Baldur’s Gate 2 still receiving praise
Over ten years since its release, Baldur’s Gate 2, a fantasy role-playing game with as strong an emphasis on story, character, and relationships as with combat, is still reviewing positively. IGN has just rated it the #4 PC game of all time.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1011624p5.html
This was the first game I worked on, upon starting my employment with BioWare, and was probably my most satisfying experience in the industry (it was one of the last games made before the exponential increase in team size and the pressures to Hollywoodize games started to dilute the focus on ‘game making’). I will always remember my time on Baldur’s Gate 2 fondly and if you’ve never played it, you should.
Many of the elements that made Baldur’s Gate 2 strong have shown up in other BioWare titles (Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, et cetera) but never quite in the same way. The closest, in my opinion, is the soon to be released Dragon Age, of which I was the Lead Designer for several years. Strong/interesting/funny characters, intricate world design, and deep gameplay, will hopefully give Dragon Age the same kind of longevity.
Look to this blog over the next few weeks as I am going to begin writing a little about my experiences over the last ten years with BioWare.
Looking forward to that! Will you be writing at all about what persuaded you to move on to brighter pastures?
Yes, I intend to write a bit about all my experiences while they are still fresh in my mind. I’m also working on a book on Game Design and I’ll be putting little snippets of my own experiences in that… though that won’t be finished until late next year.