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Our initial Baldur's Gate II preview last year was an extensive one that included a rundown of the new character-class kits, the monsters, and even the locations that would be in this upcoming sequel to the 1998 RPG of the year, Baldur's Gate. Since then, Bioware and Black Isle have shown off more of the features we mentioned at that time. We saw evidence of the bigger screen size and the resized interface, and we saw more of the environments and actual characters and creatures.

To read that more extensive, original preview, you can click on the link to the right. This preview is an update with new information, screenshots, and art based on our recent visit to Interplay. While down at Interplay, we saw a demo of the game that showed off the newest monsters and several new locations, including the temple for the paladin organization of the Order of the Radiant Heart and a Drow Underdark city.

The new spell effects are now much better, thanks to the 3D acceleration.

Baldur's Gate II uses a modified version of the Baldur's Gate engine. However, unlike Icewind Dale, which wasn't able to modify too much of the engine, Baldur's Gate II has been able to optimize it even further. So you will see even larger monsters here than you will in Icewind Dale, and some of the environments will look better as well. Yes, huge beasts such as the frost giant and ettin from Icewind Dale will be small compared with the gargantuan creatures that await in Baldur's Gate II. The pathfinding will also be improved, using the same bumping method that will be in Icewind Dale. Now, characters can walk through other player characters, reducing the instances of your party members wandering off to move around other people. The world map has likewise been improved, with color versions of all the outdoor locations and cities. These maps look like the large and beautiful color maps that come with many of the AD&D box sets, and they are very impressive and detailed, right down to the city streets and various buildings. You'll be able to make notes on your map, just as in Torment, and the quest log will likewise be better organized.

Stone golems confront the party.

Other immediate changes include the addition of the rest button to the top-level interface, so you don't have to click through a second interface to get to it. Also, the inventory screen will be streamlined. At this point, the game runs at a supported resolution of up to 800x600. If the team has enough time to resize the interface further, then the game may officially support resolutions higher than that as well. A nice addition is that you can hide the interface now and play in full-screen mode as well. You won't have to worry about missing text in full-screen mode because now the text will also float above the characters or items.

Next: More on Baldur's Gate II