Gaming Baldur's Gate III by Larian Studios (PS5, PC, Mac, Xbox Series X|S)

RedSky

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Just getting round to watching the video, im going to have far too much fun slapping things about. I really hope you can do that to allies to try and get them away from a cluster of enemies (and trolling).
 

Redplane

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Totally forgot this was in the works.

Between this, the new Flight Sim, the new AoE and probably something else I'm forgetting it s gonna be a good next year or so for those of us who were teens in the Golden age of gaming (aka the 90s). *wipes tear*

Can't wait to play some of this shit in my soon to be 40s.
 

Art Vandelay

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I watched about an hour of the live stream last night because I'm a total D&D nerd and Baldurs Gate is one of my all-time favorite games.

A few things concerned me - firstly it does look very similar to Divinity - not just in terms of graphics but more worryingly in terms of mechanics.

I don't want this to be a Divinity clone - I want this to be 100% D&D. I really didn't get into the lore of Divinity and found it all a bit soulless and boring (although the game was good) - I really hope they are capable of making this world really come alive with D&D lore and environments because I'm not sure they are.


Secondly - they are going with turn based combat - not necessarily a problem and it does represent the D&D experience but as a Baldur's Gate fan I was a little disappointed that it wasn't real-time with pause like the old games.

Having said that - I'm really interested to see how it develops and I'm still 100% going to buy it.
Yeah the exact same feelings I had. It just looked like more Divinity 2. I hope they can do something to make it feel like D&D, but I suppose they still have time. Having said that, it does sound like it has depth and potential. The opening cinematic with the dragons was great.

I played through about 40 hours of Divinity 2(bugs got the better of me) and played through both BG games. Divinity 2 isn't bad in fact it's quite good yet it paled in comparison to BG 1+2, 20 year old games being played on a console they were never designed for and yet for me Divinity just couldn't match them.
 

evil_geko

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Live gameplay presentation going on atm.

 
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T00lsh3d

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Looks insanely good.
I bought BG2 and ToB recently and replayed them after all these years....still totally amazing.
 

Sparky_Hughes

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I've had a rotten day and had no idea this was In the pipeline but now my day is great again!
 

Ainu

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It looks great but I could never get into Divinity - Original Sin by these guys, so I'm not sure if I'd like this one. Never tried the DOS 2 though.
 

Beachryan

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Just did a full playthrough of DoS:II to remind myself how amazing Larian are.

Couldn't be more excited for this, will be a desperate willpower exercise to wait for full release.
 

Massive Spanner

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How early is the early access?

I mean if I don't want the full release version to be spoiled for me by the time I play it . Is it really worth it?
 

nimic

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Early access now live!
As tempting as it is (I adored DOS2 and enjoyed DOS), I think I'm going to wait on this one. Actually, the very fact that I am so excited about this game is why I'm going to wait, since I feel it's going to deserve the full experience. Also why I'm waiting with Democracy 4, incidentally.
 

SilentWitness

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As tempting as it is (I adored DOS2 and enjoyed DOS), I think I'm going to wait on this one. Actually, the very fact that I am so excited about this game is why I'm going to wait, since I feel it's going to deserve the full experience. Also why I'm waiting with Democracy 4, incidentally.
Me too, and the reviews were mainly talking about how excellent the graphics were rather than the actual game. Needs ironed out a bit more probably and don't mind waiting for that.
 

Iron Stove

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Looks really cool.. Trying to not get lured in though! Don't really feel like spending 60 euro for beta and I don't tend to replay games so much these days. I should probably give Pathfinder Kingmaker a real go for now instead.. Don't know if I will make it though, BG2 is in my top 3 gaming experiences of all time and like Larians other stuff. Just hope its not so silly tone wise, but it doesn't seem that way. Also hope you can be a proper asshole like in the good old days :D That's seriously something I'm missing from many recent RPGs. Don't tend to play that way, but want to have the choice in a role-playing game.
 

RedSky

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I'm waiting for it to be more stable before I take the plunge but the game looks incredible. Watched a stream of it for a bit and its a big improvement on Div 2 and I fecking loved that game.
 

Siorac

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I still really want to try it, even though everything they showed about it so far only dampened my enthusiasm. But I'm not buying early access games.
 

Nickosaur

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Damn, me and my mate used to play co-op Balders Gate II for hours when we were younger. Might have to take a look at this.
 

PedroMendez

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Anyone bought early access? 60 seems a bit steep..
I did, because I know that I'd have bought it anyway simply out of nostalgia for BG1/2. I played ~1-2h and didn't have any technical difficulties (despite my PC being on the lower end of the spec and not being able to run on the best settings). Maybe its just luck, but they seem to prioritise technical issues and already released three hotfixes in the first days.
It needs to get polished but I didn't encounter any super important bugs or crashes (there are some funky animations and graphic glitches, but I am not really bothered by them). At least for me its playable without frustration so far, but its obviously early access so don't expect a finished game.

I can't say anything bad about it, but I am also less excited about it now. I don't really know why.
 
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padr81

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Another company using early access for a buggy pos Not even a working beta.
 

Smores

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I finished Divinity 2 today, feels like the stars aligning that this is available to play.
 

padr81

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What an utterly ignorant statement. Why comment on something when you clearly have no clue?



Divinity 2, or Divinity: Original Sin 2?
No clue, I've bought EA, and in the first 4 hours it crashed 3 times, didnt load in textures (walking on nothing etc..) on a rig with an i7, 16gb ram and 2080. So please tell me what I have no clue on. Just because its a highly rated studio (debateable) and a highly rated series doesn't mean EA should be launched in such a state. This is like a pre-alpha with pretty graphics.
 

RedSky

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No clue, I've bought EA, and in the first 4 hours it crashed 3 times, didnt load in textures (walking on nothing etc..) on a rig with an i7, 16gb ram and 2080. So please tell me what I have no clue on. Just because its a highly rated studio (debateable) and a highly rated series doesn't mean EA should be launched in such a state. This is like a pre-alpha with pretty graphics.
I watched a streamer play it and once they fixed the syncing issues which plagued day 1 they had a great experience. A few bugs now and then and obviously very WIP cinematics, but they enjoyed playing it and it was great to watch. To be honest, if you buy Early Access thats part of the deal. It's for genuine fans who want to be essentially beta testers.
 

nimic

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No clue, I've bought EA, and in the first 4 hours it crashed 3 times, didnt load in textures (walking on nothing etc..) on a rig with an i7, 16gb ram and 2080. So please tell me what I have no clue on. Just because its a highly rated studio (debateable) and a highly rated series doesn't mean EA should be launched in such a state. This is like a pre-alpha with pretty graphics.
Yes, and that's pretty much exactly what they advertised it as. Here's the standard Early Access disclaimer:
Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development

Here's part of what the developers added, which I sincerely hope you read before you bought it:
Will I enjoy Early Access?
You should not buy Baldur’s Gate 3 in Early Access if you want a polished experience.

Early Access gives you a chance at an early taste of what the gameplay will be like but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. While we did our best to remove the most annoying bugs and optimize the game as much as we could, there are still plenty of issues and it will take us time to fix them. Only buy the game now if you want an early look or if you want to participate in community feedback. Otherwise, you’re probably best off waiting until version 1.0 releases.”
On top of that, this is pretty much exactly what they did with Divinity: Original Sin 2, which turned out to be a massive success. If you bought the game at this point, you have literally no reason to complain. All the information was out there.

If you played more than 2 hours you no longer have the right to refund, but you could still send in a request, it doesn't hurt to try.
 

Smores

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Divinity 2, or Divinity: Original Sin 2?
Yeah OS 2. Very vert good game but it was the definitive edition which i gather had removed all the bug issues. There's a lot to be said about playing games late.
 

nimic

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Yeah OS 2. Very vert good game but it was the definitive edition which i gather had removed all the bug issues. There's a lot to be said about playing games late.
I played it on release, and I honestly didn't notice many bugs. One of my favourite RPGs ever, for sure. A lot of truth in the "playing games late" statement, though. That's why I think I'll try to hold off on getting this now, though there's no way I can wait longer than release.
 

Siorac

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Yes, and that's pretty much exactly what they advertised it as. Here's the standard Early Access disclaimer:

Here's part of what the developers added, which I sincerely hope you read before you bought it:


On top of that, this is pretty much exactly what they did with Divinity: Original Sin 2, which turned out to be a massive success. If you bought the game at this point, you have literally no reason to complain. All the information was out there.

If you played more than 2 hours you no longer have the right to refund, but you could still send in a request, it doesn't hurt to try.
While I do agree that the information was out there so there's no deception going on, it still feels wrong, on so many levels, that Baldur's fecking Gate 3 launches as an Early Access game. As if it's some brave effort by some minor indie studio to put out successful game, not a long-awaited successor to one of the most legendary games of all time.

I guess I should just accept that it doesn't actually hurt me in any way and I'm free to wait until the full release which I will certainly do.
 

Walrus

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Been having a lot of fun with my Drow Ranger. Lots of bugs though!
 

padr81

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I watched a streamer play it and once they fixed the syncing issues which plagued day 1 they had a great experience. A few bugs now and then and obviously very WIP cinematics, but they enjoyed playing it and it was great to watch. To be honest, if you buy Early Access thats part of the deal. It's for genuine fans who want to be essentially beta testers.
Thanks dude, I'll try it again with the fixes.
 

padr81

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Yes, and that's pretty much exactly what they advertised it as. Here's the standard Early Access disclaimer:



Here's part of what the developers added, which I sincerely hope you read before you bought it:


On top of that, this is pretty much exactly what they did with Divinity: Original Sin 2, which turned out to be a massive success. If you bought the game at this point, you have literally no reason to complain. All the information was out there.

If you played more than 2 hours you no longer have the right to refund, but you could still send in a request, it doesn't hurt to try.
The thing is I don't regret it as I know it will be a great game when done. It just irks me when I see alpha's in Early Access. A personal thing but early access to me should be almost complete games, like beta's etc.. if at all. Slapping something up so early in development feels very wrong and pisses me off. Larian aren't the first company to do it but its more and more common for games to go up in very poor early states to get cash in. It just doesn't sit well with me. Indie Dev's, I can kinda sorta understand but big IP's like this really irk me.

Red Sky said a lot of the issues I likely hit have been patched so I will give it another blast when I have time, if not I'll still have the game when its complete.
 

nimic

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The thing is I don't regret it as I know it will be a great game when done. It just irks me when I see alpha's in Early Access. A personal thing but early access to me should be almost complete games, like beta's etc.. if at all. Slapping something up so early in development feels very wrong and pisses me off. Larian aren't the first company to do it but its more and more common for games to go up in very poor early states to get cash in. It just doesn't sit well with me. Indie Dev's, I can kinda sorta understand but big IP's like this really irk me.

Red Sky said a lot of the issues I likely hit have been patched so I will give it another blast when I have time, if not I'll still have the game when its complete.
I see where you're coming from, I may have come off too strongly. But I can pretty much guarantee you that if you're content to just sit with the game idle in your Steam library, you'll eventually be quite happy to play it. I understand the EA sentiment, but I wouldn't put Larian up with the rest. Their success with Original Sin 2 was partly down to this way of doing things. They want a conversation with the community from day 1. They could do closed or open alphas/betas, I suppose, but this is more reliable. And obviously it might pay the bills for the time being.

I think we can be pretty confident this isn't going to be Star Citizen 2, never ending development.