Baldur's Gate III (PC, 2023)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I am not watching my nephew for the first time in a while. It is 2:18AM and I have been playing BG3 for at least 4 hours. I needed this.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

One thing you should know about this game is that it's designed a little like a text adventure when it comes to anticipating what you're going to try. People have been trying to "break" the game by doing things that "the developers surely haven't thought of," and it turns out the developers did think of them. Even the dumbest things are acknowledged and handled. With full dialogue. So in almost all cases, there's multiple ways to achieve a goal, including non-obvious ways.

I'm not sure I have ever seen a big mainstream game that comes even close to what BG3 is doing. If there's ever been a game where you can truly do whatever you want, this one is it.

It has made me realize my own WIP is not releasable, not with this thing out there in the world.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Kathy is playing and enjoying this. For hours a day. I encourage you to reach out and say, yes this is a good game.

I should probably make this the game I write about next for my little dumb PROJECT. I am glad Kathy is enjoying it.

It is very possible that lots of other RPGs are this good, I just haven't been able to force myself to get 10 hours in until they get to the sweet spot that BG3 is in for me. I am not downing other RPGs. Boy, I hope this doesn't make it so that I cannot go back to them. That would be rotten.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

It is indeed Dungeons N Dragons 5th edition online. Our tabletop campaign that is reaching an end is held in Avernus; one of the hells where Karlach is from.

Now that crossplay is out I have started playing with a friend who never played dnd and man I’ve had to reload so many times due to his noob factor lol. Still having fun though. That will make the 3rd character/game I’ve started.. this time as a blonde male Elf Bard (never played a bard in dnd!)

I had a bard character in real life 2nd Edition AD&D!

I think the character I remember playing as a teenager were:

Human male Paladin (my main character named Caliban).

Human male Cleric (nobody wanted to be a Cleric, so when I was the DM, I would have "Haunt Hunter" come with us. He was like 6'8" and a black guy and basically looked like 1970s Marvel Comics character Blade. I did a thing where I rolled 4d6 and kept whatever I happened to roll, rather than do 4d6 as many times as necessary until I got a good set of dice rolls. I think he had all stats that were between 9 and 11 and maaaybe he had a 15 in wisdom. I just wanted to try a character who wasn't some superhuman freak of nature, but like a normal dude, as far as D&D goes.)

Half-elf male Bard (Kevin the Red Marquis). This is where I may have started doing voices and accents, a characteristic I wish I was better at to this day. I probably had finished The Bard's Tale by the time this guy came along, so I was all into Bards in the 1980s. It was the decade of the Bard.

[RealNC]

It has made me realize my own WIP is not releasable, not with this thing out there in the world.

You're not the only one who feels this way. Except everyone else simply came out to state that players shouldn't expect BG3 to have much impact on other games because that would be an unrealistically high standard:

[Jizaboz]

It has made me realize my own WIP is not releasable, not with this thing out there in the world.

You're not the only one who feels this way. Except everyone else simply came out to state that players shouldn't expect BG3 to have much impact on other games because that would be an unrealistically high standard:

I'm on the fence with this. People that didn't play a lot of real DnD beforehand were "blown away by choices". Those of us that did are used to so many choices it's hard to choose.

I feel like Cyberganked is more of a narrative vision combined with a true Ultra-Wizardry style gameplay and as long as it fulfills it's own purpose rather than DnD 5th edition expectations it will be awesome.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I really like that video - thanks, Nikos.

I am just one dude and I recently came across the limits of my programming language - so there are limits, but the way that BG3 has affected me is as such:

- I have a shovel in the game as a weapon. It can also be used to dig. I WAS coding my game in a way where when I thought of something that should be revealed by a shovel, I added it. What I think I ought to do is really handle *everything* that could be dug. The whole game, I should think about that shovel.

- I love that there is a main character that the rest of the characters react to. "Tav" is the ear for the rest of the party. They are all trying to bang Tav. The love that player character, can't get enough. While it is too late for me to change the perspective of my game to where whoever is in the first slot gets all the focus, it's obvious to me that people love the interactions between characters. I have a lot of that in Cyberganked, but I will not feel shy about adding more.

There's more but I have to switch back to work. I like that BG3 is a triumph of design. It really is the designers that made this game so special. If Doom is a triumph of the programmer, and Photopia or Portal 2 is the triumph of the writer, and Star Citizen is the triumph of the producer, then I think BG3 is the best example of designers leading the way for a game.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Ok, this game.

There are some things that I want to have happen, and you have to roll dice.

I think I need to invest in potions that up stats. And also - the game does let you pick which character ought to do the talking. I should remember that.

How do I explain this. I will always be on the side of life and the underdog and the beaten and the maimed. So I'm in some area where gnomes are being treated badly. OK! I want to help them.

When I find myself talking to bad guys and a fight breaks out where it's 12 against 4, what the game is telling me is that I missed something. And that was the case in this one section. Talking to some other dark elves that were not immediately apparent, I was able to get them to agree to be on my side and "mutiny" against this one a-hole that was in a cave-in.

HILARIOUSLY, when the asshole gets out of the cave and starts to attack - because he wanted to kill the gnomes and I didn't - I was able to scoot my guys up a ladder on my second playthrough. I was also able to knock the asshole dude, who was probably a really tough opponent, into a chasm of hot, molten lava that he was standing next to. Don't stand near LAVA, dummy. Hahah! That part was great.

I was content to let the mutineers fight the ones that did not mutiny. This was mostly their problem anyway.

So I dunno. I need a guide for the most part, and I do consult one. I also don't have unlimited time. It is very easy to miss sections in this game. If I were a sophomore in high school, this game could get away with more from me in the time department.

[Jizaboz]

So I dunno. I need a guide for the most part, and I do consult one. I also don't have unlimited time. It is very easy to miss sections in this game. If I were a sophomore in high school, this game could get away with more from me in the time department.

I really wouldn't worry about missing anything your first play thru! If anything, it's impossible anyway. My first play thru as the gnome wizard I definitely always leaned towards "good guy" decisions. In my warlock play, I'm try to make the evil dark draw Minthara my girlfriend (no shame. I like her style and how she talks lol); doing anything she wants while pissing off Shadowheart and others in my group. So far in my 2nd playthu I've encountered lots of stuff I didn't the first go round.

My other play thru with 2 of my friends over multiplayer is also different. It's the first game I've played where I had a chance to save the druid PC.. and due to everyone making decisions random things just kind of happen that again I'd never even seen.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

My phone broke and I had to deal with fantasy baseball nonsense yesterday. I still managed to get some time in with BG3. I may take Monday off just to play it. I have not taken a day off work since Zork: Grand Inquisitor and that blew up at me.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

There was a fight in a settlement inside a D A R K L A N D ooOOoOOoO! that was frustrating.

Dungeons and Dragons has, in my opinion, always had an annoyance regarding prep for spells. You get a very, very limited number of them before you have to rest. I think that my wizard and cleric can cast ..... 8? Spells at level 5? I've been playing for over 40 hours.

This version of the rules allows for some other ways to cast them, like cantrips (spells that should be more available) and such, but still. That ain't many. You will have to choose which spells to prepare, of the ones you know. You'll know more spells than you can prepare. That SHOULD be an interesting decision, right?

Well, no. I've never liked this about D&D. Learn "Knock" as a Wizard instead of "Sleep", and if you see a treasure chest you can't get into, you'll be glad you memorized Knock. If you get into a fight, Knock is useless. So you pretty much have to prepare the combat spells, because combat can happen at any time.

More later, goooooddddd

[pinback]

Have you done the "LEAP OF FAITH TRIAL"???

Did you struggle with the "LEAP OF FAITH TRIAL"????

Did your spouse get tired of hearing you bitch about how you couldn't figure out how to do the "LEAP OF FAITH TRIAL"!?!?!?!?!?!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I have not done that yet.

With quicksave, no leaps are leaps of faith!

[Jizaboz]

Leap of Faith trial is some bullshit. There are ways to make it easier though and pics online of where the panels are.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I've never liked this about D&D. Learn "Knock" as a Wizard instead of "Sleep", and if you see a treasure chest you can't get into, you'll be glad you memorized Knock. If you get into a fight, Knock is useless. So you pretty much have to prepare the combat spells, because combat can happen at any time.

I guess all I was saying, is that it's an important part of the game - spellcasting - and you sort of have to play, fail, then restore and rememorize your spells. That's all.

The fight in question had a guy that got turned into a demon try to knock out a cleric. He brings a bunch of winged demons with him.

- If he kills the cleric, the fight is over and then you have ANOTHER fight with your party banged up right after.

- If the bad guy dies, but one of the winged demons knocks the cleric out, it still counts as the bad guy winning. The cut scene just has the demon carry her away.

- I knew every single undead monster in 2nd edition D&D, in order at one point in my life. I made a game about the order of the undead monsters. Rustled awake, I could probably get them mostly in order. I did not know that the winged demon things were undead. Knowing that would have been good info, so I could have Shadowheart "turn undead." This one is on me. You do pretty much need to examine monsters if you aren't familiar with them.

- You can cast Sanctuary on the cleric, but she's not in your party and will just start attacking things, breaking Sanctuary. (Sanctuary means you can't be targeted for attacks, but can take area damage.)

- You can't cast Feign Death on her, because she's not an "ally." This I object to. I object!

- There is a very long cut scene with pieces before the fight. And the fight is difficult. So you are hitting the space bar to skip over it a lot. I'd like a way to just skip it all. The game probably knows how many times I tried to beat that part.

- You can move furniture to block the ways into the room where the fight happens, but the way you do that is the worst part of the game. It is very, very fiddly and fussy. And nobody would ever just do that, you want to have the furniture there to slow down the demons, but you'd of course only spend time doing that if you knew a fight would break out.

- There are other people in the house you're fighting in who are not in your party. They are fine, but "surprised" the first round .... and the game has to show them being surprised. You can skip over them, GAME, I promise it's ok.

I don't know. It's a bad part in a good game, but I did finally beat the game and felt like I accomplished something, so I dunno.

[Jizaboz]

The fights can get tough. I honestly don't even remember the one you are referring to, but there are a lot of paths in this game.

One thing that might help is actually making additional saves DURING the battle. One for the start, then once you get a good combat round off save again.