Wormerine

I have no doubt there will be hijinks and unexpected things happening. Question is, will I remotely care about any of the NPC (or should I say AI controlled playable characters) this time around. Yeah, they seem to use pretty much the same tech, unlike Deadfire which reworked and improved a lot of things. It is not the worst idea every to do an oldfashioned sequel.

Cool! A classic I never played. And controller support.

They did that in their previous title, Divinity: Original Sin2, and I thought it worked alright. I would fill the blanks of how my character would say it (at least initially), a bit like I fill silent protagonist with my voice. Wasn't I didn't like in D:OS2 is overall how little narrative direction there was, I am worried BG3 will suffer the same fate. What I have seen the most jarring, that sometimes the character would speak pre-recorded lines - whenever it's demo magic, or feature of the game I don't know. If it is a thing, it's an odd design - supervague dialogue most of the time, and then pre-written, recorded lines everyonce in the while.

Such as? Honest question. What has happened is that we didn’t get another RPG, since then, beside crowdfunded projects and recently Outer Words, which was uninspiringly fine. . Bethesda went on to undermine whatever good was in their games with F4&76 (not that I ever cared for their games). I don’t know what Bioware has been doing. There was Witcher3 which was great but barely an RPG - what’s more RPG mechanics were what was dragging the game down. Without doubt, Divinities were the most exciting and innovative thing to happen to RPG, succesfully making a Coop oriented RPG.

If I recognize the avatar @ComradeMaster seems to hate every good RPG. What they are going in Obsidian forum, I dunno.

Is that total, or what comes in Early Access? I remember that it will launch with only few classes, and the rest will be added later. EDIT. From gameplay video it sounds like they are launching with 6 classes and 9 races. EDIT2. Quick google suggest that the game is to come to early access with 8 classes and 15 races and add the rest later. EDIT3. Another search says something else

What if it’s a completely different new horse, you just keep calling it “Roach” because naming is not one of your strong suits?

No, I don’t. I don’t mind them experimenting - I am not tied to IE nostalgia too much, and I found PoE to work the best when it does its own thing. But PoE holds my interest as a party-based story-driven singleplayer RPG. Make it RTwP or turn based, class based or classless. Obsidian could make an RPG in PoE setting and get my interest... but they might as well do a new IP.

I will give Larian a pass. NWN2 has been one of my fav post IE games RPG. it wasn’t a successor to what NWN was, but it was what I wanted NWN to be. BG3 might not be a successor to BG1&2, and it might not be what I like the most... but as long as it’s good in what it aims to achieve, and doesn’t mess with the original... what’s the harm?

I like the look of Deadfire, but performance and functionality is far behind... as is expected of 2nd focused engine modified from Unity for a game made, by what, 40 people? Verticality, size, easy inside/outside without transitions, supporting units being all over the map at the same time, interactions with the enviroment plus multiplayer support add to that moddability and adventure creator. Quite a bit like Witcher, its an engine built by studio for their specific needs and purposes, and it's and investment and commitment that pays off.

D:OS2 engine and scale is amazing. I just wish they would do something more structured for BG3. I found D:OS2 to be too free-form - you can do anything, anywhere with vague objectives meaning I didn’t care or remember about anything I did. Apparently there are about 350 people working on BG3. It shows. In many ways that’s a kind of game I wished for Bioware to pursue - invest in systems and interactions, rather then presentation. What I didn’t wish was for it to be so multiplayer focused.

Oh well, I guess it didn’t sell afterall. Still, from the resurgence of RPGs it is only PoE that is most likely dead, no? Shame as it was my fav of the bunch. Solasta is also a thing. We will see how it will turn out.

You are preaching to the choir here.

It's really clever multiplayer design. I wonder if they manage to find a way for it to work better when playing single player. The demo felt alright to me.

At some point Swen said that “jump” is enhanced by having the worm-thing in your eye. I imagine same goes for push and move objects. It seems to have some effects, like vampire guy not perishing in sunlight.

I categorise Bioware and Larian games a fundamentally different genres - first being singleplayer high presentation focused, mostly linear, story driven adventures, while the latter are sandbox, system driven coop games. The only issue I have with Baldur's Gate 3, is its connection to BG1&2 while being apples and oranges situation.

Looks... good. And more or less what I expected. Seems they are aiming for newer Bioware conversation view, but with Divinities “vague” dialogue system. I am curious how it will gel together - I feel that silent protagonist works better in top down setting, rather then in your face JadeEmpire/KOTOR/DragonAge set up - in isometric all you do is implied and imagination takes over, while fancy presentations makes unanimated things draw attention to themselves.

What I would like to seperate is quality of writing vs. over-arching narrative. I would agree that "story" of the Deadfire isn't very good - but writing - actual work done by writers under constrains and directions given to them is pretty darn good. You can't blame writers on lack of development, or engaging direction, because it is not something that game supports structually. Deadfire presents the lore and setting in an excellent way - it explores factions role and impact on the Deadfire, explores further God's and their relations with mortals. You get to know and understand Huana culture and history in an engaging way. But none of it is "story". That's I think, the impact of Josh being directly involved in molding overarching narrative. He is a great lead, with a special appreciation for history and culture, which made PoE world detailed, believable and engaging. But Deadfire is a history/culture lesson, rather then a story or adventure.

If it is a bug, write to: support@vsevil.net

Confirmation of the google leak, that BG3 is to be released in 2020. It appears it will start up with Early Access, which is in line with Larians previous titles. https://www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-3/early-access-leak

Trying to make a dent in the free games Epic has been giving out. Started with Alan Wake. It's... not any good. The beginning was promising - insteresting gimmick, a cheesy Stephen King-ish story with all the subtelty of... well, Stephen King. But after first major chapter it becomes so repetitive and boring.

I wouldn't go that far, but it is Josh's particular sensibilities and interests which made PoE what it is. I would be interested in seeing what PoE under his full control would look like, and I would be interested in seeing what a new lead would do with the game - I did enjoy all three DLCs after all. What I am not terribly interested in, is a non-isometric PoE. The world doesn't have that much appeal to me, to automatically transfer my interest in PoE3 into another genre - it would need to sell me on the concept mostly from the ground up... that being said, being made by Obsidian is, for now, still a good start.

Yas! Can't wait.

In truth this is the announcement of the announcement of the announcement, that was somewhat announced alread, albeit in not such detail. In other news, the most awaited game of 2020 (the most objective and not biased statement) Empire of Sin has been delayed till Autumn. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/18/empire-of-sin-pushes-its-prohibition-crime-spree-back-to-autumn/

Installed Turn Based mod and returned to Pathfinder, and I am grinding away on Hard difficulty, at least now I can more or less see what's going on. Not very exciting to watch units miss each other back and forth. This game's time system makes it tempting to play with walkthough to see what areas I have a chance to tackle. I did loose over an hour of progress in the prologue section when I made a lengthy journey to an area for which I didn't have necessary items to deal with. Though as it turned out quest was timed very generously. But how were I to know I was allowed to waste my time?