In case an ogre left you pinned under a boulder for the last month, Baldur's Gate 3 is… everywhere. With the indescribably excellent Narrator reading thirst tweets, a shirtless halfling blowing up the entire goblin encampment in one go, people buying so many Karlach Magic: the Gathering cards it caused the price to spike, and endless discussions about whether or not it's one of the best games of all time, it's clear this one's made a mark. It wouldn't exist, however, without '90s BioWare classics Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, and now the Enhanced Editions of those two beautiful RPGs are on sale over at GOG.
Running from August 28 to September 11, GOG's annual Autumn Sale features lots of nice discounts. We combed through it for some of the best deals, but for my dollar you can't get much better than the Witcher 3, Disco Elysium, or the aforementioned Baldur's Gate games, which are five bucks each.
The first Baldur's Gate came out in 1998, a truly legendary year for gaming (Half Life, Ocarina of Time, Starcraft, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, the list goes on). It came from a largely unknown developer called BioWare, its only previous game being a mostly unimpressive MechWarrior clone called Shattered Steel. Based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2e ruleset, it was a huge success, selling almost as many copies as Diablo and putting BioWare on the map.
That momentum spawned expansion packs, spinoffs using other D&D locales like Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment, and a sequel. Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn came out in 2000, and is still regarded as one of the best PC games of all time (ranked #8 on Metacritic).
Playing through these games is an especially fond memory of mine, and they're still fantastic—the densely packed locations, lively companions, sweet magical loot, and wacky monsters are all just as much fun as they were 20 years ago.
If you love Baldur's Gate 3 but are daunted by the prospect of opening up the dustier tomes it's based on, check out our guide to making the leap from BG3 to the originals. It'll explain some of the nuances of the games, give you an idea of what to expect, and perhaps give you some context behind why I made custom T-shirts that read "F*** ThAC0".
