Kickstarter projects that people become excited about, pledge money to and then look forward to. Fatigue will set in due to the number of awesome concepts being put forward by wonderful people, but it isn’t fatigue alone that will end this fascination. My belief is that one day the perfect Platonic ideal of the Kickstarter project will appear, a game desired so long and so hard by so many that all money will be absorbed by it. In an interview with Gamespy, Beamdog say that the upcoming enhanced Baldur’s Gate games may open up the possibility for their “long-term goal”. Baldur’s Gate III.

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A countdown over at BaldursGate.com has revealed that Atari and Beamdog intend to produce an enhanced edition of the original game for release this year. Some tweets from Beamdog’s Trent Oster suggest that the game will feature new content by some of the original team, and will also contain the Tales Of The Sword Coast expansion. We’ll try and find out a few more details soon.

A new Baldur’s Gate game? Wuh? That’s the news that greets my eyes when I look at Eurogamer. This is, apparently, coming from former BioWare developer Trent Oster, who worked on the original BG, as well as the first Neverwinter Nights. His new company, Beamdog, is a digital distribution platform, brought to wider attention recently via the release of MDK 2 HD, and this, GameBanshee claims, will be the source of new Forgotten Realms chat-n-chopping. And how do we know any of this is happening? A Baldur’s Gate website.

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Oh man, the HD re-release of MDK 2 is almost upon us. It’s coming out on Beamdog tomorrow for $15 and the trailer is hiding over the hills and out of range beyond the jump.

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Now that is an efficient headline. But just to unpack it a bit: Interplay and Overhaul have remade offbeat 3D action-adventure MDK2 with modernised graphics. They’re going to be releasing it next month for $14.99, and it will only be appearing on Beamdog. Seems like a bit of an odd decision to me, but I suppose the smaller games portals have to find some way to drive traffic to their sites.

We’ll take a fresh look at the game when it comes out. I wonder if it will cling on to the same problems as the original.