July 31 - August 6

  Felix “Bardcore” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “320th Anniversary of Daniel Defoe being pilloried” week!

On 31 July 1703, Daniel Defoe, the not-yet author of Robinson Crusoe, was placed in the stocks for publishing a pamphlet that criticised the Church of England and, by extension, the crown. The aim was Defoe’s public humiliation by being pelted with rotten veggies, but instead the crowd threw flowers and gave him drinks. He was then jailed, but eventually released when he agreed to become a secret Tory agent. You may all celebrate by playing a game where the antagonist sets up your companions to switch sides.

Get ready to hunker over your PC, because there’s only one game I care about this week: Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is the perfect match of developer and subject matter. The original 2 Baldur’s Gate games, set in AD&D’s Forgotten Realms, are renowned classics that laid down a template for CRPGs for years to come. However, they were made over 20 years ago and if you tried to play the Enhanced Editions recently, you’d have noticed how rusty that template has become. The story and interactions with companions are timeless, but the real-time combat is fairly rote, with little strategy beyond what order to cast your spells in. The class system was also fairly rigid, with limited ways to build out your companions.

Enter Larian Studios. Their magnum opus, Divinity: Original Sin 2, set out a CRPG template with a ton more interactivity and flexibility. You could build your party how you wanted and respec anytime. Each turn-based encounter felt unique, due to whatever barrels of stuff were lying around and the quirks of the terrain. You could craft almost anything by combining inventory items. Sick of slipping on ice? Put nails in your boots! Skills could be used inside and outside of combat to surprising, and sometimes satisfyingly cheesy, effect. There were amusing exploits to break the economy. It all promoted a sense of playfulness and experimentation. Folks love the same sense in tabletop games.

I could not think of a better developer to be delivering a D&D CRPG right now.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is shaping up to be a banger. Most of you who are hyped don’t need any introduction to it—the first act has been playable in Early Access for 3 years. During Early Access, when players solved encounters in unexpected ways (and lucky rolls), Larian’s response was not to build invisible walls, but to make the game bigger to accommodate the solution. Just like you tabletop DMs have to, when the party refuses to explore the cave that you spent all last night modelling, and insists on going to the Emperor's castle that you only mentioned as flavour text in your opening spiel. As a result, Larian has recorded 174 hours of dialogue, knowing full well that most people will be lucky to hear 20% of it.

I won’t be playing Baldur’s Gate 3 until its console release in September, so I’ve kept myself spoiler-free about the story. I do like the idea of its branchiness and adaptability to player actions.

There’s a dazzling variety of choices on offer, and that’s just in the character creation screen. The full release makes the complete roster of character classes and races available to pick from, based on 5e D&D like your favourite tabletop podcast.

All told, Baldur’s Gate 3 appears to be as much an immersive sim as a CRPG, and everyone knows these are my eldritch activation words. This is not just my most anticipated game of 2023, it’s my most anticipated game of the decade. GOTW. While I wait for the console release, I’ll feed off of people’s impressions and character builds and consider my own character build. I’m tempted to go way outside my usual build zone, maybe even roll a bard. It depends on the early game companions you can get, though. So gather your party and venture forth … and then talk about it heaps on the forum!

Here's the list, in release-date AND alphabetical order!

PC

• 07-31

• 1989 QianShanMen
• Beecarbonize
• Cats Hidden in Italy
• Chef Survivor
• Cornucopia
• DAIR
• Danger Close VR
• Digs
• Dream Fire
• Engine Evolution 2023
• Enjoy the Diner
• Evasion from cluster 42
• Exo-Leviathan
• F1 Manager 2023
• Fantasy Up
• Guilty Me
• Inkighter
• Khemia
• Kingdoms of Myth
• Landnama
• Lethal Operation Episode 2 destroyer Rei
• LOOP LOOP ROOM
• Love Quest VR: Los Angeles
• Mage Tower 2: Call of Zadeus
• MF-01 Aerostrike
• Mortie College
• Night Run
• OPERATOR
• Palladium
• PREMORTAL
• Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition
• Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition
• Roxy Raccoon's Mancala Madness
• Shapebreaker - Prologue
• Shaytan
• Simple Tower Defense
• Spellsword
• Sudoku Puzzle
• Taboo Trial
• The haunted hospice
• The PenguinGame 2 -Lies of Penguin-
• Venba

• 08-01

• A Nest for Us
• A Scoundrel in the Underlair
• ABYSSEY
• Aonar
• Battle X Death
• BeatShot
• blocxlide
• Borderwatch: Dark Armada
• Bunker 21 extended edition
• Chess Remix - Chess variants
• Chinese Chess-Wargame
• Choppy Heady
• Color War
• Crazy World
• Diebrary
• DRACOMATON
• DriveCrazy
• Hex Party
• Hyakki Yako: OH&S
• Invaders
• Kinny and the Star Track Puzzle
• Magyarock VR
• Mandemon
• Nightshift
• Objector
• Out of the Mist
• Overlewd
• panomap
• Project City
• Reclaimers
• Ropu Barastu No X
• Save the setlers
• Settlemoon
• Sigurour
• SPLASH OUT!
• The Adventures of Panzer 2
• The Friends We Left Behind
• The Isle of Elanor
• The Life of a Magical Circle
• The Riese Project - Prologue
• Verses of Enchantment
• Virus Infinite
• Welcome to Kowloon
• Yi Tian Tu Long Ji
• Your Spaceport!
• ZaciSa: Defense of the Crayon Dimension!

• 08-02

• A Guidebook of Babel
• Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct
• Axon TD: Uprising - Tower Defense
• Cecelia
• Click Dungeon
• Coonwood
• Firebird
• Golden Record Retriever
• Harumachi Toroidal
• Laruaville 14
• LUNIA Z:Revival
• Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun
• Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm
• Paquerette Down the Bunburrows
• Pet
• Planetary Exploration Company
• Post-Apo Builder: Prologue
• Slimeria
• State of Survival
• The Casino Empire
• Thronefall
• ToyMaker

• 08-03

• Alchemist's Fantasy R ~ A Girl's Alchemic Furnace ~
• Azerion
• Baldur's Gate 3
• Betty & Earl
• Call of Farming
• Canvas of Kings
• Clockwork Owl
• Dance Hero: More Jiggle
• Egg Game
• Eukarion Tales: Origins
• Extremely Powerful Capybaras: Training Grounds
• factori
• Flutter Away
• Jaden & Jasmine: Lost Memories
• Kazoe Meshi
• Lethal Operation Episode 3 Lethal Arms of Justice
• Lonely Journey to Xiandao
• Neon Noodles - Cyberpunk Kitchen Automation
• Nova: Cloudwalker's Tale
• Picme
• Please Leave a Message
• PLONG
• Polyglot Language Learning Quiz
• Project F
• Rule
• SokoSolitaire
• Spell Disk Survivor
• Sushi For Robots
• The Danger Zone
• WHITE ALBUM: Memories like Falling Snow
• Wildwood: A Town Building Game
• Yokai Art: Survival Prologue

• 08-04

• Aery - Heaven & Hell
• AirBorne Sea
• BeadsPopper
• Defenders of Legends
• Deru
• Free The Lazy Dogs
• GoHome
• Greedland
• Human Farm - Rehabilitation
• I dropped out of school at 16 to make games!
• Idle Run
• Koi x Shin Ai Kanojo
• Mixing Ammos
• Nebula's Descent
• Pilfer: Story of Light
• Project Rogue
• Red Genie: An Eidola Tale
• Scary Story at Apathy School Visual Novel Version
• Sclash
• Shin Galaxy - Engage
• Soul Stalker
• Super Space Club
• Survivors of the Plague
• Sym.BIOS: Torn Asunder
• They Linger
• Try to Escape!
• Wind Love

• 08-06

• Horror Loop
• Only Down (Beryl Gaming)
• Touhou Lala Team

Xbox Series X

• 07-31

• Venba

• 08-02

• Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct
• Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm
• Potata: fairy flower
• The Red Exile - Survival Horror

• 08-03

• Adore
• Whispike Survivors - Sword of the Necromancer

• 08-04

• Sclash
• Strange Horticulture
• WildTrax Racing

Xbox One

• 07-31

• Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition
• Venba

• 08-01

• There Is No Light

• 08-02

• Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct
• Save Koch
• The Red Exile - Survival Horror

• 08-03

• Adore
• Whispike Survivors - Sword of the Necromancer

• 08-04

• Astralojia: Season 1
• Sclash
• Strange Horticulture
• WildTrax Racing

PlayStation 5

• 07-31

• Venba

• 08-02

• Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct
• Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm
• The Red Exile - Survival Horror

• 08-03

• Adore

• 08-04

• Sclash

PlayStation 4

• 07-31

• Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition

• 08-02

• Atomic Heart: Annihilation Instinct
• The Red Exile - Survival Horror

• 08-03

• Adore

• 08-04

• Sclash

Switch

• 07-31

• A Short Tale
• Ferris Mueller's Day Off
• Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition
• The Forgotten Room
• Venba
• Veritas

• 08-01

• Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed Director's Cut
• Barony
• Barony: Myths & Outcasts
• Leafy Trails

• 08-02

• Mirrored Souls
• The Red Exile - Survival Horror

• 08-03

• A Guidebook of Babel
• Adore
• Alchemy POIPOI SS
• Black Skylands
• DELTAZEAL
• Flutter Away
• GigaBash: Godzilla 4 Kaiju Pack
• LOST EGG 3: The Final
• MistWorld the after
• Secret Summoner
• Side Decide
• Tiny Thor
• TRAPPED in The Kanal
• Wizardry School: Escape Room
• Would you like to run an idol cafe? 3

• 08-04

• Cooking Arena
• Death Becomes You
• GigaBash
• Sclash
• Slime Girl Smoothies

• 08-05

• Puzzle Boys
• X-Force Under Attack