Larian CEO says Baldur's Gate 3's Dark Urge character was originally going to be a Paladin by default, which makes me even happier I played it that way

The recent Apple Watch sales ban in the U.S. was thanks to the efforts of Masimo, a health technology firm that claims Apple uses stolen technology in its latest smartwatch models. Though Masimo has found some measure of success against the most valuable company in the world, the journey has been harrowing, both mentally and financially, with CEO Joe Kiani stating that around $100 million has already been spent in its legal battle.

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.

Minthara is definitely one of Baldur's Gate 3's spicier companions, and a firm fan favorite for those that enjoy a little bit of bloodshed in their RPGs. Back at launch, you couldn't actually recruit Minthara without slaughtering a bunch of Tieflings (or turning her into a sheep), and while a recent patch has allowed players to not have to make that choice anymore, it's still very clear that she isn't a particularly pleasant person.

Intel and many other tech companies have amassed against NVIDIA in a "War of Words" claiming that the green team's AI success came from "Luck". However, NVIDIA says that the company's success is attributed to clear vision and execution which Intel lacked.

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 developers have explained how they tackled the game's many, many endings.

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.

Picking a favourite Baldur's Gate 3 character is a bit like picking your favourite limb, but there's little question that the best villain in Baldur's Gate 3 is Raphael. The smooth-talking trickster cambion is as charming and charismatic as he is utterly, incontrovertibly evil, such that you kind of want to do what he asks of you even though it's clearly the worst idea ever.

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.

In my first playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, not long after making it to the city that makes up the massive RPG's final act, one of the villains kidnapped Lae'zel. And while I didn't put off rescuing her for too long, I also didn't rush it. Don't look at me like that, this was in-character—I was playing Shadowheart.