Baldur's Gate 3 update finally lets short kings smooch Karlach (and other tall love interests)

Short King Summer is back with fixed short king animations for smooching in Baldur's Gate 3
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Finally, our short of stature players can frolic in the realm of smooching once again thanks to Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 1. 

Since launch, there's been an issue in Baldur's Gate 3 where the kissing animation was going awry whenever two characters of different statures tried to lock lips. It was particularly problematic for anyone playing as a gnome or halfling, especially if they were (quite literally) hot for fan favorite Karlach

Thankfully Patch 1 is here to fix that, with a specific shout out to a fix for the animations for kissing, with the patch notes going as far as to say that the team at Larian is "bringing back Short King Summer with better kissing contact for short races!"

The patch notes specifically say that the update includes "fixes to kissing scenes with the Origin characters across the game, for example to make sure physical contact is made properly, to account for shorter races, and to account for uneven ground."

Nobody wants a misaligned smooch, after all. 

Elsewhere in the highly-anticipated Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 3, there have been over 1,000 bug fixes, making the update "so large it actually exceeded Steam's text limit"

Larian also says that Patch 2 is "right around the corner" and will feature "significant performance improvements", so expect more intricate details on that further down the line. 

Of course, all of this will also carry over to the PS5 version of Baldur's Gate 3 when it launches on September 6. Earlier this week, LAiran's director of publishing Michael Douse reassured players that the game will have patch parity between PC and PS5

At least PS5 owners will never experience the smooching denial, but then again maybe they should have thought more carefully about which Baldur's Gate 3 race to pick.

Sam Loveridge
Global Editor-in-Chief, GamesRadar+

Sam Loveridge is the Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar, and joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.