Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[whydoibother]

Larian games always have seriously flawed content after the first act due to very little testing of it compared to the EA. So yeah, probably no big upside to letting reviewers see it ahead of time, if they know people will already buy.

Given how they let journalists have keys only a few days ago, not like they would've made it past Act I.
If you are playing AND criticizing, making notes, tyring stuff, playing as a man, as a woman, as a wizard, as a barbarian, with a gamepad, with a mouse, on a PC, on a console, on a Switch..... in 3 days you won't see much of the game. Might as well just review Act I, which has been available for years.

Yes, it will drop off in quality, we've seen Larian's previous games with the same release schedule. Both managed to still be good, even if not as good, to completion. And DOS2 finished particularly strong. It flopped in the middle a bit, but started and ended strong. I expect this to be the same.

 

[whydoibother]

Except that the original DOS1 version is better than the Enhanced edition which is ironic when you think about it.

The only reason to think this is if your particular playstyle got hit by balance nerfs. Pretty much everything else improved.

 

[Zeriel]

Let's be real, gaming journos don't actually play the game before writing the review.

 

[Ryzer]

Except that the original DOS1 version is better than the Enhanced edition which is ironic when you think about it.

The only reason to think this is if your particular playstyle got hit by balance nerfs. Pretty much everything else improved.

They added voice acting which broke the roleplay and nerfed the bosses into Oblivion. Decline.

 

[Grauken]

Let's be real, gaming journos don't actually play the game before writing the review.

This, especially for long massive RPGs their reviews are pointless

 

[whydoibother]

Let's be real, gaming journos don't actually play the game before writing the review.

I'm sure they play. They just play, and replay, and replay, and replay, with different settings on different systems, only the first part of the game. They will just review Act I anyways.

 

[Zeriel]

Except that the original DOS1 version is better than the Enhanced edition which is ironic when you think about it.

The only reason to think this is if your particular playstyle got hit by balance nerfs. Pretty much everything else improved.

They added voice acting which broke the roleplay and nerfed the bosses into Oblivion. Decline.

Did they nerf it across the board, or move the difficulty to the hard mode? I only played the hard mode + iron-man, and I honestly don't recall.

 

[Sarathiour]

Being attracted by two women kissing each other is not gay.

What if these two women have dicks? It's a Larian game, you fell for a trap

My lorecheck on the author of this vid tell me this is the most probable outcome.

 

[whydoibother]

Except that the original DOS1 version is better than the Enhanced edition which is ironic when you think about it.

The only reason to think this is if your particular playstyle got hit by balance nerfs. Pretty much everything else improved.

They added voice acting which broke the roleplay and nerfed the bosses into Oblivion. Decline.

Did they nerf it across the board, or move the difficulty to the hard mode? I only played the hard mode + iron-man, and I honestly don't recall.

I think they added an additional difficulty setting, which may have reshuffled the others. If you played on the hardest mode, it was the same in both versions. Or at least I didn't notice any difference.

 

[processdaemon]

It sounds like they got quite a few more in person beta testers this time around so I'm hoping that they've gotten more comprehensive feedback on the later acts than they did for the D:OSs. That said I am still expecting a lot of bugs on launch, I can't think of a single really big RPG that hasn't had them (some even have them 20 years later if you don't install fan patches). It's not exactly good practice but it seems to be inevitable with games with an ambitious scope, if they put out the fires quickly and do so in a way that doesn't brick people's saves between patches I think it'll be fine.

 

[Darth Valer]

About killing NPCs and quests, most of the time important NPCs have either diaries or key items that you can pickpocket, loot or steal from them that can help you progress through objectives or gather the relevant information they held.

At least in EA, moreover, the main quest simply requires you to find a cure for the tadpole and there is no prescribed solution. There are many potential people that can help you, both good and bad and in-between, and you can also skip all of them and gtfo the Act 1 area through simple exploration.

It'll probably bottleneck later on, but Act 1 is extremely free in terms of approach

 

[Readher]

Larian games always have seriously flawed content after the first act due to very little testing of it compared to the EA. So yeah, probably no big upside to letting reviewers see it ahead of time, if they know people will already buy.

Given how they let journalists have keys only a few days ago, not like they would've made it past Act I.

By the sound of the article, the fact they got keys on Sunday actually doesn't matter, since they have no means of getting the final game. They'll only be able to download it on Thursday, same time as everyone else. That's why they say they'll have at best an in-progress review on Friday morning (after evening/night of playing).

 

[whydoibother]

Larian games always have seriously flawed content after the first act due to very little testing of it compared to the EA. So yeah, probably no big upside to letting reviewers see it ahead of time, if they know people will already buy.

Given how they let journalists have keys only a few days ago, not like they would've made it past Act I.

By the sound of the article, the fact they got keys on Sunday actually doesn't matter, since they have no means of getting the final game. They'll only be able to download it on Thursday, same time as everyone else. That's why they say they'll have at best an in-progress review on Friday morning (after evening/night of playing).

That's not how I understood the article.
I understood it as the review embargo, as in the earliest date you can release your review, conicides with the public release.
Actual journalists could've downloaded the game on sunday, but they couldn't preload it, and therefore were stuck with a 10 hour download or whatever their internet situation is.
One of the YouTube channels that is posted here, Wolf-something, has said he plays 10 hours per day of the full game, therefore he does have it.

 

[Jermu]

soon my beloved

 

[mindx2]

Another question:

- Is this D:OS level humor or did they tone it down some?

 

[whydoibother]

soon my beloved

Did you see the BDSM scene?

18+

 

[Zeriel]

soon my beloved

Soon he'll be turned into mince meat by the Dark Urge?

 

[Fedora Master]

Another question:

- Is this D:OS level humor or did they tone it down some?

View attachment 39534

 

[Readher]

Larian games always have seriously flawed content after the first act due to very little testing of it compared to the EA. So yeah, probably no big upside to letting reviewers see it ahead of time, if they know people will already buy.

Given how they let journalists have keys only a few days ago, not like they would've made it past Act I.

By the sound of the article, the fact they got keys on Sunday actually doesn't matter, since they have no means of getting the final game. They'll only be able to download it on Thursday, same time as everyone else. That's why they say they'll have at best an in-progress review on Friday morning (after evening/night of playing).

That's not how I understood the article.
I understood it as the review embargo, as in the earliest date you can release your review, conicides with the public release.
Actual journalists could've downloaded the game on sunday, but they couldn't preload it, and therefore were stuck with a 10 hour download or whatever their internet situation is.
One of the YouTube channels that is posted here, Wolf-something, has said he plays 10 hours per day of the full game, therefore he does have it.

Not only that but the review embargo is Thursday evening, at the exact same time the game is released, so we can’t even talk about it properly until after many people have bought it.

Although they probably won’t have had a chance to play it by the time the embargo is up, because for some reason pre-loads are not allowed.

We’ve asked developer Larian Studios for an explanation of the review situation and hopefully we’ll be able to update you on Thursday, as to what the reasons are.

The best we can probably hope for though is a review in progress for Friday morning, once we can take stock of where we are so far – although the fact that the game has been in early access for over a year does help a bit.

If they can play since Sunday, then why wouldn't they just post the review in progress right when review embargo ends, on Thursday evening? Why wait until Friday morning? Does one more evening make such a difference? I guess they could think that, but it seems weird to me.

 

[whydoibother]

Another question:

- Is this D:OS level humor or did they tone it down some?

View attachment 39534

Real knee slapper, that. Swen still has it. If the game doesn't sell, he should release a standup comedy film on Steam. I'd pay $19.99 for it.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Is this D:OS level humor or did they tone it down some?

Dialog in the Early Access was fine, apart from the ogre sex gag a few people got mad about.

But in the past year, they've taken a giant LGBT shit on the rest of the game. I don't know if it's supposed to be humor or not though.

 

[Grauken]

Is this D:OS level humor or did they tone it down some?

Dialog in the Early Access was fine, apart from the ogre sex gag a few people got mad about.

But in the past year, they've taken a giant LGBT shit on the rest of the game. I don't know if it's supposed to be humor or not though.

We all find out together soon

 

[Jermu]

 

[processdaemon]

I wouldn't put too much stock in the metro article, they claim there's 'no explanation' for the preload issue despite the fact there very much is and the metro is known in the UK for lazy clickbait articles. They probably looked at 3 tweets about the situation and wrote it up in 5 minutes.

EDIT: example of the kind of quality journalism that the metro engages in

 

[Kem0sabe]

I wouldn't put too much stock in the metro article, they claim there's 'no explanation' for the preload issue despite the fact there very much is and the metro is known in the UK for lazy clickbait articles. They probably looked at 3 tweets about the situation and wrote it up in 5 minutes.

The explanation is bullshit. Larian could very well remove the EA a few days early and allow preload.