Hell yeah thats a good deal. If you get the ToB expansion you get a higher exp cap and some awsome new areas.

I would go for that. You shouldn't need the guide with all the experts on Bg2 that we have around here.

LOL, yeah. I wonder how many cumulative times this board has been through BGII. Over 10 times for me.

The Baldurs Gate games are excellent games, Variol, but the game engine is identical to that of the Icewind Dale games. In both game series, you can set the option to autopause, like at the beginning of each round.

I know in the first Icewind Dale you had to hit the spacebar all the time. I couldn't stand it, even though the game seemed good otherwise.

I'm playing DnD tomorrow anyway, and I'm pretty sure our DM has the game. I'll give it a little try.

Well, the Icewind Dale series, the Baldur's Gate series and Planescape:Torment all uses the same game engine, that's several top-notch games you miss out on if you can't stand the game mechanics.

You should really try and turn on the autopause feature. It should be in Options->Gameplay->Autopause or somesuch. Try it out, and if you really can't stand it, don't bother to buy any of the games I've mentioned above in this post. They're all that way. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Edit: Forgot to mention; Neverwinter Nights uses a similar system. It's not really a big issue in single player game since you only control one character and have 1-2 more or less uncontrollable henchmen with you. If you play online, you can't pause at all but then you are generally also playing with other players.

[ 01-09-2005, 06:28 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

I just can't see how you can control an entire party in real time. Does it not just become hack & slash?

You pause, assign a command, unpause and let them do whatever you told them to do until you want them to do something else. The only real micromanagement are the spellcasters. On many easier encounters, you just let the fighters and tanks chop away and keep the spellcasters away.

Another thing is that you can also asign some AI scripts to your party members. They're pretty basic, but they do their job on most standard encounters. I don't like using these scripts myself as I want to have full control of my group, but it's an option.

Plus, you get to meet Imoen and Viconia. Well worth the price of admission, IMO. :D

Ok, after our DnD game today, the DM showed me a bit of BG2. It looks like it's very easy to manage the characters. I think I'll give it a go. In fact you can pause at so many points it's almost crazy.

A special thanks to Cerek for the PM's he sent as well!

Ok, I broke down and bought the thing. Here's proof!

http://img103.exs.cx/img103/45/bg20fg.jpg

I love that scanning thing!