The countdown is over! Baldur's Gate News is ...

Wait! What!? :)

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Error 118 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT): The operation timed out.

The good news is, I am sure the site will be up soon and we will hear all about this big news for our favourite old time RPG ever!

Beamdog lead, Trent Oster has hit Twitter with the following:

Trent Oster ‏ @TrentOster

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Server has buckled. #baldursgate.com is not a happy camper.

A little while later, the first real piece of info surfaced on Twitter ... in the form of the following image:

Trent seems to confirm the contents of the picture with the following Tweet:

Trent Oster ‏ @TrentOster

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We're happy to announce the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. Our servers are much less happy. #bgee #baldursgate

So there we have it. Baldur's Gate, Enhanced Edition, coming out this Summer 2012. I have no idea what this means, but at least we now know.  It is not Baldur's Gate 3, and Iam a bit sad about that!

  

Baldur's Gate Update - March 15-2012

There is an update to the www.baldursgate.com website today.

As of the time of writing this, the "countdown timer" says 4:25:05

That's right, in 4 hours and 25 minutes, there will be something happening.  I hope, for the sake of the people running this little promotion, that there is something bigger than an iPad port in the works.  A new Baldur's Gate 3 product would be my first choice!

The source code has changed as well. Rather than a cryptic quote from a prior Baldur's Gate title, the source code comment simply reads ""

Baldur's Gate - Something Exciting

Yesterday, Feb 29, news broke and a new website showed up.

www.baldursgate.com

It seems that some former Bioware folks, who now run their own independent company, have somehow acquired the rights to, at minimum, use the URL with the namesake of the game that started graphical, story based, computer RPG's for many of us!  The Company (http://www.beamdog.com/) run by Trent Oster (@TrentOster)(formerly of Bioware) has been fairly quiet about what this actually means.  Lots of rumours seem to be spreading, from a new Baldur's Gate III game, to an HD remake of the old, and many things in between.  I, for one, can't wait to see what it means. I still crack open the original every once in a while, so this is especially exciting for me!

Being that one can view the source code of web pages, someone stumbled upon some nice little "quotes" buried as comments through the HTML code that creates the one page website.

As of this morning, March 1, 2012, here are the "quotes" found inside the HTML.

• Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine
• Take heart fellow adventurers, for you have curried the favor of Boo, the only miniature giant space hamster in the Realm!

plus, at the very end

• I can teach you how to use your wrath.

As of yesterday, February 29, 2012, the following quotes were found in the source:

• Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine
• For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory.
• And then... it returned. Better than it was before.

and, at the end

• Love is a lie. Only hate endures.

which seems to have changed from

• As the silver moon waxes and wanes, so too does life.

It seems that not only are they leaving quotes in the HTML, they are also changing them over some period of time. So we'll need to keep an eye on them over time! If anyone else has found any different tidbits inside the HTML, please send them here via comment and I will add them.

Collector's Edition Conundrum

I had already started playing #SWTOR as part of Beta and Early Game Access.  Lost in the recesses of my feeble mind, the fact that I had pre-ordered 2 copies of the Collector's Edition on July 21 from my local EB Games. I went to the store today, exactly 5 months later, ostensibly to cancel both of the pre-orders and get my $10 back. Then I got to talking with the store manager ... and I ended up buying one of the two pre-ordered copies.  As I write this, 30 minutes later, so long as I was not being had, the other CE is already in someone else's hands ... he told me they would be gone within 30 minutes if I cancelled.

Now I am left with the decision, and I look to you, my readers for help.  As far as I can tell, these are my options:

1. Return the unopened CE to EB Games for refund
2. Keep the CE, call it an investment, sell it "in Mint Condition" on eBay in a few years and retire!
3. Cancel and obtain refund from Origin for my DDE, and upgrade my DDE key to a CE Key on the official SWTOR site
4. Keep both and have 2 accounts, one DDE and one CE
5. Ask my wife what to do, since ultimately, she will make my decision based on her reaction to me spending another $150 on SWTOR!

What do you all think?

My CE - in my back seat. What shall I do with it?

25 Minutes to Launch

I sit and stare at my screen this evening; the family is in bed, and the launch of a 2 year obsession (for me) is finally at hand.  I can't even imagine how the folks over at Bioware are feeling at the moment. I am so terribly proud to have met so many of them over this past while (virtually, that is), and more so, I am excited and proud to have been a small part of their raving followers community.

The next few weeks will be especially hectic, but the groundwork has been carefully laid for what looks to be one of the most successful launches of an MMO in video game history. Certainly, it has been stellar thus far.

Belana is all ready to leave Tython (once I find the last few codex entries). I wanted to make sure of that before the launch.

Adaram waits patiently for me to give him some more attention. At level 8, he is not far from leaving the noxious fumes of Hutta behind while pursuing the next greatest Bounty.

My third character has been created, and Maandos is ready to really Sith some butt alongside my best friend in the world, who is playing Morgeth as an Inquisitor in this universe. These characters will only be played when we can play together, and it has been a very long time since we have found a game that has excited both of us as much as this one! I would like you all to meet him as we now roll into the last 10 minutes before this momentous event!

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

SWTOR Adaram of the Empire

When first planning my character(s) for SWTOR, I decided that I would have at least one Republic, and one Empire character.  Since my friends in the Old Timer's Guild decided to go Empire, I started researching and trying to decide which class to play at launch. For the longest time, the Imperial Agent was the class that won out.

During the last two weeks of Closed Beta, I played a bit of the IA (skipping cut scenes, dialog etc to avoid story spoilers). In the end, I found the combination of cover mechanics, stealth mechanics, and healing all in one class to be a bit daunting, and so decided at the last minute that a Bounty Hunter Mercenary would be a better choice for my Healing role.

Introducing Adaram, the Bounty Hunter. Adaram is actually very good-hearted man, but , through poor decisions in his early life, finds himself in a pretty nasty line of work.  As hard as it will probably be to play things out this way, his story will be one of personal redemption. In the end, I truly hope that I have played him in a way that will allow him to retire in peace and knowing that he was able to get out from the tyranny and evil of the Empire.  Along the way, I suspect he will need to make some decisions that go against his grain, but all decisions will be dedicated to finding the fastest way out of his current situation.

SWTOR Tips

I'll keep a running list of SWTOR Tips here. These will vary from game related tips, to general "personal play style" tips. Enjoy!

1. Don't rush through the content. Enjoy the journey. Watch the trailers/movies! 
2. Take time to talk in game to those around you. MMO's are social by design. Meet new friends, find new groupmates!  
3. Group up! The game is more fun (especially conversations) that way! You also get Social Points!  
4. Make sure to read your codex entries. They add amazing details and background info and make the game even more enjoyable!  
5. Make sure to take the time to look around. The game is gorgeous and you never know what you might find if you just look!  
6. [Social] Players who lose conversation rolls get a small bonus towards future rolls and may even get rolls greater than 100! 
7. If you don't like your conversation choice, you can hit escape and start over so long as the chat is not complete 
8. Start thinking about your Legacy name and how you want to use that system with the characters on your server.
9. Check your Codex, under Planets, and see how you are doing in getting all the codex's on your current (or other) planets
10. In Dromund Kaas Spaceport, take a moment to watch the starships as they fly out of the hangars!