Archived Site News - December 2000

Strap on your beard and collect your fags - there's a row going on down near Slough. 'Near Slough,' in this case, being Amn, the part of the Forgotten Realms where BG2 takes place. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those of you who take your role-playing really seriously, but not seriously enough to take part in a proper pen, paper and dice game, Baldur's Gate 2 will take over your life with its epic scope and sheer depth.

Who's number one?

Baldur's Gate, from Black Isle Studios, was almost single-handedly responsible for revitalising the RPG genre when it was released in 1999. While Shadows of Amn, perhaps inevitably, didn't have quite the same impact, it certainly excelled as all the best sequels do: by offering the same fundamental gameplay experience, but adding more than enough extras to satisfy even the most hardened Baldur's addict.

Shadows' game engine was tweaked to make the scenery more varied and impressive and it made exploring the new world of Amn, a province to the south of the Sword Coast, a positive pleasure. In terms of gameplay, Shadows added substantial portions of hearty RPG fare including more NPC interaction, an excellent storyline, a ton of new sub-quests, expanded races and even more character classes. Cal Jones, our resident roleplaying expert and someone who has played nearly every single RPG over the past ten years described Baldur's Gate II as, "Quite simply the best roleplaying game ever." High praise indeed.

Our final entry for the Roleplaying Game of the Year is the third Infinity-engined outing from the creators of the Baldur's Gate series, which highlights Black Isle Studios' enduring position at the top of the RPG tree.

Another party-based outing for up to six adventurers, Icewind Dale wasn't just a filler while fans awaited Shadows of Amn, but an outstanding RPG in its own right that won plaudits for its high degree of originality, fast pacing and innovative plotting. Once again we were invited into an AD&D universe but Dale's focus on fighting dangerous monsters, finding powerful artefacts and exploring interesting environments meant it was far more action-orientated than previous outings from the same studio. Dale certainly had considerable depth and longevity, but its fast pace ensured there was rarely a dull moment and in spite of occasional problems, it is a more-than-worthy contender for this year's RPG crown.

One of the first releases of the new millennium that immediately caught RPG addicts' eyes was Planescape Torment, which sneaked onto the radar early this year. Successfully blending the anarchic aspects of Interplay's Fallout with Baldur's Gate's Infinity engine and then wrapping them all up in the Advanced D&D game universe, the end product was the kind of complex, interactive adventure that roleplaying game fans often dream about but rarely get the chance to enjoy.

You began Torment as the Nameless One, awaking on a mortuary slab with a severe case of amnesia and some cryptic clues carved into your flesh, in conversation with a disembodied, floating skull called Morte. Perhaps not the most auspicious of starts, but eventually you discovered that you were in Sigil, a kind of universal crossroad that intersected many different planes of existence. It was up to you not only to discover how you came to be here, but also your ultimate purpose in life.

Gorgeous graphics courtesy of the Bioware Infinity engine, a huge variety of quests and sub-quests to explore, constant plot twists and sophisticated character interaction - Torment had them all in abundance and rightly earned its epithet as one of the most pleasurable and involving roleplaying experiences of the year.

Though there were a number of outstanding role-playing games released this year (including Interplay's own Icewind Dale), GameSpot has chosen Baldur's Gate II to be its Role-Playing Game of the Year 2000 because of its epic story, involved quests, and the quality, depth, and breadth of its gameplay.

Clearly, a tremendous amount of effort went into the creation of Icewind Dale's dynamic orchestral score - the CD actually contains 41 distinct pieces of music that were written exclusively for the game. Whether you're walking into new areas of wilderness or foreboding structures or meeting new characters, Icewind Dale's music effectively draws you closer to the environment, the story, and the characters. It's also an incredibly effective composition in its own right and is something you might easily find yourself listening to or thinking about even when you're finished playing the game.

After Gamespy and GA RPG it's VoodooExtreme's turn.

They organized their Best RPG of 2000 Awards and once again, no surprises, the same games are in the top 3: Icewind Dale, Deux Ex and BG2: Shadows of Amn.

Find more here.

Interplay finally released patches for the multiplayer mode under DirectX 7 and 8.

More info here.

Spotted at Gamespy.

VoodooExtreme has got 18 new screenshots of Icewind Dalte: Heart of Winter from Interplay. It seems like this extension will be technically as good as BG2!


My favorite one
Go admire them.

Spotted at RPG Dot.

Not only does this game live up to its extraordinary predecessor, it surpasses it in many ways. The storyline drives on, keeping with the plot of the original, but with enough new twists to keep it engaging. Though they are still using essentially the same engine, the improvements they have made are enough to keep this game tromping remorselessly over its competition. No roleplaying gamer should miss out on this one and many other gamers might be surprised at how addicting this masterfully created world can be.

Alignment is central to a D&D character’s personality. D&D uses two measures to determine a specific character’s ethical and moral attitudes and behavior.

The moral axis has three positions: good, neutral and evil. Good characters generally care about the welfare of others. Neutral people generally care about their own welfare. Evil people generally seek to harm the others’ welfare.

The ethical axis has three positions as well: lawful, neutral, and chaotic. Lawful people generally follow the social rules as they understand them. Neutral people follow those rules find convenient or obviously necessary. And chaotic people seek to upset the social order and either institute change, or simply create anarchy.

Added Wyrm's Tooth to the IWD section. The area maps, walkthrough, creature list and quest list have been updated.

It is clear that the development team had the insight to borrow and improve on the best ideas from the top roleplaying games of the past to create the ultimate roleplaying game. Features such as these combined with the attention to detail shown by the development team are the qualities that will easily make Balder’s Gate 2 the roleplaying game of the year.

After Gamespy, GA-RPG organized the (now) traditional game of the year award. IwD got position 3 and BG2 was second. For your information, the number 1 was Deus Ex, a fair result, imho, event if it's arguable: it's very hard to say which one is better between BG2 and Deux Ex, they're both so good... and so different!

Find more here.

It is clear that the development team had the insight to borrow and improve on the best ideas from the top roleplaying games of the past to create the ultimate roleplaying game. Features such as these combined with the attention to detail shown by the development team are the qualities that will easily make Balder’s Gate 2 the roleplaying game of the year.

Go read it.

Hear ye, hear ye, times aren't good, as you may already know, the Lady of Pain is very angry and thus she organized a... "little quiz", those who succeed... survives... the other ones win the right to be mazzed for the rest of their life...

Ok, back to reality, RPG Planet set up a quiz so that you test how good you are at Planescape: Torment.
Quite funny... and hard... I got 17...

Myrthos: Lol, I had only 15.

Go try it.

Over the course of the past couple of months, Designer J.E. Sawyer of Black Isle has been providing us with a series of insider looks at various aspects of the development process. This week, he talks about sound design, specifically the process involved in writing dialogue and creating the voice acting tracks...

Go read it.

We've played the game for about 5 hours so far, and it's really great! The artwork is totally mind blowing as well (Even better than that in Baldurs Gate II) and for those that didn't like the static cut-scenes-you'll be happy to know their is an awesome opening cut-scene, with more possible in the game. (As we delve deeper into the game, we'll update this).

This year was clearly a good year for RPGs. The first-person, futuristic Deus Ex, the D&D titles Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate II, the long-awaited Diablo II, the action-oriented Nox, and the novel Vampire provided lots of variety as well. This doesn't even include the continued strong massively multiplayer games like Asheron's Call and EverQuest.

With the brief glance we were able to get into the storyline, the maps and the other new graphics for Heart, the quality of the game is in line with its predecessor. The storyline holds a great deal of promise. The map of the new main town is very pretty. Several new high-quality player images have been added, and each continues to convey the diffuse, soft colors and mood of the original Icewind Dale character art. Black Isle has consistently produced fantastic games that receive rave reviews from most critics. It is too early to tell if Heart of Winter will compare favorably with its heritage, but based on our quick glimpse, the prognosis looks good.

Only a few forgivable problems mar the surface. While battles are now larger, set-piece affairs that are much weightier than anything encountered in the original, they are also often artificial. Each quest features at least one, if not two or three, of these showdowns. Enemies are either perfectly positioned for combat as soon as you enter the room, or the surrounding terrain or furniture conspires to make things much more difficult than they should have been. It seems like you're constantly walking into ambushes. This eventually forces you to cheat, as many of these battles simply cannot be won during your first run-through. You'll need to die once to determine where the foes are, twice to experiment with different tactics, and sometimes thrice to experiment with different “buff” spells before entering the room with the baddies. This means that you'll eventually be prepping your characters prior to battles that they shouldn't know about. That's poor game design.

Hey everyone,

We wanted to give you guys an update on how Heart of Winter is going before the Holiday weekend. The game has been coming together very well, and is pretty much complete with the exception of level balancing and bug fixing. We're still on track for release early next quarter (Q1 2001).

I recently got back from Press Tour, which involves Heather, Icewind's Public Relations manager, and myself flying out to see members of the web community and print mags to show them the expansion, and give them the 411 on what's planned to be in the final game. Here are a couple links from sites that have done previews based off the tour...

Go visit it.

There are a whole host of new character classes and a few new races to choose from as well as a massive amount of spells to play with, and probably the best bit is that when you start from scratch your characters are generally speaking pretty hard guys. Gone are the days when that rat in the basement was a severe challenge for my mage who had already used all her spells, and my poor ranger pitifully trying to hide behind a tree in the middle of the night was still getting spotted by anyone and everyone who walked past.

In one of the stranger tie-ups we've witnessed in recent years, Baldur's Gate II has been named the Official Game of Dungeons and Dragons, the movie.

Actually it's not that strange a turn of events; BG2 is, after all, rooted in the world of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and it's going to make the most of its new-found celebrity with a special D&D-themed Collector's Edition, released on 9 February 2001, the same day as the film's released over here.

As for the film itself, it's coming in for a bit of a pasting over in the States. Expect lots of cheese with a side order of extra-hammy ham, but wait for our definitive review over in the Showbiz section in but a few weeks.

In today's new Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Lonelywood Gallery, we present a dozen new screenshots showing the art team's work on various parts of the town plus an overall view of the town area.

Topping the list is Interplay and BioWare's epic Baldur's Gate II, the sequel to last year's RPG of the Year. The game lets you take a party of six intrepid adventurers through a deep and complex adventure, gaining experience, wealth, and powerful items along the way. The story is rich, the artwork is fantastic, and the game is deeply satisfying.

Go read it.

Interplay have announced a deal with New Line Cinema which sees the excellent "Baldur's Gate II : Shadows of Amn" becoming the official "game of the movie" for their lavish live-action "Dungeons & Dragons" film, which is due in cinemas in the UK on February 9th. To tie in with the movie's release, Interplay (through their European distributor Virgin Interactive) will be releasing an exclusive new Baldur's Gate II "Collector's Pack", which will only be available here in Europe! The pack will be "movie themed" and include "some wonderful gifts", although there are no exact details on its contents yet.

Much like Icewind Dale, Heart of Winter should satisfy your thirst for blood with massive new adversaries, and your greed by offering up a wondrous assortment of new magical items. The addition of the features discussed above, a few secret ‘unannounced’ ones, and Black Isle Studios past track record… you can rest assured that Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter has all the potential to be another great game.

It's new, it's hot, it is the game to get in the year 2000. It is the Dungeon and Dragons universe brought to your computer, along with an excellent storyline and multiplayer for up to 6 players. Spanning four CDs, this game will take over 250 hours to complete while doing over 100 different quests. After you are done, you will want to replay it because quests can be handled in different ways. There are over 300 spells you can learn and cast. You can select from over 30 different classes of characters and seven different races. No role-playing game has ever been released with as much depth as this game. Just a word of warning, say good-bye to your loved ones once you start playing.

Added Upper Dorn's Deep to the IWD section. The area maps, walkthrough, creature list and quest list have been updated.
In order to speed things up in delivering the info, I dropped the detailed item info from the walkthrough and maps

For those who wonder, I just wanted to remind you that the IWD expension pack is planned for release on January 15... isn't this date the "heart of the winter"? I'm sure it's not a coincidence!

There is a new Heart of Winter wallpaper available from Interplay. Go get it here.

Added the Severed Hand to the IWD section. The area maps, walkthrough, creature list and quest list have been updated.

If you missed the last IRC chat (like me) with BG2's team don't worry, Ultimate SpeedZone published an cleaned up version of the chat log.

Go read it.

After IGN PC, it's Games Domain. And guess what, Icewind Dale is not in the list this time, only BG2...

Go read it.

RPG Vault has put up a nice poll asking "Which of these is your favorite style of CRPG or hybrid?", follow the link to know what "these" designates.

We are glad to inform you that we our lonely Locus Inn forum has been joined by two new boards: Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale. Planescape: Torment, being older will stay in the first forum.

Guess what I just found? A holiday buying guide! And guess what's in it? Our beloved Icewind Dale and BG2: Shadows of Amn! Okaaay... that's not very surprising since these two games are among the best RPGs ever. Anyhow, it may be interesting to read what are their arguments to incite you in buying them (BG2 and IWD... not IGN).

Also in their list: Diablo II - Deux Ex - EverQuest

Go read it.

This set was done on a lark. I developed the sounds with a swashbuckler in mind, but she will do for most any bold, irreverent female character. Irlan is cocky, fearless, and laughs in the face of...well...almost everything. Her soundset borrows a few choice phrases from Coran's old BGI soundset, and she certainly borrows some of the attitude as well. Perfect for thieves, fighters, and just about any female character who makes a specialty out of cheating death six times before breakfast.

Heart of Winter effectively extends the original game with an all-new quest designed for high-level characters, which your characters certainly will be by the conclusion of Icewind Dale. Yet, you'll be able to start the Heart of Winter quest from almost any point during Icewind Dale, provided you feel that your characters are powerful enough - which means that they are at or past the ninth experience level - to face the challenges; and this is quite powerful indeed by D&D standards. You'll also have the option to simply start the expansion quest from scratch by importing your high-level characters straight into the new scenario.

Ah, to be evil and to live without the trappings of such frivolous things as morals, truth, and justice. To rob people blind and never get caught, to do nothing except for reward, and to answer rudeness with violence. That's the easy life, right? Well, no, actually. In Baldur's Gate II, it's actually much harder to finish the game as an evil party. You'll miss out on a lot of experience from the "feel good" quests such as freeing slaves with little monetary reward (if you stick to the evil path anyway, no cheating!). You'll also have to be careful about who you rob and getting caught doing unlawful things. But, at least you can DO unlawful things! Being evil is being free. Being evil is never having to say you're sorry. Being evil is being alive! Moohahahahahah!

Computer role-playing games seem to echo the disdain for two-handed weapons. Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate 2, and just about every other CRPG that comes to mind, make it extremely silly to use them. This usually comes in the form of lack of a shield or second weapon, which is a big disadvantage when magic weapons or shields are available. So why were these weapons even used in medieval times and why is it de riguer to include them in role-playing games? Aside from the cool-factor of these weapons, their power does not seem to equal that loss of another weapon or the defensive advantages of a shield.

The best RPGs of the year were SYSTEM SHOCK 2 and PLANESCAPE TORMENT, two novel games that delivered original gameplay experiences. SYSTEM SHOCK 2 featured first-person shooter gameplay supplemented by a complex character development system and some incredibly immersive, chilling environments. Interplay's PLANESCAPE TORMENT was a D&D game that used the core BALDUR'S GATE engine, but featured gameplay closer in style to Interplay's FALLOUT series.

If you're like me, you find it just doesn't pay to be the good guy sometimes. You miss out on all the easy ways to get rich like stealing, mugging, killing other good guys, and worst, Viconia! Well, it's not all weeping for love lost as a good guy. A party of heroes has the easiest time with a game of BG2, gets the most experience, and gets to reap the rewards of a high reputation. Plus, they are comprised of stronger characters like Anomen, Keldornn, and Aerie.

The crucial thing to realize in playing BG2 is that when presented with a conflict, the game gives options that are tantamount to “kill or solve.” One can kill the “antagonist” outright, or possibly talk to them to understand more about the situation and find a different way to resolve the situation. In many cases, either mode resolves the conflict, but the negotiation route is always the more rewarding one in terms of treasure and experience points for the character. Resolving the same situation in different ways allows one to see this- almost invariably the “wipe everything out immediately” solution rewards less richly. However, violence was “necessary” at some point. Indeed my character had to use violence eventually to clear the ruined temple, but talking was the first option and proved successful in other situations.

It takes a bit of guts for a PC gaming company to come out with a sprite-based, single player RPG. Why play a 2-D, sprite based game when you can play a 3D MMORPG like Everquest or Asheron's Call? How can Bioware think that Baldur's Gate has a prayer against dynamite looking (and playing) 3D MMORPGs, or even 3D Real Time Strategy games like Sacrifice? Read more to find out why Baldur's Gate 2 is a serious contender for Game of the Year Honors.

Modified this home page a bit to accomodate the news and the headlines better.
The links to the games are now in the navigation bar on the left and I also added a link to search the web for your convenience :).

Did you ever want to use the voice of Jon Irenicus for your character. Gamers Allegiance, has a soundset for him that you can download.

Ultimate Speedzone is hosting a chat with the Baldur's Gate II design team. This is your chance the ask them the questions you were always dying to ask :)

Go over to Gamespy to vote for the best games of the year. The best Role Playing Game can be chosen here at RPGPlanet. Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale are both eligible for the award so make your choice.

Access Magazine has also nominated Baldur's Gate II as the best RPG of the year. Check it out here.

Right after RPG Vault, Gamespy posted its "own" designer diary from the "same" person: J.E. Sawyer.

Go read it.

I just found this Heart of Winter Designer Diary from J.E. Sawyer at RPG Vault.

Contains some interesting info...

Though Heart of Winter is an expansion of Icewind Dale, the game has benefited from its immediate predecessor, Baldur's Gate II. New user interface improvements, 800-by-600-pixel resolution and the ability to hide the interface and see the game in full screen are just some of the gameplay upgrades; and gamers who install Heart of Winter will be able to play the original Icewind Dale with these new features as well.

To start off, the opening movie for Heart of Winter gets your attention quickly. If your video card has the capabilities, I recommend one of the higher resolutions when playing the game-it's great!! New characters and new places give the player a new change of pace. Again the scenery is just awesome. Remember buying arrows one stack at a time? No more-you can now double-click on the item and buy as much as you need. Buying has just gotten easier. All the scroll cases, gem and potion bags are great additions. Remember lugging all those gems and taking up valuable inventory space? Don't even worry about it. Now about the spells-AWESOME!!! If you never play a magic user, you're missing out. The effects and animations are one of the biggest reasons that a player will want a mage or cleric in their party. New monsters that are difficult to beat are everywhere but don't fear; newer magical weapons have been implemented to help you defeat these foul creatures. I know I'm going on and on about Heart of Winter but one last thing, the new bard songs alone are giving this class something to rave about. As you gain levels, you get to sing songs that help your party with bonuses, protection, healing, etc. Bards rock!!!

Find more here.

rpgvault has done an in depth look on Baldur's Gate II, together with Co-Lead Designer Kevin Martens of BioWare. It's a great story so go check it out.

Spotted at RPG Dot

This is not really news, I'd just like to remind you that Gamespot has some great guides, one on Planescape: Torment, another one on Icewind Dale and finally, one on Baldur's Gate 2.

Seems like this is becoming a tradion: during this periode big sites write a holiday gift guide where they present the games that really deserve being bought to offer. In the RPG selection of Gamespot, there's, and this is not surprising, Baldur's Gate 2.

Check out what they have to say about it.

Wondering what romances there are in Baldur's Gate II. Then wonder no longer and go to our romances page in the hints and tips section.

Baldur's Gate II has been named 'Game of the Year' by MSNBC. Read all about it here.

Baldur's Gate Haven has a new background to download featuring all NPC's in one image. It comes in 4 different sizes from 800x600 upto 1600x1200.

Icewind Dale fans, you lucky fellows! Two new previous has been written on Heart of Winter (or "HoW" to go faster), the official extension pack of the game you (should) all like.

In case you don't feel like reading them, it explains that

• You'll have to be at least level 9 to go through the first maps
  
• HoW will implement many of BG2's new features (resolution from 640x480 to 2048x1536 and auto-pausing)
  
• The XP cap went from 1,800,000 to 2,900,000
  
• Enemies will be using the same new spells that are given to the players
  
• BlackIsle (HoW's developer) claims to have tremendously improved the I.A. of the foes (both creatures and enemy characters)
  
• The expansion is about 1/3 the size of the original game
  
• It can be played separately or as a continuation of the original
  
• HoW offers five major new areas
  
• And much more...

Here's the one posted at Dailyradar
And this one is from IGN PC

Spotted at RPG Dot

Added the available cheats in BGII to the Playing Tips

Game FAQs posted some new walkthroughs and hints for Baldur's Gate 2.

Go read them.

Spotted at Gamespy.com

Today, Dec 5 2000 is a special day for the Locus Inn, head at the forums to know why. To celebrate this, we will now try to provide you with an even larger coverage of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment news, and I'll be here to help achieving this... But don't expect too much from me ;-) I don't even have Baldur's Gate 2 (!) (for some reasons that has nothing to do with the game itself).

When I say "news" this includes reports from the official forums, links to other sites (such has Gamespy, IGN, Gamespot, etc... if they have exclusive screenshots, a new interview, etc...) and some other stuffs, etc... Instead of being forced to visit tons of sites to find what's going on around your favourite game, you'll need to bookmark just one address: the Locus Inn!

Oh, last thing, these are some codes I'll use in my posts:
- BG1 for Baldur's Gate, BG2 for... huh
- IwD for Icewind Dale
- HoW for Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
- PsT for Planescape: Torment
- OF for Official Forum

Just saw over at Planet Baldur's Gate that they now host a new scripting site, for scriting the infinity engine games. It generates the script via a web interface, so you don't have to remember all those commands yourself :-).

Interested in how good multiplayer is in BGII. Then go over to the review that intelligamer did. They thought it was ok and gave it a 98% score.

If you want to have a closer look at the ad that is currently running in magazines for Heart of Winter, go to 3D palette and download the images. They have them in two formats, a decent 1024x768 and a big whopping 2000x1400 version.

Have been working on the behaviour of the site when Netscape 4.x browsers are used. For most pages the behaviour is now corrected. They should behave in the same way as Explorer does and should also display the add banner correctly now.
Note that at the moment searching does not work yet with Netscape 4.x.

Don't know if it has been active long but the link to teamBG is working again. In case you never heard of them, they have made their own add-on to Baldur's Gate, named 'Dark Side of the Sword Coast'. They also have a nice set of tools that you can use to tweak the used engine.

a href="http://www.baldursgatehaven.com">Baldur's Gate Haven has 5 new screenshots of Heart of winter. go check em out by clicking here.

Christmas is almost here, and so is the expansion pack. Its coming along great, and having integrated a ton of cool features from Bioware's BG2 code as well as some new stuff, I think you guys will really enjoy it."

Well maybe this means that you can get HOW for christmas. This is if you live in North America. If not then it will probably be januari :(.

They also have some links to some developer diaries overthere in case you are interested.

The Ironworks have completed their walkthrough of Icewind Dale. Go here to have a look at it.

If you want to get the added items from the Bonus CD's then you can get the area overrides from Baldur's gate II Dungeon.This makes Daihira end up being in the Adventures Mart, and Julov in the Copper Cornet, both are shopkeepers.
Also added the CD info to the items in the item list.