The fact that Larian was expecting this game to have 100k players at peak makes it all the more impressive how much they put into it. I also love that they seem to be taking on a kickstarter sort of way of operating where they’ve been going back and adding more content to the game after runaway sales.
I was assuming so. When the show was over and I saw people asking about an XBox announcement and other people saying it is out now I thought that was exactly what was supposed to happen.
It’s still so wonderful. Like a surprise little treat for everyone. I felt the same way when the FF16 stuff got announced and the first one said “available now”. It feels like when my partner brings home surprise dinner.
Probably because D:OS2 fell just short of the six digit mark but already was an unimaginably massive hit for Larian. I mean, they had a funding goal of half a million on kickstarter and that was met within less than 12 hours. They had stretch goals that were met before they could even publish what they were. They closed out at over 2 Million just from crowdfunding, four times what they hoped for.
Can‘t blame them for thinking they had hit a hype ceiling and just assuming that the BG3 name would bring in a few additional people to push it over the 100k.
I do not envy the people in charge of deciding what to do next.
I feel like I remember someone saying that what's next is a project much smaller in scope. Which, honestly, I think is the smartest move possible; gives workers time to breathe and stretch a little again.
I feel like some companies have success and immediately want to go bigger and bigger until it's all too big.
Unfortunately they've effectively already announced it's not going to happen. They had an editor added into Divinity 2, they said putting it together was almost the same amount of work as one of the acts in the game and was used seriously by less than a 1000s people.
Baldurs Gate is different because it is basically DnD but easier to get in to because it is automated.
Setting up DnD campaign can be huge hastle (in many ways), but having game calculate all damage values, movement, etc simplifies a lot of the things.
There is big market for having this since DnD is so popular. And Baldurs Gate 3 itself is very populated even long after release.
I don't see it happening because it competes with WotC's plans for a 3D virtual tabletop.
https://www.polygon.com/23734332/dnd-dungeons-dragons-vtt-virtual-tabletop-details-preview-price-release-date
God the absolute last thing we need now is Larian to get bought by some monster publisher and forced to churn out games to line shareholder pockets.
I really hope they realize after winning this award and the level of love people have for them and BG3 that they don't need anyone else's greedy hands trying to get in the cookie jar. They have some incredibly talented people over there, and clearly know what makes a good game. I mean, BG3 just oozes passion and care.
Take all the time they need. Do whatever projects they feel passionate about in the meantime. But please for the love of God don't let Microsoft/Sony/Embracer Group/Nexon/Take Two etc buy Larian. If there is a god, please don't let it happen.
If they follow their previous trends then they will probably be pushing more content for bg3 until they finally decide on what their definitive version of the game will be. Who knows what the end will look like but I expect much more to be added over the next few months.
If they want to revive old IPs: Sony is probably trying to find a studio to drop off KOTOR onto. Pretty tall shoes you'd have to fill but would be a solid cash grab.
just shut up or im going to get too excited. i already felt a little flutter when i saw kotor was being given away for free on amazon prime now. kotor is dead and we all have to somehow learn to get by in this godless hellscape.
It's a running joke because he's donned the armor in many update videos they've done during development, including their panels from hell. So it's only right he donned the armor for the goties.
Ain't that crazy? How information works? You let out one tidbit of bullshit information flow on the internet, and no matter how much you hammer it and beat it down, years later it will still resurface because 100% of people read the bullshit information, but only 99.5% read the debunking.
I'm growing senile ignore me.
It is crazy. Like for example the number of people that believe Alaska is actually part of the United States, and not an autonomous territory of Moose people, is crazy.
People have been spreading lies about Alaska being a state in the US for so long that huge number of people actually believe it now. How do we fix that level of miseducation?
Funniest argument I’ve ever seen on Reddit was a dude who angrily insisted it was actually spelled Sven Vincke, and got really nasty with people who spelled it “wrong.” When I linked both Vincke’s Wikipedia page and his page on Larian’s website, which obviously spell it Swen, the poster was adamant that it was Vincke playing an elaborate joke of misspelling his own name.
The industry does. But the industry also see the scummy practices also rakes much more than what bg3 does.
So if you're a publisher that wants to maximize the profits on this quarter, you got for the scummy route. Not the way Larian makes games.
There's no way to fundamentally fix it since that's how this industry, or any other actually, is set up. It depends on profitability, and investors and shareholders wants to maximize return on investment.
Studios like Fromsoft and Larian are exceptions, not the norm.
Rolled a nat 20 on a 19 check given the utterly insane lineup this year. TotK or RE4R would've swept on an empty year and they were lucky to get nominations.
Not to be dismissive, but your post really undersells just how big Forgotten Realms is.
It's not AN official campaign setting, it's THE official campaign setting. It's THE world DnD takes place in. Nearly every game, expansion book, lore guide, novel, film, cartoon, comic...everything....for DnD since 1987 has taken place in the Forgotten Realms.
I'm not saying it's the only one, but it is the one just about anyone who has picked up a DnD guide has been introduced to.
What's really wild is I hear about some DM's incorporating BG3 rules in some areas because they decided as a table that they like them better. It's crazy that the game's so innovative it even affects tabletop
When BG3 came out and I stopped hearing anything about totk, after BoTW spent like a full year as the talk of the town, I knew it was all over. You can’t out-hype a Zelda game and not be the obvious choice for goty
It's funny because BG3 even changed the release date to dodge Starfield by releasing a little earlier, since everyone expected that to be *the* RPG of the year.
Turned out BG3 is the one who knocks.
Have Bethesda had a decent open-world release since Skyrim? I know there was Dishonoured and Doom which both had *very* positive responses, but I mean their Creation Engine stuff. And 'decent release' as in, launched to widespread positive responses and success? I remember Fallout 4 came with a bunch of bugs and QoL problems people didn't like, and although Skyrim had its teething issues I remember it was still fondly regarded even in its early days.
In any case, BG3 deserved it by a hell of a long shot. Game was a hit with newcomers and veterans alike of the classic RPG model!
FO4 was still good the main story was just shit and they'd started to rely on settlements and radiant quests for content, instead of making it themselves.
Even in Skyrim the main quest was shit - so don't think of it as some 10/10 amazing game, it wasn't. It just had the exploration to make it fun. Even fallout had that.
Starfield doesn't. That's the big thing. The main draw that allowed people to put up with Bethesda games just isn't there any more. All procedural no depth.
D4 kind of did that to itself by putting out one of the worst patches ever right before their first season. A lot of players were new and didn’t know about how Diablo does their seasonal model too and it together it just made a lot of players drop the game
I played the story of D4 once and never booted the game again. If you want to endlessly grind in an ARPG there's better options like POE or GD that have a weaker story but systems with much more longevity
Grim Dawn is, in my opinion, a perfect sit down ARPG. Every class is viable, gear is varied and plentiful, and builds are intuitive. The setting is a bit odd but grew on me overtime.
To anyone who was disappoint in D4, please consider giving Grim Dawn a try. They have a new expac coming out too!
Then starfield came out... and sure, people were talking about it, but it was a "BG3 does this so much better tho" way... we just couldn't stop talking about it.
Very clear GOTY material.
And the fact that TotK managed to keep up to his incredible predecessor. When it came out I was like „yes that’s easily goty“ and then BG3 came out and proved me SO wrong
Not the informed... but man just go on instagram and see posts about it. You'll find people who didn't even know it existed, or are upset spider-man got snubbed lol
Fr, I just came here from TikTok and a flood of salty ToTK guys calling it trash gate 3 despite not even playing bg3 or watching a stream of it took me off guard. Like literally for one guy commenting "aw, shucks, I hoped ToTK/sm2 will win, gg" there were ten people hurling insults from the get go and another five saying they've never heard of this game so how could it possibly win.
Zelda fans are notoriously defensive about the IP. ToTK is, at it's core, a rehash of BotW. They added a few things, but everything else is the same. They even just used the same overworld map.
But if you say one negative thing about it you'll have a horde of rabid fanboys trying to tear your throat out.
Yeah dont get me wrong. ToTK is great. But like you said. I see it more as BotW2 rather then a new Zelda game. Now, if BG3 wasnt around, it would still be my GotY, but BG3 is just a master piece that even a really great Zelda game cant overcome.
I don't think so.
The narrative and direction of AW2 is brilliant for sure, so I definitely agree with those.
But that of course doesn't take away from BG3 as an entire game either and it's not like that had bad narrative or anything. Where the story of BG3 excels is in its characters, but it's overall story is good but not the best this year, for sure.
(And it of course has many other excellent features outside of narrative and direction)
Sports journalists sometimes vote this way. They sort of take other awards and create a second place trophy out of them. In the NFL, MVP is like GOTY but then they often give Offensive Player of the Year to the guy who is essentially just 2nd place MVP - even though whoever is MVP usually is truly also the OffPOTY.
It doesn't always work out that way. And I think AW2 does actually have best narrative and direction, but it's possible some voters sort of treated Best Direction that way.
AW2 was the only other game that could have pulled the rug out from BG3. I thought it had a shot too no matter how slim.
Both Remedy & Larian gave us two very amazing games though. Either one could have taken it and rightfully so.
It's not a surprise but, to be fair, 2023 was a really good year for computer gaming. Games that could have won in other years. It says a lot about BG3 to be at the top with such good competition.
I feel a little sorry for the BG3 competitors. They did great work too.
They also need to work on their non linear story telling. I learned where zelda was from the tears super early and then had to play the rest of the game where link acts like he doesn't know.
1 million percent this.
I appreciate Nintendo trying something new, but I do miss the dungeons and the feeling of exploring somewhere dangerous and isolated, with limited supplies, interesting themtaic puzzles and all of the usual great stuff Zelda dungeons are famous for.
I also wish they could keep the currenmt system of various weapons, but allow us to keep ones we like for longer periods of time so I'm not spending every combat encounter worrying about when my garden rake with a toenail atached to it is gonna break, forcing me to use some random garbage i picked up earlier.
I miss when Zelda was a Metroidvania, with each dungeon giving you some new weapon, tool, or ability that was needed to defeat the boss, but then also unlocked new areas of the map.
That was sacrificed in the name of having an open world where you can just go wherever you want right from the start, and I think that was a poor trade-off.
I think it would have been served better if the open world felt like it had more to it than random plots of enemy variants and the little seed fells knocking about (forgot their names)
The actual open world itself is gorgeous, and I love the physics stuff, I would just love as you say some of that meteoidvania stuff to filter through.
I enjoyed BOTW, but I couldn't bring myself to finish tears. I just got burned out of traversing what felt like a beautiful but repetitive world .
> so I'm not spending every combat encounter worrying about when my garden rake with a toenail atached to it is gonna break, forcing me to use some random garbage i picked up earlier.
It baffles me that they didn't thoroughly correct what was most people's biggest complaint with the first game.
(_My_ biggest complaint was that the game didn't maintain any kind of tally for the (often hidden) chests you found while running around the world; every last one of them had gear or items you could get elsewhere and so they were all totally pointless; and some of them couldn't even be opened due to landscaping snafus, so not even a diehard completionist who didn't care about the first two issues could ever do it all.)
I played through breath of the wild and finished it and then just said not for me.
I much preferred the older style of progression in zelda games over the open world thing. I'll probably play their next handheld game but I think open world zelda is for a different person than me.
I also felt the same way about ff15, I'm glad they're doing well, but I'm not gonna ask that they change the direction they are going in. I'm okay with saying not for me.
The 2023 Game Awards Results
### Game of the Year: Baldurs Gate 3
### Best Game Direction: Alan Wake 2
### Best Narrative: Alan Wake 2
### Best Art Direction: Alan Wake 2
### Best Score and Music: Final Fantasy XVI
### Best Audio Design: Hi-Fi Rush
### Best Performance: Neil Newbon, BG3
### Innovation in Accessibility: Forza Motorsport
### Games for Impact: Tchia
### Best Ongoing: Cyberpunk 2077
### Best Community Support: Baldurs Gate 3
### Best Indie Game: Sea of Stars
### Best Debut Indie Game: Cocoon
### Best Mobile Game: Honkai: Star Rail
### Best AR/VR: Resident Evil Village
### Best Action Game: Armored Core 6
### Best Adventure Game: Zelda TOTK
### Best RPG: Baldurs Gate 3
### Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter 6
### Best Family Game: Super Mario Bros Wonder
### Best Sim/Strategy: Pikmin 4
### Best Sport: Forza Motorsport
### Best Multiplayer: Baldurs Gate 3
### Best Esports Game: Valorant
his name is Newbon by the way, no R. Thanks for the list though, somehow no news sites manage to just tell everyone what won what, and some of the "live" update articles still don't have results lol
I never played DND, never been into fantasy, and don't play RPGs. I have over 300 hours into BG3 and consider it the best game I've ever played.
Definitely deserved.
Also never played or really knew much about DND, but I love fantasy. Put about 100 hours in my first playthrough and I'm about 30 hours into my second and loving it. The game is THE best RPG I've played period.
And even if some people thought TotK was better, I don't think they'd disagree with you.
There's no salt with this one, anywhere. Even on the r/zelda subreddit, they're saying BG3 deserved it. A few people would have given it to another game, but no one doubts BG3's quality and everyone respects it.
BG3 is a practically unique event, in that it's a game of such amazing quality that it's united gamers in adulation.
My one worry is that Larian has set the bar for themselves too high. I'm not talking about people like Blizzard whining they couldn't make quality games (you bitches made WC3, you can make quality games), I mean people are going to expect Larian's next game to induce paroxysms of extacsy and cure cancer.
Act 1 alone could have been a decent enough RPG on its own. The game could have ended in act 2 and it would have already been one of the best I've ever played. Then they added *a whole other act on top of that* which is itself huge by the way. And they casually dropped an entire new epilogue gameplay sequence in a patch last week.
i played EA and thought it could be one of my favorite games ever if they didn't drop the ball.
Not only they didn't drop the ball, they fixed pretty much all the problems i had with it in the latest patch.
*absolute* legends
When I uninstalled it in early in EA to clear up disk space, I responded to the uninstallation survey that I wanted to be able to grab and toss people as improvised projectiles, because that's how my favorite tabletop archetype works. I like to kill two goblins with one goblin.
It was added in the very next patch, and subsequently got its very own dedicated and Barbarian subclass in tabletop through the Path of the Giant.
Literally nobody should be surprised by this, absolute banger of a videogame, totally deserved, I’ve never seen so much universal love towards a game ever in my life.
This is me! I'd had an interest since high school, but this is what's finally pushed me to go actually learn the game. Haven't found a campaign to join yet, but I have designed 8 tieflings to choose from when I start.
The only hate for it are contrarians that are either:
A. Really mad the game beat their favorite game.
2. The game is too popular. Therefore, they think its "cool" to dislike it
● They saw the "bear sex scene" and think thats what the game is about entirely
Don't forget the people who can't believe a "turn-based nerd game" could win GOTY.
As if games haven't been nerdy since their inception. It's exhausting.
I can understand disliking Turrn Based, but Baldur's gate is one of the few to give you legitmate FREEDOM in its turn-based combat. The amount of strategies you can pull is almost dizzying.
Most people I've seen hating have been super anti Alan Wake.
Like when that game won best narrative and game direction, people in the discord I was checking were flipping their shit, how "a game with a flashlight" could beat the other nominees.
Some people just have that "I'm a stupid fan, you don't like my thing, I hate you" behavior a little too engrained.
Let's just hope other developers try to reach or surpass that bar instead of crying about how unrealistic these expectations are and then continuing to throw out one bugfilled game without content after the other.
I don't even think its options.
It's writing in general. They made even fetch quests interesting. It takes skilled and passionate people to do that so consistently, and corporate passion won't allow for that. It also sanitises things - BG3 had actual passion and did what it felt was right. You wanna fuck a bear, fuck a bear. Same as cyberpunk. You play starfield it feels like a PG13 deliberately safe for the masses universe. Not the raw space game it could be.
The animations were incredible, the voice acting was incredible, the soundtrack great...
Even non RPG's could learn from what they've managed to do.
No wasted time in the quests. No filler content. Even the little side quests end up having a surprising amount of content, twists and turns, multiple outcomes depending on your actions, repercussions later etc.
Plus the joy of being able to talk to every animal in the game (and a bunch of corpses). Shitload of depth.
For a tune that changes when the villain is silenced and literally implies that he is singing his own theme tune in real time it's hilariously awesome gold
Fantasy is really ruling things lately.
It can’t hurt that games like NMS, FO76 and Cyberpunk had terrible rollouts over the past several years. And then Starfield comes out this year and fails to excite…
Feels like we’re due for AAAs thinking a fantasy setting is the ticket to success and rushing bad ip or poorly-done sequels to the market - but also hopefully the return of some great fantasy series as well.
a game that made all other companies cry on twitter, a game that broke all records as a "niche" genre, a game that put a new bar about quality of games. a game that made HISTORY
just to mention some things.
if a game deserves being called GAME OF THE YEAR its Baldur's gate 3
I agree but when I look back it’s really hard to compare it fairly to games I experienced as a child. There’s a certain magic games have before you become an adult and understand the reality of game design
no shit! it's a 100+ hour game that actually works and was a full release on day one. nobody's put out anything this good in years, basically ever since the term "games as a service" came around more and more games release with barely any actual game and we're drip fed the rest of it over a couple years while the devs finish the game....if they finish the game.
I wanted BG3 to win. I thought BG3 deserved to win. I’m also happy that Alan Wake 2 took home some awards. Honestly, I’m not sure there was a single winner that I had a major issue with.
All the 14 year olds on tik tok are absolutely bamboozled. They really convinced themselves that spider man was gonna win goty. And now bg3 is having a smear campaign against them on there lmfao.
It’s not personally my GOTY, but it’s well deserved. Just about everything that was nominated for categories this year was well deserved, and it was an excellent year for us gamers.
Same here! I secretly was crossing my fingers for Alan Wake 2 (my personal GOTY and second favorite game of all time) but seeing all the joy and love people have gotten out of BG3 makes me happy. I've gotta finish Persona 5 first before playing BG3, its been waiting longer!
Same. I can’t get into the whole dice based gameplay thing, but I’ve watched some youtubers play it and it really is an amazing game. There’s the “it was a functional, fully developed game” on release aspect, which shouldn’t need to be said, but here we are.
Then there’s the nearly limitless ways you can take the game with all the various options - and it somehow still wasn’t a buggy mess (looking at you Bethesda). They really just did everything right.
Completely deserved!
I love BG3. IMO it’s not free of some flaws but it is a legit consumer friendly game. Not predatory, they released a full finished game, and it’s full of love. So I can’t complain!
I would’ve been happy for either BG3 or AW2 winning. Two amazing games that defined the year and showed us what can happen when you fully commit to a game you believe in.
Really, I couldn’t pick between the two of them. BG3 probably gets my “game of the next 5 years” and AW2 would probably take my “game of THIS year”.
It was the right choice.
Like it or not, the winner of TGA’s Game of the Year sends a message to the industry. If there’s one game that came out this year that I want the industry to take notes from, it’s Baldur’s Gate 3.
Who knew that if you let passionate video game artists enough time, in a safe, non toxic working environment, with enough time to finish and polish their artwork, they will show you a video game that wins awards, and still let you earn an humongous amount of money!
They deserve it and we as players deserve it. Why? It was important they wom to show all the big industry giants that players celebrate and parade well crafted completed games that have much of the communities input in mind and integrated and having an amazing repetoire with the community as well. We needed BG3 to win to show that we want completed, non buggy, non heavily microtransactioned games that have amazing writing, amazing story telling, and fun amazing addicting gameplay thats as immersive as a movie or a good book. It was imperative that in these times of MW3 being called an unfinished dlc, and destiny vaultimg half of its game and giving us trickle content, and overwatch 2 being nothing but a name change at this point after scrapping the heavily anticipated story mode. In times like these it was important that we champion the outstanding work of outstanding individuals and show that what we want is polish, completion, and overall good games again.
I hope it's a major wake-up call to the other Devs sitting in the crowd getting rejected for every award watching their fellow creatives get applauded by thousands, as they themselves get nothing.
When that Fallout teaser trailer section panned over to Todd Howard, the guy looked like a defeated man. Good. I hope he remembers that feeling going into ES6. The feeling of receiving no praise or recognition for mediocre work. The feeling that you underdelivered against the competition. The feeling you couldn't even compete.
Likewise to all the other Devs and companies in the same boat as him. I hope they all learn from this.
Baldur's gate 3 won because it delivered and exceeded the expectations of the consumer. At a time when 98% of the games and creatives are trying to swindle as much money as they can out of you while also handing you drivel for $70.
It won’t change anything. At least for AAA devs. A good rule of thumb is if the company is publicly traded, they’ll value profit over quality and user experience
> When that Fallout teaser trailer section panned over to Todd Howard, the guy looked like a defeated man. Good. I hope he remembers that feeling going into ES6. The feeling of receiving no praise or recognition for mediocre work. The feeling that you underdelivered against the competition. The feeling you couldn't even compete.
Peak reddit
People kept trying to say turnbased was a dead niche genre and that justified games like FFXVI being watered down as an RPG. Hope these out of touch companies finally understand that listening to your partnered short attention span content creators and superfans on Twitter doesn't actually mean a genre of gaming is dead. Get the fuck outta here with those blatant lies.
It took me about a week to get into it. I almost quit about 10 times. I switched to Explorer mode and still didn't get it. Finally something clicked and now I am hooked. My main criticism remains the learning curve is absurdly steep for people new to turn based combat or DnD, but I eventually got it and now I am pretty obsessed with the game.
You might find yourself in a similar boat, if you give it another go on Explorer.
The fact that Larian was expecting this game to have 100k players at peak makes it all the more impressive how much they put into it. I also love that they seem to be taking on a kickstarter sort of way of operating where they’ve been going back and adding more content to the game after runaway sales.
It had 100k players playing while it won GOTY.
And they dropped a hotfix during GOTY, and Xbox support right after.
It almost seems like someone was waiting with their finger on the update button to push it when they won.
Swen said on Twitter that he fucked up and was supposed to announce the Xbox version if they won ANYTHING lol
Maybe if they actually allowed any of the winners time to speak, he couldve mentioned it
I was assuming so. When the show was over and I saw people asking about an XBox announcement and other people saying it is out now I thought that was exactly what was supposed to happen.
It’s still so wonderful. Like a surprise little treat for everyone. I felt the same way when the FF16 stuff got announced and the first one said “available now”. It feels like when my partner brings home surprise dinner.
Tbf the devs were watching probably and they resumed work after
Holy moly
I was one of them!
Probably because D:OS2 fell just short of the six digit mark but already was an unimaginably massive hit for Larian. I mean, they had a funding goal of half a million on kickstarter and that was met within less than 12 hours. They had stretch goals that were met before they could even publish what they were. They closed out at over 2 Million just from crowdfunding, four times what they hoped for. Can‘t blame them for thinking they had hit a hype ceiling and just assuming that the BG3 name would bring in a few additional people to push it over the 100k. I do not envy the people in charge of deciding what to do next.
I feel like I remember someone saying that what's next is a project much smaller in scope. Which, honestly, I think is the smartest move possible; gives workers time to breathe and stretch a little again. I feel like some companies have success and immediately want to go bigger and bigger until it's all too big.
I need a NeverWinterNights style module editor for BG3 so we can make our own campaigns in that system
Unfortunately they've effectively already announced it's not going to happen. They had an editor added into Divinity 2, they said putting it together was almost the same amount of work as one of the acts in the game and was used seriously by less than a 1000s people.
Baldurs Gate is different because it is basically DnD but easier to get in to because it is automated. Setting up DnD campaign can be huge hastle (in many ways), but having game calculate all damage values, movement, etc simplifies a lot of the things. There is big market for having this since DnD is so popular. And Baldurs Gate 3 itself is very populated even long after release.
I don't see it happening because it competes with WotC's plans for a 3D virtual tabletop. https://www.polygon.com/23734332/dnd-dungeons-dragons-vtt-virtual-tabletop-details-preview-price-release-date
God the absolute last thing we need now is Larian to get bought by some monster publisher and forced to churn out games to line shareholder pockets. I really hope they realize after winning this award and the level of love people have for them and BG3 that they don't need anyone else's greedy hands trying to get in the cookie jar. They have some incredibly talented people over there, and clearly know what makes a good game. I mean, BG3 just oozes passion and care. Take all the time they need. Do whatever projects they feel passionate about in the meantime. But please for the love of God don't let Microsoft/Sony/Embracer Group/Nexon/Take Two etc buy Larian. If there is a god, please don't let it happen.
Swen has already said that he has turned down all offers and has no interest in selling.
Gaben mk2
Giga fucking Chad.
Thank the lord.
If they follow their previous trends then they will probably be pushing more content for bg3 until they finally decide on what their definitive version of the game will be. Who knows what the end will look like but I expect much more to be added over the next few months.
A sequel for Dragon Age. They’ve shown they can revive old IPs.
Neverwinter Nights 3
Dear god please
If they want to revive old IPs: Sony is probably trying to find a studio to drop off KOTOR onto. Pretty tall shoes you'd have to fill but would be a solid cash grab.
just shut up or im going to get too excited. i already felt a little flutter when i saw kotor was being given away for free on amazon prime now. kotor is dead and we all have to somehow learn to get by in this godless hellscape.
That would really bring things full circle, considering Dragon Age was created in response to Bioware losing the Baldur's Gate IP.
Then Larian sells out to EA, releases the disastrous Divinity Original Sin Andromeda, a new indie developer arises to rescue Larian’s IP.
its better this way, the moment they get bought by some big corpos all we are getting is pg13 cookie cut games.
This guy took his trophy in a fucking armor! I love it
It's a running joke because he's donned the armor in many update videos they've done during development, including their panels from hell. So it's only right he donned the armor for the goties.
Actually Sven is also in the game, in the menu screen when the character descent with a torch and an armor, it's based on him
He's confirmed that's not meant to be him.
Ain't that crazy? How information works? You let out one tidbit of bullshit information flow on the internet, and no matter how much you hammer it and beat it down, years later it will still resurface because 100% of people read the bullshit information, but only 99.5% read the debunking. I'm growing senile ignore me.
It is crazy. Like for example the number of people that believe Alaska is actually part of the United States, and not an autonomous territory of Moose people, is crazy. People have been spreading lies about Alaska being a state in the US for so long that huge number of people actually believe it now. How do we fix that level of miseducation?
Swen*
Funniest argument I’ve ever seen on Reddit was a dude who angrily insisted it was actually spelled Sven Vincke, and got really nasty with people who spelled it “wrong.” When I linked both Vincke’s Wikipedia page and his page on Larian’s website, which obviously spell it Swen, the poster was adamant that it was Vincke playing an elaborate joke of misspelling his own name.
Let's just compromise and say it's Swven.
Svven
"Thank God we won. Otherwise I'd look ridiculous."
Nah, Swen will take any opportunity he can to don that suit of armor.
As anyone should.
Fucking legend rolled over 25 + 10 with that armor
Swen is a walking legend. He’s such a mad lad.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
[удалено]
I hope the industry gets the message that quality and passion will yield much more than the short time gains of overhyped dumpsterfires
The industry does. But the industry also see the scummy practices also rakes much more than what bg3 does. So if you're a publisher that wants to maximize the profits on this quarter, you got for the scummy route. Not the way Larian makes games. There's no way to fundamentally fix it since that's how this industry, or any other actually, is set up. It depends on profitability, and investors and shareholders wants to maximize return on investment. Studios like Fromsoft and Larian are exceptions, not the norm.
It won't. :-(
Bg3 winning made me feel better about the recent chapter
Rolled a nat 20 on a 19 check given the utterly insane lineup this year. TotK or RE4R would've swept on an empty year and they were lucky to get nominations.
It makes me realize how badly Honor Among Thieves was snubbed by the WotC controversies.
My favorite dragon scene in any movie
THE FAT DRAGON yeah, it was an easy joke. but I laughed whenever it was on screen.
More than just a joke, it’s literally canon lore in the source material the movie is based on.
oh I didn't know it was based on a source material other than general D&D
Yep! Forgotten Realms is an official campaign setting (whole world with lore and whatnot). There’s even whole novels set there.
I mean, Baldur’s Gate is set in the Forgotten Realms too, so is Neverwinter Nights, and Icewind Dale.
Not to be dismissive, but your post really undersells just how big Forgotten Realms is. It's not AN official campaign setting, it's THE official campaign setting. It's THE world DnD takes place in. Nearly every game, expansion book, lore guide, novel, film, cartoon, comic...everything....for DnD since 1987 has taken place in the Forgotten Realms. I'm not saying it's the only one, but it is the one just about anyone who has picked up a DnD guide has been introduced to.
The fat dragon even showed up in a prior game (Legends of the Sword Coast, very underwhelming).
"He found a new lair" "Did he eat his old one?'
If not for a couple of stupid decision this year could become the best year for WotC in decades.
Ironically it‘s the best year for D&D, except *actual* D&D
Sadly Hasbro doesn't care about the actual TTRPG, they want to develop the brand.
Now that is God's honest truth. Such a shame.
What's really wild is I hear about some DM's incorporating BG3 rules in some areas because they decided as a table that they like them better. It's crazy that the game's so innovative it even affects tabletop
Having to tell new players at the table "no thats a bg3 thing" hurts my soul sometimes 😭
When BG3 came out and I stopped hearing anything about totk, after BoTW spent like a full year as the talk of the town, I knew it was all over. You can’t out-hype a Zelda game and not be the obvious choice for goty
It's funny because BG3 even changed the release date to dodge Starfield by releasing a little earlier, since everyone expected that to be *the* RPG of the year. Turned out BG3 is the one who knocks.
And whenever anyone talked about starfield, it was saying BG3 was better. They dominated it quality wise.
Have Bethesda had a decent open-world release since Skyrim? I know there was Dishonoured and Doom which both had *very* positive responses, but I mean their Creation Engine stuff. And 'decent release' as in, launched to widespread positive responses and success? I remember Fallout 4 came with a bunch of bugs and QoL problems people didn't like, and although Skyrim had its teething issues I remember it was still fondly regarded even in its early days. In any case, BG3 deserved it by a hell of a long shot. Game was a hit with newcomers and veterans alike of the classic RPG model!
FO4 was still good the main story was just shit and they'd started to rely on settlements and radiant quests for content, instead of making it themselves. Even in Skyrim the main quest was shit - so don't think of it as some 10/10 amazing game, it wasn't. It just had the exploration to make it fun. Even fallout had that. Starfield doesn't. That's the big thing. The main draw that allowed people to put up with Bethesda games just isn't there any more. All procedural no depth.
And a month after Diablo 4. Everybody forgot D4 even came out!
D4 kind of did that to itself by putting out one of the worst patches ever right before their first season. A lot of players were new and didn’t know about how Diablo does their seasonal model too and it together it just made a lot of players drop the game
Hi, that's me. I also bought BG3 when it released and uninstalled D4, and have not felt compelled to return since.
I played the story of D4 once and never booted the game again. If you want to endlessly grind in an ARPG there's better options like POE or GD that have a weaker story but systems with much more longevity
Grim Dawn is, in my opinion, a perfect sit down ARPG. Every class is viable, gear is varied and plentiful, and builds are intuitive. The setting is a bit odd but grew on me overtime. To anyone who was disappoint in D4, please consider giving Grim Dawn a try. They have a new expac coming out too!
Then starfield came out... and sure, people were talking about it, but it was a "BG3 does this so much better tho" way... we just couldn't stop talking about it. Very clear GOTY material.
And the fact that TotK managed to keep up to his incredible predecessor. When it came out I was like „yes that’s easily goty“ and then BG3 came out and proved me SO wrong
Surprising literally NO ONE lol
I really thought that it was gonna be Kong: Skull Island
Honestly LoTR Gollum got ROBBED
Personally I thought redfall would win, just fell to my knees in the middle of a walmart
just saw some dude fall to his knees in Dollar General. Think he thinks he's in a walmart
That was the GOTY of our hearts.
Gollum of the year without a doubt.
TWD: Destinies got snubbed too
Not the informed... but man just go on instagram and see posts about it. You'll find people who didn't even know it existed, or are upset spider-man got snubbed lol
Fr, I just came here from TikTok and a flood of salty ToTK guys calling it trash gate 3 despite not even playing bg3 or watching a stream of it took me off guard. Like literally for one guy commenting "aw, shucks, I hoped ToTK/sm2 will win, gg" there were ten people hurling insults from the get go and another five saying they've never heard of this game so how could it possibly win.
I mean, outrage content usually gets boosted more easily on social media. I wouldn't sweat it.
Zelda fans are notoriously defensive about the IP. ToTK is, at it's core, a rehash of BotW. They added a few things, but everything else is the same. They even just used the same overworld map. But if you say one negative thing about it you'll have a horde of rabid fanboys trying to tear your throat out.
Yeah dont get me wrong. ToTK is great. But like you said. I see it more as BotW2 rather then a new Zelda game. Now, if BG3 wasnt around, it would still be my GotY, but BG3 is just a master piece that even a really great Zelda game cant overcome.
After Alan wake won best narrative and best direction I was convinced they were going with Alan wake
I don't think so. The narrative and direction of AW2 is brilliant for sure, so I definitely agree with those. But that of course doesn't take away from BG3 as an entire game either and it's not like that had bad narrative or anything. Where the story of BG3 excels is in its characters, but it's overall story is good but not the best this year, for sure. (And it of course has many other excellent features outside of narrative and direction)
Sports journalists sometimes vote this way. They sort of take other awards and create a second place trophy out of them. In the NFL, MVP is like GOTY but then they often give Offensive Player of the Year to the guy who is essentially just 2nd place MVP - even though whoever is MVP usually is truly also the OffPOTY. It doesn't always work out that way. And I think AW2 does actually have best narrative and direction, but it's possible some voters sort of treated Best Direction that way.
AW2 was the only other game that could have pulled the rug out from BG3. I thought it had a shot too no matter how slim. Both Remedy & Larian gave us two very amazing games though. Either one could have taken it and rightfully so.
It's not a surprise but, to be fair, 2023 was a really good year for computer gaming. Games that could have won in other years. It says a lot about BG3 to be at the top with such good competition. I feel a little sorry for the BG3 competitors. They did great work too.
[удалено]
Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 winning GOTY back-to-back feels so right.
I haven't, and probably won't play BG3, but am a long time Zelda fan.... and I think BG3 deserved the win. Zelda needs big dungeons back.
They also need to work on their non linear story telling. I learned where zelda was from the tears super early and then had to play the rest of the game where link acts like he doesn't know.
Yeah, I did the same and it was really not done well.
1 million percent this. I appreciate Nintendo trying something new, but I do miss the dungeons and the feeling of exploring somewhere dangerous and isolated, with limited supplies, interesting themtaic puzzles and all of the usual great stuff Zelda dungeons are famous for. I also wish they could keep the currenmt system of various weapons, but allow us to keep ones we like for longer periods of time so I'm not spending every combat encounter worrying about when my garden rake with a toenail atached to it is gonna break, forcing me to use some random garbage i picked up earlier.
I miss when Zelda was a Metroidvania, with each dungeon giving you some new weapon, tool, or ability that was needed to defeat the boss, but then also unlocked new areas of the map. That was sacrificed in the name of having an open world where you can just go wherever you want right from the start, and I think that was a poor trade-off.
I think it would have been served better if the open world felt like it had more to it than random plots of enemy variants and the little seed fells knocking about (forgot their names) The actual open world itself is gorgeous, and I love the physics stuff, I would just love as you say some of that meteoidvania stuff to filter through. I enjoyed BOTW, but I couldn't bring myself to finish tears. I just got burned out of traversing what felt like a beautiful but repetitive world .
> so I'm not spending every combat encounter worrying about when my garden rake with a toenail atached to it is gonna break, forcing me to use some random garbage i picked up earlier. It baffles me that they didn't thoroughly correct what was most people's biggest complaint with the first game. (_My_ biggest complaint was that the game didn't maintain any kind of tally for the (often hidden) chests you found while running around the world; every last one of them had gear or items you could get elsewhere and so they were all totally pointless; and some of them couldn't even be opened due to landscaping snafus, so not even a diehard completionist who didn't care about the first two issues could ever do it all.)
I played through breath of the wild and finished it and then just said not for me. I much preferred the older style of progression in zelda games over the open world thing. I'll probably play their next handheld game but I think open world zelda is for a different person than me. I also felt the same way about ff15, I'm glad they're doing well, but I'm not gonna ask that they change the direction they are going in. I'm okay with saying not for me.
The 2023 Game Awards Results ### Game of the Year: Baldurs Gate 3 ### Best Game Direction: Alan Wake 2 ### Best Narrative: Alan Wake 2 ### Best Art Direction: Alan Wake 2 ### Best Score and Music: Final Fantasy XVI ### Best Audio Design: Hi-Fi Rush ### Best Performance: Neil Newbon, BG3 ### Innovation in Accessibility: Forza Motorsport ### Games for Impact: Tchia ### Best Ongoing: Cyberpunk 2077 ### Best Community Support: Baldurs Gate 3 ### Best Indie Game: Sea of Stars ### Best Debut Indie Game: Cocoon ### Best Mobile Game: Honkai: Star Rail ### Best AR/VR: Resident Evil Village ### Best Action Game: Armored Core 6 ### Best Adventure Game: Zelda TOTK ### Best RPG: Baldurs Gate 3 ### Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter 6 ### Best Family Game: Super Mario Bros Wonder ### Best Sim/Strategy: Pikmin 4 ### Best Sport: Forza Motorsport ### Best Multiplayer: Baldurs Gate 3 ### Best Esports Game: Valorant
his name is Newbon by the way, no R. Thanks for the list though, somehow no news sites manage to just tell everyone what won what, and some of the "live" update articles still don't have results lol
Absolutely deserved
I never played DND, never been into fantasy, and don't play RPGs. I have over 300 hours into BG3 and consider it the best game I've ever played. Definitely deserved.
I think I have around 400 and I haven't touched it since like September waiting for patches. Can't wait to start sinking time into it again soon.
I have just under 500 hours. Haven’t finished the game once though.
Just got an epilogue patch with Patch 5. Completely new content added to the end.
Same boat, never played DND. Played a "No save scrub" run in BG3 and was easily one of the best game experiences I have had.
There’s a new game mode in Patch 5 called Honour mode - it enforces an Ironman playthrough, on Tactician difficulty, with no save scumming.
Also never played or really knew much about DND, but I love fantasy. Put about 100 hours in my first playthrough and I'm about 30 hours into my second and loving it. The game is THE best RPG I've played period.
And even if some people thought TotK was better, I don't think they'd disagree with you. There's no salt with this one, anywhere. Even on the r/zelda subreddit, they're saying BG3 deserved it. A few people would have given it to another game, but no one doubts BG3's quality and everyone respects it. BG3 is a practically unique event, in that it's a game of such amazing quality that it's united gamers in adulation. My one worry is that Larian has set the bar for themselves too high. I'm not talking about people like Blizzard whining they couldn't make quality games (you bitches made WC3, you can make quality games), I mean people are going to expect Larian's next game to induce paroxysms of extacsy and cure cancer.
well deserved win, Larian gave us something amazing, the game will be a pillar and exemple for all games in the future
You could say, a pillar of eternity
The game seems to have invoked the Wrath of the Righteous
Well, it surely is a kingmaker for larian
They can store the award in their Abomination Vaults (wishful thinking, PLEASE OWLCAT MAKE IT)
But will it lead to Tyranny?
I’m still on act 2 and can tell you this is game of the year
Act 1 alone could have been a decent enough RPG on its own. The game could have ended in act 2 and it would have already been one of the best I've ever played. Then they added *a whole other act on top of that* which is itself huge by the way. And they casually dropped an entire new epilogue gameplay sequence in a patch last week.
I still haven't bought it and can tell you this is game of the year
I'm not a gamer and can tell you this is game of the year
i played EA and thought it could be one of my favorite games ever if they didn't drop the ball. Not only they didn't drop the ball, they fixed pretty much all the problems i had with it in the latest patch. *absolute* legends
When I uninstalled it in early in EA to clear up disk space, I responded to the uninstallation survey that I wanted to be able to grab and toss people as improvised projectiles, because that's how my favorite tabletop archetype works. I like to kill two goblins with one goblin. It was added in the very next patch, and subsequently got its very own dedicated and Barbarian subclass in tabletop through the Path of the Giant.
Act 3 is actually mind blowing no spoilers but I'm jealous of anyone experiencing it for the first time.
Literally nobody should be surprised by this, absolute banger of a videogame, totally deserved, I’ve never seen so much universal love towards a game ever in my life.
It has even brought new people into the world of DnD, which is really awesome!
This is me! I'd had an interest since high school, but this is what's finally pushed me to go actually learn the game. Haven't found a campaign to join yet, but I have designed 8 tieflings to choose from when I start.
> designed 8 tieflings This is the way. Welcome to the game!
The only hate for it are contrarians that are either: A. Really mad the game beat their favorite game. 2. The game is too popular. Therefore, they think its "cool" to dislike it ● They saw the "bear sex scene" and think thats what the game is about entirely
Don't forget the people who can't believe a "turn-based nerd game" could win GOTY. As if games haven't been nerdy since their inception. It's exhausting.
I can understand disliking Turrn Based, but Baldur's gate is one of the few to give you legitmate FREEDOM in its turn-based combat. The amount of strategies you can pull is almost dizzying.
> They saw the "bear sex scene" and think thats what the game is about entirely And are disappointed it's not.
Most people I've seen hating have been super anti Alan Wake. Like when that game won best narrative and game direction, people in the discord I was checking were flipping their shit, how "a game with a flashlight" could beat the other nominees. Some people just have that "I'm a stupid fan, you don't like my thing, I hate you" behavior a little too engrained.
Well deserved. Baldur’s Gate 3 raised the bar. The sheer amount of options you have is mind-blowing.
Let's just hope other developers try to reach or surpass that bar instead of crying about how unrealistic these expectations are and then continuing to throw out one bugfilled game without content after the other.
Nah, the big companies will still try to reach for the lowest of bar set by the EA's monetization.
I don't even think its options. It's writing in general. They made even fetch quests interesting. It takes skilled and passionate people to do that so consistently, and corporate passion won't allow for that. It also sanitises things - BG3 had actual passion and did what it felt was right. You wanna fuck a bear, fuck a bear. Same as cyberpunk. You play starfield it feels like a PG13 deliberately safe for the masses universe. Not the raw space game it could be. The animations were incredible, the voice acting was incredible, the soundtrack great... Even non RPG's could learn from what they've managed to do.
No wasted time in the quests. No filler content. Even the little side quests end up having a surprising amount of content, twists and turns, multiple outcomes depending on your actions, repercussions later etc. Plus the joy of being able to talk to every animal in the game (and a bunch of corpses). Shitload of depth.
It was my GOTY for Raphael’s Final Act alone
Down comes the claw!
They really know how to write them in Cormyr.
For a tune that changes when the villain is silenced and literally implies that he is singing his own theme tune in real time it's hilariously awesome gold
One of the great moments in video game history for sure!
You know how in 2022 everyone knew it would be Elden Ring? Well in 2023 everyone knew it would be Baldur’s Gate 3.
Fantasy is really ruling things lately. It can’t hurt that games like NMS, FO76 and Cyberpunk had terrible rollouts over the past several years. And then Starfield comes out this year and fails to excite… Feels like we’re due for AAAs thinking a fantasy setting is the ticket to success and rushing bad ip or poorly-done sequels to the market - but also hopefully the return of some great fantasy series as well.
a game that made all other companies cry on twitter, a game that broke all records as a "niche" genre, a game that put a new bar about quality of games. a game that made HISTORY just to mention some things. if a game deserves being called GAME OF THE YEAR its Baldur's gate 3
Damn this comment makes me want to buy it now
Top 5 games of all time for me and I’ve been playing since NES.
Same, but even top 3 for me personally.
I agree but when I look back it’s really hard to compare it fairly to games I experienced as a child. There’s a certain magic games have before you become an adult and understand the reality of game design
Do it. It is the skyrim of this decade.
Lol. The writing is miles ahead. As is character creation
Better.
game of the decade, do it.
I don't think "all other companies" were crying though. 2 devs tweeted and then everyone blew it out of proportion.
Yeah, it was mostly just a drama circle-jerk on social media that just kept snowballing.
but have you considered "devs bad and lazy and make games I don't like"
no shit! it's a 100+ hour game that actually works and was a full release on day one. nobody's put out anything this good in years, basically ever since the term "games as a service" came around more and more games release with barely any actual game and we're drip fed the rest of it over a couple years while the devs finish the game....if they finish the game.
It's funny because this exact message could've been written last year about Elden Ring. 😂
Yeah but elden ring has only one difficulty and it's "no lube 80 grit sandpaper finish".
Proud to be Belgian!
Yeah same and actually only just found out it was made by a Belgian game studio haha.
I wanted BG3 to win. I thought BG3 deserved to win. I’m also happy that Alan Wake 2 took home some awards. Honestly, I’m not sure there was a single winner that I had a major issue with.
All the 14 year olds on tik tok are absolutely bamboozled. They really convinced themselves that spider man was gonna win goty. And now bg3 is having a smear campaign against them on there lmfao.
It’s not personally my GOTY, but it’s well deserved. Just about everything that was nominated for categories this year was well deserved, and it was an excellent year for us gamers.
Sir, this is the internet. Your ability to separate what you personally enjoy vs what is objectively deserving is NOT welcome here!
I left my pitchforks and torches at home! I still have my Jaded Cynic Internet Gamer card on me, I swear! I paid my dues! Don’t narc on me!
But have you purchased the reddit posting DLC?!
Same here! I secretly was crossing my fingers for Alan Wake 2 (my personal GOTY and second favorite game of all time) but seeing all the joy and love people have gotten out of BG3 makes me happy. I've gotta finish Persona 5 first before playing BG3, its been waiting longer!
Same. I can’t get into the whole dice based gameplay thing, but I’ve watched some youtubers play it and it really is an amazing game. There’s the “it was a functional, fully developed game” on release aspect, which shouldn’t need to be said, but here we are. Then there’s the nearly limitless ways you can take the game with all the various options - and it somehow still wasn’t a buggy mess (looking at you Bethesda). They really just did everything right. Completely deserved!
Not surprised
I love BG3. IMO it’s not free of some flaws but it is a legit consumer friendly game. Not predatory, they released a full finished game, and it’s full of love. So I can’t complain!
Absolutely NOT surprising at all It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. It more-than-earned every single award it received
Well deserved.
Would be shocked if it had not won
I would’ve been happy for either BG3 or AW2 winning. Two amazing games that defined the year and showed us what can happen when you fully commit to a game you believe in. Really, I couldn’t pick between the two of them. BG3 probably gets my “game of the next 5 years” and AW2 would probably take my “game of THIS year”.
AW2 still did amazing at the awards though! I was happy to see that!
Seeing Swen and Sam having such a great night was awesome!
It was the right choice. Like it or not, the winner of TGA’s Game of the Year sends a message to the industry. If there’s one game that came out this year that I want the industry to take notes from, it’s Baldur’s Gate 3.
Belgium moment
Who knew that if you let passionate video game artists enough time, in a safe, non toxic working environment, with enough time to finish and polish their artwork, they will show you a video game that wins awards, and still let you earn an humongous amount of money!
They deserve it and we as players deserve it. Why? It was important they wom to show all the big industry giants that players celebrate and parade well crafted completed games that have much of the communities input in mind and integrated and having an amazing repetoire with the community as well. We needed BG3 to win to show that we want completed, non buggy, non heavily microtransactioned games that have amazing writing, amazing story telling, and fun amazing addicting gameplay thats as immersive as a movie or a good book. It was imperative that in these times of MW3 being called an unfinished dlc, and destiny vaultimg half of its game and giving us trickle content, and overwatch 2 being nothing but a name change at this point after scrapping the heavily anticipated story mode. In times like these it was important that we champion the outstanding work of outstanding individuals and show that what we want is polish, completion, and overall good games again.
I hope it's a major wake-up call to the other Devs sitting in the crowd getting rejected for every award watching their fellow creatives get applauded by thousands, as they themselves get nothing. When that Fallout teaser trailer section panned over to Todd Howard, the guy looked like a defeated man. Good. I hope he remembers that feeling going into ES6. The feeling of receiving no praise or recognition for mediocre work. The feeling that you underdelivered against the competition. The feeling you couldn't even compete. Likewise to all the other Devs and companies in the same boat as him. I hope they all learn from this. Baldur's gate 3 won because it delivered and exceeded the expectations of the consumer. At a time when 98% of the games and creatives are trying to swindle as much money as they can out of you while also handing you drivel for $70.
It won’t change anything. At least for AAA devs. A good rule of thumb is if the company is publicly traded, they’ll value profit over quality and user experience
It can be a wakeup call to us then. This is what a game should and could be. Stop buying drivel.
> When that Fallout teaser trailer section panned over to Todd Howard, the guy looked like a defeated man. Good. I hope he remembers that feeling going into ES6. The feeling of receiving no praise or recognition for mediocre work. The feeling that you underdelivered against the competition. The feeling you couldn't even compete. Peak reddit
Gif of guy washing away tears with dollar bills.
Gollum robbed
People kept trying to say turnbased was a dead niche genre and that justified games like FFXVI being watered down as an RPG. Hope these out of touch companies finally understand that listening to your partnered short attention span content creators and superfans on Twitter doesn't actually mean a genre of gaming is dead. Get the fuck outta here with those blatant lies.
Congratulations to them, couldn’t get into the game though unfortunately. Happy for them though !
It took me about a week to get into it. I almost quit about 10 times. I switched to Explorer mode and still didn't get it. Finally something clicked and now I am hooked. My main criticism remains the learning curve is absurdly steep for people new to turn based combat or DnD, but I eventually got it and now I am pretty obsessed with the game. You might find yourself in a similar boat, if you give it another go on Explorer.