Baldur's Gate 3 has been released | Hacker News Reader

Baldur's Gate 3 has been released

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116 pointsibobev70 comments

One of the coolest things about BG3 is the Twitch extension, which lets viewers freely browse through the player's character sheet, inventory, quests, etc. And, for fun, also lets viewers vote on dialogue options.

It's a fantastic idea which lets all types of streamers massively improve the viewer experience.

I loved this in Borderlands streams. I wish all games that expect a twitch audience did it (looking at you Diablo4).

Weird that Blizz didn't do that for Diablo4. They did it for WoW which was pretty much the first time I ever encountered character sheets for games on the Internet.

Look at the Diablo4 subreddit for an idea of just how little Blizzard developers cared for quality of life or how the endgame feels to play.

For example, in order to try out a new build it can take upwards of 200-300 clicks to reset the paragon tree. Devs couldn’t be bothered to add a “reset all” button. Meanwhile other games like BG3 have all these extras like twitch integrations.

Keep in mind that, supposedly, Diablo 4 was in development for about 6 years. Resources and development time aren’t an issue for Blizzard.

D4 is one of the worst games I had the misfortune of buying.

It's just one long grins, no auto-generated maps, no change of how it plays, boring itemization, absolute lackluster game, no social tools.

I don't understand how people stream this game.

I barely hit level 60 on hardcore. It's such a snorefest.

And I knew better but I watched some guy on twitch, who did have fun, yeah he had fun because of the chat, not because it's a good game.

When I then bought it, it was completely different experience. I wanted to join that guy's clan, but unlike D3 a clan is limited to 150 people and it was always full.

The while game is terrible. What a waste.

“ I barely hit level 60 on hardcore. It's such a snorefest.”. I hereby grant you the right to not play games you don’t like. :)

That sounds like exactly what the person you’re replying to did. What are you trying to say?

Reaching level 60 on hardcore gives me the impression that he put quite a few hours into the game. Sounds unpleasant if you find the game a “snorefest”. :)

Well, you’re wrong. Level 60 is incredibly fast to reach with how exponential experience scaling works. I can tell you’re not that knowledgeable about what’s going on with D4.

You got me. :) I know nothing of D4. Lvl. 60 does sound high and ex. >20 hours of playing is a lot to me. I.e. to me it spounds horrible if someone plays a game for more than 20 hours while not enjoying the experience. :)

Diablo 4 has a lot of value, and the core moment-to-moment gameplay feel remains excellent. I loved the campaign, and the openworld in which it happens. And THAT 10-minute long cutscene, I'm a lifelong cutscene skipper but that thing was incredible. That drops you around level 45-50, from which you jump to the next level of difficulty and start experiencing new areas of play (Helltides) and some new challenges. By 60 you're done with those, and then the tedium of high level systems sets in.

So those 30-40 hours are great, and (to me) very much worth the $70. But the expectation from a Diablo game is to be evergreen. I kept coming back to Diablo 2 for 4 years, then Diablo 3 for 10 years.

This type of games, today, are built with microtransactions so players who keep playing for a long time have stuff they may want to purchase and increase revenue. Replay and longevity should be the core pillars, and the developers had already applied (and invented) the patterns for making such games.

Diablo 4's systems and design does not encourage that sort of attachment and replay. I played the campaign to 71, then the season to 64, and I'm off until the game changes substantially. Diablo 2 & 3 changed radically years after they launched so I'm hopeful, but it's surprising that D4 seems to have ignored the lessons from the evolution of 2 & 3.

Something oddly similar can be seen with the Borderlands series leading into the latest entry, Wonderlands. Amazing campaign, but the replayability and longevity of previous titles is gone.

Stark reminder that developing creative works is hard even if you are a master of it.

And I grant you all the right to not finish books that get boring at the end. If you got use from the book, it might be that the author didn’t know how to finish and put the good stuff at the beginning.

Walden goes from fascinating to snooze fest really quickly about halfway through.

That sounds on point with my personal experience playing it. Got my first character to lvl 80 before I realized I haven’t seen a single exciting upgrade in 20 levels and there was another twenty levels to go before being able to try to fight the last boss.

Then seasons were started and Blizzard was asking players to repeat the same process without any meaningful changes.

It’s very clear the entire base game was vomited out and by the time people realized it was too late. Blizzard already has your money and they’re now focused on seasons to try to milk the whales with micro transactions. Casual players quitting is actually by design as it allows Blizzard to scale down their infrastructure and milk even more.

Then they have their lead designer talking on Twitter about BG3 and how “not all studios operate under the same conditions”. It’s unbelievable.

I tried to play 3, but it was too dark. Literally and thematically. Torchlight was fun though.

Activision-Blizzard is a publisher who bought the name of a developer. It helps to keep this in mind; they’re in the business of selling games and they only make games as a means to that end.

For example, Destiny 2 was considered by many fans to be too much like CoD and it’s easy to speculate that Activision pushed for this “shooter game” to have similar gameplay to their cash cow shooter game franchise because they expected it would be easier to sell. Never mind that the developers were intending to make an “MMOFPSRPG”, which would necessarily have distinct gameplay elements from CoD.

Sad that Runic games is gone too. But I got the impression that as fun as Torchlight was to play (first game I finished in some time), people were getting tired of working only on Diablo clones. That was the reason given for Hob instead of another torchlight. But then Hob never came out on a device I owned, and then they outsourced III as there were on the way down.

Place like that could have been a good landing spot for ex Blizzard people.

Are there any other companies that I should be watching? Maybe some WoW alumni working on different mmrpgs?

It’s stuff like this that puts big-name AAA studios to shame. I cannot imagine a world where Blizzard decides to dedicate dev time to a feature like this.

It makes some of the comments written by devs at billion dollar companies seem pathetic. Some examples:

> “It’s Rockstar-level nonsense for scope”

> Diablo IV senior designer Chris Balser also agreed with Nelson Jr., saying that it is important to remember that not all studios operate under the same conditions.

I guess they’re just intimidated by development studios that are still passionate for making games players genuinely enjoy as compared to their day job of working on battle passes and loot boxes.

https://gameworldobserver.com/2023/07/12/baldurs-gate-3-new-...

You can get it on GOG too, which has no DRM.

It is a much healthier purchase long-term.

Although for the most part I prefer GOG games, there are some cases where Steam integration provides a better experience. For example, modding via the Steam Workshop and some multiplayer functionality.

There's a whole thread on the GOG forums about games in general that are outdated or missing features on GOG. That's why I don't buy games on GOG anymore.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_that_treat_gog_custo...

Valve has been doing incredible work for Linux gaming, so I'm happy to support them, despite the DRM.

Proton and Steam Deck seem quite remarkable. So yes, Steam products run well on Steam hardware... however I install a lot of WINE games and I am not seeing that Steam give back to the broader WINE community and open source project. If Steam could somehow propogate all that Linux knowledge back to the project it would be a real win for Linux gaming and a big pat on the back for them then.

what are you talking about? Valve has advanced wine lightyears since jumping into linux with the steam machines years ago, and their wine patches have lead to countless forks that people use for better compatibility. Wine was terrible before valve stepped into the linux space

Yeesh, I grew up playing these games, but I am glad I nuked my Steam account. This looks like some fantastic heroin right there!

Fun story - I once managed to “hack” the original BG1 by playing a little halfling thief. Around 10% into the story, there is a possibility to get an rinvisibility cloak, fast walking boots, and a little -1hp/s poisoned dagger. On every map I would break the hearts of all my friends and disband the party once and for all! Then I would zoom around the map, stabbing every monster one by one. This would pool all the XP into my little dude. Then I would reunite all of my old friends once again. They were very useful as dumb slow mules for all the valuables and treasures and whatnot.

Sarevok literally did not see me coming.

As a major fan of BG1 and BG2, I really love the emphasis on the DND roots of the game. Rather than trying to abstract away the RNG aspects, it puts them front and center with actual d20 die rolls in a slick presentation.

True, but I'm only 10 rolls in and already wish that the whole animation and scene was a lot faster.

Click on the die a couple times and it speeds up

Thanks, I figured this out accidentally during the weekend while playing.

10/10 masterpiece of a game so far

I agree

Wow, you can buy this for Mac and after you pay it says it’s not a Mac game. Stay classy steam.

That's probably because the early access version was compatible with macOS (and natively supported Apple Silicon), but macOS support hasn't been released yet for the full game. It is indeed an unfortunate side effect, but I don't think it's Steam's fault (either Larian's decision to not support the EA macOS version at the same time, or a limitation of Steam of only having one version "published").

I actually asked Larian about this today:

> There isn't a release date yet for the Mac version, but keep an eye out for future community updates!

Steam also didn't support preloading the game, because it had an early access version. Really hope they fix that at some point, especially since this game's early access launch was so popular that it crashed steam, meaning this release had to take place in the morning washington-time when Valve employees are awake.

I totally understand the trouble they're having though, since this release is three weeks early to avoid other highly-anticipated games that launch at the end of august.

They do have no questions asked instant refunds if you haven’t launched the game yet

Also full refunds within 2 weeks and less than 2 hours played

For the record the fault lies with the developers who made the page for the game on Steam, not with Steam. You could argue that Steam shouldn't allow this in the first place but cases like these are pretty much the reason that they implemented refunds.

The live broadcast at https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561198810986181 shows what I assume are two devs who're having fun right now.

The displayed gameplay looks absolutely incredible, they are in multiplayer and to save his mate one of them just used a spell to knock off a guard down the stairs. Absolutely DnD kind of move.

I love the mix of both real-time and turn-based combat as well. A someone playing BG2 in my childhood for endless hours, seeing this (from what I can tell) top-notch release makes me really happy.

And now Minsc and Jaheira are coming into play... I couldn't be happier

Can anyone playing let me know how it plays so far compared to DOS2? I couldnt really get past the prison island before losing interest so I'm curious if people are finding this one more engaging

i mean, i thought dos2 was amazing. bg3 seems like a great refinement of the gameplay.

but it’s the same style, with similar pacing, and similar mechanics.

so, if dos2 wasn’t your thing i’m not sure this will be.

I lost interest around the same time as you with dos2 and I kind of lost interest with bg3 midway through the first act. (I played early access)

I’ll give it another go but I’m annoyed the EA saves can’t be used so I have to start again.

I would be interested, too. I've played through first DoS two times - solo and with a friend and had a good time. But DoS2 I've barely finished in coop. For some reason it was a slog - the game lacked direction, there was too much of everything, the lore was not convincing, dialogues often quite silly and they've absolutely broke the fighting system. In DoS it was fine: a nice sandbox, with a caveat that it could be exploited later in the game to become overpowered. But in DoS:2 they've added armor and every little engagement took half an hour. You've lost and need to replay a fight? Now you've lost an hour of your time. Another critic of mine is the movement of enemies - why are they so slow? Why cannot I speed them up or skip their round altogether? I've just had a feeling that it wastes my time.

Does BG3 still suffers from same issues?

Is this game stand alone or should I play the other 2 first?

Most people will play it as a standalone game and it's absolutely fine to do so. However, if you want to catch up on the lore, there are handy recap videos such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWvXRM3xGlo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__GI7CrYnj8

Definitely standalone. Having some knowledge of D&D lore or Baldur's Gate lore may enhance your enjoyment but only marginally IMO.

As the others have pointed out, you can play standalone, but if you're somewhat interested, perhaps the Wikipedia page is an "ok" start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%27s_gate, looking through the references there.

Iirc, BG3 story takes place a 100 years after BG2s story. Because of the time between them, it is very approachable as a standalone.

You can carry over story elements from your BG1 save to BG2, but not from BG1/2 to BG3.

Can someone give a breakdown of this game for someone who has heard the name a lot but really knows nothing about the game/gameplay?

It's a fairly good video game recreation of DnD? That's the best way I can describe it I haven't finished it, but it's pretty massive with tons of dialogue options/builds, turn based combat, so far I would highly recommend if that sounds appealing.

EDIT: same people made divinity original sin II if you're familiar, it's a similar vein.

Turn based strategy with a not necessarily good aligned story.

I'm still busy with Jagged Alliance 3. And BG kind of slid off of me back in the day so I'll probably skip this too.

Us Mac users need to wait until September, but it’ll still be with it, based on the early-access version:)

Better than those on Xbox. :(

In contrast to us PlayStation owners, at least you get Starfield, and I’m never not going to be grumpy about that >:(

Do pre-purchasers get refunds when a publishers fails to deliver claimed platform support?

The game was originally set to be released in September but they moved the release date of the PC version up to avoid Starfield. Presumably, they had to scramble to make this date.

The PS5 version was not moved up either.

Usually, there will be a disclaimer saying the date is non-binding and can change at any time. Same as with deliveries.

My experience as well is that you can refund them at anytime.

Most places, you can get a refund at any point before downloading the game. So, if the game's not out yet, you should be able to cancel the preorder.

https://youtu.be/nK9ZUZvr70Y

Does it have the terrible dialogue/writing that's found in every other Larian game?

Apparently, yeah, it does. Reviews say the writing is generally terse, to the point, or even awful and Marvel-like. Nothing like BG1 or 2. I was about to try this in GeForce Now but now I have no interest. I had even reinstalled Steam for this. The writing in BG2 was the best part.

Any chance it will run in Linux (Proton or something)? Or is it available on any streaming game service?

You can see the updates here: https://www.protondb.com/app/1086940, looks like some people are able to play and others aren't.

There's also Gaming on Linux, which, as the name suggests, focuses on Linux gaming; anyway, this is the latest news: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/08/baldurs-gate-3-steam-d...

It’ll be on geforcenow soon if it’s not there yet and it seems to run fine on steam os with proton experimental

It says it's playable on Steamdeck, so it works at least on that one Linux device.

SteamDeck proton experimental has worked flawlessly so far.

Im playing it on Linux (Tumbleweed) right now. Works fine.

I started downloading the 125gb package the minute it became available. Looks like it'll be a while.

I think I luck out and have a Steam cache in my geographic region. I often find the downloads from Steam max my net connection (1500Mbps), decompression almost takes longer than the transfer in my experience.

How do you find the download speeds from Steam?

Not who you're asking, but joining anyway :D

Steam will max my 2GbE connection here in Austin. The decompression is indeed a CPU hog

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