Baldur's Gate 3 News

Larian boss is sick of players "shi***ng" on new games, and it feels like he's talking about Highguard

Highguard is, in many ways, my most-anticipated game of January. Its distinct lack of post-reveal marketing intrigued me, and the idea of a high fantasy extraction FPS game certainly feels very Lauren. It didn't exactly wow me at The Game Awards, however, feeling somewhat like a chimera of the myriad shooters we've seen release over the past few years. The response to its launch has been equally lukewarm, and the internet generally appears divided. While Steam says that 37% of players have left a positive review, if you filter by playtime (we looked at reviews that had logged more than five hours in-game), that number soars to 78% positive - a marked difference from what Steam initially suggests.

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Baldur's Gate 3 studio boss calls out "hurtful", "personal" videogame reviewers - "sometimes I think it'd be a good idea for critics to be scored, Metacritic-style"

Fresh from the trenches of the Divinity generative AI debate, Larian CEO Swen Vincke has taken to the Twitterverse with some moderately spicy thoughts on video game critics and reviewers. Broadly, he feels that we need to work harder to be “critical” without being “hurtful”. He also suggests that the industry could do with a Metacritic-style system for evaluating and scoring reviewers, to “encourage a bit more restraint”, so that "sensitive" creatives don't "lose their idealism and love of players.”

Picture me over here, huffing and snorting like a bull eyeing the red-trousered bottom of an atypically fleshy matador browsing the inside of a just-opened china shop. By gawd! A chance to pontificate about my own navel, while bagging a Baldur's Gate 3 headline in the bargain. I have some notes on Vincke’s notes, but before I start throwing my toys around, maybe read the Xitter thread in full, from late last night on the 27th. For those who do not partake of Musky products, here's a transcript:

I played the first act of Baldur's Gate 3 a few times in early access, which is why I'm always slightly surprised on subsequent playthroughs that there aren't a bunch of mind-controlled anglers protecting the dying mind flayer you encounter near the start of the game. They were cut in the final release, along with a bunch of dialogue and scenes, much of which has now been restored by modder HyperspaceTowel...
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Baldur's Gate 3 modder adds legally distinct Poké Balls so you can 'capture non-player characters inside a ball and free them later (or don't)'

In a game packed with interesting items that can be used for all kinds of productive and/or sinister purposes, one of Baldur's Gate 3's more flavorful bits of enchanted ephemera is the Iron Flask, an item you can find early in the game that, as its tooltip says, "can hold friends and foes." The only way to learn what it contains, however, is to throw it—at which point you'll discover the spectator that was imprisoned within is very much a foe to you and everything else in the vicinity. And then presumably you'd be hit with one of its many beam attacks...
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A ton of cut Baldur's Gate 3 early access encounters, including over 100 chats, have been resurrected by a modder

Baldur's Gate 3's shift from early access to full release came with heap of tweaks and changes as Larian finalised their huge RPG. Naturally, this meant certain bits or plans not making it into the final cut, and if you've come to long for any of those after playing them initially or hearing about them, then odds are a new mod is right up your alley. It's also really cool if you, you know, just want more BG3.