Baldur's Gate 3 tops charts as highest-rated PC game ever on Metacritic, best overall...

[midian182]

In brief: It's somewhat ironic that Baldur's Gate 3 moved its official launch forward to avoid being overshadowed by Starfield, given that Larian Studio's RPG is now the highest-rated PC game of all time on Metacritic and OpenCritic.

Unless you've been living under a rock recently, you'll likely have heard that Baldur's Gate 3 is good. The kind of good that can take over your life and make you forget all about family, friends, and work.

The universal praise has pushed Baldur's Gate 3 to the top of Metacritic's Best Games lists. Its Metascore of 97 makes it the best-reviewed game of 2023, putting it above The Case of the Golden Idol, Street Fighter 6, and Diablo IV.

The game is also one of those increasingly rare examples where reviewers and players agree on something. BG3's user score of 9.1 makes it 2023's best game among consumers.

Baldur's Gate 3 is also the Best PC Game of All Time on Metacritic. Disco Elysium has the same 9.1 Metascore, but its user score is 8.3. On the all-time user score table for PC titles, BG3 is at 10th – the nine games above it, including seventh-place Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, all have scores of 9.2.

It's not just Metacritic where Baldur's Gate 3 is dominating. The game's score of 97 makes it Opencritic's best PC game of all time, too. It also shares the 'greatest game ever' title (all platforms) with Super Mario Odyssey.

Last week brought news that Baldur's Gate 3's Steam concurrent player counts had beaten top hits like Valheim and Apex Legends just days after launch.

Like a lot of people, I'm deeply excited about what the lovely folks at Larian accomplished with Baldur's Gate 3, but I want to gently, pre-emptively push back against players taking that excitement and using it to apply criticism or a "raised standard" to RPGs going forward
1/10

– Xalavier Nelson Jr. (@WritNelson) July 8, 2023

Baldur's Gate 3 had an early access period of almost 3 years, helping it avoid a trend we've seen all too often this year in which PC games are released with a multitude of technical problems. The final version has proved so impressive that a developer warned players should not expect the same thing from all studios, or apply a raised standard to future RPGs – God forbid we expect things to get better.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/99772-baldur-gate-3-tops-charts-highest-rated-pc.html

 

[Loli Pop Carbon]

Although I'm not a fan of turn based game and will not play this game, I'm genuinely happy to see there are still good games out there among cash grab AAA garbages made by much bigger studios.

Those AAA studios should feel embarassed and learn.

 

[DSirius]

Glad to see quality game made with love for the gamers.
A well deserved lesson for Cyberpunk 2077 devs, Fallout 76 devs, and many, many other so called "gaming studios".

 

[SirDigby]

I'm normally not a fan of this sort of game, but I might have to get this. RIP my marriage.

 

[colossusrage]

I'm normally not a fan of this sort of game, but I might have to get this. RIP my marriage.

Cyberpunk was only bad on PS4 and XBONE, it played fine on a PS5 and XSX, and especially well on a mid to upper end PC. I played the full game twice before the major patches and I experienced two crashes, everything was fine, no glitching etc. Where the dev did do wrong was promising a bunch of features that never made it to the game. Otherwise, this was a quality game, don't put it in the same bin as other garbage.

 

[DSirius]

Cyberpunk was only bad on PS4 and XBONE, it played fine on a PS5 and XSX, and especially well on a mid to upper end PC. I played the full game twice before the major patches and I experienced two crashes, everything was fine, no glitching etc. Where the dev did do wrong was promising a bunch of features that never made it to the game. Otherwise, this was a quality game, don't put it in the same bin as other garbage.

CP20077 was a failure and an resounding fiasco for all players, console and PC. I preordered the game on PC. Could not play and enjoy it due to bugs and poor optimization. Only after 3 months, with Nexus mods community help I could play and enjoy the game.
Also Cyberpunk 2077 devs blatantly favor Nvidia and Intel hardware and even in 2023, CDProject Red did not patched or optimized the game to properly run on AMD processors, while one of the last mod made by Nexus mod community brought up to 27% more FPS for Ryzen processors with 8 cores or more, especially like 78003D.
[HEADING=2] Cyberpunk 2077, die AMD-Akte: Ryzen-Prozessoren liefern zu wenig Fps - machen Sie mit beim Community-Benchmark [Update] [/HEADING]
PCGH untersucht CP 2077 hinsichtlich der "falschen" Ryzen-Performance. Machen Sie mit beim großen Community-Benchmark!
https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-cpus...ance-boost-cyberpunk-2077-unofficial-smt-fix/
But hey, CP2077 devs, somehow, still CAN NOT and DID NOT patch their bugged game to properly optimize it for Ryzen processors.
And CP2077 devs should make it a PRIORITY and OPTIMIZE for AMD hardware, considering that PS4-5, Xbox consoles and many PC users run on AMD processors.
Worth to check it.
Just that, "magically", CDPR devs COULD and DID a lot of mandatory updates which are EXCLUSIVELY for Nvidia cards.
They did it with DLSS exclusivity for a long time after CP2077 release. CP2077 devs implemented FSR only after community made mods which implemented FSR, and practically forced CDPR devs to recognize that they could implemented it sooner.
One of the latest CP2077 forced updates, brought Nvidia Path Tracing barely playing 30FPS only on a 4090 cards while breaking the game for more players than Nvidia 4090 owners. They could easily made it as an OPTIONAL MOD instead of a forced update.
CP2077 could have been easily one of the greatest game, but failed miserable, so no, CP 2077 is a perfect example of bad management decisions, greed, and toxic relation with Nvidia sponsorship exclusivity on PC.

 

[kira setsu]

3 years of early access and people playing the s**t out of it, yeah, it better be great.

now we'll get back to ripping a game apart in less than a month I think when starfield hits and isn't pristine as BG3, plus if zelda gets game of the year again im gonna laugh my *** off, the rest of this year gaming wise will be interesting.

 

[Burty117]

CP20077 was a failure and an resounding fiasco for all players, console and PC. I preordered the game on PC. Could not play and enjoy it due to bugs and poor optimization. Only after 3 months, with Nexus mods community help I could play and enjoy the game.

Dunno about that, you'll find my comments on here from when Cyberpunk launched, I had a blast with it on a 1080Ti and 8700K, could only play on medium(ish) settings but still enjoyed it, only came across a few bugs, definitely had played worse launch titles (BF2042 comes immediately to mind).

Also Cyberpunk 2077 devs blatantly favor Nvidia and Intel hardware and even in 2023, CDProject Red did not patched or optimized the game to properly run on AMD processors, while one of the last mod made by Nexus mod community brought up to 27% more FPS for Ryzen processors with 8 cores or more, especially like 78003D.

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-cpus...ance-boost-cyberpunk-2077-unofficial-smt-fix/
But hey, CP2077 devs, somehow, still CAN NOT and DID NOT patch their bugged game to properly optimize it for Ryzen processors.
And CP2077 devs should make it a PRIORITY and OPTIMIZE for AMD hardware, considering that PS4-5, Xbox consoles and many PC users run on AMD processors.
Worth to check it.

I moved from the 8700K to the 7950X3D and honestly didn't know there was more to be unlocked, my new AMD CPU is soo much faster than my old Intel, I just didn't look into it as I had no need. Interesting findings though, does seem CDPR need to address this if it's still an issue.

Just that, "magically", CDPR devs COULD and DID a lot of mandatory updates which are EXCLUSIVELY for Nvidia cards.
They did it with DLSS exclusivity for a long time after CP2077 release. CP2077 devs implemented FSR only after community made mods which implemented FSR, and practically forced CDPR devs to recognize that they could implemented it sooner.

At least it was added, It was in the news recently that games that implement FSR exclusively never get DLSS and it's potentially AMD actively locking out Nvidia. I'd argue that's worse behaviour than adding the competing upscaler down the road in an update.

One of the latest CP2077 forced updates, brought Nvidia Path Tracing barely playing 30FPS only on a 4090 cards while breaking the game for more players than Nvidia 4090 owners. They could easily made it as an OPTIONAL MOD instead of a forced update.

What are you talking about? Path Tracing is only supposed to be enabled on the ultra high end PC's. If you enable it on anything other than a 4090 you basically will have issues. What's your problem with this? Why should it be a Mod? And why did you moan about Mods fixing the game earlier in your post, then towards the end complain that they shouldn't add things and instead make them Mods? It's like you're arguing with yourself.

CP2077 could have been easily one of the greatest game, but failed miserable, so no, CP 2077 is a perfect example of bad management decisions, greed, and toxic relation with Nvidia sponsorship exclusivity on PC.

Na I don't think it was going to reach the heights of "greatest game ever" as it's still an open world RPG First Person Shooter which are all genres that have been done to death. It did, and still does have the potential to be a really great game though, I played through just the story when it first came out but after them saying they'll be aggressively patching it, I decided I'll do another play through after the first DLC, I'll be doing that later this year with Path Tracing enabled

The hate towards CDPR being sponsored by Nvidia is unwarranted though, the game still runs really well on AMD cards, has had FSR added and even runs well on the Steam Deck that's a complete AMD SoC, PS5, XBSX etc...

 

[m4a4]

CP20077 was a failure and an resounding fiasco for all players, console and PC.

Nope, that is EASILY verified as false for PC. It's super easy to go through the Steam review history yourself and see that it was received well throughout it's life (even at launch).

 

[DubiousFishHook]

This genre is like chess but more boring & cringey. People are weird but thats old news. I've been a gamer since 1989 & enjoyed most if not all genres but this naw.

 

[DSirius]

The hate towards CDPR being sponsored by Nvidia is unwarranted though, the game still runs really well on AMD cards, has had FSR added and even runs well on the Steam Deck that's a complete AMD SoC, PS5, XBSX etc...

It's not hate, even if you imply, they are facts. When a game like CP2077 was refunded so many times, was pulled out by Sony due to unplayable state, and had a lot of PC bugs, even if you managed to play it. This is called a failure and this CP2077 was. It become really playable and enjoyable only after 2 years of patching the game. And I am telling this from experience. I played the game more than 1500 hours in total.

About Nvidia 4090 Path Tracing, what is hard to understand? That it was not necessary to be an update for all players? Do the math, how many players have 4090? Under 0.001% percent? Than make it an optional mod, not an update for all players, because that fake PT update broke the game for more players than 4090 owners who play CP2077, including myself.
And if you still do not understand it, ask for clarifications NICELY instead of pretending that others "moan" or to some twisted logic "arguing with myself". I brought valid arguments, which everybody can check, including you. I suggest to do the same, instead of taking personally.

And in general, better do not confuse raising against bad practices, incompetence and greed of some game devs with what you called "moan".

And BG3 game and their game devs is a better proof of how a game should be released, at least comparing with CP2077 fiasco.

 

[DSirius]

Nope, that is EASILY verified as false for PC. It's super easy to go through the Steam review history yourself and see that it was received well throughout it's life (even at launch).

Nice try, perhaps for you was playable and Ok, but for many was not. I suggest to check how many PC players asked for refunds, the score improved recently, at launch was bad. Many game youtubers even removed their videos before game launch of CP2077 and called out CP2077 devs sneaky move of releasing a game with so many bugs while hiding from them by NDA.

Inside Cyberpunk 2077's Disastrous Rollout

Developers say they knew the game wasn’t ready to be released publicly.

www.bloomberg.com

Bug compilation

And check this bug compilation from april 2023.

And remember, CDPR devs, in their 1st video launch of the game stated: launch date - when is ready. Guess? It was NOT.

So check again, thoroughly.

 

[godrilla]

If you like satire

 

[gamerk2]

You see the difference having a smaller studio and the time to polish the game makes. Heck, they even moved forward the release in order to note compete with Starfield (remember that comes out this month? Anyone?).

That being said, it is worth noting most of the bugs found post-release have been in Acts 2 and 3, which makes sense given those weren't in early access. Still, no *major* game-breaking bugs, thanks in part to the fact the devs could test the core systems for literally YEARS and ensure everything is balanced properly.

 

[McMurdeR]

A landmark title for PC no doubt.

That Xalavier Nelson Jr comment is a little perplexing. Rather than basically promising that the dev community will learn absolutely nothing from this, why not go find out how Larien went about it? Hopefully someone will.

 

[scavengerspc]

The kind of good that can take over your life and make you forget all about family, friends, and work.

People like that should be sterilized immediately.

Anyway, I'm going to give BG3 a go. I avoided them in the past because of the huge learning curve, but now I can dedicate more time to these things. Finally get to check out all the hype.

 

[m4a4]

Nice try, perhaps for you was playable and Ok, but for many was not. I suggest to check how many PC players asked for refunds, the score improved recently, at launch was bad. Many game youtubers even removed their videos before game launch of CP2077 and called out CP2077 devs sneaky move of releasing a game with so many bugs while hiding from them by NDA.

Inside Cyberpunk 2077's Disastrous Rollout

Developers say they knew the game wasn’t ready to be released publicly.

www.bloomberg.com

Bug compilation

And check this bug compilation from april 2023.

And remember, CDPR devs, in their 1st video launch of the game stated: launch date - when is ready. Guess? It was NOT.

So check again, thoroughly.

Lol, no. It was so easy for you to look yourself too


Just because your rig had problems, doesn't mean that the majority on PC did. Or that the bugs ruined everyone's experience. Hence why the scores stayed positive.
Also, the negative reviews stay after refunds BTW, and considering how brutal Steam reviews can be, it shows how narrow minded you are towards the overall experience on PC.

Must be why you didn't even try looking lol. It wasn't a "failure" on PC, despite all the extra fluff you're trying to add.

 

[toooooot]

CP20077 was a failure and an resounding fiasco for all players, console and PC. I preordered the game on PC. Could not play and enjoy it due to bugs and poor optimization. Only after 3 months, with Nexus mods community help I could play and enjoy the game.
Also Cyberpunk 2077 devs blatantly favor Nvidia and Intel hardware and even in 2023, CDProject Red did not patched or optimized the game to properly run on AMD processors, while one of the last mod made by Nexus mod community brought up to 27% more FPS for Ryzen processors with 8 cores or more, especially like 78003D.
[HEADING=2] Cyberpunk 2077, die AMD-Akte: Ryzen-Prozessoren liefern zu wenig Fps - machen Sie mit beim Community-Benchmark [Update] [/HEADING]
PCGH untersucht CP 2077 hinsichtlich der "falschen" Ryzen-Performance. Machen Sie mit beim großen Community-Benchmark!
https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-cpus...ance-boost-cyberpunk-2077-unofficial-smt-fix/
But hey, CP2077 devs, somehow, still CAN NOT and DID NOT patch their bugged game to properly optimize it for Ryzen processors.
And CP2077 devs should make it a PRIORITY and OPTIMIZE for AMD hardware, considering that PS4-5, Xbox consoles and many PC users run on AMD processors.
Worth to check it.
Just that, "magically", CDPR devs COULD and DID a lot of mandatory updates which are EXCLUSIVELY for Nvidia cards.
They did it with DLSS exclusivity for a long time after CP2077 release. CP2077 devs implemented FSR only after community made mods which implemented FSR, and practically forced CDPR devs to recognize that they could implemented it sooner.
One of the latest CP2077 forced updates, brought Nvidia Path Tracing barely playing 30FPS only on a 4090 cards while breaking the game for more players than Nvidia 4090 owners. They could easily made it as an OPTIONAL MOD instead of a forced update.
CP2077 could have been easily one of the greatest game, but failed miserable, so no, CP 2077 is a perfect example of bad management decisions, greed, and toxic relation with Nvidia sponsorship exclusivity on PC.

I think they got so much money to showcase dlss alone that there was not much left to do anything else. especially since there were no extra bonuses.

 

[loki1944]

Well I will definitely not be buying this; supporting bestiality is beyond where I draw the line.

 

[Tom Yum]

Well I will definitely not be buying this; supporting bestiality is beyond where I draw the line.

Crazy idea, but given it is an RPG, you could, you know, decide to just not roleplay that element of the game? It isn't compulsory or even particularly beneficial, it is a choice available to you to roleplay if that floats your boat. Roleplay a ultra-conservative paladin on a one-man crusade against bestiality by slaughtering all druids if you want, you have that choice as well.

 

[loki1944]

Crazy idea, but given it is an RPG, you could, you know, decide to just not roleplay that element of the game? It isn't compulsory or even particularly beneficial, it is a choice available to you to roleplay if that floats your boat. Roleplay a ultra-conservative paladin on a one-man crusade against bestiality by slaughtering all druids if you want, you have that choice as well.

Sure; if you want to go to hell. The path to ruin lies in unbridled depravity. The fall of nations is ruined by moral concessions to what is abomination. Everyone can be Nero if they are that foolish.

 

[Burty117]

It's not hate, even if you imply, they are facts. When a game like CP2077 was refunded so many times, was pulled out by Sony due to unplayable state, and had a lot of PC bugs, even if you managed to play it. This is called a failure and this CP2077 was. It become really playable and enjoyable only after 2 years of patching the game. And I am telling this from experience. I played the game more than 1500 hours in total.

So you're telling me the game was full of bugs, nigh unplayable, yet you managed 1500 hours in the game? I'll just leave it at that.

Of course Sony took it down and of course Sony and Microsoft saw lots of refunds, it was terrible on the PS4/Xbone. We're here telling you the PC version wasn't nearly as bad, not even close.

About Nvidia 4090 Path Tracing, what is hard to understand? That it was not necessary to be an update for all players? Do the math, how many players have 4090? Under 0.001% percent? Than make it an optional mod, not an update for all players, because that fake PT update broke the game for more players than 4090 owners who play CP2077, including myself.

How do you not understand? Having Path-Tracing will mean the game gets put in benchmarks probably for the next 5 years or longer, it also looks incredible and is a glimpse into where game graphics tech is heading.

Not only is there very little media coverage about the path tracing update breaking the game for everyone other than 4090 owners, It seems most of it stems from out-of-date Mods or redmod needing to be re-installed to stop the startup crash.

Just like most games that get lots of Mods, when the developer updates the game in a significant way, Mods break.

And if you still do not understand it, ask for clarifications NICELY instead of pretending that others "moan" or to some twisted logic "arguing with myself". I brought valid arguments, which everybody can check, including you. I suggest to do the same, instead of taking personally.

You are arguing with yourself though, you cannot make a coherent argument, Examples:

"I preordered the game on PC. Could not play and enjoy it due to bugs and poor optimization. Only after 3 months, with Nexus mods community help I could play and enjoy the game."
"CP2077 devs implemented FSR only after community made mods which implemented FSR, and practically forced CDPR devs to recognize that they could implemented it sooner.
One of the latest CP2077 forced updates, brought Nvidia Path Tracing barely playing 30FPS only on a 4090 cards while breaking the game for more players than Nvidia 4090 owners. They could easily made it as an OPTIONAL MOD instead of a forced update."

This one stands all on its own:
"had a lot of PC bugs, even if you managed to play it. This is called a failure and this CP2077 was. It become really playable and enjoyable only after 2 years of patching the game. And I am telling this from experience. I played the game more than 1500 hours in total."

MASSIVE failure, but I did play 1500 hours...

And in general, better do not confuse raising against bad practices, incompetence and greed of some game devs with what you called "moan".

See, I never said the Devs were blameless, they absolutely should have delayed the game a year and simply not released it on PS4/Xbone and skipped straight to PS5/XBSX.

The problem I have is the amount of people trying to bash Cyberpunk (on PC) as the worst launch ever, it just wasn't, not even close. The game just had a huge amount of hype over it and the media went after CDPR because they could, it got them clicks.

Battlefield 2042
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Most Sims 4 Expansions
No Man's Sky

And that's just off the top of my head, they all released in a worse state than Cyberpunk (on PC).

And BG3 game and their game devs is a better proof of how a game should be released, at least comparing with CP2077 fiasco.

Absolutely agree, I've been saying for years Devs have gotten really bad at releasing games, the moment they could easily patch remotely, quality control went out the window.

This kind of thing may get even worse when they eventually force streaming games on all of us. Since streaming services won't be able to cope with a several million in-flux of gamers trying to play the same game, and it'll be even easier for devs to update their game so expect it to be extra buggy compared to even today's standards.

 

[Aus spot]

Sure; if you want to go to hell. The path to ruin lies in unbridled depravity. The fall of nations is ruined by moral concessions to what is abomination. Everyone can be Nero if they are that foolish.

That comes across as a bit fanatical?

How would you rate the text comment from fallout 2 from a super mutant about a woman “I hope she doesn’t get pregnant” relating to a non shown sexual act?

And then with the context that super mutants were genetically grown based at least 95% dna shared with humans and apart from being green, huge and intelligence of a high school jock, look human.

 

[sorten]

LOL, this comment thread is full of entertainment.

I'm a big fan of early access games. I don't mind trying games out early for a discounted price and giving feedback to devs to help them release a solid game. The $20 I spent on Valheim was one of the best gaming values ever for me.

Edit: It's great news that we're getting some solid AAA titles delivered on time and bug free. Diablo IV was a very successful release.

 

[mbk34]

I just find it a bit weird that a turned based RPG would score higher than games like Unreal Tournament, GTA 3, Crysis etc. These games moved the boundaries of what was possible, they were fun to play and people loved them. Similar arguments could be put forward for games like Portal or Minecraft. BG3, not so much.