Baldur's Gate - Announcement gets closer?

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Trent Oster from Beamdog tweets he just met with Atari, so it looks like we are inching closer to finding out what is happening at BaldursGate.com:

Great meeting with #Atari at #GDC now we need to get all the ducks in a row for an announcement #baldursgate #bestthingever​

And a couple more twits afterwards:

@LivingHitokiri my Favorite of the series was BG1. BG2 was more polished, but #baldursgate felt like you were in a massive world.​

Forgot to mention awesome meeting yesterday with the #WizardsoftheCoast guys. Great talking #d&d with them​

I certainly agree with his sentiment on BG1 vs. BG2...

 

BG1 is even better when you run it in the bg2 engine via either tutu or BGT. It is still on my top 10 games list of all time and its near the top of the list

 

If only there was no requirement for Atari to be anywhere within a thousand miles of this... whatever it is.

 

Didn't the license revert back to Hasbro a few months back?

 

BG1 might be better for others, but the BG series would never be where it is currently if it weren't for BG2 and ToB. SoA is still my favorite in the series.

I wonder if they can bring the old voice actors back. Imagine BG1 with significantly better (voiced) NPC interaction.

 

If you check out the site baldursgate.com now, there is a song by the swedish band Europe that comes to mind.. It's the final countdown!

 

The source page says this now

March 14, 2012
Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine

It is coming.

 

Looks like the site is down, Trent Oster tweeted about it:

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There will be "something" tomorrow at 12:00 GMT-0700, it's in the source code (plus you see it as a large counter on the page of course ):

I suppose it'll be an announcement as he recently tweeted:

Can't friggin wait!

I hope it's not an MMO.
I hope it's not anything "social" or having to do with "social media" in any shape or form.
I hope... I should stop hoping. It'll probably be a disappointment. I'm bracing myself for a disappointment. Wait, it's going to be awesome?!

 

1) An MMO would be a bloody tragedy. After waiting, what, 14 years for BG3, it would be a game that I wouldn't even buy. Let's reallly hope it's not that!

2) Social, like Baldur's Gate 3 for Facebook? Yeah, that would be about as bad as the MMO. I doubt this is what they're up to. If you're going to do this on a big title, typically you have to release your game for a "proper" platform like PC first, then you have your social version in addition. Dragon Age did this, and it was okay (okay meaning, I never played the social version, because I had the full PC version, and needed nothing more).

3) The other stupid thing would be a mobile app. I have never played anything more complex than, say, brickbreaker on a mobile device, because playing games on a tiny screen with limited resources just isn't for me.

4) Yet another travesty would be a game that is designed primarily for a console, and ported over to PC. Skyrim feels like this to me, and it's completely frustrating that I have to click, click, click my way over to what I want rather than just being point and click what I want when I'm playing on a GD PC!

But even if we can get a money grubbing, soulless, and totally inept (at least with the D&D franchise) company like Atari to quell their, I'm betting, STRONG desire to take one of the above paths (#1 I'm sure is their preferred way to go, perhaps #4, and worse yet, 1 and 4 together) -- there's still PLENTY of opportunity for whatever it is that they are up to to be a friggen' disaster. I know, I'm cynical and jaded.

What a follow up to Baldur's Gate absolutely should have/be:

1. PC based (port it to console if you must, but build it for the PC).
2. A single player game first and foremost (sure, add some multiplayer support if you must, but not at the expense of the single player story/experience.
3. A party based game with a protagonist and up to 5 additional followers (a party of up to 6 has really become synonymous with Baldur’s Gate, with numerous party options possible.
4. A rich, epic story that takes place in a rich, expansive, and epic game world.
5. Plenty of interesting side quests that have nothing to do with the main storyline.
6. Ideally, Bhaalspawn should have some role to play in this story, or otherwise there should be some sort of strong tie in to the original storyline.

In terms of how it relates to the original series, I’m not totally decided. Several things could be cool:
1. A new story arc that takes place during the time of the original story, but is separate. This would give the opportunity for us to even see our beloved Bhaalspawn and his/her party and their impact on the world, but we’d be dealing with our own challenges. Alternatively, perhaps we could rewrite history a little, and become a little more involved in the affairs of the Bhaalspawn (you know, become the “lost Beatle” err, or the “lost Bhaalspawn companion.” Maybe we do a single quest with the BS, similar to the Drizzt interactions that occurred in the original titles. There may be some issues with 4ED using this timeframe though, as I believe 4ED occurs far in the future from the 2ED/3ED timeframes?
2. I could possibly even go for a recreation of the original game, but on a current gaming engine. I guess you’d need to change some things to keep it somewhat fresh, but with as often as I’ve replayed the original games over the years, a big overhaul and update of that story might actually work nicely. I’d say this is highly doubtful to occur, but I can say that I would almost certainly buy such a recreation. I’m sure many other diehard fans of the series would also. Let's face it, they're never going to top this story.
3. Tell the story of one of the Bhaalspawn’s descendants. After all these years of waiting, I think I’d like to keep the Bhaalspawn theme somehow integrated into a new story. This would help draw a strong connection back to the original story, and avoid creating a game that is completely unrelated to the Baldur’s Gate series, but happens to share the name. A game that takes place in the city of Baldur’s Gate, but doesn’t relate to the original story would be a serious bummer for me, as the city of Baldur’s Gate in no way defines the series for me. Heck, it wasn’t even included in Shadows of Amn or Throne of Bhaal. The Baldur’s Gate saga is all about the most gifted of the Bhaalspawn , and the follow up really needs to pay homage to this in a significant way.

Continuing the Bhaalspawn story where it left off (i.e. after you ascend to godhood, or at least god-like power) simply wouldn’t work, unfortunately. That story has run its course, and that character is just way too powerful. I’d hate to see that story extended and ruined. Maybe I’m wrong, and a demi-god who challenges other gods for their power, or fights entire armies single handedly could somehow be interesting… but I doubt this would be the right place to bring the series.

At any rate, I’m more than a little curious to learn what’s cooking – and if it’s something worthy of the title, hope it doesn’t get sh*t-canned before it is completed (as previous BG3 attempts have been).

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And another thing, a lot of the original music should be reused. So much of that music was so amazing, and it would make my heart sing to hear it again in a "worthy" successor to the original game.

 

Guess we find out exactly whats going on in 12 hours. I will be reloading the page constantly at that time waiting to see whats going on.

 

Indeed.

I just hope the guys in charge are aware that if they don't live up to the hype, there's gonna be a wold of backlash!!
They stirred the slumbering BG'fans quite a bit with this stunt!

 

I like his latest tweet:

The fact that this is all obviously sarcasm is good news. It lessens the chance of this project having anything to do with Facebook or social gaming, and more to do with "previous stuffy RPGs".

Did I say I cannot wait?

 

Anyone else half expecting the countdown to lead to a virus being put onto the website, or just me?

 

I'm half expecting Cylons to nuke the Earth, leaving only a remnant to travel the stars in search of a new home.

48 minutes until lights out!

 

Probably just a countdown to a new countdown.

 

"It's the penultimate countdown" just has too many syllables though We'll never fit it into a song!

 

I am sure we can make the penultimate countdown work, just have to deal with it being sung faster where the syllables are too many..

Just like I proboably will be able to bend my mind around the BG-news, to make it seem like good news no matter what

It can work... It can work... It can work...

 

Wait - I think it could work. Instead of

Code:

IT'S THE FI ................. NAL ............... COUNTDOWN!

We do

Code:

IT'S THE P'NUL .............. T'MATE ............ COUNTDOWN!

It would sound like "It's the nult-met countdown!" The "pen" part goes silent because we are just that cool and can do it if we want.

 

When did the music change on the site btw?

 

Marceror voiced it well what it shouldn't and should be:

Great would be a new storyline separate from but somehow related to the Bhaalspawn, 'the lost Beatle' as you call it, or a story about the Bhaalspawn's descendants.

A HD remake would be nice as well.

Still I'm braced for disappointment, but I'm also anxious about what the people behind would feel if, for instance, they're prepared to launch an iPhone BG-app and have been able to see for weeks now how most of us would laught that. Image how they must be feeling now: they know what it will be, we don't, but maybe they already know by now what they've made won't be welcome. Perhaps. We'll see in 15 minutes!