Quite possibly the largest amount of enjoyable playability for the lowest price - this box set has literally hundreds of hours of gametime if everywhere is explored.

The graphics may be slightly dated now, but are still to my mind acceptable - the only difference that starts to grate sometimes is the lack of movement on the backgrounds.

Starting from Baldurs Gate (competent enough, but with too many wide open spaces, a lack of character interaction and an irritating endgame), to TOSC (much more tightly plotted and arranged with definite moments of suspense) then stepping up several gears to Baldurs Gate 2.

Baldurs Gate 2 - certainly a landmark in pre-rendered isometric RPGs in terms of scale. Graphics and animation are greatly improved, the number of plots is ludicrously high, there are multiple paths through the game and reasonable interaction between characters. Suffering only from a startgame which doesn't entirely fit in with everything else stylewise and a midgame that meanders somewhat if you get distracted by the huge number of sidequests, this truly is a kitchen sink of RPGs with few classic quests left unexplored.

Throne of Bhaal is somewhat more combat heavy but very tightly plotted, even if there is more than a hint of pandering to fans of the game. The game relentlessly pushes your character forward with ever more powerful foes and abilities and is a decent end to the Baldurs Gate series. The endgame battle is unfortunately substantially more difficult (and frustrating) than all but one prior battle but it's still worth checking out - just try to be tactical in your battles rather than using force otherwise you may have a shock.

That's not to mention all the fan made patches.. Potentially, this could last a player months.

I have played these to death and every few years pick them up again and have another go. I would recommend you google, download and install some user modifications to play these games:
"bgtutu" allows you to play the original and expansion using the second ones game engine.
"bg1 unfinished business for tutu" and "unfinished business" adds content that was cut from the finished versions of both games. So without changing the feel of the games they are fleshed out a little.
"bg widescreen mod" allows the user to change the resolution to modern display resolutions.

Apart from those recommendations I can only echo what others have said. That these games a computer role playing and storytelling classics.

The Baldur's Gate series are probably the best and most fun games I have ever played. It brought to life - with amazing clarity and thought - the Forgotten Realms world in a way that will keep you coming back for more and more and more. The story is brilliant, the game is infinitely playable (and indeed replayable) and the depth of the game is massive.

The basic premise is that you take a character - a warrior or wizard or priest - on a quest in a fantasy world. There is a main storyline which runs throughout the games, but with many opportunities to get sidetracked to help (or indeed hinder) the characters you run into.

These days, the 45 degree viewpoint may look a little dated, and the graphics are certainly nothing special. But the sheer playability of the game has never been matched. And in this pack you can play the series from start to finish. As you may be able to tell, I can't recommend this game enough.

This was the LONGEST the MOST FUN games I have ever played! And, mind you, I am not an easy customer (feel free to browse through all my reviews, you will see what I mean...)

The original BG series was excellent in all of storyline, gameplay, music and stability. Now, nowadays, sequels usually mean a graphically-improved expansion (at best). BG2 is a rare exception of the sequel clearly SURPASSING the original. And in the case of such great original, this means a lot!

Words fail to describe the perfect harmony of brilliant ideas, emerging story-line and detailed coding that makes this game an unsurpassable classic! This COLLECTION contains all the sequels, patched with the latest fixes. Do not let the slightly outdated graphics discourage you. They were cutting edge only some years ago - and you will be able to unleash their full potential even on mid-range PCs!

I have yet to meet anyone who has played it and not raved about it! Hard-core D&D funs will find the character building, fighting checks and balances and overall experience very close to the actual pen-&-paper games.
Casual computer gamers will notice none of the tedious stuff of other cRPGs as the gameplay runs smooth and beautifully.
You even have the choice to turn it into either a turn-based or an action game by tweaking the auto-pause options! I am telling you: this is how computers games should be!

You will let yourself get lost in the deep dungeons of the labyrinthic story; you will be laughing out loud to the humorous dialog; you will be surprised as to who is a double and triple-agent.
There is an evil beyond imagining unleashed and only you with your party can stand in its way.
Party members offer a multitude of unpredictable balancing points and diverging story-lines of their own: side quests, conflicts and love affairs enrich the story in so many original ways!

A collection of unsurpassed classics!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

The Baldur's Gate series is undoubtedly one of the best CRPG's ever designed. I've played through many different role playing games over the years, but Baldur's is the only one that I keep coming back to, in order to make a new character, or try a new mod and run through it all again. The best part of playing Baldur's is the fact that you get a storyline more akin to a best selling fantasy novel rolled in with a computer game. If you enjoy the storyline as much as the action, then this is your game.

The compilation DVD is excellent value, if you are running Vista then don't worry as I had a few problems initially but they were all solved by setting the shortcut to run in XP `compatibility' mode (I'm running both games with all expansions and including a heap of custom mods like Tutu).

Most of the people buying will probably be like myself - repeat customers who may have some dusty old version with dozens of CD's kicking around somewhere and just wanted to get it all in one neat package. If you happen to be new to it all then don't forget to check out Sorcerer's Place for all the fan-made mods that extend the games playability even further.