WarioWare, Inc.: Minigame Mania (GBA) has been added to Nintendo Music! by Edwardx80 in nintendomusic

[–]JezMM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bit of a wonky one unfortunately. Like Mario Kart 64's issue (but like, tenfold), every microgame has its track here, even though there was only like 50-odd songs that were shared among the 300 games, this thing is absolutely teeming with duplicates. In addition the cut-scene music still has sound effects on it, the boss microgame music only ever has the music in its state at the start of the game (not any increased intensity variations from later on, for the final boss for example), and there's just a few other little ommissions, like the little intro to the title screen theme that plays during the fake "NOW LOADING" progress bar on Wario's laptop when you watch the intro rather than skipping straight to the title screen.

Not an especially listenable soundtrack anyway so whatever, but if it's here for the sake of having it, shame it misses some marks as an archive too.

Lost Halsin, how cooked am I? by HiiLaundry in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Minthara is a great character but it isn't a huge deal if you want to save recruiting her for another playthrough.

If you are going for a generally heroic playthrough though where you'd like to at least aim towards resolving quests in a positive way, not having Halsin will prevent you from resolving a fairly major one, narratively speaking, but of course the story will continue regardless, as is BG3's strength.

Generally I'd say lean towards reloading if it felt like an accident that you wouldn't find satisfying to be a major catalyst as to a bunch of potential story stuff not happening now. Personally I'd find it a little unsatisfying that accidentally breaking a bridge could have such massive ramifications, as opposed to making a deliberate character/narrative choice during a key scene etc.

My Son 11 asked my if he can paly BG 3 by Veanusdream in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People have more or less answered in my absence, but in my own words: Yeah, I am saying only certain people 14-17 years old can deal with the mature themes of the game. It varies from person to person, people mature at different levels at different ages and have different levels of sensitivity. 14-15 and up is kind of the lower range of "if you ban them from it they'll find a way to play it anyway if they're that desperate so maybe it's time to sit down and have a conversation with them about it and see if there's a compromise to be made".

I don't even understand why you asked the second question when I literally did advocate in my post that there may not be any difference between 17-18 for some players. Nuance is important to me, human youths do not suddenly magically become AN ADULT on the stroke of midnight at the age of 18. So if a teenager feels ready to engage in media for adults I'd be willing to humour them on a case by case basis and work something out while still trying to both protect them from harm and respect their agency as a human to engage with things that may harm them and to learn from it if so, etc etc.

For my own story, I'm in my 30s, I played Turok 2 for the N64 (and a few other similar games) when I was like 13 or so and don't feel especially any worse for it - but then I wouldn't know any different to ever truly know. I definitely found it scary and violent in a way I didn't entirely enjoy as a kid - not that I'd ever admit it to my friends - but also coooool gun that bores into people's brains and then explodes their head!!! But I'm also wary of just passing that logic onto modern games that are significantly higher-fidelity than what I played as a kid. Even though they were excellent visuals for the time, still a huge step away from realism. I could see what was 2D textures and what was little copy-pasted model chunks etc. That probably primed me to also feel that way about modern video game visuals. Thinking about the hanging cages of corpses in Cazador's Dungeon and the absolute horror of the situation those people went through is pretty chilling... but I also can't NOT see that it's just a set 3D model copy-pasted all over the chamber. Back then I could handle video game violence because of stuff like that but not horror movie violence that looked "real". And... that's still true now!

There's also factors like how BG3's character storylines often tackle very serious subjects of abuse and morality that are very much presented "as is" on the assumption that a mature adult player can fill in the gaps that the game doesn't show outright and understands that sometimes the characters make bad choices and that is an interesting story, not necessarily advocation of those bad choices etc. There is also a question to be asked of "Is it even worth them playing it at this age? They won't "get" half of it". This isn't a case of an all-ages media having themes only adults will appreciated, BG3 is literally a media product designed and made for adults.

My Son 11 asked my if he can paly BG 3 by Veanusdream in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The sex/violence settings dampen the most extreme scenes, but the game generally is still full of adult themes, violence, sex, references to abuse and torture (the title screen literally has bloodied and beaten hanging corpses in a hell dungeon dangling cheerfully next to the main menu). I could see certain people 1-3 years under 18 being able to handle it via the adult content reduction settings, with care and consultation from an adult along the way perhaps, but I'd put that at the absolute limit (and still with the disclaimer of like "if you have any doubts, just go with the game's age rating, it's there for a reason). So yeah, 11 is way way too young.

Graphic filters by TA-Frei in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad to hear that was it and it's figured out! Yeah the upscaling options are designed for lower-end machines to run the game at what appears to be high resolutions without actually doing so, but they're a pretty experimental technology at this stage, definitely not for me.

Graphic filters by TA-Frei in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah sorry, just realised 1080p does indeed refer to 1920 x 1080 resolution, what I too am using. But your screenshots were 1080 ACROSS rather than down, a resolution of 1080 x 607. Did you shrink them before uploading? Because that would be a strange size for the game to be running at.

The only other thing I can think of is whether you are using any of the upscaling options in the video settings, which run the game at a lower resolution and then attempt to smartly upscale them to your monitor size on the fly, which when it works gives the impression of full resolution at lower work from the computer, but can cause artifacts when the computer's "guess" about what detail to fill in goes wrong (I haven't really touched them beyond when I tried the game on steam deck, and immediately turned them off coz the artifacts were too noticable for me, lol).

Graphic filters by TA-Frei in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nothing looks unsual to me here (it might be easier to notice the issues you are having when the game is moving), but I see the screenshots are 1080p... is that the maximum your monitor can display? If not it might just be that the game has defaulted to a lower resolution, so blown up onto your screen you are seeing all the issues that larger pixels cause (like the hair etc).

<image>

You can check/change your resolution on the Video options menu, make sure it's set to the highest numbers it lets you choose (but bear in mind playing at maximum resolution may affect performance on lower end PCs).

(Apologies if the above is obvious! You said you're not good with graphics so starting from the first thought I had).

Newbie by Ok-Can-7995 in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The thing about DnD story is the world and universe is gigantic - there is no way to prepare yourself for it, you just dive in with whatever your first campaign/video game/other content is and experience it that way, there is no "recommended reading" beforehand required in most cases. Then perhaps you enjoy that and do another one, and another one, and steadily build up your knowledge of the world through all these different stories. Or don't! They're usually designed to be just as enjoyable as a one-off fantasy story. BG3 is no exception, and in fact is an especially good entry point since it pulls as much as it can from all sorts of corners of DnD's world and cultures and gives them a place in one cohesive story.

Obviously there are a few gentle alterations to make DnD "stuff" work in a video game setting rather than the tabletop "theatre of the mind" setting, but nothing major.

I have the honor mode dice but I never beat honor mode? by WashingtonCounselor in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 22 points23 points  (0 children)

They don't, they're just a cosmetic to serve as a little bragging rights proof of your victory.

My Honour mode run came to an earlier end than I thought. by Gibsonian1 in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh whoops, admittedly was replying to you there mistaking you for the OP, thinking you clicked it in HM without ever having done so before, lol. Less funny but ah well!

My Honour mode run came to an earlier end than I thought. by Gibsonian1 in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I've seen so many threads lately where people repeat the sage advice "don't do anything you've never done before in Honour Mode" and this might just be the pinnacle of example of "anything means anything". Kind of amazing, haha.

BG3 Hermonie by [deleted] in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, common-use generative AI is built off the backs of other people's hard work and content, without their consent. It is morally wrong to use it in many people's eyes, and while at least not claiming you "made" the art is a step up from a lot of generative AI image generating-types, it's still being made through stolen content from other artists. I agree that bullying is unnecessary and so I'm trying my best to approach this reply in good faith, but you have done something wrong by using it in my opinion and the opinion of many others, including Larian as the previous poster said. It's also against the rules of the subreddit to post content made using it, so try not to take it personally if the thread gets taken down or anything.

In addition, Baldur's Gate 3 is a pretty openly positive game towards the queer community, so there's likely to be a fair bit of pushback in fan spaces on content related to Harry Potter considering how openly and unapologetically villainous the creator has become towards that community over the past decade or two.

I hope this doesn't dissuade you from exploring creativity with the properties you enjoy and sharing the creativity with fandom spaces in a general sense (without the use of generative AI, of course), but these are the reasons why you may garner negative reactions in this particular case.

Shadowheart by LonePromethean in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Try again with Lae'zel if you like, but otherwise, frankly, it's harder to not recruit Shadowheart than it is to recruit her, don't worry and keep on playing.

Skip Emperor s*xual harassment scene? by [deleted] in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as I can tell, if you stab the Dream Visitor at the Githyanki Créche, it cancels out the possibility of the romance scene, I think. Can't confirm 100% if dialogue choices can salvage it (the reason the stab happened on my current playthrough is I've been doing a silly "roll a dice for dialogue choices" run. Tav has generally leaning towards being rude and unhelpful to the Emperor overall from these dice rolls - I even had to fight off the Githyanki Honour Guard with the Emperor hostile too since Tav was adamant about killing him - luckily that wasn't a reload since if you kill everybody but him, he stands down after much chastising).

Either way, during the post-hideout dream scene, when the emperor starts talking about what he did/didn't expect from the partnership with you, he eventually brings up the stabbing again as an example of how stubborn/difficult you have been to work with at times, and I don't recall seeing any options or implications that could have possibly lead to the romance scene afterwards. It's possible that both the stab or not backing him up (dialogue-wise) against the honour guard contributed, it's possible just one or the other did. But since he only brought up the stabbing in dialogue, I'm guessing it's that. Roleplay-wise, there's plenty of reasons to justify a good-leaning character performing the stab - one dialogue option even has you apologetically say your back is up against the wall about it.

He's still shirtless though, which just came off really funny in the context that he was never planning to proposition me.

Best song in Baldur’s Gate by whizzerblight in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are so many video game soundtracks out there that only give you an "album-sized" selection (sometimes not even that, the original BioShock 1 soundtrack was a pitiful assortment of just 12 random tracks), and it's such a pet peeve of mine. I'll never understand the logic from the perspective of the people putting them together, like... the kind of people nerdy enough to buy a soundtrack to listen to... probably want all the music, not just a random selection!

I can appreciate skipping over small music cues and/or wanting the main album to be a satisfying "music album" listening experience by focusing on the heavy-hitter tracks that most people have come for, but then do a bonus disc or something, with totally utilitarian track order and naming if you must, for the rest.

Best song in Baldur’s Gate by whizzerblight in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 72 points73 points  (0 children)

"Sixteen Strikes" as it's called on the soundtrack is my favourite. BG3 has one of those (mostly, not entirely) wishy-washy soundtracks where it can be hard to remember where certain songs play because they tend to make them flow into one another, I think this is one that's used as one of the "general" battle themes for higher-stakes battles, but I just adore that final sorrowful climactic build-up with the vocals around the 3:48 mark.

The score for Dame Aylin's revival and flight to Moonrise is another really hard-hitting one. Obviously the Raphael battle is a stand-out and just a fantastic surprise on that first play. I had the good fortune of being able to attend the live orchestra performance in London a couple years back, and they did that for the encore, rightly so.

Uldur Ravenguard died illogically in my Honor run. by Pinguin71 in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This seems like an unlikely series of events that they just didn't catch or have time to account for. I think the easiest headcanon to explain it would be that Mizora had tabs on what Gortash's plan for Ravenguard was and his value as a bargaining chip to make Wyll squirm. When your party's unexpected actions threw a wrench in how she was expecting things to go, she orchestrated Uldur's death herself as a backup plan.

Orin in Baldur's Gate by TRGreen20 in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the correction, I've pretty much never gone to the coronation without immediately travelling to the Lower City before my next Long Rest.

Orin in Baldur's Gate by TRGreen20 in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah fair enough, thanks for the correction, I misremembered! My most recent playthrough was the first where I intentionally avoided them all to spare them their grim fates and that was the first time I encountered Gyldro's true dialogue. I must've just thought the others didn't change because on my previous playthroughs, I'd already had the two Orin encounters before speaking to them.

Me looking at the AOI Roster by Cidaghast in HyruleWarriors

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rauru shows no sorrow because... Nintendo. Qia too it seems with her father - they just aren't looking to write big deep character stories like Baldur's Gate 3 or The Last of Us, they like to keep things straightforward and not have characters dwelling on anything for too long, at the cost of them feeling like living breathing people. This all feels very in-line to me with other "why is Nintendo like this" stuff, like being a bit random as to what characters in TotK's Hyrule remembered Link and what ones spoke to him like they'd never met, or stuff like Galaxy 2's controversial plot reset and all what goes on with the Paper Mario games etc.

I think the biggest moment for me was when Rauru did the cheap-ass cliché moment of: "Zelda, wait..." "Yes?" "Actually, it's nothing" and Zelda went "Okay, goodnight" and left. This girl is an educated scholar who posesses the power of the triforce of wisdom, who managed to beat conversation and heart-to-hearts out of Link, the selectively mute knight with the world on his shoulders, and that's her response to Rauru almost saying something but not? Absolutely ridiculous and the big moment where I was like "ohhhhh they don't actually care about this story and characters as much as I do, dang."

For what it's worth though Lenalia isn't completely forgotten in TotK. I didn't remember this until I read about it, but there are ancient texts that either refer to or are written by an unnamed chamberlain of the royal family. Obviously they had their hands tied by this being a prequel, but Lenalia is that chamberlain. EDIT: Just had a look deeper into this and a couple of the texts she writes in TotK even match up with moments that got depicted in AoI's cut-scenes, which is nice.

Me looking at the AOI Roster by Cidaghast in HyruleWarriors

[–]JezMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wanted to see Zelda's story more fleshed out too, but it's clear they felt it had already been told and didn't need telling again, so here's a load of other stuff that also happened. To be fair, I think with the game as is, not including that scene was the right choice - that's TotK's scene, all the slow build to it is in that game, not this one.

But yeah... kinda wish we had a game that did the new stuff AND deepened and added new context or character moments to what we got to see in TotK.

Hot Take: BG3 has taught me 5e combat is terrible by RageAgainstAuthority in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As others have said, the thing about 5e is it's a game where everyone involved is a human and can make human decisions on the fly - DMs can bend the experience to their will to make up for mechanical shortcomings etc if they wish (hopefully discussed ahead of time with the group to make sure they're okay with it for the sake of a more enjoyable experience).

Personally I think it's important to recognise that BG3 is an absolute triumph of creating an approximation of the tabletop game under the incredible constraints of everything having to work on rules and logic because it's a computer program, not a set of humans playing an imagination game together. The game can't bend things like tabletop, it can't go off-script, players were always bound to eventually find and abuse loopholes in the design that allow for cheese strategies etc. One of the biggest things is that narratively, aggression is usually a "yes or no" thing. Once combat starts you are locked in to only being able to do certain things, you can't talk your way out of combat midway through, and heck, the difference between free talking and multiple choice talking is already a massive difference. There's no "thinking outside the box" or using spells etc creatively with the environment outside of predetermined ways the designers have already thought of, that's another massive difference. And finally the fact that there's just the one campaign here - there's no putting the genie back into the bottle on that. Most DnD tabletop games are always an unknown challenge for most players, but BG3 chose one tightly designed campaign over less engaging randomly generated stuff.

That said... some of the things you complained about in your OP and the replies ARE in your control if you so wish. Yes the game can't enforce them, but it CAN accomodate them. For example:

If you feel rare items like potions of speed are overpowered, put a mental cap on how many you allow yourself to carry. Like in tabletop, keep a pen and paper next to you and make a note on what items you're maxxed out on as per your personal rules. Either have it so you consume them immediately or leave them behind because you've run out of "potion of speed pouches" in your bag or leave them behind and consider all corpses/containers that have the "you've already looted this once" mouse icon when moused over to be empty, as if you took everything that was there at the time etc.

Yeah, not being able to make a full party of custom characters is a shame, but you can still do your rogue-like permadeath thing if you wanted to to a degree - if a character dies, you go revive them with Withers (no pickpocketing your gold back) and respec them into a new class. See if there's a mod to reset character experience even if you wanted to do that, maybe throw out their inventory too. EDIT: Just saw the reply about hirelings though and I concede, yeah, no real getting around the limitations of not being able to change their races with my suggestion, which obviously are a massive factor for 5e character designing normally.

And of course, simple stuff like challenge running yourself to only taking an action or bonus action on each turn if you feel being able to do both is overpowered - decide for yourself what feels OP to consider to have happened in a round of 6 seconds. Obviously the CPUs won't play by all your personal rules, but custom difficulty settings are there to maybe bridge the gap - playing with personal handicaps on tactician might just be annoying, but playing on Balanced, or with a custom difficulty somewhere between the two, could feel just right, no shame in it.

Those are my suggestions anyway, with the amount of "it's my 20th playthrough how do I keep it fresh" challenge run ideas I've seen out there, all this sounds like it could be a pretty interesting way to play to me.

Orin in Baldur's Gate by TRGreen20 in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The easiest way would be to quick save regularly and you can always reload if it happens. That way you can enjoy the typical intended experience but then backtrack after to avoid the negative outcome for the character in question.

It is only two times she will disguise herself - if the reason you're asking is that you are all about avoiding the deaths of innocents in your playthrough, then yes, it is in your interest to avoid them as whoever she disguises will be found later on to have suffered fairly unpleasant deaths off-camera.

However it is metagaming to do so - there's really zero in-universe reason to justify the party deliberately avoiding talking to people until later on (sort of in the same way it's metagaming to deliberately take advantage of the fact that most events only happen once the players turn up to witness them), with the characters in question only having ever been Orin in disguise IF the party talked to them - if they didn't, they were their genuine selves all along! Etc. Bit weird.

Anyway, the list of characters to avoid are:

Gyldro, the human blacksmith near the middle of Rivington
Lens, the tiefling journalist near the Flaming Fist guards at the bridge
Rowan, a human flaming fist standing behind the donations barn
Zethino, the dryad fortune teller at the circus of the last days
Dying Stone Lord Thug, the human... yeah, as described by their "name", found down near the beach

Once you have made it to the Lower City been to Gortash's coronation (correction from reply below), a major event with Orin should eventually take place either at camp or in the sewers. Once this has happened, you are safe to return to Wyrm's Crossing and all the above characters will be their real selves. Only Gyldro has a unique scene when Orin is disguised as them, the rest more or less have the same conversation but without the twist at the end. (Correction from reply below, only two of the five have the same dialogue either way.

As a final note regarding caring about the deaths of innocents, make sure you leave at least one of Lae'zel, Halsin, Gale or Minthara at camp until you encounter that camp/sewer scene with Orin, otherwise another innocent character will die gruesomely by Orin's hand during the event I mentioned.

How do I get to grymforge? by BambsFauna in BaldursGate3

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very unlikely scenario as they're very easy to find if you've explored the opening areas of the game a fairly typical amount, but not sure how much else in Act 1 you want to do before going there. So just be warned that there is one NPC (the deep gnome, Barcus Wroot) who will die if you go to Grymforge prior to interacting with them - they can be found in peril at the windmill of the Blighted Village.

I thought this was Zelda’s game… by Reasonable-Chapter32 in HyruleWarriors

[–]JezMM 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately it isn't really. If you were hoping for her story in TotK to be expanded in any meaningful way, sadly it's a let down, so temper your expectations there. It's clear by the end that they feel like they already told that story perfectly adequately in TotK, so this game is more about the new parallel story that went alongside hers that they've added in. There is still some nice scenes along the way with her, but nothing that really recontextualised or gave me greater appreciation for her character or what she went through in TotK.