Baldur's Gate I is charming
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Ergonpandilus
The Preacher
Had to double check the thread creator, since the words could have been from my mouth. 
Agree fully. It's just so great adventure and the graphics design reminds me of traditional fantasy worlds like Dragonlance. BG2 on the otherhand felt too much "original". The mood is great and BIG thanks goes to music and sound design, The lighthouse area is a good example, wonderful music and background sounds (birds and water waves).
The story is there, but everything is not tied to it. If you got bored discovering the iron shortage thing and find your foster father's killer, there is always an area map waiting for you to explore and perhaps do some little quest there.
One other really big thing creating the right mood is the cutscenery, like these:
Nashkel
Friendly Arms Inn
Bandit Camp
Cloakwood Mines
Gnoll Stronghold
Dream #1
And just listen this voice, the flow of memories come to my head instantly. Thanks Kevin.
Chapter I
Of the new games, Drakensang has been the only one to even come to close BG1 with mood.
Agree fully. It's just so great adventure and the graphics design reminds me of traditional fantasy worlds like Dragonlance. BG2 on the otherhand felt too much "original". The mood is great and BIG thanks goes to music and sound design, The lighthouse area is a good example, wonderful music and background sounds (birds and water waves).
The story is there, but everything is not tied to it. If you got bored discovering the iron shortage thing and find your foster father's killer, there is always an area map waiting for you to explore and perhaps do some little quest there.
One other really big thing creating the right mood is the cutscenery, like these:
Nashkel
Friendly Arms Inn
Bandit Camp
Cloakwood Mines
Gnoll Stronghold
Dream #1
And just listen this voice, the flow of memories come to my head instantly. Thanks Kevin.
Chapter I
Of the new games, Drakensang has been the only one to even come to close BG1 with mood.
They don't make them like they used to anymore
Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Wizardry 8 and a few other games from that era (golden age? hmm?) weren't perfect but they did have a certain charm that makes them just as enjoyable to play today.
I find that more modern games can be sporadically impressive but don't really leave a lingering impression on you.
It's the same with JRPGs... those old Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star and Dragon Quest games have the "special something" hard to find in modern titles.
Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Wizardry 8 and a few other games from that era (golden age? hmm?) weren't perfect but they did have a certain charm that makes them just as enjoyable to play today.
I find that more modern games can be sporadically impressive but don't really leave a lingering impression on you.
It's the same with JRPGs... those old Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star and Dragon Quest games have the "special something" hard to find in modern titles.
For me BG1 has a charm quite pleasant but overall I consider there's quite many modern CRPG that are quite better. Also for me Fallout 1 released a bit before BG1, is quite better than BG1. But there's a charm in BG1 I haven't found often in CRPG.
I was reading a developer comment about a modern port of an old game, not that I'm a fan of it but a game with 2D Iso graphics, FF7. And he said that porting this to 3D would cost 10 time more than it should. Another comment was about texts and voices, that now modern AAA games cannot avoid use anymore actors voices and that means shorter dialogs, shorter texts. The conclusion is easy, there will never be anymore game like BG1 or FF7. Indie won't even be the open door because none will have resources put behind such AAA games of their time. It's past and dead forever.
I was reading a developer comment about a modern port of an old game, not that I'm a fan of it but a game with 2D Iso graphics, FF7. And he said that porting this to 3D would cost 10 time more than it should. Another comment was about texts and voices, that now modern AAA games cannot avoid use anymore actors voices and that means shorter dialogs, shorter texts. The conclusion is easy, there will never be anymore game like BG1 or FF7. Indie won't even be the open door because none will have resources put behind such AAA games of their time. It's past and dead forever.
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First: BG1 isn't that old to say that it's not "modern". Second: What are all these more recent crpgs that are better? I'd like to hear about them.
BG1 is over 11 years old. That's pretty old.
Not really, I wouldn't refer to a game made in 1998 as "not modern". I wouldn't even say that about Fallout 1, although that would probably be the cut-off point.
Ergonpandilus
The Preacher
Yes, it's kind of an old game if you only count years, but it has matured like a fine wine unlike some 3d games. It only gets better as you compare it to todays' games like Fallout, Mass Effect and NWN2.
And that's a real sad fact.
txa1265
SasqWatch
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But the metric isn't *US* and our sensibilities, which are based on playing games back then. It is based on whether the kids who swallowed up 2.5 million copies of Avatar game in a few weeks (and still had the sales called disappointing) are considering it as modern. And given that many say they can't handle the graphics of games like Jedi Knight II or the original Call of Duty ... I'd say that in a broad sense that Baldur's Gate 1 might as well be the original Wolfman
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But the metric isn't *US* and our sensibilities, which are based on playing games back then. It is based on whether the kids who swallowed up 2.5 million copies of Avatar game in a few weeks (and still had the sales called disappointing) are considering it as modern. And given that many say they can't handle the graphics of games like Jedi Knight II or the original Call of Duty … I'd say that in a broad sense that Baldur's Gate 1 might as well be the original Wolfman
I'm talking about in general, not about kids who just started playing RPGs.
Any piece of software that's older than a decade can't be called "modern". It was built on technology that is now more or less obsolete, and whether or not the user can still enjoy it is irrelevant.
Don't get me wrong, I consider Baldur's Gate the finest game series ever made, and they both aged better than any other games I've played, but that doesn't make it modern. Today, it's definetly oldschool, like the early M&M games were back when we played Gothic for the first time.
Don't get me wrong, I consider Baldur's Gate the finest game series ever made, and they both aged better than any other games I've played, but that doesn't make it modern. Today, it's definetly oldschool, like the early M&M games were back when we played Gothic for the first time.
txa1265
SasqWatch
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I'm talking about where the bulk of money and influence is in the game market ... which I would postulate is where the reality lies. If 95% of the world sees something as ancient, guess what - we are anachronisms for thinking otherwise.
And apparently I'm worse than you since I have no issue playing BaK and earlier games ...
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I don't think something being "oldschool" means it's not modern. Morrowind is oldschool to most people now, so should I say Morrowind isn't modern?
It's definitely subjective, and I think a lot of it has to do with how long an individual has been gaming.
It's definitely subjective, and I think a lot of it has to do with how long an individual has been gaming.
No, dammit! Repeat after me: "Those games are modern!"
jk
I'm just getting old.
jk
I'm just getting old.
EvilManagedCare
Sentinel
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This is still one of my favorites. I remember following its development closely and being absolutely awed by the screenshots because isometric views were always my favorite, plus the backgrounds were beautiful. I even ran out and upgraded my onboard video card to the required 2MB of video memory and bought an overdrive chip to meet the CPU requirement. I was so mad when they upped the minimum to 133 MHz
My least favorite part of BG though was how frequently you ran into legendary characters from the Forgotten Realms. Just seemed a little too contrived.
My least favorite part of BG though was how frequently you ran into legendary characters from the Forgotten Realms. Just seemed a little too contrived.
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Were there many? I only knew Elminster and Drizzt Do'Urden +friends. I hadn't played much D&D prior to BG though, so I probably just didn't recognize some.
Rithrandil
SasqWatch
Well, Cadderly for one.
Also, the leaders of Baldur's Gate are the canonical leaders, if I am not mistaken. Who else is there, Evil?
Also, the leaders of Baldur's Gate are the canonical leaders, if I am not mistaken. Who else is there, Evil?
Well just look at how long PC RPGs have been around and where BG1 is in that timeline and where we are now. It's definitely not modern.
Or you can use the following as the barometer:
- DirectX version
- Screen resolution
- Game size in megabytes
Last but not least, it's in isometric/2D perspective (*sob*) which is all but extinct today.
I know these have little to do with game mechanics but unless you count the Wii's motion controls and the prevalence of first person perspective, mechanics haven't changed a whole lot.
But we're in 2010 and technology has moved very fast since 1998… I would think anything not made in the last 5 years isn't considered modern. My PC from 2003 is definitely not modern.
And proud to be an oldie here I'd take Fallout 1, BG 2 and Wizardry over any game released today
Or you can use the following as the barometer:
- DirectX version
- Screen resolution
- Game size in megabytes
Last but not least, it's in isometric/2D perspective (*sob*) which is all but extinct today.
I know these have little to do with game mechanics but unless you count the Wii's motion controls and the prevalence of first person perspective, mechanics haven't changed a whole lot.
But we're in 2010 and technology has moved very fast since 1998… I would think anything not made in the last 5 years isn't considered modern. My PC from 2003 is definitely not modern.
And proud to be an oldie here
I'd take Fallout 1, BG 2 and Wizardry over any game released today