Baldur's Gate #BaldurGate: Siege of Dragonspear

[Drowed]

The bottom line: people are retards.

Stupid developers modify an iconic character of an established series and, besides that, insert one-dimensional characters to defend their agenda (before an audience that is largely against it - a public that they should know, since they decided to make a game in this franchise) and didn't realize the idiocy of this attitude. Obviously it would end badly. And badly it ended. Yay. What a surprise!

Stupid people resent the poorly written and superficial characters in a series marked by poorly written and superficial characters. (Even if it's another "kind" of poorly written, TBH.) Although, by what I read in the spoilers, they actually managed to achieve a level of poorly that transcends the original writing. This is an achievement.

Basically, everyone is worse off at the end of this. But if there is someone guilty here, undoubtedly are the idiots who decided to create a sequel to a game without respecting the source material or understanding its public.

 

[pippin]

Perhaps Trent thought the Bioware public of 2000 is the same Bioware public of 2016.

 

[PhantasmaNL]

An article by Carl
http://nichegamer.com/2016/04/04/tale-dragons-memes-dragonspears-writing-horrid/

Sorry if this was already posted in this thread btw

 

[Echo Mirage]

The game was released on April 1st. Let's not forget that detail. It was just a prank brah. However, it is already April 5. This is getting closer to the deadline of that space of time where people decide if a game is good or not. Apparently, Beamdog lost the fight. It would be safe to say SoD was a failure.

And its only going to get worse as time goes on. They are going to keep saying stupid things and fanning the flames because they have no idea how to deal with the consequences of the decisions they made. And we are now 6 days away Dark souls 3 which is going crush everything in the steam sales charts for at least a month or more.

They screwed their release and have missed their window of opportunity by pissing away any goodwill they had built up.

 

[Atlantico]

I think it sucks that Brent Knowles just got hired by Beamdog, I've actually got some respect for the man. OTOH they also hired Gaider, Amber and Dee... so he's hanging out with the wrong crowd anyway.

 

[undecaf]

Well this has been a fairly entertaining thread. I almost wish I would give a fuck about this game or Beamdog so I could rant some too.

 

[Maggot]

An article by Carl
http://nichegamer.com/2016/04/04/tale-dragons-memes-dragonspears-writing-horrid/

Sorry if this was already posted in this thread btw

Is this the same Carl that claimed a little girl defending her mother was an accusation of mansplaining?

 

[Agesilaus]

---WARNING: This post is actually about the gameplay---

I finished all the quests that I could find in the intro area and the city (except the fire monster on the other plane), and am now exploring the forest around the camp.

The city was a little disappointing because they basically used the refugee crisis to make it limited and fast-paced. The places that you are allowed to visit are very few, and everything feels enclosed due to the extremely large crowds. HOWEVER, they did something that somewhat impressed me: they gave some legitimately evil quest lines. Not insane psychopath evil, but rather selfish-evil, which is a lot more believable.

Spoiler

I liked how you could have a back and forth with the doppelganger (whom you might not even suspect of being a doppelganger if you killed the wizard-enemy in the intro, rather than accept her surrender). Not only are there multiple ways to catch him out, but if you do he will offer you a good reward to let him escape. Given that he doesn't seem to pose any immediate or relevant threat (presumably he was in there long before the assassins arrived), it's a good opportunity to be a reasonably intelligent evil person (although, it seems odd that he would actually follow up and meet you in the Iron Throne basement, unless of course he needed to go there anyway to get his stuff before fleeing). Further, there's a minor quest to steal wine from the Duke in exchange for an interesting helmet (I gave it to Minsc, apparently it makes you immune to fatigue), and you can get some nice items by discovering a seditious plot and keeping quiet about it.

There were actually a good number of occasions where the quests allowed you to be evil in a reasonably intelligent manner. I only listed three, but I can think of a couple of others.

The forest camp is kind of meh, and I actually missed the transgendered character because I really don't go around clicking shit like "Oh, your name is so interesting, please tell me more Mr. NPC". However, I walked up north and found a cave full of Scottish midgets, so things are getting more interesting. So far I'd say... the writing is shit, and the story, environments, and quests are weaker than BG1&2, but it has some strengths. The way they handle evil characters is improved so far, they have come up with a number of new items that I found to be creative and interesting, and honestly I'm still in the early stages so let's see how it develops.

 

[Maculo]

The game's been out for a few days and already has 22 pages of reviews on GoG: https://af.gog.com/game/baldurs_gate_siege_of_dragonspear?as=1649904300

PoE has been out for over a year and also has 22 pages of reviews: https://af.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_hero_edition?as=1649904300

By that measure Beamdog already won.

I guess we will need twice as many Codex reviews then.

Outside the obvious complaints, are the combat encounters at least decent?

 

[moraes]

The new Legacy of Bhaal difficulty is bullshit IMO, they should have toned down the HP bloat and kept THAC0, STs and ApR bonuses.

 

[Theldaran]

Edwin turns into Edwina.. Elminster is transformed into a girl during his teenage years... and probably more things I can't think of.
Forgotten realms has tons of established examples of LGBT content.

Not so sure about that content being SJW-inclined... for instance, Edwin hates being a woman. If LGBT activists got their hands on the script, he would love it and want to stay that way (since women are the summit of Creation).

As for Elminster, that would be an instance of fanservice. Elminster is a naughty and self-insert character for many, he even screws the goddess Mystra at a time. Again SJW goons would hate that.

Those are proof that you can include tranny things WITHOUT catering to SJW/LGBT pressure.

 

[Immortal]

Edwin turns into Edwina.. Elminster is transformed into a girl during his teenage years... and probably more things I can't think of.
Forgotten realms has tons of established examples of LGBT content.

Not so sure about that content being SJW-inclined... for instance, Edwin hates being a woman. If LGBT activists got their hands on the script, he would love it and want to stay that way (since women are the summit of Creation).

As for Elminster, that would be an instance of fanservice. Elminster is a naughty and self-insert character for many, he even screws the goddess Mystra at a time. Again SJW goons would hate that.

Those are proof that you can include tranny things WITHOUT catering to SJW/LGBT pressure.

I never said it was SJW-inclined. Drow Lesbians are also LGBT friendly but definitely not SJW friendly.
My point was that fans of Forgotten Realms have been quietly enjoying LGBT content for over 2 decades with no issues..

The narrative that every DnD nerd secretly hates LGBT content is crap. SJW Politic pandering can stay right the fuck out though.

 

[Theldaran]

My point was that fans of Forgotten Realms have been quietly enjoying LGBT content for over 2 decades with no issues..

If anything, people have gotten more radical over time.

They now want their political agenda displayed everywhere. No subtle mentions.

 

[imweasel]

Outside the obvious complaints, are the combat encounters at least decent?

Playing on hard and so far I have been getting by just fine by throwing two or three fireballs on larger groups and using select all + click on smaller groups. The hardest fight so far was with a fire elemental where I needed to buff my fighters... So pretty much just more of BG so far.

 

[Lacrymas]

Nerds in general are more inclined to be accepting, otherwise hypocrisy. There are even LGBT themes throughout history in every possible media, so it's not something new or shocking, only the context and execution matter not the topic itself. This is true for every topic in general. Picture this scenario: Instead of Mizhena (male-female in Czech), the character is male and goes "Hi, my name is Ebachnajeni (womanfucker in Bulgarian), I was raised to like men, but over time my parents and I came to an understanding that I actually like women, so I adopted this new name out of syllables of different languages which mean a lot to me". It's still awful, pointless and cringe-worthy, but the character is not LGBT. Sooo, yeah.

 

[kwanzabot]

and since i had to buy bg EE to buy it i left a negative review for that too

Lol thats dedication

Outside of watching the new episode of better call saul so i'd have an hour of playtime on dragonspear took about 15 minutes, including getting my money back for both games.


gotta love steam's new policy

 

[Lyric Suite]

There are even LGBT themes throughout history in every possible media

Only in the imagination of fags.

 

[Lacrymas]

Only in the imagination of fags.

It's never explicit obviously (apart from the ancient Greek art) and professors have been debating what it is all about, but if you squint hard enough it's possible to see anything. Maybe it is just an imaginary projection from people, that doesn't mean Amber (and the whole conglomerate of like-minded "writers" in this industry) shouldn't take notes.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Nerds in general are more inclined to be accepting, otherwise hypocrisy. There are even LGBT themes throughout history in every possible media, so it's not something new or shocking, only the context and execution matter not the topic itself. This is true for every topic in general. Picture this scenario: Instead of Mizhena (male-female in Czech), the character is male and goes "Hi, my name is Ebachnajeni (womanfucker in Bulgarian), I was raised to like men, but over time my parents and I came to an understanding that I actually like women, so I adopted this new name out of syllables of different languages which mean a lot to me". It's still awful, pointless and cringe-worthy, but the character is not LGBT. Sooo, yeah.

Ebachnajeni! Ебачнажени? Bulgarian language always kinda brainfreezes me for a second, it's both too similar to Church Slavonic and different from modern Russian to be both familiar and extremely confusing.
I wonder how the term "womanfucker" sounds in other glorious Slavic languages. In Russian it will probably be Бабаёб (Babayob), not to be confused with baobab, Женоёб implies infidelity, 'cause жена (zhena) has the only one meaning - a wife, and женщина (zhenshchina, a woman) is too long and formal to be used in such a word. :russia:

 

[Lacrymas]

Ebachnajeni! Ебачнажени? Bulgarian language always kinda brainfreezes me for a second, it's both too similar to Church Slavonic and different from modern Russian to be both familiar and extremely confusing.
I wonder how the term "womanfucker" sounds in other glorious Slavic languages. In Russian it will probably be Бабаёб (Babayob), not to be confused with baobab, Женоёб implies infidelity, 'cause жена (zhena) has the only one meaning - a wife, and женщина (zhenshchina, a woman) is too long and formal to be used in such a word. :russia:

Yeah, it's Ебач на жени. Exactly how Mizhena is actually Мъж-жена. Russian is the one that most confuses me though, I can speak very easily with Czech, Slovak, Macedonian and Serbian people, but not with Russians and maybe Ukranians.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Ebachnajeni! Ебачнажени? Bulgarian language always kinda brainfreezes me for a second, it's both too similar to Church Slavonic and different from modern Russian to be both familiar and extremely confusing.
I wonder how the term "womanfucker" sounds in other glorious Slavic languages. In Russian it will probably be Бабаёб (Babayob), not to be confused with baobab, Женоёб implies infidelity, 'cause жена (zhena) has the only one meaning - a wife, and женщина (zhenshchina, a woman) is too long and formal to be used in such a word. :russia:

Yeah, it's Ебач на жени. Exactly how Mizhena is actually Мъж-жена. Russian is the one that most confuses me though, I can speak very easily to Czech, Slovak, Macedonian and Serbian people, but not to Russians and maybe Ukranians.

Ебач на жени, if we presume that Ебач = ёбарь, ебока, and жени = женщина, баба, телка sounds literally like Fucker On(Over) a Woman. Instant brainfreeze and than mental image of something like this:

NSFW

 

[Lacrymas]

Ебач на жени, if we presume that Ебач = ёбарь, ебока, and жени = женщина, баба, телка sounds literally like Fucker On(Over) a Woman. Instant brainfreeze and than mental image of something like this:

Actually женИ is the plural, женA is the singular, so жена = женщина. Жена can mean wife, but съпруга is more accurate and formal. Aaaand we've already put more thought into this than the entire team at Beamdog.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Ебач на жени, if we presume that Ебач = ёбарь, ебока, and жени = женщина, баба, телка sounds literally like Fucker On(Over) a Woman. Instant brainfreeze and than mental image of something like this:

Actually женИ is the plural, женA is the singular, so жена = женщина. Жена can mean wife, but съпруга is more accurate and formal. Aaaand we've already put more thought into this than the entire team at Beamdog.

Ah, our plural of жена is женЫ, instead of И vowel at the end we have Ы. Seriously though, given the IE engine in particular and oldschool RPGs in general popularity in Slavic languages countries couldn't they at least try and pick stupid Мужикобаба analogue from, I don't know, some central African language? Or from another culture which doesn't give a fuck about RPGs and don't constitute a siginificant part of their customer base. Than again most Slavic countries don't have culture in SJW opinion, so I guess they don't think that there's cultural appropriation if they (mis)use Slavic words.

 

[serch]

You must be utterly stupid if you thought I'd care about your sob story. I expect compensation, merchant, for the time you've made me lose.

Simply adding an option to be mean to the character and to criticize her willingness to disclose such a personal matter would have made the encounter much more tolerable for me. I don't even need an option to say 'Haha I'm evil, you tranny' as I understand the shitstorm that would have caused. But not even including an evil answer of any type to the NPC is intolerable and insulting to minorities (writers think they can't take it).

They could have even made this a good rp oportunity. What if I'm a neutral good high level wizard, could I polimorph her permanently, or anyone of my mates? Could I follow a quest to do it, if the needed spell is of a too high level for my party? As it is, the character is just a politically correct statement.

 

[Lacrymas]

Ah, our plural of жена is женЫ, instead of И vowel at the end we have Ы. Seriously though, given the IE engine in particular and oldschool RPGs in general popularity in Slavic languages countries couldn't they at least try and pick stupid Мужебаба analogue from, I don't know, some central African language? Or from another culture which doesn't give a fuck about RPGs and don't constitute a siginificant part of their customer base. Than again most Slavic countries don't have culture in SJW opinion, so I guess they don't think that there's cultural appropriation if they (mis)use Slavic words.

Yeah, about that (Polish references in TWitcher 3) - only Polish people get anything out of that (and what they DO get is dubious at best), I was at a "composition" "workshop" (long story) in France a month ago and there were a lot of students from different nationalities, one of them was from the Academy at Krakow. We talked about the Polish references in TWitcher 3 and he said that it accurately depicted some events of Polish history (which I think was the first time I had heard that), and I mentioned how I think that's pointless because they haven't used it in such context as to change the narrative structure, he surprisingly agreed. Simply copying elements from mythology is as pointless as "мъж-жена" existing in SoD, it doesn't mean anything in of itself, it has to be used to either drastically change the whole or carefully weave it in there in a meaningful way. TWitcher accomplishes nothing of this and is just words to the wind in the end, exactly like SoD.