The entire Infinity Engine stable of CRPGs is being re-released on November 11th. Erm, in the UK only so far though. American releases are tied up in legal disputes between Atari, Interplay and Wizards of the Coast, apparently.
New BALDUR'S GATE and ICEWIND DALE compilation packs aren't such huge news, as existing compilations have been on sale for several years. As excellent RPGs, however, another reissue which will hopefully bring them to wider attention is always welcome, whilst the newest versions are also apparently Vista and W7-compatible.
PLANESCAPE TORMENT, on the other hand, has long been denied to gamers, with no official reissue of the game in the better part of a decade and copies on Ebay and Amazon swapping hands for upwards of full-price. With the game recently posting highly in various BEST GAME EVAAAAH polls, its return is highly welcome.
Well, I say 'highly welcome', I mean 'highly welcome if they weren't ripping people off'. The new TORMENT reissue - a game originally published in December 1999, remember - is priced at a jaw-dropping £18. For a single ten-year-old, less-than-30-hour game that's a bit steep. The four BALDUR'S GATE titles (the two games and their expanions) will, when combined, feature well over 300 hours of content. The ICEWIND DALE titles, although more anaemic, will still clock in well north of 50 hours.
On the other hand, TORMENT is probably the single best CRPG ever made, so I guess you can see why they're selling it for that price. Still, a bit on the steep side.
Single-game reissues of FALLOUT, FALLOUT 2, BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL and FALLOUT TACTICS are also apparently on the way (possibly to coincide with the release of the FALLOUT 3 Game of the Year edition), although why you'd get them individually when the multi-pack with all of them in it is still available is unclear.
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A quick look on Ebay suggests that PS:T is going for between £18 and £35, and that's obviously a used, ten year old game. So perhaps the price isn't that exorbitant. One does wonder if the game has been tweaked to be more compatible with Vista and Windows 7, and maybe given some graphical fixes to give us a bigger resolution ingame. I will certainly be looking at picking up this new release of PS:T, if there are some improvements.
I'm surprised no one made a 10th Anniversary Baldur's Gate compilation though, given how important that game was to CRPG's. A new release with lots of extras would have been a success, I feel, especially with Bioware making game after game at the moment. I won't really be picking up the new edition of the game though, as I bought the 2007 compilation release. Bit bare bones, but I've got the original BG 1 and 2 release boxes, with all those lovely extras. Mmmmmm...
Wertieboy, why didn't you tell me!!!!! *shakes fist and curses*
This is excilent news, seriously excilent news.
WOOHOO!!! I'm a big Icewind Dale fan(I prefer to create ALL of the characters in my party, thank you very much) and this is excellent news. WOOT!
£18 for a Planescape: Torment re-release? It depends... Can you get Fall-from-Grace's diary open this time (and I assume advance/complete her story-arc) or play a priest yourself?
It's part of the basic game design that you cannot play a priest, since the creators did not want to get into the material needed for that role. With so many angels, demons, nameless ones etc flying around they thought addings gods was too much complication.
However, whilst there are mods which restore a lot of cut content to the game, Fall-from-Grace's diary isn't in it. The designers never coded it into the game due to time constraints at the end of development.
Awesome (at least for non Americans), but hearing about the disputes with Atari/WotC... wouldn't Interplay have learned by now, considering its fights with Bethesda over the "Fallout Trilogy" release this summer? Or is starting these licensing rights giving them a little thrill? "Yeah guys, you own the IP now, but people loved our games more than they'll ever love yours." A last laugh before Interplay gets finally penned in the Dead-book.
I suppose people in the U.S. desperate for it will just order from a UK distributor, and/or people who can get it outside the U.S. will buy copies and make a fortune selling them on EBay.
I've just been replaying Planescape: Torment (I have an old copy from 1999). Controls feel clunky, but damn... it's still one of the most compelling games I've ever played. Heck, I hardly ever replay RPGs, and this is my third time for this one.
£18 for a Planescape: Torment re-release? It depends... Can you get Fall-from-Grace's diary open this time (and I assume advance/complete her story-arc) or play a priest yourself?
It's part of the basic game design that you cannot play a priest, since the creators did not want to get into the material needed for that role. With so many angels, demons, nameless ones etc flying around they thought addings gods was too much complication.
However, whilst there are mods which restore a lot of cut content to the game, Fall-from-Grace's diary isn't in it. The designers never coded it into the game due to time constraints at the end of development.
I thought they also decided it was better as it was, to be just an unattainable thing.
I guess I got lucky. I picked up a copy of Torment a few years ago that was sold in a two-pack with some other game I'd never heard of. It cost me $20 for the to of them. I guess I know how to pick up some extra cash if I feel inclined...
There's also the fact the Chris Avellone had some ideas for another game set in the PLANESCAPE multiverse that wouldn't have been a sequel, but would have had some characters and items from the first game showing up, so he may have thought about leaving some mysteries open-ended to be looked at again later on.
Shame they didn't go for that, but apparently they were so burned on the hardcore, in-depth characters, interaction, puzzles and roleplaying they just wanted to make a few games were people could just blow the heck out of everything in sight with fireballs, hence the ICEWIND DALE series.
Besides, KoTOR 2 is pretty much the sequel to PS:T, or at least the spiritual successor. It's well recommended if you're after a Chris Avellone fix. Just a shame the game isn't finished. Three more months development time and we'd have been looking at an all time classic game.
True. And for more Avellone there's also FALLOUT 2, NEVERWINTER NIGHTS 2 and MASK OF THE BETRAYER and his new game, ALPHA PROTOCOL. He's also helping with some quests and dialogue on FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS, the stand-alone follow-up to FALLOUT 3, which looks like it's going to be pretty good.
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Ah Alpha Protocol. That one got delayed six months till next summer, something that came after a leaked Sega document revealed that internal testers claimed it wasn't 'RPG' enough. Given that Sega's a Japanese company, this might mean there weren't enough 13 year olds running around with super powers..
On the bright side, at least they are getting plenty of time to polish the game!