I did what everyone else was doing in August 2023: I bought 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3, and I fell in love with Baldur's Gate 3.
But unlike (seemingly) everyone else, I didn't play the game several times over. In fact, I didn't even finish it one time. While my fellow BG3 obsessives were returning to Faerun time and again, romancing new companions, roleplaying as the Dark Urge, or attempting a Tactician run, I stalled out early in Act 3 and stayed there for eight months. There were 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:various reasons why, but it mostly came down 🎉to Act 2 taking me forever, Act 3 feeling even bigger, and the ever-growing pile of shorter games I could be playing to completion in the time it took me to work through a mere third of this behemoth of an RPG.
But at the end of August, the night before I left for a weeklong vacation, I finally felled the Netherbrain, wrapped up my time with Baldur's Gate 3, and put aꦅ bow on a yea💯r-long quest through the best RPG I've ever played.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines might still be my favorite, though.
Finishing Baldur's Gate 3 Is The End Of A Long Journey
After finishing that lengthy journey, I'm sitting here wondering what could possibly fill the void. I started 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Shadowrun Returns on Switch during vacation, but that game maxes out at less than 20 hours and I'm already about a third of the way through. I also started 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Wars Outlaws, w🌜hich is also an RPG, but I've been moving through 🀅it quickly enough that I expect I'll devour it in a couple weeks. These aren't the games I'm looking for.
After Baldur's Gate 3, I want something big and meaty. Maybe an RPG with historical importance that will be educational and enriching to play. Maybe an RPG I can continue to pick away at for months at a time like I did with Baldur’s Gate 3. Maybe an RPG that will sho🦹w me something new about the genre I haven’t seen before. And maybe an RPG(s) that will help me prepare for upcoming releases I’ll want to cover for TheGamer. Here are the options I’m currently considering.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
This is one of two options on this list that I’ve completed before. But when I first played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Witcher 3, I had spent so many hours exploring that, by the time I rolled credits, I didn’t have the time or energy to roll into the two expansions. I played a few hours of Hearts of Stone, but quickly moved on, leaving the Blood and Wine expansion — which 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:many fans consider the best part of 🔯the game — unfinished. It’s a major gaming regret of mine and, with Baldur’s Gate 3 in the rear view mirror, it might be time to rectify it. If I do, I’ll probably beeline my way through the main campaign then work my way through as many side quests as I can✅ while I’m tackling the expansions. Less burnout, more Blood and Wine.
Disco Elysium
This is the second game on this list that I’ve finished before. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Disco Elysium was one of my favorite games of 2019, but I only played it once, which meant I only saw the tip of the role-playing iceberg. Though nearly five years have passed since Disco’s launch, nothing has really come close to touching its fascinating, innovative Thought Cabinet system that took the biblical proverb that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” and gamified it, with your character’s interior monologue being shaped by the ideas you choose to think about. I played the game, and was incredibly impressed by it at th▨e time, but I think Harry and Kim deserve several🅰 more playthroughs.
Pillars Of Eternity And Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire
These games are very similar to Baldur’s Gate 3 in many ways, as Obsidian was consciously attempting to bring back the cRPG genre the original Baldur’s Gate games epitomized when it Kickstarted the first Pillars game in 2012. I repeatedly attempted to get into Pillars 2 back in 2022, and just didn’t have time for it. But with Avowed — which is set in the same world — on the horizon, it seems🎐 like a great time to get a lengthy primer on Eora.
Tyranny
This other Obsidian cRPG has been on my ‘I eventually need to play that’ list since I first heard its premise described on a podcast back in 2016. That hook ෴is a sweep-of-the-leg to any RPG fans who try to paragon their way through every campaign. That's because there are no good choices in Tyranny's world — a world where you play as a high-ranking agent in service of the evil emperor — only slightly less bad ones. It didn't get as much attention as Pillars of Eternity, but that pitch has long had my interest piqued, and my post-Baldur's Gate 3 era might be a good time to finally check it out.
Baldur's Gate And Baldur's Gate 2
Of course,𒈔 if I'm gonna check out any games post-Baldur's Gate 3, it should probably be the first two Baldur's Gate games. Like many Baldur's Gate fans, I am unfortunately a fake Baldur's Gate♐ fan.
One Year On, I've Finally Corrected My Mistakes In Baldur's Gate 3
I made many mistakes in Baldur's🅰 Gate 3, so my second playthrough 🔜was about making things right.
