Baldur's Gate 3

[Mobius]

I've actually managed to make so many characters and replay Act 1 so many times I've burned myself out a bit. For some reason I wipe all my saves when I make a new character so I can't go back. Don't know why I have to do that.

Well after a fair old break I got back into this over xmas, starting an entirely new save (of course I made a Bard, again) and managed to suck myself back in, and am now in Act 3 heading towards the end game.

It truly is a fantastic game, just an insane amount of depth, dialogue, voice acting etc. So much detail, so much effort put into designing every little room. It's crazy how many times you'll think you've broken a quest or hit a dead end, then think of a new way of approaching things.

Inevitably with a game of this size and scope, it does cause some issues that can be quite immersion breaking. E.G characters talking in the present tense, about NPCs we've killed. Or doing quests in a certain order that breaks the chain of things. Unfortunately on PS5 you don't have the mods/console commands to correct stuff like on a PC.

Act 3 is a big shift to the rest of the game, going from classic RPG forests and fields to a bustling city, absolutely rammed with stuff. It's a bit overwhelming and does come with some performance issues. It's also noticeable that the further you progress in the game, banter between NPCs dies down, you get less class/race specific dialogue, and I would say there's a few more bugs and things like that. I think Act 1 was in beta for years so feels like it has had more love.

But anyway small issues aside, god I fucking love this game and can't wait for DLC or to see if other companies try and make their own PROPER RPGS

[bgmnts]

Just the 48gb upgrade for this fucking game today jesus christ.

[Mobius]

i love this game but i cannot comprehend how obsessed people are with the romance stuff, kissing other characters. apparently that's what a lot of this new patch is.

the entire reddit is just everyone saying how much they fancy astarion

[bgmnts]

i love this game but i cannot comprehend how obsessed people are with the romance stuff, kissing other characters. apparently that's what a lot of this new patch is.

the entire reddit is just everyone saying how much they fancy astarion

It is a bit pathetic, considering the sexual content was basically the same as in Mass Effect, which came out 15 years ago.

Fans of thing ruining thing is universal though.

[Mobius]

looks like the kissing patch they rushed out has bollocksed the game pretty badly and they've released 2 hotfixes in the last 48 hours and it's still basically fucked in a lot of ways. way to go guys.

[Viero_Berlotti]

I really enjoyed Act 1 and 2. I took a little break from it after getting to Act 3, but I'm struggling to get back into it now. I'm finding the city really boring, the generic fantasy setting look of it all isn't really inspiring me to explore any further. The story is feeling less focused and I feel like I'm trying to please everyone and all factions just so I don't miss anything. I've got no interest in the romance stuff, they're all like weird posh swingers or something. Pampas Grass in their front gardens and Bucks Fizz records on their stereo. Not my bag.

Spoiler alert

Also I was gutted that the dream visitor I took ages designing at the beginning and had grown attached to turned out to just be some nasty squid face bloke in disguise. Just feel like pure shit, want her back.

[close]

[druss]

Yeah I'm also struggling to find the will to complete Act 3.

Additionally, I know it's all optional but I'm glad that the first two games weren't shagging simulators and you could actually have friendly interactions without someone trying to fuck you then getting angry when you reject them.

Second game had a bit more nuance with the romance stuff too, you could actually mess up a romance if you jumped straight to fucking and weirdly not everyone was down with open relationships and swinging.

Spoiler alert

I think even an illithid tries to fuck you in Act 3? I'm not sure if this really happened or if this is some silly exaggeration I've dreamed up to prove a point but I have a feeling an illithid tried to fuck me.

[close]

[Inspector Norse]

I've only just got to the start of Act 3 after dipping in and out of the game for two months. I'm largely enjoying it but it's felt overstuffed and incoherent from the start. Yes, that makes it enjoyable from the point of view of having so many possibile ways to play it and complete it, but every time I think I'm getting a handle on who's what and where's why I suddenly meet yet another new race or bad guy and there's some other backstory or lore dump or new mechanic.
The impression I get as someone with no D&D experience or knowledge is that it draws on a fantasy world that has very much been made up as people went along, rather than anything that hangs together in a convincing or coherent way. All slighty slapdash and indiscriminate.

[letsgobrian]

The villains' plan references, somewhat obtusely, some fantasy novels from the creator of the setting back in the 80s.

They were turned into three of the worst AD&D modules ever written as a way to introduce players to AD&D 2nd edition.

Despite having suffered through those adventures and loathing the Forgotten Realms setting ever since, I thought BG3 was great.

[druss]

It is a great game but also a very flawed game. Doesn't really seem to take any inspiration from BG 1 and 2 either other than a few fan servicey and completely missing the point references. I'd rather it was just called something else and didn't have the shitty references, but it wouldn't have sold as well.

[letsgobrian]

The Dark Urge playthrough is more of a sequel to the original games. But it also feels like it was programmed as an afterthought, as there's some wobbly continuity I encountered in Act 2. It does add a lot to Act 3 though.

[Mr Vegetables]

I'm not very good at this; I died in the bumship at the start of the game because I didn't realise you could group more than one character together

[druss]

SPHINCTER

[bgmnts]

Another 47GB update for this just dropped fucking heellllll

[letsgobrian]

It was a much tinier patch on PS5.

[Lemming]

Act Three is definitely a mess. It's just too much happening all at once in a small worldspace, the main quest seems to go completely off the rails to the point where I wasn't really sure how to advance it, and worst of all, the game simultaneously presents you with "you better hurry or everyone in the Sword Coast is going to turn into a mindflayer" and "why not take your time, have a bit of fun and pal around with Minsc". Just weird, and the player character's motivation to continue with things had mostly disintegrated, leaving you feeling very much like a videogame protagonist chasing quest markers rather than an actual character existing logically in the world.

Started a new playthrough just for Minthara, who I missed out on the first time around since it was pre-patch. Amazing character, truly superb performance from the voice artist too. It does seem like the character has gained immense popularity online but I still feel like Larian shot themselves in the foot a little by arbitrarily preventing "good" players from getting her first time around, especially since the consolation prize was Halsin, who is naff.

[druss]

You can get Minthara now even if you don't want to slaughter children? That's good.

[Lemming]

It's quite awkward and feels half-implemented but if you knock her out under a specific set of conditions in the Goblin Camp, she appears later as a captive in Moonrise Towers. I'm not sure why they don't make it so that KOing her during the big battle at the grove's gate nets the same result since that's surely what most players will do (and I think a mod already accomplished it too, long before the official patch).

[letsgobrian]

The key is that she has to be "temporarily hostile" rather than outright hostile, which I'm not sure is achievable at the grove. I'm not sure how often people play that battle, I only did it during my Dark Urge run. I normally go on a rampage in goblin camp.

As you say it's partly implemented, the main problem being Halsin doesn't have a bed after she comes to the camp. But it was also causing weird dialogue problems on my last run through.

[druss]

I'll have to try it when I eventually finish my current (first full) playthrough. Couldn't bring myself to keep playing after killing all the kids at the grove even as dark urge so I binned that playthrough.

How long does it take for her to randomly ask if you want to fuck? Or do people like her because she is the only character in Act 1 that doesn't do this?

[Lemming]

Handily, recruiting her this way locks you out of the romance. Apparently it can only be initiated if you do the "evil" route through Act 1; if you knock her out in Act 1 then rescue her in Act 2 then the romance arc will never trigger afaik. So you're free to pick dialogue options like "hi minthara" without the game interpreting it as an expression of undying love as it does for the other characters.

[letsgobrian]

You can romance her, I just finished a playthrough where I did.

The evil route adds a sex scene which happens before the romance starts.

[Lemming]

Oh, interesting - I've been talking to her every camp scene because she's rapidly become my favourite character but I don't seem to have triggered anything yet despite having decent approval with her.

Cannot praise the voice actor enough, every other line is laugh-out-loud funny.

[Mobius]

Minthara is a cool character. But the workaround stuff to get her on side, and then having her and Halsin stood right next to each other in camp is jarring and feels a bit unsatisfying.

I know it's realistic, but I don't like it when you get new party members late in games. Like it's just overwhelming, you are set in your ways with your existing party and their gear and skills. Act 3 is crammed enough as it is without adding 2 new party members. Halsin is boring, and hangs about for ages before you can actually get/use him.

It just starts getting messier the further you get into the game as well, there's too many variables and outcomes that characters will reference stuff that hasn't happened yet, because you spoke to x before y or whatever. Plus the game is more laggy, fights take absolutely forever cus all 20 characters on screen have to take their move.

[druss]

Parodying myself a bit with another "Baldur's Gate 2 handled that much better" but Baldur's Gate 2 handled that much better. Act 1 is basically the prologue and then you can recruit every other character in Act 2 meaning you don't end up picking up a new character towards the end of game (unless you missed them in act 2 and then go back in act 6).

This was actually a problem in the original Baldur's Gate where you would already have your party by the time you got to the city but the game would still have you meet potential companions there which you never had a reason to recruit by that point. So they fixed this in the sequel and then managed to fuck it up again in BG3.

[druss]

Finally got around to doing the Raphael fight. I do have some problems with the third act, but this was an absolutely brilliant fight and a great ending to one of the best antagonists (if not the best) in the game. He's a bit of a pantomime/disney villain but I'm completely fine with it when it's done this well. Great song!

[letsgobrian]

The third Act works much more smoothly once you've played through the game once and have a much better idea of the lay of the land. Which is further circumstantial evidence that they moved a lot of planned content for the Upper City into the Lower City, and ended up making it too busy with boss fights.

Speaking of Upper City content, despite having platinumed it a couple of months ago, I only just discovered a whole other section of the Upper City and another boss fight that I'd never seen before.

Spoiler alert

you can break into the sewers and bypass the entire courtyard fight on route to the Absolute.

[close]

[Two Headed Sex Beast]

I like this game because I'm pretty far into Act 3, have played for a million hours, and every other time I see other people writing about the game it mentions something I've totally missed. Like a few posts up, who is Minsc? I'm looking forward to playing again with a different character and making different choices. I didn't even meet Gale and he's on the cover art.

[bgmnts]

Tried to do a Dark Urge playthrough and halfway through Act 1 realised this is a pointless waste of my already pointless life and this is one of the more overrated games of the past decade; seemingly hyped purely due on the fact you can see cock and minge and view some incredibly shit sub-Mass Effect shag scenes near the end, along with cringeworthy am-dram campy voice acting.

Re-playing Divinity Original Sin 2 and not having to roll imaginary digital dice for every single action is bliss.

[Inspector Norse]

Still not bothered finishing this but I did learn today that Astarion is voiced by Gary Newbon's son.