[edlington_j]

This is rediculous.

TOEE wasn't a bad game because of the graphics. The graphics and combat system were the best parts of it. It was the story telling and simple things like missing item descriptions that were appalling making for an extremely shoddy experience overall. I for one would welcome putting that engine in the hands of Bioware or Black Isle with their ability to tell a story and eye for detail. BG and BG2 would have been even greater games with the TOEE graphics engine.

Let's go 3D. The future is now. This is the jet age people. In the 'PC Gamer has something on BG3' thread it mentions that there's a possibility they'd use the Dragon Age engine. In the preview on this site it looks like an amazing tool set for creating an RPG. The best part of BG for me (among many quality aspects of course) is the tactical combat. Mention in the Dragon Age preview of hieght coming into it sounded fantastic. Fully 3D weapon ranges and areas of affect should massively expand the tactical possibilities not to mention the variety of encounters the developers can plan for your party. Then there's flying and dropping things on monsters from a great height. It goes on and on.

TOEE wasn't rubbish because of the graphics. NWN wasn't rubbish because of the graphics (not much control over the camera maybe). It was because you had no party in my humble opinion which limited the scope for tactical combat. Hell, with a free roaming camera you can recreate the BG perspective so what's the big deal?

We should be sending a petition demanding that they put as much effort creating a story as epic and setting as detailed as the existing BG games no matter what engine they use. That's the only real way to honour the series.

If not then well, I might just start my own petition insisting that Atari make BG3 text based. Now they really were the good old days?!?!?!