I’m a-gettin’ there.
By closing my browser and Steam, and running it without its stupid launcher, I was able to play Baldur’s Gate Three for a good 30 to 45 minutes today before the screen went black, the monitor beeped, and it was “reboot or try to play blind” time.
I chose to reboot.
So that’s where it stands now. I can play for a while before the game decides I am done. It’s an incomplete solution but it at least makes it so I can play a while, and that is enough to keep me from returning the game.
Hopefully, like when Pathfinder was doing the same thing, eventually there will be a patch pushed that gets rid of the problem entirely.
I might still file a bug report because that is still a pretty damned big bug. Having the game shit the bed at a random time is definitely nontrivial.
It’s the randomness that mystifies me the most. Does not matter what I am doing in the game. It could happen at any second.
And in addition to adding highly unwelcome stress to my fragile life, it also suggests that it involves some element of the system has to reach a certain state to trigger the problem, or it happens whenever the system happens to access one tiny bit of memory.
Although that would not explain how reducing resource usage buys me more time. So it is probably the first thing, probably related to temperature.
I may still turn down the graphics settings. Or I may not. If it buys me enough time for a full and satisfying gaming session, then I guess it’s worth it.
It’s just a bummer, is all. I have a monster GPU! I shouldn’t have to turn things down ever, god damn it!
Another partial victory : I have gotten around my Instacart issue by ordering some things from Amazon.ca instead.
They took my credit card just fine.
Obviously, I am not going to be able to get things like potato salad or ice cream sandwiches that way.
And they have Voortman’s sugar free cookies. They even have some varieties they don’t stock around here, like peanut butter wafer cookies.
But they want fifteen fricking dollars per package! I’m used to paying $6 at most, $4.50 when they are on sale.
And they usually are.
So as tempting as those peanut butter wafers sound, I am never going to pay that much for them. It goes against every frugal bone in my body.
And that’s most of them.
Luckily, they had the Peak Freans shortbread cookies, which are not the most thrilling of treats but they are okay and priced much more reasonably.
They do not, sadly, have the Peak Freans sugar free fruit cremes I used to get at Sav-On Ironwood and that I loved so much.
In fact, I Googled them and the only place that still has them is, weirdly enough, Wal-Mart. And as much as I hardcore miss them, I can’t give money to Wal-Mart.
Those people are scum.
More after the break.
Yet another increment
Managed to play Baldur’s Gate Three for around 20 minutes without it crashing.
Woohoo on that! But I had played for that long before. The only difference was that this time I had the rare and delicate privilege of getting to quit the game as opposed to the game deciding for itself when I was done playing by crashing my computer.
Still, I am cautiously hopeful that by turning the graphical settings down to “Medium”, I have forestalled future crashes.
Doing that really hurt, though. If I tell the game to auto-detect what my settings should be, it goes to Ultra every time.
But apparently this black box of mine can’t handle that.
I think I have played for long enough to have formed an informed first impression of the game, which I will now share.
Well, the first surprise was that unlike the previous game, which used a “real time with pause” style of play where you pause, give your characters orders, then unpause and see how that works out, this one is good ol’ turn-based, just like Pathfinder.
And I have mixed feelings about that. Part of me, the larger part, is relieved that I don’t have to mentally gear up to handle RTWP.
But the smaller part was kind of looking forward to making the switch. Recently I have realized that as a shapeshifter, I am always looking for new things to adapt to.
That’s my form of seeking challenge, I suppose. Unfortunately, it does not come with the gumption needed to go find a new set of circumstances to adapt to and then force myself to leave my cozy comfort zone to go there.
Not yet, anyhow. I am working on it.
Other impressions of the game : it has a richly detail 3D environment which is quite beautiful and superbly well made and I don’t like it.
I don’t like it because it makes getting around with what amounts to 2D controls (click and the character moves to where you clicked) much more complicated and confusing.
I got so lost on the Mind Flayer ship you start on that I was tempted to start over.
I might start over anyway, because I accidentally made my character female. And I am NOT female so I want my character to be male, god dammit!
Plus, I am somewhat regretting my choice to be a Sorcerer. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a spell slinging magic user, but it’s a lot more complicated than being a sword swinging Barbarian and thus maybe not the best choice for a starting character.
Oh well. I will likely muddy through anyhow, like always.
Overall, I am enjoying the game. Which is good because I am well past the point where I can return it by now.
I am sure I will adapt to the more complex terrain and controls.
Would you believe there is even a Jump button?
And I am glad I have found a new thing to obsess over.
Even if it’s a lot more like the previous thing (Pathfinder) than I expected.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.