Baldur's Gate III

El Gato De Negocios

Couldn't resist the early access and played a bit. The combat will take a bit of getting used to and it feels massive scale wise. So far, no bugs or glitches and it looks absolutely stunning. I can see this being a real black hole.

McFly85

Played a bit this morning, runs pretty well but had to stop because of a bug(screen froze on speech selection so I didn’t know what was happening!), hopefully they can be sorted quick enough.

But I enjoyed what I did play, I can see putting a serious amount of time into it.

johnny_ultimate

I’d planned to play it on PC but have some friends on PS5 keen to play multiplayer. So settled on that, but was hoping it would translate well.

Thankfully it does. First hour or two of play is very satisfying, and most impressive is that it runs so smoothly. I know the performance issues come later in the game, but seems like a pretty rock solid 60 in the opening stages at least. The controller stuff takes a little bit of time to get used to but I think they’ve largely done a good job translating such a PC-centric game to a controller.

The game itself is wonderfully dense so far - definitely a vast and deep RPG on an entirely different scale to almost everything else out there at the moment. But very early so far - many hours of gameplay ahead before any kind of robust opinion can be formed!

Icyseanfitz

I play the game solely with controller tbh, I play PC/steam deck, it's very good

Penn

Only got a short burst last night and spent most of my time creating my character, eventually going with a human sorcerer charlatan type of build. So only got one quick fight in.

But considering my party currently includes me, a fighter I met, and a walking talking brain I carved out of someone's skull, I'm enjoying the game so far anyway.

TheValeyard

Anyone know how to get rid of the '!' Speech bubble above one of your group. Cannot get it to go away. Tried talking to them, very quest items, etc nothing works.

Varik

Game really doesn't hold back from allowing you to get yourself killed. I've died in 2 different conversations by failing a bunch of dice rolls.

Other games a failure might put you at a disadvantage for a fight at worst but nope here's it's death.

Game really needs an easier way to swap out character,

Iguarantee

You can manually select whichever character you want before starting the conversation and the conversation is then based on your selected characters strengths and weaknesses.

For example: it’s easier to intimidate someone if you use a barbarian than a wizard.

What’s the issue you’ve encountered with character swapping?

Varik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121066559#Comment_121066559

One of the conversation def didn't allow you to choose, not sure about the other.

Character selection needing to go to camp, talk to someone to remove them, and then go talk to the other person to add.

johnny_ultimate

Character swapping in terms of switching characters in and out of the party? Going to camp doesn’t seem like such an onerous task… although trying to find out how to actually get to camp in the first place is not best explained in the PS5 version anyway 😂

Absolutely loving the scope of the first act. Kind of a thrill diving into a game with this level of sheer RPG depth. Well let’s just see how it holds up given the reports from PC about act three!

Vicxas

How has the experience been on the PS5? I have it on Steam but the idea of sitting on my couch is quite appealing.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121071972#Comment_121071972

Mostly excellent so far, with around four hours played. Very solid performance (big step up from FF16 😅), decent controller mapping etc… Had one crash when trying to start the game yesterday, but no issues in-game other than a passing graphical or sound quirk here and there, and a few interface bits that I’m not sure whether are platform specific or not (had to go back and fetch my companions once or twice as they didn’t seem to want to move of their own accord). I have seen some videos suggesting Act 3 has the same performance challenges as have been reported on PC, but so far so (mostly) good.

Vicxas

How has the radial been? I played it for a bit on Steam Deck but its a big step up to the PS5. I wish they kinda kept it similar to what Divinity OS II had.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121071972#Comment_121071972

Personally I'm only about 2 hours in on PS5, but no complaints so far in terms of controls or performance, particularly where combat is turn-based and so you're not trying to cycle through different radial menus trying to find the right icon in a panic. From a video I watched it's definitely a bit more input required to do some simple options (like moving inventory items from one character to another on PC looks like it's just drag and drop, whereas on PS5 you have to highlight the item, open Actions sub-menu, then send to the character you want).I haven't gotten too deep into figuring out the best ways to do things though. There's not a lot of tutorials or hints when you're doing things for the first time, I think there's an actual tutorials menu/log you have to go through yourself.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121072041#Comment_121072041

Mostly fine! In combat it’s grand since it’s turn-based. Most confusing part was trying to find the radial menu in the map where short rest, camp, quick save etc are located… Fine when you know it’s there, but took an hour or two of play to find out it was there in the first place 😅

Niska

Haven't played much on PS5 yet, but keep getting a (known) sound bug. Theres a workaround (turn off 3d sound) until patched.

Played through the prologue three times, trying to find class I like the feel of. Thought it would be Warlock, but didn't click.

Probably try a couple more before getting on with the rest of the game.

Penn

Speaking of a lack of tutorials, either they left something very important for you to figure out yourself, or I missed the popup saying you have to manually raise your characters levels once they get enough XP. Was really struggling with a fight to the point of having to reload my save a few times (because I knew there was something that had to be wrong), until I discovered I had to manually level the characters up which pretty much doubled their HP and made them stronger. Got through the fight no problem then.

johnny_ultimate

I don’t think there was a level up tutorial but there is a big exclamation mark on the character portraits when they can level up.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121073866#Comment_121073866

Yeah that was what flagged it for me. But also wasn't sure if that was always there, is it new, what's it for etc.

Not a huge issue, just would have liked maybe a pop-up saying "Hey d*ckhead, look at this! Important sh*t right there!"

Varik

Been selling the same 3 spears to a shifty merchant and stealing them back and then repeating.

Stole a set of gloves that give advantage for sleight of hand first, but they do realize they've been robbed a short bit after and if you're caught you get one of those pop up saves where you don't see the dice. Depending on the area and if it's the thief or not or if your just looking shifty the response is different from being attacked or having to bribe them.

First few times as I'd them in separate group with main party to the side, and when the guard ran up to them since the thief was gone I could answer honestly that I didn't have it.

Now I'm having 3 member party cast stuff on thief and then go to camp, while thief stays behind and once he's done stealing he does a couple of double rouge dashes to get away, you pretty much have to play fully in turn based for a lot of stealth stuff to be safe.

FlubberJones

For the PS5 is this game only digital? I can't seem to find a hardcopy of it, if anyone has would be good to know where

McFly85

I’m hugely enjoying this so far. Plays pretty well on PS5 and once you know where everything is, controls pretty well too!

I am pretty rubbish at combat, it’s definitely going to take me a while to get used to that, it’s not really like anything I’ve played before. Another thing I have to get used to is saving often! I’ve had a few situations go bad very quickly only for me to find I’m a fair bit back from my last save.

But the world is so well realised and diverse, the characters are enjoyable and the quests engaging. I can imagine I’ll spend a serious amount of time in this!

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121075099#Comment_121075099

Digital only, unfortunately.

FlubberJones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121075155#Comment_121075155

Ah ok so that clarifies it, thanks, I was confused not seeing it anywhere... Time to make some room on the HD

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121075135#Comment_121075135

Just in case you missed it in-game, as it's not explained as far as I know 😅... It's obviously not as 'quick' as the PC equivalent, but if you open the map, open the radial menu and hit triangle (iirc - it clarifies which in the button guide at the bottom of the screen) you can quicksave. Just makes life a tad easier once you get into the habit of doing it regularly.

Varik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121075135#Comment_121075135

I've gotten through a few big fights by the skin of my teeth, usually having to really set up the area to do it. Have party split and using stealth at the start. Walking in and starting a cutscene or conversation then that leading to a fight usually puts you in a bad position. If you've the party split then when the conversation starts the group in it will join the battle but you can then position the other group in real time while the first group is waiting for turns. The players character can get pulled in to some conversations.

Also the levels mean there's huge jumps in power between certain levels, level 4 bringing feats and for most classes level 5 bringing lvl 3 spells and some huge abilities.

I hit level 5 and I've got some crazy power abilities now.

There's a character you can get for your camp near the beach that lets you respect for 100 gold, only thing you can't reset is race/background and the worm powers.

Did the beholder fight under levelled and that thing has crazy initiative and multiple big attacks, running in normal my heavy armour character died from full health before he even got his first turn.

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121075856#Comment_121075856

Honestly that’s most of the problem! Wandering into a situation and all of a sudden I’m in a fight. I’ll start preparing more positioning wise, definitely!

Varik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121077970#Comment_121077970

If you're in stealth you don't generally even start the cutscenes. I sent rouge into a boss room and other than a little bit that was red where he could have been spotted if stealth failed roll I was able to wander around the whole area. The red area on ground is only for stealth checks, if you're not stealthed then enemies can see you outside of that area so if you have a stealth character seeing a red area then your non-stealth characters will get seen before they get that close.

If you're very cautious you used a stealthed rouge to lead party so you can see the red from sight of enemies, and then when you do you split the party up. Position everyone and then either start fight with your front line characters or with your high initiative character so they get first move.

If the rest of the party is spit and stealth they won't come into the fight but as soon as it starts you can switch to them and still control them in real time while everyone else is paused to position or think about what to do. You can then attack with them and join the fight.

Generally I have the rouge stealth attack someone to start fight, and since he's got high initiative the enemies don't get to go ahead of him. I then use whatever spells or attacks to get the rest of the party to join.

Bunching up in the game is also bad as there's so many area of effect attack they can hit you with, and as with the other larian games there's a lot of floor effect.

The short and long rests make a difference as it's not something you've to deal with in other games so not over doing rest as there's some things you can time yourself out of but also not going into fights unprepared.

Varik

Found a crystal that gave you dark vision as you went by, didn't think it had much point since it was so bright which made me think maybe it shouldn't be and that I'd gamma too high. The in game gamma correction and calibration image showed that default was way too high, setting it down made the game look so much better.

Penn

Some lucky dice rolls for the likes of Persuasion, Intimidation and Deception are carrying me through with little fighting. Almost want to start some fights just to hone my skills.