this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Baldur's Gate 3

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. (Website)

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Ex-Skyrim Developer Explains the Key Difference Between Bethesda Games and Baldur’s Gate 3 | IGN (www.ign.com)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/baldurs_gate_3
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[–] echo64 93 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's worth noting that this guy is talking not of old Bethesda but modern Bethesda. The writing team behind Morrowind and half of Oblivion absolutely cared about the details that only 1% of people might see. Morrowind especially is a world built around you exploring the world building. It's not about levelling up (wowee I can miss the flying fuckheads 2% less now), it was about exploring the politics and cultures in the world.

At some point, Bethesda games became about the mechanical exploration, about going over there because that looks like it might be interesting, oh it's just a cave with combat in it oh well maybe over there will be interesting.

[–] GeneralEmergency 17 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Skyrim was a blight on the games industry.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Skyrim is a great game.... for its time. Todd Howard is the blight on the games industry for putting so many resources toward so many Skyrim remasters/re-releases/money grabs. Even if he outsourced all that work, those are dev houses he could have spent their time helping Bethesda actually fill their huge open worlds and perhaps get the same feeling of "every decision actually matters" that Larion did.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

It's good in some ways. I was disappointed in the removal of attributes and how the equipment stats were kind of simplified and boring. The lack of proper stat scaling, since there's no stats.

I was also sad to see spellmaking go.

There's still plenty of good in it, don't get me wrong.

[–] surewhynotlem 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Skyrim is great if you want to be a stealth archer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Is there any other way to play?

[–] Nima 1 points 9 months ago

every build is viable. the stealth archer meme seems a bit overdone to me.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Skyrim is twelve years old.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

And the stagnation it caused in the genre is evident, no?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No. Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Baldur's Gate 3 all draw influence from Skyrim. I think open world games are better because of Skyrim.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (31 children)

Dragon Age: Inquisition and Witcher 3 both began development in the same year Skyrim released. I don't know if I can really say they were influenced by Skyrim because of the timing, but I haven't played either.

Baldur's Gate 3 drawing influence from Skyrim I will have to vehemently disagree with. That assertion just makes no sense at all.

[–] jettrscga 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Dungeons and Dragons is literally just a Skyrim knockoff that uses dice.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

That one was tough without /s, but ha ha. :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

FWIW, one of the lead developers of Dragon Age Inquisition confirmed that a lot of decisions around that game were EA wanting them to make Skyrim (for instance, the addition of mounts) Source: https://youtu.be/4Q5_RsII_Ho?si=a9CTmyHpEpgfuPTe

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Howso?

[–] GeneralEmergency 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So many games wanted to be the next Skyrim, and so they brought over a lot of its systems and design choices. Including the bad ones.

The flood of games going open world, reliance on mods, and marketing through memes.

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[–] Rhoeri 70 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Bethesda makes a buggy mess of a semi-passable base game and relies on free labor to turn it into a playable and interesting game.

Larian doesn’t.

There’s your difference.

[–] TryingToEscapeTarkov 10 points 9 months ago

Saved me a click. Thanks!

[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer 36 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I think a very good distinction is the open-worldness of Elder Scrolls. When you have a virtual map spanning hundreds of acres, all of which you can visit, means the content gets thinned out and walking/climbing/riding around turns into a grind. Not every corner of BG3 has some amazing secret stowed away but I can't think of any place I've visited so far that felt like a waste of my time.

[–] FireTower 33 points 9 months ago

I think it's a symptom of the old trend of making games 'bigger'. Fallout 4 was four times bigger than Fallout 3 for example.

Bigger isn't better. I want a world where I don't feel the need to fast travel because I know I'll have fun getting to my destination.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Elden Ring had a hybrid approach, oh look a cave, but 80% of the optional areas had interesting enemies, layouts and loot.

Definitely over tuned some extras, but for such a big game it was way better than Shrines or Koroks in Zelda

[–] Radio_717 2 points 9 months ago

That’s one of the best parts about out Bv games- nothing feels contrived.

[–] hogunner 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is it attention to detail? It’s attention to detail, isn’t it?

[–] Kadaj21 16 points 9 months ago

Read that as Astarion, so thanks! Lol

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