Baldur's Gate 3 announced

[Syt]

Raphael's voice sounded very familiar to me. I looked it up - he was "the voice" in Victor Vran, i.e. a disembodied snarky devilish voice in your mind. One of the few memorable things in a very unmemorable game (the other was that the main character was voiced by Doug Cockle, i.e. Geralt from the Witcher games).

That, and it being part of the trifecta of grimdark action RPGs that feature guys with hats and obscured eyes on the cover.

[Syt]

Finished Act 2. The climax was a bit distressing (not mentioning spoilers, but the most emotionally affecting for me were the children's letters in the "chop shop" ). And then there's the "epilogue" afterwards that ... let's just say it throws a ton of stuff at you to digest before entering Act 3 proper. 120 hours on this save so far.

Still eager to replay already, because I see a whole bunch of things that could have gone different (and I failed/didn't complete several side quests in Act 2 which had ... consequences for persons involved ).

[Syt]

Ah yes, the "stealthy" bright red armor.

[Syt]

So glad they added two big changes for Quality of Life recently. If you have a full party and want someone else from your camp to join, you don't have to dismiss another person first - you can ask someone to join and then pick via dialogue who to dismiss. And in trade menus you now see everyone's inventory, so no need to switch between characters anymore to sell bits and pieces from everyone's backpack. Oh, and a minor change - in camp, when you open the inventory screen of the people not currently in your party, it also includes your camp's storage chest. No more having to shuffle to the chest to see if there was anything useful you forgot about in there.

[Sophie Scholl]

The voice actor for Karlach is coming to the local Game Con in October. I'm so excited! 

[Valmy]

The voice actor for Karlach is coming to the local Game Con in October. I'm so excited! 

Ask her to explain how her character can be a Barbarian with shamanistic animal powers despite having grown up entirely in a civilized urban environment 

Ok that may not be the voice actors' decision 

[Syt]

Some of the voice actors seem to be into the game, though. The voice actress for Shadowheart, Jennifer English was doing couch co-op streams with her girlfriend (who's also the game's voice director IIRC), and there was a bit of a WTF from English when her gf was pondering whether to romance Lae'zel instead of Shadowheart.

Edit: story link - https://www.gamesradar.com/baldurs-gate-3-shadowheart-actor-suffers-the-ultimate-act-of-betrayal-after-her-partner-declares-love-for-archnemesis-laezel/

Shadowheart's actor has suffered the ultimate betrayal recently during a stream of Baldur's Gate 3.

Over the last weekend, Shadowheart actor Jennifer English was streaming Baldur's Gate 3 on her Twitch channel, accompanied by her partner and Baldur's Gate 3 performance director Aliona Baranova. What could possibly ruin that lovely setup? Baranova declaring her love for Shadowheart's archnemesis, that's what.

As the clip below chronicles, Baranova was just chilling, watching the playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, when suddenly, she declared her love for Lae'zel. The Githyanki warrior and Shadowheart famously don't get along too well, especially through the game's early hours, but this comment didn't shake English.

It's what came next that did. "Do I love her more than I love Shadowheart?" Baranova pondered aloud, to which English pulled a pained face of utter betrayal. "Did you just say that?!" the actor queried, with the atmosphere permeated by the sounds of heartbreak.

the infamous moment in question https://t.co/Qq964KmWJ7 pic.twitter.com/jRFmYQ2cAW

"My heart just broke," English continues, while Baranova tries to rapidly do some damage control. I'm sure it's fine - the whole thing could've been a lot worse had Baranova declared that her love for Shadowheart's nemesis outweighs her love of Shadowheart herself.

The entire scene went viral among fans just after the livestream, thanks partly to the fantastic bit of art below. The digital illustrator must have worked incredibly quickly to get this piece up shortly after the live stream, and hats off to them - they've done a brilliant job of catching English's betrayal.

@alionabaranova1 you two are a national treasure pic.twitter.com/Sr1Jh0JiVp

I might have to start watching English and Baranova's livestreams of Baldur's Gate 3 after this. Let's hope that the Shadowheart actor doesn't take her revenge on Lae'zel in her playthrough. Things could get ugly very quickly.

And:

https://www.gamesradar.com/respectfully-looking-respectfully-looking-baldurs-gate-3-shadowheart-actor-loses-it-as-her-real-life-partner-sleeps-with-her-rpg-nemesis/

The voice actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's Shadowheart is currently playing through the D&D RPG with her real-life partner. It's mostly been a wholesome affair, apart from when the shadow of Shadowheart's in-game nemesis Lae'zel looms – in those moments, it's dang hilarious.

To catch you up, an earlier highlight of one stream saw Shadowheart actor Jennifer English recoil in horror after her partner and Baldur's Gate 3 performance director Aliona Baranova floated the idea that she, just maybe, prefers Lae'zel to god's problematic fave. In fairness to Baranova, she has since called Lae'zel a "schoolgirl crush" she does not love more than Shadowheart.

Now, though, things have turned up a few notches. The duo's latest stream sees Baranova trigger Lae'zel's romance scene, leading to a night of Baldur's Gate 3 shenanigans and the narrator setting the mood for the day by saying, "You awake in pain," if you want to know how that went.

Much like before, the highlight is the pair's reaction to the unfolding tomfoolery.

"This is so weird, we've seen [Lae'zel voice actor] Dev[ora Wilde] today. I feel uncomfortable," a giddy Baranova says, before adding "respectfully looking, respectfully looking" as things kick off.

"She's not a cuddler, is she?" an equally giddy English concludes after her partner's character, seemingly battered and bruised, picks themselves up for another day of adventuring.

If you'd like to see the moment yourself, it all kicks off around 35 minutes into the stream above. Just, uh, take note of who's around before you do, you know?

Thanks to a cocktail of D&D buffs, "5-ton Mega-Karlach" towers over Baldur's Gate 3 in a new peak for tall RPG women.

[Syt]

Coming up on 200 hours on this now. This is a seriously big game. I thought that things would go fast once you're in the titular city, but every time I step anywhere it seems to go down a rabbit hole for an hour or five.

I had heard a lot about Act 3 being uneven, and I think there's something to it. However, I also feel it might have been good to get to it 5-6 months after game release so they had some time to polish it up.

I'm mostly amazed that I've managed to stay spoiler free on this game for all this time. *knocks on wood*

[crazy canuck]

Hey Valmy, how do I install mods for this game - like the more than 4 party member mod. 

It looks like I have to go to some third party site and install stuff outside of Steam? 

[Syt]

Slowly making my way through Act 3 (couple hours on the weekend). If nothing else, it's remarkable that even though I'm still on my first playthrough I keep coming back to move onwards (as opposed to dropping the game for a year and starting over, as I usually do with "big story games").

Had a big ROFL moment last weekend, when a boss battle goes all in on the soundtrack, giving it the full Disney villain song treatment. Unexpected but oh so appropriate.

[Syt]

So, after 9 months and 265 hours (my save file is 235) I finally finished my first playthrough. What can I say - I tried to make sure I didn't miss any hidden areas/treasures. Though I probably still missed a ton.

Anyways, really enjoyed the ride. It's a bit unusual for me to play these games not on story mode, and quite pleased to have made it through on "balanced." I feel that gave me enough challenge, though, having to restarts a few tougher battles.

Quite glad I managed to avoid spoilers all this time, and eager to start a new playthrough - there's still many "roads not taken." Like not picking up Gale as a companion at all. Plus, while I managed to save the city, many NPCs didn't have a happy ending because I failed them (esp. in Act 2 ) and neither did one of my companions.

Interestingly, the game kept sitting at the back of my head all the time, making me reluctant to go "all in" on other games in the meantime.

Oh well, played a noble selfless human Paladin ... time for a horny gnome or halfling bard, who will do the right things, maybe, sometimes.

[Syt]

Also: do I quicksave too often?

[Solmyr]

If you don't save every 10 seconds, are you really playing the game?

[Syt]

If you don't save every 10 seconds, are you really playing the game?

The funny thing is, I almost never reload.

[Zanza]

Congrats on finishing it.

I guess if I ever play it again, I will play an evil group also trying to corrupt all the companions.