What you need to know
- Baldur’s Gate 3 released on PC at the beginning of August and has since also come to PS5.
- This Dungeons and Dragons RPG has seen major success far above what Larian Studios expected for it.
- A Reddit user has taken the key artwork for the game and manipulated it to make all of the characters bald, a play on the Baldur’s Gate 3 name.
Humor is one of the best ways that fans show their appreciation for their favorite video games and so it’s not surprising at all to see that the popular Dungeons and Dragons RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3, has seen yet another silly fan creation.
This time, Reddit user moristendie posted an image of the game’s iconic artwork that depicts six of the main Baldurs Gate 3 companions. However, the image has been manipulated so that each character’s hair has been removed entirely or significantly reduced. To top it all off, the word “Bald” appears where “Baldur’s” usually goes and mimics the stylings of the title very well.
Bald from r/BaldursGate3
It’s not just the commitment to the silly play on words that makes this image humorous though, it’s the balding style by which the characters Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Astarion have been depicted that really clenches the image. The ladies still have long hair protruding from the sides and back of their bald spots making them look more like Babylon 5’s fictional Centauri race. Meanwhile, the usually suave and deviant Astarion’s reduction of luscious white locks makes the vampire spawn seem a little more closely related to the Nosferatu style of bloodsucker. What about Gale and Wyll, you ask? They pull off the shaved-head look very nicely, actually.
Oddly enough, this is not the first time that someone has edited Baldur’s Gate 3 artwork to remove the main set of characters’ hair. Two years ago, Reddit user Munmmo posted an edited Baldur’s Gate 3 image and stated, “I updated the loading screen art to be in line with the newest hotfix patch notes. You are welcome Larian!” Unlike the image posted by moristendie, this one completely takes the hair off all of the characters, save for eyebrows and facial hair.
I updated the loading screen art to be in line with the newest hotfix patch notes. You are welcome Larian! from r/BaldursGate3
Admittedly, pulling the word “bald” from Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t all that clever, but the commitment to the gag that lead to the manipulation of the character’s hair is really what makes this all funny.
Windows Central’s take
Larian Studios’ Dungeons and Dragons RPG might have released on PC over a month ago and become one of the best PC games, but its popularity is still reaching other platforms as well. Baldur’s Gate 3 quickly hit 500,000 concurrent Steam players and even peaked at an impressive 800,000 concurrent players. This was shocking for the devs who only expected it to reach 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. Part of what has made the game so popular is its complexity. There are so many weighty decisions to make during the course of the plot that the game has plenty of replay value for people to go back and experience completely different outcomes.
Now that the game has officially also released on PlayStation 5 as of yesterday, even more people are able to see what all of the excitement has been about. Sadly, Xbox Series X and Series S fans still have yet to be able to play the game on their preferred console. However, Larian Studios did reveal recently that it still expects Baldur’s Gate 3 to come to Xbox sometime in 2023, but it will not include split-screen on Xbox Series S.
