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

[Desiderius]

Is Elden Ring good?

 

[Turn_BASED]

Holy downgrade, I swear it looks worse and worse graphically the more they show. Wtf happened to the lighting and particle effects?

Not gonna lie I was hyped for the game after playing a bit of the first iteration of EA, but now it looks so fucking generic and flat

Citation needed. Pull up an old vid for comparison.

I've owned the game since release and I don't see the downgrade. More likely it just seems dated now that you're comparing this 2+ year old modified Divinity engine to modern titles.

Most I can see in that vid is maybe lower resolution textures than PC.

I think it looks better here



The colours are richer, not as washed out, the lighting is on point, nothing looks flat.

I played the early access myself and was impressed by how it looked like, now it looks absolutely unimpressive

Performance was ass when EA started, I'm guessing that's the reason for the downgrade.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Is Elden Ring good?

I am not sure why you ask it here instead on its own thread.

It is Soulslike, watered down (due to open world), and logical conclusion on git gudz twitch roll boss design. Go play Dark Souls 1 2 3 for generally better overall experience.

 

[Nano]

Citation needed. Pull up an old vid for comparison.

I've owned the game since release and I don't see the downgrade. More likely it just seems dated now that you're comparing this 2+ year old modified Divinity engine to modern titles.

Most I can see in that vid is maybe lower resolution textures than PC.

You failed your perception checks. This has been an ongoing issue so I'm inclined to believe Terenty's post.

I thought the game looked much worse than it did in patch 6, turns out I was right: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=819163

Great job breaking it, Larian.

 

[likash]

The BG 2 voice acting was fucking great. Irenicus, Edwin and Sarevok were 10/10.

 

[Crispy]

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=819163

ffs, Swen? What have you done?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=819163

ffs, Swen? What have you done?

it looks.. worse? Or maybe I am moron but it feels the new patch comparison just looks worse?

 

[MajorMace]

Is Elden Ring good?

It's alright. Quite surprisingly good on the content part, despite some copy pasted stuff. Overall, it's Dark Souls 4, somewhat.

 

[Crispy]

it looks.. worse?

Yes, that's the point. It looks not just worse, it looks like pure shit.

 

[MajorMace]

Btw guys I come from the future and BGIII is RPGCODEX RPG of the year 2023.
It's followed by The Great Enslavement of the Succubi®, an adult take on the pokémon formula, and a fanmade mod of Elden Ring which compiles Demon's Souls and all Dark Souls in a single, gigantic map.

The future is bright for rpgs.

 

[Cryomancer]

watered down (due to open world),

Disagree. People who said it din't saw how open world implemented there. In general, open world games are either quality(G1/G2) or quantity(G3), ER is quality AND quantity at the same time. I loved so much to play as an "astrologer/caster" there. So many cool spells like Adula's moonsword, Comet Azur, Night Comet and the greatest iconic caster melee weapon, moonlight greatsword is now even better. Dark Moon greatsword now inflicts frostbite and has a unique charge powerup.

But here is a hot take.

The market size/market cap for tactical RPG's is a tiny fraction of the ARPG. Doubt? Well, there are estimatives of DOS2 having sold about 2~3 million copies. Only Elden Ring sold 20 million. Even if we add the DOS2 playerbase to the OwlCat "grognard" and Obsidian playerbase which according to Sawyer in the GDC there are little to no overlap with Larian playerbae, we would have something like 20/25% of the market size of the action rpgs. And this assuming that the entirety of action base bought Elden Ring which is not truth as it has very high system requirements and according to steam, most people have Potato PC's. If ER could run in Potato PC's, I would expect about 30~40 mi sales. I myself only brought ER after a huge upgrade in my PC and still trying to figure out how I install mods in ArchLinux + Proton and am experiencing some slowdowns in some areas.

Larian cultists keeps comparing Larian to OwlCat and Obsidian, but in therms of popularity, action games tends to sell way more than tactical games.

 

[mediocrepoet]

It's followed by The Great Enslavement of the Succubi®, an adult take of the pokémon formula, and a fanmade mod of Elden Ring which compiles Demon's Souls and all Dark Souls in a single, gigantic map.

This already sounds better than 2022.

 

[Ryzer]

Elden Ring is Skyrim with Dark Souls 3 combat, it's good for people because muh dark Souls and it's open-world.

 

[MajorMace]

If only Skyrim was Elden Ring, even with Skyrim combat...

 

[Ryzer]

If only Skyrim was Elden Ring, even with Skyrim combat...

A game full of repetitive content? but it already is!

 

[mastroego]

Elden Ring is Skyrim with Dark Souls 3 combat, it's good for people because muh dark Souls and it's open-world.

As soon as I see that kind of anime video game combat I know I'll be staying away.
Can't take any game like that seriously.

 

[mediocrepoet]

If only Skyrim was Elden Ring, even with Skyrim combat...

The best Skyrim is Elden Ring, while TES V: Skyrim is simply a dumbed down Oblivion and therefore, clearly not the best Skyrim. Even AC: Valhalla is arguably a better Skyrim than TES V, to say nothing of Morrowind or Breath of the Wild.

 

[Tyranicon]

So is a custom party finally added to the game, or do you still have to do that multiplayer bullshit where you trick the game into thinking you have friends?

 

[Anonona]

Disagree. People who said it din't saw how open world implemented there. In general, open world games are either quality(G1/G2) or quantity(G3), ER is quality AND quantity at the same time. I loved so much to play as an "astrologer/caster" there. So many cool spells like Adula's moonsword, Comet Azur, Night Comet and the greatest iconic caster melee weapon, moonlight greatsword is now even better. Dark Moon greatsword now inflicts frostbite and has a unique charge powerup.

But the things that you listed aren't necessarily related to it being open-world. While I would argue that ER is one of the best example of modern open worlds, it still falls into the same traps of most open world games: numerous recycled enemies and "to do list" approach to designing zones, where each map has to have a recurring type of challenges (catacombs, mines, dragons, heroes tombs, etc), with many of them being short and often times a bit to similar to each other. Contrast with the greatly designed and big legacy dungeons, which are closer to the level design of DS.

I would say the Legacy Dungeons are the "quality" of ER while the open world and generic content is the "quantity", and I think we could make without so much of the second. Even though I liked ER quite a lot, I am of the opinion that they could have designed a very open ended, yet better designed and interconnected world, similar to DS1 but of course bigger, and keep the game shorter but more focused. Of course it wouldn't have the amount of content that current ER has, but it would get rid of the unnecessary "fat" so to speak, specially when it can cheapen the whole experience if you go out of your way to do all the content and explore.

 

[Crispy]

So is a custom party finally added to the game, or do you still have to do that multiplayer bullshit where you trick the game into thinking you have friends?

Look, you may not care about the outcome to the story behind how your friend and companion has a thermonuclear device somehow implanted in his chest that could detonate at any time and sink the entirety of the Sword Coast into the sea, wiping Baldur's Gate and Candlekeep and everything else for leagues around completely off the map of Faerun, but I care, man!

I CARE.

 

[Delterius]

where you trick the game into thinking you have friends?

you severely underestimate baldur's gate 3

we are talking about the spiritual successor to the spiritual predecessor of rpg codex goty 2009 dragon age origins

the bloodline of this series runs deeper than crude oil. its emanations include the imoen romance mod and the iron bull ride

understand that just as belgium is the joining of french decadence and dutch lemon merchantry, BG3 is far beyond the ken of most mortals. behold:

Spoiler

this is the first game where you can have a fully narrated group jack off section with a jungian aspect of your irl self. it is both metaphorical and literal

do you think you're ready for this?

 

[Crispy]

10 minutes ago

mediocrepoet​

Gale: A Human Wizard, 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, counting down to an explosion that can level a city. Gale is confident he'll overcome it, but time is not on his side.

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Companions

Don't ever doubt me again, fucker.

 

[Cryomancer]

catacombs, mines, dragons, heroes tombs, etc

They aren't mandatory and aren't that repetitive. I mean, sure, compared to main area design they sucks, I wish that they went with more quality instead of quantity in some dungeons(eg - having only a catacomb, only a tomb and les dragons but more interesting stuff), but they aren't THAT repetitive. Eg - They have unique traps enemy placements and ways to "solve" them. Same with repetitive enemies. Fighting the same enemy in a different arena is a different experience IMO.

I'm not claiming that the open world of ER is as great as M&M VI open world. By not having many gimmicky mandatory bosses like Bed of Chaos, they already are the best IMO. Anyway, trying to move the discussion back to BG; BG2 has some open segments and some linear segments. Chapter 2/3 are very open world. Underdark, is halfway. Most people prefer the open world parts of BG2; And ToB is hated cuz is just a linear bossfight after another linear bossfight.

BG3 seems to be in the "in between' linearity and open worldness.

At least the chapter 1.

Did they said anything about open world in any FAQ?

 

[Tyranicon]

... I just want to meet some adventurers in a tavern, explore dungeons, kill monsters/people and take their treasure.

Maybe codex is right and adding narrative to RPGs was the greatest decline...

 

[Crispy]

... I just want to meet some adventurers in a tavern, explore dungeons, kill monsters/people and take their treasure.

Then play Solasta.