Last night Beamdog and Overhaul Games teamed up to break the internet, by announcing a revamp of the iconic D&D based RPG, Baldur’s Gate. The developers wre responsible for MDK2 HD, and are now working on a similar overhaul for Baldur’s Gate.
The press release doesn’t reveal too much, other than the game will run on the Infinity Engine, will be re-forged, and will feature unspecified modern updates. The team working on the enhanced edition includes members of the original development team.
Since the announcement, Beamdog’s Trent Oster has tweeted a bunch of juicy new details. This is what we know so far:
- Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition will not support controllers – “pointer devices only”.
- DirectPlay has been removed.
- The user interface and rendering have been reworked for modern resolutions and wide screen displays.
- Although DRM and distribution details have not been worked out, Ostler says “We’ll try to draft a non-jerkbag way of getting the game to people with minimal BS.”
- Right now the PC version is the focus, but more platform (Mac) details will be revealed in later weeks.
- The developer will make use of improvements made by modders in the enhanced edition.
- The game will be fully 2D and isometric, and modern hardware will be used for “acceleration”.
- The music will not be changed.
- The game is currently planned for digital release only.
- The developer will try not to break mod compatibility.
- No content will be removed, although the game won’t include all of the original voice over work.
- There will be new characters.
- The game will use the 2nd Edition D&D rule set.
- The developer is aiming to make old save games compatible.
- The game will support multiple languages.
- The game is planned for a Norther Hemisphere Summer 2012 release, so towards the middle of the year.
- The Enhanced Edition will include the Tales of the Sword Coast Expansion.
- There will also be Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Edition including the Throne of Bhaal expansion at some point as well.
If you’re on Twitter, you can follow Oster yourself for more updates here.
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Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition announcement breaks the internet.
