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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@Microsoft Beginning Work on Xbox 720:
From the type of jobs listed there (lots of VLSI there), it looks like it will take a good couple of years before it is close to becoming a prototype.
@AAA Titles and Indie Games Matter:
… that’s so ambiguous. I don’t get the point here. As Derrick mentions, any ‘middle’ game can be turned into a AAA game. Some fail, but some succeed. Is it about marketing muscle?
Was Valve’s Portal a middle game?
@Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Not Coming Til 2012:
I don’t get it, again. Maybe I’m dumb, but I think it’s about milking it, because:
– the units are there (see the multiplayer, which is already playable)
– some balancing is already done (again, see MP)
– normally, the script should be done already; we’ve seen a fragment of it in the first game, and, for the entire thing to be coherent, the script should be done.
– all remains is to make maps.
@Netflix Coming to 3DS This Summer:
Funny, I know a bank that issued a warning regarding the value of stock shares of Netflix, on account of Facebook trying to penetrate the video streaming market.
I guess expanding to other devices will give them a stronger foothold on other platforms Facebook is not yet threatening.
Yet.
@Question of the week:
Man, tough one! I’d go for Mission Impossible for NES. I couldn’t find how much it actually took to develop, unfortunately. My estimate is about one year.
@Microsoft Beginning Work on Xbox 720:
From the type of jobs listed there (lots of VLSI there), it looks like it will take a good couple of years before it is close to becoming a prototype.
@AAA Titles and Indie Games Matter:
… that’s so ambiguous. I don’t get the point here. As Derrick mentions, any ‘middle’ game can be turned into a AAA game. Some fail, but some succeed. Is it about marketing muscle?
Was Valve’s Portal a middle game?
@Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Not Coming Til 2012:
I don’t get it, again. Maybe I’m dumb, but I think it’s about milking it, because:
– the units are there (see the multiplayer, which is already playable)
– some balancing is already done (again, see MP)
– normally, the script should be done already; we’ve seen a fragment of it in the first game, and, for the entire thing to be coherent, the script should be done.
– all remains is to make maps.
@Netflix Coming to 3DS This Summer:
Funny, I know a bank that issued a warning regarding the value of stock shares of Netflix, on account of Facebook trying to penetrate the video streaming market.
I guess expanding to other devices will give them a stronger foothold on other platforms Facebook is not yet threatening.
Yet.
@Question of the week:
Man, tough one! I’d go for Mission Impossible for NES. I couldn’t find how much it actually took to develop, unfortunately. My estimate is about one year.
Hey, one question: did you guys consider making a profile also on moddb or maybe indiedb? You could post the podcast there as well. Might get some extra listeners.
And if you need help maintaining the profiles there, I can lend you a hand.
Hey, one question: did you guys consider making a profile also on moddb or maybe indiedb? You could post the podcast there as well. Might get some extra listeners.
And if you need help maintaining the profiles there, I can lend you a hand.
@Microsoft beginning work on Xbox 720
Yeah, from the wording of those ads, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready anytime soon. I’d say 2013 at the earliest.
@CliffyB says only AAA and indie games matter
I disagree with good old Cliffy B. There’s games that would probably be considered middle of the road games that I love and that still make enough profit. An example is Sam and Max. You wouldn’t call that a AAA game, but it’s not an indie game either. It is still an awesome game, however, and was quite successful.
@Netflix coming to 3DS
Too bad Netflix isn’t in Australia. This was kind of expected though, since Netflix is on pretty much every other tech device.
Also, Nintendo making a loss on the 3DS? I find that very strange. Unless they’re just trying to smash the NGP straight off the bat, then put the price up with a revision later on once they’ve “beaten” the NGP. I dunno, how reliable are the sources of the rumour Jonah? 😛
@Will Wright making a new game
As far as “game-making legends” go, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier and Will Wright seem to be the ones that everybody knows. Then there’s a heap of ‘lesser’ gaming legends, like Peter Molyneux, Gabe Newell, Hideo Kojima and good old Cliffy B 😛
@QOTW
To be honest, I first started gaming on the SNES, so I didn’t really play any ‘old school’ games. Except some on MAME.
@Microsoft beginning work on Xbox 720
Yeah, from the wording of those ads, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready anytime soon. I’d say 2013 at the earliest.
@CliffyB says only AAA and indie games matter
I disagree with good old Cliffy B. There’s games that would probably be considered middle of the road games that I love and that still make enough profit. An example is Sam and Max. You wouldn’t call that a AAA game, but it’s not an indie game either. It is still an awesome game, however, and was quite successful.
@Netflix coming to 3DS
Too bad Netflix isn’t in Australia. This was kind of expected though, since Netflix is on pretty much every other tech device.
Also, Nintendo making a loss on the 3DS? I find that very strange. Unless they’re just trying to smash the NGP straight off the bat, then put the price up with a revision later on once they’ve “beaten” the NGP. I dunno, how reliable are the sources of the rumour Jonah? 😛
@Will Wright making a new game
As far as “game-making legends” go, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier and Will Wright seem to be the ones that everybody knows. Then there’s a heap of ‘lesser’ gaming legends, like Peter Molyneux, Gabe Newell, Hideo Kojima and good old Cliffy B 😛
@QOTW
To be honest, I first started gaming on the SNES, so I didn’t really play any ‘old school’ games. Except some on MAME.