Pherule you must have never played the old PnP version of Dungeons and Dragons. You had to wait for everyone else to say what they were going to do then wait on the DM. Baldur's gate plays very similar to that. I rather enjoyed the play style of the BG and IWD series. You did not have to pause every time you wanted to do something, you could if you wanted to, there were times when I did and at some points in the game it actually worked to your advantage being able to pause and regroup. Sure the AI wasnt very sophisticated but that could be said of most games released at that time. Diablo was a mouse killer, I spent many nights just going click, click, click, click, click in Diablo and D2, and doing pretty much the same thing in BG/IWD. The main difference between BG and Diablo was that the BG/IWD series had back stories to the characters you controlled, Diablo...not so much, DS 1&2, they had a story to the characters as well. Then there's the depth of the game itself, anything based on Dungeons and Dragons is going to have so much more to it than almost any other game, with the exception of ancient myths and books like LOTR. DnD goes back to the early/mid 70's and the late Gary Gygax. There is more lore in these 2 series than Diablo, Warcraft and Dungeon Siege combined. The style of game wasn't for everyone, I had friends that loved and hated the game. But being able to import your toon from BG1/TOSC into BG2 was great! Cant remember how that worked with IWD though... .
Personally I would love to see Baldurs gate done with more of a Oblivion/Skyrim style to it, or even AI squad based style play similar to that in STO and other new MMO's. If your gonna revamp the series why not go all out and make it a game worthy of the BG/DnD/Forgotten Realms name. I miss playing in Faerûn and the world of Abeir-Toril.
But for those who like the game check this out: Dungeons & Dragons Anthology: The Master Collection Includes Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 + Expansion, Icewind Dale 1 & 2 + Expansions, Planescape: Torment, and The Temple of Elemental Evil (ToEE was ok). $20 for that isnt bad imo. Was updated to work with WinXP/Vista/7 for those interested.