I’m sure Craig will have a more comprehensive answer for you, but I think he would say skip straight to BG3. The first two were done by a different company. From what I have heard (one of my best friends here is on his third play thru [he’s been unemployed]) you will have expert D&D familiarity by the time you’re done.
If I cave in and buy a computer capable of playing it, and then cave in and buy it, I will skip straight to the 3rd.
I think I would just jump ahead. You won’t be missing any of the story or lore. Well, a little but it’s not a big deal.
The first two BGs used a much earlier rule set of D&D and I think it’s more approachable now. But, it’s still D&D with a million rules and variants. Those early games were groundbreaking for their time, but they are pretty clunky now. Plus they are LONG, and you could spend that time in BG3.
Generally they let you do side quests at your leisure. The role of side quests typically being something less serious or involved to take a break from the main quest.
I started BG3 last night.
This seems daunting.
Thanks. Yes, I haven been picking off the easter egg hunt items and dipping in and out of the main storyline as I go. The “stop the pigeon” missions are really annoying.
My son and I played Baulders Gate 1 and 2 on our PS2 together over the course of a couple of years in his teens. Among my most cherished memories and best times of my life.
I quit video games when the PS2 was upgraded to a PS3 and he moved on to other games.
Never tried BG3.
I played Civ, Civ 2, Colonizaion, Alpha Centari, Civ 3, Civ 4, and Civ 6. It is GOOD.
I wanted to like Alpha Centauri. It just felt too much like they slapped a space skin on Civ with no other effort.
Alpha Centauri was meh.
My son and daughter gave me Baldur’s Gate 3 for my birthday back in September. I’ve played video games some, off and on, but the last was probably 15 years ago. Part of it is that I use an Apple computer, and there’s just not much made anymore for Apple. He did something interesting though, which is what this post is actually about. I’ve played through most of the first third of BG3, and I’ve played it through Steam (which I don’t understand), but I’m playing it on my Apple through something called Shadow PC. Everybody probably knows about it, but basically I have a fake PC online that I enter through my Apple. It’s like watching tv through my stereo. It works well too–I haven’t had any game glitches (thought I have my complaints about the game. I think I’m too old for this.)
I’m finding playing this type of RPG much harder than I used to. I’ve forgotten how much you have to keep track of where you’ve been and which quest ahead to lead to which area of the map and then you need to go back with this item, etc
In Divinity the Larian guys provide a real helpful journal for that stuff.
This is an epic CRPG. The Estonian developers did a fantastic job creating a complex near-future world for the detective story to inhabit. The coolest innovation in the game design is that the psychological makeup you give to your character alters what you experience in the game. The team did a massive amount of writing to expand the choices and branching consquences. First rate visuals and music. I played it to completion shortly after it came out and will take it up again some year…they released an update that includes an expanded number of voice actors.
Absolutely! I’m also a huge history nerd and it has some extremely well-developed parallels to real-world history, philosophy, and politics. So much so that I didn’t stop to think about how unique that is for a video game.
I don’t wanna short-change twitch games, either. Cuphead is a masterpiece of 2D action. Graphics that rival the golden age of Disney, gameplay like Contra. The animation and art style are fantastic.
Likewise for Ape Out, which gets bonus points for looking like a Saul Bass title sequence and synchronizing the character’s actions with a minimalistic hard bop soundtrack.
I started this thread, and very quickly I don’t understand a word you lot are saying.
Unique is the right word for Disco Elysium. There are many rpg’s that invite the player to make ethical choices, but i cant think of another that creates such a lush ideological setting for them to occur.
Left 4 dead is a great multiplayer (up to 4) game. Plays like the frantic climax of an action
Horror film.
Resident evil 4 is a survival horror game that keeps raising the bar as you play through its strange and diverse story. Lots of bizzare and unexpected adversaries. You play a US secret service agent rescuing the presidents daughter from spanish cultists with a ruthless bioterrorist company possibly involved in the story…as interpreted by japanese game designers. MATA LO!
Xcom is a satisfying tactical scifi military game. Its resource management guiding the training of individual soldiers–as the hours of investment add up you may be suprised by how emotional you feel when a soldier dies on a mission. The combat is tactical and turned based on a grid. Nice mission variety too.
Sunless sea and sunless sky are delightful and perverse. Simplistic 2d game mechanics in a steampunky victorian cosmic horror world. Captain a ship in a vast underground sea or captain a train in the sky. Tea?
CULTIST SIMULATOR. definitely evil.
Darkest dungeon is…a lovecraftian dungeon crawler. Fun and addictive. Avoid…hehehe
Pinball, Pong, space invaders, d&d, gamma world, pc (ZORK), DOOM, PS(2,4,5). WII…i have played them, i have played them all…
AVALON HILL, AXIS AND ALLIES, RISK, ARKHAM HORROR, Root, monopoly, risk, chess
Homo ludens mother fucker, homo ludens.
In the spirit of getting together over the holidays, there are a couple of couch co-op-ish games that can’t be ignored:
/me resists the urge to push his glasses back up his nose and expound at even greater length
I like Pente, and Tripoli
Thought you were the big nerd on campus eh? Move aside loser!