Baldurs Gate

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 14:19

http://baldursgate.com/

Over 5 hours to find out! Whatisit?! Whatisit?! Whatisit?!

KovacsC · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 14:21

ooooh!

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

I reckon it'll be an isometric turn-based party RPG.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

I don't reckon it'll be an isometric turn-based party RPG

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 14:35

It could be for iOS though.

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22387

It's a new type of picket fence opening, for bungalows.

Morte · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 15:10

It would be the stuff of dreams for it to be an isometric turn based RPG.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

I'm betting on iOS, too. Pretty exciting though.

I played BG2 a few months back and thought to myself how good it would translate to the iPad. Might have to buy one if it is an iOS version.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Countdown finishes at 7! Excitement building. Sort of.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 18:14

Not long to go now.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

Annnnnnnd the site is dead. 8PM, then.

(Side note: Why does everyone always seem to underestimate the amount of strain people will put on their servers? It happens with video game launches, announcements, buying tickets for big events, etc. Without fail it always happens. What's the deal, internet?)

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 20:42

WTB wrote:

Annnnnnnd the site is dead. 8PM, then.

(Side note: Why does everyone always seem to underestimate the amount of strain people will put on their servers? It happens with video game launches, announcements, buying tickets for big events, etc. Without fail it always happens. What's the deal, internet?)

It's hard to judge how popular anything will be and it's bloody expensive to serve large amounts in a small time.

Slightly Green · **Joined:** 26th Aug, 2010 **Posts:** 2069

Grim... wrote:

WTB wrote:

Annnnnnnd the site is dead. 8PM, then.

(Side note: Why does everyone always seem to underestimate the amount of strain people will put on their servers? It happens with video game launches, announcements, buying tickets for big events, etc. Without fail it always happens. What's the deal, internet?)

It's hard to judge how popular anything will be and it's bloody expensive to serve large amounts in a small time.

Other than during the DavPaz inauguration, has Beex ever been taken down due to excessive traffic?

Grim... · **Posted:** Thu Mar 15, 2012 22:17

No, but some of my other sites have.

Morte · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 0:09

Quote:

So, this is happening -- Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition. Details are scant, owing largely to the Baldur’s Gate website being hammered by ravenous fans.

Not that there’s much to share: the folks at Overhaul games have received the permission they need to revisit the Baldur’s Gate series, and they’re doing just that. Twitter is a bit more forthcoming; Publisher Beamdog ‘s monthly newsletter handles the announcement rather succinctly. Expect a return to a series sometime this summer.

Overhaul Games brought their expertise to bear on MDK2 HD not too long ago, introducing high-definition graphics, enhancing the audio, and introducing a few gameplay tweaks to a stellar, albeit dated game. I’m expecting much the same out of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition. It’s not the Baldur’s Gate III I’ve been dreaming of for time immemorial, but the Infintiy Engine is looking a little long in the tooth; and I’d rather not have to track down all 5 discs (and one more for the expansion) to get the original up and running on my PC again.

Talk about long overdue! The last, proper game in the Baldur’s Gate series was Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, released in 2000. Or perhaps its expansion pack, Throne of Bhaal, which was released in 2001. If we overlook the action-RPGs that hit consoles, it’s been eleven long years since we last set foot in Faerun.

That’s… far too long, in my humble opinion. More on this as it develops of course, though I’m probably not helping things along by constantly mashing F5 over on Baldursgate.com.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:18

Dull.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:26

Grim... wrote:

WTB wrote:

Annnnnnnd the site is dead. 8PM, then.

(Side note: Why does everyone always seem to underestimate the amount of strain people will put on their servers? It happens with video game launches, announcements, buying tickets for big events, etc. Without fail it always happens. What's the deal, internet?)

It's hard to judge how popular anything will be and it's bloody expensive to serve large amounts in a small time.

Wouldn't on demand computing / 'cloud' help that?

Grim... · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:07

It'd help with the speed at which you can respond to it, but it would still be bloody expensive.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

To be able to allocate spare resources on demand, you have to have spare resources, which is costly.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:12

Your Mum allocates spare resources on demand, but she isn't costly.

Mr Dom · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:15

If they had an announcement that was going to be popular, they could always make a site that didn't use ~1MB of images & associated gumph per page...
Maybe a static page & a couple of well compressed images, keep it under 50k & watch your server cope with 10x the visitors easily. But they never think like that do they...

Grim... · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:23

Mr Dom wrote:

If they had an announcement that was going to be popular, they could always make a site that didn't use ~1MB of images & associated gumph per page...
Maybe a static page & a couple of well compressed images, keep it under 50k & watch your server cope with 10x the visitors easily. But they never think like that do they...

You're assuming that they bottlenecked on disk I/O and had ten times the capacity everywhere else, though.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:37

Craster wrote:

To be able to allocate spare resources on demand, you have to have spare resources, which is costly.

I think HP are doing stuff like that, to reduce costs, you pay for what you use. As they have Data Centres set up for this... sorry to derail.

Mr Dom · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:43

Grim... wrote:

Mr Dom wrote:

If they had an announcement that was going to be popular, they could always make a site that didn't use ~1MB of images & associated gumph per page...
Maybe a static page & a couple of well compressed images, keep it under 50k & watch your server cope with 10x the visitors easily. But they never think like that do they...

You're assuming that they bottlenecked on disk I/O and had ten times the capacity everywhere else, though.

Most of it would be served straight from memory - server wouldn't bother reading the disk for every access, and I would hope the server had >1MB free

Bandwidth would be my guess at their limit, and once it starts chugging, then people start hammering the refresh or opening the page multiple times, and the load leaps up yet again and it all turns to poo...

It really is not an optimised site - to many artists, not enough techies, and I think it often comes down to thinking that problems like these can be bought away with enough cash for better servers - probably costing far more in the long run than having a good web programmer audit & optimise the site in the first place. My dad did 'proper computing' for many years, and was always trying to explain to me that at the corporate level, hardware is cheap, software is expensive (programming, licensing, & maintenance), and optimisation is often ignored in favor of buying faster kit.
The inefficiency of it all winds me up something chronic

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

To be fair, the correct answer for doing something like this is "Pay Akamai to do load management for you".

Morte · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:58

Anyways, new Baldurs Gate (or at least a remake)...so Yay.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:18

Yeah, I only ever played Icewind Dale* so they'd be new to me anyway.

*Up until it fucked up towards the end :'(

, I really enjoyed it though until then.

myp · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:36

Ooh, excellent. I never played this first time round.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:40

New to me too

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:47

I played the 2nd one. Enjoyed it but unfortunately by halfway through it was unplayable due to crashing.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

I only played 2 as well. Incredibly deep and complex. Quite rewarding. I started playing it again not so long ago (bought from GOG) and I just couldn't be arsed with the interface. Will be nice to play a "remake".

Zardoz · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 13:13

It would be nice to have online multi player parties.

Slightly Green · **Joined:** 26th Aug, 2010 **Posts:** 2069

WTB wrote:

I only played 2 as well. Incredibly deep and complex. Quite rewarding. I started playing it again not so long ago and I just couldn't be arsed with the interface. Will be nice to play a "remake".

apart from i was hooked on the 1st one also

myp · **Posted:** Fri Mar 16, 2012 15:16

Zardoz wrote:

It would be nice to have online multi player parties.

You have my staff/sword/axe.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

"Screens":

http://i.imgur.com/Zul5s.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2Pk0r.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pEYdm.jpg

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Mr Dave wrote:

I played the 2nd one. Enjoyed it but unfortunately by halfway through it was unplayable due to crashing.

Bloody PCs, eh. Wouldn't have happened on the 360.

Seriously though, crashing? I didn't get that with any of the BG or IWD games.

Also, what was wrong with the interface, Jonny? It was great.

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

WTB wrote:

"Screens":

http://i.imgur.com/Zul5s.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2Pk0r.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pEYdm.jpg

I know. Completely and utterly sold, now.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Fri Mar 23, 2012 9:01

Makes note to buy an iPad

Morte · **Posted:** Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:32

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07 ... ore-117652

Release date of 18th September

I might be tempted for a return to BG.

Morte · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 14:43

It's been released

http://www.baldursgate.com/news_2012nov28.en.html

Can I justify the purchase of this on top of all the games I bought in the Steam sale?

Be Excellent To Each Other

Baldurs Gate
Oooh, teaser on site!

Who is online

Be Excellent To Each Other

Baldurs Gate Oooh, teaser on site!

Who is online

Baldurs Gate
Oooh, teaser on site!