Slashdot Mirror
Recounting Bioware's Baldur's Gate II
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.'"
Call me pathetic. But I have a standing game of BGII still on my hard drive and I haven't yet finished the game! I stopped somewhere around the first level of watchers keep. I just don't want this game to end! I have started and restarted different parties around 5 or 6 times over the last few years, but have yet to actually go the distance to finish it off once and for all. I guess some games can do that to you. Its like reading a good book. You know that you will have to finish it eventually...but all the while at the back of your mind you know that there will never be another book written like it ever again. :::sigh:::
So long to the era of 2d isometric, hand drawn masterpieces of yore. I salute you!
The char's name is "Minsc", not "Minc". Always remember that. That, and to...
"Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!! AAAAARGH!!!"
;-)
:%s/Open Source/Free Software/g
YTARY!
The Giant Space Hamster:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_space_hamster
"Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!"
*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.
"Evil company X is threatening to restrict our rights! Let's all get together to stop--OOOH! SHINEY!!!" -- AC
Been a while, but I think the busty ladies in town used to say:
"Hey sexy, would you like to take a look at my titties?!"
----- Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
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!
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Also remember:
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, watch it! I'm huge!"
Minsc is the best CRPG character ever!
Suddenly, the hairy finger of a familiar monkey tapped me on the shoulder. It was time.--G. T.
Dear Sir,
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"
"For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
Even though I am a huge old school RPG gamer (if you haven't won Ultima IV, you have no RPG cred with me)and player of AD&D from age 10, I really could not get into Baldur's gate (or BGII) in the slightest. The first time I loaded BG with high expectations, the first thing I see is that annoying 'hehe, it's me Emowyn!' girl giggling and following me around. I started to grate my teeth right then, she's the only fictional character I disliked on sight more then Jar Jar Binks and after she followed me again after the death of my mentor, I told her to piss off and stop following me and she called me a 'rum duke' so I killed her and deleted the game off my HD and never looked back.
Devil bunnies! I snort the nose! Lucifer! Banana! Banana!
I remembered when Baldur's Gate came out with 5 or 6 CDs. It was a pain to be switching CDs every so often unless you had one of those multi-CD CDROM drives where you could load all the CDs into a magazine and the transition time between CDs was minimal. That was the hottest toy to get if you were playing that game. I was working at Accolade (which eventually became Atari) at the time. Most of the QA testers would stay until the early morning hours playing that game together. The game was eventually banned from the lab since too many zombies were living on three hours of sleep.
I had a friend who was very fond of the sex thing in BG2. Her only complaint was that her female character was only allowed to get it on with guys....
Summon stuff. You've got Jaheira with you? IIRC, Fire Elementals made short work of most of those illithid nests..
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
"No one crosses the Shadow Thieves... and LIVES!!!"
"Silence, dog! Your only purpose is to die by MY hand!"
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.