Our partner Gamecenter has released a series of images from Baldur's Gate II, a BioWare RPG that is nearing completion on the PC side. While it may annoy Mac gamers that PC users may be playing the sequel soon, while Mac gamers just got their hands on the original Balder's Gate, it is worth noting that this sequel is based on the same core code and game engine as the first -- which increases the odds of a port, and also drastically increases the speed at which this might be achieved.

Here is an excerpt from Gamecenter's article which features thirteen exclusive screen shots:

Everything so far in the game looks bigger, better, stronger, more dangerous. The game truly is a sequel to the first Baldur's Gate: you'll start out the game as a pretty high-level character no matter which class you choose, picking up the story line where Baldur's Gate left off. Well, sort of--instead of resting on the laurels of your victory over the vicious Sarevok, you find yourself a prisoner in a dungeon in the city of Athkatla, along with your old friends Imoen, Jaheira, and Minsc (and Minsc's constant companion, Boo the hamster). You'll spend the first few hours of the game trying to escape this dungeon and figuring out why you're there in the first place. We won't spoil the plot for you any further--suffice it to say that you'll run into monsters, traps, twists, turns, spells, and subquests aplenty. And this is just the littlest slice; the developers have already informed us that if you went through every quest and subquest the final game has to offer, you could easily spend more than 200 hours in front of your computer.

As you know, GraphSim recently released the original Baldur's Gate for Mac OS -- a lot later than expected, we must note, but it is here nonetheless -- and mentioned upon this release that they were working on porting the expansion pack Tales of the Sword Coast. Since both BG II and a title developed in parallel called Icewind Dale are based on the same engine as the original Baldur's Gate, we are quite sure GraphSim will be looking to sign these titles as well; this may be taking place even as you read this. In any case we would expect those titles to reach the Mac much faster than the original BG did, as the majority of the code base has already been ported. We'll keep you appraised of any developments in that area. In the meantime, check out these gorgeous screen shots and dream of the future...

GraphSim

Baldur's Gate II Preview @ Gamecenter

Baldur's Gate II Screen Shots @ Gamecenter

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.