And here I thought I made it super clear that I am very aware of the thick, rose-tinted nostalgia glasses!
Regarding the advice to knock BG of my pedestal and stop worrying so much... Most of us have some things we put on our pedestals, don't we? For whatever reason. If not a game, then a book or an old car or something. Maybe BG never made it to your pedestal Seraphael, or maybe you're just good at taking stuff off of it. But for me it's a little harder than that, not something I can approach with pure logic and sheer rationality. But despite the pedestal -and- me being older now, I'm not impossible to please, or impress. In fact I'd say overall I'm pretty good at managing my expectations, and approaching things with an optimistic mindset.
Games have evolved and progressed massively over the past decades, being such a young medium and with technology advancing so fast. Of course DOS is objectively superior, compared to games a decade and a half older. But it's not really about that. And neither do I believe that "playing on the nostalgia strings" is restricted to writing/narrative. I think it's doable in both game design as well as visuals. While simultaneously breaking new ground and supporting modern/different functionality? Hell yeah it's possible. Very difficult, but possible. And this is the area where I hope Larian surprises me and really rises to the challenge. The challenge of the nostalgia strings
I don't think there's a danger of Larian concentrating too much on playing the nostalgia strings just right and then neglecting other parts of the game. They've shown they can make good games, and I'm sure they're trying their hardest to make this one their best work yet. But I hope that in their mission to develop their best game so far, they still have time for those sweet little nostalgia strings.
I know I write a bit vaguely, broad strokes, not going into much detail. It's probably because I'm not really super interested in specific technical details (yeah the added verticality looks really cool and like a lot of fun), I'm trying to write about how I... feel? And that's just it. Nostalgia aside, it doesn't really matter how they do it. If Larian can make me -feel- (they didn't quite manage to, in DOS), then BG 3 is pretty much up on that infamous pedestal straight away.
Am I setting myself up for disappointment? We'll see!
Oh and thanks Rafoca!
EDIT: I felt like I missed to respond to too many things here, sorry about that. But prefering Beamdog for making BG3? Nah
