Got to respect the decision to just step away instead of settling for mediocrity.

All hail our Lord and Savior Gaben, and treasure the relics of his reign:

It isn’t too much to ask. According to Dr. K of HealthyGamerGG (Harvard Psychiatrist/Instructor), research shows that the release of non-consensual porn makes the unwilling subjects suicidal over half the time. Non-consensual porn = deepfakes, revenge porn, etc. It’s seriously harmful, and there are other effects like depression, shame, PTSD, anxiety, and so on. There is functionally unlimited porn out there that is made with consent, and if someone doesn’t want to be publicly sexually explicit then that’s their choice.

I’m not against AI porn in general (I consider it the modern version of dirty drawings/cartoons), but when it comes to specific likenesses as with deepfakes then there’s clear proof of harm and that’s enough for me to oppose it. I don’t believe there’s some inherent right to see specific people naked against their will.

I’d love to have another campaign set in the Planescape setting of DnD, or the equivalent planar cosmology of Paizo’s Pathfinder. Both are packed with unique and interesting places, races, and individuals. The cool thing about a planar campaign is that you can include a visit to the Prime Material (aka “normal fantasy”) areas anytime you want.

Of course this is just opinion (and it’s been a long time since I played DOS:2) but what I noticed were mainly refinements (facial expressions, voice acting, graphics) and scope. There’s also the sheer amount of content variation in BG3 in that you can play a handful of times and see a lot of completely new reactions, dialogue, and quests depending on decisions and party composition. For instance just picking a Dark Urge character or not can make the game feel different.

BG3 is my personal best game played in 25 years of gaming. There are very few developers that I would trust to perform on the same level as Larian, who really have set a new high bar for the industry.

• FromSoftware (makers of Dark Souls/Elden Ring/Armored Core) consistently puts out bangers although I don’t know if their ARPG experience would translate well.
• CDPR (Witcher games, Cyberpunk 2077) if they’ve learned their lesson from the 2077 launch. Maybe I’m too hopeful, but I think they have and Phantom Liberty/2077 is really good now.
• Owlcat (Pathfinder games, Rogue Trader 40k) if they are given the resources to keep the game in development until bugs are ironed out. Owlcat makes games that are rough on launch and amazing two years later. Mechanically the games are unbalanced (although usually in a fun, ridiculous way) but the writing is top-notch.

To anyone who has played it - does it look a lot better than say, Witcher 3 or Elden Ring? Because in the footage and photos I’m not seeing much that explains why it’s so hardware-intensive. If you told me this came out 5 years ago I’d probably believe you based off the graphics in the review I watched.

Also, the Witcher storyline was pretty well wrapped up after 3.

I’m not sure if it’s been confirmed if Geralt is even in this game, much less the protagonist. CDPR said the game is going to be part of a new AAA trilogy and that apparently it will feature a new School of the Lynx. I don’t have more info than that, but there’s hints they may be starting a completely new arc with new characters/protagonist.

I agree CDPR fumbled 2077’s launch, but 2077 is pretty great now. I also think CDPR felt thoroughly chastised and they seem to have learned from that launch. Witcher 3 was one of the greatest RPG’s period IMO, especially open-world. I’m not going to pre-order without good reason (primarily because I almost never ever do), but I’ve still got goodwill in the tank and I’m looking forward to seeing the game develop.

Swen describes how relieved his team was that they weren’t going to be doing more Baldur’s Gate, and even in BG3 development they talked about the difficulties of making 5E DnD work in a video game past 12th level. Larian clearly gave all they had for 6 years of development and they didn’t chop it into DLC the way a lot of studios would have. In my mind it’s like BG3 launched in “Game of the Year Complete Edition” with all DLC included.

Part of what made BG3 special was how excited the team was about working on it. I’m actually happy to hear they aren’t going to try and force more content. I’m looking forward to seeing what they make with the ideas they’re excited about next.

Swen is so awesome. Just wants to make quality games and treat people well.

Bethesda probably got a big shock with Starfield (although I’m assured it still made a lot of money). My hopeful guess is that more carefully crafted expansions/updates + community mods will make the game great in a few years with features that improve replayability like branching quests. I’m putting off buying until then though.

Starfield was in development for 7 years, which seems like a fair bit of time to figure out main storylines etc. Baldur’s Gate 3 is said to have taken 6 years to make. Did Bethesda only hire the quest design team in the last year or something?

Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba were great in Cyberpunk. I’m sure I’m forgetting other celeb appearances, but those two were awesome.