What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Gradine]

Watched a streamer just wrap up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and they've been ugly sobbing for twenty minutes, 11/10 game

 

[Pale Violet Light]

I just dont actually find the main story all that compelling,

It’s solid, for a RPG, though the baddies’ plot is needlessly convoluted and I wonder if something more straightforward would have been better.

and i find the racial essentialism implied in how the goblins act for instance to be deeply cringe.

Racial essentialism?! In my D&D? Goblins are fodder in damn near every D&D game since the beginning of time. I do find it amusing that the Drow and Half-orcs get the “not-always-evil-anymore“ treatment but the goblins get passed over because their lobbying isn’t as good.

And I dont care about mindflayers usually so that doesnt help.

Yeah, wish they’d picked a different villain. There’s shockingly few mindflayers in the game about mindflayers, though.

And...somehow it makes 5e combat kinda boring without extensive mods.

I think the combat is great, though I do agree Solasta is better.

Like, bonus action to jump is crazy.

It’s not crazy - it’s a choice, and not one I would have made, but it’s easy enough to adjust to.

It’s funny, I have an enormous list of complaints about BG3 but they are rather different to the ones you have listed here.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It’s solid, for a RPG, though the baddies’ plot is needlessly convoluted and I wonder if something more straightforward would have been better.

It's a bland story, for an RPG.

Racial essentialism?! In my D&D? Goblins are fodder in damn near every D&D game since the beginning of time. I do find it amusing that the Drow and Half-orcs get the “not-always-evil-anymore“ treatment but the goblins get passed over because their lobbying isn’t as good.

Your desire to argue with me about my preferences is noted. I do not care.

Yeah, wish they’d picked a different villain. There’s shockingly few mindflayers in the game about mindflayers, though.

Yeah honestly they didn't really use the mindflayers as much as they could have, but I'd just rather have had the mindflayers be more of a b plot in a Baldur's Gate game.

I think the combat is great, though I do agree Solasta is better.

It’s not crazy - it’s a choice, and not one I would have made, but it’s easy enough to adjust to.

Nah, it's crazy. That is a huge cost and a huge nerf in function since it means you can only jump once, and it taxes the classes that need their bonus action way more than others with no consideration for balance or gameplay in the process. Choices can be crazy and bad.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

It's a bland story, for an RPG

What recent RPGs would you say had interesting stories?

Your desire to argue with me about my preferences is noted. I do not care

I don’t desire to argue with you. I am not even really disagreeing with you - just stating it’s an incredibly common trope in the genre.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Nah, it's crazy. That is a huge cost and a huge nerf in function since it means you can only jump once, and it taxes the classes that need their bonus action way more than others with no consideration for balance or gameplay in the process. Choices can be crazy and bad.

It really isn't "crazy and bad" in the "nerfed" sense at all, because of the other choices that they made, which generally advantage the exact same classes who need their jump. They're also very generous with how high and far you can jump. In 5E, you can long jump half STR score (not mod) if standing, and STR score if you moved at least 10ft already, to a max of your move. A running high jump is 3 + STR mod (not score), so realistically maxes at 8ft.

That is not how BG3 works.

BG3 has a standing long jump at 15ft + 3ft per 2 STR over 10 (so equivalent to STR mod x3 ft). Hence a STR 14 character can do a standing long jump of 21ft, further than a STR 20 character could do a running jump in 5E. A STR 20 character can standing jump a full 30ft.

BG3 also does not consider high jumps or whether you were moving at all. It simply uses the same math whatever direction you're jumping in. So if you can jump 30ft across, you can also jump 30ft up on to a platform if you can find an angle. Also in BG3 you can jump even if you didn't have enough move left (which most DMs do allow in 5E, to be fair, but some don't, and RAW it's questionable). So you could run 30ft for your Move, then jump another 20+ foot with the Bonus action, then still use your main action (to potentially run another 30ft or whatever).

Like, if you wanted it to work exactly like D&D 5E, yeah, you might get an Bonus action back some rounds when you only wanted to jump a very short distance or a tiny height, but in general your ability to jump would be a joke compared to base BG3.

And let's be real - unless you're playing on Honour or Custom with Honour ruleset, BG3 is a trivially easy game for anyone who understands 5E rules to the degree the average forum member does here, because so many of the rules are modified to be massively advantageous to the player (not least the "riders on riders" damage stuff, which you don't even need to understand to take advantage of, just wear magic items because they seem cool, or take Feats which sound good), so this isn't a major issue. Even on Honour it's mostly a case of as RuPaul says "And don't f**k it up", in that whilst most fights remain easy even with the rules-changes and massively buffed enemies, the only real threat is doing something profoundly stupid and getting everyone killed at the same exact time (and I guess a handful of unavoidable unreatreatable boss fights).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's a bland story, for an RPG.

I would definitely agree that the main story in BG3 is far weaker than the rest of it.

What recent RPGs would you say had interesting stories?

I mean, I'm not him but off the top of my head and recent, Expedition 33, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Elden Ring, and Cyberpunk 2077 (esp. Phantom Liberty, but maybe that's considered separately - still even if it is, both individually fit the bill) all had significantly better actual main stories than BG3 did. And Elden Ring tells most of its story by implication and inference!

Characters is where BG3 shines, not the main story, which is essentially about three sexed-up Power Rangers villains doing something obviously silly (in long FR tradition at least). Characters though, BG3 is light-years ahead of most games. I'd say 2077 has it beat but only if you also count Phantom Liberty, if you don't BG3 is ahead.

(We gotta thank the Early Access crew for this, though - they had to push back on Larian from the start of EA to get Larian to gradually make the characters actually likeable and emotionally engaging.)

I think a lot of this story blandness or weakness is because we know for a fact BG3 had major, major story changes to the entire back 2/3rds of the story part-way through development, playing down certain elements and playing up others, but the issue remains regardless of the cause, and thus it sort of becomes emotionally incoherent as a story.

(I would say BG3's main story does hit a lot harder than say, anything Owlcat has ever come up with, at least, so there's that. And it's not as cold, clinical and frankly overthought as either Pillars game's main story, both of which are particularly sad misses because they're inherently emotive conceptually but presented in such a cold and almost cruel way that it doesn't really work, imho.)

 

[Reynard]

I started DOS2 at the end of the year and am still plugging away at it. I had to drop to Explorer mode, and I am running with 2 "lone wolf" characters instead of the party of 4.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

I mean, I'm not him but off the top of my head and recent, Expedition 33, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Elden Ring, and Cyberpunk 2077 (esp. Phantom Liberty, but maybe that's considered separately - still even if it is, both individually fit the bill) all had significantly better actual main stories than BG3 did.

Thanks for the tips; I’m sadly a hardcore isometric junkie who will only venture out of my comfort zone for the absolute best of the best. Expedition 33 is a possibility, given all the rave reviews, but the combat does not look like my cup of tea.

Characters is where BG3 shines, not the main story, which is essentially about three sexed-up Power Rangers villains doing something obviously silly (in long FR tradition at least).

Yeah the characters are solid- though many are carried by wonderful voice acting and character design rather than good writing. I think Lae’zel’s really top notch. And yes the plan is extremely silly, but I find it endearingly so. I’m one of the rare few who loves all three of the Power Ranger villains: Gortash the smug arrogant love-to-hate-’em mastermind (who seems to actually know that the plan is pretty stupid); Ketheric the zombie daddy; and Orin the scenery-chewer, who is just living her best murderous life.

(I would say BG3's main story does hit a lot harder than say, anything Owlcat has ever come up with, at least, so there's that. And it's not as cold, clinical and frankly overthought as either Pillars game's main story, both of which are particularly sad misses because they're inherently emotive conceptually but presented in such a cold and almost cruel way that it doesn't really work, imho

(I really liked the PoE1 main story, I found it rather fascinating and not really cold at all. I do think it needed to be anchored by a more charismatic villain though: Thaos didn’t do much for me. I loved the political main plot in Deadfire, but the god stuff less so. I mainly dislike that they made the gods more human -I preferred them weird and distant - like the glimpses we get in the first game.)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What recent RPGs would you say had interesting stories?

Dragon Age Veilguard, for a recent example. Haven't played Clair Obscur yet but from reading it seems to have an interesting story.

Its been a few years before now since i had a gaming machine.

Zelda: Breath of Wild
Tears of The Kingdom wasnt that good but the main story was more interesting than BG3, if barely. (srsly such an overrated game, even as a Zelda fan that loved Breath of The Wild)

Many Final Fantasy games but especially FFVII, FFIX, FFX, FFXII.

Most modern RPGs thst get the level of praise of BG3 are much better games in every way except maybe BG3's very engaging characters, which is BG3's biggest victory.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It really isn't "crazy and bad" in the "nerfed" sense at all, because of the other choices that they made, which generally advantage the exact same classes who need their jump. They're also very generous with how high and far you can jump. In 5E, you can long jump half STR score (not mod) if standing, and STR score if you moved at least 10ft already, to a max of your move. A running high jump is 3 + STR mod (not score), so realistically maxes at 8ft.

That is not how BG3 works.

BG3 has a standing long jump at 15ft + 3ft per 2 STR over 10 (so equivalent to STR mod x3 ft). Hence a STR 14 character can do a standing long jump of 21ft, further than a STR 20 character could do a running jump in 5E. A STR 20 character can standing jump a full 30ft.

BG3 also does not consider high jumps or whether you were moving at all. It simply uses the same math whatever direction you're jumping in. So if you can jump 30ft across, you can also jump 30ft up on to a platform if you can find an angle. Also in BG3 you can jump even if you didn't have enough move left (which most DMs do allow in 5E, to be fair, but some don't, and RAW it's questionable). So you could run 30ft for your Move, then jump another 20+ foot with the Bonus action, then still use your main action (to potentially run another 30ft or whatever).

Like, if you wanted it to work exactly like D&D 5E, yeah, you might get an Bonus action back some rounds when you only wanted to jump a very short distance or a tiny height, but in general your ability to jump would be a joke compared to base BG3.

And let's be real - unless you're playing on Honour or Custom with Honour ruleset, BG3 is a trivially easy game for anyone who understands 5E rules to the degree the average forum member does here, because so many of the rules are modified to be massively advantageous to the player (not least the "riders on riders" damage stuff, which you don't even need to understand to take advantage of, just wear magic items because they seem cool, or take Feats which sound good), so this isn't a major issue. Even on Honour it's mostly a case of as RuPaul says "And don't f**k it up", in that whilst most fights remain easy even with the rules-changes and massively buffed enemies, the only real threat is doing something profoundly stupid and getting everyone killed at the same exact time (and I guess a handful of unavoidable unreatreatable boss fights).

Nah, it is crazy and bad. Being more generous with jump distance just makes it so the wizard doesnt stop the whole group from being to move past a short gap in the floor.

The monk or theif rogue having to use a BA to jump makes it worthless to jump in combat, which counter BG3s general design of making terrain matter in combat.

How difficult the game is in general is completely irrelevant to the discussion.