Baldurs Gate 4-in-1 Compilation (PC DVD)

I have played these to death and every few years pick them up again and have another go. I would recommend you google, download and install some user modifications to play these games:
"bgtutu" allows you to play the original and expansion using the second ones game engine.
"bg1 unfinished business for tutu" and "unfinished business" adds content that was cut from the finished versions of both games. So without changing the feel of the games they are fleshed out a little.
"bg widescreen mod" allows the user to change the resolution to modern display resolutions.

You control a hero of the soldier/mage/ranger/healer variety using a point and click interface with an isometric view and 2D artwork. When you click on an enemy your character will auto swipe at them until they are no more. You can intervene with a pause button and a selection of special commands. During you journey you can seek the aid of upto 5 companions at a time. The world consists of a large number of countryside maps that reveal their neighbours when you reach the edges. You are free to wonder

The originals map design is expertly made:
You start in a single area that will not open up to anywhere else until the plot is advanced.
The spine of the map contains a main quest and story.
The outer areas of the map are free to be explored or ignored at your leisure.
Special new areas are revealed in line with an advancement in plot.

To me this is the perfect map design. The first area gives you a chance to get to grips with thte game. The spine gives you a tight script, direction and a world that you can affect. The outer fringes give you a sense of freedom and openness and a sense that the world carries on regardless of you. The introduced areas give you a sense of advancement and reduce the overwhelming size of the world to begin with.

The original gives you all the wonder of a fantasy book. You start of in a safe and stuffy environment with an urge for adventure. Disaster strikes you a left alone, confused and vulnerable. You have freedom but not daring to leave the path, you head for the one place you know that may provide safety. Companions join you which brings some relief with the conflicting feeling that you can't trust them. You eventually find companions you can trust and together you grow strong whilst chipping away at the strength of a slowly revealed enemy. At the same time you learn to rely on your companions and get involved in revealing banter....and you get the idea.

The original has fantastic game mechanics.

In a classic party of six. The mage is unbelievably weak. One good shot from a bow and the mage could be in a critical condition. However if the mage pulls off a fireball uninterrupted they can cause devastation to a group of enemies. A warrior can hold off a group of enemies for the mage but their health will degrade and they require the aid of a cleric to keep them in battle. The warrior is also of low intelligence and susceptible to spells and traps. The cleric can buff the warrior and remove curses but a better option is to seek the support of a good rogue who can sneak and back stab a mage and seek and remove any traps. Do you want a beast of a barbarian who can cut foes in two with their huge sword or a virtuous paladin who improves the perception of your party to strangers? It is the weaknesses as well as the strengths that make a good party based game as it requires co operation between members. It is the options available that make the party yours. You cannot just pick and choose who you want either. Most characters have past relationships that come first or grievances. The party becomes less ideal as you take the characters into account and that brings it all the more to life.

For the large part you use standard equipment and magical weapons and such are rare. I don't want to find my millionth magical weapon in a fantasy game. I want my treasure to be treasured! Nor to I want several levels of sword.

The enemies are of a predictable difficulty to you along the main plot driven routes with a few nasty surprises to add to the sense of danger. Travel into the wilderness though and who knows what you will face. These areas become less of a worry to the experienced traveller but to become an experienced traveller you must venture into these areas. This type of world gives meaning to a levelling system.

**WHY ARE THERE NOT MORE GAMES LIKE THIS**

The second game is a continuation of the first. It is widely considered better than the original although not by me. In the second game you become truly powerful and truly special. You face a new threat and the story from the first is expanded and concluded. The graphics and mechanics are improved upon and the relationships with your fellow travellers are larger and more complex. There is allot less random exploring now as you are a hardened adventurer with a mission. Enemy levelling is introduced to the game so that you still have a sense of freedom in choosing where to go amongst a number of areas that follow a plot path. The large benefit of the changes is that the game is more plot orientated and driven throughout. More opportunity is given to tell the story. I can never enjoy enemy levelling existing in games though. I can see it and it brings me out of immersion. I don't like it when a game changes to suit me be it item or enemy levels. If a world exists it should exist as it is whether I am level 4 or 8. Still this aspect is allot less apparent than some other games.

If you play one series in the world of orcs and goblins and magic and swords, make it this one.

Hello.

God these games are a true classic!

Recently my Baldurs Gate fever caught fire as I'm doing a lap of the classic RPG D&D Games to inspire my own Dungeons and Dragons table-top game over the summer. I recent purchased the 4-in-1 boxset of Baldurs Gate and like some of the people here, got unlucky and recived a US version of Tales of the Sword Coast and Baldurs Gate 2 in my 4 in 1 box. This gives you a warning message when you try play them along the lines of; 'Warning Message: Wrong Region this Game only works in US or Canada"

Now then:

First off - If you really want to complain. Atari now handles distribution of the games, not Bioware the original developers. You therefore need to contact Atari through their website or via phone for your region if you want to shout at them.

Second - So far i've had no trouble running the Game on Windows 7 64 bit edition. Man the resolution being in 640x400 makes the world look huge bit ill get onto that in a second! As an extra note: I don't even run compatability modes either the games just seems to 'work'. I guess problems with Windows 7 are due to the 32 bit versions.

Third - If you get a US version of Tales of the Sword Coast / BG 2 you don't need to panic. They have already admitted on their website that Atari had a distribution error with regards to versions being sent out in the 4-in-1 boxset. If you don't want to go through the refund process, I recommend that you go to Bio-ware's website. Under support for Baldur's Gate, you can find the UK Patch for Tales of the Sword Coast and BG 2. If you download and install these 'UK' patches this should make your version of the game work without twiddling with Region settings or have you pulling your hair out in frustration.

Fourth - A mod called BGTuTu is out which runs Baldur's Gate 1 using the Baldur's Gate 2 Infinity Engine (A more advanced version of the original game engine). It's still in development but if you install this mod, it gives far more gameplay and game mechanics options options, as well as better high resolution support for better graphics for Baldurs Gate 1. I high recommend it as it is almost like playing two different games (one with 'classic look' the other with tutu). I highly recommend you try get it working, though you cannot beat the 'classic' feel and nature to the 640x480 default res!

Fifth - If you want to crank the res up even higher. There are several 'Widescreen' mods and hi-def applications that work. I can't post the websites but a quick search for them should turn them up. These allow you to turn up your graphics appropriately if you use a unique monitor aspect (eg. 1650 x 1024).

Finally - If you never played these games. You missed out on some of the greatest RPG games of all time. These got me into D&D and inspired so many and much from Neverwinter Nights to MMO's like World of Warcraft. Even now Bio-Ware have spiritual successors and hommage to BG in the form of Dragon Age Origin's (The official 'Spiritual Successor' to the Genre), Mass Effect (You can get a space hamster in ME2) and even the KOTOR series. Which were all developed by some of the people who made all these games as great as they are.

For such a low price and a little bit of tweaking (took me about 20 minutes to get up and running smoothly) I can honestly say this boxset is the best value for money I've had in a long long time; theres still a strong community and even now when I mention my purchase to people I work with, theres always that 'Ahhh man, that game is classic!' moment.

I was always a fan of the Baldur's Gate series, and I thought I'd give them one last run-through once I saw this bundle. The games themselves are great, but I'm not sure enough testing was done to ensure a flawless/hassle-free experience for everyone with this package. Although I'd gladly give the originals five stars, what I bought here was certainly lacking.

I would like to consider myself at least competent with computers, but I'm on my fifth install now - this is after downloading and installing the correct international patches for Tales of the Sword Coast, after trying EasyTutu (which I had hoped would solve other issues), and after changing the default destination folder as recommended on some fora. On some installs I've had trouble being asked to insert the CD before playing (despite the DVD already being present in the drive). If you go through various fora you will see many people have had issues with this package. I've ensured the game is not blocked by Windows Defender, tried running in all the compatibility modes Windows Vista (32bit) offers, and tried playing the game at the recommended resolution. My last attempt was just to install the first Baldur's Gate with the aim of completing that before complicating things by installing the next game in the series. This has not worked, and I'm still facing the same major problem: I can start a new game (I have always played in multi-player mode so I have full control over the classes etc. of all six party members), but when I exit the game I cannot log back on - the game always crashes before I have the opportunity to load a game. Apparently the APPCRASH has something to do with "bgmain", but my competency ends after ensuring this application has full privaleges to escape windows firewall (and I have also tried running it in admin mode...)

My advice: stay clear unless you're willing to have to spend an aweful amount of time getting the game up and running. I am very dissappointed. (although, I would gamble the tenner on hoping I was one of the lucky people who had no installation issues!)

Good luck to future purchasers! :(