Plus: how has the PS5 version evolved since launch?
Considering this comes without any obvious options downgrades, this is a clear result.
This leads onto our coverage of the Xbox versions.
Visually, there’s not a lot to separate them, but there are a few curious differences.
The actual ground geometry appears similar though across both machines though.
I also noticed a decrease in anisotropic filtering quality on Series X.
The PS5 acquits itself pretty well here, while the Series X takes a noticeable hit to clarity.
At close range, the water looks identical though.
Outside of those changes, in general visual configs the two consoles are a close match.
The Series X’s visual changes carry over to both modes in the exact same manner.
On Series X I did notice a couple of curious things though, like visibly lower-resolution HUD elements.
Performance-wise, the quality mode targets a 30fps update and does a very good job of hitting that target.
In general play it’s essentially a locked 30, including combat, cutscenes, and open-world exploration.
The performance mode again hits its 60fps frame-rate target without issue, generally speaking.
We see still significantly degraded performance in town areas, sometimes hitting the upper 20s.
There’s also a co-op mode, which ran consistently at 30fps my testing.
The resolution here comes in at 1440p, just like the quality mode.
There are a few points of differentiation.
Shadow quality, for instance, is clearly lower resolution than on Series X.
Level of detail gets a bit of a simplification at a distance as well.
Resolution expectedly takes a hit on Series S, clocking in at 1080p in every shot I tested.
The game’s singular mode on Series S targets 30fps, which feels fine by and large.
With an exemption granted from Microsoft, the final game completely lacks splitscreen on the weaker console.
The Series S' restricted RAM allotment probably makes this kind of feature especially challenging to implement here.
Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox consoles comes in more or less as expected.
The game continues to have some configuration oddities as well.
The Xbox versions also currently suffer from an issue that can make saved games disappear.
Overall I’d consider the Baldur’s Gate 3 Xbox Series ports to be a qualified success.
