16 ms·

Baldur's Gate 3 Wins Game of the Year at the Game Awards

193 points by bibanez 3y ago

Quekid5 3y ago
https://archive.vn/Yp6Bq https://archive.vn/Yp6Bq
- FloWzoW 3y ago
  i cannot read the article because of paywall and i cannot open the link to archive because of cloudflare captcha which dont wants to redirect me. The internet is trash
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    So ... do you think your comment improved the internet?
  - sillysaurusx 3y ago
    Here you go: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/shawwn/89fb2935b2f4ae3a1070abbfcdf01390/raw/04e6e3c7bf7956ca1eb96bdfc7f7561dab2a107e/gistfile1.txt https://gist.githubusercontent.com/shawwn/89fb2935b2f4ae3a10... I’ve seen the infinite cloudflare captcha problem before, but I can’t remember anything about it. If anyone knows or if you figure it out, post some info here.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - dtech 3y ago
    This is because archive.is block cloudflare DNS users
physicsguy 3y ago
Glad Alan Wake 2 did so well. Brilliant game.
robviren 3y ago
It has been such a blast to play this with some friends. It's been like DND sessions without the stress of remembering things or DMing too hard. It's actually been difficult to get them back to the table because of just how well polished everything in this game is. Really a pretty excellent intro into TTRPG though one must bring a little bit less save scuming and realism to a real DM. What an incredible piece of art that team made.
- colonelpopcorn 3y ago
  The only thing missing now is a modding community ala Neverwinter Nights. Then BGIII can truly be the heir apparent to the infinity engine/bioware legacy!
sillysaurusx 3y ago
I joined a multiplier lobby on ps5. To my surprise, there was voice chat, and I spent the next eight hours playing through most of act 1 with some friendly fellows from across the world. Eventually there was a sex scene, and the host graciously enabled the setting to let us all watch. "Multiplayer voyeurism" wasn’t on my bingo card for 2023, but it was an interesting experience. When I was 11 or so, I used to play StarCraft 1 custom games. Some of the maps rewarded the players by revealing a smutty image in the minimap if you won. It was funny seeing everyone suddenly go idle for a couple minutes after winning the map. Usually everyone disconnects right away. Somehow this reminded me of that.
- badpun 3y ago
  > "Multiplayer voyeurism" wasn’t on my bingo card for 2023, but it was an interesting experience. Wasn't that more akin to watching a porn movie together with your buddies? "Voyerism" means you're watching as someone is having sex, not watching a recording of someone doing it in the past. (not to mention that here actually no one was having sex, it's just pixels in a video game).
  - sillysaurusx 3y ago
    Technically the host was having sex, and we were all watching. Or technically no one was having sex, and we were all extremely amused. Whichever you prefer, given how into roleplaying you are. I used to play an old game called Underlight, where you weren’t allowed to break character. There was a lot of sexting, which got the tongue in cheek name of QRP aka Quality Role Play. Back then we had to imagine https://underlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/UthyTrial.jpeg https://underlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/UthyTrial.... as something sexy, which in retrospect was quite a feat given that the avatars were from the original Doom engine. So we didn’t even have pixels in a video game, just our imagination; the ultimate mod.
    - PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
      if I'm watching porn with a buddy on their television, it's still watching porn. please respect language a bit more than that, words have meanings.
tuzemec 3y ago
I'm kinda bummed that they didn't get the music category award too.
- prox 3y ago
  The music is stunning. And beautifully enhances every scene without overpowering it.
- Semaphor 3y ago
  That’s a shame, that was by far my favorite part.
- izacus 3y ago
  Yes! Borislav Slavov's music is top notch - even their previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2 had marvellous music.
- bibanez 3y ago
  The music in the title screen never fails to amuse me. When the chorus kicks in I am immediately immersed.
- Shish2k 3y ago
  The Raphael boss fight music is quite possibly my favourite audio moment in 30 years of gaming ;) (Alas I’m not sure how to describe it without spoiling the surprise, since it is quite different to the rest of the soundtrack)
nindalf 3y ago
This game richly deserved every award it got. What an absolute masterpiece! And the best part is that we got to enjoy it without any of the “best practices” of the gaming industry, like an inflated initial price, micro transactions and loot boxes. It was just one fee upfront, and you got hundreds of hours of riveting gameplay in return. On a personal note, this was the first time in my life I got to play a game at launch. The hype and excitement of playing alongside everyone who was discovering the game at the same time as me was magical.
- prox 3y ago
  I bought into the big three RPGs this year : Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield and BG3. I first played Cyberpunk 2077 and it was a marvelous experience, so well acted/executed. After that Starfield felt a bit stiff, unfinished even though there are also lots of good points that immersed me into this universe and I hope it get its time to shine. BG3 however has been a joy. What a great experience from the moment you boot it to every interaction and scenery. Definitely deserved. Overall its been a amazinf for RPG players this year.
  - nicolaslem 3y ago
    Comparing Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 is a bit unfair, three months in Cyberpunk 2077 was also stiff and unfinished.
    - bbkane 3y ago
      I see your point, but I also think if a publisher sells you a game, they should consider it ready to play and compare to other games.
    - prox 3y ago
      That’s why I added “I hope it gets its time to shine” , with a bit of work Bethesda could follow in the footsteps of CDPR.
    - Sankozi 3y ago
      But the Starfield feels quite finished. It is just poorly designed and written. Cyberpunk's gameplay design is not the best, but it is still better than Starfield's, and the story and characters are much better.
Giorgi 3y ago
Pikmin is a strategy game? Damn, there are not even mentions of any strategy game in there.
- ycombinete 3y ago
  Hopefully next year we'll be talking about Stormgate's awards
- goosedragons 3y ago
  Pikmin has always been a console focused RTS with puzzle elements. It's a bit different from "traditional" RTS like StarCraft but it works better with a controller because of that. The other strategy/sim nominees were Fire Emblem: Engage, Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp, Company of Heroes 3 and City Skylines II (sim).
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
    > It's a bit different from "traditional" RTS like StarCraft Note that StarCraft is called a "real-time strategy" game to differentiate it from the existing category of "strategy games", which has now been relabeled "4X". Based on your list, Giorgi appears to be correct that there were no strategy games nominated in the "strategy" category.
    - goosedragons 3y ago
      What? 4X is a specific sub-genre of strategy game. I don't think there was ever a time where strategy was synonymous with 4X solely. StarCraft is called real time to differentiate it from turn based strategy games like Civilization or Fire Emblem.
      - thaumasiotes 3y ago
        There was a time when "strategy", unadorned, was the only genre descriptor available for Civilization. The same genre, considered at the time, also included games like Empire, which is more of a 3X game. I was interested, rereading the manual to Empire Deluxe recently, to see that it obviously considered itself to be competing with Civilization - I never considered the two games all that similar. Abandonware Dos right now also includes board games under the "strategy" category. (RTSes are in there too.)
okasaki 3y ago
I feel like the only person on the internet who doesn't like BG3. The turn-based combat made the game really tedious. The 3D camera made me want to throw something at the monitor. The story is awful. The companions are unlikable and hypersexual. The environments are often so over the top they wrap around into boorishness. The reddit-style humor (like the "poop knife") was just completely inappropriate. The unfinished state and constant patches made me feel like I was doing QA for free. I loved BG2, but this wasn't what I wanted at all.
- colesantiago 3y ago
  You're not alone in this, I just don't get the hype for it. Each to their own. It was an incredibly stale game awards, nothing really has been stand out shown to be fair, except 1 or 2 titles.
- tetris11 3y ago
  Check out the official xfire review for it, the author was similarly unimpressed.
- caskstrength 3y ago
  You are not the only one! Significant amount of people who like BG2 are not happy with "Divinity: Forgotten Realms" (renamed to BG3 for cash-grab reasons). > The reddit-style humor (like the "poop knife") was just completely inappropriate. Larian games tend to do this. Note that intersection of sets of people who worked on BGs 2 and 3 is most likely an empty set.
  - jncfhnb 3y ago
    That’s a weird set of complaints. Yes of course it’s a separate group of people. It’s a very long time apart and completely different studios. I would rather complain that it wasn’t more like divinity. Divinity’s game design was vastly superior to 5e. But it clearly is a BG sequel. The plot connections are pretty strong. Perhaps more than ought to have been expected
    - 3y ago
footlose_3815 3y ago
I love RPGs but I think this got more praise than it deserved. At its best it is a telltale game. At its worst, it’s a slow walk through bugs, bad dice rolls, save scumming, and watching the developers, fix everything all over again, only to create new bugs every time. I got through act one and didn’t want to play anymore. There were too many bugs, and the game is an active development as if it were in beta. The game was in beta for years before it got to this state. Save scumming 75% off the time because almost everything needs a 15 or higher, or spending an hour on a 20 roll treasure chest, or needing so many successful swings to complete a battle is not my idea of fun. Loading a save took over a minute sometimes I thought it was sloggy and buggy. The characters were fawning over me, although I barely talked to them. Dragon age origins did it SO much better.
- Loughla 3y ago
  >Save scumming 75% off the time because almost everything needs a 15 or higher, or spending an hour on a 20 roll treasure chest, Then why would you do that? That isn't a feature of the game, that's a feature of the player? >or needing so many successful swings to complete a battle is not my idea of fun. You can use tactics waaaayyyyyy beyond "make smash thing with sword." I'm not trying to be a Dick, but maybe don't focus on 100% completion, and think outside the box. This game has multiple ways to accomplish things. The number of times I avoided fights by using the environment to my advantage is hilarious to me. Don't focus on perfection, just have fun?
  - jncfhnb 3y ago
    > You can use tactics waaaayyyyyy beyond "make smash thing with sword." While I think the OP is talking out of their butt, I kind of disagree with this. Smash with sword is generally the best strategy. The game is pretty darn easy. Playing with the duds of Wyll and Shadowheart give an early impression of Act 1 perhaps being very hard.
  - footlose_3815 3y ago
    >Then why would you do that? That isn't a feature of the game, that's a feature of the player? I'd be broke, dead 200 times over, and missing a ton of fun contexts if I didn't savescum. It's a feature of the game. Not a bug of the player. Even on Explorer mode, the game is laughably stacked against you sometimes. The dice rolls make no sense. I've spent an hour trying to get a D20 on savescumming once. I like high completion so I don't have to replay games and go through the 80+% of repeatable stuff I already did again.
elnatro 3y ago
Once they release a version for MacBook M3 I’m going to buy a MacBook only for that :)
- alpaca128 3y ago
  The game has been released for Mac months ago
  - elnatro 3y ago
    Oh I didn’t know! Edit: but not in gog!
- wtetzner 3y ago
  I'm pretty sure it's already available on macOS and M* chips.
hospitalJail 3y ago
No Linux support yet? I suppose I'll wait until the game is finished before I buy it. Its nice companies give us such obvious indicators of quality.
- nicolaslem 3y ago
  "Runs perfectly after tweaks": https://www.protondb.com/app/1086940 https://www.protondb.com/app/1086940
  - hospitalJail 3y ago
    I'll just wait until the game is finished before I buy it. I don't like paying to be a beta tester and programmer. That is my day job.
    - tormeh 3y ago
      My guess is it'll never have an official Linux release. Besides, proton is so good at this point that it will usually outshine a cheap Linux port. In fact, due to the lack of backwards compatibility in Linux land, the Windows edition of a game will typically keep working longer on Linux than the native port. It's a really strange situation.
    - izacus 3y ago
      The game is finished.
      - tormeh 3y ago
        They're still releasing patches, so this is an exaggeration. It's very playable, though.
        izacus 3y ago
        I don't understand which part of releasing patches would not imply it's finished? The campaign is whole, the story is done, the classes are there. There's nothing missing.
ascendantlogic 3y ago
The only problem I have with BG3 is now it has (hopefully temporarily) ruined everything I've tried to play after. I just started in on Rogue Trader and so far I'm enjoying it so I hope the "Nothing can compare to BG3" phase has passed for me.
- DoktorDelta 3y ago
  Good games stick with you. Masterpieces raise the standard.
- Semaphor 3y ago
  At least for me, even returning to WotR (now interrupted for Rogue Trader) still felt awesome after BG3, I enjoyed the return to mechanical depth a lot ;)
- ls612 3y ago
  Yeah I had the same problem with Witcher 3 back in 2015 it’s a sign of a true masterpiece.
nvarsj 3y ago
I feel like there must be something odd about me, because I just could not get into it. Campy story/unfunny humour, slow paced/turn paced combat, confusing UX with a million options/choices, and unclear overall guidance of what to do at any time. Maybe I'm too old for these games.
- Kiro 3y ago
  The fact that you're getting downvoted says a lot. I have a really hard time taking all the praise seriously when you're not allowed to dislike or criticize this game. It feels like a cult.
  - subtra3t 3y ago
    The downvotes would be justified if they had somehow provided a bad review/comment. But they described what they didn't like about the game in a concise manner without directing any sort of insult at the game's devs/supporters. I think this happens with a lot of older games too. Games like Bastion or FlatOut 2 sometimes don't get criticized enough for any bugs they may have had, and people look at them with rose-tinted glasses. It definitely happens a lot less with more recently released games.
  - rm_-rf_slash 3y ago
    Disagreements are natural. Downvoting out of disagreement is childish.
- bibanez 3y ago
  I tried to play it last summer and it didn't work out. Thankfully I gave it a second chance with the intention to fully RP and with my main objective being to romance Shadowheart (because it's good to have goals), and it's been better. I must say that at times I felt overwhelmed, and I'm grateful to have some friends who played the game that could help me with some questlines!
  - nvarsj 3y ago
    Yeah, I think I need to give it another chance at some point. There's just so many games and so little time. :) I'm having a blast with RoR Returns right now, and that requires 0 investment to get going.
jsomedon 3y ago
I've played dos and dos2 and I liked them(well I enjoyed dos's combat system more than dos2 but I loved playing them both in general), I've never played any DnD games, should I buy bg3?
- D13Fd 3y ago
  Yes. It’s fundamentally the same game, just with combat rules that aren’t quite as good. It feels very much like DOS:3.
  - disgruntledphd2 3y ago
    The plot is a bunch more engaging, to me at least. Divinity always felt you were playing everything for laughs. D&D is a crap system though, which drags BG3 down (but hey, I've made my peace with D&D's vancian magic at this point in my life).
    - D13Fd 3y ago
      Did you play DOS:2? I get that sentiment for DOS:1, but 2 took things more seriously.
      - disgruntledphd2 3y ago
        Yeah, almost all of it (level 14 or so). I felt the tone was super light-hearted, which was fine but I was concerned that BG3 might be similar. Fortunately, it's not it has a more appropriate tone. To be fair though, we had our second child in September, so I'm just at the end of Act One (hoping to get some time to finish it over Christmas).
- hannofcart 3y ago
  Bg3 is pretty much DoS2 in a different skin. And a different story/universe. If you've played DoS2 you'll find yourself sometimes conflating the two quest lines sometimes :).
- IAmLiterallyAB 3y ago
jncfhnb 3y ago
I feel… mixed about BG3. Mostly it’s 5e’s fault. The combat is bad. The stats used in game are really stupidly balanced. The game is very easy and full of cluttersome mechanics that don’t matter much. Divinity 2 was way better as an rpg. The romance has basically no agency and it’s weird that multiple side characters want to fuck you out of nowhere before the person people are identifying as your partner. Frankly the sexual tone of the game is super weird. It’s very tame despite how horny everyone at least for the characters I chose. The story doesn’t offer you many forks to branch off of. Act 2 is particularly disappointing in this regard. Act 3 is kind of slog of ticking off boxes and losses the appeal that Act 1 offered imo. Stopping leveling up at level 12 near the beginning of Act 3 was super lame. Several character arcs felt extremely underdeveloped (mol, Arabella, zevlor, karlach). It’s still pretty good though. Good writing and good production values can carry it. Divinity 2 with BG3 production values would have been much better though imo.
- stargazer-3 3y ago
  It's funny that lots of folks complain about the game being oversexualized while me and my partner - 120 hours in, in Act 3 now - somehow managed to completely fail triggering any romance subplots despite actually trying to raise approval of all the companions (okay maybe we gave up on Astarion). Not sure if it's a somewhat clunky split-screen handling of approval mechanics or just bad luck.
  - izacus 3y ago
    One of the early patches actually fixed some issues with how eligibility for the sexual cutscenes is computed - they were way too aggressive and fast. Which is probably why you and the OP had such different experience.
    - Semaphor 3y ago
      I played it a second time after the patch and still found the characters too sexual. Sure, at the beginning everyone was awkwardly horny, but even afterward, I still I got quite some unwanted attention from most companions. It felt a bit like taking the worst parts of owlcat’s romances in WotR where you accidentally romance some of them, and apply it to everyone.
w4rh4wk5 3y ago
Something I want to highlight here: no DRM of any kind and support for LAN connections.
- subtra3t 3y ago
  What kind of DRM do you mean here? Since it's sold on Steam it automatically has Steam's own DRM. If you're referring to DRM like Denuvo though, I don't think BG 3 has anything like that. Which is good for us because things like Denuvo heavily impact performance. EDIT: I was wrong. It does not have any DRM.
  - izacus 3y ago
    It's sold DRM-free on GoG.
    - subtra3t 3y ago
      Yet most of their sales come not from GOG but from Steam. ..and I don't quite get your comment? Games sold on GOG are meant to be DRM-free. It's a requirement for them to be on GOG, not something they do out of the kindness of their heart. If they were praising BG 3 for choosing to be on GOG as well as Steam then that'd have been a very valid point. But saying that there is no DRM associated with the game is false. EDIT: I was wrong. There is no DRM.
  - w4rh4wk5 3y ago
    No! Just because a game is on Steam does not necessarily mean it has DRM. The developer is in charge of what happens when the game is launched and the player does not own the game on Steam. Steam does not require you to shut down the game immediately. For instance, the games we port will just run fine in, what we call "DRM-free" mode, when the Steam API cannot be initialized.
    - subtra3t 3y ago
      I stand corrected. I just looked it up and BG 3 does seem to be completely DRM-free, like the games you ported. Thanks for correcting.
pluc 3y ago
Larian studio is really a great story. From community-funded beginnings with Divinity, its success yielding Divinity II and both of those putting Larian in a position to get the BG3 job I assume is really motivating for independant gaming studios. All the praise is well deserved
- Semaphor 3y ago
  Usual reminder that it’s Divinity: Original Sin I & II, Divinity is the series [0], and Divinity II [1] is even a specific game by them. Even just calling it "Original Sin" or "D:OS" is clearer. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_(series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_(series) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_II
  - PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
    yep, I assumed when reading it they meant the original divinity game (which is amazing) and also assumed they were skipping over some history when claiming it led to them getting BG3.
wildpeaks 3y ago
It's also a victory for DRM-free because the game was in early access on GOG during development.
vagab0nd 3y ago
2023 has been the best year for me in gaming. I was a "patient gamer", always trailing the latest games by about ten year. But, being a huge fan of BG2, I couldn't not play BG3 at launch. So I picked it up and immediately dumped 100+ hours in. It was so good I couldn't put it down. After that I thought, why not try some other "newer" games? Since then, I picked up and played Cyberpunk 2077 + Phantom Liberty, Persona 5 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Each close to 100 hours, and each far exceeded my expectations. What a blast! Thank you, BG3.
- ubermonkey 3y ago
  I, too, have been "patient" but for me it's more driven by not having time to get around to playing ____ for a while. I really DO enjoy paying $20 instead of $60, though!
- distances 3y ago
  I'm always at awe at how many different titles others manage to play. I started with BG3 in September, have played nothing else at all since then and I'm still on my first play through (at around 160 hours in). I guess this takes the rest of the year for me, at which point I can start with another game.
bilvar 3y ago
Really good game, I would give it an 8/10. But the fact that it's considered a 'masterpiece' is more of an indictment to the industry at its current state rather than saying much about the quality of the game itself. I had a lot of gripes: 1. Last act was mostly a chore 2. The plot was a mess, you don't have to tie everything into a single path ending up having to come up with ridiculous shenanigans. Also they threw every part of Forgotten Realms lore into a melting pot. 3. The writing was quite disappointing most of the time as well. I can't stand characters in a medieval setting saying "Wow" multiple times in a row or "f*ck" and acting like emotionally stunted teenagers. Also the fact that every companion wanted to have sex with my avatar for no reason was very annoying. 4. Even though it's praised for its polish, it has a LOT of bugs. Some of them game breaking or locking you out of storylines/options. Mind you, BG2 is my favorite game of all time.
sonjaqql 3y ago
It helps that Baldur’s Gate 3 is the safest way to get laid (or even married) in 2023. I found those romantic quest lines quite satisfying. Even without the sex and romance, I would rank it as the best single player gaming experience for me, since Arkham Asylum.
Log_out_ 3y ago
Big3 stage mass walkout in protest against rising standards?
smegsicle 3y ago
i have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot more bears in videogames in response to this

193 points by bibanez 3y ago

Quekid5 3y ago

https://archive.vn/Yp6Bq https://archive.vn/Yp6Bq

FloWzoW 3y ago
i cannot read the article because of paywall and i cannot open the link to archive because of cloudflare captcha which dont wants to redirect me. The internet is trash
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  So ... do you think your comment improved the internet?
- sillysaurusx 3y ago
  Here you go: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/shawwn/89fb2935b2f4ae3a1070abbfcdf01390/raw/04e6e3c7bf7956ca1eb96bdfc7f7561dab2a107e/gistfile1.txt https://gist.githubusercontent.com/shawwn/89fb2935b2f4ae3a10... I’ve seen the infinite cloudflare captcha problem before, but I can’t remember anything about it. If anyone knows or if you figure it out, post some info here.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- dtech 3y ago
  This is because archive.is block cloudflare DNS users

physicsguy 3y ago

Glad Alan Wake 2 did so well. Brilliant game.

robviren 3y ago

It has been such a blast to play this with some friends. It's been like DND sessions without the stress of remembering things or DMing too hard. It's actually been difficult to get them back to the table because of just how well polished everything in this game is. Really a pretty excellent intro into TTRPG though one must bring a little bit less save scuming and realism to a real DM. What an incredible piece of art that team made.

colonelpopcorn 3y ago
The only thing missing now is a modding community ala Neverwinter Nights. Then BGIII can truly be the heir apparent to the infinity engine/bioware legacy!

sillysaurusx 3y ago

I joined a multiplier lobby on ps5. To my surprise, there was voice chat, and I spent the next eight hours playing through most of act 1 with some friendly fellows from across the world. Eventually there was a sex scene, and the host graciously enabled the setting to let us all watch. "Multiplayer voyeurism" wasn’t on my bingo card for 2023, but it was an interesting experience. When I was 11 or so, I used to play StarCraft 1 custom games. Some of the maps rewarded the players by revealing a smutty image in the minimap if you won. It was funny seeing everyone suddenly go idle for a couple minutes after winning the map. Usually everyone disconnects right away. Somehow this reminded me of that.

badpun 3y ago
> "Multiplayer voyeurism" wasn’t on my bingo card for 2023, but it was an interesting experience. Wasn't that more akin to watching a porn movie together with your buddies? "Voyerism" means you're watching as someone is having sex, not watching a recording of someone doing it in the past. (not to mention that here actually no one was having sex, it's just pixels in a video game).
- sillysaurusx 3y ago
  Technically the host was having sex, and we were all watching. Or technically no one was having sex, and we were all extremely amused. Whichever you prefer, given how into roleplaying you are. I used to play an old game called Underlight, where you weren’t allowed to break character. There was a lot of sexting, which got the tongue in cheek name of QRP aka Quality Role Play. Back then we had to imagine https://underlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/UthyTrial.jpeg https://underlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/UthyTrial.... as something sexy, which in retrospect was quite a feat given that the avatars were from the original Doom engine. So we didn’t even have pixels in a video game, just our imagination; the ultimate mod.
  - PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
    if I'm watching porn with a buddy on their television, it's still watching porn. please respect language a bit more than that, words have meanings.

tuzemec 3y ago

I'm kinda bummed that they didn't get the music category award too.

prox 3y ago
The music is stunning. And beautifully enhances every scene without overpowering it.
Semaphor 3y ago
That’s a shame, that was by far my favorite part.
izacus 3y ago
Yes! Borislav Slavov's music is top notch - even their previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2 had marvellous music.
bibanez 3y ago
The music in the title screen never fails to amuse me. When the chorus kicks in I am immediately immersed.
Shish2k 3y ago
The Raphael boss fight music is quite possibly my favourite audio moment in 30 years of gaming ;) (Alas I’m not sure how to describe it without spoiling the surprise, since it is quite different to the rest of the soundtrack)

nindalf 3y ago

This game richly deserved every award it got. What an absolute masterpiece! And the best part is that we got to enjoy it without any of the “best practices” of the gaming industry, like an inflated initial price, micro transactions and loot boxes. It was just one fee upfront, and you got hundreds of hours of riveting gameplay in return. On a personal note, this was the first time in my life I got to play a game at launch. The hype and excitement of playing alongside everyone who was discovering the game at the same time as me was magical.

prox 3y ago
I bought into the big three RPGs this year : Cyberpunk 2077, Starfield and BG3. I first played Cyberpunk 2077 and it was a marvelous experience, so well acted/executed. After that Starfield felt a bit stiff, unfinished even though there are also lots of good points that immersed me into this universe and I hope it get its time to shine. BG3 however has been a joy. What a great experience from the moment you boot it to every interaction and scenery. Definitely deserved. Overall its been a amazinf for RPG players this year.
- nicolaslem 3y ago
  Comparing Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 is a bit unfair, three months in Cyberpunk 2077 was also stiff and unfinished.
  - bbkane 3y ago
    I see your point, but I also think if a publisher sells you a game, they should consider it ready to play and compare to other games.
  - prox 3y ago
    That’s why I added “I hope it gets its time to shine” , with a bit of work Bethesda could follow in the footsteps of CDPR.
  - Sankozi 3y ago
    But the Starfield feels quite finished. It is just poorly designed and written. Cyberpunk's gameplay design is not the best, but it is still better than Starfield's, and the story and characters are much better.

Giorgi 3y ago

Pikmin is a strategy game? Damn, there are not even mentions of any strategy game in there.

ycombinete 3y ago
Hopefully next year we'll be talking about Stormgate's awards
goosedragons 3y ago
Pikmin has always been a console focused RTS with puzzle elements. It's a bit different from "traditional" RTS like StarCraft but it works better with a controller because of that. The other strategy/sim nominees were Fire Emblem: Engage, Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp, Company of Heroes 3 and City Skylines II (sim).
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  > It's a bit different from "traditional" RTS like StarCraft Note that StarCraft is called a "real-time strategy" game to differentiate it from the existing category of "strategy games", which has now been relabeled "4X". Based on your list, Giorgi appears to be correct that there were no strategy games nominated in the "strategy" category.
  - goosedragons 3y ago
    What? 4X is a specific sub-genre of strategy game. I don't think there was ever a time where strategy was synonymous with 4X solely. StarCraft is called real time to differentiate it from turn based strategy games like Civilization or Fire Emblem.
    - thaumasiotes 3y ago
      There was a time when "strategy", unadorned, was the only genre descriptor available for Civilization. The same genre, considered at the time, also included games like Empire, which is more of a 3X game. I was interested, rereading the manual to Empire Deluxe recently, to see that it obviously considered itself to be competing with Civilization - I never considered the two games all that similar. Abandonware Dos right now also includes board games under the "strategy" category. (RTSes are in there too.)

okasaki 3y ago

I feel like the only person on the internet who doesn't like BG3. The turn-based combat made the game really tedious. The 3D camera made me want to throw something at the monitor. The story is awful. The companions are unlikable and hypersexual. The environments are often so over the top they wrap around into boorishness. The reddit-style humor (like the "poop knife") was just completely inappropriate. The unfinished state and constant patches made me feel like I was doing QA for free. I loved BG2, but this wasn't what I wanted at all.

colesantiago 3y ago
You're not alone in this, I just don't get the hype for it. Each to their own. It was an incredibly stale game awards, nothing really has been stand out shown to be fair, except 1 or 2 titles.
tetris11 3y ago
Check out the official xfire review for it, the author was similarly unimpressed.
caskstrength 3y ago
You are not the only one! Significant amount of people who like BG2 are not happy with "Divinity: Forgotten Realms" (renamed to BG3 for cash-grab reasons). > The reddit-style humor (like the "poop knife") was just completely inappropriate. Larian games tend to do this. Note that intersection of sets of people who worked on BGs 2 and 3 is most likely an empty set.
- jncfhnb 3y ago
  That’s a weird set of complaints. Yes of course it’s a separate group of people. It’s a very long time apart and completely different studios. I would rather complain that it wasn’t more like divinity. Divinity’s game design was vastly superior to 5e. But it clearly is a BG sequel. The plot connections are pretty strong. Perhaps more than ought to have been expected
  - 3y ago

footlose_3815 3y ago

I love RPGs but I think this got more praise than it deserved. At its best it is a telltale game. At its worst, it’s a slow walk through bugs, bad dice rolls, save scumming, and watching the developers, fix everything all over again, only to create new bugs every time. I got through act one and didn’t want to play anymore. There were too many bugs, and the game is an active development as if it were in beta. The game was in beta for years before it got to this state. Save scumming 75% off the time because almost everything needs a 15 or higher, or spending an hour on a 20 roll treasure chest, or needing so many successful swings to complete a battle is not my idea of fun. Loading a save took over a minute sometimes I thought it was sloggy and buggy. The characters were fawning over me, although I barely talked to them. Dragon age origins did it SO much better.

Loughla 3y ago
>Save scumming 75% off the time because almost everything needs a 15 or higher, or spending an hour on a 20 roll treasure chest, Then why would you do that? That isn't a feature of the game, that's a feature of the player? >or needing so many successful swings to complete a battle is not my idea of fun. You can use tactics waaaayyyyyy beyond "make smash thing with sword." I'm not trying to be a Dick, but maybe don't focus on 100% completion, and think outside the box. This game has multiple ways to accomplish things. The number of times I avoided fights by using the environment to my advantage is hilarious to me. Don't focus on perfection, just have fun?
- jncfhnb 3y ago
  > You can use tactics waaaayyyyyy beyond "make smash thing with sword." While I think the OP is talking out of their butt, I kind of disagree with this. Smash with sword is generally the best strategy. The game is pretty darn easy. Playing with the duds of Wyll and Shadowheart give an early impression of Act 1 perhaps being very hard.
- footlose_3815 3y ago
  >Then why would you do that? That isn't a feature of the game, that's a feature of the player? I'd be broke, dead 200 times over, and missing a ton of fun contexts if I didn't savescum. It's a feature of the game. Not a bug of the player. Even on Explorer mode, the game is laughably stacked against you sometimes. The dice rolls make no sense. I've spent an hour trying to get a D20 on savescumming once. I like high completion so I don't have to replay games and go through the 80+% of repeatable stuff I already did again.

elnatro 3y ago

Once they release a version for MacBook M3 I’m going to buy a MacBook only for that :)

alpaca128 3y ago
The game has been released for Mac months ago
- elnatro 3y ago
  Oh I didn’t know! Edit: but not in gog!
wtetzner 3y ago
I'm pretty sure it's already available on macOS and M* chips.

hospitalJail 3y ago

No Linux support yet? I suppose I'll wait until the game is finished before I buy it. Its nice companies give us such obvious indicators of quality.

nicolaslem 3y ago
"Runs perfectly after tweaks": https://www.protondb.com/app/1086940 https://www.protondb.com/app/1086940
- hospitalJail 3y ago
  I'll just wait until the game is finished before I buy it. I don't like paying to be a beta tester and programmer. That is my day job.
  - tormeh 3y ago
    My guess is it'll never have an official Linux release. Besides, proton is so good at this point that it will usually outshine a cheap Linux port. In fact, due to the lack of backwards compatibility in Linux land, the Windows edition of a game will typically keep working longer on Linux than the native port. It's a really strange situation.
  - izacus 3y ago
    The game is finished.
    - tormeh 3y ago
      They're still releasing patches, so this is an exaggeration. It's very playable, though.
      - izacus 3y ago
        I don't understand which part of releasing patches would not imply it's finished? The campaign is whole, the story is done, the classes are there. There's nothing missing.

ascendantlogic 3y ago

The only problem I have with BG3 is now it has (hopefully temporarily) ruined everything I've tried to play after. I just started in on Rogue Trader and so far I'm enjoying it so I hope the "Nothing can compare to BG3" phase has passed for me.

DoktorDelta 3y ago
Good games stick with you. Masterpieces raise the standard.
Semaphor 3y ago
At least for me, even returning to WotR (now interrupted for Rogue Trader) still felt awesome after BG3, I enjoyed the return to mechanical depth a lot ;)
ls612 3y ago
Yeah I had the same problem with Witcher 3 back in 2015 it’s a sign of a true masterpiece.

nvarsj 3y ago

I feel like there must be something odd about me, because I just could not get into it. Campy story/unfunny humour, slow paced/turn paced combat, confusing UX with a million options/choices, and unclear overall guidance of what to do at any time. Maybe I'm too old for these games.

Kiro 3y ago
The fact that you're getting downvoted says a lot. I have a really hard time taking all the praise seriously when you're not allowed to dislike or criticize this game. It feels like a cult.
- subtra3t 3y ago
  The downvotes would be justified if they had somehow provided a bad review/comment. But they described what they didn't like about the game in a concise manner without directing any sort of insult at the game's devs/supporters. I think this happens with a lot of older games too. Games like Bastion or FlatOut 2 sometimes don't get criticized enough for any bugs they may have had, and people look at them with rose-tinted glasses. It definitely happens a lot less with more recently released games.
- rm_-rf_slash 3y ago
  Disagreements are natural. Downvoting out of disagreement is childish.
bibanez 3y ago
I tried to play it last summer and it didn't work out. Thankfully I gave it a second chance with the intention to fully RP and with my main objective being to romance Shadowheart (because it's good to have goals), and it's been better. I must say that at times I felt overwhelmed, and I'm grateful to have some friends who played the game that could help me with some questlines!
- nvarsj 3y ago
  Yeah, I think I need to give it another chance at some point. There's just so many games and so little time. :) I'm having a blast with RoR Returns right now, and that requires 0 investment to get going.

jsomedon 3y ago

I've played dos and dos2 and I liked them(well I enjoyed dos's combat system more than dos2 but I loved playing them both in general), I've never played any DnD games, should I buy bg3?

D13Fd 3y ago
Yes. It’s fundamentally the same game, just with combat rules that aren’t quite as good. It feels very much like DOS:3.
- disgruntledphd2 3y ago
  The plot is a bunch more engaging, to me at least. Divinity always felt you were playing everything for laughs. D&D is a crap system though, which drags BG3 down (but hey, I've made my peace with D&D's vancian magic at this point in my life).
  - D13Fd 3y ago
    Did you play DOS:2? I get that sentiment for DOS:1, but 2 took things more seriously.
    - disgruntledphd2 3y ago
      Yeah, almost all of it (level 14 or so). I felt the tone was super light-hearted, which was fine but I was concerned that BG3 might be similar. Fortunately, it's not it has a more appropriate tone. To be fair though, we had our second child in September, so I'm just at the end of Act One (hoping to get some time to finish it over Christmas).
hannofcart 3y ago
Bg3 is pretty much DoS2 in a different skin. And a different story/universe. If you've played DoS2 you'll find yourself sometimes conflating the two quest lines sometimes :).
IAmLiterallyAB 3y ago

jncfhnb 3y ago

I feel… mixed about BG3. Mostly it’s 5e’s fault. The combat is bad. The stats used in game are really stupidly balanced. The game is very easy and full of cluttersome mechanics that don’t matter much. Divinity 2 was way better as an rpg. The romance has basically no agency and it’s weird that multiple side characters want to fuck you out of nowhere before the person people are identifying as your partner. Frankly the sexual tone of the game is super weird. It’s very tame despite how horny everyone at least for the characters I chose. The story doesn’t offer you many forks to branch off of. Act 2 is particularly disappointing in this regard. Act 3 is kind of slog of ticking off boxes and losses the appeal that Act 1 offered imo. Stopping leveling up at level 12 near the beginning of Act 3 was super lame. Several character arcs felt extremely underdeveloped (mol, Arabella, zevlor, karlach). It’s still pretty good though. Good writing and good production values can carry it. Divinity 2 with BG3 production values would have been much better though imo.

stargazer-3 3y ago
It's funny that lots of folks complain about the game being oversexualized while me and my partner - 120 hours in, in Act 3 now - somehow managed to completely fail triggering any romance subplots despite actually trying to raise approval of all the companions (okay maybe we gave up on Astarion). Not sure if it's a somewhat clunky split-screen handling of approval mechanics or just bad luck.
- izacus 3y ago
  One of the early patches actually fixed some issues with how eligibility for the sexual cutscenes is computed - they were way too aggressive and fast. Which is probably why you and the OP had such different experience.
  - Semaphor 3y ago
    I played it a second time after the patch and still found the characters too sexual. Sure, at the beginning everyone was awkwardly horny, but even afterward, I still I got quite some unwanted attention from most companions. It felt a bit like taking the worst parts of owlcat’s romances in WotR where you accidentally romance some of them, and apply it to everyone.

w4rh4wk5 3y ago

Something I want to highlight here: no DRM of any kind and support for LAN connections.

subtra3t 3y ago
What kind of DRM do you mean here? Since it's sold on Steam it automatically has Steam's own DRM. If you're referring to DRM like Denuvo though, I don't think BG 3 has anything like that. Which is good for us because things like Denuvo heavily impact performance. EDIT: I was wrong. It does not have any DRM.
- izacus 3y ago
  It's sold DRM-free on GoG.
  - subtra3t 3y ago
    Yet most of their sales come not from GOG but from Steam. ..and I don't quite get your comment? Games sold on GOG are meant to be DRM-free. It's a requirement for them to be on GOG, not something they do out of the kindness of their heart. If they were praising BG 3 for choosing to be on GOG as well as Steam then that'd have been a very valid point. But saying that there is no DRM associated with the game is false. EDIT: I was wrong. There is no DRM.
- w4rh4wk5 3y ago
  No! Just because a game is on Steam does not necessarily mean it has DRM. The developer is in charge of what happens when the game is launched and the player does not own the game on Steam. Steam does not require you to shut down the game immediately. For instance, the games we port will just run fine in, what we call "DRM-free" mode, when the Steam API cannot be initialized.
  - subtra3t 3y ago
    I stand corrected. I just looked it up and BG 3 does seem to be completely DRM-free, like the games you ported. Thanks for correcting.

pluc 3y ago

Larian studio is really a great story. From community-funded beginnings with Divinity, its success yielding Divinity II and both of those putting Larian in a position to get the BG3 job I assume is really motivating for independant gaming studios. All the praise is well deserved

Semaphor 3y ago
Usual reminder that it’s Divinity: Original Sin I & II, Divinity is the series [0], and Divinity II [1] is even a specific game by them. Even just calling it "Original Sin" or "D:OS" is clearer. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_(series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_(series) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_II
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
  yep, I assumed when reading it they meant the original divinity game (which is amazing) and also assumed they were skipping over some history when claiming it led to them getting BG3.

wildpeaks 3y ago

It's also a victory for DRM-free because the game was in early access on GOG during development.

vagab0nd 3y ago

2023 has been the best year for me in gaming. I was a "patient gamer", always trailing the latest games by about ten year. But, being a huge fan of BG2, I couldn't not play BG3 at launch. So I picked it up and immediately dumped 100+ hours in. It was so good I couldn't put it down. After that I thought, why not try some other "newer" games? Since then, I picked up and played Cyberpunk 2077 + Phantom Liberty, Persona 5 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Each close to 100 hours, and each far exceeded my expectations. What a blast! Thank you, BG3.

ubermonkey 3y ago
I, too, have been "patient" but for me it's more driven by not having time to get around to playing ____ for a while. I really DO enjoy paying $20 instead of $60, though!
distances 3y ago
I'm always at awe at how many different titles others manage to play. I started with BG3 in September, have played nothing else at all since then and I'm still on my first play through (at around 160 hours in). I guess this takes the rest of the year for me, at which point I can start with another game.

bilvar 3y ago

Really good game, I would give it an 8/10. But the fact that it's considered a 'masterpiece' is more of an indictment to the industry at its current state rather than saying much about the quality of the game itself. I had a lot of gripes: 1. Last act was mostly a chore 2. The plot was a mess, you don't have to tie everything into a single path ending up having to come up with ridiculous shenanigans. Also they threw every part of Forgotten Realms lore into a melting pot. 3. The writing was quite disappointing most of the time as well. I can't stand characters in a medieval setting saying "Wow" multiple times in a row or "f*ck" and acting like emotionally stunted teenagers. Also the fact that every companion wanted to have sex with my avatar for no reason was very annoying. 4. Even though it's praised for its polish, it has a LOT of bugs. Some of them game breaking or locking you out of storylines/options. Mind you, BG2 is my favorite game of all time.

sonjaqql 3y ago

It helps that Baldur’s Gate 3 is the safest way to get laid (or even married) in 2023. I found those romantic quest lines quite satisfying. Even without the sex and romance, I would rank it as the best single player gaming experience for me, since Arkham Asylum.

Log_out_ 3y ago

Big3 stage mass walkout in protest against rising standards?

smegsicle 3y ago

i have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot more bears in videogames in response to this