Baldur's Gate III is discounted 20% OFF on Steam until 2/17. BG III can be played single or co-op

Steam

DLC

642,000 Reviews - "Overwhelmingly Positive"

News Hub

Website

Just grabbed it

Cool, may have to resurrect our BG3 "let's play" thread. I'm still working through several characters and amazed at the variation in dialogue that's not only character driven, but also little changes Larian has been pushing through with their updates. Fun stuff

I thought I'd see how it is on my Steam Deck.

It runs surprisingly well, with no stuttering so far. The only thing I'm really having trouble with is the camera angles and with the Steam Deck controls that can get pretty complicated. Fortunately that long exploratory bit at the start gives me time to work out the controls. I still haven't figured out how to switch party members or how to open my inventory, but i's early days yet.

Since I'm completely bored with Fallout 76 and Stalker 2 doesn't run on the deck, I may play this instead. I didn't finish it last time, having got stuck and rage-quit and then started something else, and rather than pick up where I left off a new game seems appropriate.

Anyway, I've picked up Astarion, Gale, Laezael and Shadowheart so I'll tackle that Chapel now.

Yeah, I'm pretty surprised how well it runs on my game machine, which is actually a fair bit outdated now (GTX 1070). There is some stuttering when it first loads in at the start and when "fast traveling", but other than that it looks good on moderate settings.

My Drow Ranger is in Act 2, a Gith Sorcerer nearing that point and a Tiefling Warlock, and Elven Rogue near the middle of Act 1. I've also been intermittently running starting characters to check out the changes that comes through in the updates. Interesting how Larian has changed the dialogue over the last few. They aren't huge changes, but it's enough to modify the context of the conversation or allow it to go in a slightly different direction in some cases.

I'm also running without that Karmic Dice setting checked. Didn't even realize that was a feature until I began reading the big game guide. It feels more random to me now, like actual dice rolls. With the Karmic Dice setting I felt like I could just about predict my rolls based on the previous ones. Granted, you can have more bad rolls without it, but you run an equal chance of have a run of stellar dice rolls too.

My Rogue is running in place of Astarion, since I decided to introduce him to a pointed stick early on in that run

I'm playing a Bard again, only this time I chose the fighter version of subclass.

So you introduced Astarion to Mr. Pointy, huh? I honestly never considered that but of course it is a thing, offered early in the game.

I just rescued Miranda and honestly wish I'd let Ethel take her. One thing that was problematic; I had to take a reward from Ethel at random since there was no description of any of them. No matter. Last time I killed her; this time I let her go.

I've worked out most of the controls and they are fairly simple now that I have the hang of it. It's nice to play a game on my couch with the fire going.

It might be a Steam Deck thing if Ethel's rewards don't show a description, though the basic description, even though it gives you a nice ability boost it pretty gross . I usually don't go back to her place for an actual confrontation until a little later in the game because she's a good potion supplier

Now that I've been hopping between characters I'm not sure if the dialogue changes I've come across are due to the updates or just influenced by my race and class selections. I'm thinking it's a bit of both. One thing with not running the karmic dice is that I really need to keep myself from reloading saves when I have consistently lousy results due to dice rolls. Have had a couple battles where my characters were rolling misses probably 80% of the time, that got a bit frustrating. Other than that still fun.

I noticed that if you climb the ledge behind Astarion's tent the usual camp music suddenly gets vocals that seem to be about him or what he is. I keep checking around the other party members tents to see if it changes, but so far it only happens in that spot. Curious.

Apparently I picked up the Wisdom reward, so I'll toss it to Shadowheart.

In this game I'm using Karlach as a Berserker, adding Tavern Brawler as her first feat. It's great. Last time I hadn't really studied the builds and as a regular fighter she was surprisingly lame. This time she's hilarious and really tough. I'm collecting junk for her to throw. It's like having a mobile Junk Jet that talks.