Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

Grabbit Allworth

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People are worried that Larian might make it too whimsical and I agree. But BG wasn't whimsy-free. The most popular character was a dude with a Space Hamster.


This is probably heresy, but I have always thought Minsc and Boo were lame as fuck.
 
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Tuco

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This is probably heresy, but I have always thought Minsc and Boo were lame as fuck.
If it wasn't Jim Cummings doing the voice, I might be inclined to agree. His characters get a lot of latitude with me. Same with Mark Hamil.
 
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Soygen

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GOG has BG 1 and 2 Enhanced Editions on sale for 4.99 each right now.
 

OU Ariakas

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I loved BG 1, but never played 2. I heard that it was not great but that the expansions made it amazing but by that time I was in college and more into partying and playing the Counter-Strike beta. That said, I always loved the idea of the Illithids and mixing BG with Cthulu is a surefire day one purchase for me.

Edit:
GOG has BG 1 and 2 Enhanced Editions on sale for 4.99 each right now.

Motherfucker I have to buy this now.
 
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Tuco

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I loved BG 1, but never played 2. I heard that it was not great but that the expansions made it amazing but by that time I was in college and more into partying and playing the Counter-Strike beta. That said, I always loved the idea of the Illithids and mixing BG with Cthulu is a surefire day one purchase for me.

Edit:


Motherfucker I have to buy this now.
BG2 is great with or without the Throne of Bhaal expansion. If you're into mods check out:

 
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OU Ariakas

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BG2 is great with or without the Throne of Bhaal expansion. If you're into mods check out:


Maybe it got shit on for being so buggy when it released; I just remember being super excited about it but then it being a hard pass on release in 2000 (!!!!!?!?!?!?!!!!) Jesus Christ I am old.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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I've never actually played through all of BG2, despite buying it at release (OG, not EE) I always get a ways in and either get frustrated with its issues, or just get too overwhelmed by all the shit there is to do. I played through BG1 and its new expansion last year though, and have been on a CRPG kick lately with Deadfire, Kingmaker, and DoS2, so I'll finally finish it soon now that BG3 has me interested again.

And yeah, I didn't care for Minsc either. His gimmick is fun at first but wore thin for me.
 
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Prodigal

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I have the enhanced editions but I cannot stand the interface compared to the original (with ToB improvements).
 

Chris

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I loved BG 1, but never played 2. I heard that it was not great but that the expansions made it amazing but by that time I was in college and more into partying and playing the Counter-Strike beta. That said, I always loved the idea of the Illithids and mixing BG with Cthulu is a surefire day one purchase for me.

Edit:


Motherfucker I have to buy this now.
BG2 is great, it's better than BG1 in every way. The expansion, Throne of Baal, is basically BG3 as it's the third act of the story but I'd say it's "worse" since it doesn't have the exploration of the first two games, it's fairly linear but by no means a bad game.

I would suggest a full playthrough of BG1+2+ToB together via the enhanced edition though. BG2 starts with a canon party of Imoen, Minsk, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheria. You can play BG1 with that party for bonus feels or just leave them to rot in the first area of the game (which I usually do).

Fuck I need to replay this.
 
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Tuco

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BG2 is great, it's better than BG1 in every way. The expansion, Throne of Baal, is basically BG3 as it's the third act of the story but I'd say it's "worse" since it doesn't have the exploration of the first two games, it's fairly linear but by no means a bad game.

I would suggest a full playthrough of BG1+2+ToB together via the enhanced edition though. BG2 starts with a canon party of Imoen, Minsk, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheria. You can play BG1 with that party for bonus feels or just leave them to rot in the first area of the game (which I usually do).

Fuck I need to replay this.
I like BG1 better than BG2 because
A: The DND combat works better, IMO, when it's more simple at lower levels
B: BG1 is effectively an open world game with a main mission that takes you through a large, linear storyline. BG2 has an open world-quest hub (Athkatla) with a bunch of large, linear storylines.
 
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Chris

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I like BG1 better than BG2 because
A: The DND combat works better, IMO, when it's more simple at lower levels
B: BG1 is effectively an open world game with a main mission that takes you through a large, linear storyline. BG2 has an open world-quest hub (Athkatla) with a bunch of large, linear storylines.
Yeah I'd say that BG1 and BG2 are opposites with BG2 having more linear open world zones but a larger city to explore.
 

TJT

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BG2 is my favorite because you get the opportunity to try out all kinds of absurd classes as you can use prestige classes and the later power builds. It also goes the full gamut with crazy extra-planar jaunts, underdark, illthids, dragons, you fucking name it. I remember when I randomly walked into a tavern and ended up helping a musical troup and got sucked into a planar prison it was just... The fuck? There's all kinds of things to discover. Kangaxx the demi lich. It just had SO much stuff to discover.

BG1 is great for its simplicity and it does capture more of the, "were on an adventure" thing as you're level 1 and top out at level 6 or 7 by the end of the game. It's way more about just running into weird shit as you try to discover who killed your father and why he wants to kill you. Which has a lot of its own charm.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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FL: In terms of camera angles, are you going to use the top down isometric view or go with the approach that you had with the definite edition of DOS1?



Vincke:
[Laughs]You’ll see.
 
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TJT

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I would be shocked if it is not a very similar interface to DOSII.
 

goishen

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As would I. Let's just hope this game doesn't bend you over the barrel and try to fuck you, the way that DOSII did.
 

Tuco

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FL: This is a hugely anticipated sequel, how much pressure is that and how do you deal with that?
Larian-Studios-Divinity-Logo.png
Vincke:
Well there is obviously a lot of expectations, people have been waiting for this game for a very long time. We try not to think of the pressure, we focus on making a good of a game as we can, our team is very very talented. We have Dungeons & Dragons we have Wizard of the Coast helping us, the collaboration is very close, we also have the funding to do this also without the publisher pressure as we are doing it ourselves. We have all the ingredients to make a really good RPG, we could still fuck it up, but there’s a really big drive and passion within the team to make it really good, more so than what we saw with DOS2. For a lot of the members of our team, their first RPG was Baldur’s Gate. There are a lot of tabletop sessions going on continuously in the offices and the different studios, so there is a lot of drive in this.

FL: What is your publishing time frame?
Larian-Studios-Divinity-Logo.png
Vincke:
We have a time frame we’re looking at, we know people have been waiting on this game for sometime, they will probably will wait a bit longer. We need to get it right, we won’t release it if it’s not right. This is a game we want to play ourselves also, so it’s something we’ve been waiting for ourselves for a long time. We are going to try really deliver on it, we’ll see how much time it takes. We announce now because we to want to talk with the community, really understand what they are looking for, match it against our vision of what we’re doing, then together evolve.
Probably the most re-assuring answers in the interview. "We have a ton of money and all the time we want to do this right."
 
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a_skeleton_05

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The weird thing that has given me so much confidence about this is watching Vinke in the videos. He's eager without being obnoxious, and does not come across as a corporate stooge like most studio leads do. You can see the fanboy wafting off of him. I can see how and why DoS 1/2 were the way they were.
 
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Droigan

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The weird thing that has given me so much confidence about this is watching Vinke in the videos. He's eager without being obnoxious, and does not come across as a corporate stooge like most studio leads do. You can see the fanboy wafting off of him. I can see how and why DoS 1/2 were the way they were.

That, and also that they did not raise money by selling off their studio losing control over things like development and direction. "Hey put MTX in the games" "Hey, you need to release NOW".
Looked them up, and can only find a Belgian venture capital firm having a "minor" stake in the studio giving them 1.3m in 2011. Rest have been crowdfunded.

Wouldn't really matter if the studio head \ lead developers were passionate about the studios games if they have suits to satisfy before themselves or their customers. IE: Bioware, or any studio now owned by EA.

Imagine that Wizards of the Coast would be far more sceptical to give their IP to a studio (even if it was bigger) if the actual studio didn't really have final control over their game. Where "coming when it's ready" only means "coming when the owners tells us to launch". Larian still has full control, though with BG3 in their belt, I also assume EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft has their eyes on them now.

Their annual revenue is listed as $5m. An offer of $50-100m.... What's the price of turning Vinke into a corporate stooge? He founded and owns the company. A sale would make him a lot of money.
 
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