I couldn’t put down Baldur’s Gate 3, again, but managed to beat Honor Mode for the first time. It felt like my characters were doing twice the damage, compared to my previous time in Act 3, so I just mopped the floor with pretty much all the bosses. There are a few more playthroughs I want to do, but I want to wait a bit. I’ve had like over 150 hours of BG3 this year already.
If anyone is interested, here are some more details of the run:
Honor ModeI died four times, and restarted twice in Act 1, before I beat Honor Mode. First Honor Mode try, I restarted shortly after the tutorial, I don’t remember why. Second try, I died to the three Intellect Devourers on the beach. Third time I died to the gnolls sieging the cave. Fourth try I made it to the end, but Ansur, last boss before the end, kinda bugged and killed me (game bugged and crashed as well). Fifth, I tried an all Fighters group, made it to Act 2, but messed up the Isobel fight in the Inn, and she got killed. I survived, ran to the ambush spot with the Drider, almost died, stopped before the battle was over (me and the enemy were very low, maybe I could have won, but I count it as a death). Sixth I restarted after failing in Waukeens Rest (went to camp for Wyll, after getting too close, and everything burned). Then I beat Honor Mode on this seventh attempt. Act 1 and 2 were three permanent party members and two that alternated. Fire Sorcerer (MC), Gloomstalker Assassin (Astarion), Life Cleric (Shadowheart) and switched between Berserker Thrower (Karlach) and Battle Master Fighter (Lae’zel). Act 3 I shelved the Cleric and just went full DPS. For some quest fights I took the appropriate companion (Wyll for Ansur, Jaheira for Minsc), but for the House of Hope fight I went full caster comp and just stacked AoE spells on the choke point and hid, while the enemies slowly died. I also found out that a thrower build with returning weapons doesn’t work for the very final fight against the Netherbrain, since the weapons just fall through the non-existent ground and never return. The rest of my party had more than enough damage, so it didn’t matter, but I should have kept some of the gazillion Daggers I got shortly before. As for progression, Act 1 I got halfway to level 4 with very little combat. Disguising as a Drow and skipping combat with the Goblins is pretty easy. At level 4, more fights like the Gnolls, Paladins in the Tollhouse and starting in the Underdark. Then, at level 5 with a big power spike, the game gets pretty easy. Clearing out the rest of the map, and get to level 6 for the Mountain Pass. In Act 2 I travelled with the Drider group to Moonrise, but joined the Harpers in the ambush. I made the Drider drop the lantern and picked it up in combat. The Harpers want the Lantern afterward in a cutscene, but you can just switch to another character to free the Pixie. So after like 10 minutes, the Shadow-Curse becomes a non-issue. The rest of the zone is pretty easy, I defeated the three bosses in the ruined town (toll keeper, doctor and dude in the tavern) just through dialogue. Then the Gauntlet of Shar. I like to open the door to Balthazar with Knock, so he has to fight himself, while I slink away, invisible. Before finishing the Gauntlet, I go back and clear out Moonrise Tower, so the Harpers don’t just get killed. Then just finish the Gauntlet and beat Ketheric. That fight was probably the hardest in the game. At the end of Act 2 I was halfway to level 11. Then Act 3. Made my way to the Lower City very early and bought all the gear you can. First boss was Lorroakan, since he’s pretty easy, and Rolan survived this time. Through some easy side quests and fights, I made it to level 12, then started on the rest of the bosses. I had to kill Ansur early, since he ended my Honor Mode run previously. With Globes of Invulnerability, it’s a non-issue. The next ones were also no problem. Ethel 2, Cazador, Sarevok and Orin went down easily. Minsc wasn’t a problem, but the fights are kind of annoying, and you have to be careful at the end and don’t kill him. Raphael, another easy one, then the House of Grief. I messed up the Iron Throne again, since I didn’t speak with Gortash and/or Mizora enough and the Duke was dead. Everyone else survived, I think. The Steel Watch was surprisingly easy, it was only my second time doing it, but my party just shredded it. Gortash was the last boss, before the finale, and it was pretty sad, since he and his helpers just continually slipped on ice, while I sniped them from a distance. At the end, my MC was turned into a mind flayer, and I went to kill the Brain. I quickly cleaned up the Dragon and Mind Flayers, before getting to the Brain itself. Inside it wasn’t a problem, but the reaction after your first attack is annoying, and I lost a lot of damage because of that. In the epilogue, I started to talk to everyone, almost ate Jaheira’s brain, and then peaced out. I didn’t want to risk losing the run at the very last moment.
Then, I continued Final Fantasy VII Rebirth today. I completed a quest, won a Chocobo Race and fought a boss. Not much progress, but with BG3 done, maybe I can focus on this one.
A few devs who did have commented that Linux users are like <1% of players but most of the crash reports or things like that. That was before the Steam Deck blew up though, so now you might have more Linux players, but those mostly use Proton, so why do you need a native Linux version.
I’m definitely not as down on Rebirth as you, but I liked Remake more. The combat is still fun enough, even if some fights/enemies are terrible.
I’ve also been thinking of re-playing the original, when I’m done, just as I’ve done after Remake. Like you said, I remember the pace throwing me for a loop.
Yeah, I usually just follow the instructions, which seems to work 99% of the time. The main problem is usually if a mod still works with the latest game version.
Mostly Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Feels like this game took half a step forward and two steps back, compared to the first part. It tries to do a lot of things and doesn’t do many well. There’s minigames-ish for so many things. The open-world stuff kinda tries to be Assassin’s Creed lite, but all zones are huge, but pretty empty, with the same two types of “events” in them (go somewhere or fight). Of course, the game has a shitty crafting system, so you can pick up material in the empty zones. Combat is a bit better than before, but then the devs managed to craft the perfect enemies to make some fights feel like hell, even worse than the worst fights in Remake, and I’m not even done with the game yet. I’ve played the game for 40 hours, but the story has barely moved. I think there’s supposed to be an alternate timeline, but I think I’ve seen like five minutes of it. It’s been pretty disappointing so far, but I still like the characters, so I’ll continue playing.
Then a bit Baldur’s Gate 3. Started another Honor Mode run, going with pretty much the same party build as my first run, where I almost made it. The full fighter playthrough has to wait for the next Patch.
Of course, I had to run it back in Baldur’s Gate 3, Honor Mode, after I failed right before the finish line. This time I went four Fighters, two melee, two ranged. My run ended in Act 2, not because of my party comp, but I let Isobel die in Last Light Inn. I forgot to block a door and the enemy crit three or four attacks on her. I did survive the fight with all the zombies afterward, got into another fight and ended it there. I’ll do another run like this, but probably after Patch 8, when Fighter gets a proper ranged sub-class. No idea, what my next run will be, but it will have to wait a bit.
Then, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth finally released on PC. I’ve been looking forward to this, and just recently re-played the first part. I’m at the beginning of Chapter 4 and it’s good. The big zones are kinda meh, pretty empty, and I don’t think the devs ever used a Chocobo to run around. Unless you only follow the roads, there are small ledges everywhere, and your Chocobo either slows down or stops completely, which is a pain. I still have fun, although the constant short breaks are kinda annoying. Like in the first game, you need to wait for certain animations to finish, before you can go into the menu, or when you completed a “World Intel” objective there’s a 10-second jingle and animation you have to wait for. Often you also get a call from a dude, who tells you he’s found another one, and you just have to stand there and listen. Like I said, I still have a good time, so it’s not a big deal.
Reviewers don’t get these games and then play them in complete isolation. They are in contact with the devs or publisher and might get told which problems are fixed at launch or something.
You kinda have to believe what you’re told, and maybe adjust your score accordingly. Maybe if one dev burns you again and again, you might discard whatever they tell you, but I don’t know who could fit the bill.
This is much older than 2023. I remember Fallout 4, the console version was apparently almost unplayable at launch, so Giant Bomb actually lowered the score, compared to the PC version. And even that example isn’t when this started.
Similarly, what if the reviewers don’t get a specific version, that runs like shit? Like what happened with Cyberpunk, where nobody was able to play the XBONE or PS4 versions.
The thing is, as always, a review is subjective. If the game has problems, but the reviewer can look past them or doesn’t care, why should they change the score.
Someone mentioned it already, but review copies might also run outdated code, and reviewers are in contact with the publisher or devs, and they might say some problem is fixed on release. If the reviewer believes them, it probably won’t affect the score.
I played an unhealthy amount of Baldur’s Gate 3 and finished my run. Sadly, Ansur, the last boss before I went onto the finale, ended the Honor Mode part. I’m a bit salty about it, since it wasn’t the boss being too hard or something, but mainly bugs, that did me in.
My first try I got him to half HP, then the game just didn’t want to use any actions anymore. I couldn’t even save and quit, but had to go through Task Manager to kill it. Next try I get him to like 80hp, fresh turn with all of my characters, but the game just crashes. Third time, he’s at 80 or so again, but because of terrible animations I didn’t see that he was supposed to be flying in the air, charging his giga attack. Because of some debuff, he was just writhing on the floor, so I just couldn’t really tell. I had a dozen Globe of Invulnerability scrolls, so I could have survived easily.
Anyway, I’ll do another run next month, after Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and maybe the new Diablo 4 season, but dunno about that last one.