This is not a criticism - I love how much attention this game has been getting. I’m just not understanding why BG3 has been blowing up so much. It seems like BG3 is getting more attention than all of Larian’s previous games combined (and maybe all of Obsidian’s recent crpgs as well). Traditionally crpgs have not lit the world on fire in this way. Is it just timing of the release? Is it a combo of Divinity fans and new D&D fans and Baldur’s Gate oldheads all being stoked about this release for their own reasons? Or something else?
Note:I have not played it yet myself, just curious what folks think?
It’s just a quality Western RPG, the like of which we haven’t seen since Bioware was bought.
Good products create buzz; I really think is is simply that.
That and it’s a tire-screeching exit from the abusive road we thought gaming was going down. Microtransactions, lootboxes etc. Baldur’s Gate 3 is refreshing from that perspective and, like me, I think many are amazed that it’s actually working.
I see nothing revolutionary about a have not having things like microtransactions and loot boxes. Those are mostly restricted to multiplayer games, and the industry never stopped making good single-player games without that bullshit.
My understanding is that it is a complete game with no microtransactions to shove along with it. After that I believe it is because it is really really good and not a common genre to get the spot light. Mainly the first part.
I think its based on timing with the state of the game industry being fascinated with various versions of P2W and how to squeeze more out of gamers through monetization of both ‘nice to have’ and ‘need to have.’ Larian and BG3 are a breath of fresh air when all the others are prioritizing greed over quality.
If we could just overcome our addictions and vote with our wallet, EA, Blizzard, Activision, M$, etc. would eventually learn, but we can’t, and this is the true sad part of the story.
Vote with your wallet anyway. McDonalds sells a lot of burgers but few would say they are the best.
It’s just a really good game. It’s complete, unlike the majority of things being released these days. The lack of monetization is really nice, but ultimately the fact that it’s basically an automatic dungeon master for 5e with compatibility for up to four cooperative players makes it the easiest entry point into Dungeons and Dragons in general. You can enjoy it by yourself solo and have a wild campaign that’s totally different than the group campaign you play with your friends.
I’ve always hesitated stepping into the dungeon master role because I’ve always wanted to help tell a story, but this negates the need for me to lead anything and I can bring friends with little to no experience and we have a blast. I can focus on helping people with the mechanics rather than having to focus on running the campaign.
Do you think the game has appeal for people who aren’t into DnD? I keep wanting to try it but every time someone calls it “DnD The Game” I get a bit turned off again. Might just be because I’ve had awful experiences in RL with DnD though.
See I’ve been seeing this take in the headlines, but this doesn’t seem like enough to me. Folks have been sick of microtransaction-heavy games in the same way for at least 2 years now, and most studios (outside of the ones you listed) have been releasing games that are light on microtransactions. The System Shock Remake is a good comparison point - it was a modern release in a traditionally niche PC genre, it reviewed very well, and to my knowledge it has no DLC. I guess it didn’t release on console yet, so maybe that’s a key difference?
Aside from it just being a very good game (a new game in the all-time top 10 over at Metacritic is going to be news regardless), if you’re hanging out in gaming enthusiast discussion a lot, there are a few other things going on that explain why it’s generating so much buzz.
It came out at a lull in the release calendar. August isn’t typically a hot month for gaming unless you’re an NFL fan. It also ended up being a de facto console exclusive, so once the game started blowing up, the usual console war chatter spun up with it.
The other dimension–and one that surprised me–is it fed the “developers vs. gamers” spat to the point where it’s been making headlines again. As you’ve said, one price for admission games have been coming out more, but I think there are some sour grapes around over Larian’s successful graduation from AA by way of passion projects. I invite these developers to join in celebrating this release, as the success of games like these are bound to get more of the kind of game they’d rather work on greenlit.
To be fair, System Shock remake is of incredibly niche interest. (I speak from personal experience being someone who was waiting a long time for it, heh.)
The style of this game hems closer to Dragon Age or Mass Effect in presentation, and those are much more popular game series, by far. So naturally it appeals to fans of those series, of which there are quite large fanbases.
I think that’s what I’m gathering - it’s that the increased production value has signaled to the mainstream gamer audience that “this is a Mass Effect”, and that is a powerful marketing message. The last game of that type was…Dragon Age Inquisition? So yeah, people have been starving for another one of these.
Well damn, I think we solved it. Larian basically reverse-engineered Bioware’s origin story, and this release is them fully stepping into old Bioware’s shoes.
I think what isn’t being discussed enough is how many fans of games like Dragon Age Origins this game is pulling in.
What this game does is straddles the difference between classic CRPGs like the original Baldurs Gate and modern, cinematic RPGs like Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect, whose games began to veer into very action-oriented cinematic style as opposed to classic three-quarter-overhead-view turn-based style. It also brings the cinematic aspect to romancing companions as well, something that was also pioneered in DAO and ME. Other games had ability to romance as well, but not deeply like DAO and ME made it, with their cinematic style allusion-to-sex scenes.
This game does both and so it is grabbing the attention of people who loved classic CRPGs like Baldurs Gate, Fallout and Neverwinter Nights, but it’s also grabbing the attention of more “normie(?)” players who cut their teeth on Dragon Age Origins through Inquisition.
It’s a “best of both worlds” approach that has solidified success because it appeals to the people who loved classic CRPGs as well as the people who wanted the cinematic beauty as well as ability to cinematically romance companions. It has beautiful cinematic detail as well as a fully fleshed out CRPG system and non-linear CRPG story. It’s giving players of all types what they wanted out of an RPG.
Also, excellent console controls directly help this. Old CRPGs required a mouse and keyboard, but I can play this game split-screen with my SO who only ever played the Dragon Age games and who I struggled to get into D&D previously.
My SO fucking loves this game, and she wouldn’t have ever been opened up to such a style of game without the excellent cinematic graphics alongside the top tier classic CRPG gameplay. There is no way in hell I could get her to play a strictly top-down no-cinematics classic CRPG. This game opened her up to the genre. It’s essentially the perfect modernization of a classic CRPG.
I’m a crpg fan, and a D&D/PF fan. For me, the thing that makes this game so fun is it feels like a streamlined D&D session. Sure, you can’t do as much as you would like in a D&D session, but you can do 99% of what you would typically want to do.
The other thing is the game is extremely polished. So many recent games have been underproduced, unpolished garbage with DLC/MTX shoved in and a $70 price tag. BG3 is a breath of fresh air. It’s not perfect, but the care and dedication that went into it clearly shows.
I feel what makes this game so popular is the fact that the game is just really well made. The story is great, the classes are much better balanced than 5e, and the amount of interesting solutions you can use to solve any problem is just fun. Add co-op, and the game becomes a blast to play with friends.
Considering the recent rise in trrpg popularity and fans of older titles in the franchise, Larian’s existing fans, and an early access that showed off the game as being fun and promising, I’m not surprised it ended up attracting a lot of players. If you have a large enough player base at launch, and an amazing game, I don’t think it is a surprise the game is lighting the world on fire.
It seems like BG3 is getting more attention than all of Larian’s previous games combined (and maybe all of Obsidian’s recent crpgs as well).
Legendary brand name which the game actually lives up to.
Are you aware of what a big deal Baldurs Gate series, especially 2, were when they launched back at the millennium?
It’s a perfect digitization of D&D 5th edition - it’s like having an automatic dungeon master using the rules and regulations we’ve been playing with on paper for ages.
It has a massive plot that can vary wildly on playthroughs depending on how rolls go, just like the real version.
It’s four-player co-op with PVE in an age where cooperation is increasingly rare outside of competitive team games.
It’s a well designed, properly built, finished product that can be expanded on with DLC, rather than using them to address core gameplay issues. (looking at you Paradox)
Sure, but people were really mad earlier this year because Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns D&D tried to pull some licencing related shenanigans that would have massively fucked over the community. People were boycotting the movie a couple of months ago over that. It’s interesting, that Baldurs Gate seems to not be affected by this at all.
Yeah because Twitter is not a real place. The actual D&D community spoke with their wallets and they said “we like a good, finished product without stupid terms of use” and all bought BG3. People who don’t even play D&D bought BS3 to play with folks who do play D&D.
Ss
Image of a big snake and a small snake
I honestly have no idea how that posted, so when I got your reply I was very confused.
Can you imagine what the mod scene for this game will look like in a year or so? It’s going to be amazing.
@ivanafterall @theangriestbird @canis_majoris Did they announce mod support?
https://larian.com/support/faqs/mod-information_77
We loved what our modding community did with DOS2, and we’re excited to see what they’ll do with BG3. Modding will be supported after the full release, though not exactly at launch.
I would expect some news in the coming weeks.
@dingus Can’t wait to have the first two BG remastered à la Skyblivion. Maybe.
As I see it, it’s a confluence of things which have captured the zeitgeist:
- Larian D:OS games have been very well received.
- Baldur’s Gate and the Infinity Engine games are beloved.
- Final Fantasy XVI, the big JRPG for the year, is squarely an action game and some view that as off-kilter. Baldur’s Gate 3, the big CRPG for the year, is squarely an RPG.
- D&D is a big property and new D&D games often gain a fair bit of attention.
- People seem to appreciate having no in-game purchases.
These five things, in my opinion, have pushed Baldur’s Gate 3 to the front of media outlets and, in turn, to the forefront of conversations.
No in-game store
The game isn’t shit
People are beyond bored of 95% of the absolute trash that’s being pumped out by the asinine asshole accountants. (AAA Studios)
It’s nice seeing something that isn’t even close to trash be released.
Marketing. It generally being a good game and part of a beloved series, set in a beloved franchise (D&D). WOTC has been marketing and growing the Hells out of D&D lately. The recent movie and this game are part of that.
It’s not perfect or anything, but it feels like a release with very pure intentions and people seem to resonate with that. No micro transactions, no DRM (not even Steam’s is implemented), no release day DLC, fast hotfixing, and maybe with the promise of classic expansion packs. The sort of practices that people want to encourage, packaged with a formidable and generally well put together game.
I’m being peer-pressured into playing it with friends, it’s an ok game. The quality is there, it’s full of content, though I wouldn’t say my lack of hype was misplaced - I’d still rather play some other niche games in my library.
What rubs me the wrong way is it’s GPU load even with lower graphical settings, and the hundred gigabytes of mandatory high-res textures and whatnot;
I find the UX clunky and infuriating at times, which is not ideal but acceptable for the genre.What I really respect BG3 (and Larian) for is that its overall a very solid game and it’s making the AAA industry seethe, apparently.
It’s also DRM-free, but I would definitely buy it rather than Steam-Familying it if I were into its subgenre (and if it wasn’t a GPU hog).The game is really, really good.
Genuinely, it’s just a really fucking good game and I think thats most of it.
Yeesh, I’m a “Baldurs Gate Oldhead” XD man I’m getting old.
I could just cry at the fact that BG3 is download only. If they never release it hardcopy I will never be able to play it. Being out in the boonies. Even if they could just put what they can on a disc ya know?
Been looking for a good split screen to play with my gal, and yet what I’m sure is a masterpiece is out of reach.
There’s also the Dark Alliance Oldheads, they don’t need to be quite as old as me to have played those. Just replayed Dark Alliance II with my gal and it was well worth the heavy price tag for such an old title. Unlike the new Dark Alliance garbage. Which I bought to play split screen and it is not.
Buy it on gog, head into town and download the installer to a usb stick.
It’s good.
