D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access

Baldur's Gate III is now available for early access on Steam and on Stadia.

I couldn't get the Steam version working on my Mac, but the Stadia version works just fine. The opening tutorial level is pretty gruesome (at one point I had to squish somebody's brain) and the mind flayer airship you're trying to escape from beings to mind the movie Aliens a lot.

Character creation is quick and easy, although options in the early access are limited. The gameplay is like Divinity Original Sin 2 with the 5E rules layered over it. I've only played an hour or so of the game, and as an early access game, it is occasionally a bit buggy, but nothing showstopping (yet).

This isn't a review (I haven't played enough of it to do that, and I don't think it's fair to review an early access version anyway); it's mainly just an alert to the few people who don't already know it's available. If any such person exists!

 

[Gradine]

How do they expect anyone to play this game properly unless you have the latest PC that's like $1,000+? This is why I can't get into PC games. Either you spend as much as a car down payment, or you deal with playing on a used/refurbished 3 year old system. And there's several PC games I want to get into but, sadly, cannot because of the expensive tech barrier.

They've ported their previous games to console before, no reason they won't do this again at some point.

 

[Gladius Legis]

How do they expect anyone to play this game properly unless you have the latest PC that's like $1,000+? This is why I can't get into PC games. Either you spend as much as a car down payment, or you deal with playing on a used/refurbished 3 year old system. And there's several PC games I want to get into but, sadly, cannot because of the expensive tech barrier.

My 3-year-old laptop with a 1060 Max-Q is running it decently enough.

 

[R_Chance]

I have it on Steam. Your computer has to meet the specs and you have to tell your AV that it's OK. Sure it's limited, but that's early release for you. My laptop gaming rig is three plus years old now, but it was a beast back in the day and it handles it easily. My daughters 2 year old gaming laptop runs it fine. We'll see how it turns out as a game when they're done with it of course.

 

[OblivionDrive]

How do they expect anyone to play this game properly unless you have the latest PC that's like $1,000+? This is why I can't get into PC games. Either you spend as much as a car down payment, or you deal with playing on a used/refurbished 3 year old system. And there's several PC games I want to get into but, sadly, cannot because of the expensive tech barrier.

I'm playing on a PC I bought like 2 years ago that was only midline at best. Cost about $700 if that and my settings are almost all maxed by default. Frame rate stutters a wee bit sometimes but it's been fine beyond that. shrug

 

[MarkB]

How do they expect anyone to play this game properly unless you have the latest PC that's like $1,000+? This is why I can't get into PC games. Either you spend as much as a car down payment, or you deal with playing on a used/refurbished 3 year old system. And there's several PC games I want to get into but, sadly, cannot because of the expensive tech barrier.

I'm playing it on Stadia. All you need for that version is a broadband connection sufficient for streaming HD movies.

 

[Horwath]

No option to play RTwP? No thanks.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Firebolt is much more fun when you can actually set people on fire with it!

I like that change to Fire Bolt, but I don't care nearly as much for it creating fiery surfaces. Same with Ray of Frost potentially knocking the enemy prone by creating an icy surface. Both of those abilities have struck me as pretty damn OP to have on cantrips.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

I'm sure this is going to be a great game but I'm afraid it isn't going to feel like the older games. I really wish Obsidian would have gotten the license. I say that because PoE felt like a very true spiritual successor to the original BG games.

Obsidian is out of the running now that MS bought them.

 

[Iry]

I'm actually surprised how well BG3 runs on a potato laptop. Not perfectly, but it's clear they made an effort to keep the game accessible to a wide variety of computers. As for the game, it actually looks really promising from what I've played. It's possible the game will have the same issues as DOS2 in the later acts, but I'll reserve judgement until the game is finished. I am having fun right now.

Of course, this is a genuine Early Access. The game has bugs, unfinished graphics, and the UI needs a lot of work. They told us ahead of time that it's a work in progress. Just be aware of what the Early Access is, and what it isn't, before giving it a try.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I like that change to Fire Bolt, but I don't care nearly as much for it creating fiery surfaces. Same with Ray of Frost potentially knocking the enemy prone by creating an icy surface. Both of those abilities have struck me as pretty damn OP to have on cantrips.

Fire Bolt has it's base damage reduced, but it's largely balanced by the once-per-short-rest special moves melee and ranged weapons gain. It's a flat boost to basic attacks to make combat more tactical, especially at low level.

My PC is a good few years old, and is running the game with all the graphic options turned to maximum. It's no more system intensive than a usual 2020 PC game. I'm pretty sure it will get a console port quite soon after full release though.