After years of drought you start to get tempted to accept the scraps on offer more readily...

I liked the enhanced editions. I like the ability to play on an android one day when I get a tablet. I liked the BG and IE style enough that I will buy any DLC or new IE games they make. Why wouldn't fans of BG want to play new stories?

I want to play new stories, but it's got to be of a certain level of quality or it is a waste of time The quality is what made the IE games good. Not the magical power of the engine itself. There are plenty mods out there that show what can be done and to varying levels of quality. It's also not easy to slide in new content to an old game with a new dev team without it being jarring or standing out too noticiably (or starting to "crowd" it in the old areas). It'll be even more difficult for them to make a sequel or substantial expansion from whole cloth that the old fans will feel truly has the character and feel of the originals. It's not impossible, just very difficult. There were big budgets and teams involved and some very talented people before too.

" I will buy any DLC or new IE games they make"

This is absolutely the wrong attitude or statement to make now. This is what makes publishers serve up poop and price it as top quality. You will buy anything they make...so why bother with quality time and effort? Keep on pumping out Generic Rail Shooter 20XX as they will buy it anyway. What you get isn't BG1/BG2/BG3 or more of what you had, you get a shoddy imitator wearing that skin. If you want that you can play any number of "babby's first mod", without having to dump 10-40 bucks into it. If people voted with their wallet so poorly before then we'd never have seen BG1 and 2 to the standard they were made originally in the first place.

This is why so many fans are weary and wary of the promises. Only so many broken promises or rehashing the old IP without delivering the good stuff that you will put up with.

I will buy anything beamdog puts out because I have so far and have enjoyed their new content so far. Yes, the new NPCs do feel out of place especially having played without them. But they are avoidable when I want an authentic play through and there for fun when I want something new.

I would pay twice as much for a beamdog product than I would for a new bioware game even if it was called Baldur's Gate 3. After what bioware did to dragon age I will not be buying their games when they are released that much I know. I might get around to the new dragon ages one day but it will be when they are old and cheap enough to be on here maybe.

Agree with Fezred. All these people pre-ordering games is one of the things that is bonkers about the gaming industry. Why would developers bother to put much thought and effort into games when tons of people will buy whatever crap they pour out anyway, even before they know how whether the turd is runny or solid?

Given the "quality" of the content and NPCs Beamdog put into the Moneygrab Editions, it's hard to imagine a BG3 by them being anything but a total farce.

The Baldur's Gate story is also complete, so a BG3 wouldn't really make much sense. Another series in the same universe would make more sense, but that has the problem of not riding on the wave of BG's good name.....

*Rolls eyes*

I would prefer another game too. Perhaps the money grab was necessary for new games to be made with IE. Time will tell. Until then I guess I should be thankful I'm not such a pessimist and continue to enjoy this wonderful day.

They could easily do a prequel to BG1. It could be centered around the fall of Bhaal or Gorion as a protagonist or NPC with the goal of rescuing the player character from BG and Imoen. I put less than a minute of thought into that, so I'm sure they could come up with something. Or a sequel showing the further adventures of the old NPCs and add some new ones, with a new protagonist.

And it is a fact that some people (including myself) like the Enhanced Editions and that that is a valid opinion. We don't all have to agree on everything.

They could also invent a cold fusion power source the size of a shoebox. I put less then a minute of thought into that too. Easy.

The reality though is that it is a lot harder to follow through on those "one minute" ideas. Especially as most of them stink or don't work out eventually once you start work on it. What made the "EE" editions good was the efforts of the original teams who did 99+% of the work. With any future work you're stripping away everything that made them what they are and established BG as a name at all in the first place, long before Beamdog decided to milk the starving fans during the RPG drought. I'm sure that anyone can come up with "something", but what I want is more of the old quality and atmosphere, not "something" with a name slapped on it.

Even the worst of the movie industry doesn't have people crazy enough to constantly PRE-ORDER movie tickets no matter the quality (or lack thereof) of the movies being made, months or even longer in advance.

I want more BG (or in truth I want what it signaled to me at the time for development and improvements over the years before things went to hell), but I know that will not be happening any time soon and there's no evidence to the contrary.

If there is a demand companies like Beamdog will come around to "milk" us. That's capitalism. Only I don't take offense to being "milked" actually I appreciate when a company decides to try to supply a product to fulfill a demand. Then I show my appreciation physically by spending money, pre-order or otherwise, on the product.

Its my least favorite of the BG series due to its linearity and lack of an engaging plot, but I wouldn't say I hate it by any means.

In concept, I like the idea of a new Infinity Engine game, but don't you find something slightly disingenuous about Beamdog bolting on this weird middle chapter that isn't quite a full game between two classics of the genre that are 15 and 17 years old respectively? I'm going to play Siege of Dragonspear to satisfy my morbid curiosity (and use it as an excuse to replay BG 1 and 2), but I'm also not sure if I really needed to know the exact details of what happened between those games. It's on another level from the Enhanced Editions (which are fine, if unnecessary) because it's someone coming in and saying "Here is our new official expansion to Baldur's Gate".

If it gets you, me, and millions of others to replay BG isn't that a good thing? Maybe this is just another step in getting that big investment for a serious BG-like IE game. I'm just going to be optimistic until the truth is there to see - not speculation based on historical evidence!!!! Sure, if I got to pick I'd prefer a new IE game over a shoe-horned middle chapter too.. but if it's the closest thing I can get I'll buy it and hope for the best.

Pillars of Eternity is already out :-P Anyway, seriously, Beamdog is taking a big risk here. If you ask me, if they had any sense, they'd make a BG spinoff with completely new protagonist and new, standalone storyline. They will never be able to keep writing consistent with Bioware, and this way it'll end up feeling like fan fiction.

I plan on giving PoE a try soon, but from reviews there may be a bit too much reading for what I'd prefer. Also, hasn't a complaint in this thread been about the rushed expansion and horrible writing in ToB? So.... if you believe that then what's the harm in another crazy misplaced not so well written expansion? There is a lot more at stake for beamdog than there was for bioware MILKING BG fans at the time with ToB so I'm going to believe beamdog is going to do their best to be the better expansion.