Baldur's Gate 3

To keep it very brief:

• the setting is awesome, a fantasy world with lots of lore, because it's D&D - there has been a lot of lore written about it, even if not about this particular game necessarily. So people are already familiar with how things work

• the company making the game has put out great games in this genre(crpg) with innovative features and engaging gameplay. They have been constantly improving and listening to the community, and don't seem to be one of the companies that are just chasing the next money-making scheme, as they don't support today's P2W or subscription-based models, and even shy away from DLCs, instead opting to give you your money's worth with only one purchase. They also design their games with replayability in mind and with a pretty big scope, so if you like the game you can easily spend hundreds of hours for that $60. Overall pretty good guys

-not many d&d games have come out recently (some pathfinder ones have been good contenders though), so this scratches a market itch

It's a sequel (even though in name only, pretty much) to one of the most popular and well-regarded CRPGs of all time, made by a developer with a great track record and lots of public goodwill, uses the incredibly popular official D&D IP, was hyped even before Early Access started in 2020 and has now been in EA for three years.

How is it different from other fantasy RPGs?

I only played like an hour or two yesterday, but the game leans really heavily into the "simulated D&D-campaign" flavour. You have a narrator acting a lot like a DM and you have very prominently displayed (and animated!) dice rolls for loads of actions and skill-checks in dialogues.

Beyond that, wealth of multiple choices and consequences for your actions have been touted as selling points, but I have not played enough to know about any of that.

It's incredibly polished so far, though I still find facial animations (especially eyes) somewhat lacking. But I just played through Cyberpunk and that is a high bar to reach in that specific department.

It's D&D with pretty graphics, your character really feels like he has agenda in the world, most of the times if you can think it you can do it...need I to go on?

Actual big and broad RPGs, especially with AAA production, aren't super common. JRPGs are a bit more available, but if you have the itch for different formats, your options are few and far between.

This year is kind of a wild year because there are a bunch of big RPGs in different formats coming out (Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, BG3, Starfield), but there are a lot of years with none.

In Diablo side quests do require you to ask how you can help and then you get the marker, so that sounds fairly similar. Is Baldurs Gate a main story and then an endless set of side quests?

I'm also clueless, and on the Diablo train right now. What is a crpg, how does this compare to Diablo and does it work on the steam deck?