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Baldur's Gate|Baldur's Gate TotSC|Baldur's Gate II|Icewind Dale
Baldur's Gate™ takes you back to the Forgotten Realms® campaign setting on a visually dazzling role-playing adventure, one that brings to life the grand tradition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® game through cutting edge art and technology. Immerse yourself in this quistessential mediaval fantasy world, where entire nations hang in the balance of your actions, dark prophecies test your resolve, and heroic dreams can be fulfilled at last.
Huge game world - 5 CD's filled with nearly 10,ooo scrolling game screens in lush 16-bit SVGA graphics.
Gripping non-linear adventure that spans seven chapters, with dozens of subplots that branch in and out of the main scenario. Your decisions affect subsequent chapters and the entire game world as a whole.
Set in TSR's best-selling Forgotten Realms® campaign setting, the most popular of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® role-playing game worlds.
Explore hundreds of intricately rendered and visually stunning hi-res buildings and structures: taverns, temples, houses, arenas, stores and brothels are meticulously created.
Guide a party of up to five other characters, each with their own personalities and dispositions. Control party characters one at a time or as a group.
Create your own character from one of six authentic A&D® races - human, elf, half-elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling and 26 different classes - fighter, thief, cleric, mage and subclasses such as a druid and a speicalist mage.
Features realtime enviroment effects such as rain, snow and lightning, as well as interior and exterior lamps and spells.
Six-player network play capability - play cooperativerly or forge your won destiny.
Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast
Continue your travels along the Sword Coast® with additional adventures in the award winning Baldur's Gate™ role playing game world. Legends abound in the region. Almost all have at least some basis in truth and almost all speak of treasures lost and monsters to be defeated. Are you up to the task? Will you return with even more fame then you accumulated in your previous travels? Or will you journey off, never to be heard from again, . . . .
Three new world areas added to Baldur's Gate™ map - the town of Ulgoth's beard, Durlag's Tower and a mysterious island.
Expand the game world with your party of adventurers from your current game of Baldur's Gate™.
Join up with new friends or meet old enemies - Tales of the Sword Coast™ works l ike a plug-in for Baldur's Gate™. Actions in the original release events in the game.
Numerous improvement in the interface and the game system based on fan output.
More powerful spells, and additional enchanted items can be found.
Multiplayer support - up to 6 players via the internet.
Set in TSR's best-selling Forgotten Realms® campaign setting, the most popular of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® role-playing game worlds.
Roger Wilco™ Voice communication. Discuss your gaming experience with your team in a far more personal way over the internet without having to interrupt your gaming experience.
Baldur's Gate II: Shadow's of Amn
At the moment we don't have too much information on BG2 but heres a list of the things we do know:
Characters will be able to be exported onto the sequel.
The game will now be RTS (real time strategy).
Even though the game is RTS you can still pause it and make moves during the pause.
The maximum levels will all be increased.
There will be new heroes from the Forgotten Realms® world as well as monsters and new NPCs as well as new items.
Icewind Dale was announced on September 5, 1999. Below is what is currently known about this title which is expected to be released in the 2nd quarter of 2000.
Icewind Dale is nestled in the far-north of the Forgotten Realms and was made famous by the exploits of Drizzt Do'Urden in R.A. Salvatore's novel, The Crystal Shard. Black Isle Studios has chosen to develop a new game in this setting using an enhanced version of Baldur's Gate's Infinity Engine. Icewind Dale is a separate game from the Baldur's Gate series and characters cannot be transferred between the two games.
The plot of Icewind Dale is unrelated to the story of Baldur's Gate and is not centered upon a single protagonist. Instead, you create the entire party at the beginning of the game or can choose a premade party. For multiplayer games, each player creates their own character(s), which, because of the lack of a protagonist, will be more independent. The character creation method is the same as Baldur's Gate and no new races or classes(including specialty Priests) are being introduced. Through the course of adventuring, the characters can rise to around thirteenth level. The maximum level is once again defined by an experience cap but racial level limits will not be implemented.
Icewind Dale is expected to provide 60-80 hours of gameplay. The emphasis is on dungeon exploration, although an extensive story is planned to tie all the events together and provide significance and purpose. As the Producer, Chris Parker, put it, "There is less open and random exploration in Icewind Dale as most of the dialogs and quests relate back to the main story - and the main story drives the player throughout the entire game." There will be multiple simultaneous plot lines, numerous side quests including some that are race-, class- or alignment-specific; and your actions will have repercussions on future encounters. The primary story will be biased towards those choosing to do good deeds. The designers have been giving Against the Giants and Tomb of Horrors as examples of AD&D modules which are most similar to their approach in Icewind Dale.
There are to be six major adventuring areas featuring around fifty levels of dungeons. The dungeons will vary in size and design, ranging from cramped hallways to large caverns in varied environments. These dungeons will be scattered around the Icewind Dale area including the Ten Towns and the Spine of the World mountain range. Four or five towns will be depicted with two being relatively large, although considerably smaller than the city of Baldur's Gate.
As you create all your characters, NPCs will not become members of your party like in Baldur's Gate. Some NPCs will join and follow your party as part of the plot, but you will not be able to control their actions. Some celebrities from the Icewind Dale trilogy, such as Wulfgar, may make cameos. Black Isle plans to improve the dialog system to provide greater depth of choices and consequences. NPCs will often have there own agenda but your actions and reputation may entice
them to divulge new information or sell you items.
All the spells will be redone with more flashy effects and characters will be able to cast up to 7th level.
Running has not been introduced but walking speed has been increased.
Pathfinding has been improved including when parties move into a selected formation.
More animation of backgrounds.
Improved tracking of quests received and finished in the journal.
Resurrection will be easier and more accessible.
Treasure for many monsters will have a random component. Magic items and treasure from quest-related foes will be static.
Many new magic items.
New character portraits for players, most likely featuring a full body image for the character sheet and head shot for the main screen.
Being developed for Windows. No MacIntosh or Linux versions are currently planned.
System specifications will be similar to Baldur's Gate although RAM and CPU requirements will increase slightly to permit the larger monsters and other new features.
Some 3D acceleration support using Open GL to smooth fogging effects and improve lighting.
More default voice sets although the format will remain the same so all available custom sounds and portraits from Baldur's Gate can still be used.
Here are some animated piccies of things to come…
Skeleton
Lizardman
Goblin
