Personally, I find it frustrating to see the buzz Baldur's Gate 3 gets because I remember a time when games like BG3 weren't a rare sight. I mean, shit, BG3 is just a logical evolution from BG1 and 2. It's got modern graphics, modern UI, modern controls... Same basic gameplay, same kind of choice that can lead to many replays because there are so many ways to do any given quest, etc.

It isn't that BG3 isn't deserving of praise; it definitely is. But the fact it is like a breath of fresh air shows just how awful the industry itself is. They didn't do anything that hadn't been done before, and instead went back to old-school roots and fucking dominated the scene by simply not making their game watered down garbage with a lack of agency.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 8 points 2 days ago

That’s the thing though - bg3 isn’t praised because it’s good relative to the state of the industry. It’s a game that did everything right, not just comparatively but in general

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 days ago

I hadn't really thought of it that way, but you're right. I think it happened around the time every action genre starting introducing "RPG éléments" to the point that they became de rigueur.

It was only natural that RPGs themselves would borrow back from the action genres that were borrowing from them.

Anyway yeah, it's nice to see a big RPG bring just an RPG.