black-isle-studios posts

Planescape: Torment now on GoG.com

by John Callaham Sep 28th 2010 @ 11:00AM

The DRM-free PC game web site GoG.com continues to add classic but major PC titles to its library. Today the site brings us a true RPG masterpiece in Planescape: Torment, the 1999 title from developer Black Isle Studios and publisher Interplay.

The Dungeons and Dragons-based game is now available from GoG.com for $9.99. In addition to the game itself the site also has a number of bonus materials including the game's manual, wallpapers, the game's soundtrack, over 100 pieces of artwork, avatars and even a PDF of the game's novelization from Chris Avellone (now at Obsidian working on Fallout: New Vegas) and Colin McComb.

Filed under: Downloads, RPG

Boot Disk: Fallout

by David Craddock Sep 30th 2008 @ 6:00PM

Click the Boot Disk logo to read this week's column.)

As the typical five-year lifespan of a console winds toward its conclusion, gamers inevitably pose questions of backwards-compatibility. They wonder, as is only logical, whether the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of dollars they invested in their gaming library will be relevant when the new generation of hardware emerges. Sometimes, as with the Xbox 360's update-oriented system, most last-gen titles will still function properly. Other times, as with the PlayStation 3's confusing array of SKUs, the answer alternates between "maybe," "hopefully," and "who knows"?

Despite occasional hardware hiccups and OS woes, the PC platform has managed to retain its awe-inspiring catalogue of titles, thanks in large part to an active community of uber-geeks intent on doing whatever must be done to ensure that disk-based classics don't fade into obscurity.

Welcome to Boot Disk, a weekly column dedicated to covering PC gaming's impressive and length history. Every Tuesday, we'll examine one of the platform's many titles that still lend themselves to eminence five, 10, 15, or decades' worth of years later. This week's Boot Disk shines a spotlight on the original Fallout, Black Isle Studios' iconic post-apocalyptic RPG, which is available at Good Old Games, the home of classic computer games.

Read Boot Disk: Fallout, or browse the Boot Disk archive.

Filed under: Features, Hands-on, Adventure, RPG, Opinion, Fallout 3

Resolution mod makes classic Black Isle RPGs beautiful

by Samuel Axon May 30th 2008 @ 8:30PM

There's a mod out in the wilds of the internet that scales classic Black Isle RPGs like Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale to any resolution you want to play them at. Previously, these games were only playable at extremely low resolutions such as 640x480. If you haven't played them at all before, this is the perfect opportunity. Black Isle was the successor to BioWare, and its titles paved the way for games like and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect.

The "widescreen mod" (a deceptive name, as it will also scale to resolutions in any aspect ratio) is developed by modder the_bigg, in association with the Gibberlings Three group. It doesn't just stretch the graphics; it expands the viewing area dramatically, so players can experience these classic RPGs in panoramic, true high resolutions.

We discovered this mod through an article at Rock, Paper, Shotgun and were so impressed we decided to host it at Big Download. If you're an old fan of Black Isle's RPGs, download the mod and revisit them!

Download the Black Isle Widescreen Mod from Big Download.

Filed under: Downloads, Mods, RPG