WotC Baldur's Gate III Announced; Powered by D&D 5E

When I heard about this, I went onto Steam and bought Divinity: OS2 on sale just to experience how the team made their games (as a precursor to perhaps what to expect in BG3). And the initial and biggest takeaway I've had thus far is that the character controls on a keyboard are so counter-intuitive to someone who has played the original BGs and WoW / other FPS games. And it's annoying enough that I have to wonder if I'm going to be able to stick with the game before I finally become comfortable with them.

The fact that it's a 'click a point and move' game like standard isometric ones would be fine, if not for the fact you are expected to also need to rotate the camera around like a 3D environment. But to rotate the camera you either have to use the WASD keys or the other mouse button. And that kinda sucks. Why we can't walk around using the WASD keys while moving the camera using the mouse is beyond me, as that is how most games are programmed nowadays. And looking through the keyboard Options there's apparently no way to change movement to the WASD, its only 'click and move'. And that's just annoying enough that I don't think I'm going to get past it and I won't end up playing it.

I suppose I should check around the net to see if the game can work with a controller, or if there's a downloadable mod that can change movement to the WASD keys... but if not (and BGIII maintains this same keyboard/mouse patterning) then I won't be playing much of any Larian games.

Didn't have any trouble with the controls of DoS2 myself, but then I had played DoS1 and NWN. Personally I prefer click to move rather than WASD.

What I didn't care for was the writing, it all felt a bit like Saturday morning kids TV. Would probably suit a Dragonlance game!

Paul Farquhar said:

Didn't have any trouble with the controls of DoS2 myself, but then I had played DoS1 and NWN. Personally I prefer click to move rather than WASD.

What I didn't care for was the writing, it all felt a bit like Saturday morning kids TV. Would probably suit a Dragonlance game!

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The tone is clearly different for BG 3, both visually and for story telling.

Anyways here is the WotC article on BG 3.

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/baldursgate3

I wonder if there are two kinds of people, with the difference illustrated by the announcement of a new game:

1) Those who will look at the available evidence and precedents and conclude that it's probably going to be terrible.

2) Those who will look at the available evidence and precedents and hope that it's going to be great.

Paul Farquhar said:

They used to be Larian. Once you start hiring a couple of hundred extra people a company can change beyond recognition. Bethesda used to be good too, when they where a handful of people producing classics like Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind. Bioware before EA is another example. Ten good people are worth a hundred also-rans, and when you expand rapidly also-rans is what you get.



Baldur's Gate was a story-driven game not a Forgotten Realms simulator. The inclusion of the entire multiverse won't mean anything if the plot sucks.

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Your jumping to conclusions about the people Larian hired, you don't know if they are also rans or top teir new recruits or poached industry veterans yet.

Paul Farquhar said:

They used to be Larian. Once you start hiring a couple of hundred extra people a company can change beyond recognition. Bethesda used to be good too, when they where a handful of people producing classics like Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind.

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Eh, none of those games have aged particularly well. I tried playing Morrowind recently and it was rough. I was never fond of Morrowind's dialogue to begin with, and it didn't help that 70% of the world's NPCs all said the same thing. Bethesda has always been rather weak in the writing department, it just became more glaring once they got bigger and more popular.

Bioware before EA is another example. Ten good people are worth a hundred also-rans, and when you expand rapidly also-rans is what you get.

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That has much less to do with BioWare getting bigger post-EA and a whole lot more to do with EA's infamous corporate meddling.

Elfcrusher said:

I wonder if there are two kinds of people, with the difference illustrated by the announcement of a new game:

1) Those who will look at the available evidence and precedents and conclude that it's probably going to be terrible.

2) Those who will look at the available evidence and precedents and hope that it's going to be great.

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With Larian experience, I lean on #2 but I'm not as optimistic as [MENTION=6670153]gyor[/MENTION] though I wish the same as he. If it is as good as D:OS2, we're golden. But I think expectations are already too high. I don't expect seeing gameplay until next E3 now..

Gladius Legis said:

Eh, none of those games have aged particularly well. I tried playing Morrowind recently and it was rough. I was never fond of Morrowind's dialogue to begin with, and it didn't help that 70% of the world's NPCs all said the same thing. Bethesda has always been rather weak in the writing department, it just became more glaring once they got bigger and more popular.


That has much less to do with BioWare getting bigger post-EA and a whole lot more to do with EA's infamous corporate meddling.

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Which Larian doesn't have to deal with.

Doctor Futurity said:

This is great....Laria Studios is a real company with a real track record for making actually good games of this type. I think WotC has at last made a decision for a computer game that will pay off!

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I'll have to check the Divinity games out. I don't think I ever played them.

LOL just noticed the "NSFW" warning....after watching it at work! It wasn't that bad....YMMV though....

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Bet it drove clicks, though.

This is the best trailer I've ever seen! I am very excited!