Hey guys,

recently I have seen the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Editions on sale now and I'am thinking about to buy these versions of Baldur's Gate. Well, the thing why I didn't buy it yet is that I have all ready the original versions of BG 1 and 2 with all addons. They were also modded to BGT but... Well, I got the feeling that even these versions have their flaws like some strange soundmixing problems (some voices are louder than other and some of the music needs longer to change), small fonts and the corrupted save files which killed my farthest save game so I must start all over again. :(
And modding... well, it can work, but sometimes it doesn't if you didn't make it right.
I have heard all the problems and complains about the EEs but it seems most of those discussions about Original vs EE were few years old and not up to date. Also I'm a little bit curios about the EEs and their new content like the new NPCs or the fixes they have done. But still I don't want to waste my money for a buggy mess.
Would be cool if there were people here who have played both versions and give some good arguments to buy them or not.

P.S. Sry for typos and gramma faults, English is not my mother language.

The EE versions has just gotten worse and worse by each patch. Spend your money on some other games that are on sale instead.

I won't make a recommendation regarding what you should or should not purchase, as that is ultimately your decision. I will give you my impressions of the EEs as they compare to the original editions.

I've played the originals many times, and the EE editions once each. I can't comment on the progression of the EEs across multiple patches as I've only played them with the latest patch.

The main draw of the EEs is convenience. They fully support widescreen resolutions out of the box with UI scaling and an easily readable font. I did not encounter any broken quests or bugs in either BG1 or 2. You will also get some extra class kits (many of which are similar to NWN1/2 classes) to play with if you've grown bored with the standard ones. Unlike the original BG1, these are available from the start, although mods like TuTu at least put BG2 kits into the original game.

As something of a purist, I was not a fan of the extra characters that were inserted into the two games. They are not poorly done, but neither BG1 or 2 is exactly lacking in companions, so I didn't feel they added much to the experience. As with any NPCs, you can simply ignore them if you choose. Most have a companion quest that takes you into additional areas that are not part of the base games.

If you intend to check out Siege of Dragonspear at some point, you have to buy at least BG1:EE. I would rate SoD as an OK game, but nothing exceptional. It's worth a play through, at least, if you are a fan of the series.

If you are invested in story-based mods for the original BG1 and 2, some of these won't work with the EEs since they are old and not being maintained any longer. If you can't live without them, then you will want to keep the original games around.

If you are heavily into Social Justice, you should absolutely get SoD. The whole expansion pack is one huge political add for it. Don't expect it to tie well into BG2, however, as it is filled with plot-holes and some severe inconsitancies.

Dunno about others but the only reason SoD is on my wishlist is cos I really want to see first hand if it's really as bad as people say it is. That experience isn't worth the Spring sales $16.99 (or $33.99) price tag but maybe Beamdog will sort their pricing out..............maybe....

As mentioned above EE is convenient in the sense that it supports modern resolutions without any need for modding. On the other hand, I found the new content REALLY BAD. It does not blend well, and it feel forced.

Not to mention that they felt obliged to change things that were fine like movies in the game or certain graphics. All for the worse. The new intro is a prime example of that. Just check on youtube for yourself...

Well, it seems I will stick with my old edition of BG with all the mods even if there were some little flaws. I'm not into SJ, I didn't even know that there were so called SJWs until SoD. xD
I have heard that SoD is not good and I wouldn't play it not only it is has bugs or crashes but mostly because the story is not good (parts were stealed from IWD I heard). Characters were also changed (they changed Khalid and Jaheira and the best thing is it is not in favor for the SJWs ^^.).
Oh, and I hate it how the transgender was placed into the game. They could have done it much better with a better storyline for her/him as an NCS as example and not with a fu***** dialog which doesn't make any sense.

And about the new content: It would be nice to see myself how the new content fits into the games but on the other hand... There was a reason why I buyed the DnD-Antholgy instead of the EE for the first BG (the antholgy had the same price as the EE and got a lot more content as the EE). And now on sale you think you could buy it even if you didn't play it that much. But even then it is maybe not the money worth it.

The thing about the transgendered character is that he\she doesn't make any sense. Being trans in the Forgotten Realms is a non issue. All it takes is a spell or a magic item, and the character can become what gender he\she wants to be. This one was just shoehorned in so the writer could claim she was being "progressive". Tons of transgendered players got upset with the whole mess, as well.

If you want to see a transgendered character done right, play Dragon Age: Inquisition. Krem is a fully fleshed out, suberbly written, character. Which I suspect is the key word here. Character.

On the other hand, the EE version of Icewind Dale is very very good, though. They haven't messed it up with the latest patches yet. So that game they got absolutely right (for now).

How is the EE of BG messed up exactly?

For me, its worth it for the ability to zoom alone, and the ability to scroll the map with the middle mouse button.

The whole new layout in the inventory\character screen. Those rotten new character sprites + + + +. It got messed up after the 2.0 patch, which Beamdog is forcing people to use. The 1.4 patch was perfect. No issues at all.

I believe somewhere in the original game there is already a very confused ogre with a certain girdle which does exactly that.

I hadn't actually considered this, but yeah, if you thought you were born the wrong race/sex/ethnicity/anything in forgotten realms all you would have to do is save up money for the social justice wizard and he'd sort you right out.

Limited Wish is a spell that fixes that permanently. There are Cleric spells around that does it too. That transgendered Cleric would have access to one of those, even if just via a scroll. So transgenders in the FR world is a non-issue. It has never been an issue. That character got added just because the writer wanted to score some Social points. Sticking modern American Social issues into a gameworld that has never had those issues at all = very bad writing. The story, the characters, and the integrity of the setting got sacrificed because....modern day SJW political add.

I've the full boxed original release, the original digital release, the BG:EE etc.

Personally, while I found the added characters & quests a non-needed addition, they don't do any harm.
I've found the interface quite a bit more easy to navigate and overall the game is more polished.

How BG:EE is broken? I don't know, to be honest.
It seems quite the same game as the original: I love both and, to me, they are equivalent.
The original EE was really buggy though.

The only bug I've seen is the Secondary Hand THAC0 if you put in it a non-proficent weapon: it becomes -INT :D

Also, the EE does a very good job in detailing the stats of the charaters, to cover most of the character sheet.

The point is moot isnt it tho. Because you are unable to buy the original games now. If you want the original games you are forced to buy the EE versions and get the original version as an extra.

I am not a fan of them usurping the ownership of Baldurs gate series, when i see them have a Beamdog bundle during i say i cant help but to tell myself that they did nothing to earn the ownership of the series. And that id like to replay the old games, but i dont want to pay the inflated price.

I did a comparison of the two editions about a year ago:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/why_should_i_buy_the_baldur_gate_ee_versions/post19

I think most of what I said there is still applicable, although there have been a couple more updates to the EE since then.

There are a lot more mods available for the EE now, including many classic ones which have been updated. So I now retract my prior statement of "don't play the enhanced edition if you're really into mods". There are plenty of mod options available now, which are being actively maintained. Just keep in mind that some older mods which are now abandoned may no longer work on the EEs.

Beamdog has continued to fiddle around with character model rendering. They now have a means to toggle off the new "smoother" character rendering method (which some feel just makes the sprites look blurry) as well as the black outlines around characters, but... turning that off still looks different than it used to. It's less blurry than the new method, but more pixelated than the true original. Some people won't notice a difference. Some prefer the new smoothing/blurring rendering method. Some are going to prefer the method they used up to EE v1.4 which is no longer available in the 2.x versions. And some just don't give a flying flip either way.

Beamdog has also continued to tinker around with the UI, making what many consider to be unnecessary changes to the look, feel and layout -- and generally trying to "fix" something that really wasn't broken. Of course, there are some folks who do like the changes. And there are others of us who have been playing this game for almost 20 years now, and are going into OCD "who moved my cheese?!" fits with all these UI changes.

So, as for my revised opinion on whether the EE is "worth it"... it really depends on what you want. Watch a few YouTube videos of people playing the latest version of the EE, and pay particular attention to the user interface and the visual style of the character sprites. And take a look at the comparison I did, linked above, in which I tried to summarize the differences between a BGT/Tutu modded original version vs. the enhanced edition.

If you're very familiar with the BG series and are looking for an experience that's as close as possible to the original on a modern PC, going with the classic versions and using BGT or Tutu is going to be your best bet. If you're not as concerned with maintaining the "look and feel" of the original and are more interested in a modernized version of Baldur's Gate, then the latest version of the enhanced edition will be a great experience. I personally think version 1.3 of the enhanced edition struck the perfect balance between the two. (Version 1.4 introduced a bug where combat music would get stuck, and version 2.0 started introducing sprite rendering and UI changes that I felt deviated too far from the original.)

*plink, plink* There's my two cents.