What is up with Baldur's Gate 3?

This is not a criticism - I love how much attention this game has been getting. I’m just not understanding why BG3 has been blowing up so much. It seems like BG3 is getting more attention than all of Larian’s previous games combined (and maybe all of Obsidian’s recent crpgs as well). Traditionally crpgs have not lit the world on fire in this way. Is it just timing of the release? Is it a combo of Divinity fans and new D&D fans and Baldur’s Gate oldheads all being stoked about this release for their own reasons? Or something else?

Note:I have not played it yet myself, just curious what folks think?

mifan,

It’s a combination of good timing, a perfect product and going against the direction of most AAA-studios.

Though BG2 is more than two decades old, a lot of us still considers it one of the best games ever. I think quite a few of us have been eager to return to forgotten realms. That’s one group.

Then there’s a group of Divinity fans (some overlapping the old BG group) waiting for Larians next RPG.

Those two groups would be the critical mass for creating hype. Would the game live up to the old games? Would it be as good as Divinty?

Then comes the first reviews and people get to play the beta, and though the first few months were rough, once we got close to release it was clear, that BG3 would not only live up to its expectations, it would smash through the roof.

Now you have your core fan base talking about how good this game is, how do you sell this to people who normally don’t play this type of game?

Well, talk to them in a language they understand. This game is complete from day 1. No DLC. No ingame shop. Just a complete game that you can play over and over again with new ways of completing it… oh, and you can co-op with your friends. Even on the couch in split screen.

There are simply not anything of major significance to criticize about this game. You may not like it, or the genre is not for you, but as a complete product it’s simply perfect.

As a player you get the feeling that Larian focus on the game first where others focus on money first. That may not be the whole truth, but it’s the feeling this is creating, and hopefully other studios will acknowledge that there are other ways to do things.

Kikkertje,

I was in my early 20s when BG1, BG2, NWN, and Icewind Dale came out. The hype was real, and it was a spectacular time in gaming.

Coelacanth,
@Coelacanth@feddit.nu avatar

I feel like there might be room for an old school PC gaming community here on Lemmy. There is usually a console/arcade game focus on the retro gaming communities, but it would be great to have a place to discuss releases from that 1990-2009 or so era.

dingus,
@dingus@lemmy.ml avatar

Everyone else is playing the System Shock remake while I’m just sitting here hoping for a System Shock 2 remake, because it was a spiritual predecessor to BioShock that included class-based co-operative play. The netcode in the original was/is dogshit, so my friend and I never actually completed the game before our saves were totally corrupted.

Frankly, also wouldn’t mind a remake of the original Deus Ex either. Warren Spector was heavily involved in the development of System Shock and Deus Ex, while Ken Levine was instrumental in System Shock 2 and BioShock.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Plenty of communities in that vein overe here on lemmy.sdf.org

Stillhart,

Same. And I grew up on Champions of Krynn and Eye of the Beholder and Pools of Radiance, so Baldur’s Gate was mind blowing when it came out. BG2 was even better!

I haven’t played a CRPG in a while. Never got into DoS series, etc. But there’s no way I was missing BG3 after the rave reviews it was getting, considering my history with the series.

TransplantedSconie,

Icewind Dale was awesome! I still have my copy stored somewhere in my basement lol.

oo1,

yeah, nostalgia for me.
the other larian games didn't register with me.

ChaoticEntropy,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

“a perfect product”

I don’t think anyone at Larian thinks that they have created the perfect product. It’s pretty buggy still, and lacks depth in areas, but its intentions are pure and that buys a lot of credibility in and of itself.

EvaUnit02,
EvaUnit02 avatar

As I see it, it's a confluence of things which have captured the zeitgeist:

  • Larian D:OS games have been very well received.
  • Baldur's Gate and the Infinity Engine games are beloved.
  • Final Fantasy XVI, the big JRPG for the year, is squarely an action game and some view that as off-kilter. Baldur's Gate 3, the big CRPG for the year, is squarely an RPG.
  • D&D is a big property and new D&D games often gain a fair bit of attention.
  • People seem to appreciate having no in-game purchases.

These five things, in my opinion, have pushed Baldur's Gate 3 to the front of media outlets and, in turn, to the forefront of conversations.

AndrasKrigare,

Larian D:OS games have been very well received.

This is a big part to me, in addition to your other points. D:OS2 didn’t have the same hype going into launch because (at least to me) D:OD was good, but not amazing. Given how well received D:OS2 was, I think the media was primed both to give it attention and praise.

HidingCat,

D:OS2 was better? As you might tell if you dive into my comments history, I absolutely did not like D:OS.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

D&D itself is close to the highest popularity it’s ever been at (I suppose with this game now it is at the peak), what with the movie having brought mainstream attention to it and Critical Role and other actual play shows bringing buckets of attention to the game/TTRPG hobby over the last 8ish years.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Marketing. It generally being a good game and part of a beloved series, set in a beloved franchise (D&D). WOTC has been marketing and growing the Hells out of D&D lately. The recent movie and this game are part of that.

shakesbeare,

The game is really, really good.

Genuinely, it’s just a really fucking good game and I think thats most of it.

Misconduct,

It’s Minsc obviously

vegai,

I have managed to stay off the hype train quite a bit, so honest question: Is the game good? I’ve possibly perhaps all the 80s and 90s AD&D crpgs, and both Baldur’s Gates, and I mostly liked them.

theangriestbird,

Part of the hype train is that the game is reviewing incredibly well. And Larian is well-known for making high-quality games in the vein of those old crpgs. I know they worked very hard to faithfully adapt 5th edition, so if you’re a fan of the old games, this seems like a good one to get!

AnarchoYeasty,

I’ve never been much for crpgs (I do play DND though) and haven’t gotten very far into the game because it’s hot as balls right now in the PNW, but from the bit I have played it is very fun.

ChaoticEntropy,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

It’s not perfect or anything, but it feels like a release with very pure intentions and people seem to resonate with that. No micro transactions, no lootboxes, no DRM (not even Steam’s is implemented), no release day DLC, fast hotfixing, and maybe with the promise of classic expansion packs. The sort of practices that people want to encourage, packaged with a formidable and generally well put together game.

When bigger, more corporate dev studios come out and give it free marketing by saying how unrealistic it is to make games like it… that’s free, excellent publicity.

ReadyUser30,

It’s also bright and colourful and slightly cartoonish in a way that, say, Pillars of Eternity wasn’t. I wonder if this makes it feel slightly more mainstream, slightly more ‘fun’, and a bit less like a stodgy old CRPG from yesterday (and to be clear, I loved PoE the way I loved BG and BG2).

It’s also got enough wild shit in it to grab a few headlines that way.

ChaoticEntropy,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

Yeah, it feels a bit less grimy doom and gloom, despite the narrative and themes. Being fully voice acted, and well, helps to no end with what can otherwise turn in to a wall of text reading slog.

Faydaikin, (edited )
@Faydaikin@beehaw.org avatar

I don’t think I have a lot to add to what was already said here.

But I will say that the Baldurs Gate series already had a pretty big following. It had an established fan-base, like Fallout. But unlike Fallout, Larian chose to stick with what people liked about the originals and expand upon that.

So there’s another tiny reason to add to the collective.

zachary3752,

The short version:

  • Game is good, came out at the right time, had a lot of hype and lived up to the hype

Longer details:

  • The game is just really well made. It’s extremely fun, very polished (except for a few weird bugs), and complete
  • It has a massive IP tied to it. This game had impossible levels of hype and it met those expectations somehow
  • The recent D&D movie was a large success, and D&D in general has been the most popular it has ever been lately
  • Divinity OS 2 Definitive Edition was very well received, people trust Larian to deliver a good product
  • People are sharing this game with their friends. They had a strong marketing push as well as really strong word of mouth
  • Final Fantasy 16 left a lot of us wanting a more traditional RPG after FF16 was anything but traditional
  • We currently live in an era of games like Diablo 4 which ask for a $70 price tag, and then also have a paid battle pass and paid cosmetics. This game came out at $60 content complete with no additional microtransactions. Ultimately that makes this game much easier to reccomend to people.
bookmeat,

Game is good. People like to talk about stuff they like.

FlashMobOfOne,
@FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org avatar

It’s that simple.

LetMeEatCake,

Most great games never get anywhere near this much buzz.

I think it’s a product of the genre. BG3 is in the CRPG category, which had a bit of a resurgence lately between Pillars 1+2, Pathfinder 1+2, and (perhaps most relevantly) DOS 1+2. Good games in an existing category of game helps build up buzz in that category and more players. More players creates more demand… but there hasn’t been that much being made in the CRPG bucket lately.

Then, on comes BG3. It fits in that bucket. It has much higher production values than the other recent games in that bucket. It’s got one of the most valuable CRPG IPs attached to it with Baldur’s Gate. And it’s reportedly amazing as a game on top. The last part wouldn’t get it anywhere near this much attention on its own, but in conjunction with the others it’s gotten lots of buzz.

I also feel like Larian handled the early access part really well for keeping the game in discussion without making the game oversaturated in gaming circles. They got a lot of “free” (not actually free, but you know what I mean) marketing out of that.

Rheios,

On top of some of the commentary here, I’d like to add that I think there’s a real chance that WoTC’s put some money behind getting it heavily reviewed/boosted, and so more articles about it and wider attention. That is not to undercut its quality, just that I think its layers of support. (I’ll admit there’s more than a little bit of my distrust of WoTC in that. Like after all their other scandals they need a win to try and suck newbies into the game after so much messing up. And I don’t even mean in the last year or something, their release quality for 5e has been abysmal for a long time.)

Additionally Larian played the early access thing very well. Not only did they listen to their ongoing players, and even netted some “tried it didn’t like it” people back, it gave time for everyone who was perhaps too into the older isometric BG1&2 titles (like me) to realize the game didn’t seem quite like it was for them and not pick it up. So you get clear, mostly good(if outdated) information out there for people to use in researching if they wanted to buy it, helping to avoid a lot of the knee-jerk hate that stuff like Fallout 4 and 76 got from misplaced expectations that could dull the release.

jordanlund, (edited )

I think there are three vectors going on:

  1. It’s apparently a super good game. I’m just basing it on reviews, I won’t be playing it until the PS5 version launches.
  2. It has nudity and is being described as “super horny”, so, you know, clickbait.

pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-the-horniest-rpg-iv…

rockpapershotgun.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-a-relentle…

  1. They are having problems getting it running on the Xbox Series S, and that’s blocking it from being released on the fully capable Xbox Series X. So nerdrage/console war clickbait.

rockpapershotgun.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-a-relentle…

dom,

You’ve also missed all the hype about the lack of microtransactions. That one is pretty big.

And the bear sex. Although you’d think a sub bullet of point 2, I think its less horniness and more absurdity and “you can do anything”.

It’s the modern equivalent of “see that mountain? You can go there.”

“See that bear? You can fuck it”

jordanlund,

It’s not REALLY bear sex though, it’s a druid who SHAPESHIFTS into a bear…

OrnateLuna,

Poteto potato

dom,

It’s bear sex without passing Peta off

ChaoticEntropy,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

I was a bit taken aback that, at a certain point in the game during a celebration, neutrality with most companions meant that they all wanted to fuck my brains out. O.o

Lojcs,

Side question:

Is it worth playing if you’re not into dnd? I saw lots of replies mention how it perfectly implements dnd 5e but that has 0 value for me. Is the game itself good not counting the dnd association, lack of anti features, release anticipation etc?

casstr,
@casstr@lemmy.ml avatar

You’ll be fine. It’d be different if you were familiar with and disliked D&D.

vettnerk,

What of I’m of the unpopular but firm belief that 3.5 was the pinnacle of D&D and therefore am heavily boased against 5e?

Ashtear,

If you already don’t like 5e, I don’t know if the game will change your mind. It’s not a 1-to-1 adaptation, which might help, but there are also still some bugs here and there (such as the Lucky feat not working correctly).

Thebazilly,

I’m a Pathfinder fan with vague disdain for 5e as a ruleset and active loathing for Forgotten Realms as a setting. I love this game.

usrtrv,

If you like RPGs in general, I think it’s worth playing. No need be a fan of DnD.

YerbaYerba,

I have no exposure to dnd but am loving the game. I like turn based games in general though.

thelionsredmane,

tldr: This is a great game if you enjoy rich storytelling, compelling character arcs, and actual consequences. This is also a great game if you enjoy turn-based, environment-aware combat of the likes of Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. Overall, it’s a well-oiled machine, with polish in all the right places to make it very welcoming to dnd newcomers and veterans alike. If you have played Larian’s older Divinity: Original Sin games (which was not based on the dnd ruleset), there’s a lot of quality of life updates that fix a lot of the gripes that I had with those games.

My wife and I are loving it (individual saves, although co-op is supported in this game). We are not dnd tabletop players; the extent of my experience is the recent dnd movie that came out. I don’t know the difference between 5e and 3e, but I do know I’m having an (eldritch) blast playing this game. I bought it on a strong recommendation from my friends (although, these friends do have dnd experience), and I can confidently say it’s a fun game.

The most overwhelming experience you might have as a newcomer is during character creation, where a healthy amount of reading is involved to understand what classes, races, subraces, spells, and cantrips are (among other things). They provide very neat tooltips that provide the information you need, when you need it, without getting in your way - there is no pause-every-5-seconds-for-a-tutorial-notification deal here. You can get involved as much (or as little) as you wish. If you’ve ever made a character in a game like Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, or Dragon Age: Origins, and messed around with the relevant skill trees, it’s around that level of involved.

If you do get overwhelmed with character creators, fret not - you can choose one of the pre-built characters that come packaged with their own personalities, builds, and stories. Speaking of stories: I personally feel like the writing is compelling and is leagues better than previous Larian titles, if that means anything to you. Make no mistake, this is a fantasy story and you’ll have your fantasy tropes in this game, but I’ve yet to encounter a moment or twist in the story that feels cheap or unearned. It depends on how much you like this sort of genre. There are times when it takes itself seriously and times when it doesn’t, but it has never felt out of place.

Besides the narrative, the other major part of the game is combat, and I think it shines there too. From a non-dnd perspective, it’s a turn-based, environment-aware tactics game. It doesn’t feel exactly like any one type of system I’ve played before, but I feel a lot of different aspects that get utilized in ways that mesh well. Unit placement on the field matters. Typically your party’s makeup plays a role in how you approach encounters. I’ve never felt like my party couldn’t figure out their own way to solve a situation, and it never felt like it was just handed to me. The encounters are flexible enough to allow multiple approaches without depriving them of the depth each approach needs to remain engaging.

Just so you can gauge how well my suggestions will apply, I love playing tactics games but don’t always have a lot of time, so I typically adjust the difficulty when possible to emphasize story progression over tactical difficulty. I’m not a maddening-difficulty Fire Emblem: Three Houses player (more power to y’all out there); I just casually enjoy combat puzzles. I think games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars, Tactics Ogre, Brigadine, Battle for Wesnoth, etc., are fun to play, and I don’t necessarily need to “win” every combat encounter to feel like I had a good time either. I really enjoy is a story that presents fresh ideas, even if it means remixing some old tropes here and there; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, etc. - any game that gives you characters who mesh well (or “contrast” well) with one another usually can maintain my attention.

Lojcs,

Thanks for the in depth response! It’s probably too early to answer this, but does making your own character instead of choosing from the pre-built ones result in a more generic storyline? Are there stuff that are exclusive to those characters that you know of?

bigevildan,

The pre-built characters are all recruitable party members, so you’ll be able follow their stories once you find them.

thelionsredmane,

As @bigevildan said, they’ll all be recruitable. There is also the option to play as an amnesiac custom character that gets their own origin background. No spoilers as to what that is like, but it’s a possible option if you’re not quite sure. (I’ve seen it recommended to avoid that for your first playthrough, however).

verysoft,

Still has the shitty locked camera though and lots of the same little issues DOS2 had. They are great games, so the small problems stick out a lot more.

Squirrelanna,
@Squirrelanna@lemmynsfw.com avatar

Whatcha mean by locked camera? Not disagreeing, just not sure what you’re referring to.

verysoft,

The camera is very restrictive. Dos2 had a mod that unlocked the camera allowing you to zoom in or out as far as you wanted or tilt it as much as youd like and it made the game infinitely more enjoyable. It still got stuck on terrain like, but it was still better.

BG3 has the same camera, constantly getting stuck on or in terrain, cant handle elevation changes, cant zoom out, cant tilt far. The game just needs a free cam where I can look wherever I like without it colliding with terrain and objects, there's no reason for it to be so restrictive. Why build this beautiful world and then dont even let us look at it?

Squirrelanna,
@Squirrelanna@lemmynsfw.com avatar

Well clarified. Thank you for that. While that doesn’t bother it nearly as much, it does find itself battling the camera more often than it’d like so it can definitely see where you’re coming from.

Star_FOX_dew_HOUND,

Yeesh, I’m a “Baldurs Gate Oldhead” XD man I’m getting old.

I could just cry at the fact that BG3 is download only. If they never release it hardcopy I will never be able to play it. Being out in the boonies. Even if they could just put what they can on a disc ya know?

Been looking for a good split screen to play with my gal, and yet what I’m sure is a masterpiece is out of reach.

There’s also the Dark Alliance Oldheads, they don’t need to be quite as old as me to have played those. Just replayed Dark Alliance II with my gal and it was well worth the heavy price tag for such an old title. Unlike the new Dark Alliance garbage. Which I bought to play split screen and it is not.

WagesOf,

Buy it on gog, head into town and download the installer to a usb stick.

Ashtear,

Gonna need a fast connection in town or plenty of time. The GOG install is 108GB.

entropicdrift,
@entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Not to mention it’s in 28 parts if you’re downloading the standalone installer and not using Galaxy.

WagesOf,

Yep, probably a good two hours on a coffee shop wifi. Be sure to drink lots of coffee and leave a nice tip!

Star_FOX_dew_HOUND,

What’s gog? I was hoping for it on PS5, don’t have a powerful enough computer I imagine. Just a 10 year old laptop.

WagesOf,

PCMR knows what GoG is, console users don't need to know.

Have fun on ps5 when it releases!

theangriestbird,

Yeesh, I’m a “Baldurs Gate Oldhead” XD man I’m getting old.

Sorry pal 😂 for what it’s worth, I’m old enough that I played part of BG2 on PC as a kid. But I was too young to understand THAC0 back then. Lol

I could just cry at the fact that BG3 is download only. If they never release it hardcopy I will never be able to play it. Being out in the boonies. Even if they could just put what they can on a disc ya know?

This is my first hearing this. Damn this seems like a big deal for a game of this scale?

Star_FOX_dew_HOUND,

Yeah I was teenager playing Baldurs Gate and 2 on PC. I only knew THAC0 because I was a D&D enthusiast and read my uncle’s old books.

I’m still new to Beehaw not sure how y’all are clipping pieces of the conversation, and replying.

It seems like a big deal to me, but everyone has been saying the industry is moving to online only anyways. Like the new Diablo.


<span style="color:#323232;">I read that BG3 is upwards of 150gigs and plenty of reasons and excuses for digital only. They can't fit it on one disc is the main one but still. 
</span>
Sonotsugipaa,
@Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I’m being peer-pressured into playing it with friends, it’s an ok game. The quality is there, it’s full of content, though I wouldn’t say my lack of hype was misplaced - I’d still rather play some other niche games in my library.

What rubs me the wrong way is it’s GPU load even with lower graphical settings, and the hundred gigabytes of mandatory high-res textures and whatnot;
I find the UX clunky and infuriating at times, which is not ideal but acceptable for the genre.

What I really respect BG3 (and Larian) for is that its overall a very solid game and it’s making the AAA industry seethe, apparently.
It’s also DRM-free, but I would definitely buy it rather than Steam-Familying it if I were into its subgenre (and if it wasn’t a GPU hog).

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • gaming@beehaw.org
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ngwrru68w68
  • modclub
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • khanakhh
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • kavyap
  • mdbf
  • GTA5RPClips
  • JUstTest
  • ethstaker
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • osvaldo12
  • everett
  • cubers
  • tacticalgear
  • anitta
  • provamag3
  • Leos
  • cisconetworking
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •