A villain in Baldur's Gate 3 was originally guaranteed to kidnap whoever you romanced, 'which wasn't very popular'

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Baldur's Gate 3 has claimed the Game of the Year award in the 2023 Steam Awards, along with the crown for Outstanding Story-Rich Game. It probably would have won even more, but the Steam Awards rules limit games to nominations in a maximum of two categories, presumably to avoid any across-the-board ass-kickings.

Before its release, promised to include 17,000 different endings — but does it really? There's undeniably a ton of player choice and variation in the game. There are even hundreds of contingencies and failsafes in case players try to break . It wouldn't be too much of a stretch at all to say there are thousands of different ways its story can play out, but 17,000 endings is an entirely different kind of claim.

I'm just now getting to know Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3—both on my evil necromancer playthrough and my Honour Mode run, where I intend to pick her up from Moonrise Towers after risking my neck to knock her out. Still, I've cast off the shackles of spoilers after completing my first playthrough—gleefully getting my mitts on whatever details I can about my future drow bestie—which makes this a good point to mention that there'll be spoilers for Minthara's full plot line below. In a recent interview with IGN, Larian CEO Swen Vincke and co-lead writer Adam Smith discussed her character arc and the nature of evil, and they come to a conclusion I find genuinely fascinating: Minthara may grow to adore her compatriots, but she's still evil with a capital E. «She has this very unexpected story where she does soften,» says Smith, «and you see her learning how to deal with being part of a group.» However, Smith's keen to point out that her story «is not a redemption arc.» Minthara's tenderness, Smith implies, is a facet of her character from the get-go that you slowly discover—not something the player creates for her. Another surprising revelation is that Minthara can actually question why you slew the tieflings at the grove if you went full murder with it—even if that was the only way to recruit her until recently. "[Minthara] says, 'Okay, so now I'm not hearing the voice of The Absolute anymore … I killed all those tieflings, it's because I was brainwashed. What is your excuse?'" He goes on to point out that if you just reply 'cause I'm evil', she actually really dislikes that.

Baldur's Gate 3's default class was originally going to be the Paladin, but a conundrum with Lae'zel sort of ruined the entire idea.

When I played Baldur's Gate 3 back in the autumn, I decided to roll with a Dark Urge Paladin, and it was such a fascinating experience that I wrote a whole article about it. But to give you the notes, combining a class that's sworn to abide by justice with a character who just flippin' loves murder creates an incredible internal conflict, leading to a character arc which, for me, felt like the closest you could come to a canonical playthrough of BG3.

The cast of Baldur's Gate 3 has evolved over the game's Early Access period and beyond—Wyll in particular had a whole rewrite between the game's conception and its full release. Whether it's whole storylines shifting or just toning down Gale's accidental thirstiness, finding the core of a character in a story this large is bound to be complicated.

Baldur's Gate 3 developers have decisively shut down speculation surrounding The Emperor.

When developing Baldur’s Gate 3, the studio took inspiration from some games you might not expect.

If you’ve been holding out hope that Baldur’s Gate 3 might find its way onto PC Game Pass in the future, I’ve got some bad news for you: it’s very unlikely to happen.

After a period of some uncertainty, Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on Xbox Series X/S, which begs the question – could the smash hit RPG ever end up on Xbox Game Pass? Baldur’s Gate 3 is exactly the kind of high-engagement title that could potentially drive long-term Game Pass subscriptions, so I’m sure Microsoft would love it, but according to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, it’s not happening.

Swen Vincke, the director of Baldur’s Gate 3 and CEO of Larian Studios, has spoken out about the role-playing game’s lack of Xbox Game Pass release, saying that it was a decision made «from the get-go.»

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian decided "from the get-go" that the mammoth RPG wouldn't be coming to Xbox or PC Game Pass, and that isn't going to change.