Baldur's Gate 3: developed by Larian Studios

[Sly Boots]

I know it's an option, but Astarion seems like he's going to be quite an interesting character so I'd quite like to keep him in the party. Any idea how long into the game you get the ability to respec your character? I'm a couple of hours in and I'm wondering whether I should start over.

You can pick up the character that allows you to respec pretty early on (the entrance to the area you find them is on the crashed beach you start on after the tutorial), but I don't know if that ability is there straight away or gets unlocked later in the campaign.

Depending on what character you want to play, though, just having a level of rogue and unlocking that sweet sneak attack isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm definitely going to dip a couple of levels of rogue on my ranger at some point.

[DjchunKfunK]

Hit a peak player count of 470k+ last night which is pretty incredible.

[Raid]

I genuinely think that news story about major developers telling people it was unfair to expect this level of quality in future was the best piece of marketing the game could have had.

[Alan]

I had this plan to replay the first two first since I’ve not done it in 20 years now but my arse is making buttons. Dunno if I can resist :p

[Raid]

but my arse is making buttons.

Is there a Scottish to English idiom translator I can use?

I'd had the notion of finally playing the first two BG games when BG3 went into early access, but found them a little too antiquated to enjoy (mostly interface stuff, but also an unfamiliar D&D ruleset). I instead just watched a catch-up Youtube video explaining the story, and saved 80+ hours.

[arqueturus]

I genuinely think that news story about major developers telling people it was unfair to expect this level of quality in future was the best piece of marketing the game could have had.

I don't suppose you have a link to that do you? I've tried (and failed) to search and find it.

Edit: I think I've found it.

[Wrathbone]

https://80.lv/articles/developers-belie ... -for-rpgs/

Worth having a glance over this as well, as there’s a possible save bug with cloud saves:

https://www.eurogamer.net/beware-baldur ... enting-bug

[arqueturus]

https://80.lv/articles/developers-belie ... -for-rpgs/

Worth having a glance over this as well, as there’s a possible save bug with cloud saves:

https://www.eurogamer.net/beware-baldur ... enting-bug

Thanks. It's a very interesting point and also a load of tosh really. The argument of "given all these factors they succeeded" doesn't quite hold water for me. What they've shown is how to do something right.

I work in the software industry and it's always commercial pressures that lead to poor quality. Taking an 'if you build it, then they will come' approach is what Larian have done here - they've simply put the horse before the cart and delivered a really high quality product by ensuring all the factors to succeed were there.

Amazing that this isn't being looked at as the standard way to produce a successful game.

[Wrathbone]

Oh man, I got on the wrong side of Auntie Ethel and was treated to some proper tirades!

Spoiler

”I’ll rip ye throat out yet, ye little bollocks!”

Have to say, the humour so far is absolutely fierce, more than I recall in EA.

[Alan]

How’s stability for everyone? My mates had 8 crashes in his first 2 hours and is refunding. :/

i think he’s on a 6th gen i5 and a 1070 and it defaulted him to ultra settings which I’m wondering if that might be the problem somehow. Overheating maybe. He’s not the type to diagnose and fix, he’s the type to get annoyed and give up.

[Wrathbone]

Solid as a rock for me after 12 hours, though my new PC has an i7 12700k and a 4080 so it’s not straining the hardware limits yet.

Has he tried switching between DirectX 11 and Vulkan? DX11 should be the more stable option, especially for Nvidia cards.

[Raid]

I've had a single crash, which happened as I loaded a save game.

[arqueturus]

Well, this is good, really good. The more I play the more impressed I get.

More than anything, I love the characterisation and voice acting. It's like some form of interactive play in many a ways. If you'd asked me about what I was looking forward to most before release I'd have probably said the combat or maybe the campaign but now, I'm actually enjoying seeing how each scene plays out. For a game, it's just so well written.

[Wrathbone]

It’s extraordinary. The reactivity of the world and sheer amount of branching possibilities are mind boggling - it might even surpass Witcher 3 in that regard. And to achieve that at a consistently high level of quality is even more impressive.

I was convinced Starfield would be my GOTY, but now I’ll be amazed if it tops BG3.

[arqueturus]

It’s extraordinary. The reactivity of the world and sheer amount of branching possibilities are mind boggling - it might even surpass Witcher 3 in that regard. And to achieve that at a consistently high level of quality is even more impressive.

I was convinced Starfield would be my GOTY, but now I’ll be amazed if it tops BG3.

Yeah, 100% agree.

I don't have a clue where this is going and that's incredible in the current day and age.

Big shout out to the music too, brilliantly subtle and in the background but when you listen to it it's got so much effort in there... for wallpaper music essentially which is something that I've not felt since Icewind Dale.