I just received notice from GOG that Planescape: Torment is soon to be released as the "Enhanced Edition" by Beamdog development (founded by two BioWare staff interestingly enough,) the company that "re-did" Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.

I'm not going to unleash the greater diatribe I'd like to about this, but from what I've seen at their forums and what they did to the feel of the original stories, well, let's just say I'm not happy. If this follows the same path as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, very soon after the release of the "Enhanced" version, the original version that is set up to play on modern machines may soon become unavailable.

This is just my personal opinion, but such changes at the cost of modifying the original content just isn't worth it. Sadder still, new gamers will never know how the originals played out. While these Enhanced Editions add things like wide screen and voiced content, they remove or modify the original content in a way that changes the spirit of the original game.

I am not against bringing classics into the modern day, porting them to better graphics or improving upon their performance. When a development house introduces their own take, whether it be political or emotionally driven, then they've gone too far. Yes, the original graphics are terribly outdated, the gameplay is just a few steps above paper and pencil gaming, and again, this is all just my opinion and others may feel that the changes and additions they made are negligible in comparison to the story line and some might even think that they are true improvements, I just felt that I needed to put in my two cents and let folks know what's coming up. (Wow, that was one heck of a run on sentence! ) OK, I'm off my soap box now...


At any rate, if anyone is interested, here's the original, still available at GOG: Planescape: Torment

As an FYI, the original Icewind Dale 2 is also still available. I was glad to see that, it seems they only cut off Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale 1: Icewind Dale 2

Thanks, Trail

I just got an email notification about this. And I went there, and looked at it, and thought about it, and decided that the past is the past. As I did with all the classic Bioware games, I loved the game, I played it to death, and now it's time for something new. But this would be good for someone who never played the originals, I think, not having any preconceptions.

Sometimes, "enhanced" or "new and improved" actually turns out to be "horribly wrecked !!

I will be sticking with the original

Bunch of old fogies here...grumbling about how good things were when we were young...

Who's grumbling? I never grumble, I'm more like the cardboard sign carrying crazy dudes that yell about the apocalypse. Grumble, never. Twitch and give people I don't know crazy stares, definitely.

Young

That's so long ago now

Better just to relish my current role of "Old Fogey"

I will have you know, I am not an Old Fogie, I am a full fledged Curmudgeon. I'm very good at it too so there.
But, thanks for the tip on the game Trail. I bought it even though the original works perfectly fine on my current rig. It's just so nice not to have to change discs. That and I love the game still.

I spent decades dreading being a fogey and now I suppose I am one, and I gotta say, it feels no different from 30. Not one bit.

My theory is that playing on the Dark Side has given me a certain immunity from ageing, a kind of Dorian Grey effect.

hagatha!
Too late for me. Never could play darkside games.

Friends of my generation are always nonplussed when I start chatting away to their 25-year old kids about Witcher 3 or Fallout 4. Most amusing.

You're never too old to be young.

In my mind, I am still young, hagatha, it's just that my body doesn't always see fit to agree !!

Yep, I'm somewhat of a paradox to the millennials in my office - Long, grey haired I/T project manager who rambles about gaming and lets loose random quotes from Monty Python and Mel Brook's movies. They aren't sure if they should be scared of me or invite me out for drinks.

Sooo, getting back on topic (lol, had to do the moderator thing. ) According to an article from a couple days ago in Rock, Paper, Shotgun, in reference to the enhancements being done "Or, if you want none of that, Beamdog say it’ll have options to turn Enhancements off."

That's interesting, BUT I'm very curious to see if they will add NPC's, character types or re-work dialogue as they did to Baldur's Gate. That's the thing I don't agree with when revamping a game. If you want new content, then develop an expansion, don't mess with the original, especially when your motives are political. So, far it seems they are only talking about "making the game more playable," we'll see.

Planescape: Torment, Enhanced Edition Announced

My apologies, Trail_Mystic .... For being one of the "off topic" culprits !!

No apologies needed, I was marching right along side all the rest of us fogies. Just figured the quote from that new article was a good segue back into topic.