Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear RELEASED

[Humanoid]

Gimme Shelter is the best Stones track, but I thought the album itself was the weakest in that golden run. In the same way then, the Baldur's series is Bioware's Let It Bleed, one shining light in a sea of much lesser games and expansions. Sadly, Bioware have been unable to produce a Beggar's Banquet or Sticky Fingers, let alone an Exile on Main St.

 

P.S. Mass Effect is Goat's Head Soup, moments of brilliance surrounded by mediocrity. Dragon Age is It's Only Rock and Roll, one overrated track and boring filler all around.

[BruceVC]

It's cue that people like Grom and Brcue whine about  'no legit complaints' when in a detailed post just previous to theirs someone actually goes into great detail on  specifics on why they dislike the game. Can't  change the narrative so plead ignorance and blindness? I expect that from Bruce but Gromn? I AM DISSAPOINT. Not that Grom cares.

 

 

btw, I did not not buy this game because of the SJW Nonsense. I think beamdog sucks and I haven't bothered with ANY of their IE nonsense. Because they lack skill. the fact that beamdog's owner had ANYTHING to do with the original BG  is HILARIOUS.

Sorry Volo but I don't believe you. 

 

You say you aren't influenced by  SJW nonsense yet when I was raising legitimate complaints about the game Hatred you made comments like " now I'm going to buy this game because SJW are telling me I mustn't " 

 

Lets not kid yourself, you behave  EXACTLY  the same as any "SJW "  except you are the opposite   

   

[Bartimaeus]

Is it any surprise that the game has technical issues and terrible writing? I mean, it's Beamdog: didn't any of you play BG:EE? Just the little bits of additional content they added in that were atrocious, and the game was broken on release... I mean, it's not like the BG series had brilliant writing or anything (BG1 generally ranged from poor to O.K. at best, with some parts that were truly atrocious - like, anything in TotSC - and only a very few parts that were maybe verging on good; BG2 was a bit better, but still had a lot of bland and boring bits all over the game, but only a few exceptionally bad parts - most of that being in ToB*)...but that's not the point: don't stick bad on bad for no dang reason, and don't buy crappy content from a terrible second rate (third or fourth rate would probably be more accurate) company that's just standing on the shoulders of giants - even if it's true those giants maybe weren't really that great to begin with, giants they were nonetheless.

 

I have no interest in Siege of Dragonspear, personally...but it ain't because of the alleged politics mentioned in this thread: Beamdog is not a good dev for much better reasons besides that.

 

*I say all of this as a gigantic mega-fan of Baldur's Gate, by the way: just because I'm a fan of something doesn't mean I'm bloody stupid and blind to its flaws, though.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Yeah, I played through BGEE and the added content wasn't very good. And given that the UI isn't an improvement over the original, I don't really see a reason to try SoD. Especially considering I've got a lot more games I'd like to get to some day.

[Volourn]

"Sorry Volo but I don't believe you. "
 

Like I give a crap.

 

 

 

"You say you aren't influenced by  SJW nonsense yet when I was raising legitimate complaints about the game Hatred you made comments like " now I'm going to buy this game because SJW are telling me I mustn't " 

 

I didn't buy BG EE why would I buy this? It is all garbage.  Beamdogs ucked before this silly drama.

 

btw, I never bought Hatred. Not my type of game. See, I don't actually bring politics into my game purchases. Like you do.

 

 

 

"Lets not kid yourself, you behave  EXACTLY  the same as any "SJW "  except you are the opposite"

 

Also, that's HILARIOUS consideirng I am a fan of a company who is pure Nazi SJW. So to claim that I base my purchases on pro or anti SJW Nazi nonsense is pure poppy****. Why do you embarass yourselves with flat out lies and besmirches?

 

Nope. I have never never tried to ban  people or get fired people from their jobs because they have different opinions than me. IMAGINE THAT Not to mention threatenbing to murder, rape, and murder women who didn't agree with my agenda. LMAO

 

 

Like usual thoguh you divert and ignore the actual post actually critiquing the game instead go diretcly  for silliness. R00fles!

Edited April 18, 2016 by Volourn

[213374U]

I've finally completed it.

 

I liked it in general. The writing is not great, but not as terrible as I've been reading. Certain situations come across as contrived, and the plot is fairly linear, but again these are flaws that were originally present both in BG1 and BG2, not to mention ToB. The plot seems to draw heavily from the local FR mythos, which if you're unfamiliar with and don't bother reading the books the game throws your way, can feel "out of the blue". This is another flaw with the writing, because BG1 kept beating you over the head with Alaundo's prophecies and Bhaal lore that the plot required to make sense. C&C is fairly minor and doesn't really affect the ending as far as I can tell. The ending itself, or rather, the epilogue, is probably the weakest part, as it's unimaginative and maladroit, especially regarding the canon party in BG2. Seriously, just allow BG2 to import a savestate, how hard can it be? BGT handled it better, and frankly I'm sick of Minsc turning up after I've repeatedly killed him. The game could also use exactly 87.942% less Hooded Man, by my estimation. Too much of a good thing and all that.

 

After playing through with both Safana and Jaheira in the party, I honestly can't tell what's the big deal about their supposed "way better personality upgrades". Despite my previous comment on the matter, I really can't. Jaheira isn't half as annoying as she was (will be?) in BG2, and Safana acts exactly as I'd expect her to. Not that she had much of a personality to begin with in the originals, so maybe her current incarnation is conflicting with folks' headcanon? Dunno.

 

The political statement thing has been blown out of proportion, as you would expect from anything and everything on the internets. When it's done, it's done rather clumsily. But it's not all that common or at the forefront of the narrative. The worst offender is, to me, the lack of roleplaying and flavor options. Generally you can reply as: a) LG guy, b) boorish/churlish thug or c) passive-aggresive snide idiot. I generally do my first playthroughs in all RPGs as LG paladin-type guy and then explore other options, and I can already tell that even a neutral PC would be hard to play without breaking character.

 

Visually, it's as good as anything in previous IE games -- this is both good and bad. The spell effects are all recycled, as are the sprites, including some from other IE titles. I can only think of a single instance that had a new sprite, and the lack of new assets in this regard is kind of glaring. They brought back a bunch of the original voice actors, so that's a plus, too, and they've stated that if they can hunt down Jaheira's original voice actor, they will add voice to her lines in a patch. I enjoyed the music, but Sam Hulick's work seems to be hit/miss for some people.

 

Bugs. Yeah, there are bugs. Quest-related (though only affecting minor quests from what I've seen), the infamous LoB bug that prevents playing on the hardest difficulty, and multiplayer bugs that they just can't seem to fix completely. Beyond that, nothing game-breaking... so more or less industry-standard, sadly.

 

Not an excellent game, but all in all, I got my 20€ worth. Provided they can dial back the attitude, I'd probably buy another IE game from Beamdog.

 

I just remembered that I haven't been able to get into the mood to play PoE...

[Mamoulian War]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the game. It is first game review, which I find unbiased and informed on mostly all of the stuff, which I was worrying about when internet was being an internet in the last few weeks. You actually changed my attitude from "Do Not Buy!!!", to "Maybe buy, when I reduce my backlog and the price is right". Thanks again

 

 

 

EDIT: Have you considered to write/copy it on GOG as well (if you have account)? It really could use something like that in between all of the garbage from both sides of "Social Justice" man can find there.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Mamoulian War

[Volourn]

So mam is anotehr guy who is ignoring the solid review  that was posted twice in this thread. LMAO

[BruceVC]

So mam is anotehr guy who is ignoring the solid review  that was posted twice in this thread. LMAO

Volo I prefer to formulate my own opinion on games, I have extremely unusual gaming standards 

 

Besides its probably fair to say there is a level of bias towards this game that makes most reviews for me unrealistic but the good news is if I say " Volo this is a good game " then you know that game will be good and you must buy it 

[falchen]

How's the new shaman class?

 

And are there any new interesting items in this that carry over to BG2?

[Mamoulian War]

So mam is anotehr guy who is ignoring the solid review  that was posted twice in this thread. LMAO

Nope, but as I have said, this review has informed me on all of the issues, which I was worried about, and previous reviews, despite being solid, did not talked about all of them.

 

And I know, from his posts, that he had similar oppinion about some of the bull**** which Beamdog might have put in the game, so if he does think that it was way overblown, I might find that after playing the game as well. Of course, only when the price hits the sweet spot for me. Not gonna pay full price on this, because I have my reasons and oppinions as well ;-)

[Gromnir]

 

So mam is anotehr guy who is ignoring the solid review  that was posted twice in this thread. LMAO

Nope, but as I have said, this review has informed me on all of the issues, which I was worried about, and previous reviews, despite being solid, did not talked about all of them.

 

And I know, from his posts, that he had similar oppinion about some of the bull**** which Beamdog might have put in the game, so if he does think that it was way overblown, I might find that after playing the game as well. Of course, only when the price hits the sweet spot for me. Not gonna pay full price on this, because I have my reasons and oppinions as well ;-)

 

there is any number o' fan and profeshnul (HA!) reviews that has already observed that the reaction to the sjw element o' sod were overblown.  the fact that you believe #s and not the dozens o' other folks who made similar observations is not surprising... and am not actual being critical when we say that.  reviews is largely pointless unless you have some kinda appreciation for the reviewer's pov.  long time ago, Gromnir used desslock as a decent measure 'cause whether or not we quibbled with him over aspects o' his reviews, it were near guaranteed that if desslock liked a game, so too would Gromnir.  right or wrong o' a reviewer is largely besides the point, and the resulting numerical review scores is silly.  find a reviewer that has similar opinions as you got is what matters... 'least that is what matters to Gromnir.  

 

example: we saw hiro p's comments where he were irritated 'bout sod adding new spells and some o' his other quibbles and we knew right then and there that we could ignore his review o' sod, 'cause we sure as hell would expect new features, including spells, in a bg expansion.

 

is MANY people before #s review that identified how overblown were the reaction to the sjw element, and folks telling Gromnir that a new release from beamdog is buggy is kinda like giving us a heads up that the sun will rise tomorrow.  from the gameplay videos released we had a decent grasp o' how sod would play even before we read reviews.  most other numbers observations we will ignore as we find little common ground regarding his remaining concerns.  

 

the writing in bg were... bad.  the joinable companions, as we noted earlier in the thread, were woeful underdeveloped in bg, so being annoyed by beamdog changing o' companions struck us as an asinine complaint.  am also thinking folks got a serious overblown recollection o' the writing in bg and totsc.  considering that sod is a freaking expansion o' bg, we didn't expect much improvement o' the writing as 'tween bg/totsc and sod, which meant we expect little.

 

from what we could see, sod were being sold as a nostalgic bg EXPANSION that looked as if it played more like iwd than bg.  most reputable reviews we read confirmed what we had seen and heard previous to the game's release.  most folks who we knew who actual played the expansion were finding the sjw agenda as being a tangential non-issue in actual gameplay.  therefore, we found the ubiquitous attacks o' beamdog as unfair.  mamoulian needed #s to convince him o' what Gromnir already believed regarding the overblown aspect o' the so-called sjw agenda?  fine.  mamoulian is actual using reviews the way, the only way that Gromnir would recommend.  find a reviewer with whom you is sympatico.  metacritic scores and the vast majority o' reviews is gonna be utterly useless to the average reader.  find the reviewer whose opinions resonate.  

 

even so, it kinda looks like the lol is on mamoulian, eh? 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Junai]

 

 

complain o' bad writing?  fine.  converse, complain that you is being "schooled in liberalism by leftist US (kanadian?) activists" is the behavior o' a nincompoop. dallas buyer's club complete distorts facts and is most unsubtle 'bout its agenda, no?  walk outta that movie seeing fda as the bad guys is complete understandable as the movie is mostly a pseudoscience indulgence on par with the claims that immunizations is a cause o' autism.  even so, dallas buyer's were a well acted and entertaining movie.  'course we would be here all day listing the novels, movies, music and other forms o' entertainment that unapologetically school the audience, but two obvious examples is worth listening to.

 

 

Uhu..  so if I enjoy a rapper doing a social commentary, I can't criticize Amber Scott for replacing the source material of a twenty year old computer game, and filling it with her own immature socialist ramblings? Otherwise I'm a hypocrite?

 

I'm not a big fan of artists doing social commentaries in general. I agree with Clapton when he criticizes Bono and Geldof, saying they're just musicians. Of course if U2 expresses their political views more vaguely in a song, it's a whole different matter. A friend invited me to do a j and watch that Pink Floyd movie several years ago. Didn't like it. The whole commentary was about as immature as Amber Scott's bra-burning goblins. Getting high while watching it just made it worse. A lot worse. 

 

I could smell where BG:EE was heading when I went through the material they had added. I wasn't sure if they tried to appeal to teenagers, or the old fans.. which are now in their thirties and fourties. They seriously expect old men to enjoy playing with the wild mage Neera? Could of course be I've outgrown this nonsense. I just couldn't get that good old feeling I had when I first went through the IE games. Strange that Beamdog devs haven't aged as well. They're writing is poorer now than when they were fresh out of college. Strange. And no, I'm not particularily romantic about TotSC either. Not sure I even finished it, as it was so poorly done.

 

Some of the player reviews of SoD on Steam and GOG are really thorough and well written. People are annoyed, and I don't think #s necessarily equals gang rape. Scott has openly cackled in the face of thousands of fans, and then she cries foul when she reaps the s**tstorm? Ain't unfair at all. She shaves her armpits for her handsome boss, and goes full bush on paying customers. She got exactly what she asked for. Just irritates me that she had to turn this particular little game into a soap box, when there are so many newer and better games she could ruin. I guess this was the only job she could get. Beamdog with their small business budget probably thought she was a bargain. 

 

 

J.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Amber Scott (...) immature socialist ramblings

 

(...)

 

Amber Scott's bra-burning goblins

 

(...)

 

Scott has openly cackled in the face of thousands of fans, and then she cries foul when she reaps the s**tstorm? Ain't unfair at all. She shaves her armpits for her handsome boss, and goes full bush on paying customers. 

 

 

 

Only one question remains now: who the hell is Amber Scott?

Edited April 19, 2016 by aluminiumtrioxid

[Hurlshort]

According to google, she was the little girl from Hook.  

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Either a (meh) writer who worked on this game and some Pathfinder modules or a leader of the Cultural Marxist vanguard to cuck the kissless virgins of the alt-right depending on who you ask.

[Junai]

 

 

 

 

Meh.. can't believe I got worked up over this expansion. Totally silly.

 

I guess that's what happens when you expect too much.  :D

Edited April 19, 2016 by Junai

[Bartimaeus]

I could smell where BG:EE was heading when I went through the material they had added. I wasn't sure if they tried to appeal to teenagers, or the old fans.. which are now in their thirties and fourties. They seriously expect old men to enjoy playing with the wild mage Neera? Could of course be I've outgrown this nonsense. I just couldn't get that good old feeling I had when I first went through the IE games. Strange that Beamdog devs haven't aged as well. They're writing is poorer now than when they were fresh out of college. Strange. And no, I'm not particularily romantic about TotSC either. Not sure I even finished it, as it was so poorly done.

 

Hey, I'm literally barely in my 20s here, and I played it upon release. Sure, I was literally like 5 (and terrible at it), but that's irrelevant.

 

Yeah, Tales of the Sword Coast was the lowest point (in terms of writing) of the BG series. Werewolf Island was literally laughably bad. I don't want more of that spread throughout the rest of the game, thank you very much, Beamdog devs.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[213374U]

EDIT: Have you considered to write/copy it on GOG as well (if you have account)? It really could use something like that in between all of the garbage from both sides of "Social Justice" man can find there.

 

Well, problem is GOG is a joke in this regard. You don't need to own a game to post a review and rate it, so it's pretty pointless to even participate. There are tons of reviews by people who obviously haven't played the game, and others claiming to have bought it solely to support "progressive and inclusive developers" with no interest in the game itself and no intention to actually play it. People are aware of this, so reviews are downvoted based on personal biases and brigading. It's a mess. GOG have chosen quantity over quality, and this is the result.

 

My tastes and biases should be known by now to anyone who hasn't put me on ignore, and that's why posting my opinion here may not be a complete waste of time. On GOG, not so much.

 

edit: forgot to mention that they seem to have broken stealth, in some instances. If you are detected or start combat and then go back into stealth, enemies will attack the party regardless, even if it's out of sight and no matter the distance. This behavior isn't always consistent, though, and it's probably not all AI scripts that have it. If everyone is stealthed or invisible, enemies will continue following the stealthed character until they fail a stealth roll. I'll have to test a bit in BG2EE to see if it's a 2.0 "feature" or just a fluke in certain areas in SoD. I'm totally addicted to backstabbing, so it's kind of a big deal for my playstyle. :/

Edited April 19, 2016 by 213374U

[the_dog_days]

OFF TOPIC!

 

Having to own a game through a specific provider to review it is a worse system. It can lead to having to purchase the game multiple times just to review (even positive reviews). Seems like a good cop-out to force to buy from you. And showing game time is also miss leading as I could boot up a game before going to work and get home with my steam account showing I've 'played' for nearly ten hours. The best review system is the honor system.

[Zoraptor]

To be fair, GOG very seldom has genuinely new releases, 90% or so have been previously released elsewhere when GOG gets them. Allowing reviews for unowned games that have been out for months to years prior makes sense in context as the person may well have played them a great deal prior to their GOG release. They should probably be disallowed for genuinely new release games though.

 

'Brigading' reviews is a minor concern for 99% of GOG's games- SoD, Gone Home and Fez have been hit but that's all I can immediately recall.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Heh. I should start writing random reviews stating how bad some games are just so Gromnir can buy those games to prove the internetz and myself wrong.

[Gromnir]

Heh. I should start writing random reviews stating how bad some games are just so Gromnir can buy those games to prove the internetz and myself wrong.

if you manage to get a few thousand o' your equal deluded friends to create a bs review campaign, and it appears that the lowest common denominator is buying into your nonsense, then for a game Gromnir were already planning to buy, we will likely once again forgo our traditional six month (or more) wait for any and all new games purchases as a way to express our rejection.  purchase dollars is the only Real measure, and is amusing to us that hp already invalidated his expressed opinion by expressing your approval with dollars. so, knock yourself out, but am gonna chalk this up to predictable obdurate narcism more than a genuine attempt to get Gromnir to buy games we otherwise would not.

 

*snort*

 

new spells is bad?

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps as usual we cannot make heads or tails o' much o' junai complaint.  

Edited April 20, 2016 by Gromnir

[BruceVC]

 

Heh. I should start writing random reviews stating how bad some games are just so Gromnir can buy those games to prove the internetz and myself wrong.

if you manage to get a few thousand o' your equal deluded friends to create a bs review campaign, and it appears that the lowest common denominator is buying into your nonsense, then for a game Gromnir were already planning to buy, we will likely once again forgo our traditional six month (or more) wait for any and all new games purchases as a way to express our rejection.  purchase dollars is the only Real measure, and is amusing to us that hp already invalidated his expressed opinion by expressing your approval with dollars. so, knock yourself out, but am gonna chalk this up to predictable obdurate narcism more than a genuine attempt to get Gromnir to buy games we otherwise would not.

 

" equal deluded friends to create a bs review campaign "   ....   

 

For me the moment people start judging any game on perceived  " SJW interference " instead of what matters which should be factors like  the actual game-play, design or narrative I become very inclined to financially support it    ( and of course Romance in any RPG is always a plus but its not really a  primary reason to actually buy a game )

[Mamoulian War]

Oookey, time to go start a campaigh about how Hatred exceptionally portrays SJW issues, and how customers are unable to notice its deep impact in the industry :-P

 

We'll see how many extra sales it will bring from people who never boot up the game :-D

Edited April 20, 2016 by Mamoulian War