Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 is Trash

[Old Hans]

BG3 could have easily done something like BG1 where you go to sleep for 8 hours and wake up at night, but apparently that was just too complicated and confusing

 

[jackofshadows]

As far as I remember they ditched the idea early on, because of all those aito-cinematic dialogues.

 

[Whipping Post]

The lack of a day/night cycle is typical of Larian's design philosophy of streamlining everything at the expense of depth, realism, or immersion.

It's not a dealbreaker in and of itself, the issue is the studio's MO which results in very gamey RPGs.

 

[Drakortha]

One of these days Swen is going to make his Ultima 7 masterpiece. It could even be his next game!

His going to prove everyone wrong, you'll see. Larian is just warming up.

 

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Might and Magic 2 back in 1988 had a day/night cycle as well as an automap.

It did not let us choose our characters' genitals, though. Instead of that, it let us enchant our swords all the way to +64.

 

[Gargaune]

The campaign was still better than Neverwinter Night's campaign, and at least AS GOOD as Champions of Norrath / Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance (which are very beloved franchises). My friends and I did a coop playthrough and we had a blast. Kind of had a Diablo/D&D hybrid gameplay. The game was underrated and I seriously wish someone would hack peer-to-peer multiplayer back into it. As of now, even if you manage to get your hands on a copy, it's single-player only.

Yeah, its reputation had me expecting shit on wheels, but really wasn't the case. Between the MP features and the basic arena editor, it very much struck me as a "baby's first NWN" sort of thing. I don't know that I agree it's better than the NWN OC (despite the numerous faults there, the mechanical platform's just much better), but I did have fun with SCL for as long as it held my interest.

The lack of a day/night cycle is typical of Larian's design philosophy of streamlining everything at the expense of depth, realism, or immersion.

It's not a dealbreaker in and of itself, the issue is the studio's MO which results in very gamey RPGs.

Not a deal-breaker, but a big missed opportunity for BG3 since it already has that pretty great light-based stealth implementation. Varying visibility conditions and NPC schedules could've really added some cool tactical calculations to choosing when to rob a joint or storm a dungeon. Also, the lack of dynamic time led to some ruleset "reinterpretations" like with effects that last "until the next rest" and such instead of their standard hours durations.

 

[mondblut]

The lack of a day/night cycle is typical of Larian's design philosophy of streamlining everything at the expense of depth, realism, or immersion.

Convenience trumps immershun. Any fantasy world where 24/7 convenience stores haven't been invented doesn't deserve salvation.

I mean, last night at 3 AM I ended up out of smokes, and every store for miles has been closed due to new year's night. Holy shit, how does people keep up with that every fucking day?!

 

[Whipping Post]

The lack of a day/night cycle is typical of Larian's design philosophy of streamlining everything at the expense of depth, realism, or immersion.

Convenience trumps immershun. Any fantasy world where 24/7 convenience stores haven't been invented doesn't deserve salvation.

I'd rather have stores that closed at night giving the player the opportunity to burglarize them.

 

[Old Hans]

I'd rather have stores that closed at night giving the player the opportunity to burglarize them.

seriously thieves in bg3 don't get to any fun thief stuff.

 

[MerchantKing]

The lack of a day/night cycle is typical of Larian's design philosophy of streamlining everything at the expense of depth, realism, or immersion.

Convenience trumps immershun. Any fantasy world where 24/7 convenience stores haven't been invented doesn't deserve salvation.

I'd rather have stores that closed at night giving the player the opportunity to burglarize them.

Too bad Larian can't get burglary right since it all boils down to pickpocketing the shopkeeper and teleporting to camp to avoid the omniscient guards. I would at least expect some storage like Arcanum where the goods are kept and in the last few years, shopkeeper inventory being reflected by items physically placed around the shop.

Maybe Larian just wasted too much time writing their shitty """jokes""" and homosexual cutscenes which were forced on release week while trying to make the game into some multiplayer fuckfest while trying to preserve as many gimmicks as they could get away with from DOS rather than just making a decent single player game.

The release week accurate comic

The Gale romance was actually intentionally forced during the first week prior to patching the game, hence the high romance numbers from the release weekend.

 

[Gahbreeil]

The dialogues are good if not for the writing.

Other than that Solasta takes the prize over BG3.

 

[mondblut]

The lack of a day/night cycle is typical of Larian's design philosophy of streamlining everything at the expense of depth, realism, or immersion.

Convenience trumps immershun. Any fantasy world where 24/7 convenience stores haven't been invented doesn't deserve salvation.

I'd rather have stores that closed at night giving the player the opportunity to burglarize them.

The purpose of RPG stores is to buy from you, not to sell to you.

And I need to convert my loot into the weightless digits on the gold counter regardless of the time of day.

 

[Swen]

One of these days Swen is going to make his Ultima 7 masterpiece. It could even be his next game!

His going to prove everyone wrong, you'll see. Larian is just warming up.

Unironically, yes.

 

[Drakortha]

One of these days Swen is going to make his Ultima 7 masterpiece. It could even be his next game!

His going to prove everyone wrong, you'll see. Larian is just warming up.

Unironically, yes.

Any day now, Swen. You'll get there buddy. Just do another kickstarter.

What budget is it going to take? 200 million? 300? How large the team?

 

[Devastator]

This is a fun thread. Here's my impression as I've been playing it lately and I've just started act 3. To expand upon what I mentioned in the 2024 played games thread, where I gave it a 6.5/10:

1. The story is decent. I like how the Dead Three seem to be behind the events so far (or rather, it's their cults).
2. The pacing is overall pretty shit. I'm not sure how to fix it. Maybe break it down into more chapters and use less shit level design.
3. The camera is beyond awful. I hate everything about it.
4. I don’t like the level design that much. Outdoors are too scattered, with a bunch of redundant roads that overlap for no reason. Some areas look like you could travel to them from afar, but you can't. Indoors have too much useless clutter, which is a nightmare for someone like me who likes to rummage through almost everything. The awful camera just makes this worse.
5. Dialogue is a weird mix of actually good content and downright cringe-worthy stuff. The fact that the voice acting is great helps a bit but solves nothing. Also, when replying in conversations, I often find my options lacking. Even if there are five or more choices, they often don’t let me say what I really want to. Pretty disappointing.
6. After a year, the game is still very technically unpolished. It still doesn’t have adjustable font sizes for all fonts (like item descriptions). I’ve played the game on my desktop and my laptop, and it’s fine. But on an HTPC, the font would be too small. And people with any sort of vision issues can just fuck off and die, apparently. What can’t be fixed are the shit aspects of the engine. When you have a moderate amount of items picked up (500+), it takes a second or more to load that inventory on a fucking 13900K with an unlimited TDP. And 500 isn't much (100 camping supplies, 100 ingredients, 50 potions, 50 equipment pieces saved for later, 50 ammo and throwables, 50 scrolls, 50 keys, and 50 misc items). Baldur’s Gate 2 would load a bag of holding with 5,000 items instantaneously on a shit-tier single-core CPU from eons ago. Gold fucking standard, my ass.
7. The UI overall leaves a lot to be desired, and a lot of things need to be fixed by mods. For example: Better Containers, Better Context Menu, Better Hotbar, Better Character and Party Panel, Better Map, Better Split Item, Better Target Info, Better Tooltips, Better Topbar, Better Trade Menu... DOES THIS SEEM NORMAL TO ANYONE? What were they doing all this time since release?
8. The world visuals are good but nothing special. I play at 4K, max settings, with DLSS set to Quality, and it’s not something that blows me away—it’s simply fine. Maybe it’s all a bit too colorful and cartoony. I did turn off God Rays and Bloom because I didn’t like the way those effects made the game look, which is another indication that I found something lacking in the design itself. I thought the NPC visuals were pretty well done, though. Whether it’s undead, goblins, or Shart's cake, it’s fun to look at. My character is a Bronze Dragonborn (Sorc), and I can’t help but chuckle in cutscenes because he looks so ridiculous and out of this world with his shiny scales.
9. Lots of minor stuff one could complain about. Like world NPCs never shutting up and repeating their lines forever (leftover cancer from DOS). When you want to take a nap, someone always wants to fuck you, suck your blood, or talk to you about their feelings. What happened to the good old rest function?

Anyway, I would say the game is very far from perfect. It’s DOS3 in spirit and BG3 in name only. But I can’t claim it’s not worth playing, even if only once.

 

[Orud]

Not a deal-breaker, but a big missed opportunity for BG3 since it already has that pretty great light-based stealth implementation. Varying visibility conditions and NPC schedules could've really added some cool tactical calculations to choosing when to rob a joint or storm a dungeon. Also, the lack of dynamic time led to some ruleset "reinterpretations" like with effects that last "until the next rest" and such instead of their standard hours durations.

It would've meant too much work, considering how reactive they wanted to make BG3, and they didn't want to make the night simply be a pallet swap of daytime. (Anyone that wants to rebuttal BG3 'not being reactive' because it's less reactive than 'Dysco Elysium', please keep your narrow minded opinion to yourself)

And that's... fine considering it's fundamentally a different RPG from the old series. It has more in common with Dragon Age: Origins than the OG BG series, and adding a day and night cycle wouldn't do much to bridge that gap. At its core it's simply a completely different beast.

Personally I had a good time with BG3, but it's not even in my top 10 of RPG's while the OG games are. I feel like they fumbled the flow of the story and, much more importantly, of the world for the type of RPG they're making. This while their previous game (DOS2), which I vastly prefer, didn't. But a day and night cycle by it self? That wouldn't have changed jack shit about that. Absolute bangers, like 'Deux Ex, Masquerade, Kotor, Dragon Age: Origins, etc...', didn't need a day and night cycle to be great games either.

There's a lot to be said about BG3, but dying on a hill because of a day and night cycle of all things, is moronic.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

It's kind of a dick move for Litmanen to come out of the woodwork after the greatest retard poll is closed. Such effort shall not go unnoticed, however.

far too bland to be of any note, wouldn't waste a vote on him

Yes, reactivity. Can’t forget how the game refused to react to anything slightly deviating from the “intended” path.

You're welcome to name any RPG with more reactivity. One with a plot though. The plot here is mostly set yeah but besides that there're many, many instances where the game plays out differently depending on who the player is and what he chooses (both origin and not). On par with and beyond Arcanum, which is somewhat of a gold standard in this regard if you ask me.

Witcher, Dragon Age Origins, Alpha Protocol, Svarogs Dream...okay I'm bored already but the list can go on and on.

 

[Orud]

Witcher, Dragon Age Origins, Alpha Protocol, Svarogs Dream...okay I'm bored already but the list can go on and on.

Tell me how you haven't played BG3 without saying you haven't played BG3.

If you're serious about claiming that THOSE games (outside of Svarogs Dream, haven't played that) are more reactive than BG3, you're full of shit.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Witcher, Dragon Age Origins, Alpha Protocol, Svarogs Dream...okay I'm bored already but the list can go on and on.

Tell me how you haven't played BG3 without saying you haven't played BG3.

Tiktok brainrot, nice job

"Reactivity"

Is your mind still blown if someone plays "got your nose" with you?

 

[Orud]

Tiktok brainrot, nice job

"Reactivity"

Is your mind still blown if someone plays "got your nose" with you?

Changing a simple name on a slide is apparently reactivity to you. Then again, you seem to get bored after counting to 4 so I wouldn't be surprised that you'd call minesweeper a reactive RPG since that shit goes up to 8 per tile.

 

[Gargaune]

It would've meant too much work, considering how reactive they wanted to make BG3. They didn't want to make the night simply be a pallet swap of daytime. (Anyone that wants to rebuttal BG3 'not being reactive' because it's less reactive than 'Dysco Elysium', please keep your narrow minded opinion to yourself)

It's a fundamentally different RPG from the old series, and has more in common with Dragon Age: Origins than the OG BG series. Adding a day and night cycle wouldn't add much to bridge that gap, simply because at its core it's a completely different beast.

While I had a good time with BG3 it's not even in my top 10 of RPG's, unlike the OG games, and a day and night cycle by it self wouldn't have changed jack shit about that. Absolute bangers, like 'Deux Ex, Masquerade, Kotor, Dragon Age: Origins, etc...', didn't need a day and night cycle to be great games either. There's a lot to be said about BG3, but dying on a hill because of a day and night cycle of all things is moronic.

How's my calling it "not a deal-breaker, but a missed opportunity" anywhere along the lines of "dying on that hill?" I just said that BG3 has a stealth system that would've had excellent interplay with a dynamic day/night cycle and NPC schedules. Not every game has to have it or benefits from it, and I realise it's a lot more work than a cosmetic lighting swap (which I also like for this kind of game, but that's beside the point), but here it could've opened up some great new gameplay features and I'm merely disappointed at its absence.

As personal speculation, I don't think Larian skipped on it because of the workload itself, but rather as an exercise in risk assessment. They had a very successful formula in D:OS2 and, once they got their hands on the BG IP, they decided to play to their strengths and iterate on familiar designs rather than take chances on major new features they weren't experienced with. It's a sensible business decision and I don't fault them for taking it, but I don't see how it's wrong to remark what could've been.

 

[Orud]

How's my calling it "not a deal-breaker, but a missed opportunity" anywhere along the lines of "dying on that hill?".

You're not dying on that hill, but those bringing up the concept before you sure are. All points that you made were valid, I just used your post as a jump off point as to point out why it wasn't done.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Tiktok brainrot, nice job

"Reactivity"

Is your mind still blown if someone plays "got your nose" with you?

Changing a simple name on a slide is apparently reactivity to you. Then again, you seem to get bored after counting to 4 so I wouldn't be surprised that you'd call minesweeper a reactive RPG since that shit goes up to 8 per tile.

Disingenuous midwit, go play some more Veilguard, you're out of your depth here.

BG3 "reactivity" is all illusion. Vast majority of games do the same thing but hide that illusion better.

The game doesn't excel at anything other than production values.

 

[Whipping Post]

How's my calling it "not a deal-breaker, but a missed opportunity" anywhere along the lines of "dying on that hill?".

You're not dying on that hill, but those bringing up the concept before you sure are.

I brought it up. I also said that it wasn't a deal breaker, so I'm not dying on any hill.

 

[jaekl]

The game doesn't excel at anything other than production values.

It also excels in making your skeleton try to claw its way out of your body and clamber away to escape the room with every scene that you're exposed to