The logic is perfectly clear: Game developers living in California have the constant distractions of sun, surf, sex and redwood forests. Even the most absorbing game has to be squeezed in between these fanciful, plentiful and bountiful diversions. Meanwhile, in Edmonton, Alberta, from October until March, people are lucky to even see the sun. It is dark and windy when they get up to go to work, dark and snowing when they come out after.

The wind blows. It snows and reaches past minus thirty (in any temperature scale you care to measure it by). The dark and cold of winter is broken only by the occasional hockey game. There isn't even a hill to ski on. To the arctic hardened crew at Bioware, creating an absorbing videogame means oh so much more than it does to their soft, cozy-warm and complacent competitors in sunny California. Any of you who doubt this iron clad line of reasoning need only consider this, most, if not all of you have either been on vacation to California, or, at the very least, planned in your mind a whirlwind trip through the cedar redwoods, scaling the face of El Capitain in Yosemite, down to the sunny beaches of San Diego, up to Disneyland, visiting with Pamela Anderson and friends in Los Angelas and/or continuing up the coast into the San Francisco Bay area.

How many of those same souls have planned a trip to Edmonton to see - what - the statue of Wayne Gretzky outside the hockey arena? I thought not. Certainly, no one ever wrote a song that included lyrics anything like, "In my mind I'm gone to Edmonton," or "Edmonton Dreamin'" No wonder then, that Bioware has such an impressive record and even more impressive lineup of upcoming games.

At a recent press event hosted by Bioware's publishers at Interplay, it was made apparent just how impressive Bioware's upcoming games truly are.

Baldur's Gate II

Given the immense popularity (over 1,000,000 copies sold with versions in the works for both the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Dreamcast), and the universal acclaim of Baldur's Gate, anybody surprised by the announcement of a sequel obviously hasn't been paying attention to their horoscope, crystal ball, the videogame industry, the stars or even the weather - farmers in the Canadian prairies, last week, looked up at a deep golden sunset and said, "Yep, Ma, better batten down the hatches, there's BG 2 coming and it's gonna be a big one, eh."

Like all sequels, Baldur's Gate II uses the original engine slightly optimized and tweaked. The impressive and promising thing about Shadows of Amn is not the refining touches of an extra year or two to work on them, but the attitude of the team. Whether you speak to one of the co-producers, the lead programmer, a texture artist or a writer on the team, as they demonstrate what refinements they have made, the recurring phrase is, "what the players asked for." So, like the players asked for, some of the things to look forward to in BG II are:

-A customizable GUI (Graphical User Interface) that allows you to drop all or parts of it and recall it at the stroke of a key. Not having the GUI interfering with the player's view of the proceedings makes the game that much more engaging.

-Optional 3D hardware acceleration.

-An overall lessening of dead time in the adventure. The world is a little bit smaller but much more densely populated. There will be less wandering around forested areas (although that will still be possible for gamers so inclined), less travel time from area to area and a more immediate response by characters to a player's orders.

-Improved multiplay. Playing BG II with friends will be less of an exercise of watching one player play. All players can shop simultaneously and minor conversations do not halt the game for the other players in the party (and yes, for those who want to play a multiplayer game by themselves so that they can create all six characters, that too is still possible in BG II).

-Much improved playability for those who wish to be evil. On the original Baldur's Gate, Bioware was somewhat limited in how they were allowed to reward evil. Such is no longer the case. There will still be consequences to being evil. Some minor quests may not be available and you may find yourself an outlaw, but evil characters will be more able to progress through the adventure and there will be magical items useful only to them.

-Greatly enhanced NPC interaction. The dialogue engine of BG II has been greatly enhanced. Whereas in the original game, dialogues could branch only twice (option A if you have the magic key, option B if you do not), the enhanced engine can allow a conversation to branch up to six times. The crew of writers working on the game are very excited about the enhanced ability to develop characters and to set scene. Party NPCs will banter much more than they did in the first game. There will be "fan requested" romance between the party members. Characters may leave and return. Much more will be going on in the background. In fact, the development team indicates that a single party character in BG II will have more dialogue than all of the party characters combined from BG I.

-More realms to visit: The underworld (the Drow will make their BG debut), the Astral Plain, an undersea world, etc.

-20+ character kits have been added which means that gamers can now play Bards, Cavaliers and many others.

-Improved pathing (I saw with my own eyes, a magician step aside so that a fighter could get to the monster in front of him and then step back in column and begin casting spells from the back of the party).

The Shadows of Amn picks up where Baldur's Gate left off. Characters, whether imported or generated fresh, will begin with 89,000 experience points and progress to a maximum of 2,950,000 (which puts characters between 17th and 24th level depending on class). At ninth level, as per AD&D rules, characters will gain a stronghold. Fighters can gain a Keep from which they must dispense justice, solve the problems of the peasants and eventually hold off a siege. Druids may become the great druid of the local grove, thieves gain a thieves' guild and so on, each unique to the class of the player character and leading to unique story elements (do I smell having to replay a 100 hours + RPG game more than once?). The most powerful spells and items from the AD&D game system will be represented. Combat, especially involving mighty magicians wielding spells like Holy Word and Disintegrate will have to be approached tactically and intelligently. Obviously, with the power of the player characters, there will also be some mighty enemies such as Mind Flayers, Iron Golems and Elminsters.

Start rubbing your hands together and licking your lips in anticipation. The game is slated for a September 2000 release and, unlike the original Baldur's Gate, the engine is already coded and the team is within a day of their official schedule. Oh, it was also said that Bioware always had a trilogy in mind so those of you in the congregation able to do simple math will realize that, down the line, there will also be a Baldur's Gate III, so don't act surprised when they announce that one.

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