What to play: ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ will keep gamers busy during August

It’s the beginning of August and gamers are going to be a lot busier starting this week. That’s because Larian Studios has dropped its highly anticipated role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3.

Based on the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rule set and sporting gameplay from Larian’s earlier work on the Divinity: Original Sin series, this sequel and revamp of the franchise is shaping up to be a potential game of the year contender.

With a dozen classes, 46 subclasses and 11 races, players will have a field day creating just the right character to explore the Forgotten Realms. What makes Larian’s games so uniquely suited to D&D is that it takes BioWare’s adapting the rule set to computers and expands it even further into storytelling with player choices and decisions impacted by abilities and skills. The game forces you to role dice to see if an action works out for you.

The game is also flexible in the way it offers players solutions to combat situations and traps. It creates scenarios where players don’t always have to slay the bad guy. They can talk things out. It brings players closer to an experience where Larian is the dungeon master and the player has the freedom to come up with unconventional solutions. They just have to role the virtual dice.

Long play: Players can expect a main campaign that takes 75 to 100 hours to complete.

If an epic RPG isn’t to your taste, Nintendo recently released Pikmin 4 and I’ve been concentrating on finishing the campaign. The series is a console take on a real-time strategy game. It’s a genre that’s notoriously hard to adapt for controller. The previous entries worked well before, but they weren’t perfect.

That has changed with Pikmin 4. Nintendo’s team has polished the formula and crafted the artificial intelligence, control and gameplay so well that it’s easy to play. Players won’t have problems commanding their legions of Pikmin to attack an enemy or gather materials.

The gameplay in Pikmin 4 is fun without the frustration that has held back previous chapters. On top of that, the developers added new wrinkles such as a Rescue Pup named Oatchi that proves invaluable as a Pikmin transport and as a heavy hitter or lifter. Players can also venture out at night (something that was dangerous in the previous games) and battle amped-up enemies with Glow Pikmin.

Weekend play: If you’re looking for a title that will fill up a few days or a weekend, then this is the way to go.

Telltale Games is back with episodic adventure, and this one is geared toward fans of The Expanse. The game focuses on Camina Drummer, played by Cara Gee, and it acts almost as an origin story for the character.

In typical Telltale fashion, players take on the role of Drummer and the choices she makes will have an impact on the shape of the story. If they tick off a crew member by punching him in the face, they’ll remember that and those violent intentions could impact her later in the game.

Weekend play: The first episode came out last week and that gives you ample time to play through it in time for Episode 2, which comes out Aug 10.

Finally, if you don’t have much time this weekend, you can check out Ridiculous Fishing EX on Apple Arcade. This updated version of Vlambeer’s addictively fun title is more polished this time around.

Players throw out their line and they have to use their iPhone’s motion-sensing to steer the hook so it avoids fish and goes into the ocean depths. When it hits a fish and the fisherman feels the bite, he reels it in and players have to snag as many specimens on the way up. When it reaches the surface, the marine life is tossed in the air and players have to shoot the creatures down.

Short play: Yes, this is not like real fishing, but it’s fun, and you can play it in quick spurts when you have time. – Bay Area News Group/Tribune News Service