Baldur's Gate 3 Available in Steam Early Access from September 30th; System Requirements Outed

[Raevenlord]

Larian Studios-developed Baldur's Gate 3, the next installment in the long-running and critically-acclaimed series, will be available in Early Access form starting September 30th. The distribution will be made via Steam, and Larian says that gamers are in for a treat. Baldur's Gate 3 will have a much deeper initial Early Access plethora of features than their previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2. Some numbers comparing both releases, for clarity, are as follows: Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access will feature a total of 80 combat scenarios (22 in D:OSII); some 45,980 lines of dialog (17,600 in D:OSII); a total of 596 interactable characters (142 in D:OSII); and 146 available spells and actions (69 in D:OSII).

The relative length of the available content remains about the same (Larian estimates 20-30 hours of playtime in Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access content, the same as in D:OSII), but Larian says that Baldurs' Gate 3 is infinitely more replayable, with unprecedented player agency. System requirements aren't too high either, at least for an Early Access version of the game; however, Larian is quick to point out that these requirements will only go down - not up - as optimizations are achieved within the games' development. It seems that the engine feature set is already fixed, and that the studio isn't looking to upgrade it until the games' release. Look after the break for the Minimum and Recommended hardware configurations for this latest romp through the world of Dungeons & Dragons.

Minimum:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 4350
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 70 GB available space

Recommended:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6 GB / AMD RX580
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 70 GB available space

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Dux]

"Early access" AKA "how can we make people pay for alpha & beta testing and make it seem like we're doing them a favor for charging alpha & beta testing."

 

[c2DDragon]

"Early access" AKA "how can we make people pay for alpha & beta testing and make it seem like we're doing them a favor for charging alpha & beta testing."

Early access prices are generally lower than the launch price.
You have the full game at the end of the road for less money.

 

[Vayra86]

"Early access" AKA "how can we make people pay for alpha & beta testing and make it seem like we're doing them a favor for charging alpha & beta testing."

Generally true, but then Larian goes the extra mile by offering a price cut on EA (usually) AND post-release they truly, actually FINISH the game with a Definitive Edition that usually even adds some leftover ideas that could still be crammed in. Its not a lame pre-order like you do with Electronic Arts paying full price to get 'access to beta'. You actually DO get paid for beta testing when they cut the price, right?

This studio right here, deserves only praise. I'm not going to go into an Early Access for story driven games though, its a complete waste of great first experiences.

So far all is looking extremely well and its clear the studio has a tight and well determined project scope, seeing what they've got at this point, its pretty significant. Its clear they are just iterating on all that was great from DOS. This is how the dev game is meant to be played, bois. Faith in humanity... +10

 

[neatfeatguy]

Shame that it's Early Release on Steam...I'd like to see what the game offers. I'll wait for it to release on GoG. Valve doesn't deserve my support with their broken UI that still not fixed since last October.

 

[phanbuey]

I've never played a Larian game I didn't love.

 

[HD64G]

Shame that it's Early Release on Steam...I'd like to see what the game offers. I'll wait for it to release on GoG. Valve doesn't deserve my support with their broken UI that still not fixed since last October.

It will go on EA release on GoG too me thinks.

 

[Raevenlord]

I've never played a Larian game I didn't love.

I've never played a Larian game, but I'm thinking of giving Original Sin 2 a go. is it worth it, storywise?

 

[neatfeatguy]

I've never played a Larian game, but I'm thinking of giving Original Sin 2 a go. is it worth it, storywise?

If you're a fan of any sorts of turn based RPG games, the Divinity Original Series are awesome. I'd certainly say give them a go.

 

[Soulwatcher]

System specs are not that high, so I wonder how good the in-game graphics are?

 

[Frick]

Entirely wrong kind of game for early access.

 

[ebivan]

Yeah, I'm really psyched because I loved BG1 and 2 and I loved all Divinity Games even more! There is nothing that beats turn based role playing!
But I hate early access in general. Seems a lot of game get stuck there and never really finish. I dont wanna spoil the game for myself so I really hope there will be a point when its actually finished and at that point I will play it!

 

[dirtyferret]

System specs are not that high, so I wonder how good the in-game graphics are?

see for yourself

 

[Th3pwn3r]

This will be a great stop gap for the 10 delays CyberPunk2077 is gonna have

 

[c2DDragon]

I've never played a Larian game, but I'm thinking of giving Original Sin 2 a go. is it worth it, storywise?

I advise you to do the first one before. I found the first one more immersive than the second. I remember better some parts of the first I did in 2016 than the 2nd I did in 2018
I remember more the frustration I experienced in the 2nd game like...being stun locked during an entire epic fight where only my friend could play.
You would understand better the 2nd game's story after finishing the 1rst.

 

[Totally]

I Just hope it doesn't turn out to be a snooze fest like the last AAA game I got excited for.

 

[Vayra86]

I've never played a Larian game, but I'm thinking of giving Original Sin 2 a go. is it worth it, storywise?

Big fat recommend. Original Sin 1 is also certainly worth it, though I personally also found it a lot harder. If you don't read stuff in 1, you WILL get lost. Bigtime. In 2, much less so.

 

[Raevenlord]

Okay, considering all of the above feedback, I'll start with Original Sin and see if it's up my alley.

There are just so many (potentially) good games and so little time...