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Hello everybody,

I am in doubt about what of these games is worth to play for the first time. I never played Baldur's Gate series before. And I own the BG1 EE on steam and the Baldur's Gate 2 here on GOG. My doubt is if is worth to pick the GOG version od BG1 and play it first. Can someone help, please?
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I asked the very same question about BG2 a few months ago, and I was told to play the original first. And I did^^
To explain a little: for first time players the biggest differences are that the EE has better resolution, the new characters, different skills, and a new intrface (wich is ugly as hell IMO).
Also, in the original the game does NOT pause on the inventory screen, but it does pause in the EE.
Basically to understad what the EE adds, you shoud try the original first. (And it will aslo help you understand why "original" players were displeased with the EE, since it doesn't give that much as we expected. (I liked the EE tho, except the ugly interface)
But the original is how the game was originally made and designed, and it's definetly worth playing, preferably before you play the EE.

(multiply edits for spelling >_<)
Post edited March 28, 2014 by MadyNora
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MadyNora: I asked the very same question about BG2 a few months ago, and I was told to play the original first. And I did^^
To explain a little: for first time players the biggest differences are that the EE has better resolution, the new characters, different skills, and a new intrface (wich is ugly as hell IMO).
Also, in the original the game does NOT pause on the inventory screen, but it does pause in the EE.
Basically to understad what the EE adds, you shoud try the original first. (And it will aslo help you understand why "original" players were displeased with the EE, since it doesn't give that much as we expected. (I liked the EE tho, except the ugly interface)

(multiply edits for spelling >_<)
I own Fallout 1 here on GOG. I was playing it, but the graphics looks terrible in my screen. And there is no option to run it on window mode. So I found a high resolution mod and installed it, but so the strings become very dificult to read. Everything become so small at 1080p. Does it happens with BG original too?
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Wotan.Viking: I own Fallout 1 here on GOG. I was playing it, but the graphics looks terrible in my screen. And there is no option to run it on window mode. So I found a high resolution mod and installed it, but so the strings become very dificult to read. Everything become so small at 1080p. Does it happens with BG original too?
I've never used any mods, but as far as I know, the UI does get tiny with widescreen mod. If you wait a few minutes I install my GOG version, and *try* to install the widescreen mod, so I can check it for myself. (I never installed any mods before, so it's possible that I just mess it up o.o)

EDIT
ookay, I installed the widescreen mod, and it looks like the attached images
btw, BG1 is playeable in windowed mode, but depending on your screen it can be quite tiny
there is another widescreen mod available, but I can't use it because my screen resolution is not supported (1920x1080)
Attachments:
Post edited March 28, 2014 by MadyNora
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MadyNora: I asked the very same question about BG2 a few months ago, and I was told to play the original first. And I did^^
To explain a little: for first time players the biggest differences are that the EE has better resolution, the new characters, different skills, and a new intrface (wich is ugly as hell IMO).
Also, in the original the game does NOT pause on the inventory screen, but it does pause in the EE.
Basically to understad what the EE adds, you shoud try the original first. (And it will aslo help you understand why "original" players were displeased with the EE, since it doesn't give that much as we expected. (I liked the EE tho, except the ugly interface)

(multiply edits for spelling >_<)
avatar
Wotan.Viking: I own Fallout 1 here on GOG. I was playing it, but the graphics looks terrible in my screen. And there is no option to run it on window mode. So I found a high resolution mod and installed it, but so the strings become very dificult to read. Everything become so small at 1080p. Does it happens with BG original too?
I tried BG with the widescreen mod, UI mods and whatnot, and it was not satisfactory graphical-wise on my rig. Without the widescreen mod, I could read everything just fine and the game played well.

So my recommendation is:
- if you care about playing the historical game, choose original
- if you want the easiest experience, including easy-to-read text, no need to mod, and some other improvements, but the addition of some added sections and NPCs that don't seem to fit very well, then choose EE.
- If you want to have the cheapest, worst experience, just play what you have. :D
- If you want all of your NPCs to carry over from BG1 to BG2 in the way that you have leveled them, then go with GOG versions and install Baldur's Gate Trilogy (someone correct me if I'm wrong here -- I mess up which mods do what sometimes)

I think most GOG users would say use the GOG versions.
I think most users overall would say go with EE versions.
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Wotan.Viking: I own Fallout 1 here on GOG. I was playing it, but the graphics looks terrible in my screen. And there is no option to run it on window mode. So I found a high resolution mod and installed it, but so the strings become very dificult to read. Everything become so small at 1080p. Does it happens with BG original too?
avatar
MadyNora: I've never used any mods, but as far as I know, the UI does get tiny with widescreen mod. If you wait a few minutes I install my GOG version, and *try* to install the widescreen mod, so I can check it for myself. (I never installed any mods before, so it's possible that I just mess it up o.o)

EDIT
ookay, I installed the widescreen mod, and it looks like the attached images
btw, BG1 is playeable in windowed mode, but depending on your screen it can be quite tiny
there is another widescreen mod available, but I can't use it because my screen resolution is not supported (1920x1080)
Thanks! Thanks a lot!
But, omg, is this the menu screen?
I think it is better go with no mod at all. I don't care much about the others UI elements, but the texts are priority. These kind of games make us read a lot and with so tiny letters the experience results to be very hard.
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Wotan.Viking: Thanks! Thanks a lot!
But, omg, is this the menu screen?
I think it is better go with no mod at all. I don't care much about the others UI elements, but the texts are priority. These kind of games make us read a lot and with so tiny letters the experience results to be very hard.
No problem :)
And yes, the menu screen does not scale =/ But it's quite readable, even without the widescreen mod, no problems there ;)
If you played BG1Tutu, you can scale the UI to your resolution. I got it running via Widescreen mod at 1366*768, and everything perfectly readable. (My monitor's native resolution is 1920*1080 as well, but that makes things hard as hell to read, and this resolution runs just fine.)
Since you're a newcomer, it's probably worth mentioning that that will also work with BG trilogy: both run the game in the BG2 engine, and so you can do the same kind of things with both of them in general.
Just remember that EE does some rather odd things to the recruitable party members due to BG having a smaller number of more encompassing weapon proficiencies and no style proficiencies; for instance, in BG1, Khalid is proficient in Axes and Bows with specialization in Large Swords, while in BG1EE, he specializes in Bastard swords and dumps the rest of his points into dual wielding, drastically reducing his versatility and forcing him into a melee role that doesn't entirely suit him.
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Jonesy89: Just remember that EE does some rather odd things to the recruitable party members due to BG having a smaller number of more encompassing weapon proficiencies and no style proficiencies
Doesn't the tweak pack have an option to undo that, though? Or have I misremembered? Certainly I was able to use him in a ranged role perfectly well throughout BG1.
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Jonesy89: Just remember that EE does some rather odd things to the recruitable party members due to BG having a smaller number of more encompassing weapon proficiencies and no style proficiencies
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pi4t: Doesn't the tweak pack have an option to undo that, though? Or have I misremembered? Certainly I was able to use him in a ranged role perfectly well throughout BG1.
I don't know. I do remember taking one look at his proficiencies and then going to download a save editor, but it is possible there is a mod that addresses it.