Baldur’s Gate 3 – the bear-faced cheek of it (Picture: Larian Studios)
The reveal of a rather unorthodox romantic encounter in Baldur’s Gate 3 has given its sales a considerable bump on Steam.
Type Baldur’s Gate 3 into Google or YouTube at the moment and you’ll find that one of the top search queries involves a bear, which is odd because previously that hasn’t been a selling point for the big budget Dungeons & Dragons role-player.
The game, from the makers of Divinity: Original Sin 2, is set to be a major hit no matter what happens and has been in early access on Steam for a year now, where it’s usually always somewhere in the top 20.
All of a sudden though, it’s jumped up several places and that’s primarily because, well… you’ve read the headline and it’s all true. It’s also surprisingly romantic and funny.
The scene in question involves Astarion, who is an elf vampire, and Halsin, who is a druid. If you manage to encourage them into a romantic relationship then a sex scene can result which involves Halsin turning into a bear – like Beorn from The Hobbit.
The video below is actually completely safe for work, as long as you’re okay with bare chests (and bear chests) as it stops before anything gets too spicy.
Although there are jokes in it – the bit with the squirrel is great – the scene isn’t played for laughs and is actually more romantic and adult than almost any other sex scene in gaming, not that there are many.
The explanation is that Halsin’s transformation is accidental, as he gets carried away, but Astarion is into it and they both carry on regardless. Or at least he is depending on which dialogue options you choose.
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The scene was shown off at developer Larian’s Panel from Hell showcase (you can see a longer NSFW cut of the scene starting at around the 5:32:40 mark) and since word got out the game’s sales have drastically increased, outselling the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA 5.
Baldur’s Gate 3 will launch for PC on August 3, while the PlayStation 5 version is due on September 6. An Xbox Series X/S version is still TBC, following reports that Larian is having trouble getting the split-screen mode working on the Xbox Series S.
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The reveal of a rather unorthodox romantic encounter in Baldur’s Gate 3 has given its sales a considerable bump on Steam.
