Originally Posted by GatorDeb

NSFW NSFW NSFW NSFW

5:33:20

https://youtu.be/MW846h6FyU4

I want to buy it just to see what happens next

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I've seen that stupid bear scene four times now I can't believe I want to pay sixty bucks for

Bear porn.



Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I'm all in but it's GOG, steep sale within six months. Wishlisted!

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I bit. This, Pikmin, and Starfield were all I was interested in for the rest of the year so that's going to be my 2023 (and Speedstorm). I got 3 months of Gamepass free for getting the ROG Ally so Starfield Deluxe upgrade was $31.50, so I'll be playing that early. If you have any questions about this game, ask me! I have 4 minutes left to download the 100+ gig file. I'll be playing as Astarion.

Edit: I've never played BG. I'm enthralled. I'll be putting hundreds of hours into this for years. Good choice. I'm going to stop playing now because cheats haven't come out yet It'll be a couple days, then it's on like Donkey Kong, I just get too stressed, but once I have G-d mode on everything, I'll be 100% this game. I want to just stay in each room and look at everything.

Edit 2: Cheats released. Loving this game. Now I just need time to play it But yeah this is a winner, definitely spending some time with this one.

Anyone know if I downloaded this game on the PC if I can use it on Steam in the Ally? I have a data cap for downloads and this thing ate up 3 days worth of data. I can give up another 100 gigs, but why do it if I don't have to. So if I'm using the same steam account on both devices, I can transfer the game folder and point the new device to that location?

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

For at least FOUR MONTHS. Whoa. I was expecting maybe a month at the most. I've put in an hour. I would have played all day if I could. I don't have a lot of gaming time but I think I'm done getting games between Speedstorm, this, Starfield, and Pikmin. I can see myself doing at least two playthroughs in Pikmin.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Spent over 30 minutes just talking to people. I love this game. I can't wait to recreate the bear scene, only reason I chose Astarion. I can see mutilple playthroughs. Helps to always roll a 20

Chalk up a win to the ROG Ally!

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

3 hours in. I'm stuck in an area and haven't figured how to get out, gonna leave it for now and come back fresh to it later. I'm using a walkthrough and everything but this one just tells you where to go, not how to get there. Maybe I'll pick up a map (like not the in-game one, where I am and where I need to go and how to get there).

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

So I finally got close to where I was going but then I got to a subquest and then into another subquest and now I'm 4 subquests in going well I may as well do it since I'm here. I have a feeling that's the story of this game.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I'm never going to actually finish a mission in this game, I'm just going to go around collecting missions. 4:20 and I've only done 3 missions. That's not including the times things didn't turn out the way I planned and had to go back to a previous save. Saving every 5 minutes now.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Interesting it's $80 for PS5, I paid $70 with the extra content (if I had bought it a day early I would have gotten extra content for $60 total sigh). I wanted to support the devs.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Pay the ten bucks. Larian deserves everything they ask for.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I got too bogged down in quests so I restarted the Halsin one. Trying to get to the Worg pens with a map. This will take a while. But I have a list of Act I quests and I'll just take them one by one and 100% each act before moving on.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I can't keep it all straight in my head. Over 4 hours for 3 quests I'll never finish. I'll walk around, find a quest I want to do, THEN do the walkthrough. The checklist is to make sure at the end I didn't miss any, I'll just pick one of my own and do it as I go along checking it off the list.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

No, I'm just looking where to go. Like the game just says rescue Halsin. I'm in the
sanctum and need maps and walkthrough to get to the worg pen (still haven't found it).




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Originally Posted by GatorDeb

First I needed a walkthrough to get to
The blighted village then another one to the goblin camp then one to the sanctum now one to get to the worgs.

​​​

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

OK the phone is being difficult in adding stuff around spoiler tags. Part 2. I am not good with directions. My husband bought me a shirt that says Not all who wander are lost. But I am. A friend was giving directions and said go east and I told her I didn't do n s e W then she said go towards the sun and I thought that was the most brilliant (no pun intended) direction ever. You overestimate my sense of direction if you think it's zero.





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Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Got Halsin. We're off to
slaughter the whole place! Yeeeehhh!!!

Aaahhh back on a PC.

When I first see him in
bear form and the kid Goblin is going make it squeal make it squeal!! I was like don't worry that's exactly what I want to make him do


Originally Posted by GatorDeb

G-d Mode, unlimited movement, unlimited items, unlimited gold, dice roll always 20, all abilities 30, level 12 for everyone instantly

I'm having the time of my life with this game. First CRPG experience of this type of game, never played a BG or like an Icewind dale type of game.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Because the book won't let me play pawsies with the bear.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I call 4 quests in 5 hours a challenge

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I transferred the BG3 files to a mem card and stuck it in the Ally and it just ran without having to do anything to Steam. I have figured out how to transport my save file back and forth but not how to share the save. It has cross-play but PC-PC is not what they consider Crossplay. More investigating to do. I prob will only be able to put in 2 hours a week on this because I only have one hour to game 5 days a week, and Speedstorm takes the other slots.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I think that what happens is that for some reason the .exe of BG3 will run without connecting to steam, so I just xferred and played it. I have to "install" it on the Ally by installing it to the folder and it will automatically find the file.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Oh, I have Steam installed. I'm trying not to re-download a 100+ gig file, I have metered internet and that's 20% (200 gigs, I get 1.2 tb a month) of my monthly quota. So all I did is copy it to the sd card and ran it and apparently it will just run without checking in with steam. So I have to make steam "connect" with it by installing it to the folder it's already stored in.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Well I mean metered as in 1.2 TBs a month or 41 gigs a day. It's $50. I could go for unlimited at $100 but honestly we don't need it and there's no reason to re-download a 100 gig file twice when I can just transfer it to a memory card. I could probably swing it, it's the principle of the thing. I don't bring it out when the kids are out and one kid is home sick so it may be a couple of days until I get to it. It's not hard, I just haven't had time to tinker in there. The 5Gs (T-mobile, Verizon) are just not good in our particular house, so Cox is the only thing left, those were $50 unlimited. But we were getting FIVE Mbps with Tmobile and our Internet went down every day at 5p and became unusable. I told them I'm too old to point here, move antenna there, I want to plug a cable into the wall and forget about it (and we had Cox before so all connections were there already).

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Have you ever looked how much you use? 1.2.tb is a lot. We also use a ton of devices. Other than not download a 100 gig game daily, we don't limit our usage.

I gave up and re-downloaded it they changed steam to this mobile version of it and all the instructions on how to point to the folder I had the files in didn't work anymore.

About 7 hrs 23 minutes in.
Rescued Halsin and got him at camp and I'm back in the underdark. Since I have G-d Mode I wanted to do the mountain pass but got here first so let's at it.

I gave up trying to do all missions and on this first playthrough just want to get to the end, I keep on getting stuck places and not being able to get to markers. Once I play it through once I can re-play it and just get stuck on a mission forever.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Yeah I check it daily specially when new games come out, husband works from home and I make sure I leave it padded with about 20 available gigs for him towards the end of the billing cycle. I pretty much try to average the 41 gigs a day. And not all games are 100 gigs. BG3 will keep me occupied for a while so now that I got it on the PC and the ally I prob won't download anything til Starfield (after cycle ends... that's another two devices to download that on Sometimes XBOX works better than Steam so for Speedstorm I downloaded it on PC XBOX, PC Steam, Switch, Ally XBOX, Ally Steam, so that was a data-busy day... there's not too many updates of that game though as they're able to do a lot of cloud-based updates that change things without a re-download).

2 BG3, six Speedstorms (the XBOX also updated), Pikmin 4, 4 Alexases, three tablets, a PC on pretty much 24/7, a lot of background Judge Judy and People's Court streaming while I do other stuff, work home computer, and I'm averaging 40.73 gigs a day so far, so under my threshold. I think it's safe to say my August gaming is spoken for so on a non-game download day we do like 18 gigs.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I still sadly haven't been able to play it on the Ally which sucks because I'm stuck here half an hour a day in line waiting for the kids. I have enable cloud saves checked on both and I have only a couple of saves but I can't get them to sync with each other, I have a save from 5 hours playtime from yesterday vs 7 hours today.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Nope, I'm a complete noob to Baldur's Gate, Dungeons and Dragons, and crpgs in general and I'm having the time of my life. Buy it! I told my husband a side benefit is that I'll now be able to understand his D&D jokes.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I just couldn't get Steam to update my save into the cloud, so I went ahead and did a manual quicksave and that triggered a cloud save of that save and my main save. In case this helps others.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Seven and a half hours in and I find out you can put armor, crowns, all kinds of stuff on the characters

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I haven't figured out how to access my premium content on Steam or the game.

I'm at the
monastery in Mountain Pass.

I have to take this game an hour at a time because I get lost and need a fresh mind to find the next part. This first playthrough I just want to do the main quest and then I'll do other playthroughs.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

And yet this in the top five gaming experiences I have ever had in my life and can't wait to put hundreds of hours into it in the next decade.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I made it to
the creche.

Time for a break. I would have never found it without a video walkthrough, not in a million years. That I'm even spending this much time finding things speaks highly of the game as I hate going on hunting missions. Maybe this will help make me better for all games.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

But I love having to make choices and having people like me and learning backstories. Love all the characters interacting with each other although I'm glad the mean green one and the annoying fangirl stopped bickering withe each other because I was ready to throw them both off a cliff.


I must recreate the bear sex scene. I won't be content until I do. But I must live it.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I finally finally got it working with cloud saves on the ally and... The screen is too small for these middle aged eyes I'll give it a chance and play it a few hours on the ally though. I love it that there's no right or wrong answer and everyone is lying to you.

I can't wait to dark urge this game.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Zero. Press Install on Steam, play, go. The Play button brings you up to Larian's launcher and I choose Vulkan vs DX11 but that's because the cheats just work with Vulkan and DX11 give you issues sometimes.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

It's two different .exe files for DX11 and Vulkan and I have the cheats set up with the Vulkan exe and just go with it, the cheats need a specific .exe to work off of, I tried it once with DX11, got an error message, the Vulkan worked, so I just kept with it. With a screen that small I doubt you could tell the difference (or who knows, maybe you can). I also have it set up to performance mode anyway to make the battery last longer.

The Ally is as plug and play or tinker as you want it to be, any new AAA game will run out of the box, I haven't found anything it can't run, and run well. But you can tinker with it like I can have my cheats going which I can't with the Switch. And like with Lego 2K Drive I can buy one version, the PC one, and have it run on the Ally on the go and on the PC, vs having to buy it on the Switch AND the PC. It really is the ultimate portable device, I use it almost daily (don't have a lot of free time left, some days it's 20 minutes on pick up line) and I'm totally in love with it.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Dang it, (towards end of act I),
Halsin just pretty much just promised me some quality time if I break the Shadow Curse.


Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I gave up with cloud saves, it's just not syncing between the two, but I finally was able to set up folder sharing and so now I just copy the save back and forth between the PC and the Ally using either the PC or the Ally. I have on both devices both save file folders in quick access so it takes no time to get there. Although I think I can't play this with the Ally anymore because 1. It's dark and 2. There's too many details and crevices, so it's gonna have to be the PC only. I'm just under 12 hours in. I'm going as straight to the end as I can and if I find something I want to explore, I do. After I do my first playthrough I'll do a straight to the finish dark urge playthrough. Once I do that, I'll open a save which I'll 100% the game and just have that open and just do five minutes here, five minutes there, throughout the years, not really trying to get anywhere, and I'll probably start a fourth save which will be another straight to the end with another character.

I would totally buy a guide with maps for everything and items and just 300 pages of info and pictures.

I wish I could start buying D&D type board games as I've really gotten bit by the D&D bug (and they made Disney Sorcerer's Arena into a board game that looks sick). But all my current hobbies take up my available monthly play money and I don't want to get into board game enough to give something else up. And I'm trying to declutter my life, I have no room for board games.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Thanks for the suggestion! Added to wishlist. Along with Grim Dawn, the Divinitys, Titan Quest, etc, etc, etc.

I have to take this game slow because I just can't do the puzzles on my own and it takes a lot to read through and do them, have to tackle them one at a time. Got stuck on a puzzle where

I was interacting with the paintings and it said use in front of the painting and after not solving the puzzle for 10 minutes I figured out I had to stand in front of the painting until it said use, tap the left directional button on the gamepad so that it changed to the button below the painting, then click A. I mean that level of Figure this out is too much.

I wonder how much of this is I'm just a D&D newb. And I've never played too many games like this. This is one of the few games where I have kept playing even when it got hard.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Yep, the Divinitys Wishlisted!

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I couldn't help myself. Sells for 285 bucks on Amazon apparently not that available. Can't wait for over 500 pages of crpg goodness! I'm obsessed with the genre. Comes with a 4.5 pound book and a pdf.

Just found out the company gives the PDF for free, but that's a good price for that beauty of a book.

https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

That's the publisher's price and as cheap as it comes, it's a over-600 page book with tons of illustrations and I didn't mind giving the publisher back a kickback for putting that together.

I want to keep with more modern-looking stuff if I can.

I could never get into the Fallout series, I get lost too easily.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I may have to stop playing this game. I suck at
stealth, I may not be able to do Shar's Gauntlet.


Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I think what happened was
I made myself invisibile but I didn't split from my party first. Gonna have to try again.



Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I just hate stealth. With a passion. And suck at it.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I tried it a few times, no dice.


Go to the left, turn the lever. "Hide." Go to the right, down the stairs almost to the edge but not quite, turn left, you're supposed to then go halfway to the other tower then turn right then when getting to the other tower hug the right until you get to the statue at the end. But I keep getting knocked dead after the FIRST turn. I'm on my own, my party is waiting behind.



Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I'm doing the
Faith-Leap.


If you're willing to help, I'm willing to die endlessly

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Thanks! I have to do some errands but I'll try this later. I DO have fly though! And I have to get good at this because this is a required game quest and I plan at least four walkthroughs. The walkthrough I saw gave you a path to the right instead to the left.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

No I don't have fly or that step mist sigh Gale you good for nothing AND the annoying voice Won't get to try your stuff until the weekend.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Still here, still dying

Fail, reload, fail, reload, fail, reload, fail, reload. They said if you used
Annoying Fangirl's light it would light up the path but it didn't. I keep being seen and sent back. And I have a walkthrough guide. Over and over and over again. I made Astarion give up his blood so I'm using him apart from the party.



Originally Posted by GatorDeb

OMG OMG OMG I beat it!!!
I posted on Reddit about being stuck and someone said they used Green Meenie to jump (yes I know Shadowheart, Lae'Zel's names, I like mine better), but instead I used her psionic jump on Astarion and just jumped platform to platform easy peasy Still died a couple of times but did it, had to do the platforms in a certain order and I died a few times right at the end until I got the angle right. That's it for today, more tasks tomorrow.

I love it when you can legitimately cheese a game.


Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I'm 15 hours in (probably close to 20 with all the save reloads ) on the
Ketheric fight. Ran out of the time, have to get the day started. I hate the brain levels, too squishy for my taste.





There's 2 games so far where I have stuck to it when I "lose," this one and Disney Speedstorm. Only two games ever, talks to how good a game it is. Can't wait to finish this playthrough whenever that is and do dark urge playthroughs. Planning two, one where I give in to all the dark urges and one where I resist them all. Then I will open a 100% playthrough and go on to other things while I play that one throughout the years. May open a fifth one and play concurrently to the fourth, although I find it easier to manage one save at a time in terms of keeping things straight in my head.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Just passed the 20 hour mark. I'm never going to finish this game. Every time I finish a mission ten more pop up.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Just reached
The lower city.


How come the games I like the most, Disney Speedstorm, this one, are the ones with no chatter

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Ahhh I got the Astarion Halsin scene!!!!

Only took me 22 hours. I probably could have done it sooner but didn't know how. I have a save right at that point so that I can come back to it at any time and then continued on another save for my game.

I can quit playing now

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

The fudge is wrong with this game, one minute I'm romancing Halsin the next I'm getting dirty with

(act III romance spoilers)
A mind flayer. And everyone in my party is watching horrified. I know Halsin said it wasn't cheating but I still feel ashamed he's watching.






I love the humor in this game.

Act III is huge and I've given up the notion that I'll be done anytime soon.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Can't wait for FF16 on the PC.

Got stuck for a bit but I'm unstuck again had a couple days where I had to leave the game to clear my head and come back to it and I did and got through the part I was stuck on, I only get to game 10 minutes here 10 minutes there and this is not that kind of game. But I have kids I gotta drive around and I can't give up sleep. Slowly making it through act 3. I read ahead because I just needed to know how the story ended Now I have one quest to tie up and then on to a meatier one.

Just wrapped up
Cazador and I ascended myself so that 7000 vampires weren't unleashed on BG.



This game is sooooo satisfying. I'm at 26 hours and I'm guessing less than 10 left? I still got a bit to do before I can get to the end.

I probably won't do a second walkthrough right away. I'll probably just do Speedstorm until Starfield is released, and Sea of Stars releases Monday I'll start that one and try to finish it off close to Starfield release. Although I have a feeling Starfield is a game you can play alongside others.

BG3 takes a lot out of you I think, thinking, concentration, it just envelops you, it's not a pick up and put down game, it's very immersive and you have to give it your full attention. I can see 4 more walkthroughs, Dark Urge give in, Dark Urge resist, 100%, and my own custom character, since Astarion was origin.

This is one of the best games I have ever played in my life and was well worth it, already got my money's worth. I'll try to wrap it up as quickly as I can to move on to the next game. And by that I mean 10 hours

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I'm on purpose going straight to the end the first time. I'll do a 100 percent walkthrough. I want a straight to the end Astarion, dark urge give in, dark urge resist, custom, and THEN I'll do a one hundred percent one. I wanted to experience the main storyline first, that was by design.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Finished my first walkthrough. 32 hours 11 minutes. That was thoroughly satisfying. One of the best games I've ever played in my life.

Gonna leave it for now and do Sea of Stars. Quite a change

This game is just a Masterpiece, capital M. It is the perfect game, flaws and all.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Mods want me to spoiler when I talk about cheats.
Unlimited HP, always max dice roll, max approval from whole party, unlimited movement, all stats maxed out, max level from start, unlimited gold, unlimited items.


And it was everything I wanted it to be. I got a single player game (I would never use cheats in multiplayer or games where getting stuff puts you above other people even in single missions), played it my way, got everything I wanted out of it. I will do more playthroughs but this game takes a lot out of you and I need a break from it. But I will come back to it through the years.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

I get very high anxiety when I die in games, it's not an enjoyable experience, and I play games to have fun. This was some of the most fun gaming I've ever done.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Started a second playthrough with a custom character. Gonna try to just do a relaxing walking around doing quests at my leisure walkthrough. I'm walking around the crash site now.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

The ship is the most boring part of the game, it picks up right after.

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Send your uncle the money and have him buy it.