Baldur’s Gate 3 is WAY Too Good Apparently... 

Get your air up here: airup.link/45xllWP use code ACTMAN for 15% off all your orders #airup #airuppartner Really goes to show how low standards have gotten in the game industry when other developers think making a game this good is impossible lmao

Only in the gaming industry can there exist a debate about a game “being too good”. 💀

Heaven forbid a company release a feature complete game without predatory microtransactions and a battlepass. That’s just way too high of standards to have to live up to.

What breaks my heart is that all these AAA companies have so many devs that I bet are just as talented and passionate as Larian, but they are at the full mercy of whoever owns them. Larian is what happens when devs who give a damn are independent and free to make the game they want to make.

I love the way the game rewards you for going along with its kookier plots. Normally I'm like "not in a million years would I let someone operate on me with an icepick, but hey... let's see what happens".

As a Belgian im proud as hell about Larian's policy. Also in Belgium it's illegal for "gambling" in games. Stuff like lootboxes is litterly forbidden

The funny thing is here, Larian didn't raise any standards, they simply brought them back to where they were before Microtransactions/Battlepasses/live Services ruined the entire industry. Baldurs Gate III is simply a time machine into an era when games were made to be good because thats the only way they made money. Baldurs Gate 3 gives us a look into what gaming would be right now if not for the MTX invasion.

The writing in this game is so good. Really needed after the terrible writing in most AAA titles of the past 10 years.

Larian studios delivered such a pure and honest product that it quite literally made me realize how much of my life I was wasting with gambling gaming like league of legends, overwatch or other competitive games. Bg3 saved my mental health and now I'm enjoying gaming again!

It’s like being in a ton of abusive relationships in the past and now that you have someone who treats you right, your exes come back and bash them saying that it’s unreasonable to expect to be treated well

This backlash against Larian Studios by AAA billion dollar corporations, with staff in the thousands is one of the most hilarious stories I've heard in a while. This like if David strides up, and when Goliath sees him, he whines "No fair!!" stomps his foot, and runs off crying.

Reminds me of when Elden Ring came out and was universally loved by gamers but rival devs took the game as a personal insult

Man I love The Act Man. He genuinely wants the best for the video game industry - Baldurs Gate 3 represents a forgotten renaissance period of gaming. Lost in time, when developers were out-building one another creating masterpieces.

I hope they see a sales boost in their other titles as well.

God, I fucking love Larian, they’ve earned their success.

You know, I may not be a fan of turn based, super fantastical RPG games. But I absolutely must commend Larian for creating a new precedent and standard for modern gaming. No micro transactions, no greed driven live service development. Just an amazingly crafted game made with love of the genre. Hopefully triple A studios will see this as an example for what can truly satisfy their fans while also satisfying the company financially. The Act Man, as always, has an amazing take which I could not agree with more. Whilst I probably don’t plan on playing this particular game, I truly hope that more games can follow in its footsteps and revolutionize the industry.

In a music composition class. The instructor would give the students an entire orchestra to compose a piece. Once completed and performed, the instructor gradually took away instruments from the piece until only a piano was left and they had to figure out how to make the piece they had composed translate without a full orchestra. The result was that the students by and large improved their pieces because what was being taught by the instructor was that limitations breed creativity.

The fact that industry hacks are actually angry because BG3 is "too good" is kind of amazing. I can't think of higher praise for Larian studios.

The fact that Larian released such a polished, in-depth and complete game really isn’t fair for everyone else who’re just trying to slide by on the bare minimum effort. Did they not think how this would make everyone else look when they released such a game?! Now Gamers(™) will expect too much from poor indie companies like Blizzard-Activision and Ubisoft!!

Usually never a fan of RPG games and if I’m being honest, the turn based combat made me think I would hate the game for sure. I can say with 100% certainty that I was beyond wrong. Bought it just days ago and it already stole my soul. Larian needs so much praise for the care they put into this.

I love how Larian handled side quests. Compared to something like Dragon Age Inquisition, which had too many fetch quests/ collectable completion quests that were boring and repetitive and ultimately didn't matter in the long run.

In 2003 you entered a store to find video games. In 2023 you enter a video game to find stores. Ive watched some of your videos recently, and man your takes on games and the gaming industry in general are excellent. You have more than earned my sub.

"Baldur's Gate 3 could set unrealistic expectations for gamers" Most AAA game devs: "Wha...you...you mean the they're going to expect...a good game?!!" Our expectations didn't change. AAA studios just lowered the bar so much that the devil can't even limbo dance under it.

People acting like the Divinity games weren’t Demi-god tier and BG3 came out of absolutely no where.

Watching the Durge just punt a squirrel into a tree was such an experience, the exact same reaction you had during my first time playing Durge

How dare Larian fall back to a traditional sales model of balancing earning potential with high quality, producing and selling a product that meets every expectation to a level where every dime feels well spent, and being rewarded by a loyal and happy fanbase who rewards them back with accolades and massive profits. How DARE Larian.

The joy this game has brought is literally what was felt in the early 2000's when games were still scratching the surface of 'whats possible' not 'whats profitable' and also have to add, Baldur's Gate 3 is an example of when passionate, hard-working video game developers are in charge of their projects instead of less passionate but money-hungry businessmen.

8:02 imagine a world where every studio made games like that, for example a cod with no micro transactions with everything players love + more things we didn't even know we wanted

I can't stop playing this game. It's just so good. I haven't gotten lost in a game like this in years. And I bought this game on a whim, I hate rpgs.

Baldur's Gate is a prime example of gaming done right, as Blizzard continues to shit the bed

Nobody expects other studios to make another BG3. What gamers want is that the studios put in the same amount of love in the game and respect their coustumers.

I made the same point about BG3 building on D:OS1 and 2. Sooooo much of the core framework was already built and proven successful. Larian was already an award winning studio from its previous games, and they've had a very clear love for BioWare's games like Dragon Age. Licensing the Baldur's Gate IP ensured they would give this game their all.

I was absolutely shocked that BG3 is getting such amazing reviews and being played as much as it is. As a ttrpg fan BG and NWN will always hold a place in my heart because i could relate to them just a bit more, but seeing the love BG3 is getting is awesome and so happy that DND is being shown more love.

The writing for the cats (when you cast speak with animals) is better than the writing for most RPGs.

When I realized, after 40 hours playtime, that the end of act 1 wasn't the end of the game I felt my brain expand and pop like a balloon. The amount of stuff in BG3 is terrifying

What's crazy to me is that AAA is SUPPOSED to be the best of the best. Highest in quality, immersion, gameplay, storytelling, you name it. How have we dumbed it down so much as to now create a AAAA branding that devs and companies don't want to adhere to?

The problem isn't that the game is "too good" or that we want or need microtransactions. It's that BG3 should not be viewed as "Okay, this needs to be the bare minimum for a game. There need to be possibilities for everything and a world that will take several hundred hours to explore the first 50% and yadda yadda yadda" cuz not every single company can afford to do that. The OP was talking about this specific idea. No one is advocating for worse games, and the original poster could have been a bit clearer on that, just that we keep our expectations reasonable while still wanting and striving for good games. (TL: DR Not every game needs to be as big as BG3 to be good, but they must maintain a quality standard. That is the point being made.)

Its crazy shocking how a great game removing money pumping mechanics is "a bad choice" by today's gaming.

can we just think about how fucking happy the larion developers are rn, like imagine putting your heart and soul into a game and it fucking EXPLODES everyone loves it

If I was an artist that did the minimal work and another artist comes along and does a better job than I do, I wouldn't tell people they shouldn't expect better work because I'm incompetent. They're going to leave my services

I think what the these video game designers are truely saying is that they do have the time into making a game like baldurs gate 3. They are on tight deadlines because the company likes their quick buck and they are pressurized to develop it quickly. I have 400 hours into BG3 now and i continue to find things that ive missed and they continue to release expanded storylines that i didnt even know i wanted. Example just yesterday they released more storyline to minthara and now im gonna go and run through the game to get that experience again. Each playthough that i do i realized ive missed out on something. I think that these Designers really need to sit down and refocus why they got into the video industry and what they want to put out. Put more pressure on the developers and their studios on focusing on a game and hearing the designers out for what is truely missing in a game. BG3 was in beta for approxamitly 3 years. They used that time and knowledge to make sure their wasn't major glitches or bugs discovered what the community wanted and heard them out. Most games now Beta only lasts possibly a weekend. Alot of the developers now need to sit down and recommit that passion that designers have and give them time to craft what they want without a insane deadline. Their is plenty of games that come out now that i think is a really cool game and want to purchase Redfall being one of them but the game release comes out and when released it turns into hot garbage. Pre purchasing is a thing of the past for me now because of it cause garbage has become the industry standard. I really hope that BG3 becomes the Final Fantasy of this era.

BG3 is so good that it has sold over 8 times Larian’s expectations for the game, and has been probably the most landmark game in ages, it deserves every ounce of success that it gets and more honestly

BG3 making Heartless AAA studios shit their pants is one of the best things to recently happen ever BG3 is definitely a Landmark game

The beautiful part of this will be that other companies are already facing the fact that we not only love undermining this nickle and dime nonsense, but there will always be a best seller that shows we're not only on to them, but willing to back up quality with our money. Deep and immersive play? Great VO and sound? Insanely accommodating optimization to make it accessible even to folks with sub-optimal rigs (especially with the economy the way it is)? Good product can win, and it's been a long timing coming for a game (and it's success) to champion the point.

These are the same kids that say capitalism breeds innovation. Imagine doubling down and looking like an idiot instead of taking the L and learning something.

You know what Larian's _big_ secret is (besides having a CEO that's a gamer who actually likes and understands video games)? They're a privately owned company. They don't have to answer to any shareholders or investors who keep demanding more and more revenue regardless of how damaging it'll be to the end product. Valve is also privately owned, and aside from their reluctance to release new games or support their old ones, almost every game they've made has been phenomenal, to put it lightly.

Larian reintroduced the standard of gaming that was constant in the 2000’s, hopefully this a domino effect to make game studios realise this how games are meant to

If it scares developers, that's a damn good thing! There's been way too much mediocrity (and that's being generous) for years and BG3 has been a serious breath of fresh air! It should be a new standard. Micro transactions are the worst! Spot on video man! Thank you! I'm an old school gamer, (47 yrs old, my first games I played were on the Atari 2600), and BG3 is right at the top of the best games I've ever played and I gotta give serious respect to Larian for what they did here.

I absolutely cannot wait for your full review of the game. I've almost hit the 100 hour mark and outside of a couple of minor bugs that were fixed with a simple restart or loading the last save, I dont have anything majorly negative to say. And when I say I can't wait I mean I absolutely can because all of your videos are incredibly well thought-out and just all around good content. Looking forward to it!

It is so fucking awesome that Larian risked bankrupcy for quality. My respect for them as a studio has went up tremendously. Its just so fucking cool they deserve every bit of success

Larian didn’t spend millions on marketing. They instead put their game on early access & let people fund the development, test the game, comment on fixes, & spread the word about how good it is.

Insinuating that BG3 is no more than a stroke of good luck for the devs is such an immense insult to their talent and work ethic. BG3 is so great because the devs are passionate about the games they make, and even moreso about how their fans receive said games. It is the culmination of hard work, dedication, a willingness to LISTEN to what their fans want and the humility to understand that some things are worth implementing/sacrificing in the name of fan service. Larian is a top tier studio and they deserve that recognition.

You know the game is good when you are depressed after finishing it, and just don't want to close it. Also don't feel like doing a second playthrough because the way the first one went was so on point with my choices and my actual perception of the plot, it feels like if I WAS inside the game, that's the path I would have choose 100%. I could relate to everything. And because there are so many branchs and opportunities, everyone can find a way to make the game super relatable and reflect their own personnalities. Or do the complete opposite for the lolz. It's like finishing a fucking good book, or a fucking good serie. You feel complete, and also sad that it is done. That's what makes something a masterpiece, that little feeling you don't have when finishing other stuff.

Couldn't be happier for Larian. It's rare that I can feel like a kid on Christmas playing a game but they did it!!

We saw similar reactions to Elden Ring. You're absolutely right. We should be celebrating landmark titles like Baldur's Gate because it improves the industry.

Don't let Revan have pronouns

Regardless of what any publisher has to say - BG3 HAS raised the bar and whether they choose to up their standard or not is up to them but their sales will suffer.

Can't believe we've gone from publishers praising top releases like these and striving to be as good as them to "adjusting expectations"

its not raised standards, its old school standards, larian just did what the game developers did 20+ years ago, they put their soul and hard work to make the best games they could FOR US.

"If Starfield turns out to be a glitchy, bug-ridden disaster..." You should start posting lottery numbers dude.

If you want companies to Change, don’t let them see 666 million in sales when their game is terrible. Developers don’t need to change, WE do.

My favorite line of dialog in this game was from a goblin child, who said to my tiefling character "I wish MY dad diddled a devil, so I could have horns like yours." Beautiful.

I think the effort put into BG3 *really* clicked for me when I realized I could damn near lip-read what Gale was saying during a dialogue. Like it wasn't just mouth moving for the sake of moving, but each discrete animation actually matched the motions you would make to form a syllable.

Note to developers: people will gladly pay full price for top quality games such as this. I personally hate microtransactions and refuse to play games with them. After all the positive feedback and knowing there wasn't predatory monetization in this game, i bought it at full price to play it a week before it launched.

Hands down one of the nest games I've ever played, in 20+ years. The game is extremely immersive. Every encounter can go 100% in your favor, completely go ass up or just end up in some wacky scenario leaving you to wonder, wtf did i just do lol. You can literally let innocent people die, like right in front of your face and not off screen like most games do with "choice" and it doesn't have to be within the D-Urge play through. Bro in damn near any interaction there is a literal "attack" option to start a fight midway into the dialogue. There is this part where this NPC women asked about retrieving a Githyanki egg and after seeing Lai-zels pissed off response I selected the option to agree that the women should die for asking a question like that(not expecting to actually fight lol) and ended up immediately entering battle mode. I was like "Wait the game was serious about her needing to die?!". Your options actually stand on something real in this game. She was strong asf but I managed to kill her(she was strong but it was 1v4 lmao) and got some awesome Monk gear. Ugh so rewarding its unreal. Haven't felt this connected to a game since Dragon Age: Origins. Ill easily pay for any DLC in the future if they keep this up.

The standard set is more cultural rather than technical. Larian is owned by a person who primarily views gaming as a source of joy whereas most studios are owned by companies that primarily view gaming as a source of revenue. There is enough talent and resources at EA, Blizzard, Activision, etc., to produce a game at the calibre of BG3. However, their focus is entirely directed at making products designed to reap money off of "consumers". I've seen talks made by business executives trying to break down what "fun" is in a video game and putting it in an economic & psychological context so that a formula can be produced to gauge the risk and reward of a game development project. With that sort of mindset, the standard I expect in video games is the one set by Diablo 4 rather than Baldur's Gate 3.

The elden ring effect: A game is release where it is complete, made with love and inhuman dedication with 0 microtransactions. To the point where fans are debading what possible catch there is (There isn't any), and other devs are panicking about it.

Coming from 3000+ hrs in Kenshi, BG3 has become my new meth and reason for waking. Family forsaken, Oaths have been taken, shields have been splintered, a sword day, a red day, ere Eldritch Blast!!

You missed the point the dev was making. BG3 isnt too good to be sustainable, its too big. Games of BG3's size has sunk many studios, even when the product is quality. Everyone wants quality games, but tou cant expect every game to be as earth shatteringly massive as BG3.

Larian studios deserve every bit of praise they get, and they care for their fans base. I experienced a game breaking bug at the start of the final section, couldn't continue. I raised a bug report, attached my save file to show what was happening, and thought I'd just wait for the upcoming update. To my surprise, I got an email back from Larian a few days later who had fixed my save file and apologised for that bug. I am beyond impressed at the level of customer service and care they show for their players. That should be the norm.

Larian’s mission statement alone is quite literally the single greatest thing to happen to gaming industry in a long LONG time and that goes for EVERY genre.

this also applies to Owlcat studio with their Pathfinder games. Those are _amazing_ tabletop to PC conversions. Both games are amazing and they are HUGE. the 1st game has 6 tomes of pathfinder in it, it takes about 200 hours if you explore everything. the 2nd one elevates with Mythic paths for level ups and is even bigger. If you miss the times of Vampire The Masquarade Bloodlines, Arcanum, Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 1/2 you should play those.

SO happy for Larian Studios. I never thought we'd see a BG3. Not after Black Isle and Bioware closed or were bought out. I say this as a hardcore BG/BG2/IWD Fanatic.

Main takeaway: support healthy game practices and studios like larian and from software. Don't support companies that promote unhealthy and greedy practices like blizzard or game freak. You have the power to change this industry. Vote with your wallet or reap what you sow

Baldur's Gate 3 kind of used the Deep Rock Galactic strategy of focusing on fun factor and did so great. I hope this becomes the standart again.

BG3 was so good, that Larian could literally use the same engine, graphics and mechanics but with new levels/campaigns and I would fucking buy them.

At 10:48 I love how you state that while having a million subs, just crystal clear facts, backed up by all the good and hard work done in your RU-vid channel as an example 😂🎉🎉, it's a true wholesome slap in the face to those guys who don't wanna do a good job in this industry. It's just wholesome to hear ❤

I want to give a massive thank you to Larian for hopefully starting the changes that we need in the AAA industry.

Best thing about the studio is how involved the actual boss of the company is and the passion he shares with his employees.

No one's talking about Larian selling 96 hours "early access" if you pay $80 for the "deluxe edition" on PS5? That's the type of scummy BS that any other dev would get called out for. In fact, I can't remember a single dirtbag developer charging for 96 hours early access, ever.

after playing baldurs gate 3, ive found it tedious and unfun to play other games that use battlepasses, microtransactions, or just seem incomplete... bg3 is quite literally a breath of fresh air and I don't want to go back to what the games were like before

A really good view of the whole situation. Every game developed won’t release as good games as Larian, but they should try to release games like Larian did

Eldin ring, TOTK and BG3. These are what every developer should aspire for

want to give a massive thank you to Larian for hopefully starting the changes that we need in the AAA industry.

What pisses me off about the tweets talking about "raised standards" is the fact that their "standards" includes essentially selling garbage to garbage men. And they dont want anyone like larion getting in the way of that.

My friend group and I have spent over 100 hours playing Divinity 2 together, and I genuinely feel like this studio goes above and beyond to make the game feel as in depth as possible. There's so many tiny details that make the game feel full of life. I don't want my games to feel like someone sat down for an afternoon, threw a bunch of assets together, then a board meeting was held talking about how to make that map feel even more empty.

The thing you didn’t mention but I think deserves big credit is the CEO of Larian, Swen Vincke. Unlike most ceos of huge game companies, I feel like he actually plays and cares about the games he releases. Dude forever earned my respect after showing up to a panel in full knight armor

My favorite thing about BG3 is that it shipped in a great state. I crashed once in my first 40 hours, and that was due to using the Vulcan API setting. It runs great, looks great, and is a blast to play. I just... I love it. Between me and my lady friend we have 210 hours since it came out. ... We might need an intervention.

These tweeters are not saying that this level of *quality* shouldn’t be expected, they have said multiple times that it is a great step forward in that aspect. If you had looked into their actual threads, you’d see that they are talking about the *length* and amount of *content* of these games. The point is that games the length of Baldur’s Gate are just not practical for 99% of studios to aim for. To cast hate on people like Xavier is ridiculous, since you’re obviously not doing your research.

Dude I remember growing up on actual hard disks. The AAA games were just better. You bought a solid product. I remember first placing Soul Reaver into my PS1 with the music, story, gameplay, unique concepts about vampires and lore, and was hooked on gaming. You really bought the full package. Now? When a game studio actually cares, it's considered too high of a ceiling.

I sugggest y'all to take a deeper look at Larian's story, you'll actually see from how far they come. Couldn't be happier about their well deserved success. It's been a damn long difficult road, but their passion and dedication ultimately overcame the odds !

Baldur´s Gate 3 in a lot of ways is similar to the impact Witcher 3 had when it broke into the mainstream. Many gamers had heard whispers about Witcher 2 or Divinity Original Sin I and II but few outside the niche of RPGs had played them. Then they release this game that seems to come out of nowhere and the studio is immediately praised to the heavens by both players and critics alike. Just hope Larian doesn´t fall in the same hubris trap CDProjeckt Red did, although they seem to have a more extensive CV of being player friendly, and staying today in the current gaming environment is not only admirable but setting a huge example for others.

Baldur's Gate 3 is honestly a testament to how gamers have been settling for being treated like trash for waaay too long. Being sold pieces of an incomplete game for 3-5 times the value of the game whilst being asked to beta test the game so they can fix it after they make their money has become far too common. Larion just released a game that was actually finished. the combat system and gameplay mechanics are fairly simple and similar to most of the game's they've put out. They made a few improvements from Divinity two, wrote a few cool stories and tied them together. Big companies aren't upset because Baldur's gate 3 is leagues better than they can produce but rather because it's being under monetized from what the AAA studios considers normal. They know they can make good games because good games are how they made it become AAA studios. Blizzard games is probably the one I'm most dissapointed in. I thought I'd always love Azeroth but it turns out a bad company can spoil even the best pretend adventures.

My only problem with the game is when I'm progressing through it, I'm already thinking of all the different things I'm gonna do in my next playthrough. There's so much I wanna do it's actually really distracting in the best way possible.

I went from Diablo 4 to Baldur's Gate 3. The biggest difference I noticed was how Larian actually respects my time and money.

What's the deal with people saying a game has bad graphics because they don't like the art style? It is one argument that I could agree with these companies on not all games are going to be photo realistic.

BG3 could even considered a SSS+ game. AAA is not enough for this masterpiece

"This industry deserves a better class of developer, and I'm gonna give it to them." - Larian Studios

i think the most impressive thing about BG3 is that they managed to take stale and old fantasy tropes and made them feel fresh again.

Micro transactions in pre-paid games should be illegal worldwide, it should only be barely allowed in free to plays.