Earlier in the year it was announced that a slew of old-school RPGs were making their way to consoles, all for the first time in their enhanced editions. Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights were all said to be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, though there were no details as of then on when or what they would look like. Now we know, and boy, they are hitting us hard and quick with these.

All of the games will have both digital and physical releases across all three platforms. Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear will come bundled together. Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale will release in another bundle at the same time. Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition will be the only one that is a solo release, and it will also launch a few months later.

The Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition pack and Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition/Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition bundle will both launch for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on September 24^th in North America and September 27^th everywhere else. Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition will launch on the same platforms December 3^rd in North America and the 6^th in other regions. All three releases will retail for $49.99 USD. You can check out the announcement trailer below and, of course, all of these games are currently available on PC.

https://youtu.be/4fI0p4dSKlQ

Before they morphed into WRPGs, cRPGs used to be an entirely different beast. They would adopt the Dungeons and Dragons rulesets for computer games, and prioritize actual role playing with proper RNG and stat management, unlike what RPGs of later days would become. The zenith of this movement of cRPGs is represented by games like Baldur’s Gate 2, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and Planescape Torment, arguably the greatest cRPG ever made.

Now, all of those, as well as the original Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, will be brought to modern consoles, exposing them to a modern audience for the very first time. Skybound Games and Beamdog announced today that all of these games will be launching on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4 in 2019. These will all be “Enhanced Editions”, according to the press release they made, which means they’ll be polished up with unpressed graphics and the like.

No specific release dates were announced, but I hope they come soon. I can’t wait to play them on my Switch.

We are bringing these amazing titles to #XboxOne, #NintendoSwitch, and #PS4! https://t.co/NbbPN8tQFO

— Skybound Games (@skyboundgames) February 7, 2019

As far as video game related projects go, it only falls behind the Kickstarter for the OUYA console which ended at $8,596,474.

On the Kickstarter page, inXile wrote that, “All of us made history yesterday, reaching a new record for the most funded video game on Kickstarter! Thank you so much for your support, both through your pledges and through your spreading the word to others.”

Gamers can still contribute to the game’s development through PayPal. As the spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment, Torment: Tides of Numenara features many of the original development team and several old-school developers on board.

Just recently, the team add Planescape lead designer Chris Avellone to the team to contribute to the narrative and oversee all aspects of development.

Avellone co-founded Obsidian Entertainment, where he is currently working on Project Eternity as Creative Director. On Torment: Tides of Numenera, he will review and contribute to the story, characters and overall gameplay of the game along with scripting an eighth companion alongside Colin and Monte Cook.

With the addition of Avellone, inXile will now be holding stretch goals for a ridiculous $4.5 million. This include an even more complicated morality system, additional new locations and personal stronghold for the player will be included should backers reach the goal in the next, oh, 55 hours.

As it stands, inXile has achieve more than enough. Now all that remains is to see the final product, and judging by screenshots, it looks great already.

inXile are promising a “deep, thematically satisfying story”, “a rich personal narrative” and a world unlike any other” as the similarities between the two games. However, we also know that it will be a single-player title set from an isometric perspective with a single playable character and several NPCs who can join your party.

There will be dialogue options similar to Planescape: Torment, and the game will be available for PC, Mac and Linux. You can expect a variety of supported languages including English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish.
Developed on the Unity engine, Torment will be DRM-free and obtainable via digital download platforms like Steam.

Would it be a Planescape game without members of the original team? That’s right: Colin McComb and Monte Cook, two of three main writers for the original are on board, along with Ray Vellese who edited and wrote the original’s setting and will be editing the sequel’s content as well. Mark Morgan, previously the composer on Planescape: Torment, is also on board with Torment.

Launched today, the the project already 6,171 backers who have already pledged $349,734 of the $900,000 goal (as of this writing) with 30 days still left to go.