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[Guilty_AI]

It's LITERALLY want Sony needs at the moment. And it's not like Sony wouldnt allow them to put the game on PC day one.

What they need, but is it what they want? Sony seems rather invested in the GAAS approach.

 

[Gorgon]

Sony never showed much interest in WRPGs. Since the PS3/360 generation, when the console/PC crossover began in earnest, that they've just been relying on third parties. That will end up biting them in ass. If by some twist of fate MS grabs Larian and CDPR it's basically game over for Sony on that front.

Gamers lose anyway, whatever MS or Sony does.

 

[mckmas8808]

What they need, but is it what they want? Sony seems rather invested in the GAAS approach.

No, you read the internet wrong. They are invested in both GAAS and BIG single player AAA games.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Sony never showed much interest in WRPGs. Since the PS3/360 generation, when the console/PC crossover began in earnest, that they've just been relying on third parties. That will end up biting them in ass. If by some twist of fate MS grabs Larian and CDPR it's basically game over for Sony on that front.

Gamers lose anyway, whatever MS or Sony does.

I agree that Sony should have had first-party studios specializing in every genre. That's like the ideal scenario.

Having said that, several Sony studios now make RPG games. Those RPGs game, however, are also action-heavy, so they are more like ARPGs, e.g., God of War, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, etc.

Also, Sony revealed to investors that they will be releasing RPG games soon. And they categorized RPG differently than "action-adventure" games. They also counted Horizon Forbidden West as an action-adventure, not an RPG (although I see it as an RPG). It means Sony has been working on at least a couple of RPG games that they will be releasing soon as PS5 exclusives.

 

[Gorgon]

I agree that Sony should have had first-party studios specializing in every genre. That's like the ideal scenario.

Having said that, several Sony studios now make RPG games. Those RPGs game, however, are also action-heavy, so they are more like ARPGs, e.g., God of War, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, etc.

Also, Sony revealed to investors that they will be releasing RPG games soon. And they categorized RPG differently than "action-adventure" games. They also counted Horizon Forbidden West as an action-adventure, not an RPG (although I see it as an RPG). It means Sony has been working on at least a couple of RPG games that they will be releasing soon as PS5 exclusives.

Unlike others, I'm not anal regarding what counts as an RPG or not. And this coming from someone who has been playing them on computer and table-top for 30 years or more. However, what I'm calling RPGs in my previous post doesn't include God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and the likes. And in that sense, Sony has nothing.

Now, I'm curious about what those supposed RPGs that Sony has revealed to the investors as being in development are. First time I heard of that, but with Sony's definition of RPGs, I'm sceptical.

 

[Red5]

Wizards of the Coasts would probably be against any exclusivity regarding Forgotten Realms games, they've always been that way. I don't think Sony sees any value in Larian since they don't make cinematic action/rpg AAA games the likes Sony is known for.

On the other hand MS did purchase Obsidian and Inxile, have published the amazing Wasteland 3....

But I'd rather Larian keeps their Indie dev status.

 

[MAtgS]

Revealing the bear sex scene might just well be the smartest marketing decision in gaming history.

 

[Buggy Loop]

573k

 

[Dynasty8]

573k

Damn impressive.

 

[geary]

 

[Red5]

I remember back in 2006, in Gamespot's console wars forums Isometric cRPG's were called relics of the past and PC games dying or dead, cinematic action games and QTE's were the future. Glad that bullshit proved to be wrong.

 

[StereoVsn]

It's not disappointing to me at all. The modern business of churning out one game after another is a terrible grind, that's how we get these cookie cutter AAA titles that all look like one another, because the creative energy has long been drained out of the developers. I would prefer he only undertake these types of games after he has had time to recharge creatively.

It is disappointing in a sense that folks were hoping for a major expansion or a sequel to take us to say Lvl 18-20.

I understand the reasoning but hope they change their mind.

 

[StereoVsn]

He didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. It was beary exciting but at same time beary nerve wrecking to see that many players looking for some full on bear action.

 

[Wildebeest]

Aim for the top BG3.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

 

[Shadowstar39]

I‘m so weak…. I want to play this on console for that lazy bed gaming experience… I don’t want to sit in front of my PC… But……

This is where I'm at. Wish they did simultaneous launch. I've been waiting over 20 years for this. I'm even trying to justify the pc purchase by saying I'll play on steam deck. I work in from t of my pc I don't want to play a game like this on it. When bg1 and 2 came out I did construction, being on the pc was fine.

I know if I buy now I will wind up double dipping as steam link streaming isn't the best.

 

[Holammer]

I haven't bought it (yet), but a friend did and he played it for 9h straight.
Said it's all he ever wanted to see in a Dragon Age game, except it's D&D based. Which is fine too.

 

[Patrick S.]

This is where I'm at. Wish they did simultaneous launch. I've been waiting over 20 years for this. I'm even trying to justify the pc purchase by saying I'll play on steam deck. I work in from t of my pc I don't want to play a game like this on it. When bg1 and 2 came out I did construction, being on the pc was fine.

I know if I buy now I will wind up double dipping as steam link streaming isn't the best.

I caved and bought it yesterday, and plugged the PC into my TV and played from my bed, with an Xbox controller.

What an awesome, awesome game. I regret nothing

 

[vkbest]

That's awesome that they are seeing great success with this game. It's not my cup of tea, but the industry needs these "niche" games to make money. We need more variety.

This is not niche game. This is AAA

 

[Little Mac]

I caved and bought it yesterday, and plugged the PC into my TV and played from my bed, with an Xbox controller.

What an awesome, awesome game. I regret nothing

How's using the controller in BG3?

 

[Patrick S.]

How's using the controller in BG3?

It’s pretty awesome! The controller interface doesn’t feel tacked on at all, it’s very much its own thing, and it’s very well designed. Feels super nice to use, much much better than for example Pillars of Eternity.

 

[MarkMe2525]

This is not niche game. This is AAA

Those terms are not mutually exclusive.

 

[balls of snow]

Feels good to see a big ass crpg flourish like this.
Take note ms, just give 100 million you would have spent to tarnished halo's legacy again to obsidian and compete with these maestros.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

I think it might pass Hogwarts. I have no dog in this fight but I don't want it to because that will piss dbag-era who are hoping it will pass Hogwarts.

Haha - I share your distaste for that lot in the same vein..... I hope it gets right up there but ultimately breaks their hearts too

That moment when your 3 year old runs out when he's supposed to be asleep at 11.30pm and yells 'boo boos and woodle!!' cause dad has his team running around nude for some reason on the lounge OLED....classic parenting

 

[Sanepar]

Wizards of the Coasts would probably be against any exclusivity regarding Forgotten Realms games, they've always been that way. I don't think Sony sees any value in Larian since they don't make cinematic action/rpg AAA games the likes Sony is known for.

On the other hand MS did purchase Obsidian and Inxile, have published the amazing Wasteland 3....

But I'd rather Larian keeps their Indie dev status.

There is nothing indie in Baldurs Gate 3.

 

[Gorgon]

I remember back in 2006, in Gamespot's console wars forums Isometric cRPG's were called relics of the past and PC games dying or dead, cinematic action games and QTE's were the future. Glad that bullshit proved to be wrong.

Truth be told, CRPGs were dead in the water and pretty much relics of the past on PC for a long time, and it was only by the middle of last decade that they enjoyed a resurgence. And it took a lot of croudfunding to get there and they never got beyond essentially niche again. BG3 is the first time since the good old days that we get a CRPG with an AAA budget. Hopefully this will spell a real resurgence of the "genre". It also has the potential, like so many other genres, to make them popular on consoles. Everybody wins and the world is a better place.

 

[Minsc]

Truth be told, CRPGs were dead in the water and pretty much relics of the past on PC for a long time, and it was only by the middle of last decade that they enjoyed a resurgence. And it took a lot of croudfunding to get there and they never got beyond essentially niche again. BG3 is the first time since the good old days that we get a CRPG with an AAA budget. Hopefully this will spell a real resurgence of the "genre". It also has the potential, like so many other genres, to make them popular on consoles. Everybody wins and the world is a better place.

I wonder if The Witcher 3 counts. I mean the first was undoubtably a cRPG, right? Unless you have some weird definition like it needs to be isometric, but that would exclude something like Gothic. I don't know if TW has really turned away from its roots in TW3 any more than BG in BG3, but maybe there's an argument that the TW3 is a console RPG and BG3 isn't even though it's releasing on consoles much like TW3?

 

[Gorgon]

I wonder if The Witcher 3 counts. I mean the first was undoubtably a cRPG, right? Unless you have some weird definition like it needs to be isometric, but that would exclude something like Gothic. I don't know if TW has really turned away from its roots in TW3 any more than BG in BG3, but maybe there's an argument that the TW3 is a console RPG and BG3 isn't even though it's releasing on consoles much like TW3?

For clarity, I was refering to games in the tradition of BG, which is what almost disappeared from videogaming. It's what is commonly refered to as CRPGs, even though I honestly think it's too flawed a term to be of any great use.

Other types of RPG design were alive and well during that period, including The Witcher series.

EDIT: About your last part: The Witcher 1 wasn't fundamentaly different from the others, and therefore I don't consider The Witcher 3 to be more a "console" RPG than the original game. The only exception was the idiotic QTEs in The Witcher 2 (but I consider QTEs to be one of the dumbest shit ever created in videogames).

 

[twilo99]

I just finished the Dungeon Crawler Carl audio books and it makes me want to play this

 

[Red5]

There is nothing indie in Baldurs Gate 3.

Larian Studios are an independent developer and publisher, they are majority owned by the founder Swen Vincke and his wife, together they own 70% of the company, 30% is owned by Tencent. This is by definition what an independent studio developing a video game independently from a major publisher is.

Truth be told, CRPGs were dead in the water and pretty much relics of the past on PC for a long time, and it was only by the middle of last decade that they enjoyed a resurgence. And it took a lot of croudfunding to get there and they never got beyond essentially niche again. BG3 is the first time since the good old days that we get a CRPG with an AAA budget. Hopefully this will spell a real resurgence of the "genre". It also has the potential, like so many other genres, to make them popular on consoles. Everybody wins and the world is a better place.

Yep, I was there for Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2 kickstarter, it proved that traditional cRPG's still had a market and video games weren't just cinematic shooters, if it weren't for people crowdfunding Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 we wouldn't even have Baldurs Gate 3 in this form anyway.

 

[Red5]

I wonder if The Witcher 3 counts. I mean the first was undoubtably a cRPG, right? Unless you have some weird definition like it needs to be isometric, but that would exclude something like Gothic. I don't know if TW has really turned away from its roots in TW3 any more than BG in BG3, but maybe there's an argument that the TW3 is a console RPG and BG3 isn't even though it's releasing on consoles much like TW3?

My opinion is that what separates cRPG from action RPGs is how stats affect the player and the world. for example in a cRPG to hit an enemy or to save from a hit or to dodge, a virtual dice roll takes place in the background to determine if there's a hit or a miss much like in tabletop, that's where all the stats come in. If anyone played Bladur's Gate, or Planescape Torment or Icewind Dale they'll remember the THAC0 stuff. Action RPG's like The Witcher or Skyrim have no dice rolls, stats affect player damage and protection but chances of hitting or saving is done directly by the player using direct movement controls.

That's how I see the distinction at least.

 

[nani17]

I say bear sex sealed the deal for most gamers

 

[Gorgon]

My opinion is that what separates cRPG from action RPGs is how stats affect the player and the world. for example in a cRPG to hit an enemy or to save from a hit or to dodge, a virtual dice roll takes place in the background to determine if there's a hit or a miss much like in tabletop, that's where all the stats come in. If anyone played Bladur's Gate, or Planescape Torment or Icewind Dale they'll remember the THAC0 stuff. Action RPG's like The Witcher or Skyrim have no dice rolls, stats affect player damage and protection but chances of hitting or saving is done directly by the player using direct movement controls.

That's how I see the distinction at least.

That's a good definition, especially if one reads CRPGs as "Classic RPGs" instead of "Computer RPGs". The reason is that "action" RPGs were never exclusive to consoles nor stat-based RPGs exclusive to PC. The difference is simply that some were made in Japan and others were made in the West, and the aesthetics were totally different. Both are old as fuck "genres".

 

[Denton]

Swen is being cute here. He saw the preorder numbers, he knew the number was gonna be much bigger.
Hell even I without inside info estimated 530K peak. And now they are at 590, with possibly more to come this evening.

Larian Studios are an independent developer and publisher, they are majority owned by the founder Swen Vincke and his wife, together they own 70% of the company, 30% is owned by Tencent. This is by definition what an independent studio developing a video game independently from a major publisher is.

The term "indie" came to mean not just independent, but also small company, some 20-30 people max, generally. I think that is how most people understand it these days.
Larian is a company with 6 studios and over 400 people, so while they are independent, I personally wouldn't call them indie either.
But this is just a matter of word definition. If someone sees indie strictly as independent, then yeah, sure, Larian is indie.

 

[Handel]

Swen is being cute here. He saw the preorder numbers, he knew the number was gonna be much bigger.
Hell even I without inside info estimated 530K peak. And now they are at 590, with possibly more to come this evening.



The term "indie" came to mean not just independent, but also small company, some 20-30 people max, generally. I think that is how most people understand it these days.
Larian is a company with 6 studios and over 400 people, so while they are independent, I personally wouldn't call them indie either.
But this is just a matter of word definition. If someone sees indie strictly as independent, then yeah, sure, Larian is indie.

Yeah this is how I tend to view indies in the modern sense, small teams/budgets rather than needing to technically be independently owned. So even bigger studios/first party studios can make indie games, such as Pentiment and Grounded from Obsidian which had small teams and budgets.

 

[Handel]

Betting on 700K+ tomorrow, other devs going to be shaking in fear at the increased expectations

 

[Gorgon]

Betting on 700K+ tomorrow, other devs going to be shaking in fear at the increased expectations

I can imagine Obsidian at this moment.

 

[Handel]

I can imagine Obsidian at this moment.

Bioware even more so

 

[rofif]

Anyone got gameplay of playing as a cheese wheel?
I am yet to be sold on the game.

Were previous games always so "cheeky and funny" ? I only played Icewind Dale2 of these classics

 

[Wildebeest]

Anyone got gameplay of playing as a cheese wheel?
I am yet to be sold on the game.

Were previous games always so "cheeky and funny" ? I only played Icewind Dale2 of these classics

Larian games have always gone for laughs, but so did the original Fallout games. Bioware always made games that were entertaining in an operatic way. Games like Icewind Dale and Pillars of Eternity are probably on the other end of the scale of being "serious business" in that someone has to kill 100 rats in the basement of this tavern, so shape up, stop kidding around and get to work.

 

[Gorgon]

Bioware even more so

I forgot Bioware still exists.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Waiting to get this on PS5 because my PC is not reliable at the moment. Started randomly shutting down, fans weren't kicking in when they needed to a few weeks ago but seems to be fine now for whatever reason.

 

[Fools idol]

my 75 year old uncle who I learned to play DnD with during the 80's and 90's has just bought a gaming PC to play this game. Will be his first game since 2000 when Baldurs gate 2 came out. He's old and has vision issues but when I showed him the trailer and some stream footage, he bolted up right in his chair and said 'bring me my fuckin wallet boy' hahahhaha

what a legend.

 

[Patrick S.]

my 75 year old uncle who I learned to play DnD with during the 80's and 90's has just bought a gaming PC to play this game. Will be his first game since 2000 when Baldurs gate 2 came out. He's old and has vision issues but when I showed him the trailer and some stream footage, he bolted up right in his chair and said 'bring me my fuckin wallet boy' hahahhaha

what a legend.

Your uncle rules!

 

[Minsc]

My opinion is that what separates cRPG from action RPGs is how stats affect the player and the world. for example in a cRPG to hit an enemy or to save from a hit or to dodge, a virtual dice roll takes place in the background to determine if there's a hit or a miss much like in tabletop, that's where all the stats come in. If anyone played Bladur's Gate, or Planescape Torment or Icewind Dale they'll remember the THAC0 stuff. Action RPG's like The Witcher or Skyrim have no dice rolls, stats affect player damage and protection but chances of hitting or saving is done directly by the player using direct movement controls.

That's how I see the distinction at least.

Yeah, that's pretty much a fair definition, more stat focused with % chances for things to happen, and very customizable. Wonder where you'd place these:

Star Wars KOTOR1/2: cRPGs?
Fallout 1/2: Definitely I'd imagine.
Fallout 4: CRPG?
XCOM 1/2: This is interesting because even though these typically are classified as SRPGs or just Strategy games, they share a numerous amount of systems as Baldur's Gate - stats that level up, % chance to hit based on the enemies evasion, etc.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Twitch numbers are impressive. Never would’ve expected that from a CRPG.

 

[X-Wing]

It's LITERALLY want Sony needs at the moment. And it's not like Sony wouldnt allow them to put the game on PC day one.

Sony just needs to keep course.

 

[Sanepar]

Sony just got what they need to go against starfield on consoles.

 

[Fools idol]

Sony just got what they need to go against starfield on consoles.

there just no way Starfield is as good as this. I will be shocked if so

 

[Sanepar]

there just no way Starfield is as good as this. I will be shocked if so

In terms of main plot all Bethesda games are dumb. Side quests and exploration is the must on their games and there is a high chance of being a bug mess. But I think will be a good game. Since ps5 can't have Starfield their players can get bg3 september 6.