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Comment by kyleyeats | Hacker News Reader

Are you kidding? The third title in their famous Baldur's Gate series just came out and everyone is talking about it. It's being called a triumph of PC gaming and a return to form.

Oh wait. They only made the first two. (The answer to your question is ME1)

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Mass effect 2 was much more polished, even if it did lean more towards action than RPG. I personally didn't like Dragon Age inquisition, but it was widely acclaimed and was the company's most successful launch at the time.

Did Bioware even make either Baldur's Gate game?

I thought they were just the publisher, Black Isle was the developer? Do I have that backwards?

Edit: I looked it up and I do have it backwards.

Reread the parent. They were attempting sarcasm.

You've actually misread bluefirebrand's comment in this case.

No, I got the joke. I'm fully aware that Baldur's Gate 3 is not related to Bioware at all.

Also that Larian is basically eating Bioware's lunch right now because Bioware has dropped the ball on Dragon Age which would occupy a similar space to BG3

It's actually even funnier that Larian is doing it by using a franchise that Bioware built 20 years ago.

Dragon Age hasn’t occupied a similar space to BG3 since Origins.

Gameplay wise I would agree.

But generally I think many people who love these games are in it for the writing, the character romances, the storyline, and the exploration. In this regard, Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot of similarities with Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, and presumably Dreadwolf whenever that comes out.

The individual details of the mechanics are less important to many.

I agree with what you're saying, but I think it's not stretching too hard to say that gameplay also matters for games. Romances, storyline, and so on are fine and dandy, but at some point you have to have some gameplay. Or not, if you want to make a visual novel. And that's fine too!

You might also be thinking about Planescape Torment, which was developed by BlackIsle with licensed BioWare technology (the Baldur's Gate engine). As far as I'm aware, Planescape Torment is the closest BioWare has ever gotten to the creation of an excellent game.

BioWare developed the Infinity Engine, BG1 and BG2. Interplay was the publisher. Black Isle was an internal division of Interplay and box label. Black Isle developed Icewind Dale 1 & 2, and Planescape: Torment using the Infinity Engine.

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