'Baldur's Gate 3' Is a Staggering Success and a Once in a Decade RPG

nanoUFO@sh.itjust.worksmod to Games@sh.itjust.works – 419 points –
'Baldur's Gate 3' Is a Staggering Success and a Once in a Decade RPG
inverse.com
54

I said it once before but this is exactly the game that needed to come out after Final Fantasy 16, and Dragon Age Dreadwolf's bullshit is going to look even worse in this game's shadow. Just to shut up the think pieces and comment sections that claim RPGs becoming God of War clones is somehow the only "modern" direction to take them.

They can both exist.

I personally enjoyed the new Final Fantasy.

Yeah, it’s not really a traditional FF game, but it’s a good game regardless.

it's probably why I enjoyed this one, but could never even bring myself to finish any of the other ones

Hey if we can have several one in a decade world events happening in a short timespan, surely we can get some good games too

But it doesn't have to be a once in a decade thing. We can drop a great RPG or even a good shooter every couple years.

I meant .. it's not. There have been 3 larian games in the last 9 years, and all 3 have been great. And they're not the only good games or RPGs. So the title is just the usual click bait crap

I played Divine Divinity some when it was released. It was interesting but clunky. It was no Neverwinter Nights.

I want to see us as gamers get away from sequelitis and get full games again without lock boxes or cash shops or battle passes. The excitement of Doom or Battlefield 2 or Elden Ring.

Wont happen. Average consumer consumes without thought for the larger picture, theres a reason we got to this point, people are suckers and buy it all, the most recent trap they willingly jump into is "pre order for X days early access", I will never understand.

Some games like Factorio and BattleBit are worth buying in early access

Early access as in still in development, sure some are, but that is not what I was talking about. It's preorder our finished game (and/or buy a 'deluxe' edition) and get the game 'early' before its release date. Reality is, its just a delayed release for smarter consumers.

And that's bad, how? If other people were able to play it early you know it wasn't finished the day before release and can read reviews before buying.

How is that not bad? It's preying on people to soak up more money. If you cant understand the difference between buying a game in development vs spending extra to play a game a few days early, then the sun might as well be the moon.
I wouldnt recommend buying games in early access either, especially if they are not discounted. If done properly theres no malice in a company asking for funds as you join the development process of a game. Whereas asking for more money to simply play a game 3 days before its official release with no other differences to the game is just predatory, abusing people excitement and hype to squeeze every last penny out where they can. Keep in mind its the multimillion or multibillion dollar companies pulling this, not your indie studios who are the ones who usually use the in dev early access program.

If you cant understand the difference between buying a game in development

I didn't say anything about development.

If people want to spend money to play a game early that's their choice. Just because it's not something you wouldn't do doesn't mean it has no value to anyone. If anything it provides value to the people who aren't going to buy the game blind on release date (unless the company postpones the release date to make room for early access I guess). Plus the dev has a chance to find and fix bugs before most people start playing.

Also is there a specific game you're talking about? I've only seen games get more expensive after early access, not less.

I imagine the term Early Access is causing confusion here.

I am not talking about the Steam Early Access program, where developers can get some early funding of their game and community feedback on the game during development. I have no issue with this program if it used correctly, which it is mostly. Games generally do get more expensive when leaving yes, as most developers recognise that charging people full price for an unfinished game is unfair.

What I was referring to is different, the early access I am referring to is a recent marketing strategy, generally used to make people spend more money on 'deluxe' editions of video games.
The most recent example would be Starfield, Bethesda are offering a 'Premium Edition' which costs almost 50% more than the base game, it contains some art and soundtrack along with some skins (I won't rant about that right now, but come on...), but it's main selling point being the '5 days early access' to the game. The game releases officially on 6th September, but if you purchase this 'Premium Edition' you can play the game on the 1st September instead.
This is what I have issue with and it is a horrible new practice that many of these multi-billion dollar companies are pulling to try and get more money from people. I understand it's ultimately the choice of the consumer to buy this, but it is preying on their hype and excitement for a game to make them fork over more money that they otherwise would not do.

It's sad to see. Games used to just have a standard price, you paid it got a full game and off you went, now there's all these special editions with extra bullshit attached in an attempt to milk consumers. You should absolutely be against these practices.

New harry potter is one example, where if you had deluxe version, you could play the game 3 days before the official release.

I hope this inspires people to check out Larian's Divinity: Original Sin series.

I picked up DOS1 EE and DOS2. Playing 1 when I don't have access to my desktop as my laptop isn't capable of running BG3. Still in the first town, but so far I'm enjoying Divinity as well.

Divinity 2 has better combat than bg3

Well that's depressing because DOS2 has shitty combat

DOS2 combat allowed you to do goofy stuff and was fun casting spells. BG3 is more 1 turn 1 action and much slower and methodical, I mean makes sense, it is DnD afterall, it's designed for tabletop.

Yeah I mean I thought divinity combat was fun. I could make massive plays to freeze everyone, create all sorts of elemental clouds and surfaces, group enemies up with teleports, etc. Some combos were definitely OP but that's what makes it fun + you could ramp up difficulty with mods and such. You could also cast spells for fun or teleport just to get around the map without having to long rest. Baldur's gate is much slower paced and playing with the elements like that seems way less viable.

It's sort of DnD. Solasta offers much more authentic 5e combat (especially with mods) but has much weaker stories, awful faces, and bad voice acting.

I really liked the combat of DOS2. All the interactions between spells were a lot of fun. The only Thing i disliked is, how ineffetive movement felt. Either you had an attack which included movement, or you didnt wanna move

What interaction? The constant everything blows up damaging everyone while healing sucks? Stunning yourself because your standing in blood that glitched under ground? Spells that don't work on the slightest change in the z-axis?

All the interactions between conditions. How wet is the condition to Support shock aswell as frost. How the Rangers First Aid is the only way to remove knockdown. How Charmed kann be removed by clear mind, but not by magic armor. How most geomancer spells create explosive surfaces to synergise with pyro. How you can usw dragons breath to clear Ice so your Charakter wont slip

Well DOS2 came out 6 years ago, so hardly once in a decade.

What’s DOS2?

Divinity original sin 2 id assume. Great game as well by Larian.

Interesting that it didn't gain similar notoriety then.

I think the Baldurs Gate name/brand carries a ton of weight still. Lots of people are nostalgic for it because it was a formative game of the 90s.

I think bg3 is also a lot easier to get into than dos 1 and 2. Having actual cut scenes and voice acting for everything goes a long way in making the game immersive. I also feel its easier to get into the combat (though that may just be me having got used to dos beforehand)

I'm really looking forward to playing it (I've promised myself to fully beat TotK before I pick it up). I played a ton of BG 1 and 2 when I was a kid and even for me they are hard to pick back up now. A slightly more accessible version of that sounds amazing.

I tried playing bg 1 and 2 about 10 years ago. I put about 40 hours in between them and enjoyed it, but I found it tough going. I've found bg3 way easier to get into and have already far surpassed the hours I put into the original games. On top of what I've already mentioned, the change to fully turn based is a huge improvement on that weird pausable real time used in the previous games

I'm really excited to hear that. The real time but actually not combat I think is what really killed me when I played them. I was only like 15 years old but I think I just didn't "get" it and tried to just go for it in real time which made many encounters incredibly difficult.

IMO it didn't have an engaging start. The joke/parody concept also scratches s different itch.

First story driven game to fully immerse me since New Vegas. I'm about 15 hours deep and I'm not even scratching the surface.

That sounds like I should take a look.

because it's a good game, or because they didnt go the DLC route?

This game has taken me back to my Mass Effect days. I'm so glad I checked this game out, and I've enjoyed almost every minute I've played.