Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Cat Headed Eagle]

D&D wasn't satanic because it included thaumaturgy, which is the school of magic used by famed spellcaster Jesus Christ, but because you could meet devils and demons, which were based on real mythology. Other than that, you're mostly correct. Fantasy was a space for people to express their sexual degeneracy since the genre began, really. The modern notion of fan-driven fantasy (the kind that pnp players would belong to) is mostly traced back to the flourishing of the cons in the 70s, which was the same breeding ground that gave us furries.

Do note that even among furries, there was some sort of a civil war between the sex negatives and the sex positivies, and we all know who won.

Were you alive then? Were you playing the game back then? No? Then everything you've said was a lie.

Nice cope because back then all of this degeneracy wasn't tolerated. I know because I saw first hand. Your sexuality stayed private and wasn't shared with everyone. If it was then you were ostracized from the gaming scene.

You only started existing in 2016.

 

[Grauken]

You shouldn't get all butt hurt because a character is straight.

Like you getting butt hurt by BG3 characters being gay. lol

 

[Swen]

I think you forget that rpgs of old were targeted at children. Thus the self-censoreship has nothing to do with religion or morals, but common sense, basic ethics and regulatory issues (if those did exist at the times).
Just like WotC asked Bioware to exclude romances from Neverwinter Nights because they thought their main audience were stil 10-14 year old boys who wouldn't be interested in such stuff.
Took them awhile to catch up with the fact that the boys have long became bearded men, still interested in d&d but obviously with a wider array of interests.
Same shit with gaming in general and other entertainment industries.

No, rpgs were always targeted at older white men. I was there and experienced the entire thing. It wasn't until the 1980s that women started getting into the hobby and the men introducing their children to the games. Shall you try again with actual history?

Also, invalid comparison logical fallacy for bringing up Wizards of the Woke when dealing with TSR.

 

[Eisenheinrich]

They made Viconia ugly as sin in this game, along with her story. I like the game overall, but bringing Viconia back just to make her look bad is lame, ngl. Of all the things Larian has done, this is the worst imo.

She was always ugly

Nice try. This is the Viconia everyone knows and likes:

The older I grow, the more I realize how much most of the character portraits in BG2 look like porn stars. Which would fit much better in the current iteration of the series for well known reasons.

So all beautiful women now look like porn stars huh? Talk about objectifying all women.

I talked about "character portraits" in general, not specifically women.

 

[JamesDixon]

You only started existing in 2016.

This is retardation. Seriously is this all that you can do to debate the facts and historical documentation presented?

By your logic you didn't exist until 2023. Now are you 2 years old or what?

I talked about "character portraits" in general, not specifically women.

So any beautiful woman that got her picture taken or was used for character art is a porn star. How typical of you to objectify women like that.

 

[AwesomeButton]

When Mass Effect Andromeda came out, it got memed to hell and back. It didn't seem to help sales.

Anyways, the point is, even if Larian were intentionally throwing what on 4chan used to be called exploitables, image and video macros that are a good core to develop jokes from, that would still be unusual for the industry as a whole. Other video game companies wouldn't make their product look silly like that, hoping people mocking it spread awareness of it.

In the words of Don Draper, "It's not an exact science".

Arguably Wyll is exactly that. The tweeeeeeest here is that he's a warlock instead of a swashbuckling duelist.

Bah, in my reading Wyll is a crybaby, spoiled child, attention whore, virtue signaller, deserves all the shit he is getting but he will never understand why it's happening to him.

old white haired paladin looking guy.

I've only got myself to blame of course since the idea that Larian would miss the opportunity to create awkward sexual situations was clearly laughable.

Let me guess, that old white haired paladin formed an agoge relationship with yours

Sexuality should be part of their character, it defines a person.

It's funny how both extreme woke and extreme anti-woke agree on this. Sexuality is part of a person but hardly defining for most of them.

Because they both seek to substitute what they can't get IRL with a videogame. Stay strong boys and girls, we are a decade or so away from fuckable real-enough robots, then the golden billion of the world's population is indeed doomed to extintion.

Nice try. This is the Viconia everyone knows and likes:

You are aware of who is the source of the original photo which was traced to become this portrait, right? If yes, then you understand why some snowflake might have wanted revenge against Viconia in BG3.

So all beautiful women now look like porn stars huh?

There is a difference between "porn star" and "erotic model".

Nigga did you just write this epic to justify not bringing Astarion with you?

He is right though.

 

[Shrimp]

But there's no classic male warrior/soldier personality trope

Arguably Wyll is exactly that. The tweeeeeeest here is that he's a warlock instead of a swashbuckling duelist.
Just like the twiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeest with Karlachs is that in addition to being a good natured dumb brute, she's also a naive girl.
Just like the TTTTTTTTTTTTTTWWWWWWWWWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTT with both religious fanatics is that they were led astray by lying prophets, so to speak. Though in at least one case, you can make the lie real. No spoilers.

But that's how Avellone has been writing since forever and Codex loves it.
There's a succubi but the tweeeest is that she's a virgin
She runs a brothel but the tweeeest is that people talk instead of fuck
There's freedom-loving githyanki but the tweeeest is that he made himself an eternal slave by accident
You save the fallen angel but the tweeest is that he was imprisoned for a good reason
There's a demon but the tweeeeeest is that he's forced to do only good deeds
There's an NPC named "Damsel in Distress" but the tweest is that she's not in distress at all and it's a trap
Or the whole tweeeest about the Nameless One's immortality and the tweeests of KOTOR2 plot

Avellone hasn't been relevant for years. Man's just a living kickstarter stretch goal at this point.

 

[JamesDixon]

There is a difference between "porn star" and "erotic model".

I'm not the one that declared all beautiful women with their picture done to be porn stars. You should take that up with the other fellow.

 

[Eisenheinrich]

So any beautiful woman that got her picture taken or was used for character art is a porn star. How typical of you to objectify women like that.

You misconfuse "beauty" with sluttiness, which checks out. Jaheira for example is basically just "Dirty"-era Christina Aguilera with slanted eyes.

 

[JamesDixon]

You misconfuse "beauty" with sluttiness, which checks out. Jaheira foe example is basically just "Dirty"-era Christina Aguilera.

This is you making a strawman. Admit it that you clearly said that all women that are beautiful that had their picture done to be porn stars. I never gave you my opinion on what women are.

 

[Grauken]

You misconfuse "beauty" with sluttiness, which checks out. Jaheira foe example is basically just "Dirty"-era Christina Aguilera.

This is you making a strawman. Admit it that you clearly said that all women that are beautiful that had their picture done to be porn stars. I never gave you my opinion on what women are.

Exactly, it's not like you call women whores all the time on the codex... wait

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Boy browsing through these pages really is a delight. All those tough anti-woke Staffel bitching about the game while playing it nonstop and secretly enjoying it. Swen is plunging the 'Dex into a moral panic.

Using romances as a crutch to whinge about the game because everything else is pretty solid. After 20 years of bioware and Tessera dong mods owning the genre -It's a hobby dominated by the perma-virgin, fat cunt, neckbeard and catshit sniffing lesbo.

My only issue is if you don't like companions you can't make your own with the hirelings like in IWD.

 

[turkishronin]

You are aware of who is the source of the original photo which was traced to become this portrait, right? If yes, then you understand why some snowflake might have wanted revenge against Viconia in BG3.

who dat

 

[Lyric Suite]

They made Viconia ugly as sin in this game, along with her story. I like the game overall, but bringing Viconia back just to make her look bad is lame, ngl. Of all the things Larian has done, this is the worst imo.

She was always ugly

Nice try. This is the Viconia everyone knows and likes:

No, that's the shitty coomer Viconia. The portraid was literally a retracing of a porno image:

In the full version of this image, she is naked with her tits hanging out. Not an isolated incident either. It was only a matter of time until the thirsty coomers of course begun to project their sex starved perversions onto the games themselves, which is what happened with Bioware.

Original Viconia is best Viconia because she was EVIL and taking her with you was supposed to be an hard choice. Lust didn't factor in your choice of saving her from the Flaming Fist.

 

[MerchantKing]

Another 10/10

https://videogames.si.com/reviews/baldurs-gate-3-review

Haters on suicide watch

It's a good thing these paid reviews are cheap.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

they should just at character creation ask if your character likes men, women or both. then if they chose women only, male NPCs will not initiate romance. problem solved.

Or you know just every character isn't romanceable for your main PC. You shouldn't get all butt hurt because a character is straight. Character X will never romance you because you're a dude and he's straight. Simple.

I think it's fine to have more options for those who want it. Just make it toggleable, hope they will tone it down in future games because even gays complain about too much sexuality in the game.

More options? That's unnecessary and not realistic. Everything doesn't revolve around you. If someone is straight, they're straight. Everyone doesn't need to want to hang you. Creepy ass degenerates

 

[Swen]

Another 10/10

https://videogames.si.com/reviews/baldurs-gate-3-review

Haters on suicide watch

It's a good thing these paid reviews are cheap.

 

[Eisenheinrich]

You misconfuse "beauty" with sluttiness, which checks out. Jaheira foe example is basically just "Dirty"-era Christina Aguilera.

This is you making a strawman. Admit it that you clearly said that all women that are beautiful that had their picture done to be porn stars. I never gave you my opinion on what women are.

I was on the edge yesterday, but now it is clear as day that you are mentally challenged. There is no point talking to you, no knowledge to be gained, no insights to be had.

You are just a bitter old man who is still mad and butthurt 'bout a hobby he had no business with creating it got "taken" from him by women and gay folk. I pitty you.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

You shouldn't get all butt hurt because a character is straight.

Like you getting butt hurt by BG3 characters being gay. lol

Yeah all of them being gay is retarded and immersion breaking

 

[turkishronin]

Star Trek, Star Wars

The show was made for subversion to begin with . The director is literally on the record saying he chose the space setting so he could push narratives about Vietnam and Racial Relations indirectly(because those things weren't allowed back then). George Lucas said also said Star Wars was about Vietnam, the evil Empire was supposed to be United States.
Most creative people are shitlibs and a lot of nerd culture is derived from their "Reagan Bad" or "Nixon Bad" products

 

[random_name]

What, you don't like a transgender waving his penis in front of your children? Grow up, chuds.

 

[Elthosian]

the people you're describing are the audience for BGIII, right? Are they also the authors of it?

To some extent the demographics intersect. There are lots of people in their 20s in Larian, including its writing team, aren't there?

Why the bear-fucking?

Swen himself has answered that they meant it more as a joke than anything else, and they underestimated the viral effect it would have.

Didn’t people play Arcanum? Might be a good moment to set up some re-education camps and force everybody to play it 24/7 before being allowed back in.

I adore Arcanum.
I remember a selectable backstory where your character is a retard who manipulates people's sympathy. Pretty nuanced. deep. un-PC and great game, aside from the combat.
Which of BGIII's traits being discussed requires Arcanum re-education?

Specifically? Complaining about the bear sex joke when Arcanum had a sheep sex joke with an actual sheep.

Well, my question was "Why bear sex?". I wasn't aware it was a joke. It may very well be one, but to say it is JUST that is disingenuous. They absolutely knew it would cause people to talk and, ultimately, would be good press, whether controversial or not. Bestiality has long been said by more reactionary fearmongers than I as the next thing to become normalized, along with MAPs, etc. I don't see this happening, but if Larian are moden humans and online humans, they know of this, and were absolutely poking the proverbial bear, so to speak, just to ruffle some fur and "make all the right people mad" as politically-minded people so often say. At the very least, it's not JUST a joke.

Arcanum? Filled with tons of jokes. Any sheep-fucking joke in that game was in THAT GAME's context, not the context of a photo-realistic game that's already filled to the gills with non-joke sexuality that everyone has an opinion about. I think comparing BGIII to Arcanum is also disingenuous. Not intentional on your part, I'm not accusing you of that. You clearly bought and are enjoying/defending the game, however, and no one likes ot see something they paid for beign mis-represented or criticized, especially by people you ideologically disagree with, so I can see it being easy to go "Arcanum had a sheep sex joke. Same thing. Check and mate,"


I don't think it's as simple as that, personally. However, others might, and I respect your view, despite disagreeing.

The scene has a squirrel looking dumbfounded at the scene while dropping a nut. It’s pretty clear that it was intended to be a joke. Was it expected to cause a scandal and get attention? Maybe, I don’t really bother taking into account a dev’s marketing tactics while playing a game and the culture war shtick is little more than gringo drama to me so I really can’t be bothered to look more deeply into it.

Anyway, sexual jokes might be not that common in Arcanum, but the developers had a pretty obvious penchant for that kind of content. It was extremely blatant in Fallout 2 where you even had sex-related perks and could do your own pornstar career. And of course, Bloodlines had a similar amount of sex-related stuff.

Now, we can talk all day about whether that stuff fits some settings better than other but I think it’s pretty obvious that Troika devs always loved to make games with that kind of content.

But Troika didn't make BGIII. Your point, that it may fit in some settings more than others, is exactly right. "Troika did it and it's okay, but Larian does it and it's not?" may seem like you've happened upon a bit of hypocrisy around these parts, but it really only drives home how a subject as easy to make uncomfortable and stupid as sex in an RPG was handled better by fantastic writers at Troika. If people played their games and got that those were either jokes or fit the world better (Bloodlines BETTER have sex in it. Hell, it bette rhave BDSM in it. It's seedy vampire fiction.) but are finding it to be off-putting in BGIII, then there is at least the possibility that they found it to be better-fitting and better-written in the former than the latter, no? Or do you think people who played old Troika games and genuinely had no issue with sexual content are just straight-up changing their stance because of politics or something? That's a big assumption or guess, and seems much more related to the gringo culture war (to which you pay no mind) than you may think.

I don’t think it was handled fantastically neither in Fallout 2 nor in Bloodlines (although of course Bloodline does it better than F2), but that’s a whole another discussion. In any case, my point is that having jokes related to sex is nothing out of common. Let’s not act as if the sheep scene in Arcanum was fantastic writing. It was wacky, just like the bear thing or the ogre and the bugbear. If 3D makes it any more uncomfortable to anyone that’s their issue. I read literature often so I don’t find 2D abstractions to be much different.

Regarding the non-joke sex elements making people uncomfortable, I’ve said several times in this thread that the approval system is broken because Larian made it too easy on the player (thank you to all the whiny bitches), causing companions to jump on the PC from very early on, even skipping conversations and referring to events that haven’t happened yet. Regrettable, but mods already fixed it.

 

[Grauken]

You shouldn't get all butt hurt because a character is straight.

Like you getting butt hurt by BG3 characters being gay. lol

Yeah all of them being gay is retarded and immersion breaking

Do you know what the cheapest modification most RPG devs can do to their games to appeal to a wider audience?
Make every character fall for the MC whether he's a male or female. I hope you enjoy the coming wave of RPGs

 

[JamesDixon]

I was on the edge yesterday, but now it is clear as day that you are mentally challenged. I pitty you.

You misspelled pity. Did browser spellcheck fail you again? I told you to right click on the underlined word for the dictionary. You are not a learning animal.

You sound upset.

So we're down to ad hominem logical fallacy since you can't accept that you think all beautiful women that have their portraits done are porn stars. The only one that is presenting themselves as mentally challenged is you. It's hilarious that you can't even own up to your own words and have to try to blame me for your failings.

It's also hilarious that you can't actually defeat anything I've said. You know why? Because you're a moron.

 

[Mortmal]

My thoughts on bugginess so far.

Act 1: Pretty polished, and it should be after years in Early Access.

Act 2: Okay, starting to break down a bit, but still not anywhere near Bethesda levels.

Act 3:

I simply cannot finish Act 3 due to a game-breaking bug that occurs after the lengthy cinematic at the Ceremophic Pools. It's truly disappointing, especially since I was almost done with that playthrough. Additionally, there are several other issues I've encountered: I couldn't save Astarion, killed Cazador before he finished his ritual, causing them all to explode. Furthermore, there's the problem of frame rate drops, with the frame rate occasionally dipping as low as 30fps, while the tutorial area was in the 144 fps range...