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Baldur's Gate 3 was cancelled over an accounting error

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kEV_YnDkXk&t=2m1s
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I wonder how next gen Baldur would look and feel.
I don't like the art style of Dragon Age. For me, BG was nearly dark fantasy. It felt so good back then...
maybe it's for the best. Baldur's Gate 1+2 was a finished story. Any continuation of the series would have been disappointing (just look at the generic hack & slash PS2 versions)

NWN2 had a slow starting main campaign which got better near the end, but mask of the betrayer was awesome. I think that's as close as we have come to a true Baldur's Gate III.
Dragon age, though fun, felt really limited and lineair. Imho it was good enough to finish twice, but I don't dare to say how many times I've completed the Baldur's Gate games....:)
Chris Avellone is awsome n all that, but he's either been fed some serious misinformation or had words put in his mouth. The introduction in the ToB manual says it plain as day that right from the jump, the BG story was supposed to be a trilogy, and ToB is the culmination of that.

The storyline was as complete as it gets (what more could they possibly add to it?), the boss fights were as complete as it gets, and PC & his party are pretty much the best adventuring party that Toril has ever seen, all by the end of ToB.

Also, "The Black Hound" doesn't exactly sound like an epic title to add to what's arguably the greatest story ever in the Forgotten Realms in the BG series. Seriously how do you go from 'Shadows of Amn' & 'Throne of Bhaal' and then culimnate (a story that's already been completed) those with "'The Black Hound'? That's not even good enough to honor the PC's foster father Gorion if they were gonna do a prequel.
I wonder if we're ever gonna see an RPG like BGII and PS:T again. The chance of big name companies undertaking such a project is close to 0, so I guess we can only expect some indie developer to dirty it's hands with hardcore RPGs again.
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bladeofBG: Also, "The Black Hound" doesn't exactly sound like an epic title to add to what's arguably the greatest story ever in the Forgotten Realms in the BG series. Seriously how do you go from 'Shadows of Amn' & 'Throne of Bhaal' and then culimnate (a story that's already been completed) those with "'The Black Hound'? That's not even good enough to honor the PC's foster father Gorion if they were gonna do a prequel.
Perhaps it was a new character, new story, etc, but in the Sword Coast setting and in such a way as to intersect with the original party (that is, a canonical interpretation of the original party).

In any event, it didn't happen, so it's all speculation.
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bladeofBG: Chris Avellone is awsome n all that, but he's either been fed some serious misinformation or had words put in his mouth. The introduction in the ToB manual says it plain as day that right from the jump, the BG story was supposed to be a trilogy, and ToB is the culmination of that.

The storyline was as complete as it gets (what more could they possibly add to it?), the boss fights were as complete as it gets, and PC & his party are pretty much the best adventuring party that Toril has ever seen, all by the end of ToB.

Also, "The Black Hound" doesn't exactly sound like an epic title to add to what's arguably the greatest story ever in the Forgotten Realms in the BG series. Seriously how do you go from 'Shadows of Amn' & 'Throne of Bhaal' and then culimnate (a story that's already been completed) those with "'The Black Hound'? That's not even good enough to honor the PC's foster father Gorion if they were gonna do a prequel.
Yet Baldur's Gate also has two other installments beyond that trilogy.

Because Interplay lost the D&D license in general, but could still make Baldur's Gate games. So they continued to make games titled Baldur's Gate. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate:_Dark_Alliance]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate:_Dark_Alliance[/url]

Black Hound wasn't to be a continuance of the plot. Just an RPG leveraging the license.

The lead designer was to be Josh Sawyer. He tried revisiting the project as a NWN2 mod a while back, but that likely didn't get off the ground.
Post edited October 13, 2011 by Taleroth
^ LOL! I juss read the wikipedia file on it. Now I got the real perspective; they only named it BG3 because of licensing issues, as the story in the proposed game had nothing to do with the Bhaalspawn saga. The proposed story actually takes place in the Dalelands, way east of the Sword Coast, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter regions.

@ Naudriel: Get rid of the hacks currently running WotC/Hasbro, and put Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms & true creator of Planescape, whom I believe is the true author of the BG series for PC) in full charge without anyone hindering him, and we'll get a new high quality Planescape game and at least two FR game series for PC that'd be the true spiritual successors to the BG series for PC. For real. Obsidian would even be able to do that The Black Hound game, give it a better title (away from BG b/c it has nothing to do with it), and say its the spiritual successor to the IWD series, perhaps with even more roleplaying elements to it.
Post edited October 13, 2011 by bladeofBG
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bladeofBG: ^ LOL! I juss read the wikipedia file on it. Now I got the real perspective; they only named it BG3 because of licensing issues, as the story in the proposed game had nothing to do with the Bhaalspawn saga. The proposed story actually takes place in the Dalelands, way east of the Sword Coast, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter regions.

@ Naudriel: Get rid of the hacks currently running WotC/Hasbro, and put Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms & true creator of Planescape, whom I believe is the true author of the BG series for PC) in full charge without anyone hindering him, and we'll get a new high quality Planescape game and at least two FR game series for PC that'd be the true spiritual successors to the BG series for PC. For real. Obsidian would even be able to do that The Black Hound game, give it a better title (away from BG b/c it has nothing to do with it), and say its the spiritual successor to the IWD series, perhaps with even more roleplaying elements to it.
I totally agree with what you mentioned, and had been waiting for eternity for a title that is resembling BG2 or PS:T, but the problem is these days, gamers are overcrowded by action hack&slasher who only want to talk about how many monsters they killed and what great items they can possess, plus they are also multiple mongering of the graphical quality .. these are the factors limit company from producing high quality RPG, the closest thing may be Dragon Age but look what BioWare(once a respectable force along with Interplay&Black Isle) did with DA2? and mockingly it seem tons of ppl still making a hype of BioWare ...

Obsidian seem to blow it with Dungeon Siege 3, but i suspect it was out of their hand, as they did tried to included a good story there....but Obsidian seem to be the last possible company that can make good RPG these days, we have to see.....but without mass market appeal, it is difficult to have another good title... personally i wish i can play a good old 2D RPG with a good story like the good old days
Post edited October 14, 2011 by chivalrousknight
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Gromuhl: maybe it's for the best. Baldur's Gate 1+2 was a finished story. Any continuation of the series would have been disappointing (just look at the generic hack & slash PS2 versions)

NWN2 had a slow starting main campaign which got better near the end, but mask of the betrayer was awesome. I think that's as close as we have come to a true Baldur's Gate III.
Dragon age, though fun, felt really limited and lineair. Imho it was good enough to finish twice, but I don't dare to say how many times I've completed the Baldur's Gate games....:)
I agree with this. And not to mention Baldur's gate only had three books which the game was based off. The Second game covered both.
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chivalrousknight: but Obsidian seem to be the last possible company that can make good RPG these days, we have to see
I think Bethesda has done a pretty good job with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. True, they are more action-y, but I really enjoy their fully-realized open worlds. I suppose you could argue that they aren't quite as story-based as BG and P:T, but I feel like Elder Scrolls and Fallout let you write your own story as you play.
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bladeofBG: ^ LOL! I juss read the wikipedia file on it. Now I got the real perspective; they only named it BG3 because of licensing issues, as the story in the proposed game had nothing to do with the Bhaalspawn saga. The proposed story actually takes place in the Dalelands, way east of the Sword Coast, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter regions.

@ Naudriel: Get rid of the hacks currently running WotC/Hasbro, and put Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms & true creator of Planescape, whom I believe is the true author of the BG series for PC) in full charge without anyone hindering him, and we'll get a new high quality Planescape game and at least two FR game series for PC that'd be the true spiritual successors to the BG series for PC. For real. Obsidian would even be able to do that The Black Hound game, give it a better title (away from BG b/c it has nothing to do with it), and say its the spiritual successor to the IWD series, perhaps with even more roleplaying elements to it.
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chivalrousknight: I totally agree with what you mentioned, and had been waiting for eternity for a title that is resembling BG2 or PS:T, but the problem is these days, gamers are overcrowded by action hack&slasher who only want to talk about how many monsters they killed and what great items they can possess, plus they are also multiple mongering of the graphical quality .. these are the factors limit company from producing high quality RPG, the closest thing may be Dragon Age but look what BioWare(once a respectable force along with Interplay&Black Isle) did with DA2? and mockingly it seem tons of ppl still making a hype of BioWare ...

Obsidian seem to blow it with Dungeon Siege 3, but i suspect it was out of their hand, as they did tried to included a good story there....but Obsidian seem to be the last possible company that can make good RPG these days, we have to see.....but without mass market appeal, it is difficult to have another good title... personally i wish i can play a good old 2D RPG with a good story like the good old days
Ah, but BG:2 & PS:T are the outright top rated games & were both top-10 sellers on GoG.com, even before their promo a few weeks ago. Let's remember that GoG is also a top-3 online game distributor.

So there is indeed a big market for these type of games. Is it as big as the market for WoW or The Sims? Probably not, but the market is still big enough wherein the game would make a very healthy profit.

Yeah since Bioware was captured by EA, their games haven't come close to their legacy games except perhaps Mass Effect, which was mostly finished by the time their 'merger' was announced.

The main culprits behind there not being games like the BG series & PS:T in so long are the way how Wotc/Hasbro & TSR before them (the owners of the AD&D IP) have continually jobbed Ed Greenwood, whom I've said numerous times over the past month that I believe he's the true author of the BG series for PC. Really, if they aren't gonna respect an amazing artist like that, but rather have manipulated him in every aspect a big business can possibly manipulate someone, then they aren't gonna respect anything of any virtue, period.

Also, EA has a conspiracy against genuine art. They've proven it each time they've acquired a company, as each time, that companies' games become crap in comparison with the games they made before being acquired by them.

Hence my saying put Ed Greenwood in charge of everything AD&D related with no one telling him what to do or hindering him - and also free Bioware from EA. Bioware was already big enough in 2007 wherein they could make their own publisher if they were so inclined, thus showing their merger wasn't needed. What's more, I've a good mind to say that EA seeking Bioware's capture was the worst mistake they'll ever make. I full out believe it'll lead to their own undoing - the criminals at the top & enablers elsewhere within & beyond, I mean. They've destroyed & manipulated enough in broad daylight wherein not even high powered lawyers or slimy politicians can bail them out. It's only a matter of time before they fully & unwittingly devour themselves.

So keep the faith man. I believe it's only a matter of time. In the meanwhile, enjoy GoG's offerings.
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bladeofBG: Hence my saying put Ed Greenwood in charge of everything AD&D related with no one telling him what to do or hindering him
Never going to happen. Even if they decided to give Greenwood free reign with a Forgotten Realms setting/game, they'll never allow an AD&D game. It will be 4th edition (or whatever version is current), as they won't promote the old outdated rules. Too many rulebooks and supplements for the latest edition for them to sell.

While I'd love to see more AD&D games (and wouldn't even mind more Infinity Engine games), it just won't happen.

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bladeofBG: and also free Bioware from EA. Bioware was already big enough in 2007 wherein they could make their own publisher if they were so inclined, thus showing their merger wasn't needed.
Again, not going to happen. The good doctors sold out to EA for several hundred million. Not a chance they'll be able to buy it back out of EA's control. Best I think we can hope for is a bunch of BioWare guys get fed up and leave to form their own studio.
^

That's why I said get rid of those hindering Ed. I know they aren't gonna give him anything. They haven't forever. So no reason to expect it from them now.

As far as the good doctors & EA are concerned, upon reviewing the deal w/my admittedly meager accounting skills (and decent nose for trouble, to be fully fair to myself ;oD ), I believe I smell a rat. W/o going into too much detail, it's things pertaining to fraudulent misrepresentation & duress and things of that nature; I think there's always so much more to it when dealing w/such big sums of money and prospects thereof.

I ultimately believe that Ed will inevitably have his own way with AD&D without dealing with any of the oppressions & leeches he's had to thus far deal with, and I believe Bioware will one day be severed from EA, of their own will. I know it's a bold statement, especially given I've no links to show you & it's not the time or the place to go into detail of EA's fraudulent & misleading ways; nevertheless I've seen enough wherein I feel comfortable writing this.

Time will tell.
Post edited October 14, 2011 by bladeofBG
Time will tell indeed. And while the industry is constantly changing and evolving, I have a feeling it's main priority has shifted from art and innovation to stagnation and money grabbing. As far as I know it's typical for every young industry and gaming is a very young. Those uninspired cash-ins won't last forever and someday the bubble will burst and another wave of ingenious, story (not graphics and fancy visuals) driven games will be unleashed.