Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition comes out tomorrow! In 1998, I was playing more computer games than reading novels, so I think it’s safe to say that Baldur’s Gate had a substantial impact on me as a writer. Which is just as well, since those old-style CRPGs had very little spoken dialog, but walls and walls of text – it was like reading a novel, but you still got to blow up orcs and stuff.

This post from Black Gate sums it up nicely:

When Baldur’s Gate was released in November 1998, it quickly became one of the most acclaimed computer role playing games in history. It put those friendly Edmonton developers, an outfit named BioWare, on the road to stardom, and over the next decade they came to dominate the industry with titles like Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Baldur’s Gate, with its splendid story, characters, and revolutionary (for the time) Infinity game engine, still occupies a special place in the hearts of modern gamers. It was released for Windows 95/98 and doesn’t run well on modern machines — so for most of us, Baldur’s Gate is a distant memory, like those late nights playing Dungeon Master on an Amiga.

Needless to say, I’ll be getting it. Not that I’ll have time to play it, but there you go. I should also point out that if you want the game’s excellent soundtrack, you can get it via GOG.com.

-JM