Baldur's Gate III Announced - ...and it's coming to Google Stadia and PC

[Emperor Julian]

I think the failure of Siege of Dragonspear killed whatever hopes Beamdog had of making original content. They hired David Gaider once he left BioWare, they had a rumored original project in the making with some decent looking leaked art, and then... nothing. Gaider left without adding anything new to his resume and the rumored project was never brought up again, and now the only thing they've been doing for the last few years is 'enhancing' Neverwinter Nights.

it was quite impressive how they managed to snatch failure from the jaws of success.
5th ed is a bit shit so I'm wary to say the least.

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

As a cRPG virgin who has only played three (3) cRPGs, all of which were Fallout games; would you recommend Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, etc? I know not to expect guns of course, but I wonder how close those games are to actual DnD. I know they're based off the editions of it, but I'm curious if some things are streamlined?

I would recommend Icewind Dale and its Heart of Winter expansion (Trials of the Luremaster entirely optional but not bad either). It's the same mild bastardization of AD&D 2E as Baldur's Gate but it's better in most ways. Icewind Dale 2 is kind of a trainwreck in spots but it's not terrible - it uses a fairly heavily fucked-with 3E ruleset.

Neverwinter Nights' original campaign is garbage. Shadows of Undrentide is fun, if not fantastic. Hordes of the Underdark is pretty solid. Lots of solid mods for NWN to improve or tweak things, but vanilla experience is still solid. Some other NWN modules are OK - Kingmaker is kind of fun, Shadowguard is way too short, Witch's Wake is neat but it's much more about the RP than the G I think, some user-made modules like Swordflight, A Dance With Rogues and some others I'm forgetting are considered EXCELLENT. Neverwinter Nights 2 also has a mediocre OC, but Mask of the Betrayer is an EXCELLENT expansion and Storm of Zehir honestly isn't bad either. NWN2 is very buggy at times. It uses 3.5E ruleset (probably one of the better rulesets, though cases can be made for 2E). Also healthy mod/module community for NWN2, so after a vanilla run take a look.

Baldur's Gate... eh, it is what it is. 2E like IWD. It's not terrible but it's not the Second Coming, and neither is BG2/ToB. BG2 introduces kits, which are interesting if occasionally broken. If you have BG and BG2 you can install BGTutu or whatever they call it now and run BG1 with kit characters, which usually ends up being hilariously broken, if fun.

If you want something closer to the "REAL" D&D experience, get Temple of Elemental Evil. Yes, it's buggy. It can be fixed a bit. It's much more combat than RP, but it's fun (and it's lower-level so you don't run into the issues that NWN:HotU, BG2, etc. ran into with high-level games feeling kind of blah.)

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

So other than being a real time with pause tactical party based RPG, and being set in the city of Baldur's Gate with D&D rules, what's the connection to Charname and his ascent (or non ascent) to godhood?

Thing is, Dragon Age: Origins and Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 are both effectively BG3. Especially DAO, which had characters which were expies of the companions from the first two games (Alastair = Ajantis, Morrigan = Viconia, Leliana = Safana, Sten = Valygar, Oghren = Korgan, Zevran = Haer'Dalis), spells which were direct cognates of their BG equivalents, and locations that corresponded exactly to places in BG1 and 2 (i.e. one large major city, one smaller town, and various adventure places spotted round the map.) In fact, DAO was effectively BG3 with sufficient alterations made to avoid the wrath of WOTC's lawyers.

(It was also the second to last genuinely good game that Bioware made, but that's by the by.)

But... yeah, is this going to be actually a worthwhile successor or just a sequel in name only. And since it's forcibly set in 5E, this means it's set at least 100 years later than the first two. Which means of the characters that could have appeared in BG1 or 2, only the elven or (at a stretch) dwarven ones may find themselves appearing. Now if that means we get Kivan or Xan (WE'RE ALL DOOMED!) or Vico floating around, that's one thing.

That being said, given that it goes into detail re. illithids, what's the betting the big bad will be the Alhoon from one of the side quests in BG2. (An Alhoon is basically an illithid lich, if you don't know). Basically, in BG2 there was a number of side quests in Athkatla which touched on people controlled by, or directly meat-puppeted by, agents of "the Hidden," and it was gradually revealed that "the Hidden" was a group of illithids who hung out under the city, and you could follow clues to find their lair in the Temple District sewers which contained an Alhoon as a bonus boss. You had to beat him, actually, to get hold of one of the parts for Crom Faeyr the legendary hammer. However, since an Alhoon is an illithid lich, and given that you never actually find his phylactery, what's the betting that after a hundred years he's come back and is trying it again in the city of Baldur's Gate? There is mention that he was playing a very long game and you may actually have stomped an evil overlord in the making without realising it.

That doesn't have to do with spiritual sequels so much as that Bioware has been writing the same thing for 20 years.

 

[Well Intentioned]

As a cRPG virgin who has only played three (3) cRPGs, all of which were Fallout games; would you recommend Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale, etc? I know not to expect guns of course, but I wonder how close those games are to actual DnD. I know they're based off the editions of it, but I'm curious if some things are streamlined?

All of the games are streamlined in a way where all the dice rolling is basically automated. The only stuff that might trip you up is understanding how AC works (lower number = better is all you really need to know/understand) and an understanding of the mechanics of the magic system (particularly with higher level encounters where there's a bunch of different buffs and debuff spells and how they interact with each other.)

I'd recommend Baldur's Gate 2. BG1 can be a bit of a slog early on and can turn some people off from the game. You lose out a little bit on story, but the bulk of it can be summed up with the intro cutscene and NPCs you meet in the first dungeon.

 

[Bungus Scrungus]

Well, thanks for the recommendations, all of you. I'm the type who usually plays games in release order, so even if a first entry is a slog, I'll push through it as long as it isn't terrible. I actually remember seeing Temple of Elemental Evil a long time ago, so I'll pick that up when I feel more in a combat mood, eventually. The info you've gave me will certainly be useful, too.

 

[knightlautrec]

Oh is this why there's a lesbian knight quest in act 4 of DOS2 out of the blue.

That really struck me as weird, like it was kinda jarring, especially since the NPC runs towards you screaming about their wife about to executed.

I remember that part too and it didn't help that it was at the final act of the game and it was getting really rushed and not good in comparison to the first and second act. IIRC you can just let her wife die and I did. Because I'm a spiteful Bitch and there was literally no reason why she needed to be so fucking loud about it other than LESBIANS. Also the random 'You can bang your companion regardless of their gender' was really forced and weird. Especially when you're playing Fane a literal magical skeleton. Making every companion bisexual just makes them and a supposed romance bland.

It's weird because the older games they've done aren't really progressive and fairly normal. I recall they had some Reeeeing from the usual EW SEXY WOMEN BAD suspects when some of the art for Divinity Original Sin 1 had the female PC showing her midriff and changed it but in game it was still the same.

That said, if BG3 is truly co-op, then I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

Divinity OS/2 are extremely solid games. I trust Larian fully with this project, especially since I love coop RPGs.

 

[Slap47]

Please buy and play Planescape: Torment.

You only ever need to worry about one character's stats, and of that character's stats only three matter for the entire game. Dump points into WIS, INT and a few into CON and you will have an absolute blast avoiding combat by doing things like convincing your enemies they don't exist.

Is there a way to purchase a non-bastardized version of the game? Does the money even go to the devs who made the game?

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Is there a way to purchase a non-bastardized version of the game? Does the money even go to the devs who made the game?

I believe it's on GOG and also comes with a bumper bag of patches to make it work on modern systems in HD / 4K / widescreen etc.

 

[tarni]

Temple of Elemental Evil is both excellent and gorgeous to look at. Recommended. Actual turn-based combat, btw.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Is there a way to purchase a non-bastardized version of the game? Does the money even go to the devs who made the game?

If you purchase the Enhanced Edition on GOG, you should also get the original edition as well. As far as I know, it's all gonna go to Beamdog who made the EE since the original development studio, Black Isle, no longer exists.

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

If you purchase the Enhanced Edition on GOG, you should also get the original edition as well. As far as I know, it's all gonna go to Beamdog who made the EE since the original development studio, Black Isle, no longer exists.

I bought my GOG copies before Beamdog muscled in, thank fuck. Trent Oster can suck a fat one.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I bought my GOG copies before Beamdog muscled in, thank fuck. Trent Oster can suck a fat one.

I did too, along with a shit ton of other RPGs like the first two Baldur's Gates and Icewind Dale.

I have Temple of Elemental Evil but I knew nothing about it since I got it in a sale that came with the aforementioned RPGs. Good to know it's actually good.

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

I did too, along with a shit ton of other RPGs like the first two Baldur's Gates and Icewind Dale.

I have Temple of Elemental Evil but I knew nothing about it since I got it in a sale that came with the aforementioned RPGs. Good to know it's actually good.

Definitely look around for fixpacks, trying to remember what they're called but they help a TON. ToEE is really damned fun, though.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

BG was the inspiration for X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance series, correct? (And Gauntlet by extension)

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

BG was the inspiration for X-Men Legends and Marvel Ultimate Alliance series, correct? (And Gauntlet by extension)

Nah, I'd say that Diablo was the inspiration for X-Men Legends et al. And Gauntlet came out in 1985, about 12 years before Baldur's Gate.

Baldur's Gate popularized using official DnD rules in a computer RPG. It also put BioWare on the map.

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

Baldur's Gate popularized using official DnD rules in a computer RPG. It also put BioWare on the map.

Partially true on former I think, definite yes on latter. Gold Box stuff was popular in its day among CRPG players. That being said BG may well have injected new life into the genre outright, and may have served as a bridge between old CRPG grogs and a newer, more generally-focused group of players.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

It's also entirely possible to play through Baldur's Gate 2 with only a single character (your PC).

Granted, it's usually as a wizard and can be a little tricky at times, especially early on.

As @Sprig of Parsley notes, the original NWN campaign is a dumpster fire. If you can't figure out in ten minutes which NPC is going to backstab you, I'm afraid there's no hope for you or your progeny. Seriously, it's terribly hackneyed -- I remember wondering if the same writing team that did BG1 and 2 did NWN's campaign. It's also grindy as fuck -- you really need to do EVERY side quest to avoid being underleveled, and the Stone of Recall does the mechanics no favors (you're better off reloading from a previous save).

Regarding BG3, a salient point a friend made: the guy in the trailer is clearly undergoing ceremorphosis. This is how illithids reproduce: they stick a tadpole up your nose, it eats its way into the skull, then devours your brain systematically and takes over. This first stage takes a few hours, while the next stage (the exterior physical transformation) takes about a week.

This guy goes from human to illithid in about three minutes. I'm kind of hoping this is a plot point or story arc -- the illithids are forcibly converting people into mind flayers with supercharged tadpoles or psychic diseases or something.

 

[Ruin]

Have we seen any indication this is going to have "muh pronouns" and gender nonsense like Dragonspear had? The new VTMB had warning signs pop up fairly quickly.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Have we seen any indication this is going to have "muh pronouns" and gender nonsense like Dragonspear had? The new VTMB had warning signs pop up fairly quickly.

One of the developers is apparently good friends with Brianna Wu, which is never a good sign.