The third patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 is live, and it’s packed with content, making some fixes that I’m happy about – and some that are funny, or more accurately, scary.

 

First of all, welcome Mac users! You can now play on your Mac. Be sure to check the minimum spec requirements and remember to uninstall and reinstall the game (if you played Early Access) to ensure a smooth transition to the full release.

Additionally, the Magic Mirror is now live, allowing players to give their character a much-needed haircut (or full facelift).

With those two big updates out of the way, we can get into the details of the fix. As I said, this is a big deal.

Spoilers for the third act of Baldur’s Gate 3 follow.

One thing that many people have mentioned in the PS5 review is how difficult it is to see everything. I mentioned that I accidentally sold the clothes off my body because the icon that shows what items are in your character’s inventory is so small. Well, it looks like Larian Studios listened to me and increased the size of the equipped icon on the console. Mighty also seems to have heard my complaints about exploring with the controller, and has improved “how the game handles item selection with a controller”.

Although I switch between BG3 console and PC quite regularly, these fixes may make PS5 my primary mode of play.

Patch 3 also adds a major quality of life update that makes long rests less frustrating. As I progress through the game, it becomes increasingly difficult to get enough food for long rests. It’s painful to go to camp, realize you don’t have enough food for a long rest, leave camp, buy food, and come back. In Acts 1 and 2, you could still trade with Volo and buy food from him without leaving the camp. But for some reason, this ability was disabled in Act 3. There’s no more! Larian has restored his business license and allows you to trade with him when he is in your camp. Hurray!

Some of these fixes came a little late for me, but they’re still welcome additions. When you level up a character, the game now queues up all the party members who need to level up, so you don’t have to select them individually.

• Cazador can no longer change to or remain in mist form when in magical sunlight, such as sunlight created by the Daylight spell.
• Fixed Ansur Stormheart’s nova to blast right through ice shields you can hide behind. I wish this had been fixed earlier. The fight against Ansur was much harder than it should have been, especially since I thought he was hiding behind the ice pillars to protect me.

Although the Patch 3 notes are extremely long, they’re worth reading for all the funny, out-of-context updates. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Improved rat death poses.
• Team member corpses are now removed from the backpacks of dismissed characters.
• It is no longer possible to arrange for a coffin to be made for the grieving couple’s child, kill the coffin maker, then go back and tell the couple that everything was fine. (That was a bug, you monsters!)
• Reading shop signs is no longer a crime.
• Halsin will no longer give you a final kiss before the final battle unless you are actually related to him.
• Then here are some more seemingly unnecessary updates:
• In Tactical mode, Raphael can now attack twice per turn.
• Raphael’s wisdom skill value has increased.
• Raphael’s level has increased to level 16.
• Raphael’s diabolical chains are now stronger and can hit up to three targets with slightly reduced damage.
• The fight against Raphael in the House of Hope is pretty brutal, but was it really necessary to beat the hell out of it? At least Larian also fixed the bug where Harleep’s Draining Kiss debuff would permanently affect party members.

Even Larian admits that some of these updates weren’t really necessary, but they were done for fun anyway. Here’s the tip, though: “No one asked for this, but we made the nautiloid ceremorphosis scene even scarier. You’re welcome.”

With these updates I can’t wait to put another 300 hours into this game.