After two decades, legendary RPG franchise Baldur's Gate has returned with a new numbered entry. The recent release of the Early Access version of Baldur's Gate 3 has been met with high celebration and praise by RPG enthusiasts. While players are enthralled with the next RPG within the Dungeons and Dragons setting, there has been one sore point that has hampered the experience.
Despite the massive amount of content for Baldur's Gate 3 in its early access form, there is a lot of criticism leveled against what has been a buggy release. With the common complaint of an unstable game harming the otherwise enjoyable experience, developer Larian Studios releases the game's first major patch.
The first patch for Baldur's Gate 3 is a sizable one tackling a few of the more significant issues players are running into. The specific focus of this patch is to address what has been the common problem of game crashes. The patch notes that were released on Steam mention a few of the most pressing scenarios that are prone to crashes. These mention fixes for crashing related to target camera and "rush-type actions" as well as crashes during dialogue sections and character creation, two gameplay sections likely to be big areas of focus by players.
The news update for what the developer calls "Hotfix #1" also covers other notable quick fix measures for players to keep in mind. The post notes that if players are facing a lot of issues including performance and crashes, it suggests switching the game to DX11 mode via the launcher. Larian also recommends disabling Steam and Discord overlays. While gaming overlays may seem innocuous, it is becoming common suggestion to disable them as they affect performance like with Mass Effect 3 on Steam.
The news that Baldur's Gate 3 released in a somewhat broken state is not entirely unsurprising and was actually expected by most fans. Larian Studios confirmed early in the development that the game would launch in Early Access, as Divinity: Original Sin 2 did before. There have been some conversations by players regarding the expectations of Baldur's Gate 3's early access release in relation to its price point, which is a standard $60. Larian explained the reasoning behind Baldur's Gate 3's price point was due to an already long 25 hour experience on early access launch.
Despite the very shaky launch, Baldur's Gate 3 is being praised across the gaming industry for its gameplay and narrative design. Even in the very early stages of the game, fans are seemingly enjoying what Larian Studios has put out. With a return to RPG roots alongside some neat new tricks like letting Twitch viewers help make decisions in Baldur's Gate 3, many are eager to see where the development goes from here.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available in Early Access on PC, Mac, and Google Stadia.
Source: Steam