this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 1 points 21 hours ago

It's strange, I still have real difficulty getting 'in' to Baldurs gate 3, even with all the media hyping it for a long time. And one reason for that is I don't find it all that 'deep', and its linear progression makes me lose interest partway through the starting areas (never gotten to the goblin camp or w/e).

Like take the romances. Even in the little bit that I played, the way affection is handled is just boring / tired / done. All the male chars are sorta femmy, all the female chars are sorta butch, and none of them seem to care that, like, I'm some tiny scrawny gnome bard. They all want to screw me, just cause I'm nice to them -- all the men turned gay almost immediately after meeting me, something I guess they had to tweak in a patch. And it all seems to happen based on pre-determined/defined relationship algorithms - be nice, gain a point towards boning NPC X, if you cross a threshold trigger an event. That's been done literally for decades and decades in the CRPG genre.

The encounters/combats are all really rigid and essentially scripted in nature, at least the parts I've seen. Go to point X, encounter monster group A, which is tooled to certain party level ranges. If you can't win, you've gone to an encounter out of the general 'order' you're meant to do them. Go back, find the encounter you missed to level up, then return and progress further. Again, very generic and something that's been done for decades.

Rigid party size, camp with toons you can swap in and out, complete with a skill retrainer guy. Immersion breaking, but again, a trope / mechanic that's been around for literally decades.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 140 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Yes, Hasbro wants to make another Baldur’s Gate game that continues to “raise the bar” without Larian

Pfffffff.... Hasbro has a great reputation for being greedy as fuck, and completely deaf blind and dumb to what fans love and enjoy about established IPs. So I'm sure whatever travesty they release will be just great 👍

[–] Donkter@lemmy.world 39 points 3 days ago (5 children)

When they say "raise the bar" they just want to make a hornier dating sim.

[–] TheLowestStone@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No, whether say "raise the bar" they mean "increase the price."

[–] PrinzKasper@feddit.org 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Buy these new subclasses for just 3,99 each, or 10 bucks for the bundle with all of them! This is a limited time offer, visit the Baldurian shop to grab yours fast!

[–] JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Ahh, Dungeons and Dragons: Online, my beloved

Free Lasting Potion of Jumping (+20) x5 Coupon Code: SLAMDUNK Now through April 24th!

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Jokes aside, what they literally mean is "make it on a budget expect a giant revenue since people want more". And after it flops, they'll moan and whine about how customers are ruining the industry by not knowing what they want and demanding something they wont buy.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 1 points 2 days ago

I’d probably buy it. I have no shame.

they just want to make a hornier dating sim.

but we have two and a half studios for that

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago
[–] Talaraine@fedia.io 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The memes should be fun tho

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago
[–] heavy@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"raise the bar" is big Amazon language. Maybe a bunch of ex Amazon folks in Hasbro now.

[–] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago
[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Yeah Hasbro will just dumb it down and ruin it

[–] 5in1k@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago

Optimus Prime skin on the Mother Brain.

[–] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've tried to play baldur's gate 3 a few times already and every time I felt like it was a fantastical game but I always ended up not playing it for long. After the last time I started wondering why that happened and reached the conclusion that it was the D&D universe that put me off. Not necessarily because it was bad but because I knew nothing about it and the game didn't try to introduce me to it either.

So I read your comment on Hasbro as "want to make another great game but using only the bad parts of the last one"

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 3 points 2 days ago

Even though Larian did a great job modernizing pieces, D&D 5E is just really crunchy and outdated, imo. Larian's own Divinity Original Sin 2 had a largely better combat, magic, and armor system, even if it is a slightly older title now.

Physical and magic armor, spell cooldowns (prevents spell spam and constant short and long rests), advanced elemental and cursed surfaces, and diversified healing and combat magic make characters more flexible.

5e's rest system is good for taking care of (what was) useless food in inventory, moves the story along, and provides good places for more natural relationships. D&Ds lack of flexible healing and spell slots means a lot of annoying enemy encounters, however.

I'm on my second playthrough of both titles right now. BG3's story is awesome. :)

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 2 days ago

hasbro: so more aaa schlock and treating our players as if they're stupid it is then

[–] Visstix@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago

Emphasis on the ass

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 9 points 2 days ago

Ah, so my first reaction is "what actual indie developer who knows what they're talking about excludes BG3 from AAA"?

Turns out not this one, apparently, since the creative use of quotes seems intended to obscure that "AAA schlock" is not from the dev, it's from the journalist rehashing a quote from an article about a quote from a podcast. Speaking of schlock.

Anyway, I'm on the fence about the core point. I agree on principle that "dumbed down" doesn't make things mainstream. I agree that this is a lesson the industry insists on refusing to learn, even after The Sims doulbing as architecture software, WoW casual moms playing with a dozen UI mods, Fortnite core players building gothic cathedrals in five seconds and Roblox containing entire gamedev teams made of unpaid children.

Whatever the mainstream wants, "simple" has nothing to do with it.

Do I think BG3 means somebody should fund Pillars 3? Yeeeeah, not so sure. BG3 works because it was the literal best time to be making D&D stuff, because it had two extremely beloved brands propping it up, because it's a sequel to two extremely well received, accessible CRPGs that both did a lot better than Pillars to begin with, because they were both focused on multiplayer and free-form systems instead of straight-up literature. Nuance matters here.

And then somebody (a lot of somebodies) gave Larian two hundred million to make it, so it also looks at least as good as anything Bioware ever did during their heyday. That's probably why BG3 has 140K players on Steam right now and Avowed has 1K and never peaked past 10K.

There are lessons from BG I'd love to see the industry learn. I want them to learn the right ones, though, because if they go ahead and invest another nine digits in the wrong thing then we WILL actually have to wait another 30 years for another game like that.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

If an indie studio can produce this, why not create a AA CRPG? Do you really need the third A?

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago

Im sorry BG3 is triple A in quality they are indie since they published their own games not cause they are small or low quality. Indie just gets thrown around as most are solo devs. With digital distribution less indies have to sell out to work with big publishers to get on consoles. Honestly it's why I think AAA publishers are dying they can no longer just buy the smaller fish.

[–] TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Baldurs Gate 3 is a AA CRPG tho?

[–] PrinzKasper@feddit.org 21 points 3 days ago

BG3 had a budget of over 100 million and several hundred people working on it, it's well into AAA territory

[–] baines@lemmy.cafe 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

pretty sure we’re at AAAA now

[–] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

The As represents how much the employees scream while making the game.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz -3 points 1 day ago

Isnt bg3 simplifing DND to bring it to a more mainstream audience? Players definitely do not want deepass crpgs. Crpgs go very deep.