Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Previous Baldur's gate games! Dated?

"I ain't got a care for the politics and crap goin' on. Take all the metal away too, for all I care. Don't need it to hunt. Don't need it to kill. Don't need it to smell them ogres neither. Take my advice... er... mac, keep yer weapons ready." - Bub Snikt

Normal weapons were only breaking in BG1.
It was a consequence of the iron crisis, intended by the Iron Throne.

Neat!

Still play BG1 & 2. Playing it now because BG3 (to me) is such a huge disappointment in the DnD sense. It is visually dated, though some (like me) would say it is "classic". It is immensely playable. And like Solasta and even NWN, they come closer to creating a TT feel on a CRPG. I think that is the thing that made them so popular. Most of the market back then was likely TT players, too.

These days I have no idea how large the CRPG or even CRPG-adjacent or TT cross-over market. I am sure Larian thinks he is trying to address a larger player base than TT players, which is why so much of TT feel and DnD 5E is easily sacrificed.

The ONLY thing that drew me to this game was BG3 and DnD. If it is not that I won't play it beyond the EA. I have no doubts it will be successful enough. I am sure I am a minority (I usually am in most things anyway). There are enough DnD-ish games out there and I don't play them either. DOS1 was fun enough. DOS 2 got bogged down and I stopped playing half way through. If that is Larian's idea of "Epic" I don't see me playing all the way through BG3 either, so I'll save my time and money. hell, I still couldn't tell you the plot to DOS1. I can for BG1 & 2, NWN, POE, and (now) Solasta. I even keep forgetting about the Tadpoles in BG3. TBF, that's probably more my age showing!

But I enjoy reading others' comments! And this is probably how I'll get a sense of any improvement on the game. There are people here who have higher expectations than I do, so if they are satisfied, chances are I will be, too.

Carry on!
Joe

Yessir!! And that +1 sword was soooooo precious when you finally got it.

And finding that Ring of Protection in a tree knot?! What an amazing feeling *that* was!

Played BG2 a lot, back in the day, including TOB of course. Couldn't really stomach BG1, never fancied save-scumming due to one-shot kills. Wrote my own character' AI scripts, mostly for adaptive melee/ranged switching.

Even participated, briefly, in a small but very ambitious BG2 mod project (not really a mod, more like custom campaign on BG2 binaries), created a script editor IDE (with compiler integration and syntax highlight, no less!) and made custom location maps, using those awkward community-developed tools (now, that was a bloody challenge). Only, that was 20 years ago.

Eventually I was able to upgrade my PC so that it could run NWN, moved on and never looked back.

It's a great game, the storytelling and immersion are still top-notch, even though the rest of it didn't age exactly well. But, I can only playing through the same story so much. Plus, RTwP isn't my cup of tea in the slightest.

Ravenloft people. I can't believe Bioware didn't jump on the opportunity to make a dark, moody and very atmospheric game in the Barovia region of Ravenloft with Strahd as the main antagonist.

Well I am pretty confident you guys are going to get D&D video games in some of these newly-resurrected settings in the next few years. WotC will be releasing at least one new game every year, and they won't all be in the Realms. So we may not get every single one of those other settings, but certainly some of them.

I'm betting the game being made by OtherSide Entertainment is a Ravenloft game.

Never heard of them...Is it just a guess? What makes you think it's a Ravenloft game that is in developpement? I just looked them up and couldn't find anything

So far they are just responsible of Underworld Ascendant, the ATROCIOUS attempt to give one of my favorite games ever (Ultima Underowolrd) a proper spiritual successor that turned into a complete unmitigated disaster.

It won't be the same. Infinity Engine forever!

I grew up playing BG 1&2 (omg I was so glad to not have 6 discs with the second game), Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2, Icewind Dale (late to the game actually for that), and the Divinity series.

One of the games had a tribute to a person on the box or manual, and there are several people who have died or simply moved on in careers since those games came out. I almost feel it's a good thing to go a different direction. The Bhaalspawn concept was tough if you're a good character -- your heritage is eeeeevil. And damn, if I don't admire some of those companions who joined with you anyway.

Because it's been so long and so many other games came out in the D&D WoC Bioware lineup, I don't think I would like a direct clone/continuation. I actually really like what they're doing so far and have no complaints. It's as if my two favorite video games had a child together -- not really exactly like either parent but you can see what makes it meld. Divinity games were full of snark and humorous lore to be found and had large maps that made for endless exploring. I hope I can have a house in BG3. Not opposed to, errr, evicting the tennant....

I personally found the day/night cycle a pain in the rear but I don't think it has to be absent. The exhaustion mechanic is part of d&d so whatever but I hated that I had to rest every time I left town. Makes sense in realism, but irritating in a game where mobs that give nearly 0XP spawn constantly at night.

I really liked the diverse characters, but I felt there wasn't a good thief so I had to play one to avoid traps and locked stuff. I pretty much kept the same party, but that's because I played the game so much that I know who is useful. Dynaheir was not. She died tripping UP the stairs. Branwen and Xan are forever in my heart and I miss them terribly. Imoen is that kid sister you can't get rid of, but she's iconic so I guess she can stay (if only she stayed a damn thief). Aerie had an amazing kit that made her spells powerful...if. she. lives. Which is where Minsc + anyone who raises dead comes in....

Oh another thing that I HATED -- main character dies and you have to load. You are not the center of the universe. Bhaal will replace you. Or your party members can resurrect/raise dead. Or a temple. Really, this should not have been the way.

In a series of posts and media comments about a year ago, WotC revealed that two new D&D games are in the works, by Hidden Path Entertainment, and OtherSide Entertainment. The Hidden Path team subsequently sent out some tweets and posts confirming they were working on a third-person open-world AAA D&D game. OtherSide, however, has not said anything in public at all. But based on the kind of games OtherSide has done, I am just guessing that IF (a big if) their D&D game is for real, then it could be a Ravenloft game.

So much to say and could write a tome. But no one has time for that so . . .
Still play from time to time.

1. Praise for the engine. My toons do what I want them to do. (or did before Beamdog inexplicably broke a functioning trail finding system - but its still the best)

Of the successors, the Solasta variant of unity does the best of replicating the easy of use of the infinity engine but it's still not as good.

2. Praise for respect for rules. Very faithful implementation of 2nd rules and the homebrew rules that Bioware implements were exactly the same ones I used when I DMed (no racial limits on levels etc)

3. Praise for the replay value / non linearity. After you get out of candlekeep / chataeu inrenicus the world is open. You can follow the main plot or just forget about it for days. Weeks. A month.

4. Praise for the amount of content. Bioware tried to stuff every rulebook and every supplement into the game. I don't track hours but it probably takes me a month to complete an entire playthough.

5. Wuv, true wuv. BG2 invented the romance system. What's not to love?! Well, obviously, Anomen doesn't deserve love but otherwise . . .

6. Praise for banter. The banter felt organic. No predictable ground triggers, very few "we'll talk after the quest" moments. Instead we had a timer and randomizer - randomly out of the blue someone would say "I'm ready to talk now". Made the conversations feel more like real ones and added replay value. Of the successors, WOTR the best job of randomizing the camp dialogues. Again, adds replay value when you don't know that a conversation is going to happen on day 5 of adventuring.

Also big part of why Minsc became so popular. Why did Minsc just randomly yell something about hamsters? He's cray cray, that's why . . .

Well said.

I loved playing around the inventory. Checking out items, moving stuff around, reading the descriptions...With that <restrictive> slot design felt like...I actually had an adventure bag with me lol. IMMERSION Larian. IMMERSION.



Now its just pointless items overload everywhere so you need a <streamlined> DULL <smartphone> inventory UI. Its efficient, yes, but its soulless and forgettable.

Man, how much I would love that. I really like the Divinity engine used for BG3/D:OS, but I think it's an area where Larian could improve. You don't have to look further than Obsidian: even if PoE1 was a bit bland, I really think that PoE2 had one of the best range of mood/atmosphere/color palette and it translated really well to how you feel about the game. My biggest hope would be to see a Ravenloft game made with the PoE engine and 5e rules.

I dunno ... what i see here is tons of useless "wannabe artwork frame" shit ... and ridiculously small inventory that would be filled in BG3 in ... duno, aproximately 12 seconds. :-/

That probably says more the item overload in BG3 than anything else.

I would have liked to see an updated version of the old Inventory personally. It also forced the player to think about what they truly needed to keep or carry rather than being able to walk around with several weapons and suits of armour like in BG3, let alone dozens of forks or apples whatever else.

They could have updated it by having subsections within the new inventory, one pouch for food, one for potions etc. rather than having visual eyesore Candy Crush lookalike. I appreciate the would have meant more clicking and more inventory windows but I would think it might be a little easier to manage visually.

Sure, because BG3 has tons of useless garbage, while not adding anything worthwhile to the system. BG1&2 inventory was simpler and better for it. As to inventory it fits everything into one screen: equipment with multiple loadouds, relevant stats, character's doll, and full inventory, and items on the ground. Fully functional and comprehensive.