RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[majestic]

1 hour ago, misterjimmy said:

I don't understand why some people crying about Larian will ruin BG3 writing with their humor. Maybe they forgot BG series also had same humor content.

It's not humor, but Larian's brand of humor in particular I'd venture.

[melkathi]

I am very critical when it comes to writing. I know this, so I try to allow for my inner editor, my demanding nature, and give people a chance. But I am not ever buying another Larian game. There comes a point when we need to stop finding fault with ourselves and accept the fact that some people should not be doing certain jobs. Larian should keep to coding, to making nice graphics, to making music. They should not have any input on the writing. They are worse than what Bioware devolved into in the Dragon Age series (whiny dialogue in a fantasy dating sim located in plot-hole central).

 

Ironically enough, Dragon Commander was the one game were their writing mostly worked. It also was their one game were the gameplay didn't.

Edited June 1, 2019 by melkathi

[Saito Hikari]

Ugh, quoted the wrong post.

To the person who said that Larian is most likely just trolling to build hype, I'm pretty sure trolling using a licensed IP that doesn't belong to them would open them up to legal action. It wasn't that long ago that, IIRC, someone contracted with Bethesda pretty much ripped off a DnD campaign when writing a pen and paper scenario for the Elder Scrolls franchise, and Bethesda had to do major damage control with that considering they're normally the lawyer-siccing party.

There's also this happening too.

Console ports for many of the old DnD RPGs, namely the Bauldr's Gate series, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Saito Hikari

[Wormerine]

26 minutes ago, Saito Hikari said:

To the person who said that Larian is most likely just trolling to build hype, I'm pretty sure trolling using a licensed IP that doesn't belong to them would open them up to legal action. It wasn't that long ago that, IIRC, someone contracted with Bethesda pretty much ripped off a DnD campaign when writing a pen and paper scenario for the Elder Scrolls franchise, and Bethesda had to do major damage control with that considering they're normally the lawyer-siccing party.

Well, that's apple to oranges. If including references to Baldur's Gate in the code were a misdirection, in the very worse case it might be an infringement on IP. It would be an odd case, as Larian never used this IP. 

What Bethesda did was a pure pligirism - copying someone elses work as their own.

I must say it would be an odd prank, but at the same time I am willing to give Larian credit of the doubt that they wouldn't make such a rookie mistake, when putting up the page designed to tease, without revealing much. Unless the intent was the indirect reveal. Uuuuuu.

[ShadySands]

I kinda feel bad for Beamdog if Larian or someone else makes BG3. That's not to say that I would prefer them to make it but since that was their stated long term goal at the beginning of all the EEs, I'd just feel for them.

[kanisatha]

21 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I kinda feel bad for Beamdog if Larian or someone else makes BG3. That's not to say that I would prefer them to make it but since that was their stated long term goal at the beginning of all the EEs, I'd just feel for them.

It's interesting you say this because just a few days ago Beamdog finally revealed that they did have a D&D RPG in development some time ago, including using Planescape in it, but then that game was cancelled, which was then followed by Dave Gaider leaving Beamdog. No further details at this time, but I suspect WotC allowed them to say even this much now only because Larian's game is about to be revealed and it's likely WotC killed Beamdog's game when Larian came to them asking about doing BG3.

[injurai]

All I'll say, is Larian better not become sycophantic towards the turn-based fanatics.

[ShadySands]

I prefer TB in general so I don't mind that change if it happens but I realize that most people probably won't feel the same way

[kanisatha]

3 hours ago, injurai said:

All I'll say, is Larian better not become sycophantic towards the turn-based fanatics.

Yeah I hope they're smart enough to realize that if you're making game #3 in a series you should not mess with any of the core elements from the first two games, which means it needs to be single-player focused, party-based, isometric, and have RTwP combat.

[injurai]

 

[ShadySands]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York Announced.

Another Vampire game

Edited June 4, 2019 by ShadySands

[Wormerine]

On 6/3/2019 at 3:38 AM, kanisatha said:

Yeah I hope they're smart enough to realize that if you're making game #3 in a series you should not mess with any of the core elements from the first two games, which means it needs to be single-player focused, party-based, isometric, and have RTwP combat.

Considering the multiplayer focus of Divinities, even if BG3 were a thing I wouldn't hold my breath for it to be designed as a single player experience. Divinity right now is a bigger IP then BG, and they would want to attract Divinity audience. And those will expect coop gameplay and adventure editor.

[kanisatha]

10 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Considering the multiplayer focus of Divinities, even if BG3 were a thing I wouldn't hold my breath for it to be designed as a single player experience. Divinity right now is a bigger IP then BG, and they would want to attract Divinity audience. And those will expect coop gameplay and adventure editor.

Yeah and that is precisely the source of my unhappiness of Larian doing this. But at the same time, I am trying to be hopeful based on the facts that (a) another D&D game is already being made as a co-op action RPG and I would be surprised to see WotC greenlighting two similar D&D games, and (b) Swen Vincke said in a recent interview that he wants to make different kinds of games from what he has been making thus far.

[Hurlshort]

Baldur's Gate was coop too. I actually played it on a LAN more than I've played the Divinity games. But that's because I had friends and free time when I was young.

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Hurlshot said:

Baldur's Gate was coop too. I actually played it on a LAN more than I've played the Divinity games. But that's because I had friends and free time when I was young.

It had an optional coop, which didn’t work unless you really really wanted it to. It was a single player game with an optional coop. Divinity1&2 is a coop game with an optional singleplayer. 

Personally though, I am against “typecasting” developers. If Larian sets their mind on doing a strong singleplayer experience, with still lighthearted but less absurd writing, I am sure they can do it. They are clearly a talented bunch. First though, we do need to confirm what this “III” stands for. 

[Hurlshort]

Larian may be able to stick to a strong single player experience, but I doubt they can lose the absurdity of their writing. 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Hurlshot
Smiley over usage

[Sven_]

At best Larian should just focus on making a good game. However, given their strong personal Preference towards TB Combat (similar to Obsidian's main System Designers...), they would probably make a better focused TB combat system than a real-time one. But who knows, maybe they would even fix some of the remaining annoyances in nu-RtWP, or give the idea of real-time Party Combat a different spin. Prior to Original Sin, the only viable way of going TB seemed to ape X-Com style combat, such as Wastleand 2 or Shadowrun did, after all. The more options and diversity, the better if you ask me. If this would come to pass, Larian would likely also get in touch with writers who've already written for D&D games. Prior to Original Sin 2, they've treated story beats at times as an afterthought, as their focus and interest was something else. They've only very recently ramped up their writing staff.

Their system driven approach to aping the freedom found in a pen&paper session crossed with D&D may make for some interesting stuff either way… of which you won't find overly much in a traditional IE style game, as the IE games are more "static" than the games that Larian are usually inspired by. As much as I love to replay it: The next Baldur's Gate won't look 100% like Baldur's Gate, as we all know all of its tricks inside out, and aren't surprised anymore by them the way we used to. Curious how a hopefully well made game carrying the D&D/BG licenses would commercially pan out too, given the audiences Larian managed to attract with their own IP. It may be the one shot at showing the gaming world that there's lots of people out there who would love to play that kind of game in one form or the other anyhow. Then again, they could also mess it up and roll a critical miss.  

Edited June 5, 2019 by Sven_

[Amentep]

On 5/31/2019 at 5:44 AM, the_dog_days said:

Larian says its not Baldur's Gate 3: https://wccftech.com/baldurs-gate-3-larian-studios/

Icewind Dale 3 then?

 

[IndiraLightfoot]

On 5/31/2019 at 10:53 AM, Chilloutman said:

I would be worried about art style, I really really don't like their style at all. No more cartoons please

Yeah, at least not for a D&D Baldur's Gate setting.

On 5/31/2019 at 7:59 PM, sorophx said:

 

everything else would be BG 3 in name only! 

That is to be expected. What I'm after is a game faithful to that universe, and which takes it and that entire lore and history seriously.

On 6/1/2019 at 11:33 AM, melkathi said:

I am very critical when it comes to writing. I know this, so I try to allow for my inner editor, my demanding nature, and give people a chance. But I am not ever buying another Larian game..

Indeed, this has me worried.

19 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

Larian may be able to stick to a strong single player experience, but I doubt they can lose the absurdity of their writing. 

If they can use their flexible CRPG making skills and ditch the Beetle Bailey writing, much would be gained.

Edited June 6, 2019 by IndiraLightfoot

[Tale]

I've only ever finished Original Sin 2 and found myself thinking "that's it?" at the end. No real complaints beyond thinking it was kind of bare in the story department.

 

Anyway, there's a teaser trailer out.

 

Interesting direction. I was hoping for more ties to the saga, but I can't really complain about this. Aside from the fact that they're cheap buggers that I hated fighting.

[Malcador]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-06-06-blizzard-reportedly-cancels-first-person-starcraft-shooter

Blizzard and Starcraft shooters don't mix.

[melkathi]

A were-illithid ?

They are taking the were-sheep joke a bit too far.

[Keyrock]

 

[marelooke]

So, Destiny 2 is:

• going (partially?) F2P, iiuc year 1 content will be F2P, which if I'm not mistaken means the base game.
• coming to Steam (and Google Stadia), alas not Gog
• doing away with lootboxes
• doing away with PS4 exclusives
• adding cross-play between all their platforms (this needn't be a positive, for Warframe it's mostly been a negative when they tried it as the certification process for consoles makes it impossible to respond to issues quickly, which was a huge issue during the first, and very badly received, iteration of their "Nightwave" battle-pass-thing)
• having a new expansion (which still costs money, hence the partially f2p)

Laymen video:

Nice touch to end a Destiny 2 video with Warframe's Fortuna song

Edited June 7, 2019 by marelooke

[misterjimmy]