The Witcher 3 Pre-Expansion Thread

[muds_animal_friend]

Then we are back at square one. We need to ask ourselves yet again, "what is an RPG?". Incoming 120 pages worth of hopeless drivel.

Or give ourselves a break and start enjoying things for what they are, RPG, arcade game, visual novel or whatnot.

Hey, I enjoyed the experience of TW3, and there's a lot to like. I just would have enjoyed it more, and saved many wasted hours, if CDPR had dumped the 'gameplay' and released their movie on Netflix rather than Steam.

 

[Surf Solar]

90 hours in and still far from finished..
Skellige is a nightmare to navigate ffs

Otoh, that small drinking/bonding scene in Kaer Morhen was goddamn funny. Really well done. Loved seeing Geralt like this. And Yen is pissed off as usual. I never pass a chance to piss her off even more, that bitch.

 

[Starwars]

So I've played this game some now. I quite enjoy it overall. A few things:

-The game is beautiful but I still stand by what I said before. A lot of the weather and lighting effects just feel... overdone. Some sunsets are what a nuclear strike must look like up close, and the wind never stops blowing. Annoying.
-The inventory fucking sucks.
-Item degradation doesn't bother me but it makes me interact with the inventory, so it sucks.
-Controls are pretty damn clunky.
-Fucking levels! The way it *shows* you monster level, and "recommended" levels for doing quests... It feels more like a MMORPG than anything else in some ways.
-Don't think the whole "OMG it'z open world" does that much for the actual game. The highlight is basically that, yes, the gameworld is quite beautiful and it can be atmospheric to ride into a little village on a dark and stormy evening. The good stuff still seems to be in the bigger questlines, not really in running around the countryside. It's not fun or interesting enough to dick around with the open world, there doesn't appear to be any advanced faction mechanics (at least where I am in the game) and most of the question marks are just " treasure 1, treasure 2, treasure 3" and so forth, each guarded by enemies. I also don't think it particularly helps the believability of the world, with these spots sometimes being a stone's throw away from one another.
-Geralt is a fantastic main character and it's always enjoyable to see when he digs into someone.
-Some interesting choices here and there.

Seems to fall into line with the other Witcher games for me. That basically being, I dislike like 80% of everything in them, but it has a unique enough way to go about its atmosphere, story/quests and choices that it still manages to be pretty damn enjoyable for some reason.

 

[J_C]

Meh, it seems that's it for me regarding the Witcher. I liked the quests, the atmosphere, but the clunky, unresponsive controls, the bad UI, the overdone cinematic feel of the game and the overblown gameworld seels it for me. I'm not having fun, so it means that it is uninstall for Geralt. Funny, every time I fired up the game, I was excited to play it, and jumped into another adventure with renewed strenght, but after 3 battles, and 30 minutes of travelling, I was just playing with a meh feeling inside me.

A shame really, and I feel bad a little, because this game would have been a wonder if it were sized like TW2, or TW1. But no, instead they went the Skyrim way, which equals boring to me. I played around 50 hours, so I got my money's worth, but I started to feel bad for wasting time with this, when there are some genuinly great games waiting to be played. I kept my saves, maybe I will jump back into it in the future when I won't have anything else to play (like that would happen).

 

[Brayko]

Been playing for about 25 hours.

-Combat is rough at times and a touch too fast for my liking but not offensively so.
-Suffers from Content Overload Syndrome common in sandbox games where everything is strewn across the game randomly leaving OCD patients overwhelmed and diminishes the charm of hand placed loot and foes.
-Very well done quests and boss encounters
-Female companions are not only gorgeous and nude but also have character and skills!
-Dialogue is charming and well done.
-Character system/equipment/skill options are complex and fun to tinker with, which actually kinda lessens the Content Overload Syndrome impact a degree.
-I never played Witcher 2 but alchemy seems a bit dumbed down from Witcher 1 iirc which is kinda weird with a huge open world where ingredients are aplenty. Could have been handled a little better to make collecting herbs in the wilderness feel more worthwhile
-Crafting is ok but Content Overload Syndrome rears its ugly head again.
-Geralt is a very irresolute character brimming with sarcasm, there's no mystery about him: he loves women and coin and his badass monster slaying training enables him to get them.
-UI is kinda heavy

 

[Malpercio]

Help guys, I think my Geralt accidentally stepped into a Bioware game.

How do I get out?

 

[MiX]

Sleep with her then kill her?

 

[Malpercio]

Sleep with her then kill her?

Spoiler

I skipped step 1, but step 2 definitely worked, ty.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Sleep with her then kill her?

Spoiler

I skipped step 1, but step 2 definitely worked, ty.

Congrats! you just cockblocked another fellow witcher!

 

[Carrion]

You even agreed to put on the ridiculous doublet yet still got blue balls.

 

[Infinitron]

CD Projekt Risks Fine After Publishing The Witcher 3 Sales Numbers

According to a couple of reports from websites biztok.pl and onet.pl, CD Projekt is currently under investigation for its decision to skip proper channels and only divulge the sales numbers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with an open letter to gamers. As expected, the information immediately had a direct effect on the company's share price, which increased by a very significant 26% margin.

According to Polish law, confidential information that can impact the share price of the issuer (CD Projekt SA in this specific case) has to be communicated to the Financial Oversight Commission and the company that operates the regulated market (Warsaw Stock Exchange), in addition to the general public. This information has to be communicated via the appropriate channel, the ESPI (Electronic Information Transfer System), a platform developed to fulfill the law and provide an even playing field for investors.

CD Projekt, of course, has already provided its own version of the events and defended its conduct. According to investor relations manager Karolina Gnaś, the press release was directed mostly to gamers, to thank those who have already supported the title and hopefully convince those who haven't to make a purchase. Additionally, Gnaś argues that notes such as these are standard in the games industry.

Given I'm versed in neither Polish nor law, much less when they're combined, I asked Polish law graduate Michał Filipiak to offer me a rundown of the events. In his words:

Spoiler

To say that the legal framework governing stock markets is complex and difficult to understand would be a tautology. I will try to make this understandable for people without 5 years in legal boot camp (also known as university).

There are two legal acts that are related to this case: Act on public offerings and conditions for introducing financial instruments into an organized trading system and publicly traded companies, from July 29th, 2005, and the act on financial instrument trading, also from July 29th, 2005.

The first act mandates, in article 56, section 1, that the issuer (CD Projekt) is obligated to reveal certain kinds of information to the Financial Oversight Commission (Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego), the company that operates the regulated market (Giełda Papierów Wartościowych w Warszawie, Warsaw Stock Exchange), and to the general public.

Article 56, section 1, point 1 clarifies that confidential information (as defined by article 154 of the act on financial instrument trading) is one type of information subject to this disclosure.

Article 56, section 1a states that the Financial Oversight Commission gathers this information and guarantees consistent, public access to the information. In practice, this has resulted in the development of the Electronic Information Transfer System (Elektroniczny System Przekazywania Informacji, ESPI) to serve as a platform for exchanging this information, fulfilling the requirements set forth in law.

As such, the issuer is obligated to disclose the information using the specified channels. This does not mean that they are forbidden from disclosing it through other means, but simply that the specified channel must be a part of the process - to ensure an even playing field for investors.

The second part of the puzzle is whether or not the sales figures for The Witcher 3 qualify as confidential information (in the sense used by the acts above).

Article 154 section 1 of the act on financial instrument trading defines it as information that is related, directly or indirectly, to one or more issuers, which has not been disclosed to the general public, and could affect the price of financial instrument.

Two of the three qualifiers are already present: The sales figures are directly related to CD Projekt and at the moment of the revelation have not been publicly disclosed. Though one could potentially argue that these are just "meaningless statistics", the fact that CD Projekt's share price spiked to nearly 25 zł ($6.80 or 6.04 Euro) from a bit over 20 zł in 24 hours means that this is information that dearly affects the share price. The last time the company experienced this share price was at the moment of The Witcher's release.

At market close on Friday, June 12, the share price has stabilized at 22,56 zł per share, a full 10% higher than its price on June 8.

http://www.bankier.pl/inwestowanie/profile/quote.html?symbol=CDPROJEKT

Now, the brass tacks. The Financial Oversight Commission has launched an inquiry into the situation as CD Projekt has not fulfilled its legal obligation to release this information to investors through mandatory channels - namely, the ESPI.

Instead, the sales figures were published on social media. The move was described as a marketing press release by CD Projekt's investor relations manager, Karolina Gnaś. According to her statement, CD Projekt intended to thank gamers for their trust and to convince those who have not yet purchased the game that it's a global hit. She also states that this is a move frequently employed by the largest companies in the industry.

Regardless of the ubiquity of the move or the size of CD Projekt, the company has neglected its obligations. While Mrs Gnaś might be referring to the express ban on combining disclosure with marketing information (specified in article 56, section 3 of the act on public offerings etc.), sales figures are hardly marketing information.

Beyond the KNF, investors have also reacted to the move with hostility. Adam Kiciński, CEO of CD Projekt, has initially stated that the sales figures would be published in the company's biannual report (also mandated by law), at the end of August. The premature announcement has put a dent in investor relations, as they were effectively misled by the company.

http://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Czy-CD-Projekt-ogral-inwestorow-7263799.html

Spotted first on NeoGAF. Many thanks go to Michał "Tagaziel" Filipiak, for the notes he provided and also for helping me understand the reports involved and the generalities of the case.

 

[cvv]

Ja ja, ordnung musst sein. Government must save the public from private companies voluntarily revealing their private information to...the public.

 

[Dreaad]

You can't let the plebs know your secrets, god forbid they find out the money isn't trickling down.

 

[made]

CDPR being real bros again and taking a hit FOR THE GAMERS. <3

 

[Doktor Best]

Does the public even have free access to this ESPI database? Or is it just some lobbyist system blackmailing stock market companies to reveal their salesnumbers only to a specific crowd of people and sue anyone who attempts to disrupt their "field of even opportunities" by making information available to everyone?

what keeps stockholders from googling fucking salesnumbers of witcher 3?

 

[Gerrard]

what keeps stockholders from googling fucking salesnumbers of witcher 3?

Being a bunch of entitled lazy fucks.

 

[Starwars]

Still no mention of the awful pop-in occuring at times. Come on CD Projekt... This is supposed to be a proper graphics whore game.

 

[Gerrard]

Holy fuck there's this annoying bug on Skellige where a music track starts playing that is 2 times louder than anything else and it won't stop until you leave the isles.

This is supposed to be a proper graphics whore game.

I guess you didn't get the memo about the downgrade.

 

[Tigranes]

I fiddled with some sweetfx, .ini settings, etc. and even on my old rig I can make it look pretty nice, certainly at least as nice as TW2, with some good draw distances. I do get noticeably lower FPS in the central Velen swamps, though. My only pet peeve is the shitty movement stuff where Geralt can't even stop running without skidding like he's a car, the fucking horse can't turn 180 degrees and gets stuck in every village, etc.

In the sewers below the var Attre manor Geralt ran towards the exit, turned left, prompted to skid and drift like some nascar thing on steroids, and skidded off the ridge altogether, dropping 30m into the water.

 

[Azarkon]

Yup. Bioware women characters = "strong" women who don't need no man.

This isn't a difference. Do you think, for example, that Yennefer actually needs a man? The game sure doesn't portray it that way. The way I see it, none of the major female characters in Witcher actually need men, except for Ciri but that's a parent-child relationship. Keira, Triss, Yennefer, and Cerys are all pretty much independent women who don't give a fuck about the 'patriarchy.' They'd perfectly comfortable in today's world and indeed reminds me of the sort of 'strong' women you see in modern American media.

Witcher women characters = actual people who use their advantages, whether it be magic, beauty, etc., to get what they want.

This, however, is a difference.

The problem with Bioware's characters is, I think I've mentioned before, that they're so politically correct that they're no longer characters, but social models. I remember there was a case study in the DAI thread where they wanted to put a transsexual character in the game, and the main writer for that character flat out said that he reached out to a transsexual focus group in order to make sure that he didn't 'push any negative buttons,' and then went on to praise how Bioware's portrayals of LGBTs, minorities, transsexuals, etc. are always positive and contribute to social progress.

That is, basically, the ultimate example of SJWing in games, and it wrecks havoc on Bioware's ability to actually write decent characters and story lines. When you're so afraid of being offensive that you go to modern focus groups to get your ideas about characters, and then transfer those ideas into games where they have no place beyond tokenism, you're no longer a writer, but a SJW, in which case your creations are no longer entertainment/art, but political/social propaganda. And in Bioware's case, the propaganda is so obvious that instead of helping the cause, it actually hurts it.

Warning: rant

The fact is, conflict produces drama, and drama is most sympathetic when it is human, and stems from human flaws. Nobody produces/watches "life in utopia" because, except when subverted, utopias are boring and fake. The popularity of TV shows eg Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Wire rises from their portrayal of human error and suffering, indeed their indulgence in it. The characters and story lines are compelling because they show a world in which tragedy and misery are constant and intrinsic to the human experience, as opposed to being externalized through simple moral struggles between hero and villain. The Witcher 3 aspires to the same brand of world building, which is concisely expressed as such: "you can kill monsters, but you can't kill the monster in men." Indeed, the game is best when it deals with such themes, instead of the whole Geralt & friends vs. Wild Hunt plot.

Bioware's world building, by contrast, is crippled by its SJW vision. Because Thedas is, fundamentally, tolerant and progressive - seeing as it's against Bioware's principles to create a 'hostile environment' for women, LGBTs, minorities, etc. - conflicts are not intrinsic, but have to be manufactured. The Archdemon, the Blight, Corypheus - these outside forces are there because they need to exist in order for this idealized world to even have conflict. Yet, because these actors are so fictional, so out of the normal experience, they don't invoke the same drama. Who, ultimately, is able to relate to Corypheus's quest for godhood and the Archdemon's insatiable need to destroy, and by connection, the Wardens' age-old traditions and the Inquisitor's missions?

Their actions being plot devices, you have to ask: to what end? Witcher 3 also has a plot device - the search for Ciri and the struggle vs. the Wild Hunt - but it uses that plot device to tell a deeply human story - rather, a series of deeply human stories. In DAI, however, the plot device is used only to further the plot device - the entire game IS just closing the rifts and killing Corypheus, because what the hell else are you going to do in this socially progressive world in which the only drama comes from the occasional Blight and 'muahahaha' blood mage? The game is shallow because the world is shallow, and the world is shallow because it seeks to be a SJW utopia in which humans are as SJWs want them to be, rather than as they are.

 

[Malpercio]

Then there is Ves...

 

[DeepOcean]

Meh, it seems that's it for me regarding the Witcher. I liked the quests, the atmosphere, but the clunky, unresponsive controls, the bad UI, the overdone cinematic feel of the game and the overblown gameworld seels it for me. I'm not having fun, so it means that it is uninstall for Geralt. Funny, every time I fired up the game, I was excited to play it, and jumped into another adventure with renewed strenght, but after 3 battles, and 30 minutes of travelling, I was just playing with a meh feeling inside me.

A shame really, and I feel bad a little, because this game would have been a wonder if it were sized like TW2, or TW1. But no, instead they went the Skyrim way, which equals boring to me. I played around 50 hours, so I got my money's worth, but I started to feel bad for wasting time with this, when there are some genuinly great games waiting to be played. I kept my saves, maybe I will jump back into it in the future when I won't have anything else to play (like that would happen).

I think the feeling of Meh has something to do that after Velen the game loses focus hard, the story goes from awesome swamp witches and the Baron, dungeon delving, removing curses from islands, fucking charismatic nympho bitch and seeing the potato grimdark life is suffering theme, it is strong character after strong character with multiple main questlines that tie together on a nice way at the end. The swamp was fucking atmospheric and otherworldly but once you get to Novigrad the game changes radically and the story start falling apart.

The main story just stops and make you go after Dandelion for hours and that questline can test the patience of even the most diehard storyfag, worse, Dandelion is a vapid piece of shit. You go from a Witcher dealing with spirits, curses, strange entities and grimdark secrets to doing random shit with no interesting questline with interesting character in sight.

 

[veevoir]

That being said, Cerys and the master armorer chick did make me cringe a bit, as they're indeed characters that could easily appear in a BioWare game: women that obviously do a "man's work" better than men, yet who are looked down upon because of their sex.

Nitpicking: the armorer girl wasn't looked down upon because of sex. It was because she is not a dwarf and everybody knows dwarfs make the best craftsmen. Thats why she took dwarf for a business partner. Nothing to bioware here

 

[Carrion]

Nitpicking: the armorer girl wasn't looked down upon because of sex. It was because she is not a dwarf and everybody knows dwarfs make the best craftsmen. Thats why she took dwarf for a business partner. Nothing to bioware here

It's a bit of both. Direct quotes:

"No one'd ever think I could be a skilled armorer — a human, and a woman to boot."
"If I may, general. I am Fergus' subordinate in appearance alone. It's what we agreed, as few would ever believe a woman to be a better armorer than a dwarf."

Most armorers in the game are human and doing fine, even in the largest places like Novigrad, but Yoana's the only one with a credibility problem even though she's got the best skills and should be able to prove herself pretty quickly.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG