Boulder's Gate 3 (there maybe Droobs ahead)

Fixed the link!

Not had as much time to play recently but the city is gradually revealing itself. It's extraordinary how many different directions you can go off in and threads you can pull. It's probably the most convincing city I can recall in an RPG. Still the usual fantasy videogame problem of a chronic lack of housing per capita but otherwise very believable in terms of scale and layout. The level of detail is fantastic.

It has made me reflect on RPGs in general. Going back to the dawn of 3D RPGs there is always a narrative pull of 'must get to the big City', and it's always something I look forward to with great expectations. Yet when you get to one, the game invariably gets worse and I think it's true of almost every RPG I can think of. BG3 despite having the 'best' city still has this issue. There's just something about having lots of discrete buildings serving different purposes close together: shops, taverns etc that stalls the narrative. I feel obliged to check everything out due to FOMO and whilst this is rewarded in BG3, it doesn't maintain the intrigue and adventure that being on a journey had.

The parts of Baldur's Gate city I've enjoyed the most are when I've found a dungeon of sorts and that sense of purpose has returned. Equally if an epic RPG didn't have any large towns/cities to explore I'd probably feel a bit cheated so I guess I'm fickle.

Pretty beefy patch out today. Personal highlight:

"You can now dismiss a recruited companion from your party while speaking to the companion you want to replace them with."

23.1GB update it must be a lot of additional snogging

Anyone know how to use bardic/combat inspiration? I’ve got reactions enabled on the character I cast it on, but it never pops up a tooltip for it. Bearing in mind I’m a level 7 bard, I don’t think I’ve had my moneys worth in that ability!

I never played bard in BG3, but in real DnD you have 10 min of game time to choose to apply/add your bardic inspiration to one roll. You can wait till after the main roll but before you find out if it's successful.

BG3 has changed the rules for some aspects of the game.

That’s weird then. I tried it last night and couldn’t seem to get it to work. I’m sure it’s not because I apply it to Karlach, and it never gives me the opportunity to use it on a damage roll, and the buff still sits there and doesn’t let me re-apply.

You just apply it to the party member and it runs in the background, no other action required except to reapply it after you die or long rest

To add to the others, it can only be used once per team member per battle. It lasts for a while.

Wow this game is superb.

Having held off for the physical edition finally getting my teeth into this game now it’s arrived (about 15hrs in) and I don’t think I have ever played a game with such complex but almost complete freedom of play styles and responsive changing game world, characters and battle strategies.

/hat of mind boggling possibilities +3

I've just started a second playthrough with the specific aim of gathering as many trophies as possible.
Then I'll play again for Dark Urge, and then, eventually, on Tactician mode.

I missed plenty of bits on my first playthrough, especially in Act 1 so there's plenty more to see.

I’m a bit taken aback by how horny all my party members are! Tadpoles clearly get the juices flowing.

There’s me in my suave ranger drowiness initiating what I thought was a friendly initial conversation back at camp with my new shapeshifting bear friend and practically his first reply was would I like to bedroll with him and would some full fur action be to my liking. Now I’m no prude but as sure as a bear shits in the woods I’m not into that much claw action so I politely disappointed him.

That was after turning down an angry green girl, dampening the protruding magic missile of my mage friend while getting busier with it with my emo cleric who I’m a little concerned might have voted for brexit.

That’s my days of open shirt chest hair breeziness over. I’m clearly companion nectar.

/switches to onesie of unattractiveness -3

You would think that with how horny everyone is, you could shag them all in a single play-through. However, once you have committed to a partner they all then become suddenly prudish. I was personally hoping for an orgy around the campfire.....all for team bonding of course.

On my first playthrough I focussed on Shadowheart. But I'm pretty sure the others all tried to get some berserker barbarian action.. Before and after.

I'm playing again and will be focussing on Karlach. Need to recruit her first mind.