Ashtear

Ashtear, rok temu

Asking out of genuine ignorance here: is there a setup that allows a 100+ GB game to be played on the 64GB Steam Deck?

Ashtear, rok temu

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.

Ashtear, rok temu

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.

Ashtear, rok temu

Okay, I’m seeing it now. It’s sort of like Ranger’s Horde Breaker. It only appears after an attack and it disappears after the turn.

Ashtear, rok temu

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.

Ashtear, rok temu (edited rok temu)

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.

Ashtear, rok temu

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.

Ashtear, rok temu

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.

Ashtear, rok temu

What’s particularly notable about this well above average gaming year is that the clearly top two games so far aren’t using state-of-the-art graphics.

Given how messy PC gaming has been lately, with a recent history of GPU shortages followed by an underwhelming new generation and some very poor game optimization, I wouldn’t mind seeing a trend of game development slowing down on graphics tech for a bit.

Ashtear, rok temu

Heh, yes, I still have fond memories of the late 16-bit generation and early fifth-gen games that didn’t get on board the 3D bandwagon. Sprite-based games started to look mighty sexy until everyone decided that untextured polygons were the way to go for a while. 😑

Ashtear, rok temu

This thread’s on Baldur’s Gate 3, that’s one of them. I should have specified the other of the two most highly-rated games this year; it’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Both games are more or less running last-gen graphics tech and are ahead of the pack on review scores. Zelda looks good for a Switch game, though.

You could probably ask a dozen gaming enthusiasts and get a dozen different answers on why this year has been exceptional. I’d say it’s because we have a lot of big releases from venerable franchises arriving all in the same year (Baldur’s Gate is one, plus Diablo, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter, Resident Evil, Star Wars, Street Fighter). There are hits from new IPs like Cassette Beasts, Dave the Diver, Hi-Fi Rush, and maybe Starfield in a few weeks if it’s not a disaster.

It’s a nice mix of old and new worlds and plenty of surprises. On top of all that, it’s only August. I think there’s a sense that the industry is starting to leave the pandemic behind, too.

Ashtear, rok temu

Since we’re dealing with very small niches still, I also recommend participating in genre communities. I’m not really seeing an active one for RPGs but something like Dragon Age would get some run on !pcgaming and !pcgaming (with the usual caveat that kbin currently isn’t always great about getting all their content out to federated instances).

Grow the genre/archetype communities enough and eventually they will naturally break out into individual property niches for sure.

Ashtear, rok temu

If you already don’t like 5e, I don’t know if the game will change your mind. It’s not a 1-to-1 adaptation, which might help, but there are also still some bugs here and there (such as the Lucky feat not working correctly).

Ashtear, rok temu

Gonna need a fast connection in town or plenty of time. The GOG install is 108GB.

Ashtear, rok temu

Still playing Baldur’s Gate 3. I really enjoyed Divinity: Original Sin 2 and I’m quite happy that this is an improvement in virtually all respects (the soundtrack being the only letdown so far). I’m especially happy that my biggest problem with D:OS2–the insanely tight level curve–is mostly gone here. It’s still a bit tight in Act 1, but I just started Act 3 and I’ve skipped a entire zone and a half now without being underleveled. I cannot overstate how important it is for roleplaying to not be required to comb the map or do nonsense like getting XP for persuasion successes and then turning around and killing to squeeze out every last point.

There are some negatives here, especially with bugs. Biggest one is Lae’zel simply vanishing from my camp. I found her wandering around a zone later but she wouldn’t join the party even with the dialogue indicating she was. Pretty sure she’s permanently gone now. A bunch of random skills and gear are either outright broken or are inconsistent. Fortunately there are workarounds for that part, but I’m honestly a little surprised to see a game lacking polish like this score as highly as it has in reviews.

I’ve finally moved on with the main story, with the plot progression essentially pausing for 50 hours while I poked around. What’s standing out to me now is that this game is a prime example of “great script writing, mediocre story writing.” The core narrative does hit on some of my personal favorite tropes, like shifting pantheons and otherwise huge stakes, but this story desperately needed more from the antagonists early on. There’s no reason one of them couldn’t have shown up in person to harass the party in Act 1. Merely dealing with underlings of varying narrative quality feels limp. That said, so many of the dialogues are absolutely fantastic, right up there with the best of Bioware’s work that the game is emulating. Better yet, they are paired with engrossing motion capture and impeccable voice acting. Still a shame not to be hearing Alix Wilton Regan in a Larian game, though.

Ashtear, rok temu

See also: Pokémon.

I’ve always been bothered by the lack of competition (and anti-competitive behavior) in the football space.

Ashtear, rok temu

Baldur’s Gate 3, naturally. I was enjoying it until I reached the zone border and I got a warning I was underleveled. I was like, really, Larian? We’re doing this again?

My biggest complaint with Divinity: Original Sin 2 was that the level differences were so stark and the XP was so tight that it felt like the game was forcing me to comb through the entire map. Absolutely kills replay value, and BG3 is a game I’d really, really like to save something for a replay.

This ended up being a constant issue in D:OS2 but turned out mostly okay in the first D:OS after a really tight first act. I hope this ends up being more like the latter. Or there’s some way to grind this time around.

Ashtear, rok temu

That’s good to hear, thanks. I’m not gonna say I did a speedrun on the first area but I was definitely skipping around.

I’m going to finish up these two quests and just leave from that point. If it’s too hard, I can always drop down to Explorer difficulty. As much as I’m enjoying the challenge right now, I’d rather do that than stop roleplaying because I’m XP hunting. I felt like I had to do that a lot in D:OS2 and it was one of the few major negatives in the game.

Ashtear, rok temu

I haven’t actually seen that particular message.

Ashtear, rok temu

Hmm, I haven’t seen that particular message. I’m still early on plus I have little experience with D&D 5e. I suppose it could go either way at higher levels. Right now it feels challenging but doable. Two levels was definitely pushing it in D:OS2.

I’ve been in two encounters with enemies two levels higher and both resulted in a party member death. Not nearly as big a deal as it was in BG2, but not something I’d recommend allowing every fight. Party comp might play a role here: maybe some are better able to handle it than others.