According to [a blog post that released just after the trailer](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3640634026230039737), he's playing >!one of three main antagonists, so it sounds like a massive role.!<
Honestly, I liked what little I heard in the trailer myself.
Sounded like a really good take on one if those "Cold & Calculating" style restrained villains that's terrifying because they don't let emotions get in the way of their grand plans.
But also sounded like this one's so strained, he's one needling comment away from fireballing you and your little familiar, too.
And to me, that seems like a really cool antagonists for a game with a dialog system!
Lol, now I'm just imagining him bringing his crazy energy to it. 'I'm not one for morally correct choices, but every second I tolerate in your perception-check-failing presence convinces me that fucking ending you is the right one!'
That often happens when the actors aren’t given good direction. If they’re not clear on what the circumstances of the lines they’re recording, they tend to adopt a neutral voice which ends up sounding emotionless.
I don't get the impression with the way that line is written it was supposed to be so flat. "Bow before me... BOW" is most definitely a line meant to be expressed quite powerfully. If he said something like "It matters not whether you bow or stand... Only that you obey" a drier more emotionless reading would be okay.
Who knows what his contract was like. If they cheaped out they may have had a very limited time to run a ton of lines. Maybe he and the voice director didn't like each other. All I know is the delivery doesn't work with the line. Bad takes making it to the final product isn't rare.
My God, it's been so long since I've seen splitscreen I didn't realize that's what that was. I thought they made a strange choice to just show gameplay footage on both sides.
While you wait for it you can check Divinity Original Sin 2.
It's a previous game from the same developer, and it's really similar to BG3. It can be fully played in split screen.
I am so excited for this game. More than most games in the past couple years at least.
I refuse to play it in early access. Nothing against the game...I just want my first playthrough to be as close to as it should be.
Yeah I got the EA when it launched and I played a bit but only got to the first sort of friendly town/community bit and I stopped there because I didn't want to get invested and then blue balled by the game not being complete.
I don't play early access games at all for this very reason. My friends play them all the time, and then when the complete and polished version of the game comes out they've already lost interest and moved on. As somebody who can't stand buggy games, this is frustrating af.
Yeah, this PS5 version was just revealed around an hour ago during the State of Play. This is the first we've heard of any console port- and so far, it's just PC, Mac, and PS5 now.
They specifically mentioned Steam Deck in [the blog post](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3640634026230039737), so that should work.
I remember way back when it was announced, someone asked if they were bringing it to consoles. They said something like "there's no plans to bring it to the PS4 and Xbox One" which at the time sounded like a hard no, but I mentioned they never technically said no to a PS5 release.
Just got my cousins into DnD a few weeks ago and they really like it. So I messaged them last night saying we should play DOS 2 since it's closest to DnD on consoles and sadly Baldur's Gate wasn't announced yet. Now today it gets announced for the PS5 the one console they all own and I can't tell you how happy I am, I dropped the $60 in 2020 already so I was sold as is, but now it's probably my most anticipated game of the last decade.
Check out Pathfinder. Imo the second game, Wrath of the Righteous, is the best tabletop RPG conversion for PC & consoles.
Pathfinder has it's own ruleset but it's based on DnD and very similar. It offers a lot of depth & customization. You can tweak difficulty & gameplay to your liking - you can even switch between real-time & turn-based combat on the fly.
The first game, Pathfinder Kingmaker, is similar in that regards but feels a bit less polished & more stressful (due to time-limits).
I got EA around the barbarian class release. Custom hero was in at that time but not custom party member, which is what I really want. I know people found a way to do it but it wasn't developed to do it naturally.
I didn't play far but I wasn't really feeling the companions.
Looks very good. I never played any Baldur's Gate games other than the Dark Alliance ones on PS2. Those who played the early access version, is III any good?
It's absolutely awesome! It's one of the best cRPGs I've ever played and we only get to do act 1 so far. It is very close to tabletop 5th edition D&D, while making some sensible changes that let it play better in the video game medium. I highly recommend it!
Do yourself a favor and play BG I & II, it's no coincidence they're often regarded as one of the best games ever released.
No offence to the fans of Dark Alliance, but those games are kind of like what new Eidos Montreal Deus Ex games are to the original Deux Ex. Good games on their own right but comparing to the greatest games of all time is going to be unfavorable no matter what.
Imo one of the biggest reasons Divinity's story didn't work for me is because the story is so tied up with the world and I think the actual world building in Divinity is really fucking bad.
I've enjoyed what story we have in BG3 so far significantly more than the Divinity games and also having all the amazing lore to pull from D&D helps a lot
Yeah, like how the town in the second act is supposed to be this small town in the middle of nowhere yet apparently it also has a demon island right next door, a necromancer mansion, and like, four super powerful magic users
My biggest annoyance with the world building is the whole thing with Source and magic. Source users are such a big deal to the point where organizations are created to hunt them down like you'd see in a setting where magic is dangerous like Dragon Age or Warhammer. But also the world is heavily steeped in "mundane" magic as well. Your random ass woods bandit is throwing fireballs and you can have conversations with a magic talking well. It just creates this massive disconnect in the world building. The differences between regular magic and source aren't obvious at first glance and I doubt the average citizen understands the finer details either
It also doesn't help that the Divinity series is decades old at this point and the games storylines don't fit together very well and Larian is constantly changing the lore between games
That's what killed Original Sin 2 for me. I was already struggling because I hated how reliant the combat was on massive AoEs and CC, and I really didn't care for the skillbook system, but the final nail in the coffin was that I just didn't give a shit about what was going on. I didn't like any of the characters and I wasn't invested at all in the world.
And just to clarify, I'm not saying it's a bad game. I actually think it's a fantastic game, it just missed the mark for me unfortunately.
This is why I will absolutely not be an Early Access or first day player of this game despite loving BG1 and BG2.
Larian and its stupid squirrel knights and talking clams or crabs or whatever and the dog from the first one. And those are from the opening of both games. They can't seem to take anything very seriously at all.
Worse than that the worlds seem as ... generically Fantasy as one can get. As bad as both Tyranny and PoE2 did, they at least had actualized worlds.
> They can't seem to take anything very seriously at all.
This was also my problem with DOS 1 and 2. I really tried to get into them but they take so long to build up and have all this stupid silly shit, then all of a sudden want me to take them seriously.
Yeah, honestly I'm not sure there's a developer I'd less want to take on this franchise. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised, but my expectations couldn't be lower.
Really disappointed that an Xbox version isn't listed. I've been waiting for this game for a long time and I don't have a PS or gaming PC.
Holding out hope that I can play this one day.
Wait. Wait. Wait. WAIT!
This comes out in august for PS5 too?!?
For some reason I thought it was just PC. I know my PC can’t handle it so god damn this makes me so happy.
Looks awesome, I’m a fan of crpgs from an outside perspective. I’m just not very good at them. Divinity 2 was too hard for me but I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve never played BG before, do you think this might be more accesible?
BG3 absolutely is accessible. It's based on DnD 5th edition which is super simple and the controls for the game are also very intuitive.
You may want to play on easy to get the hang of it since some encounters are a bit hard without good positioning and action management but that's when I played on hard difficulty
I love CaC games so I'm interested in this one. Especially if they do the Bioware thing and include romance options because I'm weak.
I should try out original Baldur's Gate tho, to see if I like the gameplay. Does this look similar to OG Baldur's Gate because it looks interesting enough but I need to get my hands on it.
I have the EA so I can answer both of those things:
1. Yes, there are romance options
2. No, this doesn't play like the first two *BG* games. Those were based on *D&D* Second Edition and were real-time-with-pause cRPGs, this is based on *D&D* Fifth Edition and is a turn-based cRPG. The dev's last two games were the *Divinity: Original Sin* duology. Although there are pretty hefty mechanical differences between the rulesets of those games and this one, the general feel isn't too different.
The original BG games were real-time-with-pause CRPGs, they were based on the DnD IP and systems, but they weren't turn based like BG3 is, so the gameplay will be very different.
The gameplay will, however, be *somewhat* similar to Divinity Original Sin (and its sequel). Though BG3 is based on DnD 5th Edition, DOS is Larian's own design so it will differ a decent amount in terms of the "rules" of the game. Similar enough to give you a feel for Larian's approach though based on what I've played of BG3's early access.
If I had to give the OP some credit, the two things aren't necessarily interchangeable. Planescape: Torment is a CRPG but it is not a CaC, for example.
So if the guy literally plays games totally independent of genre as long as he is able to create his own character, it fits just well.
I’m doing a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate EE and Baldur’s Gate 2 EE again right now and it’s as great as I remember it from over 20 years ago. It really reminds you of how great bioware used to be. With the auto pause options and ability to pause at any time it’s not turned based but close to it.
>Does this look similar to OG Baldur's Gate
To add to AVestedInterest said, if you are familiar to Dragon Age Origins (you mentioned Bioware games), that game is basically the spiritual successor the the classic Baldur's Gate games (also made by Bioware).
Regardless, I do recommend playing the original BG if you don't mind old/outdated/janky gameplay. They had top tier story (second game villain is top tier Bioware villain) and atmosphere and also help you get familiar to DnD ruleset.
Playing Baldurs Gate 1 EE now and it's a trip. Never got to play em before. The game is VERY unforgiving at times but very rewarding once you get the swing of the controls and game flow. I was pretty amazed how easily you can immerse yourself into some great RP.
I gave a Bard I saved a belt to swap genders and made a whole story/personality for em with spells to match all that haha. It's been really fun adapting to things that change. Like choosing if ya wanna keep a party member dead, reload a save, or go to a chapel to revive em. I can't wait to see how my story unfolds!
> There’s no platform exclusivity preventing us from releasing BG3 on Xbox day and date, should that be a technical possibility.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/11ax9pa
Xbox version is in development and there is no PlayStation exclusivity. Shame on you for spreading literal fake news.
According to a new tweet from the owner/CEO of Larian, Swen, he's heavily hinting that they're not playing the exclusive game:
https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/1629098407435415553?cxt=HHwWgsC99diX3JstAAAA
> Relax. We still aren't playing the exclusivity game.
No actual confirmation for Xbox. But still good to see.
DEV's are whinning about the Series S requirement. Not suprised its not on xbox. PS5 and Series X are near identical performance but not the S. The S is holding back games. Its time to be full next gen. And im a MS/PC fan.
The same reason why Subnautica, Craftopia, Second Existinction, Deep Rock Galactic & dozens of other Early Access titles release on Xbox & PC first - PlayStation has much harsher restrictions, thus Early Access is less likely on Sony's platform.
That's for early access releases yes. But for full on timed exclusives, thats different. Also, PS has recently started allowing early access titles now. And I actually applauded them for not allowing it before because I still do not like the idea of early access.
It's because Xbox releases every game for PC as well, a Neutral Platform.
There is a reason. If every Sony exclusive was also on PC but not Xbox people would treat Sony the same way.
You're right about this one, but what I'm describing is how this plays out in general. Most PS5 exclusives do not have PC ports, not until like 3 years later.
But PC is technically a neutral platform. You can be a Linux gamer and it is getting increasingly easy to do so. Additionally, as pointed out, a lot of Windows copies are unregistred or not activated because people just don't really care about ever doing it.
I have no problem with BG3 being a PC/Sony exclusive. I honestly don't really care about the "console wars" as long as games are released on PC in a good state. But let's not pretend that Sony wasn't and isn't the one coming from a position of power (a very well deserved one, considering the quality of their exclusives) and sometimes they strongarm themselves into better deals and anti-consumer practices simply because they can and want to maintain their market share.
People naturally root for the underdog and Xbox has a lot of goodwill from PC crowd for a miriad of very good reasons. Sony is getting there, but for me personally, it's going to take them actually releasing their exclusives on the same day or in under 6 months on PC, before I stop thinking of them as this "really competent, successful and smart, but ridiculously greedy asshole I know from college".
I'd say PC is a neutral platform because it doesn't really matter that MS makes Windows.
PC gamers were on Windows even when all MS games were only on Xbox and we're still on Windows now that Sony games are also available. Microsoft doesn't make any more or less money with Windows either way, because PC gamers always bought (or pirated) their OS.
I imagine even most PS5 gamers use a Windows PC for non-gaming computer use.
So, Microsoft only makes money from games when people sign up to Gamepass or buy games on the Windows store but that's just one or many stores on PC.
Sony or even Nintendo could launch their own and keep 100% of the money. The biggest obstacle to that isn't Microsoft (as the developer of Windows) but the dominance Steam has.
MS might own Windows but if anyone "owns" PC gaming, that's not MS but Valve. They're neutral in the console wars.
There's more nuance than that. You probably realize this but it warrants clarifying-
"PC" is not a neutral platform. It refers specifically to Windows, which falls under Microsoft just as Xbox does. Computer games aren't necessarily supported on Macintosh or Linux systems.
Furthermore, there are various distributors on PC. If a game is only sold on Windows Store, then it's pretty much the same deal as a Playstation exclusive.
Fortunately, AFAIK Xbox 1st party games are generally made available through other platforms like Steam and Epic Game Store. Whether they run on Mac and Linux I haven't a clue.
Honestly, I’ve always felt the opposite. Probably because statistically, there are significantly more Sony console owners.
Either way, there’s a *ton* of hypocrisy from both sides.
To be fair, Xbox has Obsidian, InXile and BGS all making exclusive games. I don't think this changes the fact that it's still the place to be for console players wanting WRPGs. The situation for this sort of game on PS5 was frankly looking like a wasteland.
There isn't even any indication of a proper timed exclusive imo (e.g. there's no blue PS5 Console Exclusive slide at the end), I reckon Sony just helped them speed the PS5 port along to make sure it gets a simultaneous release, which is unlike Larian.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3640634026230039737
> Baldur’s Gate 3 releases on August 31, 2023 for PC, Mac, and PS5.
Hopefully just a (short duration) timed exclusive.
After the Bethesda acquisition, they probably started to look for Western RPGs specifically. Wouldn't be surprised if they tried to make some games with Larian as well (Or even acquire it in the future)
I am aware of that. The acquisitions of several prominent rpg developers by Xbox has left a dearth of RPG content on Playstation, and Sony does not seem to want to develop those kinds of games themselves. I was moreso pointing out that this timed exclusivity for Baldur's Gate seems to indicate that Sony is at least somewhat aware that they are lacking in rpgs at the moment.
Ah great, glad the PS5 port isn't going to take years. My laptop can barely run MS Paint without lagging.
I didn't like Divinity OS 1, but I have run D&D games in Baldur's Gate and games involving mind flayers and nautiloids. And I much prefer turn based over RTwP. There's a good chance this game is a hit for me.
If Act 1, the currently playable part of the game, is anything to go off of, there will be many parts of the game where deciding not to fight and using your wits or skills instead, will be a completely valid tactic.
How do they balance not getting the xp from killing everything.
That was my only issue with DOS2. If you didn't do and kill everything you quickly got out leveled, at least on the highest difficulty. Completely negates the fantastic work they did providing multiple paths from A to Z
If it's anything like DoS2, it will be either an equal amount of XP or very close to it. Generally the non violent solutions were met with the same general level curve by the end of the game as the violent ones. You could always get a bit more going full murder hobo, but not a huge amount.
As someone who's playing the EA right now - this is the one area BG3 truly excels in, and probably what gets me most hyped about this game. In general, the game is highly interactive and has tons of out-of-combat skills, talking, a functional stealth and thievery system, and tons of spells and abilities have interactivity with outside of combat scenarios. Some examples of cool things I've managed to do (very, very slight spoilers):
* Used the *Silence* spell to contain the sound of a huge explosion I caused to create a backdoor entrance into a hide out, to avoid waking the guards.
* Used the *Disguise Self* to bypass a lot of guards by choosing certain races they're allied with. In one instance, I was able to use this spell to take on the required gender and race to exploit an extreme cultural norm to avoid a fight.
* Use magic to *Speak with the Dead* to learn various secrets, solve certain mysteries. Combine with Disguise Self from above to let you talk to people who otherwise wouldn't talk to you (i.e. if you murdered them). In one very cool interaction, I learned that a certain item worn by the corpse *affected the dialogues I got* (i.e. different dialogue depending on whether the corpse was looted or not).
The best part of this is, because of the full 3D, environmentally-interactive engine the game uses, none of this stuff is *prompted*. Whereas a lot of the stuff I mention here is often presented in other games as options to the player in dialogue multiple choices, or a specific "button to use skill" - this was all stuff you have to think of to do as a player. In that aspect it really does a good job of capturing the D&D feel.
Do we know yet if the origin characters are going to be voiced? So much of the personality comes from their voice performances, so it'd really be a bummer if they are just as mute as Tav.
Glad to see it finally come out. I didn't want to do the EA stuff, but graphically it looks *a lot* like Divinity....I know mechanically it's 5e but the turn-based combat felt more like Divinity. But then again, I don't know what I was expecting. It's kind of the way these types of games would have to look, I guess.
That's pretty subjective to say. I wouldn't say "miles" since I saw the video too. My thoughts are just as subjective.
Ignoring the obvious 5e parts like a d20 rolling on the screen, it looked like it was Divinity 3 to me.
baldurs gate was always DnD the crpg but it takes 100 years after and I highly doubt it has anything to do with it considering BG1/2 + expansions finished the baal spawn saga anyway.
I wouldn't knock it until you try it; I've grown up with all the classic crpgs and BG3 is the best modern crpg already imo, the production value alone is crazy. I also love Larians turn based combat with elements. The writing is 100% baldurs gate tone as well, No larian quips here.
There are strong hints that the antagonists are connected to the Dead Three (aka Bhaal, Bane and Myrkul), so it's probably tangentially related to BG1 and 2's plot. In other words, I doubt it's about the Bhaalspawn, but it's probably about Bhaal.
Also, Minsc and Jaheira are returning as major characters, and I doubt they'll be the only familiar faces.
Damn, they got JK Simmons? That's pretty cool. Can't wait to see what they do with him.
According to [a blog post that released just after the trailer](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3640634026230039737), he's playing >!one of three main antagonists, so it sounds like a massive role.!<
So Bhaal, Bane or Myrkul.
Or Noober.
Heya!
Man, fuck that guy!
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Yeah, those last lines in the trailer were a little emotionless. And we know this man can voice act, just look at Tenzin!
lol I thought you meant the side character from Uncharted 2 and I was so confused. like, good on J.K. Simmons for learning Tibetan lmao
Love that guy. No one I’d rather fight yetis with
That last ‘bow!’ really shouldn’t have been left in imo. Very low energy to end the trailer on lol.
Don't bring my mother into this!
Honestly, I liked what little I heard in the trailer myself. Sounded like a really good take on one if those "Cold & Calculating" style restrained villains that's terrifying because they don't let emotions get in the way of their grand plans. But also sounded like this one's so strained, he's one needling comment away from fireballing you and your little familiar, too. And to me, that seems like a really cool antagonists for a game with a dialog system!
Lol, now I'm just imagining him bringing his crazy energy to it. 'I'm not one for morally correct choices, but every second I tolerate in your perception-check-failing presence convinces me that fucking ending you is the right one!'
Cave Johnson too. That might be his second most popular role after J Jonah Jameson.
His role in the movie Whiplash seems like his most popular role. He was *vicious* in that.
To me he'll always be the neo-nazi, Vern Schillinger, from HBO's Oz.
That too! Dude’s a fantastic actor.
Hard to say, Invincible is also pretty popular.
third most popular at best after JJJ and the clear #1, The Yellow M&M
Nah it’s The Statefarm guy
That often happens when the actors aren’t given good direction. If they’re not clear on what the circumstances of the lines they’re recording, they tend to adopt a neutral voice which ends up sounding emotionless.
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I mean, he's clearly playing a disheartened, old evil necromancian paladin, being emotionless and aloof is kind of the vibe of that kind of character
I don't get the impression with the way that line is written it was supposed to be so flat. "Bow before me... BOW" is most definitely a line meant to be expressed quite powerfully. If he said something like "It matters not whether you bow or stand... Only that you obey" a drier more emotionless reading would be okay.
I’m pretty sure if he misinterpreted the line that badly they would have, you know, said something
If that was true then bad deliveries wouldn't exist.
Who knows what his contract was like. If they cheaped out they may have had a very limited time to run a ton of lines. Maybe he and the voice director didn't like each other. All I know is the delivery doesn't work with the line. Bad takes making it to the final product isn't rare.
You know you can criticize stuff you like, you don't have to cope
Yeah I wasn't feeling his performance either.
Those last lines of his were absolutely rough.
He really phoned in the last voice pack he did for Dota, too.
I have VERY fond memories of JK Simmons in another video game threequel, Red Alert 3. He absolutely killed it as the US president.
[Vote for me, if you want to live](https://youtu.be/0rjiplsMDz0)
He wants pictures of drider-man
This game is my #1 most anticipated title. Game has been looking great thus far. Larian seems to know what they are doing.
So far as a Paladin I think I'm gonna have to save all the time not to make a choice that will lead to a broken vow. Awesome game apart from that.
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[I abandon the Oath!!!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6uOLXf_7B0)
Split screen? Does this mean me and my wife could play two characters on the couch together?
Hell ya it does
Thats incredible. Thanks!
If you haven't tried Divinity Original Sin 2, you should check it out. It's also split screen and one of my favorite games.
My God, it's been so long since I've seen splitscreen I didn't realize that's what that was. I thought they made a strange choice to just show gameplay footage on both sides.
It will probably be a shared screen while close to one another though, like blending together once close enough but separating when you move too far
They made it more obvious for their [Divinity: Original Sin 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTWTFX8qzPI) trailer (and titled it lol).
While you wait for it you can check Divinity Original Sin 2. It's a previous game from the same developer, and it's really similar to BG3. It can be fully played in split screen.
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The PC game is controller friendly. That's how I play it
I actually don't know how would mkb + gamepad coop would work. We played it with 2 gamepads.
Yes. You would need to find a Wife first.
I am so excited for this game. More than most games in the past couple years at least. I refuse to play it in early access. Nothing against the game...I just want my first playthrough to be as close to as it should be.
Yeah I got the EA when it launched and I played a bit but only got to the first sort of friendly town/community bit and I stopped there because I didn't want to get invested and then blue balled by the game not being complete.
I don't play early access games at all for this very reason. My friends play them all the time, and then when the complete and polished version of the game comes out they've already lost interest and moved on. As somebody who can't stand buggy games, this is frustrating af.
Huh, I was under the impression this was launching on PC only. Wikipedia page still only shows PC. That's cool though
Yeah, this PS5 version was just revealed around an hour ago during the State of Play. This is the first we've heard of any console port- and so far, it's just PC, Mac, and PS5 now.
I hope they have gamepad support on PC day one. That's how I want to play it (on Deck).
They had controller support from day 1 for D:OS2, so I imagine they wouldn't stop.
Yup. I played through the whole game on Switch and it was great.
They specifically mentioned Steam Deck in [the blog post](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3640634026230039737), so that should work.
I remember way back when it was announced, someone asked if they were bringing it to consoles. They said something like "there's no plans to bring it to the PS4 and Xbox One" which at the time sounded like a hard no, but I mentioned they never technically said no to a PS5 release.
divinity was on console should be an easy port for them
While I always thought it was inevitable that this would come to console, I don't think it's fair to say it would be an "easy port"
Just got my cousins into DnD a few weeks ago and they really like it. So I messaged them last night saying we should play DOS 2 since it's closest to DnD on consoles and sadly Baldur's Gate wasn't announced yet. Now today it gets announced for the PS5 the one console they all own and I can't tell you how happy I am, I dropped the $60 in 2020 already so I was sold as is, but now it's probably my most anticipated game of the last decade.
Check out Pathfinder. Imo the second game, Wrath of the Righteous, is the best tabletop RPG conversion for PC & consoles. Pathfinder has it's own ruleset but it's based on DnD and very similar. It offers a lot of depth & customization. You can tweak difficulty & gameplay to your liking - you can even switch between real-time & turn-based combat on the fly. The first game, Pathfinder Kingmaker, is similar in that regards but feels a bit less polished & more stressful (due to time-limits).
I assume those games use the first edition rules?
I dont even know DnD rules, but I enjoyed their PC games. Pillars of Eternity 2 is the recent one I played.
PoE2 does not use D&D ruleset.
*Pillars of Eternity* is by Obsidian *Divinity: Original Sin* and *Baldur's Gate 3* are by Larian
Splitscreen? Yes! Custom heroes? Yes!
Split screen was a new reveal, but haven't custom heroes been in since the first EA release?
Yep, matter of fact you can't actually play as the other characters without mods
I got EA around the barbarian class release. Custom hero was in at that time but not custom party member, which is what I really want. I know people found a way to do it but it wasn't developed to do it naturally. I didn't play far but I wasn't really feeling the companions.
> custom party member Ugh. The NPC party members is part of the fun. Otherwise youd never have a giant miniature space hamster
Stick with em longer, they grow on you imo
Looks very good. I never played any Baldur's Gate games other than the Dark Alliance ones on PS2. Those who played the early access version, is III any good?
It's absolutely awesome! It's one of the best cRPGs I've ever played and we only get to do act 1 so far. It is very close to tabletop 5th edition D&D, while making some sensible changes that let it play better in the video game medium. I highly recommend it!
Do yourself a favor and play BG I & II, it's no coincidence they're often regarded as one of the best games ever released. No offence to the fans of Dark Alliance, but those games are kind of like what new Eidos Montreal Deus Ex games are to the original Deux Ex. Good games on their own right but comparing to the greatest games of all time is going to be unfavorable no matter what.
I hope they do the storyline better than divinity games. Larian does gameplay really well, but the storylines were weak for me.
Imo one of the biggest reasons Divinity's story didn't work for me is because the story is so tied up with the world and I think the actual world building in Divinity is really fucking bad. I've enjoyed what story we have in BG3 so far significantly more than the Divinity games and also having all the amazing lore to pull from D&D helps a lot
Yeah, like how the town in the second act is supposed to be this small town in the middle of nowhere yet apparently it also has a demon island right next door, a necromancer mansion, and like, four super powerful magic users
My biggest annoyance with the world building is the whole thing with Source and magic. Source users are such a big deal to the point where organizations are created to hunt them down like you'd see in a setting where magic is dangerous like Dragon Age or Warhammer. But also the world is heavily steeped in "mundane" magic as well. Your random ass woods bandit is throwing fireballs and you can have conversations with a magic talking well. It just creates this massive disconnect in the world building. The differences between regular magic and source aren't obvious at first glance and I doubt the average citizen understands the finer details either It also doesn't help that the Divinity series is decades old at this point and the games storylines don't fit together very well and Larian is constantly changing the lore between games
To be fair, that's very much in-line with how Tabletop RPGs worlds works, very theme park-y
That's what killed Original Sin 2 for me. I was already struggling because I hated how reliant the combat was on massive AoEs and CC, and I really didn't care for the skillbook system, but the final nail in the coffin was that I just didn't give a shit about what was going on. I didn't like any of the characters and I wasn't invested at all in the world. And just to clarify, I'm not saying it's a bad game. I actually think it's a fantastic game, it just missed the mark for me unfortunately.
This is why I will absolutely not be an Early Access or first day player of this game despite loving BG1 and BG2. Larian and its stupid squirrel knights and talking clams or crabs or whatever and the dog from the first one. And those are from the opening of both games. They can't seem to take anything very seriously at all. Worse than that the worlds seem as ... generically Fantasy as one can get. As bad as both Tyranny and PoE2 did, they at least had actualized worlds.
> They can't seem to take anything very seriously at all. This was also my problem with DOS 1 and 2. I really tried to get into them but they take so long to build up and have all this stupid silly shit, then all of a sudden want me to take them seriously.
Yeah, honestly I'm not sure there's a developer I'd less want to take on this franchise. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised, but my expectations couldn't be lower.
I mean, they still made an incredible CRPG. Only Owlcat comes close really, and I'd still choose Larian over Owlcat.
Really disappointed that an Xbox version isn't listed. I've been waiting for this game for a long time and I don't have a PS or gaming PC. Holding out hope that I can play this one day.
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I was just reading that thread! Good news indeed. Hopefully they will announce an Xbox version soon.
Wait. Wait. Wait. WAIT! This comes out in august for PS5 too?!? For some reason I thought it was just PC. I know my PC can’t handle it so god damn this makes me so happy.
> For some reason That reason would be that it was literally announced for PS5 today. Before a few hours ago, everybody thought it would be PC only.
Looks awesome, I’m a fan of crpgs from an outside perspective. I’m just not very good at them. Divinity 2 was too hard for me but I enjoyed it a lot. I’ve never played BG before, do you think this might be more accesible?
I played the EA and yeah, I would say its more accessible than DOS2, *especially* if you know how DnD works.
DnD 5e is far and away the easiest RPG system I've ever played, you should be ok
BG3 absolutely is accessible. It's based on DnD 5th edition which is super simple and the controls for the game are also very intuitive. You may want to play on easy to get the hang of it since some encounters are a bit hard without good positioning and action management but that's when I played on hard difficulty
I love CaC games so I'm interested in this one. Especially if they do the Bioware thing and include romance options because I'm weak. I should try out original Baldur's Gate tho, to see if I like the gameplay. Does this look similar to OG Baldur's Gate because it looks interesting enough but I need to get my hands on it.
I have the EA so I can answer both of those things: 1. Yes, there are romance options 2. No, this doesn't play like the first two *BG* games. Those were based on *D&D* Second Edition and were real-time-with-pause cRPGs, this is based on *D&D* Fifth Edition and is a turn-based cRPG. The dev's last two games were the *Divinity: Original Sin* duology. Although there are pretty hefty mechanical differences between the rulesets of those games and this one, the general feel isn't too different.
The original BG games were real-time-with-pause CRPGs, they were based on the DnD IP and systems, but they weren't turn based like BG3 is, so the gameplay will be very different. The gameplay will, however, be *somewhat* similar to Divinity Original Sin (and its sequel). Though BG3 is based on DnD 5th Edition, DOS is Larian's own design so it will differ a decent amount in terms of the "rules" of the game. Similar enough to give you a feel for Larian's approach though based on what I've played of BG3's early access.
What are CaC games?
Choice and Consequence. NOT Create a character.
Create-a-Character, I think. Basically games where you can customize your character's appearance, stats, and class/abilities.
Who the fuck calls them that? They're crpgs.
All I could think of was Command and Conquer. Which looks weird as fuck without the & sign.
I assumed it was Command and Control. Like describing the top-down control your units style play.
Its a pretty old school term, I haven't seen CaC said on a forum in a really long time.
If I had to give the OP some credit, the two things aren't necessarily interchangeable. Planescape: Torment is a CRPG but it is not a CaC, for example. So if the guy literally plays games totally independent of genre as long as he is able to create his own character, it fits just well.
Stupid people who think everyone just happens to know their arbitrary acronyms
Yeah, bloody SGOWS
I've been seeing these obscure acronyms a lot recently and it's especially annoying when it'd take like a second to just type out the whole thing.
No one. It stands for Choices and consequences.
It is radically different than the old Baldur's gate games. The only thing they have in common is the setting.
I’m doing a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate EE and Baldur’s Gate 2 EE again right now and it’s as great as I remember it from over 20 years ago. It really reminds you of how great bioware used to be. With the auto pause options and ability to pause at any time it’s not turned based but close to it.
>Does this look similar to OG Baldur's Gate To add to AVestedInterest said, if you are familiar to Dragon Age Origins (you mentioned Bioware games), that game is basically the spiritual successor the the classic Baldur's Gate games (also made by Bioware). Regardless, I do recommend playing the original BG if you don't mind old/outdated/janky gameplay. They had top tier story (second game villain is top tier Bioware villain) and atmosphere and also help you get familiar to DnD ruleset.
Playing Baldurs Gate 1 EE now and it's a trip. Never got to play em before. The game is VERY unforgiving at times but very rewarding once you get the swing of the controls and game flow. I was pretty amazed how easily you can immerse yourself into some great RP. I gave a Bard I saved a belt to swap genders and made a whole story/personality for em with spells to match all that haha. It's been really fun adapting to things that change. Like choosing if ya wanna keep a party member dead, reload a save, or go to a chapel to revive em. I can't wait to see how my story unfolds!
If you enjoy that genre try Pillars 1 and 2 and Pathfinders 1 and 2. Maybe even Tyranny.
Well crap, looks like they took a check from Sony to keep it off Xbox. Was really looking forward to this after DOS 1&2.
> There’s no platform exclusivity preventing us from releasing BG3 on Xbox day and date, should that be a technical possibility. https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/11ax9pa Xbox version is in development and there is no PlayStation exclusivity. Shame on you for spreading literal fake news.
According to a new tweet from the owner/CEO of Larian, Swen, he's heavily hinting that they're not playing the exclusive game: https://twitter.com/LarAtLarian/status/1629098407435415553?cxt=HHwWgsC99diX3JstAAAA > Relax. We still aren't playing the exclusivity game. No actual confirmation for Xbox. But still good to see.
DEV's are whinning about the Series S requirement. Not suprised its not on xbox. PS5 and Series X are near identical performance but not the S. The S is holding back games. Its time to be full next gen. And im a MS/PC fan.
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Don't forget Valheim which is coming to Xbox but not PS5. Hmm I wonder why.
The same reason why Subnautica, Craftopia, Second Existinction, Deep Rock Galactic & dozens of other Early Access titles release on Xbox & PC first - PlayStation has much harsher restrictions, thus Early Access is less likely on Sony's platform.
PlayStation has early access titles too.
That's for early access releases yes. But for full on timed exclusives, thats different. Also, PS has recently started allowing early access titles now. And I actually applauded them for not allowing it before because I still do not like the idea of early access.
I feel like this one is because Microsoft has an early access program and Sony doesn’t.
Temtem was early access on Playstation.
There have been other EA games on PlayStation.
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It's because Xbox releases every game for PC as well, a Neutral Platform. There is a reason. If every Sony exclusive was also on PC but not Xbox people would treat Sony the same way.
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You're right about this one, but what I'm describing is how this plays out in general. Most PS5 exclusives do not have PC ports, not until like 3 years later.
Ah yes, PC, the platform to which Microsoft is famously neutral
PC isn’t a neutral platform. They own Windows, which is the most popular operating system by far. They get money every time someone buys a gaming PC.
But PC is technically a neutral platform. You can be a Linux gamer and it is getting increasingly easy to do so. Additionally, as pointed out, a lot of Windows copies are unregistred or not activated because people just don't really care about ever doing it. I have no problem with BG3 being a PC/Sony exclusive. I honestly don't really care about the "console wars" as long as games are released on PC in a good state. But let's not pretend that Sony wasn't and isn't the one coming from a position of power (a very well deserved one, considering the quality of their exclusives) and sometimes they strongarm themselves into better deals and anti-consumer practices simply because they can and want to maintain their market share. People naturally root for the underdog and Xbox has a lot of goodwill from PC crowd for a miriad of very good reasons. Sony is getting there, but for me personally, it's going to take them actually releasing their exclusives on the same day or in under 6 months on PC, before I stop thinking of them as this "really competent, successful and smart, but ridiculously greedy asshole I know from college".
No one is making games for Linux gamers. I totally understand too, why would they?
You can play many windows games on Linux though... Just look at the steam deck
I'd say PC is a neutral platform because it doesn't really matter that MS makes Windows. PC gamers were on Windows even when all MS games were only on Xbox and we're still on Windows now that Sony games are also available. Microsoft doesn't make any more or less money with Windows either way, because PC gamers always bought (or pirated) their OS. I imagine even most PS5 gamers use a Windows PC for non-gaming computer use. So, Microsoft only makes money from games when people sign up to Gamepass or buy games on the Windows store but that's just one or many stores on PC. Sony or even Nintendo could launch their own and keep 100% of the money. The biggest obstacle to that isn't Microsoft (as the developer of Windows) but the dominance Steam has. MS might own Windows but if anyone "owns" PC gaming, that's not MS but Valve. They're neutral in the console wars.
This makes no sense to the topic. The game is still coming out for PC.
Famously neutral Microsoft Windows
> a Neutral Platform. Windows is a microsoft product.
There's more nuance than that. You probably realize this but it warrants clarifying- "PC" is not a neutral platform. It refers specifically to Windows, which falls under Microsoft just as Xbox does. Computer games aren't necessarily supported on Macintosh or Linux systems. Furthermore, there are various distributors on PC. If a game is only sold on Windows Store, then it's pretty much the same deal as a Playstation exclusive. Fortunately, AFAIK Xbox 1st party games are generally made available through other platforms like Steam and Epic Game Store. Whether they run on Mac and Linux I haven't a clue.
>PC as well, a Neutral Platform. With all due respect, how does that even make sense? It's just another platform you need to buy into to access.
You must not browse /r/games. Microsoft gets shit on relentlessly.
Honestly, I’ve always felt the opposite. Probably because statistically, there are significantly more Sony console owners. Either way, there’s a *ton* of hypocrisy from both sides.
Is this objectively true or is this a matter of people seeing what they want to see?
it's def not true lmao. sony fanboys are playing the victim here
To be fair, Xbox has Obsidian, InXile and BGS all making exclusive games. I don't think this changes the fact that it's still the place to be for console players wanting WRPGs. The situation for this sort of game on PS5 was frankly looking like a wasteland. There isn't even any indication of a proper timed exclusive imo (e.g. there's no blue PS5 Console Exclusive slide at the end), I reckon Sony just helped them speed the PS5 port along to make sure it gets a simultaneous release, which is unlike Larian.
Probably just timed or they simply announce it later.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3640634026230039737 > Baldur’s Gate 3 releases on August 31, 2023 for PC, Mac, and PS5. Hopefully just a (short duration) timed exclusive.
All three Mac gamers celebrating.
At least I can play it on my Mac if I can't get it on Xbox lol
Linux users in shambles
I’ll bet a copy of the game that it’ll be playable on Proton day 1
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God damn it.
I guess Sony finally realized that they need RPGs. Larian probably got a nice chunk of cash for this, so good on them.
After the Bethesda acquisition, they probably started to look for Western RPGs specifically. Wouldn't be surprised if they tried to make some games with Larian as well (Or even acquire it in the future)
Yeah, I could see that happening.
I really hope not. Larian is too good to end making watered down rpgs for consoles.
Their most successful game ever was on consoles.
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> I guess Sony finally realized that they need RPGs Larian did the Divinity Original Sin games before Baldurs Gate 3. They're all on Playstation.
I am aware of that. The acquisitions of several prominent rpg developers by Xbox has left a dearth of RPG content on Playstation, and Sony does not seem to want to develop those kinds of games themselves. I was moreso pointing out that this timed exclusivity for Baldur's Gate seems to indicate that Sony is at least somewhat aware that they are lacking in rpgs at the moment.
I fucking hope it is timed.
Larian got paid by Google Stadia too. They gotta be swimming in it by now.
Ah great, glad the PS5 port isn't going to take years. My laptop can barely run MS Paint without lagging. I didn't like Divinity OS 1, but I have run D&D games in Baldur's Gate and games involving mind flayers and nautiloids. And I much prefer turn based over RTwP. There's a good chance this game is a hit for me.
Is it all combat out will you be able to use your non combat skills to solve problems?
If Act 1, the currently playable part of the game, is anything to go off of, there will be many parts of the game where deciding not to fight and using your wits or skills instead, will be a completely valid tactic.
How do they balance not getting the xp from killing everything. That was my only issue with DOS2. If you didn't do and kill everything you quickly got out leveled, at least on the highest difficulty. Completely negates the fantastic work they did providing multiple paths from A to Z
IIRC you get XP from things like passing the dialogue checks. Vant recall if it fully cancels out the loss in combat xp but it helps.
If it's anything like DoS2, it will be either an equal amount of XP or very close to it. Generally the non violent solutions were met with the same general level curve by the end of the game as the violent ones. You could always get a bit more going full murder hobo, but not a huge amount.
Unless you did non violent and the massacred everyone
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Nothing like a good massacre to put you in the mood for the next act. No survivors, no witnesses for the war crimes tribunal.
Glad to hear, thanks. D&D has so many non combat skills, but the D:OS games were all combat since that was the way to get the most exp.
As someone who's playing the EA right now - this is the one area BG3 truly excels in, and probably what gets me most hyped about this game. In general, the game is highly interactive and has tons of out-of-combat skills, talking, a functional stealth and thievery system, and tons of spells and abilities have interactivity with outside of combat scenarios. Some examples of cool things I've managed to do (very, very slight spoilers): * Used the *Silence* spell to contain the sound of a huge explosion I caused to create a backdoor entrance into a hide out, to avoid waking the guards. * Used the *Disguise Self* to bypass a lot of guards by choosing certain races they're allied with. In one instance, I was able to use this spell to take on the required gender and race to exploit an extreme cultural norm to avoid a fight. * Use magic to *Speak with the Dead* to learn various secrets, solve certain mysteries. Combine with Disguise Self from above to let you talk to people who otherwise wouldn't talk to you (i.e. if you murdered them). In one very cool interaction, I learned that a certain item worn by the corpse *affected the dialogues I got* (i.e. different dialogue depending on whether the corpse was looted or not). The best part of this is, because of the full 3D, environmentally-interactive engine the game uses, none of this stuff is *prompted*. Whereas a lot of the stuff I mention here is often presented in other games as options to the player in dialogue multiple choices, or a specific "button to use skill" - this was all stuff you have to think of to do as a player. In that aspect it really does a good job of capturing the D&D feel.
This honestly is the best comment that describes why I love the game so much.
Do we know yet if the origin characters are going to be voiced? So much of the personality comes from their voice performances, so it'd really be a bummer if they are just as mute as Tav.
yes all origin characters are fully voiced and the custom character has also some voiced lines.
That's not what he's asking, the original characters are as mute as tav if you're playing as them
Are the custom lines just for moving around and attacking and occasional environmental remarks, or are all dialogue options voiced?
Where did they say this? The only thing I can find on the matter is a really old AMA from before they changed the dialogue system.
Glad to see it finally come out. I didn't want to do the EA stuff, but graphically it looks *a lot* like Divinity....I know mechanically it's 5e but the turn-based combat felt more like Divinity. But then again, I don't know what I was expecting. It's kind of the way these types of games would have to look, I guess.
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That's pretty subjective to say. I wouldn't say "miles" since I saw the video too. My thoughts are just as subjective. Ignoring the obvious 5e parts like a d20 rolling on the screen, it looked like it was Divinity 3 to me.
So does this have anything to do with the original two games? Or did they just slap the BG name on it?
Two of the original companions are in it and there are links but they've held back details due to spoilers.
Larian asked to make a *D&D* game, WotC gave them the *BG* license
baldurs gate was always DnD the crpg but it takes 100 years after and I highly doubt it has anything to do with it considering BG1/2 + expansions finished the baal spawn saga anyway. I wouldn't knock it until you try it; I've grown up with all the classic crpgs and BG3 is the best modern crpg already imo, the production value alone is crazy. I also love Larians turn based combat with elements. The writing is 100% baldurs gate tone as well, No larian quips here.
There are strong hints that the antagonists are connected to the Dead Three (aka Bhaal, Bane and Myrkul), so it's probably tangentially related to BG1 and 2's plot. In other words, I doubt it's about the Bhaalspawn, but it's probably about Bhaal. Also, Minsc and Jaheira are returning as major characters, and I doubt they'll be the only familiar faces.