I'm thinking of playing through BG2 again, but this time using the Enhanced Edition that I got recently. I've been reading lots of complaints about the versions after 1.3, but haven't seen anything concrete about *why* the later versions (from 2.0 onwards) are so terrible. What is it that makes the recent versions so bad and why is the 1.3 the definitive version? Aren't the earlier versions, like 1.3, more buggy than the later ones?

the current version two has newer (character class wont transfer kind of) bugs but the main issue is that it breaks all the old mods like scs etc

if you want to play without mods its not bad (there are work arounds) but if you want your fav-mod then forget it.

Main issue is with the new UI. Its "streamlined" and takes away much of the charm of the old game. And much functionality that worked for many years is broken.

Some discussion: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/59771/rant-sad-state-of-the-ui-and-the-ees-in-general/p1

Allegedly, modding is now easy and it should be no problem to fix all these things and bring back the old UI. But, as it turned out, it is not that easy. Main problem seems to be with all dialog boxes. I never delved into this stuff, I am happy with my 1.3 :) If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Incredible how they can take a great product (classic game), make it worse (EE), and then make it worse yet again. A student probably wouldn't come up with such a horrible UI. But they're counting money, and that's the main thing, right?

"Enhanced" as in "enhanced interrogation technique".

Well, I consider EE 1.3 not really worse than the origional. I usually avoid talking to the new characters, and try to circumvent Neera zone, though. Its quite a good balance between how the game was in the old times and some added modern functionality. I enjoy very much running this natively on Linux! But, after some point they really should have stopped tinkering with the Original. And that point was 1.3, imho.

BTW: still playing BG1 EE... no idea what changes BG2 EE will hold for me xD

The 1.3 version worked great. Felt like an upgraded version of the old game.

The new patch, however, messed the whole thing up. Cartoony character sprites. Dumbed down interface. And the games now have a pre-set AI\tactics for the NPCS. Meaning as soon as you recruit a spellcaster the character wastes a spell when he\she joins. Casting Stoneskin or whatever right when you recruit the character. I guess they felt players were too dumb to actually play the game, so they let the game play itself for them.

Which unfortunately, isn't an entirely incorrect assumption. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the idea of the EEs were to port the games to mobile devices which of course, a platform mostly noted for casual games. Any game with any level of complexity would be lost on such an audience so dumbing parts down makes a lot of sense from a marketing point of view.

Not sure if you saw it but 1 or 2 years ago, we had someone post in the BG forums asking if there was a mod to "fix" the "outdated" interface in BG to make it more "modern" without explaining what the hell a modern interface is or what was wrong with the current one. Sure, the interface did take a little getting used to when I first started BG but after a while, it made sense. A slight learning curve is enough to put people off and ask for mods it seems.

Also, look on Steam for Worms:Armageddon, there was a review there that stated the controls were "too hard for anyone to learn". Funny considering I finished that game just fine but of course, such people wouldn't admit they can't do something cos they're too stupid.

The reasons dev assume the consumer is a retard is cos a lot of time, they are right. Not only that, but it seems they're a majority at times.

It wouldn't be a problem if they just let people use the patch they want. But they have made it impossible to get the game and download the 1.3 patch manually. The only way you can get the game with the 1.3 patch now is to pirate it or something like that.

But yes. A lot of gamers are retards. I saw one having written a review on Amazon of GTA IV. He gave it a low score because the game didn't explain to him how to get into a car....

There's an undeniable truth in an old adage: "Never underestimate the stupidity of the user."

EE 1.3 is very good. I didn't push the "upgrade" button (I wanted to finish the game first) so I still have 1.3. I saw the "upgraded" version 2.0+ on a friend's computer and was glad I didn't upgrade. Apparently the physical versions are 1.3..