#maybe I should just play baldurs gate but see it costs so much money and rarely goes on sale

[iamchickenhearmesquawk]

I get pretty intimidated by lots of the big AAA games because I didn’t grow up playing many of them, also there’s so much to do in them it’s overwhelming. I just started playing Skyrim for the first time knowing nothing. (it’s snowy here now and I wanted to play something that has some winter vibes and hey Skyrim is close enough)

I am also intimidated by tabletop rpgs but playing Skyrim has me realize maybe I’m more built for it than I thought cause the amount of times I come across like a bandit or witches or something and I’m like “can I just talk to them though?”

[jeff-from-marketing]

So Baldur's Gate 3 has now fully released, and it kinda fucks?

Okay more than kinda, Baldur's Gate 3 should be the new standard for larger studios in terms of quality and, more importantly, how they treat players. I can't believe I'm saying that about a D&D game.

So for context to that last bit: I'm super fucking jaded on D&D. I've pretty much jumped ship entirely to any other TTRPG (namely Pathfinder 2e) because I hate how Wizards of the Coast have handled D&D 5e and how they treat their customers.

I fucking love Baldur's Gate 3. It's still got some of the D&D things I'm not overly fond of, but that's a personal taste thing, and overall this game fucking rules. Larian is really out here just making D&D a more fun experience than the actual Wizards of the Coast, it's honestly kinda wild.

But more than just in the context of "a D&D game" I want to talk about Baldur's Gate 3 in the larger scope of videogames as a whole, primarily in the triple A scene. There's a reason Baldur's Gate 3 is doing so well and why it's very quickly become so beloved, and it's not just because of the bear sex. That reason can be largely boiled down to "Larian respects their playerbase, and more importantly respects their money." Too often we're seeing games from big triple A companies that already have way too much fucking money just being absolutely filled beyond the brim with monetisation for something that's likely already $90-100 AUD. Or worse: games that borderline lie to you about how much they cost, Destiny 2 I'm fucking looking at you and your "genuinely the worst monetisation I have seen in a game." Or just straight up gacha games that are purpose built to fuck you out of your money and use similar tricks that the gambling industry uses to make money.

But Baldur's Gate 3? Pay the full price up front, and you get a full game. There's no hidden "gotcha!" monetisation, no battlepasses, no rotating digital storefront, no fake "premium" currency, no "but it's only cosmetic" microtransactions. I'm not even gonna gripe against their pre-order stuff like I normally would, because you could actually play the game before it was released. Baldur's Gate 3 was in Early Access for literal years before it fully released, and it used that time quite well! It's fascinating seeing where it came from and how much has changed since then. But more importantly: if you "pre-ordered" the game (read: buy it in Early Access) you could still play the game, you still immediately got something for your money. If you didn't like it, you could still refund it if you wanted to. As a nice little bonus: the game mostly just works! It's not perfect, there's some little oddities here and there, but I haven't had the game break yet. But then again, I'm one of the people who somehow managed to have a pretty bug-free Cyberpunk 2077 experience at launch, so who knows.

And plus it comes with couch co-op! Why is that so rare these days?? It feels like the only games you can really sit down with and play with friends these days are party games.

Of course, Baldur's Gate 3 isn't truly alone here. Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West have come out as full games with no monetisation BS and working fine, albeit stuck to PlayStation for a long time before releasing elsewhere (although BG3 is currently PC exclusive, though that should change next month). God of War, while I've not personally played, I haven't heard anything egregious about it. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is such a fun time, but at $125 AUD it's a hard sell, even knowing all the work that went into it (Though that did drop to just $95 AUD on PC). I'm even going to give Cyberpunk 2077 an honourable mention, because if you had a computer that could run it at launch it was still a damn good time. Though that one unfortunately came at the cost of "should never have been released on last gen consoles" and "worker abuse through crunch."

But all of those examples have the "pre-order to maybe get something" issue that Baldur's Gate 3 avoided through its Early Access launch. You also can't really share those games with friends. You can maybe let a friend borrow the game and then talk about it after you've both finished it in your own time, but that's kinda like watching a movie separately and then talking about it. It's just not the same. That's not even mentioning how small that list is. I'd say it's just single player games, but both Bethesda and Ubisoft have shown even they're not safe.

I haven't seen any game from a large studio respect the player as much as I have with Larian and Baldur's Gate 3. I definitely don't feel bad paying full price for this one. Once they're wrapped up with BG3, I don't suppose I could bribe them to make a Pathfinder game? Pretty please? Already like halfway there with Divinity: Original Sin 2!

[glitterandmoondustofficial]

Side To Side

Chapter 244: Everything Else Can Wait

Notes:

Characters: Law, Penguin, Heart Pirates Rating: Gen Warnings: None Notes: Hello! Things have been wild lately. Lots of stuff happening irl and also Baldur's Gate 3 came out...enjoy!

~~~~~~

Law watched Jun and Ikkaku on deck as they hugged. It was good to see them finally starting to be normal again. The drama from the past few days had been affecting the whole crew’s morale, which had already been low due to Ruby being gone. 

The crew was still working through it. Everyone had gone back to almost normal. The sea shanties were back, the rowdy pub nights were back, stupid, avoidable injuries while horsing around was back. It was almost perfect. Almost.

Ruby was still gone and Law wasn’t far off from leaving either. He had a feeling that everyone on the Tang was just really good at playing pretend. Maybe everyone was just trying to avoid the inevitable loss of their captain. Law knew he was trying to act like he was fine and nothing was bothering him.

Law sighed and looked back to the spot in the sea he was fishing in. He watched the ripples in the water and the sun reflecting on the surface. It was getting no bites while everyone else seemed to be doing well. Maybe they had left that island too early. Sure, it would have cost them more money, but buying some steaks would have been a break from staring at the ocean fruitlessly for hours.

He heard a sigh and someone sat next to him. He didn’t bother looking over but his frown did deepen, knowing he was about to have to talk instead of moping silently.

“I think the dark energy you’re giving off is scaring away the fish,” Penguin said lightheartedly. Law rolled his eyes but said nothing. “Would you like a beer?” Law grunted and Penguin sighed in response. “You’re not doing a very good job at acting like you’re okay.”

“When have I ever been “okay?”” Law asked him monotone.

“Hmmm,” Penguin hummed out like he was actually thinking about it. “Well…”

“That was rhetorical.”

Penguin grinned. “I’m just saying that you should be happy that you’re still here and with us.”

Law sighed and rubbed his face because Penguin was correct. He should spend the rest of the time he had left with his crew being happy. He shouldn’t mope around. 

Yet here he was, moping around and feeling sorry for himself. 

Penguin sighed, his seemingly positive aura fading away with his smile. “I was really hoping that Ruby had been just drunk,” he mumbled.

Law ears perked up and he looked at Penguin. “Come again?”

Penguin’s lips twitched. “It’s probably nothing but…” he looked around and Law did the same, realizing that Penguin was about to tell him something private. They looked back at each other when they both felt like they were able to have a private conversation.

“What do you have to say?” Law prompted, trying to sound neutral and not at all irritated or anxious.

“There was a time…when we had gone to a pub but you stayed on the Tang. Ruby got drunk and I wanted to walk her home to make sure she didn’t fall in the ocean. She was so drunk. I can’t remember the last time I had ever seen her so drunk. I guess it was before you two, you know,” he pushed his two index fingers together like that was supposed to mean something.

“Alright…your point?”

“She, and let me emphasize how drunk she really was, said that you were planning on dying in Dressrosa.” Law remained silent and looked back to the ocean. “She was so drunk and started crying, you know how much of a crybaby she is, so I just wrote it off as her being anxious about you leaving, but…” he trailed off. “I started thinking about how I’ve been in your life longer, how much longer I’ve known you. We’ve been together for so much. We’ve fought and made up, we’ve experimented in kitchens and labs, you trained me in the medical field, I feel like I should know by now when you’re going off to die.”

Law clenched his jaw and reeled in his fishing line. “What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to tell me that Ruby was just drunk and that I'm an idiot for even thinking of believing her.”

“Then Ruby was just drunk and you’re an idiot for believing her.”

Penguin frowned deeply. “Why do you want to die?”

Law sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I never said that I wanted to die. You know how Ruby gets, she gets weepy and anxious. Why do you think I always try to keep her from getting totally wasted.”

Penguin turned to look at the ocean. He sighed. “You must think I’m an idiot.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why lie? I really am an idiot for not realizing it earlier. Maybe I could’ve stopped you.”

“Nothing can stop me. I’ve made my decision to go and I’m going. Especially now that Ruby is waiting for me.” Law stood up, no longer wanting to be a part of this conversation.

“Yeah,” Penguin said distantly. “Ruby is waiting for you. Trying to stop you from your suicide mission.” Law ignored him and started to walk away. “I’ll keep this from the crew, some of us aren’t as emotionally mature as me and can handle the fact their captain wants to die.”

Law didn’t respond and continued to walk. Of course Ruby blabbed to Penguin when she was drunk off her ass. Penguin was right, he was one of the more mature and stable members and Law knew that Ruby felt extremely safe around Penguin. 

So now two people he loved knew he hadn’t planned on coming home. Law should be thankful that Penguin was going to keep quiet. If anyone else found out there would be a problem. He couldn’t imagine how Bepo would react to finding out that nugget of information. 

Law walked into the kitchen and towards the coffee pot. He sighed when he saw it was empty. He debated with himself whether to start up a new pot or to just take some caffeine pills. He did buy all those bottles from that last island after all.

He heard Clione cleaning the appliances in the kitchen. He stated it had been time for a deep clean and that he was going to make sure everything sparkled by dinner. He flexed his fingers and turned to walk out of the kitchen. 

“Need a snack, Captain?” He heard Clione call after him.

“Ah, no,” Law scratched the back of his head. “I was looking for coffee.”

“Sorry, Cap! I cleaned out the pot. Ran vinegar through it and everything!”

Law relaxed. “No big deal. I’ll get out of here so you can continue with your deep clean.”

“Thanks!”

Law wandered out of the kitchen and found himself in front of his bedroom door. He stared at it with a lonely look on his face. If Ruby was here she would’ve made him a pot of coffee and a snack. She would have brought him to bed to take a nap together. He took in a deep breath and let out the loudest and most pathetic sigh he thought he had ever done. He slouched and hung his head low, making sure he looked as pathetic and sad as he felt. He wanted Ruby. He wanted to play with her hair and listen to her talk about nail polish for an hour.

He took another deep breath and stood up straight, He rotated his neck around and cracked his knuckles. Alright. He was done being a depressed sea slug. He was going to return to the deck and fish with his crew. He turned to walk away, his shoes squeaking against the floor, when he paused. He heard…

His head whipped around and he threw open his bedroom door. He stared at the ringing den den mushi with an almost crazed expression. He rushed to the snail and took three breaths. He picked up the receiver and cleared his throat.

“Hello?”

The line was silent for a moment and Law had never felt more anxious. “Hey,” a romantic voice came out of the snail. “It’s me.”

Law gripped the receiver and let out a breath. “Ruby,” he croaked, unable to stop his rapidly beating heart. “What took you so long to call?”

Ruby was silent again before she sighed. “You said to wait to call you until I was safe, alone, and on Dressrosa, didn’t you?” She asked in a hushed but amused voice. “It’s about 3:00 in the morning here,” she yawned. 

Law wanted to say that she could have waited until she had slept to call but Law was also an incredibly selfish man and was unbelievably happy to hear her accent again. He picked up the snail and walked to the bed. He sat down on the bed and sighed. “It’s the middle of the day here,” he said. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m…alright,” she said. “I miss everyone.”

“Everyone misses you, too. Ikkaku especially. She’s been a brat about it.”

Ruby chuckled. “She didn’t cause too much trouble did she?”

“You have no idea,” he grumbled and Ruby chuckled again. 

“I miss you,” she said. “I hate sleeping alone.”

Law felt himself smile. “Doesn’t surprise me. You’re a big baby.” He briefly thought about when she hated sleeping around people.

“Rude,” she mumbled. “I have no real updates for you, hon. I just arrived earlier today and spent all day just trying to find a place to stay for the next…well…you know…”

“Yeah, I do,” he sighed. “You can worry about all that after you’ve slept and had a good meal.”

“Yeah,” she yawned again. “I will.”

“Why don’t you do that now?” He said, like he didn’t want to just talk to her for the next five hours.

“Not yet.” He could hear the smile on her face. “I want to say “hi” to everyone.”

Law’s eyes softened as he stared up at the ceiling. “Yeah, you probably should. I think they’d throw me overboard if they found out you called and I didn’t let them talk to you.”

Ruby giggled in response. “I love you, Law.”

Law paused when he felt tears blur his vision. He looked down at the snail and smiled. “I love you, too, Ruby.”

After Law wiped his face to make sure no embarrassing tears marked it, and after he grabbed Clione, he walked on deck with the den den mushi .

“Everyone,” he called in his clear, “captain voice.” Everyone turned to look at him curiously. Their eyes landed on the den den mushi in his hands and he felt the morale of his crew grow to new heights. 

“Ruby!!” They exclaimed and rushed over to Law. 

Law grinned as he heard Ruby laugh and saw his crew tear up in joy. They could talk about the plan later. They could talk about work later. That wasn’t important right now. Just listening to her voice was all he wanted.

Nearly three weeks later, Law had heard Ruby’s beautiful voice. Everything else could just wait.