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Baldur's Gate III |OT| Three times as awesome

Esca

Member
game looks great and I'll buy it day one once it is fully released. Not a fan of sound ea personally, especially with an rpg
 
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sertopico

Member
Is there any video footage from Baldur's Gate itself? I am curious to see how the city looks like, and how big it it.
 
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Any estimated release date for the finished game? I guess late 2022 the least.
I played DOS1 for around 25 hours until we got bored, and haven't touched DOS2. Do you guys think it's worth to just wait to play BG3 and skip DOS2?
 
Any estimated release date for the finished game? I guess late 2022 the least.
I played DOS1 for around 25 hours until we got bored, and haven't touched DOS2. Do you guys think it's worth to just wait to play BG3 and skip DOS2?

I would estimate late 2021. Unclear but some things to keep in mind: If you got bored of DOS1, DOS2 and BG3 will both be very similar. But if you still wanna try them anyway, it's best to do DOS2 1st since it's a full fleshed out epic game with bugs addressed and tons of content.
 

Raphael

Member
I would estimate late 2021. Unclear but some things to keep in mind: If you got bored of DOS1, DOS2 and BG3 will both be very similar. But if you still wanna try them anyway, it's best to do DOS2 1st since it's a full fleshed out epic game with bugs addressed and tons of content.
Is it really so far away? Damn.
Personally not a fan of the DOS reskin, but as a fan of BG i Will give it a shot with as open mind as i Will be able to provide.
 
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I would estimate late 2021. Unclear but some things to keep in mind: If you got bored of DOS1, DOS2 and BG3 will both be very similar. But if you still wanna try them anyway, it's best to do DOS2 1st since it's a full fleshed out epic game with bugs addressed and tons of content.
I feel like if I play DOS2, there won't be any reason for me to play BG3. and looking Larian has improved in the second game, it's probable to say BG3 will be an improvement over DOS2. I'm not into those grand crpgs that take up a hundred hours or more, so I would like to play just one.
DOS1 was fun and such, but I can't recall why we dropped it in the end.
 

Sentenza

Member
Is there any video footage from Baldur's Gate itself? I am curious to see how the city looks like, and how big it it.
No, there isn't, and I think that's on purpose because they want the moment you'll reach the city for the first time to be a big, solemn one.
I'm going to guess it won't be in the Early Access either. Or, at best, you reaching the city will be precisely where both Act 1 and the EA build will end.
 

Sentenza

Member
Is it really so far away? Damn.
Personally not a fan of the DOS reskin, but as a fan of BG i Will give it a shot with as open mind as i Will be able to provide.
Calling it a "reskin" sounds fairly ungenerous.
Also, I'm definitely a fan of the idea, because basically everything I didn't like about both the Original Sin games is almost implicitly addressed by the game being based on D&D instead of relying on the shaky ruleset Larian put together for these games.
 
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GHG

Member
I feel like if I play DOS2, there won't be any reason for me to play BG3. and looking Larian has improved in the second game, it's probable to say BG3 will be an improvement over DOS2. I'm not into those grand crpgs that take up a hundred hours or more, so I would like to play just one.
DOS1 was fun and such, but I can't recall why we dropped it in the end.

DOS and BG are completely separate universes and the rulesets for combat are different.

Just because they might look similar on the surface it doesn't mean they are the same.
 

GreyHorace

Member
Is there any video footage from Baldur's Gate itself? I am curious to see how the city looks like, and how big it it.
No, there isn't, and I think that's on purpose because they want the moment you'll reach the city for the first time to be a big, solemn one.
I'm going to guess it won't be in the Early Access either. Or, at best, you reaching the city will be precisely where both Act 1 and the EA build will end.

Question is whether we'll go to the city itself. Baldur's Gate the city was only in the first game. The second game took place in Athkatla and other cities in the South of Faerun.

The title Baldur's Gate is just for the series as a whole. The city itself is not required to appear in this new game.
 

Sentenza

Member
Question is whether we'll go to the city itself. Baldur's Gate the city was only in the first game. The second game took place in Athkatla
We will. That's confirmed and they already talked about their effort to build the city in a modern engine in a couple of circumstances.
 
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GreyHorace

Member
We will. That's confirmed and they already talked about their effort to build the city in a modern engine in a couple of circumstances.

Well that's nice to hear. And I hope it's easier to navigate than it was in the first game. At least with Athkatla Bioware made an effort to design the city to be easier to explore.
 

Ivory Blood

Member
I'm ready to buy it on steam for myself and my friend. Hype only got stronger after their character creation video - seeing how they have actual beautiful women in the game, a rarity in these dark times.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
I'm ready to buy it on steam for myself and my friend. Hype only got stronger after their character creation video - seeing how they have actual beautiful women in the game, a rarity in these dark times.

It's on GOG too - personally I try to have as much of my PC library there as I can.
 
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Sentenza

Member
Unless I missed something I'm fairly sure the early access build is supposed to come just on Steam, right now.
 

Ivory Blood

Member
It's on GOG too - personally I try to have as much of my PC library there as I can.
I'm all for GOG and their model of distribution, but Steam is my "official" PC platform, so the majority of my games are there.

For example while CDPR certainly deserve all my money for Cyberpunk, the game is pre-ordered through Steam, so the same goes for Baldur's Gate.

Unless I missed something I'm fairly sure the early access build is supposed to come just on Steam, right now.

They said it will be on GOG too.

 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
I'm all for GOG and their model of distribution, but Steam is my "official" PC platform, so the majority of my games are there.

For example while CDPR certainly deserve all my money for Cyberpunk, the game is pre-ordered through Steam, so the same goes for Baldur's Gate.



They said it will be on GOG too.


Fair enough - I just prefer having the option to download an offline installer and use it whenever I like, but I'm one of those weirdos who cares about that kind of thing.
 

Sentenza

Member
Fair enough - I just prefer having the option to download an offline installer and use it whenever I like, but I'm one of those weirdos who cares about that kind of thing.
It's not exactly a "weird" thing to care about. it's just trivial.
Even in a scenario where both services would go out of business (which is VERY unlikely, especially for Valve's one) a pirated Steam version of the game is every bit as easy to download, install and use without the client as a GoG version.
Not to mention even without "cracking" a lot of games on Steam can actually already run natively without launching the client.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
It's not exactly a "weird" thing to care about. it's just trivial.
Even in a scenario where both services would go out of business (which is VERY unlikely, especially for Valve's one) a pirated Steam version of the game is every bit as easy to download, install and use without the client as a GoG version.
Not to mention even without "cracking" a lot of games on Steam can actually already run natively without launching the client.

The installer is a lot easier to work with though from an archival standpoint - for software preservation that matters. I'm aware that much of the preservation of older software is down to piracy - most of the Atari ST game roms I run are old Automation/Pompey Pirates/etc disks - but it would be nice to do it without resorting to that. Plus I like to reward the choice to put things on a DRM-free platform, just as I choose not to reward putting things on a platform that moneyhats releases (EGS) for instance.
 
I feel like if I play DOS2, there won't be any reason for me to play BG3. and looking Larian has improved in the second game, it's probable to say BG3 will be an improvement over DOS2. I'm not into those grand crpgs that take up a hundred hours or more, so I would like to play just one.
DOS1 was fun and such, but I can't recall why we dropped it in the end.

If you don't want it to be too insanely long then maybe early access BG3 is the right call. The "demo" of the DOS2 that people played was a very large island area but only like a 5th of the grand scale of the final product.
 

DJT123

Member
Larian have many resources at their disposal to do BG 2 justice. All I hope for is that they strike the right balance with their writing, and that the breadth of their characterization doesn't end up undercooked compared to Baldurs Gate 2's wonderful cast.

We'll have to find out how the women they write compare to Jaheira or Viconia, for instance, or if they can even write a recruitable character who says the things Korgan Bloodaxe does.

They have the likes of Kevin Van Ord in their writing team, an open partisan, so I have worries about these things.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Larian have many resources at their disposal to do BG 2 justice. All I hope for is that they strike the right balance with their writing, and that the breadth of their characterization doesn't end up undercooked compared to Baldurs Gate 2's wonderful cast. We'll have to find out how the women they write compare to Jaheira or Viconia, for instance.

They have the likes of Kevin Van Ord in their writing team, an open partisan, so I have worries about these things.
With that in mind I'll await people's feedback on these issues.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
You're going through Bg1 right now, right. Enjoying, and have you played 2 yet?

I'm not an enormous distance through BG1, still finding my feet, but yeah so far it's fun. Characters are cool - not neutered like so much modern gaming. BG2 is on the menu but I figure I should do this in order.
 

DJT123

Member
I'm not an enormous distance through BG1, still finding my feet, but yeah so far it's fun. Characters are cool - not neutered like so much modern gaming. BG2 is on the menu but I figure I should do this in order.
You're in for a treat. Bg1's more straightforward dungeon/wilderness crawling, finding your way at dangerously low-levels where even a plain bow is a mortal threat. It's a bit sparser than the sequel but may be very rewarding if you manage to beat it & import your character into the next game.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
You're in for a treat. Bg1's more straightforward dungeon/wilderness crawling, finding your way at dangerously low-levels where even a plain bow is a mortal threat. It's a bit sparser than the sequel but may be very rewarding if you manage to beat it & import your character into the next game.

I'll be honest - I'm being a pussy and playing on easy. Even then it's handed my arse to me a few times - such as arriving in a town and being asked to help a woman deal with some assailants - it turned out she was evil so I bailed on that and the fight was brutal - my party just wasn't equipped for that, and got annihilated. So for the time being I'm having to choose my fights wisely. In a way that's reminiscent of Kingdom Come Deliverance where you start out weak and have to take a lot of shit before becoming stronger and thus able to deal some justice.
 
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Sentenza

Member
Larian have many resources at their disposal to do BG 2 justice. All I hope for is that they strike the right balance with their writing, and that the breadth of their characterization doesn't end up undercooked compared to Baldurs Gate 2's wonderful cast.

We'll have to find out how the women they write compare to Jaheira or Viconia, for instance, or if they can even write a recruitable character who says the things Korgan Bloodaxe does.

They have the likes of Kevin Van Ord in their writing team, an open partisan, so I have worries about these things.
I'm a massive fans of the previous Baldur's Gate games. The second especially. I think I must have played the full thing from start to finish at least seven times over the years, and that's with the Throne of Bhaal expansion included (which unlike I lot of people I actually enjoyed a lot, no matter how absurdely powerful any part involved got).
This premise just to say that I'm actually not that much in love with the writing of the series, that I find mostly serviceable, but absolutely nothing to write home about.
Games like Planescape Torment, Fallout 2 or Vampires: Bloodlines leave it in the dust when it comes to writing, while games like Temple of Elemental Evil or Knights of the Chalice beat it when it comes to offering the best implementation of the D&D combat system in a game.
And don't get me started about environmental interactions. Games like Arcanum, both the Original Sin or the old Ultima games absolutely destroy it in that sense.

As I said just a couple of days ago in another BG3 thread, what made BG2 genuinely special is how goddamn meaty the whole package was and the relative lack of any genuine weak point, not really being superlative on a single aspect (except maybe Itemization. I'm not sure if the world has ever seen a game with a more satisfying distribution of powerful loot since Shadow of Amn released).

In short, I'm far more worried about how BG3 will play in the moment-to-moment gameplay and if it will be able to reproduce that same sense of being lost in a massive, epic adventure across an entire region, that I am about "matching the great characters and storytelling of the previous games".
 
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DJT123

Member
I'll be honest - I'm being a pussy and playing on easy. Even then it's handed my arse to me a few times - such as arriving in a town and being asked to help a woman deal with some assailants - it turned out she was evil so I bailed on that and the fight was brutal - my party just wasn't equipped for that, and got annihilated. So for the time being I'm having to choose my fights wisely. In a way that's reminiscent of Kingdom Come Deliverance where you start out weak and have to take a lot of shit before becoming stronger and thus able to deal some justice.
I like the way you're approaching it. Just get to grips with gearing up your party, potions, different scrolls, positioning, spells for specific encounters & all the other small details to think about. You'll be amply rewarded with this series & hell, future cRPG's in general.

I'm a massive fans of the previous Baldur's Gate games. The second especially. I think I must have played the full thing from start to finish at least seven times over the years, and that's with the Throne of Bhaal expansion included (which unlike I lot of people I actually enjoyed a lot, no matter how absurdely powerful any part involved got).
This premise just to say that I'm actually not that much in love with the writing of the series, that I find mostly serviceable, but absolutely nothing to write home about.
Games like Planescape Torment, Fallout 2 or Vampires: Bloodlines leave it in the dust when it comes to writing, while games like Temple of Elemental Evil or Knights of the Chalice beat it when it comes to offering the best implementation of the D&D combat system in a game.
And don't get me started about environmental interactions. Games like Arcanum, both the Original Sin or the old Ultima games absolutely destroy it in that sense.

As I said just a couple of days ago in another BG3 thread, what made BG2 genuinely special is how goddamn meaty the whole package was and the relative lack of any genuine weak point, not really being superlative on a single aspect (except maybe Itemization. I'm not sure if the world has ever seen a game with a more satisfying distribution of powerful loot since Shadow of Amn released).

In short, I'm far more worried about how BG3 will play in the moment-to-moment gameplay and if it will be able to reproduce that same sense of being lost in a massive, epic adventure across an entire region, that I am about "matching the great characters and storytelling of the previous games".

I see what you mean. It's more about the work as a whole rather than a distinctive narrative with the BG series, but Larian would still do well to match BG 2's characterization & consistency. If they're going to miss anywhere it will be there, imo.

As a lukewarm Larian fan I personally have less concerns about the gameplay. I enjoyed DOS2 well enough on that front. It felt, looked & played like any epic adventure I look for. It was just not one I wanted any part of, lol, and that's where my concerns come in.
 
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If you don't want it to be too insanely long then maybe early access BG3 is the right call. The "demo" of the DOS2 that people played was a very large island area but only like a 5th of the grand scale of the final product.
That would mean buying the full game already :p I'll watch some videos when the early access comes out tomorrow.

DOS and BG are completely separate universes and the rulesets for combat are different.

Just because they might look similar on the surface it doesn't mean they are the same.
I don't know how to put it but, I honestly don't care about universes or rulesets, I just want the more fleshed out game. But yeah, maybe in BG3 the combat is so differently made that it changes entirely how you play the game (I liked DOS1 turns style). I'll wait and see what comes out tomorrow, I'm in absolutely no rush of playing any of these games atm (I'm not fond of spending 100h waiting turns and reading text)
 

Ivory Blood

Member
Quality of character models is fucking insane. This leaves no doubt BG3 is AAA.

QXkzQ1An1SU.jpg


TEy2RN2KueU.jpg
 

Isa

Member
I'm in for the EA. Finally a western rpg that has decent artistic design. I normally don't play bigger games on my pc, but this is an exception to be sure. I like the devs, and this really does seem like a big step up for them, hope it does well which I'm sure it will. Its funny how the big rpg houses have changed over the decades. Never thought I'd see Larian out doing Bioware at their own game, as well as how far CD Projekt Red have come. I'm a console pleb at heart and will definitely double dip the cc chip for these guys.
 

Ivory Blood

Member
Apparently the present build is 80 gigabytes.


Also, I‘m surprised that this game isn’t generating much more of a buzz. A generational thing, maybe?
It does in certain places (Codex, daily threads on /v/, /vg/ and /vrpg/, reddit, etc.), just not on GAF. Youtube views for their trailers and info ain't too bad either. It's riding on the success of DOS2 and Critical Role D&D popularity, all those 2 million people who bought and praised previous game by Larian are very likely to buy BG when it actually comes out in 2021.
 

Sentenza

Member
Quality of character models is fucking insane. This leaves no doubt BG3 is AAA.

QXkzQ1An1SU.jpg


TEy2RN2KueU.jpg
Yeah, it's looking better and better every time they are showing it.
I'm honestly impressed by these models.
Minor nitpicking aside I already though D:OS 2 was a very good looking title, but this is blowing it out of the water.
 
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