Baldur’s Gate isn’t too old, it was released in November of 1998, but that’s still a bit dated now. The gaming industry isn’t friendly to the years, often working in what seems to be accelerated “dog years” in terms of technological advancements. It figured this was worth covering because it’s one of the best selling and considered a top tier single-player RPG by most accounts.
It was also developed by BioWare, who, at the time, only had one other game under their belt from two years before called Shattered Steel.
The story begins just after a devastating event in the Forgotten Realms D&D campaign called the “Time of Troubles.” This was a great twist in the standard D&D campaign, it caused all curative magic (clerics) to lose their ability to heal unless near their deity, magic didn’t function correctly (I believe this is where the Wild Mage came from) and was unpredictable and gods walked the earth as mortals which caused magic to, in effect, die while the gods were away. Since the storyline starts slightly after this event, the game contains healing and magic but the storyline is impacted by prior events of course, people have trust issues.
The game was made great because it held “mostly true” to the 2nd Edition D&D roots so the learning curve for D&D player’s wasn’t so rough; some things were adjusted to handle the real-time effect of a video game RPG. You could party with up to six Non-Player-Characters (NPC’s) whom would swap in and out of your active party over time as part of the storyline (something also implemented by the US release of Final Fantasy 2).
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This week we’re talking about pre-owned video games and ask the question, do you buy new or do you buy used? Do you sell your games? We answer some listener comments and hit on a few hot topics:
Hey guys, It’s me again. yesterday was my birthday and I got Command & Conquer 3 for the Xbox 360, and a lot of other stuff, but, This leads to the question, what is your favorite RTS out there for any console including the PC? For me it would be C&C 3, not because I just got it, but because it’s a well developed game that balances each faction (The different races in the game).
Thanks guys, I love your podcast!
Hey!
First time listener and I must say your cast rocks! Keep up the good work!
As an indie developer I see no problem in pre-owned games. If a game has good replayability and is worth playing over and over you keep it, if it is more or less a one time thing… well…
I guess it is up to developers to make games that are enjoyable multiple times and/or keep their games alive if they don’t want gamers to sell their games.
I have bougt pre-owned games to my gamecube. I have never sold a game…