Gaming Baldur's Gate III by Larian Studios (PS5, PC, Mac, Xbox Series X|S)

I just got to Act 3, but from what I hear it's not quite finished (very Larian-esque), so I think I'll let the game lie for a few months.
Not quite but in a better state than previous games. Its a long game, its probably sensible to break it up but act 3 is good. I thought act 2 ended well too for what its worth. I had fun around moonrise tower.
 
Managed to finally breakthrough in Divinity @Massive Spanner, really enjoying it now even though I'm still in Cyceal and still haven't solved the murder, but I know whodunnit.

Pretty certain I'll pick this up at some point, but looking at some comments on here I may be best waiting for the definitive edition.
 
Managed to finally breakthrough in Divinity @Massive Spanner, really enjoying it now even though I'm still in Cyceal and still haven't solved the murder, but I know whodunnit.

Pretty certain I'll pick this up at some point, but looking at some comments on here I may be best waiting for the definitive edition.
I think the comments are a bit overblown. I'm nearly finished act 2 and it's still incredible, and given act 3 is Baldur's Gate city itself I'm sure it's still great. I think the main issue is that aspects of act 3 don't feel as polished as act 1 which is fair but I don't think it should detract anyone from playing what is a truly incredible game!

That said if you're not in a rush then nothing wrong with waiting, either.

Glad you're enjoying D:OS2 now, it's one of my favourites!
 
Just the answer i needed.

Happen to have a good crack dealer too so i could go down all guns blazing?
Not sure crack and a story about worms being inserted into your brain to turn you into a squid monster is a great fit.
 
Just realised that although this will download tomorrow it won’t be playable until Sunday/Monday. Feck!
 
Just realised that although this will download tomorrow it won’t be playable until Sunday/Monday. Feck!
PS5? I think I am going to bite the bullet and buy this version as well. The Act 3 performance on my old laptop is really shit and even on the lowest possible settings it is choppy. Since saves are transferable between systems, I can just pick right up!
 
The monk multiclass is just broken. At this point I think I could have solo'd Act 3 (so far at least) with my main character once he hit level 12.

Proof:
- went first in the initiative order and solo killed the vampire leader before he had a chance to go, with an action left over to take down a wolf thingy. Gale did help by magic missile-ing all the bats.
- ditto for the monster hunters immediately after.
- in the house of grief he basically took out the entire Shar team solo as the rest of the group got blinded by darkness and shredded in 2 rounds. Oh, and only lost 15 HP doing it.
- accidently had to take on mystic carrion and his crew solo (thanks to the piss poor pathing in the city the rest of the team was ages away when the fight kicked off). No problem.
- And many more.

Still need to take on the two big baddies and the brain, but can't imagine it will be much of a challenge at this point.


Capping at 12 makes total sense now.
 
Just found it there is no happy ending for Karlach? Either she explodes or she needs to go to hell? Feck you Larian, making the most likeble character and don't give us a chance to save her :(
 
I think the comments are a bit overblown. I'm nearly finished act 2 and it's still incredible, and given act 3 is Baldur's Gate city itself I'm sure it's still great. I think the main issue is that aspects of act 3 don't feel as polished as act 1 which is fair but I don't think it should detract anyone from playing what is a truly incredible game!

That said if you're not in a rush then nothing wrong with waiting, either.

Glad you're enjoying D:OS2 now, it's one of my favourites!

Yeah it's a great game. Not the best game ever, but a great game. Also we know they're going to keep improving it.
 
They are adding something in patch 2. Apparently people were not happy about this.

Yeah I can imagine, because I'm not happy about it either :mad:
But good to know, hopefully we'll get a happy ending after all. If someone from the companion group deserves it, then it's Karlach!
It's strange anyways, that they didn't offer her a heart transplant. I mean in bg3, where you can speak to animals and dead people, where a worm in your brain can reform your whole body to become some alien and conjure all kind of magic, you can't do a heart transplant, that is even possible in our reality? Come on..
 
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They are adding something in patch 2. Apparently people were not happy about this.
If you don't want to know what they're changing then don't look at the spoiler below.

An option to save Karlach will be added in Patch 2, giving Tav the opportunity to travel with Karlach to hell and fight an entity known as Star Rider.

By riding the Star Rider until it sees stars you will then be able to chant the words "Cor Blimey, Guv! I ain't seen stars like that since Nuts Magazine did a compilation video of Holly Peers getting her baps out for two hours, and me knob almost fell off!"

This sacred chant will cause Karlach's heart to turn into a soundboard that plays quotes of Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins, which can be activated whenever the player has a three way that involves Shadowheart or Astarion (provided that he has found the magically expanding codpiece in a new mission being introduced in Patch 3).

I'm glad that Larian are adding this to the game, as it feels more realistic.
 
If you don't want to know what they're changing then don't look at the spoiler below.

An option to save Karlach will be added in Patch 2, giving Tav the opportunity to travel with Karlach to hell and fight an entity known as Star Rider.

By riding the Star Rider until it sees stars you will then be able to chant the words "Cor Blimey, Guv! I ain't seen stars like that since Nuts Magazine did a compilation video of Holly Peers getting her baps out for two hours, and me knob almost fell off!"

This sacred chant will cause Karlach's heart to turn into a soundboard that plays quotes of Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins, which can be activated whenever the player has a three way that involves Shadowheart or Astarion (provided that he has found the magically expanding codpiece in a new mission being introduced in Patch 3).

I'm glad that Larian are adding this to the game, as it feels more realistic.

The writing is impeccable.
 
That's the beauty, there is no right thing to do in a given situation. Do what you want, just be ready for actual consequences.

Saw a guy on Reddit explain how he pickpocketed a boss and gave him a lot of gold, so much that the boss just died :lol:

A bit of a spoiler, i guess, but i think you have to do so much to prepare it that none of us will even figure it out.
 
The monk multiclass is just broken. At this point I think I could have solo'd Act 3 (so far at least) with my main character once he hit level 12.

Proof:
- went first in the initiative order and solo killed the vampire leader before he had a chance to go, with an action left over to take down a wolf thingy. Gale did help by magic missile-ing all the bats.
- ditto for the monster hunters immediately after.
- in the house of grief he basically took out the entire Shar team solo as the rest of the group got blinded by darkness and shredded in 2 rounds. Oh, and only lost 15 HP doing it.
- accidently had to take on mystic carrion and his crew solo (thanks to the piss poor pathing in the city the rest of the team was ages away when the fight kicked off). No problem.
- And many more.

Still need to take on the two big baddies and the brain, but can't imagine it will be much of a challenge at this point.


Capping at 12 makes total sense now.

I assume it's monk and thiefling rogue?
Started monk as 2nd playthrough, and did intentionally mean to play that, but think i'll end up just going pure monk.

had planned an evil playthrough, but…. It is so hard, i don't like to be evil.
Also did all i needed to get Minthara as companion, but it felt so wrong since i am playing thiefling… ended up going back to a 2 hour old save… i'll get Minthara in 3rd round, when i'm not thiefling.
 
I've finally started this, now that my new PC is here and I have to say actually seeing the dice rolls in conversations or when lockpicking etc. really adds a lot, somehow. It's more exciting than if the game simply informed me of my success or failure.

Early days but combat so far is a lot less tedious than in the early parts of D:OS2, despite the clear limitations of my low level party.
 
I assume it's monk and thiefling rogue?
Started monk as 2nd playthrough, and did intentionally mean to play that, but think i'll end up just going pure monk.

had planned an evil playthrough, but…. It is so hard, i don't like to be evil.
Also did all i needed to get Minthara as companion, but it felt so wrong since i am playing thiefling… ended up going back to a 2 hour old save… i'll get Minthara in 3rd round, when i'm not thiefling.

Sort of. I originally started with a Wood Elf Ranger but got really bored by the start of Act 2 with jut pew pewing with my crossbow every battle, so I respecced into a monk.

I am an idiot and thought Monks need Str (because punching) and so maxed that out. Turned out to be a glorious mistake as the Tavern Brawler Feat doubles Str damage.

6 Monk (Open Hand)
4 Rogue (Thief) - To get the extra bonus action
2 Fighter ACTION SURGE

Add a bunch of gear onto that that adds damage, the Helldusk armour, a speed potion, and Wholeness of Body (monk ability) right before combat and in the first round you get:

3 Regular Attacks (19-36 dmg each)
2 more attacks from action surge ( 19-36 dmg each)
3 Flury of blows (38-72 each)
Which comes out to 209-396 total damage in the round.
Cull The week essentially drops the enemy hit points down by whatever number of Illithid powers you have (I have 12), so that matters as well for quick kills.

I am sure someone out there has an even better monk multiclass build, but this is what I stumbled upon.
 
PS5? I think I am going to bite the bullet and buy this version as well. The Act 3 performance on my old laptop is really shit and even on the lowest possible settings it is choppy. Since saves are transferable between systems, I can just pick right up!

Yeah, didn’t think my pc would be able to handle it so took the ps5 option.
 
I'm really looking forward to the PS5 version and hope it's good regarding performance and controls.

I've always loved RPGs since i started gaming. Secret of Mana and Illusion of Time/Gaia on the SNES were two of my favorite games as a child/young teen.
Then I played...or maybe better tried to play Baldurs Gate 2 as a 11 or 12 year old and couldn't get into it. It was so much english text (I'm german and barely understood any english at that age) and I didn't understand at all why the were all these dice rolls haha.

But after getting into D&D with friends in the last years the thought of a great RPG with D&D mechanics sounds absolutely great to me.
 
I’m surprised how “easy” the balanced mode is. I don’t mean easy as in it’s an easy game but compared to Divinity 2 it kinda is. I know it had its own problems with the floor constantly being covered in shit but it felt like I had to work harder and retry fights a lot more than in this where, generally, other than one or two fights, I can beat them first time. And I don’t even think I have a crazy OP party or anything. I’m steam rolling through act 2. I do think act 1 was more challenging at least.
 
I’m surprised how “easy” the balanced mode is. I don’t mean easy as in it’s an easy game but compared to Divinity 2 it kinda is. I know it had its own problems with the floor constantly being covered in shit but it felt like I had to work harder and retry fights a lot more than in this where, generally, other than one or two fights, I can beat them first time. And I don’t even think I have a crazy OP party or anything. I’m steam rolling through act 2. I do think act 1 was more challenging at least.
I'm glad to hear that. I think Divinity 2 was balanced very poorly: Explorer was faceroll, Classic (or whatever it was called) was frustrating and tedious. Not least because, as you say, the floor constantly being covered in shit.
 
What should I be making of the takes I've seen saying that Act 1 and 2 are great, but Act 3 seems unfinished and buggy?
 
What should I be making of the takes I've seen saying that Act 1 and 2 are great, but Act 3 seems unfinished and buggy?
I dont think act 3 is any worse than 2. I think i've had far more crashes and bugs in the underdark in act 1 than anywhere else in the game. I haven't finished act 3 though maybe it turns into a total car crash at the end?
Theres discussion about cut content and some quests basically being unfinished (like Karlach). But thats not really related to act 3 so much as the game. Its interesting but you'd want to be more or less finished the game to even glance through that because of spoilers.
I do love the idea of daisy and think they should have kept that but that wont make any kind of sense until you've seen the spoiler ridden stuff thats been pulled out of the gamefiles.
 
Anybody who finished the game already got an opinion on the Zhentarim?
Just re-visited them and got unfortunately into a situation where I had to wipe out the whole hideout. Oops. Thought they were cnuts anyway but the leader was quite sexy and was hinting that we‘d meet again in Baldur‘s Gate…any grear lategame stuff I‘m missing out now?
 
Played BG2 with a fully modded setup in anticipation of this game, only to be somewhat disappointed by BG3. The camera and UI are straight outta hell, this has to be to most cumbersome experience I've ever had in a game of this genre. Also, for a game that seems to have such a focus on setting up your combat encounters, you get an astonishing number of non-interuptable cutscenes with those smug DM remarks upon attacking, which is absolutely infuriating. I'm still a very early point in the game, Act1, Goblin Camp, but I have shelved the game for now.
 
Played BG2 with a fully modded setup in anticipation of this game, only to be somewhat disappointed by BG3. The camera and UI are straight outta hell, this has to be to most cumbersome experience I've ever had in a game of this genre. Also, for a game that seems to have such a focus on setting up your combat encounters, you get an astonishing number of non-interuptable cutscenes with those smug DM remarks upon attacking, which is absolutely infuriating. I'm still a very early point in the game, Act1, Goblin Camp, but I have shelved the game for now.

I like the camera, though mostly just the fact your not locked to isometric, can scout around while waiting for the party to catch up, etc. It did get a bit annoying in parts admittedly, the way it jumps about. There's a mod to improve it that works well apparently, just wasn't annoyed enough myself to install it.

Not sure what you mean by uninterruptible cutscenes, every cutscene is skippable.
 
I like the camera, though mostly just the fact your not locked to isometric, can scout around while waiting for the party to catch up, etc. It did get a bit annoying in parts admittedly, the way it jumps about. There's a mod to improve it that works well apparently, just wasn't annoyed enough myself to install it.

Not sure what you mean by uninterruptible cutscenes, every cutscene is skippable.
I think the cutscene point is about unavoidable cutscenes, after which you're immediately dropped into a fight.
 
I think the cutscene point is about unavoidable cutscenes, after which you're immediately dropped into a fight.

I don't think many are aware, but while you're in a cutscene/conversation with someone, you can switch character and move them around.
I found out when i was struggling with a boss and got desperate, reloaded loads of times after wiping, and just randomly found the button on bottom left where you can switch to one of your companions.
Changed to the strongest one and pushed the boss off the platform while my main was talking to him :lol:
 
I don't think many are aware, but while you're in a cutscene/conversation with someone, you can switch character and move them around.
I found out when i was struggling with a boss and got desperate, reloaded loads of times after wiping, and just randomly found the button on bottom left where you can switch to one of your companions.
Changed to the strongest one and pushed the boss off the platform while my main was talking to him :lol:
Chat shit get shoved?
 
Chat shit get shoved?

Only downside is that you lose out on good loot, but after a couple hours on the same boss, i'm sending Karlach up on them from behind!