So I have never completed Baldur's Gate 1 or 2 all the way through and am starting a new playthrough. Which version of the game should I play for a first timer? I have the original and enhanced editions - should I play the original, TuTu, BGT, or the enhanced edition? For mods I was going to use widescreen (for the non enhanced edition), bg1 fixpack, bg1 npc pack and the big font mod.

i've been playing the original since the 90's or whenever it came out. can't beat a classic. i was debating whether to go for the EE or not, but a lot of reviews says it is very buggy and doesn't add a lot to the story. essentially it is up to you, but this go around i am sticking with the original myself. check out gamebanshee.com for a walkthrough if you get stuck

If you're a new comer to the serie, I would suggest going directly to the EE.

It's not THAT buggy at all, it's very stable, and a new patch (2.5) is in BETA right now.

It's really plug and play, you don't need any mod to make it run well on a modern machine.

I'd recommend BGT.

Original has very limited mod support.

TuTu is obsolete.

EE 1 has blurry backgrounds, and the new items (too cheap and too powerful) and new companions (from what I've heard; I didn't try any of them) don't fit very well with the original stuff.

EE 1 doesn't really bring anything new that is worthwile except a few minor UI improvements and somewhat faster loading times. I quit EE 1 after completing most of the Beregost and Temple areas and installed BGT instead for a much better experience. I play with quite a lot of mods, though.

Just saw this in another forum and couldn't resist reposting it here.

I suggest going for the original with the widescreen mod. The game is just fine as it is without any other mods. Later on, after the first playthrough you can experiment, but to me other than fixpack, the mods are sticking too much and playing on the BG2 engine completely messes up the balance of the game for example.

Yes. It is THAT buggy. I can't remember the number of bugs I encountered while playing the latest BG1:EE. The worst part is, Beamdog is deleting the bug reports that are entered in their bug center. I entered 12 game breaking bugs into their system with solid proof with pictures. I did that TWICE and they deleted them TWICE. One proof that they are deleting bug reports is that there were over thousand (1000) bugs in their system 2 years ago. Now there is a lot less YET there are NON fixed bugs in the last 2 years. So a sane person should ask, what happened to those bugs?

So yes, EEs are buggy as hell. So annoying that I could finish BG1:EE in around 100 hours.

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Ok, now to the original question. I finished BG1 6 times. 1 times classic, 4 times BGT, 1 times BG:EE. I could never finish BG2, either classic or EE.

For BG1:
Classic BG1 has ugly graphics and use the D&D2 system which is ... not my favorite. I am not sure if mods can fix the ugly graphics or the awkward system. Of course, there are people who prefer that version. So here is a screenshot from classic BG1. It looks like stone age to me. Also, I remember the journal was a total pain.

I Loved Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT). You need to own both BG1 and BG2. BGT lets you play BG1 in the better BG2 engine. The only downside I can think of is, it damages the "balance" of the game, making it slightly easier. I doubt that will be a problem for a first time player tho since the game can be quite challenging already.

And here is an inventory screen from BG2.

BG1:EE provides the user with lots of nice information, both in the user interface and item descriptions. This is a real bonus, especially for newcomers. For example, now you can easily see that Full Plate Armor has +4 bonus to slashing. Moreover, the latest version (the only version I played), has some nice extra features like;
* There is a button that lets you see everything on the ground. Which makes looting a lot easier.
* You can now wield a shield on off hand while having 2hand weapons like spear or bow in the main hand which makes things a lot easier. What does that mean?
Let's say you are a fighter, proficient with the longsword and longbow. While wielding the longsword, you want to hold a shield. However, classic versions (and also 1.4 versions of EEs), wouldn't let you do that if you already had longbow in another spot. You had to take out the bow and then put the shield. In the latest version of BG:EEs, you can have them both.

Bugs are very annoying tho. Screen going crazy while taking notes on maps, quests becoming unfinishable, items disappearing from inventory, items re-appearing in inventory, gems becoming infinite in gem bag, enemies not becoming hostile which makes it impossible to kill them (even with force attack) thus you can't progress.. etc etc. That's why it took me 100 hours to finish it, most of the time spent on trying to solve the bugs. Note that I never experienced a single bug in classic versions myself.

So you can decide what version you want yourself according to the information I provided.

About BG2: I say that classic version is completely playable and looks amazing to this day. I do not see a single reason to play EEs over it. Also, if you choose to go with the BGT route, your same party will instantly start BG2 anyways, which makes things a lot easier. However, I was never able to finish classic BG2 and have not progressed much in BG2:EE so I do not think I can compare the two versions efficiently.

Personal opinion, there are two options I would consider for the first game:

1: Just play the originals. If you can tolerate some really archaic UI design choices and some difficulties getting it running for Baldur's Gate this is what I would recommend actually. Save playing a modded out version for a second playthrough. I would actually even recommend against the NPC mod. Widescreen mod is good though; black bars do not make for an immersive experience.

2: The enhanced edition, which is a heavily modified version of the game. It has a ton of quality of life improvements that makes it much more tolerable for people who aren't used to playing old games with crappy UI, but game balance feels very severely off. I think it's just because it's basically running in a Baldur's Gate II engine as I've always felt BG1Tutu was severely off too.

So about Baldur's Gate Trilogy/BG1Tutu... I don't recommend it. You're losing out on the authentic Baldur's Gate experience and not really getting a lot in return for it.

For Baldur's Gate II, I would just play the original if you played the original of Baldur's Gate and the Enhanced Edition if you played the Enhanced Edition. The differences between the versions here are comparatively minimal.

I played the EE twice, had some bugs in the early version, but nothing game breaking.

With 2.0, some may not like the new sprite, but I didn't encounter any bugs.

But with the current sale, just buy the EE and if you don't like it, play the Classic, it comes with it

If you don't like the unmodded original play the EE.

Thank you for the suggestions, after research on the options I decided to go through a Big World playthrough of the Enhan ced Edition Trilogy with BG, SoD and BG2.

Wow, that's one big package. At least 100 hours of gameplay, 200 if you are slow like me. Goodluck and have fun. Have you decided which character to play with? I mean race, class etc.

I normally go for Human / Fighter in these types of games.

Human Fighter is never a bad choice. If you like the "point and punch" style of gameplay, you can certainly play a Fighter all the way through the saga as the "tank" of your party. Depending on your attributes, you could also dual-class later down the line -- and just about any class can benefit from a Fighter foundation.

And if you're going for a Big World playthrough, then you've got quite the epic journey ahead of you! As has already been said: Good luck and have fun!

Make sure to get 18s in str, dex, con and if possible also in cha.