Everything you ever wanted to know about the Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition (but were afraid to ask) has now been revealed.
The latest – and, one would presume, last – Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition countdown has hit zero, and that means that all the juicy launch details are finally at hand. First and foremost, the important bits: The PC version of the game comes out on September 18 and will sell for $19.99, and gamers who “pre-purchase” can knock two bucks off that price. And now, the details!
The Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition will contain everything that made the original game great, plus a big pile of new stuff including three new characters – Dorn Il-Khan, a half-orc Blackguard, Neera the half-elf Wild Mage and Rasaad yn Bashir, a Calishite Monk – and a brand-new adventure, The Black Pits, that adds more than six hours of gameplay set in the Underdark arena of the mad drow Baeloth. It will also offer all the improvements and additions that debuted in Baldur’s Gate 2, allowing players to use classes, class kits and subraces that weren’t available in the original game.
The interface has been updated and improved, as has the cross-platform multiplayer, and the game will support high resolutions and widescreen monitors. The original cinematics have also been replaced with “beautifully hand painted animated cinematics,” and more than 400 “issues” from the original game have been found and fixed, resulting in a faster, smoother experience, and maybe even marginally less awful pathfinding.
And here are some screens:
The OS X and iPad versions of the game is also set for a September launch, although the specific date remains up in the air; the OS X edition will go for $19.99, while the iPad version will be only $9.99. The iPad release, however, will not include Dorn Il-Khan or Neera, who will instead be available as separate, in-app purchases. An Android version is on the way as well, also priced at $9.99 and with the same character restrictions, although no release date has been set.
A boxed release of the Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition for all you die-hard collector nerds is still a possibility, but not looking terribly likely at this point. Beamdog President Trent Oster said that negotiations for the release of a physical edition have “stalled,” and that while he’s still trying to put a deal together, it may not happen. For now, the game will be available exclusively via Beamdog.
So, to recap: 20 bucks, September 18, baldursgate.com. It’s so exciting!
