What could the "great-grandchild" of Baldur's Gate be like (for PC)?

[Morton]

When Baldur's Gate was released in 1998, it was very obvious that some day in the future when processors and graphics cards would be much more powerful the developers could amaze gamers by going from locked perspective and pre-rendered graphics to free perspective and fully 3D graphics rendered in high resolution during the actual game. In 2001 they finished Neverwinter Nights 1. You could now scroll the camera freely but the 3D graphics weren't incredibly sophisticated and there were different sorts of restrictions. As a result, game maps in NWN 1 didn't quite reach the same level of freedom in "artistic visualisation" as they did in Baldur's Gate. However, the day finally came when Neverwinter Nights 2 was released in 2006. NWN 2 reminded of Baldur's Gate much more strongly than NWN 1 in terms of graphics.

Now it seems to be much harder to predict what might be the next amazing technical features if the same developers decided to make a new similar game 8-10 years from now (Baldur's Gate 3 or 4 / NWN 3 or 4 / some new title, looking much further beyond the upcoming Dragon Age here)? It seems that the developers couldn't resort only to graphics anymore to make jaws drop and would need to work on game's physics and maybe improved use of the Z-axis as well in order to be able to push the franchise up the innovation ladder. Could the intro animations of NWN 1 and NWN 2 give a glimpse of what the actual gameplay could be like in the future? Any thoughts?

Candlekeep in Baldur's Gate 1 (1998):

Candlekeep map from Baldur's Gate 1 recreated in Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006):

 

[Morton]

In case you are wondering about the second screenshot, I took it from the gallery of a group of enthusiasts who are recreating Baldur's Gate 1 as a multiplayer persistent world for Neverwinter Nights 2.

http://theswordcoast.proboards89.com/index.cgi?board=gallery&action=display&thread=38

 

[infornography42]

For me, the lure of these kinds of games was never the graphics, physics, or effects. It was the story, characters, and plot.

As such, something along the lines of Dragon Age would do me nicely. Mostly the direction I see really interesting innovation in RPGs taking is things like conversational AI and dynamic facial expressions rather than scripted ones. Thats what would really get me excited.

 

[purplerat]

I'm not sure what the "great-grandchild" of Baldur's Gate be like, but I'm certain he would be molested by some body wearing robes, a pointy wizard's hat and speaking in old English.

 

[Ananan]

That is awesome.

I'd love to replay Baldur's Gate with a new graphics engine; and I just bought NWN 2 gold edition.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[hamsystem]

I think the world is about due Baldur's Gate 3.

 

[spanner_razor]

I really didn't like Neverwinter Nights 1, not enough character control, I know they added to that in the expansions but by that time I'd lost interest. Good for mods apparently though. Neverwinter Nights 2 was pretty good, better story than NWN but not as good as BG2, also ludicrous specs for a game that looks ok at best.

 

[Morton]

Ananan, I got excited about that NWN 2 Baldur's Gate mod too. I played Baldur's Gate eight years ago last time but was able to identify some of the locations in the screenshots. However, they are not recreating it as a single player module but as a multiplayer persistent world mod. It might be more like MMORPG in terms of game play, unless they will have really dedicated DMs.

One of the biggest problems with NWN 2 is that it still crashes in multiplayer mode during map transitions and you need to close the game and go download some files if you want to try playing on some server. People have been actually complaining on NWN 2 PW forums that there are still less players in NWN 2 than in NWN 1. NWN 1 is still quite alive and this summer it will even be patched to version 1.69, introducing for the first time Ride skill, Mounted Combat/Mounted Archery feats and rideable horses as official game content. Perhaps they will add something similar to NWN 2 after 5-6 years.

 

[jtm33]

Heh, the words in the first screenshot. Even though you character doesnt need to eat, YOU do... ahh i love that kind of thing.

 

[FirewolfX]

That's not actually a BG1 original screenshot, it looks like it's from BGtutu, which allows you to play BG1 using the BG2 engine. (BG1 has a stone styled GUI)

The original graphics were limited to a lower resolution.

 

[Morton]

You're probably right. I noticed only now that there is also a portrait of Aribeth from NWN 1 in that screenshot. The actual scene seems to be from BG1, though.

I'm still trying to finish Icewind Dale 2 which I started playing in 2003. It's not as good as BG but I keep returning to it a few times every year just for the sake of fond memories that I have for Baldur's Gate games.

 

[FirewolfX]

Yeah, I'm playing it now, love BG1.

I got about 1/2 way through IWD2, but never finished. Was fun from what I remember!