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

[Dodo1610]

The reason for Early Access this time is financial, not Larian's good experiences. Larian has to release the game in some form by the end of 2020 because Hasbro wouldn't want BG3 to take up mindspace and marketing hype for their intended release of one D&D game per year through 2025.

Dark Alliance will be this year's DND game, BG3 will be the one for 21.

 

[Alpan]

The reason for Early Access this time is financial, not Larian's good experiences. Larian has to release the game in some form by the end of 2020 because Hasbro wouldn't want BG3 to take up mindspace and marketing hype for their intended release of one D&D game per year through 2025.

Dark Alliance will be this year's DND game, BG3 will be the one for 21.

No, both games are slated for 2020.

 

[Dodo1610]

The reason for Early Access this time is financial, not Larian's good experiences. Larian has to release the game in some form by the end of 2020 because Hasbro wouldn't want BG3 to take up mindspace and marketing hype for their intended release of one D&D game per year through 2025.

Dark Alliance will be this year's DND game, BG3 will be the one for 21.

No, both games are slated for 2020.

Yes, there will be in Early Access this year but Dark Alliance is still scheduled for Fall 20.

 

[Frusciante]

Lol early access is a good thing. You know exactly what the game is like before buying because everyone will post their gameplay on YouTube. Plus there is the possibility of addressing some of the feedback from players.

 

[Grotesque]

Lol early access is a good thing. You know exactly what the game is like before buying because everyone will post their gameplay on YouTube. Plus there is the possibility of addressing some of the feedback from players.

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

Demos are usually released much closer to launch though.

All things being equal, it's nicer to know what a game is like sooner rather than later. I mean just look at this thread, lol. I'd rather not have hundreds more pages going "Is it going to suck? Is it going to suck?" all the way to launch day.

 

[getter77]

Compared to D:OS 1/2, and aside from the lack of a crowdfunding aspect on top of early access, there's something to be said for a prestige/expectation gap when dealing with such a massive interwoven IP as Baldur's Gate compared to the relatively self-contained D:OS.

Better than going the Chapter 1 route might well be trying for something along Black Pits or KoTC demo module route---something to handle core aspects like various combat scenarios abstracted out, initial powers, loot interaction/fundamental progression, etc. This way they could preserve the first impressions impact on the overwhelming majority of backdrops, iconic aspects, actual narrative(would not mind a Black Pits aspect being more directly within the game outright, but just later on not unlike a classic Tales game or some such with a Colosseum fleshed out), while keeping asset scope narrow enough that SHOULD they be well served by demand on some fundamental system issues that they can stand a chance of course correcting without falling into some pit of sunk cost.

I don't know if their newfound tooling is going to serve the module aspect at the least though, as D:OS 2 got that somewhere squared away on the modding front even if still nothing on the level of NWN or FRUA fare to constitute a proper spiritual successor at long last.

 

[Terenty]

Early access has an air of cheapness around it. Baldur's Gate 3 early access sounds like a buggy half finished mess by one and a half developers, not the successor to the legendary series.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Dodo1610]

The opinion on most mainstream news sites is also pretty negative, I guess things would be different if Hasbro actually have kept their mouths shut and let Swen show the gameplay + Suprise announcement you can play it yourself soon.

 

[Farewell into the night]

This is pure insanity.

 

[Ontopoly]

The opinion on most mainstream news sites is also pretty negative, I guess things would be different if Hasbro actually have kept their mouths shut and let Swen show the gameplay + Suprise announcement you can play it yourself soon.

Big companies always seem to be out of touch. They kind of ruin everything.

 

[LESS T_T]

Transcription of Cocks' comment about BG3 at the investor event: https://wccftech.com/baldurs-gate-i...-game-will-offer-unparalleled-player-freedom/

D&D is coming up on its sixth year of growth. [...] D&D also has a massive digital gaming potential. The global market for roleplaying games on PC and consoles has reached $12 billion annually.

Among the demographics that play these games, 65% have a positive brand awareness for Dungeons and Dragons, among the highest of any fantasy IPs whether that's in gaming or general entertainment and we have seven games in development ready to meet that demand.

The first of these games coming to market is Baldur's Gate III. Baldur's Gate III is the long-awaited third installment in the hit roleplaying game franchise beloved by generations of D&D and RPG fans alike. It is the result of our collaboration with Larian Studios, famous for the critically acclaimed Divinity series of roleplaying games.

The game is a story-driven RPG that pushes the boundary of the genre and offers unparalleled player freedom, high-stake decisions, unique companions, and memorable content. Larian will be showing the game next weekend at PAX East and it will enter early access later this year.

 

[Mortmal]

"Offers unparalleled player Freedom" , that doesnt mean narrative story driven rpg with hand made turn based encounters, but rather a skyrim like exploration.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

"Offers unparalleled player Freedom" , that doesnt mean narrative story driven rpg with hand made turn based encounters, but rather a skyrim like exploration.

Or rather it doesn't mean anything. Just a cheap slogan used as to encourage sales among gullible gamers.

 

[LESS T_T]

"Offers unparalleled player Freedom" , that doesnt mean narrative story driven rpg with hand made turn based encounters, but rather a skyrim like exploration.

Or rather it doesn't mean anything. Just a cheap slogan used as to encourage sales among gullible gamers.

He borrowed the phrase almost exactly from Larian's press release: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/344218/Larian_Studios_Announces_Baldurs_Gate_III.php

Baldur’s Gate III will push the boundaries of the RPG genre and offer a rich narrative with unparalleled player freedom, high-stakes decisions, unique companion characters and memorable combat.

I wonder if the change from "combat" to "content" is by Cocks, Larian, or the transcriber's mistake.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Aye. And other companies have also used it in advertising their upcoming RPG titles, even though the games ended up being more of the same ol'.

 

[GhostCow]

Early access needs to die.

Then with it all hopes for new decent to genious indie and AA RPGs die. Do you realize that literally 9/10 Codex RPG darlings, including AoD and Underrail, in past 5-8 years have been in Early Access and that without it, as flawed abused system as it might be, there would be no financial possibilities for these mini companies to make anything except flappy bird spin offs. Hatred for Early Access is like hatred for second amendment, sure it produces few victims but secures existance of many. Early Access is financing and enabling 90% of incline, and that's fact

Is this not what crowdfunding is for? For every early access game that gets finished and turns out to be good there are 100 that take money from a bunch of people and never finish. I'd give up the few good ones to kill the hundreds of bad ones.

To make a game with early access available is a sure way to cheapen and dilute the impact of the gaming experience the finished product would've had on the buyer if released without early access.

This is probably my biggest issue with early access. One of the first rules of game design is if you give the player the ability to ruin the game for themselves in some way they will do it every time. I'm sure there are plenty of people here who have the self control to not do that but that's an incredibly small portion of the gaming populace. If it wasn't things like preorders and preorder bonuses wouldn't exist. Most gamers are complete fucktards with 0 self control.

So why shouldn't they continue?

honor

This

 

[The_Mask]

Preorders, early accesses, kickstarters, stretchgoals, all this needs to die in purifying flames.

If all of that dies, you'll get no more games to play, you fucking antagonizing hipster cuck.

Fucking Grimoire had a funding campaign.

Did you choke reading my lines?


Dumbfuck... I swear...

 

[jackofshadows]

He borrowed the phrase almost exactly from Larian's press release: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/344218/Larian_Studios_Announces_Baldurs_Gate_III.php

Baldur’s Gate III will push the boundaries of the RPG genre

I wonder which boundaries they're having in mind exactly? It's like there're a strict ones. Hell, what does it even mean? Either it pure advertising rambling or the game will have even less in common with the predecessors than I thought.

 

[Gyor]

He borrowed the phrase almost exactly from Larian's press release: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/344218/Larian_Studios_Announces_Baldurs_Gate_III.php

Baldur’s Gate III will push the boundaries of the RPG genre

I wonder which boundaries they're having in mind exactly? It's like there're a strict ones. Hell, what does it even mean? Either it pure advertising rambling or the game will have even less in common with the predecessors than I thought.

We will likely learn why they mean by this on the 27th, but I have a feeling they didn't stop at just implementing 5e D&D rules, but maybe they added another layer to them.

I do know that party from the announcement of the announcement video and the PR the Mindflayers infect the PC, maybe the whole party with I think Mindflayer Tadpoles, instead of the usual horrific transformation into a Mindflayer that this usually triggers, it makes the character more powerful some how. And this thing might have a link to Hell. This has to have mechanical implications. Shits going to get weird.

Plus we know from BG: DiA that the Dead three Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul are running around in Demigod form, stirring shit up.

 

[anvi]

Baldur's Gate 3 will be available via early access on Steam later this year.

It's been in development for a while - work was underway even before Divinity: Original Sin 2 shipped in September 2017 - but the wait will soon be over as Wizard of the Coast's parent company, Hasbro, has revealed Baldur's Gate 3 will release later this year on Steam early access.

Talking at an investor event at the New York Toy Fair (thanks, DSO Gaming), Hasbro also confirmed Larian Studio will reveal the first gameplay footage of Baldur's Gate 3 at PAX East, at 3.30pm ET, on 27th February, 2020.

Hasbro has seven - yes, seven - D&D games in development, and plans to release both Baldur's Gate 3 and Dark Alliance by the end of this year. The other D&D flavoured games will be released annually between now and 2025.

"It's in good hands. It's in the hands of people who love Dungeons & Dragons," Larian founder and creative director Swen Vincke said. "There's an enormous amount of people here who geek-out completely - there's a lot of people here, actually, for whom [Baldur's Gate] was their first RPG so they want to do their utter best making the best game they've ever made. They take it very, very seriously.

"But it's still us making it - it's not the original guys making it - so you will see what we think makes a good RPG, in 2019 and going forward. Expect to be surprised."

 

[deuxhero]

While the EA is old news, the fourth line is of interest

Hasbro has seven - yes, seven - D&D games in development, and plans to release both Baldur's Gate 3 and Dark Alliance by the end of this year. The other D&D flavoured games will be released annually between now and 2025.

Looks like title 8 didn't pan out. I think the exact before (the end of?) 2025 is new since before it was just vague "near future".

 

[Harthwain]

Preorders, early accesses, kickstarters, stretchgoals, all this needs to die in purifying flames.

If all of that dies, you'll get no more games to play, you fucking antagonizing hipster cuck.

Fucking Grimoire had a funding campaign.

Did you choke reading my lines?


Dumbfuck... I swear...

Yeah... I can name a few good games that were Kickstarted or in Early Access (or both).

I get that it's seen as a bad practice, but it also gives opportunities the indie developers wouldn't otherwise have.

 

[TempleOfArcanumBloodlines]

I'm happy with early access. I won't play it as I don't like to try out RPG's early and spoil stuff, I just play once it's done. However they'll get much more testing from loads of players at home than they would with internal testing, and you can see proper videos/reviews that aren't selectively edited by the developer before choosing to buy it on release. Plus if they've totally fucked up some mechanic or part of the game hopefully the outcry will be enough to make them change it