Sadly, I missed out on the original Baldurs Gate: I bought the last copy from a bargain bin, and CD two was damaged. I once managed to get some way into the game, but unable to play beyond arriving in BG.

Could never find a copy of TotSC in South Africa at all.

Managed, by luck, to get BG II and ToB from a bargain bin.

I haven't played BG in months, possible years, till messing about with an evil party recently.

Now I see there is a BG compilation available, which seems to include absolutely everything I need.

Questions:
-Does anyone know anything about this complilation? Is it worth getting? (Guess I'll have two copies of SoA & ToB, but so what...). It would be nice to play all the way through, SoA to ToB, with the "same" character, following the whole story in one sitting.
-What are the absolute must-haves / recommendations in terms of downloads? It seems getting the downloads is getting hard. with BG so old, a lot of links don't work anymore. (Can't get Kelsey Tob; links don't work. Can't get banterpack.) Should I try BG Tutu off the bat? (If it helps, I HAVE finished ToB, so i'm quite happy to try mods from the start...)
-Anyone still have a guide in terms of what to install, and when (what order) to install? I tried following the FAQ here, but I keep getting some bug where ".... is busy. You cannot initiate dialogue." All over the place. However, if you say the FAQ in this site is the FAQ to follow, I'll suck it up and try again. Might have gotten the order wrong or installed a dodgy mod.

Thanks guys (and girls). I realise some of these questions are as old as the hills, but the answers aren't as easy to obtain now that BG is getting old.

i've had no problems following the faq in the sticky thread on these forums - suck it up and try again ;)

re-install both games doing full installs and then apply the offical patch and fixpacks using the links in the sticky thread

personally i would play bg1 using tutu (it's really good) again follow the link in the faq to the pocket plane modlist to get the current links for tutu and any other mods

i don't know about bg1 mods but for bg2 i hear good things about 'unfinished business' for adding quests and dialog and the tactics mod definitely makes the game more of a challenge although some bits are a bit ridiculous - ask or read around for some ideas

a search on 'mod install order' will tell you all you need to know about that