BG3

[MrBrown]

We can have a thread about BG3, can we?

So, umm, it's out, if you didn't notice.

Early reviews seem to be positive. Someone rushed through and said he didn't encounter many bugs.

Also: 

[Chilloutman]

well kinda out:

[Chilloutman]

Anyway, anyone feeling playing MP? I would be down for some MP action

[MrBrown]

According to Larian, having a game in EA on Steam means you can't shut down the EA and set it for preload. So everyone is loading the files at the same time.

Edited August 3, 2023 by MrBrown

[Sarex]

29 minutes ago, MrBrown said:

We can have a thread about BG3, can we?

Only if it's good!

Idk, from what I'm seeing I would probably give it a shot at some point. But first I need an ssd, a new graphics card and for it to not cost 60euro.

[HoonDing]

Why is SSD required?

[Sarex]

41 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

Why is SSD required?

No clue. I find it strange too.

[MrBrown]

Isn't it pretty normal these days?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

Only if it's good!

Idk, from what I'm seeing I would probably give it a shot at some point. But first I need an ssd, a new graphics card and for it to not cost 60euro.

Uhhh, how bad are the system requirements?

[Sarex]

I have the minimum config, without the ssd. (I do have the ssd, but only 128gb)

  

11 minutes ago, MrBrown said:

Isn't it pretty normal these days?

It would be if it was recommended, but not minimum.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Sarex

[Bartimaeus]

maybe they should spend a little less time making 16K textures that take up a hundred plus gigabytes and more time on having animations that don't make characters look like animatronics

but at least they (presumably) finished the game, unlike the majority of early access scams

Edited August 3, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Gorth]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

but at least they (presumably) finished the game, unlike the majority of early access scams

What do you mean? Cyberpunk 2077 is almost ready to come out of early access!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

5 hours ago, Sarex said:

I have the minimum config, without the ssd. (I do have the ssd, but only 128gb)

Damn, I'm just behind recommended with an AMD r5 2600x. I do have a 2070 so I'm ahead there. Looks like I'll head back to the Forgotten Realms.....in 6 months to a year.

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

maybe they should spend a little less time making 16K textures that take up a hundred plus gigabytes and more time on having animations that don't make characters look like animatronics

Maybe they should double down on animatronic animations and make Willie's Wonderland into a vidyagame.

[MrBrown]

I have an older processor but over the recommended otherwise, seems to running fine so far.

Some framedrops so not super smooth, but I'm also very abusive towards games, alt-tab a lot and have forced it to recover from sleep mode.

Edited August 4, 2023 by MrBrown

[Gorth]

Not having an ssd drive to dedicate to a game means BG3 will go down the waiting list somewhat. My wallet thank you

I suspect it has to do with a lot of frequent loading of smaller assets.

[Humanoid]

If HDDs aren't supported then why:

 

5 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Damn, I'm just behind recommended with an AMD r5 2600x

While your CPU will almost certainly work fine as-is, you can likely get your motherboard to support 5000-series CPUs, including the mighty 5800X3D, with a simple BIOS update.

[Raithe]

Baldur's Gate 3 launch slams into Steam like a rogue iceberg, but the servers refuse to sink | PC Gamer

[Hawke64]

13 hours ago, HoonDing said:

Why is SSD required?

The textures don't load in time and the loading in general is slow.

Spoiler

I've just checked the settings and created a character (well, several). The issues from EA are still present - no full highlights or GUI scaling, the heads are presets, the additional body types available for humans and elves only. But you can choose between 6 options for genitals, which are, fortunately, not bound to the race or the body types, unlike heads. The masc heads for elves are not exactly aesthetically pleasing.

Spoiler

Granted, I did this face/hair combination on purpose, but the other heads for elves are not much better.

That's a fem head, which looks fine. The inability to keep the head and the general slender body type without the breasts was disappointing, though.

Halfling heads.

And the guardian, who might be helpful, might she not?

Edit. Also, no full custom party without MP/multiple instances and no saving/exporting the PCs either. And no full level up preview during character creation.

I'm unlikely to play Larian's D&D game now, but the character creator was amusing even if lacking.

Edit2. If you purchased the EA version, there are the artbook and the OST in the game's folder.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Hawke64

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

you know, I've never really understood the 'pixely ultra-sharp painted on hair that somehow manages to look like a bizarre particle effect directly attached to my character's head/face' visual style for hair in modern 3d games

[Hawke64]

5 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

you know, I've never really understood the 'pixely ultra-sharp painted on hair that somehow manages to look like a bizarre particle effect directly attached to my character's head/face' visual style for hair in modern 3d games

Yes, it does seem a bit off. I suspect it's because of the settings (medium/low for textures/details) or the HDD and the hair looks better on high/ultra/SSD.

[Bartimaeus]

Just now, Hawke64 said:

Yes, it does seem a bit off. I suspect it's because of the settings (medium/low for textures/details) or the HDD and the hair looks better on high/ultra/SSD.

I did just watch somebody else's "all hairstyles" video, and it does look like they generally rendered better there. I'd personally say character graphics should probably have extremely high priority and use higher level of detail relative to the rest of the game even when using low quality settings to avoid bizarre-looking characters like that, but that's just me.

[Humanoid]

Trying to copy the character by eye with max settings, ended up looking better but still not great.

[Wormerine]

Manage to play a bit yesterday - I encountered nasty "syncing saves" bug, which meant I couldn't save the game (double check immediately after starting the game folks!). I went through the whole tutorial area, before I realised it. Fortunately it is shorter in EA, and aside from character creator, it wasn't a big waste of time. I think it might have something to do with old EA saves - I did go through the effort of erasing everything before installing 1.0, but it didn't help for some reason. Erased save folder once again, and it's been all good for now.

Say hi to Andreas le Vilour, an aging, burned out bard, stuck entertaining rich folks in Baldur's Gate instead of pursuing research and true mastery of his craft. His long years of creative vegetation has been interupted when he was abducted by Findflayers on his way to an out of town gig, and infested with a tadpole.

So far impressions are positive. No big improvements over EA, but it's all much more polished and enjoyable to play. Companion introduction got a big or a lot of uplift - actual narrative differences are a bit better, but I think Larian did a good job making those characters feel more natural and fit better. I have always enjoyed my BG3 playthroughs that early in their run time, so we will see how things will progress.

 

Edit. Ahh complaints. In spite of hope that dataminig gave us, shields STILL don't deplay on character's backs. How annoying. Also character creation, while it received a visual uplift is still pretty bad. One of the main issues was lack of any information about character progression - what will your character actually do in the game - or even what subclasses are available, if you pick a class that doesn't automatically pick on on lvl1. I optimistically assumed that new "details" button will be just that, however, what it does is display proficiencies that come with that class.... which is already displayed on the main screen anyway. WTF Larian. How is that helpful to anyone.

On a bright side, now you can use shift and crtl to select multiple items in the inventory! Bhaal be praised, Larian is learning basics of UI. Now if they could only apply that to party management controls.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Wormerine

[Bartimaeus]

26 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Trying to copy the character by eye with max settings, ended up looking better but still not great.

Definitely better, but...yeah, still not awesome. As the premiere hater of modern 3D graphics here on the Obsidian forums, I absolutely do not care about fidelity - I would just prefer games to have cohesive, attractive, and/or unique visual styles that manage to avoid patently obvious visual bugbears and anything approaching the uncanny valley effect. I really hate looking at games that came out in the late 90s and early to mid 2000s and completely unironically thinking "these graphics bother me less than roughly 98% of what releases today". That should not happen, but something is wrong with my brain and it does...all the danged time, and character faces/hair is persistently one of the worst offenders these days.

I will say for BG3, I think it was a great idea in allowing the player to hijack one of the main NPCs and just play as them. That's something I've often wanted for a number of games, including the original Baldur's Gate - being able to make Imoen the main character would've been awesome (even if it had lead to more limited/in-character dialogue options). Though I'm not really sure about this particular cast of characters - I'd probably play as either Shadowheart (...even though that's a truly advanced level of stupid name for a character) or maybe the Githyanki lady. I think both of them are evil(?), which also seems like a plus.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[MrBrown]

5 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Say hi to Andreas le Vilour, an aging, burned out bard, stuck entertaining rich folks in Baldur's Gate instead of pursuing research and true mastery of his craft. His long years of creative vegetation has been interupted when he was abducted by Findflayers on his way to an out of town gig, and infested with a tadpole.

Yeah yeah, but what kind of genitals does he have?

Edited August 4, 2023 by MrBrown