Baldur's Gate 3 - Something's Brewing (but not today)

The Baldur's Gate 3 Twitter page declares something's brewing and shows some video with the date 27th of February at the end.

More information.

Advanced notice of a preview that can't really tell you anything. These days even the hype needs to be hyped.

Hype²!

Great. Just Great. A subtle announcement of a date for when a possible announcement might announce a date of a future announcement.

The only interesting thing here were the mocap scenes. Doesn't have to, but could be a clue to this being 3D or even 3rd or 1st person.
I will reserve judgement until we know about the combat system.

It's a release date!

Google Stadia exclusive announcement?!

Who was Volo, again?

I remember he left notations in the game manual but that's about it.

"Go for the date Boo, go for the date"

Originally Posted by SirJames
Google Stadia exclusive announcement?!

Who was Volo, again?

I remember he left notations in the game manual but that's about it.

Volothamp Geddarm is a famous writer in the Forgotten Realms. A lot of in-game books in BG1 and 2 were written by him, a lot of D&D manuals and such has his name on it, and you can meet him in both BG1 and 2.

Originally Posted by you
Great. Just Great. A subtle announcement of a date for when a possible announcement might announce a date of a future announcement.

Announcement=see announcement

A pibbur who is a pibbur

Originally Posted by Darkheart
The only interesting thing here were the mocap scenes. Doesn't have to, but could be a clue to this being 3D or even 3rd or 1st person.
I will reserve judgement until we know about the combat system.

Crossing my fingers its an isometric-like game. If not, then I'll lose all interest…

I think Larian will show something substantial, they're not the type to do "an announcement of an announcement". In fact Swen has in the past refused to "announce" or "hype" stuff, and told inteviewers to wait until they can show them the stuff, and then they can see it for themselves and decide whether it's worth hyping or not.

I may be wrong, but I hope not.

Originally Posted by spiraling69
Crossing my fingers its an isometric-like game. If not, then I'll lose all interest…

Larian thankfully isn't Bethesda, so I'm pretty sure it will be.

Why? Larian did develop non-isometric games. And decent ones, too: Divinity II and Dragon Commander.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
Why? Larian did develop non-isometric games. And decent ones, too: Divinity II and Dragon Commander.

I liked Divinity II personally, but the sales, reviews, and popularity of both those games were absolutely terrible compared to D:OS1 and D:OS2. Why would they go back? They've found their strength / niche.

Besides, this is Baldur's Gate. It'll definitely be some form of top-down view, whether it's technically isometric or not (not sure if you were trying to make that distinction). 0% chance of anything else. The real question is the combat system. Turn-based is Larian's strength right now, and turn-based games (D:OS, XCOM, etc) have generally been selling better than RTwP games (PoE, Kingmaker, etc) in recent years as well. The only reason to think it might end up being RTwP is that previous BG games have been RTwP, but that's actually an extremely strong reason. So who knows?

Originally Posted by Stingray
I liked Divinity II personally, but the sales, reviews, and popularity of both those games were absolutely terrible compared to D:OS1 and D:OS2.

Eh? Idk about Dragon Commander, but Dragon Knight Saga generally had very good reviews and was/is quite popular. Looking at Metacritic, it has an 8.2 user score vs 8.3 for D:OS EE and 8.7 for D:OS II, so they're pretty close. The OS games might have done better sales-wise, but that doesn't make them better games.

Personally, I'd much rather see Larian develop a sequel to DKS than another OS game, but they're obviously going to go where the money is.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The OS games might have done better sales-wise, but that doesn't make them better games.

No, it just makes them far better games for Larian to concentrate on making, since they apparently sell (and review) so much better. Which was essentially my point.

My belief is that Metacritic user score doesn't really mean anything at all due to all the trolling, brigading, 0-or-10 scoring, etc etc.

Here's a few things I'd consider meaningful to one degree or another:

Reviewers (Metacritic avgs):
Divinity II: 72 (original), 82 (Dragon Knight Saga re-release)
D:OS1: 87 (original), 94 (enhanced)
D:OS2: 93 (original), 95 (definitive)

Owners of the game on Steam (SteamSpy range):
Divinity II: 500K-1M (this is after almost 10 years and being sold for as little as $2 on Steam)
D:OS1: 1M-2M
D:OS2: 2M-5M

Steam user score:
Divinity II: 81%
D:OS1: 92%
D:OS2: 95%

I’m hoping BG3 isn’t like the divinity games or D:OS.

I’m hoping it’s like BG and BG2 with improved graphics, Maybe 3D with a rotating and zoomable camera and QOL improvements. If it’s radically different I’ll be disappointed. If they want to do something different then come up with an original IP.

Originally Posted by sakichop
If it’s radically different I’ll be disappointed. If they want to do something different then come up with an original IP.

That's what people said when Bethesda ruined Fallout, but it didn't stop them

Originally Posted by Stingray
No, it just makes them far better games for Larian to concentrate on making, since they apparently sell (and review) so much better. Which was essentially my point.

My belief is that Metacritic user score doesn't really mean anything at all due to all the trolling, brigading, 0-or-10 scoring, etc etc.

They don't review that much better though regardless of how you try to spin it.

I agree that Metacritic user-scores can be bogus sometimes, but that's usually only with games that had some sort of controversy attached to them. i.e. Was an Epic exclusive first or had Day 1 paid DLC, etc. Things like that sometimes brings out a bunch of trolls who bomb the game, but that doesn't apply here.

Also, don't dismiss user-scores from one place and then list user-scores from another just because it seems to better support your argument. The users on Steam are no more or less reliable than anywhere else. In my experience, there are just as many, if not more, trolls and fanboys on Steam.

Still, even if you're going to use the lower end of scores for DKS and the higher end for the D:OS games, it still doesn't support your comment that the sales, reviews, and popularity were "absolutely terrible" compared to D:OS1 and D:OS2. You were obviously exaggerating whether you intended to or not.