> I think you might be attributing too much of a game's success exclusively to its combat system, and also falling victim to confirmation bias.
It's not clear how much non-combat overshadows combat in some of those titles, but the combat part is quite significant. At least half of the gameplay hours are spent in those adventure-based games in combat I bet, and the higher the difficulty, the time is spent in combat thinking of a best possible move, retrying combat after loading a save, etc.
> but you list a number of problems with the system that are entirely subjective while treating them as facts,
...you don't have to rest between fights? You don't have to prepare spells? BG3 allows the flexibility of performing multiple combat actions without having an action points system? What exactly is subjective here?
> and then you make wild assumptions like how DOS2 fans will be very disappointed with BG3 because it uses a D&D based combat
Yes, because though not direct data, the evidence is against D&D: - D&D is rare in video games, meaning for some reason game studios are avoiding it - The majority of the most liked and/or popular tactical turn-based combat games aren't D&D, including Larian's most popular game - I've seen D&D lovers agreeing that it's too complicated, even in this very thread; in contrast, nobody would ever say Fallout 2 class sheet or combat is complicated (or XCOM). It's fun and satisfying, to the point that it beats BG1. I'm not really sure that Fallout 2 wins over BG1 with story alone, that's highly unlikely.
Like you said, I'm making an assumption. If you disagree, I'll be interested in counter-arguments.
> it's almost safe to predict that BG3's only real competitor to beat in there is DOS2
It's very hard to compare BG3 to anything because the industry shifted from turn-based to action, like with Dragon Age 2, 3, all Mass Effects (easily could've been turn-based, all of them), Fallout 3, 4. Pretty sure Dragon Age 4 won't be turned-based, even though I want it to be. But, you're right that DOS2 can be used for comparison, and we'll see when it fully releases.
