• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Baldur's Gate III | Review Thread

What scores do you think Baldur's Gate 3 will get?

  • 50-55%

    Votes: 5 1.3%
  • 55-60%

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 60-65%

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 65-70%

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 70-75%

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • 75-80%

    Votes: 4 1.0%
  • 80-85%

    Votes: 21 5.5%
  • 85-90%

    Votes: 82 21.5%
  • 90-95%

    Votes: 194 50.8%
  • 95-100%

    Votes: 73 19.1%

  • Total voters
    382
  • Poll closed .

Vaelka

Member
I am in act 2 currently and I genuinely don't believe that the reviewers played beyond the EA content...
Because holy shit this game is a buggy mess and unpolished past EA, especially towards the end of act 1 and then it gets worse in act 2.
It's starting to really get in the way of trying to enjoy the story imo ( which I do really like ).

It's hard to really talk about because I would have to get into spoilers but there's even just minor things that makes it feel unpolished like character portraits not changing and reflecting how they look currently.
And it really doesn't feel play-tested, you can do really obvious and common sense decisions how to approach tasks and the game kinda just breaks or feels like they never thought of you doing what you're doing.
I have a really powerful PC too and the performance is quite bad in the highly crowded areas you get to in act 2, and the ai became a complete trainwreck post the EA content it legit has no idea how to respond and very often just does nothing for 30 sec before ending its turn.
The voice acting is also weird sometimes later into the game, the mixing is different between lines sometimes ( sounds like it was recorded into a headset mic ) and characters moods jump back and forth suddenly as if it's playing the wrong combinations.
The fact I haven't heard any reviewer mention the voice acting thing is a give-away imo because it's impossible to miss and only started happening post EA.

I get that this is a massive game but I really think the game gets noticeably jankier and feels unfinished and unpolished the problem is that it probably takes like 30 hours or something for most people to get there ( maybe even longer for many ), act 1 is really long.
The game really needed more time in the oven I have no idea how people could play beyond the EA and still give it nothing but praise there's no way people didn't run into the same issues I am having because it's quite constant and the dip in quality is very noticeable.

It's especially apparent when I hear people say '' it's amazing best game in a long time '' and then in the next breath they say they've played like 2-3 hours or something or are still in act 1.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
I am in act 2 currently and I genuinely don't believe that the reviewers played beyond the EA content...
Because holy shit this game is a buggy mess and unpolished past EA, especially towards the end of act 1 and then it gets worse in act 2.
It's starting to really get in the way of trying to enjoy the story imo ( which I do really like ).

It's hard to really talk about because I would have to get into spoilers but there's even just minor things that makes it feel unpolished like character portraits not changing and reflecting how they look currently.
And it really doesn't feel play-tested, you can do really obvious and common sense decisions how to approach tasks and the game kinda just breaks or feels like they never thought of you doing what you're doing.
I have a really powerful PC too and the performance is quite bad in the highly crowded areas you get to in act 2, and the ai became a complete trainwreck post the EA content it legit has no idea how to respond and very often just does nothing for 30 sec before ending its turn.
The voice acting is also weird sometimes later into the game, the mixing is different between lines sometimes ( sounds like it was recorded into a headset mic ) and characters moods jump back and forth suddenly as if it's playing the wrong combinations.
The fact I haven't heard any reviewer mention the voice acting thing is a give-away imo because it's impossible to miss and only started happening post EA.

I get that this is a massive game but I really think the game gets noticeably jankier and feels unfinished and unpolished the problem is that it probably takes like 30 hours or something for most people to get there ( maybe even longer for many ), act 1 is really long.
The game really needed more time in the oven I have no idea how people could play beyond the EA and still give it nothing but praise there's no way people didn't run into the same issues I am having because it's quite constant and the dip in quality is very noticeable.

It's especially apparent when I hear people say '' it's amazing best game in a long time '' and then in the next breath they say they've played like 2-3 hours or something or are still in act 1.
I mean, i did went around looking for people who got into later acts of the game and i still saw mainly praises for act 2. Bug complaints seem to become common at act 3, though there's still tons of praises.

I don't know if it helps, but my game performance became significantly more smooth using Vulkan. Game keeps defaulting to DX11 on the launcher for some reason. Before changing i had the same issues with pop-ins and AI taking long to respond, even on act 1.
 
Last edited:

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Wait, this game is actually good? I somehow was expecting 7/10. Interesting.....
How tho?

 

damidu

Member
why are the reviews for this one dripping one by one?
i know its a huge game, but its not the only huge game. did something like this ever happened?
 

Luipadre

Gold Member
why are the reviews for this one dripping one by one?
i know its a huge game, but its not the only huge game. did something like this ever happened?

Reviewers only got code like 4 days before launch and its a huge ass game
 

Senua

Gold Member
How tho?

Also

 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
How tho?


I think the 23 years between releases normally means any sequel will normally not be great. This appears to be the exception.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I think the 23 years between releases normally means any sequel will normally not be great. This appears to be the exception.
Also

Come On Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
How tho?

This game doesn't have much real connection to the classic games, other than having paid for the name. It shares no common staff, doesn't really connect to the story, and doesn't even play that much like it.

It's great all the same, of course, but I get why legacy alone wouldn't be persuasive.
 
Last edited:

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
It's about their pedigree. Along with Divinity.
Larian's pedigree was reason to believe, certainly.

But buying an old license doesn't make your game good, just look at Descent Underground or Underworld Ascendant. So I get why someone might be skeptical of someone reviving an old license after 20+ years when they have no connection to the IP.
 

bender

What time is it?
This game doesn't have much real connection to the classic games, other than having paid for the name. It shares no common staff, doesn't really connect to the story, and doesn't even play that much like it.

It's great all the same, of course, but I get why legacy alone wouldn't be persuasive.

The opposite for me, actually. Shadows of Amn is one of my all-time favorites and Larian's work has never clicked with me so them taking up the helm made me really skeptical of BG3. Happy to be wrong though.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Larian's pedigree was reason to believe, certainly.

But buying an old license doesn't make your game good, just look at Descent Underground or Underworld Ascendant. So I get why someone might be skeptical of someone reviving an old license after 20+ years when they have no connection to the IP.
WotC was the one who approached Larian and invited them to develop the game. They did try to get the license before but were rejected.
 
Started at around 94 and slowly getting to 96.

There’s a high possibility it’ll get robbed from goty nominations, and if it gets nominated, even if it reach a score of 98 or 99, it won’t win it.
 

Sakura

Member
I am in act 2 currently and I genuinely don't believe that the reviewers played beyond the EA content...
Because holy shit this game is a buggy mess and unpolished past EA, especially towards the end of act 1 and then it gets worse in act 2.
It's starting to really get in the way of trying to enjoy the story imo ( which I do really like ).

It's hard to really talk about because I would have to get into spoilers but there's even just minor things that makes it feel unpolished like character portraits not changing and reflecting how they look currently.
And it really doesn't feel play-tested, you can do really obvious and common sense decisions how to approach tasks and the game kinda just breaks or feels like they never thought of you doing what you're doing.
I have a really powerful PC too and the performance is quite bad in the highly crowded areas you get to in act 2, and the ai became a complete trainwreck post the EA content it legit has no idea how to respond and very often just does nothing for 30 sec before ending its turn.
The voice acting is also weird sometimes later into the game, the mixing is different between lines sometimes ( sounds like it was recorded into a headset mic ) and characters moods jump back and forth suddenly as if it's playing the wrong combinations.
The fact I haven't heard any reviewer mention the voice acting thing is a give-away imo because it's impossible to miss and only started happening post EA.

I get that this is a massive game but I really think the game gets noticeably jankier and feels unfinished and unpolished the problem is that it probably takes like 30 hours or something for most people to get there ( maybe even longer for many ), act 1 is really long.
The game really needed more time in the oven I have no idea how people could play beyond the EA and still give it nothing but praise there's no way people didn't run into the same issues I am having because it's quite constant and the dip in quality is very noticeable.

It's especially apparent when I hear people say '' it's amazing best game in a long time '' and then in the next breath they say they've played like 2-3 hours or something or are still in act 1.
I have had a lot of bugs, but nothing that hasn't been solved by just saving and reloading. Though it is annoying of course.
I don't think I've had more bugs in act 2 though. In Act 1 I had a number of the same issues, for example in combat losing the combat UI or whatever for a character and being unable to do anything. I also had a dice roll where I rolled a 16 (target was 15) and somehow failed. So I don't think reviewers are just only playing Act 1 or something.

As for performance, try switching over to Vulkan. Vulkan is what Larian recommends, and I had performance issues in DirectX 11 before switching to Vulkan.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
As for performance, try switching over to Vulkan. Vulkan is what Larian recommends, and I had performance issues in DirectX 11 before switching to Vulkan.
Is there any way to make it stay at vulkan? Whenever i start the game again it defaults to DX11 in the launcher and i have to switch every time.
 
Last edited:

Sakura

Member
Is there any way to make it stay at vulkan? Whenever i start the game again it defaults to DX11 in the launcher and i have to switch every time.
Not that I know of. In the game's folder there is bg3.exe and bg3_dx11.exe so I assume you could just create a shortcut for bg3.exe and run that instead of the launcher.
 

foamdino

Member
Not that I know of. In the game's folder there is bg3.exe and bg3_dx11.exe so I assume you could just create a shortcut for bg3.exe and run that instead of the launcher.
My experience playing via Geforce now, is that there does seem to be a memory leak - over time I can feel the game beginning to crunch - solved by saving, closing and re-opening. (and by over time, I mean multiple hours)
 

Neilg

Member
Did anyone else notice that up until yesterday, of metacritics top 50 games of all time on any platform list, baldurs gate 2 was sat at exactly number 50?
And now, in entering the top 50, BG3 has knocked BG2 out of the top 50 - the one game to push it out is it's own successor.
 
Last edited:

Hudo

Member
I think the 23 years between releases normally means any sequel will normally not be great. This appears to be the exception.
We dodged a bullet by having this game made by Larian and not BioWare. If BioWare had been the developer, this would've been garbage, most likely.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
WotC was the one who approached Larian and invited them to develop the game. They did try to get the license before but were rejected.
Yeah I heard that, and then they actually reached out to Larian a couple years later when it became apparent they were up to the task.

Pleasantly surprised WotC was wise enough to be so protective of the IP. I think quite a few other people were interested in the IP as well.
 

Tg89

Member
I am in act 2 currently and I genuinely don't believe that the reviewers played beyond the EA content...
Because holy shit this game is a buggy mess and unpolished past EA, especially towards the end of act 1 and then it gets worse in act 2.
It's starting to really get in the way of trying to enjoy the story imo ( which I do really like ).

It's hard to really talk about because I would have to get into spoilers but there's even just minor things that makes it feel unpolished like character portraits not changing and reflecting how they look currently.
And it really doesn't feel play-tested, you can do really obvious and common sense decisions how to approach tasks and the game kinda just breaks or feels like they never thought of you doing what you're doing.
I have a really powerful PC too and the performance is quite bad in the highly crowded areas you get to in act 2, and the ai became a complete trainwreck post the EA content it legit has no idea how to respond and very often just does nothing for 30 sec before ending its turn.
The voice acting is also weird sometimes later into the game, the mixing is different between lines sometimes ( sounds like it was recorded into a headset mic ) and characters moods jump back and forth suddenly as if it's playing the wrong combinations.
The fact I haven't heard any reviewer mention the voice acting thing is a give-away imo because it's impossible to miss and only started happening post EA.

I get that this is a massive game but I really think the game gets noticeably jankier and feels unfinished and unpolished the problem is that it probably takes like 30 hours or something for most people to get there ( maybe even longer for many ), act 1 is really long.
The game really needed more time in the oven I have no idea how people could play beyond the EA and still give it nothing but praise there's no way people didn't run into the same issues I am having because it's quite constant and the dip in quality is very noticeable.

It's especially apparent when I hear people say '' it's amazing best game in a long time '' and then in the next breath they say they've played like 2-3 hours or something or are still in act 1.
Hmm, I didn't play the EA at all but didn't really have many issues yet. I'm ~40 hours in (though there's a decent amount of AFK time in there where I left the game running) and just made it to A2. I was pretty thorough with A1 (I think, at least - almost level 7 when I left so it feels like I hit most of the big stuff) and the worst bug I've had is the UI disappearing in battles (rectified with quick save/quick load).

that's unfortunate to here though, up to this point the game is an easy 9.5-10/10 for me. Larian games do tend to trail off a bit in the back half though.
 
Top Bottom