Baldur's Gate 3 Omnibus Thread

[RIPPA]

Larian posted on social media that the XBOX release date will be revealed at the Video Game Awards and that they are "still on track' for a December release

Since the Video Game Awards are on Dec 7 - it means the leaked date is wrong (not to say Larian couldn't be all "It will be released.... RIGHT NOW!"

[RIPPA]

 

[J.T.]

Normally I hate on DE add-ons but that map of the Sword Coast probably rules and is worthy of framing and wall mounting in my den of geek. 

I might consider spending the $80 I have in M$ on the DE.

Edited November 16, 2023 by J.T.

[Casey]

That means you’ll just have to pay for the $20 shipping! The Mind Flayer poster is dope as all hell.

I wonder if this is safe to order for the Series X. I know the S version was the one holding it up for Xbox, but you never know. I’d hope performance on the X would be as good as PS5 at least.

[SirFozzie]

I'm waiting for the mod tools (something which all you PS5/XS folks will miss out on).

 

So many new classes, feats, extensions already out there (at least 10% of them, safe for work)

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by SirFozzie

[NikoBaltimore]

So with the game officially being on Series X I think I will likely get it on there.  I was itching to get it on Steam but held off for two reasons.  One, I didn't have enough storage though that's since been corrected and two I don't typically do D&D.  Never got into it for whatever reason.  But my wife loves that style and instead of trying to go at this alone it might be best for her and I to team up and have a go at it on the X.  I will take a cue from Craig in that as much as I'd love to load from a save if things go south I'll instead let it ride and see where it takes me.

[RIPPA]

On 11/16/2023 at 8:53 AM, RIPPA said:

Since the Video Game Awards are on Dec 7 - it means the leaked date is wrong (not to say Larian couldn't be all "It will be released.... RIGHT NOW!"

I Fucking called it!!!

[J.T.]

23 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

I Fucking called it!!!

Yep.  It's available on MS Store right now.

Well, I know what I'm doing when I get home from night duty.

Edited December 8, 2023 by J.T.

[SirFozzie]

Larian said "You know, our big old Scrooge McDuck Money Bin is only 75% full now.. let's release the XBox version and just top it off again..."

 

(and yeah, with the amount of people who are going to rebuy it or Xboxers who have been waiting patiently, they're going to be full up once again)

[RIPPA]

Only downside to the immediate drop is I still have to wait for Xmas since I basically have been told it is one of my gifts

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Only downside to the immediate drop is I still have to wait for Xmas since I basically have been told it is one of my gifts

I have no such restrictions.  I'll just be getting more M$ gift cards to replenish my supply of Microbucks.

[J.T.]

Well, my 1TB drive space will be decreased by 140 gigs very soon.  i may as well get lunch, go back to bed, and act like I have to be at work by 10PM tonight.

Aaand buying the game with M$ bucks just earned me 1399 M$ Points and some of my total points can be redeemed for a $25 M$ gift card!

THE CYCLE CONTINUES~!

Edited December 8, 2023 by J.T.

[SirFozzie]

In semi-related news: Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader is out on Console and PC. I have it on PC (for toybox/mod capabilities) and I really like it. Cohhcarnage already has 35 parts (17.5 hours) of game play streamed and up on his youyube.

[Death From Above]

Cohh is a nice guy but I'm going to wait for an opinion not formed by a guy that has directly worked as a paid shill for the studio at every given opportunity, personally.

[J.T.]

Well, this game sure does look like Game of the Year.  The Character Creator HUD looks gorgeous on X/S and my 4KHD television.

I will probably end up playing as a Rogue since the only other Rogue that is a permanent companion is the vampire asshole and I will probably end up putting a stake in his ass sooner than later.

Edited December 9, 2023 by J.T.

[Death From Above]

On 11/16/2023 at 10:40 AM, RIPPA said:

 

Even though I haven't played this game I keep thinking about this because from most publishers this would somehow be like $300

[RIPPA]

 

[RIPPA]

My wife just got me the Deluxe edition so if anyone needs me I will be living in this thread from the moment I step back into VA

[RIPPA]

I haven't been this overwhelmed by a game in awhile

Y'all didn't warn me how much time I was going to lose over selecting the correct dick for my character

[Contentious C]

Well, I'm betting one of the biggest reasons Steam doesn't have a lot of refunds on Baldur's Gate is that it takes you more than 2 hours to do just about anything.  If it had a Sandwich Tutorial, it would take you 85 minutes thanks to scrolling on condiments.

I've barely made it anywhere and like it so far, but it's...good, not great?  Maybe I'm just hitting a wall on having consumed a lot of D&D-based content in a short time, or maybe I just feel like 20% off wasn't enough of a discount.  Something like that.  But they patched one of the loopholes I heard about that I was really interested in exploiting, especially since exploiting it seems 100% in keeping with the spirit of the quest, so I'm bummed about having to do that one way or the other.

[RIPPA]

Those of you who watch Eurogamer will be familiar with Aoife

[AxB]

Aoife is also in Natural Six (the D&D actual play that started a couple of months ago).

[Contentious C]

I have a lot of thoughts about the game, but it's tricky to put them all together without them sounding like out-and-out complaints about half the time.  There are things that drive me fucking nuts, like the autosave system; I had a stretch early on in Waukeen's Rest where I was trying to open the flaming door for the Trapped Man quest, and a goddamned idiot Flaming Fist walked in front of me, TWICE.  First time it cost about an hour of time; when I reached that point again, I at least had the sense to quicksave before the second friendly-fire incident (although, fuck the Fists, all things considered, they aren't friendly anyway). 

I'm also not the least bit above modding the everliving shit out of this to get what I want.  I'm on a Tactician playthrough now with eyes on what Honor Mode will be like, and I think I might just cheese that run all the way with one of those "Feats every level" mods.  It's going to be the one and only time I ever do Honor, so may as well make it quicker.

Biggest thing that I still haven't adjusted to is the weird art style, and this goes for visuals as well as music.  They just seem...weak in both departments.  They put a lot more effort into cutscenes, and the rest of the stuff looks, frankly, like Path of Exile, which is 10 years old at this point.  And the music is no great shakes.  It feels like almost every track is a riff or motif off the main overworld music, and after a while, it's incredibly boring to listen to.  In both cases, for a 2023 game, they feel like missteps.

I'm not sure I care for the main questline much, either.  I think the BBEGs are mostly whiny losers or try-hards, and the big 'twist' is something you can see a mile away.  And I hit the eject button on my Dark Urge playthrough after I saw the endings on a GDQ run and realized it corrals you into being a puppet.  I don't know if or how many achievements I have gated behind that still, but I may have to trudge through it just to finish those, piss myself exactly one time in total, and then never do it again.

On the plus side, this is easily the most Morrowind-like game since Morrowind.  Not much holding your hand, pretty easy to wander into some crazy shit that's way over your head, the world wants to fucking kill you yesterday, but it feels like your-bad if you do that, rather than punishing you for a lack of caution.  I wish it felt like it had a little more moral ambiguity to it, but the follower situation plays out a lot like Fallout 4 where you can bin everyone into good or evil and they're just going to nudge you to whatever path they like.  And that comes without the combat jank of Morrowind or the difficulty for difficulty's sake of The FromSoft Game. 

But I don't think it helps that the last 3 games I completed prior to this were Elden Ring, Skyrim, and Witcher 3.  This is more replayable than the first, but not the latter two.  There's a part of me that appreciates the way the story is written, but it feels a little too on-rails in spots, instead of feeling like you really have a reason to truly explore for exploration's sake, which all those other games excel at, perhaps to the fault of "finish the tutorial and fuck right off for 20 hours" in each instance.  And that's very much another Path of Exile comparison where I think BG3 shows its seams, by feeling like it's rushing you from point to point, even if it has a narrative reason.  You still end up completing basically all of the same objectives; it's just a matter of order, and the "optional" stuff isn't really optional once you realize what kind of gear and leveling is waiting behind those skippable choices.

I don't know.  Very, very good, but also a very, very mixed bag.  Half the fun in the game, for me at least, comes from trying out really broken class/multiclass choices and finding nooks I failed to spot on the first 5 or 6 attempts to get started.

[Contentious C]

I don't know what it says about me or the game, but the most fun I've had so far was ripping off the bank for everything possible (having a flying Astarion certainly helps).