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Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

gurugeorge

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Strap Yourselves In
Better game: BG3 or WotR?

WOTR is less offensively woke and the woke is less offensively in your face and technicolor, partly because there are no comparable "cinematic" episodes in WOTR, and WOTR (in a trope) lacks the orc NPCs with pink hair and metallic eyeliner. There isn't as much forcing of degeneracy on your rp (only really a couple of the Sosiel convos, that's about it, whereas in BG3 the invitations to buttsecs are nigh constant and ubiquitous).

BG3 has better exploration and much better environmental/system reactivity, and overall a better sense of immersion (although a lot of that's to do with the miles-better graphics - enhanced even more by the WASD/camera mods btw).

WOTR has better combat and a better build system (though perhaps too fussy at times, there's something to be said for 5e streamlining on occasion, it just goes the other way and is too simple); the mythics are more interesting to build and play with than the illithid powers.

Story and cc-wise, I think they're about even. There are definitely a few weighty decisions you can make in both games.

Encounter design, I have to say that BG3 edges out here. WOTR is no slouch, there are a few very cool set pieces just like in BG3, but each encounter in BG3 stands out more, whereas there are a lot of generic trash fights in WOTR - something I don't hate personally, but in terms of per capita good encounter percentage vs bad, BG3 wins out, if you're being strict about it.

Personally, I remember really loving PFK more than BG3 at the time, whereas WOTR I liked less, but that was mainly because I found the demons a more boring adversary than the fey, who were brilliantly sinister in the first game. BG3's villains, with only a few exceptions like Raphael, don't really stand out as much - although it's difficult here, because the way they're rendered in realism and technicolour makes them all "stand out" more in purely graphics terms, but just conceptually and in terms of writing most of them are less interesting in BG3, even despite being more fleshed-out in some cases in terms of writing bulk.

WOTR's story is pretty coherent, whereas BG3's rambles a bit and feels disconnected in places, with the quest flow not quite supporting it.

About the same level of bugginess on release, they'll probably have about the same level of polish when they're in their final form.

I should say ofc that the VO in BG3 is a billion times better than in WOTR, but that's kind of a "cheat," like the far-superior graphics. It does make every little encounter even with minor NPCs more "real-seeming" and occasionally very entertaining. But it's really a side-issue in the grand scheme of things.

Difficult to say. Personally I give the laurel to BG3, in terms of there being a lot of shit in both games, but the good outweighing the bad in both games. But only just, and mainly because I'm a graphics whore. WOTR is a considerable game in its own right. And if the comparison was between PFK and BG3 (relative to time and immersion/enthusiasm for the games as I was playing them), I would say PFK.
 
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abija

Prophet
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May 21, 2011
Messages
3,253
>he doesn't have Gale's hand to present
Is that supposed to work or you pulled it out of your ass ? (if it should work I can add another trigger bug to my list)

Encounter design, I have to say that BG3 edges out here. WOTR is no slouch, there are a few very cool set pieces just like in BG3, but each encounter in BG3 stands out more, whereas there are a lot of generic trash fights in WOTR - something I don't hate personally, but in terms of per capita good encounter percentage vs bad, BG3 wins out, if you're being strict about it.
BG3 doesn't have enough combat though. And way too many containers.
 
Joined
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recruiting Minthara without killing the thieflings
Mark my words, in the Enhanced Edition, you'll be able to do it unmodded.
What are you guys on about. You could do this at release, I did it. Just don't pick a side and do not resolve the thiefling vs evil situation, piss on it and walk away. And then in act 2 Minthara will be in the prison recruitable.
 

Cyberarmy

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Divinity: Original Sin 2

abija

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It's cool, I had gale + another 3 or 4. But my game has been such a mess it doesn't surprise me.
 

janior

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anyone knows if there's anything interesting that happens if you find all the body parts in act3? I didn't bother but been wondering if i missed anything cool.
 

whydoibother

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anyone knows if there's anything interesting that happens if you find all the body parts in act3? I didn't bother but been wondering if i missed anything cool.
If you find all the body parts of the missing clown that the shapeshifters killed, you can have the circus matron resurrect him to have a zombie clown.
 

Asymptotics

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Strap Yourselves In
anyone knows if there's anything interesting that happens if you find all the body parts in act3? I didn't bother but been wondering if i missed anything cool.
You get a pair of gloves that let you take a -5 to hit on spell attack rolls for an extra d8 (force?) damage.
 

jf8350143

Liturgist
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Apr 14, 2018
Messages
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So when Larian said you could "work with Gortash", they mean you can have a little chat with him, then go face the elder brain with him and have him say one, and only one line before he dies like a bitch.


I don't know what I'd expect, clearly nothing interesting is allowed in act 3.
 

volklore

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Jun 19, 2018
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So when Larian said you could "work with Gortash", they mean you can have a little chat with him, then go face the elder brain with him and have him say one, and only one line before he dies like a bitch.


I don't know what I'd expect, clearly nothing interesting is allowed in act 3.
One of the many rugpulls of the game to put you back on the rails. And some more shit that ended up in the chopping block. Steel Watchers basically don't exist in the final battle regardless of wether you disrupted Ghortash's operations or not. Which is heavily retarded and definitely is just cut to rush the game out.
Missed oportunity again to give advantage to more evil/pragmatic route. They could just spawn friendly steelwatchers in the final battle if you side with ghortash (and ofc have him alive) but nope.
 
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Larianshill

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Feb 16, 2021
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What are you guys on about. You could do this at release, I did it. Just don't pick a side and do not resolve the thiefling vs evil situation, piss on it and walk away. And then in act 2 Minthara will be in the prison recruitable.
You might not kill tieflings by your own hand, but they still die (even Rolan dies if you send him away, despite Aradin making it to Baldur's Gate just fine). I meant as in, you'll be able to save them AND recruit Mintharra in the definitive edition.
 

jf8350143

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After finished my third playthrough, I can safely say the act 3 drags this game into oblivion. I have no idea what the critics are smoking, the only explaination is that they give the score before they even get to act 3. It would be a much better game if there is only chapter 1 and chapter 2, beating the general and end the game with a clifferhanger, leaving the other two chosen for the sequel.


The whole act 3 is just a chore to go through, the combat is way too easy to the point every combat ends in 2 rounds at most. And most of the combat is just pointless, you get no xp, no worthy loot, nothing.

Almost all of the story in act 3 is half baked and boring, all the things they promised in the marketing is non-existent. It basically turn into a linear game and everytime you don't follow the ideal route, and you will for the first time, you miss part of the story, yet the game treats you like you already sees all the bits. The writing is all over the place and most of the characters are just bunch of idots.

There is no satisifying conclusion for any of the storyline carried from the previous chapters, heck some of them didn't even have a conclusion. You carried Zhentarim's chest all the way from chapter 1 and they didn't even give you anything as reward, not even one gold piece.

To make things worse the ending is just a huge mess, final battles are very poorly designed and the writing gets even wrose than act 3. There is no ending slides and you can't even talk to your companions before the finale unless you have them in your team.

It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, destroys every bit of goodwill chapter 1 and 2 builds.
 

Asymptotics

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Strap Yourselves In
I have no idea what the critics are smoking, the only explaination is that they give the score before they even get to act 3.
Just like le redditors, all critics identify as permanently offended trans homo feminist abuse survivors. They play the game up to the point where you can suck an elf dick or get buttsexed by a homocation school wizard - give it a 10/10 and never open another RPG game in their lifetimes.
 

dukeofwoodberry

Educated
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Nov 21, 2021
Messages
514
I think most of the critics didn't get to act 3 when they put out their review honestly.

Act 1 is a 9/10
Act 2 is a 7.5/10
Act 3 is a 3/10
 

whydoibother

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https://files.catbox.moe/ja97mq.mp3


zevlor.jpg
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Incredible:



https://www.polygon.com/23880311/microsoft-baldurs-gate-xbox-series-x-version

Microsoft completely misjudged Baldur’s Gate 3​

Xbox dubbed Larian’s hit a ‘second-run Stadia PC RPG’ before its release

Baldur’s Gate 3 exited early access for its full launch on Aug. 3 to major success — the game peaked at a whopping 875,343 concurrent players, according to SteamDB, making it one of the year’s biggest games. Even Swen Vincke, founder of developer Larian Studios, was shocked: “This was not in the books at all. This was way, way beyond what we expected,” he said, telling PC Gamer that the company had expected 100,000 players at most. More than a month past its release, Baldur’s Gate 3 still surpasses that number in concurrent players, with nearly 200,000 at the time of this writing.

To say that Baldur’s Gate 3 was underestimated would be, well, an understatement. Microsoft apparently didn’t expect much from Larian’s breakout hit, either, calling it a “second-run Stadia PC RPG” in a leaked email from May 2022 filed as part of the FTC v. Microsoft case. That email included a table with Microsoft’s assessments of upcoming games for potential inclusion in the company’s Game Pass subscription service. While other titles were rated on their “wow factor” — e.g., Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was marked at very high, while Dragon Ball: The Breakers was listed as low — Baldur’s Gate 3 was marked Hub, and last on the list. (It’s unclear whether “Hub” refers to the Xbox Insiders Hub; games like Let’s Sing ABBA and Ubisoft’s Just Dance got the same distinction.)

The email exchange begins in May 2022, when Xbox chief Phil Spencer emailed several executives, including head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty and Xbox vice president Sarah Bond, to discuss the fallout from Starfield being pushed back (before that delay was officially announced). The delay, plus unclear release dates for Redfall and STALKER 2, created a big gap in major games on the Xbox platform. “This is really a disaster situation for us given all we’ve invested in content across studios at our GP [Game Pass] content fund,” Spencer wrote. Spencer instructed the execs to get to work on making sure those gaps were filled.

“We set a very high bar in 2021 on quality and pacing of content which was awesome to see,” he continued. “But to come off of that year with no big exclusives launching in 2022 is a portfolio planning miss that we can’t afford. If we need to delay launches (understanding there is a financial impact of that) to create more regular beats for us we need to do that. We have to all understand that the situation we are in now is a failure of our planning and production execution.”

Spencer added that the lack of clarity on timing and dates would be “obvious to the community.”

See the list of game projections for yourself:

the first part of a table showing Microsoft’s assessment of the potential popularity of some upcoming games
Image: Microsoft via FTC
the second part of a table showing Microsoft’s assessment of the potential popularity of some upcoming games
Image: Microsoft via FTC

Microsoft predicted that Larian Studios would have expected roughly $5 million for the game’s inclusion on Xbox Game Pass. For comparison, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, called a potential “crown jewel,” had an expected partner ask of $300 million.

Baldur’s Gate 3 was once expected to launch on Google Stadia and Windows PC. Stadia failed spectacularly, with the cloud-based gaming console shutting down after three years.

In hindsight, Microsoft made a big oopsie; Baldur’s Gate 3 has no exclusivity tied to it, so its exclusion from the Xbox console was noticeable. In February, Larian Studios explained why Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t have a planned Xbox release at the time. Vincke said on X — then Twitter — that Baldur’s Gate 3’s split-screen co-op didn’t work on Xbox Series S, Microsoft’s lower-priced console. Microsoft requires games to have feature parity across Xbox Series X and Series S, which held up the launch. By Aug. 24, after Baldur’s Gate 3’s major successes, Microsoft made a concession to let Baldur’s Gate 3 launch without split-screen co-op on Xbox Series S.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is now expected to arrive on Xbox later this year.
 

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