If you want to go with the magic analogy: Beamdog has the original spell book from Black isle available, while GOG can only look at the shiny sparkles the spells from Black Isle made. It is still possible figure out how the "spells" from Black Isle work by closely observing the sparks and making like a million minor adjustments to the spell and seeing how it reacts, but it will take forever. However, if you have the spell book you can just see how the spell was cast, you have all the information you need to make changes to it.

Or in other words, if you have a cake (software) you have no idea how it was made. You can try to guess the ingredients, but you will not be able to just break it up into the original eggs, milk, sugar and flour. However, if you have the recipe (source code) you have all the information you need to change how the cake is made.

GOG never receives the source code for the games they sell, just the finished masters. As I described above, it is possible to reverse engineer the source, but it takes a lot of time and effort. That's what the GemRB guys are doing and they have been working on it for years.

Well, I bought the originals on GOG, so I'll certainly play them first before any of the enhanced editions....

I'm not a fan of the Infinity Engine games, and I don't think any new edition could change that. It's not the graphics that I have a problem with. For some reason I just never got into Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale the way everyone else did. It's weird, I love RPG's, I like D&D, I should love those games, but they just don't click for me. From time to time I install one of them again, play for a while, try to figure out what ist it that I dislike, and always I end up with no clear answer, just feel generally disinclined to continue playing.

Icewind Dale EE coming out on 30/Oct on GOG and Beamdog

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-10-22-icewind-dale-enhanced-edition-pc-mac-release-date-30th-october.

Old-school RPG enhancer Beamdog has Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition nearly ready to go. The release date for the PC (Windows/Linux) and Mac versions is 30th October. It will be available from Beamdog's store, Steam and GOG.

"The mobile versions should be very close as well," project leader Trent Oster said on Twitter (via PC Gamer).

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is the old Icewind Dale RPG plus:
◾Six expanded quests, featuring content cut from the original game
◾60 new items
◾Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansions
◾31 new class and kit combinations from Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition, well as the half-orc playable race
◾122 new spells carried over from Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
◾Cross-platform multiplayer
◾A new Story Mode difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens

It's $20.

SHUTUPANDTAKEMYMONEY!!!!!11!1