Baldur's Gate III News

[Nimran]

After reading discussions about some of the characters in BG3 within this forum, I decided to type my own opinions. Granted, each of my opinions comes from a limited amount of time playing with the beta before it became too big for my pc to run, but I think I still have a good idea of what the characters are about.

First off, Lae’zel is an alright character. She’s aggressive and pushy, and always tries to keep the party on track, though her preferred method for doing so is to just ignore everything and everyone else and get on with the main quest line . I wouldn’t take her if there were other options for a tank.

I love Shadowheart. I think her character is well-written, at least in the opening act. I love her secretive and distrustful nature, and the fact that if you respect her boundaries she’ll work well with you. I love that she asks you questions as much as you ask her, and that she provides insights that actually seem reasonable, rather than demented. She values subtlety and dislikes wanton destruction or pointless killing, which sounds antithetical to her status as a Shar worshipper. Speaking of which, it takes a lot of persuasiveness to get her to admit to her affiliations, and when she does she betrays a hint of disillusionment with her beliefs that seems very realistic, like she feels the same doubts that often come with religion in the real world. She’s also very useful as a cleric, which makes her my favorite of all the BG3 characters I’ve seen so far.

Astarion is… a vampire. I don’t really care for vampires much, and Astarion is no different. His personality is grating to me, if I’m honest, and I usually ended up leaving him at camp unless I really needed a hard lock picked or trap disarmed.

Gale is annoying, not because of his character, but because of his condition. If it wasn’t for that, he would be one of my favorite companions, though. He has a good sense of humor, and, like Shadowheart, prefers a diplomatic solution to a violent one.

I don’t have a lot of experience with Wyll, since I played as a warlock myself, and thus I didn’t need him, but he seems like an alright guy. You find him protecting a camp of refugees and helping to train them to defend themselves. Despite his connections, he comes across as an agreeable sort.

All in all, I’m only really impressed with one of these characters, and the others are either meh or unlikeable. I’m hoping that the good-aligned characters being added are as well done as Shadowheart. I’m not as excited for Minsc and Boo, or Jaheira, as others are, since I don’t really care for seeing old characters make a return. I’d rather just have new characters entirely, but I’m not gonna die on a hill about it.

I do wonder how deep the writers will get into the returning characters’ backgrounds, though. Part of Minsc’s charm was that he was on his dajemma at the time of the original saga, attempting to prove himself worthy to the famous Icedragon Lodge, and his epilogue ended with him being admitted into their ranks. Will the writers use that, or do they think that Minsc’s silliness is the only noteworthy aspect of him? Same with Jaheira and her Harpers questline. Will they actually give their stories the respect they deserve, or are they just using them for cheap fan service? We’ll see.

 

[mlnevese]

I wonder if someone will try to boycott it due current trouble with Wizards

 

[taylan]

Astarion is… a vampire. I don’t really care for vampires much, and Astarion is no different. His personality is grating to me, if I’m honest, and I usually ended up leaving him at camp unless I really needed a hard lock picked or trap disarmed.

You probably noticed already, but Shadowheart is quite decent at things you would typically have a rogue do. She has the Sleight of Hand skill, and although her 14 Dexterity is 3 points lower than Astarion's, this only makes a 1 point difference to the roll modifier. That being said, you would typically bring Astarion's up to 18 at the first opportunity (Level 4 I think) so the roll modifier difference becomes 2 points.

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Hi all by the way, first post. I was invited here by someone from another forum because I announced that I'm working on the following project:

Baldur's Gate 3 Wiki

Welcome to Baldur's Gate 3 Wiki! We provide an accessible, detailed, up to date wiki for Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios.

bg3.wiki

The reasons I decided to host this instead of relying on Fextralife:

• Their contribution agreement says that anything you write becomes the exclusive copyrighted property of their parent company.
• They have an annoying Twitch integration that automatically plays a video while you're using the page. It even sticks around as you scroll down.
• Although I personally don't see it because I use an ad-blocker, they also play video ads on top of that. Bit excessive if you ask me.
• I really don't like their web design, it hurts my eyes a bit every time I visit one of their pages. (I might be a bit pedantic.)

In contrast, bg3.wiki is and will always remain 100% non-profit and ad-free. Content you write remains your property, though you agree to release it under a Creative Commons license. The sole purpose of the project is to be a great resource for BG3 fans.

You can edit the wiki without an account, but it'll constantly annoy you with a CAPTCHA. Once you register, it will stop requiring a CAPTCHA after the first few edits you make.

Feedback welcome!

 

[Cahir]

I watched this nice summary of the latest BG3 news from a streamer called WolfheartFPS and I learned a couple of interesting things about the game:

• BG3 will be launched also on GeForce Now (which is good news for many players, since Stadia is dead)
• System requirements will increase since the start of Early Access, as the game grew bigger and has better graphics than at the beginning.
• Those who own the game on Steam can use their version to play also on GeForce Now.
• Those who bought the game before launch will have a free update to the Digital Deluxe Edition.

I'm quite concerned about the system requirements increase (my laptop is from 2019) and I'm worried if I could play BG3 in good quality. And... of course I bought my copy on GOG....

 

[Chronicler]

People used to work so hard to keep those hardware requirements down. Becoming something of a lost art.

 

[Cahir]

For all XBox users who are concerned BG3 will be PS5 exclusive, fear not. The reason why Larian have not announced XBox version yet is because they encountered some issues on XBox port and they are simply not ready to announce it. More details below.

 

[Antimatter]

What I really appreciate is the OST and the artbook will be included in the Digital Deluxe Edition, and Early Access players get that edition. That's a good way to say "Thank you".

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

I hadn't bought the Early Access back in the days because I didn't have a laptop that could handle it, and later I thought now I might as well wait until full release.

I'm still not sure I'll play before it's finished, and I also don't know if I'll play at release or a bit later after the first round of patches, but the thing with the Digital Deluxe upgrade including soundtrack and all that was one of the the last details that finally made me buy BG3 now instead of later.

It was more like a "to hell with it, I want to have it now" move, but I feel better for knowing I have it and can choose freely when to play it.

I'm curious if @Zaxares solved the issue with getting the Collector's Edition?

 

[mlnevese]

I personally didn't play much beyond the ship in the very beginning of the story, mostly to check as new classes were added. I don't want to play it so that I'm not sick of chapter 1 before the game is even released. I only went beyond the ship once, getting to the druid cove. When I finally play it after release, it'll basicly be a new game to me.

 

[Cahir]

I personally didn't play much beyond the ship in the very beginning of the story, mostly to check as new classes were added. I don't want to play it so that I'm not sick of chapter 1 before the game is even released. I only went beyond the ship once, getting to the druid cove. When I finally play it after release, it'll basicly be a new game to me.

Same here, but for me it was mostly to check how performance change with each new patch. Don't want to spoil to myself anything more than the starting ship.

 

[Antimatter]

"Several of romanceable" -> I would read that as if there would be more romanceable characters, which would be perfectly ok with the previous statements there would be additional companions.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

"Several of romanceable" -> I would read that as if there would be more romanceable characters, which would be perfectly ok with the previous statements there would be additional companions.

It may or may not be wishful thinking, but that's exactly what it sounds like, yes.

And speaking of wishful thinking, I still want them to include a romance for Jaheira.

 

[Zaxares]

I'm curious if @Zaxares solved the issue with getting the Collector's Edition?

I did, actually! Although the way I went about it was that I ordered from the EU website and put my brother's address (he lives in the UK) on it. Post-August, the next time he comes over for a visit he'll bring it with him. It's still not an ideal solution though, and I wish Larian had made accomodations for getting the CE to fans who didn't live in the major regions. :/ As it is, I expect a lot of us are going to have to pay through the nose for a scalper to resell it to us.

On the topic of romanceable companions, I hope there are more than the starter companions too. The only one of them whom I'm remotely interested in is Shadowheart, and the whole "Shar worshipper" thing is a major red flag for a LG Wizard like me. ;P

 

[mlnevese]

I did, actually! Although the way I went about it was that I ordered from the EU website and put my brother's address (he lives in the UK) on it. Post-August, the next time he comes over for a visit he'll bring it with him. It's still not an ideal solution though, and I wish Larian had made accomodations for getting the CE to fans who didn't live in the major regions. :/ As it is, I expect a lot of us are going to have to pay through the nose for a scalper to resell it to us.

On the topic of romanceable companions, I hope there are more than the starter companions too. The only one of them whom I'm remotely interested in is Shadowheart, and the whole "Shar worshipper" thing is a major red flag for a LG Wizard like me. ;P

Early access will only have evil companions. We have no idea who are the good companions or if there are neutral companions in chapter 1

 

[Antimatter]

Welp, Starfield will be released just 6 days after BG3. This is usually so bad for a "lesser" game. Horizon: Forbidden West was forgotten because of Elden Ring. And there are many, many other similar examples. When 2 games of the same genre release, gamers generally have money and time only for 1.

 

[Chronicler]

The Christmas Release was the disaster zone in highschool. Everybody wants the Christmas Release Date, so they can get in on the spending spree. Problem is, if everybody does the Christmas Release date, a lot gets lost in the shuffle. People only get so many videogames in their stockings.

I seem to recall there was one Christmas where it kind of reached critical mass, and some very big budget games got some very poor returns, prompting a few of the major developers to start spreading their games around the calendar a little more. The Christmas Release will always be prestiguous but you've gotta be honest with yourself about whether you've got what it takes to stand out among the competition.

 

[Antimatter]

Absolutely. And even while this is not the Christmas Release Date, releasing 2 massive games over 1 week would affect sales of both of them, but the one that will suffer the most would be the lesser game. Not lesser in terms of style or quality. Lesser in terms of marketing behind the game. Larian hardly can compete with Microsoft. Probably that's why all data analytics in Microsoft and Bethesda weren't afraid to release the game on September 6 even if they knew about Larian's release on August 31. In this case, both games are RPGs, and both games have core communities: it's the Baldur's Gate franchise, and it's a game from Bethesda, one of the titans of the RPG genre.

Larian didn't know this date would happen. They picked August 31 based on other factors, so this is a major blow to them.

Not releasing during the same "window" period your competitor uses is one of the primary rules of marketing. Check out this article:

When to release a game: Ten things to consider when choosing a video game release date

Choosing when to release your game doesn't have to follow the same pattern every year. For example, for nine months, we…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Vampire: The Masquerade didn't sell well mostly because it was released on the same day as Half-Life 2.

Reanimated: The story of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines

Every Sunday we dust off an article in our archive that you might have missed at the time or we think you'll enjoy agai…

www.eurogamer.net

From the article linked above: "Anthem, Crackdown 3, Far Cry: New Dawn and Metro Exodus all released within seven days of each other". "The most ridiculous example was when Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare all launched within 14 days of each other in 2016. It turned out to be a disappointing situation for all involved".

And we also have the most recent example, with Horizon Forbidden West. When series debut Horizon Zero Dawn released, Breath of the Wild came out mere days later. Last year, when Horizon Forbidden West came out, Elden Ring was on its heels days after.

Horizon Forbidden West: A Year Later, The PS5 Gem Feels Forgotten - Kotaku

VR game Call of the Mountain will have to hold fans over as they wait for Burning Shores DLC

kotaku.com

I'm not saying BG3 won't be successful, it will be. But it's a story about numbers, and in this case, millions of copies. Casual gamers wouldn't be ready to spend 60-70 USD on 2 games in the same month. They might not even learn about BG3 because it won't be BG3 on all the billboards and ads on the TV, across the city, etc. It will be Starfield, the main Xbox AAA game.

 

[Antimatter]

Found an interesting detail. Larian actually has historically tried to release their games in "blue ocean" times of the year when they don't face much competition. Swen gave a GDC talk where he mentioned how they were paying really close attention to Shadow of War's release date when deciding when to release D:OS 2.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Found an interesting detail. Larian actually has historically tried to release their games in "blue ocean" times of the year when they don't face much competition. Swen gave a GDC talk where he mentioned how they were paying really close attention to Shadow of War's release date when deciding when to release D:OS 2.

That makes absolute sense, so I guess it's safe to assume they wouldn't have picked that release date if Bethesda had announced theirs for Starfield first.

I know this is all idle speculation, but is it possible the Starfield release date was a calculated move in that direction?
You know, if they were released 2 or 3 months apart, people would be more likely to buy and play both of them, sales would be different, streamers and reviewers would give both of them full attention and judge them individually, in which case BG3 would be a more serious competition, also for awards and all that.
But picking such a close release date means the money and attention won't equally flow to both games and the overwhelming Microsoft advantage for advertisement etc will put Starfield at a huge advantage.
Or is that too far-fetched?

Unlike with Larian, who really need to deliver soon because they grew so fast and maybe underestimated the whole Early Access project a bit, Bethesda have been developing their game for ages and with Microsoft resources I doubt a few weeks delay would ruin their financial survival.

Anyway, now I hope even more that people at Larian will, despite the risk, move the release date a bit.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

The business of video games is utterly bizarre in this era. Despite tremendous popularity and prevalence in our culture, most companies seem to dwell in treacherous margins where unexpected variables can spell doom. And the fact that they need to use their paying customers as testers en masse - and over long time scales - is very strange, if you really think about it.