Tag: Baldur’s Gate

The best Steam Winter Sale deals you have to check out

We’ve rounded up some of the best Steam Winter Sale deals, from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring, to indie game gems, and more

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Steam Winter Sale deals have begun, with even more discounts than we saw during Black Friday. Discounts are everywhere, on major AAA games including Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3, indie gems such as Case of the Golden Idol and Slay the Princess, and some modern classics in the mix as well. The Steam Winter Sale deals are live through Jan.4, 2024.

If you’re after other end-of-year sales, check out the Epic Games Store holiday sale and the PlayStation Store’s holiday sale.

The best PlayStation Store Holiday Sale deals you won’t want to miss

We’ve rounded up some of the best PlayStation Store holiday deals, from Alan Wake and Baldur’s Gate to indie gems and more

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The PlayStation Store holiday sale deals have begun, with big discounts on some of the best PS5 games of 2023, old classics, and hidden gems you might’ve missed in a year crammed with releases. There’s a discount for everyone, whether you’ve been waiting for Jedi Survivor or Cyberpunk 2077 to go on sale or want to try out award winners such as Sea of Stars and Alan Wake 2. Red Dead 2 is on sale, as always, and Larian even threw in a little Baldur’s Gate 3 price cut as a treat – emphasis on “little.”

We’ve rounded up some of the best PlayStation Store holiday deals below. The sales are live now through Jan. 17, 2024.

Larian wanted Paladin as BG3’s default class, but Lae’zel happened

Larian Studios considered making Paladin the default Baldur’s Gate 3 class, but ran into a few snags with player choice and Lae’zel

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Larian Studios considered making Paladin the default Baldur’s Gate 3 class, but ran into a few snags – the biggest of which was Lae’zel. Or, more accurately, the Tieflings who put her in a cage.

Swen Vincke, head of Larian, and lead writer Adam Smith explained how they moved away from the idea of a base class early in the project during a recent interview with IGN.

“We started thinking about it and said, actually that’s bringing us in a lot of narrative problems, so we’ll let them make that choice themselves,” Vincke said. “But we’re not going to plug it in like that because it actually does have issues in role-playing.”

One of those issues pops up shortly after the Nautiloid crashes in the prologue. You find – or not, if you go the other way – a few Tieflings have captured Lae’zel, put her in a cage, and suspended it off the ground. I always just chased the Tieflings off and saved Lae’zel without violence, but apparently, people had a habit of murdering them to rescue the Githyanki warrior.

“One of my favorite things I saw recently was someone described the Teflings that have Lae’zel in the cage [as] Paladin kryptonite because if you kill them you break your oath even though they’re threatening somebody in a cage,” Smith said. “So Paladins often get into that and go, ‘Oh, I’m going to rescue this companion, recruit.’ It’s like, ‘Oathbreaker.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh no.’” 

“It’s also very hard to keep your oath if you’re the Dark Urge.”

The Dark Urge faces checks at certain points that involve murdering innocent people, which is about as un-Paladin as you can get if you fail. It’s also partly what makes the Dark Urge a unique character – and one of Larian’s favorites – regardless of class, with a story that can be devastating or deeply emotional depending on the choices you make.

So, there you have it. You can thank Lae’zel, the mighty Gith fighter, getting captured by a bunch of unarmed refugees, for having the option to pick your own class at the start of BG3.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

The best Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin build and Oath

our BG3 Paladin build guide explains how to get the most out of this versatile class

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The best Baldur’s Gate 3 Paladin build turns one of the most popular BG3 classes into an exceptional jack-of-all-trades. Paladins can withstand most attacks, support party members, distract enemies, and even take down the toughest foes. Navigating its subclasses is a little tricky, although if you end up as an Oathbreaker, it’s not exactly the end of the world. The Paladin is ideal for players of all skill levels, and our BG3 Paladin build guide explains how to get the most out of it.

Baldur’s Gate 3 classes ranked from futile to fabulous

Our Baldur’s Gate 3 class rank list lays out which classes give you the most tools to use in the popular RPG and which ones fall short.

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Making a Baldur’s Gate 3 classes rank list is a pretty sizeable ask, not because Larian’s hit PC game has too many to choose from – although things get a bit out of control if you take Baldur’s Gate 3’s subclasses into account – but because you can feasibly make any class work well. Your skill choice and the environment play a substantial part in how well a class functions. Even a powerful wizard falls short if you stack them with garbage magic, but the right combos and party compositions mean even a not-exactly-optimized Warlock can excel.

Some roles give you more to play with than others, though, and lend themselves to better combinations with your team members. Druids are great at running over people as a bear, for example, but Sorcerers can rain fire, ice, and lightning down on entire armies. There’s a clear winner here.

Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox is off to a rough start

Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox is going through a few rough patches and deleting people’s saves, and the problem is an odd one

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Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox is going through a few rough patches and deleting people’s saves, and the problem is an odd one. Shortly after Larian surprised launched BG3 on Xbox at The Game Awards 2023 – an announcement Geoff Keighley cut short, like he did every other acceptance speech – people started encountering game crashes. 

That’s not entirely unusual. BG3’s PS5 launch was pretty rough as well, but several players started noticing their save files vanished when they rebooted the game. That’s definitely not usual. Larian posted a statement on Twitter acknowledging the situation and said Microsoft published an Xbox firmware update that should address the problem.

It didn’t. Microsoft support stepped in and said the Xbox team is working on a solution to the missing save files problem, and they have a temporary solution to, hopefully, hold you over until it’s permanently fixed.

“In order to avoid this issue players should save their game and then return to the Xbox dashboard and select ‘Quit Game’ or ‘Save to Quick Resume’ from the game menu (Home, Game, Select, and then choose ‘Save to Quick Resume’ or ‘Quit’) when they finish playing,” Xbox support said. “Users should not disconnect their console from the power. Users should select ‘shut down’ from the console menu and leave their Xbox connected to power.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t on Game Pass, so if you’ve thought about diving in on Xbox, you might want to hold off buying it until Larian and Microsoft sort the problem out.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

Baldur’s Gate 3 romances ranked from steamy to Stupid Sexy Gale

Our Baldur’s Gate 3 romances ranked list examines how every romance option stacks up, even the one-night stands

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A Baldur’s Gate 3 romances ranked list is one of the tougher things to write about Larian’s hit RPG. It’s so easy to miss a key part of someone’s quest, make the wrong choice, or drive everyone away after you accidentally-on-purpose put a refugee caravan to the sword and destroy a sacred grove. What I experience may not be what you end up seeing, especially if you’re unfortunate enough to run into bugs that cut out important scenes. Most of the relationships in Baldur’s Gate 3 are among the best-written in the genre and worth experiencing at least once – even if you have to reload an older save to avoid making other party members angry.

There are quite a few encounter spoilers in this list, so you may want to scroll down to the Halsin section and avoid them.

If you’re looking for more Baldur’s Gate 3, check out our rankings for the best BG3 spells and BG3 classes while you’re here.

Baldur’s Gate lead is making a space RPG starring Matthew McConaughey

James Ohlen, the creative lead for the original Baldur’s Gate is working on a new, narrative-driven space RPG starring Matthew McConaughey

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James Ohlen, the creative lead for the original Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars KOTOR, and Dragon Age Origins, some of the best Western RPGs, is working on a new, narrative-driven space RPG where your choices make all the difference. Ohlen’s new game is Exodus, developed with his new studio Archetype Entertainment, and Matthew McConaughey brings one of the lead characters to life. 

It’s an ambitious step forward for the genre. In Exodus, you play as a squad of humans who fled Earth to save their loved ones in the face of an onslaught from hostile aliens. Everything you do matters, and not just in the moment.

That’s a pretty big claim that many games make and don’t necessarily follow through on, though it sounds like Ohlen’s ambitions go a bit further than usual. The repercussions from your choices stretch across the years and into new generations. What seemed like a good idea in your time might lead to an entire sun getting snuffed out 20 years later.

Exodus ’s announcement couldn’t come at a better time. The genre and style Ohlen helped pioneer is more popular than ever, thanks in large part to Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3. While demand for in-depth CRPGs never really went away – fans funded Pillars of Eternity, and its popularity sparked an even bigger sequel – but developers just… stopped making them.

EA and BioWare moved away from the choice-driven narratives of Dragon Age Origins with DA Inquisition, and single-player games fell out of fashion as heavy-hitter multiplayer games such as Fortnite grew in popularity.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

The Game Awards 2023 winners

We’ve rounded up all The Game Awards 2023 winners, including Game of the Year 2023 and more

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The Game Awards 2023 winners are in, and while some of the usual suspects walked away with the accolades we figured they would, there’s a few surprises in the mix as well. The likes of Alan Wake 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 won big this year, and it looks like everyone is – unsurprisingly – looking forward to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth more than anything else.

We’ve rounded up all The Game Awards 2023 winners below, and if you’re looking for recaps and announcements as well, check out our TGA 2023 roundup for everything you missed.

Larian reveals most popular Baldur’s Gate 3 romances, classes

Larian Studios released another round of statistics showing how people play Baldur’s Gate 3, including the most popular BG3 romances

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Larian Studios released another round of statistics showing how people play Baldur’s Gate 3, including the most popular BG3 romances, the most-picked classes, and how many of you have turned into cheese wheels. The answer for that last one is 1.24 million. Akabi is not amused.

Shadowheart is the most popular romance option, Larian says. 51.3 percent of players of reached the final part of her romance arc, with Karlack sliding in second, followed by Lae’zel. Shadowheart’s popularity is, perhaps, unsurprising, considering she’s the first semi-sympathetic character players meet who doesn’t want to kill them. Lae’zel comes as a bit of a surprise, though. Player reactions to the Githyanki warrior were divided. Many disliked her brusque and downright violent attitude so much that they never bothered carrying on to see how her story unfolded.

BG3 class popularity remains mostly unchanged from Larian’s insights into multiclassing combos. Monk and Druid are still sitting near the bottom of the list, with Cleric in dead last. Paladin is the most popular choice, with nearly 4 million players playing as these warriors of justice, followed by Sorcerer (over 3 million), Fighter (3 million), and Rogue (roughly 2.8 million). Just over 2 million people picked Bard, which means a whole lot of you are missing out on one the best classes. Can’t get turned into cheese if you fart on the genie instead.

Those who opted for origin characters instead of custom ones mostly picked Gale. Nearly 450,000 players went with his story, while 426,000 chose Astarion, 324,000 opted for Shadowheart, and 326,000 threw their lot in with Karlach. Wyll and Lae’zel sit at the bottom, with 234,000 and 228,000, respectively.

Elves and humans are the most popular races, with Dragonborn in the middle and a sharp drop-off after that. Half-Orcs, Gith, and Halflings are near the bottom of the pack.

The most important stat though? Players have pet Scratch 48.5 million times. 

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF