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The only difficulty with the BG1 tranfers is that it takes forever to do, and pray to god you have some hard drive space. It basically requires two full installations of each game to be completed (but you can delete two of them afterwards), and is also somewhat lengthly and in depth, considering the (relative) obscurity of the BG modding scene. It's certainly doable, it'll just take a bit of effort; Effort that is well spent, mind you.

Flip a coin folks, I have Planescape and Balder's Gate(+BG2) sitting side by side on my desktop, which one do I install and play through first?

Damn you, and your nostalgia prompting threads!
Flip the coin, which game first?

Baldur's Gate 2. It's more engrossing, less aggravating old UI, and picks up Fast. PS:T Takes longer to get into, and requires more of a sit-through, and the early game isn't that fun.
Leave BG1 alone

DEATH wrote:Baldur's Gate 2. It's more engrossing, less aggravating old UI, and picks up Fast. PS:T Takes longer to get into, and requires more of a sit-through, and the early game isn't that fun.
Leave BG1 alone

You can't start with BG2, that makes no sense!
Besides with BG-tu you can play through with BG2 style graphics and classes.

THACO, I'm sorry to meet you again so soon.

Mr Bean wrote:

DEATH wrote:Baldur's Gate 2. It's more engrossing, less aggravating old UI, and picks up Fast. PS:T Takes longer to get into, and requires more of a sit-through, and the early game isn't that fun.
Leave BG1 alone

You can't start with BG2, that makes no sense!

Yes you can, BG2 was my first CRPG Ever, and it turned me into the D&D loving, Sith slaying fanboy I am today. Seriously, plot wise you don't need BG1 that much and BG2 is long enough for a half dozen games anyway (Never mind the unholy epic awesomeness that is "Throne of Bhaal", if you don't have it, then I'll send you a copy )

Besides with BG-tu you can play through with BG2 style graphics and classes.

Sorry mate, it's the plot & characters, not the graphics.

THACO, I'm sorry to meet you again so soon.

Go suck on a Storm of Vengeance .

Play Torment. Mostly to spite Death, but also because its setting is three million times cooler (Mmm, Planescape), and since it's older it'll be less jarring if you play BG2 later, as opposed to playing BG first and then Torment later.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:Play Torment. Mostly to spite Death, but also because its setting is three million times cooler (Mmm, Planescape), and since it's older it'll be less jarring if you play BG2 later, as opposed to playing BG first and then Torment later.

True that, but BG2 is good enough technologically that the interface won't cause you serious annoyance. (IT never bothered me at least), I even prefer it to KOTOR what with the "Go here" option on the Magamap. I'd kill for that in something like "The Witcher".
Unlike Torment and its bloody unskippable FMV's for half the bloody spells. (I'd have gone the dialogue only path if only to avoid combat for that reason alone).

Oh, and so many comments without a quote from the games? "What can Change the nature of a man".

I actually loved those unskippable FMV effects for the most powerful spells. It gave you an idea that those spells are actually, y'know, powerful rather then every other D&D game where you get a fog that kills people... by being just a slimy sickly greenish fog - no scary shadowy fog monsters swirling in it, no animation of it at all. In comparison, Torments epicy spells are suitably epic.

Mr Bean wrote:Flip a coin folks, I have Planescape and Balder's Gate(+BG2) sitting side by side on my desktop, which one do I install and play through first?

Damn you, and your nostalgia prompting threads!
Flip the coin, which game first?

Planescape. Better story, shorter game...less "So I must slay the dragon to save the elven princess to save the universe!".

And Netko brings a good point. In Torment...a 9th spell looks like what it should be. A fucking kick in the ass versus a kinda misty puke cloud.

Sigil and the Blood War are inherently greater as a backdrop than some podunk nowhere on the Prime Material Plane that's currently undergoing a soap-opera-style BUT I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD with a deity.

...now please don't kill me.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:Torment is pretty open to how you play Nameless One... being Planescape, and all. I played through it as Lawful Good, so I'm not sure if the Harmonium and/or the Lady of Pain will smack you if you start murdering people in the streets (aside from the Hive, obviously).

The Lady is aware of your tricks, and will Maze you if you kill any of her servants rather than do something you will simply get back up from. Your own Maze is said to be interesting, but I never wanted to piss the Lady off enough to get in. She does have stats in that game, and her AC is somewhere around -32 with 100% resistance to everything.

DEATH wrote:Oh, and so many comments without a quote from the games? "What can Change the nature of a man".

Ahem.

Minsc wrote: Go for the eyes, Boo! GO FOR THE EYES! RAAAAGHSK!

White Haven wrote:Sigil and the Blood War are inherently greater as a backdrop than some podunk nowhere on the Prime Material Plane that's currently undergoing a soap-opera-style BUT I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD with a deity.

...now please don't kill me.

Well, I still prefer the endgame of BG2, TOB for sheer epic style (Although PS:T Comes close, but lacks the kick-ass epicness, I mean it doesn't have you storming through a dragons lair in the mid-game ).

Joviwan wrote:

DEATH wrote:Oh, and so many comments without a quote from the games? "What can Change the nature of a man".

Ahem.

Minsc wrote: Go for the eyes, Boo! GO FOR THE EYES! RAAAAGHSK!

Ah, Minsk and Boo the miniature giant space hamster . It's a crime that all CRPGS since BG2 have had tiny parties

DEATH wrote:Well, I still prefer the endgame of BG2, TOB for sheer epic style (Although PS:T Comes close, but lacks the kick-ass epicness, I mean it doesn't have you storming through a dragons lair in the mid-game ).

Dude, screw dragons' lairs. In Torment you fight a deva which are way cooler than dragons, plus this one happens to be hellbent on cleansing the entire multiverse of perceived evil with an army of fiends.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:

DEATH wrote:Well, I still prefer the endgame of BG2, TOB for sheer epic style (Although PS:T Comes close, but lacks the kick-ass epicness, I mean it doesn't have you storming through a dragons lair in the mid-game ).

Dude, screw dragons' lairs. In Torment you fight a deva which are way cooler than dragons, plus this one happens to be hellbent on cleansing the entire multiverse of perceived evil with an army of fiends.

Sorry dude, Demogorgon. The Prince of Demons. The only way to one-up that would be Asmodeus .
And sorry, "cooler than dragons"? Such a thing does not exist in all the multiverse .

The Fortress is well done cinematically though, what with what happens there, and the final scene. A massive emotional payload, even if the gameplay isn't as good as in say, [BG2 spoiler!] fighting your own soul in the Abyss or overthrowing a demigod , but it's arguably the better ending if less fulfilling.

It should be noted that BG has quite a large userbase on the net - there are countless mods being created (Some are massive, like TUTU which converts BG1 to the BG2 engine, and the NPC project which adds hours of dialogue).

www.pocketplane.net
www.spellholdstudios.net
www.gibberlings3.net

Those will serve you right up and there is also a comprehensive modlist for the various versions here.

Brother-Captain Gaius wrote:In BGII, you'll get whipped if you start blatantly ignoring the laws in the city. Casting arcane magic in particular will get you killed pretty quickly (wizards must be licensed in Athkatla).

On the topic of arcane magic in BG2, for some reason I find the game more interesting playing a Wizard Slayer, even though class only has an effect on where your stronghold is. It's probably because I enjoy playing fighter classes, and the massive pile of spell resistance makes for a good equalizer considering how sharper the power curve is for mages at high level. With the kinds of characters I typically play, I can picture some evil mage casting some nasty spell, then have my character do the whole "screaming in agony that slowly morphs into derisive laughing" moments.