I started playing Baldur's Gate 3 last week and have been having a blast.

I know the game has been hyped to hell and back--and for good reason--but I didn't realize just how good it is.

As a kid, I loved playing long RPGs and JRPGs. This was mainly because I couldn't exactly afford to buy games often. I'd be lucky to get two games a year.

Therefore, I opted for these long-ass, grindy, sixty-plus hour RPGs/JRPGs. This was because I felt I got the most bang for my buck. I had all the time in the world and no money. Now, I have no time and I still don't have any money. I could play these games, like Final Fantasy 10 or Persona 4 on my PS2 (which is still kicking, by the way), for fifty plus hours over the course of a few months. And then, when I was finished, I would play all over again.

They are role-playing games for a reason. I could just replay and do different things. I could play an evil character on my second playthrough or romance a different character or check out different activities. There's a plethora of options with these kinds of games that lead to immense replay-ability.

Anyway, I was thinking about this as I was playing Baldur's Gate 3 because I felt like a kid again.

I was playing this game at 2AM, neglecting sleep and schoolwork, because it was so damn good. I was reminded how, when I was a kid, I would set my old CRT TV (I miss those old, heavy things) under my desk and set up my chair behind and cover it all with a blanket to create this sort of light-reducing fort. I'd do this because I didn't want my parents to wake up and realize I was still awake playing video games. I'd huddle under my desk, shielded by my makeshift fort, and explore incredibly realized worlds for hours on end in the middle of the night, when everything was quiet.

Anyhow, there are so many choices in the game, so many avenues of fun, and so many characters and places to interact with and explore. And I'm only about 10 hours into the game. I'm still in the starting map and I haven't even explored the whole region yet.

It really makes me feel like a kid again. I don't really have the time to play long RPGs/JRPGs anymore. Heck, not even just regular, ten or twenty hour video games.

But this game captured my attention in a way no other game has in a very long time. I think I'll end up playing this game over the next few months. Little by little, every day.

And I think that's pretty cool.