Second, I am finishing off my Masters in Journalism and have been using D&D as the main subject, as Baldur's Gate 3 is the latest game to follow the ruleset (kinda anyway), it seems like a great subject to cover.
Good luck! I hope it comes out well for you!
1. What do you think of BG3?
I'm deeply disappointed and browned off by what turned out, to me, to be a greatly squandered opportunity delivered atop a mounted of broken promises, transgressed goals and over-pitch with under delivery. The game had, and has, a great wealth of potential, but its positive status is, in my opinion, based on the extreme churning of the hype machine and not on the actual product, which is very close to a garbage fire, should not have been released in this state, and leveraged promises to early adopter fans that they never intended to fulfil in order to draw that support... At the start of the Ea, we bought in on a statement of promises about what they were making; they did not make that game and never intended to, and instead churned out what is really just a bigger, more over-reaching, more slap-dash and undercooked version of their previous game. At this stage, I'm prepared to give it a solid 5.5-6/10 - It's simply mediocre, and not worth the hype engine behind it. Not a 'terrible' game, by any means, but just medicore.
2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
I played from the beginning of EA; I participated in the EA specifically to be a tester and to give feedback constructively, in order to help the game become the best example of itself it could be. I do not feel my efforts were worthwhile, given the delivered product.
3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
The VA put a lot of effort into their work, and deliver excellent performances, even if the modelling and animation tied to those performances leaves much to be desired, and the scrip-writing that they have to work with it pretty abominable.
I appreciate the attempt to make the inclusion of adult material and intimacy in games more socially acceptable, and their attempts to display and represent other relationship dynamics beyond pure couple pairings... unfortunately, they undermine themselves in this endeavour by conducting that representation with harmful stereotypes, poor writing, and by their own inability to treat anything seriously or with respect - turning many things that should not be into jokes and playing scenes for cheap laughs at the expense of the player.
4. What about the least enjoyable?
A great many things, such that it is hard to pick just one: Poor story-writing and a plot that is more hole than fabric; having to fight he camera to play the game, having to fight the UI to play the game; the willingness of the game to break immersion for the sake of a cheap laugh, over, and over and over; having a UI that gives me false information about what it is doing or what will happen; having tooltips that give false information about what will happen or how an ability works; having a clunk and dated trade and interaction menu; having a clunky and extremely dated party control mechanism; having party AI and general control issues that you have to fight to prevent them doing stupid things at stupid times, or at either side of dialogues. Overbearing homebrew to the ruleset, so bad that it abolishes actual character and class abilities, in favour of larian's 'Fun'; broken quests and unfinished quest lines that go nowhere because Larian simply forgot to do anything with them... or ran out of time; broken quests and progression points that result in constant non-sequiturs and reactions that do not make sense or don't line up with previous events - bugs perhaps, but in many cases ones that were reported up and down the length of the Ea without being fixed; vestigial systems that were partially designed and put in and then abandoned or forgotten about; and of course, the truly abominable halfling models that could and should be so much better than they are, but which never got improved because at the end of the day, Larian considers short races to be joke characters, and doesn't feel the need to show them any care or respect.
5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
I'd like to see a version of the game that more closely resembles the game that Larian sold me with their initial promises; one that recreates the 5e D&D system in a video game as closely as is realistically feasible - a true 5e rules mode, as it were.
I'd like to see the models for halflings redone and improved - there's a very long thread about this that has attracted majority support and agreement, and has been around for much of the EA without being acknowledged.
I'd like to see the broken quest lines fixed, the unfinished quest lines finished, and the game's general handling to be fixed and improved to the point that quests reliably progress according to your actions.
I'd like the UI, camera and control systems to all be severely improved, or even overhauled, to be user-friendly, intuitive and largely smooth enough that they fade into the background of player awareness while operating the game... like any modern game does and Larian does not.
6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
I do not currently use any mods, as I am still in the process of experiencing the game, and I wish to do so with it standing on its own two feet first.
When I'm done with that, I'll be getting mods to improve the various elements I've mentioned, where I can - I'm keeping an eye on the 5e rules and 5e spells mods, and looking for model improvers for short races.
7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
I've played, and play 5e D&D for many years, and am both a player and a DM; I play in person where possible, and online in one instance.
My main characters are: Wren, halfling bard (college of songbirds); Tess, gnome storm sorcerer; Tarabel, halfling zealot Barbarian; Penny, halfling Alchemist (Mechanist/Blight-Breaker); Satin, human rogue (thief); Niara, human ranger (hunter).
I've played video game utilising 3.5 and 4e, quite extensively as well.
I've also played a bit of Pathfinder, and have played the Kingmaker video game.
