[Neomi]

BG1 has the charm of starting as a 1st level character, cherishing every piece of loot that you find, building your skills, and finding your way (quite literally) through the "wilderness" to find out what is going on.

The graphics are less exquisite (but still awesome for their day, remember the game is quite a few years old) and the game play is a little more cumbersome. Also, clearing some of the wilderness maps can get tedious. But I always seem to go back to BG1 after playing BG2 for a while, either to start a new character to "play all the way through" or just to get back to the wilderness and squash some mutated gibberlings.

BG2 is by far more extensive in terms of joinable NPCs, dialog between party members and other NPCs, romances, side quests, etc. The graphics are more impressive, and the game play is improved. What do you expect? The developers started with an awesome game in BG1 and made it even better!

However, as mentioned above, there are almost too many magical weapons and other items available that it cheapens what used to be a prized +2 war hammer or wand of fireballs. Character building is still fun (especially as dual-class or multiclass characters begin to attain higher levels) but there's so much temptation for cheesy powergaming. The side quests become distracting and almost as tedious as clearing the wilderness boards in BG2 as you wander across Amn trying to finish up all the loose ends.

My advice after this very long-winded post: Get BG1. You'll love it. Then take your character into BG2. You'll be stunned and you'll love it even more. Then take your character into TOB. You'll become enraptured with your new godlike power. And finally, bloated with as many high level abilities you can attain and as many +5 weapons of mass destruction as you can cram into your bag of holding, you will return to BG1 to start the whole cycle over again.