Always good to see someone in the industry push back on all of these shitty tactics the AAA publishers want to push.
Love the immediate contrast between this and the dude from Ubisoft where he claimed that people just need to get used to not owning games. Larian is definitely the way to run a company.
It’s already been normalized for music and videos for people to subscribe instead of owning. It may just be a matter of time for video games, or it may be that there are real lasting differences between video games and other types of media.
Of course, there are several sorts of games you can’t own already, and many games that are all but inaccessible as abandonware type things, so that process is at least somewhat started.
The indie scene in Video Gaming is FAR stronger than the Indie Scene for at least movies, which I think will cement the ownership vs subscription in a stronger way than music and videos had. Digital ownership does have its worrying traits, but I still think Video Game ownership will stay strong at least as long as Gaben is alive, past that, if Valve DOES nosedive, well the internet’ll still internet
I’m at 750 hours in this game which I spent $70 on. More games like this please. Even if they’re multi years apart I’d rather play a game like BG3 that has immense replayability than some random looter shooter that is trying to mine my wallet using every dark pattern known to humanity.
I don’t even care about the replayability. I can see myself at some point going for another run at BG3, but that’s a big commitment and I think I’m going to play BG1 and 2 before then, and plenty of other games.
I care if it’s an interesting and enjoyable experience. I’d gladly play another Outer Wilds, even though it’s hardly replayable, because it was such a good and unique experience. I don’t care to play yet another Assassin’s Creed or whatever other garbage that isn’t interesting after you’ve tried it once and also purposefully wastes your time with stuff that is not designed to improve the experience, only playtime.
I swore off buying ‘new’ games close to their release dates because I was sick of overpriced, unfinished games that are just trying to squeeze every cent out of me. Then BG3 came out and everyone raved how great it was, but I stuck to my principles and said I’d play it a year or so after its release. Then someone pointed out to me that the game plays well, has no charge for online play, doesn’t have microtransactions, and is complete. So I bought it, figuring that this is the type of game we should be rewarding, and I’ve not been disappointed.
To be entirely fair, BG3 has its share of bugs and act 3 is not as polished as the first two.
But still, it is by far the most polished AAA game I’ve seen in a long time, and very satisfying, too. So I’m ok with some roughness
In fairness, pretty much all games have some bugs, even far after launch. The issue is launching games that are clearly not finished.
BG3 and Diablo 4 coming out the same year as legacy franchises of PC really shows how far the industry has fallen.
My husband has a game pass sub for Xbox and he’s only bought 3 games this year; Diablo 4, Mortal Kombat, and BG3. Diablo 4 got broken almost immediately with shitty patches and he seriously regrets wasting the money. Mortal Kombat at least will be a slow burner as they space out the drops for the extra characters. But BG3 he’s been playing non-stop since Thanksgiving. (Like to the point where he checked in with me to ask if I was annoyed at listening to the audio constantly.) That game was well worth the price I just wish more games were like this.
(Like to the point where he checked in with me to ask if I was annoyed at listening to the audio constantly.)
I remember asking my other half if the sound was annoying her, and she told me she enjoys the stories in the game.
I enjoyed the story of the game but after watching Asterion’s sacrifice ritual for the tenth time I put my earbuds in and listened to a podcast for a bit. 😂
Played D4 because my friends were playing it. It’s such a boring piece of shit. Somehow it loses everything fun the past 2 entries had.
Tbh I really enjoy shorter games that are reasonably priced.
I probably only find the time to play 1-2 150+ hr game a year. The rest of my free time is spent socializing, dealing with shit like college, or playing shorter games that I can knock out in multiple 1-2 hour sessions within two weeks
I hate how so many games are demanding of your time today, or feed off that annoying FOMO feeling.
I’m happy that I know Baldurs gate will always be there and I’m really not going to miss out on anything important. Maybe I’ll get to it next year lol
The campaign only takes like 40 hours maybe. 60 for your first run if you’re an explorer. I only have so much time in it because I want to see every cut scene and that takes multiple characters. You could definitely play BG3 in shorter sessions. It’s very slow paced if you want it to be.
I want freedom. Offer both so everyone can pick the model that best matches their usage pattern. A GamePass+GeForceNow combo is nice if you want to play a diverse library of games without having to install terrabytes of game data. Also if you only want to play stuff a short while (hello ADHD), a subscription might be better than full price.
But again: freedom. I don’t want to be forced into subscriptions but neither would I want someone to forbid me from subscribing.
Suprisingly human take from a Baldur’s Gate 3 boss. Usually, they just wait in a chamber and want to slice you in half.
Fuck everything about them having like 3 actions while I get one at a 35% hit rate. Goddamn…
Reevaluate your party and where you’re attacking from(height, darkness, etc). I have a couple level 8 or 9 fighters that have multi-attack, so it evens out a bit soon enough. Under some circumstances, with a high initiative, multi-attack, then action surge, my fighters can debilitate an enemy before they even know they’re in a fight.
Are you effectively synergising your party? Martial characters have multiple actions, while casters typically get one.
If you’re frustrated with 35% hit chances then you could focus on using some members of your party to debuff the enemy and buff the hard hitters; this has much better damage output than all 4 party members just slinging attacks with hit chances below 65%. If you want to just blast with all 4 characters then that’s a valid play but it isn’t guaranteed to be viable.
Forcing subscription would probably be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I have no desire to pay for a gaming subscription. I play one or two games at a time, tops. The excuse that it gives me access to an entire library of games I DGAF about is the same bullshit cable companies did. Give you one or two channels (games) you want and a bunch of shit you don’t want so you have to subscribe to the next service to get the one or two things you want from them.
The problem is it gets polluted by greed and the publishers want it both ways: they want £60 front, for half a game. The second half of the game is sliced into 3 - for an extra £20 a pop.
You mean £5-20/month for 3 years as a “season pass”
