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Baldur's Gate III - Information Thread, update: Larian doesn't plan to release DLC/expansions for BGIII nor develop BGIV

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Commissar SFLUFAN

Commissar SFLUFAN

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“If you like D&D, you’ll be happy” – why Baldur’s Gate 3 will be the adaptation you want (PCGamesN)

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It’s one hell of a legacy to honour, but if anyone can do it, it’s the studio behind 2017’s sublime Divinity: Original Sin II. We spoke with Larian’s co-founder Swen Vincke, with a surprise cameo from Dungeons & Dragons’ strategic director Mike Mearls, about how BG3 finally happened and how it will shoulder all that expectation.

 

Baldur’s Gate III is coming for PC and Stadia ‘when it’s ready,’ takes place after D&D’s Descent into Avernus (GamesBeat)

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Baldur’s Gate III takes place in the modern 5th Edition D&D timeline and will follow the events of Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, the upcoming storyline that releases in September for the tabletop game. It’s for PC and Stadia and will come out “when it’s ready,” a PR spokesperson said. It builds on the material and storylines from Baldur’s Gate (1997) and Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000). Murder in Baldur’s Gate, a 5E D&D playtest module, is a launching point for Larian’s story, and in the events in that adventure result in Bhaal, the God of Murder, returning. You do not play as the main character from Baldur Gate’s II, and Larian and Wizards aren’t saying if you’re a Bhaalspawn or not. It’ll be a single-player and multiplayer game (as were the originals played on LANs).

 

"We're building a rollercoaster!" (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

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They call it Ceremorphosis. The excruciating seven day process by which a humanoid might transform into a Mind Flayer. Stick one illithid tadpole in the brain and one week later you’ve got an octopus for a head and a craving for more grey matter. And what better visual metaphor for the return of Baldur’s Gate: the adventure that lodged in the hearts and minds of every RPG fan of a certain age, until it could find a host capable of doing it justice. The search took 20 years. That body belongs to Larian Studios. The game is Baldur’s Gate 3.

 

Baldur's Gate 3: Everything we know (PC Gamer)

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Baldur's Gate 3 has been officially announced at the Google Stadia pre-E3 event. The sequel is being developed by Divinity: Original Sin 2 creators Larian Studios. The game is still a fair way away, but we talked to Larian recently about the team's plans for the project. Here's everything we know about Baldur's Gate 3.

 

It's true: Divinity studio Larian is making Baldur's Gate 3 (Eurogamer)

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It's been in development for a while - work was underway even before Divinity: Original Sin 2 shipped in September 2017 - but there's no word on when Baldur's Gate 3 will be released, and the only platforms Larian will talk about are PC and, wait for it, Google's stream-dream, Stadia.

 

Larian Studios Shares Its Vision for Baldur's Gate 3: "We Got the Keys to the Toy Box" (USgamer)

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Set 100 years after the events of the original games, Baldur's Gate 3 will utilize Dungeons and Dragon's 5th Edition Rules. But that doesn't mean that Baldur's Gate 3 will be an isometric RPG like BioWare's old Infinity Engine games. Rather, it will have its own identity, Larian founder Swen Vincke tells USG. "We're going to have some things that you haven't seen yet in CRPGs, which I would love to talk about, but I'm going to hold it," Vincke says.

 

Baldur's Gate 3 Aims To Do What No Other RPG Has (Gamespot)

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Baldur's Gate 3 is indeed happening and it's being developed by Larian Studios, makers of Divinity: Original Sin 2. Coming off of such a critically acclaimed RPG, it seems like the perfect match--and the partnership between Larian and Wizards of the Coast (license holders of Dungeons & Dragons) has quite the story. Ahead of the official reveal of Baldur's Gate 3, GameSpot video producer and D&D aficionado Dave Jewitt was able to catch up with the founder and head of Larian Studios Swen Vincke. And they talked about almost everything that led up to this point; from how Divinity was influenced by Baldur's Gate and the creative approach when handling a storied franchise to the office dynamics at Larian and what it's like to work on the cloud-based gaming platform Google Stadia.

 

Baldur's Gate 3 Is a Big Return to the Capital City of RPGs (IGN)

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is real. Almost twenty years after the story of the original games concluded in the Throne of Bhaal expansion, we’re finally revisiting one of the most important cities in the history of RPGs. And, as if that weren't exciting enough, Baldur’s Gate 3 is being developed as a Google Stadia and PC game by Larian Studios; the Belgian team responsible for the wildly ambitious Divinity: Original Sin 2.

 

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XxEvil AshxX

XxEvil AshxX

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1 hour ago, Paperclyp said:

I want to be into this. I started BG2 several times and never stuck with it, but I think that was a lot due to my unfamiliarity with the genre and its systems. I like Pillars a lot but man do I suck at it. 


Then you would probably suck even worse at Divinity OS. The big determining factor here for me will be whether it utilizes real-time CRPG gameplay like Pillars or if it will be turn-based strategy RPG like Divinity OS.

 

I mean, I suck at both of them, but at least with Pillars I have a fighting chance. Divinity OS is just too deep for me, so it's "Story mode" all the way.

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Commissar SFLUFAN

Commissar SFLUFAN

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Baldur's Gate 3 looks great even when everything is going wrong (PC Gamer)

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"Jesus Christ," mutters Larian CEO Swen Vincke as another arrow hits his unconscious wizard. We've barely started our journey to Baldur's Gate and we're close to a second party wipe. Vincke gets creative. He takes off his boot and throws it at a bandit, dealing a small amount of damage. Five minutes later, unrelated to his missing footwear, he slips on some stairs and dies. 

 

Like a classic tabletop campaign, Baldur's Gate 3 promises an epic yarn full of cosmic invaders, trap-filled dungeons and more characters with a mysterious past than an Agatha Christie mystery. And just like its tabletop progenitor, a few unlucky rolls and some interesting decisions can transform it into a brilliant comedy of errors. 

 

How Baldur's Gate 3 compares to Divinity: Original Sin 2 (PC Gamer)

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It's a good sign for an RPG when two demos of the same chunk of the game play out completely differently. That was our recent experience with Baldur's Gate 3, which we recently saw in Paris and San Francisco. We didn't get to play, but the two-hour demo we each saw was only loosely scripted and showed off how open-ended Baldur's Gate 3 is going to be, much like developer Larian's previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2.

 

How Larian is keeping Baldur's Gate 3 weird (PC Gamer)

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I'm not a D&D diehard, but I have to say that when I think about the series, I don't immediately think about mind flayers. I think about, well, dungeons, and dragons, and then maybe goblins and experience points. But mind flayers, the scary Cthulhu-esque wizards who melt brains, serve as Baldur's Gate 3's antagonists and start off the game by planting a parasite in your head which will eventually cause a very gruesome death. Baldur's Gate 3's reveal trailer leaned heavy into the body horror, which is just one of many ways it's trying to tap into the weird side of D&D.

 

Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access will launch with 6 classes and 5 origin characters (PC Gamer)

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The Early Access version will launch with the in-development first act and five characters with special origins, who you might recognise from the demo. Here's who you'll be able to play as and recruit:

  • Wyll - Human Warlock
  • Shadowheart - Half-elf Cleric
  • Lae'zel - Githyanki Fighter
  • Gale - Human Wizard
  • Astarion - Elven vampire spawn, Rogue

Origin characters have set classes and backgrounds, but you'll also be able to make your own custom character. Here are the classes and archetypes available in Early Access:

  • Fighter - Battle Master, Eldritch Knight
  • Wizard - Evocation, Abjuration
  • Rogue - Arcane Trickster, Thief
  • Ranger - Hunter, Beast Master
  • Cleric - Life, Light, Trickery
  • Warlock - Fiend, Great One

 

Baldur’s Gate 3 means to reorient, not merely continue, the legacy (PCGamesN)

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It probably couldn’t have been any other way. It’s been 20 years since the last numbered Baldur’s Gate, and the worlds of both the Forgotten Realms and of CRPGs have moved on – the latter advanced by Larian as much as anyone else. It’s time for a new story, and for a new paradigm for the entire genre. This is no less than what Baldur’s Gate III is aiming to achieve. I can’t wait to get my hands on it, and we’ll all get our chance when it hits early access later this year.

 

Baldur’s Gate 3 has turn-based combat – here’s how it works (PCGamesN)

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Baldur’s Gate III will use turn-based combat system. There is, however, one big difference from developer Larian’s previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2: turns are taken by parties, not by characters.

 

In other words, all enemy characters and all player characters act together, rather than every character in the battle acting sequentially. As with Dungeons & Dragons, there is a roll for initiative at the start of every combat, which will determine which party acts first.

 

Baldur’s Gate 3: Five key takeaways from the PAX East 2020 gameplay reveal (PC Invasion)

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Larian Studios’ Swen Vincke treated a packed theater at PAX East 2020 to the first gameplay showing of Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s been a long, long time since the original series of games set the gold standard of Dungeons and Dragons based CRPGs and firmly established the “BioWare style” when it came to storytelling and companion NPCs. We’ve had quite the wait for a sequel, but the maker of the critically acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin 2 have shown us what it’s doing with the D&D license, live and without even a save function!

 

Kudos to Swen for having the courage to confront the dreaded intellect devourers in an early battle and taking a total party kill in his stride. In fine Dungeons and Dragons tradition, the screw-ups are all part of the fun.

 

Baldur's Gate 3 is nearly here, and it looks as good as you hope (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

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If you play tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons – heck, if you play a lot of video games like Hitman or XCOM where you rely on a blend of skill and luck – you’ll know that it’s more fun when everything goes wrong but you manage to make it through anyway. Things going according to plan are boring. This is why it was great that, when a handful of journalists were shown a hands-off demo of Baldur’s Gate III, founder of Larian and director of BG3 Swen Vincke failed almost every dice roll, every passive skill check, and every attempt at sneaking he made.

 

Larian's gorgeous Baldur's Gate 3 looks to be a game of groundbreaking systemic depth (Eurogamer)

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That, as a whole, is Baldur's Gate 3 in action. A ridiculous, divine physical comedy, despite the grimdark lore and the toothy brain worms that go in through the eye. It's full of lore for Dungeons and Dragons nerds, full of immeasurable replayability, full of numbers if you want to dive into min-maxed granularity or sillyness if you want to just bowl through for a laugh. There are caveats. Despite the far more lavish spread of cutscenes and motion capture, that was all very early and clunky for now, although openly acknowledged as such, being "pre-alpha". There'll be a huge weight on the shoulders of the tutorial, which by necessity may well drag, and you may well need a good twenty hour playthrough to actually know how to play the game the way it's meant to be enjoyed. Stirred together though, all those complexities put into motion, Baldur's Gate 3 is quite something to watch. The hope is it won't be too chaotic, too systemic, too terrifyingly complex for a normal person like me to work it out for myself.

 

"I don't think current-gen consoles would be able to run Baldur's Gate 3" (Eurogamer interview with Larian Studios)

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You can read our conversation with Larian's David Walgrave, executive producer on Baldur's Gate 3, about all of that and more just below. And if you haven't already, be sure to run the rule over our detailed impressions of the game in our big Baldur's Gate 3 preview, based on a good three hours of live, hands-off gameplay that went on a little while longer than what you'll have seen from Larian's reveals so far.

 

Baldur's Gate 3 Being Turn-Based Was "Never Really a Question" (USgamer)

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Baldur's Gate 3's big reveal to journalists wasn't like most press events. Taking place in a San Francisco pub, it wound up being a three hour hands-off session guided by Larian CEO Swen Vincke. If you've ever watched a popular D&D stream like Critical Role, it was a bit like that, but with an added element of audience interaction thrown in for good measure.

 

At one point Vincke's player character, a vampire spawn named Astarion with the ability to move about in daylight, decided to take a bite out of one of his companions. He asked the audience if Astarion should try to resist, but the assembled journalists goaded him into trying the roll. A cheer went up in the room when the on-screen D20 hit the relatively high success threshold and Astarion went to drain his teammate.

 

Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t just Divinity: Original Sin in a Dungeons & Dragons skin (VG 24/7 interview with Larian Studios)

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It would be easy to assume that with the praise rightly heaped on Larian Studios’ two excellent Divinity: Original Sin games, the team could just reskin what’s been before in the rich coat of Dungeons & Dragons and its Forgotten Realms. The first tease early last year of Baldur’s Gate 3 was light on details, but after watching nearly three hours of gameplay and sitting down with the ever-passionate team at Larian, it’s clear this is truly D&D: The Video Game, combined with the natural evolution of Larian’s excellent RPG craft. Not just D&D in its looks and recreation of Baldur’s Gate and the Forgotten Realms, but also in its adherence to a rigid ruleset. And beyond the ruleset, it’s D&D in the sense it requires constant improvisation. Your battles will go south. Your tactics will need to be updated on the fly. You need to adapt or die. You may be able to influence the die roll a little, but you should never rely on it.

 

2 Hours Into Baldur's Gate 3 and We're Sold (IGN)

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After watching two hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay, it’s hard not to compare it to Larian’s most recent RPG-darling, Divinity: Original Sin 2. But BG3 is not simply Baldur’s Gate: Original Sin –it builds upon and morphs DOS2’s isometric turn-based RPG system into a gorgeous world, touched – well, more like bathed – in Dungeons & Dragons’ current rules, systems, and lore.

 

As someone who loves Original Sin 2 and D&D, I’m absolutely on board for all of it.

 

Baldur's Gate 3 Aims to Capture the Dungeons & Dragons Spirit (IGN)

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If you’re reading this, it’s because A) You want to know about Baldur’s Gate 3 the video game – which you can read and watch more about in our Baldur’s Gate 3 preview, and maybe B) How Dungeons-&-Dragons-y is Baldur’s Gate 3, really? That second point is what I’m going to cover. If you’re a D&D nerd like me, you might be wondering about things like passive perception, initiative, how a video game could possibly handle the ‘Wish’ spell, and how Baldur’s Gate 3 connects with the tabletop – you know, that good nerd stuff.

 

So let me answer the big question the best I can: Baldur’s Gate 3 is very Dungeons-and-Dragons-y. Lots of video games over the years have tried to capture the insane unpredictability – and I hesitate to say, soul – of Dungeons & Dragons by the sheer muscly breadth of their systems. Most have failed, regardless of whether they’re good or bad video games. It’s not really about that.

 

How Larian Studios Hopes To Transcend Baldur's Gate 3's Legacy (Gamespot interview with Larian Studios)

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During a panel at PAX East, the first gameplay from the much-anticipated Baldur's Gate 3 was revealed by developer Larian Studios, which is best known for the acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel. Prior to this showcase at PAX, we were able to sit down with Larian creative director Swen Wincke to discuss the challenges of creating the game, working with Wizards of the Coast, and much more. 

 

With Baldur's Gate 3, Larian might just manage to satisfy fans of Divinity, modern D&D, and Baldur's Gate all at once (GamesRadar+)

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Larian doesn't know how to build Baldur's Gate. Not the game, you understand: making a sequel to a beloved RPG famed for its deep characters and sweeping scope is a task the studio is uniquely qualified for. The problem is the titular city – the one that features in Baldur's Gate 3's reveal trailer, as well as BioWare's entry to the genre two decades ago.

 

"We're experimenting with it," senior producer David Walgrave tells me. "Usually in a Larian game, if we have seven houses, you can enter every house. You can get into the cellar, and there are people living there. They have one or two quests."

 

"If we apply that philosophy to Baldur's Gate, we're fucked. We're not going to release in the 21st century."

 

Baldur’s Gate 3 is like Divinity and D&D had a half-orc love child (Polygon)

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Reviving a storied franchise like Baldur’s Gate after 20 years comes with baggage. There are expectations from Baldur’s Gate fans hoping to see familiar characters and locations. There are Dungeons & Dragons obsessives who demand that every spell and ability works the same in the video game as it does in the tabletop version. And then there are Larian Studios groupies who have fallen in love with its Divinity series and expect that Baldur’s Gate 3 hews closer to that format. Can this role-playing game really bring all of these camps together? Based on what we saw this week, the answer is a tentative yes. But it doesn’t look easy.

 

I watched Larian’s disastrous playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 and it was glorious (VG 24/7)

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The problem with RNG is it will shove a stick in your bicycle spokes. The random number has no remorse. The best laid plans of mice and men soon go to shit when you fail a roll and that victory that felt assured actually results in the massacre of your entire party. It’s a harsh lesson, a bootstamp on the adventurer’s ego.

 

Thank the gods of Murder, Death and Tyranny for the quicksave, then.

 

“Saves are broken in this build so I have to do this without saving,” says Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios. Whoops.

 

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Bacon

Bacon

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So, what kind of game is this? I am not a fan of Pillars if this game is like that.

Is this a direct sequel? Like, should I have played the others to understand this game? 

Do you have a custom origin story or is the story more like dragon age where you have like 5 or 6 origins to pick from?

I see that the game is Early Access and I don't do Early Access. Has there been anything said as to when it will actually be released? 

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Commissar SFLUFAN

Commissar SFLUFAN

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9 hours ago, Bacon said:

So, what kind of game is this? I am not a fan of Pillars if this game is like that.

Is this a direct sequel? Like, should I have played the others to understand this game? 

Do you have a custom origin story or is the story more like dragon age where you have like 5 or 6 origins to pick from?

I see that the game is Early Access and I don't do Early Access. Has there been anything said as to when it will actually be released? 

 

(1) It's not like Pillars that had "real-time with pause" combat - this has purely turn-based combat

(2) No, it's not a direct sequel at all.  In fact, I'm not even sure why there's a "III" in the title considering how Baldur's Gate II ended.

(3) I think you can either pick a defined origin or customize one

(4) When it's done :p

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legend

legend

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God damn, Larian is so fucking good. I love how they've managed to keep the isometric strategy, but also bring you down for more personal moments in dialog or even exploration. I still have a lot more to watch and read about it, but they really are a stand out developer.

 

 

I think Larian and CDPR are currently my favorite developers.

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Commissar SFLUFAN

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PC Gamer Point/Counter-Point

 

It sucks that Baldur's Gate 3 is turn-based

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Which flavour of RPG combat is best: turn-based or real-time with pause? It's a debate as old as time, and both have their defenders and detractors. Me? I'm all about real-time with pause, and when I heard Baldur's Gate 3 would be entirely turn-based—unlike the first two games, which used RTWP—I admit I was a little disappointed. To some people, including several members of the PC Gamer team, pausable real-time combat is the work of the Devil and basically indefensible. But I genuinely love it, and here's why.

 

It rules that Baldur's Gate 3 is turn-based  

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Like Andy, I used to be happy commanding parties of adventurers in real-time, haphazardly slapping my space bar to pause the action so I could untangle yet another mess. I gladly defended the system from elitist turn-based adherents, but that was the old unenlightened me. Forget about him. I now know the truth: turn-based is a far superior way to play something like Baldur's Gate 3. The elitists were right all along. 

 

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jaethos

jaethos

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While I would have preferred real time with pause, I enjoy turn based as well. Having the turns be like a strategy game where your entire party goes, then the enemy is really weird though. Who plays D&D like that?

The new Pathfinder will still have Real time with pause and the two games will probably come out around the same time, (since early access doesn't count) so I should be good.

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Paperclyp

Paperclyp

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11 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

No one is because no one here other than people ITT played DOS :p

I’m pretty excited about it. Keep staring at DOS2 and just can’t justify another super long RPG at this time. I just restarted Dragon’s Dogma on switch lol.

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Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Content Will Be Bigger Than Divinity: Original Sin 2's Initial Release (Gamespot)

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Baldur's Gate III is launching in early access in August (hopefully), and developer Larian Studios has spoken before about how it will include most of the game's first act. This act, however, will be larger than the equivalent early access launch for Divinity: Original Sin 2, according to creative director Swen Vincke.

 

Speaking to GameSpot as part of Play For All, Vincke said he didn't have an exact number to share, but that players can expect to "be busy" when it launches. "That's early access--the actual complete game is going to be much bigger than that," Vincke continued. You can watch the full interview below.

 

Gamespot interview with Swen:

 

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