Baldur's Gate 3 and real mod support

Baldur's Gate 3 is over. Officially support on the game has wrapped up and now the team at Larian have slid off towards their next horizon, some early whispers of which paint it as an even bigger project than BG3- which is a frankly insane proposition and I'll believe it when I see it. (Although if it's a Divinity sequel maybe I'll just write it off now. Never really got with that franchise, gameplay was good but the world sucks.) But they left something of an interesting parting gift given the history of Baldur's Gate, Larian and their relationship with UGC. Mod support is what I'm talking about and with the tools provided, the community around the game and the relative disappoint that has been modern day Bethesda- we might be looking at a... how was it Dwayne Johnson put it...  'a change in the hierarchy of (modding) power'. To be largely hyperbolic.

First Divinity. UGC was really not a supported endeavour by Larian until the Original Sin games. Not because they disapproved of it, it's just that none of their games were built to be able to handle it. In fact, the top comment on how to get Divinity 2 working with modern computers (a circus in of itself) is left by a Larian developer- because they know how important their community is. Alongside being able to access purchased games. But with the Original Sin games can an inbuilt mode known as 'Game Master' mode wherein players could build maps using the tiles and assets in the game and share these custom experiences around. It was fine, kind of like a simplified version of what Solasta would bill itself around. But it wasn't really 'mod tools' as one would traditionally know them.

In the lead-up to Baldur's Gate 3 it was actually really up in the air about whether or not the game would receive a successor to the Game Master mode. Nothing existed in the plans to create one and Larian seemed pretty iffy about whether or not they would commit to making one post launch either, whether that is due to the simple size of Baldur's Gate 3 making it difficult to commit investing that kind of extra time towards the development of such tools or simply because they were never all that popular in the community anyway outside of the specifically creatively-inclined circles. All I saw were crossed fingers from people who recognised that these were the most robust DnD tools on the market salivating over what would be possible if Larian took the plunge.

Of course any launch to the size of Baldur's Gate 3's has the tendency to rewrite your plans and ambitions before your very eyes- thus it came as very little shock to me that conversations about development tools were restarted around this time. But the world has moved on a bit since the Original Sin days, ambitions of modders have grown insane over the past few years- would a tailor made asset reshuffling Game Master mode really fit the talents of their new found audience? Pretty immediately the promises arrived not for in-house mess around tools but dedicated Mod Tools, the powers of which were left ambiguous and up to the imagination of the community to fill out- which of course immediately led to vastly bloated visions of Bethesda-style freedom that, even now, seems wildly egregious to propagate but you can't shackle the dreamers, I guess...

Now at the tailend of the official patch and content support for Baldur's Gate 3 has arrived those official modding tools and through them the real second life of this franchise can begin. Not that people weren't already throwing together mods- although those scrappy efforts to rejiggle existing assets into something new pale in the face of what injection software can achieve! Expect to see real creative visual overhauls to character creation, maybe even new models introduced into the base game- the limit really is the passion of the community at this point and with the tailor-made backdoor into the systems they've been given the only thing they can't do is remake the game to their twisted will. Oh wait... it took a couple of weeks but already the tools have been 'unlocked' so they actually can.

Some people seem a bit confused as to why the modding tools had the functionality to straight up remake the Baldur's Gate 3 campaign but that functionality was 'locked', however I think I understand the logic. Putting out the modding tools was basically a measure for providing their players as smooth as a process as possible for building onto their games without accidentally ripping out a core part of the original game and bricking their install as one might home-modding. As such, campaign editing tools- whilst powerful- would certainly open up a big backdoor to all those fiddly core systems that Larian cannot feasibly reinforce against the power of their modding tools. Therefore they officially support the weaker tools whilst leaving the more powerful capabilities there but not liable under their promise of support. At least that's what makes sense in my mind.

But now that those tools have been unlocked- what exactly can we expect going forward from Baldur's Gate and it's modding maniacs? The truth is that we don't know. The best cast scenario is that Baldur's Gate can become a platform for hosting tailor built player campaigns with homebrew set-ups, maybe even a fresh monster here or there and maybe even unique animations. We might see grand adventures within the Baldur's Gate 3 engine to match the scale of lesser Bethesda mods- and maybe even greater to rewrite the very DNA of Baldur's Gate 3 and create a targeted experience that challenges what the base game could even offer like some of the more ambitious Bethesda mods out there. But days are so early we cannot even reliably speculate on the limits- which it what makes this so very exciting.

I would love to see a vibrant modding community spark in the Baldur's Gate 3 wake because honestly- the game feels to big to be done now. Just as how the success of Skyrim sparked the biggest modding community ever who still feed into it come the modern day, does Baldur's Gate 3 feel like a worthy successor to that kind of love. Bethesda's biggest thorn of late has been them trying to play into UGC in a manner of ways that seem to gradually miss the point, and Larian seem hands-off enough to let this world blossom naturally in a manner we all love to engage with. Let mods be mods and game content be content. That is a mantra worth modding for, as far as I'm concerned.

The commodificaiton of Baldur's Gate

 

I've got a bit of controversial one for ya- I like Baldur's Gate 3. I know, wild one. And the thing is- so do a lot of people across the world who have found themselves brought closer to the ludicrously giant brand of Dungeons and Dragons through it's rampant and raging success. Larian took the licence for the property, through a hefty fee, and went off practically on their own to create what would come to be known as a studio defining masterpiece, as a follow-up to their last studio defining masterpiece. Baldur's Gate 3 shouldn't have happened, by the natural laws of reality, and though I'm glad it did I think we all await for the elastic band to snap back into place and return reality to the masses. That band being the fact that the owners of Dnd are currently a bunch of weird little gremlins that delight in squeezing as much blood out of property as humanely possible- and Larian handily just gave them the keys to the Baldur's Gate engine.

Besides the perfect gameplay and gorgeously expansive story with layer upon layer creating opportunity for players to craft such personal stories that until a few weeks ago one of the origin companion specific player endings had been viewed a grand total of thirteen times- (That is insanely rare, good god!)- what makes Baldur's Gate is really it's cast. Iconic characters all, those faces and personalities seem to wiggle perfectly into the hearts and minds of players through the way they grow close or further apart in step with the adventure in a manner that feels truly authentic and not in rhythm to the comparatively lethargic Bioware shuffle which I very much suspect we're going to get an example of in the coming months through Inquisition. (A chance to see just how great of a job Baldur's Gate did. Prepare for the unfavourable comparisons.) 

So how do those two facts coincide? Simple. If you are the owners of DnD and you're looking to create an easily manipulated mascot for the current new life of Dnd- what do you use? That used to be Drizzt and his gang of ever-suffering friends; but they've kind of grown ridiculously over-exposed across the years. What we need are some newer, fresher, faces that still kick with an 'oomph' factor that those old hats don't. More modern, more metrosexual, more appealing. Maybe take characters that were left in the hands of community and just, you know, pluck them back out of those 'uncouth' hands to dance a bit more for their newer, less artistically inclined, masters? All for the delight of an audience only very slowly coming to terms with how the characters they love are slowly being turned into commodities. 

But what is a commodity and how does that differ from the characters we know? Well, I suppose it's this kind of vapid image of brand engagement wherein people are drawn in by the faces they are extrapolated as interest within the containing brand and thus those images are utilised as fly traps to draw attention where it best suits the broader company interests. Need people to be more interested in you DnD edition coming out? Why not print of the image of the Baldur's Gate team on the front cover and make believe there's any real connection there? Need to pump up the existence of your printing label? Baldur's Gate 3 comic series, on the way! Animated shorts? Never say never! But within all of that the spark that made them special will slowly, inevitably, diminish.

Characters are driven by inexorable purpose and drive. We follow people who are on a journey that changes and moulds them, which made the Baldur's Gate 3 cast so an interesting group to manipulate and watch reshape across an entire playthrough. But icons, which are what DnD main are looking far, can't really be dynamic, can they? You can't really make adventures about Ascended Astarion the tyrannical vampire dictator trapped in a corrupted cycle of fruitless vengeance, or burned-out Karlach, or recently-suicided Lae'zel. Nah, they need those characters captured perpetually within their perceived primes! Trapped within a glass jar to be viewed like a model on a museum plinth. Pretty. Complacent. Non-living.

For the time being it is fun to see these characters persist past Baldur's Gate 3 and live in the hearts of the actors who helped bring them to life. Neil Newbon in particular seems protective over Astarion for the amount of his heart and soul he imbued into that story and as long as they are combined together at the hip I have some belief the character won't be bastardized. But that's kind of the thing, isn't it? These characters won't be joined with their actors forever- not when the cast start to move on to newer roles. And then what? Larian have given them to Wizards- no one with respect to how these characters are and what they represent will be left safegaurding them and they'll be free to be turned into marketing machines from that point onwards.

What really scares me is what they're going to do with the property next in terms of a follow-up, because there is a non-zero chance that Dnd are currently receiving a plethora of offers to work on a new Baldur's Gate game and I'm no so certain they're going to be turning away unsatisfying attempts. BG3 had to be earned by Larian, but right now Wizards have themselves a deficit of player trust with is being bridged by a successful movie and an even more successful game- I'm pretty sure standards within in the face of hard reality. Will we get a follow-up game utilising this same cast of characters outside the control of Larian? And will such a sequel go the extra mile to take into account the branching web of possibility that makes up Baldur's Gate 3?

Honestly I do want there to be a Baldur's Gate 4- and I think there's enough left over story for it to follow this same cast of characters. And in that light, given that Larian aren't going to be the one's on the helm, I can kinda justify the proliferation of these characters in order to keep them in the hearts and minds of the community. Better that then to let them fade entirely from the zeitgeist. But only if it's going somewhere significant and these aren't just desperate corporate marketing plans to try and robotocize the very living and breathing hearts of the Baldur's Gate 3 game. I just want a bit of respect on the game that brought Baldur's Gate back to the forefront of gaming- pretty please?

Larian of the future

 

As we roll up to the final update for Baldur's Gate 3, it's one year anniversary and the beginning of what I expect to be a long community drip-feed before whatever the company is working on next- I want to postulate briefly on what I consider to be the path forward for 'The Larian of the Future'. What will they do with their newfound reverence as the king of the Western RPG and what does the path they've already walked tell us about the roads they will tread next. Honestly I am fascinated by the image that Larian puts out as a community positive developer who champions everything you want to hear and casts healthy side eye at the pitfulls that have affected all others. Plus they're technically indie, which is an inspiration in of itself.

I first came upon Larian by hearing the vast praise their RPG 'Divinity: Original Sin' received for the way it played on a systematic level, although that wasn't the first time I saw one of their games in the spotlight. That would be the bizarre Divinity 2 which drummed up unfavourable comparisons to the Oblivion in it's style and deliver- as well as some unintentional moments of humour. It was the endless praise that Divinity Original Sin 2 received however (a game I never completed) which finally made me start playing their games. I by 'their games' I literally mean the beginning of the Divinity franchise 'Divine Divinity' which originally launched back in 2002. It is through that experience, then, that I can remark how genuinely special that little gem of an RPG is and stand fully aghast as to why it is not better loved. Honestly- Divine Divinity should be considered a classic.

The game is a gorgeous little isometric RPG that holds shimmers of the kind of uncompromising systematic robustness that would go on to colour nearly everyone of this studios greatest hits. Loving visuals, fun character personalities, a very permissive combat system- Divine Divinity really is the kind of RPG that old school lovers need to look out for. Beyond Divinity, however, can go do one. Comedy is something that Larian always tried to hit but were never quite kinds at, so the fact that Beyond leaned into that, as well as combat and ugly voxel models to ruin the visuals- kind of made Beyond ever bit the forgettable title that most assume Divine should be. As time would go by their humour improved, literally game by game, as did their voice for storytelling- (though I still wouldn't call it 'masterful'- Baldur's Gate 3 lacks in narrative ambition in places.) and, of course, the general wield of the budding technology.

Now I keep mentioning 'Systematic robustness' without explaining myself- and I think understanding where they'll go next is imperative on this point. Basically I'm talking about when Larian make a game with systems that can simulate consistently outside of the direct purview of design in order to fuel player creativity. Like how the elements combine together dynamically in Original Sin to create opportunities to exploit. Or how there exists literally no artificial rules upon special conditions and status effects in Divine Divinity- meaning I literally beat the final boss by casting him with a spell that created two identically powerful shadow clones of himself that turned around and beat him to death- because those were the tools that were provided by the team. They never lost that heart and Baldur's Gate 3 is a testament to that.

One thing we know about Baldur's Gate now is that they were actually considering the follow-up when they instead pivoted to moving on to their next project. Whether we're talking DLC or a whole new game- those details are in contention- Baldur's Gate 3 was, for a time, where the company saw keeping their talents, around the confines of the Table Top Roleplaying world and toolset. From that point a decision was made to leave that behind and go elsewhere- upwards Larian would argue, but we'll have to wait and see to be sure ourselves. But one thing is for certain- we're probably going to be moving away from table-top style gameplay- because I very much doubt it's simply the DnD ruleset that the team wanted a break from, but that style of game entirely. (Which if fair, considering they'd be doing exclusively that for over ten years at this point.)

Now we've seen something similar blossom in Bioware who spent a good many years veering away from the intricate RPG games of their yesteryear and now seem to have lost the very spirit of what makes a party-RPG fun and are instead looking towards action RPGs. Of course, in that pursuit they've managed to attack the old games, gaslight the concerned and make themselves look silly with every proceeding week seeing headlines like: "Dragon Age doesn't have playable companions because they don't think you can take the speed of it." (No one tell this team about Final Fantasy VII Remake- it'll really bum them out...) Maybe it's just wishful thinking but I'd like to think that Larian aren't going to completely abandon themselves in the near future in a vapid attempt to try and 'find themselves' or such trite.

Of the pillars that Larian has come to respect I think their next game is going to be both an RPG and a representative of everything they've achieved. Namely, in created robust and creativity stoking gameplay systems and, newly, in providing uncompromised cinematic presentation that belies the otherwise characteristic shortcomings of this genre. With those in mind I can only really see one avenue 'up' for the company in terms of scale, although it seems almost ridiculous to seriously consider it. The only RPG developers who occupy that similar space to Larian would be Bethesda, who specialise in giant open world-simulation style adventure RPGs. Would it be truly insane to believe that could be the next port of call for Larian? And what would be responsible expectations is it were?

Personally I believe we have enough failures pretending they can be Bethesda in this department; it's a hugely complicated space to try and fill and even with the biggest developers in gaming at your beck and call most don't get it right. Most open world RPGs just end up being at best Assassin's Creed bloatware. Could Larian break that curse and become genuine competition to Bethesda, a developer some assert have grown complacent on their throne? Before Baldur's Gate 3 I wouldn't have dared think so- now I'm fascinated to think what kind of twist Larian could bring to that world. Imagine the freedom of Skyrim tied to robust party based dynamics! The mind boggles and the heart flutters- and if that is indeed and accurate assumption of 'The Larian of the future' then sign me up! (Unless it's a 'Divinity' universe game. Those games have terrible world building.)

The almighty Beta

 

It's such an enfranchised aspect of the video game release timeline to drop a Beta that gets players in early for some free feedback that I can't actually ascertain what the term 'beta' even means anymore. I mean sure, once upon a time it referred to a late-project state of the game where polish and tuning are the core-most requirements to cross that finish-line, but often times it's subbed in to mean games that are literally a spit-shine away from being ready to games that feel like they're one bad slip away from a popped artery. But still the 'Beta' is an almost expected part of certain kinds of games marketing cycle, to a point where some of the time these 'Betas' clearly aren't even for the benefit of the game and serve simply as marketing tools. And in fact, I know just one such time where such marketing blew the game to the moon and back. Wizard. Moon. I'm talking about Destiny.

Destiny was a title that was on the radar of every Halo fan in existence of course, but I wouldn't discover Halo for several more years thus the effect was largely lost on my oblivious ass. The game looked pretty, sure, but there was no wider understanding of what a 'Live Service' was or would become. A shooter/MMO seemed like a strange concept that only appealed to small niches and without getting the thing in your hands there wasn't even any telling if this would be a good feeling shooter at all- remember we were in the age of the every-game-shooter, so everyone and their mothers was cobbling together pretenders to the Call of Duty throne and missing all the points along the way. Destiny was, however, much better than all those pretenders, and all it had to prove that fact was get in the hands of potential buyers.

I honestly do not believe that the Destiny Beta was truly established in order to test the game before launch. Maybe they were kind of iffy about how their servers would hold up but that game was straight done before by the time everyone got it dropped upon them for free. And I was absolutely smitten with the game. It's visuals, it's controls, it's character, it's enemy design (343 really could learn something about character design from Destiny! Even now!) The game sparkled with potential and everyone who was anyone could pick up the game and enjoy that without spending a single dime. It was a AAA gleam that swept the world and, I imagine, played no small part in the industry realising just how easier it is to get online games off the ground by making them free-to-play. Fortnite probably sealed that into fact, but I think Destiny's over-night fame might have had something to say there too!

But nowadays Beta's can even serve as the launching point for some games when developers simply can't get their game to the finish line without support or simply want players hand in guiding that. This movement has given birth to a whole separate breed of game releases- the 'early access' world where you'll view games without complete narratives, fully realised gameplay routines and sometimes even design directions. (This movement owes more to Minecraft, in my opinion.) It is often a mire for missed shots and half-ideas; few of which make it to the limelight whilst most stumble and die along the path. And recent events certainly have highlighted just how contentious this route can be.

Life by You may not have been on my personal radar for games that were going to change my view of the world in any substantive way, but I do think the Sim genre would have been in for a bit of a shakeup had it made it to the beta it was building towards. That's right, the game wasn't even releasing in the full sense, it was just going to soft-launch into a beta that was supposed to build up and up into a grand title that would have shaken the deeply monetised core of The Sims. Or at least that was the dream before Paradox decided to pull the plug early. Could that Beta alone have proven such a drain on resources/good will that they were justified pulling it so early? The team don't seem to think so, neither do the fans. But I guess it's one of those mysteries we'll carry to the grave, isn't it?

And what about 'The Division: Heartland'? Set to be another spin-off of 'The Division' brand, Heartland was going to move the action from the squad-based shooter paradigm into survivalist rough-living where you have to hunt for clean water and manage your resources. Personally I find such a style of game to be largely overdone, but considering the recent survival revival I would certainly be in the minority for that assertion. Heartland actually made a couple of betas, coming out to the audience and gauging that response. And then it was killed off just a few weeks back. Totally cancelled through earnings call.  Was the beta truly that bad? What does this mean for what a Beta even is anymore?

Presumably when a game hits the Beta stage it has already gone through all the preliminary trials and tribulations to prove it deserves in some abstract way to exist in the world. Systems have been built, functionality has been confirmed, the team are headed towards some rough sense of a finish line- pulling the plug at this point is a genuine flushing of time and resources- and yet it's still happening more often lately. Have the parameters changed, then? Maybe the modern day realisation of the sheer damage that a bad launch can wrought on one's reputation, and thus future profitability, has levied unrealistic expectations upon the performance of Betas- or maybe the term has lost any and all meaning altogether.

To be fair, I think most everyone is better off when games are dropped at the finish line-  not a few milestones beforehand. Of course there are exceptions- Larian seem to really think that Baldur's Gate 3's time in early access was totally invaluable to help shaping the game into as fine a point as it ended up striking withy. But how many other titles have used that designation as a shield? Some games, that might be called Fallout 76, even launched their games without such a label but relied on the 'culture' established by beta's and early access games to insist there's nothing wrong with unfinished deliveries. Maybe the status quo shift is for the best in that case...

The billion dollar gambit

I'll be honest. I'm not a big fan of Hasbro. Maybe it's that name. The presumptive expectation that they are like a brother to me. Who do they think they are? To covert the title of 'Kyodai' without fronting the requisite blood, sweat and tears to be considered worthy of my respect- to think they could stand back-to-back, shirt off, in the midst of a  Kamurocho street brawl and hold their own? What absolute pretentious hacks! Or maybe I'm just reading too much into a stupid name and my real problem is actually how they've conducted themselves particularly in regards to Wizards of the Coast. Or even more specifically- Baldur's Gate 3 and what they want to start doing to my Gaming hobby. (I'm not exactly looking forward to the coming years.)

Of course, any company that grows big enough unchecked is something of a Megacorpo in my eyes, and thus worthy of only my disrespect. ("Destroy all Corpos, V. Delete all Corpos. Eradicate the Corpos, V") When you see something so cynical and soulless weigh into matters of life and love, surely those aren't the kinds of voices you take seriously- are they? If your calculator jumped to life and gave you pointers on how to ask out that girl you like, would you listen to it? (I mean after you got over the life reshaping shock of finding out you've essentially been lugging around a sentiment being you've forced to work for you like the slave owner you are.) Of course not, it's a calculator- the hell does it know! And what is art but a manifestation of matters of life and love? And Hasbro but a big corporate calculator trying to add together assets to output some revenue? (I'll admit, I kind of freeballed that analogy but I think it came together in the end.)

But what Hasbro has in mind is particularly foul for the Games Industry, if not entirely unexpected. Turns out recent years have alerted Hasbro to the actual value of the property they have under them, Dungeons and Dragons. Not least of all the successful movie promptly followed by Baldur's Gate 3- currently the most universally celebrated video game of all time giving it's unique slate of cross-industry awards it has swept. Essentially Hasbro has been sat on a goldmine for a very long time and only just realised that today- and what do you do if you're a 1940's Baron with no regard for human life? You kick off a rush of course! Not for gold- that stuff is played out- but for the great green jewel! Uranium fever! (Okay, that analogy ran away a bit, I'll admit.)

What I'm trying to say is that Baldur's Gate 3 did a little too well and now Hasbro want another Baldur's Gate 3. They want infinite Baldur's Gate 3's- year after year in perpetuity. Imagine that sting of disappointment you felt when you heard Larian were going to stop development on Baldur's Gate DLC and move on- now multiply that by twenty and put on a business suit- you'll be cosplaying Hasbro when they heard. Now Hasbro have to try and court any one else with a pulse to be their new superstar video game developer and lacking the industry connections to actually meet with some solid talent, or the ambition to reach out and create such connections- Hasbro are doing what every hack does: they're throwing money at the problem and hoping that will do.

In an interview during the Game Developers Conference Hasbro head of game studios and publishing apparently declared that video games are "an integral part of Hasbro's strategy going into the next 100 years." Which is an absolutely unhinged ultimatum to just drop out of nowhere. These fellas are so wired in they've got the next 100 years of their business laid out before them like they're receiving consultations from the damn Bene Gessirit. I wonder if video games are only in their view for the next century if because after that Hasbro is going to evolve into a cult-gang of marauding motor-heads scouring the desert wastes of scorched Earth that remains, inspiring fear across the Wasteland through brutality and feverent faith to the unspoken horror of the before-god: 'Peppah Peeg'.

In the meantime, however, Hasbro have boasted that they've already invested $1 billion into it's internal studios to try and drive those innovation metrics and maybe one day stand up to the behemoth that is Lego but not really because that is a pipe dream. (If they wanted to, Lego could buy all the land around you, demolish your home, buy out your local government when you try to complain, and overthrow your national government if you tried to take it higher.) Now it should be said that Hasbro aren't just throwing all their eggs in the Dungeons and Dragon's basket. They do still own the pig, so there is a not 0 percent change that the next genre defining mega block buster is designed around the vast and complex world of... let me check here... wait... she lives in 'Peppatown'? The town is named after her? Or wait... is the world named after her? Is all the reality of the TV show merely a construct of her eldritch powers, a fake shadow of reality entirely under her control through which she conducts the mundane lives of the animal residents like a puppet master, delighting in how she can bend and twist their little minds without breaking the simple beings of our toy world? Is that why no lessons ever stick, nothing is ever learnt? Because these characters have no agency over themselves and their lives, they aren't even really 'sentient' in the traditional sense. They are flesh puppets on a pastel stage manipulated by a megalomaniac who plasters her name on the townhall- they will never be free. (What- is this blog about again?)

Now of course the funny thing about all this is that Hasbro don't really know what they're doing. Like many of these multimedia brands who get a bit of taste for the industry, they expect to be able to just tip their toes in, wave a bit of funds around and make something of a name for themselves. Which sure, 15 years ago that might have worked- we're in a bit of a different stage nowadays. In the modern industry you either have to have Money (note the capital and the bolding) or be passionate enough to stand out from the crowd. Even if they were to invest that full billion into the production of a single game to try and top Baldur's Gate 3, they would only have put in enough capital to make one third of a GTA 6. Try and swallow that one down! You ain't gonna outspend your way into the games industry, you'll have to do the Larian route and talent your way in with overwhelming passion and drive. Good luck there!

But at the end of the day I welcome newcomers to the industry. Unless they are Amazon. I never welcomed them and I still kind of cringe whenever I see New World being advertised. (In the middle of my watch-through of the Fallout series? Have some tact!) Heck, Hasbro have even already gotten ahead of laying off 1000 members of staff- they're really getting into the games industry way of doing things, aren't they? Still- they now know that people like Dnd Video games still, so perhaps we may get a Icewind Dale style side game based on Baldur's Gate 3 ground work- that could be cool! Or hell, maybe they could put in the base amount of effort into getting Icewind Dale 2 up to snuff so Beamdog can make an enhanced edition of it? That'd be cool. Wouldn't need a billion for that... 

And so the prophecy is complete

 

There in that studio, which we had forgotten. There did they toil, that we might remember. By endless nights they reclaim, which by day had been stolen. Far from themselves, it grew ever nearer. Our eyes once were blinded, and through them do we see. Our hands once were idle, now for them do we game. And now the world will listen. And now the world will see. And when the world remembers. That world shall cease to be. For when 9 and 9 meet 9, the depths of reason shall stir. When the seal of creation is broken, a voice like thunder shall sound, and thou shalt know- Larian has arrived! Which is all of the ominous sounding prophecy talk I can pick out of the top of my head from across gaming- all in my way of saying that they've done it- Larian has swept every single possible award show for gaming with the passing of the BAFTAS. They've united the unite-able. They've conquered the world. And now... Miraak will rise or... the spire of the Agito will appear in the sky or something. I dunno- the prophecy was rather vague on the consequences...

Yes- even the BAFTAS came around to celebrate the absolute majesty of Baldur's Gate 3 as a true example to the industry of what it could look like if we just rounded up all the creepy executives who exist only to prey on artists, put them all in a field and released them from our Pokémon parties so they can graze forever in the wild fields. (I assume that's what happens when you release a Pokemon... wait, so what happens if you release an egg? Do you just throw that defenceless child out in the wilds to fend for itself?) I get the feeling that the standard Larian has set today will be a beacon to which every major AAA game will be held to going forward, and to which I expect quite literally all of them to fail for at least the next 4 years. Which is fine, I suppose. Never hurts to have a goal to strive for. (Provided, of course, that the actual striving is really happening- ya know?)

The Award for Best Supporting actor went to the wonderful voice of Raphael, for a change, Andrew Wincott! (Best actor went to Miles' performer for Spider-Man 2; which makes me ever so curious about what the man gets up to in that game considering Miles was dull as dishwater in his debut game.) Best Narrative was given to Baldur's Gate 3- which is another aspect of the game that had gone unrespected until now, which is galling given the sheer amount of honestly unprecedented work that went into conceiving a narrative as malleable as BG3's! I can only think of one other game with a story so flexible that the player can literally attack it with a hammer and still bounce back on the critical path, and it's literally New Vegas- one of my favourite games ever made. Best music finally went to Borislav Slavov on Baldur's Gate 3- the unhinged composer behind the game's gut wrenchingly iconic combat tracks all the way up to it's sweetest ballads and the soaring epic themes inbetween. Recognition well deserved! Best game of course went to Baldur's Gate 3, no surprise there and so did player's choice in a rare showing of critical parity across the iron curtain. Consider Mr. Gorbachev shown up!

As I implied earlier, that gives BG3 the 'Game of the Year' recognition from the Golden Joysticks award, Keighley's Game Awards, the D.I.C.E awards, the Game Developer Choice Awards and now the BAFTAS. A harmony of achievement I can't remember happening before in gaming- and certainly not in an age of high quality games as packed as our current surroundings. There are none I can remember who have risen to such universal acclaim, not Elden Ring, not Breath of the Wild, none could be trusted in the world. But Baldur's Gate- Baldur's Gate you can trust! (Sorry, just remembered another speech I had to chuck in.) It kind of feels like one of those rare achievements like a boxer bringing all the titles from the various competitions under his name- only we never actually expected the entire critical world to ever agree on anything so no one built up the mystique and intrigue around this eventuality. 

The question on the lips of everyone for a while now has been the precedent this will set, what will other studios learn from the way that Larian has succeeded doing the things that they do. Well the knee jerk was the utter rejection, the excuses and the complaints about how unrealistic it was to expect any of these other, much better funded, studios to achieve anything on the level of Baldur's Gate 3 because well... stop asking! Their kind even conjured some conspiracy about vast underground funding that Larian received from thin air. Literal fake news all to try and distance themselves from the reality that these might be the standards they are held to in the future. Even fear mongering about how the state of gaming at large might be jeopardised if people looked at their entertainment and said something along the lines of- "why am I paying $10 more for an infinitely worse experience than Larian can offer me?"

Personally I like to think of Baldur's Gate 3 as something more of an aspiration. It's not as though every landmark game in history has totally invalidated all others lacking the same ambition, they more initiate a steady phase out. If the games industry isn't willing to phase out what doesn't work in favour of what does, then it'll grow just as stale as the music industry. And no one wants to get as old and decrepit as them! Besides, can we really be sad about RPGs having raised standards? Most real RPGs already neatly slide towards Larian's way of doing things, and all the pseudo RPGs that stick on crappy ill-thought out skill trees because they thought that's what real games do- well, if they're made to look stupid then... oh well?

What Larian have proven most of all is that it can be done. You can be the company that treats it's employees right, works with the community and doesn't screw over anyone in the process- and you can be successful. That is the most terrifying prospect imaginable to a world held up, literally at it's foundations, by the belief that fairness is weakness and the weak always fail. Cut-throat business, screwing over your customers for a quick buck- that's just the price of being part of an industry and you need to accept that or shut up and step off! That is the free market telling you the way to run in this world, isn't it? And if it isn't? If living like that isn't a necessity to making quality games at the top level of your craft- then what does that say about them? What does that say about the producers who run their companies like sweat shops and discard those that speak up? What about those that defend such practices with their silence? What happens to their fragile inner sense of morality?

Larian are going to go quiet for a decent chunk of years as they move on to their next project, and in that time I wouldn't be surprised if we see some smaller studios try and follow in that path. To develop ethically, with staff treated well and players respected. As the bigger studios veer in an ever more anti-consumer manner, who knows where the markets may trend. Wouldn't it be crazy if the 'free market' started favouring cheaper, more creative experiences over the over-priced bloat fields churned out in the development mills? Wouldn't it be exciting if the bubble finally burst and the ball of pent up aggression collapsed around these institutional wastrels that have run this industry with an iron fist? And wouldn't it be sweet if this movement started simple, peaceably, in a little brook down by the river?

Baldur's Gate 3 is over party

 

I endured the speculation of the past few months with a wary eye, offering my own hopes but never quite reading into the actions of Larian beyond that. I wasn't watching the voice actor's every move and believing that transcribed the future of the stars, nor was I looking into every update for the game trying to discern some hidden agenda to patch in content somewhere down the line- I merely fell back on what, from a narrative stand point, would have been essential to continuing on the story that Larian built up through their work on this franchise starting all the way back in 'Decent Into Avernus'. Now it has become quite clear that I overestimated Larian's dedication to rounding out their stories- of course I have- I should have remembered they made the Divinity Games. Archangel Zariel was introduced with no overarching purpose to the Baldur's Gate narrative, and now I want to blow my brains out. Also- Baldur's Gate 3 is over.

It came as something of a shock announcement, following the months of tentative speculation led by a man who seemed himself largely unsure if he had anything on his plate even as he battered off assertions tossed his way- but Sven himself told it plain at GDC: There is nothing more on the horizon for Baldur's Gate fans. No DLC, no sequel (we already knew there wouldn't a sequel right away, they said they weren't going to go into BG4 anytime soon. But the way he phrased it makes it sound like Larian will never do a BG4) and no ancillary events around this Universe from the team. Larian have moved on entirely from the biggest success of their careers and passed on all the intellectual property they loving produced to Hasbro- objectively the worst safeguards humanely conceivable. So that's great. (Can't wait for the comic next year that canonical casts Tav as a Lawful good human fighter literally called 'Tav'.)

That goes true for the much beloved cast of Baldur's Gate as well- so I hope you all get very used to the idea of Karlach and Lae'zel getting shoved into marketing for every other DnD event happening over the next decade! Who cares about the end of their stories, turns out Karlach is running for President of Waterdeep with Gale serving as head of state! Oh, how quirky! And, of course, a Baldur's Gate 3 MTG card pack is probably already in production! Oh wait... no they already threw that cast in with the Dnd themed release. And it happened so long ago that Minthara has her early access model, that's cute! (Is it enough of an excuse for them to do a re-release though? That's the question racing through the minds over at Hasbro right now.) What I'm basically saying is: prepare to steel your heart and accept only the game as canon because Wizards of the Coast are about to squeeze this game and it's property dry trying to profit off the success of Baldur's Gate 3.

What I do not subscribe to, however, is the belief that Baldur's Gate 3's retirement is somehow due to Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro. As Sven himself said, this is a decision that I know Larian made as creatives. They threw everything they really wanted to do into the main game and though I'm sure they had ideas to perhaps expand here and there- maybe even depict the new god Zariel that was introduced for the express purpose of leading in Baldur's Gate 3, ultimately I'm certain it was their idea to walk away. Sven even boasted about how relieved the team looked when he announced their budding DLC plans were cancelled. Of course, then he strangely went on to talk about the great relationship Larian has with the people at Wizards- despite last year kicking up a fuss about how the recent round of WoTC layoffs dropped every contact they had with the company, including the people that gave them the licence in the first place. (Odd about face. Guess they most throw great corporate partner parties as Wizards or something.)

But for me this is suck central. All the coyness about their next project can go do-one: we all know exactly what the next game from Larian is going to be. The fact that Sven even tried to wink at the camera and go 'It's not Divinity Original Sin 3'! Of course it isn't- we already know it's 'Fallen Heroes', that bizarre looking Divinity spin-off has been on hiatus ever since they got the Baldur's Gate 3 go ahead and shifted all resources to the obviously more interesting project. Not once has the whisper of 'New IP' been uttered, which is nary a rare tease for developers to make- thus I can only assume we're back to the world of Divinity which is just... god, I know it's a hot take but I think the Divinity IP holds back Larian's potential so much!

Don't get me wrong, I know it's their homebrew baby and they love it- but the world of Divinity is such indistinctive, wishy-washy, generic-fantasy, mouthwash- I can't stand it! Larian's strengths have always been their incredible application of gameplay systems which transcends the conventional and rewards the creative- it's what made Divinity 1 so creatively interesting, 2 so opportunistically incredible and Baldur's Gate 3 the anarchist's playground. But by god do they miss a beat with world building! Their storytelling is also less than brilliant- but it's not bad. I would even call it good, when they get set-up right. But the world building! GAH!

I'm always talking about it, so I won't go into too much detail here, but Larian have constant inability to paint tangibility. You can have a wayward prince describe their homeland as a real culture you can taste or touch, or as some vague allegorical fairy tale palace of gold upon gold that summons nothing to the heart and mind because it's not meant to be real. It's supposed to serve a vague purpose in a limp parable about 'greed' or something equally as unchallenging to any other observer who passed high school. (Guess which extreme Larian more typically veers towards. I'll give you a clue, the Prince wasn't a hypothetical, that's literally Jahan's backstory from Divinity Original Sin 1.) Larian make countless backdrops, but I've never brought their worlds. (That might have something to do with them totally rewriting the founding principals of said-world every couple of games!)

So in my heart I hope that Larian go off and do something totally different for their next game- still an RPG, of course: they've spent far too long honing their RPG development skills to go and diverge now- 

but maybe a new genre type? Maybe develop a Dark Fantasy next, touching in the kind of worldly philosophical themes on creationism and primal human foils like Dark Souls? Or perhaps a cool Apocalyptic Fantasy instilling a looming existentialism across a grand narrative- heightening the stakes- such as in Vermintide. Or mayhaps a Contemporary Fantasy, taking us into the hidden world of the modern day- like with the 'World of Darkness'. Or maybe even a cool hybrid contemporary-Fantasy that brings us to a modern-day comprehension of the world tempered with normalised magicks that allow for contemporary ideals and struggles to be exploded into world-defining struggles against good and evil- as Shadowrun did. Or maybe even a historical- nope, I don't like historical fantasy. (Stuff's lame. Even Sekiro was hardly 'From Software's best narrative work.) But finally, realistically- I want them to do a kickass Sci-fi and put us Mass Effect missing fools to sleep once and for all. That's the Larian I want to see several years from now when I wake up my fandom. As for now, it's going to sleep along with Baldur's Gate 3. Thanks for the memories, team!

How about that Character creator!

 

One of the most intimidating first bosses that any Role Play gamer has to contend with is the character creator- that moment when you are well and truly confronted the limitless potential of eternity and told to whittle everything down to split second- life changing decisions! Anyone who doesn't spend a good ten minutes looking over the options available before even seriously getting started making their face will never understand the sheer horror of looking back on the toil of a thousand petty slider movements only to realise- oh my god, I've created the most boring/horrifying creature ever conceived- back to the drawing board! And with many games that you wouldn't expect getting surprisingly varied and approachable character creators in recent years, I wonder about the philosophy behind what such creators are even supposed to achieve.

The spurring of these thoughts came at the insistence of Dragon's Dogma 2 to launch early it's character creator for the purview of the curious. Through this we've been able to enjoy one of my favourite iterations of a slate of creation tools that I've seen in a game to date. Versatile and varied, Dragon's Dogma 2 enters into the nitty gritty of miniature slide management whilst bridging the gap for those that can't be bothered for the granular improvements by a wide slate of pre-set options making the art of coming up with a unique face a matter of a few moments work. Which I suppose is what empowered the team to fill the world with, reportedly, up to 1000 NPCs that seem to be hand-made- not just generated! I always love when the players get their hands on some slither of the full breadth of creation tools- because that is when the sky is truly the limit in character creation.

With Dragon's Dogma you start with 6 pages worth of pre- generated faces, and when you click one you'll receive a new page of faces similar to that choice, and after that selection you'll get another page of subtle facial structure alterations to pick from. From there you'll have your default character, and that is the canvass upon which you'll make the subtle tweaks to the rise of a cheekbone or the curve of a nose- as well as enjoy the decently robust scarring and tattoo system which allows for mostly free-form placement along the entire body so you can create the image from your imagination to a tee. It's this perfect meeting of complex and approachable which I can see really getting aplomb from all sides- a solution few were actively seeking but I feel that most all can readily appreciate.

Bethesda are well known for their character creators, ever since Skyrim decided to do away with the honestly mediocre systems of Fallout 3 and Oblivion and instead cobble together the most really robust slide-based system. That slide system was limited in it's functionality afforded to the player, however, which is why most people consider the commonly available mod that unlocks those sliders to their fullest potential an automatic download on even a casual playthrough. But there's a problem with that- with it's full potential unlocked, and even to some small degree in it's vanilla state, the Skyrim slate of options are just so vast- it's a bit overwhelming to be honest.

When you get to the sorts of games that offer several hundred slides for each slight tweak of a nose it can get to the point where you're just testing out what a slide does, figuring out you don't like it and immediately going back to defaults. Unless you have a crystal clear idea of exactly what you're going for, it's hard to maintain a unified design philosophy that guides your process. And when the options overwhelm you and you can't get a handle, you'll be less inclined to experiment which will lead to more generic creations. God knows I give up pretty quickly everytime I try to make an interesting player character in a Souls' like game for this very reason. Too much choice can be a curse in itself.

Baldur's Gate III on the otherhand veers into the direction of simple to such a degree that it is shocking how successful the character creator turned out! You literally only select between a small collection of faces and chuck some hair on top alongside some racial features- there isn't a slider in sight when it comes to building your character. Which to be fair is a lot more than they really needed to do given that this was supposed to be an isometric game- but Larian's obsession with making a fully cinematic RPG masterpiece necessitated high quality character models so I guess they were stuck between a rock and a hard place- and choosing to make every single character creation choice a curated 'body part' or 'extra feature' was certainly a bold choice indeed.

This could easily have turned out as utterly pathetic as Destiny's character creator (which still doesn't have any option to change after the tutorial despite this franchise closing in on over a decade old later this year.) Larian really honed in on all the character appearance choices that also crossed over with class building, including race and Class options, and threw in as many high quality assets as possible to give as much variation possible. Scales, Horns, pigmentation, there are even selectable genitals are in the game for some reason. The result is perhaps on the best simply character creators of all time, lacking the range of Dragon's Dogma 2, perhaps, but creating no less as memorable and unique love dolls for lonely BG3 players to vicariously find companionship through whilst convincing themselves that they'll also fall madly for some hyper interesting personality one day. 

 At it's very least a good character creator should give us the ability to conjure some rough approximation of ourselves to self-insert into a video game for the truly imagination deprived. But at it's best character creators invite players to launch themselves into tailor made shoes of their own conjuration, dreaming up a whole life to roleplay. Those who spend all those hours getting someone just right, as generic or fantastical as they ultimately end up, feel that pull of the other letting them step out of the shoes of the mundane into another life for a brief few hours. Maybe those who simply can't connect with that would be considered healthier individuals in a traditional setting- but name one mentally healthy person that's fun to have drinks with! Exactly! 

Internet Chuds- the inescapable reality

 

It's a bit of a waste of breath to go on about how little I understand those who go complaining to real world people over virtual world shenanigans- I mean I'll run my mouth about a toxic industry influence doing the absolute worst they possibly can- but I ain't gonna go hit up their Twitter threating to murder the man: who profits from that? But there I go again, explaining the intuitive- there's no putting your brainwave on the same level as evolutionary rejects though, is there? Misbegotten, yet resilient, lines of humanity untouched by the last 2 centuries of development who find themselves utterly incapable of conceptualising a world of action and consequence where they have any responsibility to the world around them. Truly wonderful case samples for why procreation doesn't always benefit society. Harsh, yes- but so very true.

I've talked before about this situation when it came to the actors of the recent Resident Evil products, particularly the new Ada Wong voice actress who was bullied off her own social media accounts for giving a bad performance in the latest remake game. And yeah, her performance stood out as a sore spot in an otherwise pristine game- but it takes a special kind of unhinged to take that as just cause to go stomping up to her virtual door in order to make the actress feel bad to her face. What does that achieve for literally anybody? That's not particularly rare, either- whenever a 'bad job' has been whittled down to a single scape-goat it's commonly accepted as totally fair game to attack that individual as directly and distastefully as one can muster- as though you're been personally wronged by the person in question.

And of course, it's not just individuals. Entire groups and teams can find themselves placed in hot water for any manner of infraction perceived big or small, from making a sweeping patch to the various damage outputs in Diablo 4 that ruins certain metas to simply not communicating enough on social media. Or heck, communicating too much but about the 'wrong' topic. There really isn't a way to exist on the internet within the gaming community without becoming the target of some sort of ire or idle internet threat. It's always easy to wish on someone's death for not agreeing with every single belief structure you've ever cobbled together and then hastily revised throughout your entire life. Afterall, life is about enforcing your will upon as much of the world as possible, right? That was sarcasm, obviously.

If there is any better indication that literally no one can find themselves spared from this more grim and inevitable part of the internet culture sphere- look no further than last year's biggest video game darling: Baldur's Gate 3. Oh yes, the undisputed Game of the Year- award sweeping, player base stacking, roleplaying excellence from a company who dedicated their entire decades long career to perfecting a very specific and complicated craft. There is no higher pedestal that Larian Studio could be propped up upon if they searched for one- surely if any video game company is beyond reproach it would be the literal poster boys and girls of everything the conscious gaming public has been yearning for! Who would attack the literal industry heroes?

Well according to the words of Larian themselves, in a recent address that announced the coming reality of mod support to the game- (whatever that entails) people who were waiting for that vague addition to the game's repertoire. I'll admit, 'official mod support' is a largely meaningless proposition to me because outside of the games cobbled together in the rusty and creaky anvil of the 'Creation Engine' there's rarely any huge status quo shift from these moments in a game's life cycle. The again, Baldur's Gate 3 is exceptionally popular already when it comes to it's community, and cobbled together mods already dot the usual sites, so perhaps a new age of modding will be sparked when real support drops later this year. But even then that is a maybe, it's a hope for a possibility- a bet on the ephemeral- nothing to get worked up over.

And yet community correspondents have confirmed their silence over the coming mod support as proven to be enough to warrant death threats- because of course. And I don't just mean the threats sent by other industry professionals absolutely terrified of being held to high standards. (That was a joke, of course.) These are people upset that the game cannot currently support theoretical complex mods that might be made in the future- which is like getting angry over not being supplied with truckloads of rock that might have some rare gems in there potentially if you're lucky. It's pointless and highlights the absurdity of this entire subculture of internet discourse. Because I don't believe these sorts of threats are coming from passions so inflamed that they can only be espoused through propositions of violence- I think it's dumber than that.

I think this kind of dialogue and discourse is what is considered 'normal' in the absolute shrivelled and underdeveloped walnuts these people house their 'higher functions' within. These aren't 'special and vehement' calls to violence, else they wouldn't be so common or, god forbid, actually more often be active threats instead of distasteful discourse. It's the same level of rhetoric you'll find on the plains of Pandemonium, better known as 4chan, for those self destructive enough to peek in on there. Modern day 4chan is just chuds spouting slurs from the early 2000s like they exist as the very cutting edge of edge- never realising how pathetic it is that they still rock around with a brain stuck in objectively the worst decade of entertainment ever.

The reason why I don't consider the death threat squads credible people, is because they always seem like that same sort of 4chan breed. Creeps who never mentally developed past their embarrassing prime totally oblivious to the world outside the box they type into. It's an inescapable reality of existing within a medium predicated on the idea of perpetual and unlimited preservation, of all the best and outdated of history. Arrested development clings to these kinds of 'internet weirdoes' like a plague, shocking and jarring those unfortunates who didn't realise behaviour like that made it past the 2010's. So long as the Internet exists, so will it's worms. But at least we can rest safe in the reality that as nature's least consequential cretin, such worms are easily ignored.

The best and the worst

 

This year in the world of gaming should probably win some sort of unique commendation, for not only bringing to life some of the greatest examples of the medium to feast our eyes, but also some of the absolute most degenerate spawns of Satan to torment us incessantly. Actually, no- Satan is too easy of a get-out card. In fact, from what Televangelists preach, Satan would probably make really sick video games if he could just slap together a development studio. I'd totally follow 'SatanSoft.' (Bet he'd make really cool and long-winded JRPGs where the final boss is killing god.) The worst of this year was birthed within the heretical maw of The Archenemy, spat out to corrupt and taint our perception of what a half decent game even is. To engage with one is to forever sully oneself. And to buy them is to directly fund the enemies of Mankind.

So as you can likely deduce from the ratio of my introduction, in this space you get a lot more mileage starring sideways at the terrible than you do wistfully smiling on the grand. And it makes sense, there's always so much more to talk about on the buffering waves of 'potential' and 'what could have been'- then there is praising what is already there. Afterall, we're pretty much pulling our examples of what could be improved from the completed and gleaming, which makes all of these conversations somewhat circular. Still I strive for something resembling balance and so I'm going to try and dance on the blade's edge and capture the best and the worst of what is the 2023 slate of Video Gaming- which from the look of things right now, might just be the last 'hurrah' before an impending dry slate. (GTA 6 won't be there to save 2024 unfortunately.)

One of the early big wins of this year was the very controversial Dead Space Remake which did the impossible and was actually good whilst the spiritual successor, The Callisto Protocol, was only 'alright'. The game took what it needed to from the original and updated everything else to bring the franchise roaring into the modern era with frightening deftness and aplomb. The game was almost as solid of a remake as Resident Evil 4- which took the premise of it's game and totally remade the meat of the game to better fit the modern sensibilities of gamers. The Resident Evil Remake franchise has been nothing but hits so far though, so I guess I shouldn't have really been surprised that they made their splash once again. Love myself some Resident Evil, who doesn't?

Unfortunately this year also saw us finally reach a game that was threatening to hound us for years now. Forspoken, the last hurrah for the team behind Final Fantasy XV, managed to sneak in near the end of January with a game that just didn't fit it's era. Writing from the mid 2000's, a premise from the cliché bucket and gameplay that failed to inspire in any significant fashion- it's failure felt somewhat predetermined, and it's consequences for that failure proved depressing as the makers were dissolved. In fact, this year (excluding Dead Space) it really wasn't too hard to see the disasters coming from a mile away. Forspoken never managed to inspire confidence in it's marketing and neither did Redfall, which failed to rise beyond the lukewarm reveal presentations and slipped in a 'rough launch' just to sink any chances the game might have had. Just another miss on the Xbox road to exclusive AAAs.

But back to some of the best. This year saw the drop of a game that no one saw ever actually happening- the definitive Harry Potter game which brought the open world wizarding school experience the franchise begged for up until now. The game made wizard play fun, brought the movie environment of Hogwarts into a tactile 3D space and laid the groundworks for a new revolution of Harry Potter games to come. Personally I find all the datamined info about everything the team left out even more exciting than what they managed to keep in. Proper RPG choice and consequences, managing reputations- Hogwarts Legacy 2 has every potential to be even better than the first game was, and that is the mark of a fresh game developer with legs under them- when their initial success is paved in their future. Portkey games ruled the spring.

And then Gollum came to ruin the Summer. Gods, who has managed to do the impossible and forget Gollum? A game that felt so ridiculously doomed from conception that our minds kind of did all the leg work in lieu of marketing and just said "This is obviously going to be some sort of high-art game like 'The Last Gaurdian' or 'Death Stranding'. It can't be as dumb as the concept sounds.' And then when it launched, incredibly the game was so much worse! (How'd they do that?) Hardly functional, creatively catatonic, systematically bare- the game was probably morally bankrupt too, but I've never met anyone who survived long enough to see the credits. To think this was the game destined to win worst game of the year for months, only to be outdone by two even worse releases in the following months! I used to think Gollum was a tragedy, now I realise: it's just tragic.

Which brings us to the best game of the year. The one which reminded the entire damn industry what gaming is about. Baldur's Gate 3, you knew it was making the cut! Spectacular replayability, reactivity, choice and consequence, great gameplay, gorgeous presentation- a straight A in practically every variable. Baldur's Gate is the kind of game that goes down as decade defining, and I have no doubt that every other game this year has been made to look just a little bit worse for sharing the same year as it. Baldur's Gate turned out better than I could ever imagined and the endless acclaim and success it has received are endless testaments to that fact. People are still trying to second guess themselves about how deserving of all it's awards the game was, and the conversation keeps falling back into the positive. Somehow, someway, Baldur's Gate ruled supreme.

And then The Day Before happened. You know, I think we all needed a game like that just to put things in perspective. Out of all the trash games, the disappointments, the hardly functional trainwrecks, at least all of those games were touched by people who cared at some point about anything. But The Day Before can never claim that title. Because it was a scam. From conception to birth. And in an inverse to the Baldur's Gate situation, I kind of think that all the rest of 2023 is made better in comparison. So yes, even in the throws of absolute defeat- some positive notes of worth persists. Because out of every game we received, all are made better by the existence of The Day Before, however briefly it touched us. Talk about a genuine Christmas miracle!

'Fallout' of the Year Award

 The battles rage

Quick disclaimer, I thought up the name of that title before I remembered there's actually a very famous games series, that I speak about a lot, named 'Fallout'. I was not referring to that game but rather the concept of a 'fallout', as in the consequential wake of an event. See it was a... not really a pun but more a... look just stick with me okay, it makes sense. I think. So the Game Awards went by in a flash and barring some controversy about the way that Geoff decided to run the show and shoe winners off stage with a broom for fear they would sully the time for the almighty advertisers- it was a decent showing. Somehow Hollow Knight Silksong did not make an appearance, and that is the only thing I care about so I consider the show an abject failure, but I have it on good authority that some people out there have other aspects of life they care about or something? Like eating and stuff? (Eh, I don't get the appeal.) But there has been one topic of conversation which keeps popping up again and again; the winner of the big award, and whether or not they deserved it.

Now you would be very hard pressed to call Baldur's Gate 3 a surprise winner of the award considering how everyone already raised the game on their shoulders and carried it off the pitch in slow motion like the final act of a coming-of-age sports movie, but that doesn't mean there was no other game this year with a swinging chance. Heck, back when a lot of us were still naïve believers in the peace there was a genuine belief that Bethesda's very own Starfield was going to be a shoe in. You know, until we actually played the thing and found out how underbaked it really was. (I try to get back into it every week and end up with 4 minute play sessions I just abandon.) In fact, this year was so strong there are several games that never even made the nomination list for Game of the Year that sent people a bit loopy, so of course the winning itself was going to be contentious, no matter how 'pre ordained' it felt.

Between the big five I think only Resident Evil 4 raised eyebrows about it's conclusion for merit of it being 'just a remake'. But I have to honestly call bull on that- Resident Evil 4 is so much of a remake that it takes the basic story beats, locations and characters and totally rebuilds them from the ground up. To call is a 'basic' remake is a total misnomer, it was a fresh game totally of it's own right. Now if a remaster was on the list, or maybe The Last of Us Part 1, then I'd understand the side-eye. Seriously, Resident Evil 4 is not a 'side by side' remake by any stretch of the imagination, it earnt it's aplomb purely by being a premier action adventure game. Just as Alan Wake 2 earned it's nomination. And Spiderman 2. (Disgrace the hyphen!) And Tears of the Kingdom.

Funnily enough, despite it's ravenous fanbase I haven't heard a lot of grumblings about Alan Wake 2 not winning Game of the Year. That audience seem happy enough winning Narrative game of the year, which makes sense given no other candidate really threw their narrative prowess to the test, now did they? At least we're not getting a 'Elden Ring' style controversy wherein people complain "I didn't pay attention to the story and I skipped all the dialogue, which means the game had no story and shouldn't be nominated!" Alan Wake 2 was lucky enough to avoid that crowd of 'geniuses'. The other big games on the list however? Yeah, their fans have had something to say- and it's building up into quite the shouting match. (It's like 'Football' over here, everyone's getting uppity like they're actual members of the team.)

There was a time early on in this year when organised queen-bashing title: Tears of the Kingdom was considered a shoe-in for game of the year for it's increadibly robust mechanics that breathed a new world of creativity into the base of Breath of the Wild. There's little doubt that Breath of the Wild was already a spectacular and wide game to conquer, and so to set a sequel on that exact same landmass yet have it be even more full of activity, non-standard world interactions and flexible gameplay systems built atop on another- it was astounding! It's nomination was a foregone conclusion and the fact that it didn't win was a testament to how incredible of a year for gaming this has been. It's fans seem at peace with the award it did win, and don't seem to complain too much.

Spiderman 2, on the otherhand. (Woah boy.) Apparently the 'honour of being nominated' doesn't rub off on Spiderman fans who are so indignant that they've declared active war on all things Baldur's Gate. Specifically for the loss of two awards, best actor (although I'm quite surprised people expected to win that, most of the pre-show buzz had Ben Starr as the favourite second pick, not Yuri) and the big award itself. For a time Twitter was writhe with 'comparison videos', pitting the combat of Baldur's Gate 3 against Spiderman and critiquing, what exactly? The speed? Of an action game next to a turn based game? Maybe they were championing the relatively mindless affair of thug punching next to the comparatively involved rigors of thinking your way through one of Larian's deviously designed encounters. Essentially fans were dead set on missing the forest through the trees and start a war where no one wanted one.

And then we have 'Super Mario Bros Wonder'. Honestly, I ain't heard jack about this game from the fanbase. It's as though Nintendo lovers have their own cubby-hole of reality that they enter from which no sound escapes, in which they love their little Mario game exclusively. I was genuinely surprised when the game was nominated for the Ultimate prize, and when it didn't win- no one seemed to be angry or aggrieved. The most I ever saw was a speculative article from a thought experiment that asked what Super Mario Bros Wonder might do which would qualify it for a game award. The best they could come up with? 4 player co-op. Baldur's Gate 3 has 4 player co-op! (Although Wonder does have 4 player local co-op, which does make it a bit of a unicorn in today's landscape. Game of the year worthy? That's debateable.)

What Baldur's Gate 3 brought to earn it's reward is bigger than the way it played, the complexity of it's narrative or the.. existence of co-op play. It brought a return to pushing the boundaries of gaming in a way that challenges to the confines of the medium, not just of the tech running the programs. Baldur's Gate 3 oozes with a weave of complex reactionary content that would make most Bethesda writer's heads spin, and consequence that would make DONTNOD and Telltale blush. They slapped in a complex and alive Role Playing heart with consequence, not the trite 'flat RPG building' architecture that so many other RPGs have- and what's more, it was accessible. That's the key to all of this, not just what it does but how it invited in everyone. Showing people that properly deep and complex games are actually worth the investment. Giving Baldur's Gate 3 Game of the Year was a testament to believing in the art of games and gaming, and that was what brought it into the very rare league of it's own.

Character creation is good, actually.

 That's my hill

One of the lovely aspects of the game industry is that everyone has an opinion on literally everything, and they speak with an air of absolute authority whenever they do. Let it never be forgotten the absolute numbskull who insisted, in the wake of the GTA VI leaks, that visual assets are the first things completed in game development. Truly astounding. Of course, Twitter creeps are always full of nonsense, it's how their bodies function, but you get that 'authoritative drivel' pouring out of the lips of actual card-carrying games journalists too. I should know, I read half of them. And to be fair the industry is not always writhe with interesting goings-onsand explosive releases wrapped in historic pump and dump schemes from mysterious studios who may or may not be called 'Fntastic'. Sometimes you need to fill up page space so you can afford to eat. Then the editorials come out and they reign hellfire.

An editorial I recently read shall go unnamed, because it honestly doesn't deserve the view, but it rubbed me so very wrong with it's message that I simply had to say something. The topic, character creation. The Target, CRPGs. The title? Something along the lines of 'Modern RPGs are doing character creation wrong', with the subheading providing the thesis which the entire length of the article pains to try and justify 'Character creation should not be a test you can fail'. So you can see where this is going, right? It's another plea made in the guise of 'inclusivity', which is always a good thing- right? Heck, I think the more people that get the ability to play games, the better. And I've said it before but it's the accessibility of Baldur's Gate 3 which made it a shoe in for game of the year more than anything else. As long as you were willing to engage with Baldur's Gate on even the base-most level- you would be welcomed into the fold with open arms. But here's the kicker- that can't be every game.

Regardless what some antisemitic, homophobic, loud mouthed fake TV calibrator might have to whine about the topic, not every game is made for everyone. It's kind of one of those base most lessons that everyone is forced to learn as a child- you can't please everyone. There's logic there and it rings doubly true when we're talking about entertainment. Different strokes and all that? It's a religion in the world of design and marketing, hence the existence of demographics and genre lovers. I remember recently hearing some grumblings from Final Fantasy developers about the designation of 'JPRG', as opposed to just RPG- as though they saw some sort of racial prejudice behind the label. It's not that deep. JRPGs are just built in a fundamentally different way to Western RPGs and attract wildly different core audiences. I'm a chameleon, I love both. But ask your average Bioware fan what they thought of Final Fantasy X and they'll probably collapse on the floor and cry crystal tears of solid boredom. Different strokes, different folks.

Now the 'problem' in question was actually directed at Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader, with Baldur's Gate tacked on as another use case, so you can see why I'm taking this so damned personal. (I love both these games passionately.) Their thesis is this; these games both present extensive character creation tasks you have to navigate through in order to build characters including deciding their stats, class, ancestry and vocation- these provide significant chances for players to screw up and in doing so make a character who has no chance of standing up to the events to come. Essentially this creates a trap that requires extensive knowledge of the systems you'll be interacting with beforehand, which hardly seems fair to a fresh audience member trying to pick up the game- "be more accessible- character creation should be about being goofy and naming your character something really stupid and silly because I'm a games journalist and apparently we all do this and then share it in op eds in lieu of a personality." (Seriously, does anyone really smile when they hear some journalist recount the adventures of their 'wittily' named character who is just an appendage? It's just a bit sad they still find that funny, honestly.)

Firstly I think I should really impress that there's a certain amount of heavy lifting the statement is doing that is not reflective of the experience of either of these games. Namely, he's ignoring the fact that both Baldur's Gate 3 and Rouge Trader actually default optimal choices for every parameter in the character creation process and tweaking is only really for specialist players who know what they're doing. If you don't: no worries the game will give you a solid character just by clicking through. What the article is more about, is actually a common problem I've heard a lot about for new adopters of Baldur's Gate 3, or simply anyone wondering into a genre they aren't familiar with. They are unwilling to actually engage with the product, whether out of reticence or lack of investment, and see that as a failing of the game. The contributor under the spotlight, he just didn't want to read. He waxed lyrical about the many 'complicated' calculations the game throws his way in tooltips- (apparently single attribute multiplication was considered 'advanced calculus' in his school's curriculum.) and just generally outed himself as someone who doesn't want to read. In a CRPG. Which is kind of a problem.

You see, CRPGs are themselves attempts at recreating text-intensive tabletop RPGs onto a video game format; keeping that creative aura of imagination through description over visual representation in most cases. Baldur's Gate 3 was a vast exception to this rule, given their budget to depict literally everything. (Aside from the darker manifestations of the Dark Urge's memory. But that was probably for the best considering all the shrinking violets out there.) Rouge Trader is rife with evocative paragraphs painting inexplicable and emotional portraits, covering the perils of breaking through the warp, being dogged by the corrupting influence of heresy and seeing the world awash in warring pirouettes of colourful splotches. That's because it expects the audience to have the time and patience to read and absorb this sort of content, to involve themselves in the immersion of a world as one would with a fine book. And if you don't have that patience, then... how do I put this... the game ain't for you.  

Now back to the actual Character Creation. Both Baldur's Gate 3 and Rogue Trader do the art of character creation so right it actually hurts to see someone miss the mark so horrendously. You see because unlike the thousands of other games which keep character creation as little more than a vapid vanity show- creation choices mean something. When you rock up to the original Baldur's Gate and make yourself a gnome cleric with 8 Strength, (>cough< like me >cough<) you've created a unique situation where you are a cleric totally incapable of wielding any weapon heavier than the starting stick. (Which you then use to clobber the main villain to death. Somehow. Still working that one out in my head.) These choices translate into a dynamic canvass that reacts to the adventure before you in a way that brings you back to the creation screen time and time again across your adventure. And when you start again, the journey will feel fundamentally different for the new choices you make. This, ladies and gentlemen, is effective replayability. And it's getting all too rare in the world of RPG-lights that inflict our shelves.

Giving players a choice is giving them the power to screw up. But screwing up isn't the end of the world. Making the wrong choice and living with it, growing past it and becoming better is the fun of consequence, and as I hinted at with my cleric story- it can leave an impression that sticks with you. It can also be frustrating, however, which is why some of the more intensive RPGs out there don't expect you to be an expert and hand you perfectly viable character builds off rip. There's comes a point when a player, after blasting through every warning and roadblock designed to guide them in the right direction, loses the right to blame their misfortune on the accessibility of the game. If you ignore all the warnings, intentionally chance all the game's recommendations and then complain that you don't even know what any of these stats or abilities even do- then hell, maybe interactive media is a bit too much for you. At least for today.

Baldur's Gate 3- Never enough

 

Even after two playthroughs of Baldur's Gate 3, over a hundred hours already in that world, I just can't find myself putting the thing down for any extended period of time. It's like my curse to suffer the brunt of Baldur's Gate content for the rest of my days, ever checking to make sure I'm not missing some hot new additive to the narrative experience. The extra Karlach scene they patched into the ending was evidence enough that Larian weren't quite done with the keep-up of this game, but I don't think anyone could have predicted what Patch 5 would bring to us. A whole new gamemode and a gigantic playable epilogue catch-up set 6 months after the events of the game with, according to the team, some of the most extensive reactivity throughout the entire game. I mean, who puts in this much effort to keep their game feeling fresh without attaching a price point at the end of each addition? How is Larian still putting the rest of the Industry to absolute shame?

Although in all honesty it was something so much more simple that blew me away with Larian's post-release support. I mean sure, the Karlach ending was impressive- but the team already conveyed how this was actually a recycled piece of content they removed for fear it cluttered the finale scenes. (And I'd imagine at least part of this coming epilogue comes from a similar place.) It was the whole Sussar Bark weapon renewal that blew me away. For context, back in the early access for BG3, one of the more involved side quests involved gathering a smattering of materials across the Underdark in order to forge a special weapon which- did a little bit extra damage and looked identical to the base model of the weapon. This was how the side quest existed through the launch, but the ever watching eye of the BG team would dictate that would not be how the quest would die. 

There are so many Elder Scrolls missions with the exact same shortcomings. Extensive lore stories for mythical weapons that were once wielded by famous kings or rebel leaders, that are unimpressive once you get hand on them. The Sussar weapons weren't even a significant point of contention in a game receiving a universal outpouring of love, but rather just a small grumbling you'd find on rogue subreddits here and there. And yet, without any significant prompting, Larian threw in a genuinely high quality retexture for all the Sussar weapons, instantly transforming them into one of the most sought-after early game vanity weapons around! They're still not really viable for late game builds- but that isn't really why we seek out unique looking tools in RPGs, now is it? We want to look like the coolest around- that's the biggest draw. And that simple model update told me just how on-the-ball this team is. Which is why I think we're never going to have enough of Baldur's Gate 3.

I mean this game has somehow slipped into the annals of fandom where people, nay other game developers, are begging Larian for a Masquerade Ball DLC. Why? Because they want to spend more time around the game's cast in a more formal party setting, preferably with the opportunity to have a spin with their romanced favourite. Similar to the Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3, although even that came with the pretence of an actual mission behind it- what fans want here is a literal vanity DLC. And people are for this concept. Larian have built a game so appealing fans don't even want to complete quests in it, they just want to live surrounded by the BG crew forever more. And... I'm adverse to the idea. Hell, I would slap down money for any extra content because I genuinely can't get enough of this game- hence why I jumped aboard the Honour-mode train as soon as I heard it had been added.

You see, I could load up my nearly finished save, quickly beat the final boss and experience the post game epilogue in all it's glory- but such a reward feels like it needs to be earned, you know? And how do I earn my epilogue? Through self flagellation, it would seem. The recently added 'Honour Mode' of Baldur's Gate unlocks a new one-life mode for the game where players have to live off a single save game that they cannot reload on a whim. Choices are final, save scumming is illegal, and a party-wipe ends the entire run. True hardcore insanity. And as if all that wasn't enough- the mode even throw in Legendary Actions into boss creatures- special abilities that break the turn order and are pretty much the worst thing that 5e ever added. And the Legendary Actions are unique to Honour Mode, so you can't even prepare for each fight in Tactician like I would usually do in such modes. True pain.

My first run of Honour Mode has actually already reached it's conclusion, I'm on my second. Do you want to know how the first one went? So I started off strong, with thirty minutes in the character creator like a proper degenerate, and from there I treated it pretty much casually. I dibbed my hand in the brine pool at the beginning, knowing it would blow up, I marvelled at the fact that they made the tutorial section healing pods one time use- I forgot tactician mode did that. And I even rocked up to the fight against Commander Zhalk with a brand new tactic up my sleeve! Instead of save scumming until my Mindflayer bro could knock him silly (because obviously that's not an option) I spotted some great advice online I put into play. Turns out Shadowheart starts the game with Command in her spell book, but not prepared. And because in BG3 you can prepare spells without having to rest, that meant I could roll the 55% chance to make Zhalk drop his lovely burning greatsword into my waiting arms. Bliss!

And that's when it all went wrong. See, I landed on the beach and never entered the mind set of 'play it safe'. In fact, I immediately wanted to try out a cool special cutscene which I was told only happened if you go to camp as Dirge before recruiting anyone else. Turns out just visiting camp wasn't enough, you also have to stay the night- and I didn't want the time to pass because I still had to go back to wake up Shadowhea- oh, she wasn't there when I returned to the beach. Right, I heard that she goes to the locked ruin door if you leave it too long, I just didn't think merely 'visiting' the camp was enough to trigger that. Oh well, I thought- might as well drop back to the camp to pick up my deluxe edition items. Whoops again, because when I returned I found the door in front of the ruins similarly abandoned. This one I had to look up. Turns out that with two 'rests', (as the game believes they were) old Shade-Organs has moved to the Grotto. Yes, the Grotto almost an hour of gameplay away. Which meant I had to take on the first Intellect Devourer fight by myself. And because I never met Shadowybae- I was still Level 1. As a Sorcerer with 8 health.

So yeah, that run ended there. But you know what? I started my next run the very next day. Because Baldur's Gate 3 is just one of those games that like any good book, you can't put down. Even when it bites at you, slaps at you, kick you in the nuts- and you always show up seconds the next day. Baldur's Gate truly will never be enough. Not for me and not for the dozens of fans out there who want it to literally take over the lives and become their everything. Baldur's Gate 3 is just so darn overwhelming that honestly I get a bit sad everytime I hear Larian talk about their impending triumphant return to- bleargh, 'Divinity'. Urgh, why can't they just stay in much more interesting universes, like the ones they didn't make? At least Larian aren't deciding they've reached their zenith with the industries craziest gamble. Still, I hope they feed our ravenous DnD maws a little more before going back to slumming it.