BALDUR'S GATE III

Patch 8 caps off an expansion's worth of updates

- Ted Litchfield

I'm a serial videogame re-player. I've just got to hit foundational favorites like The Witcher 3, Mass Effect, Disco Elysium, or Neverwinter Nights once every two to five years or so in order to maintain a healthy psyche—and, yes, let me tell you, it makes keeping up with new stuff even harder than it would be already.

But even I was disgusted by the 450 hours I'd managed to pump into Baldur’s Gate III in just a year-and-a-half. I thought, after finally beating the game on its permadeath Honor Mode, maybe I could set it on the shelf and let it breathe awhile before diving back in.

But I’m sorry to say that Baldur’s Gate III Patch 8 really is that good. Despite Larian’s (honestly impressive) commitment to not releasing a story DLC for BGIII, we've gotten an expansion pack’s-worth of new modes, cutscenes, spells, and now character classes in Baldur’s Gate III's long march of numbered updates—the volume of sheer new stuff that’s come to Baldur’s Gate III since its August, 2023 launch is greater than some retail expansions—looking at you, Tales of the Sword Coast—with the only absence being new story content and a corresponding level cap raise.