‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ Prepared for 100k Concurrent Players, They’ve Gotten 700K

Releasing an early access game as a full release? Other devs are doing that already.

The donate button is buying the game and their previous titles.

The digital deluxe upgrade is basically that. You get some bonus stuff like extra bard songs, some cosmetics I think and the official Soundtrack. Stuff like that.

Buy the Divinity games. They're all good.

I almost never buy a game on opening day for full price. But fuck microtransaction nonsense -- as soon as the devs made an official statement about it, I was on board.

You could always buy a second copy to gift to a friend. Then you'd be able to play together on top of giving them another sale!

Buy the DRM free version on GOG if you haven’t already.

You could request they offer something small…maybe cosmetic…within the game that you could buy to support them.

I don't know why this sentiment is so popular. It's a single player game, most single player games don't have microtransactions... In fact I think it'd be odd and outside the normal if it did

I bought it only because of their stance on microtransactions.

It wasn't really on my radar because turn based rpgs are not my thing.

I saw their press release and figured just for that upfront refusal to try rip everyone off to make money was good enough for me to buy the game and try it out.

I love dnd so it can't be bad

Gift me and I'll enjoy it 😉

Also they published the game on GOG - so it’s DRM free!

I love Lemmy. Geeks are everywhere. Linux is everywhere.

Seeing "runs flawless on my Linux desktop" on a gaming community is awesome! :)

I can also mention that it works flawlessly on Linux even with the GoG version (still through proton). It's uncommon for such games to be on GoG day one, and I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

It's super fuckin good. If you liked dos2, it's basically that but with more immersive conversations, more potential dialogue trees, more DnD like, and more titties and dongs.

It’s good, best with a group

It's very good. Larian studios really went above and beyond with the level and attention to detail. The replayability is incredible. Most streamers are still on act one and there is no shortage of stuff to do. Edit: autocorrected a word

What are you even talking about

Fucked a tiefling with my dragon penis, 10/10

It’s fantastic, if you have any familiarity with d&d and enjoyed that experience then you’ll love this.

I'm hoping it gets game of the year, or at least, in the running for it and a good portion of the awards.

It’s good. It may well be my favorite game, ever.

Seems like the pre release was more demanding/less optimized. Running Fedora 38 and proton. Combined with the Vulkan option it's been fantastic. And I think this weird glitch I was having two nights ago has already been patched ʘ‿ʘ

Specs: ryzen 5 1400, 16g ram, and a Radeon 5500xt. I had bumped a few options down on ultra, shadows to medium, and fog medium. Didn't need to, but it's helped without any noticeable graphic difference.

Honestly I'm not surprised, it looks like something out of the mid 2000s. That's not to say something bad about it. Graphics don't make a good game on their own.

As someone who hasn't played a single game remotely close to it before (Titanfall, a little call of duty, Final Fantasy 14, Halo), all I can say is PLAY IT. It's disorienting at first but once you play it for an hour you'll like it, and after three you won't he able to pit it down.

The combat is fairly challenging - it’s easy for one or two bad moves (or bad luck) to kill your whole party in a battle. It also takes a bit to learn the combat system if you haven’t played D&D.

That being said, I love it. Once you get the basics of combat down and get used to playing carefully, it’s a lot of fun and you get to build out the character that you think is both effective and just cool - and there’s probably a way for you to succeed with whatever build you end up making.

If you don’t love turn based combat I’ll say that it will probably feel very dense at first. You end up with 4 different characters with different strengths and weaknesses and each with a bunch of different abilities that have different rules for when and how often you can use them. Turn based means you get the time to make an educated decision about what you want to do next, but it’s a lot of information to juggle.

If you're unsure if it will be for you, pick up divinity original sin 2, same maker and very similar style, but (a) without the d&d license and (b) will cost much much less. Both BG3 and DOS2 are incredible games which you can easily pour a hundred hours into

I personally like it very much, it feels dynamic?, for a lack of a better word, despite it being turn based.

However most encounters can be avoided, via conversation, choices, environment kills etc. So you don't need to fight much, if you don't end up liking it. ^(*as of act 2/3)

The combat system is classic but with tactical Larian improvements from their other games.

I like it, but you can definitely get burned out from really long combat sessions. You can always lower the difficulty and blast your way through it, though.

what are you even doing right now that's so important

Yes

Don't worry, I'm too poor to play (weak ass laptop, game cost a bunch in my country, and work, and kids)

Nope, I'm playing DOS2, since that's been sitting in my steam library for way too long!

THEN maybe I'll BG3. If my laptop can handle it...

Me too, but only because I'm waiting for the PS5 version.

I'm finishing D:OS2 first with another party. Also Larian games are always better a couple months or so after release, so I don't mind waiting. So no not the only one :)

I’m waiting for it not to be 90 bucks, probably pick it up in a year

There is still time to change that.

Just in time for BG4! (probably)

The game does have multiplayer. If it's not using P2P connections, preparing for 100k players and having 700k could make that slower. But I'm pretty sure it's P2P so that doesn't make any difference.

It’s heavy on the D&D 5e rulebook, if you have any level of familiarity with that it will all come naturally.

If you don’t, that’s ok too, they did a really good job describing rolls, saving throws, attack rolls, etc, in the guided tooltips.

If you haven't played a game like this, there is a learning curve. I've been playing stuff like this for decades and there's still lots to explore, in purely mechanical terms, with BG3.

That said, it is very much worth the initial investment. I found playing Divinity 2: original sin very much prepared me for BG3. You could start there a little more cheaply before delving into this expensive title. At least then you can see if you enjoy this style of game.

Being familiar with dnd 5e will give you a head start in the basics. Things like how ability scores and combat/social interactions can play out. But not necessary. They've changed quite a few minor things that deviate from the tabletop game that I've found myself having to actually unlearn dnd.

Monks are actually useable. Went with a 4 elements subclass. So I have a mix of spell-like abilities for range, and can still smack things with my staff and fist.

The main thing is, being aware of the micromanaging you'll have to do in combat. Don't be afraid to use consumables. And explore! I'm still only in act 1.( I've had pre release for over a year, so I'm taking it slow to see what changes are in the actual release).

If you're passingly familiar with 5E D&D, you should be pretty much good to go. The CRPG-ness of it shouldn't be too much to get your head around if you know the underlying system at all.

You can do what I did: turn down the difficulty until you get the hang of it. It's adjustable during the game, so you can crank it back up later.

The game is mostly about talking to people and choosing your own adventure with the occasional tactical combat. There's a lot of complexity if you want to get into it, but most of it can be ignored if you play on easy. While the combat is fun for those of us that like that sort of thing, the big draw is the story and how reactive it is to your choices.

Plus Goblin and Ogre sex. THAT was an eye opener.

They didn't pull a Diablo because you don't have to wait in a login queue to play single player.

A lot of people are playing with their friends, not just alone

As someone who has played Divinity Original Sin 2 and some of their older titles. You won't be disappointed, BG3 is phenomenal. Interactions between characters has been massively improved that the added animated cut-scenes when speaking to characters gives them significantly more life. I think I still prefer the combat system in DOS2 but I don't hate BG3 combat, it's just different.

My buddy has been playing co-op with me using GeForce now and it's worked great so far

Yes, you can play on a LAN connection, offline assuming you both have your own PCs in the house. There is no split screen multilayer, yet. In fact, this is supposed to be the reason why only the PC version had it's release date moved up. They didn't see it as a requirement for the PC release and decided to work on the PS5 split screen issues, post PC release.

So PS5 will definitely have split screen functionality, and I suppose that might also go to PCs as well, but that's just a guess on my side.

That's what I did. Her skin is white though so she basically looks like a normal boring human though lol.

Get excited. It plays stupidly well with a controller. I changed out my traditional pc desk setup for a recliner/TV setup and mouse and keyboard still get uncomfortable after not much time. Once I tried it with a controller.. oh hell yes.

You are a human. One of the things humans do is enjoy and have fun. It is in our programming. The universe wants you to enjoy and have fun.

Also, a big things humans do is endurance. Long term action and planning is kinda a thing we can do, while many other species specialize in rapid response. Taking the time to enjoy recharges our batteries so we can be more productive in the long long term.

Supporting systems that help others experience joy and fun (entertainment, the arts, sports recreation), through participation in ways that speak to you, helps all of us recharge our batteries. So our systemic endurance increases.

It's ok to play. It's necessary for our survival.

Mate, as soon as you get your shitty ADHD-OCD brain into it then you'll be hooked. There's plenty to keep you busy.

Sounds pretty wild to call it unethical to buy the game because of WoC (which isn't even the one responsible for the game). I doubt their worst act even comes close to a normal Tuesday for a lot of companies you likely buy from, directly or indirectly.

You can look up Larian if you want, but they are far from a big game publisher the way EA or Rockstar is. And they are going against the trend of mtx or DRM. Pirate if you want, but using morals as an excuse for not wanting to spend money doesn't really fly in this instance.

I'm not familiar enough with licensing contracts of this nature to know whether there are royalties being paid out based on the number of copies being sold. But in the case of whether WotC is going to get paid again for another licensed Baldur's Gate game in the future, that's already a done deal. Sales from this point aren't going to matter. It's similar to how that became clear pretty quick in the case of Hogwarts Legacy.

D&D is among the most mature IPs in gaming. It's not going anywhere, and Hasbro has it right now. The most effective thing you can do is support one of its competitors, like Paizo's Pathfinder.

As for whether you should pirate it, something to weigh is that Larian is one of the good guys. This is an offline/single-player capable game, with no MTX.

I mean it's definitely licensed d&d 5e content

Ok, so looking into it, WOTC owns the D&D license, which Larian Games had to licence. So, yes it indirectly supports WOTC. They don't own a stake in the game studio, and therefore aren't directly getting revenue from this games sales. They have already received the licencing fees they would be getting for this game. It does however help WOTC since they aren't developing their own 6th edition games currently and keeps D&D relevant so in that way it does support them.

Personally I would find that a morally grey area, and will pirate the game to see if I will buy it on sale.

PC upgrade? I play BG3 on steam deck, runs great. I imagine any PC in the last 10 years could run the game well enough.

Not sure why the author makes a big deal about the game being single player.

Because the majority of capital in the games industry is currently being thrown behind MP-primary/only Games As A Service experiences, and aside from a select few Sony studios, most AAA development is moving away from Single-player

Nobody makes singleplayer games anymore because you only buy them once instead of spending hundreds/thousands over the lifecycle of the game. You're supposed to bend over and take it like a man. For capitalism!

That's why a game like this is so refreshing. A good singleplayer experience that you can also OPTIONALLY share with your friends, and I also intend to do that. I'm literally going to go on Steam and buy two copies now.