Baldur's Gate 3 - Showing the Industry How It's Done

As the name suggests Baldur's Gate 3 is the third in the legendary Baldur's Gate isometric computer RPG series , but it's the first in the series to be developed by Larian Studios , the studio who developed Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2 , I liked Divinity: Original Sin 1 but loved Original Sin 2.

Baldur's Gate 3 released a couple of weeks ago at £49,99 instead of the £59,99 we see from other games these days , there is just one edition and it has no intrusive DRM , from reports I've seen the game is a masterpiece , it has a score of 97% on Metercritic and an overwhelmingly positive score on Steam with 96% of players giving a positive rating , if Starfield wasn't due in 3 weeks I'd be playing Baldur's Gate 3 right now but I can't to get both so am waiting for Starfield reviews before I jump , but at some point in the near future I will own both.
steamdb.info...

Larian Studios have a love for the genre which shines brightly in their games , they also have a respect for their customers and that is something sadly lacking in the modern games industry , according to Steamdb there are currently 610,547 people playing the game today on Steam which I think is incredible for an isometric RPG , Larian are showing the industry how it's done by producing a quality title at a reasonable price as the rest continue to push out low effort cut and paste games at a premium price to a thoroughly bored player base.

Anybody playing ?

a reply to: gortex

It's an amazing game and how products should be released. Too many greedy studios release unfinished games these days, chasing early profits. There is even backlash from the gaming industry saying this BG3 game should not be the standard, it is too hard to release a finished polished game this way... we're incompetent and this makes us all look bad, blah, blah, blah...

If I buy clothing I want it finished all the way, if I buy a meal I want it cooked all the way, if I buy a bicycle I want it to come with all the parts it needs, and if I buy a game I want a finished product, not a beta test. Or in some cases, an alpha.

Given that we now see how the gaming industry views us and that they don't wish to get any better, making Larian an enemy for being good, I think we need to all push for more regulation of the gaming industry. Quality of releases, finishing products all the way, micro transactions, in game gambling... we need a gaming senator who gets it.

Anyways, I early tested BG3 about a year ago, played through the first act a few times, I'm not out of it yet now on release, doing everything I know I need to do slowly. It's a great game from a great studio. I'd recommend getting it when an opportunity pops up.

a reply to: Mahogany

Thanks for the post

Yeah I've seen the reaction from the industry and it is quite pathetic , rather than seeing Baldur's Gate as something to learn from they shy away and admit they can't even begin to follow the example set by Larian.

Playing it right now. It's pretty good and very polished.

Sounds awesome.

I picked up the bards tale trilogy on Xbox for 3$ and working through it now.

I’ll have to get this at some point.

Never could get through balders gate 2.

Don’t like the games that have that look down on your characters perspective for some weird reason.

Prefer Skyrim, dark souls, etc first person style.

I'm a fan of the first person genre as well; The Far Cry series is good.

Baulders Gate reminds me of Final Fantasy it(BG) might just be a skin over it... It's annoying to be playing a game and realize it is another title skinned over on the bright-side once immediately recognizing it the mental map over lays beyond the skin and you can't get lost.

Moving away from the Unreal engine as the base would likely prevent that skinning/reusing an old game as the entire platform as it just redresses the sprites re textures the level and buildings re-dialogues another title... meaning laziness and loads of profit. I've come across at least eight titles in the past five years that have done that.

a reply to: Crowfoot

Baldor's isn't a reskin of anything which is why it is so popular , it uses the Divinity engine not Unreal.

Far cry is the same game year on year ... FC 6 is a reskined version of FC 5 ,which is why it has become boring.

a reply to: gortex
Glad to hear the industry is using other engines

Far cry isn't glitchy at all despite all the action that can occur on screen at once... I haven't ever lost anything from loads etc. which many games cut scene to avoid the loads sure it has them but its to tell more of the story not preload to avoid glitches.

I'm honestly not a fan of the turn based sort sure it's kinda like Wizardry in that respect which is an early game that helped pioneer the adventure questing games out of text and into 3d maze/maps with Ultima being the gold standard of them pre hard drive. Baulders is old as a name in gaming but only up to 3.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons has been quietly plugging away and churning out games the entire time... Having taken the brunt of the religious sector trying to ban and censor for the entire field.

TSR Aunt Mae still has only 1 hp and feeble.

I tried playing it. For some reason I just can't get into micromanaging my whole party. I loved the Neverwinter Nights games and I'm still playing Skyrim. Hopefully ES6 releases soon...

a reply to: RomaSempre

The general opinion based on what Todd Howard has said is Elder Scrolls 6 might launch in 2025 but more likely 2026 although Phil Spencer recons 2028 , so somewhere between those dates.

There are 2 game companies who do isometric RPGs perfectly .
inXile (formerly known as Interplay) and Larian Studios.
And they continue to prove it .

I will pick it up after i am done with Starfield but i hear good things about it.

a reply to: TheGreazel

I will pick it up after i am done with Starfield

5 Days and counting.

a reply to: gortex

To qoute the Dread Pirate Roberts, " I have never seen it's equal". There is a reason other developers were "cautioning" gamers that BG3 isn't the new standard...

Because they can't reach it.

a reply to: gortex

I have played both BG 1 &2 and liked both. The stories were good, characters and character creation were alright and the D&D rules were what sold me on both. Good Games.

I just got BG 3 today. I paid 59.99 on Steam for it.
Originally, I wasn't going to buy it until it's price dropped, but after a couple of my co-workers got it and said it was great (one of which does not like RPGs) I had to get it.

I just played the first two hours of it.
My thoughts so far?

HOLY CRAP!!

Beautiful graphics!

The beginning story was AWESOME! The mind flayer was VERY well done. The voice acting is spot on and fits the characters. Narration is good,way better than expected and the character creation ...well... My character is a hot redheaded female fighter with a sword and she looks GOOD. It took me a little while to get used to the camera controls, still learning, just 2 hours into the game though.

The battle system seems true to the BG series so far which is good and bad. It does take a little getting used to.
I had to stop playing after I crash landed where-ever I did cause of the eye strain from trying to read on a tiny laptop screen was bugging me. Time to hook it up to the big screen TV and replay the beginning...cause it was that good.

I am very impressed with this game so far.

It seems very polished. About time someone did it right.

I was playing Divinity 2 for a bit but quit. I do not like the topdown view and the way the game (and party) plays in general. I was considering checking out BG but if I didn't like Divinity, it would be a waste of money. Never been a big fan of the Diablo games either