I'm a 37 yo hardcore console gamer. Every now and then I try some retro stuff on PC. I'm not as hardcore on PC as I am on consoles, but I've managed to go through a few games such as Divine Divinity (amazing game), Ultima I (really good!) and the first Might and Magic - love it love it love it, drew dozens of maps, see one attached.

In Baldur's Gate, I went as far as solving the Nashkel mines incident and was really enjoying it. I had to stop because I became a dad and life got really weird ^_^

I'm not afraid of complexity and challenge in my PC games, but since I'm mostly a console gamer, I don't have much patience to tinker with mods and stuff. From what I gathered in this thread and searching the Internet, it looks like most of the things that bother the EE critics aren't a big deal for me, so I'm in for the improved UI and easy setup.

I'm curious, what are you talking about when you said "improved UI" ?
I do understand "easy setup" but I can't see how someone could find the actual UI "improved" compared to the vanilla or the 1.3.
It's a honest question not an agression like the other in this thread insulting you for no reason.

Like mmeyer, I do play Icewind dale EE and it's just perfect in my opinion. No added story or character, no annoying bugs, all the good features of the EE (zoom, quick loot, easy stacking, etc.) with a beautiful wooden GUI.

But the actual UI of BGEE and BGEE2 is awful : no real journal but a messy ugly mmo-like one, a very confusing character screen, a lot of useless scrolling bar, etc.
The 1.3 version was ok and almost bug free.
Stig79 talked about bad sprites, I have BGT and the EE open in the same time and it seems true the sprites are better in the vanilla game but I can't say for 1.3.

My 2 cents advice for you : play the BG EE for convenience (installation, stacking, zoom, quick loot) but downgrade it in 1.3 with Galaxy. You don't need any mod or tinkering anything. Just install galaxy, then BG EE and in settings of BG EE (in galaxy) you can put "BETA CHANNELS" ON then click CHANNEL and put it on LEGACY. It will change automatically to 1.3.
This way you have the best of the BGEE. The 2.X version is only needed for Siege of Dragonspear, it adds nothing to the original game.
If you hate Galaxy, don't worry you don't need it after that. I'm using it to install games but I never used it to launch any games. In fact you can even uninstall it after.

Widescreen, the zoom feature, that handy button that highlights things you can interact with, quick loot... all of these are big deals for me. These classify as UI, right? Maybe gameplay improvements? English is not my native language, so maybe my definition of UI is too broad here.

Even though I hate online gaming, I actually love MMO-style RPGs. I solo World of Warcraft every now and then, and I just hit 300 hours in Xenoblade X, a Wii U game that is basically a single-player MMO. I'm used to MMO interfaces and actually kind of like them ^_^

IIRC, the original journal is more charming, but the new one is easier to use... but I might be wrong.

While I agree that it's confusing, I remember not liking it in the original game too. Can't remember why it was a problem for me then, so I can't say which one is worse, but you're probably right about it. The same goes for sprites: I found them pretty ugly in the original, so if they're even worse now, it doesn't make much of a difference to me.

While researching, I found comments about version 1.3 being better, but I thought people were just being picky about changes (it happens A LOT on the Internet ^_^). However, it looks like you know what you're talking about, so I'll revert to v1.3 and give it a try to see which one I like better (I already have Galaxy installed).

Thanks for your comments, you were very helpful!

Oh interesting question about GUI... English is obviously not my native language but for me Graphic User Interface means the design of all the screens you can see and interact with : Character Screen, Journal, Inventory, Spellbook, the main screen, etc.
I would call the new features... new features ^^'

The new journal is maybe more efficient I guess. You can play and read it in the same time, like WoW.
It makes sense in your case. For me in a RPG, I need to take time to read. Immersion is also very important and this wow like quests list is a constant reminder that it's just a videogame, it breaks imo the whole BG experience but it's personnal.

Anyway enjoy the version you like the most despite what we all say, it's a matter of taste.

Based on what elgils and a few others have said, if you can get it to run in 1.3 you'll be in good shape. Good luck. ;p