Is Baldur's Gate worth playing?

[FoolKiller]

I love this game and I find it to be a great game. Having said that, it requires patience and a desire for a deep game with a rich story. Obviously, the graphics are more than a decade old and that doesn't bode well for it but it is worth overlooking in favour of its strengths.

 

[OniaPL]

Hello everyone. I don't want to create a new thread for my question, so I will just borrow your thread and hope I will get an answer.

Shortly: Team Fortress 2, is it a good multiplayer game?

 

[zidine100]

bg, its a good game, complicated as hell, but good. I played it without knowing the rules, or even knowing that you should buff before battles and i survived, just barely mind you, still it would be a hell of alot more enjoyable if you know how to play..

 

[JediMB]

I sure hope it's good, since I purchased both games on GOG.com a couple of days ago.

 

[Steve Fidler]

Hello everyone. I don't want to create a new thread for my question, so I will just borrow your thread and hope I will get an answer.

Shortly: Team Fortress 2, is it a good multiplayer game?

Yes.

I've heard a lot of great things about these games, but the only reason i hesitate to buy it is that i'm wondering if it will still be good for someone who wasn't around when it was released.

Basically I'm asking if it has aged well.

Yes. But it's HARD. Don't be discouraged if you die early and often. Use lots of quick saves, and don't be afraid to look up some advice on building your character.

BG is a good place to start, once you are comfortable with it. I suggest trying Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. Icewind Dale has you make your entire party, instead of gathering heroes as you go, so it is even harder than BG. Planescape is just tons of fun.

 

[Athinira]

I've used Tutu, there were horrible graphical artifacts. The original graphics weren't a problem, but all the glitches were a pain in the ass to deal with.

They don't happen on my current system. On my moms computer, i had some problems with graphical artifacts on water animations, but they weren't in any way what i'd classify as "horrible" or "pain in the ass".

AD&D 2e was a broken mess back in 98, and BG was even worse compared to that, given how limited some of the spells were. I was willing to put up with it then given that there weren't many other computer games in the genre, but it's aged about as well as Jagged Alliance 2, which received incredibly high review scores but is just painfully slow overall and the damn animations have all your units moving backwards.

Eh no. The version of AD&D used in BG2 (which is what BG1 also runs with Tutu) is by no means perfect, but it's damned well functional and balanced.

I like to compare Baldur's Gate running on the seconds game engine to Dragon Age alot, and in comparison Baldur's Gate is still a game I'd much rather play than Dragon Age because it has a MUCH better game design. The game design in Baldur's Gate gets so many things right that Dragon Age gets wrong (including how to properly balance the difficulty). In fact, I'd go as far as to say that gameplay-wise Baldur's Gate 2 is still one of the best designed games ever, and if you want, I'll be happy to list several reasons to why it's better than Dragon Age.

 

[Baby Tea]

I've used Tutu, there were horrible graphical artifacts. The original graphics weren't a problem, but all the glitches were a pain in the ass to deal with.

Don't use Tutu. Use BGT. I have it installed right now with BGT and the errors are beyond minimal. Also, OP, make sure to get the Widescreen MOD. Even if you don't have a widescreen monitor, it allows for custom resolutions to get it perfect.

More on topic: Yeah, the game is phenomenal.
Now, I'm a huge fan of Baldur's Gate. I play through and beat both 1 and 2 with expansions at least once a year. If you're huge into graphics, then you might be put off by it's isometric view. But, really, the story is amazing, the NPCs are memorable, the world is just huge (Even MORE huge when you use BGT which combined 1 and 2 seamlessly into one massive game), there are tons of quests to do, and real actual role-playing to be involved with.

It's a balanced, challenging, immersive game.
And It's hands down, without a doubt, the best RPG series I've ever played.
Even compared to modern RPGs. And I love me some modern RPGs.

 

[Leftnt Sharpe]

First of all, don't listen til migo. Baldur's Gate has aged REALLY well. In fact, it's not more than 4 months ago that i played through Baldur's Gate 2 and ToB again, and now i will have to again soon. 2D graphics age amazingly well, and since Baldur's Gates environments are all hand-drawn they still look fantastic.

But as already mentioned in the thread, if you plan on playing Baldur's Gate (the original), get BG2 as well. The original Baldur's Gate runs on an older version of the engine, which restricts it to a 640 x 480 resolution. There is a mod, however, called BG1Tutu [http://usoutpost31.com/easytutu/] (or EasyTutu) which, if you have Baldur's Gate 2 installed, can port the entire first game to the second games engine, which allows playing in many more resolutions up to 1600 x 1200. These are however all designed for 4:3 screens, which you can fix by getting the Widescreen mod [http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/] which allows for pretty much any custom resolution, including fit for widescreen.

So what are you waiting for? Go play it!

Edit:

Baldur's Gate 2 is undoubtedly the better game but the original is still an excellent example of the genre. I would recommend reading the manual all the way through before you play to give you an understanding of the rules. Save often and if you find a quest too hard move on and come back to complete it later. However you should try to complete as many quests as possible because every bit of xp is vital!

Actually, there is a neat little XP trick to gain loads of XP in the original. North of the Friendly Arm Inn is the Anhkeg tunnels. Anhkegs give almost a thousand XP per kill, and it's possible to kill them at a relatively low level. So once you run out of Anhkegs elsewhere, just sleep in the tunnels and they will attack you one at a time during rest.

That would work too, even if it is a bit cheesy......

 

[Skoldpadda]

It is le awesome. Get the whole series (BG, BG: Tales of the Sword Coast, BG2 and G2: Throne of Bhaal), and kiss sunlight goodbye for the next couple of months. That's right. Months. The games are huge.

 

[Athinira]

I bought all the BG games and can't get into any of them at all, they're just weird and confusing and far too difficult. I'll get there eventually >.>

The trick to beating Baldur's Gate is preperation and working out the mechanics of the game. Working out how agro works (which is typically that enemies will attack the nearest character they see first, meaning that you want to send your tank into enemy LoS first) is the first big step.

Second big step is to learn preperation. Make your priest/mages cast protective spells on the party (and on the tank if possible) is a huge first step. Protection from evil, Death Ward, Resist Fear, Chant etc. all help alot (make sure you cast them in the right order so those with the shortest duration are cast last). Also, some enemies can only be hit with a particular kind of weapon (like Golems), meaning that you should bring spare alternative weapons with you.

The rest is about party optimization and luck (the latter implying that you might need to try an encounter several times). Mages in BG2 are ridiculously powerful enemies, so you need to have spells available that can break their magical protections (Breach particularly) so your fighters can hit them. It might also be advantageous to have other utility spells like Silence 10' Yards on your priest, and have it cast before the battle starts (and hope they don't resist it. If not, reload and try again).

As for party optimization, you might want to start the game with several characters you've designed yourself. This is done by starting the game in multiplayer, designing however many characters you want to design yourself, save the game, quit/alt tab, and then move the savegame from the "mpsave" folder to the "save" folder and continuing in Single-Player mode (save folder might need to be created first).

 

[migo]

Eh no. The version of AD&D used in BG2 (which is what BG1 also runs with Tutu) is by no means perfect, but it's damned well functional and balanced.

You just lost all credibility with this.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Shortly: Team Fortress 2, is it a good multiplayer game?

Second biggest user group on the Escapist, [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/The-Escapist-Team-Fortress-2-Group-PC]
Lots of videos to watch [http://www.youtube.com/user/EscapistTF2#p/u],
11,425 people playing it as I write, playing on 5142 active servers, 3 years after it was released.

It's not too bad.

 

[Athinira]

Don't use Tutu. Use BGT. I have it installed right now with BGT and the errors are beyond minimal.

I actually didn't know that Tutu had an alternative. I'll definitely try it out. Thanks

 

[Jaranja]

Short answer: yes
Long answer: Why are you still reading this? Play it!

Definitely this.

Most old games are really hard on the eyes but that engine is STILL magnificent!

 

[Baby Tea]

Don't use Tutu. Use BGT. I have it installed right now with BGT and the errors are beyond minimal.

I actually didn't know that Tutu had an alternative. I'll definitely try it out. Thanks

Well the difference is that Tutu puts BG1 in the BG2 Engine.
And BGT takes BG1 and not only puts in the BG2 engine, but then combines it seamlessly into 1 game. So when you play, you play as one character, one save file, one massively long journey through the BG series without every changing games.

I'm a huge fan, and it works like a charm.

 

[StBishop]

But I've go the nostalgia factor going. Someone who doesn't have that? I imagine it'll prove really stiff and more than a little annoying unless you have a thing for old-style RPGs.

I don't know about that. I only recently picked up Shadows of Amn and even without that nostalgia factor, I loved the game to bits. I suppose the only thing that bugged me was the slight turnbased feel the gameplay has, if that makes any sense.

I'd say go for it, the story is great and the NPC memorable. And if the fights start to get too frustrating you can always lower the difficulty. Or mess around in the CLUA console... >.>

That's because it technically is turn based. It's all done in "rounds" with each enemy getting an attack per round... it's just that everyones attacks appear in real time rather than in a sequence, the timing between the attacks is what is probably what's clueing you in to it.

OT: I was actually discussing with my girlfriend last night this very topic. She's never played BG or read many forgotten realms novels, she's only played 4th edition D&D (which would help you learn WoW more than BG, amirite?) and to be honest I don't think she would enjoy it.
OP you may enjoy it, did you play many isometric RPG's? If so it'll be familiar gameplay with below par graphics but rocking story, characterisation, banter etc...

It really is all it's cracked up to be but I can't give an honest appriasal of how well it's aged.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Don't use Tutu. Use BGT. I have it installed right now with BGT and the errors are beyond minimal.

I actually didn't know that Tutu had an alternative. I'll definitely try it out. Thanks

Well the difference is that Tutu puts BG1 in the BG2 Engine.
And BGT takes BG1 and not only puts in the BG2 engine, but then combines it seamlessly into 1 game. So when you play, you play as one character, one save file, one massively long journey through the BG series without every changing games.

I'm a huge fan, and it works like a charm.

Oh really? That sounds awesome, I think I'll download it too.

 

[StBishop]

Hello everyone. I don't want to create a new thread for my question, so I will just borrow your thread and hope I will get an answer.

Shortly: Team Fortress 2, is it a good multiplayer game?

It's considered by many to be the best multi-player game.

If you like squad/team/role based FPS, and don't want brown everywhere, it's the game for you.

If you like squad/team/role based FPS, and do want brown everywhere... why do you want brown everywhere?!

In short; yes.

 

[SaunaKalja]

It's awesome, but for the love of pants, use the mod that makes BG1 use the BG2 engine (wouldn't have remembered, but "tutu" is the name, I guess). Much less frustration that way. I remember playing the plain original and it was rather painful in some circumstances. Like pretty early into the game you're milling about in these really narrow corridors. The improved BG2 engine allows your characters to 'push' each other slightly to get past, so navigating these narrow tunnels wasn't so unbelievably annoying.

And if you don't want to experiment at first nor do you want to start the game over again after a while, do look up a guide on character creation. The first time I played I chose Fighter/Mage, aww right I'm gonna kick ass! > . Propably doesn't surprise anyone that I was then both a really sucky fighter and a sucky mage, and those don't add up to a competent adventurer.