Predicting how The Witcher will disappoint

[Texas Red]

In this thread I hope we can go through the potential elements of the The Witcher which can kill the game. A lot of times games are released and which seem perfect, but the major, game-breaking flaws are discovered only after its on the shelves.

I am not a hype follower, so the whole picture of the game may be unclear to me.

OK, these are the points which may screw TW, in my opinion:

1. Near-Christmas release. We all know what this means. A bunch of bugs, cut content etc.

2. The game is classifed as an action RPG with some weird new system where you have to follow icons or whatever. This may prove annoying and tedious to constantly monitor the screen in full attention through endless hacking and slashing.

3. The hyped C&C, I expect, will just show a sign and not the actual results in the game.

4. Lame dialogs that arent based on the skills, but on an already developed personality. Hopefully you could at least choose between "bad guy", "good guy" and neutral or some such.

My predictions may be not based on the truth, but I dont watch the development closely. Hoping that some more knowledgable haxorz would show how it may possibly suck.

 

[covr]

4. Lame dialogs that arent based on the skills, but on an already developed personality. Hopefully you could at least choose between "bad guy", "good guy" and neutral or some such.

In The Witcher you can chose between "bad guy" and "super bad guy". It's kinda unusual hype, but I like it.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

1. The game has been in development for several year now, they had all time to polish it up and merge out bugs. The game can be anything, but surely not rushed.

2, 3 and 4 are all valid concerns. I dunno, I'm happy this game is being made, but on the other hand Im also prepared to be in for another dissapointment.

 

[dragonfk]

1. Near-Christmas release. We all know what this means. A bunch of bugs, cut content etc.

From what I've read the game is already finished( whats more it was finished few months ago ) and time from now till realse date will be used to polish(gameplay), tweak(performance) & squash(bugs).

2. The game is classifed as an action RPG with some weird new system where you have to follow icons or whatever. This may prove annoying and tedious to constantly monitor the screen in full attention through endless hacking and slashing.

Hmm possibly you are right, wheter combat will suck or not we shall know after few hours of playing.

3. The hyped C&C, I expect, will just show a sign and not the actual results in the game.

Hmm, i dont know what you have in mind by typing "C&C".

4. Lame dialogs that arent based on the skills, but on an already developed personality. Hopefully you could at least choose between "bad guy", "good guy" and neutral or some such.

You are right that this part of the gameplay is weak, BUT. I hope that this game will be sort of interactive advanture(which we all hope for in the games) so I can forgive rigidity of dialogs. From PR side, CDPR promises though, moral choices as it was mentioned between: "big evil" and "lesser evil" and it will be not obvious which one is which, or so I hope. Afterall its PR-talk, isnt it?

 

[fastpunk]

1. Near-Christmas release. We all know what this means. A bunch of bugs, cut content etc.

I seriously doubt it. CD Projekt have been working on the game for a long time, it's probably going to be quite polished.

2. The game is classifed as an action RPG with some weird new system where you have to follow icons or whatever. This may prove annoying and tedious to constantly monitor the screen in full attention through endless hacking and slashing.

Fully agree on this one. It could turn out weird and uninspired. The interesting thing is that no jurnalist who got a hand-on with TW complained about this so... a good sign or just a case of bad journalism?

4. Lame dialogs that arent based on the skills, but on an already developed personality. Hopefully you could at least choose between "bad guy", "good guy" and neutral or some such.

I didn't read the book from which the game is inspired but I did read some excerpts from it posted in TW forum on gamespot some time ago. I gotta tell you, it's pretty gray. My bet is this game is going to have a few interesting moral decisions... which would signal that the C&C hype is not all without justification. This is probably the "make or break" point of the game.

Judging from those excerpts it should be good. I like this Geralt chap and I really want to read Andrzej Sapkowski's book. It might be fun reading a book and then playing a game based on it, I haven't done that before, could be quite interesting to see how good (and accurate) the adaptation is.

 

[Rohit_N]

Hmm, i dont know what you have in mind by typing "C&C".

C&C=Choices & Consequences.

 

[Pegultagol]

I do not know how much of an input the author provided for this project, but I get the impression it is quite substantial in that he was active in the overseeing the development process. I just hope that the interactive elements of the game that would essentially veer from the main content of the book source not be compromised in any way and some of the worthwhile dialogs referenced to the book dramatized in a way suitable for the game medium.

What I am saying is: respect the book and its humongous following and the source from which it draws an inspiration, but please remember that you are also making a game for those who may have never heard about the book in the first place.

 

[Data4]

Wow. Are we that cynical now? I just pictured TWD sitting at his computer, typing out the first post while chanting to himself "Please, please let The Witcher suck. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!!!"

I get the point of this thread, but I dunno... just seems like a way to doom it to failure before it has a chance.

 

[Naked Ninja]

This thread is a new low, seriously.

 

[MetalCraze]

In The Witcher you can chose between "bad guy" and "super bad guy". It's kinda unusual hype, but I like it.

Aha, and remember how this hype ended for Overlord - the game turned out to be another piece of shit.

1. The game has been in development for several year now, they had all time to polish it up and merge out bugs. The game can be anything, but surely not rushed.

Stalker was in development for 6 years. And in the end it turned to be a very buggy alpha version with only 10% of what actual game should've been like.
Development time does not mean anything. They could polish an engine for 90% of that time. And we speaking about rpg here not about shooter.

From what I've read the game is already finished( whats more it was finished few months ago ) and time from now till realse date will be used to polish(gameplay), tweak(performance) & squash(bugs).

a usual hype. always fails in the end.

Hmm, i dont know what you have in mind by typing "C&C".

Command & Conquer :D

a good sign or just a case of bad journalism?

a case of a small penis he sucked

"Please, please let The Witcher suck. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!!!"

on the other hand how can you be so sure it won't suck?

 

[Bluebottle]

"Please, please let The Witcher suck. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!!!"

on the other hand how can you be so sure it won't suck?

Well, yes obviously. Then again no one was suggesting that it was going to be fantastic and amazing and genre redifining etc. Generally the attitude here has been that the game has potential to go either way. I think the point being made was that prematurely predicting it'll spectacularly fail is as pointless as prematurely predicting it'll rock the RPG world to its very foundations. At this stage all we've got to go off are the musings of the unreliable gaming press, which as we all know it no way to judge anything.

 

[Jasede]

"Please, please let The Witcher suck. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!!!"

on the other hand how can you be so sure it won't suck?

You can't be sure mushrooms aren't alien spaceships sent to spy on use that use a complex biological cloaking mechanism.

 

[MetalCraze]

You can't be sure mushrooms aren't alien spaceships sent to spy on use that use a complex biological cloaking mechanism.

I don't like mushrooms.

 

[JarlFrank]

Will it disappoint? Only if you got your hopes too high. Sure, I expect a solid RPG from it, but nothing groundbreaking or redefining. Just a solid fun RPG with a good dose of C&C, and I don't expect to be disappointed. Also, the world is gritty and dark and that's nice too.

 

[Hory]

Will it disappoint? Only if you got your hopes too high. Sure, I expect a solid RPG from it, but nothing groundbreaking or redefining. Just a solid fun RPG with a good dose of C&C...

And these's aren't high hopes?

 

[JarlFrank]

Will it disappoint? Only if you got your hopes too high. Sure, I expect a solid RPG from it, but nothing groundbreaking or redefining. Just a solid fun RPG with a good dose of C&C...

And these's aren't high hopes?

Depends on how much you see as a good dose. With the current Oblivionitis spreading through the industry, a small amount of C&C is enough to make an RPG fun for me. Also, what they've shown in previews looks good and promising, and they're Eastern Europeans, and they usually have a better idea on how an RPG should look like. Or I'm just too fucking optimistic.

 

[Annonchinil]

So a mature world is not good and evil but lesser evil and evil?

Not only that but you don't really know wich one you chose, although since every choice you make is going to have shitty consequences that you can in no way forse it won't really matter anyways.

It seems like all the grey and mature games are still good guys vs bad guys except now they have reasons!

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

kk.

 

[abstract]

So a mature world is not good and evil but lesser evil and evil?

Not only that but you don't really know wich one you chose, although since every choice you make is going to have shitty consequences that you can in no way forse it won't really matter anyways.

It seems like all the grey and mature games are still good guys vs bad guys except now they have reasons!

Actually, you've just perfectly described the world of Witcher as portrayed in the books.

 

[Zlaja]

Booth babe at "Games Convention" 2007 (check her right boob).




Awesome!

 

[dragonfk]

Some game footage:

http://www.nl-team.nl/nuke/modules.php? ... e&sid=3604

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Some game footage:

http://www.nl-team.nl/nuke/modules.php? ... e&sid=3604

who needs that? more boobs please.

 

[JarlFrank]

So a mature world is not good and evil but lesser evil and evil?

No, basically it's situations where it's unclear what's "good" or what's "evil". Or where there's no good or evil at all, just different choices which can have different consequences, but none have to be necessarily good or evil.

We have to transcend that stupid view of "good and evil" anyways. The evil wizard in his black robes and with his twirled moustache is as cheesy as the glorious knight in shining armor. Both are clichés. Now, if the story is to be taken serious, those archetypes need to get a varied personality. Like, the paladin not helping other people because he's oh so good, but because it helps him in getting a promotion, and he's just a greedy bastard who wants to get a high rank in his paladin order.

Just simple good and simple evil without anything in between is just plain silly.

 

[Globbi]

The flashbacks really suck in the gameplay. He talks to a guy and a movie showing memories appears, but the consequences are so distant that he shouldn't even notice something happened because of what he did before. The whole story could be as well set in options by choosing ways A2 B1 C3 etc. and noone would notice the difference between this and choosing in the game.

 

[JoeDirt]

HERE ARE 2 IN-GAME MOVIES FOR YOUR PERUSAL. MY OPINION IS LEANING TOWARDS "MIGHT SUCK DUE TO STUPID MOUSE-DRIVEN CONTROL SCHEME FOR A GAME THAT SCREASM WASD".

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24106.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24092.html

MOAR: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/24090.html