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How stable are the Enhanced Editions compared to the original games on Windows 10? With and without mods/fixes

I'm thinking about playing through Baldur's Gate 1 + 2 soon, since I'll invest so many hours I'm looking for the most stable experience. I already have both versions of Baldur's Gate 1, so it's only stability that decides it for me.
Post edited January 11, 2019 by user deleted
This question / problem has been solved by Engerek01image
In my experience a heavily modded BGT was more stable than a more lightly modded EE.
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If you mean by stability if it works ok, both versions should work without problems.

If you mean bug-free (independent from the operating system), BG1:EE is pretty buggy. I have finished BG1 5 times, once classic, 3 times as BGT and once as BG:EE. First 4 (and many other half plays) were all smooth without encountering any bugs. However, EE experience took around 120 hours because of the game breaking bugs. Like quests not being able to finish, items disappearing from your inventory, map notes going crazy, Journal showing weird error messages when a quest is completed, some bosses (including the final boss) becoming non-hostile and non-attackable hence you can not proceed. Those are the ones I remember from my own experience. That's the final version btw so those bugs were never fixed.

You'll meet some people claiming the final version is bug-free. Those people either do not know what bug means or have not played the original so they think that's how things should be. Also, Beamdog, the company behind EE games which I supported many years, did something very "ugly". They deleted the bug reports provided by people including me. There were over 1 thousand (1000) bugs in the final version of BG1 2 years ago. Now that number is a lot less and my entries are deleted. If that's not an IT mistake, then they are deleting bugs to show the game does not have any bugs which are definitely not the case.

On the other hand, EEs do have some nice touches to them. I liked the new Character and Inventory interfaces although many hated it. Being able to dual-wield while having a bow in extra weapon slot is very handy. So is the "see everything on the ground" button. However, do not expect any "graphical enhancements". EE game characters, buildings etc, is exactly the same as the original at best and a lot lot lot lot lot worse than the original at worst. "Enhanced" only stands for the interface, zoom function etc.

BTW: My experience is mostly on BG1. I never finished BG2 although I started it million times :)
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Engerek01: If you mean by stability if it works ok, both versions should work without problems.

If you mean bug-free (independent from the operating system), BG1:EE is pretty buggy. I have finished BG1 5 times, once classic, 3 times as BGT and once as BG:EE. First 4 (and many other half plays) were all smooth without encountering any bugs. However, EE experience took around 120 hours because of the game breaking bugs. Like quests not being able to finish, items disappearing from your inventory, map notes going crazy, Journal showing weird error messages when a quest is completed, some bosses (including the final boss) becoming non-hostile and non-attackable hence you can not proceed. Those are the ones I remember from my own experience. That's the final version btw so those bugs were never fixed.

You'll meet some people claiming the final version is bug-free. Those people either do not know what bug means or have not played the original so they think that's how things should be. Also, Beamdog, the company behind EE games which I supported many years, did something very "ugly". They deleted the bug reports provided by people including me. There were over 1 thousand (1000) bugs in the final version of BG1 2 years ago. Now that number is a lot less and my entries are deleted. If that's not an IT mistake, then they are deleting bugs to show the game does not have any bugs which are definitely not the case.

On the other hand, EEs do have some nice touches to them. I liked the new Character and Inventory interfaces although many hated it. Being able to dual-wield while having a bow in extra weapon slot is very handy. So is the "see everything on the ground" button. However, do not expect any "graphical enhancements". EE game characters, buildings etc, is exactly the same as the original at best and a lot lot lot lot lot worse than the original at worst. "Enhanced" only stands for the interface, zoom function etc.

BTW: My experience is mostly on BG1. I never finished BG2 although I started it million times :)
Great answer, thanks. It made my decision harder, but now I have good grounds to ponder on.

Bascially it seems to boil down to extra material and quality of life changes at the cost of more bugs. I've seen reviews mentioning problems witch crasches too, so the Enhanced Editions seems kinda unstable in spite of being 5 years old.
FWIW, I just did a full BGEE run from Candlekeep to ToB and finished both games. I had a few crashes, and the farmer whose son got killed by ankhegs wouldn’t give me the quest dialog I needed. Also, I couldn’t get the quest for the two mages (the onyx ring deal) in BG proper to initiate. Oh and in BG2, the mouthy runt of a vendor in Umar Hills angered my PC and was brutally murdered for his insolence, which caused the other two standing beside him to go hostile and try running away. I forgot about them until the Tankard Tree in Saradush, where they somehow managed to reappear! They were still hostile and still panicked upon seeing my murderous child of Bhaal.
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DCC74: FWIW, I just did a full BGEE run from Candlekeep to ToB and finished both games. I had a few crashes, and the farmer whose son got killed by ankhegs wouldn’t give me the quest dialog I needed. Also, I couldn’t get the quest for the two mages (the onyx ring deal) in BG proper to initiate. Oh and in BG2, the mouthy runt of a vendor in Umar Hills angered my PC and was brutally murdered for his insolence, which caused the other two standing beside him to go hostile and try running away. I forgot about them until the Tankard Tree in Saradush, where they somehow managed to reappear! They were still hostile and still panicked upon seeing my murderous child of Bhaal.
It sounds like game breaking bugs might occur as well. To play games from Beamdog seems to be like playing russian roulette with the time invested.

I might just play the modded original releases instad.
low rated
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ApexProcyon: It sounds like game breaking bugs might occur as well. To play games from Beamdog seems to be like playing russian roulette with the time invested.

I might just play the modded original releases instad.
There is a rumor that v2.5 is on the way, the first patch in 2 years (last one was in June 2016). If you are not in a hurry to play the game, you might wait for it.

https://www.gog.com/forum/icewind_dale_series/25_update
http://blog.beamdog.com/2018/02/february-23-livestream-recap.html
Post edited March 02, 2018 by Engerek01
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Engerek01: There is a rumor ...
There is a pig flying over my house.