What are we thinking about this one KIA2?
After sometime with it. Regardless of if/if not you believe it's woke trash I will absolutely hand them credit for not having MTX and having a (mostly) complete game at launch.
Now on to the other shit...
Wokeness - Honestly? Sure there's a bit of it sprinkled on (Pronouns) but I can confidently say at this point that it never felt like it was forced down my throat or that woke topics were an inherently "positive" thing to witness. Even the flamboyant gay characters like Astarion seem to be there for comedic release and "playersexual" has been a thing since Dragon Age: Origins.
It appears to me that the dev's cared a little less about pushing a message and more of: "I'm going to just throw my hands up, do what you want!" All of the interactions in the game seem less set to follow "ThE MeSsAgE" and more to allow the player to "Have at it!". I mean hell, if I see some faggots or some niggers I can straight up delete em cause Paladin go brrrrrr.
All in all, I've been enjoying it. More than Armored Core and Starfield thus far.
(Armored Core VI fucking blows donkey dick also. Not a bad game, but sure as fuck isn't AC.)
Story: Starts fine and then becomes cringe. Even the fine part is debatable. Nothing feels immersive, why do the goblin just allow you to walk in their camp when you don't use the true soul authority? Why do the gyth do the same? The immigrants are kind of assholes that overstayed their welcome but I'm suppose to "feel for them" - I don't get any satisfactory way to deal with them in a game of choices.
In the second act, where I am now I just witness the most cringe "captain planet" type summoning by the 3 main villains. It was all over the top and stupid. Even small reactions from people don't feel real, sometime people need to be terrified but they are not, or angry but they are not. To their credit, this was also how DOS2 was. While I liked DOS2 and loved the builds and encounters that game had huge flaws in story and human interactions.
Dialogue is awful, is incredibly modern. You see terms like racist for instance, that is a modern term or Karlach using f**k a lot.
There is this lesbian couple that I told them to not be in the camp but they did anyway and my character is just ok with it, why even give you an option to say no?
By the end of second act the story is just boring. I see no great reveal, no intense action on act 3, I'm not even sure why I care about the march on Baldurs Gate.
There is a scene where the lesbian avatar of Selune is held by Myrkul but because Shadowheart drops her spear and lends a hand poof the spell is broken. This is incredibly bad writing, no matter the excuses it was bad and it was only a lesbian power fantasy made by incompetent writers.
Gameplay: I tend to like the DOS2 turn based style but I do not like 5'th edition rules, give me back 3.5. Encounter design is well thought, I like how much work was put in to having nice challenging fights and they seem to have learned a bit from DOS2. All my critiques to gameplay are from 5'th edition.
Woke stuff:
** Lots of gay NPCs
*** My character feels forced, there is an instance where my character starts looking seductive to Gale. Why have that? I don't want to romance Gale, I never made any attempt at it. I can understand to some extent having Gale be gay??? despite talking about women but why is my character behaving gay?
**** Pronouns.
***** Haven't seen it yet but I understand there is a drag queen as well.
****** Forcing you to make "correct choices". I took Karlach before Wyll so Wyll shows up in camp trying to kill her. I told him to f**k off, he just tried to kill a companion. You had multiple companions telling you to take him on as a companion, the guy literally tried to murder on of them and all they could say was to complain on why did I not offer him to be a companion. Karlach tells me that several times -- why was this even on the table.
This is not a medieval fantasy setting, this is a modern day progressive western ideal with magic and swords.
Progression: At level 3-4 you kill a hag, ogre magi, beholder, drow, minotaurs, gyth and duegars. At 8-9 I defeat an avatar of Myrkul with the help of the avatar of feminist frequency but then I'm suppose to fight normal people and are even more difficult?
Fun, engaging fights. We get Jahiera and I understand Misc later on - I do like memberberries. Shadowheart is surprisingly nice and her backstory is cool. Gale could have been nice but now he just seems gay and lame. Astarion reminds me of Milo but got old fast.
My thoughts exactly. My friend got me this game for "free" and tried for a while.
I liked Neverwinter Nights better. The gameplay felt more fun and immersive for me personally because I don't like turn-based combat games.
Would you recommend a playthrough of Neverwinter? I missed it but now wonder if it would be too jank.
I like Neverwinter Nights. It's got that old school D&D vibe, and if you actually play through all the expansions, it feels like your character going from lvl 1 killing rats in the sewer to god-like capabilities.
The only thing that might give you pause is the old graphics and interface, but c'mon, it's not any worse than than Diablo and it's ilk. And the Neverwinter Nights interface is loads better than NWN2. Something about that game's interface made me dump it before finishing the tutorial.
NWN is jank. I love the game but if you plan single player you will have a hard time getting in to it. Try NWN2, it has little with NWN and it is polished. The main game is fine but NWN2 MOTB expansion is just something else, one of my favorite games of all time. I still return to play it every now and then.
Still old so don't expect graphics like in BG3.
Single player is meh, many active mp servers still. Can recommend some if interested.
So for the interest of clarity, and because I also threw his ass off a cliff, apparently Gale is severely bugged about his "romance" to the point where it overrides romancing most of the other characters.
Pretty sure Astarion is partly there for comedic purpose. Seems like it was meant to be that way anyhow.
Gale, I literally just starve the fucker. Annoys the fuck outta me.
It has a vitiligo slider. That's really all you need to know about it regardless of mechanics or storyline or anything else if you care about wokeness in your games.
I have only watched some videos of it and have no interest in it at all. It comes off as very ugly to me. I've been playing Armored Core 6 and enjoying it a lot. If you consider it to be "Not AC" I wonder what you do consider to be Armored Core, using one analog stick? It's less crazy than 4 was in terms of movement, but more restrictive in terms of weapons.
Issues with it:
Lack of customization options to do various different builds in fun or unique ways.
Only a few weapon sets are really viable.
Disgusting "Souls" stagger mechanic.
Enemy types are boring as hell.
"Souls" Boss Fights.
Armored Core 2 was my favorite. I also love the Souls games, but this ain't it for me.
Yeah I wish there was more weapon variety. Some things are way stronger than others.
Souls does not have any stagger mechanics like that, only Sekiro really does.
The small enemies in levels are pretty boring. But I've enjoyed most of the boss fights with a few exceptions.
I never played 2. Just some of 1 and 4 before this. I hope they use this as a good base to build off of for an expansion or sequel. It is a bit thin, but I enjoyed my 1st playthrough a good deal.
Elden Ring, Bloodbourne have it as well.
Yeah I'm not shooting em down for a sequel, but I was rather unimpressed by this entry.
I felt a bunch of it felt forced, especially around the voice acting part of it. They wanted to go down the full dialogue route (Excluding the main character) so they needed a large amount of recorded dialogue, thus alot of va's. But I couldn't help but notice that pretty much all (80% at least I'd say) of the characters which you end up interacting with are Female, in some cases with absolutely terrible voice acting. The big bad of act 2's second in command is a female orc, who talks to you in a voice which has no voice modulation on it at all, its the least threatening lieutenant i have ever encountered in a video game.
I have just met the cringeworthy drag queen (as someone mentioned in a different comment), it's in the circus in act 3. It's dialogue made my skin crawl as it tries to flirt with your character, i'm going to do its quest then probably drop a fireball on it.
The story is exceptionally mid, the first act starts off interesting. A huge world that I wanted to explore, which came with somewhat limited choices regarding how to handle the region and to progress; There are actions which follow you throughout the entire game which I thought was pretty neat, but this added to one of my biggest gripes. I finished Act 2 thinking I could do what I wanted after the big finale for it was over, I wanted to do a bunch of quests in the area and clear up a bit. But nope, you do the finale and you're basically forced into going straight into Act 3. To which it then guilts you for not doing certain things, to which I thought were resolved as part of the big finale.
The gameplay is fun, currently rocking wizard, cleric, fighter and barbarian. Even in the hardest difficulty I can steamroll most fights now. Can even 1-turn some boss fights if I get into a good enough position. Some things are annoyingly locked off unless you have a specific class or a character which can do special things.. For example (at least in act 1) theres a bunch of little mouse hole things where with the right spells or abilities you can get through. My wizard has only just unlocked the spell to at level 9-ish.. And I haven't seen one since.
I haven't finished act 3, but this just feels like a Divinity original sin game but wearing a Baldurs Gate skin suit, doesn't have good dialogue nor a well written story. The only memorable bad guy isn't even in it for very long and it feels like the two characters they've brought in from the older games are somewhat shoehorned in before you can do anything significant with them.
(Spoilers ahead) As above I mentioned that the story is mid, there's no huge plot twists, no huge revelations, the character development outside of the companions is pretty limited. I kind of wish the big bad of act 2 was the actual main bad guy; He had a purpose to his actions but going into act 3... The entire plot is basically Baldurs gate 1 but with additional steps.
(Major Spoilers ahead) BG1: Sarevok the big bad poisons an iron mine and taints all of the metal coming out of it whilst he floods the market with his own to make an absolute fortune and to destabilize the country; he then attempts to get the ruler of the city assassinated so he can step in and take control with the iron throne. All of this is to aid in his ultimate goal of becoming 'the one'
BG3: The plot so far: The big bad, to who I can't actually remember the name of because he looks like a 00's emo kid who didn't grow up; teams up with two other 'chosen' of the three gods of chaos. They then control a big ole brain to make an army of undead to assault the city- Then emo kid will jump in and save the day thus becoming a hero and taking over the city...
And that's it. I'm waiting on the whole bhaalspawn plot to show up at some point soon, but now i'm in act 3 I just want to finish the game. I can't be arsed clearing areas any more after the dirty it did to me in Act 2. And, I wouldn't load a save as the finale had some 5 epic yet very difficult fights in to which two were close calls.
I haven't played baldur's gate 3 but,
fuck off. how do you feel about Baldur's Gate 3?
I explained that in the OP. Thus how do we all feel about it. IE: This community.
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I still refuse to buy it on the grounds that it's not Baldur's Gate.
I used to love the original Baldur's Gate. It would definitely rank in my top 10 of all time. I wasn't keen on the sequel because it was a lot more restrictive and they started the whole "romance" thing that just took away from the character interactions and party cohesiveness. It's hard to feel like you have a well-rounded team when you have to deal with one or more characters somehow getting romanced after one or two dialogue interactions. Juxtaposed with actual strategy role-playing games like Jagged Alliance 1 & 2 and Fallout 1& 2, I just felt like Baldur's Gate 2 had gone wayward.
Jump ahead to Baldur's Gate 3 and I see that the character creator is extremely limited but they give you a whole bunch of dick options and a vitiligo slider instead of actual character customisation options, and I "noped" out from there.
Time and energy that was wasted on adding woke elements could have been used to give actual options for unique characters that aren't of the Leftist variety.
It sickens me more how people have become accepting of the woke stuff because it's "not that bad", so it gives Leftists carte blanche to push forward some more.
Within a decade's time the character options will include MAP-types and people will be saying "Well, so long as they don't force me to be a MAP, I think the gameplay is solid and I had fun with it. So I don't see what the big deal is."
The level design annoys me. You crash into this random patch of woods and encounter:
-Druid civil war
-Goblin army
-Gnoll raiders
-Flaming fist escorting the duke
-Githyanki strike team
-Swamp hag and minions
-Fake paladins
-Zhentarim outpost
They're all standing 20 feet away from each other. Every time I try to follow a quest I encounter another quest hook. It's like trying to complete 10 quests simultaneously.
I liked BG2 more where once you found a quest thread you headed out and completed that dungeon/adventure and it was pretty self contained. Cramming so many ridiculous things into such a tiny map makes the game feel super artificial and myopic.
The goblins can't find the druids in an incredible small area and they are not exactly inconspicuous.
This is the main reason that it does not feel like a BG and it feels more like a DOS game.
Great point on the level design, it did seem lackluster overall. Completely agree.
One of my favourite parts of BG is when you stumbled into a quest, you actually felt like you stumbled into something. Whether you were exploring or just trying to go from A to B, it felt like an actual adventure. Not everywhere was important; some places were just there for the sake of being there.
I'm torn. I like a lot about the game, especially how it lets you really fuck up. I'm a filthy save-scummer so I don't get the full brunt of that feature ...
Sadly I happen to just dislike DnD -.-
Like in: I don't like the RNG, i don't like the mechanics around spells (having to rest all the time), I don't like that healing is rather useless until later levels, I don't like how a lot of things (spells, weapons, armor) are only viably under certain conditions, half of which I don't even really understand how to create.I don't like when they show you failed (or succesfull) rolls, and I have no idea what the fuck they were for.
What I'm trying to say: I like the game but the mechanics make it so I can only play in rather short bursts.
Same, Wife and I played an hour or so every other night.
Good game held back by faggotry and general modern incompetence. I like the Divinity: OS 2 combat style, and the game is a lot of fun with friends, but as everyone else has said it’s very modern and faggy. Girlbosses everywhere, no interesting cultural or racial distinctions, everyone is just various shades of modern British urbanite.
I should be able to tell instantly if I’m talking to a Dwarf, Gnome, or Halfling but they all look and sound the same so what’s the fucking point? Why is this High-Elf druid so beefy, why does he talk like some longshoremen you’d meet in a bar? They did get JK Simmons to voice an Elf necromancer though, so points for that.
I do like the big red lady and I want to hold hands with her, and I thought Gale was nice even though he tried to diddle my fiddle. The art direction is decent, modern potato faced npcs not withstanding.
I think the D&D Ruleset is not very good for computer gaming tbh. The rules are designed for much more role-playing not for constant action video gaming. I just find myself annoyed at lack of spells, constant resting, missed saves, missed spells, missed attacks, etc...
I also don't mind the "woke" aspects. It really isn't pushed in my face at all and can be entirely ignored. I feel it's more added in as an "option" than as the core of the game. If I don't want to role-play a gay trans slut then there is no gay trans sluts running around in my game. Whatever. There's no breaking of the realism element because I'm essentially in charge of how the story in that regard develops by not trying to do unrealistic things. That's a good thing overall for a role-playing game IMO. Gives the PC, me, all the control of how I want the story to develop. The game adapts around me not the other-way around which IMO is how role-playing games should be. More of a Choose Your Own Adventure based on how I want the story to go rather than a linear story I'm thrown into. I feel like I'm the DM and PC at the same time. This is a good thing. So far, all the options I've picked have had reasonable results. Everyone has acted and reacted mostly as expected which adds a lot to the realism. I haven't found myself picking options and then being like "what the fuck kind of result from that actions is this". Everyone has been "yup that's the right result". I like this. I hate when the games try to be "unpredictable" and "novel" by just making every option you pick have unpredictable and thus unrealistic results. That's just frustrating to me.
I do feel though that the dialogue in a lot of instances is lacking. Some of the dialogue doesn't seem realistic and breaks a little from the immersion for me. Characters just too easy to get to certain outcomes without any buildup. Not realistic. I don't like.
So far, I have enjoyed the RPG/Story elements of BG3 but I'm not really sold on the gameplay tbh. I feel like BG2 still has better gameplay. I find BG3 gameplay just tedious and not really fun.
I got the exact opposite. I feel the game actively pushes you in to one direction, it takes away from interaction. For instance, the immigrants - you can get them to help them or kill them. I wanted to just have them leave the grove after they overstayed their welcome. You can't convince them without violence, no way is found for a middle ground.
Mentioned before, in the same thread how stupid the characters behaved when I told Wyll to hit the bricks after he tried to kill Karlach. How is that good role playing, if the most logical action gets you the most irrational push-back from NPCs?
All good studios fade eventually. Even without BG3, it's pretty likely the DOS games had one more good game in them at most. The longer a studio goes on with a successful series the more likely the talent that made the series a hit move on or lose interest. Studios that can put out a solid trilogy of games are unicorns. Studios that can put out 4 or more top quality story driven RPGs are about as likely as sentient life developing in your salad drawer.
Weeeeee BG3, Starfield, Armored Core, is there one current product you won't consoom?
Fucking normies MUST play the latest thing that everyone else is playing .
Because everything else is dead.
I like Bethesda usually, fan of Armored Core, been playing BG3 with my wife.
Imagine not having a couple bucks in disposable income than acting elitist because of it. Lol cuck
Haven't played so I'll answer as someone on the outside from what we're hearing:
As far as I've seen, it's a really good game that's just been sprinkled in some leftist ideology afterwards as shown more evidently by the beastiality in the game. An indicator of this is how the gaming media was going 'uh can you lower your standards a bit, the polish is too high a bar for the studios we promote to meet it'
If I get it, it'll be on sale as it sounds like something I might enjoy gameplay wise, but the dialogue and cutscenes might make me cringe a lot.
Overrated woke bullshit for LGBT "people", I found WotR to be a better game. Also the tadpole Macguffin is just fucking stupid.
Too pricey and buggy for me to be bothered with right now.
And if by the time I actually do feel like picking up the full copy my friends have already played through it, then I'll be even less inclined since I'm only really interested in it for the coop experience.
And yes, I recognize I've delivered positive feedback on it over the last few months. I, as well as many of my gaming friends, have been too preoccupied lately so it's been placed on the back burner. Which coincides with the usual cycle of a big game that takes maybe months to a year after release before it's properly playable.
It's very buggy. Some of the interface controls are annoying (especially camera control). It's obviously built for a controller.
Story line is a bit better than Diablo 4 but I would challenge that gameplay is better.
Diablo 4's story I took issue with. It's fucking "Daddy issues: The game".
The "Big Bad" bitch is just a fucking whiny little annoyance, no real nuance to the character.
Well, it IS a Blizzard game..,
Touche
The game is great but they do really shove the woke into your face starting in act 2. That said, the worst parts are a nearly nonexistent evil path (you just lock yourself out of items, exp and content) and the fact that the drow companion has been completely bugged since release, even though you lose 3 other companions when recruiting her the proper way.
Yeah I've gone evil every single time. Sucks Minthara is bugged.
Overrated trash.
I've been looking for a good "current" RPG. I put down FFXVI in disgust as Final Fantasy has gone full action game. I'm partway through Octopath 2 but it is annoyingly easy and most battles I'm on autopilot. I knew Starfield was gonna be hot garbage so I stayed far away from that.
So, because I heard so many good things (and waited a bit post-release) I have gone with BG3. Only 5 hours in so far, I will say I am impressed with the graphics and animations.
My friends are playing it, so I'm probably going to have to get it in order to keep socializing.
EACH FUCKING GENERATION IS DIFFERENT
Fine enjoy your borefest gate3
NOT WHEN YOU CHANGE CORE GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS.
ITS LIKE SAYING JAK AND DAXTER: THE PRECURSOR LEGACY IS THE SAME AS JAK 2.
Yeah. Im thinking skill issue
Nah, I still got through it without much issue. Just wasn't Armored Core. The people crying in the steam forums have just never played a Souls game.
(Though, those steam discussion threads are juicy.)
Retarded take. But ok.
You know, my memory wants to insist that the original D&D, the version that came in a box with the cheap blue dice and a sample map or two, did have rules for different sexes, at least for humans, and that it was AD&D that changed it (and also got rid of a bunch of other restrictive things, and allowed dual-classes, etc ... og D&D really got overshadowed by its younger brother fast), but it's probably another misremembering (I owned the box set, but wound up playing AD&D 2nd when I finally had people to play with.)
I had the same impression, I checked and AD&D first edition had lower maximum strength scores for women.
I have the AD&D book and I think it still had differences but I'm to lazy to open the book, I think it was AD&D second edition that removed the differences.