Ye Old Entertainment looks back at the expansion pack Icewind Dale: EE - Heart of Winter:

Icewind Dale review: Will Heart of Winter change your heart about Black Isle's icy D&D rpg?

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Welcome to our Review video on Icewind Dale, Heart of Winter, an expansion pack included in Beamdog's Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition, along with its own expansion pack: Trials of the Luremaster.

For many, Icewind Dale is the best Dungeons and Dragons RPG of all time, for some others, is not up to par with the Baldur's Gate series. But if you are on the fence about getting Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition as one of the games you should be playing in preparation for Baldur's Gate 3... Will Heart of Winter make any difference?

KaosWarMonk spotted some updates for the Icwind Dale EE:

Icwind Dale EE - Updates

Take heart, fellow travelers! We're sending aid to the northernmost reaches of the Forgotten Realms to sustain you in your quests through the harsh and unforgiving territories of Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition! The update for IWD:EE provides adventurers with features and fixes to light the way as you trek to the deepest recesses of the frozen tundra.

Read on for the full patch notes.

Features

• Area of Effect spell markers are now available as a prototype.
• Players can toggle this option on or off by adding SetPrivateProfileString('Game Options','Show AOE','1') to their Icewind Dale Baldur.lua
• The Lance of Disruption spell projectile is now distinguishable from Alicorn Lance.

Fixes

• If a party member is dead the game should not crash after captive villagers leave.
• In Trials of the Luremaster, the Magic Mouth should open if the required skulls have been obtained.
• In the Heart of Winter, it should be possible to enter the boathouse in Lonelywood.
• In multiplayer, games should not crash while on the arbitration screen.
• It should be possible to sell a quantity greater than one of rings or similar equipment from a container.
• The iOS Export Character UI should use the Icewind Dale Character Extension.
• In the iOS multiplayer, a player’s party members dying should not cause the other player’s game to hang.
• You should not be able to dual-class if the requirements are not met.
• Restoring the Elven Shrine quest should show as a completed quest when finished.
• Result of single combat with Presio should not be said by party leader.
• Color choices sliders should not lag when dragged.
• In the iOS multiplayer, the title should not become unresponsive and crash when starting the dictation mode while entering a password protected session.
• The ranger spell version of Minor Spell Deflection should use icons from wizard spell of the same name.

Localizations

• New Priest of Tempus dialogue should not play in English for languages with localized audio.
• In the Italian voiceover, Attack Sound 3 of the “Female Mage 4” soundset should match its text.
• Italian voiceover should not be missing for Heart of Winter player soundsets.
• Turkish text should not be different if the party leader is female.

GamersFTW just published an editorial called "Getting Drunk in Icewind Dale".  The title says it all, my friends.

And so the legendary pub crawl begins, in a kind of strange, lexical play-through, I suppose, where I’ll be sampling all of the alcoholic delights of the ten towns. From the crisp and refreshing Arrowflight Ale, to the not so pleasant sounding, Frost Giant Yellow Snow Melt. Of course, much like real life, the Forgotten Realms ascribes to a crude, monetary system, where gold is required before one can really purchase these ‘variety of intoxicants.’ Before I could really start on my journey of excess, the struggle for gold was real, and so my characters were waylaid by a problem in the tavern’s basement. As lowly, drunken sell swords, they were forced to kill beetles for cash – how undignified, I thought. Alas, with money in their pocket, they could continue their drunken revelry, and they did so with great valour.

Next door to ‘The Winter’s Cradle’ is ‘Pomab’s Emporium’ which is obviously the Bargain Booze of computer games. Here, I purchased a bottle of the ‘Local Wine’, adequately described by the game as a “wine made and used by the local residents of Easthaven. The actual ingredients are a mystery, but the liquid contained in the bottle has a slightly fishy smell to it.”

I suppose it wasn’t quite the expensive bottle of Jacob’s Creek I had imagined.

To the south of the town, Old Jed was having a house party. He was “not so good” because “Grisella, the barkeep over at The Winter’s Cradle had cut him off.” Old Jed had a nice little set up though – carpeted floors and a cosy, crackling fire. Really, the only thing he was missing were the torpedo prawns and vol-au-vents. After Jed’s house, we nipped eastwards to the ‘Snowdrift Inn’, although it wasn’t a proper boozer like ‘The Winter’s Cradle.’

More information.

Icewind Dale Extended Edition is on sale at GOG and Steam with a 50% discount.

Besides that some other RPGs are on sale at Steam as well, like: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Sanctuary RPG, Runers and others.

Thanks Francis.

Beamdog has finally released Patch 1.4 for Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition.

Beamdog is proud to announce that Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition 1.4 is available now through Beamdog, Steam, and Google Play, with the GOG, Mac App, and iTunes App Stores to follow soon.

The patch adds the Korean and Russian localizations to the game, allowing more fans than ever to fully enjoy this classic Forgotten Realms adventure. Players can also customize their experience of the cold and harsh Spine of the World with new options for fine-tuning enemy damage and experience point bonuses on non-Core-Rules difficulty settings.

Additionally, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition 1.4 includes more than a hundred bugfixes. You can read our full release notes document on the official website or download it directly here: IWD:EE 1.4 Release Notes.

Cheatmasters has another review this week this time for the Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, and they give the game a final score of 8.5/10. Not bad here is why.

Coming up with all of those details here, it’s safe to say that the game has been faithful enough since it hasn’t been watered down for the most part (except for Story Mode difficulty). As for how its gameplay comes off in this day and age, it’s part history lesson, part test, and part potential epiphany. This is where most of the role-playing games we’ve seen in recent years have come from, especially those from Bioware. From the combat with tactical pausing to the dialogue system used for talking with NPCs, this game shows where it all came from.

I haven't found that many reviews for the recently launched Icewind Dale: EE. So moving on I was lucky to find one on Softpedia that gave the game an 8/10.

Icewind Dale isn’t a perfect game, but it’s one of the best RPGs of all times. Obviously, the Enhanced Edition is also among the best in the genre, but it only brings minor improvements into the mix.

The problem is that the original Icewind Dale plays the same and looks and feels just like the Enhanced Edition released by Beamdog.

However, if you want the new content added in the Enhanced Edition, like for example several new quests, around 60 new items, more than 30 new class and kit combinations from Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition and more than 120 new spells, then by all means you should give it a go.

I’m not going to tell you if it’s worth the price because I have already bought the original Icewind Dale twice, so if you’re keen on trying out an old-school RPG, this Enhanced Edition has everything you need.

Analog Addiction gave Icewind Dale: EE a score of 6/10 in a review.

Overall, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is a well polished update to a fourteen year old game. The Infinity Engine paved the way for a lot of current role-playing games, and must be given its due. For fans of the original series and the Infinity Engine itself, it would definitely be a great game to add to your collection. I would even recommend it for players looking for a multiplayer adventure experience. Even so, newcomers should definitely keep in mind that it is an older game, and it may take you a while to get the hang of it.

Here are two more reviews of the just released Icewind Dale: EE.

Game Planet - 9/10

Beamdog has finally released a true enhanced edition of a beloved classic. It’s sure to please long time campaigners and new adventurers alike. The Infinity Engine may be showing her years. She does creak a little, and there is the occasional clunk, but she’s still got it where it counts.

Games.On.Net -  No Score

If you enjoy orchestrating large battles using real-time with pause, or if you simply want to re-live the glory days of this latest piece of nostalgia, then Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition will be the game for you.

I  managed to find a new interview today on PCGamesN for Icewind Dale: EE.

Beamdog have unearthed and restored five quests, which constitute four or five hours worth of material cut from the original game. With access to Black Isle’s design docs, they were able to determine which ideas were cut due to time constraints, and which Avellone and friends would probably prefer left buried.

“It’s like going in and finding Tolkien’s notes and trying to write the next book,” said Oster. “It’s really intimidating to start, but you’ve got most of his thoughts for the first third and you’ve just got to finish it up. At the end of it you get something you’re pretty proud of.”

There’s a sense that Beamdog are continuing a tradition that modders have engaged in for a decade - digging through the files of western RPGs and dredging up quests lost in hurried development cycles. 

“Often it’s the same story,” agreed Oster. “You’ve got a lot of good plot ideas, you implement all of them, and late in the game you’re like, ‘We’ve only got time to fix 80% of the bugs. So 20%, we’ve just got to cut those off and bury them somewhere’. And that’s what you do.”

I also found two new reviews that were released today.

Invision Community - 4/5

I was into AD&D in the early 80’s. Later, when the original game came out, I loved it for it’s great graphics and deep story line which reminded me of the games I’d played with friends. This version is a great throwback to the first one; although the ‘enhancements’ don’t make the game boldly different for me, it’s still excellent role-playing!

GameBanshee - No Score

If you haven't played Icewind Dale yet, then you should definitely give the Enhanced Edition a try.  The Infinity Engine games make up one of the cornerstones of CRPG history, and they're all worth playing.  But if you already own Icewind Dale, then the answer is a little more difficult because most of the enhancements are available for free from mods.  As I was playing the EE, I was sort of wondering why anybody with bother with it when they could just play a modded version of the original game, but then just like with my recent review for Xenonauts, I went back and tried playing the original game again, and I figured out the answer: the interface.

Icewind Dale: EE is now available on Steam,GOG, Beamdog, and Google. If you haven't had chance to enter our contest you have one day left to do so.

In the northernmost reaches of the Forgotten Realms lies the region of icy tundra known as Icewind Dale. Journey deep into the Spine of the World mountains, a harsh and unforgiving territory settled by only the hardiest folk. Encounter fearsome beasts that have learned the cunning and ferocity needed to survive among the snow-shrouded peaks. Confront an evil that schemes beneath the carven glaciers and mountainsides to wreak destruction upon the face of Faerûn. This is the world of Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition.

Beamdog released two more survival trailers for Icewind Dale: EE.

Survival Rules: Shut the Door

Survival Rules: Go Long, or Go Home

To go along with the interview on our site we have a couple of keys to give away for Icewind Dale: EE that where provided by Liam Esler of BeamDog.

To win all you have to do is tell us why you deserve the key. So use your imagination and be creative by writing a poem, posting a short story, or sharing an image.

The staff will pick the winners based on the ones we like.

Now here are the Restrictions

1. You must already be a member for more than three months.

2. You must have more than thirty posts on the forums.

The deadline for the contest is the 31st the day after the games release.

Update: The Contest is over and the winners will be announced soon.

We had the chance to talk to the fine folks at Beamdog about the new Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition just before its release, and ask them some questions.

RPGWatch: Before we start with the questions about Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, I would like to ask you to introduce yourselves.

Alex: I am Alex Tomovic, Project Manager at Beamdog. I've been active in the Infinity Engine modding community since 2002 and joined Beamdog in 2013. I led the development team behind Neera and Rasaad for BGII:EE and was in charge of gameplay and battle design for Black Pits II. People probably know me better by my forum name, "aVENGER", and from mods such as Rogue Rebalancing and aTweaks.

Liam: I'm Liam Esler, Associate Producer at Beamdog and Assistant Producer on Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition. The majority of the team on IWD:EE are modders, and I'm no exception, as the administrator of IE modding community Spellhold Studios. I joined Beamdog in early 2013 to work on Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition as lead of the development team on Dorn, Hexxat and the content implementation of The Black Pits II. Earlier this year I worked with Obsidian Entertainment on Pillars of Eternity, and am now back at Beamdog working on IWD:EE and an unannounced project!

Pete: I'm Pete Camagna, Technical Designer with Beamdog and founder of the Gibberlings 3 modding community. I've been with Beamdog since 2013 and have been modding the Infinity Engine for well over a decade under the name CamDawg. My best known projects would be the BG2 Fixpack and BG2 Tweaks, where I am project lead and co-author respectively. Most relevant to IWD:EE would be my IWD mods--IWD Fixpack, Unfinished Business (UB), and Item Upgrade (IU).

Gamebanshee posted two more trailers from voice actor Mark Meer.

Survival Rules: Everyone is Expendable

Survival Rules: Drink Up!

Gamebanshee posted two new trailers from voice actor Mark Meer.

"Survival Rules: Get Buffed"

"Survival Rules: Attack The Darkness"

Trent Oster announced in a new twitter post that Icewind Dale: EE will be released on October 30th. I can't wait to see what changes the developer made.

Oh we also announced a launch date for IWDEE is Oct 30. That's right, just 10 more days to go.

We are planning an interview with Icewind Dale: Extended Edition project lead,
Alex Tomovic and Liam Esler, one of the 'producery types' as he puts it. We can think of questions ourselves, but we are convinced you will have some as well. So let us know.

If you have a question for someone else at Beamdog that is possible as well as we were told they would hunt that person down until the question was answered.

RPGamer had the chance to interview Trent Oster of Overhaul Games about Icewind Dale: EE, and his future plans of what  the studio will work on next.

JS: I know there were some issues with lost source code and graphical assets for the Baldur's Gate games, was this the case as well for Icewind Dale?

TO: Once again, we started with only some code and assets. At this point we are starting to get used to it. As we moved into development, we managed to uncover some additional assets, but we still spent a great deal of time reconstructing, or simply recreating content. For the Heart of Winter expansion, we had no code for the new engine features, so we relied heavily on a few team members, with a lot of effort from Laszlo Toth (known as Avenger_teambg on the community), to help us reverse engineer the new features. With the user interface it was a complete re-paint. We were able to bring in a talented friend in the person of Lee Nielsen who re-built every single pixel in the Icewind Dale UI, and it looks great.

JS: Is the development cycle on Icewind Dale: EE going to be significantly shorter than the Baldur's Gate: EEs?

TO: We've been working on Icewind Dale for quite a while now. We kept it under wraps with the goal of announcing only a month or so before we were ready to ship. While we don't have a final ship date yet, as we want to ensure the quality before we release the game, we are in the late stages of testing with a current burn-down indicating a ship date later this month or early October.

JS: Do you plan to follow this up with Icewind Dale II: EE?

TO: If Icewind Dale is a brother or sister to the Baldur's Gate games in terms of code and gameplay differences, Icewind Dale II and Planescape: Torment are more like third cousins. You can see the lineage, but the changes are deep. At this point we haven't gone spelunking too deep into those changes, but we are aware of many differences which will drive up the effort to do our thing on those projects. We hope to do more spleunking once we finish up with the 1.3 Updates for Baldur's Gate: EE and Baldur's Gate II: EE and ship Icewind Dale: EE.

JS: We have discussed the potential of Baldur's Gate III in past interviews. Is it something that is still potentially on the table or being considered?

TO: We are still interested in Baldur's Gate III. As to what a Baldur's Gate III would be, wow, that is a terrifying premise. I think every Baldur's Gate fan has a different image in their head as to what it would be, and making all of those fans happy would be a monumental challenge. For now, we haven't started any work on a Baldur's Gate III, but we do discuss the concept on a pretty regular basis.

Beamdog announce their next remastered game is Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition.

Beamdog and Wizards of The Coast announced at PAX today that pre-orders have begun for Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition ahead of its upcoming release.

Originally released in 2000, Icewind Dale is hailed as a classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure based in Wizards of The Coast's legendary Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The Enhanced Edition will allow new and experienced gamers alike to enjoy this epic adventure as never before. Available on PC, Mac, iPad, and Android tablets and phones, the game will retail for $19.99 on desktop and is available for pre-order now.

Icewind Dale has been enhanced with new kits and character classes, dozens of new items and spells, and restored quest material cut from the original game. The redesigned user interface features Zoom capabilities and a Quickloot Bar, among numerous other improvements. Up to six players can simultaneously enjoy Icewind Dale with the new cross-platform multiplayer mode.

They also have a new FAQ with some answers about the game.

Q: When will Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition release?

A: Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition has entered beta and will release "when it's ready" to ensure the best experience for players, likely within a month.

Q: What specific enhancements does Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition offer over the original game?

A: Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition features the following enhancements:

• Six expanded quests, featuring content cut from the original game
• 60 new items
• Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansions
• 31 new class and kit combinations from Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, well as the half-orc playable race
• 122 new spells carried over from Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
• Cross-platform multiplayer
• A new "Story Mode" difficulty setting to allow players to experience all of the story with none of the Game Over screens
• Available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android