BLIZZ finally allows most requested stash feature

Schnorki wrote: 8 months ago

Skaijuice wrote: 8 months ago

Busy on the BG3 hype train now

Been waiting for that one for ages.
Purchased. Installed. Shall actually start when I can really focus on it again (i.e. when my office cools down a bit, lol).

Way late to the party (and kind of self-necroing the off-topicness of this whole thing) but finally got going on BG3 and after playing way too much since starting it...I honestly can't remember the last time I enjoyed a game this much. Story, depth, brilliant scripting, freedom despite a theoretically linear overall storyline, surprisingly optimized controls (considering how complex the actual underlying controls/possibilities are), overall polish and quality, just absolutely brilliant.

Given, there's still a couple of rather easy to add bits that are super annoying to miss, especially in this game thanks to the inherent complexity of D&D such as:
- Auto-stacking of gold, pots, .. even when the ones you already have are inside a backpack you're carrying
- Auto-sorting (why is there an option to sort by xyz but no "auto-sort" checkmark next to them?)
- Assignable hotkeys at least for 'add to wares' and 'send to 1/2/3/4'
- Locking hotbar actually locking it and preventing the auto-addition of ANY new actions to it (options let you disable auto-adding for most but sadly not all things)
- Actually trigger an action based on what the cursor is over. Though this really only comes up for movement 99% of the time. Trying to walk through an open door without manually moving the camera to a spot behind it is..surprisingly difficult, thanks to just looking through it and clicking the open Ground behind it reliably instead resulting in 'close door' and whatnot.
- Option for 'snap to character' so camera snaps back into follow mode after xyz seconds of no manual movement/after telling char to move (mainly only missing because of the above).

Honestly though, in terms of "shouldn't be missing" issues, I honestly can't think of any more right now which is saying something. That's a pretty short list. And I've literally only found a single bug in the game so far which shouldn't be as surprising and great and weird feeling as it is but..it just is. Not used to that level of quality/prior testing anymore (SUP BLIZZ!). And even that one bug was fixed by simply restarting the game and loading the last save.

Though I will agree that that video seems rather accurate in the underlying message..the game raises the bar too high even for itself. Like..I find myself noticing things as missing that in any other game, I would've never even thought about because the overall lack of polish typically has you worrying about far more basic things.
Specifically, the storytelling is brilliant. The voice acting is overall quite well done and super immersive. And yet, there is no voice acting for your own character's dialogue. Given, considering the number of options and the different voices you get to choose from, that would've been a fair bit of extra recording needed but considering the polish of every other aspect of the game, it actually stands out as missing.
Talk about first world problems...

But yeah, totally joining the hype train and highly recommending to anyone who ever even remotely enjoyed BG1, 2, NWN, PT or basically any other variation of D&D game. So worth it.

Side note:
I went ahead and avoided any prior spoilers so I honestly have no idea just how far along in the overall story I actually am by now. Feels like I've already completed like 5-6 times as much story as other games have, if not more, and am nowhere near the end but who knows. Also feels like for every arch I finish up, 2 more open up so...even less of a clue how much more there is. And liking it that way.
Either way, I'm already hoping there'll be an expansion (or 2...or 10...^^) because no matter how much more there is in the current story, it won't be enough.
Also fully expecting to do at least 1 more playthrough afterwards, maybe more, simply because it feels like the degree of choice you have should be able to lead you down a completely different path even inside the same overall story. Though how accurate that assumption is obviously remains to be seen.

Yup. Definitely one for the ages..i can only guess this much.

BG1 / BG2 has it's charm (2d interface..rich background graphics. No 3D so it maynot be inherently dated even after decades.

Replaying BG1 / ToTSC remastered and resuming BG2 after.

By then..they would polish up the latter half of the game..

Definitely GoTY. Even against Rubicon.

Apologies for a minor thread necromancy.

Since there is so little of BG3 mentioned in these parts and the preceding convo above was veering towards Larian's AAA title..

First - Neil captures the deserved win



no spoilers ..I wonder who won GOTY23...?

ghostpos wrote: 4 months ago

What an emotional roller coaster you put me through OP

I'm the goat of missleading titles and interactions farming extraordinaire.

Skaijuice wrote: 4 months ago

Apologies for a minor thread necromancy.

Since there is so little of BG3 mentioned in these parts and the preceding convo above was veering towards Larian's AAA title..

First - Neil captures the deserved win



no spoilers ..I wonder who won GOTY23...?

Very rarely have I so wholeheartedly agreed with any awards for anything ever.

Neil's performance across the game is simply glorious. Not just in terms of "performances this year" but really compared to any in-game performance ever. Though it really isn't limited to him. The combination of utterly brilliant (and largely shameless, way too rare these days) writing with equally brilliant performances across the board (special biased shoutout to Samantha/Karlach) is at a level that I for one haven't seen in right around 20, if not 30 years. Not even kidding, that's how far back I have to think to get to games that invoked such a level of "wow, I actually care about this story/character!". And even then, those were probably quite gilded by nostalgia and Memory and weren't nearly as good as I remember them to be.

As for the game itself, I dare say noone would've been surprised if they had won without even doing anything post-release anymore. Hell, they could've stuck to a handful of bug fixes and it all would've been remembered as one of the all time best games and a new bar for...well, everyone else to still limbo under...
And yet, they didn't. The simple fact that they released one of the best games of all time, certainly within the last couple decades, and then went on not only to fix stuff but to add significant new features in record time and throw out a couple new game modes/difficulties on top just for good measure, all while charging you exactly 0 cents for it continues to show just how much more they care and just why they deserve every award and bit of praise they get.
(In stark contrast, Blizzard used about the same amount of time to basically completely alienate their entire playerbase twice, seemingly add more bugs than they fixed, still leave you with a piece of trash that is quite possibly the biggest waste of time and money I for one have seen in any game since...well, D3 actually *cough*, all while charging people for 2 battle passes and extra for every piece of half-assed "new" cosmetics along the way)

Mind you, I've discovered quite a few more bugs since my first playthrough so I do have to reduce the level of praise I initially gave them for that a fair bit. But that's coming from initially being utterly confused by just how few there seemed to be in a game of that scale. And they are (noticeably) getting fixed.

The truly weird thing about BG3 imo is just how much better it is than it actually is, if that makes sense. Like..I realize how exceptional the game is, I'm aware of that. And you really can't help but realize that quite early into it. But even so, I fully expected that after one, maaaaybe two playthroughs I'd be done, what with story being used up, and then to sit around for years, hoping for an expansion/sequel. And yet...that just isn't the case. Given, I still fully expect to eventually be done "too early" and to have to wait for years for an expansion/sequel (if ever there will be one..which I sincerely hope). But until then, now, even after multiple playthroughs, I'm still nowhere near that point. In the middle of yet another one right now and I know there'll be at minimum two more to come after that. As good as the game is, I shouldn't have that level of ongoing motivation for something that is inherently still a finite story-based game that by definition has to become redundant/repetitive sooner rather than later. I honestly don't get how they pulled that off.


PS:
Special shoutout to the flutist. Rarely is an orchestra member so obviously blatantly over-hyped and psyched for their performance.

^ that flutist respec a couple of times foR sure. LOL.