i simply disagree. DoS(1&2) is imo deep thoughtful gameplay. Much of your comments completely ignore multiplayer. You come up with some ancient rpgs that might have been an example at the time but what specifically should they learn from these titles that you listed?
Deep story driven rpgs dont usually go well in hand with multiplayer - exactly like modern classics like The Witcher has no MP - one goes against the other.
Again DoS games have very different demographic target audience including people who are intersted to play that genre in a coop mode. If Larian chose to instead focus on the actual gameplay, story, characters, mechanics instead of spend resources on coop etc - i am quite certain the games would have turned much better.
Btw those “ancient” games are incomparably better (apart from the visual side of things) than majority of the modern games not to mention Planescape and BG2 are the top of RPGs of all time in various charts.
The writting especially in Torment is a benchmark which was recently only touched by Disco Elysium.
Even if biased one cannot simply ignore the writting in DoS which is hmm - amateurish and shallow if you compare it to Torment and BG2.
Again each of those has different target audiences - i dont have my day ruined just beacause they will use BG name to sell DoS 3. Much bigger problems in the world than pointless game wars 
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Even so we were talking about gameplay and Larian did invest in that and that is not mutually exclusive with multiplayer.
You are specifically steering at story driven rpgs. And are comparing basically something entirely different. So i don’t really get the criticism at all.
Some news on BG3:
Far too much talking, Its hard to really make out what the game is doing with all that dratted pausing. Some gameplay reveal, but totally ruined by that guy been too fond of his own voice.
This is a better one, so turn based. And looks like it uses the same engine as DOS2. I might pick it up. I really hope its a good game mind.
Edit
Like DOS2, 4 man party max, now that makes me sad. been confirmed on the steam forum. I suppose it will be more balanced. but as it seem to really play like DOS2 at least from the above, I may just have to wait and see what the game is really like, especailly as iit will be using the 5E rules. I have some misgivings about this already.
Nice video, thanks! This one is better.
For my part, I will probably buy the BG3 eventually, but not on launch day. I rather go with Pathfinder: WOTR first.
I can’t say I’m a fan of Owlcat, I think they really messed up the first game. I heard that there will be a second game in the series. But after they messed up so badly with their first game, I think I will give them a miss. I just don’t really trust them. And they really bitten off more then they could chew. At least for BG3, that studio is at least is fairly decent, DoS2 isn’t a bad game. But then again, The BG3 does seem to be more like DoS2.5. So unless I see some really good reviews, then perhaps it might not be as good as I hoped it might be.
But between Larian Studios and Owlcat, I think the former will be a better choice. But still, after what was a pretty bad game by owlcat, I’m not ready to give them more of my money., at least not yet.
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Why turn-based?? They certainly can’t get out of their comfort zone. Also Larian can’t handle script with depth, not to mention romance. So I gonna skip this one.
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Taking into account that Owlcat is new dev team and Pathfinder is the first project I would say while the latest game version is not as good as it can be, but is Ok.
I will keep the eye on the new project.
But that is my point, they started with a module / book that really was too complex, especailly with all that kingdom management crap on top. Certainly in early builds, that just didn’t work right. Plus there was huge community outrage over how they did some of the woman in the game.
While they did do a definitive version, which did fix a lot of bugs. their original version was beyond buggy, and I simply stopped playing it. As they were a small studio, they should have learnt from making a smaller game, and less complex before doing something bigger. Instead they jump straight into the deep end and made a pretty bad game.
I also do agree somewhat with what Gaildor says about Larian, considering that their games have some nasty bugs in the past. I think from that above video, the game looks more like a refreshed DoS2.5 then a D&D game. Which is pretty sad. maybe beamdog should have done it? but saying that, I lost faith in beambog, many of their games are still waiting for patches that may never come. neverwinter nights was promised a huge graphic overhaul but there no sign of that. and that was I think near the start of the EE project.
Right now, Just not sure if either owlcats game or BG3 is worth picking up at this point? really dont know, still, I can easy not pick them up.
But they only do enhanced editions not new games, right? They wouldn’t be able to make a proper sequel.
In case of BG2 I think they even took existing patches from the modding community.
The free modifications overhadow what they did. I enjoyed the changes to the UI though.
And the skill checks, dear lord, the skill checks! Horrible. But, I’m still having fun nonetheless. Of course, I am playing on the lowest difficulty…
I do have to admit Larian has done a better job on the technical side than Owlcats. P:KM is a resource hog, part of it is because of the Unity engine. Saved games started at a few MB. I’m at chapter 5-6 right now and saved game files now reach 70 MB (even when zipped) and increasing! I counted 9 GB so far. Saving and loading is a real pain. Comparing with the OC of NWN and NWN2, I had way more saved games and they never went over 9 GB.
I’m sure BG3 will be a good game, but is it the BG3 I really want to play? Probably not. It has no identity of its own. It’s just some thing wearing someone else face. For my part, I’m glad it’s not Beamdog or Obsidian making BG3. I definitely didn’t want those two to make the game. Lack of competence for the former and overbalanced for the latter.
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Some news on EA:
The music is way too D:OS. It doesn’t have the epicness of Michael Hoenig and Inon Zur.
Oh man, Steam payment server went down on release time 
Can’t even pay for the game T_T
I’m going to wait until its finished. Also a few of the classes aren’t in EA yet. Plus full price for a game that doesn’t have full content.
So going to wait and see how it fairs.
Hope this doesn’t end like Torchlight 3! 
Can’t say I’m too impressed by what I read. I also read that it should be possible to complete the game without combat. But from that review, that might be nigh impossible currently.
Also the party members seems pretty bad, fine if you want to go down a evil path.
I think at this stage, I’m certainly going to wait. There is still time for things to change and improve. But I have a bad feeling about the game mind.
Played for few hours. I just love the big locations =) Always feel claustrophobic on Unity rectus-like maps in Pathfinder
Writhing is good, better that in DoS .