MrBrown

https://blog.bioware.com/2023/08/23/an-update-on-the-state-of-bioware/ EDIT: This seems to include a lot of veterans. So I guess we can say RIP.

https://baldursgate3.game/news/patch-1-now-live_87

It feels money-grubby, but I think it'll improve server stability in the first few weeks, because the players are let in in waves. For online games anyway.

Lots of good outcomes include avoiding combat. But not as a whole up to act2, you'll be skipping a lot stuff if you absolutely avoid combat. It's a bit misleading, speed runners can reach end of act2 in 8mins, because a lot of the stuff is plain skippable.

Starfield seems to give digital premium edition buyers "up to 5 days early access". I guess this is the new standard.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/uk-opens-new-probe-into-microsofts-purchase-activision-2023-08-22/

If only you got the option to say no. But instead of that you get endless amounts of very obvious hinting and flirting, and you have to just stand there.

All my companions are coming onto me. It's quite annoying. There seems to be some cut-off point, where you can lock in to a relationship. After that some of them started crying I chose someone else.

Game crashed for me once, and recommended to check the files (using steam, I think?). This reset all the settings, including the collector's edition items (endless gold bug!).

Magic Missile.

The popularity of this game continues to baffle me. https://wccftech.com/baldurs-gate-3-topped-5-2-million-units-sold-on-steam-says-belgian-embassy/

Just got to Act3 and kinda getting bored by this game.

Funnily enough, most reviews and comments I've read seem to agree with the main criticism of that Eurogamer reviewer, in that the game is good but Act 3 is lackluster compared to the start. Most people just don't seem to consider it that big of a problem. I've also seen a lot of people downplay it along the lines of "oh, that always happens with Larian".

Recent hotfix had some slight problems:

https://www.eurogamer.net/baldurs-gate-3-a-critical-success-with-critical-failures

I think most of the "choice" it gives is reactivity to skills, classes etc other traits. Meaning you can approach something in many different ways. In this respect I think BG3 does better than most RPGs. It doesn't change the overall narrative at all, outside of that one big good/evil choice. There seems to be lots of variation on how various quests play out, but these seems to be mostly on a successful vs not-so-successful axis.

Traveling between main areas and long rests seem to used for counting time:

There's some kind of default "holding onto things" way they carry stuff it defaults to sometimes. My Bard sometimes swings her lute around by the neck of the thing. The 50 lockpick kits in my inventory also say they don't get spent.

Overwatch 2 is out on steam, and getting review bombed hard. I guess people are enjoying the opportunity to provide public feedback to Blizzard.

I respecced my companions ability scores, but otherwise kept them the same. Wyll's scores are the most stupid. He's supposed to be some kind of sword expert, but has Str 9 Dex 12.

Would still be a pretty weak reason to call it a sequel. But I guess that's what we're getting.

Been using that, still often unclear.

35h in. Things that annoy me so far: - Jumping. This was much better done in Solasta. - Combat/ability/item UI. Ditto, better done in Solasta. - Inventory UI. Better done in PF:WotR. - Environmental effects and the imprecise character control. Constantly walking into fire, traps, toxic clouds, etc. Just lost a fight because I clicked to make a melee attacks, turns out character was 1mm too far, decided to take a detour through lava. - Destructible "sturdy" walls that give no indication of what stuff damages them. And sometimes the same attack does damage, sometimes not. Still a good game though.

How not to interpret dice rolls:

I have no idea why BG3 turned out to be such a big thing. It doesn't do things that differently from other RPGs like PoE or the PF ones. Better graphics, yes. Besides that (and the nakedness), the only thing it does differently is the large number of options based on class, skill, spells, etc. Which is great, but to me it still doesn't explain the popularity.