Game News The Witcher Scavenger Hunt - What was that all about?

I agree, console gamers are going to hate this.

 

I think it's better technically as well. The character models in Mass Effect are impressive, but the environments are low-poly and low-rez textured. The bland and repetitive art design doesn't help either, of course. The Mako sequences are particularly bad, it looks like a 90's game.

 

The Witcher: Double Enhanced Edition 2009
<s>The port to PC will follow soon.</s>
Because we don't sell the same shit again and again oh wai-

Why? TW is a perfect console game. It has kewl graphix (the most important thing), twitchy combat, combat stats only and of course tons of shitty mmorpg grinding quests. If anything it will be a massive hit there.

 

Making money is certainly THE most important thing for any businessman that has at least a shred of intelligence. That's the case at CDPR or at any other dev. We wouldn't get twitcher or any of the great RPGs that've made history otherwise, except for indie games. I see no reason to discount this fact. If CDPR isn't profitable, they'll stop making games, whether they be good or bad.
I'm bitching about people who are biching mistaking business reasoning for betrayal and selling out [whatever that is, considering we're discussing a company that aims to be profitable].

Is there anything bad in porting the witcher? Nope, nothing at all. Something not right with tweaking and improving it technically? Absolutely not- do remember that an average console kid pays far more attention to graphics and other shiny gimicks than somebody who replays good old isometric RPGs like Arcanum or Fallout. Creating whole new content for the console release would take a lot of time and money in a world, where 5 year old games are considered ancient or are outright forgotten. It needs to be done in a reasonable timeframe. Implementing new game mechanics is also a good idea- CDPR has made just one game- they're still learning and need to try out new ideas, not shelve them for later.

Do bear in mind however, that I'm not arguing whether the game is good or not, or if porting it the way they've just announced is a good idea. It just makes sense for the developer, alas some people can't grasp this idea at all.

 

Mostly right, specially on the graphics and twitchy combat. But you left the most important aspect aside. B00BIES

 

You're right, they should all just do what Troika did, and go out of business.

 

ohgodz teh innrface n alcimy r to complexez! D:

 

Hmmm, I'm curious...CD Projekt Red did go against the normal way of doing things with the Witcher, I wonder how much they'll change for console. Because as exceptional a release as this already was on PC, it'll really be something unique on console. And the odd thing is even here people assume "the kids'll be too dumb for it". Sure, sure, it'll get some backlash from the same ADHD types that pick up Fallout 1 after playing Fallout 3 and give up after it takes 15 seconds to kill a rat, but the odd thing is that consoles always seems to suffer as much under this pathologic need to make games accessible for everyone and the publisher assumption that console gamers are asstarded (sometimes, when I look at the whole console industry, I think nobody hates console gamers quite as much as console publishers)...people always assume console gamers are paraplegic retards that can't handle more than BioShock's "walk in a straight line and shoot stuff, don't worry you can't die" level of complexity, but it's never really been put to the test, not for years...

It's better to burn up then to fade away.

From a consumer viewpoint, I'd rather see another Troika that makes a couple of awezor games and then plinks out then another lame-ass "hey let's do epic plot actionRPGs over and over and over and over and over and over" BioWare.

You kind of went past dagorkan's point, tho'...Dicksmoker...gamers tend to use this "they's gotta get paid!" argument a bit too much. I mean, sure they has gots ta get paid, but since when did that become our problem?

 

All that foreplay for...this?

Sixaxis Support for the Witcher?

 

I agree that they aren't really given the benefit of the doubt. Hell, I'm a console gamer too. But there's no denying that there are only so many buttons on those controllers.

But can we expect a developer to make that kind of sacrifice? This is their livelihood, after all.

Witness Obsidian, the compromise.

When Troika went out of business.

I'm not saying I'm excusing companies like Bioware or people like Peter Molynaux, (never played the Fables, but I get the basic idea) but companies like Obsidian or CDProject Red (hell, even Bethesda with Fallout 3) who straddle the line I don't really find fault with. I think they really WANT to make hardcore games, but find it too risky, and so instead throw in elements to please the masses. And in those instances, I'd more readily put more blame on the market/industry than anything else.

 

Developers should rotate between making console-trash money grabs and "serious" games.

 

Re: The Witcher vs. Mass Effect, and what The Witcher does better

1. Story.

In Witcher ch. 1, you find that the town is outwardly normal, inwardly hiding some of humanity's worst evils - rapists, murderers, blind religion manipulated for power, racism and so on. All of this births a demon that stalks and scourges the townsfolk. That works both allegorically and as a medieval story presented as if meant to be understood literally, although the line between those two are blurred given the extent to which the medieval mind understood the world allegorically. Meanwhile, to dispel the curse, it's necessary to confront and judge the guilty and expunge the evil. That's really quite good for a role playing game, most of which don't come close to displaying actual literary skill. Granted, the rest of the chapters are not that good. But none of the individual planet/chapter stories in ME match Witcher 1 at all. And ME's overall story is so much more ... plastic, formulaic and Hollywood than the Witcher's.

2. Interactivity with the environment and NPCs

In The Witcher, you can ply the Old Women in Ch. 1 for information. There are plants to harvest and a variety of things to build from what you gather (potions, oils and bombs), and collectively these offer more strategic options to any single character in The Witcher compared to the 12 or so powers any one character gets in Mass Effect along with the limited number of effective ammo and armor customization options. There also are books to read for backstory and knowledge in The Witcher. This comes to fruition with moments like the conversation with the metallurgist during Act 3 when you speak with him about the concepts in Kalkstein's book. Although The Witcher's areas are smaller, they offer more exploration, just densely built. In a way, within each chapter, it is less "on rails" than Mass Effect.

3. Better side quests and multiple quest solutions

Mass Effect's side quests are pretty lame, picking up an OSD in the Prothean ruins, just one turn off the normal path, barely qualifies, like Samesh Bhatia's problem. Instead, The Witcher has settling the problem between the Lumberjacks and Fish People (different from Act 4), Shani's party, possibly getting Yaevin into the elven ruins under Vizima, which is in a narratively effective context with the game's backstory. In The Witcher, you get manipulated by the con man in the family ties quest. They could have run with the idea of being duped and made that a multi-part chain and it would have been better, but ME doesn't have that concept (although, admittedly, you can backstab the Hanar shopkeeper and Asari corporate spy in Noveria, which were high points). In Witcher ch. 1, you can get the eternal fire ring in more than one way. Beauty and the Beast has a good choice to it. A lot of Witcher quests are like that, more so than ME. The only comparison I can think of in ME are the variety of ways to get to Benezia on Noveria and the other two quests I mentioned above. I don't think kill the colonists vs. save the colonists on Feros really counts, or take or leave the colonists' odd jobs like varren hunting vs. heading straight to ExoGeni. That just feels more like a player convenience for subsequent run throughs.

4. Better minigames

Drinking, fist fighting and dice poker are much more pleasant than, say, the lock security minigame in ME which is just there because "something" has to exist as a hurdle to opening things ... it feels like its there only to justify the "lock picking" aspect of sabotage and electronics.

5. A little less cheesiness

Ok, the detective in the Witcher is the height of cliche cheesiness, though what happens with him and Javed later is ok. But that whole Asari reverse racism nonsense about it being frowned upon to breed with their own kind because they prize diversity? c'mon. Also, a lot of ME's moral choices aren't as credible or meaningful. Killing the Rachni Queen for no reason other than I feel like it because the Krogan already had offed so many bugs (the Rachni are a dead race - stay dead ... what kind of reason is that) or even these latest bugs were crazy and dangerous so kill 'em all ... that doesn't work once we know they essentially were just raised badly. Compare that to killing the Striga the second time because, well, even after you dispelled the curse the first time, Adda still had suspect behaviors and the curse obviously can be retriggered by anyone who knows what they're doing, and when that happens, people get hurt.

I don't think this is an exhaustive list, but it gives some good examples. I love ME, and I've actually played it a lot more than The Witcher, but one does have its strong points over the other.

 

I have no problem with The Witcher coming to consoles. This was as expected, I find. The combat in The Witcher would work fine for consoles, I think. Press A, B or C for different combat styles.

Some people might complain that there is too much reading or too many quests or too many dialogues or too many story elements in The Witcher - or too many choices to be made. That's just the nature of the game...

And generally - some people will complain - just for the complaining....not so much here, though...

 

I don't see what's so complex in The Witcher.

 

there is nothing complex about it. It's just a solid rpg with few elements (c&c, alchemy, journal) which are second to none.

 

"I think it's better technically as well. The character models in Mass Effect are impressive, but the environments are low-poly and low-rez textured. The bland and repetitive art design doesn't help either, of course. The Mako sequences are particularly bad, it looks like a 90's game."

L0L


"second to none."

Wut? O RLY? Fo begs to differ. So does PST. So do many other games. Dont' make things up. It's embarassing.

 

Great post, Penny!

 

YA RLY

you think that putting Fo and PST in one line will automatically make you right or something? this two games didn't even had alchemy in them yet you claim that TW's alchemy system is inferior to the one presented in them...

Dont' make things up. It's embarassing.

 

Of course, i never said FO or PST had better alchemy than TW. I used this games as examples of games that do better than TW in certain things (C&C for one). TW isn't 'second to none' in any category. Period. Second to none implies its the best at it which it isn't.

 

yup, you're absolutely right

except you are wrong. it has the best implementation of c&c, alchemy system and journal. ever. period.

 

L0L But, no.

 

Most consolers I know think an RPG equals something like Final Fantasy, and bizarrely, Command & Conquer. Games like The Witcher and Mass Effect are an instant turn-off for them.

 

I wouldn't say TW has the best C&C ever. Far from it, in fact. I have yet to see a better alchemy system or journal mechanic, though.

 

I'm not saying that the c&c you get in TW are the most interesting (as it is subjective) but the implementation (the gap of time before you see the outcome) is simple yet fucking brilliant idea.

 

another fucking accidental post of mine

w8 up I'll post some babe in a moment -_-;



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