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I’ve never played a Baldur’s Gate game before, but I feel compelled to buy this one just to send a message to other developers that it pays to treat your fans with respect.
Man, BG games are really some of the best! Give it a play!
I kinda missed the isometric, point and click era of RPG’s because I grew up in an Apple household. So I played a lot of Warcraft 2 during that time period. Is Baldur’s Gate 3 going to be that same style of game kinda in the vein of Divinty Original Sin?
It is VERY similar to the Divinity games. It uses somewhat modified DnD 5e rules, as opposed to Divinitys’ own system (though that system took a lot of inspiration from DnD.) The RPG and world building elements will feel very familiar.
It’s basically Divinity: DnD Edition.
Yes! It’s the same developer as Divinity.
The games don’t play exactly the same, but they are the same style.
Yeah I’ve never been a fan of the point-and-click isometric mechanics, but I’ve been playing some BG3 and it’s pretty well done, I’m enjoying it. Definitely feels exactly like Divinity OS 2 but with DnD lore. Granted, I wasn’t a big DOS2 fan but that was mostly because the story tried so hard to be miserable all the time and make the player feel like shit for any decision they made. I’m not super far into BG3 but I don’t quite get that same vibe from it.
My only concern is I purchased the collectors edition and it hasnt arrived yet. Havent heard anything about delays, I thought it was supposed to be here on launch day
Not sure if Larian managed to reach out to collector’s edition owners but they said they would ship at the original August 31st release due to supply chain reasons. However the digital code to the game should have been emailed already ahead of launch.
I thought it was supposed to be here on launch day
Dont forget that launch day was moved forward a month. And unfortunately I dont think that affected the physical things.
Indeed. Minsc and Boo stand ready!
Pretty sure I played it on PC in like 1994
BG3 is really good, it’s probably the closest to a tabletop experience as you can get with a cRPG. All they need to do is add in 20 minute side-conversations and Monty Python references and it’s golden.
It’s a shame that most game companies can’t manage to treat both their fans and staff well. It’s rare to treat even one of those well, let alone both. I wonder what the developer of BG3 is like for employees? Crunch time is usually so ubiquitous in game dev that I assume everyone does it until proven otherwise.
This is the first BG game I’ve ever played, and I’m having a blast with it. So far, I can’t recommend it enough for people who like tabletops and RPGs, in general.
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Buy the game. That’s it. You bought everything you need.
That is what I miss seeing in games.
I would like games to arrive as a single complete package, but I was relatively fond of expansion packs from games like RollerCoaster Tycoon.
They took the game you already had, and pretty much doubled it, they were fantastic!
Far better than any modern DLC for sure.
Game is an absolute masterpiece on top of it all. This kind of game needs unequal levels of support. They knocked it out of the park AND they did it all in the right way. I’m encouraging people to buy it and play if they like RPG, tabletop or even just interested in forgotten realms. One of a few games I’ve purchased for full price on Steam.
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It’s just called “Game”? It kinda reminds me of this game store in the UK also called “GAME”, all caps this time.
When buying the game actually meant something.
Yep, I bought the Original Sin 2 for full price and planning to get this for full price too.
I’m curious what bs Bethesda is going to have for Starfield. From horse armor to weak mods you pay for they keep trying something with every game.
I literally bought OS 1 & 2 because of how much I enjoyed the EA of BG3 and how much I like the studio’s style. They deserve every penny.
They’re all like that until investors get involved.
Most Sony exclusives are exactly this way as well.
It’s typically when multiplayer gets involved that the investors start rubbing their hands together.
Some single players, specially ones made by Ubisoft are becoming absolute money grabbers as well. Gran Turismo 7 was also a bit disappointing since they are also selling the virtual currency for actual money, while forcing you to grind a lot.
There are more armor sets in Assassin’s Creed Valhallas premium store than are in the base game
Thing is I played some of the recent Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games, and I noticed them holding the begging bowl out, but much like with Mass Effect 3 (which was the first place I saw this), I can’t work out who it’s targeting.
Just basic playing of the game and the actual main and side story content (and I’m not grinding repeatable quests or doing randomly generated content dotted all over AC Odyssey’s map) will get you everything you need to finish it, and leave you with giant piles of resources left over. Just who is buying this?
You’d like to think that, but there’s a lot of people who got into gaming for the wrong reasons (making a lot of money. Fame) and not the right reason (I want to make something awesome that people enjoy).
There are definitely good people in the industry, but there are a number of devs (designers and managers) who only care about the bottom line or money. They’ll think huge profits mean they’ll get massive bonuses, and ignore how the product will be received. It’s not the investors, but involving the wrong people in the process.
True, not all investors are bad, just greedy people can ruin everything.
I’m looking forward to people supporting open source game development, like actually paying the wages of Dev teams to produce content for the community - we’d have some amazing games come from that
The best games have budgets of millions of dollars, so very hard to do that.
I’m sorry but this is just not true. There are a lot of “the best games” that were made by a small team down to one person. Having a lot of money to use for budget helps, but it in no way means a game will be the best.
They don’t get that money from Jesus, that’s a portion of the money people have given them to play games - people currently prefer to give money to companies who are in it for profit but if they decided instead that to give it to their favourite open source development teams to continue work on their current projects or start new ones then it would be possible.
I bet rockstar would have been making much more interesting games for example if instead of being brought by a money hungry corporation they’d ended up as a community funded project.
And yeah I know it’s not likely today but nothing we accept as normal now seemed possible fifty years ago so we’ll see.
Fortunately the majority shareholder said he has no intention of selling for this exact reason.
I’m really glad a developer that actually cares about BG made this game. I’m not sure how much more I can take of ruined classics.
I’ve actually been kinda sacred to look at it because bg1 was probably the happiest memory of my childhood, really glad to see people loving it and I’ll probably give it a go
(And yes I’m exaggerating a bit but I used to play with my grandma on her computer, she’d sit and watch and we’d chat about things and she’d take notes and stuff or suggest strategy - it was such a great game in every regard, the story and the combat were fantastic with such beautiful areas to explore… Then when 2 came out and you could load your old save and import the party you finished with as the characters you start with! It was the best thing ever
Of course now I have grown as a man, times have changed and I have changed - I feared that there would be an empty shell under such a cherished memories name but tentatively I have started to allow myself to become excited to play it, sadly my grandmother has passed but what she taught me is you can’t live in the past, she loved new things and new ideas so I’m not wanting it to be exactly the same I’m just hoping it has that same feeling of fascination and depth of its forbearers as I hope I’ve gained from mine… Certainly im very excited to try out the new mechanics and gameplay elements that have gone into it, like having sex with a man that’s transformed into a bear.
People would stop putting micro transactions in games if users stopped paying for them.
I might be wrong, but aren’t whales the target demographic for microtransactions? It’s not like the majority of players are buying them. It’s a “vocal” minority that make the business model viable via insane spending habits and the rest of us just have to deal with it.
This is the problem with the whole “vote with your dollar” thing overall. Going by net worth, the median net worth of an american family is $103,500. Jeff Bezos, otoh, has a net worth of 152 billion. That means that he has 1468999 times as many votes as the average person. That’s about a third the population of America. If we “vote with our dollars” because “the free-er the markets, the free-er the people” then one guy has the same power as a full third of the country’s population. As inequality increases, the middle class is disappearing. The number of people with effectively no voice at all is increasing, and the number of people with a voice that can speak over the populations of entire states is also increasing.
A guy at work told me he played some game on his phone, honestly don’t remember which one, he said he spent 5k in 6months on in game micro transactions. I make good money at my job and couldn’t afford that kind of habit, he was about 5 pay grades lower than mine. Guess I know one of the reasons his marriage was on the rocks.
Back in college I worked at a big box store (so pretty much everyone was making minimum wage) and one of my coworkers told me he spent something similar on Clash of Clans. Absolutely insane
Wow. 5k is more than I’ve spent in total for all phones I’ve owned and the software too. I’m in my early 30s.
The same could be said of literally every single product that magically became way more expensive post pandemic for no justifiable reason.
My partner and I have started using the vague “Y’know, covid…” to dismiss anything without explaining it. It comes from when I was in the hospital and they wanted to stay on the couch in my room with me. They were told that they couldn’t, and when they asked why the nurse just said “y’know, covid…”. Now in real life, the best covid policy is to stay, not to go out into the world and come back. But after 3 years of all sorts of knock-on craziness due to the pandemic people who work in customer service seem to have realized that they can just say “you know, covid…” to almost anything and everyone else will just be like “Yeah…”
If my rooster was a chicken it would lay eggs
If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike
People would stop gambling if casinos only served drinks!
Problem is that 99% often income is often generated by 1% of the players
This statement alone works better than any advertisement they could have made
I didn’t even know about this. This is awesome, but the last thing I’d like to know is does it have predatory online requirements or can you play offline and not be forced to log in to play?
If it ticks that box I’ll buy this.
Edit: found it in the FAQ, yes you can!
Just make out of game purchases like Paradox.
Paradox? The company that makes like 626264727 DLCs that make a playable game experience like worth 300$
I get the impression Paradox players are either dedicating their whole gaming lifestyle to one simulator, or are only intended to buy a few of those DLCs. The picture of what it costs to buy every DLC at once is probably a bit disingenuous, just like the total cost of buying every Magic: The Gathering card ever produced.
It does sound like keeping the DLC out of in-game menus would at least avoid distraction until you’re out of game browsing the Steam store, which seems like a plus.
I’ve bought every Stellaris DLC over the years, and I’m not even a particularly avid Stellaris player (347 hours played (which while notable is peanuts compared to the superfans’ hours) and haven’t played recently). Here’s my thoughts on it:
I buy DLCs day 1 that I am supremely interested in, and everything else I pick up on discount either during a sale or from another site (not sketchy key resellers - I use https://isthereanydeal.com/, which lists more legitimate sites). In multiplayer, all players can use the DLC the host has, so I’ve been the dedicated host for my friend group there. I don’t think the massive amount of DLCs is good, but it is at least tolerable (I liken it to a subscription model) and I enjoy how the devs share some of their insights during the development process. Despite all the flaws it has, Stellaris is a really cool sci-fi 4x game that probably has the least ridiculous learning curve compared to other Paradox strategy games.
I just buy the game and pirate the DLCs, but don’t tell Paradox about it
This is the right way, but also it’s entirely ridiculous that it has to be said.
If I owned a small grocery store chain, and I had a website FAQ, it would be weird if it said, “Will my kids be taken by strangers and trafficked out of the country while I shop?” And even if the answer was, “No. We firmly believe you should remain in possession of your children at all times and no one else, so that you can enjoy your family.” it would still be weird that we were talking about it in the first place - because yes, that’s nice and all, but it shouldn’t even be an issue worth discussing.
It shouldn’t have to be said, true, but if other grocery shops let this happen, and in fact designed the grocery store to make kidnapping easier, I would love to see it called out on your website.
Obviously you haven’t been to Gibbons Markets.
It’s the Fairsley Difference
Glad someone picked up what I was putting down :)
Ahh yes. And the pan sexual mascot not offending everyone, even though it’s ironically stupid and offensive
starts game
sees thing
rolls perception
touches thing
party had died
“Just like I remember!”
Throwing direct shade at Diablo right here. Love to see it.
Doubt.
Are you just Diablo bashing because it’s in vogue? Because this is just bashing any game that doe’s micro transactions. I don’t see how it’s specifically calling out Diablo.
There are literally day one microtransactions though lol
That’s not really “DLC” in the conventional sense, that’s a deluxe edition. You’re not getting new content, just some bonus items for the base game, but a good chunk of what you get is actually outside of the game entirely (soundtrack, artbook, D&D character sheet).
I boot the game up through Steam and before their
UNNECESSARY LAUNCHER
loads, the button for
UPGRADE TO MORE MONEY
loads before the
PLAY GAME button loads.
I have a high end machine and gigabit.
Don’t defend this. It’s a great game but… c’mon.
–skip-launcher
Add that to the startup commands in steam for Baldur’s Gate.
Holy dick, thank you much!
There’s some serious false equivalency going on if you think a $10 “support the devs” pack (that was given out to free for everyone who bought early access) is worthy of ire like the usual AAA MTX hellscape.
Launcher is trash though.
Considering that everyone in this thread is acting like ANY kind of microtransaction is the spawn of Satan, I really don’t think it’s a wrong equivalence.
The obvious, boring answer on both sides is, of course, nuance. Microtransactions and DLCs are not categorically evil. And also, this little bit of launch DLC ain’t gonna kill anyone (just like 99% of launch DLC). It’s always just some small, inconsequential cosmetic or truly mediocre micro-mini-sidequest.
I’d agree with you if the game wasn’t paraded around as the perfect example for not having additional purchases.
Lololol there was/is endless bitching and cosmetic mtx in d3, I guess larian gets a pass here 🤷♂️
A full price game should just not have MTX at all. No matter if they’re cosmetic or not. I pay upfront and want the full game that includes cosmetics that I wanna earn within the game. Cosmetic MTX are acceptable in F2P games only. This deluxe edition seems like some stuff that isn’t even part of the game.
I mean it’s being sold as “Digital Deluxe Edition DLC” and it contains in-game items, which I’d say goes against “a complete and immersive gaming experience without the need for additional purchases” (apart from the stuff that’s not in the game that you have to purchase.)
That’s fan service. That’s not part of the game. It’s the game’s soundtrack plus some artwork. Plus some in-game paintings depicting characters from their other games. Then they added some bonus goodies to make the deal even better. All for 10€. So yeah, it’s a typical deluxe edition. They’re made for fans and fans like collecting them. I don’t personally need that stuff so I didn’t get it, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s a win-win.
If you really wanna equivalate that with shipping incomplete games and selling the rest as dlc or selling hero skins for 20€, I’d say you’re just looking for reasons to be mad.
So in the end, there’s zero principle involved here, and it’s all just picking and choosing which DLC YOU happen to think is totally fine. For reference, what you just described is like 90% of the day one DLC ever. Some basic skins, some inconsequential ingame items/things, maybe some art or music.
This all would be fine, but it’s the insane vitriol everyone else is throwing at microtransactions AND the mightier than thou attitude of the game devs that makes this horrendously hypocritical. I don’t have a problem with this DAY ONE DLC FOR BG3, but I’m also sane enough to not pretend that all microtransactions are evil, categorically.
Right, so if that’s all the paid dlc for that game then yeah, I guess 90% of them are fine. Ppl are talking about the likes of mass effect where you have to buy the extra missions and followers, etc.
And not sure where you got any hate. I was just defending what I believe to be a fairly moral company. And never said they’re the only one.
To be fair, Deluxe editions have been available since decades. In a way it is similar that you are not getting ‘all of the game’ without it - though this often includes items next to the game (soundtrack etc.) that have no direct influence on your enjoyment. With MT you directly influence the game and repeatedly, as in, I can buy 1,2,3… “super potions” or whatever. For me they are quite distinct while similar on the surface.
Ouch. Yup, that, to me, is basically MTX.
Which, to me, isn’t a severe knock against Baldur’s Gate - it just showcases how pointless some of the lamentations about “every other game” are, when usually it’s…kind of easy to say no and ignore it.
It’s the same shit
Wow 😔😢 I knew it was too good to be true
Ive had a look at the supposed Day 1 DLC. Its mainly cosmetics and crossover items from Divinity Original Sin 2.
I know this is a bit different and I also know Larian and their games, but the “it’s only cosmetics” DLC stuff also gets very heavily criticized by a lot of people because, “they could have put it in the base game” or something. I don’t really care about cosmetic DLC’s, but a lot of people do. Horse armor yada yada, you know the drill.
I’ve always viewed Digital Delixe thru the lens of a collectors edition without the $200 statue. Horse armor is how we got to $20 for a skin in Overwatch. They aren’t entirely unrelated but are genuinely different product categories.
I mean what if Skyrim had locked Dragonbone (or whichever) armor behind a 10$ paywall. Sure, it wouldn’t be 100% necessary to beat the game, but it would still suck.
I have never really played Skyrim. Is that a cosmetic armor? If so, I wouldn’t really care about it.
It’s not. It’s the best armor in the game.
it’s also free for anyone that played in early access.
Have a look there https://libregamewiki.org/Main_Page
There’s plenty of good games and good devs, don’t expect anything good to come out from the rigged industry
Let’s hope they keep it this way for future games! I am not sure why this game got so much attention, games like this normally never draw this big of a crowd but I am happy it is. I am sad because I have to wait a month until the ps5 version drops but then again I’m also glad I am not waiting for the Xbox version either! It will definitely be a day one purchase just to support them as much as possible. Hope they sell enough to continue doing what they want.
The last DnD-based AAA game was like 15 years ago? People have been craving for this kind of game for years and had to satisfy themselves with remakes and ports until now.
Yeah but you also had the Owlcat Studios Pathfinder games, which didn’t draw as much of a crowd despite being the same genre.
I might be wrong, but I’d wager it has to do with the popularity of DnD vs Pathfinder. That and the nostalgia from BG 1 and 2.
BG1 and 2 are some of the most beloved CRPG games ever made. On reddit, the Baldur’s Gate sub was still very active and I would guess people were continuing to do full play-throughs at least once a year, myself included (and that’s like 20 years after BG1 came out). I don’t know of many other games with that kind of following, so I’m not surprised at the interest in BG3. Plus, it looks like the devs really took their time and delivered a great game at launch, which doesn’t really seem to happen much these days.
I don’t even know if the Pathfinder games are co-op. BG3 is co-op and it is coming to PlayStation very soon
I think it has to do with the current popularity of DnD in general.
Larian… 😍
Ghent pride!
What are they talking about? Yes they do: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2378500/Digital_Deluxe_Edition_DLC/
Mind you, I am not even mad, because they are extra superflous items from DOS2, so whatever, but they definitely have at least dlc for in game items. I guess that isn’t really technically an in game purchase in the same way a dark pattern loot box is, but also in a single player game it is pretty much the same thing.
I am really supportive and happy for what Larian has done, but I think it is kind of naive for them to be beating their chest about this. Wizards of the Coast will one day probably force them to release monetized items, or charge for extra modules. I don’t think they will be unfair about it, but come on.
Is DLC an in game purchase though? I think they are specifying not having micro transactions.
DLC purchased through steam isn’t “in game”.
You’re right, but it does fly in the face of what the actual text in the OP says.
I agree it’s not a bad deal, but it’s still exactly what they said they didn’t want to do
I dunno. They’ve provided this for free for Early Access backers (like me), which they didn’t need to do and none of this is required to enjoy the game. I just considering it as a bonus for backers and a small top up for people who don’t want to miss out.
it kinda doesn’t though, unless you’re able to complete the transaction from within the game. I’m okay with paying $10 for what is essentially a digital t-shirt that says “I paid the $10” and has no effect on gameplay.
Saying it doesn’t count if it’s not in-game feels pedantic - pretty sure you can’t buy shark cards inside GTA either
And the DLC does include functional items that affect gameplay
I’m not saying it’s an egregious example of it, but its not just cosmetic stuff, and it’s a lot more like a microtransaction than an actual DLC
I mean but come on, dlc for in game items - I don’t care how you slice it, that’s a microtransation, even if you don’t purcase from within the game UI.