Yeahhh, I found a great deal on this monitor but I was a dumbass and didn’t know how bad the down-rez is when running 1080p on a 1440p monitor😅
Other than not being able to use raytracing in CP2077 it hasn’t been a problem, but I’m think I’m going to start running into trouble from this point on. Oh well, I was thinking of getting another monitor for my workflow anyway…
I really hope I’m wrong about this in five years, but it looks like No Man’s Sky did even more damage to the space sim genre than we thought. We’re in a year with great handcrafted experiences that still feel vast: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, even Everspace 2 in a similar setting (and Everspace 2 wouldn’t have had the same, fatal loading screen issue if it was a AAA game). Starfield went the other direction.
By chasing the procedural generation dream, from everything I’ve seen, Bethesda really hamstrung the space exploration to get there. Fortunately I really like the old Bethesda formula, so hopefully the Skyrim/Fallout experience that’s still there will be enough for me to want to put hundreds of hours into it. I’m just hoping developers don’t keep trying to do this for games in space settings.
These two don’t show up there unfortunately under normal circumstances. The first Horde Breaker attack shows up there, the follow-up doesn’t until the first has already been executed. The feat one doesn’t even have a similar indicator there. It’s kind of a weird implementation.
Yeah, 256 is around $20 last I looked, too. Not bad. Been considering getting one, probably not for anything with an install this large, but it’s nice to know I’d have the option.
For the items, etc. the ones I can remember offhand are:
Boots of Stormy Clamour (applies Reverberation with conditions) - never seen it proc with any of the conditions I’ve tried. Meanwhile, Diadem of Arcane Synergy will (likely incorrectly) proc on damn near anything, even self-buffs.
Jhannyl’s Gloves (auto-cures Poison/Paralyze/Blindness) - hasn’t worked for me once. The +1 to saving throws is active though.
Goad (disadvantage on attacks, from Battle Master subclass) - either doesn’t work or is very inconsistent.
Uncanny Dodge (Rogue) - I think everyone that’s played a Rogue knows this one. It’s got a weird passive effect implementation that auto-disables a lot.
Chromatic Orb - having occasional issues getting Storm Sorcerer’s Heart of the Storm to proc with this. Still pinning this one down, if anyone else has run into it?
Lucky (feat) - doesn’t reroll incoming crits.
Polearm Master (feat) - I have no idea where the bonus action is. Either I’m blind or it’s just missing.
There’s also stuff on the plus side, like Titanstring Bow double dipping with Lightning Charges or, famously, Haste and Haste-like effects (Elixir of Bloodlust) granting second attacks on each additional action for lv. 5+ martial classes. It’s possible Larian just balanced it this way, but I don’t think so. It’s crazy broken.
I was fortunate enough to not run into any of the quest-breaking bugs. Had no issues doing what I wanted to do. What I did run into a lot was buggy scripting where dialogues assumed I had information I didn’t, so I wouldn’t know what my companions were talking about some of the time.
The bigger problem in my eyes is spells/items/class abilities/feats not working correctly and being outright non-functional in some cases. That’s going to be an enduring problem for replays, and it’s not encouraging to me that very little has been done on this since release.
I do think this game wouldn’t have scored as well as it did if so many publications didn’t rush to press with half a playthrough. In this particular case, I think the game–bugs and all–is still a strong GotY contender, but I really hope there’s a conversation being had in the professional games criticism sphere about how this practice could cause a scandal in the future.
As it is, I’m genuinely surprised the reviewers aren’t coming under fire more than they have for this. I come from an era where publishing a review without completing a game would have been unconscionable.
To me, the biggest improvement in BG3 is how much looser the gameplay progression is. Since being just two levels behind meant death was all but certain in D:OS2, the path even on an “open” map like the Reaper’s Coast was still very much on rails. XP gain was so tight that side quests weren’t really optional, even to the point of discouraging roleplay by doing things like passing persuasion checks and then killing everyone anyway to squeeze every last drop out of the map. The first D:OS also really struggled with this until later in the game.
BG3’s first large map is a little tight, but even a new player can easily go off script and pick and choose what quests they want to undertake once they hit level 5. Encounters with enemies two levels higher can still be comfortable after that point, even three higher if the player has a good party build or has mastery of the battle system. And the player will want to, because the game is huge. It’s such a delight to just go, and it’s exciting to see Larian turn a major weakness into a strength.
But essentially, BG3 meets or improves upon every system in D:OS2. The dialogue scenes are the most flashy improvement, supported well by good writing, voice acting, and mocap. The only thing I found to be a step back was the soundtrack. I don’t think it’s bad, and there are some standout songs for sure, but D:OS2 really excelled in that area both in terms of the quality of the music and how it was used in battle (but then I’m a sucker for cello). It also won’t compare favorably to D:OS2 in its current state in terms of polish, but D:OS2 wasn’t exactly bug-free on release, either.
A big part of why this game is so big in the zeitgeist right now is because Larian was able to pounce on a lull in the release schedule. I’d call the pre-release hype for this game average at worst for that reason alone. Early reviews were beyond glowing, marking a studio’s successful graduation to AAA development with a game that has no aggressive add-ons or DRM. That will spur gaming enthusiasts to generate all the marketing you need.
BG2 is one of those games I wish the gameplay would let me recommend. The story is brilliant and Jon Irenicus is an amazing villain, capped by David Warner’s performance, still to this day one of my favorite voice acting performances in a game.
I think the initial premise might have been flawed from the start on the gameplay front anyway. Vincke’s already talked about how difficult it would be to tack on a sequel expansion/DLC to BG3 because of how crazy D&D gets at high levels, and Bioware was still pioneering the artificial DM concept back in 2000 to begin with.
I started a second run of Baldur’s Gate 3 this week. I don’t know the last time I’ve ever finished a game like this just to go right back into it. It’s certainly been 20+ years since I’ve done it with an RPG. Part of why I wanted to do it might have been how much more polish there is in the first act, so it’s a cozier experience. I also skipped a full zone and a half on the first play, so that’s all going to be new, and I want to see the other side of a big decision point in Act 2. Probably going to end this run around that point and maybe actually play a different game for once.
I’m realizing now that this game fixes all of my problems with Divinity: Original Sin 2, and that was an excellent game. There are very few steps back here, mostly just the lack of polish.
BG3 is still a triumph despite the (many) rough edges. I’m sure I’m going to go back to it yet again down the road after a few patches and some of the cut/unfinished content is in the game, especially around the ending.
Outside of Game Pass, it hasn’t been in a great place for a while.
Games sell consoles, and they were fortunate to have lightning-in-a-bottle in Halo as their big launch game back in 2001. For exclusive software offerings, they’ve been coasting on that while also having some success with Gears, Fable, Forza. Thing is, when their competition isn’t shitting the bed, that hasn’t been enough.
Xbox has had some very favorable external, unusual circumstances over the years, starting from a not-insignificant number of consoles being sold as DVD players (especially when PS2s were out of stock). Sony launches an overengineered console hostile to both developers and consumers, leading to Xbox 360 being the go-to third party console. Finally, the fact that the Xbox brand never got a foothold in the Japan market becomes less relevant by the day as the home console market there continues to shrink.
Services like Game Pass hit a subscriber cap pretty quickly, so if they want growth there, they have to sell more consoles. Microsoft has done what they can to get those exclusives over the years, being early to invest in the indie space, and acquiring Mojang. Now since Game Pass, they are even more aggressive, picking up Bethesda and ABK. I don’t know if any of this will lead to something along with Master Chief being the face of the brand, but Xbox will be in a much better place if something does get there.