Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Pre-Release Thread [EARLY ACCESS RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[RickOmbo]

The real questions are:

-Will this be a better RPG than Disco Elysium?
-Will the eventual Codex review be neutral positive or full-blown "Herald of Incline" acclaim?

Any RPG is a better RPG than Disco Elysium.

Why would you even compare a generic fantasy rpg to DE?

 

[LESS T_T]

It's ironic some strong defenders of Larian around the internet call RTwP combat as old and archaic thing and turn-based as new and modern, like some did with action vs. turn-based in 2000s.

 

[DeepOcean]

I'm not sure people are understanding the context and how much of an unbelievable miracle it is that we are getting an AAA turn-based faithful to D&D RPG. All of the complaints against eye-bleeding SFX and cringe-y writing pale in comparison.

On the real world, after 5 hours of constant inanity that feels like torture, you cant take it anymore. I dont get it why people have this position that the rule set is the only thing that matters on a game. "Hey, my game is total shit, except the rules that I didnt make!" sounds like a good sales pitch.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

The real questions are:

-Will this be a better RPG than Disco Elysium?
-Will the eventual Codex review be neutral positive or full-blown "Herald of Incline" acclaim?

Any RPG is a better RPG than Disco Elysium.

Why would you even compare a generic fantasy rpg to DE?

Yep. I also cannot understand why people compare RPGs with visual novels.

 

[RickOmbo]

The real questions are:

-Will this be a better RPG than Disco Elysium?
-Will the eventual Codex review be neutral positive or full-blown "Herald of Incline" acclaim?

Any RPG is a better RPG than Disco Elysium.

Why would you even compare a generic fantasy rpg to DE?

Yep. I also cannot understand why people compare RPGs with visual novels.

Agree, Planescape and DE shouldn't be brought up in RPG discussion.

 

[anvi]

Do we know if there will be high level spells yet? Like Time Stop etc?

 

[Valky]

Oh and another massive plus to Swen; Day 1 release on a DRM free platform and no steam exclusivity. This can not be overstated enough. The fact that this kind of practice is hitting mainstream is possibly the greatest incline of all. He deserves your money if this is worth the time to play.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

I can easily see how BG3 may end up being a worse game than DE. DE is quite cool even if I do not worship it as some other codexers. But it is just impossible for BG3 (with a lot of systems, races, skills, simulation elements and real combat) to be a less of rpg than DE.

 

[S.torch]

I'm not sure people are understanding the context and how much of an unbelievable miracle it is that we are getting an AAA turn-based faithful to D&D RPG. All of the complaints against eye-bleeding SFX and cringe-y writing pale in comparison.

That doesn't mean anything in terms of its quality, who cares if it has all the budget in the world if it looks like it's going to suck? It will be money wasted, which in the end would set a negative precedent and it will be harder for someone to invest even a smaller amount of money, because in the first place you didn't need so many resources to make a good game.

 

[Lyric Suite]

AAA, now now, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

[Bara]

Well the mage companion Gale is double screwed over. From his description page

"Gale has one ambition: to become the greatest wizard Faerun has ever known. Yet his thirst for magic led to disaster. A Netherese Destruction Orb beats in his chest, counding down to an explosion that can level a city. Gale is confident he'll overcome it, but time is not on his side."

So body morphing brain eating worm inside his body along with a nuke. He's having a great time.

Bet the worm's bargain is he'll disable the bomb but it wants a rent free room.

 

[RickOmbo]

Spoiler

Gale has one ambition: to become the greatest wizard Faerun has ever known. Yet his thirst for magic led to disaster. A Netherese Destruction Orb beats in his chest, counding down to an explosion that can level a city. Gale is confident he'll overcome it, but time is not on his side."

Larian is again at it. So many opportunities for jokes.

 

[Delterius]

"Gale has one ambition: to become the greatest wizard Faerun has ever known. Yet his thirst for magic led to disaster. A Netherese Destruction Orb beats in his chest, counding down to an explosion that can level a city. Gale is confident he'll overcome it, but time is not on his side."

poor guy is level 1 too

 

[user]

Also wtf is up with the dialog - why is the protagonist declaring what he is saying... is it a gen z thing?

It's intended to be played on a stream. As a streamer you are replacing the place holders with normal lines on the fly.

The dialog is done like that to replicate the pen and paper feeling. They did that also in DOS2

They did? Have zero memory of dialog from DOS II.

First thing he did in the game was zooming the camera to 3rd person perspective

Also wtf is up with the dialog - why is the protagonist declaring what he is saying... is it a gen z thing?

It's actually a good idea as can be seen by anyone who were ever just given the choice of saying retarded or completely out of character things in a cRPG, because muh writing!

Do you also declare attacks in a cRPG by hacking at your monitor with your sword?
If not, why can't you accept that *carefully choosing words try to create impression that you are part of a much more powerful organization in order to intimidate the thugs* is a perfectly valid way of implementing a dialogue choice?

If the writing sucks, yes, it's a better alternative because no writing is even needed. It's valid sure, but I'd definitely prefer good literature over this.

 

[DeepOcean]

And I can't believe I am saying this, because usually the combat oriented people are more vocal, but... where are they? Them "combat fags"?
They should be curb stomping this clown show out of the room.

Why exactly criticize what you see means you wont enjoy other parts of the game? This game could have a complete shit story and if the combat is good, well, then it could be fun but the story wont stop being shit because the combat is good. If the combat is good with good encounter design, good itemization, no popamolification on the rules and just awesome DnD encounters from start to finish, then it is a good game and story could be about Swen grandmom transitioning into a man but we dont know the full picture yet. If this thing has that shit item fever bullshit, that is a big problem for example.

 

[jf8350143]

"Gale has one ambition: to become the greatest wizard Faerun has ever known. Yet his thirst for magic led to disaster. A Netherese Destruction Orb beats in his chest, counding down to an explosion that can level a city. Gale is confident he'll overcome it, but time is not on his side."

poor guy is level 1 too

Wonder if we can just sent him forward alone and go bomb the moment he sees the boss. Bonus point if he shouts Allahu akbar before doing it.

 

[The_Mask]

Why exactly criticize what you see means you wont enjoy other parts of the game? This game could have a complete shit story and if the combat is good, well, then it could be fun but the story wont stop being shit because the combat is good. If the combat is good with good encounter design, good itemization, no popamolification on the rules and just awesome DnD encounters from start to finish, then it is a good game and story could be about Swen grandmom transitioning into a man but we dont know the full picture yet. If this thing has that shit item fever bullshit, that is a big problem for example.

So basically pronouncing a verdict on the writing right now is... premature? Same with tone. Same with environment. Same with exploration. Same with X, where X is everything but combat.

Whereas pronouncing a verdict on the combat is... not? Because you've seen combat a lot more than writing?

Why, that makes no sense... *heavy sarcasm*

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

This just proves that technology is the true enemy of CRPGs. It always has been and always will be.

 

[Ulysa]

Uhm, can someone explain me why in the gameplay, there are percentile (chances to hit) the enemies? Is this XCOM? D:
Or is it just a calculation considering chance to hit, armor etc? Sorry I don't know much about 5ed.

 

[Orma]

Player-initiated turn-based mode allows you to pause the world around you at any time even outside of combat. Whether you see an opportunity for a tactical advantage before combat begins, want to pull off a heist with pin-point precision, or need to escape a fiendish trap. Split your party, prepare ambushes, sneak in the darkness -- create your own luck!

This kinda addresses a major issue I had with D:OS 2, being unable to properly position your party before combat and overall shitty out-of-combat controls

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Uhm, can someone explain me why in the gameplay, there are percentile (chances to hit) the enemies? Is this XCOM? D:

You can also see the dice rolls in the combat log, but it shows percentiles for the casuals.

 

[Ulysa]

Uhm, can someone explain me why in the gameplay, there are percentile (chances to hit) the enemies? Is this XCOM? D:

You can also see the dice rolls in the combat log, but it shows percentiles for the casuals.

Ah.. phew... nice, thanks.

 

[Sitra Achara]

Bester was right on the mark, it's DOS3. Haha!

 

[Valky]

Will there be in game encyclopedia of the ruleset?

Oh I forgot one more criticism from my previous post. The UI. Larian can not into a good UI. This blocky square console friendly stuff is awful. D:OS2's released UI to date looks like the game is in alpha.

 

[Drowed]

Well, it's Larian, I'd say it's pretty obvious what kind of dialogue we can expect in the final version of the game. I don't see how anyone can believe that the dialogues will be any different than they have been in almost 2 decades, especially with the evidence we already have.

The big fight here is that in Codex there are (as always) two big groups: part of the people like Larian's games, the other part hates them really hard. And to make matters worse, there's still the question that Larian is making a game of a franchise along the lines of the games they've been making in recent years. In fact, the comparison someone made with Bethesda isn't inappropriate at all! It was actually essentially the same thing: Bethesda took Fallout and simply made a new TES with a Fallout skin on top. Larian is doing the same, a new D:OS with a BG logo on top.

The big difference here is that for many, Larian's games aren't bad games, at all. They're good games, they're turn-based games, with interactions with the environment and inspired by the Ultima series. (And fucking D&D rules now.) Both games are in the TOP50 according to the last poll, tied in the 32nd place. It's not a glorious position, maybe, but it's above games like Witcher 1 and 2, Elex, ATOM, Pillars 1 and 2, and several others. So it is clear that many people are excited about the project because many believe it is in good hands, even with the negative points. For them, it will be a fun game.

But I fully understand the frustration of some people here. Honestly, I would actually prefer this game to be called, say, "Divinity: Forgotten Realms" or something like that. Literally the same game, probably a much more positive reception around here for not having the weight of the franchise to carry on its back and all the expectations that come with it. On the other hand, duh, it's a business. Obviously, Larian wouldn't miss the chance to use the name Baldur's Gate. I know I wouldn't, fuck everything and give me the money.