I liked BG1 better. There was so much to do! Almost all the empty plots of land you had to walk across had some hidden cave or Red Wizard gathering or Insane Gnomish mage or some sort of related quest or another! It was just all the suspense and adventure! And I used to quiver in fear every time i got ambushed by bandits because they'd usually slaughter me or kill off my party. It was fantastic
I didnt get the quests and then go hunting, rather I just walked around and fulfilled the quests without actually meeting the people that gave me the quest. Fun fun! Like I didnt even take Minsc in the first one, I just went straight to the gnoll stronghold and slaughtered them all! Needless to say, being 13 and inexperienced with RPGs of the DnD sort, I cheated. A lot.