Baldurs gate is basically what all rpgs should have become after Dragon Age Origins

The bar has not been set too high, it’s been set back to what we expected 15 years ago, a complete and quality game at launch, quality should be the norm, not an industry shattering exception

First they got heart attack by Elden ring , Then they got emotional attack by Harry potter . Now they got panic attack by Balder gate 3 ? Does any good game didnt made them 💩 their pant

Larian's success is due to competency and RESPECT, not budget or manpower. That's not a "higher standard" 😂

"The Bar is too High" No it's not. If Baldur's Gate 3 can be this successful, so can other games. Developers (or rather, directors and management) just have to actually want to make good games and not pseudo-casinos or good graphic garbage

The correct and only correct response is.. No, the bar is not too high. They put it back to where it should be

i like that IGN is talking about this. It's one thing when it's just youtubers and random tweets complaining, which companies gladly ignore, but when it's a major publication that's talking about this, it restores a little faith in me that things may have finally reached a tipping point.

Hate how games just went to 70$ but the quality didn't match that.

crazy that doing the bare minimum is considered too high a bar to reach

The thing is games used to be this deep! Neverwinter games, Witcher 1, STALKER 1, etc. Choices used to matter.

The jealousy was strong with this video - brought to you by a bunch of sad developers, knowing they can't compete *edit* Also I'd like to point out that before companies typically make disastrous games, there's a pattern of something going astray in a previous title - usually the very last title released before the "screw up" happens: Bioware: ME3 came out with that... "ending" let's call it. Showing clear signs of writing problems but also a game shift towards more MP and menu-based/lobby area-based gameplay and quest design. Small and lightweight, to make room for an overarching story. Bethesda: Prior to FO4, the last big title that they released was Skyrim which was and still is a critical darling. Bear in mind though, that many longterm fans of the series, myself included, as well as basically the entire modding community was deeply concerned where BGS' next games would go, since they dumbed down all the core RPG mechanics and the game itself turned into an action-adventure first game, instead of an RPG as with their previous titles. Then Fallout 4 came out and I don't need to say anything about the dialogue, bugs, game-breaking quests etc... that eventually led us to FO76. So there signs show before it happens, if you pay attention. That's not even including or talking about media appearances, Developer or insiders talking about their "new directions" or whatever new corporate buzzword they come up with. All of that kind of stuff is super telling and I'm 100% positive there's many more good examples of these patterns but my post is huge now, sorry.

Appreciate the video Luke. Really good production value on your set!

As a Destiny Player, they said they weren't going to make ritual armor annually because no one used them. HOWEVER, they failed to mention that no one used them because they look like absolute trash compared to the paid skins. Bungie is always projecting that the issue is with the players.

They have the tech, but they are lazy or focused on milking the consumer with microtransaction store than making a good game.

I think this is game of the year, and this has been avery tough year to win that award. We have seen so many awesome games released this year. But Larian and the development team did such an amazing job all around with Baulders Gate 3.

11:30 regarding armor and digital asset making, I had acquaintances in the post-soviet state who was making armor for various game studios, she did not disclose how much she was paid, but it's not a wild guess that it's A LOT less than an American born in-house artist on salary and job benefits, and still a lot for a place she was living in at the time. She also pointed out that she was only given strict technical data and references and wasn't being explicitly told about a project, but being a gamer herself, she could easily guess )

putting games at 70 dollars pushed a lot of players out idk wtf tripal aaa is thinking

I mean, no one is saying that from now on all games should be BG3. But if they just learn one thing or two everyone would already be happy. ESPECIALLY AAA games, they have no excuses...

The biggest issue for me is how games are priced like some deluxe edition of games are 120 dollars in Canada where as baldurs gate 3 deluxe edition is a 106 dollars in Canada and is a far more complete game then games asking between 120 and 140 dollars. Larion studios is generous with how they priced their games it's baffling. Most studios think their games are worth that much. Larion priced it at a point where he'll ya it's worth what they are asking

Makes me really happy to see the surge of support for quality games in the past year and a half or so

I love RPG games that focus on story, and BG3 ranks up there with The Witcher 3 and Skyrim for me. I'm also a fan of turn-based combat, such as Xcom, so love that part too. The exploration and story is so good.

i started to play this game im 3 hours in, and im completely lost on what to do, i can go so many places. i really want to play it all the way, but honestlyim getting the "players blcok". any tips? should i just follow random quests that show in my map?

Larian won't drop the ball while Swen's at the helm.

I won't be buying GTA6 even tho I've bought GTA on launch ever since GTA3. Judging by all of their decisions with GTA, the fact that Dan Houser left the company, and Take Two being a greedier publisher every year. GTA 6 could flop hard. It's not like I believe it will, and I'm also willing to bet the single-player experience will still be great, but I can no longer say so with confidence. It feels like it might end up missing the mark in a very serious way. I am a proud skeptic now. Indie games are just more worth it across the board.

I just hope that people is aware it isn't the devs but the companies that truely makes it hard for the devs to do these things. It happens too often that it is the devs that people go after instead of the company, that push the devs to hit a deadline or have microtransaction or the like, so the company can earn more money. It seems Larian have a better situation in that regard, especially with a dev at the top. We can only hope that at some point this will be the case for all studios instead it being the rareity.

10:22 As of writing this, PS5 version of 'Survivor' has horrendous texture pop-in and some minor glitches, somewhat broken cut scenes and such. I had instances where characters glitched through one another in cut scenes and when objects appeared in random places instead of character's hands.

I may have to pick it up for ps5. I support companies that make quality products. It's not really my type of game, but it could be the one that turns me on to that genre. Based on the good reviews and the pro consumer business practices, I almost have no choice but to vote with my wallet to help this game reach as much success as possible. That's the only way these terrible greedy lazy western developers will change. The greedy western games industry has almost ruined my life long gaming hobby. I've been playing games since the atari before the Nintendo entertainment system was a thing.

I'm surprised more people aren't bringing up the fact that it's DRM free, like completely. You can literally double click on the EXE file and it just runs the game. No crappy denuvo hurting game performance

BG3's peak of players is 875,343 since yesterday. beating cyberpunk of its spot

There isn't any incentive to meet the Baldur's Gate 3 standard and the gaming community won't make them. They'll buy what they get. Gamers have the same leverage today that they've always had. Baldur's Gate didn't change that.

i think the best part is that larian had to pay for the ip for dnd and licensing, they didn't have any extra funding aside from (most likely) early access sales and stuff from dos 2. You got companies with triple their budget and 8x their staff releasing shit like d4 and destiny so like... do better game industry

Not to mention something like the dark urge storyline would have been sold as dlc by any other studio. It's the perfect second playthrough content that easily could have been dlc.

All the new technology, all the budget, all the staff, all the resource these big triple A developers have, and they claim they just can't make a high quality game that works??

These guys are all missing the point. The key to Larian's success for Divinity 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 was their early access system. Having a long testing period where players get to test a small portion of the game and give feedback THAT THE DEVELOPERS LISTEN TO, and make changes that players actually want. If other companies, almost no matter their size, did this, I bet they'd make a lot more games that were received well by fans.

40:43 Elden Ring actually was the game that put me onto FromSoftware's other work. I hated Dark Souls and Bloodborne like hell but I randomly tried it again with Elden Ring and after that Dark Souls and Bloodborne are in my top 5 games of all time because I revisited them after Elden Ring

Larian Studios also knocked it out the park with Divinity Origjnal Sin 2.

Baldurs gate 3 will be my first turn based game I learned of it the other day and just had to preorder 😂

BG3 only happens when you have great leadership and it’s not stuck in development because they don’t know how to include microtransactions or some other way to sell you something they knew what they wanted and added to it over time with help from early access

I think it’s hilarious that on a budget of $100 million, Larian gave us an experience that could last us months or even years at a one-time charge, and most other video game and film studios can’t even do it with budgets twice or even three times as huge. I’m aware the conversation is around video games, but visual/audio media as a whole is going down a path that I’m glad BG3 avoided

It is not the AAA DEVELOPERS who do not want the bar to be raised. It's the corporate publishers that OWN them. It is the owner-publishers that heap these marketing mandates on the developers to nickel-and-dime consumers as much as possible. What Larian did was not only sen a message that they did not need the marketing schemes to have a successful product. They self-published Baldur's Gate 3, which also sends a harsher message to those corporations: "We don't need YOU!" Corporate publishers have been snatching up studio after studio with the lie that they cannot possibly survive in the industry without them. The last thing they want is an anomaly stepping up and proving the lie. Look how many studios that have been bought by publishers only for the sake of getting the IP they owned, and then running the studios into the ground and then shutting them down. And the IPs aren't even used. The just get sat on by the publishers. It's one less thing they would have had to compete with. Larian gave the corporate publishers and their egregious marketing tactics a huge middle-finger. Pandora's box has been opened. I hope other studios who have not yet sold out follow Larian's example and actively up their game, and that Baldur's Gate 3 is just the first in a surge of new games developed for the purpose of giving players a satisfying gameplay experience, which will actually cause the money to take care of itself. There is always the possibility for expansions, or modular side-stories that could be experience which could be sold as DLC. To give3 players more things to do, not just give them a gimmicky incentive to spend money and play through existing content in a different costume. Those could be sold and would always be presented as completely optional and not required to complete the core game. Sell them for something like $5. and make them choice-agnostic so that no matter how the player chooses to play, they are available. There are ways for Larian to further capitalize on Baldur's Gate 3 that would be acceptable. Especially if it is new gameplay that is being sold and not just fluff.. They should hold off on it for a while, though. Let the majority of the active player base finish the game in its entirety. And then start releasing content modules that play like a solid session of tabletop AD&D. Ot turn around and release a campaign builder toolset an make Baldur's Gate 3 a spiritual successor to Neverwinter Nights.Give the community the official tools needed to carry on the story for themselves, or tell new stories. The way that AD&D is now heavily creative commons licensed, and the terms governing that are leveraged correctly, Larian could open a massive door to a path that goes way beyond anyone might expect. And those corporate owner-publishers won't be able to do a blasted thing about it. See if keeping the bar low does them any good then.

Yeah the bar is set way too high I gotta agree. This game is so immersive I found myself in the underdark hanging out while my toons play some music! 53yrs old and my gaming days are over and then there is BG3 :)

Baldur’s Gate had to PAY Wizards of the Coast just to get the rights to D&D. Their budget is minimal at most for most games, that’s why there’s barely news for DLC. They barely made profit, they were just wanting to give us the greatest game they could. We need more companies like Larian.

It is a game for the players, not the company! The only non turn based games i play are Minecraft and No Man's Sky! I have played Baldur's Gate 1&2 and add-ons, so i had to play Baldur's Gate 3! Planescape Torment is still my favorite CRPG, but Torment - Tides of Numenera is a good successor to and uses my favorite TTRPG system!

I can understand smaller indie studios saying BG3 shouldn’t be the standard for them, but when you have Ubisoft and insomniac, 2 AAA multimillion dollar studios crying about it I call BS! They should WANT to strive to not only meet BG3 but surpass it! (imho)

I only bought it yesterday. I didn't think i would love it, after all i liked some aspects of dos2 but id get stuck in sections not sure what to do. Not to mention the lack of cutscenes made player agency less compelling. So overall i put about 30 hours into it and wished i could love it but didn't. BG3 feels more akin to mass effect in that its more cinematic. I don't mind the Camera angle and combat is difficult but manageable so far. And i have found im not really stuck or not aure what to do so far, the story just flows as yoh wander about. Mind you, im only about 8 hours in.

AAA devs need to stop tweeting and go work on their craft.

Yeah, I've poured hundreds of hours into the EA version, the full release is different enough that I've poured another 80ish hours into the SAME area as EA, and while act two is relatively short act three is apparently much larger than act 1. I have said many times, even if BG3 never went into full release, I was over the moon at the amount of time I enjoyed and how great the EA version of ACT ONE was. I would have considered my EA purchase price very, VERY well spent if all I ever got to play was 2/3 of act one with "under construction" banners in place. THAT'S how good it is. Add to this, every. SINGLE. interview I've seen with the Larian staff from the VA's to the devs to random staff, were nostalgic, happy, excited and grateful to have worked on the game. Even when they mentioned burnout and crunch time, they were HAPPY to be experiencing the development of the game. Hells, Astarion's voice actor has CRIED in two of the interviews I've seen because he didn't want the process to end! Compare that to Bioware, Blizzard and even CDProject Red post crunch interviews!! Doesn't matter which way you look at it, this game and its development are what we all SHOULD expect - a work that respects the source material, loves the job, spends money when needed, and is grateful to their customers rather than hating their "consumers". At the end of the day, I don't expect a carbon copy of BG3 to be the standard, I expect the care and RESPECT that Larian show to their staff, their work and their customers to be the standard. Everything else will come if those boxes are ticked.

That happens with every great game that releases. After I played Witcher 3 in 2015 or 2016 no game was ever able to satisfy me outside of AC Odyssey(and that is because of the naval combat and because I really love Ancient Greece not because that was a game of the same level of quality as Witcher 3). I played many good games after but there always felt that something was missing

The bar has returned to what it was over a decade ago. Now, this is only for AAA games. We aren't stupid, and don't expect smaller studios to make BG3 2.0. We just want similar sized or larger studios to stop ripping us off and make games worthy of the price tag they oh so desperately need.

I'm not used to tb RPGs, so I'm playing on the baby difficulty, and man I have never been challenged so much on low difficulty before (I don't play dark souls games).

A rare based take from IGN.

Larian bet the studio that this would sell, and they were right. Other studios would rather half-ass it than match the bet. It's like Swen said, they make games they want to play. So long as that is what players want too they are fine, but if it misaligns they will be in trouble. My money says that so long as the buck stops with Swen they should do fine. I laughed when people started whining about TotK getting the Silver it deserved. They should just be thankful the Souls games aren't spanking them.

I am loving BG3 so far, great story and character designs and world design, i am having a blast in playing with a friend in Co-op and also having my own playthrough, the bar has been pulled back to when it used to be the standard and i do hope that game devs will wake up just a bit and actually be inspired to make better games again. :) I was so sad to see Bioware fall to where they are now and it all happened because they let EA buy them...!! (Now a small touch on dnd and BG3 as i'm a long time DnD player/DM, having played, ADnD/3rd/3.5e/5e) The Issue i have with 5th Edition (More or less the only issue), is the fact how nerfed Casters has become, while still having been buffed, but imo, the concentration limitation for DnD 5e was just horrible and the frustrating feeling is just the same for BG3 (obviously as it's made with 5e in mind). The problem this causes, is that you can no longer truely, play a buffing or cc character as too many spells have concentration requirements and you can only have 1 concentration spell running, if only Wizards of the Coast had atleast made it balanced and linked it to the modifier that the class uses for it's casting, with a max of 5 concentration spells active at once when you manage to get a 20 in said attribute, it would have been a much better way to do it and it is a huge frustration when playing dnd and the game :P My hope is that someone at some point might make a mod that will change this aspect (I'm not capable of it myself)

About the bloat engineers, adding to that in the end they put you in a non-compete agreemen so even if they fired you or just you want to get out because you're doing nothing you can't work somewhere else, sometimes is 3-6 months, sometimes it's 12 and they keep paying you but men you feel like nothing doing nothing or worst, because they "fired" you sometimes the tech companies doesn't give a f if you worked or not they sometimes just don't want to hire you because this big tech company just "fired you", or sometimes you are lucky and the company you applied thinks you have info or something and they hired you, men this is a horrendous industry, worst to those who are in contracts or are from other countries via remote or in place (my case), i just wanted to add that to the conversation of the end of the video.

Fantastic Video

IGN with an actually good take? What year is it?

BG3 is a game that you can definitely play multiple times, not just for the story options but because you can play one of 12 different classes, multiple sub-classes, multiple companions, different choices in pivotal parts of the game and play styles. 😁

Once I saw that Larian delivered on their promise (after playing a good bit in EA) I also pre-purchased it on PS5. I don't have a PS5. This game is easily worth $150. If you are a company that wants me to be happy PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY.

Your take on buying skins when you only buy 2 or 3 games a year is spot on. Especially for FTP games. They gave me a game for free, I don’t mind supporting the devs by buying a battle pass. I do t deserve anything as a consumer of a free product.

Just imagine if Valerian did knights of the Old Republic

Great video. I do disagree with the Elden ring take because I still am not a huge Dark Souls fan but Elden ring allows you to explore the open-world and get overpowered which allowed me to beat the game where I don't feel that same kind of Freedom with the other Dark Souls games so Elden ring does stick out as a game I like in the franchise while not liking the other games or at least they feel more unapproachable to me Elden ring still was very difficult and I died hundreds of times but I was eventually able through the open world to level up enough to make it through the game.

Just on the note of Bioware, they HAVE downsized. The new studio that made Andromeda closed down not long after, I believe. The Austin offices are closing down and moving the future development and support of The Old Republic to a different studio. So there is pretty much just the one Bioware studio now.

Can't put the toothpaste back in the tube

The bar sits at a complete play-tested game with little to no microtransactions. Doesn't seem too high to me.

Starfield is more expensive compared to Baldur's Gate 3. So I am expecting higher quality from Starfield due to the increase in pricing which should equate to higher quality. But we all know the truth of current triple A developers/publishers...

Baldurs Gate 3 is now the #1 best rated game of all time for PC on Metacritic

Although I won’t play the game myself due to the horrid turn-based combat, the game with all of its decisions, intricacies and branching storylines is superb. It is stupendous that when choosing to tap into the parasite potential, you gain power, but all of the spells,traits and bonuses have adverse direct/side effects as well. It shows how your brain slowly deteriorates as the parasites take over and grant you more …’’power’’. The dialogue options are so quippy, varied and entertaining. The writers were truly inspired when they created this game. This relationship simulator has such a complex, wide branching story, I love it. If only it had proper combat then this would have been the new Skyrim. I love when games punish you for making stupid decisions. It makes this game so interesting to see how different people's perceptions and choices are and how it affects them in game. (Similar to CP 2077).

Larian won’t mess up their next game they made BG3 after DOS2 which was praised and one of the best rpgs of all time I know whatever they make next is going to have the same love and care that these two games have had

I have 100 plus hours and I’m only at the near end of act 2

19:45 Not fake news. It happened to a streamer I was watching.

Larian didnt raise the bar they just made a game that meets the bar of what the average gamer expects a finished product with no microtransactions for a reasonable box price. The only developers scared of this are the ones that hedged the future of their companies on predatory live service games and aaa studios that keep looking for ways to automate away their qorkforce and ship barely servicable games

We are shocked about a finished/complete game at launch, well-rounded mechanics, and great storytelling. Lately, we've barely been getting a finished game

when AAA devs have to do their job

I can definitely get behind battlepasses and skins in a FTP game. They deserve to make money if the game is enjoyable enough that I want to buy those things to customize my experience or support them. If I paid 70+ dollars for a game you shouldn’t expect me to cough up even more money.

yeah in harder dificulty It takes me to finsh Act 1 around 45 hours

3:08 lmao LUKE!!!

I have no issue with some monetization like skins, cosmetics, stuff like that, but just like I hate KZfaq for charging for TV, premium KZfaq, AND they get paid from ads on everyones content lol. If you monetize too much it looks like you are just double, even tripple, dipping lol.

I just don’t understand how as consumers us expecting a full game that is finished and polished. If we cannot be sold a product that runs stable and finished, then those companies need to close those doors and others need to open up that will.

Hopefully 2023s trend of good games continues for Starfield, Spider-Man, and armored core

15:06 I feel like the thing everybody ignores when it comes to fortnite is ITS FREE, cod, diablo and all these other games are not free to start playing they are a premium AAA price

46:26 Thats when you should double dip.

Kind of disappointed about the naughty dog d riding. That particular screenshot may have been “faked” or rather, played up , but textures were actually looking almost that awful on drop day. For me it was hair in the cutscenes and other graphical issues where things would be bright and rainbow-ish, people randomly becoming drenched in cutscenes…and a lot of other issues with it just running poorly and crashing that pointed to optimization issues. Not really surprising given they had iron galaxy helping them. And that was with a 3090 ti and updated drivers. It still won’t even get into the menu on my brothers pc when it should via the listed specs, but it’s fine for me now. That was the first god awful PC launch experience I’ve had, sad you kinda defended and glossed over it not even acknowledging that real issues were present 😢

Who can say no to a sloppy encouragement?

The conversation shouldn't be around size. Yes, it's huge. But far more importantly the quality is through the roof. It's not unfeasible for a triple A developer to make a high quality product. In fact, they're in THE position to do just that with the resources they have at their disposal. I don't expect a large game. I expect a good one. And apparently that's a big ask.

Even Larian probably won't do something this big again because it's a huge risk and if it goes wrong you've basically destroyed an entire studio (if you're lucky enough not to take down multiple). BG3 is an incredible game, Larian deserve a ton of praise and AAA studios could learn a lot from it's quality, deep unapologetically genre specific gameplay, lack of monetisation, etc. But it's scope, scale, and the whole package should not be the standard that we should expect to be repeated. One of the biggest problems with modern games (and movies) is just how big and expensive they are. If we expect this to be the new standard, it's only going to get worse. We need smaller games that can take more risks and appeal to niche markets again (like what ubisoft used to do).

Huh. Who knew that the best way to have a faithful customer base involves being honest, taking time for quality and not being deceptive to the fans?

I remember when games were released and worked from day one. Sure there was need for improvements but they did not have to add new stuff, the game worked and it released with a massive manaul. Now you get games they just do not work, they are a mess, sure there are games that did work straight away, microprose released a WW3 tank sim that worked right on launch day, yep MP are back. I played loads of games in late 90s and early 2000s most worked straight away. Mig alley did not, falcop 4.0 did to some extent. Now we get rubbish with good graphics.

The panic is from the developers knowing the live service teet is drying up. Getting by on cosmetics for years.

its not up to the developers to choose is the bar too high its up to the customers and its not too high

Yo he did not call Xalavier “ex-ellever”

honestly its not hard to figure out. if publishers would stop rushing their devlopers and give the developers the time they need to put the love and care into a game like larian they would have far more critical praise and financial success. not hard to figure out but publishers just want that instant gratification instead of taking the time to make a good product and have long term success.

Larian had 400 people and 6 years on a genre type they are familiar with and we got the gem that is Baldur's Gate 3. Blizzard had over 9000 people and 6 years with a genre they are familiar with, we got the mess that is Diablo 4.

The tide didn’t turn on BioWare quick. Things just finally boiled over with Anthem and Andromeda where even their biggest supporters started turning on them. And let’s be honest, Inquisition was terrible too, it’s just people (especially review sites) seemingly weren’t ready to call them out yet. But there’d been problems since the days of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2, and that was at the start of the decade; it took around ten years for BioWare to piss away the good will they’d built during their CRPG and original Xbox days.

New games are 60-70 bucks. Yeah the bar should be pretty freakin high or go back to making them 40 bucks on release. Many drop to 40 in like 3 months anyways lol.

44:33 You know what's really funny about saying no one is expecting an Indie dev to make Baldur's Gate 3? Larian, I think, technically meets the definition for "independent developer" lol. They self-published the game. By definition, they are independent.

If Rockstar has the goal to reintroduce car gravity then I might support the 6th, but because they won't have a nice time everyone

I mean I'm ready to give the uk 130$ for a copy if the US version is cheap and if you don't know what I mean forget it xD

Lookin at you Bethesda.

The game stops at character level 12, there is 8 more character levels in D&D. Expansion? Sequel?

Clearly the issue is no paid DLC on day one or microtransactions on such a big game. THAT is the standard game companies don't want players to expect.