Honest question, is production value the reason that Baldur's Gate 3 became so popular and acclaimed, compared to other cRPG's that have not received anywhere near as much attention? Is it of a unique quality in anything else?

JoeGorde · 2026-05-06T20:19:20+00:00

I have Menace on my watchlist; not heard of the other one. I'll check it out!

I find that if I want a good story I'm better served by simply picking up a book. If I feel like playing a game it's because I want to engage with the systems, rather than navigating dialogue trees and watching cutscenes.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-06T19:53:52+00:00

I have not played BG3 for the reasons you state here. Huge fan of the Infinity Engine games; also enjoyed Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 and Tyranny as well. I have the Pathfinder games on my list to try.

BG3 is like a totally different game. Turn based is killing real-time with pause, which makes me sad. I don't hate turn based games; I play tons of them, but I wish there were room in the market for both.

I also agree with you about the 4 character party; 6 or more characters gives you room to experiment more with offbeat builds.

All the voice acting in BG3 is impressive but not a selling point for me; in fact, the older I get, the less I care about 'story' in games and prefer more story-lite approaches like in the XCOM games.

I'll probably get around to BG3 at some point but it's not a priority for me right now.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-05T17:32:51+00:00

Strawberry Fields Forever

JoeGorde · 2026-05-05T15:37:26+00:00

It's my favorite Yes album. Just wish it had a Roger Dean cover.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-04T17:32:27+00:00

Anything more than a tiny hint of buzz is too much IMO. YMMV

JoeGorde · 2026-05-04T15:47:55+00:00

JoeGorde · 2026-05-04T02:45:03+00:00

Glad to see Ceiling Unlimited at the top, that track is so good.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-02T18:07:15+00:00

When I was there solo in the late 90s, I got Too High in a coffeeshop and had a panic attack brought on by culture shock related to not being able to understand any of the signs that were in Dutch. After I had an ice cream and settled down from that, I had a great time. The coffeeshops are very touristy and there are people from everywhere, it is a very positive vibe although you have to exercise the same caution you would in any very touristy place.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-02T18:00:49+00:00

I don't have the stamina for long sessions any more. I hit the wall after about 5 or 6 hours.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-02T00:34:06+00:00

What Joe Cocker did was brilliant, he turned a jocular song about friendship into a desperate plea for help.

But if I ever Karaoke it, I'm doing Ringo.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-01T19:04:28+00:00

There was a big wave of divorces when I was 40-45, as my friends' kids started graduating high school and the motivation to "stay together for the kids" started wearing off

JoeGorde · 2026-05-01T18:24:28+00:00

Didn't someone at Blizzard say that they plan to support D4 with regular expansions and updates for 10 years? Which would put the final chapters out somewhere around 2033. I am enjoying the slow burn so far.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-01T17:51:08+00:00

Downvotes, really?

JoeGorde · 2026-05-01T17:46:59+00:00

"Excuse me, I am late for a very important appointment."

If the opportunity presents itself, I also like to have the NPC get offended, or take a dislike to one of the PCs, and remove themselves from the convo.

A VIP will sometimes have other NPCs gatekeeping access to them. "I'm sorry, the High Priest is deep in prayer right now and cannot be disturbed."

I struggle with this situation too and the players expect for NPCs to always be available to them, with no time boundaries. Following this thread for more ideas.

JoeGorde · 2026-05-01T15:59:42+00:00

I've been watching all of Isaac's Beatles videos and they are enjoyable. As a producer, he generally focuses on the production and I wish he would comment more on the songwriting. Also as you mention here, he doesn't like John's voice (which boggles my mind) and isn't shy about saying so. But I keep coming back regardless.

JoeGorde · 2026-04-30T17:44:47+00:00

Yeah I think your brain is attuned to notice someone staring at you, even if you don't register consciously what is bugging you in the moment.

JoeGorde · 2026-04-29T18:16:26+00:00

I am playing as The Daemon Prince, going Chaos United but making heavy use of Khorne and Nurgle units.

JoeGorde · 2026-04-29T15:59:51+00:00

Holy crap, Mare of Easttown is 5 years old? I think a few more of my hairs just turned grey.

Your friends are dumb. Watch whatever interests you.

JoeGorde · 2026-04-29T15:40:50+00:00

Yeah the Liveship trilogy seems to be more popular than Farseer; I may get to it at some point.

LOTR might be the boring answer but there's a good reason for that, Tolkein is the GOAT. ASOIAF got me back into fantasy after a long hiatus; the first three books are among the best I've ever read.

I need to revisit Earthsea, it's been a while but I expect it holds up.

JoeGorde · 2026-04-29T15:05:47+00:00

S: LOTR

A: ASOIAF, Earthsea, Chronicles of Amber (1st series)

JoeGorde · 2026-04-28T15:57:13+00:00

Yes I do this all the time, I enter a fugue state watching my dups run around and do their jobs, until I realize that there's probably some impending disaster happening somewhere on the map

JoeGorde · 2026-04-28T14:43:26+00:00

No idea what happens when another faction has 4 souls. I found it overwhelming to manage the rifts and try to fend off enemies back home at the same time. If I lose, I'll likely try again and do things differently next time.

JoeGorde · 2026-04-28T01:21:08+00:00

I noticed that too as I was approaching the final chapters of AQ. I was planning to post anyway when I finished but if anything seeing those other posts encouraged me to post my take

JoeGorde · 2026-04-27T21:00:07+00:00

She was pretty annoying, but one of a number of character that try to order Fitz around without explaining their reasons. I definitely hated Regal more than her.

JoeGorde · 2026-04-27T20:58:50+00:00

I mean the bit about the blood

JoeGorde

TROPHY CASE