^ almost every day on /r/baldursgate new players arrive and post about how much they love the game.
1998 to 2020.
That's why it's a masterpiece. It is literally timeless.
I want Larian to succeed, despite all my criticism, but I highly doubt they will because they are choosing to circumvent this 22 year legacy to push their own RPG identity into the franchise.
They'd have been far better off calling it something like "Baldur's Gate: Absolution" or "Baldur's Gate: Ceremorphosis" (that second one sucks, I admit, I was just filling in space, I think "Absolution" after the Cult of the Absolute is so poignant and a much better title).
the 3 indicates a DIRECT narrative connection between 1/2 and 3 ... which implies Bhallspawn legacy, but that is over which has been confirmed. This is a new story with new characters that feature the Dead Three - it's more about them than it is the previous games, in which case "Baldur's Gate: the Three" would be an apt pun on this being the third title, and also being about the Dead Three.
BG3 is pure nostalgia bait, and a really cheap low blow by Larian.
Best analogy I can come up with is Starcraft. Imagine Blizz came along and said "SC3 will be TB" and just left it at that. Videogames are still games, and that core game PLAY part is a piece of the recipe that, if changed, completely changes the flavour of the finished product.
