It is truly abusingly confusing. I understand gamers want to create game lore and depth like in nethack, still the best RPG, but truly! you cannot force it! My purchase of the box version of BG right after being published already included Shadows of Amn and Throne of Baal. I completed the game and went straight into Icewind to be stopped by a freezing bug (literal pun). Did not play multiplayer at all and frankly could not truly discern where Shadows of Amn started or ended, much less Throne of Baal. Now that for all effects my original purchase is dead I get this package from GOG... and I end up getting BG ORIGINAL version _and_ BG 2, but no mention of Shadows of Amn or Throne of Baal! If I go into this forum, confusion only adds up with patches and MODs and versions, etc. So! I do feel like going through the romance again, but then I want to play it as completely as possible; this means I have to play the Original saga then BG II? Or I forget about the original saga and go straight into BG 2 but I will lose shadows of Amn? Am I supposed to add Amn and Baal later? Basically I want the longest experience, meaning BG + Icewind + Neverwinter, but they all have first and second versions and then editions and then MODS, AND downloadable content !!! Given the size of the downloads experimenting is not really, really nice... So exactly was is the relation between what I played and what I purchased now? Do I have to add something to get Shadows of Amn? What I DO NOT want is to have to play the game two or three times to get the complete story because something was missing to start with...

Your GOG Original version of BG1 includes Tales of the Sword Coast. (TotSC)
TotSC is installed automatically when you install BG1.
It is the final Bioware version & requires no patches.
You can mod it or not as you please, but the game is complete.

Your GOG Original version of BG2 is Shadows of Amn (That was the name for BG2)
Your GOG version of BG2 (SoA) includes Throne of Bhaal (ToB) & it is installed automatically with BG2.
BG2 SoA & ToB are both the final Bioware versions & require no patches.
You can mod the game or not as you please, but the game is complete.

Referring to your GOG purchase, and what they contain:

Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga
* Baldur's Gate 1 {the original}
* Tales of the Sword Coast {expansion to BG1}
(Both played at the same time, in the same game)


Baldur's Gate II Complete
* Baldur's Gate: Shadows of Amn
* Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal
(Two separate games, but ToB can be played either separately, or as a seamless continuation of SoA)

Tales of the sword coast is more of a side quest to build exp and as for the main story/ romance options... I've been playing since the game first come out and still come across new snippits when I have a npc join that I don't offen take.

OK, then when I first purchased the game, the edition was labeled Baldur s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, and it included what is now Baldur s Gate 2 too! So I did not really acquired a new game but like the second part of the same game. I was wondering... in that version I could open the world map and see the party traversing the map like green circles in real time, while in this one I do have to close the map to have the game continue. So even if I get the full game as I knew it, it is still a different version and not exactly the same gameplay!

As I recall, you can change that in the gameplay settings under auto-pause.

Not if you bought one game it didn't. They are two completely separate games -- Tales of the Sword Coast is the add-on to Baldur's Gate 1, and Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is the second game in the trilogy. What you are talking about is a difference in the game engine between BG1 and BG2. In BG1 there is no real-time character movement on the map, but there is in BG2 (different game engine).

I have a question for you: when you start the game up, what does it say, exactly, on the title screen, before you load a game? I am asking this because it is very confusing what you are saying, and it is unclear which game you are talking about (without guessing).

Yeah, I ve noticed it, like some programmer out there gets software and produces his own version, with new features sometimes, but distributes as the original company... It is confusing because I no longer have the original package I purchased to refer to. I kind of remember the splash window did mention both Tales of the Ciast Sword and Shadows of Amn. The GOG version says Baldur s Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast.

If you purchased both Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga and Baldur's Gate 2 Complete, you possess the complete Baldur's Gate experience. Those two packages contain all official Baldur's Gate content. If you want mods, there are modding guides on the forums, but purchasing those two packages is all you need to purchase to have the complete Baldur's Gate experience. There is nothing those two packages are missing (aside from mods (which are free, do not require purchasing and are unofficial)). So rest assured, you got everything and there is nothing left to purchase.

That is Baldur's Gate 1, with the TotSC expansion, exactly as advertised. I don't know where the confusion is:

Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga
"About: Includes the original Baldur's Gate and its expansion Tales of the Sword Coast."

Baldur's Gate 2 Complete
"About: Includes Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and its expansion: Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal."

:) I am just finishing the BG1 Prologue ! I think once I play through the full games and compare them to my memory I ll be out of confusion. But I still remember I got a Tales of the Sword Coast: Shadows of Amn lot of CDs and I right away started wondering where was the original game these seemed to come from. What I got next was Icewind Dale I, which is essentially the same game and continuation. I stopped short of Neverwinter since I could only find online playing versions and I wanted the local game, not multiplayer. Now that I had the chance I did grab the full offer by GOG and got these games and the other games in the offer bundle, so it is easier to see where this game came from and where it got to. Frankly, BG1 seems to be the best of the whole lot, kind of a bell shape curve, with NWN2 being *almost* unplayable. At least til I find how not to get dizzy with the crazy... camera.

It is what I wanted to read, that these two are the full Baldur s Gate experience, and anything else I find is a non official MOD. Thank you.

Now I found this: http://www.gog.com/forum/baldurs_gate_series/baldurs_gate_2_essential_mods/page1 and BGEE, besides. Still very confusing.

You said it yourself: "and anything else I find is a non official MOD". Forget that page and the EE versions, at least until the two original games don't confuse you so much -- trust me, your head will explode, otherwise.

You might want to pick-up the Enhanced Editions while they're on sale today. That way you could basically play the same games without having to mod them to run on a new computer. I wouldn't say they're any more confusing than vanilla BG 1 & 2. Baldur's Gate 2 Complete (non-enhanced version) might work on a modern computer, but Baldur's Gate 1 needs some mods to run on most current computers.