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'Baldur's Gate III' is real and it'll be on Google Stadia
Amid its wave of announcements for Stadia, Google confirmed several new games will be available on the platform. Darksiders Genesis emerged a few hours before Stadia Connect got underway, and there are some other notable upcoming titles too: Baldur's Gate III and Gylt.
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition out now on Android
BioWare's classic PC role-playing game, Baldur's Gate, is now available for Android devices in an enhanced port developed by Beamdog studio division Overhaul Games. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition adopted a variety of enhancements and new features during its transition to mobile platforms, and originally launched for iOS platforms in 2012. Enhanced Edition includes all content from the original 1998 Baldur's Gate and its expansion Tales of the Sword Coast, along with The Black Pits arena mode and other new quests available via in-app purchases. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is priced at $9.99. [Image: BioWare / Beamdog]
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition landing on iOS this month
One of the most popular RPGs of all time, Baldur's Gate II, will be coming to the App Store as an Enhanced Edition later this month. The news of the game's imminent release was announced in a tweet by Trent Oster, the creative director of the previous Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. So far, Baldur's Gate on iOS has had a contentious existence. When the first edition was released for iOS, the game was pulled from the App Store in June for legal issues. It took two months for the game to finally return. There are no signs that any such legal issues will arise this time for Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, which is good news since the sequel is regarded by critics and users as being far superior to the original. As for what you can expect from Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition: The Final Chapter – Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition includes Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the epic conclusion of the Bhaalspawn saga. Four New Party Members – Bundled with the PC and Mac versions and available as DLC for iPad and Android, four new characters can join you on your journey. At the behest of his dark patron, Dorn Il-Khan plunders and defiles the Sword Coast. Hunted by Red Wizards, Neera the Wild Mage evades and disrupts the Thayans at every turn. Exercising his growing combat mastery, the monk Rasaad yn Bashir leaves his former allies to hunt the dark figure that corrupted his brother. A mysterious thief in service to mysterious master seeks powerful artifacts from across the globe. Recruit them, use their powers, and uncover over 30 new locations. The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay – Explore the tactical depth of high-level Dungeons & Dragons combat. Undermine your captors and prey upon their weaknesses while you dodge traps and battle for your life against Demi-Liches, Mind Flayers, and Githyanki. Easy Multiplayer – Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition makes it easy to find, list, and join multiplayer games, even while behind a firewall. Oster notes that Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition was submitted to Apple on December 8. There's no set release date for the game, which means it will likely go live as soon as Apple approves it. Most apps are generally approved within two weeks, so it looks like fans could be playing this classic by Christmas Eve.
After Reset may be the Fallout 3 we never got
Before Bethesda acquired the rights to the Fallout universe, there was another Fallout 3 in development. We'll almost certainly never see that game completed, but with any luck a new Kickstarter project can take its place. In development at Black Cloud Studios, After Reset is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game that, while far from finished, already looks much like the first two Fallout games. Scant gameplay is shown in the footage above, but Black Cloud claims the game will feature a massive global map players are free to explore, so long as they have the water to do so. In their wanderings, players will encounter various tribes, raiders and slave traders - the kind of human detritus you'd expect to find in either a Mad Max film or Fallout game. From a gameplay perspective, After Reset is said to feature a core story centering on your characters, stories focused on each of the game's playable companions and, most crucially, a non-linear narrative that hinges mainly on player choice. The core rule set is a blend of Fallout's "SPECIAL" system and Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, a design decision that Black Cloud believes will make the game instantly intuitive to anyone who has played the earlier Fallouts, Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights. Currently, After Reset has raised $18,065 of its $900,000 goal, with 26 days remaining. Assuming After Reset reaches its goal and makes its way to retail, it will be available on PC, Mac and Linux.
Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition encounters a release date
Come November 15, Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition will make its debut on the PC, Mac, iOS and Android platforms. That date appeared this morning on the game's official website, where developer Overhaul Games has also added a pre-order link. Overhaul Games seems to be adding many of the same features found in its previous Baldur's Gate remake to Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition (higher-definition graphics, simple multiplayer options, new characters), though this game has a $25 price tag. On the other hand, Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition should offer more content than its predecessor, as it includes both Baldur's Gate 2 and the Shadows of Amn expansion pack.
Weekend deals choose Bioshock, XCOM: Declassified and more [Update]
If you've somehow avoided accumulating a backlog over the year or just enjoy the act of spending money, Steam and Amazon have some weekend gaming deals to help you burn cash. Steam enthusiasts can splurge on the service's 2K Games Weekend, which includes Bioshock Infinite for $13.59 $26.79 and Civilization 5, Spec Ops: The Line and Borderlands 2 for $14.99 apiece. PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate is $9.99, or if you say to hell with the past decade, 1998's Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is an even $5. Amazon has blacked out $30 from The Bureau: XCOM Declassified's price on Xbox 360 and PS3 while knocking the PC version down to $19.99. Splinter Cell: Blacklist has crept its way to $39.99 for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U, but you can gear up for a special mission with its Aircraft Edition for $99.99 on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. If you'd rather get ready for the PlayStation 4, Amazon is also offering $30 of bonus credit towards a DualShock 4 if you trade in $30 worth of qualifying video games. You can check to see if anything you're willing to part with is eligible through the search function on the promotion's page. Update: The 66 percent off deal for Bioshock Infinite has passed. The game is now available for $26.79, 33 percent off of the initial price.
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition returns to the App Store
Gaming classic Baldur's Gate has returned to the App Store after being pulled due to a legal dispute a few months ago. Last December, gaming company Beamdog brought the '90s classic to the iPad, but just six months later, it was forced remove the game by publisher Atari on vague "contractual matter" grounds. But an email yesterday from Beamdog CEO Trent Oster posted on Reddit announced a resolution to those contractual issues: Dear Friends of Baldur's Gate, We're back! Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is available for sale once again. All outstanding issues with our publishing partner have been resolved. We'll announce the details of an upcoming major Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition patch and the Android tablet version in the near future. We'll also have some exciting news regarding Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition soon after. We want to thank our fans for the outpouring of support we received during this difficult time. Legal issues are never fun. We're glad we can once again focus on what matters - makin' videogames! Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition costs US$9.99 on the App Store. [via JoyStiq]
Atari requested Baldur's Gate: EE removal from iOS, Oster says
Beamdog CEO Trent Oster has said that Atari is the "unknown publishing partner" behind the removal of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition from the iOS App Store. "At the request of Atari legal we removed the game from sale on Beamdog and the App stores," Oster told Game Informer recently. "Atari is still selling the game through their channels." Those "channels" would be the official Atari site, Steam, and Amazon.com, where the game is still available for sale. It's unclear why Atari wouldn't want the game selling in other places, but Oster has said both a patch and an enhanced sequel have been put on hold due to the dispute. "We're trying to remedy the situation and I'm hopeful we can come to an arrangement," he said to Game Informer. Joystiq has reached out to Atari for more information, and will update here if we hear back.
Baldur's Gate pulled from the App Store
Dungeons and Dragons fans may be dismayed to hear that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition was removed from the App Store yesterday. Peter Cohen of iMore reported that Overhaul Games pulled Baldur's Gate due to some contractual issues that need to be resolved. If you previously purchased the game, you can still download and play it though. An available patch to Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition cannot be released to users until the resolution of the legal issues. Trent Oster, President of Beamdog and Overhaul Games posted an apology to users and assures us that once the situation is remedied, the game will be reposted.
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition now out on OS X
In case you missed the announcement last week, the Enhanced Edition of the classic RPG Baldur's Gate (that previously came to the iPad) is now available on Mac OS X. You can pick it up directly from Beamdog's website for US$19.99 right now, and we're told it's incoming to the Mac App Store very soon (probably as soon as Apple approves it). This version of Bioware's classic title includes a new adventure to play, three new characters to play with and a number of other technical enhancements, including new character paintings, and support for high-resolution displays. In other words, if you're a Baldur's Gate fan and have been thinking about playing through the title again, this is the way to go for sure. On the iPad, I had a few reservations about this one, mostly that the control scheme tended to lean a little too far to the old-school for it to really work well. But of course on the Mac, that's not an issue, as this game was originally made for a mouse and keyboard. The graphics, though updated, won't stand a chance against modern RPGs like Skyrim and The Witcher, but the story is such a classic one, and Baldur's Gate pioneered Bioware's storytelling and gameplay techniques later seen in games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Baldur's Gate is a valuable piece of RPG history, and it's great to have this excellent edition of it available now on the Mac.
Neverwinter Days: Beta blitz
Welcome to Neverwinter Days, a fresh new column that will be pulling on our +1 boots of game exploring while we go tramping through dungeons and fantastic locales. I'm fairly excited about this game and wanted to explore it from top to bottom while bringing you along for company. Neverwinter is a Cryptic title, and with that comes a laundry list of expectations: Players will be pretty divided on it, it'll skew toward "fun" and "buggy," there'll be a lot of visual customization, and "F" always, always interacts with the world. And it's a Dungeons & Dragons title, so there are even more genre expectations. For example, we're going to be laying the smackdown on Kobolds early and often. Poor buggers. Usually we begin a column by showcasing the community resources out there, but we're going to put that off until next time in favor of discussing this past weekend's beta event. Yours truly and several other Massively staffers were on the scene to chow through Neverwinter and see how it's shaping up in these final months prior to release. So what did I get out of it? It's going to cost you one click to find out!
Baldur's Gate Enhanced for iPad is now available
After months of waiting, (we first heard about this one back in March), the Enhanced Edition of Bioware's classic D&D RPG Baldur's Gate has arrived on the iPad. This is the full version of the old party-based game, with more than 80 hours of story-driven gameplay to go through, tons of characters and settings, plus some new characters and content. The entire PC game has been adapted for the touchscreen, and while the graphics are still very old school (2D! Isometric!), the game's just how you'll remember it. I think Baldur's Gate is a great game, but there are definitely better-looking titles on the App Store these days, and more user-friendly RPGs. That said, however, this is a classic, and if you've never played through it, now's your chance. The game is available for US$9.99 in iTunes.
A trio of trailers: Vectrex Regeneration, Baldur's Gate Enhanced and Poker Knight
Well, it happened -- Thanksgiving was last week, Cyber Monday is today and from here on out, we are neck deep in the holiday season. This time of year is particularly busy on the App Store, as various game developers try to get their best products out during the holiday rush, taking advantage of all of those game-hungry users with brand new iDevices. To that end, we've got not one, not two, but three great trailers for upcoming iOS games that we've been waiting for, all ready for you to watch below. Vectrex Regeneration is first -- this is not just a game, but a complete emulator for the old Vectrex video game console. The app includes more than a few old titles (available for in-app purchase, with likely a few freebies to get you interested), and will be out on the App Store later this week. Next up is a new trailer for that Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate that we've been expecting on iOS for a while now. As you can see in the video below, this game will be a very faithful (perhaps too faithful?) recreation of the old Baldur's Gate title, except of course that it'll be running on your iPad instead of a computer. Old-school fans will probably love this one, but we'll have to wait and see if it can grab a new audience later on this month. And finally, I haven't heard of Poker Knight until now, but it's piqued my interest big time with the trailer below. The idea looks like a poker game mixed with some fantasy RPG elements, and there's nothing I like better than a genre-crossing puzzle/RPG concoction like that. Poker Knight is due out some time this month as well, so we'll look for it soon. All three of these look great, and they're just a small sampling of what we're in for from the App Store this coming holiday season.
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition due out November 28 (mostly)
We've heard before about Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, that slightly upgraded remake of the original great Bioware RPG that's coming soon to the iPad. This version is being put together by Beamdog, and creative director Trent Oster has tweeted that the game will finally arrive on (or at least around) November 28 later on this month. I say "around" because Oster hedges his bets on exactly when Apple's review process will allow the game through on iOS, so it might be a few days after the 28th. But suffice it to say that we're less than a month away from playing the original Baldur's Gate on the iPad. I got to see the game in action a little while ago at PAX, and I can tell you that it is indeed Baldur's Gate running on Apple's tablet. There is new content, and there are definitely some tweaks and improvements, but for the most part, it's the game you'll remember. Some new users may be turned off a bit from the title, just because it does stick to the original's complexity, and the touch interface translated to a game that's really best driven with a mouse and keyboard can be a little confusing. But Beamdog has made the decision to stick with the original game rather than updating it for the touchscreens too much, and that means that old school Bioware fans will probably be pleased. We'll look for the game on the App Store later on this month. [via Joystiq]
GOG shows you how to 'enhance' old Baldur's Gate games
Following the delay of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, GOG.com swooped in with a guide for how to make your own enhanced versions of Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2. While the dow noted the delay to the update from Trent Oster's Beamdog, the distributor saw that as an opportunity to post the step-by-step guide to enhance the games' graphics. Credit goes to GOG.com forum user GoJays2025 for putting the guide together.For the record, the enhancement requires six mods, and both of the games. It's convenient, then, that GOG.com has them on sale at $3.49 each. Meanwhile, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition is scheduled to hit November 30.
BioWare founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk announce retirement
The doctors... are out. BioWare announced that Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, co-founders of the studio, are retiring from the gaming biz. The two have been instrumental in the creation of many hit RPGs, from Baldur's Gate to Mass Effect. For us MMO fans, they're best-known for helming the ship that brought us Star Wars: The Old Republic. The two are taking a break, perhaps indefinitely, from game creation and management. Muzyka is looking to engage in charities and social work, while Zeschuk is going to dive into projects involving craft beer. "This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make; after thinking about it for many months, I made the decision to retire from videogames back in early April 2012 -- at that time I provided six months' notice to EA, to help enable a solid transition for my teams at BioWare," Muzyka wrote in his farewell letter. "This decision isn't without significant pain and regret, but it's also something I know I need to do, for myself and my family. I've reached an unexpected point in my life where I no longer have the passion that I once did for the company, for the games, and for the challenge of creation," Zeschuk said in his. The two maintain that BioWare is in good hands and will continue to excel going forward.
Dungeons & Dragons games on sale through GOG
Look, playing actual Dungeons & Dragons takes a lot of time and effort. First you have to find a group of people you don't hate to play with, and then you have to spend days constructing a campaign for them to adventure through. And then, when you finally get down to playing, that one guy decides to be a maverick a pull some crazy stunt that breaks the encounter.Thankfully, there are alternatives for people who want the lore without actually having to play Dungeons & Dragons, and said alternatives just happen to be on sale at GOG for the next six days. Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga, Baldur's Gate 2 Complete, Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition, Icewind Dale Complete, Icewind Dale 2 Complete, Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard, The Temple of Elemental Evil, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone and Planescape: Torment are all available for less than five bucks, or in one big bundle for $30.01.
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition pushed to Nov. 30
It looks like fans will have to wait for Baldur's Gate to swing open once again, as Beamdog head Trent Oster has revealed that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition has been delayed. Writing in the Baldur's Gate forums, Oster noted that the overwhelming response to the project – and the resulting influx of volunteers, additions and fixes – has lead Beamdog to push the project back from September 18 to November 30.In other words, it sounds as if the project has grown larger than Beamdog originally intended. "The suggestions, fixes, and translations continue, and more volunteers keep joining," wrote Oster, adding that Beamdog has delayed the project to provide "the best possible product on launch."Oster asks for patience from fans, promising "something a little extra" is in the works for those who have already pre-ordered.
The Game Archaeologist: Dark Sun Online
Computer RPG players in the late '80s and early '90s were surely familiar with Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) and its now-infamous Gold Box series. The series, so named because of their distinctive gold packaging, ran on a solid engine that helped the company churn out over a dozen titles within a five-year span. From Dungeons & Dragons' Pool of Radiance to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, these titles quickly became revered among the gaming community. I personally have very fond memories of playing both Buck Rogers titles, despite not having ever watched the show. While the Gold Box series has not become as timeless or replayable as late '90s classics like Baldur's Gate and Fallout, they definitely had a huge impact on the PC scene and helped elevate the CRPG genre. Following the Gold Box engine, SSI went on to produce another engine that it used for a completely new series set in the D&D campaign setting of Dark Sun. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993) and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager (1994) were both modest hits, and when it came time for a third game in the series, SSI decided to make the leap to the then-untested realm of online gaming. What followed was a wild two-year experiment in MMOs that happened prior to the Ultima Online and EverQuest generation. While ultimately unsuccessful in achieving its potential or gaining a large audience, Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands made a valiant attempt at achieving the inevitable future of gaming.
Dave Gross, Nat Jones join Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition team
Beamdog has announced the writer for all of that new content coming in the Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate: Dave Gross. A very experienced fantasy and D&D writer, Gross has worked for TSR in the past, as well as having written two Forgotten Realms novels. More recently, he says, he was "sitting in a coffee shop complaining about the lack of classic RPGs for the iPad, when [Beamdog's] Trent [Oster] appeared in a sulphurous cloud and said, 'Have I got a job for you.'" Gross will presumably work to update the old game, as well as oversee all the writing on the new content as well.Elsewhere on that team, artist Nat Jones has also joined up. He's got a background in fantasy and horror comics, and has worked on some story elements in Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer comic series as well. Good to hear there's some substantial talent working on this much-anticipated revival.
