Baldur’s Gate 3 May Not Get DLC Due To D&D’s OP Leveling

The recently released Baldur’s Gate 3 is a massive RPG with high replay value due to all the choices you can make, so it might seem weird to be talking about the game getting an expansion. But the question has been asked, and the response from the people behind the hit RPG is basically, probably not, because high-level Dungeons and Dragons characters are too powerful.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Karlach Actor On Playing The Beloved Barbarian

If you’ve been on the internet lately, it probably seems like the world is obsessed with Baldur’s Gate 3, which fully launched last week to rave reviews after an extended period in Steam Early Access. The turn-based Dungeons and Dragons RPG is truly blowing up on Steam, with hundreds of thousands of players logging in all at the same time to play (and also to have sex…a lot of sex). And while the game is huge—taking dozens and dozens of hours to fully complete, with multiple endings—some are already wondering about future expansions. But, that’s probably not going to happen. And if it does happen, it’s going to take a long time.

In an interview with PC Gamer on August 7, Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke said that the team hadn’t even started on an expansion. And sure, the game caps out at level 12, but DnD supports level 20 characters. Naturally, that seems to leave room for a big follow-up expansion. However, Vincke explained that he thinks it would be “very hard” to continue the adventure with the high-level characters players have at the end of the game. That’s because, in DnD, when players start reaching level 13 and beyond they become nearly godlike. Spells that high-level players gain access to include the ability to see the future, or just instantly kill anything with less than 100HP.

Larian Studios

“[High-level DnD] adventures require a different way of doing things, in terms of antagonists you’re going to have to deal with, which require a lot of development to do them properly,” Vincke said, “Which would make this much more than an expansion in terms of development effort.”

Vincke explained that this is why a lot of DnD campaigns are designed for level 12 or lower characters. So while it might seem like a perfect opportunity for an expansion, to just let players hit level 20, it’s “not as easy as one would imagine.”

Promising an expansion too early could cause problems

Another issue that Larian Studios faces when trying to make a big follow-up expansion to Baldur’s Gate 3? All the choices you can make and the endings you can get. Vincke tells PC Gamer that if the studio was to build DLC for the RPG it would be hard, and players would have to wait for “a long time.”

He further added that if the studio announced expansion plans too early and then, partway through development, realized the expansion was boring or not very fun, it’d have to keep working on it and try to get people to buy something it doesn’t fully believe in.

“That would not be cool. So we have to have the freedom to experiment and do our stuff. And then when we’re ready to announce it, we will.”

So for now, there is no plan to make a Baldur’s Gate 3 expansion, but there’s a small chance it could still happen. One day. Maybe.

 

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New Pokémon From Scarlet And Violet’s DLC Has Messed-Up Lore

Gif: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku

Pokémon doesn’t exactly shy away from providing dark backstories for its different monsters, and fittingly, that’s especially true of ghost-type Pokémon. But it does feel like Scarlet and Violet are a lot more comfortable than their predecessors were with putting heavier subjects like death at the forefront, rather than relegating them to subtext and Pokédex entries. (Just look at the final boss reveal.) But it seems like Game Freak is leaning into the darkness once again with the reveal of Poltchageist, a new grass/ghost-type Pokémon that will debut in the Teal Mask expansion launching on September 13.

The Week In Games: Pocket Monsters And Simulated Goats

In the character’s reveal trailer, we see a group of children gathering around to hear a story about a wise but strict tea master who drove everyone away with his tendency to chastise people mercilessly for the slightest mistakes during tea ceremonies. Eventually he died of exhaustion over his broken tea caddy. Any Pokémon fan who knows of Polteageist from the Generation VIII games probably knows where this is going. Eventually, the tea caddy came to life as Poltchageist, and cursed an ill-mannered woman with a Matcha tea-based spell, putting her into a coma-like state. Not all its abilities are destructive, however, as Poltchageist still maintains the tea master’s disdain for broken and chipped tea cups, and seals any broken objects it comes across.

The Pokémon Company

The whole backstory is kinda fucked up, as is the case for many ghost-type Pokémon in the series. For example, Yamask, which was introduced in Pokémon Black and White, is said to be the wandering spirit of a dead human. Those poor unfortunate souls went through entire human lives just to get caught in a Pokéball by a 10-year-old. You hate to see it.

It seems Poltchageist is similar to Wiglett and Toedscruel, in that they are similar to Pokémon from previous generations but are actually a completely different species. So despite the resemblance to Polteageist and the similar naming convention, this isn’t a new form of an old monster, but instead, something else entirely.

The Pokémon Company

Scarlet and Violet’s upcoming DLC seems to be riffing on a lot of older Pokémon, including adding new evolutions to older monsters and creating new Paradox forms for established legendaries. So whether Poltchageist ends up being a regional variant or a different species entirely, it fits with the trend Game Freak seems to be following with the upcoming expansions.

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Final Fantasy XVI Gets Free Update, DLC And PC Port Confirmed

FFXVI's Clive Rosfield stands in front of a shattered kingdom.

Image: Square Enix

Final Fantasy XVI’s long-rumored and all but confirmed PC version has now been made official by the game’s producer, Naoki Yoshida. He told fans on September 2 that they can expect more information on the timing of the port before the end of the year, and revealed that two DLC expansions are also definitely happening. A new, free update for the PlayStation 5 role-playing game capped off the good news.

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Buy Final Fantasy XVI for PS5: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

“Allow me to take this opportunity to officially announce that development on a PC version is currently underway,” Yoshida told PAX West attendees by way of a brief video address over the holiday weekend. “I hope to be able to give you more information on both the upcoming DLC and the PC version before the end of the year, so please stay tuned.”

He added that fans have wanted to see “more of Valisthea’s story and spend more time with her inhabitants,” hinting that the DLC packs will focus on fleshing out Final Fantasy XVI’s world. It’s unclear if their content will take place before or after the main campaign, but fans have been hopeful any expansion might delve deeper into the mystery of Leviathan, the only Eikon (summon) that’s hinted at in the game but never makes an actual appearence.

Version 1.10 dropped for free on September 3. It adds customizable costumes for each of the main protagonists as well as a new Onion Sword for Clive to wield. There’s also an extensive list of patch notes, most of which have to do with how arcade mode is scored and fixing a handful of bugs. One nice feature is that you can finally now see the cooldown for each ability from the skill menu.

FINAL FANTASY XVI | Free Update Showcase Video

Final Fantasy XVI’s PC version was originally referenced in the game’s very first trailer before later being removed. Square Enix has repeatedly been asked about the timing for a PC port, with Yoshida even telling fans at one point just to buy a PS5 instead of waiting. He then casually mentioned in an interview earlier this year that development on the PC version would begin after the game released in June.

A sizzle reel uploaded by Sony last year signalled that the game’s console exclusivity would only last six months. This has left Xbox owners hopeful the RPG might come to Xbox Series X/S eventually as well, though Microsoft Gaming CEO said recently at Gamescom that he wasn’t rushing Square Enix. Five years later, Final Fantasy VII Remake still hasn’t been ported to the platform.

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Tears Of The Kingdom DLC

Zelda holds the master sword.

Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku

In a new interview with Famitsu, Nintendo has revealed there are no plans for any DLC or expansions for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. As spotted by Eurogamer, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma told the Japanese publication that he’d “done everything” there was to do in this incarnation of Hyrule.

The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule

TotK is the second time Nintendo had developed a Zelda game set in this space, with this year’s sequel building above and below the original world of BotW. It seems that means it was quite enough for producer Aonuma and director Hidermaro Fujibayashi, however.

In a wide-ranging interview about the game, the pair explain how they deliberately hid that the game would have a vast new underground to explore when promoting it pre-release, and the last-minute efforts that went in to being able to seamlessly travel from the sky islands to the underground realms. And how, yeah, they were expecting the awful treatment of the poor Koroks.

When the interviewer asks about future projects (after failing, as ever, to get a straight answer about the series’ timeline), Aonuma explains that they have no current plans to return to the Breath of the Wild version of Hyrule. “I feel like we’ve done everything we can to create fun in that world,” he tells Famitsu (translated by Google).

Tears of the Kingdom sold over 18 million copies in just its first two months on sale, and there’d likely another billion dollars just waiting to be taken with an expansion to the game. But Nintendo is going to do what Nintendo wants to do, and adding an expansion isn’t one of those things.

Fujibayashi said that he’s already thinking about his “next fun experience,” but it’s likely to be yet another reinvention of the Zelda franchise. And rather impressively, when asked if they feel overwhelmed by expectations for something “even more amazing” next, Aonuma says he and his team welcome it! “[The] development team don’t see this as a hurdle,” he said.

 

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Check Your PC’s Cooling System Before DLC Drops

Cyberpunk 2077‘s big, free 2.0 update and the paid Phantom Liberty expansion are around the corner. To prepare for this coming one-two punch, developer CD Projekt Red is suggesting you check your PC’s specifications ahead of time.

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Both the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty are massive additions that significantly change Cyberpunk 2077. There’s a redesigned skill tree and perk system, a revamped cyberware system, vehicular combat and car crashes with actual explosions, enemy AI improvements, and a lot more. And that doesn’t even include everything in Phantom Liberty, the game’s sole paid expansion. But either way, both updates are so huge that lead scene programmer Filip Pierściński suggested on X on September 11 that folks check their PC’s cooling systems to ensure they can handle the newly tweaked open-world RPG.

“Before [the] release [of Cyberpunk 2077] 2.0 and [Phantom Liberty], please check [the] conditions of your cooling systems in PC.” Pierściński wrote. “We use all [of] what you have, so workload on CPU 90 percent on eight core is expected. To save your time, please run Cinebench or similar and check stability of your systems.”

Cinebench is a free cross-platform program that tests your PC components by running various stress tests and assigning standardized scores that let you compare your rigs with others’. Pierściński seems worried that folks could run into throttling/overheating problems if their PCs aren’t up to snuff, which could result in poor performance or game crashes.

When reached for comment via email, a CD Projekt Red spokesperson pointed Kotaku to Pierściński’s follow-up X post explaining why he made the suggestion. He shared an image of Phantom Liberty’s recommended specs, saying that if your machine fits the bill, then it should perform just as expected.

“My intention was to highlight the need to maintain your cooling systems and check them regularly,” Pierściński wrote. “Neither Cyberpunk 2077 after 2.0 nor Phantom Liberty will melt your PCs. Game will perform well on recommended hardware.”

Read More: Should You Play Cyberpunk 2077 Now Or Wait For Phantom Liberty?

Phew! It’s good to know that Cyberpunk 2077 won’t absolutely fry your PC when the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty land on September 26. It’s still a big update, though, so it’ll be interesting to see how it performs in the long run.

 

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Pokémon Scarlet And Violet’s DLC Has Gender-Neutral Restrooms

Kieran and Carmine are shown standing in front of the welcome center.

Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s first DLC, The Teal Mask, is finally out, and it takes the player and all their pocket monsters on an exchange student program to the land of Kitakami. In this wondrous land they’ll find new Pokémon to catch, new friends to make, and, as fans have discovered, restrooms that are gender-neutral.

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I, like many other players, stumbled upon this discovery in the first 10 minutes of arriving in Kitakami, at the community center where my character was staying. In the lobby, you find three restrooms. The men’s and women’s restrooms are designated by Pikachu tails, with the former featuring the flat edge at the end that male Pikachus have and the latter displaying the rounded, heart-shaped end females do. The third restroom is marked by just a silhouette of Pikachu’s head, and when you examine it, the text reads “This restroom can be used by anyone!”

Shep is shown examining the gender-netural restroom and the text reads "This restroom can be used by anyone!"

Screenshot: The Pokémon Company / Kotaku

It’s a small thing in a universe that has certainly had queer characters and even what seem to be in-universe references to queer culture, like ex-Galar Champion Peony possibly being a gay icon with a largely male fanbase. But a lot of that has been subtext, and having gender-neutral restrooms is a pretty explicit recognition of queer and non-binary characters existing within the Pokémon universe. It’s great to see, and hopefully this means we could see an actual gender-neutral character creation option in the series’ future, with they/them or other pronoun toggles in later games.

Even if Pokémon has kept much of its acknowledgment of queer identity buried in subtext, the franchise has amassed a big queer fanbase over the years, especially surrounding the Fairy type.

The Teal Mask is the first of two DLCs coming to Scarlet and Violet, with the second, titled The Indigo Disk, set to launch later this year. Together, they make up the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero expansion that wraps up the story of the main game.

Buy Hidden Treasure of Area Zero: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

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RE4’s Separate Ways DLC Brings Back Infamous Laser Room

This year’s Resident Evil 4 remake is an enjoyable survival horror game for fans and newcomers alike, and will likely be remembered as one of the best entries in the long-running franchise. But if we’re picking nits, it did suck that Capcom omitted the original game’s cool laser room section. So, it’s nice to see that’s returning in the upcoming Separate Ways DLC.

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Released back in March, Capcom’s big-budget Resident Evil 4 remake is a very good video game. I enjoyed the way Capcom changed some things—melee combat, for example—while staying faithful to the original 2005 third-person horror classic. However, while most of Resident Evil 4 is recreated in the gorgeous remake, some moments didn’t make the cut. Some of these omissions were really disappointing, so it’s great to see the recently announced Separate Ways DLC is bringing back some of the most popular and sorely missed sections from the OG RE4.

The original Separate Ways was a smaller, bonus campaign starring Ada Wong as she ran about the events of Resident Evil 4 on her own mission. This mode was included in all versions of the game released after the initial GameCube edition, and was unlocked by completing the main story.

Capcom

As DLC this time around, the new Separate Ways appears to be mostly the same adventure—once again starring Ada Wong as she does cool spy shit—but in this version, she’s infected with the Las Plagas parasite, an interesting change from the original bonus campaign.

What’s new in the DLC and when does it release?

It’s also nice to see the return of the fan-favorite laser room setpiece, a late-game moment that saw Leon dodging lasers in a high-tech hallway. Also spotted in the new DLC trailer is an area that looks a lot like the cable cars section that is also missing in Resident Evil 4 remake. There is even a tease of U-3, a monster that skipped the remake but appears to be showing up to get killed in Separate Ways. So yeah, as usual, Ada is here to do what Leon and so many others can’t, and to do it in style.

Separate Ways launches on September 21 and will cost $10. You’ll need to own Resident Evil 4 remake. The DLC will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. (And just like the main game, not on Xbox One.)

Capcom also plans to drop a free update for the RE4 remake that will add Ada Wong and Albert Wesker to the game’s Mercenaries mode, so there’ll be two ways to play as the enigmatic assassin.

Buy Resident Evil 4: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

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Fan Sues Over KotOR 2’s Canceled DLC On Switch

Jedi and Sith fight in the cover art for KotOR 2.

Image: Obsidian Entertainment

A new gamer lawsuit rises. Three months after Aspyr said it was abandoning promised DLC for the remaster of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords on Nintendo Switch, someone is suing the publisher for failing to make good on its original promise or to offer a refund when that was no longer possible.

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The class-action lawsuit (via The Gamer) was filed by Malachi Mickelonis earlier this summer and accuses Aspyr of fake advertising. He apparently bought the game but never actually played it. The lawsuit alleges he was waiting for the “Restored Content DLC” before starting the game on Switch. Oops.

KotOR 2 came to the Nintendo handheld hybrid on June 8, 2022, and the studio promised to eventually add the “Restored Content” as DLC for the game down the road. Originally brought to the PC version via mods, the “Restored Content” pack is essentially a fan-made “director’s cut” of the beloved but much beleaguered 2004 Star Wars RPG. “It’ll drop in Q3 2022,” the studio tweeted on several occasions. It did not.

Instead, the studio announced back in June of this year that it was no longer moving forward with the DLC pack promised at launch. Aspyr offered players free codes for the other remastered Star Wars games on Switch as an apology. The news came after the reports the studio was struggling with its planned, ground-up remake of the first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for PlayStation 5. A year later, the Texas-based studio is probably in an even worse place as parent company Embracer begins to implode, laying off developers across its bloated portfolio of studios.

“[Malachi Mickelonis] felt completely duped and was upset because he had relied on Defendants’ representations that the Restored Content DLC would be released for KotOR,” the new lawsuit reads. “In fact, Plaintiff did not even play KotOR after purchasing it, instead choosing to wait until the Restored Content DLC was released. But Defendants never did. Plaintiff would potentially be interested in purchasing other games with Restored Content DLC from Defendants’ in the future if they have the advertised content, are not deceptively advertised, and accordingly priced at fair market value without being artificially inflated due to the deceptive advertising.”

The class action lawsuit means anyone else who bought the game can join it, though it’s not clear who else has or will. KotOR 2 was $20 when it first came out on Switch. It’s currently on sale for $7.50.

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New Microsoft Flight Simulator DLC Adds…Dune Buggies?

Sure, Microsoft Flight Simulator is a robust and impressively realistic video game dedicated to recreating the feel of flying an airplane around the world. But what if you flew by some sick-looking hills or ramps and wanted to hit them in a dune buggy? Well, now a new DLC from a third-party developer can help.

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Launched in 2020, Microsoft Flight Simulator was the long-awaited return for the franchise after being MIA for over a decade. The new entry in the series was released in the middle of the early days of the pandemic, and provided many folks a chance to safely travel around a recreation of the planet in over a dozen planes. Since its release, paid third-party DLC has been created for the game, adding new planes and features. But not all the DLC is focused on aircraft.

Out now, Juice Goose UTV is a new Flight Sim DLC that adds a highly-detailed electric off-road Utility Task Vehicle, aka cool dune buggy. The idea is that players can explore the massive open world of Flight Simulator from the ground level via the new vehicle.

Buy Microsoft Flight Simulator: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

Juice Goose UTV by Parallel 42 – TRAILER

This isn’t just some quickly-made mod that tosses a car model into the game and calls it a day. According to the DLC’s official site, the buggy comes in three motor variants designed for different driving experiences. It also includes 13 liveries, optional accessories, realistic suspension, simulated friction on the tires, cruise control, lighting options, a built-in radio, and is designed to be fully drivable with a standard Xbox controller. Phew.

Even better, the Juice Goose DLC supports crossplay with airplanes, so you and your friends can get up to all kinds of fun jumping cars over planes or racing different aircraft and buggies. Optionally, players can also download a custom pack that adds a virtual playground filled with ramps and other obstacles to test out the new vehicle.

According to the devs, the Juice Goose should be available to purchase via the official Flight Sim marketplace soon on PC and Xbox. It costs $15. Players can buy it now via the studio’s official website and install it themselves, if they can’t wait for the marketplace release.

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