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PAYPAL & PATREON
If you want to support us, you can send us a one-off donation via paypal or subscribe monthly to our Patreon.
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#femalegamers #womengamers #feministgamingpodcast #feministgamers #intersectionalgaming #equalityingames #equalgamers #gamergate #videogames #womeningames #diversegamers #gaming #gamer #girlgamer #gamergirl #lgbtq
[Music] hello and welcome to another episode of gaming the system um where three intersexual feminists discuss um gaming through a feminist lens and today it is actually just myself Jem and Alex and we have um an awesome guest with us here today uh Finn who is a very good friend of mine and my go-to for anything on the dark web anything crazy anything anything geeky and definitely to talk about gaming um so hi Finn thank you very much hello you're very welcome um so today we're going to be talking about uh Boulders gate three and we're just going to have a general chat we're going to try not to do any spoilers in this episode um and then we'll have another episode um a bit later which we will we might have some spoilers in so hopefully you're safe um uh as long as you haven't gone beyond what did we say we go up to um the first one act one yes so we'll go through that one but if you haven't got Beyond there um don't worry we'll be we'll be talking we won't be talking about anything that um we'll give anything away but we might give a few spoilers for Act One um but before we get going um we are now on patreon so if you like what you're hearing today or you like what we've heard before please do follow us on patreon um you can find us um at gaming the system um and you can also give us a one-off donation um via Paypal um where you can do that via we are gaming the system at gmail.com so that's all of the boring stuff out of the way um let's let's let's just crack on so um tell me how long you've been been playing Boulders Gate 3 four and where you've got up to you have to kick off then well this is where I have to open up steam and and confront my inner demons uh it's been 60 hours and I am just in act two so I think I've only been playing it for about three weeks which those are rookie numbers for me you know 10 years ago but as an adult now unfortunately 60 hours and 3 week weeks um but I had been aware of it for quite a while because my uh ex has been playing it since it was in Early Access wow so I've been nagged about it kindly for about a year now gosh that's really interesting is it um has it changed a lot from Early Access because I I really had to like I used all of my um self-control not to get into it in Early Access cuz I was like no I want to play the Finish game and I don't have time to play it twice so um saying that I know I'm going to play this game twice but um yeah it's going to happen there's too much to miss yeah um they they were lacking characters they were lacking story lines they were lacking classes and yeah like you I I only wanted to play the finished game and also I wanted to play my character my favorite D and character so I had to wait for you know everything to be set up for that oh we'll get on to that the B what about you Alex I think I'm pretty similar to Finn I've probably been doing I can't remember exactly how many hours but I have been playing multiplayer with my partner um that's how we've been playing all the way through which is I'm sure an interesting experience compared to single player um but yeah I think um just got to the beginning of act two really so about the same place yeah but absolutely loving it so far and I'm relatively new to these types of games as well I've not really invested much time in our big RPGs other than like The Witcher briefly Skyrim which isn't quite the same but yeah um the event have only really dabbled in this sort of genre so this has really hooked me in I think Boulders gate has uh has converted me to this style of game definitely cuz my partner plays a lot of um tabletop D and D anyway um so he already knows a lot of like the law and the stuff behind it so I'm always like but what does that mean and he'll tell me exactly what to do and combat and all that sort of stuff um but yeah it's really fun so far is that I I I have to ask is that helping with onboarding because I found they don't explain D and D stuff no it definitely helps having someone who understands what some of the terms mean and and like although we I did watch a tips video about things that the game doesn't tell you and learned about five or six new things from watching it so it's true I don't think they do tell you enough really like even sorting out your inventory there's ways to gather up all of the Alchemy ingredients and all of the keys into one place uh which definitely tidies it up a lot and before that I was just like constantly encumbered because I love just taking everything I be like onine just go around and take it um but yeah it definitely helps to have those sort of inside tips and the game isn't uh always forthcoming with those definitely agree there that's quite interesting isn't it actually we've talked in the past about how sometimes games can be like really um a bit elitist in that way that they just assume that you'll know stuff and so people who are coming into it and I think something like Boulder Gate 3 has had such a buzz about it and um uh you know so people who haven't before played the genre haven't had any experience of of D and D are coming into it and it and it it can feel a bit sort of like you walking into somebody else's club or you know like and I think that's something that that I think they've I think they've done quite well not to do that too much because there is so much information to learn about DN D and about you know all of that and the tool tips and things are really useful but I mean I go to I'm constantly on on wikis and other um sites you know looking up you know what should what weapon should I be using or what armor should I be using just because it's I mean just just go up to a person in the street and ask them what a can trip is yeah yeah I don't know I'm not really sure some kind of magic but yeah absolutely yeah so um I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that according to steam and I think this is an inflated figure I apparently have 200 and 42 hours of Play Time jealous I'm so jealous now I do think that that is because there are times when I'm like oh I'm just going to pause this because I've got to go put the dinner on and then and then I don't come back to it for 3 hours because I don't but I have tried not to do that too much much with this so yeah I think I'm basically um hardcoring this game I have not been this engaged with a a game probably since never win T nights actually which is which goes back a long way but I I I am loving it and and I'm I'm now up to I'm into act three and I've been really taking my time as you can probably tell from the as I was put into it but I've I've been yeah I've been taking my time because I don't want it to finish and I already know that because I'm soloing um my my husband's also playing it solo but um I already know that we I'm definitely want to to um play multiplayer with him and do it again um so but even knowing that I still don't want to come to the end of it I'm still really just enjoying it too much much so yeah it's been it's it's just really good I got it as soon as it um was released I because it was released a bit earlier I think on the PC than they'd originally said I think they it was supposed to be end of August wasn't it and I think it was it was earlier than that so that was awesome um and yeah I mean I'm just I mean I had I've had like a fortnite where I haven't played because I've just been too busy and things but but whenever I have free time that's what I'm doing with it at the moment what do we think about hero mode is that the um update oh no honor mode in the patch yes one of the biggest patches they've done recently includes a new difficulty level um on a mode and I'm not sure exactly what it uh the details of it but I've heard I think I've heard that it's very very difficult because lots of people were saying that the game's not difficult enough um and that's why they' brought in but um beyond that I don't know much about it now you can't save so if you die you die die no that's awful and you have to start again with a new character oh my God that's my next play through that's absolutely that's one thing the game doesn't tell it or at least that's different to games I'm used to there's there's no not so much Autos saving so having to manually save is taken a little bit of time to get used to and there are times where we have regretted forgetting to quick save um a lot during battles and things like that uh there was one I think it was last time we played actually we we'd taken hours well not actually I was it's an exaggeration but uh probably a good 20 minutes to to get through this battle barely made it through this skin of our teeth and then we went back to Camp um to kind of recover ourselves and we were both leveling up doing things at the same time and the game froze and it crashed and then we were like oh no and then we were like when did we last safe and it was way before at the start of the battle and then we had to go back and do we did much better the second time though so actually it was probably a blessing in disguise um but that was a painful painful moment when the game relateded but uh yeah definely I have a question yes to be to be honest Miss how many times have you saved before you press the dice roll that is a good question I haven't done no I haven't done I think I've done specifically that I've saved it before conversations and actually no wait actually one time I did with the chest that was like a um like an 18 or a 20 or something then I had thieves tools and maybe some extra bonus or something and I was trying to get it open just because I wanted to see what it was and then it turned out it was something I couldn't use anyway when I did eventually get into it so probably not worth the uh repeated things but no that was uh not not right before the dice roll it was shortly before approaching the chest but uh yes one time I think to to say it in a spoiler-free way to prevent a companion death I started doing it okay and the problem is once I started doing it I didn't stop so I'm trying to be better now but um also panicking when when you get certain dialogue choices and like where did that come from I don't know what to say to this I'm panicking or if all of the options are bad and you're like oh God yeah I I I do Save A Lot I quick save like constantly because I am a bit neurotic about crashing but I'm also but also yeah I don't really have because I'm like oh although I don't really feel I could say that now with all the hours that I've racked up but um I don't really I don't feel like I have a lot of time to play so I'm like I haven't got time to go back and redo all of that so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it but I've been I mean that's why I take um aarion around with me because he's he's so good at unlocking chests so um so I just have him with along for the ride all the time um and is that why you have him yeah yeah to do with his cute looks and his Bo th so shall we talk a little bit about the um the statistics around their launch um Finn you shared a really cool infographic with us um and um we'll we can put a link in the show notes hopefully to it but um I thought we could maybe have a chat about that definitely and this was on the opening weekend wasn't it these these dis unfortunately we don't have anything past the opening weekend that I could find but I still interesting to know that yeah um the one thing that I didn't so I'm you know going down here the one thing that I didn't quite grasp myself was that you could have an origin character and not just make your own I think I was so excited to make my own character that I just went by that as an option um and people chose Gail which an interesting choice not um yeah I mean not when I yeah and and carlac came second that's that's also really interesting isn't it see but a barbarian I feel is like just a slightly more advanced human fighter which is what everybody chooses first go around but a wizard is such a like complicated yeah and usually so rubbish at the start in in D and D but yeah you know I'd be quite I'd be quite cautious about about doing that but I suppose you know that you're going to have a party if you've played before or you had any kind of experience or any kind of like yeah you've listened to the blood then you know that actually your main character doesn't really matter that much because you kind of engage with all of them don't you engage but I have heard that if you play with an origin character you get a more involved version of their story than you do if you that makes sense you have them as companion um so yeah I'm really surprised that everyone W with Gil well not everyone but so many people W with Gil yeah I also Gail was the seventh cause of death for players um which how how did you seventh out of everything is impressive it is yes the the Fireballs aren't aren't I was going to say surely so that's what did you guys actually end up going for so I went for rogue cuz I thought I wanted to I sound being sneaky I like for any if you've listened to the pop before you'll know I'm a big fan of Assassin's Creed and I saw that they had a subass of assassin and I was like I want to be that so I am an Assassin Rogue um and actually shall I tell you my race and my my um background as well I'm a deep gnome which I think is apparently very unusual but they have dark vision and stealth pness and I was like well this sounds good for that um and also I just like being unusual so I went for deep gnome and an urchin background so they have a slight of hand as well um so very very very sneaky and I can get lots of damage in combat from my sneak attacks um it is very very cool um and I look like a tiny assassin with a little Hood at the moment um which is cool yeah very much enjoying but yes are you finding that the world is um reacting to your race choice or I think it is definitely it was very interesting meeting other deep gnomes or other races who do not like gnomes um that was very interesting and also um I can't remember if the under dark is in act one or act two it is it is yeah that was very interesting because I didn't know about the background of gnomes as a race um you know in the in the fact that they were being enslaved by the the um is it the Dr drogar I can't remember what they're called No D Dua that's it the duer um who are apparently just bad IND D indd generally they're not very nice um so that was interesting to know and I was like well I'm definitely going to be helping them if they've ens slav my people um and you get I think you get inspiration as well if you interact with the world in certain ways that fits your your background or your race or your I don't know if it's your class but definitely those two you get inspiration points um which is very cool um I didn't know about that but those are very helpful for when you need um to roll uh and things like that but yeah that's that's what I've gone with and my partner as we're both making up our party he is a barbarian half orc um I'm not sure what his background is I can't remember what he said but he's like the Wild Heart Barbarian so he can speak to animals and things like that as well isn't that fantastic I know I love it the animal NPCs they give you quests need sear for some Quest yeah yeah but yeah so that's what we went for two very different looking um characters yeah yeah and looking at the the chart that um V that um gnome is like the third from last least Chosen and half is fifth so you've come to the really yeah where whereas I went for Elf which is you know third because I almost always go for Elf I'm an elf Druid um and U what's it called the Moon Moon Druid I think the the anyway the shape changy one oh cool that's my thing that's always been my always been my preference and and um yeah so you meet meet a character in um in uh the second section who I'm not going to to name but um who was very prominent in the early Boulders gate in one and two and I think in never winter as well and and was my hero so it was so cool to to meet up with her again like oh um but um yeah the dr's always been my thing so but this is why I asked because you went with elf have you experienced any racism whatsoever no that was that's that was really interesting I haven't and and also um even though I you get you get class specific responses to say to people you don't seem to ever get um race specific responses to say or don't can't call any yeah do you yeah see I don't in the under dark I was just like deep gome deep gnome deep every time because I'm like this is theend no I normally get like I normally get um like I can is it baluan you know yeah I can I get that one but I haven't had any elf ones and and yeah and even with the Druid ones when you you come across a group of Druids quite early in the game and and although I had lots of Druid options they were still like mostly quite annoyed with me and I I felt like there should have been a bit more camaraderie or something I mean I know we're going through a bit of a a challenging time so maybe that influenced it but yeah what about Ethan oh uh I'm a half elf half human twink B with an acolyte background nice um yes I have played the character nadani in many a DN d game in fact one with gem yeah um so I I knew exactly what I was doing going into it um lots of Bic responses um it's quite funny that you can just do music in response to things when it's horrifically inappropriate it doesn't make any sense but you know I'm here I've got a loot but yeah I just I did find it interesting because knowing what I know about the world I was like okay half human half Health that's not really going to affect me too much but then I looked down the list of races and I was like but other people so I I you know it's not great that we're like the default plain white bread of character race creation but I do think they removed they kept in the interracial Strife which is always been they did at least take out a lot of the problems that the Third Edition and earlier had um I don't know if you know about the history of like d and d and how they evolved when we got to when we got to the fifth edition they started taking out like inherent racial qualities like I and it it wasn't like a onetoone analogy to the real world but it was still like you know not all D are evil or not all dwarves are you know so and that that got a lot of push back but I was glad that that has been removed from both Boulders gate and the latest edition of D and D yeah no I think that's I think it's it's one of the issues isn't it really with d and d and and H and all of those kind of games like how do they tackle those sorts of things and I think they have it's it's good to see that they are making some progress in that d ction so yeah absolutely although I will say I came across something from the first edition the other day that in its time period was obviously misogynistic but in the year of our Collective suffering 2023 could be perfect which is there was a wench table wow you could if you came across a wench you could roll the dice and it would tell you which type of Wen you came across and again for a bunch of you know white sis hat men in the 1980s not great but I feel like if we all got together and decided that we were just going to be a party of wenches like by Rolling a dice that would be fantastic so that's that's the type of energy I I want to bring to the table well okay so let on the subject of um sort of the the technical side of things what's your sort of favorite mechanic within the game that you've come across I was just looking at the um that table that you said again and um it says that one NPC was shoved into a Chasm for every concurrent player we had during our Peak on Sunday so it's 85,000 NPCs shoved into to a Chasm and so I'm just wondering like are there mechanics like that like shoving into chasms and I don't know well talking to animals and all of those things any what's your favorite one it's a tough one it's a tough one there's a lot of great things um I do find that the the um the grease is great but only if you're not in the grease and then you won't slip over but watching it happen is very very funny definitely to they and the ice as well when they're like yes yeah or when the battle's over you forget the greas you try and walk through it and then all of you are on your back I actually died I actually died the other day because I I had finished the fight and um and I was just like oh I can't be bothered to heal up just yet and I was on very little health and and I kept getting grabbed by thorns and it was just the little oh no yeah like no I did reload I did reload yeah w i i can't recommend speaking to animals enough and also I'm I'm saying this spoiler free but I feel like it's my moral duty to pass this advice on talk to the ox yes if you see an ox talk to it yes that's that's my one early game tip [Laughter] yeah I love I love the talking to animals I think they had um a similar one in uh I want to say pillars of Eternity um but I might mean um I might mean another one but anyway um yeah they had a similar one there and I loved it it was just it was always just very difficult because usually the animals are running around so quickly and you're trying to C spending like 15 minutes trying to back to Rabbit yeah I just want to talk just trying to say hello I did spent quite a lot of time because I can shape change I spent quite a lot of time changing into a cat and going up and talking to be and and when I when I met a wolf I think I changed into I try I change into my wolf to see whether I would have a different reaction from them as a as a wolf and I I also spoke to a little bird as a cat and I was worried that they that they they thought I was gonna eat them were they it sucks you in it sucks you in the sorry go did the was the bird scared um yeah but just because they were cross and grumpy and not very well I think I don't think it was specifically because of my sorry I keep getting distracted because just behind me there's a um we've got food hangers um um for the birds outside and there are two squirrels extremely fat squirrels who are doing their best to eat all of the food and they keep falling off them I just keep seeing this sun Dr they seem to be bothered they seem to be okay but that's why I keep getting distracted it's very windy as well so I think they're getting blown away extreme sports squirrel Edition absolutely yeah I wish I could talk to them that would be a an in well probably wouldn't be a very interesting conversation actually I know you never know so um I found the grease really useful and um this is a a a useful tip I did actually use it almost almost entirely won the fight due to due to repeatedly um spreading grease and setting it on fire spreading grease and setting it on fire and that is one of the things that I really like and I think it was one of the things from again I want to say pillars of Eternity but um where they had uh all the different materials interact with each other so you know if you if if if you spread water and then you create fire you end up with steam and and those kind of things and they have kept a lot of that um I think in bers Gate 3 but not not it's not as nuanced and I think that's a bit of a shame because actually it could be quite um fun to spend quite a lot of time strategizing if I shoot that barrel and then I shoot that barrel and then I cast this spell these this combination of things are going to happen um but you know I still have also died because I've used um and you know an electricity um spell while I'm standing in water and all those sorts of things so yeah I think I think my one of my favorite things is is the different surfaces yeah perspective so we're just coming up to our 30 minutes so does anyone have anything they would like to add before we bring this episode to a close just that it's a very welld deserved Game of the Year definitely having been recently awarded and if you haven't played it you should yes as P says agreed how many won like six Awards didn't it as well as G be yeah yeah yeah did very well it's definitely my game of the year that's for sure yeah you said you hadn't been this engaged with the games um since one of the other DND d games I haven't been as engaged with a game since Fallout New Vegas so if anybody's coming at it from that angle this is on par with Fallout New Vegas it isn't that good and that was really popular I just find the Fallout games too depressing so that's why I don't oh it's Bleak it's really Bleak so oh well thank you both so much it's so it's always really nice to talk about these these games and I know we're going to go on and have a bit more of a chat so um but uh um yeah if you've enjoyed our um show please comment share like send it to your friends um and yeah you can find us on patreon and we have a new um episode out every Thursday so see us here and we will be back with the um second half of this um story this issue very soon okay thank you bye bye