With the long-prophesied, potentially apocalyptic coming of Larian Studio's Baldur's Gate 3 (to PC), we mere mortals can only gaze in wonderment as Steam, Valve's monolithic (near-monopolistic) platform, buckles to contain the girthy game. The millions of deviant players who couldn't wait to dive in are thrashing it for all its worth, but at least so far, it seems the seals are holding. Oh, and we got a new trailer!
Founder and CEO of Larian Studios, Knight in Shining Armor, and no doubt extremely minted Baldur's Gate 3 director, Swen Vincke, gallantly took to X to humblebrag:
Baldur's Gate 3 was always going to be a monumental RPG, meticulously crafted and, in some respects, decades in the making. Positioned, by some, as a competitor to the industry-stopping Starfield (despite being lightyears apart in terms of gameplay), Microsoft's own industry-shaking WRPG, but Larian is playing a different game entirely.
Defiantly independent, the Belgium-based studio has no interest in being acquired and was wise enough to just get out of Starfield's way entirely, bringing the PC launch forward a month (to today) and pushing the PS5 version to 6th September. And while Larian has no interest in playing the exclusivity game, Xbox players may be disappointed to find that a seemingly unprecedented "huge technical hurdle" might have pushed that iteration into 2024.
According to the tracking site Steam Charts, we are willing to suggest the studio made some serious coin overnight (and has been dominating all month), with the rest of the world yet to wake up. At the time of this writing, Steam Charts looked like this:
Will you remain pure until the PS5 launch of Baldur's Gate 3? Or (like this scribe), were you ready to go the moment the D&D sandbox unlocked, having anticipated the moment for long and lonely decades? Be honest with yourself in the comments section below.
[source steamcharts.com, via youtube.com]
Comments 37
Really would like this injected into my veins. Think this will go down as the best year for gaming for a while, even if you just took multiplats and Nintendo into account.
@nessisonett I managed to boot it up this morning, look at Origin characters and lock in settings. So much to do before I can actually dive in guilt-free! (づ ◕‿◕ )づ
I can’t wait for this to hit PS5! I spent all evening watching gameplay videos…
I’ve already got my character rolled up and ready to input into the character creation screen!
@Powerplay94 It probably took me three years and numerous escapes from Fort Joy to make it past Act 2 in DOS2 haha. Glad I did, though; it gets wild at the end! My proudest Platinum as well, if anyone's impressed ( •_•)>⌐■-■
Sony needs to get this on extra day one
Game is utterly amazing so far, and I'm not even a CRPG person.
I've never really gotten on with baldurs gate although i did enjoy the dark alliance game on the xbox. I know this is a different type of game but i may be tempted to give it a try when the winter nights draw in and i need something more cerebral to interest myself. I hope everybody enjoys it as it does look bloody good.
This has become a Day One for me, which is rare nowadays. Everything about it screams the best western RPG in years…and the reviews in progress support that train of thought.
What a bizarre and hilarious win for Sony!
I couldn’t wait and bought this last night. Runs surprisingly well on the steam deck, certainly better than even the final early access build. The controller support is really good too. Plus, from what I understand it’ll be possible to pick up my save on PS5 visa the Larian account.
I decided to go with a largely unmodified version of the dark urge for my first play through. Still very early in the game but you can tell it’s something special.
@mcdreamer ohhhh I've got it downloading on the Deck now, what kind of framerate do you get? Was shocked to find that DOS2 runs very nearly at 60 with max settings! (obviously not expecting that here haha)
Went with gog instead of steam, downloaded fast. Haven’t booted it up yet, maybe tomorrow.
@deathaxe @Sequel @Khayl I'm getting a solid 30 most of the time with most things on medium settings and FSR set to Ultra Quality. I did see a dip at the end of one of the dialog scenes, but in game play it seems OK so far.
Obviously it's not going to look as good as it does on a high end PC (and hopefully the PS5 version too) but I'm surprised how good it looks to be honest. I never managed to get the Early Access builds looking anything like this. It even looks OK on the TV. Naturally the fan has a wonderful time with the game
The only thing I had to change was to set the controller layout to the official Larian one for the deck itself and change the Dual Sense layout to standard gamepad. Proton Experimental also seem to be a must and I already had the --skip-launcher launch flag set from EA.
I love the Deck, especially for older games, but all of the above is why I left a lifetime of PC gaming behind Looking forward to diving into the game again later on!
Despite my disappointment in no physical release (don't @ me, I'm old and set in my ways) I've preordered the digital deluxe version for PS5 and cannot wait. This game looks to have the kind of depth that means years of enjoyment through a staggering amount of varying replays. And I have a whole month to watch content and prep for my first run.
@mcdreamer Sweeet, you’re tempting me. Do we know about trophy support for cross saves? One of the few things making me wait for full release.
@ShadowofSparta I'm not sure I've seen anything about Trophy support for cross saves. Given it's going to be a game I'll likely play through multiple times for me I'll just see what I pick up along the way each time if it's not supported. I was going to wait too, especially after I refunded the final Early Access build due to poor performance. After seeing videos on YouTube of Deck gameplay looking a lot better I couldn't resist!
@mcdreamer, thanks for the testing; appreciated!
@Powerplay94 Sea of Stars will be on PS+ Extra Day 1. So you don’t have to buy it, if you’re subscribed.
I’m interested. I didn’t really gel with Divinity OS, but I downloaded it again & plan to give it a proper go. If I like it I’ll probably pick up BG3.
@Fight_Teza_Fight If you can get over the hump, I think you'll find OS fantastic. Although I loved that hump personally!
It took me 6 hours to download the release file...yeesh.
@KaijuKaiser yeah there's no doubt baldur will be the better game,ill play starfield of course I will ,but I'm not a fan of procedural anything ,I mean, no mans sky has those type of planets, and they're mainly bland barren wastelands,with a few giant mushrooms.
It´s gigantic and just to create my team will take hours. Runs way better then in EA. Tried on Geforce Now on a RTX2080, looks amazing in in 1080P. So will most certainly looks great on PS5.
@kyleforrester87 I put in around 5-6 hours before dropping it for some reason.
I’ll try to give it another proper go. Can’t help but get dragged into this BG3 hype.
470,000 concurrent players on one platform for a CRPG is insane. Haven't seen RPG hype on this scale since The Witcher 3, really.
I'll buy this on release and play it alongside Starfield. Juggling two mammoth RPGs is a good dilemma to have.
I’m frankly burnt out of massive scale games at the moment, so I can wait for honest reviews at least. I’m not sold on the game just yet. The hype is reminding me of how Cyberpunk was, especially with how little time Larian gave publications time to review their game. I know, I know, the previews are largely excellent, the heritage of the games, yada yada. But still… I can wait a bit.
@NorrinRadd ya I know the feeling. After watching people play it all evening yesterday. I already know what class I am going to be. What sub class and what race. Just need the game lol
@somnambulance it’s not really anything like Cyberpunk, which was a disaster at launch. It’s been in open beta for ages and people have had a lot of hands on time with the pre release build already.
I played the game the day it came out on Early Access, and the download then took an age. Yesterday afternoon at 4 p.m. on the nose, I downloaded the full version and it took me just 1 hour and 35 minutes. It was a much better experience.
Jumped into the game last night with 2 mates, and we spent about an hour creating our characters, and then a further hour actually playing. Really haven't even started as yet. There's just not enough hours in the day.
Really hoping to have finished my solo run in time for Starfield, though I also have the PS5 Collector's Edition of BG3 on order too, so if I am totally hooked, I might just play it again on my PS5...
If only it had real time combat or something like FFVII remake. I hate turn based to my guts so enjoy everyone!
How often is a series revived after such a long time and the result is absolutely beautiful. Everyone knew Larian were the perfect studio and they didn't disappoint.
It will absolutely be worth multiple playthroughs, @deathaxe. I'm not sure I'd want to transfer my game save though as I enjoy earning the achievements on Steam and then Trophies on the PlayStation... 😂
I almost bought this on steam just now so I can get started! The game does have cross platform saving, so I thought I could get a head start..... common sense won the day and I didnt pay £50 for a head start - but it was close!
@kyleforrester87 Fair point. I’m still so, “Eh, I dunno” with it. The fomo will get real when I see reviews, I’m guessing, but I really wish there was a demo. You can tell I play Square games because I need that demo now.
@somnambulance I’ve been wanting this game for a long time, it looks like I might skip the launch myself now as it’s landing during a busy period for me so I might have to wait a week or so. Forget the FOMO, just get it when you are ready and play through it at an enjoyable pace. No reason to be burnt out on anything, these things are supposed to be fun.
Edit: also I meant pre-release build in my last comment, doh!
@kyleforrester87 Very wise words, indeed. My ocd makes me rush in games and overbuy from time to time. I’ve got a month to go before it’s on PS, so perhaps the burn out may pass by then. A month of indies and barely gaming sometimes stirs the need to play bigger things again, of course. I imagine I may be scratching my beard and looking at this and Starfield on the 6th, eager to jump on one of them. Curious as to how well this one’ll translate on console.
Sept is a busy month and SoS is releasing right before that and then Phantom comes out and MK1 so I will probably have to wait until maybe holiday time to think about getting this.
Will be playing this and Starfield, Then a nice bit of Enternights later in the month washed down with a good old bit of EA FC 24 and Robocop the finish the month off.
September is a treat Month for sure!
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