A third instalment in the Baldur's Gate series is tipped to be in development, without original creator BioWare.
Although it won't be ready for at least another year, we've heard the RPG sequel is coming along at an as-yet-unnamed developer and Neverwinter Nights 2 house Atari - which recently released a series compilation on PC-DVD - is said to be handling the publishing duties.
The acclaimed RPG series hasn't seen a proper release since 2001's Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, and has been the subject of constant rumour and speculation since.
A third game was even said to be in development at on-off Baldur's expansion dev Black Isle Studios, which has now been closed.
Original members of Black Isle have since founded Obsidian Entertainment, which helmed a sequel to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights.
Obsidian is a possibility then but the developer behind the third Baldur's Gate is still a mystery to us, although we've heard it's a studio more than capable of making a fantastic looking production. Speculate away.
When contacted Atari said it had no comment to make except that Baldur's Gate is "one of the properties Atari has rights to".
Feel free to speculate away in the comments section below.
BG is one of my fav games. Whilst a part of me welcomes a new game, the other part of me feels maybe its just not going to live up to expectations and taint what was an awesome game.
I worry that the guys who made Neverwinter such an average series have a hand in this. Do we have another "Invisible War" situation on hand?
The first NWN was made by the same team who worked on the Baldur's Gate games. And oddly enough, general consensus is that the Obsidian-developed NWN 2 is miles better than the Bioware-developer NWN 1.
For that matter, many people consider the Obsidian-developed Knights of the Old Republic 2 to be better than the Bioware-developed Knights of the Old Republic 1. (Of course, that's if you ignore the blatantly rushed KotOR 2 ending, for which LucasArts are to blame, not Osidian).
I can't agree that the Obsidian developed sequels of Bioware games we're superior. KOTOR2 was basically KOTOR with a few more ligh-saber crystals & fancy lights, very disappointing, & i hated NWN2 thought it was inferior to NWN in every way.
To me Bioware are the RPG kings, BG 1 & 2, NWN, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Dragon Age on the way. Without them at the helm i won't enjoy it as much as i could. If Obsidian develop it i'd bet money it's nothing new just a simple extension of the ideas that have gone before.
i hated NWN2 thought it was inferior to NWN in every way.
You're pretty much alone in that opinion, I'm afraid. If you check around the 'net, you'll quickly most PC CRPG players consider the NWN1 single player campaign to be absolute cack, and NWN2's campaign to be at least decent if not superb. Many people seem to think the first NWN2 add-on to be as good as Baldur's Gate 2.
At the risk of descending into bitter Friday night fanboyism... I've never met a single person who has tried to claim that NVN2 was better than Baldurs Gate 2.
As for KoToR, I'd love to meet these 'many people' who consider KoToR 2 to be better than the original. I mean, it essentially was the original, all they had to do was write a half way original story and they couldn't even be bothered to finish that.
I will concede that the out-of-the-box single player campaign for the original NWN wasn't up to much; but that's really missing the point. The overall engine and toolset was still a groundbreaking piece of software. It's like criticising the Venus de Milo because her t**s weren't big enough...
Anyway, I digress. Bottom line is: Bioware > Obsidian.
Anyway, I digress. Bottom line is: Bioware > Obsidian.
Only if you ignore Planescape Torment that Obsidian developed when they were Black Isle. Planescape is an RPG that wipes the floor with any of the NWN, KOTOR or even BG series in terms of story. In fact the ending for Planescape is so perfect it makes what happened to KOTOR II even less understandable. I would also say that NWN2 was clearly a step up in quality over the original (ignoring technical issues that were later patched) but still nowhere near BG2. As for KOTOR II, no it wasn't as good as the original, but I seem to remember that Obsidian had less than a year to get the thing out of the door from the day Bioware said "go". Given that and some of the direction the hidden dialogue indicated the game was going in, the finished article would probably have been on equal footing.
Obsidian can write good games given the right amount of time and I have high hopes for Alpha Protocol.
Anyway, I'm glad Bioware aren't involved in this, I haven't been too impressed with anything they've done since BG2. Neverwinter Nights bored me, KOTOR was fun the first playthrough, but not actually very interesting in terms of quests and writing. Same goes for Mass Effect, both games are too formulaic, the obligatory moral decisions are much too clear-cut and in Mass Effect's case actually marked so you don't have to think for yourself.
Obisidian, on the other hand, have the main people behind the wonderful Planescape: Torment. KOTOR 2 and NWN2, while suffering from rushed releases, are consistently better written and more interesting than the previous games in their series'. Neither are as good as Torment or BG2, but they present you with much more challenging decisions and less predictable characters and quests.
Still, until we get some solid details on BG3 I'm going to assume it's a cash-in on the name developed by neither of the above studios. The Baldur's Gate plot was wrapped up, and the previously canned versions of the 3rd game were unrelated except by name.
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