Recounting Bioware's Baldur's Gate II 90
radicalskeptic writes "In the latest installment of Gamespot's series modestly titled 'The Greatest Games of All Time', the editors review Bioware's RPG classic from 2000: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. The article is a broad overview of the game and touches on the game's innovations, comments on its historical significance, and includes a section devoted to BGII's romantic subplot. Gamespot concludes that 'all in all, Baldur's Gate II is a towering achievement in the history of role-playing games, giving you a huge world to explore, plenty of well-drawn NPCs to argue with or get romantic with, and an engaging story that's simultaneously epic and personal.'"
NPCs to warm your sleeping furs at night? (Score:2)
*shudder*
Re:NPCs to warm your sleeping furs at night? (Score:5, Insightful)
*shudder*
Not really -- it's only as "creepy" as a fantasy novel with romantic subplot. Baldur's Gate II was extremely well-written, and the overall experience was like a novel wrapped up with D&D game mechanics. Most notably, the NPC's behaved in a believable way, with inner conflicts and personality flaws.
The sex, if it happened, was entirely "offstage", referred to only in dialogue, and occured only within the framework of a deeper romantic subplot.
Re:NPCs to warm your sleeping furs at night? (Score:1)
Crrreeeeepy. I think the writers for ToB were bunkered up alone in their cubicles for too long.
Re:NPCs to warm your sleeping furs at night? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:NPCs to warm your sleeping furs at night? (Score:2, Funny)
There, fixed it for ya. (Stupid Slashdot doesn't allow strike-out.)
Re:NPCs to warm your sleeping furs at night? (Score:2)
Re:NPCs to warm your sleeping furs at night? (Score:1)
Revist? So soon? (Score:1)
~nate
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:3, Funny)
"Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!! AAAAARGH!!!"
;-)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
God I hated that character.
-Rick
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2, Funny)
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it! I'm huge!"
Minsc is the best CRPG character ever!
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:4, Funny)
I represent the Cult of the Miniature Giant Space Hamster, and we would like to correct your previous statement. You have misrendered the glorious mentor Minsc's famous quote, with which we end our prayer services. It is correctly rendered "Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!! RRAAAAWRGH!!!"
Thank You,
Arca Heradel
Level 20 Human Sorcerer/Thief
Bhaalspawn
"Slaying Black and Red Dragons since '98"
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:1)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:1)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:1)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:1)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:2)
Re:Revist? So soon? (Score:1)
The Best. (Score:1)
Re:The Best. (Score:2)
Only thing that came close to Shadows of Amn was Planescape -- it too was genre bending.
I think we've lost alot with the emphasis on 3d graphics. I miss the isometric view and artistic vision of the game designers.
RIP Black Isle.
There will never be another BGII ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:There will never be another BGII ... (Score:2)
Re:There will never be another BGII ... (Score:2, Informative)
I really wanted to go through and replay the game again but considering the time it took me, I don't know if I would be willing to. But at the same time, the game is so open-ended that you could almost pl
Re:There will never be another BGII ... (Score:2)
(no disagreement about Best CRPG Ever status, though)
Let's Not Forget Boo (Score:3, Funny)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_space_hamster [wikipedia.org]
"Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!"
Re:Let's Not Forget Boo (Score:1)
Games that have a wee bit of humor are always just a bit better, I think.
Re:the day will come... (Score:1)
did I mention I taught him to make sushi?
Re:Let's Not Forget Boo (Score:1)
Memorable Quotes (Score:2, Funny)
"Hey sexy, would you like to take a look at my titties?!"
Re:Memorable Quotes (Score:2)
Re:Memorable Quotes (Score:1)
"Hey there. Would you like to take a look at me diddies?"
Best combonation... (Score:3, Interesting)
The romances were always kind of stange, though. The one with Jahiera was just wrong. Her husband died not 4 days before she starts macking on you (I know the patch fixed this, but still...). Aerie is too annoying to complete because she's got a consitent mindset of a 14 year old. Never got around to doing the one with the drow. (Now that I think of it, all the male romances were with elves...). I haven't played a female charecter, but I've listened to some of Anomen's rants and he complains about everything.
I think the best part about BGII was the Infiniti Engine's, well, infinite ability for mods. There's a whole community devoted to modding it. So, now, there isn't any lack for content. I would, however, love another iteration. Good work Bioware!
Re:Best combonation... (Score:1)
meh... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:meh... (Score:2, Informative)
BG2 is like the LotR in that it has silly parts. But those parts in no way trivialize the epic nature of the story. You should try BG or BG2. Perhaps warm up by playing Planescape: Torment. If you like Planescape: Torment, then you will probably love BG and BG2.
Re:meh... (Score:1)
Re:meh... (Score:5, Informative)
The story is very original, the game is very well written. It seems they had DMs on the design team.
You get quests, not your typical fedex quests(you know, go fetch this and bring it back then take this to this guy etc), but quests where you'll need to think. It's not like BG, you don't have to finish all quests to continue, and some you never will. Some quests you won't discover at all. The ones you'll solve, some you'll solve them right away and some after a long time. You can pick up any items you'll find, some of them might have something to do with a future quest or they might be totally useless. But you cann't carry everything with you. And you cann't be certain which items are useful. Sometimes, even garbage might be of some use.
You don't choose an alignment for your character, it chooses you. (soviet russia comes to mind) Depending how you play your alignment will form accordingly.
I could tell you alot more but I'll let you see the game yourself. As you probably realised, this isn't for gamers but for D&D players. ie. if you expect and demand to open every door, solve everything, collect everything and see everything there is to see, then you might be dissapointed. If on the other hand you are a D&D player and you've been dissapointed before by the rest of hack'n'slash mighty magic pseudoRPGs, then you're in for a treat with this one.
I've talked in the past with friends who finished torment and each one's gameplay and experiences was totally different.
Re:meh... (Score:1)
Planescape dealt with characters and situations brilliantly, and the unique alignment and reversal of death's meaning added a true feeling that there was no path defined for you to follow.
Re:Tom Bombadil (Score:2)
Re:meh... (Score:2)
Re:meh... (Score:2)
Sadly, the overall quest is still "kill some evil guy", which doesn't make sense: I'd rather work for him. But still, it's well suited to allowing you a life of banditry and crime.
Re:meh... (Score:1)
Re:meh... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think a lot of the enemies respawn though
Maybe there should be a mod to prevent enemies spawning more than once and track how many kills to go? Something like in Doom where it would give you "25 of 37" enemies but with "1124 of 30095".
And of course you can't get past 99.997% and win without suiciding...
Actually... (Score:2)
Fill me in here. You're playing Baldur's Gate. You mean to kill every living thing on the map. And then yourself.
Well, given the backstory, and your own... unusual background, the murder of so many followed by ritual self-immolation might well produce a win condition. Bhaal would certainly have approved!
Re:meh... (Score:1)
Anyway, to each their own.
Baldur's Gate & Multi-CD Drives... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Baldur's Gate & Multi-CD Drives... (Score:3, Informative)
The worst change is that the manual is now available only on PDF. And the current distributor doesn't even bother to tell you where to look for it!
Re:Baldur's Gate & Multi-CD Drives... (Score:1)
Re:Baldur's Gate & Multi-CD Drives... (Score:2)
Wrong Universe? (Score:3, Funny)
BG2 was great but.. (Score:1)
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:1)
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:1)
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:2)
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:1)
The way to win any bg fight is to get rid of all protective spells with your mage and then whack it with all your fighters, worked for me every time, and I've finished ToB more than I care to remember, back in those days I wanted to play every possible character and every allignment...
Of course I was in school and had no job pressure or anything...
In fact I gave Arcanum the same treatment...
And
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:2)
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:1)
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:1)
Re:BG2 was great but.. (Score:1)
where's more? (Score:2)
Just like the original SSI gold-box engine spawned a lot of cool games, so should BG2.
Re:where's more? (Score:1)
Re:where's more? (Score:2)
one of my favorite games! (Score:1)
Re:one of my favorite games! (Score:3, Informative)
Summon stuff. You've got Jaheira with you? IIRC, Fire Elementals made short work of most of those illithid nests..
Re:one of my favorite games! (Score:2)
http://imdb.com/name/nm0001831/ [imdb.com]
Best Quotes (Score:2, Funny)
"Silence, dog! Your only purpose is to die by MY hand!"
Re:Best Quotes (Score:1)
"Let me have a little taste..."