Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition due summer
Overhaul Games, Atari, and Wizards of the Coast have announced that an enhanced edition of classic RPG Baldur's Gate is due this summer.
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, an updated compilation of Baldur's Gate and its expansion Tales of the Sword Coast, will be followed by Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition, containing the sequel and its expansion Throne of Bhaal.
Baldur's Gate was a classic RPG series, developed by BioWare in 1998 and released to massive critical and public acclaim. The first game had players investigating a strange conspiracy which seemed to be linked to the death of the god Bhaal, Lord of Murder - and while spoilers for a 14-year old game are probably acceptable, we'll say no more in case you haven't played it.
Development duties are being handled by Overhaul Games, a development team staffed with a number of ex-BioWare employees who were previously responsible for the HD remake of classic shooter MDK2.
While details are from official announcements are a little thin on the ground, Trent Oster of Overhaul's parent company Beamdog has been candid on Twitter about the approach the teams are taking.
Right now the team is focusing on a PC version, although they'll be "talking more about platform in the coming weeks." There will be new content, although the focus of the game appears to be simply to update the original Baldur's Gate with things like a new user interface and fixed multiplayer. Overhaul has the game's original source code and are working with that, so it looks like it'll still be Infinity Engine and it'll still be using the 2nd Edition rules of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and they're hoping that things like mods and even importing your saves from the original titles will work perfectly.
Perhaps most tantalising of all, though, was the tweet that read: "We want #BG3 as well. #bgee is part of the master plan."
So: rejigged and updated but still the games you remember, with a possibility of a proper sequel if things go well, and the possibility of other platforms (I'm calling iPad right now).
Get your wallets ready for summer, classic RPG fans.