To understand the way world in The Witcher game is presented, it is a good idea to read the novels. The erotica, bad language and overall feeling of the world doesn't really come from nothing. CD Projekt RED failed to implement some points in the first game, thought.
I loved the witcher!! The bad lanuage and the sex cards did not bother me. In fact, in my opinion the sex cards are perferable rather than the laugh out loud in your undies sex.
I don't mind nudity in games (or comics/books/tv/movies), as long as it's well done and well integrated, and isn't just something thrown in, just because.
Well, I got into Vizima (Finally!), but the confrontation with the villagers just made me roll my eyes. Especially Harun. "She promised to have sex with me, so I had no choice but to deal with the Scoia'tael!" Dude, think with that small head much? I mean... really! That was literally unbelievable. Just one of the many reasons I ended up siding with her.
Hardest fight so far ever was against a Fleder in the "Bad area of town" along with six humans. I killed the humans, fled around the corner, drank some potions and Igni'ed the Fleder. I also realize a new one seems to show up every night in the same place, so it's a nice earner for me. I have two sets of Fleder Fangs now. I also fought some Graveirs in an Abandoned house near the gate to the Dike.
@LadyRhian You did well. Not even single one of these villagers were believable. They're more savages than human beings. All of them. Abigail, thought, is not holy either. And good luck with further battles.
I mean, certainly, Abigail is no saint, either. She sold Odo the poison he used to kill his brother (I am pretty certain) and he's probably buried in Odo's yard Where the dog was howling after the Echinops attack. But even the Salamandra tell you Odo asked them how to kill a warrior- I am assuming he meant his brother- and when they mocked him, he went to Abigail for poison. I am assuming the others just want to use her as a convenient scapegoat- she's female and has a profession where few people trust her, so they blame her for the darkness in their own hearts/souls. Had she died, I am sure another scapegoat would soon be found for whatever wickedness they got up to in the future.
Oh, dammit, I wrote like seven paragraphs about sex and violence in the video games and my opinions, but, hell, my iPad fell, and in the rush of grabbing it, I handled it from the side and, hell, I unintentionally pressed back button. Like half an hour writing is gone >.< But, well, no drafts were saved ;( Ok, first, violence impacts a lot more than sex to teenagers, really, I'm a teenager, and I never killed somebody, but, well, one time, I have friend who, well, is very pretty, and, you know, well, you see, I only saw her nude, but, well, that was more that lots of video games have, I'm not saying that video games should be like porn, but, rating a game M just because a nude girl walks in the middle of the screen once in the game, hell, and you kill 500+ people each level? Senseless! I can say a nude woman impacts a lot fewer than a man killing other men with just his fists.
Then, The Witcher's bad language, hell, nobody is a Jedi Knigth, you don't are in the best world either, see PS:T, lots of harlots, lots of bad language, immature things, but it has the vest story EVER! But, ever noticed, berk, jink, and, well, there is an ability that actually is an insult (Morte's Litany of Curses). Well, what I wrote (and lost), was larger, but had more nonsense.
For some of us 'more mature' players, the criteria we evaluate games on are quite a lot simpler. Back in the day, I put in some serious hours on multiplayer unreal tournament, and, to be blunt, my reflexes went to hell when I turned 34. As for mapping my brain to a set of controls on a keyboard or xbox, well it's possible, but it takes weeks, months even.
Take assassin's creed. I bought the first one when it came out, dug the graphics, loved the openness of the areas, how you can climb just about everything, etc. Then I got into sneaking, fighting, and running away, but died repeatedly because I couldn't run and pan the screen at the same time. I basically gave it to my daughter as a horse-simulator, with somewhat naive instructions not to kill anyone. Eventually I tried again, at some point the controls just clicked, and now I'm eying AC4 with naked greed.
Yeesh, so much waffling. My point is, you mention 'roll twice as far'. This implies there's a roll button, and presumably an attack, defend, jump, crouch, and assorted other buttons. So, would you say this game is good enough that I should remap my brain to all of these buttons .. actually I think I've answered my own question
Watched a friend of mine play Witcher 1 and 2 for a bit each. I honestly couldn't be more disinterested. It doesn't help that Witcher fanboys love to invade BSN.
My issues with Witcher are multiple. It's not a 'mature' game at all - in fact, it's horribly immature. F-bombs and hand a girl flowers to nail her somewhere is not maturity. It's not maturely written nor particularly interesting.
If one enjoys the jump random directions and hope to avoid being hit style game, then it's fine. I did not like that aspect at all, especially since the lack of peripheral vision has me often jump against an obstacle that I suppose I should have remembered being there.
I got further into the game than the lovely and talented @LadyRhian (based on the above). There was a frustrating fight in a swamp against a tree-thing that went on and on and on. Maybe there was a trick to beating it. For me it was fight fight fight healing potion fight fight yawn fight. When I won it (after some reloads), I realized that I had no further interest in the game, and haven't touched it since. It felt Diablo-like at this point (continual attacks until HP are low) with the added annoyance of having to direct each of those lightly damaging attacks, rather than hold click or whatnot.
Another peeve, that is not one that everybody will share, is the gathering crap for potions. I have never played a game where I enjoyed crafting in any way, shape or form. The worst (for me) was Morrowind with these loads of irrelevant and strange ingredients that you figure out how to make into something (if you care), while my favorite (thus far) was Guild Wars (merchants take what you find to make certain special items). In all, though, I'd prefer no crafting, but it is what it is.
Apparently/allegedly, the sequel is much better. I don't see how it couldn't be, to be honest. Anyway, I haven't gotten to the point, where I've decided to find out. Simply unwilling to pay money to buy something I doubt I'll like, I suppose.
I liked the games my only real complaint was the over use of character models. As far as maturity goes most of us are middle age adults that spend a lot of our time playing pretend.
A really good game with a similar combat style is vagrant story.
Watched a friend of mine play Witcher 1 and 2 for a bit each. I honestly couldn't be more disinterested. It doesn't help that Witcher fanboys love to invade BSN.
I have an similar opinion to, for example, Skyrim. But still I don't call every person who likes TES games a fanboy. Show at least minimal ammount of respect.
This game is very special. Unique. 2 had very strong and many changes. 1 differs in many ways. Feels more like an RPG; especially with the larger maps and the looong exploration in the picture. And the numerous side quests. And the laaarger bestiary. Enjoy it, it is one of a kind. Complex, different, but once used to it, very satisfying and rewarding.
Also, those drinking contests and alcohol/fisstech bring a very spicy and exotic taste to the whole experience; roleplay to your heart's content by crafting and consuming fisstech, or drinking until you drop half dead and see only blurry apparitions.
The more I read messages in this thread, the more I feel that the game was very poorly translated. Maybe it's because I have read all books (almost, since new one was very recently published, but don't have enough time to read it, maybe audiobooks will help me), but I believe the game was intended to be harsh and brutal, but not physically, rather mentally, when sometimes you can't do anything with injustice or facing not very nice consequences despite the fact that your intentions were right. There can be found climate of dirt and squalor like in the books. I can't imagine that something as natural as sex (forget about those cards) or curses are that much controversial — it is the life. The more simple-minded people or more rural area, the more curses you will hear. It's quiet normal. I very liked those peasants talking about Slavic, maybe a little Nordic, superstitions similarly all those outskirts of the Vizima with those peasants are just like Slavic countryside. I mean also that even though there are some vulgar texts, are performed accordingly to the role of the speaker. For example you would laugh many times if you could understand it.
Yet everyone will talk only about matters not that much important in this game. So is it about mercenary who is slaying monsters or slaying people, maybe elves? About savior of the country or Butcher from Blaviken? Do anyone actually remember? Is he mutant or maybe a human? Is he really alive or maybe died in that unfortunate accident in Rivia?
For me the only explanation is that in some way it didn't translated properly in different language/mentality that's all.
Interesting is that I considered the most harsh and squalor world would witcher's and to be the sharp contrast to the candy-like Forgotten Realms. It was till I have read a Berserk – yup nothing beat it in this category yet topic on another story.
Post Scriptum: I couldn't deny myself adaptation of, I believe, the first of the short story written about the witcher (unfortunately only part of it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkRuJWOyVcU
being in britain means i get everything revealed to me and the first sex card outside the free one you get creeps me out, plus im not a fan of the story, it didn't suck me in as well as i wanted it to, and the the reason for all the sex is weird. so you have amnesia so you wake up in a place you cant remember fighting things you dont know and getting into bed with someone you dont know....and then you go to do quests for people you have no real reason nor show any inkling of caring about them.....its certainly lacks the "your father was killed" from baldur's gate or "the cure for the deadly plague has been stolen so you need to get it back" from NWN hell its slightly worse than "your a prisoner because of reasons" from elder scrolls games
I have an similar opinion to, for example, Skyrim. But still I don't call every person who likes TES games a fanboy. Show at least minimal ammount of respect.
There's nothing disrespectful about what I said, first of all.
I don't recall calling anybody here, or anybody who happens to like The Witcher for that matter, a fanboy. Unless you are a fanboy, or unless you are one of the fanboys who trolls the BSN forums and does nothing but spread vitriol and misinformation there, assume I'm not referring to you.
i liked the witcher but it became a little too easy as the game went on. i did not play on hard difficulty though, which i understand is a whole different game.
I liked the fact that there was no good or bad, just various shades of grey.
want to try out witcher 2 and the trailer posted earlier for witcher 3 looks awesome.
About the sex, i was amazed that women threw themselves all over a man who was a scarred albino with crazy eyes and frankly pretty ugly.
he was a badass monster killer and was one of a kind - perhaps that was the reason?
@Qbert And also sterile because of it. Don't underestimate the value of that in a time when pregnancy was one of the deadliest activities a woman could engage in. Deadly to the woman, I mean. He's also rare, but not one of a kind (the beginning of the game takes place in Caer Morhen- stronghold of the witchers, and you meet other witchers there). He also has all his teeth (another thing not to be sneezed at in medieval times), and is probably pretty well-groomed for his time (Bathing more than twice in his life, for example).
Yeah, I have no problem seeing why women are queueing up to get on his… how did Yahtzee Croshaw put it…? +69 Staff of Penetration…
could have sworn i made a giant post about this *shrug* oh well firstly: @Drugar that trailer is rubbish, gerald only helps at the last possible moment? how is that a way to show the hero of the story?
also i bought the witcher on steam summer sale for like £2 ish, and it is a massive disappointment, the character is dull, the voice acting isnt anything special, the combat doesn't fit a PC most of the weapons are pointless when you compare their one style of fighting to the witcher swords multi-style the sex is out of place i mean really? "i know you've lost your memory and everyone in the fort the pretty much dead and your order is lost and betrayed....but damn i want you in bed now" from the mage at the beginning. or how about the random commoner "oh you brought me flowers.....where did you say the bed was?"
the character didn't seem that customizable compared to other bioware games, he was just a bog standard fighter you couldnt be a mage or a ranged specialist it was like playing a dante's inferno and trying to roleplay - but thats just me
@Mrpengdold666 Geralt never was and will never be a typical happy protagonist in a shining armor. Basicaly, you don't know anything about overall mood of the Witcher franchise.
Also, it's not a Bioware game. Ignorance is NOT a bliss.
@ZelgadisGW: 'How dare you be critical and not like the game I like. You must be ignorant and too stupid to understand this game!' That is basically what you're saying in reply to @Mrpenfold666. Very constructive.
could have sworn i made a giant post about this *shrug* oh well firstly: @Drugar that trailer is rubbish, gerald only helps at the last possible moment? how is that a way to show the hero of the story?
Witchers have a simple code; Kill monsters. They are taught never to interfere with the matters of normal men, nor get involved in politics. The trailer tries to show (rather hamhandedly) that while Geralt tries to adhere to his professional code, he'd rather do the right thing. (Of course, whether random murder is 'the right thing' here is up for debate but eh.)
It's not a perfect trailer (far from it, the more you think about it) but it's what we've got on The Witcher 3 so far so we'll make do.
also i bought the witcher on steam summer sale for like £2 ish, and it is a massive disappointment, the character is dull, the voice acting isnt anything special, the combat doesn't fit a PC most of the weapons are pointless when you compare their one style of fighting to the witcher swords multi-style the sex is out of place i mean really? "i know you've lost your memory and everyone in the fort the pretty much dead and your order is lost and betrayed....but damn i want you in bed now" from the mage at the beginning. or how about the random commoner "oh you brought me flowers.....where did you say the bed was?"
1) Aside from the silver sword and the iron sword, yes the random hatchets and daggers seem fairly pointless. No idea why they were included. 2) Well, Triss IS your lover and probably figured you needed your memory jogged a little or at least a little comfort. You can turn her down if you feel it's inappropriate. But yes, there are also a few ladies that are quite easy to get with. It doesn't bother me but I can imagine it does for some people. Though again, you could just choose not to.
the character didn't seem that customizable compared to other bioware games, he was just a bog standard fighter you couldnt be a mage or a ranged specialist it was like playing a dante's inferno and trying to roleplay - but thats just me
Well, aside from him not being a Bioware creation, his character build style is actually very similar to Commander Shephard. He's an established character with a pre-existing background. The difference is how you play his role (Is he a professional or sympathetic to people's plights, does he prefer elves over humans or would he rather remain neutral, is he a horndog or a stoic loner, etc). Through the talents you get at levelling, you can increase his swordsmanship, his spellcasting or his alchemy. Every Geralt gets access to all abilities but I guerantee you that playing a Geralt who focusses on his sword plays very different from a Geralt who put all his points in his Signs. There is also the matter of various special monsters granting you very powerful abilities if you kill them and distill their essence in a potion (like the werewolf heart potion giving you a permanent +50% damage at night) but leaving the werewolf alive might grant you a powerful ally later on in the game (provided you stacked your cards right).
To me, this is what The Witcher does best, better than most other games. It has various points where you need to make a decision where the outcome seems clear-cut (Kill werewolf, save people, get potion, get money) but when you actually encounter the beast, you get the bigger picture and the outcome suddenly gets the variable "or something else" added. Most RPG's give you the results of your actions up-front. Kill a monster, get gold, don't kill the monster, he gives you a magical sword. Something like that. But in the Witcher, the results frequently become very vague, dependent on other actions and can have ramifications very far down the road, which is often more realistic. I understand that the game might not be your thing (it's not for everyone) but I do urge you to play more than the prologue (which, I believe, is only how far you came, gathering what I could from your post). It might become more to your liking as the game progresses, Geralt's specialization become tighter and the multiple layers in the plot are revealed.
@ZelgadisGW: 'How dare you be critical and not like the game I like. You must be ignorant and too stupid to understand this game!' That is basically what you're saying in reply to @Mrpenfold666. Very constructive.
Your reply is even less so, it's only a sarcastic remark to another poster who didn't word his post the way you wanted it. A constructive comment would have asked him to elaborate on his points but I don't believe it was your intent to be constructive, only snarky. If you have only snark and sarcasm and putting people down to offer, then what's the point in posting?
@Kitteh_On_A_Cloud Saying the Witcher is a Bioware game is either ignorance or trolling. Frankly, the fact that he doesn't like what I like doesn't mean a shit in this situation. What irritates me is pure stupidity.
Comments
Hardest fight so far ever was against a Fleder in the "Bad area of town" along with six humans. I killed the humans, fled around the corner, drank some potions and Igni'ed the Fleder. I also realize a new one seems to show up every night in the same place, so it's a nice earner for me. I have two sets of Fleder Fangs now. I also fought some Graveirs in an Abandoned house near the gate to the Dike.
You did well. Not even single one of these villagers were believable. They're more savages than human beings. All of them. Abigail, thought, is not holy either. And good luck with further battles.
First FR reference I've found.
And the FR reference is prime, @ZelgadisCW!
Cinematic trailer, so it tells us nothing, but it's still pretty cool.
Here's look at pre-alpha gameplay trailer.
Ok, first, violence impacts a lot more than sex to teenagers, really, I'm a teenager, and I never killed somebody, but, well, one time, I have friend who, well, is very pretty, and, you know, well, you see, I only saw her nude, but, well, that was more that lots of video games have, I'm not saying that video games should be like porn, but, rating a game M just because a nude girl walks in the middle of the screen once in the game, hell, and you kill 500+ people each level? Senseless! I can say a nude woman impacts a lot fewer than a man killing other men with just his fists.
Then, The Witcher's bad language, hell, nobody is a Jedi Knigth, you don't are in the best world either, see PS:T, lots of harlots, lots of bad language, immature things, but it has the vest story EVER! But, ever noticed, berk, jink, and, well, there is an ability that actually is an insult (Morte's Litany of Curses).
Well, what I wrote (and lost), was larger, but had more nonsense.
Take assassin's creed. I bought the first one when it came out, dug the graphics, loved the openness of the areas, how you can climb just about everything, etc. Then I got into sneaking, fighting, and running away, but died repeatedly because I couldn't run and pan the screen at the same time. I basically gave it to my daughter as a horse-simulator, with somewhat naive instructions not to kill anyone. Eventually I tried again, at some point the controls just clicked, and now I'm eying AC4 with naked greed.
Yeesh, so much waffling. My point is, you mention 'roll twice as far'. This implies there's a roll button, and presumably an attack, defend, jump, crouch, and assorted other buttons. So, would you say this game is good enough that I should remap my brain to all of these buttons .. actually I think I've answered my own question
PS. if you were fans of the original actor that passed away check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0857376/?ref_=nm_knf_i1 it is pretty sweet.
If one enjoys the jump random directions and hope to avoid being hit style game, then it's fine. I did not like that aspect at all, especially since the lack of peripheral vision has me often jump against an obstacle that I suppose I should have remembered being there.
I got further into the game than the lovely and talented @LadyRhian (based on the above). There was a frustrating fight in a swamp against a tree-thing that went on and on and on. Maybe there was a trick to beating it. For me it was fight fight fight healing potion fight fight yawn fight. When I won it (after some reloads), I realized that I had no further interest in the game, and haven't touched it since. It felt Diablo-like at this point (continual attacks until HP are low) with the added annoyance of having to direct each of those lightly damaging attacks, rather than hold click or whatnot.
Another peeve, that is not one that everybody will share, is the gathering crap for potions. I have never played a game where I enjoyed crafting in any way, shape or form. The worst (for me) was Morrowind with these loads of irrelevant and strange ingredients that you figure out how to make into something (if you care), while my favorite (thus far) was Guild Wars (merchants take what you find to make certain special items). In all, though, I'd prefer no crafting, but it is what it is.
Apparently/allegedly, the sequel is much better. I don't see how it couldn't be, to be honest. Anyway, I haven't gotten to the point, where I've decided to find out. Simply unwilling to pay money to buy something I doubt I'll like, I suppose.
A really good game with a similar combat style is vagrant story.
Also, those drinking contests and alcohol/fisstech bring a very spicy and exotic taste to the whole experience; roleplay to your heart's content by crafting and consuming fisstech, or drinking until you drop half dead and see only blurry apparitions.
but I believe the game was intended to be harsh and brutal, but not physically, rather mentally, when sometimes you can't do anything with injustice or facing not very nice consequences despite the fact that your intentions were right. There can be found climate of dirt and squalor like in the books. I can't imagine that something as natural as sex (forget about those cards) or curses are that much controversial — it is the life. The more simple-minded people or more rural area, the more curses you will hear. It's quiet normal. I very liked those peasants talking about Slavic, maybe a little Nordic, superstitions similarly all those outskirts of the Vizima with those peasants are just like Slavic countryside. I mean also that even though there are some vulgar texts, are performed accordingly to the role of the speaker. For example you would laugh many times if you could understand it.
Yet everyone will talk only about matters not that much important in this game. So is it about mercenary who is slaying monsters or slaying people, maybe elves? About savior of the country or Butcher from Blaviken? Do anyone actually remember? Is he mutant or maybe a human? Is he really alive or maybe died in that unfortunate accident in Rivia?
For me the only explanation is that in some way it didn't translated properly in different language/mentality that's all.
Interesting is that I considered the most harsh and squalor world would witcher's and to be the sharp contrast to the candy-like Forgotten Realms. It was till I have read a Berserk – yup nothing beat it in this category yet topic on another story.
Post Scriptum: I couldn't deny myself adaptation of, I believe, the first of the short story written about the witcher (unfortunately only part of it):
I don't recall calling anybody here, or anybody who happens to like The Witcher for that matter, a fanboy. Unless you are a fanboy, or unless you are one of the fanboys who trolls the BSN forums and does nothing but spread vitriol and misinformation there, assume I'm not referring to you.
I liked the fact that there was no good or bad, just various shades of grey.
want to try out witcher 2 and the trailer posted earlier for witcher 3 looks awesome.
About the sex, i was amazed that women threw themselves all over a man who was a scarred albino with crazy eyes and frankly pretty ugly.
he was a badass monster killer and was one of a kind - perhaps that was the reason?
Yeah, I have no problem seeing why women are queueing up to get on his… how did Yahtzee Croshaw put it…? +69 Staff of Penetration…
also i bought the witcher on steam summer sale for like £2 ish, and it is a massive disappointment, the character is dull, the voice acting isnt anything special, the combat doesn't fit a PC most of the weapons are pointless when you compare their one style of fighting to the witcher swords multi-style the sex is out of place i mean really? "i know you've lost your memory and everyone in the fort the pretty much dead and your order is lost and betrayed....but damn i want you in bed now" from the mage at the beginning. or how about the random commoner "oh you brought me flowers.....where did you say the bed was?"
the character didn't seem that customizable compared to other bioware games, he was just a bog standard fighter you couldnt be a mage or a ranged specialist it was like playing a dante's inferno and trying to roleplay - but thats just me
Geralt never was and will never be a typical happy protagonist in a shining armor. Basicaly, you don't know anything about overall mood of the Witcher franchise.
Also, it's not a Bioware game. Ignorance is NOT a bliss.
(Of course, whether random murder is 'the right thing' here is up for debate but eh.)
It's not a perfect trailer (far from it, the more you think about it) but it's what we've got on The Witcher 3 so far so we'll make do. 1) Aside from the silver sword and the iron sword, yes the random hatchets and daggers seem fairly pointless. No idea why they were included.
2) Well, Triss IS your lover and probably figured you needed your memory jogged a little or at least a little comfort. You can turn her down if you feel it's inappropriate. But yes, there are also a few ladies that are quite easy to get with. It doesn't bother me but I can imagine it does for some people. Though again, you could just choose not to. Well, aside from him not being a Bioware creation, his character build style is actually very similar to Commander Shephard. He's an established character with a pre-existing background. The difference is how you play his role (Is he a professional or sympathetic to people's plights, does he prefer elves over humans or would he rather remain neutral, is he a horndog or a stoic loner, etc).
Through the talents you get at levelling, you can increase his swordsmanship, his spellcasting or his alchemy. Every Geralt gets access to all abilities but I guerantee you that playing a Geralt who focusses on his sword plays very different from a Geralt who put all his points in his Signs.
There is also the matter of various special monsters granting you very powerful abilities if you kill them and distill their essence in a potion (like the werewolf heart potion giving you a permanent +50% damage at night) but leaving the werewolf alive might grant you a powerful ally later on in the game (provided you stacked your cards right).
To me, this is what The Witcher does best, better than most other games. It has various points where you need to make a decision where the outcome seems clear-cut (Kill werewolf, save people, get potion, get money) but when you actually encounter the beast, you get the bigger picture and the outcome suddenly gets the variable "or something else" added. Most RPG's give you the results of your actions up-front. Kill a monster, get gold, don't kill the monster, he gives you a magical sword. Something like that.
But in the Witcher, the results frequently become very vague, dependent on other actions and can have ramifications very far down the road, which is often more realistic.
I understand that the game might not be your thing (it's not for everyone) but I do urge you to play more than the prologue (which, I believe, is only how far you came, gathering what I could from your post). It might become more to your liking as the game progresses, Geralt's specialization become tighter and the multiple layers in the plot are revealed. Your reply is even less so, it's only a sarcastic remark to another poster who didn't word his post the way you wanted it. A constructive comment would have asked him to elaborate on his points but I don't believe it was your intent to be constructive, only snarky. If you have only snark and sarcasm and putting people down to offer, then what's the point in posting?
Saying the Witcher is a Bioware game is either ignorance or trolling. Frankly, the fact that he doesn't like what I like doesn't mean a shit in this situation. What irritates me is pure stupidity.