Baldur's Gate 3

[O_P_T]

Anyone else playing this?

It's only on PC right now. Console versions will release in September.

I played the first two back in the day, and they were the bomb.

This is pretty amazing, although it's been awhile since I played a game based on the Advanced D&D rule set, so the learning curve is a bit steep.

You've a host of weapons/spells/movement options/companions etc. and so the difference between an easy fight and an unwinnable bloodbath can easily depend on what you chose.

If you like RPG's, I strongly recommend it.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

I loved the first two, even put a mod together for #2. Best thing I've heard about BG3: NO pay-2-win or micro transactions! I may buy it "for the LWs" just to support that model...

 

[O_P_T]

I loved the first two, even put a mod together for #2. Best thing I've heard about BG3: NO pay-2-win or micro transactions! I may buy it "for the LWs" just to support that model...

Really?

Which mod? I know I used a bunch of different ones in replays.

Also, supposedly Minsc is back! Along with Jaheira.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

Really?

Which mod? I know I used a bunch of different ones in replays.

Also, supposedly Minsc is back! Along with Jaheira.

Yeah, Minsc was taken over by a new voice actor, though. He was always voiced by the great Jim Cummings (most famously the voice of Winnie the Pooh, but was EVERYONE). They went all in and got one of the guys from Critical Role to take over.

I did base design and early versions of the improved TorGal/d'Arnise Keep for the Tactics Mod. That was such a great storyline, and it needed more challenge.

 

[O_P_T]

 

[O_P_T]

OK, I just learned an awesome tactic from a YouTube video.

Have your tank (presumably the one with the highest strength) carry three crates with them.

Then if you have time to prepare the battlefield, stack all three on top of each other. Put you best archer (presumably the rogue) on top of them. You get significant bonuses shooting a ranged weapon from above.

You can also use this trick to be able to jump to areas you otherwise couldn't reach.

 

[Undertaker #59*]

Loved them, and was ready to pull the trigger for PC when I saw the reviews, until I saw that there is couch co-op for the ps5 version and pre-ordered that instead.

Go for the eyes, boo!

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

Loved them, and was ready to pull the trigger for PC when I saw the reviews, until I saw that there is couch co-op for the ps5 version and pre-ordered that instead.

Go for the eyes, boo!

Coop for PC, too, afaik.

 

[Undertaker #59*]

Coop for PC, too, afaik.

Oh I'm sure, but I haven't kept up with PC gaming tech, never mind two PCs for the wife and I. Barely have time for games as it is. But sitting on the couch once in a while in front of the OLED to play together can be a lot of fun with the big screen and surround sound.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

Oh I'm sure, but I haven't kept up with PC gaming tech, never mind two PCs for the wife and I. Barely have time for games as it is. But sitting on the couch once in a while in front of the OLED to play together can be a lot of fun with the big screen and surround sound.

I hear you. The only PC we have that can run it is leaving with LW#1 in a week or so. She needs it for her hocus pocus chemistry stuff. We haven't needed anything with muscle in a long time.

 

[O_P_T]

Oh I'm sure, but I haven't kept up with PC gaming tech, never mind two PCs for the wife and I. Barely have time for games as it is. But sitting on the couch once in a while in front of the OLED to play together can be a lot of fun with the big screen and surround sound.

Once and a while?

BG# is fricken huge.

I'm almost 40 hours in and still am in act 1 ( of 3).

From Forbes.

Larian has always given the official length of a “normal” Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough at between 75-100 hours. That’s one playthrough, normal combat, normal exploration, fixed decision making, beginning to end.

However, there are many, many considerations here that can extend the length of Baldur’s Gate 3:

• Expansive exploration trying to find every secret piece of loot and sidequest buried around the map would dramatically increase time spent.
• Your skill at the game’s combat encounters feed into playtime, or your difficulty settings overall. A fight that takes one player ten minutes might take another two hours of attempts for another player to try to logic their way past (it’s me, I’m the other player)
• Then of course there are multiple playthroughs. There are so, so many decisions in Baldur’s Gate 3, both big and small, that affect the larger scope of the game, your character and your party members. But since the choices are not binary, and they all kind of snowball off each other, you can end up with wildly different outcomes. It’s not a Renegade/Paragon playthrough situation. So if you want to see it all (which you probably never will anyway) that’s another 75-100 hours each time.

The Baldur’s Gate 3 script is 2 million words long. For context, the first Harry Potter book was about 76,000 words long. Baldur’s Gate 3 has 174 hours of cinematics, which they note is double the length of Game of Thrones’ entire run. But of course, as said above, you are experiencing only a fraction of those in your playthrough, depending on your choices, which is why you are missing huge portions of the game with just one run.

I can easily see me playing this game multiple times, and switching up character builds, party members, choices, etc. to have essentially a whole new game each time.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

So just watching all the cutscene variations is the equivalent of watching 80 movies?

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

I just saw that there are 17,000 distinct endings, though many of those are fairly minor variations on a mugh smaller number of "main" endings.

 

[O_P_T]

OK major spoiler here. but here's the recruiting Minsc scene.

 

[O_P_T]

So just watching all the cutscene variations is the equivalent of watching 80 movies?

Yeah but the way the game is structured, as I understand it, there are multiple split points, leading to different isolated paths.

So, in any given play, you can't possibly see all those cut scenes.

 

[O_P_T]

OMFG, this game is fricken amazing.

I'm 80+ hours in and am just about to go after the big boss at the end of act 2, but still have five sub quests associated with his location.

There are so many different ways to address any given situation, it's mind boggling.

One trick I've developed is that there are various barrels of stuff you find that will go boom. I take every single one I find and send it to my camp.

So if you've got a tough battle and you can set up the battle field, position these barrels strategically and take a shot at them and nuke the bad guys.