Icewind
Failthat even if your entire exposure to
D&D consists of watching episodes of
Stranger Things, you’ll still be able to
enjoy them.Dungeon master
The original games were developed by
BioWare (BG, BG2, NN) and Black Isle
Studios (PT, ID), and all play in a similar
way. Apart from Planescape you begin
with a character of your own creation
where you must assign stats andattributes to that character, as well
as naming them, choosing their sex,
race and even their ethical or moral
alignment. You’ll then need to build
a party of adventurers to complete
quests, vanquish difficult foes and
discover the story by exploring the
world. Each of the games take place
in various locations within the D&D
universe of the Forgotten Realms, with
the exception of Planescape, which is
set in the ‘Planescape’ multiverse.
The D&D games place a huge
focus on story, which the playerhas a large influence on. This is a
staple of BioWare and anyone who’s
experienced its games in the past will
notice that unmistakable touch.
It hasn’t yet been confirmed
whether or not these ports will retain
the online co-op functionality of their
PC counterparts, but we’re confident
that they will. One of the main
attractions of D&D is the prospect of
going on adventures with your real-life
friends. The possibility of exploring
strange new worlds without this as an
option would be a tragedy.
The first Baldur’s Gate was released
over 20 years ago, and we’ve been
hoping for some form of console port
ever since – the only game appearing
on Xbox being Baldur’s Gate: Dark
Alliance II back in 2004. An exact
release date has yet to be announced,
but rest assured, we’ll be shouting
about it when it is. QJust like magic
Enhanced versions of classic Dungeons & Dragons
role-playing games make their way to Xbox One,
courtesy of Skybound Games and Beamdog
ROLL FOR
INITIATIVEThere’s been
a significant
surge of interest
in Dungeons &
Dragons these
past few years,
so it’s no surprise
that this year Xbox One owners will
be treated to enhanced versions of
some of the most beloved and best
isometric role-playing games ever
made. Last month it was announced
that Skybound Games had entered into
a partnership with game developer and
publisher Beamdog and revealed that
a collection of classic D&D adventures
will be making their way to consoles.
Beamdog may be best known for
having developed enhanced editions
of PC games: Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s
Gate 2, Icewind Dale, Planescape:
Torment and Neverwinter Nights. It
also created a brand-new expansion
for Baldur’s Gate called Baldur’s Gate:
Siege Of Dragonspear. And it’s these
exact titles that will be making their
way across the digital pond to provide
players with, quite literally, several
hundreds of hours’ worth of quality
role-playing goodness.
This is fantastic news, not just for
RPG fans but for Xbox One owners
that never got a chance to play these
games on PC, as it will mark the first
ever appearance of these games on
console. Another thing that’s great
is that each of the games contain
standalone stories and require no
previous knowledge, which means
After doing such a
brilliant job with the
enhanced editions of
Baldur’s Gate,
Beamdog announced
that it would be
bringing an enhanced
edition of Icewind
Dale to life. However,
development proved
difficult, as the
original programming
source code was
destroyed. The assets
remained, but the
team had to reuse
code from Baldur’s
Gate: Enhanced
Edition to finish it.
The same thing
happened for its
sequel: the game’s
development remains
on hiatus until source
code can be found.INSIDER DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
“It will mark
the first ever
appearance of
these games
on console”
ABOVE The D&D
videogames are
renowned for the
freedom they
grant players.
RIGHT A dragon?
In a dungeon?
Wow, we did not
expect that.EXCITED? HORRIFIED? LET THE WORLD KNOW AT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/OXMUK
012 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE