Baldur’s Gate 3 – deserving of Game of the Year status? (Picture: Larian Studios)
The Tuesday letters page thinks Insomniac is starting to show up other Sony studios, as one reader asks which is the best Call Of Duty campaign?
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Missing out
Count me as someone else that feels guilty about not liking Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m willing to admit I’m wrong and somehow I’m not getting it, or don’t have the patience for it, but from my perspective it seems very overrated.
Everything about it takes so long to happen and the controls and interface are absolutely impenetrable. I must have spent a good hour or so on that first bit with the crashed ship because I couldn’t work out how to use the controls. I don’t mean the weird buttons, I mean the buttons on the controller that were meant to operate the weird buttons.
For me it was also far too obvious that it was never designed to work on a console and felt really uncomfortable on one. Maybe if I’d been playing it with a mouse and keyboard, and a really big monitor, I would’ve enjoyed it more, but for me just the thought of going back to it feels me with a sense of unease, like the game’s mocking me for not understanding it.
I won’t be angry at all if it wins Game of the Year, except if it does I’ll feel even more upset that I’m missing out.
Rondo
Not eligible
Baldur’s Gate 3 thoroughly deserved Game of the Year at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards.
Admittedly, the competition might have been a bit anaemic, apart from Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, obviously. I assume Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Spider-Man 2 were released too late? But that doesn’t detract from what Larian Studios achieved with Baldur’s Gate 3.
For my money the best supporting performer award should have gone to Andrew Wincott for his stellar performance as Raphael.
Asterion was my main and he never got on my nerves, Neil Newborn was excellent but Andrew Wincott was even better. To be fair though, all the voice performers were bang on form. Difficult to think of a game with a better voice cast.
Mitchell
GC: Yes, Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder came out the same day voting ending, which was awkward timing.
No fighting
In response to Pena’s letter RE: Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m sure you are not the only one not enjoying it. I played the other night for two hours without a single battle. So yes, some may find it to be hard work.
Personally, I am loving it and think it may be up there with one of my best games of all time.
I’m really appreciating the creative effort that has gone into this game, from the acting to details in characters and locations.
The actors have made the world come alive and there is great humour in the game. I never expected to laugh so much.
In the circus there is a kobold called Popper who I’m sure is a nod to Papa Lazarus from League of Gentleman.
I’ve really grown to enjoy the company of my fellow adventurers, with favourites being Shadowheart, Astarion, and Laez’l. This is something in itself as I didn’t like any of them to begin with but began to accept their flaws and foibles.
GameCentral said the end game declines but at the moment I’m 75% in and finding it’s getting better with every act.
My only gripe is the bugs, and the hotfixes don’t seem to be fixing anything.
Playing on PlayStation 5.
Tiddleydwarf
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Best of the worst
RE: Gandalf2 on Call Of Duty and MCU coming to an end. I think the conclusion should be that when you start taking your fanbase for granted and pumping out sub-quality and rushed games/films then you will erode the goodwill which has taken decades to create.
I think there are some interesting parallels and cautionary stories to be learnt though.
Equally though, based on Loki season 2 reviews (which are amazing) it shows your audiences will stick with you if you’re making great stories and characters we care about.
More of this, please!
Tom
No sleep till Wolverine
I like Spider-Man 2 as much as the next person but I’m a little worried that Insomniac seem to be the only developer putting in any work at Sony. I like their stuff fine but they’ve already release two full games, a spin-off and a remaster for the PlayStation 5 and now it looks like they’re going to have Wolverine next year.
They’re not even that big a company, at around 400 people (some developers have over a thousand), and yet they’re pumping out quality games at a ridiculous rate. So what is everybody else doing? If it’s live service games then they’re not being quick about that either.
Days Gone is four years ago now and we still don’t even know what Bend are working on, let alone know when it’s out. I don’t know about having Bungie oversee the live service games, they need to have Insomniac oversee all the other stuff.
They keep putting Guerilla Games people in the top exec position but I don’t find their output particularly good at all. All they’ve made is one game this gen, in Horizon Forbidden West, and that was cross-gen. And a VR game which looks to me like it reused a lot of its assets.
If I was the new Sony boss I’d look at reassess who was actually getting the work done and get some of these other studios to pull up their socks.
Wotan
Nul points
It was inevitable. Starfield was snubbed for Game Of The Year. Because the judges have recognised actual quality and so has GC. Mediocrity doesn’t equate to quality. Seems as if Xbox and Bethesda need to learn that sharp lesson. Let’s face the music.
They’ve only one single game, worth the hype and quality we expect from a renowned publisher: Hellblade 2. Congratulations to Larian Studios for Baldr’s Gate 3. Those nominations are deserved. So is Game of the Year. Fingers crossed.
Shahzaib Sadiq
Sounds good
I have some audio advice for those using a gaming headset. Having previously used Dolby Atmos, I thought I would try the 14-day trial for DTS X (on Xbox). I was genuinely shocked how much of an improvement the audio is. It is so much clearer with a wider soundstage. It is also notably louder and fantastic for music also. I highly recommend. I didn’t use the trial for long. I paid £16 for the licence because it is so good.
If GC haven’t tried it, I suggest at least downloading the trial and you will immediately notice the difference. I couldn’t tell much difference between Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos. But DTS X is another level altogether.
Anon
£18 an hour
When shorter games are added to Game Pass, people often describe them as a great game for Game Pass, in that you can play through them in three to four hours and move onto the next game.
Ergo, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the perfect Game Pass game and all for a bargain price!
NatorDom
More: Trending
Now is the time
Regarding the complete farce that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has become this year.
Politicians often talk about cut through; whenever a story or situation that puts them in a bad light will get enough traction to get through to the wider population, the average person in the street let’s say. They hope the story will slowly shrivel up and go away, instead of sticking around and going viral, perhaps allowing for further damaging content to be uncovered in the days and weeks after. Bad news has a shelf life of sorts.
With Modern Warfare 3 I hope that well informed gamers such as read Metro GameCentral will possibly vote with their wallets this time.
But in reality, I reckon 80% of the sales base Activision normally get won’t know or care.
Sony won’t have known or expected this to happen, but my goodness is now the time to release a new IP, going up against Activision (aka Microsoft). Even if they were minded to do so it would take years to produce anything, so perhaps the chance would be gone by then, who knows.
But given the Activision/Microsoft/FTC court case saga, Sony must have a least given it some consideration.
r-s-w
GC: Sales seem to be down somewhat but not massively so. 80% is probably a good guess.
Inbox also-rans
Very interesting about this cynical Call Of Duty release. Made we wonder, what do GC and readers think is the best or top three single-player campaigns in the series, on any platform?
Halfempty
GC: Last weekend’s Hot Topic was on favourite Call Of Duty games but we’d say, in no particular order, Call Of Duty 4, Black Ops, and the original Modern Warfare 2. What’s so frustrating about this year’s game is that the rebooted Cold War and Modern Warfare were also pretty good. The new Modern Warfare 3 is only bad because the developer wasn’t given enough time.
Kudos to GC for not pulling any punches in its Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 review and, so far, I’m glad to see most other sites being sensible too. A 53 on Metacritic seems like the least it deserves.
Fang
This week’s Hot Topic
The PlayStation 5 turned three years old on Sunday, and the Xbox Series X/S two days before that, so for this weekend’s Inbox we want to know how you think they’re both doing.
Do you own either console and if so, what do you think of them in terms of the hardware and the current software line-up? If you don’t own either console, why is that and what would convince you to get them?
What are your hopes and expectations for the future, for both formats, and do you think this console generation has so far been better or worse than the previous one?
E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk
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The Tuesday letters page thinks Insomniac is starting to show up other Sony studios, as one reader asks which is the best Call Of Duty campaign?