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Baldur's Gate Original Saga with Tales of the Sword Coast Expansion Pack

Baldur's Gate Original Saga with Tales of the Sword Coast Expansion Pack

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Oh my Mud
Review: All right. One thing must be kept straight: This game is ADDICTIVE. I am glad I have a Laptop so I can play it wherever I go. That being said, now I must review this Extreme Monster.

First things First: This game is HUGE. I got this a long time ago and I still haven't finished it, but I've played enough of it to make a review out of it. The plot is a very good one, nice and original. You probably know all the Plot stuff already, by reading all these reviews...but it truly is the stuff that would make an English teacher scream with Delight...maybe. Combat is usually fun, but it gets repetitive sometimes. Fighting bosses is fun, and sometimes they require skill to win. With the added expansion included in this, it will be forever and a half until I finish it.

I really don't have much bad to say about this game at all, but it's not the best game ever, that's why I did not give it 5 stars, but you must play it if you like D&D and/or RPG's.

Bottom Line: Play if you dare to lose contact with friends and family for a long time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Oh my Mud
Review: All right. One thing must be kept straight: This game is ADDICTIVE. I am glad I have a Laptop so I can play it wherever I go. That being said, now I must review this Extreme Monster.

First things First: This game is HUGE. I got this a long time ago and I still haven't finished it, but I've played enough of it to make a review out of it. The plot is a very good one, nice and original. You probably know all the Plot stuff already, by reading all these reviews...but it truly is the stuff that would make an English teacher scream with Delight...maybe. Combat is usually fun, but it gets repetitive sometimes. Fighting bosses is fun, and sometimes they require skill to win. With the added expansion included in this, it will be forever and a half until I finish it.

I really don't have much bad to say about this game at all, but it's not the best game ever, that's why I did not give it 5 stars, but you must play it if you like D&D and/or RPG's.

Bottom Line: Play if you dare to lose contact with friends and family for a long time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic RPG
Review: Baldur's Gate is a fantastic game! Baldur's Gate continues to amaze and impress however if you're looking for a quick kill this RPG does not fit the bill. Baldur's Gate has good graphics by today's standards and has an impressive story line which is somewhat linear in nature. The story allows the player to do what they wish. Multitudinous side quests coupled with flexibility in characters allow the game to be played many times over which offers hours upon hours of play. The interface is well organized and easy to use, the music, story line, and great technical aspects of the game immerse the player into the story. Bioware is notorious for their thorough game testing resulting in outstanding reliability. There is one patch available for download on the Bioware web page along with another update that allows for support of DirectX 8.0. You can't go wrong with this title.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The definitive PC role-playing experience
Review: Baldur's Gate is one of the most immersive and enjoyable RPGs that I've played. The plot is very interesting, the characters are wonderful, and I can't put my finger on exactly what does it, but somehow this portrait of the Forgotten Realms draws me into the game world like nothing else I've played before. The first time I fired up this game led to a 24-hour gaming marathon with no food or sleep; that's how engaging it is.

You play a young man (or woman -- you create your own character) forced to leave his home under suspicious circumstances early in the game, and you find yourself out in a hostile world seeking answers about yourself. The story in this game is more personal than the traditional task of stopping the madman who wants to destroy the world, though it still becomes epic in scale, and is very well done.

Along the way you'll meet a number of NPCs (non-player characters), up to five of whom you can take with you and control. Since there are a number of character classes available, and each class has a vast array of special abilities, managing your party requires a good deal of thought, and engaging in battle requires a sound strategy. A well-balanced party is essential. The game itself is very well-balanced, so there are always numerous ways to attack any given situation.

The game is very large, and spans five CDs (six if you include the expansion). You can stick to the main story arc if you want, but there are dozens upon dozens of optional side-quests that you can attack as well. This is part of what makes the game so immersive, I think -- the fact that you so often have very significant interaction with all the minor characters in the game, rather than having them just spit out the same line of dialogue every time you meet.

There are only two drawbacks I can think of to this game, and they are minor gripes indeed. The first is that the game is based on the D&D 2nd Edition rules, which are outdated now, but the game still plays extremely well. You just don't have access to the additional options that 3rd Edition presents.

The second drawback is that it may be difficult to get into this for someone who's already played Baldur's Gate 2. As good as this game is, the sequel surpassed it in every possible way, and so it does feel like a significant step backwards. Don't let that dissuade you, though. Especially at the low price you can now get the game and its expansion for, it is well worth the money. Be sure to check out the sequel when you're done.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Baldur's Gate presents a solid, lengthy, and deep role-playing experience, coupled with an engaging storyline and downright hilarious characters. From Minsc, the sword-wielding berserker who has a pet giant space hampster to Tiax, the megalomaniac gnome who believes he will one day ascend to become the supreme ruler of all, Baldur's Gate remains totally hilarious in my mind to this day.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good if it plays on modern machines with Audigy
Review: BG/ToSC are excellent games. Excellent. But They have a few problems running on modern sound cards. Audigy and Phillips Acustic Edge. 'Odviously' Phillips didn't make sound cards when these games were released and Audigy certainly wasn't around.(niether was the Live! 5.1 for that matter) I hope this release includes some kind of patch to run on modern machines. If it doesn't I won't be buying it, most anyone who would be interested in Baldur's Gate has a copy(hopefully legit) And re-releasing the already released is pointless unless it has improvements and/or fixes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Brings back the AD&D nostalgia, and a pretty good RPG too.
Review: Buying this recently, long after the furor has come and gone about BG resuscitating the RPG genre, definitely puts a different spin on how the game looks to me. When the game originally came out, I got the feeling it was hack and slash, not to the extent of Diablo, but still nowhere near the plot and character-oriented style of Fallout (which had come out shortly before and I really enjoyed). I stayed away from it.

A few months ago, my brother borrowed the game from someone and I saw him playing it for a while; I was in the mood for an RPG and no really good ones have come out lately, so I decided to pick it up. For as old as this game was, I have had a ball playing it, although I have gotten pretty frustrated in certain places (usually because I was not powerful enough to go up against the enemies I was trying to fight).

The game is not a graphically stunning masterpiece -- the 640x480 graphics are...well, dated, but still plenty good for an RPG (which shouldn't be about eye candy anyway). The spell effects are fun to watch though, and to me, the game _feels_ right, being an old AD&D player from back in high school. The plot....well, it's not as open as Fallout, but it is still a big improvement on the hack and slash genre. Combat is necessary, and a pretty big part of the game, but I didn't find myself getting really annoyed with the fact. Some of the voice work is really good -- listening to all of Minsc's lines is a hoot (although I know there's a lot of people who find it annoying -- depends on your tastes, I guess). Bioware seems to have done a good job importing the AD&D system to computer form.

Now, there are some annoyances...having to explore all the wilderness tiles in order to get all the special encounters is a real pain and I wish they had found a better solution. The fact that you have to explore the big city in the game (Baldur's Gate) is also a bit silly, and it is annoying that the game does not stay paused if you go into the inventory screen. These were fixed in the sequel.

One thing I do want to say is that it is not clear that you are supposed to go to the expansion areas _prior_ to beating the game. I don't know if this was clearer in the original Tales of the Sword Coast box, but it was not clear to me -- most expansions I've played you play them after beating the original game. In TotSC, you need to go to Ulgoth's Beard and play them through at that time, because when you beat the main plot of the game (I won't spoil it here, even though the game is pretty old now), the game is over and you can't go back and wander the world, completing the expansion quests. Besides, the extra experience you will get from completing these quests (not to mention the items you will pick up) will make the final chapter of the game much easier.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great
Review: Everyone should have to play through this game as a school assignment! If you have not played it your education is seriously lacking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Baldur's Gate:The Original Saga.......
Review: First of all, let me say that my introduction to the Baldur's Gate universe came by way of the PS2 with Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance. After playing that game, everytime I walked by a Baldur's Gate game at a computer store or department store, I'd always have to stop and take a look at the box. Well, eventually, that curiosity got the better of me and I decided to get it. Boy, am I glad I did. Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance was excellent, I must admit. But, the Original is the bigdaddy of them all. I'm in awe of the epic storyline, the hundreds of quests, and all the challenges and battles you take on in this game. The one thing I really like about the game is how you can create a character from 6 unique races and 26 different classes and subclasses. Graphically, this game is sight to behold, especially with all the spells and etc. Overall, this is a Role-Playing experience that will leave you more than satisfied. A game that will be one of your most treasured gaming moments. Trust me, this is a game you'll be clocking alot of hours into(and I do mean ALOT!). I highly recommend this game to everyone. If you started out on Diablo or Darkstone,it's time to give Baldur's Gate a try. As I've played the two previously mentioned(and am a fan of those games as well), it's my opinion that Baldur's Gate has the edge on them. Play it and you'll see why I say that. Baldur's Gate is awesome.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Do not buy!!
Review: For those people like me who were looking for a good pc game like dungeon siege just turn away. I know it looks good from all the reviews but it is absoulutely impossible!! It's good for awhile but then your guys are fine then boom they're dead. People are constantly dying and leaving if you take too long to go somewhere!! Plus it suffers from countless flaws. The battles are the worst part so just stay away from it and get a good game!!!


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