Baldur's Gate 3

This may not be what you want to hear but this game is most identifiable as a spiritual successor to Dragon Age Origins more so than a sequel to BG2. The way BG3 makes me feel, the game's atmosphere, the cinematics, companions' personalities, camp system and so on and so forth heavily resemble DAO... at least to me. If you haven't played DAO, you're in for a ride... BG3 is easily one of the best CRPGs since that game if not THE best since. If you HAVE played DAO then you know what to expect! Except now the combat is turn-based and using a modified ruleset of 5e D&D. Either way, you HAVE to experience this game... it's a masterpiece.

Play this game with a friend and you will have an absolute blast! Playing it solo is also a fantastic experience, but everything is more fun with friends. =) I honestly don't have anything negativ to say as of yet. There is some tiny weird camera angles at times in cutsceens and the enemy AI sometimes takes a little long (A few extra seconds) to think about what to do. But other than that, I don't really have negative things to say. (Maybe I'll find more at a later time.) Play and enjoy this game, it's a gift to humankind!

The UI is generally horrendous. There is no way to toggle the highlighting of objects you can interact with on and off, you need to hold the button. Even worse, the highlighting does not highlight most of the objects around you that you can interact with. Instead, you need to hover over everything, tens of spoons, mugs, and all kinds of other inconsequential garbage, in order to find that they exist and that you can click on them, and to try to isolate the useful objects among them. This is even worse when using a gamepad, since you cannot hover over every spot on the entire screen as easily or quickly. In addition to the above, the game randomly switches off both monitors. When this happens, there is no way to turn them back on. The pc needs to be restarted using the reset button. Judging by existing threads on this issue, there are apparently many users who have this issue. There is no actual solution that I could find. There's just the usual advice for reinstalling drivers, "closing chat programs" and similar pointless instructions that have the only effect of further wasting one's time. Finally, the price is extremely high for a game of this caliber, based on what I've seen so far, and when compared to other recent rpgs. Assuming the game actually worked, it should be priced at around 20$.

I never actually played Baldur's Gate, I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights (especially with the Aurora engine to let you create your own scenarios.) Now, while I have been enjoying this game a lot, I'll state right now that the so-called balanced mode is anything but. If you want to sit and enjoy the game as an adventurer, balanced is not for you. Sure you can call me a dweeb or whatever. I don't really care. I want to play a game and enjoy it. I don't want to have to scum save and die over and over in frustration. That is what balanced mode did for me. Adventure mode was more to my liking and let me just tell you: My nephew who tells me I don't know how to play and that I am a whimp, is also playing adventure mode LOL. My other complaint, regardless of how you skew it, is that the battles are horrible. Not in the sense of the actual battles, that is decent. It's the camera views. You have little control over the camera for viewing. Sure you can pan and strafe, but you can ABSOLUTELY not look up. I mean in this day and age, looking up would be useful as you can (hmm I don't know) see where you might like to go. See what is above you in a cavern or castle. See the enemies above and be able to target them. Because trying to find a higher ground is nye impossible when you are in a battle. I have just started the second act after about 2 weeks of evening play. But, honestly, I just can't seem to continue as the camera makes the game frustrating. I mean when you are walking along mountain paths and through forests, wouldn't it be nice to see the clouds, the sky, the dragon that just flew over. Nah, Larian's design is flawed in that respect as you get a glimpse. Always a glimpse. I'll just say this, if I could control the camera the way I desire (looking up and around for places to jump, climb, etc.) I would definitely give this game a higher score.

The Last of Us has been my favorite game of all time for 10 years now. Until BG3 came along. While it may not be as polished, it shines so brightly in so many ways that it's hard to beat, especially when you throw in the ton of imaginative freedom. And it loosely teaches D&D to boot. Incredible. Couldn't recommend more highly. Wish I had enough money to buy for everyone I know, and everyone they know.