The Witcher 3 Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Murk]

That's definitely one of their aims, and while I do appreciate the crudeness of the Witcher's world (Tolkien styled epicness gets boring) at some point I do have to reconcile the shit I am reading and seeing. It's not that it needs to be high-brow, it just has to be better than a fart-joke followed up with cgi titties.

Witcher 1 has a great quest line in the form of Vizima Confidential; or the repercussion and of helping elves turning into a lead on a quest in Vizima being dead. Perfect. Helping Siegfried and later realizing he now calls upon you to help him massacre a bunch of Scoia'Tael -- fucking great. Consequences, awesome.

Then contrast that with I FUCKED A SHE-ELF ONCE

At some point, the dissonance is a bit much.

 

[Xbalanque]

I agree, maybe because it seems that they put as much effort into titties as in these interesting questlines. I don't know how many encounters there were but I guess at least a few for every chapter, you got a fucking card and nothing else.

What I meant earlier about actions not-having consequences were just small actions which you do because you want to, that do not need much of the in-game explanation or reaction (maybe just a lil' bit as you said). The W1 and W2 sex seems a bit more in the instance, so yeah it definitely worsens the experience.

 

[Murk]

The one thing that W1 did do with the sex related shit which I thought was still low brow but okay, was if you slept with the girl you guide (Vespa Hood? Can't remember the name now) in the outskirts of Vizima. She leads you to the old mill and has you bring wine + flowers. Earlier, other NPCs remark on how they hear strange sounds from "the old abandoned mill" and how it must be haunted. Later, when you two get to bone-town, she makes strange sounds and the NPCs hear and run off freaked out by the return of the ghosts.

A low-brow joke for sure, but with a decent set up and some kind of "oh haha, neat" payoff.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

The mention of Gothic is so hilarious. "Hey guys, tell you what, we always wanted to make a Gothic game, those other two popamole and shallow games we made were a total acident. This time is for real we really want to make a RPG, trust us. No, we totally don't want the popamolers money even if our budget is a lot higher, for real! Give us your money and you gonna see it" Chore simulator 1 and rolling simulator 2 were kinda of shitty.

I liked them because I wanted medieval fantasy that wasn't retarded DnD and try to be a bit more complex and because of the boobies too but the gameplay in both was BAD. I was so starved for some fantasy that wasn't so bland like DnD that I kinda survived the gameplay to see the story and the pretty graphics/art direction. I hope they at least, don't shit as hard as they did on the previous ones on the gameplay department because there is no way this game gonna be a Gothic like game.

Wouldn't really call Witcher 2 popamole, it has a pretty steep learning/difficulty curve (though 2nd half of the game is a breeze regardless of your char build) and success in combat is dependent on positioning and timing not button mashing (especially on harder difficulties where enemies deal more damage and you have to be more careful), heck I remember seeing a lot of popamole players on the internet complain that the game is too hard actually.

While I don't expect a Gothic-like game from Witcher 3, I don't expect Skyrim level of casual either.

 

[Ninjerk]

The other thing about W2 recently that bothered me (though I haven't played it in weeks), is how transparent the build up to Ves sex is. The elf-baby thing at the end of the first Act was stupid in general but having Ves go from whatever the hell her characterization was before that to, "Oh, wow, she's badass AND motherly DAWWWWW"

 

[Paul_cz]

Witcher 1 started development in what, 2002 ? The devs that made it were probably barely out of high school :p
Considering their zero experience, it was a miracle the game was as good as it was (and it fucking was, I finished it twice, gladly, despite some cringeworthy writing)
Witcher 2 was a lot better written and lot less juvenile game. People can hate on combat all they want, but for me combat was just a smaller and mostly functional part of the game, meat of it were quests/dialogues.

 

[KazikluBey]

I realized in the last chapter of W2 that I had played the game on dark difficulty. Button mashing (well, other than the dodge button I suppose) certainly didn't seem a viable strategy, nor did combat seem like just a "smaller" part of the game though I did enjoy the challenge of it.

The other thing about W2 recently that bothered me (though I haven't played it in weeks), is how transparent the build up to Ves sex is. The elf-baby thing at the end of the first Act was stupid in general but having Ves go from whatever the hell her characterization was before that to, "Oh, wow, she's badass AND motherly DAWWWWW"

What bothered me the most about Ves was the slutty clothing, which I thought looked out of place on her/in such a position.

 

[Murk]

She had slutty clothing... tight pants, you mean? That is pretty common place as 'casual wear' (currently).

I realized I didn't like how clunky the controls in Witcher 2 were and quickly changed to easy difficulty. Donno, combat was OK but I didn't enjoy it. It looked great but didn't play great. Still, I didn't hate the combat and enjoyed the one-on-one fights against powerful enemies (minus the QTE, fucking hell).

 

[tuluse]

She had slutty clothing... tight pants, you mean? That is pretty common place as 'casual wear' (currently).

She shows a lot of cleavage.

 

[Murk]

Oh, heh. Yeah, there's no getting around that. Fuck me, everything really is terrible.

 

[Xeon]

I finished it on hard I think, was alright. Mostly just spammed Quen and dodged and attacked, Hardest fight is probably first time fighting Letho, I reloaded so many time, I almost given up but reloaded and stacked up on extra grenades I think and manged to kill him. The last fight with the Dragon was terrible.

Didn't like how my buffs from potions and oils would run out during cut scenes.

Edit:
IIRC hardest battle in Witcher 1 was against the princess, I couldn't kill her before she recover but since the requirement for saving her was to simply survive, it was much easier. I thought it was kinda strange they chose to kill her instead of saving her in Witcher 2 when it was the harder choice from my experience.

 

[Gerrard]

The combat was good, but people unable to grasp how the controls work whined and whined until they changed the targeting to stick, thus making it shit.

First time I played the game it was either normal or hard, and I didn't upgrade the roll until the last boss, where you just couldn't avoid the attacks otherwise, another shitty design point. I put most points into the sword tree and used blocking and ripostes and all that stuff, and it was fine. And then, in a flash of pure retardation, they made you take damage through block.

On dark mode you would easily die while blocking with this, so I put points into other trees. And then came the ghost battle part where you CAN'T FUCKING USE any signs, elixirs and all that shit, and can't dodge. And it was fucking impossible to beat without the sword tree skills.
This one section in a simple way highlighted what a horrible decision having the 3 skill trees and having different "paths" was.

 

[Decado]

The books (all two that I've read) do a decent job of framing all characters (male and female) as overly sexual. Cuz nerds read it and they need their titillation.

The game only shows Geralt so while it is still true to the source, it appears weird because of the lack of context. Tho you did get to shank A CERTAIN MALE CHARACTER while he was railing some waif guy

CGI tits are so stupid tho; it just doesn't really add anything to the game. Did boning Ves give any consequences? No? Why even have it? Power-fantasy Pandering? Gotcha. Video game sex was dumb since, well, ever. In Gothic 2 (at least fade to black), in Dragon Age or Mass Effect (tho at least in those games the character models all look like they are covered in vaseline and thus pre-lubed), or in Witcher.

I cringed during the elven ruins sex scene in W2. The only thing I could think of during the whole scene was, "Is this really what the designers think sex is like?"

Yes. Yes it is.

 

[Metro]

People can't say it was a good game despite the combat. It's a fucking ACTION RPG. When the action sucks that's half or more of the game. Essentially you're just forcing yourself through to see the story which, while interesting, was not worth playing through the dire combat... especially the boss battles.

 

[Decado]

Video game sex scenes are the worst. Literally. And I mean to use the word "literally." They are the worst. They have always looked terrible. They have always been a laughable joke, some neckbeard's approximation of what sex with a witch/pirate lady/lesbian archer/gay dwarf/space alien/ sassy rogue would be like. I cannot think of a single thing in modern video games that is worse than some dork's fanservice made real through 3D polygons fucking each other. I can't. There is nothing worse. Not even Hitler.

 

[Decado]

I think my next blog post is going to be about how awful video game sex scenes are. Which, now that I think of it, will be mostly about BioWare.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Video game sex scenes are the worst. Literally. And I mean to use the word "literally." They are the worst. They have always looked terrible. They have always been a laughable joke, some neckbeard's approximation of what sex with a witch/pirate lady/lesbian archer/gay dwarf/space alien/ sassy rogue would be like. I cannot think of a single thing in modern video games that is worse than some dork's fanservice made real through 3D polygons fucking each other. I can't. There is nothing worse. Not even Hitler.

Dunno, we had some fun with phantasmagoria 2 back than as teens.

 

[Ninjerk]

The combat was good, but people unable to grasp how the controls work whined and whined until they changed the targeting to stick, thus making it shit.

First time I played the game it was either normal or hard, and I didn't upgrade the roll until the last boss, where you just couldn't avoid the attacks otherwise, another shitty design point. I put most points into the sword tree and used blocking and ripostes and all that stuff, and it was fine. And then, in a flash of pure retardation, they made you take damage through block.

On dark mode you would easily die while blocking with this, so I put points into other trees. And then came the ghost battle part where you CAN'T FUCKING USE any signs, elixirs and all that shit, and can't dodge. And it was fucking impossible to beat without the sword tree skills.
This one section in a simple way highlighted what a horrible decision having the 3 skill trees and having different "paths" was.

Combat was shit from the get go. You can tell the animations and the combat mechanics were made without consideration to one another.

Oh, heh. Yeah, there's no getting around that. Fuck me, everything really is terrible.

It's not even really that she shows cleavage. She walks a like a hooker.

 

[Xeon]

Don't remember Witcher having sex scenes, IIRC they had fade to black or something.

The only games with sex scenes are Bioware games AFAIK.

 

[Murk]

Unless you're specifically talking about the first game (can't remember; only boinked one girl in it at the mill) you're off; witcher 2 starts with a sex scene (titties in full view) and has another with Ves at the least. Not sure if there are more options cuz I limit myself to one act of sexual deviance per playthrough.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Seeing some boobies is not equal to sex... >_>

 

[Infinitron]

What, you can't into Youtube?

The only games with sex scenes are Bioware games AFAIK.

 

[Xeon]

Oh man I forgot that, especially since the first fight with Letho is directly after that. Can't remember Ves's but I assume its the same.

Edit:
I don't know if I forgot the cut scene or if the cut scene is missable and I didn't get it.

 

[eremita]

And the doggy style with Succubus!

and there's also another with the elven chick in Iorwerth's path, but that one is lame.

BTW, the sex scene with Isabela in DA2 is quite alright. It fits the scene and has some comedic tone to it. It's like sex scenes in adventure films like Bond, Cutthroat Island etc.

EDIT: Why do I remember sex scenes, but not much about the actual plots?! (Don't answer.)

EDIT2: And there's another one in EE with Cynthia! Speaking of her, I really liked her quest in EE.

 

[Rake]

It's like sex scenes in adventure films like Bond, Cutthroat Island etc.

Bingo. I don't like Twicher at all, but i always found the sex complaints strange. Gerald is the James Bond of that universe, doing cool things, kicking ass and having women thrown themselves at him.
Complaining this is unrealistic, gratuitous, or masturbation material only is missing the point.

Spoiler

I left alone the BSN-Kotaku complaints that this is sexist. There are many men IRL that women like them, basicaly are throwing themselves at them and have absolutely no problem geting fucked by them. Sosial Justice Virgin-Wariors should just deal with it

Spoiler

but that would require them to accept they are ugly fat faggots