Baldur's Gate 3 Isn't A Live-Service Game. Stop Treating It Like One.

Highlights Patch 7 is Baldur's Gate 3's latest major patch, and hopefully the tinkering can stop. Endless kissing patches have played up the superfans, but now the game is losing itself. After weakening the story through Minthara's recruitment, Astarion's tragic arc has also been fanfictionised. Baldur's Gate 3 is my favourite game of the past five years. Yet every time I hear news about it, I roll my eyes. Larian's regular updates have gradually grown more pandering, starting with the necessary focus on fixing bugs and smoothing out the jank, which happened to include some new kissing animations. But over time, we've seen yet more kissing updates, Minthara's recruitment path changed at the cost of the game's rich writing and roleplaying, and a happy ending party. Enter Patch 7. This is the final major update we're getting, and once more, it feels aimed at terminally online mega fans. Baldur's Gate 3 is Larian's first hit of this size, and would be the biggest hit ever for almost every...