Baldur's Gate 3 official release date and new PC requirements revealed

[midian182]

In brief: Fans of the CRPG genre can mark an important date in their diaries: August 31. That's the day Baldur's Gate 3 will finally arrive as a full release, just under three years after it appeared on Steam's early access program. In addition to announcing the launch date, developer Larian Studios also revealed that the game's minimum PC requirements have been increased.

When Baldur's Gate 3 entered Steam Early Access in October 2020, fans of the classic CRPG series were ecstatic. It's been a long (nearly) three-year wait, but excitement at Larian's game finally getting released this year put Baldur's Gate 3 on our Most Anticipated Games of 2023 list.

The developer revealed the August 31 launch date at Sony's State of Play event yesterday. There was also a new trailer featuring the familiar voice of J.K. Simmons, known for his roles in Spider-Man, Whiplash, and Invincible. Though I'll always remember him as Vernon Schillinger in the brilliant 90s prison drama Oz.

Simmons plays General Ketheric Thorm in Baldur's Gate 3, a seemingly invincible necromancer leading an army of the dead toward the city of Baldur's Gate. He's one of the three main antagonists that players will face in the game.

In a separate post, Larian said that Baldur's Gate 3's "graphical fidelity and complexity has improved quite a bit as it's grown throughout Early Access." As such, the minimum PC hardware requirements have been increased, though they're still pretty forgiving.

Minimum:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel I5 4690 / AMD FX 8350
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GTX 970 / RX 480 (4GB+ of VRAM)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 150 GB available space

The recommended specs aren't too bad either, especially compared to some modern games. A Plague Tale Requiem, for example, asks for an RTX 3070 for 1080p / 60 FPS gameplay.

Recommended:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i7 8700K / AMD r5 3600
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia 2060 Super / RX 5700 XT (8GB+ of VRAM)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 150 GB available space

Other reveals at Sony's event included BG3 crossplay for Mac, PC, and PS5 at launch. The game will also have local split-screen co-op, as well as Digital Deluxe and Collector's Editions that come with lots of extras.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97716-baldur-gate-3-official-release-date-new-pc.html

 

[WhiteLeaff]

The only thing that stands out is the storage requirement. Disheartened to think that 2TB of SSD only fits 10 games or less...

 

[dirtyferret]

Large zones and plenty of cut scenes take up a lot of space

 

[QuaZulu]

My only thought: Please don't suck!

Shadows of Amn is my gaming GOAT. Though it shows its age now, at the time everything came together for the perfect game to me - story(!), gameplay, replayability, complexity. In time, I dominated everything...except that one lich (with *&^! godpower)...

Baldur's Gate - a venerable name. Please don't wreck it...

 

[kira setsu]

I've never played a baldurs gate, is it, what types of games are they, it looks sorta diablo-y?

 

[QuaZulu]

I've never played a baldurs gate, is it, what types of games are they, it looks sorta diablo-y?

In isometric viewpoint, I can see how you might say that. Beyond appearances, though, they are completely different - genuine open world, complex main quest and side quests that you can or can't do, party development and interpersonal relationships, personal stats that make the person (not merely weapon/armor based), actual tactics for party battle, etc. Closer to Dragon Age (BioWare's successor franchise) than Diablo.

 

[kira setsu]

In isometric viewpoint, I can see how you might say that. Beyond appearances, though, they are completely different - genuine open world, complex main quest and side quests that you can or can't do, party development and interpersonal relationships, personal stats that make the person (not merely weapon/armor based), actual tactics for party battle, etc. Closer to Dragon Age (BioWare's successor franchise) than Diablo.

thanks for the clarification, I hadn't heard of "CRPG" before, I might check this game out then cause I love a big world to roam around in.

 

[nnguy2]

thanks for the clarification, I hadn't heard of "CRPG" before, I might check this game out then cause I love a big world to roam around in.

Let me know when you started gaming so I can describe what BG/BG2 and BG3 is like to you with games from that era.

 

[kira setsu]

Let me know when you started gaming so I can describe what BG/BG2 and BG3 is like to you with games from that era.

ive been gaming since the NES but I didnt get into pc gaming until 2010ish, I had heard about BG but never got to play them.

 

[nnguy2]

ive been gaming since the NES but I didnt get into pc gaming until 2010ish, I had heard about BG but never got to play them.

it's a party based rpg based on dungeons and dragon, real time with pause combat (hit spacebar to pause combat while you give your party commands, then spacebar to unpause and have your guys carryout your commands. Graphics layout similar to Diablo series since it isometric, but Diablo combat is real time without pause. Map is 2d so not rotatable. The most similar would be Pillars of Eternity, and Tryanny, and Dragon Age: Origins followed by Wasteland 2/3 but those are post apocalyptic settings.

 

[Gezzer]

I bought in to the EA for BG3 and it's shaping up to be a fantastic game IMHO. While it has the soul of the earlier BG games it's built on the same engine (though highly updated I think) as the Divinity Original Sin series and shares as much with those games as Bioware's classics. In fact it plays more like a Divinity game, which isn't a bad thing. It's connection with BG is more that it's simply set in the same world than anything else.

The game does try to replicate the feel and game play of a live 5e campaign to the best of it's ability, but of course is limited by the fact it's a video game. Unlike live if the developers didn't think of it at the time they were creating, you can't do it. So sometimes it feels a bit like it's on rails. But over all there's enough viable choices to cover up this shortcoming. As well certain aspects of 5e are problematic. Such as Paladin Oath Breaking.

Paladin alignment has been a problem in 5e as far back as I can remember. But a good DM has the ability to make judgement calls on what does and doesn't count as straying from your alignment or actually breaking your oath. The game less so, and it can seem arbitrary sometimes. But AFAIK Larian is still tweaking gameplay in this regard and hopefully have a passable solution by launch. Truth is alignment has always been a bit of a problem in 5e IMHO, so I don't envy them the task.

From what I've seen and played so far, overall the game is gorgeous, with an engaging though somewhat slim story, and pretty good interactions between the player characters. More importantly it shines where the battles are concerned. While I'd never put the game in the same category as a live or VTT experience, it has the makings of an award winning game, possibly even GotY. But I guess that depends a lot on how many people are fans of CRPGs like DOS in the end.

 

[guillejp]

My only thought: Please don't suck!

Shadows of Amn is my gaming GOAT. Though it shows its age now, at the time everything came together for the perfect game to me - story(!), gameplay, replayability, complexity. In time, I dominated everything...except that one lich (with *&^! godpower)...

Baldur's Gate - a venerable name. Please don't wreck it...

It's by Larian = best of the best
Just give them a few months to fix bugs.