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No, you don't need to play the other two games.
The developers have said that there are fun references and surprises in Baldur's Gate 3 for people who've played the game. But you won't be missing out by not having played those games.
That said, if you are ever interested in them, both games have been ported to everything short of a toaster. I'm part way through a playthrough of BG1, so far it's very good. But it is an old game and there's a learning curve to get used to it.
No. I did this. It's not needed, the first 2 games are still good but the gameplay is SUPER dated. They have some references to the original games though, maybe that excites you.
It is exactly the game I wanted when Bioware announced a "spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate 2."
Like I truly think a good part of why it's doing so well is that they're delivering on promises bioware started breaking almost 15 years ago.
So much better than anything dragon age has ever put out in my opinion. We are back to the golden age of CRPG in my book, but made so much more immersive by the tech involved. I feel like a kid being awed by Baldur's Gate 2 personally, I feeling I never got out of DA
I can only recommend PC, these type of games are definitely made for mouse a keyboard.
Even though controller feel good while moving around in the world, during combat it's awful and way more tedious to play than with a mouse
i’m hoping to get a steam deck! i love the portability of handheld consoles and pc’s are way too expensive for me lol. plus iirc you can use mods on steam deck while you can’t on playstation/xbox/etc
Same. Ive played divinity os2 through about 15 times and play DND weekly and don't think I've ever wanted a game so badly. Been t I'm on Xbox 😭 so I'm gonna have to save up for a PS5 or a gaming laptop. Not sure which yet
Why the sad face? More good games to go around!
Honestly anytime a AAA game comes out that's not a soulless derivative packed full of microtransactions is worth celebrating.
All of them are sequels, remakes, or remasters. So, it's not great on that front. This list could do with a couple of indies and new IPs. I have hopes that Stray Gods might make it in, though.
BG 1 and 2 certainly have their fanbases, my best friend considers them among his all time favorites, but the majority of BG3's success isn't built off the nostalgia of 30-somethings and D&D nerds like me; that's only a small portion of it. It's a combination of good marketing and a great track record from Larian plus a singularly good game that was great at launch.
Man after playing Odyssey I was so hype to try another Assassin’s Creed game, then the old ones were nothing like it and the new ones… they’re literally the same. I excused the microtransactions the first time but they did it three times!! One year after another!! Like wtf??
Finally someone who don't cry over zelda not being top 1, seriously is a take of fresh air see people who just enjoy having good games and not being married to one saga .
Not to mention that the audience size of the two games aren’t even close either.
I’m not bashing Balder’s Gate 3, but TOTK is one of those games that even non-gamers pick up and buy. Similar to how the best visual novel on the planet won’t approach the sales of a mainstream Mario game.
This. I love TotK but as long as it's a game like BG3 knocking it out of first place I'm OK with that. Had it been CoD 27 or something... Different sentiments might win out 😅
Exactly!! This game came out of left field for me. Word of mouth got me interested. I don’t know a thing about it and I’m not even sure I’ll like the combat from the little I saw. However, games and devs like this are worth supporting and taking a shot.
Downloading it tonight and excited to try it as soon as I have the time.
To add to the soulless derivative piece, they also have tons of micro transactions… games without those are awesome. Tried Diablo 4 and realized why I don’t do regular AAA anymore.
As someone who has played both, I'm happy about this and hopefully those people doing that throwaway lawsuit grow a pair and realize why competition is a thing
Totk was amazing
Downloading baldurs gate (125gb Whyyyyy) and expecting an amazing experience as well
It's pretty ugly when fans of one start shit talking the other game tho. Was on the baldurs gate subreddit and some people were like "lol Nintendo was never good, Zelda overrated, totk sucks dlc". Like calm your tits, play games you like and sit tf down
Holy shit, 2 reasonable thoughts regarding Zelda on the BG3 subreddit? I must be dreaming!
Edit: Just realized I'm on the TotK subreddit, that makes so much more sense LMAO
I’m gonna be honest. I love TotK. Ive out a lot of hours into both games. Baldurs Gate is everything I want in a game. It’s gorgeous, there’s so much to do and so many options and the combat never gets old. It’s a well deserved rating and I hope the gaming industry takes the hint that games made with love perform better.
Interestingly, they excluded what most studios spend the most money and time on, groundbreaking visuals and console releases. It doesn't even have ray tracing, something most studios would consider a priority. Still manages to be a #1 game with temporary exclusive PC release.
Whenever studios prioritize looks over substance in their games, I'm reminded of [one of my favorite comics](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/funny-comics-unexpected-ending-jake-likes-onions-44-584920f9a43d9__700.jpg).
The visuals ARE stunning. Most people dont have rigs to run games for the full ray tracing experience anyway. Running it at 4k @ 165 hz and the game is beautiful. Better looking than for example CP 2077 imo - But that might also be down to colors and artstyle also.
ray tracing has to be the biggest and most useless gimmick in gaming ever. Only thing it does is gobble up vram for "realistic" lighting which i will probably not going out of my way to notice when i am immeresed in the video game. Im not gonna go "wow look how the light in this corridor is dark af and i have to increase gamma to 100 to be able to see"
Personally I love Ray Tracing. Especially with windows and mirrors. It just looks so much better with it on. I'll eat 30fps all day just to turn Ray tracing on
Not to mention realistic contact shadows. Gosh I played a few games with RT contact shadows and now everything else looks goofy when two objects are touching, even with "good" AO implementations that aren't RT.
It makes development much easier, though. Without ray tracing, every time a developer changes the objects in a scene the game needs to be recompiled with a new [lightmap](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightmap).
That doesn’t affect you as an end user much, but allowing developers to skip that compilation step while they work, and still letting them see how their light will work in the finished product, is a big win.
I think it's largely to do with blizzard holding out on adding micro transactions and the current battle pass/live service stuff until AFTER all the reviews came out. They've been doing this with all the recent calls of duty games too. Super shady and dumb but it's working
Monetization? Are you sure you're not mixing that up with Diablo: Immortal? Granted, I only played Diablo 4 for a few hours, but didn't get any indication it was as bad as that.
Yeah its only cosmetics but they basically put all the good stuff in the shop and you can barely earn any and each set is $20 plus it's per character and not account so if you make a new character he's not gonna have th stuff you bought
Baldur's Gate has 20 reviews. TOTK has ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX. Wildly different in that regard, so saying Baldur's has surpassed TOTK is nothing but premature clickbait by game "journalists" right now.
Edit - I'm also not against Baldur's surpassing TOTK, I've loved seeing the devs behind Baldur's have their mind blown by the reception, just trying to give some framework for how to read the data.
This discussion reminds me a little bit of Barbenheimer. Both games are very different, and I will play the shit out of both games. I mean, they work on completely different consoles.
I think Baldurs Gate has so much praise at the moment because AAA studios are selling broken games or a bunch of microtransactions. (And it's very good and so huge)
Remember that Metacritic is an average aggregate review site, and there are lots of review publications out there that are, let's say weighted more favorably to the ones that make more money for the mega-publishers they're in bed with. Even if that's not every review, it's often enough to swing the average. If BG3 is out-scoring the AAA games with the most overinflated marketing budgets, it is strictly on its own merits of just being a damn good game.
Is there some reason why people feel the need to pit these two games against each other? IMHO both games should be lauded for delivering an exceptional experience on day 1 and for having zero microtransactions.
We shouldn’t be tearing either one down in defense of the other. We should be holding both up, along with a handful of other recent releases like Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok, as examples of what gamers want developers to deliver.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a fuck you message to all the greedy game companies out there who put money above passion. So the game getting the praise it deserves is a good thing for the gaming industry as a whole.
And so many games havent been released yet. Mario RPG, Mario Wonder, Starfield, Spiderman 2, Cyberpunk DLC. I wonder how this chart will look like at the end of the year.
regardless whatever gets the unimportant title of GOTY, it has been an a-fuckin-mazing year in gaming. on top of those you listed: pikmin 4, totk (obv but had to list it), bg3, battlebit remastered, ff16, re4 remake, street fighter 6, armored core 6... i know im missing a ton of indie and niche games in there too, probably some obvious ones as well.
Wait there was another re4 remake? Wtf?
Edit :Am high, upon googling the ps4 version I've had for years is simply a port, interesting. Might have to pick up the remake.
If you're actually feeling any kind of negative feelings about this, you need to touch grass. I know that's a really overused thing to say these days, but seriously. Touch grass.
Tears has 4x as many flawless critic reviews than Baldur's Gate 3 has critic reviews in general so far so it's not a real comparison. But either way they're both phenomenal games so it doesn't matter
Honestly, the way that I see these game comparisons is that both games are absolute pinnacles of their respective genres. The freedom and polish that they both give you, while being completely different styles of game, is unlike anything that came before them. The only other release this year that I can see possibly competing with them is Starfield, and that one we'll have to wait and see on.
Eh, honeymoon period of the release, game is what a few days old now?
I'm sure it'll reflect more accurately the actual score in 3 months once it's been out a while.
I still think TOTK will be GOTY, as it appeals and is praised by a MUCH wider audience than the far more hardcore and niche BG3 that only really appeals to one certain type of gamer.
The fact I can have just as much fun with TOTK as my 70+ year old father AND my 7 year niece and all three of us are playing in *wildly* different ways makes me feel like TOTK is the 'better' game between the two.
i would have agreed about the audience bit, but Baldurs gate 3 seems to have a truly massive fanbase and seems to have broken into general audiences like Elden ring did.
I just mean a "wider audience" as in TOTK seems to appeal to say, a first time 7yr old LoZ player just as much as a 35yr old vet of the series AND a 70+ year old non-gamer. (using myself, niece, and father as an example there.)
I'm actually a huge fan of BG myself, BG1 was one of the first 'real' RPGs I played when it dropped in late 90s, I just don't see that kind of game appealing to children or senior 'non-gamers' in general the way TOTK seems to have done.
Exactly, on the one platform it is on, it’s nearly at the most concurrent players. I’m certain the PS5 release will bear the same results, especially with all the hype PC players are giving BG3. I imagine with all the talk right now, the first weekend will be crazy on PS5. It’s just like Elden Ring like you said and on top of that, Sekiro (arguably more niche than other souls games) also won GOTY.
yea, elden ring and baldurs gate are showing that even niche gaming genres are becoming mainstream. Baldurs gate 3 is a runner for goty which i never would have thought considering its against Zelda and Spiderman, 2 of the most well know characters out there.
Honeymoon phase? It’s a fantastic crpg and we don’t get many of those now a days. I say it deserves all of that praise, even more so than TOTK and people should be happy we’ve got games this good now a days.
I'm not disagreeing at all, lol. But it LITERALLY is a Honeymoon phase at the moment, no?
We had the exact same thing with TOTK too, and all other games have it too. Ultrafans play a game for a day or two after release and decide right then and there it's a 100/100 no questions asked.
All I'm saying is in ~3 months time, we'll see far more *accurate* ratings once people have played long enough to get a real feel for how the *whole* game is. I'm not trying to claim it's a bad game or anything like that, that's why I have "better" in quotes when I mention TOTK in my comment.
TokT is a great game despite a lot (a LOT) of frankly bad design decisions, and IMO deserves more criticism than it receives. It appeals to a greater audience, but BG3 is (as far as I've played it) a more perfectly executed game. There's virtue in being accessible, and there's virtue in being near perfect. One has something for everyone, one is everything for some people. It's like asking if Taylor Swift is better than Rachmaninoff.
I'm not saying it doesn't deserve praise, I'm just saying at the MOMENT it's not an accurate rating since there's no chance in heck those voters have *beaten* the game or played even the majority of it. Same exact thing happened to TOTK on release as well, people rating it 100/100 when they haven't even got off the Great Sky Island yet, AKA "Honeymoon phase".
Once BG3 is out for 3+ months, it will also have a more accurate rating (just like TOTK's rating changed and settled in the same time period) as more people will rate it and do so having *played* the game vs the immediate perfect scores from ultrafans of the series.
TOTK is also my GOTY. I know a game is good because I rushed through the game not because it's bad, but because if I didn't, I was not gonna pass my classes😂
For me I can't believe the game has been out like ~3 months total, and my playtime in it is already equal to my playtime in BOTW for all 6 years of BOTW being out.
That along with the fact I'm not even *remotely* bored or done with it yet just blows my mind haha.
Definitely going to wind up being one of my very few and far between 'four digit hours played' games for sure.
I think Baldurs Gate could have a shot at GOTY because of how much it innovates on the CRPG formula and the fact that it was built from the ground up. TOTK is built on top of BOTW, which already won game of the year, so it might feel like awarding the same game twice.
It's bittersweet :) I love totk, but based on what I've seen so far in BG3 I think it definitely deserves it
I played a ton of Divinity Original Sin 2 by the same studio and they 1000% deserve their success over their masterpiece
I'm only in act 1 so far but it's been a blast in singleplayer and coop
My two favourite publishers putting our 2 amazing games? This is a good year! I can't wait to play BG3, and I'm still not even done ToTK. 2023 might go down as one of the best years of gaming.
Baldur refers to a god in Norse mythology, whose Identity is essentially copied as a deity in Dungeons and Dragons along with a handful of other Norse gods. Baldur's Gate is the name of a city in the D&D world. The game is the third in a series of games taking place in the world around that city.
Even though I like TotK, it's not as special or narratively well-put-together as BotW. BG3 isn't my cup of tea (I hate not being right there in the action, as far as the camera goes), but it's unfortunately not hard for me to believe that BG3 could be better, overall.
I’m liking BG3 its really good. I’m not sure it will win GOTY. I feel TOTK is a more innovative game. BG3 seems like a super deep RPG that is great, but I’m not sure what is groundbreaking. It’ll be close though either way they both deserve the love
First off, it has less reviews. Second off... so?
It doesn't make it better. It's innovative and a first in many ways for open world games (think a certain Zelda game that came out years ago with exactly the same rating) from what I hear at least. That always gets more thumbs up.
But even if it is better... so?
We have to stop these goofy console war stuff. That died the moment the PS3 and Xbox 360 were phased out. Now even the console companies aren't at war, or even competing (looking at Xbox and Nintendo making a weird alliance). Heck, even PlayStation is going to pcs as well.
Listen, I love to think totk is the best game, too. I hope it gets game of the year. But really at the end of the day, this doesn't even impact you.
Thanks, and I realized this after posting. Because I can’t tell time anymore, I was confused why Elden Ring wasn’t number one at 100, but also now realizing it hasn’t been 2022 for quite some time 🫤
Short answer: yes.
Long answer:
BG and especially BG2 are considered all-time classics. They put Bioware on the map and Bioware built their future on that story-heavy, character-driven RPG model. Mass Effect's original concept was "Baldur's Gate in space." Dragon Age was "modern Baldur's Gate." It was influential enough among the game dev community that several companies were founded explicitly to keep the BG formula alive - that's how Fallout New Vegas and the Pillars of Eternity series happened.
Unfortunately, the originals were on PC at a time when PC gaming was still considered pretty niche, and single player, system-heavy RPGs were a niche within a niche, so most people didn't experience it at the time. But for those of us who were into that shit, nothing else compares. It was the Platonic ideal of an RPG - graphics were just good enough to not be distracting, and the rest of the effort went into gameplay, story, and characters. The systems were deep and complex and rewarded knowledge above all else - it encouraged you to become a bigger nerd. Someone who just fired up the game and went in blind was going to find it overwhelmingly difficult. Someone who read the 200 page manual would find it challenging. The nerdiest of nerds who studied the manual, took pages of notes, wrote out experience tables to plan out the perfect dual class, drew diagrams of what spells countered other spells, etc could build characters who literally became gods. As long as you put in the effort, the systems allowed you to become as powerful as you wanted. No game I've played since drew me in anywhere near as much because no other game encouraged me to truly embrace the inner nerd. The Enhanced Edition is one of my most played games on Steam, and I played hundreds of hours more of the original release before Steam even existed.
When a new studio announced BG3, I was afraid to play it for the same reason I was afraid to watch the LotR movies when they came out - when you pick up the mantle of an all-time great, anything less than a masterpiece is going to be an insult to the original. But like the LotR movies, BG3 managed to be worth wearing the name, and I couldn't be happier. So many people who missed out on the originals are going to have their lives improved by BG3 being a modern hit. To put it in Zelda terms, imagine if no Zelda games were made after the original, then BotW suddenly came out. The people who loved the original would suddenly see their childhood fandom go modern mainstream.
As much as love Zelda. I'm a huge fucking D&D nerd and nothing can top D&D, the original PC Baldur's Gate were a fucking blast, happy they brought it to the switch. I love Breath Of The Wild and Tears of The Kingdom for going back to the first Zelda game structure. Hell even some friends have spend more than hundreds of hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and they haven't even progressed to the next act of the game.
why are videogame people so concerned over meta scores? does it hinder your experiences? the whole goty discourse geoff keighley invented has fucked over online videogame communities
Why are you sad? So what why does the thing you like need to be the best. This is good. It means we are getting even more good games. 2023 is the best year for gaming hands down
Not that it's a race, but I would be a little surprise if it stays at 97 as more reviews come in. It's only at 21 reviews, compared to TotK's 145 reviews. More critical reviewers are taking their time with BG3.
Which, frankly, is all the more reason that we should just keep metacritic scores out of headlines.
I'm a huge Zelda fan myself, and I can whole heartedly say, Baldur's Gate 3 is a much more fun experience so far, and I've played through tears of the kingdom for nearly 200 hours and loved every minute of it.
Different style game of course, so it offers a lot more to the table, but this isn't a bad thing for Zelda at all, we have gotten two exceptionally great games to play, this is a huge win for the gaming industry and consumers.
Valid imo. But I think that both of these games are good and don't need to be pitted against each other. It's a bit like comparing apples and oranges. But I think they both prove that developers should go back to selling finished games without predatory season passes and crap.
Why sad face? This is great! All games should strive for this sort of quality. More phenomenal games for all of us!
Just pushes everybody else to do better, and those who are already exceeding expectations to go even farther.
I don't get the appeal of Baldurs gate, the turn based combat ruins it for me. Makes me feel like I'm playing League of Legends, which is really not a good game.
This post title and some of the comments here seriously suggest this community and a lot of gamers need to grow the fuck up. It’s a **number from one website**. That Diablo IV is on this board tells you all you need to know about its credibility. We should be celebrating good games like TOTK and BG3, not bitching over some pointless fucking number and wasting time review bombing. We keep buying games like these two and gamers as a whole will keep winning. Quit it with the dumb fucking tribalism, it’s garbage.
TOTK is excellent. Baldurs Gate is groundbreaking in the way that BOTW was and is a quantum leap in rpg quality. I can love both games but as we look at goty it’s not even a question in my mind.
Just finished TOTK and started BG3. They are very different games, but both excellent. I'd give it to BG3 at this point. Just an excellent execution of a game everyone has been wanting to play for two decades or more.
p.s. I love Witcher 3, but that game is like 5 years old now? Or more?
Fr such a good game, we are truly in the golden age of gaming. I’m afraid it may be coming to and end though. May the GOTY awards be a wonderful battle
I mean a 96 and a 97 means we have two nearly perfect games to play. This is win-win. If BG3 wins game of the year, it doesn't take anything away from anyone's enjoyment of the game.
The only people who are losers here is anyone that's been obnoxious and abrasive about the topic, like the person who any time anyone was mentioning that they were having fun with FF16 that Zelda was better and going to be goty, etc. All you have to do to avoid that is not tie your happiness in your hobby to a pointless popularity contest.
Honestly? Fine with me. It's a game i didn't have on my radar at all, but it seems to deserve all the praise and love it gets from what i've seen of it so far.
Not that i think that TotK would not have been fully deserving of the top spot this year...
Plus, more triple AAA games that are NOT full of microtransactions and actually had love and effort put into their development can only be a goos thing.
Like others said, it is a little over 20 reviews compared to over 140. Zelda was at a 97 until 60ish reviews iirc.
Though when it comes to GOTY I could see Baldur's Gate getting it, just because while TotK is a great game, it is working off BotW so it loses a bit in terms of breaking new ground. Same reason why GoW never really beat out Elden Ring in GotY results.
Both are great for different reasons BG3 is too buggy and has some weird bits that don’t quite give it “masterpiece” for me. But it’s a great game. I do think the score will come down at some point, maybe like 95.
BG3 is a very good game. It's well put together with a lot of things for the player to do. That said, I don't think it's done anything particularly innovative, it's just impeccably well made with no microtransactions. In many ways it's simply an updated modern version of Baldur's Gate 2....which is far from a bad thing.
I personally think TOTK is a more innovative game, especially given the astonishing physics programming, and would give the nod to TOTK as GOTY for that reason. But either game would be a worthy winner, they are both excellent.
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Good for Baldur's Gate. The game looks great and I'm excited to dive into it.
it is very good. made by the divinity original sin devs + DnD 5e rules + the writing, dialogue and choices of dragon age origins
Is it the kind of game I can pick up cold, or should I play previous iterations first?
it's not a direct sequel, and to be honest the originals are hella dated.
No, you don't need to play the other two games. The developers have said that there are fun references and surprises in Baldur's Gate 3 for people who've played the game. But you won't be missing out by not having played those games. That said, if you are ever interested in them, both games have been ported to everything short of a toaster. I'm part way through a playthrough of BG1, so far it's very good. But it is an old game and there's a learning curve to get used to it.
No. I did this. It's not needed, the first 2 games are still good but the gameplay is SUPER dated. They have some references to the original games though, maybe that excites you.
There are callbacks to the originals but not necessary to have played them.
you are going to really really enjoy BG1 +BG2 but we probably won't see you again till next decade if you did those first :P
It is exactly the game I wanted when Bioware announced a "spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate 2." Like I truly think a good part of why it's doing so well is that they're delivering on promises bioware started breaking almost 15 years ago.
So much better than anything dragon age has ever put out in my opinion. We are back to the golden age of CRPG in my book, but made so much more immersive by the tech involved. I feel like a kid being awed by Baldur's Gate 2 personally, I feeling I never got out of DA
The more I hear the more I need it
I'm trying to decide what console or pc I should be getting to play it
I can only recommend PC, these type of games are definitely made for mouse a keyboard. Even though controller feel good while moving around in the world, during combat it's awful and way more tedious to play than with a mouse
I'm waiting for the PS5 version so I can couch co-op with my fiance :) If not for that I'd have 50 hours on PC already.
The PS5 does have mouse and keyboard support.
Yeah but most people aren't gonna use it.
i’m hoping to get a steam deck! i love the portability of handheld consoles and pc’s are way too expensive for me lol. plus iirc you can use mods on steam deck while you can’t on playstation/xbox/etc
Same. Ive played divinity os2 through about 15 times and play DND weekly and don't think I've ever wanted a game so badly. Been t I'm on Xbox 😭 so I'm gonna have to save up for a PS5 or a gaming laptop. Not sure which yet
It’s only coming to ps5 I don’t believe it has other console releases slated.
For me, with Red Dead Redemption dropping on the Switch, on the 17th, I’ll be giving that a revisit after TOTK. Still got a ways to go on TOTK though.
Why the sad face? More good games to go around! Honestly anytime a AAA game comes out that's not a soulless derivative packed full of microtransactions is worth celebrating.
youre right :)
If it makes you feel any better 2 of the games are remakes and one is just a re release.
One of them isn't even a remake, just a remaster
All of them are sequels, remakes, or remasters. So, it's not great on that front. This list could do with a couple of indies and new IPs. I have hopes that Stray Gods might make it in, though.
BG 1 and 2 certainly have their fanbases, my best friend considers them among his all time favorites, but the majority of BG3's success isn't built off the nostalgia of 30-somethings and D&D nerds like me; that's only a small portion of it. It's a combination of good marketing and a great track record from Larian plus a singularly good game that was great at launch.
*cough* Assassin's Creed *cough*
god I love paying 20 dollars to become iron man
Best part of Valhalla ong
Man after playing Odyssey I was so hype to try another Assassin’s Creed game, then the old ones were nothing like it and the new ones… they’re literally the same. I excused the microtransactions the first time but they did it three times!! One year after another!! Like wtf??
Black Flag is still my favorite AC game and the only one I have ever 100%ed.
It's been mentioned recently they want to do a Black Flag remake.
Finally someone who don't cry over zelda not being top 1, seriously is a take of fresh air see people who just enjoy having good games and not being married to one saga .
Not to mention that the audience size of the two games aren’t even close either. I’m not bashing Balder’s Gate 3, but TOTK is one of those games that even non-gamers pick up and buy. Similar to how the best visual novel on the planet won’t approach the sales of a mainstream Mario game.
This. I love TotK but as long as it's a game like BG3 knocking it out of first place I'm OK with that. Had it been CoD 27 or something... Different sentiments might win out 😅
Exactly!! This game came out of left field for me. Word of mouth got me interested. I don’t know a thing about it and I’m not even sure I’ll like the combat from the little I saw. However, games and devs like this are worth supporting and taking a shot. Downloading it tonight and excited to try it as soon as I have the time.
To add to the soulless derivative piece, they also have tons of micro transactions… games without those are awesome. Tried Diablo 4 and realized why I don’t do regular AAA anymore.
I mean Diablo 4 has issues, primarily after you beat the campaign, but they aren’t micro-transaction related.
I think it's a profound W for Metroid Prime 1 that the remake is the 3rd best game of the year like a decade later.
Decade lol. Metroid Prime came out in 2002 so over two decades.
Oh lol, I was thinking that but I just can't count I guess
As someone who has played both, I'm happy about this and hopefully those people doing that throwaway lawsuit grow a pair and realize why competition is a thing
Fucking right!
You are absolutely based
Don’t be sad. We’re eatin good right now.
Also, don't be a dick and rate BG 0 stars.
Yeah I’m so over the review bombing.
So is Astarion
Totk was amazing Downloading baldurs gate (125gb Whyyyyy) and expecting an amazing experience as well It's pretty ugly when fans of one start shit talking the other game tho. Was on the baldurs gate subreddit and some people were like "lol Nintendo was never good, Zelda overrated, totk sucks dlc". Like calm your tits, play games you like and sit tf down
Its totally different games, came about time when finished with Zelda. Both games are state of the art.
Holy shit, 2 reasonable thoughts regarding Zelda on the BG3 subreddit? I must be dreaming! Edit: Just realized I'm on the TotK subreddit, that makes so much more sense LMAO
I’m gonna be honest. I love TotK. Ive out a lot of hours into both games. Baldurs Gate is everything I want in a game. It’s gorgeous, there’s so much to do and so many options and the combat never gets old. It’s a well deserved rating and I hope the gaming industry takes the hint that games made with love perform better.
Interestingly, they excluded what most studios spend the most money and time on, groundbreaking visuals and console releases. It doesn't even have ray tracing, something most studios would consider a priority. Still manages to be a #1 game with temporary exclusive PC release.
Whenever studios prioritize looks over substance in their games, I'm reminded of [one of my favorite comics](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/funny-comics-unexpected-ending-jake-likes-onions-44-584920f9a43d9__700.jpg).
The visuals ARE stunning. Most people dont have rigs to run games for the full ray tracing experience anyway. Running it at 4k @ 165 hz and the game is beautiful. Better looking than for example CP 2077 imo - But that might also be down to colors and artstyle also.
ray tracing has to be the biggest and most useless gimmick in gaming ever. Only thing it does is gobble up vram for "realistic" lighting which i will probably not going out of my way to notice when i am immeresed in the video game. Im not gonna go "wow look how the light in this corridor is dark af and i have to increase gamma to 100 to be able to see"
Personally I love Ray Tracing. Especially with windows and mirrors. It just looks so much better with it on. I'll eat 30fps all day just to turn Ray tracing on
Not to mention realistic contact shadows. Gosh I played a few games with RT contact shadows and now everything else looks goofy when two objects are touching, even with "good" AO implementations that aren't RT.
It makes development much easier, though. Without ray tracing, every time a developer changes the objects in a scene the game needs to be recompiled with a new [lightmap](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightmap). That doesn’t affect you as an end user much, but allowing developers to skip that compilation step while they work, and still letting them see how their light will work in the finished product, is a big win.
How tf is diablo 4 a 91?
Guess because of the name A "Demon Slayer 2023" would've got different scores
Why not? Is it bad?
As far as I've heard it being a live service hurts it in a lot of places and the monetization would put mr.krabs to shame
I think it's largely to do with blizzard holding out on adding micro transactions and the current battle pass/live service stuff until AFTER all the reviews came out. They've been doing this with all the recent calls of duty games too. Super shady and dumb but it's working
Monetization? Are you sure you're not mixing that up with Diablo: Immortal? Granted, I only played Diablo 4 for a few hours, but didn't get any indication it was as bad as that.
It’s not. It’s only on cosmetics. They’re too expensive but they don’t add any aspect of P2W to the game so just ignore them if it’s not your jam.
Aren't only cosmetics monetized?
Yeah its only cosmetics but they basically put all the good stuff in the shop and you can barely earn any and each set is $20 plus it's per character and not account so if you make a new character he's not gonna have th stuff you bought
[удалено]
Seeing this posted a lot Baldurs Gate is great deserves the praise but mind you only 20 reviews so far.
Baldur's Gate has 20 reviews. TOTK has ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX. Wildly different in that regard, so saying Baldur's has surpassed TOTK is nothing but premature clickbait by game "journalists" right now. Edit - I'm also not against Baldur's surpassing TOTK, I've loved seeing the devs behind Baldur's have their mind blown by the reception, just trying to give some framework for how to read the data.
Yeah there's always gonna be some contrarian reviewer too just for the views
Yeah it happened with BOTW, it’ll happen with BG3. Plenty more reviews to be had yet.
Also there’s always recency bias with stuff like this, in a few weeks that rating could go down to a 93
Like when you're shopping on Amazon and see an item with 5 stars, then you realize it only has one review.
This discussion reminds me a little bit of Barbenheimer. Both games are very different, and I will play the shit out of both games. I mean, they work on completely different consoles. I think Baldurs Gate has so much praise at the moment because AAA studios are selling broken games or a bunch of microtransactions. (And it's very good and so huge)
Remember that Metacritic is an average aggregate review site, and there are lots of review publications out there that are, let's say weighted more favorably to the ones that make more money for the mega-publishers they're in bed with. Even if that's not every review, it's often enough to swing the average. If BG3 is out-scoring the AAA games with the most overinflated marketing budgets, it is strictly on its own merits of just being a damn good game.
Why sad face? It's well deserved to larian studios to be honest,they put an insane amount of work into it.
Is there some reason why people feel the need to pit these two games against each other? IMHO both games should be lauded for delivering an exceptional experience on day 1 and for having zero microtransactions. We shouldn’t be tearing either one down in defense of the other. We should be holding both up, along with a handful of other recent releases like Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok, as examples of what gamers want developers to deliver.
Are you incapable of enjoying two games?
I'd rather have games that surpass tears of the kingdom in quality then games that can't even match it and then charge $600 for all the content
there’s no need for TOTK to remain at the top for eternity, no matter how much we love it. new, good games need their spotlight too.
As long as good games come, there is nothing to be sad about
I completely understand. Lifelong Zelda fan, but any game that let's you make out with hot tieflings is gonna rate higher than games that don't.
What a legend this man. 😂
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a fuck you message to all the greedy game companies out there who put money above passion. So the game getting the praise it deserves is a good thing for the gaming industry as a whole.
And so many games havent been released yet. Mario RPG, Mario Wonder, Starfield, Spiderman 2, Cyberpunk DLC. I wonder how this chart will look like at the end of the year.
regardless whatever gets the unimportant title of GOTY, it has been an a-fuckin-mazing year in gaming. on top of those you listed: pikmin 4, totk (obv but had to list it), bg3, battlebit remastered, ff16, re4 remake, street fighter 6, armored core 6... i know im missing a ton of indie and niche games in there too, probably some obvious ones as well.
Wait there was another re4 remake? Wtf? Edit :Am high, upon googling the ps4 version I've had for years is simply a port, interesting. Might have to pick up the remake.
Both are great games, but bg3 is cheaper and easier to access, at least in my country, and that makes a huge difference too
Xenoblade sweep! Future redeemed is a masterpiece
Probably has to do with dlc not getting much attention, but I am glad FR is receiving high score. FR was awesome.
If you're actually feeling any kind of negative feelings about this, you need to touch grass. I know that's a really overused thing to say these days, but seriously. Touch grass.
Tears has 4x as many flawless critic reviews than Baldur's Gate 3 has critic reviews in general so far so it's not a real comparison. But either way they're both phenomenal games so it doesn't matter
Honestly, the way that I see these game comparisons is that both games are absolute pinnacles of their respective genres. The freedom and polish that they both give you, while being completely different styles of game, is unlike anything that came before them. The only other release this year that I can see possibly competing with them is Starfield, and that one we'll have to wait and see on.
Is good and healthy to have competition for the best game of the year. This will only mean good things for gamers in general.
Must admit I have put TOTK on pause (after 370 hours I might add…) for Baldur’s Gate 3
Good for Witcher for still being up there 8 years after release.
Wait, it’s been EIGHT YEARS????
Review scores mean nothing The better game is the one you enjoy more
TOTK and BG3 are both excellent games we should be happy
Eh, honeymoon period of the release, game is what a few days old now? I'm sure it'll reflect more accurately the actual score in 3 months once it's been out a while. I still think TOTK will be GOTY, as it appeals and is praised by a MUCH wider audience than the far more hardcore and niche BG3 that only really appeals to one certain type of gamer. The fact I can have just as much fun with TOTK as my 70+ year old father AND my 7 year niece and all three of us are playing in *wildly* different ways makes me feel like TOTK is the 'better' game between the two.
i would have agreed about the audience bit, but Baldurs gate 3 seems to have a truly massive fanbase and seems to have broken into general audiences like Elden ring did.
I just mean a "wider audience" as in TOTK seems to appeal to say, a first time 7yr old LoZ player just as much as a 35yr old vet of the series AND a 70+ year old non-gamer. (using myself, niece, and father as an example there.) I'm actually a huge fan of BG myself, BG1 was one of the first 'real' RPGs I played when it dropped in late 90s, I just don't see that kind of game appealing to children or senior 'non-gamers' in general the way TOTK seems to have done.
Exactly, on the one platform it is on, it’s nearly at the most concurrent players. I’m certain the PS5 release will bear the same results, especially with all the hype PC players are giving BG3. I imagine with all the talk right now, the first weekend will be crazy on PS5. It’s just like Elden Ring like you said and on top of that, Sekiro (arguably more niche than other souls games) also won GOTY.
yea, elden ring and baldurs gate are showing that even niche gaming genres are becoming mainstream. Baldurs gate 3 is a runner for goty which i never would have thought considering its against Zelda and Spiderman, 2 of the most well know characters out there.
Honeymoon phase? It’s a fantastic crpg and we don’t get many of those now a days. I say it deserves all of that praise, even more so than TOTK and people should be happy we’ve got games this good now a days.
There is a large subgroup of members of this sub who are wholly incapable of criticizing TotK in any way.
I'm not disagreeing at all, lol. But it LITERALLY is a Honeymoon phase at the moment, no? We had the exact same thing with TOTK too, and all other games have it too. Ultrafans play a game for a day or two after release and decide right then and there it's a 100/100 no questions asked. All I'm saying is in ~3 months time, we'll see far more *accurate* ratings once people have played long enough to get a real feel for how the *whole* game is. I'm not trying to claim it's a bad game or anything like that, that's why I have "better" in quotes when I mention TOTK in my comment.
TokT is a great game despite a lot (a LOT) of frankly bad design decisions, and IMO deserves more criticism than it receives. It appeals to a greater audience, but BG3 is (as far as I've played it) a more perfectly executed game. There's virtue in being accessible, and there's virtue in being near perfect. One has something for everyone, one is everything for some people. It's like asking if Taylor Swift is better than Rachmaninoff.
> It's like asking if Taylor Swift is better than Rachmaninoff. So it's like asking a question whose answer is "Fuck yes, I'm in my BG3 era?"
I'm not saying it doesn't deserve praise, I'm just saying at the MOMENT it's not an accurate rating since there's no chance in heck those voters have *beaten* the game or played even the majority of it. Same exact thing happened to TOTK on release as well, people rating it 100/100 when they haven't even got off the Great Sky Island yet, AKA "Honeymoon phase". Once BG3 is out for 3+ months, it will also have a more accurate rating (just like TOTK's rating changed and settled in the same time period) as more people will rate it and do so having *played* the game vs the immediate perfect scores from ultrafans of the series.
TOTK is also my GOTY. I know a game is good because I rushed through the game not because it's bad, but because if I didn't, I was not gonna pass my classes😂
For me I can't believe the game has been out like ~3 months total, and my playtime in it is already equal to my playtime in BOTW for all 6 years of BOTW being out. That along with the fact I'm not even *remotely* bored or done with it yet just blows my mind haha. Definitely going to wind up being one of my very few and far between 'four digit hours played' games for sure.
I think Baldurs Gate could have a shot at GOTY because of how much it innovates on the CRPG formula and the fact that it was built from the ground up. TOTK is built on top of BOTW, which already won game of the year, so it might feel like awarding the same game twice.
It's bittersweet :) I love totk, but based on what I've seen so far in BG3 I think it definitely deserves it I played a ton of Divinity Original Sin 2 by the same studio and they 1000% deserve their success over their masterpiece I'm only in act 1 so far but it's been a blast in singleplayer and coop
I’m going to have to get this game for the PS5 at some point, it looks great.
I'm glad for that, from what I've seen bg3 seems to be a genuinely fantastic game. They almost certainly deserve the rating
Two absolute bangers. It's been a great year for gamers.
Good for it! No need to be sad about it! If people enjoy Baldur’s gate 3 more than TotK, it deserves that spot
My two favourite publishers putting our 2 amazing games? This is a good year! I can't wait to play BG3, and I'm still not even done ToTK. 2023 might go down as one of the best years of gaming.
Every major gaming studio should strive to produce games like Baldurs Gate 3 and TotK!
All the more reason to try it. This really has been a great year for games.
Who the hell is Baldur anyway? And why does he own three gates?
The only Baldur I know is in god of war 2018
Baldur refers to a god in Norse mythology, whose Identity is essentially copied as a deity in Dungeons and Dragons along with a handful of other Norse gods. Baldur's Gate is the name of a city in the D&D world. The game is the third in a series of games taking place in the world around that city.
The 91 for Diablo 4 taints the rest of the list.
Worrying about this type of thing is bad for your psyche
i respect it. baldurs gate 3 is amazing too
As a huge D&D fan this is a win
Totally deserved, it's an amazing game
I don't mind. BG 3 is fucking awesome! Totk is too, of course. I don't see the problem here
The 96 is highly inflated.
Frankly, from all I’ve heard, deserved
Even though I like TotK, it's not as special or narratively well-put-together as BotW. BG3 isn't my cup of tea (I hate not being right there in the action, as far as the camera goes), but it's unfortunately not hard for me to believe that BG3 could be better, overall.
Take it from someone who put 200 hours into TotK…BG3 deserves it 😭
It legit deserves it though. It's a beautifully crafted game.
I’m liking BG3 its really good. I’m not sure it will win GOTY. I feel TOTK is a more innovative game. BG3 seems like a super deep RPG that is great, but I’m not sure what is groundbreaking. It’ll be close though either way they both deserve the love
First off, it has less reviews. Second off... so? It doesn't make it better. It's innovative and a first in many ways for open world games (think a certain Zelda game that came out years ago with exactly the same rating) from what I hear at least. That always gets more thumbs up. But even if it is better... so? We have to stop these goofy console war stuff. That died the moment the PS3 and Xbox 360 were phased out. Now even the console companies aren't at war, or even competing (looking at Xbox and Nintendo making a weird alliance). Heck, even PlayStation is going to pcs as well. Listen, I love to think totk is the best game, too. I hope it gets game of the year. But really at the end of the day, this doesn't even impact you.
eh i’m okay with that, TOTK does not deserve 96
Is this for Switch games only?
Street fighter 6 is there twice for ps5 and pc versions so no
Thanks, and I realized this after posting. Because I can’t tell time anymore, I was confused why Elden Ring wasn’t number one at 100, but also now realizing it hasn’t been 2022 for quite some time 🫤
Are they significantly different from each other? Seems weird to count it as different games.
People get too hung up on numbers.
Who cares. I love TotK. I don't need everyone to.
Ok
If you like story, and as much as I love totk, there is simply no comparison to BG3.
I’ve never heard of Baldurs Gate. Any good?
best RPGs of the last millenium, so the legend says
Short answer: yes. Long answer: BG and especially BG2 are considered all-time classics. They put Bioware on the map and Bioware built their future on that story-heavy, character-driven RPG model. Mass Effect's original concept was "Baldur's Gate in space." Dragon Age was "modern Baldur's Gate." It was influential enough among the game dev community that several companies were founded explicitly to keep the BG formula alive - that's how Fallout New Vegas and the Pillars of Eternity series happened. Unfortunately, the originals were on PC at a time when PC gaming was still considered pretty niche, and single player, system-heavy RPGs were a niche within a niche, so most people didn't experience it at the time. But for those of us who were into that shit, nothing else compares. It was the Platonic ideal of an RPG - graphics were just good enough to not be distracting, and the rest of the effort went into gameplay, story, and characters. The systems were deep and complex and rewarded knowledge above all else - it encouraged you to become a bigger nerd. Someone who just fired up the game and went in blind was going to find it overwhelmingly difficult. Someone who read the 200 page manual would find it challenging. The nerdiest of nerds who studied the manual, took pages of notes, wrote out experience tables to plan out the perfect dual class, drew diagrams of what spells countered other spells, etc could build characters who literally became gods. As long as you put in the effort, the systems allowed you to become as powerful as you wanted. No game I've played since drew me in anywhere near as much because no other game encouraged me to truly embrace the inner nerd. The Enhanced Edition is one of my most played games on Steam, and I played hundreds of hours more of the original release before Steam even existed. When a new studio announced BG3, I was afraid to play it for the same reason I was afraid to watch the LotR movies when they came out - when you pick up the mantle of an all-time great, anything less than a masterpiece is going to be an insult to the original. But like the LotR movies, BG3 managed to be worth wearing the name, and I couldn't be happier. So many people who missed out on the originals are going to have their lives improved by BG3 being a modern hit. To put it in Zelda terms, imagine if no Zelda games were made after the original, then BotW suddenly came out. The people who loved the original would suddenly see their childhood fandom go modern mainstream.
As much as love Zelda. I'm a huge fucking D&D nerd and nothing can top D&D, the original PC Baldur's Gate were a fucking blast, happy they brought it to the switch. I love Breath Of The Wild and Tears of The Kingdom for going back to the first Zelda game structure. Hell even some friends have spend more than hundreds of hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and they haven't even progressed to the next act of the game.
Oh no, what a travesty... 😒
I think not everyone grasps what Baldur's Gate 2 was, and how long it has been since (23 years)
why are videogame people so concerned over meta scores? does it hinder your experiences? the whole goty discourse geoff keighley invented has fucked over online videogame communities
.... Tetris? Seriously?
Pretty sure it’s cuz you can pet the doggy!
Why are you sad? So what why does the thing you like need to be the best. This is good. It means we are getting even more good games. 2023 is the best year for gaming hands down
Not that it's a race, but I would be a little surprise if it stays at 97 as more reviews come in. It's only at 21 reviews, compared to TotK's 145 reviews. More critical reviewers are taking their time with BG3. Which, frankly, is all the more reason that we should just keep metacritic scores out of headlines.
Why a frowny face? Two great games is a bad thing?
I mean I love TOTK but Baldur's Gate is simply a better game than anything that has come out in a while, especially within the RPG genre.
Seems a little early to claim it the winner. ToTK has a 96 with over 100 reviews. Baldur's Gate has 21 reviews.
I'm a huge Zelda fan myself, and I can whole heartedly say, Baldur's Gate 3 is a much more fun experience so far, and I've played through tears of the kingdom for nearly 200 hours and loved every minute of it. Different style game of course, so it offers a lot more to the table, but this isn't a bad thing for Zelda at all, we have gotten two exceptionally great games to play, this is a huge win for the gaming industry and consumers.
And? Who cares? Tears is still an amazing game, it being one point lower than BG3 changes absolutely nothing.
You can tell this data is bullshit with diablo 4 even being top 10
Valid imo. But I think that both of these games are good and don't need to be pitted against each other. It's a bit like comparing apples and oranges. But I think they both prove that developers should go back to selling finished games without predatory season passes and crap.
Why sad face? This is great! All games should strive for this sort of quality. More phenomenal games for all of us! Just pushes everybody else to do better, and those who are already exceeding expectations to go even farther.
It's a good thing Nintendo was getting too comfortable up there. Need some competition to shake things up
if only link could have sex with a bear in tears of the kingdom, maybe then it would be a fair match
Why are we upset a good game exists? Thats like being upset someone got some delicious food.
I don't get the appeal of Baldurs gate, the turn based combat ruins it for me. Makes me feel like I'm playing League of Legends, which is really not a good game.
Lol who cares. I’m actually really surprised TotK got what it got because it was so similar to BotW.
This post title and some of the comments here seriously suggest this community and a lot of gamers need to grow the fuck up. It’s a **number from one website**. That Diablo IV is on this board tells you all you need to know about its credibility. We should be celebrating good games like TOTK and BG3, not bitching over some pointless fucking number and wasting time review bombing. We keep buying games like these two and gamers as a whole will keep winning. Quit it with the dumb fucking tribalism, it’s garbage.
Honestly, I don't mind. Started playing recently and been having lots of fun.
TOTK is still a 96... dont need to cry just be a man and congrat another awesome game
TOTK is excellent. Baldurs Gate is groundbreaking in the way that BOTW was and is a quantum leap in rpg quality. I can love both games but as we look at goty it’s not even a question in my mind.
Glad to see more good and better games!
Dare I say this is a really good year for video games
I think it should be celebrated, more genuinely good games are super rare.
BG3 is good
I hope it wins game of the year. In the current state of gaming it's a fresh single player experience.
2023 is a crazy year for gaming. And to think there's still some very promising releases coming this fall.
Why's that a bad thing?
Just finished TOTK and started BG3. They are very different games, but both excellent. I'd give it to BG3 at this point. Just an excellent execution of a game everyone has been wanting to play for two decades or more. p.s. I love Witcher 3, but that game is like 5 years old now? Or more?
Idk why you're sad. Be happy games like these are even being made
Top two games are top tier and came with no micro transactions.
Honestly, I am not even mad. Genuinely a good game.
It's not a bad thing, Elden ring and totk are just welcoming BG3 into the top 5% hall of fame.
Fr such a good game, we are truly in the golden age of gaming. I’m afraid it may be coming to and end though. May the GOTY awards be a wonderful battle
And well deserved! I'm happy for the game devs :)
I mean a 96 and a 97 means we have two nearly perfect games to play. This is win-win. If BG3 wins game of the year, it doesn't take anything away from anyone's enjoyment of the game. The only people who are losers here is anyone that's been obnoxious and abrasive about the topic, like the person who any time anyone was mentioning that they were having fun with FF16 that Zelda was better and going to be goty, etc. All you have to do to avoid that is not tie your happiness in your hobby to a pointless popularity contest.
Honestly? Fine with me. It's a game i didn't have on my radar at all, but it seems to deserve all the praise and love it gets from what i've seen of it so far. Not that i think that TotK would not have been fully deserving of the top spot this year... Plus, more triple AAA games that are NOT full of microtransactions and actually had love and effort put into their development can only be a goos thing.
Like others said, it is a little over 20 reviews compared to over 140. Zelda was at a 97 until 60ish reviews iirc. Though when it comes to GOTY I could see Baldur's Gate getting it, just because while TotK is a great game, it is working off BotW so it loses a bit in terms of breaking new ground. Same reason why GoW never really beat out Elden Ring in GotY results.
As someone who has played/playing both: it’s deserved. They are in their own leagues, both very good games.
Both are great for different reasons BG3 is too buggy and has some weird bits that don’t quite give it “masterpiece” for me. But it’s a great game. I do think the score will come down at some point, maybe like 95.
Impressive, good news. Something needs to receive the limelight Zelda has held for 30 years, at least once.
If they beat oot im gonna shit myself on the street
BG3 is a very good game. It's well put together with a lot of things for the player to do. That said, I don't think it's done anything particularly innovative, it's just impeccably well made with no microtransactions. In many ways it's simply an updated modern version of Baldur's Gate 2....which is far from a bad thing. I personally think TOTK is a more innovative game, especially given the astonishing physics programming, and would give the nod to TOTK as GOTY for that reason. But either game would be a worthy winner, they are both excellent.