Baldur's Gate 3 - UPDATE - EARLY ACCESS RELEASE NOW AVAILABLE

********************************UPDATE**********************************

Baldur's Gate III is now available for purchase in its Early Access form on both Steam and GOG:

Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1086940/Baldurs_Gate_3/

GOG Link: https://www.gog.com/game/baldurs_gate_iii

Of course if you have the Steam or GOG apps, you'll want to search out the game there.


NOTE: The new minimum disk space requirements are 65GB for Early Access and 150 GB for the final release.

Regarding what "Early Access" means to appropriately set expectations - While you are paying full price for the game, you will not, at this time get a finished game. It may contain bugs, and may not contain all quests and characters. In the past, Larian's Early Access releases have been quite stable, but there is still that possibility that you might run into an issue. That said, if you are chomping at the bit to dive into this game, this early iteration can be yours for $59.99 at either of the above game cloud providers. You will also receive updates that will bring the game to it's final form, once those are all ready.

I'm personally on the fence about this. I want to jump head-first into the game, but on the other hand would prefer to see the game in it's full splendor considering how much work Larian is putting into it...just sayin'

Thanks so much for the link.

Looks fantastic. New BG, after all these years.

Wow, it will be here soon!

How good does THAT look ??????

I'm pretty sure it was BG that brought me here in the first place. It was my first RPG, I was frustrated, and the guy in EB Gamesdirected me here. Zanthia helped me out.

Zanthia was the reason I became a member of GameBoomers. I saw that she was a moderator here and decided to register. She and I had known one another online before GameBoomers existed and had even traded games in the past.

I'm glad you were able to get some help here, hagatha!

Yeah, Baldur's Gate has a special place in my gamer's heart as well. Although, it's more because of it's association with the Sword Coast and all things D&D. Speaking of table top/pen and paper gaming... In case anyone is interested, there is a pen and paper prequel to BD III called Decent into Avernus.

Here's the D&D page for the game modules: https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/baldursgate_descent
A write up by Polygon on the release: https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/6/20853368/dungeons-and-dragons-descent-into-avernus-preview-review

To purchase it, I would suggest your local games seller, and if that doesn't work, as a last resort you can go through the evil empire (AKA Amazon)

It's funny, even though I was big into the pen and paper D&D gaming, when it came to electronic games I was heavy into the arcade style stuff. The only other electronic games I had played before coming to Gameboomers were text based adventures like Hitchhikers Guide on the old C64. Then I got into the Star Wars stuff, eventually Morrowind, and when I tried Baldur's Gate I wasn't impressed at first. I found the controls difficult and the combat nigh to impossible. I remember complaining about it here, because I couldn't even make it down the first path after leaving the inn without my whole party getting decimated. Once I finally got used to it, I jumped into every D&D game made for both PC and C64 platforms and never looked back

"I remember complaining about it here, because I couldn't even make it down the first path after leaving the inn without my whole party getting decimated."

That happened to me, too, TM !!
Probably because Baldur's Gate was the first proper RPG I'd ever attempted. The Quest for Glory games were the nearest I'd ever played.

[Not that I'm much better NOW !! ]

But the thing that really drove me mad was trying to find that tiny quite near the beginning of the game - somewhere in that whole expanse of wilderness

Mad, I played the Quest for Glory games right before I decided to risk Baldur's Gate, and I remember being incredibly proud of myself for getting through the one or two combat scenes in, I think it was, QFG 5. The only other game I'd ever played that had any combat at all was a game set on a moving train, an adventure/mystery game that had one combat/action scene on the top of the train. Can't remember the name, but it was rather good, I remember.

If I hadn't played those two games, I would have remained an adventure gamer for a lot longer.

Well it took me months to get to the end of Baldur's Gate, hagatha !! But I was so elated when I did that I decided I would try other RPG's

And I have played several now.

But I will resort to using some kind of a God Mode to get through difficult combat situations (when it's not turn based) because I am just so pathetic. [I panic !!]

However, I still enjoy myself. Especially when there's a good background story

Turns out I am suspiciously fond of chasing down and killing electronic monsters, and am quite good at it. Perhaps uncomfortably so....

The game you are thinking of is The Last Express.

Both GOG and Steam have the game as a download.

Yeah, on the topic of playing RPG's, it's funny how it takes so long to get used to dying over and over again.


I'm better about it now, but have still trashed a mouse or two during particularly difficult gameplay. I think I get more upset during RPG's than I do with any other style game. If my character gets killed during an FPS I usually take it stride. With the D&D games especially, you know that there's some kind of edge you can accomplish or something in your character build that would help you win, but you just missed it. That kind of strategy playing is fun, but can get somewhat infuriating at times.

The first time I played BG I went with the first character I rolled. I had absolutely no idea about stats and what went with what class. I'd made something like a Fighter with 8 STR, 8 CON and 18 INT. I didn't know I could keep re-rolling until I had a higher total of attribute points to distribute, or even that I could redistribute the attribute points I'd rolled. It was all so very foreign.

Let's just say that first character did not fare well.

Marian, that is indeed the game! I was so chuffed I'd made it through the action scene that I played it again right away.

Yeah, as odd as it sounds it took me awhile to mentally connect the pen and paper rules to the PC game. That's why I'm so excited that they are actually showing your dice rolls on screen in this new game.

Now, if they would only implement the feature that they had in the main NWN campaign, when your character would get hit by a spell that lowered their intelligence and they'd lose the ability to speak coherently. That always cracked me up.

Apologies, I missed posting that there was a Live Stream Q&A today.

Here's the link that has the full broadcast. Just go to around time mark 1:30 or so and it will kick-into the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqicWlixyLw

TM

This game looks like it's going to be right up my alley as a D&D fan boi. Just the fact that they are integrating the dice rolls into the action scenes makes me giddy

AND, it's confirmed - One of the main characters IS a Githyanki, YAY!

If I only have Win 7 will I be unable to play BG3? It looked like their was no leeway on their requirements. I hate Win 10 with a passion.

Probably not without issues. Since Windows 7 isn't being supported any longer by Microsoft, there's no incentive for game companies to build in that compatibility.

I get what you're saying though. Not a big fan of 10 either, but you're sort of playing with fire by staying with Win 7. Even though some virus and malware protection is compatible with 7, it will eventually be full of other security holes (if it isn't already) that won't or can't be addressed by those apps.

I think the game needs DirectX 11 to be installed.
If you can find a DirectX 11 installer for Windows 7 you should be OK.

Thanks Trail_Mystic and Jenny. I will look for the DirectX11 Win 7 installer. If I used an external HD that I could install Win 10 to, could I play my game on that?

EDIT:
Looking at my Dx Diag, I already have DirectX 11.

I did some additional checking on the Larian forums and that question is pretty common. Per one of the studio's forum reps:

"Technically, the game should work in Win 7 SP1, but we still need to do some testing and discussion before the official minimum requirements could be adjusted."

So, right now it sounds sort of conditional. Guessing they'll update the minimum requirements after they're out of early access. I'll keep an eye open for updates.

TM

Thanks Trail_Mystic! That sounds promising at least.

I never buy stuff on Early Access, but I've made an exception for BG 3.

It looks huge so I'm going to finish wasteland 3 and remove everything but Fallout 4 before I download.

Thanks for reminding me. The new minimum disk space requirements has doubled since the published the original requirements for the final release.

It's now 150GB - That's quite a chunk. Early access will be 65GB.

We never buy Early Access stuff either, but my son just caved and picked it up. He is almost done downloading.

I bought the early access version because of Larian. They have always been consistently faithful to their public, but it is still downloading. Just reached 25GB. Looks like an all nighter for me.

Me, too. I've loved all their games.

Oh, and BTW TM, they did lower their requirements for the OS to Win 7. Hurrah! The early access is 65GB and the total is 150GB. I feel a very long game session coming up. Everyone who's reviewed it so far (at least on Steam) (I bought mine on GoG) has very positive reviews with few exceptions and I know Larian will listen to their fan base for the things that aren't working quite right.

Thanks for catching that Early Access disk space requirement Debra!

I've corrected my updates in this thread

It's great that they've got it set for Win 7 - Looks like it's going to be quite the romp.


OK, you guys... You got me thinking about downloading this too. Gah, I've got so much other stuff to do, and I'm so obsessive about good games, this could be really dangerous.

Well if a "Let's Play Baldur's Gate 3" thread suddenly gets pinned to the top of the forum, you know who's responsible...

Younger players and/or players not familar with old-fashioned RPG board games that used dice will be perplexed by Baldur's Gate games, in which all the stats are of very low values. That's because the system was originally designed to be played with dice rolls of REAL dice, which can't have too many values -- usually a max of 20. A die can't have too many values, or it becomes a sphere, lol! Many computer RPGs of today, like Fallout, Witcher, etc., have health or damage values in the hundreds or thousands, which today's players are used to. Can't have that in the old-fashioned system.