The Witcher 3: What Geralt Wants

[youmeyou]

I agree with Erkki, the potions are a vital part of what makes the Witcher series compelling. It reminds you that while you are still very much the superman that most video gamemans tend to be, you're still quite fallible and must think strategically about combat rather than brute force everything you come across.

 

It's a much more nuanced and layered approach to combat than your average RPG where you simply down 50 potions in a pause menu and continue on.

[Frenetic Pony]

I agree with Erkki, the potions are a vital part of what makes the Witcher series compelling. It reminds you that while you are still very much the superman that most Video gamemans tend to be, you're still quite fallible and must think strategically about combat rather than brute force everything you come across.

 

It's a much more nuanced and layered approach to combat than your average RPG where you simply down 50 potions in a pause menu and continue on.

 

Morrowind FTW! Drink ALL the potions, kill the final boss five minutes after starting a new game, continue onward.

[Codicier]

Both Witcher games are on sale at the moment for next to nothing this weekend, if there's anyone teetering on the edge deciding whether they want to take the plunge with these games I'd suggest now as a excellent time to do so.

[melmer]

Dear god

[Lu]

What the hell is VGX?

[melmer]

That is the new name of the VGAs

I wonder if Samuel L mutha fuckin Jackson will swear less this year

Hopefully it'll be a complete rebrand which takes itself more seriously as last year was a total embarrassment

[Frenetic Pony]

That is the new name of the VGAs

I wonder if Samuel L mutha fuckin Jackson will swear less this year

Hopefully it'll be a complete rebrand which takes itself more seriously as last year was a total embarrassment

 

Motherfucker do you know who the fucking hell I am you son of a motherfucking cunt bitch? I am Samuel Badass Motherfucker Jackson! Because the L. stands for Badass Motherfucker! -Samuel L. (Badass Motherfucker) Jackson

[melmer]

You've made me blush

I wonder if they'll ditch Samuel badass motherfucker Jackson all together this year and instead have a woman! So they can show the games industry is progressive n shit

[Twig]

Anyway this game looks goddamn amazing and I can't wait.

[melmer]

Witcher stream

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2014/06/cd-projekt-red-summer-conference-live.html

GoG are releasing their own client... Um steam thing.

Http://Www.Gog.com/galaxy

[Nappi]

God damn, that looks gorgeous!

Edit: For the new page:

 

[Twig]

ffffffuuuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkk

 

I want this game so badly.

(Galaxy seems... pointless. But whatever I guess.)

[Mangela Lansbury]

I tried to play both The Witcher and later The Witcher 2, but both times I just could not get into the games.  As much as they are lauded for their branching storylines and "real" RPG-ness, they felt to me incredibly linear and scripted, to say nothing of the fixed main character.

 

I went through the same thing, but with maybe an extra caveat. I played one of them until I got to some tower and went through dialogue to have sex with a girl for no real reason that I can remember and the encounter was just reduced to "Congratulations! Have a trophy to commemorate your sexual conquest!" It just all felt weird and gross and I took a break from the game and just never got back to it. The other one I just played for a while and it got rote and boring (basically run at enemies while left clicking fight mechanics with a story that I felt like I'd seen a million times before) so I stopped one night and just never picked it up again.

 

I figure there's something I'm missing since they're almost universally lauded, but I couldn't get into them. I might take some of the advice in here to try again some time soon. That there's a point in Witcher 1 where things ramp up a bit is encouraging because that means maybe I just didn't give it enough of a chance.

[feelthedarkness]

If you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it, but I definitely believe that you need to turn up the difficultly (of any game) until the it's is pushing back enough. I see a lot of complaints about a lot of games where people say they're just thoughtlessly clicking through, but in most cases I think that's easy enough to fix.

[Stuart]

 

I went through the same thing, but with maybe an extra caveat. I played one of them until I got to some tower and went through dialogue to have sex with a girl for no real reason that I can remember and the encounter was just reduced to "Congratulations! Have a trophy to commemorate your sexual conquest!" It just all felt weird and gross and I took a break from the game and just never got back to it. The other one I just played for a while and it got rote and boring (basically run at enemies while left clicking fight mechanics with a story that I felt like I'd seen a million times before) so I stopped one night and just never picked it up again.

 

I figure there's something I'm missing since they're almost universally lauded, but I couldn't get into them. I might take some of the advice in here to try again some time soon. That there's a point in Witcher 1 where things ramp up a bit is encouraging because that means maybe I just didn't give it enough of a chance.

 

 

This may be a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I'd say that you shouldn't bother with going back to Witcher 1. As ambitious it was, mechanically it was extremely rote and boring, and its story was very much something you may have seen millions of times before. And yeah, it had this blatant insidious sexism that rewarded you dumb sex card trophies after having sex with women. It was really fucking stupid.

 

Witcher 2, on the other hand, is where I feel the series truly shows its potential. It's a separate narrative from the first Witcher (aside from some certain aspects that are easily explained in certain moments and in a Witcher 1 overview cutscene in the main menu), so you don't need to play Witcher 1 anyway, and it's story is way more interesting and well written than most games, if not most modern fantasy fiction in general, imo. And the way it treats branching choices and narrative is still unprecedented in big budget RPGs. Consequences to your choices slowly boil up rather than just immediately ramify like in most RPGs, and the devs went as far as creating numerous different paths to the story based on more important decisions. In other words, depending on your choices, you will experience a whole different story and path than from someone else.

 

Also, combat wise, it's much more fun and open than Witcher 1, and the focus on conversations and character interplay are very well done. As dark and grim as people peg the Witcher 2 to be, you spend an awful lot of time just interacting with characters in non-violent settings, and there is some levity and light heartedness in its writing. Add how extremely bright and colorful it is visually, and it's not your typical grim dark video game. Also, it's take on fantasy from a Polish perspective is very interesting and different to the usual Tolkein inspired fantasy worlds.

 

Also, they realized how gross sex was portrayed in Witcher 1, and opted to make intercourse to not be a misogynistic reward by way of trophy card or the end goal of some relationship tree like in Bioware games, but just as a sex positive act between characters after spending time with them and getting to know them in a non-skeezy and intensely romantic way. And the relationship between Triss and Geralt is perhaps the most interesting romantic relationship I've seen in a game, imo. Or at least, the only one I was invested in. 

 

You can criticize it for still being mainly hetero-normative (there are a couple of openly queer characters in the game, tho) in its character relationships, but that's a conversation for another thread, I guess.

 

EDIT: Also, I noticed how much I used also, also.

[coaxmetal]

I have a higher opinion of the original witcher than most, I think the story, characters, and world were very good, but it is much less approachable than 2 since the combat system isn't as good, and is also harder to get into at first (I did end up enjoying it, but it isn't what makes the game good). It is more like just clicking with a rhythm than combat. The other part that makes it hard to get into is that the first area, the outskirts of vizima, is the least interesting one. Still a game I really like though.

 

As far as people new to the series goes though, starting with 2 is fine. It makes references to the first and has returning characters, but knowledge of the first game is probably no more vital than having read the books (I've read the 2 that have been translated, the first one is the best). Also, I agree that the sex cards were pretty dumb, but the game itself was good. The portrayal of women is an issue the series has issues with in general, it seems.

 

Anyway, I am very excited for 3 and I haven't even watched any of the trailers posted in this thread yet. Just excited on principle.

[Roderick]

That looks pretty pretty!

[Erkki]

I went through the same thing, but with maybe an extra caveat. I played one of them until I got to some tower and went through dialogue to have sex with a girl for no real reason that I can remember

...

That there's a point in Witcher 1 where things ramp up a bit is encouraging because that means maybe I just didn't give it enough of a chance.

I dunno, if you got to a tower it sounds like you played for quite a long time to see what most of the game is like. Unless you mean something else, not THE tower. You've already been in Vizima?

 

The sex thing is dumb, but if you manage to ignore it, it doesn't really tie into anything else much.

[feelthedarkness]

I agree with Erkki. The game plays weird, but it's kind of worth it for it's weirdness. 

 

Ooh, also, if you own both games you get 20% off the 3rd. 

[Brannigan]

I could not play the first witcher at all because of the combat system, was just too awkward for me.  Witcher 2 was really enjoyable though, even if the intro was ball breaking hard.

[Twig]

I really enjoyed the combat in both games. I think the first game's biggest flaw (and boy is it really a big one) is the swamp. That swamp area SUCKS so much, and it lasts so long. And yeah the intro to the second game is really awful.

[Brannigan]

Fairly suree they nerfed the hell out of it though

[Twig]

The intro? Yeah I think that might be true. I played it when it first came out and it definitely made me question the developers for a bit.

[Brannigan]

Yea they did, haven't really touched it since though.

[coaxmetal]

They also added a tutorial with its own little narrative later, which made it easier to learn the combat since the main game didn't do a good job teaching it