Baldur's Gate

Finally re-released in complete anthologies, all the classic Dungeon & Dragons PC games you've been dying to replay. Put down Skyrim and get ready for some late 90's nostalgia. Two packages released this Tuesday, the Dungeons & Dragons Classic Anthology, and the Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights Complete Collection.

There have been many arguments over the past decade on why the design, perspective, and scope that were utilized in order to create the original Baldur's Gate are no longer capable of creating a successful title in the modern-day video game industry. People just don't want a party-based, stats-heavy, isometric RPG anymore, right? Well, not according to a new poll of over 1000 game developers that picked Baldur's Gate as their all-time favorite game.

There were really a lot of hints, said Good Old Games, the digital download site which unceremoniously closed at the weekend. You were expecting it, and we now confirm it: we are back with a brand new website. So there you go. It launches at 1PM UK time tomorrow. Whoop-de-do. In a bizarre press conference this evening, Good Old Games management appeared dressed as monks. Surprise, surprise: a pack of Baldurs Gate and its expansion, including several additional goodies, is to be included in the service too, as rumoured yesterday. Itll cost $9.99. It was officially announced as the big surprise at the end of the press conference, despite having been clearly present in the demonstration of the games library right at the start.

1UP: Secrets about Baldur's Gate's original tech demo, the founding of the studio, and more from the BioWare Retrospective at GDC Europe.

Drs. Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka opened their talk at GDC with a history of BioWare, specifically a lunch they had in 1994. The topic of conversation was videogames, and how to go about creating them while juggling a medical career. For a while they juggled both the creation and management of a videogame company and their medical careers, and eventually the medical practice was reduced to hobby status until game production took over entirely. Nobody likes a creative doctor, joked Zeschuk. Baldur's Gate was going to be an MMO initially called Battleground Infinity, explained the doctors, which wasn't all that common a thing back in the late nineties.

IncGamers reports that listings on both Amazon and PEGI seem to indicate that old Interplay titles, including Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, may see re-releases later this week.

BioWare has no regrets over it's much-loved Baldur's Gate games, but admits it's frustrating not to be able to continue to develop the characters it created for the RPG series.