For me the BG saga is still the best game(s) ever.

The fact that i'm totally drunk now doens't change anything to that. I love wine degustations.

ps: dams you have no idea how many times i had to use backspace here.

Btw IWD (2) was available very cheap here already a while back (see my topic about that, dunno when). I might be willing to check out my shipping costs to serbia or wherever you're at now if i can still find a cheap copy.

IWD 3inbox is sold everywhere all over Tallinn, can find it in any shop, so i guess yer out of luck pal

For me, BG1 was a story for itself. Since BG2 everything started getting shape of a movie, which I didn't like really (and I still don't). The thing that I missed the most was the freedom that BG1 has: no matter on which chapter you are, almost all areas of game are accessible to you. And they're so damn many in comparison to BG2.

Now, let consider how I was playing BG1, when I got it for the first time:

- I didn't know that I can change STR/CON/DEX/CHA/WIS/INT stats. I believed it's always the same in the beginnig until I started game for the x-th time. And how? I took a look. Usually I wasn't even bothering to pay attention to that numbers. As well, I didn't know there are dices for getting HP on levelup. So... what happened: As I finished the game for the first time, my char was a real, total and absolute mediocre. Imoen had more HP than him.

- I did not have idea about what DND is. I was trying to elude arrows by running left-right and hoping it will miss. (and ranting as it followed me )

- I knew very few words of English and that it was. I didn't know what they talk, I didn't know what I answer. The story remained a total puzzle to me, as I finished the game for the first time. I had no idea what is happening out there, what I should do next and where I should go in order to do it. Imagine... it was a real W00T as I discovered there is a canalisation under Baldur's Gate. As well, I needed some time to realize that I can decide whether someone will attack me or not, by choosing different answers. But it was still combinatoric, not understanding the language.

- In the end, I didn't have any walkthroughs to help me passing the game. When I was stuck, I was usually doing search from the bottom to the top, searching up the whole world again and again till I find what I was looking for, or till I realize where it is. That's how I found secret places (few pixels on the map that you need to hover with mouse in order to get some cool stuff). The bad thing about it was that I started to believe there is such place on each map. I spent not hours but days searching for them. There was no luck, but I saw many details that an average player don't see. I mean lakes, rivers, terrain textures, neutral animals and their behavior, and even ambient sounds (ok, I didn't see them, I heard them) etc. After all, I can only say Bioware did a really great job making it all.

- In BG2, quests got longer, more complex and therewith more exciting. Indeed, that was something that BG1 didn't have. But, I will mention again the certain amount of linearity. If you're just came out of Irenicus' prison, you can't just break into underdark territory, by simply stumbling on the right door.

Currently I am spending big portions of my free time with BG2 but only because that's the version I have in German (yeah, now I learn German that way). If I had BG1 in German, I think that would be another story.

You are a funny person

Nah... I was a kid. If you asked me then who's Sarevok, I'd tell you either he was a Santa Claus or honestly that I do not know. (ok, exaggerated again) Today I master the game and its content, but right that kills the real joy of exploration and turns out to be sole catching original phrases (in English and German) that are in plenty in the game.

By the way... I just got Planescape: Torment. Will spend it slowly and silently. No walkthroughs, no hurry.

flashback
Few years ago, I was planning to open a small encyclopedia where each BG character will have its place. I even made a small site with about 100 of them. Maybe some day I get bored enough from doing nothing to sit down and do the thing, completely and properly.

p.s.
This was 40.800th aricle here.