Is Baldur's Gate 3 the "new standard?"

Much of the hot gaming news this week centered around the much anticipated release of Baldur's Gate 3.  Unless you've stayed conveniently lodged under a rock, it was hard to miss the steady stream of articles covering the online debate that arose.  The good news is that people are heralding BG3 as a regular masterpiece in the singleplayer RPG genre.  Me, I haven't played it, but from what I have seen of it (which isn't much because I'm intentionally avoiding it with hopes of potentially purchasing it in the future) looks to follow the Larian formula that worked well in the Divinity: Original Sin games.  I haven't waded into the minutiae of this debate, but there are certain things that I noticed about the development of BG3 that didn't seem typical of most other games.  For one thing, it was in early access for quite a long time (several years, I do believe)--that seems way out of the ordinary.

For the most part, I think gamers are just happy with the fact that Larian hasn't followed the formula that many other triple-A games have--the constant push toward purchasing MORE!  You know how it goes...day one DLC, cosmetic packs, "boosts," loot boxes...pick your microtransaction poison.  This, however, is also out of the ordinary and I don't think gamers should expect any of the normal shenanigans to change due to one case of a company doing something right.

I'm holding off on BG3 for now, but am happy to hear that it is very good.  I have my doubts that anything will change, but it's nice that it has kicked off a discussion about what gamers really want in a game--and guess what, it's not all the microtransaction-y garbage.  Will it pressure the big dogs to do better?  Maybe...but I have my doubts.

For now, I've finished up my cowboy adventures in Red Dead Redemption 2.  It's always a little bittersweet finishing up an epic adventure like RDR2--I love the world of the old west and the beauty of the environments in that game.  I'm dipping my toes into the newest expansion for Two Point Campus--medical school.  Hopefully I will have a review for it next weekend.

Happy gaming!