Afgelopen E3 waren al enkele testmachines waarop Baldurs Gate 2 te zien was. We hadden toen een gesprek met een van de makers die ons alle verschillen met zijn voorganger liet zien.

Dat de graphics er erg op vooruit zijn gegaan is nu al duidelijk, maar wat is er nog meer allemaal veranderd? RPGVault zocht het uit en schreef er een stuk over.One of the many improvements made to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn was to the graphics of the game. Not only has the general background art quality improved but all graphical effects including spells, creatures and background animations has, as well. Our art team has learned many "tricks" to take advantage of the engine, and the overall quality of the game has improved because of this.

One of the most spectacular improvements to the look of the game was to the background images. The detail level has risen to a whole new level. Jungle areas now have lush ferns, vines, shrubs and mushrooms etc. Tons of detail in the game world that will really grab the player and immerse them, adding to quality of game play. Many sources were used as reference when creating these areas. Some of the artists were walking through the river valley here in Edmonton, looking at the trees and undergrowth. You can imagine them coming back all muddy with twigs in their cloths from doing "research". Because of the rich diversity that BG2 has in regards to the backgrounds much imagination had to be used. Places such as the Underdark, Hell, the Astral Plane, elven cities and mind flayer layers all had to be made, with little or no direction from official source material. This made creating BG2 background art very fresh and exciting for everyone involved, and it shows in the quality of the art.

Het is dus nog even wachten dus totdat we in september het uiteindelijke product voor ons zelf kunnen gaan bekijken.