Baldur's Gate III

Played a lot of D&D as a kid in the 80's/90's and grew up playing Dungeon Master, OG Diablo, Mars Saga, Wasteland etc and always loved RPGs. Something happened to a lot of PC games since then where it seemed to lose the soul that makes a good game great. I veered away from RGPs on PC as it was typically first person and real time, and while a lot of people enjoy that format I still like the fun that comes with turn based combat and proper dungeon crawling. I spent my adult years playing simulators and strategy games in lieu of the RPG genre, right up until a very good friend told me about Balder's Gate 3. I had a spare evening and decided to purchase the game, a week later I'd sunk 107 hours in to this veritable masterpiece.

The graphics are stunning, the story and gameplay are deep, and the voice acting really adds depth and texture to the game to really draw you in. A lot of games have really cringe voice acting but I was shocked with how good BG3 is on this front. There's some epic moments with some epic cut scenes which blew me away, and there's so much to see and do I think this will be my go to game for months to come; if not years! I've just started Act 2 and I'm already planning my next play through. Congrats to the team and all involved, you knocked this one out the park. I haven't lost myself in a game this much since the Amiga days, due in part to growing up, but this game managed to bring out the kid in me again and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Peace, love and respect from Australia.

I can't get enough. I'm playing on PC, an old Haswell i7, but plenty of ram and a 1080ti GPU, so far running very well. No crashes, no major glitches (an odd one with speech options just giving me "continue" which then result as if something significant was said but that's only happened twice so I'm unsure what's what there).

The characters are well written, the plot is gripping and the world is interesting to explore. I have always been a huge BioWare fangirl, but honestly, Larian have completely blown away my previous faves; they really are the studio for epic CRPGs now. The voice acting is also 10/10.

It's a very well crafted game all around and knowing how Larian were with DOS:II it'll hopefully receive ongoing support and tweaks to make things better.

BG1 and BG2 are some of my favourite games. I wasn't entirely sure if BG3 would live up to the series but having just finished the game I can say that the game definitely delivered. The bar has definitely been raised and people will compare future RPG games (and games in general) to BG3 for years to come.

The game has plenty of content and it will take an average player hundreds of hours to comb through all of the content. Player choice is robust and seem to have meaningful impact to the overall storyline. Combat is robust, dialogue options are fleshed out and the overall world-building was faithful enough to the source material.

This is without a doubt the best RPG to date I have ever played and I have played a wide range of RPGs (and MMORPGs).

Pros, varying storyline like no other, utterly immersive, the maps, sets, areas are unbelievably detailed and intricate, the accuracy to DnD systems, the depth of every single character companion, the character creation system and the (not yet confirmed but highly likely) replayability of 100"s-1000's of hours, split screen CO-OP with 2 controllers is just so fluid.

Cons, you can't disable the turn based combat, I feel this would make it appeal to the action rpg fans, and there aren't enough hours in the day to play it.

Every now and then something come along that change's things. Star Wars changed sci-fi, Lord of the Rings changed fantasy, Elvis changed music. Baldurs Gate 3 just changed things for games. I've been playing video games since the Atari 2600 and there aren't many that have had an impact like BG3.

The game play is phenomenal, I have never seen a game as intricate as this, the level of detail is truly awe inspiring. If you are stuck on a boss and you read a dozen different guides, you can find a dozen different but completely valid ways to beat that boss. You are encouraged to think outside the box and use every single trick and tool at your disposal to create almost any tactic or strategy you can think of. At the end of a corridor there is a room full of enemies, far too many for your team of 4 to deal with. Have your team stand at one end of the corridor, create a large puddle the length of the corridor (either by pouring it from bottles of water in your inventory or using spells to create the water) separate your character, attack one of those enemies and then run back down the corridor through the water, the large group of enemies will chase you. Once your character is clear of the water, cast an ice spell on it. The water will freeze and the enemies chasing you will slip over, bunching up. Cast a large fireball to hurt all of those enemies and melt the ice, then cast a lightning bolt on the water, it electrocutes everyone stood in the puddle. The number of options you have for each and every step of the encounter are vast.

The story line is great, epic, engaging, intricately crafted and effected by you, your choices have permanent repercussions that will follow you for the rest of the game, your mistakes will haunt you, your victories elate you. I've lost count of the number of occasions where a choice of mine has led to a result that feels like a kick in the guts or just left me grinning at the screen for far too long. And this is only magnified by a brilliant cast, the actors playing your companions smashed it out of the park! The voice work and motion capture performances are top rate, and not just the companions, the villains as well - JK Simmons and Jason Isaacs bring the calibre you'd expect. The actress playing Orin the Red - wow! And Raphael, I love to hate that guy! Even the minor NPC's are unique, they aren't just 'City Guard' they have a unique name, appearance, and notably, a unique voice actor and script. There are hundreds of unique NPC's walking around each of the three acts in this game, often for nothing more than world building.

And it's a beautiful world, its huge, its intricate, it looks amazing, and it sounds amazing too, if this were a movie the Oscar for best soundtrack would be a sure thing. Again, the number of times you just stop and drink in the sounds are abundant. Borislav Slavov - Hollywood needs to realise he's the next John Williams. Even at the character creation screen, just stop what you're doing and listen to 'Down by the River' playing in the background. That's just one of dozens of masterful compositions in this game! Also, on the subject of sounds - the Narrator: lord that voice! I could listen to her read a shopping list.

Is BG3 perfect? No. In a game this massive there are going to be bugs but they are minor and largely ignorable, I'm more annoyed that the likes of Alfira or Zevlor can't join the party. More importantly, there are no microtransactions or stupid DLC's. This is a complete game that has been years in the making and it shows. It oozes class. Anyone making a game right now will play this and I suspect the vast majority of them will realise they need to go back to the drawing board. Things just changed for them.