Tag: larian studios

The Game Awards 2023 Winners: Baldur’s Gate III Crowned Game of the Year, Alan Wake 2 Bags Four Trophies, More

Baldur’s Gate III took home the top honour at The Game Awards 2023, held early Friday in Los Angeles, besting its lead competitor Alan Wake II. The Dungeons & Dragons-based sprawling RPG, which was strongly revered by both fans and critics alike, bagged six trophies, including Best Community Support and Best Performance. The latter was collected by Neil Newbon, who played Astarion, the silver-haired vampire spawn, holding our attention with his melodramatic persona and the occasional high-pitched screeches. Meanwhile, Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 won four awards across some of the most important categories, with co-directors Sam Lake and Kyle Rowley emerging as the best game directors of the year, alongside a writing/ narrative nod.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which orchestrated most of the gaming craze in early 2023, only won one award — for Best Action/ Adventure Game. Cyberpunk 2077, which saw a resurgence lately, with update 2.0 and its Phantom Liberty expansion, was crowned the Best Ongoing Game, for its commitment to fixing and essentially breathing new life into a title that drastically failed at launch. The indie game slot was a subject of controversy for its inclusion of the Nexon-owned Dave the Diver, though there’s no more room for outrage since another cutesy pixelated game Sea of Stars emerged victorious. The cast of the upcoming Fallout series also made an appearance on stage to present the award for Best Adaptation, which HBO’s The Last of Us series won — no surprise there.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

In addition to The Game Awards jury-voted winners, there was a Players’ Voice bracket, which as the name suggests, is completely governed by fan voting. Baldur’s Gate 3 was also a victor in that, beating out Genshin Impact, whose fanbase was called out last year for botting to skew the results in their favour.

With that, here’s the entire list of winners from The Game Awards 2023:

The Game Awards 2023 winners — the full list

Game of the Year

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) — WINNER
Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing)
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Resident Evil 4 remake (Capcom)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

Best Game Direction

Alan Wake II — WINNER
Baldur’s Gate 3
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Narrative

Alan Wake II — WINNER
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt Red)
Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix)
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Best Art Direction

Alan Wake 2 — WINNER
Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks)
Lies of P (Round8 Studio/Neowiz Games)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Score and Music

Masayoshi Soken, Final Fantasy XVI — WINNER
Petri Alanko, Alan Wake 2
Borislav Slavov, Baldur’s Gate 3
Shuichi Kobori, Hi-Fi Rush
Nintendo Sound Team, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Adaptation

The Last of Us (PlayStation Productions/HBO) — WINNER
Castlevania: Nocturne (Powerhouse Animation/Netflix)
Gran Turismo (PlayStation Productions/Sony Pictures)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Illumination/Nintendo/Universal Pictures)
Twisted Metal (PlayStation Productions/Peacock)

The Last of Us Season 1 Review

Best Audio Design

Hi-Fi Rush — WINNER
Alan Wake 2
Dead Space (Motive Studio/EA)
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Resident Evil 4

Best Performance

Neil Newbon, Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Ben Starr, Final Fantasy XVI
Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Idris Elba, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Melanie Liburd, Alan Wake 2
Yuri Lowenthal, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

The Game Awards 2023: The Biggest Announcements

Innovation in Accessibility

Forza Motorsport (Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios) — WINNER
Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment)
Hi-Fi Rush
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Mortal Kombat 1 (NetherRealm Studios/WB Games)
Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)

Best Ongoing Game

Cyberpunk 2077 — WINNER
Final Fantasy XIV
Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment/EA)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

Games for Impact

Tchia (Awaceb/Kepler Interactive) — WINNER
A Space for the Unbound (Mojiken Studio/Toge Productions/Chorus)
Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment)
Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP)
Terra Nil (Free Lives/Devolver Digital/Netflix)
Venba (Visai Games)

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Cyberpunk 2077
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy XIV
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Best Independent Game

Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio) — WINNER
Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
Dave the Diver (MINTROCKET)
Dredge (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)

Best Debut Indie Game

Cocoon — WINNER
Dredge
Pizza Tower (Tour de Pizza)
Venba
Viewfinder

Best Mobile Game

Honkai: Star Rail — WINNER
Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis (Applibot/Square Enix)
Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Sunblink Entertainment)
Monster Hunter Now (Niantic/Capcom)
Terra Nil

Best VR/AR Game

Resident Evil Village VR Mode (Capcom) — WINNER
Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE)
Humanity (tha LTD/Enhance Games)
Horizon Call of the Mountain (Guerrilla Games/Firesprite/SIE)
Synapse (nDreams)

Best Action Game

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) — WINNER
Dead Island 2 (Dambuster Studios/Deep Silver)
Ghostrunner 2 (One More Level/505 Games)
Hi-Fi Rush
Remnant 2 (Gunfire Games/Gearbox Publishing)

Best Action/Adventure Game

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — WINNER
Alan Wake 2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Resident Evil 4
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Resident Evil 4 Remake Review

Best RPG

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Final Fantasy XVI
Lies of P
Sea of Stars
Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)

Best Fighting Game

Street Fighter 6 — WINNER
God of Rock (Modus Studios Brazil/Modus Games)
Mortal Kombat 1
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (Ludosity/Fair Play Labs/GameMill Entertainment)
Pocket Bravery (Statera Studio/PQube)

Best Family Game

Super Mario Bros. Wonder — WINNER
Disney Illusion Island (Dlala Studios/Disney)
Party Animals (Recreate Games)
Pikmin 4 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Sonic Superstars (Arzest/Sonic Team/Sega)

Best Sim/Strategy Game

Pikmin 4 — WINNER
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (WayForward/Nintendo)
Cities: Skylines II (Colossal Order/Paradox Interactive)
Company of Heroes 3 (Relic Entertainment/Sega)
Fire Emblem Engage (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)

Best Sports/Racing

Forza Motorsport — WINNER
EA Sports FC 24 (EA Vancouver/EA Romania/EA Sports)
F1 23 (Codemasters/EA Sports)
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (Milestone)
The Crew Motorfest (Ubisoft Ivory Tower/Ubisoft)

Best Multiplayer

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Diablo IV
Party Animals
Street Fighter 6
Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Most Anticipated Game

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) — WINNER
Hades II (Supergiant Games)
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)
Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco/Arika)

Content Creator of the Year

IronMouse — WINNER
PeopleMakeGames
Quackity
Spreen
SypherPK

Best Esports Game

Valorant (Riot Games) — WINNER
Counter-Strike 2 (Valve)
Dota 2 (Valve)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
PUBG Mobile (LightSpeed Studios/Tencent Games)

Best Esports Athlete

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (League of Legends) — WINNER
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (CS:GO)
Max “Demon1” Mazanov (Valorant)
Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez (Call of Duty)
Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (League of Legends)
Phillip ”ImperialHal” Dosen (Apex Legends)

Best Esports Team

JD Gaming (League of Legends) — WINNER
Evil Geniuses (Valorant)
Fnatic (Valorant)
Gaimin Gladiators (Dota 2)
Team Vitality (Counter-Strike)

Best Esports Coach

Christine “potter” Chi (Evil Geniuses – Valorant) — WINNER
Danny “zonic” Sorensen (Team Falcons – Counter-Strike)
Jordan “Gunba” Graham (Florida Mayhem – Overwatch)
Remy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (Team Vitality – Counter-Strike)
Yoon “Homme” Sung-young (JD Gaming – League of Legends)

Best Esports Event

2023 League of Legends World Championship — WINNER
Blast.tv Paris Major 2023
EVO 2023
The International Dota 2 Championships 2023
VALORANT Champions 2023

Players’ Voice

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Libery
Genshin Impact
Spider-Man 2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

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Baldur’s Gate 3 ‘Big’ Third Patch Finally Lets You Change Appearance

Baldur’s Gate 3 is prepared to receive its massive third patch, which will finally allow players to change their in-game character’s appearance. Fans have been desperately requesting this feature since launch, and it’s scheduled to go live later tonight, September 22, alongside fixes for the performance issues in the densely-populated Act 3 segment. When the update goes live, the game will add a Magic Mirror to our camp, a stationary tool that can be interacted with to presumably open up a limited version of the creation menu. Patch 3 was originally due on Thursday, but developer Larian Studios decided to take an extra day for ‘thorough testing.’

The Magic Mirror won’t let you entirely change your Tav, preventing you from altering their race and body type, which makes sense given how much it affects relationships with other NPCs and general world interactions. That said, anything that’s appearance-based — hair, makeup, voice, pronouns, and such — can be changed whenever you like. Previously, you were stuck using whatever looks you picked at the start, with no way of fixing it once your Baldur’s Gate 3 journey began. This also means that if you created a short character, you will continue to remain as such till the end — or unless you start a new run. It doesn’t seem like using the mirror requires that you exchange some form of currency either, which is nice.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

Larian added that one cannot alter Origin characters such as Karlach, Shadowheart, Gael, and the ilk. “…they’re all very particular about their hair,” the tweet reads, as a joking remark for Astarion the vampire spawn. Patch #3 is also supposed to bring Mac support for Baldur’s Gate 3. Up until now, it’s been accessible via early access, which lacks a ton of content and changes that were present in the final/ main build released on PC, in August. Meanwhile, Larian has been fixing some quest-related issues, specifically of the murderous drow Minthara, whose 1,500+ lines of dialogue were disabled due to a bug. The team also added an alternate ending to the cheerful Tiefling Karlach’s arc, and there are also plans to expand the ending eventually.

As the PS5 version rolled out earlier this month, Larian enabled cross-saves across platforms, letting players carry over their progression from PC to console and vice versa — albeit only the last five save files would be synced. We can assume that Baldur’s Gate 3’s Mac version will be getting the same treatment. Plans for cross-play are also in the pipeline which should help players on different systems be able to engage in online co-op adventures together.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC and PS5, while the Xbox Series S/X launch is slated for sometime later this year.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 2 Coming Soon With Performance Fixes, New Ending for Karlach, More

Baldur’s Gate 3’s second patch is right around the corner, with Larian Studios suggesting that it’s a ‘chonky’ one. In a community update post on Steam, the developer revealed that the patch will be focused on improving performance issues, specifically in Act 3, where players have reported laggy cutscenes and stutters when the camera pans around. In addition to fixing bugs that halted quest progression, our companion, the cheerful Tiefling Karlach, will be getting a new optional ending — a closure that is described as ‘fiery’ and ‘poignant’. The lengthy blog post also touches upon some cut content that was discovered recently by data miners, some of which have now been revealed as a consequence of bugs.

One such case is the ruthless drow Minthara’s reactivity in the game, whose dialogue was seemingly heavily cut down and felt inconsequential. Larian has now isolated the ‘very, very stupid’ bug, which prevented about 1,500 lines of content from triggering when necessary and will soon release a fix. “The game is super reactive and there were a couple of bugs that caused some of the companions to not react as they should. And so that felt like the content was not showing up,” Larian CEO Swen Vincke told IGN, adding that her dialogue triggered in previous versions — early access, I’m assuming — and further development caused it to drown out.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

The amount of new information data miners extracted caused some to believe that she was supposed to have an origin quest — similar to companions like Astarion or Shadowheart. Vincke assured in the interview that Minthara was just a side character, though once she’s fixed, they might consider doing ‘something extra’ with her. It also appears as if the team is looking into expanding Baldur’s Gate 3’s epilogue, which felt brief and abrupt to most players. As per Larian, the epilogue was heavily trimmed out of fear that the ending cinematics would’ve played out for way too long. The game already has cutscenes that run for over 174 hours. However, due to popular demand, the team will now expand on it, and we’ll get to see its first results starting with patch #2, which introduces a new ending for Karlach that doesn’t end in misery.

Larian Studios is also adding a new ‘Withers’ Wardrobe of Wayward Friends’ feature, which lets you get rid of co-op party members who join your campaign. The developer dropped a funny advertisement for it, which details that you can place any unwanted party members in our NPC skeletal friend’s closet and they’ll be gone. As for whether Baldur’s Gate 3 will feature a physical wardrobe at our camp or if it’s generated when you speak to Withers, only time will tell. Besides that, Larian is also cooking up the option to customise our character’s appearance midway through the campaign, though there’s no release window for it, yet. With each new hotfix and update, third-party mods have had trouble keeping up. So, support for customisation will be added ‘at some point.’

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases on September 6, while the Xbox Series S/X version is slated for release sometime this year.

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Baldur’s Gate III Is Coming to Xbox This Year After All, but No Split-Screen Co-Op on Xbox Series S

Baldur’s Gate III will be coming to Xbox consoles this year after all. In a tweet, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke confirmed that he and Xbox head Phil Spencer had found a solution to bring the critically acclaimed CRPG to Microsoft’s current-gen consoles. There’s one catch though: the game won’t support split-screen co-op on the less-expensive Xbox Series S — a feature the developer has been struggling to enable for months now, thanks to the technical limitations of the console. In fact, to maintain parity of features between Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series S and X, Microsoft even sent engineers from their side to help out Larian.

“Super happy to confirm that after meeting [Spencer] yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time,” Vincke’s tweet reads. The aforementioned change does not affect the regular online co-op, in which you can invite friends to help out with your campaign. However, rolling multiple characters on the same system (lower-end) is what’s causing the issue for Larian — especially, when all party members run off in four directions, start hurling spells, and stress the console. That’s a lot of on-screen activity on a single screen and in Vincke’s words from a recent interview, “That requires memory.”

That lack of memory has to do with Microsoft making the Xbox Series S more affordable, which naturally comes with the caveat of reduced performance. Larian confirmed, earlier this month, that the lack of an Xbox release date for Baldur’s Gate 3 wasn’t due to some exclusivity deal with PlayStation, but rather because they were struggling to maintain parity between both consoles on the Green Team. Microsoft’s policy enforces gameplay feature parity between Xbox Series S and X, so players with the lower-end console aren’t left out. As for whether Microsoft is making an exception for Baldur’s Gate 3 or lifting the rule entirely for upcoming games in the generation, remains to be seen.

Speaking to IGN, Spencer claimed that he didn’t see a world where his team was going to drop the Xbox Series S any time soon, but added that Microsoft would learn from the situation. “I don’t think you’ve heard from us or Larian, that this was about parity. I think that’s more that the community is talking about it,” he said, adding that parity between systems was more of a developer decision. “It’s a game I want to see on the platform, and we have resources that helped in terms of making sure it’s going to… I think they’ve said it’s going to ship by the end of the year.” In the tweet, Vincke also confirmed that the Xbox version will have cross-progression between Steam and Xbox Series S/X, so you can jump between platforms and continue from where you left off.

Larian Studios also dropped their promised first patch for Baldur’s Gate 3, which addresses over 1,000 bugs and balancing issues, in addition to fixing the kissing contact for shorter races. Earlier, the animation made it look like your short character, who couldn’t reach their romantic interest, was simply leaning in and kissing their chest. Now, if you’re not tall enough, your partner will kneel down to make contact. You can check out the entire list of changes on the official website. Meanwhile, the studio will continue working on a second patch, which will include ‘significant performance improvements’ (for Act 3 content, I’m assuming).

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases on September 6, while the Xbox Series S/X version is slated for release sometime this year.

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Baldur’s Gate III First Patch Will Include Over 1,000 Fixes, Changes to Character Customisation in Works

Baldur’s Gate III is prepared to receive its first patch and by the looks of it, it seems like a huge one. Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke confirmed a roadmap on Twitter, promising to fix issues and make relevant tweaks to ability balances, based on user suggestions. First up, is hotfix #4, which would make some emergency fixes to crashes and progressions blocks, in addition to any bugs that hinder the general interface. That will be followed by the massive patch, boasting over 1,000 fixes, followed by patch 2, which will ‘incorporate some requests.’ It’s unclear what those requests could be, but we already know that the team is planning an update that would let players change their character’s appearance mid-game.

That claim comes from Michael Douse, Director of Publishing, Larian Studios, who responded to a fan’s tweet requesting the ability to change their look in the game. Once you lock in a suited appearance at the start of your Baldur’s Gate 3 journey, the game simply doesn’t let you change it — forcing you to stick with whatever tattoos, hairstyle, or makeup you chose, leading up to the end game. This does not seem to be the case with character classes, which you can respec by simply interacting with the NPC Withers at your campsite in exchange for 100 gold pieces. It’s a wild anomaly for a role-playing game, considering how much customisation is present in other aspects of the game — some even tied to story elements. I’m going to assume that this has to do with hard coding one’s appearance to work flawlessly with all cutscenes from the moment they were created.

Another reason I could think of why a person would want to change their appearance has to do with its lighting effects, where any punkish colours such as teal or pink might look fine in the character creation screen, but once they’re set against the game’s environment, it ends up looking way too dull or bright. When Larian does implement the update in the future, I feel like there are more creative ways to do it. For instance, instead of opening a menu or interacting with an NPC, we can walk over to the rogue Astarion’s tent and use his mirror to change our appearance — akin to the mirror at the Roundtable Hold in Elden Ring. I think it would also be great if there are no limits to how often you can change your looks or if it doesn’t ask for any in-game currency or consumables for it.

The newest hotfix (#3) makes it so that your dog Scratch now finds digging spots by himself, in addition to resolving several bugs in Act 3, some of which prevented game completion. Since its launch, earlier this month, Baldur’s Gate 3 has become a quick success, garnering 875,343 peak concurrent players on Steam, cementing its position as the ninth-highest-ranking PC game, sitting right beneath Hogwarts Legacy. In an interview, Larian boss Svencke claimed that since the RPG was already playable in early access for three years, he believed that the game had already peaked. For this reason, he was expecting the full launch to break only 100,000 players, only to be surprised with eight times the amount.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases September 6, while the Xbox platforms might not see a release before 2024.

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Baldur’s Gate III Peaks at Over 800,000 Concurrent Players on Steam; Larian Studios Only Expected 100,000

Baldur’s Gate III is dominating the Steam charts with record-breaking numbers, surpassing the 800,000 concurrent player mark on August 6. To be precise, the peak count was 814,666, perching it as the ninth-highest ranking PC game, when sorted by all-time peak variable — right below Hogwarts Legacy. It’s an impressive feat, considering the game had been out for nearly three years now, albeit in early access, which allowed developer Larian Studios to slow-cook it to perfection based on player feedback. The completed version of the game dropped August 3 on PC and has shown no signs of slowing down.

While Baldur’s Gate 3’s release timing might’ve placed it in a position with no major competition in sight, it’s being received well for its in-depth story, characters, and outlandish romance options, all of which are determined by stats and dice rolls. It’s simple Dungeons & Dragons role-playing mechanics, filtered to suit a newer gaming audience fatigued by the overabundance of microtransactions, in-game purchases, and the need for an always-on internet connection. Even the cosmetics included in the Deluxe Edition were given for free to those who supported development by purchasing the Early Access version, as a kind gesture. Such smooth player-to-developer understanding is bound to bring good results — results that have now exceeded Larian Studios’ expectations.

Late last week, Larian CEO Swen Vincke tweeted out that he asked his IT team to expect Baldur’s Gate 3 to break 100,000 players. The result, however, was mindblowing, with the title breaking the 500,000-limit following launch day, sitting right beneath multiplayer behemoths Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. As it crossed the aforementioned 800,000 barrier, Vincke was mainly concerned that there are no game-breaking bugs left in it. “God, I hope there’s no big bug left,” he said in an interview. “I don’t want to have that anger over me, but it’s part of the risk of making these very large RPGs.” Their previous title, Divinity: Original Sin II, which also featured turn-based combat and was based on DnD, peaked at just over 93,000 players.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s sales figures are unclear for now, but moving up the PC release from the initial August 31 date to August 3 clearly worked in their favour — helping them avoid a slew of bigwigs such as Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, EA’s Immortals of Aveum, and Starfield (going into September). The thing that’s startling about this achievement is that on paper, Baldur’s Gate 3’s turn-based RPG design is something that doesn’t get adapted in mainstream gaming these days, but still, both fans and novices have flocked over to buy it despite the 20 years it has been since the previous instalment. It’s in fact so vast and in-depth in terms of lore that it caused some developers online to raise concerns that it shouldn’t become a new standard for RPGs. Understandably, this caused some backlash as well. For now, it’s a strong Game of the Year contender — garnering almost the same level of hype as Elden Ring last year.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases September 6, while the Xbox platforms might not see a release before 2024.

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