BG3 is everything Bioware wanted for BG2 but couldn't.

It is true 5th edition D&D with every skill included. As far as I know, it is the first "true" implementation of a D&D ruleset. That's one of the main reasons I am so excited and hopeful about the game.

Why do people think this is not a true Baldur's Gate game? Are they seeing something I don't? Or are they forgetting that most of BG series doesn't even happen in the Baldur's Gate city? What were they expecting? I am asking this sincerely.

On the other hand, I am seeing a true Baldur's Gate setting here. A very good mixture of BG1 and BG2. The exploration system seems very similar to BG1. The cinematic reminds me of BG2. Being captured, escaping for your life and fighting to survive for "something" that's inside you seems like a true reincarnation of the Baldur's Gate series.

If real time vs Turned based is a problem, well, D&D is and have always been turned based. Real time usually made things a lot complicated and sometimes very ugly. Have you ever played BG multiplayer? It is not even remotely what you can call a D&D experience. And I am saying that as a die hard fan of BG series (especially 1) I can easily see how Larian's way of staying true to the source and keeping it Turned based will make multiplayer sessions so much fun.

I enjoy both TB and RTWP so either would be ok for me. If the encounters are designed for TB (which they are), it'll work.

The look and feel of it is much closer to DOS than BG - I think a HUD change would help with that.

I'm not a fan of these pre-made characters that seem to be the 'default' experience - I'm really hoping we can choose our own background for the characters we make ourselves (perhaps like in Pillars of Eternity) - as rolling your own character is a big part of RPGs for me. I hope it's not a case of the premade characters each getting their own endings and everyone else getting a single default (choice and consequence is good).

I love that you can throw your boots at the enemy lol - and that they're going to beef up the enemy AI to pick up weapons from the ground.

It's a long way off being properly released (early access doesn't count for me) so I'll wait and see. It might be a good game, but it really looks like it should've been called: Baldur's Gate: The Illithid Curse or something rather than BG3 - much like how Dark Alliance could use the BG name but distinguish itself as a different experience.

It is like the same case with Diablo 3, fancy fantasy, not as dark as its predecessor, Larian's formula of cocky NPC humor, a popular ARPG (cRPG in this case) on its own but can be hardly called a spiritual successor to Diablo 2.

Of course, you can create (roll) your own characters. The cinematic intro doesn't really show you and the character creation page works just like a regular D&D 5th edition character creator even tho not all of the races are yet implemented but Swen said they would be added later.

If I understood it correctly, the "premade" characters are actually your potential companions and the game lets you play as one of them. Imagine you could play as Misc or Jaheira in the previous Baldur's Gate games.

That will probably be the biggest advantage of BG3. The biggest problem is however that the game lacks BG series atmosphere. It looks like Divinity: Original Sin 3. I don't know exactly where the problem lies. Maybe it's the engine, maybe it's the color palette that they've used, maybe something else. I'll be able to tell more when I play the game. But that's only one thing. Next thing is turn-based combat. I'm not an opponent of turns, but BG series always relied on real-time combat system with pause. I had hopes that Larian will implement both combat systems, but it's a really hard work to make it function properly. I also have an issue with dialogues. Don't like the player sentences in past form. But that's quite a minor issue.

It's too early to say whether the exploration system resembles BG1. We haven't even seen a world map. We don't even know if there will be a world map at all. I'm afraid the game might end being very linear just as D:OS1, which gave freedom only in theory.

Of course you're right. The game might be the best D&D implementation ever made on computers. But that doesn't make it automatically a good BG game. It would be more justified to use a different title for it. Right now I'm seeing more BG in NWN2 than in BG3.

Nice seeing all the thoughtful posts about this (with a few exceptions... meh).

I will not judge BG3's setting, looks, story, etc., until having seen a proper public release... and maybe not even the first early access one (though that will indicate the direction the game is going to go).

The gameplay presentation was just what it says on the tin. There is absolutely nothing from it I think will not change before release in some way. Come on, there were even some textures that were simply transparent squares with the text "PLACEHOLDER" in different colors. I paused the presentation because I had to get home from my workplace (it was longer than I expected) and saw one of those... couldn't stop laughing when I was about to unpause it. Look at 1:10:50 in the GameSpot video for it; there probably were other similar things but that's the one I saw.

That is absolutely clear from what Swen says in the presentation. It is actually quite nice to have several "main characters" to choose from with carefully tailored personal stories, and even explore all of them if you take them as party members. But, if it means that a custom made char does not have any personal story (like it is in DOS2) then that's a total downer.

... We'll see.

I was only worried that they could screw up the overall tone of BG3 with their typical humour and mediocre writing, but it has come even worse.

They literally copy&pasted D:OS into a D&D-setting. I swear I'm not the kind of guy who rants games down before they're done, but I'm honestly shocked.

Modding for the DoS series hasn't seemed to have taken off like the BG series. Is it the IP or easy/facility of modding tools?

Looking at all the recent CRPG's there's a paucity of mods.

It looks like a good game, but it does not look like Baldur's Gate... Pillars of Eternity looked more closer to BG than this does now. Of course things may change, but I doubt the engine will change much and the combat system will probably stay turn-base. I like turn-base combat as it gives me time to think, but again, Baldur's gate was always RTWP.

Anyway, we will see how things unfold.

In general, I agree with what Sarafan wrote a few posts above...

I saw that you could roll your own characters - my (idle) concern was whether this would be a poor second choice in terms of story and reactivity compared with choosing a premade character. I like that these are potential companions, though, so playing as one of them might be a good option for a subsequent playthrough.

I hear this is similar to what you can do in DOS2 but I haven't played that - are premade characters and self-rolled characters given equal treatment in that?

Before watching the gameplay: I'll buy it day one for $60.

After watching the gameplay: I'll buy this game when it's over 50% off or no more than $20.

To clarify, I am not interested in playing the most accurate table top D&D 5e experience. I am interested in playing a Baldur's Gate game. It's a difference.

I have only watched parts of the video and not the whole thing, but like some others have said, it doesn't look like a Baldur's Gate game. And I'm really not a fan of turn-based combat. It makes everything very slow, especially "walkover" battles, and can become kinda boring after a while. RTWP has a better flow to it in my view. Yeah, you can end up pausing a whole lot, but things happen faster and has a better flow to it. Combat in both BGs worked very well, and it was largely the same in Pillars of Eternity (apart from the fact it was often hard to see what was going on due to over-use of effects).

Time will tell. I'll definitely wait for the full release. Not a fan of public beta tests. Heck, will it even be released here on GOG? If not, I'll wait possibly forever.

Do you mean the game itself or the early access version?

The game already has it's own page. Doubt GOG would have done that if the deal was not struck yet.

As for early access I'm not a fan either, but will probably give it a chance as long as it's here and not only on Steam.

Thanks for the info :)
I'd expect 'acting how I wish' anyway in an rpg. This is kind of disappointing news since it sounds like much more effort (dev-time) went into the premade characters in DOS2 vs. reactivity for choice (Granted, BG has very limited reactivity too - but if we're developing a modern game...). I hope I'm mistaken and that they've included both in BG3. I like to play through rpgs more than once to try different characters and different choices - so long as that's still an option (and my companions get their quests even when I don't play them as a main character) this might be ok.

I guess I'm in a 'wait and see' mode. I don't expect it to be a real Baldur's Gate 3 (in the sense of continuing that series) but it might be a good standalone D&D game irrespective of the '3' in the name.