Infinity Engine Enhanced Editions Available on Consoles

If the idea of playing through the Infinity Engine games on your Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or Nintendo Switch sounds appealing to you, it can now be arranged thanks to the combined efforts of the teams over at Skybound Games and Beamdog. For $49.99 or your regional equivalent you can now purchase this bundle containing Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, as well as this one with Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition. And on December 3, 2019, you’ll also be able to grab Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition.

Here’s a quick trailer:

And a press release with additional details:

Oct. 15, 2019 (Edmonton, Canada)– Skybound Games and Beamdog today announced that enhanced editions of several classic Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing videogames– including Baldur’s Gate, the Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear expansion, Baldur’s Gate II, Planescape: Torment, and Icewind Dale– are now available on modern consoles for the very first time. Available today globally these boxed versions can be purchased at major retailers for $49.99 USD each on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch:

• Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition Pack: Celebrating the series’ 20th anniversary, the original Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition and its sequel, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, return with all DLC / expansions and restored quest content, as well as the Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear expansion, featuring new original content developed by Beamdog to bridge the two games.
• Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition / Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: Two must-play games and all their DLC in one package – the chilling Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, plus its expansions, and the enhanced edition of 1999’s RPG of the Year, Planescape: Torment.

These titles are also now available for digital download on the PlayStation®Store, Microsoft Xbox One Store, and Nintendo eShop.

Tailored for a natural gameplay experience on consoles, these enhanced editions give longtime fans and newcomers alike the opportunity to play these critically acclaimed adventures from a golden age of RPGs in a whole new way. Beamdog has upgraded each title with support for high-resolution widescreen displays, controls optimized for console controllers, new content, new characters and classes, expanded character creation options, redesigns of the UI and UX, bug fixes, balance changes and more.

Skybound Games and Beamdog will also release fellow all-time classic RPG Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition on consoles globally on December 3, 2019. Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is available to pre-order now at major retailers and the Skybound Shop: www.skybound.com/neverwinter-nights-enhanced-edition.

Then, there’s also this Eurogamer article that doesn’t seem overly impressed with the console versions. An excerpt:

I tried the BG and PST packs on Nintendo Switch, and they’re fine. I didn’t notice any load times and the characters moved around the areas quickly and fluidly. Capable radial menus make sense of the enormous amount of tinkering there is to do in a game like this – rifling through bags, looking-up character sheets, swapping equipment, changing spells, etc. More importantly, for a game based so heavily on reading, there are quality of life improvements such as being able to increase the size of the text. At maximum size, it’s readable on Nintendo Switch in handheld mode – the ultimate test. It’s playable, in other words – it works.

But it’s clear these games were never designed with consoles in mind. They are frustrating to play on a pad. I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve ended up accidentally triggering map zoom-out instead of the command I wanted. Between shoulder-buttoning through characters, trigger-pressing for radial menus, hitting X to enable hotbars and then individually select abilities, my brain was tied in a knot. It got easier with muscle memory but never comfortable, never intuitive.