Strange how perception works. The last time I was really amazed by graphics was with Unreal. I could admire the castle in the intro for hours.
The Doom 3 alpha was astonishing as well. But by the time it was released it felt like just another gradual advancement among all the other games.
Maybe it’s a console vs PC thing where console players would get and incredible leap with each generation whereas PC players saw all the steps to reach the next generation.
EpilogueShadowheart mentions (at least on Selûne path, when you romanced her) befriending a peculiar Imp named Bing Bong after your adventures in Baldur’s Gate. So I guess in this universe Bing Bong is alive and well in Faerûn.
But Scratch actually can come with you. You can summon him with a ball he brings you.
And then he at least sniffes out buried treasure. I don’t consider it to be meta gaming when I dig around after everyone failed their survival checks, when Scratch is pointing somewhere.
There was this guy in our friends group who was your guarantee of losing if he was on your team. You could pair him up with the best players and still his utter lack of game-comprehension would somehow drag the others down to his level.
Reminds me of the novelisation of Day of the Tentacle that had the title “My Physics Adventure or It’s Never Too Late to Stop Pollution, So Let’s Start Yesterday”.