Baldur’s Gate 3 has 170+ hours of cinematics, out on PS5 Sep. 6

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been in early access for years now at this point, and it’s finally getting a full launch very soon on PC and PS5.

Although the game will be getting a full launch on PC earlier, as it releases on August 3 on Steam, PS5 players will have to wait a bit longer. Baldur’s Gate 3 will officially launch on PS5 on September 6. This is a massive, massive RPG with over 170 hours of cinematics alone. To put that into perspective, that includes more cinematic dialogue than all three Lord of the Rings novels combined.

If that sounds daunting to the completionists, that’s understandable. With just the cinematics reaching this time value, one can only wonder what the amount of time increases to when you factor in all of the gameplay. But it’s good to remember that games like Baldur’s Gate 3 have insanely high replay value. And it’s likely that you won’t experience everything in a single playthrough.

With all of that out of the way, Larian Studios’ Product Manager Emily Gera is sharing some new details about the game, specifically on character creation and companions. She also talks about the reason for the PS5 delay.

Baldur’s Gate 3 was originally slated to hit PS5 on August 31

Games take time to develop. Lots of time. And sometimes even after all that time in development, they still don’t hit launch targets. Baldur’s Gate 3 has been in development for, quite a while. It was scheduled to be released on PS5 on August 31. But the release had to be pushed back to September 6. Gera says this is so the studio could spend a little extra time ensuring the game hits 60 frames per second.

A respectable reason if you ask us. And one that the majority of PS5 players who pick this game up will probably appreciate.

Character creation plays a central role in Dungeons & Dragons

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Dungeons & Dragons game through and through. And that means there’s loads of character creation possibilities. The customization options are absolutely astounding. To the point that you might feel utterly in awe of everything you’re allowed to select from.

According to Gera, the studio wanted players to have lots of freedom when creating a character. This manifested in Baldur’s Gate 3 having 12 classes from D&D and a huge list of customization options. On top of that, there’s 11 races to choose from including Dragonborn, Human, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Half-Orc and more.

There’s also a staggering 46 sub-classes which you can branch out to as you progress your character. You can even set up a hybrid class with the game’s “multi-classing” feature if you have trouble making a decision. Basically, you’ve got options. And this will all play into the sheer amount of replay value you get with Baldur’s Gate 3. In terms of character customization, there’s a lot of that too. You can adjust the body type, skin color, face, hair, voice, maturity and more. And those are just some of the appearance customizations you can make.

If you get really into this part of games, expect to spend a good hour in the character creation screen at a minimum.