Baldur's Gate 2 - 10 Year Retrospective @ GDC

Gorath points out the upcoming GDC will feature a panel with BioWare's Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk and Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart discussing the production of the classic, Baldur's Gate II:

Ten years ago, the highest rated role-playing game of all time launched in Baldur's Gate 2. The team included Bioware, Interplay and Black Isle and the result was an epic fantasy RPG that inspired a new generation of game developers and has endured the test of time. In this special 10 year retrospective session, Dr. Ray Muzyka, Dr. Greg Zeschuk, and Feargus Urguhardt who co-produced the game will look back at how the game was made, received, and how making games has changed. Attendees will see living legends discuss the challenges of development and why its important to give it everything youve got in order to wow the audience and be relevant even a decade later.

We'll bring you whatever coverage we can find after the panel.
More information.

Love to listen to that panel. Really, outside of the Ultima series, I've never found a game with as compelling a story arc as the BG series. (to be fair, I just started Ps:T for the first time last weekend).

I have to agree with blatantninja. Despite being a 10 year old game I think the BG series still has to be one of the best games I've ever played.

Tons of community support too, lots of mods and patches.

I loved all the Infinity Engine games, but BG2 was my favorite.

Definitely among the top 10 crpgs of all time.. maybe even top 5 for me….

Originally Posted by Acleacius
Tons of community support too, lots of mods and patches.

90% of the mods were forgettable in my experience though.
The 10% being reimplemented content that was cut from the game and mods that modified the encounter design to make the game more challenging.
Oh, and Ascension too

Said it before, will say it again: I can name other games which may have had better writing, story, lore, music, graphics, combat engines and more/deeper choice and consequences.

But as a COMPLETE package, NO RPG is as perfect and entertaining as Baldur's Gate II. It just does everything right and it pulls off what few games can: it can be thought of as a relic of a past age in computer RPGs BUT it is also just as fun and playable today.

And to this day it remains one of my top RPGs of all time and one of the greatest computer games ever made and as more time passes I believe there will never be a game to hold my attention for over 100 hours like BG did (Morrowind comes pretty close though but as much as I love it, it really depends too much on user created mods to improve core gameplay mechanics but that's another topic, hehe).

Originally Posted by WorstUsernameEver
90% of the mods were forgettable in my experience though.
The 10% being reimplemented content that was cut from the game and mods that modified the encounter design to make the game more challenging.
Oh, and Ascension too

I never did try the Ascension mod, although I recall hearing about it. What does it do exactly?

I can't imagine wanting to make BG2 even harder though. I thought it was already one of the more challenging party-based RPGs in regards to combat.

Originally Posted by Relayer
But as a COMPLETE package, NO RPG is as perfect and entertaining as Baldur's Gate II. It just does everything right and it pulls off what few games can: it can be thought of as a relic of a past age in computer RPGs BUT it is also just as fun and playable today.

I'm not sure if it's my #1 overall, (that honor probably goes to Gothic 1/2), but it's definitely my all-time favorite *party-based* crpg.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I never did try the Ascension mod, although I recall hearing about it. What does it do exactly?

I can't imagine wanting to make BG2 even harder though. I thought it was already one of the more challenging party-based RPGs in regards to combat.

It basically makes the ending of Throne of Bhaal what it should have been in the first place, with the possibility of reasoning with the monk Bhaalspawn (memory is fuzzy, I don't remember the name), Amelyssan summons all the old bosses in the final battle, and even calls back from the dead Irenicus and his sister (and you can convince her to join you if you're evil aligned and play your cards right) etc..
It also makes the battle much more challenging but I think it's worth it.
It's basically what David Gaider initially wanted the ending to be as far as I know, though they had to cut it for time constraints so.. you shouldn't expect voiced dialogues.
But that's not a problem, is it?

I'm currently playing BG2 for the first time. Really enjoying it, but am doing a lot of squinting.

Originally Posted by Ovenall
I'm currently playing BG2 for the first time. Really enjoying it, but am doing a lot of squinting.

What resolution are you using, and what size is your monitor? I've never went higher than 800x600 for BG2.

I'm playing on a Macbook Pro 15"

It's a Cider port, so I can't change the resolution. I bought the Mac version of it long ago but never played it. It doesn't work with the new Intel processors… so Bioware got my money and I got to play their game.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I loved all the Infinity Engine games, but BG2 was my favorite.

Definitely among the top 10 crpgs of all time.. maybe even top 5 for me….

I truly love that game. Icewind Dale I was pretty awseome, althought I felt IWDII was a let down.

I was hoping that Bioware was going to bring back that feeling, but Dragon AGe still didnt do it. The Temple of Elemental Evil is my second favorite game. I really hope to see another Baldurs Gate game someday, but maybe with a moderm Diable III look to it. A cross between Between Diablo III, Temple of Elemental Evil and BGII would be a dream game…

Originally Posted by spiraling69
A cross between Between Diablo III, Temple of Elemental Evil and BGII would be a dream game…

Somehow, having Diablo and Baldur's Gate in the same sentence just doesn't seem right.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Somehow, having Diablo and Baldur's Gate in the same sentence just doesn't seem right.

+1

Truer words have never been spoken

Originally Posted by Relayer
Said it before, will say it again: I can name other games which may have had better writing, story, lore, music, graphics, combat engines and more/deeper choice and consequences.

But as a COMPLETE package, NO RPG is as perfect and entertaining as Baldur's Gate II. It just does everything right and it pulls off what few games can: it can be thought of as a relic of a past age in computer RPGs BUT it is also just as fun and playable today.

This sums up my feelings about BG2 as well (though I'd let Gothic 1 and Morrowind share the top spot depending on what kind of game I want to play). The parts are not the very best, but they add up to something beautiful.

It was such a long time since i played this, is the combat much better than in PS:T (which i did play recently) or is it just the same..?

Originally Posted by bemushroomed
It was such a long time since i played this, is the combat much better than in PS:T (which i did play recently) or is it just the same..?

Much better. Better encounter design, the fact that the sprite and resolution are better and that there are ranged weapons allow for more tactics and, I may be misrembering but I always found the Baldur's Gate combat AI to be better.
Don't misunderstand, I loved Torment, but its combat was pretty bad. BG combat was far from perfect or a paragon of tactical play, but it was good enough imho.

It just seemed impossible to use strategy in PS:T, which is a real let down in a party based game. I think it's time for a reinstall of BG2 and expansions / mods soon…