Summary
This week, I’ve been busycybering punksin Night City,EAing FC’sat St. James’ Park, andmortaling kombatsin… wherever that happens. I haven’t even had time to start starring fields yet. The problem is no matter what I’m doing, I’d much rather be balduring gates.Baldur’s Gate 3is too good for me to think of anything else, and too long for me to just set aside some time to beat it (the curses of waiting for console). As we enter the busiest stretch of releases this gen has ever known, this problem is going to get worse before it gets better.
I like the original Cyberpunk 2077 enough. I had major problems with its worldbuilding, general viewpoint, and the obvious bugs, but I was able to enjoy it well enough through interactions with characters and embracing the visuals through the photo mode. InPhantom Liberty, there’s a much smaller cast of characters. Solomon Reed (Idris Elba) is there for much of the expansion, and while there’s obviously a baseline level of good quality you get with Elba, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’d rather be talking to Astarion.
Related:Baldur’s Gate 3’s Shadowheart Fought People For Deadnaming Her Trans Friend
Phantom Liberty is suffering the same fate as the two Horizon games - it’s good, but it’s too close to a game that is excellent (Zero DawnandForbidden West, both decent open world games, launched within touching distance ofBreath of the WildandElden Ring). The depth of interactions in Baldur’s Gate dwarfs the limited conversations in Cyberpunk where all roads lead to Rome, just with a slightly different attitude along the way.
I alsofound some gamer girl bath water in Phantom Libertyand was annoyed that I couldn’t buy it, or indeed do anything with it. I knew if it had been Baldur’s Gate 3 the game would have offered a use for it, even if it would have required a lot of thought to get there.
That’s not so much of a like for like in EA Sports FC. I’m not running down the wing as Anthony Gordon and wishing he had Karlach’s dash distance (although his stats are pretty poor for someone who’s been our best player this season). It’s more that in the mix with all the games I have between now and the end of the year that I need to play (either for professional coverage or just to keep my eye in), I can’t stop thinking about Baldur’s Gate 3. I don’t want to rush it, but I know whatever else I play I’ll constantly be drawn back to Faerun.
I’ve already written offStarfield. It’s equally large and time consuming, and after not vibing with any of Bethesda’s stuff previously, I’m happy to leave it aside to potentially play in the future. But I can’t do that withDetective Pikachu Returns,Assassin’s Creed Mirage,Spider-Man 2,Super Mario Bros. Wonder,Persona 5 Tactica, orAlan Wake 2. I also promised myself I would carve out some time for Fashion Dreamer, but I don’t know where that time will come from. Sleep, probably.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a phenomenal experience, one of the few games I’ve played that becomes so all-consuming that other titles struggle for oxygen in its presence. I need to beat it, but I also need to savour it, and yet I have so many others vying for attention in the meantime.
It’s a luxury we should cherish, no matter how stressful it can sometimes be in the moment. This has been a mammoth year for triple-A games, buta horrific year for the industry at large. This is an exception, not the rule, as the pandemic backlog that has left the last two years a famine finally results in a feast. This cadence will not continue into 2024, and we should enjoy it while we can - even if we can’t really enjoy anything until we beat Baldur’s Gate 3.
