Baldur's Gate - Gaming Execs' All-time Favourite

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
So if Gaming Execs think that BG was the best game of all time, and Monkey Island third… Why the hell don´t we get more games like those???

Indeed. It would be interesting to know the sales numbers of Monkey Island 1 and 2 talkie remakes. Are classic adventures as dead a genre as RPG (i mean real RPG, not ARPG or MMO) to an average gamer?

Because they don't port to PS3 and Xbox360 well.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
About the characters I felt even PS4 had more expressive and lifelike characters than BG2 ( well actually even PS1 ) which is 13 years older, PS4 is just 7 years older but I could give a lot more samples. Here are the screen compare at least you can see the faces in ps4. If you take some games from 2000 the difference would be enormous. Also there is a diablo screen ( which in my opinion looks far superior ) from 4 years earlier….

I was a big fan of the Phantasy Star games, and I've played through all of them. Having said that, they're not even close to being on the same level as Baldur's Gate.

Originally Posted by tolknaz
Character sprites are one thing, but as far as backgrounds go Infinity engine games simply mop the floor with everything that was out at the time. Maybe only Commandos games came close. Take your tilebased Diablo and stick it where the sun doesn't shine, because it looks fugly compared to IE.

Backgrounds look great in BG2, I have never denied that. However I am controlling characters not the background, I happen to prefer beautiful characters and less beautiful backgrounds in terms of immersion. I've enjoyed looking at the backgrounds in BG2. I believe planescape torment used the same engine, and the character graphics there are really good, it cannot even be compared to BG2 because of such a superior quality, too bad they didn't make a BG game with that quality of characters.

Also I don't cliam phantasy star to be better games than BG I merely placed a screenshot to make a point about the character art.

I started playing Ps:T a few months ago and I didn't think the sprites looked any better in it than any other IE game.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
So if Gaming Execs think that BG was the best game of all time, and Monkey Island third… Why the hell don´t we get more games like those???

Because there's a massive difference between a great game and a great-selling game, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
Because they don't port to PS3 and Xbox360 well.

Haha this is so true. And not to start the "Glorious gaming PC race vs dirty console peasants" theme, a game like BG would not be liked on consoles even if by some miracle someone would actually make it work. People that played Oblivion on XBox and think it's the best rpg ever really have no idea about the genre.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I tried to play BG2, but I never got what was good with it. Can someone explain the greatness to me ? I really want to like this game as it is so popular here. I tried playing but I just don't get the greatness? is it that it gets great just after you put in more than 20 hours or?

There are a lot of awesome features in the Baldur's gate series, but I think what really made me love that gane was the combat, its total chaotic at first and hard to get into, but ones you do and start using your party effective, you can just keep finding new ways to combine your party member's weapon, spells and abilities to create a unique play style.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I tried to play BG2, but I never got what was good with it. Can someone explain the greatness to me ? I really want to like this game as it is so popular here. I tried playing but I just don't get the greatness? is it that it gets great just after you put in more than 20 hours or?

I don't think "explain the greatness" really works. You have to experience it yourself. BG2 obviously didn't/doesn't click with some people out there. For me, and for many of us out there, BG2 worked like a magic and we fell in love with it.

@GothicGothicness
If you do try out BG1, try it out with EasyTutu installed. It upgrades the engine to that of BG2.

All in all, it's probably not going to make it any more exciting for you. Either you enjoy playing a game, or you don't. Personally, I've never figured out the big thing about either Ultima or Final Fantasy - I just don't "get" them. I found them boring, even FF7 and Ultima 7, supposedly among the best RPGs ever created.

I stopped trying a long time ago though, as I see no reason to waste my time with games I find boring just because other people enjoy them.

Your Baldur's Gate situation seems rather similar.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I don't think "explain the greatness" really works. You have to experience it yourself. BG2 obviously didn't/doesn't click with some people out there. For me, and for many of us out there, BG2 worked like a magic and we fell in love with it.

Well, I think these explanations has helped a lot… some games are great but it just takes time to get into them. So I am thinking I just haven't given it the dedication needed.

BG had far too much combat for my taste. No or at least not many charisma checks.

I found great :

- the exploration
- the bantering - to me, this is still an unreached milestone in gaming ! - Especially if you consider that bantering jut doesn't exist outside of Bioware !