I said this in another thread. But if you haven't tried BGEE since 1.2, you really should before you pass judgement. They put out a massive gig big patch that as far as I know fixes pretty much every major bug with the game.

And my comments still stand. There are still bugs that affect players after 1.2. Bugs that were not in the original game.

Care to provide a link to this? There's no information on this from Beamdog and their standard policy (as stated in one of Trent Oster's tweets - "You can copy the files to a new computer, but it needs to authenticate the new computer via the internet to finish the install.") is activate-on-install.

Given the problem such DRM imposes (the original Baldur's Gate would almost surely have been rendered unplayable by it following Interplay's implosion) I'm surprised it hasn't been raised more prominently here. When (and it *is* going to be when) Beamdog closes, BG:EE and all their other releases will be on borrowed time, which is why I've boycotted them so far.

Shamus Young's Authorization Servers post goes into more detail about why a "DRM-removal" patch is unlikely to happen during company closure, well worth a read.

Now, with the latest patch, it is indeed DRM-Free, according to Trent Oster. Look on the forums and its there.

There is no mention of this in the patch notes, no mention on the Beamdog site and no mention on the forum or [url=http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/2122/drm-free-version]DRM-free threads.

What the forums do have is a whole lot of people confused and misled by vague statements from Trent/Beamdog on the issue. If you need Internet access to install a game or run it, that's DRM. WIth BG:EE you have to use the Beamdog launcher to install, and that requires a connection to Beamdog's server which will, at some point, go offline.

Being able to make multiple backups, install on multiple systems or run offline do not make a game DRM-free and do not protect consumers from the (inevitable) situation of a publisher closing down or ceasing support.

As far as BG:EE is concerned, I much prefer the original Baldur's Gate. I hate several aspects of BG:EE compared to the original:
- weapon skills system
- summon spells (much less minions)
- druid / ranger roots spell
- some AI changes

In the end, BG:EE isn't very faithful to the original, which I guess they can't help, since it's based on the BG2 engine. But when playing Baldur's Gate 1 on the Baldur's Gate 2 engine, I get annoying by anything that's not the same as the original (except for the graphics of course). My perfect BG:EE version would be exactly the original game, only with updated graphics.

I also didn't like the extra content much. The voice acting just isn't as good / convincing, at least in the arena mod (I don't know about the extra NPCs, perhaps they got decent voice acting).

I played them both. And i regretted having played... the ENHANCED edition ones! Well, i have to announce in the beginning of the post, that concerning all games in general, i am a retro maniac, still living in the past (that is why i am here in GoG, and that is why my pc is full of emulators and arcades). But i couldn't help noticing many things that really, REALLY, turned me off! Despite that, i will present both positive and negative aspects, i noticed in both editions. I start, please bear with me:

Baldur's Gate 1 original VS Enhanced.
Original's pros:
1) Legendary atmosphere, started the series, great concept, good implementation.
2) A lot of secrets, glitches and loopholes, like the import-export, xp and money ones. Or the vast armies of summoned creatures. Many of you will put this to the negative aspects, though...
Original's cons:
1) Awful quest log, chaotic at best.
2) Lots of bugs.
3) No way of having hitpoints roll maximum through options, like Icewind Dale. Some of you might put this in pros, though.

Enhanced pros:
1) Graphics got revamped.
2) Many errors were corrected.
3) New heroes
4) Restored locked content from the original
5) Better way to track quests.
6) Romancing.
Enhanced cons:
1) Cutscenes are worse, without motion, only pictures changing in succession and with almost cartoonish appearance. Also, rest cutscene got removed.
2) Despite that many errors were corrected, a TON of new ones appeared, and all new patches are double-edged, correcting some issues and creating other ones.
3) They removed all the glitches, even the useful ones! DAMN! Some of you might put this in pros, though.
4) Worse experience than the original, at least for me. Especially since now 1 has 2's mechanics. The old system, choosing a kit in 2 was better. Especially since by doing this, the downsides of certain classes like the avenger got eliminated (-2 str and con at character creation, and not on kit choosing). Or the proficiencies, which were far better in poor old one (one category containing MANY weapons).
5) Feels bad, is in STEAM... Well, at least EA did not create it, it is not absolute trash.

BG2 Original VS Enhanced.
Original's pros:
1) Great artwork and interfaces, Especially the symbols with the button panels.
2) Cheese everywhere! Exploits everywhere! Examples: 5 planetars summon, simulacrum arcane spellcaster and undo the 5 creatures limit, wild mage eliminating wild surge by chain contigencying 3x Greater Chaos Shield, and many, many more! Some of you might put this in cons, though...
3) All the tricks, like familiar trick, tears of bhaal trick, etc. For some, again, this might be a con.
4) Avengers can wear some of the dragonscale armors. Beastmasters can wear black and white dragon scales. Ankheg Plate can be worn by classes and kits forbidden using metal apparatus.
5) Broken spells.
Original's cons:
1) Gamestopping bugs, like Solaufein not initiating dialogue.
2) Kangaxx. Seriously, this thing was a sick fight, the likes of which are very few and numbered across the many RPGs i have ever played.
3) If you are a good cleric, change alignment by using and evil tear of bhaal and gain a level, you do not gain unholy blight and unholy word; a real shame, since neutral clerics get both holy and unholy exclusives, damn.
4) Some Jaheira issues and bugs.
5) No pure thief to recruit, no good mage to recruit (edwin does not do divination, jan does not do necromancy, imoen does not do a worthy party member and nalia is even worse, aerie does not have 18 to either wisdom or intelligence). This might be a pro, though, actually, since making something like a Kensai/Thief for main, or a dual mage, is vastly overpowered and frequented since those good old days.

Enhanced pros:
1) Better graphics.
2) A great recruitable thief character.
3) More romance options.
4) Animations seem somewhat more normal, natural, realistic, compared to the old one.
Enhanced cons:
1) NO MORE KEEPING ITEMS FROM 1! Some of you might put this into pros, but here, believe me, you have no right, you are the devil incarnate! Congratulations! Now where on earth will you find in 2 items like the Cape of Balduran, which were 1 exclusives??
2) All cheese was corrected and thrown away from the game by force.
3) All glitches/exploits got corrected and thrown away from the game by force.
4) Now the 5 creature summon limit cannot be bypassed.
5) No more 5x planetars summon.
6) A TON of new errors.
7) Feels bad, is in STEAM... At least EA did not create it, so it is not total junk...

Generally, i wouldn't pay to buy the Enhanced Editions at all (and didn't, thankfully). Not only they are in STEAM, and we thusly support our mortal enemies, the DRM and always online lobby (let alone you own nothing materialistically you only are allowed to download your data and everything), but we also pay an outrageous sum, for what we could do ourselves by installing some certain mods, as some people already suggested. I believe with good reason that GoG versions are vastly superior, especially if you combine them with the Trilogy Mod. If you also are one of us, enjoying your game as it was way back then with all the glitches, exploits and most importantly, plenty of cheese mixed in and happily blended, then the EEs are certainly a mortal enemy of yours. Their only real positives, in my books, are displaying your roll total number, and communicating online multiplatform; for me, all of the corrections the ADD fans adored, are actually missed content and opportunism, especially the correction of keeping items from 1 or the cheese in spellcasting.

I have both and played BG way back in the day. But one MASSIVE improvement for EE (and one that I rarely see mentioned, which is odd) is that the Infinity engine was tweaked not to use only one of your CPUs and max it continuously at 99%, which raises the temp on my laptop way more than necessary when I have so many other cores just sitting there. Makes a massive difference, trust me.

That being said, aspects of EE feel cheap and unfinished. Any added elements that they tried to intergrate, like the extra voices or added character portraits, are truly horrendous and do not match with the original game's art design whatsoever. So it feels like I'm playing a version with horrible mods that I would have never added due to their subpar quality.

I played the first EE, and I liked Neera, as she completed my dream party of joke characters along with Minsc, Garrick, Quayle, and Xan. Rasaad is a joke too, but not in the good way. I also absolutely adored the addition of Dorn, they could NOT have cast a better voice actor.

As for people complaining about it, I have to agree on all points. I hated having to run the game through the Beamdog client (and forget about Steam). I'd like to continue my adventures with Neera and Co. but I don't care enough to spend $24.99 (!?!?!) to do so. And the vanilla versions of each game contain enough content to keep you busy for a long time regardless.

Just to make a point clear, the EE never had any DRM. You login to download the first time and when you want to patch the game. Otherwise it's fully portable, may be installed/copied to any computer you own and does not access the internet for anything. Actually you can just copy your game to a thumb drive, plug it in any computer and play if you want to as it doesn't eve uses Windows registry...

I hope this is not completely OT; my doubt is the following one. I have the GOG version of this game. A friend of mine just bought the EE. Is there any way we could play multiplayer together or we need the exact same version?

Thanks in advance to all of you willing to help.

Given that they contain different content (EE contains new NPCs, for instance, while there would be no way to legally obtain those new NPCs on the original version) I'm afraid that I don't think it'll be possible, as one engine would be expecting to have the NPCs and the other not.

Thank you for replying. That was the thought on my mind.
Regards!!

The Enhanced Edition is superior, and for the following reasons:

1. Cleaner graphics
2. You can zoom out.
3. More kits
4. Half-Orc
5. More NPCs
6. Pathfinding is a million times better
7. Better A.I (try killing Drizzt from across the pond in the EE and see what happens)
8. Better UI
9. Black Pits
10. Fighting styles added and the skills are more specific

Here are the reasons a person might say the original is better:

1. Nostalgia
2. The crappy aesthetics can be charming in a sense
3. They prefer it because it's simpler
4. They hate things that are mainstream or popular
5. They want to be cool by choosing the less obvious choice

Bigot.