Videogames and especially role-playing games are chock-full of sheltered upbringings that go tits up. Innocent times and places like the prologue for Baldur's Gate, which unfolds in the vast, fortified monastery of Candlekeep (beware spoilers from this point on).
BioWare's first ever RPG opens with your unsuspecting Chosen One learning the ropes from the old sage Gorion. There are fetchquests that take you around the enormous citadel, bits of combat training to do, cosy formative chinwags to have with characters like your childhood friend Imoen. But it's not to last, of course: Gorion is murdered, and you must rove the Sword Coast in pursuit of his killer. When you return to Candlekeep later in the game, this once-proud bastion of learning has been filled with doppelgangers of Gorion and other acquaintances, a parade of chatbots waiting to stab you in the back.
]]>“Baldur’s Gate II set the model, and I obviously loved that model,” says James Ohlen. “But there were a ton of people at BioWare who didn’t like it.” During leadership meetings over the course of the Canadian designer’s 22 years at the RPG studio, he’d sometimes feel totally outnumbered when talking about the importance of story. “Game developers don’t get into the industry to create stories, they get into the industry to create games,” he says. “And so there’s this conflict between game developers and story - my entire career it's been a constant fight.”
Ohlen picked his side early. He was telling BioWare stories even before he joined the company. The meeting of Minsc and Boo, one of the most enduring partnerships in PC gaming, came about in a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons game he ran as a teenager. Then a comic book store manager, he took advantage of his premises to guide no fewer than three concurrent D&D groups through their campaigns. “I didn’t really have much of a life outside of Dungeons & Dragons,” he says.
]]>If 2023 is remembered for one thing, it's that it was a 100% critical success year for the RPG. Role-players across the land have been feasting exceedingly well these past few months, what with the stonking success of Baldur's Gate 3 (and to lesser extents, Starfield and Diablo 4), so we thought it was about time to celebrate your favourite RPGs of all time. Your votes have been counted, your comments have been sorted, and the cream of the RPG crop has been assembled. But which of the many excellent RPGs have risen above all others? Come and find out below as we count down your top 25 favourite RPGs of all time.
]]>“It’s incredibly weird for anybody who knows me that I’ve become the romance guy,” David Gaider tells me. “I’m the least romantic guy. Especially when I get to the characters saying ‘I love you’ to each other…” Gaider mimes the sickliness of the scene and his own horrified response. “Apparently I did it so well on Baldur’s Gate II that James Ohlen kept handing me this stuff. And, god, I hated it so much.”
It’s weird, in fact, that Gaider wound up working on Baldur’s Gate II at all - let alone that he became synonymous with Dragon Age and romanceable companions afterwards. At 27 years old, he ran a hotel in Edmonton, Alberta - the same city where, unbeknownst to him, Bioware was busy making its name. Once it came time to make a sequel to Baldur’s Gate, Bioware cast around for local writers, and a friend recommended Gaider, who had played D&D in the ‘80s before it fell out of fashion.
]]>Humble Bundle’s latest collection of good games for a good price and a good cause is a whopping instant library of classic Dungeons & Dragons CRPGs, including both original Baldur’s Gate games, some similarly legendary classics and some more modern additions to the genre. It’s quite the deal.
]]>A new month is on the horizon which can mean only one thing: more gaming freebies. Amazon Prime members can snag seven free games throughout March, with 90s RPG Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition leading the pack, followed by the cute puzzler (and undercover horror game) I Am Fish. New games are available every Thursday, so scribble that day into your calendars.
]]>Choosing a character portrait is one of the key decisions to spend hours mulling over in any decent CRPG. That’s why it’s awesome to see someone using the power of publicly accessible AI to generate fantasy mugshots for classic examples of the genre such as Baldur’s Gate. Indie app dev and documentary editor Alex Hay has created some great examples, which he’s shared on Twitter with Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition devs Beamdog and their CEO Trent Oster.
]]>Baldur's Gate 3 is well out of the bag now and despite the lengthy gameplay reveal that Larian hosted at PAX East last month I have oh so many questions. So do you lot, it seems. Larian hosted an AMA yesterday to answer them all and though there were a few things they declined to answer, we've mostly rolled well on our Persuasion checks and come out with new details. Most importantly, yes, Baldur's Gate 3 will continue the story from Baldur's Gate and its sequel. It isn't a direct sequel, but Larian say "we wouldn’t call it Baldur’s Gate 3 if there wouldn’t be a link."
]]>Now that we've gotten a proper look at Baldur's Gate 3, the ol' war machines are firing up. Baldur's Gate games from years of yore featured the combat shared by other Infinity Engine games—real time action with the ability to pause and dictate to your party. Baldur's Gate 3, developed by those Larian folks of Divinity: Original Sin 2 fame, will have turn-based combat similar to Larian's last big RPG. So then, which is better? Come hash it out, but please do so in an orderly, turn-based queue.
]]>They call it Ceremorphosis. The excruciating seven day process by which a humanoid might transform into a Mind Flayer. Stick one illithid tadpole in the brain and one week later you’ve got an octopus for a head and a craving for more grey matter. And what better visual metaphor for the return of Baldur’s Gate: the adventure that lodged in the hearts and minds of every RPG fan of a certain age, until it could find a host capable of doing it justice. The search took 20 years. That body belongs to Larian Studios. The game is Baldur's Gate 3.
Before we chat specifics: that reveal! Blimey. Ceremorphosis might be the inspiration, but when crafting a 90 second teaser trailer you’ve got step on the gas a bit, so the process is accelerated. A week of suffering becomes a frankly horrendous slice of Cronenbergian body-shattering that is so gnarly the uncut version of the teaser was not shown at today's Stadia announcement. I know Google want us to give their streaming tech a thumbs up, but not when that thumb is being snapped 90 degrees by a mind maggot. I direct your eyes to Larian’s full version below...
]]>1998's Dungeons & Dragons adaptation Baldur's Gate wasn't BioWare's first game, but it was the one that really made the KOTOR and Mass Effect studio's name. These days they're making shooty-bang games for EA, so it's hard not to feel that Baldur's Gate lead designer James Ohlen parting ways with the uber-studio marks a chapter closing and an new one beginning. D&D is Ohlen's one true love, he claims, and it's to that he's returning - a book publishing venture based on the venerable pen'n'paper RPG.
]]>When Obsidian Entertainment started work on Pillars of Eternity [Official Site], the studio had two goals in mind. First, it wanted to recreate the style and tone of the classic Black Isle RPGs – particularly Baldur's Gate. Second, it wanted to modernise that style, taking advantage of today's technology, and avoiding mistakes made the first time around.
]]>Sixteen years ago, BioWare bridged the gap between Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 with, more or less, "And then some other stuff happened." Now Beamdog has gone back, filling in the gaps with Siege of Dragonspear [official site]. Is it worth putting the band back together for one more trip to the Sword Coast? Here's Wot I Think.
]]>More than a decade after the Baldur's Gate [official site] saga appeared to come to an end, there's a brand new expansion available to buy right now. I know how this might look - it's classic April Idiots' fodder, telling you about a new chapter in a much-loved series and then revealing that all of your favourite characters have been transformed into unicorns or somesuch.
This is real though. You'll need the Enhanced Edition of the game to play and we'll have our own judgement on the expansion next week but, for now, here's a trailer and some details.
]]>RPS has sealed itself inside a chocolate egg for the duration of the UK's long holiday weekend, to emerge only when the reign of Mr Hops The Doom Rabbit has run its dread course. While we slumber, enjoy these fine words previously published as part of our Supporter program. More to come.
I will never shut up about Baldur’s Gate.
I’ll still be talking about the series when (if) I’m eighty. I don’t know why RPS offered me money to write about it, because I would do so for free at any time, constantly and forever, if given enough opportunity.
]]>“We move from custodian to creator.”
That was how Trent Oster described it. Beamdog’s co-founder who, twenty years ago, was also there when Bioware began, is once again returning to one of roleplaying’s most beloved and most influential series. This time, he won’t just be adding a new lick of paint here or a subtle embellishment there, as he has with the company’s Enhanced Editions of the Baldur’s Gate games. No, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear [official site] is something wholly new. While Beamdog are calling it an expansion pack, its scope and scale mean that it outsizes both Tales of the Sword Coast and Throne of Bhaal. For all intents and purposes, it’s Baldur’s Gate 3.
]]>We live in interesting times. The Baldur's Gate RPGs are amongst the most well-loved, well-regarded and influential the PC has ever seen, but surely they're now a relic of an ever more distant past? Along with most things that we consider legendary, they have begun to fade into the past and, like weathered statuary, are slowly losing their definition. We remember them fondly, but indistinctly, imperfectly. We forget the rough edges. Beamdog's Enhanced Editions were well-curated, well-preserved museum pieces. Classics polished for one last, albeit glorious, hurrah.
Or that's how it was until last night, when Beamdog announced they have been both working on a new expansion for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, as well as planning to bring the rest of the series back into sharp relief. The expansion's called Siege of Dragonspear [official site], a name that may sound familiar to those well travelled in the Forgotten Realms. It features a new shaman character class, scores of new maps, new companions, and what Beamdog's grand magus Trent Oster says is "at least twenty-five hours of adventuring."
]]>You may have seen folks cooing over the Baldur's Gate site's addition of a cryptic countdown due to run out of ticks in the wee small hours of Friday morning. Folks in the know, like me and you my dear friend, will guess that it's counting down to a reveal of the pre-sequel that Beamdog are making on ye olde Infinity Engine.
Alternatively, you may skip over everything I write and so be wholly surprised by this - like a certain colleague of mine whose name rhymes with Flay 'Em Pith. That's what you get.
]]>One of the most gratifying things about the recent-ish RPG revival is that they've almost all done well enough to warrant developer interest after release. (Oh, if only the adventure one had been as... no, no. Wrong column.) Call them Enhanced Editions, Director's Cuts or whatever else, they give their creators a second chance to fix mistakes or expand their worlds - and that's pretty cool for fans. But what are the main ones on the way? I put together this quick list of ones to look forward to.
]]>"Go for the eyes, Boo!" That's a quote from Baldur's Gate. One of the characters says it when attacking enemies. His name is Minsc, and he is a silly man with a pet hamster named Boo. The joke is that he's telling his hamster to attack, but it's just a hamster - and he thinks it's a "miniature giant space hamster" too!
If you enjoyed my dry retelling even though I'm just grasping at someone else's lightning, if you still feeling a twinge of nostalgia at the mention of characters you once adored, hey, you might be into the news that Minsc and Boo are coming to free-to-play D&D MMO Neverwinter [official site].
]]>Do you remember when Beamdog, the folks who've been revamping Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, announced they were making a new Baldur's Gate game? Do you remember - one set between the first two games and using the same dear old Infinity Engine? No, me neither. But, acting as if we all totally knew all along, they've now announced that it'll launch this year. Beyond that, it's a bit of a mystery, but gosh! An actual new Baldur's Gate!
]]>Rumour, speculation and occasional over-optimistic announcements still swirl around a possible Baldur's Gate III, but the indefinite wait for a follow-up to the beloved series of Bioware RPGs has now yielded one strange fruit. Comics company IDW - who specialise in licensed fare such as Transformers, Ghostbusters and Star Trek - are publishing an official Dungeons & Dragons comic called Legends of Baldur's Gate. And just look who it stars - ageing RPG gonks' favourite big-hearted warrior-dunce Minsc, together of course with Boo, his occasionally uncomfortably concealed hamster of dubious mysticism.
]]>Witchmarsh looks like a hoot, and I do not use that word lightly as I am not an owl. The jazz-infused occult 1920s RPG is currently on Kickstarter, and it looks totally gorgeous. On top of that, it cites two role-playing legends, Baldur's Gate and Wizardry, as its primary influences. However, I keep seeing the same question pop up in regards to said influences: "...How?" Witchmarsh is, after all, a side-scrolling co-op (if you want) action-RPG. Baldur's Gate and Wizardry were... not that. I got in touch with Witchmarsh's creators to find out what exactly it has in common with those two games, and here's what they told me.
]]>Do you want to know almost everything ever about Obsidian's newly renamed Kickstarter opus, Pillars of Eternity? Then click that link for impressions and more new information than you can shake a stick of truth at. But still, somehow, thousands of words later, there is more. What follows is an interview snippet concerning Eternity's development progress, what's been left on the cutting room floor, the game's size/scope, party members, and of course, the Dungeoniest Dungeon To Ever Done Dungeon A Dungeon.
]]>It's official! Project Eternity finally has a real big boy name: Pillars of Eternity. On its own, that's hardly the most exciting news in the world, but it also means that Obsidian is finally ready to take the wraps off more than, like, three screenshots and precious little else. I had the good fortune of traveling to Obsidian to witness plenty of gameplay and conduct multiple eternities-long interviews, and The Artist Formerly Known As Black Isle sent me away with some video to boot. See, hear, read, and - I guess if you want - taste and touch so very, very, very much of the newly rechristened Kickstarter darling below.
]]>Let there be Torchlight. The ARPG's sequel thoroughly impressed John and the original is free until June 20th as part of Good Old Games' summer sale. There will be new deals every day until July 5th and the first day's offerings include Alan Wake and American Nightmare for $4.48, and a massive Dungeons and Dragons pack for $21.10. That one includes Torment, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2, and Icewind Dale 1 & 2. Whatever happened to every series at least reaching a lacklustre third part? It's probably Valve's fault. Remember, Torchlight is only free until the 20th, so best to download it right away.
]]>Whoops, this is insane. Completely insane. Game designer and ex-TimeGate-er Drew Rechner's been on a seven-year quest to recreate the entirety of Baldur's Gate (including expansion Tales of the Sword Coast) in Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights 2, and he's finally succeeded. With the help of a programmer and contributions from a ragtag team, he squeezed every last drop of the original's genre-defining juice into a glistening concoction of role-playing past and present. There's a trailer after the break, and it's pretty bonkers. I'm reinstalling NWN2 right now, because wow. Madness.
]]>Hmm. Well, this came out of nowhere. OK, not entirely nowhere - we are living in the age of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, Wasteland 2, and talk of a new Planescape: Torment, after all - but I can't say I was expecting Black Isle to just suddenly explode out of the suspiciously human-sized birthday cake that is life. And yet, here we are. Black Isle Studios is apparently back. I mean, look at that picture. It's as clear as day.
]]>Lots of news on that remake of Baldur's Gate. First of all, a release date - the 18th September. Second, a price - a surprisingly high $20 when it's released, and a teeny pre-order reduction at $18. There are new adventures, characters, and improvements. Details below.
]]>A new Baldur's Gate game? Wuh? That's the news that greets my eyes when I look at Eurogamer. This is, apparently, coming from former BioWare developer Trent Oster, who worked on the original BG, as well as the first Neverwinter Nights. His new company, Beamdog, is a digital distribution platform, brought to wider attention recently via the release of MDK 2 HD, and this, GameBanshee claims, will be the source of new Forgotten Realms chat-n-chopping. And how do we know any of this is happening? A Baldur's Gate website.
]]>Hello! I'm currently out at GDC Europe, skipping around businessy talks to cover for my day job, but I ended up sat in on BIoware's laidback and fascinating retrospective on the making of their breakthrough game, Baldur's Gate. It's a landmark title, and fascinatingly critical to what modern RPGs and MMOs are, but one we've surprisingly not talked about much on RPS. Thanks to my magic (and now rather broken) hands of transcripting +1, let's change that...
]]>And by "own" I mean the publishing rights. Come on, fess up. You need to tell Direct2Drive, or perhaps GoG.com. (Via Blues.) Then the mighty classic can be re-released. More important information below.
]]>Yes, fantasy RPG sequels are inbound. It's pretty much a dead cert that Bioware won't be involved, as they're busy being owned by EA these days, and Atari seem to have clung on the Dungeons & Dragons license without 'em. Infogrames-in-disguise are definitely planning to revisit these two seminal roleplaying names however, though a developer's not been announced. Neither has a release date. Maybe not next year, according to Atari's Phil Harrison, but soon, and for the rest of your life. Or at least as long as Wizards of the Coast keep on letting 'em make D&D games, anyway.
]]>[I originally wrote this for the relaunch issue of PC Gamer, when they were introducing their extra-life section. The Long Play features are basically a critical essay, looking at a game a few years on and noting why it still matters. Anyway, this is my look over Black Isle's genuinely seminal RPG. A few years old, every word then remains true now - and I sincerely doubt we'll ever see its like again. Obviously enough, there's some fairly heavy spoilers in here. Re-reading, it reminds me that I should do something bigger than this on the old warhorse. I've got Chris Avellone's e-mail around here, somewhere...]
Ignored by the gaming press upon release, only receiving warmish reviews that stopped well short of open adulation and the victim of one of the most ill-judged marketing campaigns (“A corpse with irresistible sexual charisma”) in history, Planescape Torment is the classic Underdog. Inevitably, it became the (relatively speaking) commercial runt of the Baldur’s Gate litter. In the years since, the coin of its critical worth has accumulated to the point where aficionados regularly cite it as the greatest of the PC RPGs. In fact, it’s rehabilitation has gone too far, with its name being a simple byword for narrative excellence without anyone really feeling the need to say why. There’s more here than dogmatic romantic myth.
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