Baldur’s Gate III

Play it on: Windows
Current goal: Kiss Gale

I’m about 20 hours into Baldur’s Gate III right now, and I can’t stop thinking about it. When I’m not playing it, I’m wishing I was playing it. Its characters have me wrapped around its fingers, its deep systems both frustrate and enrapture me, and I am so invested in getting the tadpoles out of my party’s head you’d think they were my own children.

Baldur’s Gate III feels like the kind of big-budget RPG I’ve been missing in the years since BioWare has fallen into a weird limbo state working on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect. The relationship building and chances for player expression poke at everything I love about video games, all wrapped in an enthralling fantasy RPG packaging that draws me back in every time a wall threatens to keep me out. I gotta see how it all ends. I don’t know that I’ll do that this weekend, but you best believe I’m gonna make some headway. — Kenneth Shepard