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y-rhywbeth2 · 4 months

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So, BG1 and BG2 Spoilers ahead:

Flicking through the original games again to check on certain lore points and also stopped on Sarevok's dialogues to make sure I'm not hallucinating, but nope.

Sarevok misremembers his past and his attitude towards Bhaal has changed. If he's supposed to be the same guy, then hey, Larian, you could've, I don't know... explored what the hell happened?? It would even be relevant to the themes of Bhaal's cult, indoctination, loss of will/identity and his shitty parenting?

I mean, I can kind of see where the whole "Durge, do what I failed to do so that Bhaal may live again through you" stuff came from, though I feel like they missed the mark a smidgeon (Sarevok seems a little too devoted to Daddy in BG3 from what I remember - he was not originally. Sarevok has no respect for Bhaal (dude's got twice the daddy issues of the typical Bhaalspawn), he's only interested in his power.):

Sarvok: "You are indeed family. No other could have lived to oppose me in person. Of course, it will not matter in the end. Ultimately I will prevail, and a new era will be born unto the realms." Charname: "You are mad! What do you hope to gain by resurrecting a dead god?" Sarevok: "Father Bhaal is dead, but the slaughter I will orchestrate will prove me to be the most worthy successor. It will raise his power from the ashes. The streets will run red with blood when my work is finished!" Charname: "Successor? Deities are not known for sharing their power willingly!" Sarevok: "Fool! I do not wish to RESTORE his power - merely to RAISE it! With the divine blood that flows through these veins, I shall assume control over that which he so foolishly lost! I shall BECOME Bhaal. THAT... is the only acceptable outcome. [...] Face me! Face the new LORD OF MURDER!"

Sarevok: "Fuck Bhaal, he didn't deserve his job, so I'm taking it."

As for the bitching about being resurrected against his will, oh he's so annoyed. How could his cruel sibling do this to him against his will???

UM, LARIAN???

Sarevok: "So. You have finally arrived. I have been waiting for you." Charname: "Sarevok?! Didn't I kill you for the last time in Hell?" Sarevok: "You did indeed... although that was no fault of mine. [...] I have done nothing but attempt to reform myself since."

Sarevok: "Regardless, I spotted [this pocket plane] forming and guessed at its purpose. So I came here and waited, kniwing that eventually you would come... and that then we could discuss my... deal." Charname: "What kind of deal? What could *you* want?" Sarevok: "What do you think I want, dear [sibling]? I wish to exist... I wish to be alive again. You can do that. The smallest fraction of your soul, my [sibling]... given freely, with the taint of our dead father within it. That would recreate my flesh, restore my mortality... Sarevok would live again!" Charname: "I killed you once before... what makes you think I would want to return you to life?" Sarevok: "I do not come to the table empty-handed, [charname]. You think me a fool? [...] I can help you. And that has its price."

Charname: "Forget it. I don't trust you." Sarevok: "As you wish. By all means, stroll about and examine what you will of your domain. Time passes and events move with them. I'm sure it will not take long even for you to realise the truth"

Basically, he holds you hostage in this tiny dimension and won't let you progress with the game until you share your soul with him and resurrect him.

Charname: "...I will restore you." Sarevok: "So I have cheated death! Thank you, dear [sibling]... no gift could please me more." ... Sarevok: "I live! Flesh and blood and bone! I am ALIVE! Ha ha ha ha ha! I swore I would scratch and crawl my way back into the world of the living... and I have done it! "Though my sword and armour have not appeared. No matter. Without the Bhaal essence to channel their powers, they are of little use. I shall make do without them, as I once did. Thank you, [charname]. I am pleased."

Oh, he totally didn't want to escape! See how mad about it he is! See how happy he was in the afterlife??

*muttering*

(Sarevok bitches about this in his journal and Solath manifests over his shoulder and whacks him over the head with her staff because excuse you?? After all that nagging??)

#look how they massacred my boy #and then didn't even do him the service of explaining why and exploring it properly #bg2 spoilers #bg3 #babbling #bg1 spoilers

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panigamermauser · 8 months

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Cut stuff thought part 4

Halsin and Minthara. Ending stuff(getting on the soapbox there to scream). Plus various smaller quests, gods options for clerics and paladins etc.

I very appreciate them adding Halsin as companion at all, so I am very forgiving of him having less content than others. But knowing he was supposed to have Druid Circle quest in Act3 makes me sad it was cut.

First, it would tie into his ingame wishes to bring more of nature/civilization balance to Baldur's Gate. Also, that was probably where you could develop his romance.

I am _personally_ fine with him not being committed to long-term relationship despite his big romantic words. I have a deep fear of commitment myself, no matter how in love I am. You talk marriage - I run off. So I feel seen, and I get how he feels in his current version. But for very same reason I am keenly aware how frustrating it can be to be with someone like me.

So if his quest is restored, I really hope his romance gets more fulfilling and just as developed as others.

Speaking of others... What happened to Minthara is a crime. I do not even have her, and will never have her (because I - as a player - like tieflings too much to ever side against them). And still I feel she was done dirty. Cannot imagine how people who have her and love her feel.

This is just like Karlach situation. It should have been restored in Patch 1 already. Especially since she was there from Early Access, not a late addition like Halsin and Karlach. She should have been as polished as other primary companions. No words just indignation.

Not to mention that from meta perspective it would be so interesting to see a romanciable character who is already pregnant with someone else's child. That is a unique story. And makes her actual literal MILF too 😏 And the salt from gamer bros... Can you even imagine?! 🤣🤣🤣

Justice for Minthara NOW!!!

Withers revealed as Jergal is a small thing. Like, EVERYONE who knows dnd gods knows who he is anyways. But it would be a nice thing for new people to learn/look into.

And naturally all of the cut post-game stuff should not only be restored, but also expanded.

Post-campaign discussion is a very important part of dnd. DM should tell you how you affected the state of the world in great detail. You should discuss what happens to your characters with other players. In case of BG3 the game is our DM and companions are our co-players.

That last talking post-game session is so very important for the campaign. Headcanons are good and all, but they are nothing compared to a good post-game discussion.

It should have been it's own epilogue setpiece. At least prologue-sized in scope. One last walk around. You can just limit it to Wyrm Rock castle if necessary. Not just companions, but all of your allies gathered there too. Or some cool space shit for Illithid ending😁

Right now it feels like the group fell apart at the very end. And this is an unironic tragedy. Realistic? Sure(most groups fall apart long before campaign ends). But it does not have to be!

They showed with Act 1 and Act 2 endings and some other stories (Astarion, Shadowheart, House of Hope, Bhaal stuff for Dark Urge) that they both KNOW how to give closure and CAN do it. So why not apply the same for actual game ending?

Probably they just ran out of time.

One tiny bit of me hopes that they removed it because they plan to restore cut content, and it will be easier to make one proper ending that accounts for all those variables instead of making ending with current available choices and then tweak it for added stuff.

But realist in me says it's just a time issue, and not much more.

Onto smaller stuff that does not call for its own post, so I'll stick it there.

Hag Coven sounds very interesting. I get why it was cut - it has nothing to do with the main plot, so if they had to cut something, it makes sense to cut this subplot. Still, hags are awesome enemies, and if Larian decides to make DLC with extra adventures (I'll make a separate post about my DLC wishlist) - it will be a welcome addition.

Raven Queen plot line. Same as hags. Shame it was cut tho. I am very thirsty for He Who Was. But it explains why his quest felt so random and weird. Just your basic fetch quest. Which is generally not a thing in BG3. Now it makes sense. It was a beginning of its own subplot. Again, not a necessity, but would be nice to see it restored.

Idk what that Halfling Werewolf thing even refers too. But the concept is awesome, and I'd love to see it!

Shar, Myrkil, Bhaal and Bane as cleric/paladin gods.

On one hand it would add cool 'No, _I_ am the Chosen One moments in Shadowheart, Gortash, Ketheric and Orin (in case of Durge, literally!) convos.

In case of Shadowheart it could have been heartbreaking besties-to-deadly rivals over who gets to kill Nightsong too.

But... it would be applicable to only two classes. So if they had to cut something, it made sense to cut this. Most classes would never see those options anyways, so it's not that big of a loss. But it would be a very neat addition for Definitive Edition for sure.

They already have voice lines for Durge to claim the brain in dad's name. So they could easily reuse it. Just change name/pronoun.

#baldur's gate 3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 #mauser talks cut content

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treecove · 8 months

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imo bg3 needed more time in the oven. act 2 is my favourite by far, and while act 3 is interesting and fun overall, it lacks a lot of cohesiveness and pacing that the first and second acts did. it feels very much how dos2 felt upon release, and considering the fact that they redid that game and even rereleased it later on to add cut or new content, i wouldnt be surprised if that's what happens with bg3. (though in this case i just hope they patch it in, instead of rereleasing at all lol).

act 3 just shows a lot of places where they couldnt give something a second pass. especially on my first run, i actually encountered a lot of glitches and places where i had apparently sequence broke things without even knowing. it made for some very confusing dialogues. the final run towards the absolute at the end as you battle through the city was very janky and prone to ai lagging out and doing nothing for an entire 2 minutes. and for the actual final cutscene i had to save and quit the game, then reload the save in order to make things not look like runescape and for epilogue scenes to actually fire properly.

i love the game a lot, but i hope and honestly expect larian to release patches and restore content that they cut (for what i assume is the reason of just wanting to get the game out of ea already). it's good, but it can be better.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #this is aside from my criticism for certain.... narrative and theme choices they made #(stares at the twin drow and playing ableism vs dv)

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r0achlezbian · 1 month

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i'm gonna be honest the recent bg3 news pisses me off bad. like i've always held out a lotta hope that eventually they'd make some sorta definitive edition with the copious amounts of cut content (especially the upper city!) restored so finding out they've just shrugged and decided they're done is... upsetting to say the least. i still have a lot of plans for bg3 fics and all that but i'm extremely disappointed and probably won't tune in for whatever larian makes next because i'm not really interested in waiting for them to finish their game only to months later decide to walk away with it half baked.

#benny.exe #balding gate #did anyone ask for my thoughts on this? no. but this is my blog you get what you get and you don't get upset

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flymmsy · 15 days

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patch 7 coming sooon!!!!!!! hopefully it restores those durgetash lines that were cut. I did send them bug report this month and got back answer that it is a known bug that will be fixed as soon as possible

Ah I know! I’m v excited to see what we get.

I’ve seen a lot of people say they’re excited for the new evil endings, but I do just want to remind people that the new endings were never confirmed for THIS patch, but rather would be added at some point. Just don’t want everyone’s hopes up!

Glad to hear of another bug report confirmation. Larian never responded to my second report, but seeing as how it is so close to the Patch, they may just be waiting it out.

Fingers crossed for more durgetash

#Flymmsy asks

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chronurgy · 1 month

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So larian is a definite no on dlc but they did say they would continue with some support updates. I'm assuming this means we aren't getting a definitive edition? That's too bad I was hoping we'd get one with some restored cut content, especially in the upper city

#I mean they didn't say that they wouldn't do a definitive edition #But they really didn't say they would either #And frankly based on the interview they seemed pretty done with it and ready to mkcd on to other projects #But I guess we'll find out #bg3

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asteriasfallingstarsandtears · 3 months

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Hopes for DLC that we'll probably never see:

Main game DLC:

Restoration of the Upper City maps and expansion on Gortash and Orin's roles so they actually seem like the big bads they're supposed to be, plus the actual resolution to Karlach's story that got cut

Restoration of the full Avernus map where there is another good opportunity to save Karlach and fix her heart. Maybe even if you've already killed Gortash you can find him in Raphael's cells with Hope and make A Decision

I need my girlfriend to get a fixed heart.

Post game DLC little harder but doable:

Investigation of the attacks on the Selunites

Resolution to all those Cyric refrences

Raiding the Dead Three realms with Jergal/Withers blessing and facing the Chosen again, choosing to release them from their torments or condemn them to further torture. There's actually precedence for this, in the old games you do go to the Throne of Bhaal. Maybe I just want more of that Avatar of Myrkul fight, that really was the coolest fight in the game for me.

Just off the top of my head, yes I could and am writing fics for these, but I do think at the very least the restoration of the cut maps would benefit act 3 significantly.

But this is all very expensive and time consuming in game development so I really don't have high hopes. Larian does seem to be very confused that their game got so much acclaim and public love, and their responses about dlc and definitive editions have been vague.

But there's so many little loose threads to pull at

#bg3 #bg3 rambles #dlc hopes #dont come at me and say i could do fanfic i do do fanfic #thats like 90% of my personality right now #im incredibly self indulgent with these #but they do make sense if they do do dlc

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flowersdaggersviolasandblood · 7 months

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Blood, Flesh, and Tears

Name: Torment (He/Him)

Race: Zariel Tiefling

Class: Paladin (Oath of Vengence)

Background: Haunted One

I finally got Halsin to join the party! Let's talk about it :D

So last we left off, I went to the House of Healing in hopes of finding Arabella's parents in time that we could bring them back in one piece. However, it seems that it's scripted for them to die, even if you immediately rush to their location. After killing the nurse, Torment and the gang ventured further into the House of Healing. After killing the nurse at the reception desk, I accidentally picked a dialogue option where Malus Thorm kills himself by having his nurses show their surgical craft to their teacher. I killed the nurses afterward to make up for that, but whoops. During all of this, I thought I accidentally fucked up. So, there's a man that Thorm and his nurses were torturing and with the option I chose where Thorm allowed himself to get killed by his nurses, the guy got got and died.

For a moment, I thought I fucked up because I couldn't find where the quest marker was taking me. Only for me to discover that Malus was holding on to a lute associated with that Art guy back at Last Light Inn. After exploring a bit of Reithwin and getting rid of the toll troll and fat albert (I got lazy and just went for the KYS options), I rushed back to Last Light in and played Arts lute, which I find funny because I doubt Torment can play any instrument lol.

After waking up Art, he informs us of what happened to Thaniel, which gives Halsin an idea of where we can find him. He's in the Shadowfell, but he would have to make a portal there to reach him and he asks that we protect the portal until he returns with Thaniel. Despite Torment's protests to go with Halsin because of the possible dangers, he agrees to defend the portal. And goddamn was Halsin close to being stuck in the shadow realm lmao. Halsin returns back to Last Light with a unconcious Thaniel, but there's something wrong.

Back at camp, Halsin deduces that the young fey boy has become split and that their other half is somewhere in the Cursed Lands. Which, we don't have to search for long because we know who and where this other half is, Oliver! This is also the point where Halsin starts to actually travel with us!

After officially recruiting Halsin to the party, we made a bee line straight to Oliver. After confronting the boy about his true identity, we are teleported to the back of the Denny's as we are put into combat to fight Oliver. Now, because Larian can't just let us kill children, we're not actually fighting Oliver. We instead gotta weaken a protective shield around him by taking out his Shadow (or Wraith, don't remember) mommy and daddy along with the shadow clone jutsu clones of himself. After handling that, I got a admittedly awkward cutscene where Halsin convinces Oliver to join back with Thaniel...However, Halsin was a owlbear during the fight and he didn't revert back...soo... Regardless, we got the job done.

Even after Thaniel is made whole, he's unable to restore the Cursed Lands due to Ketheric Thorm. Because I spoiled myself for this quest, this makes me feel a little better about having not accomplished this back in my Pero run because regardless of saving Thaniel, we are essentially still told to go and deal with Thorm. What cancels that out, however, is that Pero doesn't have Halsin as a companion yet because I accidentally locked myself out of the quest ;A;.

With Halsin recruited, we got to learn a bit more about him. But before we get back with Halsin, let's talk about our new friend, He Who Was (HWW).

So after we explored the inn, we found the receipts that confirms that the dead murders' guilt in written form. HWW asks that we act as judge as they use themselves as a conduit to bring back the persons' soul so that they may inhabit it for a short while. Torment agrees and we are faced with...A guilt-ridden woman. She sorrowfully explains that she didn't intend for her friends to be killed, that the Dark Justiciars simply asked if they could "talk" with them and out of fear, she pointed them in the right direction. She didn't know they would kill them, which, like, ok stupid.

Torment had little remorse for her, mainly because she's already dead, so nothing he says or does to her would really matter...However, he was kindly asked by HWW to torture her and make her face her sins. So he asked that she take a knife and stab themselves until he tells them to stop, the same way her friends died from the Dark Justiciars. But, remember, HWW's body is being used by this spirit, so Torment forgot to consider that the woman would be stabbing his body while trying to stab her own.

Fortunately, HWW was able to severe the connection, but he was a bit...upset lol. I ended up fighting him in the end and, you know, I'm honestly surprised I haven't lost my oath yet.

To end this, Torment and Halsin have a one on one together. Torment learns that Halsin knew of Thaniel when he was a boy and when he discovered that the fey boy protected the nature around him, Halsin made it his mission to protect him. So he became a Druid. We also learn that Halsin didn't willingly become Archdruid, it was forcibly placed in his lap when their previous Archdruid died during the fight against Thorm and the previous Dark Justiciars some centuries back. Of course, I picked the dialogue option where Torment asks why Halsin has big titties (that's not really what the dialogue option said, but that's still a question everyone may have asked him) and to get his work out routine because Halsin is rather tall and large for an Elf.

Halsin then expresses that he does some minor arts and crafts and likes ducks. Which, since I've decided that imma do a Halsin/Astarion/Torment run with this, I like to think that Torment had a brief memory of small hands touching a duckling. The memory didn't result in any cruelty done to the animal, Torment isn't even sure if the memory is his, but it does take him aback. This doesn't make him think that he and Halsin is connected somehow, for the memory looked a bit too city life for someone like Halsin to inhabit and the hands shared the same skin tone as Torments.

Snapped out of the memory, Halsin asks what hobbies Torment partakes in. Which, Torment honestly expresses that the hobbies he know of involves blood, gore, and death. Which gives some disapproval points to Halsin as he awkwardly takes in that information. This is the point where Torment gets a wake up call and quickly leaves the scene.

You see, every other companion Torment came forward with about his disturbed obsession has more or less told him "oh it's fine, as long as it's directed to our foes, we don't care :)." Then there's fucking Astarion who just outright encourages it from time to time. But overall, the Party has been lax about Torments condition, which says a lot about how disturbed everyone else is due to their own circumstances. To have someone deadass go "homie...What the fuck" after being told that he likes blood and guts made Torment feel like that ice cold water was poured on him.

Torment is reminded that normal people don't excuse those type of behaviors and that there's something deeply wrong with him.

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #bg3 spoilers #bg3: the dark urge #the dark urge #the dark urge: torment

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galedekarios · 6 months

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Dropping by to say I hope you're having a wonderful day/night. I love the new Galeboo ❤️ icon! I was wondering why I haven't seen some of your recent gifsets and vg photos but it's because Tumblr mobile keeps putting my feed onto the "for you" page instead of the "following" section 🤮

I wanted to point out that Gale always look so soft and adoring in all your gifsets (I also adore that you put him in comfy robes because that would be his thing tbh). Did you install a previous datamined face of his or am I tripping? Either way, fucking gorgeous coloring and angles on both gifs and photos!!!!

thank you so much for your message! 🖤i'm not particularly good at making icons, but i tried my best. (':

also don't worry that sometimes happen to me too until i realise that hey, something's wrong. it doesn't help that tumblr's theme is now essentially the same as twitter's. v confusing.

and yes, i am using gale's ea headmorph + eye colour mod from @padme4000, which largely restores gale's previous ea design.

i'm sort of attached to the "old" gale after having played early access for almost three years and larian only changing gale's appearance shortly before release.

i discussed it in a post here and posted a little comparison as well:

thank you again for the kind message and support! 🖤 i hope you have a great day/night, too!

#also disclaimer bc i've learned ppl can be extremely weird on this site:#i'm just playing with what is comfortable to me / what i've gotten used to during years of playing the game at this point #ch: gale dekarios #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #text: asks

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Larian’s gorgeous Baldur’s Gate 3 looks to be a game of groundbreaking systemic depth • Eurogamer.net

It’s early days for Baldur’s Gate 3. An end of year release window seems to have leaked but there’s “no exact date” for when it’s coming out, according to developer-publisher Larian Studios, of Divinity: Original Sin and Original Sin 2 fame. And when it does come out – simultaneously on Google Stadia and Steam – it’ll be in early access first. Understandably, early access can seem a bit icky to some, but Larian’s argument for it seems fair enough: the game needs en-masse testing from its own audience if it’s ever going to come together, and having now seen a marathon, over three hours long presentation of live gameplay, I can see why. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game with an extraordinary level of systemic depth and remarkable complexity. Across the board it’s a game that’ll need time. Time to polish, time to balance, and quite a bit of time from the player, I’d imagine, to really get anywhere close to understanding and mastering its systems. But from what was shown of the game and what Larian has told us in our Baldur’s Gate 3 interview, it’ll be worth the wait – and then some.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Developer: Larian Studios

Publisher: Larian Studios

Platform: PC (Steam), Stadia

Availability: Early Access “later this year”.

Our presentation opened with the same stupidly pretty CGI intro you’ll have seen from the Baldur’s Gate 3 panel going on at PAX, before a quick run through the character selector, a skip over the “secret” tutorial, a couple of hours of early game party-gathering and dungeon crawling, and then a closer look at a massive, later-game dungeon that showed all the flashy systems off with a little more depth. To start at the beginning though, on the most fundamental level, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a darker, more viscerally detailed story than what you might have been used to from Larian.

The story begins with a bunch of Mind Flayers – angry, definitely-not-Cthulhu squid people with some pretty gnarly magic powers – flying around in a jumbo squid mothership called a Nautiloid. On board, you and a handful of others are held prisoner and infected with what could more or less be described as brain worms: a “tadpole”, with lots of teeth, bores its way under your eyelid, through the back of your eye and into your brain. The Nautiloid crashes, you wash up on a spot of beach, and your mission is to find someone who can get that tadpole out of your head before it pops through your skull and rather gruesomely turns you into a Mind Flayer yourself. As I said: a bit darker than Divinity.

The tadpole does come with a special power though, which acts as one of Baldur’s Gate 3’s central gimmicks: you can sort of “mind meld” with anyone else who has one, and as well as the “origin characters”, plenty of characters around the world will turn out to have a pet tadpole of their own. (The character creator itself appears just as detailed as Original Sin 1 and 2. Origin characters and their special, fully-voiced, cutscened and backstoried facets return of course, and in the creator you can choose race and subrace, background, class, subclass, and just about everything else conceivable).

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On the surface, much of the time the tadpole mind-melding boils down to the odd special dialogue option with fellow brain wormers, acting as sort of shortcuts through tricky conversations, in the vein of special origin character options that are seemingly always positive. But that’s a superficial explanation, really. The tadpoles are one part of a much wider set of systems – or perhaps more accurately, a wider web of sets of systems – that all play off one another with Larian’s now-typical panache. To get to the heart of how this little story gimmick plays into the wider game you need to go deeper, into what Baldur’s Gate 3 really is and how it really works.

What it is is complex. Start by thinking of a typical CRPG like Divinity: Original Sin, where the background numbers power the visible numbers, like your characters stats, which dictate your ability to navigate certain situations like persuading someone to let you out of prison through dialogue, or smash through a door with magic. All of the people-persuading and the door-smashing intertwines with a set of rules, which in the Original Sin games is built around surfaces and statuses. So, if the floor’s on fire and you throw some water on it, or cast a water-based spell at it, the fire and water turn to a lingering cloud of steam. Standing in the steam might do damage to you or cure you of an ailment or whatever else, depending on all the moving parts like what race you are and what innate traits you have, and so on.

The devious grease and fire trap in action (click to expand these images, and for better look at the UI behind our captions).

Now, intertwine those rules with the rules of Dungeons and Dragons, as they were back in the original Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2. You can dip weapons in flaming sconces to light them on fire, you can throw anything you have on your person (more on that in a bit) you can stack objects to create stairs (more on that too), and, above all, everything is powered by a D20 dice roll. Sometimes that’s behind the scenes, little formulae whirring away in the background as you walk around the world passing and failing perception checks for little hidden levers or pressure plates; or spotting or failing to spot facial twitches that reveal anxiety or anger in conversation, all the working-out of which viewable in a little bottom-right tooltip that lifts the mathematical bonnet. Most of the time, however, that dice roll is quite explicit. You roll for initiative on encountering enemies, according to things like who has the high ground or the element of surprise. You roll for explicit attempts to do things like persuade or intimidate in conversation, as well as the passive rolls in the background that might just pop something up. You roll, three times, to see just how “dead” you are when you’re downed: fail three and you’re dead for good (if you haven’t already been picked off, or if you haven’t got a resurrection scroll on some other party member to recover).

Stir all that together and what do you have? Chaos. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a molotov cocktail of a game, every action’s consequences shattering outwards, spreading and spurting across seemingly the entire length of a run through it. Take the experience we had, with Larian’s founder, Swen Vincke, taking control of the origin character Astarion, who’s a vampire spawn (like a vampire only he has a boss, who’s more of a proper vampire). Astarion, being a vampire, regularly has the option to just go ahead and feast on the neck of whoever he’s talking to. Most of the time that’s not a very good idea and there’s not a very good chance it’ll work, but if you want to try it, you can. To demonstrate this, Swen opted to chow down on a sleeping party member at your camp (you can make camp in most places to heal up, restore ability uses and so on). He needed to role an 18 or higher, out of 20, to succeed – the purposes of the demonstration was to show it was pretty tough – and of course he rolls a natural 20 and now we’re noshing on our mate, left the next day with an especially upbeat Asatarion and a very “tired” Cleric.

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But that, really, is only the surface of what you can do – and more than that just how much the inherent chance-based systems of D&D affect an already complicated mesh of things you can do in games like Divinity. At the very beginning of our first playthrough, at what would be the first little tester battle after the tutorial, Vincke missed a shot that had a 90 percent chance to hit, scored a critical miss on what would’ve been a one-hit-kill spell, and got killed in one shot by a critical hit from the enemy. So we roll back through all the intro chat for another go and: two hits, two kills, enemies done and dealt with before they could even move.

In another skirmish, this time our party up to three members, against about four bandit grunts, Vincke showed off the game’s new stealth system, sneaking Astarion up behind an archer that would have had an incredible high-ground advantage to punt him off the ledge before the battle begins. Again though: bad luck. Misses and critical hits in all the wrong directions mean that, even including the tactical ledge-punt, the battle goes horrifically and we’re left kiting the bandits out into the woods towards some neutral fighters nearby, in the hope they’ll join in. A magical, disembodied hand was used to try and nudge someone off another ledge but missed. Potions were used up, abilities spent, and Astarion left to throw his boots at an enemy for a bit of chip damage – and hits. Half-triggering the nearby group of neutrals changes how we meet them later on, forcing us to fight the last one instead of triggering a cutscene. Some party members are lost for good. Some secrets, hidden in plain sight just off the beaten path, through some bushes and under some noticeably odd-looking rock, go undiscovered. The point above all is luck can swing a playthrough to the wildest extremes of success and failure. Enjoying that will come down to how happy you are to improvise, make do and fly by the seat of your throwable boots. Or how regularly you like to save.

There’s 4 player online co-op, and two-player couch co-op confirmed by Larian so far.

There’s another rather ingenious twist to all this, too, which that bandit skirmish hinted at. You can split your party and put any of them into turn-based mode at one point, while the others can simultaneously walk around in “real time”. Baldur’s Gate 3 is technically a turn-based game. The combat is turn-based, dialogue is turn-based, so to speak, and the environmental puzzles, of which there seem to be many, are solved in that manner too. But you move around the world in real time and this system, really, is a bit of a hybrid. In our playthrough Astarion wandered down into a dungeon – previously guarded by those bandits – on his own, and worked his way through most if it solo while the others were left presumably frozen up on the surface. Then we got stuck in some combat after some more bad luck, including a key that failed to open a chest it should’ve (and an attempt to smash the chest open that just… smashed the chest entirely), and had to bring in some help. So back up on the surface another party member smashed through the ground they were standing on to drop down, conveniently, into a room next door to this tricky battle – a spot of movie magic, I’d suspect: “oh no it’s going wrong in exactly the right place, we definitely didn’t plan for this as a way to show you how the hybrid system works!” – and so we turn a 2v1 into a 2v2, that additional party member automatically entering turn-based mode when he reached the “battle area”.

Later in that dungeon we got stuck in a particularly grisly grease and fire-based trap (with a dash of raising the undead thrown in for good measure) and again Vincke demonstrated the power of lateral thinking by juggling real-time and turn-based movement to bring other party members to join and work around the hazards. Often that actually descends into a sort of calculated gaming of the game itself, and fascinatingly that seems to be where the game really finds its groove. Baldur’s Gate 3’s magic is in its malleability, but also in your malleability, as a player that has to react and adapt. You are supposed to try and break it. You’re supposed to build a staircase of crates the other side of a door to an enemy and keep popping it open and closed to confuse them and juggle the aggro. You’re supposed to see what happens when you throw this at that, cast this on them, say this to her or climb up onto that.

The elaborate verticality in action, as our party splits and sneaks through a multi-floored dungeon.

Which brings us to the climbing, and perhaps the biggest shift in how CRPG regulars will need to work their way through Baldur’s Gate 3: its fascinating use of verticality. Your characters can now all jump quite a significant way – success depending on, you guessed it, character stats and semi-hidden D20s – and so even in towns and hubs you can work your way onto a building and down into it through the roof, bypassing locked doors or barred gates. In the later-game dungeon we played, you’re tasked with tackling a tough boss surrounded by enemies. He’s got a tadpole himself, but try to use that in dialogue and, unless you’re lucky with the dice, it’ll probably fail, leaving him angry and you exposed to a pretty nasty ambush. So what do you do?

Well, if you picked up some interesting-looking barrels several hours ago, you could use them to create sort of veil of darkness to sneak up behind him. Things – obviously – went wrong when this was attempted in our playthrough so again, improvisation. The stealthiest character was sent up to the rafters – this must be the third or fourth level up of at least a four or five level dungeon – and around beside the boss. A very risky jump is attempted, to right behind him, and somehow pulled off. An explosive barrel is placed, and the our rogue Astarion works his way out up the other side, knocking down the escape ladder with him. Then the conversation, which our other party members had seemingly been paused in, half-way through, this entire time, can play out. Mind-meld fails, boss gets angry – planted explosive barrel gets detonated! – and he goes flying across the room and through a hole, down three floors to some giant spiders in the basement. Carnage – but all predicated on a decision to pick up some barrels hours earlier, your own ingenuity to think of it, your knowledge of how the systems themselves can be gamed, and the luck to pull it off.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/02/larians-gorgeous-baldurs-gate-3-looks-to-be-a-game-of-groundbreaking-systemic-depth-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=larians-gorgeous-baldurs-gate-3-looks-to-be-a-game-of-groundbreaking-systemic-depth-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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loudcreationsublime · 6 years

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Divinity: Original Sin released on Xbox One in 2016 to important praise and also lots of awards in addition to nominations, yet as we obtain closer to the release of Divinity: Original

Sin 2 – Definitive Edition let’s

speak about some of the differences – and enhancements – between the 2. Extra pals, even more chaos, more fun DOS EE saw an event of two join forces as well as clean Rivellon of wickedness, today the hijinks is increased by 2. In Divinity: Original Sin 2, as much as four players use up the job of restoring confidence and also handling The Divine Order. It’s the only RPG of its type to provide co-op, not to mention four-player co-op. How does this job? Well, decrease into a players video game or develop brand-new personalities and begin with each other. A new party inventory system makes it a whole lot easier to handle your uses, as well as you’ll be able to incorporate your wits with the new journal to milestone your journeys and fix puzzles as a group. Or, more probable, breast that one buddy out of prison for pointlessly stealing egg-shells from that one guard they simply couldn’t let alone. Or leave them there. They most likely deserved it.

Undead, and Lizards, as well as Dwarves, oh my! It’s enjoyable to roleplay humans, as a human you’re doing it now. Me too, as it occurs. Regardless, Rivellon is a rich as well as swarming world, with a great deal of races to play in D: OS 2. Now, you can develop a Lizard, Elf, Human, Dwarf, as well as an Undead variant of each. We’ve 6 Origin personalities to pick from, each with their own tales as well as dialogue options. These brand-new races (DOS EE only allowed you to play as a human)each have their own racial attributes. The Undead can select locks with their bony fingers. Fairies could eat the flesh of dropped opponents as well as absorb their memories and also discover new skills, and so on. D: OS 2 takes area in a world that responds to who you are, and also exactly what you do. Again, much like real life! However I do not advise consuming deteriorating human flesh out in London or whatever.

You could still speak to animals, however allowed’s have a conversation with a ghost

D: OS EE introduced trans-species conversational stories into the globe of video gaming, if you had the Pet-Pal ability. Certainly, this remains in the follow up. This time, you could additionally chat to ghosts! With no spoilers, there’s a minute in the game where you might mistakenly(?) produce a whole lot of them. If you do, have a chat and also learn how they feel regarding that. It’s the least you can do. As a fairy, if aerial beings aren’t your thing, you’re more than welcome to obtain insights from a cut head. Two heads are much better than one, afterall.

Dynamic songs that alters with you The music in D: OS 2 is specified by you. The soundtrack to your journey adjusts based upon a couple of things: the tool you choose in personality creation, as well as the actions you take throughout the game. From 4 instruments, the music in fight will adjust heroically or depressingly depending on the activities you take. Brave battle? The celebration will certainly know. That cello will certainly appear more predominant, and your good friends will certainly know it was you that electrocuted that one man into the netherrealm. Losing a fight? You’ll hear it prior to the final blow lands. The instruments dynamically weave in as well as out of the music perfectly. Currently, in the Definitive Edition the Lady Vengeance ship will certainly play your personal song.

A brand-new video game engine improves everything from visuals to auto mechanics

D: OS 2 leapt to an entirely new engine, consisting of the new trademarked (most likely, maybe) A.I 2.0. Adversaries in D: OS 2 know all the tricks. They can be as innovative as you are. The Definitive Edition boosts even further on this, with a brand-new version of the physics engine bringing a lot more disorder to the video game. Currently, appreciate points like height benefits in combat, in addition to PBR (Physically-Based Rendering) bringing the Divinity series right into the next-gen for best-in-class visuals on the Xbox One, with HDR as well as 4K.

< img course ="alignnone size-full wp-image-97787"src="https://news.xbox.com/en-us/wp-content/uploads/DOS_03.jpg"alt=" Divinity Original Sin II Screenshot"width= “1440”elevation= “810 “/ > These are simply 5 of the significant changes between Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, and also the new Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition. Not only are there dozens of other significant adjustments in between the two, there are thousands of changes between the initial release of D: OS 2 and its new Definitive Edition variation you’ll be getting your practical. At Larian, we’ve striven to enhance the game based upon gamer responses despite its universal essential praise, in hopes that you completely enjoy this, the extremely essentially named Definitive Edition of Divinity: Original Sin 2. Seethe remainder of the story on Xbox Wire Connected: This Week on Xbox: July 20, 2018 Soulcalibur VI 101 New Preview Alpha and also Alpha Skip Ahead 1810 Update– 7/20/18

#Xbox

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