For me the most important technical improvement in the enhanced editions is actually this:

https://www.gog.com/forum/baldurs_gate_series/baldurs_gate_12_enhanced_editions_also_100_or_50_cpu_usage/page1

It helps to keep my laptop cooler that the game doesn't try to use all CPU cycles for no reason... Then again on modern CPUs this matters less as it will not go up to 100% anyway, but 50% or so due to hyperthreading.

Then again, I don't like the reported SJW additions to the enhanced editions. Yes yes, a game can have gay characters and cross-dressers, but don't make a political statement out of it. Did I hear right there is even some small girl who lectures the player "My mom doesn't need your help, she can take care of herself", kinda teaching us filthy meat-eating white hetero males that women don't need our help?

No, I haven't played through the enhanced editions (only the classic versions) so I am going by what I've read about the story changes and new characters (maybe it was in the new expansion pack?).

I get a similar feeling from such additions as if I wanted to watch a porn movie, then suddenly the actors start telling me how bad president Trump is, or the female actress suddenly got up from her lying position and started lecturing how bad porn is for me and it gives a wrong idea what women want. Phuck that, I just wanted to watch some porn!

I kinda like The Witcher games for that, their developers didn't care for all this wave of SJW political correctness but did their own thing. At the same time though, maybe I overall prefer less sex and skin in my games. I don't even need to know if Garrett in Thief games is hetero, gay, bi, pedo, S&M lover or whatever. I don't care, that's not the point of the Thief games.

Bethesda is selling Fallout 1,2 and Tactics for 8,89€ each after slapping the widespread HD mod on it and replacing the Black Isle logo with their own, so they pretty much did the same minus political agenda insertion.
The old versions aren't even available anymore and I'm glad to have gotten them beforehand.

Yes, that was in SoD.

What annoys me most about SoD is that the transcharacter is just there to be trans.
She is a transcharacter before she is an actual character, like it is some sort of label.
There is no natural feeling to the entire thing, it feels forced and hamfisted. The biggest insult is that nothing is done with it, making it entirely pointless.

You see, it starts with your character saying that the name is unusual (In a game with characters like Montaron, Minsc, Dynaheir, Kaigan, Sarevok, Gorion, Elminster, Drizzt....).
Cue an immediate story about being born male and deciding that this isn't who they are.
I know of no sane person who would say this to the face of a stranger right after meeting them, for very obvious reasons (violence, etc).
Then... again, nothing is done with it. Your only reply is a "uh-huh, ok. Good for you" kind of thing. No quest to get the person to actually change her gender to the right one. No quest to deal with people bullying said character because of who she is, no ability to be evil towards the person yourself, you pretty much *have* to nod and agree and that is the end of it.
This is a crime as it is a perfect setup for a great quest and one of the reasons why I consider Beamdogs to be amateur hacks at best when it comes to writing.

To add further insult to injury, they didn't even have the foresight that players might kill the character. It is possible and carries... no reputation loss. Uhm... ouch. That is a pretty bad oversight Beamdog.


It comes down to that Beamdog pretty much went "Nobody will want to kill our super special snowflake character and she is perfect in every way!" when this is not how RPGs work.

You know what would have been a much better way to handle a transperson?
Have one join your party, and have a romance where this gradually comes up and the character opens herself after you win her trust and from here on the romance can halt or continue.

But this would require competent writing, something Beamdog isn't good at.
So that is less than 9 Euroes per game, compared to literally asking double the price of when the originals were still available on gog...

So no, it isn't quite the same.
Damnit man, you are making me defend Bethesda.

I will say I didn't call you a fool. I said it is your own fault. You've been here since 2012, and those awesome classic games were sold in their entirety without any of the Beamdog garbage for several years. To complain now that you can't get them is kind of "sad story bro". I feel your pain, but it's not like HASBRO or Beamdog kept you from buying them for 4 years.

I just don't buy whole catalog of old games in here, I don't have monetary means to do that. I slowly build my library of favorite games and many are still missing in it, including Baldur's gate.

Paladin, not to be "that guy", but I just said that most of us don't have access to mommies and daddies credit card to buy the games.
Most of us work a job and have bills to pay. So when we already own a game physically, the want to buy it digitally is rather low.

You're pretty much victim blaming here son.

I was there when it happened. Beamdog hired a failed D&D writer, a completely *censored* named "Amber Scott" (a.k.a. "The Beambard"), to design some certain aspects of the remakes and the Siege of Dragonspear.

https://plus.google.com/114281907538310728678

https://twitter.com/bigmommascott?lang=el

(She closed off the "Beambard" profile though, probably so no ties can be drawn anymore, between her and the nasty piece of work, Siege of Dragonspear)

https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/4d20ju/amber_scott_writer_for_new_baldurs_gate_claims/

https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/4d45tn/amber_scott_writer_for_the_new_baldurs_gate_has/

Said *censored* is a Social Justice Warrior of quite the notorious reputation and the extra content of the EEs, as well as the majority of the sequel, are infested with horrible stuff of her own creation... She even publicly proclaimed some time ago that: "Baldur's Gate was suffering from discrimination issues (on sexes and other social justice nonsense), so we had to fix it". Stuff which ultimately Beamdog was forced to alter (like certain NPCs, Minsc's dialogue and other junk), after all the ruckus with negative reviews, flamewars and drama. Steam was even forced to change and re-evaluate its entire reviews system after this one and GOG was forced to re-examine its refunding policy (some time ago, you could download game extras and get a full refund, if you avoided to download the main game and guess what, originals were under the "extras" category). But the original games still remain prisoners to the utter waste that their remakes, or even worse, their sequel, are.

Don't believe a word. I mean, GOG wanted to keep selling them independently, Beamdog forced gog not to; they were afraid that people would stick with the originals, so they killed two birds with one stone. One, evade all negative backlash and two, raise their income (to cover losses) by blackmailing fans to get the garbage edition, as well. Essentially, FREELOADING THEIR JUNK ON THE LEGEND AND REPUTATION OF THE OLD GAMES, AFTER DUMPING ON THEM AND SULLYING THEIR LEGACY, FIRST!!!

See the bright side. Wait for a sale, get them dirt cheap and play only the originals. Their discounted price during sales, is roughly equal to the non-discounted price that the originals, once had.

P.S. The majority of the people hating the new games, though, are for their bugs and issues, especially of the sequel, especially of the multiplayer.

She also claimed the whole project was her creation and she got to make the decisions for her characters and story.

Uhm....it is not hers in any way when writing a middle-chapter to a huge story others had written beforehand. The characters aren't hers either.

It is very clear, from her words in one of the links posted further up in the thread, that she had zero intention of honoring the old games. Her motivation was political from the get go.

http://imgur.com/EDfhg5X Ohh....so that's the reason.


https://www.gog.com/news/definitive_edition_bundle_baldurs_gate_i_ii_icewind_dale?pp=972a67c48192728a34979d9a35164c1295401b71 They got bundled a few weeks after

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50341/negative-reviews-on-gog-and-steam This little thing backfired on them.

SoD failed and they needed money to stay afloat. Hence why they bundled the games. The Classics were outselling the buggy EE versions so much it was a joke.

And I thought that it was just pure moneygrab. It seems it's much much worse. Rewriting the originals with new characters with political agenda should have special place in gamers hell.

As I said, there are reasons why I don't like the company.
Many reasons.

You don't have to agree with them, but it looks like these reasons were uncovered.

I can think of another possibility for why the originals were removed, and I personally find it more depressing..

The mobile development mindset is pervasive, and it involves coddling all potential users, treating them as the fools that many of them are at the expense of more tech-savvy users. Options are deliberately removed in order to not confuse users. If the user of a mobile app ticks an in-depth option he or she does not understand and then suffers unintended consequences, they go ballistic and leave a one-star review on the App Store/Google Play. I've argued with more than one developer for removing useful options in order to not confuse the rubes.

If consumers have the ability to buy two versions of a game and choose to buy the less expensive older version, then experience issues and start complaining, it then becomes a PR/customer service issue. They want a refund, or they tell their friend the game has technical issues or just doesn't work, etc.

I guess the cause doesn't really matter--it all ultimately boils down to cynicism and greed.

These ungrateful peons should be thankful they're allowed to live, right m8? o.O

I don't even get your reference here except to say things I again never said or implied. Go troll someone else. Your straw man will not cause me any pain here.

If you ask me, they ought to bring back the 16 hour workday. People nowadays have it far too easy.