Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Rumors [CONFIRMED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Ismaul]

Why the fuck tie yourself to a shitty series made by others and be constantly compared to it?

I hope it's just the D&D license or Forgotten Realms. Otherwise you can bet your ass this will be just another RT/wP worst-of-all-worlds title that will go all in on nostalgia and rehashing the old storyline and terrible characters. If not, people will just bash it as BG in name only.

 

[Ismaul]

Larian's writing is probably the worst thing about their games. For them to try a story heavy franchise like BG would not inspire confidence in me at least.

Like Bioware's writing is any better. Especially now lol.

 

[Edija]

Oh God no, Divine Divinity was the only good Larian game...
People have fun with Original Sin 1&2 but the writing and the art direction are just too cringe for me. I loved Divine Divinity but never could get on the whole two characters train, and the new writing is just trying to hard with that "oh, so random xD" humor. I can't take it. I'm bitter and old.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Like Bioware's writing is any better. Especially now lol.

Implying that we would have had to pick Bioware for a sequel or that we had to have a sequel. "herp derp, it's better than Bethesda"

That said, yes, Bioware is better. They at least take their writing somewhat seriously and I think the ones responsible for the ME:A disaster have been shitcanned.

I've always felt like Larian doesn't respect the genre and is ashamed of working in it. The Divinity setting is packed with a bunch of unfunny humor and lame plotlines. Even the original BG wasn't as bad. It's like they don't take the setting seriously and therefore can't write it in a serious way.

Original Sin showed that they could make a fun turn-based game, but the story and characters were unbearably weak.

 

[Jimmious]

Personally I'd LOVE a TB D&D RPG from Larian, even if it has a shitty story.
Because apart from "pure indies" like KOTC the last TB D&D game was ToEE... Would be nice to get one again

The way combat works* in D:OS would fit perfectly the ruleset... As long as they don't dumb it down for reasons

*I mean how encounters work, with "turn-based combat areas" and so on. Not the actual combat system

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I focus on the pain. The only thing that's real.

 

[FeelTheRads]

If this is true, it's basically Swen cucking Trent Oyster, which is pretty funny.

 

[Ranarama]

If it has to be 5E, and then it'd have to use the recent forgotten realm setting which still has a bunch of shit all over it when wizards shat all over their settings with 4E crap. I mean sure they made it so they wiped some of the bigger turd chunks off, but it still stinks as a setting.

I'd prefer something new.

 

[DraQ]

Larian's writing is probably the worst thing about their games.

Why?
Divinity 2 was thoroughly enjoyable, also in terms of writing, while DOS2 seems to have largely recovered after the cavalcade of tepid derp that was DOS1 (where Larian's writing was at its nadir).
DC had rather fun advisors and generals as well.

 

[Theldaran]

Every videogame company that acquires a business relationship with WotC is doomed.

Yeah, right, like the BGs established Bioware as an important developer. I mean, with things like Shattered Steel they didn't have much hope otherwise.

It was later that Bioware squandered their good approach.

For BG3, I think I want back the original project by Black Isle, but considering these people have blundered as of late, maybe it's better to start from scratch.

Since the BGs had serviceable (but not outright bad) writing, I'm okay with Larian making BG3. It shouldn't be too hard.

 

[Hamster]

That said, yes, Bioware is better. They at least take their writing somewhat seriously

Usually to the detriment of everybody involved.

 

[TT1]

New colleague of mine is a former Larian employee. He says Swen acquired the Baldur's Gate license. No further information on when they're going to use it and for what, but they have it.

Its true, man! I was there!

I'm Swen.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Mad Arcand should make a return for BG3. What happened to him anyway?

 

[Roguey]

That said, yes, Bioware is better. They at least take their writing somewhat seriously and I think the ones responsible for the ME:A disaster have been shitcanned.

I've always felt like Larian doesn't respect the genre and is ashamed of working in it. The Divinity setting is packed with a bunch of unfunny humor and lame plotlines. Even the original BG wasn't as bad. It's like they don't take the setting seriously and therefore can't write it in a serious way.

Original Sin showed that they could make a fun turn-based game, but the story and characters were unbearably weak.

Good thing they went on that hiring spree. Enjoy your Colin McCuck-penned Baldur's Gate.

 

[Infinitron]

Larian are very successful, so you'd think they have little incentive not to create their own IP instead.

If they do make a D&D game, they can probably demand and get extremely favorable terms from WOTC. Few/no royalties, exclusivity, a high degree of creative control.

 

[Dodo1610]

I can't imagine Larian makeing something that's not Divinity. They have been makeing games for their IP for 20 years why stop now?

 

[The Bishop]

I can't imagine Larian makeing something that's not Divinity. They have been makeing games for their IP for 20 years why stop now?

Because after 20 years nobody cares particularly much about Divinity?

And let's be honest here, Divinity is not a setting. It's an excuse for a setting with nothing really tying it together. The only general theme you can pick out of Divinity games is that there's no theme. It's made intentionally wacky so that they can plug whatever story they came up with this time, but this also means that setting in itself has no particular value.

 

[vorvek]

Every now and then I beat the original Baldur's Gate, and find myself wondering why people find the writing okay. Other than the dream sequences, most characters have a total of 10 lines of text at best, unless their name is Elminster. Sometimes the journal entry is more descriptive of what you were asked than what the characters actually say, and party members' personalities only come up in their bunch of voiced lines they repeat over and over, since they barely talk other than the moment they join your party and the moment you tell them to fuck off. For example, Kivan and Viconia will fight (or Ajantis and pretty much anybody else) not because of anything that actually happened, but because "Viconia is a drow and Kivan is an elf, so of course they will hate each other". So, out of nowhere, this 18 STR elf starts slashing a surface drow with a halberd. And yeah, let's have him say nothing at all when you kill Tazok, his sworn enemy. Or when you kill Tranzig while having Branwen in your party. Or when you kill Mulahey with Xan in your party. Or when you kill the wyverns with Coran in your party, or...

I'll admit it improved in BG2, where characters were actually characters, even if they were often as insufferable. I think Larian's writing would be a perfect fit; 3 or 4 okay along a mix of mostly forgettable or directly retarded ramblings.

 

[Dodo1610]

I can't imagine Larian makeing something that's not Divinity. They have been makeing games for their IP for 20 years why stop now?

Because after 20 years nobody cares particularly much about Divinity?

And let's be honest here, Divinity is not a setting. It's an excuse for a setting with nothing really tying it together. The only general theme you can pick out of Divinity games is that there's no theme. It's made intentionally wacky so that they can plug whatever story they came up with this time, but this also means that setting in itself has no particular value.

They were definitley trying with Original Sin 2 to create a canon story. If Larian and especially Swen wouldn't care about their series then they would have stopped makeing games for it.

 

[BEvers]

Every now and then I beat the original Baldur's Gate, and find myself wondering why people find the writing okay. Other than the dream sequences, most characters have a total of 10 lines of text at best

That's why.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Larian are very successful, so you'd think they have little incentive not to create their own IP instead.

If they do make a D&D game, they can probably demand and get extremely favorable terms from WOTC. Few/no royalties, exclusivity, a high degree of creative control.

Try CEO's cock in Sven's mouth and blood offering from McComb's kidney. Hasbro doesn't fuck around.

 

[Delterius]

Yeah, right, like the BGs established Bioware as an important developer.

Remember Digital Extremes? Neither do I.

Neither do I, Theldaran.

 

[Curratum]

Didn't they have a thingie with WOTC where D&D's Chris Perkins hosted a multiplayer game / rpg session over the DOS2 DM-ing tools? This could be a thing, I imagine...

 

[Kem0sabe]

Larian's shit writing featuring all over a Baldurs Gate game, with the added incentive of having Mccomb write about elves... Codex rpg of the year award is all but guaranteed you fucking idiots.

 

[Theldaran]

Every now and then I beat the original Baldur's Gate, and find myself wondering why people find the writing okay. Other than the dream sequences, most characters have a total of 10 lines of text at best, unless their name is Elminster. Sometimes the journal entry is more descriptive of what you were asked than what the characters actually say, and party members' personalities only come up in their bunch of voiced lines they repeat over and over, since they barely talk other than the moment they join your party and the moment you tell them to fuck off. For example, Kivan and Viconia will fight (or Ajantis and pretty much anybody else) not because of anything that actually happened, but because "Viconia is a drow and Kivan is an elf, so of course they will hate each other". So, out of nowhere, this 18 STR elf starts slashing a surface drow with a halberd. And yeah, let's have him say nothing at all when you kill Tazok, his sworn enemy. Or when you kill Tranzig while having Branwen in your party. Or when you kill Mulahey with Xan in your party. Or when you kill the wyverns with Coran in your party, or...

I'll admit it improved in BG2, where characters were actually characters, even if they were often as insufferable. I think Larian's writing would be a perfect fit; 3 or 4 okay along a mix of mostly forgettable or directly retarded ramblings.

It's not only the NPCs, BG1 is fairly ancient and they didn't matter much nor were they well explored. It's the quest writing too, and the main quest writing, which arguably falls short and the final stage of the game is not very well conveyed (mostly through documents), which has caused Beamdog to want to rewrite and "improve" it. But at least the quests are okay. One of the most important "pillars" of BG1.

That said, yes, in BG2 they adopted some measures to improve the writing. Even if all it did was delivering the text in shorter outbursts.