(Winner of "Least Worst Award" for least worst game in the 2023 Vidya Gaem Awards, speech below)
OHHOHOHO, /v/, you did it, you picked the game everybody else picked, congratulations! I'd tell you all to go to hell, but you already do in an optional questline!
Larian has been lurking around our awards, getting a third place here, a fifth place there but never quite making the cut for a proper award, until now. Baldur's Gate 3 was Larian using all the lessons they got from their own Original Sin games and applying them to one of the most iconic setting in classic CRPGs.
It's not easy to spend 150 hours with the same setting and cast of characters, but Baldur's Gate 3 meets the challenge like any good dungeon master would: By making your decisions matter, usually via party dynamics and how you choose to interact with your fellow band of infected allies, and how they choose to react in turn.
Speaking of DND, Baldur's Gate uses that familiar 5e gameplay you may not love, but definitely know how to use.
Baldur's Gate 3 stands in clear opposition to Forspoken, being a game that was developed with direct contact with its players, made by people that had a clear vision about what they liked and, above all, just wanted to make a good-ass game. 60 dollars, no microtransactions, no battlepasses, no extra paid shit, just an honest-to-Baal, straight to the point, charming engaing sword-and-sorcery RPG that just about everybody found a reason to love.
Here's hoping for projects like this to continue to grow and fill the space AAA games have been struggling to even keep up, crying online about having to meet standards of quality that used to be the normal less than two decades ago. Let's face it: The future is indie.
(Winner of "Finnegan's Quake Award" for best writing in the 2023 Vidya Gaem Awards, speech below)
Writing a good story for an RPG isn't just about crafting memorable characters, a compelling plot and punchy dialogue; it's about commiting to making every choice and every action meaningful. Baldur's Gate 3 revels in its commitment to predicting the diverse and often insane things player's will do and then preparing the companions, NPCs, and even the world itself to respond.
Who would have thought that talking to a strange ox in Act 1 would gain you an unexpected ally for the final boss in Act 3? Or that giving an old woman hiking in the mountains an egg in her trying time would directly lead to her violent death?
The fact that the game has so much unique dialogue to account for a wide array of bizzare and seemingly unconnected choices, like which class you are, which companions are currently in your party, and whether or not you left Astarion inside the monastery before triggering the trap protecting a magical weapon speaks to how much effort Larian invested in its writing, and it shows. Sometimes quantity is its own quality, and with Baldur's Gate 3 you get both.
Admittedly, the game did have a bit of a weak ending at launch, but - credit where its due - Larian addressed that months later with a patch that majorly overhauled the epilogue system.
Between the characters, the world, and the story, Baldur's Gate 3 is the D&D campaign you wish your GM could run.
OHHOHOHO, /v/, you did it, you picked the game everybody else picked, congratulations! I'd tell you all to go to hell, but you already do in an optional questline!
Larian has been lurking around our awards, getting a third place here, a fifth place there but never quite making the cut for a proper award, until now. Baldur's Gate 3 was Larian using all the lessons they got from their own Original Sin games and applying them to one of the most iconic setting in classic CRPGs.
It's not easy to spend 150 hours with the same setting and cast of characters, but Baldur's Gate 3 meets the challenge like any good dungeon master would: By making your decisions matter, usually via party dynamics and how you choose to interact with your fellow band of infected allies, and how they choose to react in turn.
Speaking of DND, Baldur's Gate uses that familiar 5e gameplay you may not love, but definitely know how to use.
Baldur's Gate 3 stands in clear opposition to Forspoken, being a game that was developed with direct contact with its players, made by people that had a clear vision about what they liked and, above all, just wanted to make a good-ass game. 60 dollars, no microtransactions, no battlepasses, no extra paid shit, just an honest-to-Baal, straight to the point, charming engaing sword-and-sorcery RPG that just about everybody found a reason to love.
Here's hoping for projects like this to continue to grow and fill the space AAA games have been struggling to even keep up, crying online about having to meet standards of quality that used to be the normal less than two decades ago. Let's face it: The future is indie.
(Winner of "Finnegan's Quake Award" for best writing in the 2023 Vidya Gaem Awards, speech below)
Writing a good story for an RPG isn't just about crafting memorable characters, a compelling plot and punchy dialogue; it's about commiting to making every choice and every action meaningful. Baldur's Gate 3 revels in its commitment to predicting the diverse and often insane things player's will do and then preparing the companions, NPCs, and even the world itself to respond.
Who would have thought that talking to a strange ox in Act 1 would gain you an unexpected ally for the final boss in Act 3? Or that giving an old woman hiking in the mountains an egg in her trying time would directly lead to her violent death?
The fact that the game has so much unique dialogue to account for a wide array of bizzare and seemingly unconnected choices, like which class you are, which companions are currently in your party, and whether or not you left Astarion inside the monastery before triggering the trap protecting a magical weapon speaks to how much effort Larian invested in its writing, and it shows. Sometimes quantity is its own quality, and with Baldur's Gate 3 you get both.
Admittedly, the game did have a bit of a weak ending at launch, but - credit where its due - Larian addressed that months later with a patch that majorly overhauled the epilogue system.
Between the characters, the world, and the story, Baldur's Gate 3 is the D&D campaign you wish your GM could run.