Why the fuck is Witcher 3 #15 on the Codex top 101?

[The_Mask]

The only ones I really cannot fathom are the Dark Souls in that list.

I guess for an "action RPG" it's a good game but on the Codex ? Should not make the top 100 on that list. Codex is supposed to be monacle wearing snobbish connoisseurs. Dark Souls is very playable but its just not a proper RPG and certainly not classic.

I've seen too many idiots on Twitch lighting themselves on fire at the end of DS 1 to not understand that Dark Souls has a lot of C&C. But, most importantly, Dark Souls was a product of its time. 2011. QTE/cinematic/relaxed experience/chest-high walls that you can regen your HP behind... era of epic casualness. The "Let's cater to the player" ideal slaughtered at the altar of the kids that grew up in arcades, not to hide behind chest-high walls in that 1 or 2 Terminator arcade game(s), but the ones that tried to beat games using as least money as possible, scoring the highest score possible.

I love you, Cleve. And I respect you and your work, but Dark Souls was a product of its time, catering to a hungry audience. It delivered a message.

You can sit in front of your monitor as a Boomer, and not understand - which is fair. Or, you can look down 2 generations. Put yourself in our shoes, and gain perspective.




Or go back in time and tell all the fucking Boomers to give us more quarters.

 

[Zlaja]

I think most people who regard W3 highly here are people who just visit, but don't actually post. At least that's what I tell myself in order to sleep better at night.

 

[Curratum]

The issue codexers have with W3 is that it lacks the autism you need in your games. The game's presentation and writing are next to flawless, but systems and gameplay are only serviceable and you can't really sperg out like you need to and like you're used to from your favorite games.

Sure, it's a lot more "casual", but it's still an excellent experience that makes up for its shallower systems with astonishing writing, characters, detail, visuals and sense of place.

 

[luj1]

The issue codexers have with W3 is that it lacks the autism you need in your games.

1) its not even an RPG
2) its a movie you fuck

 

[The_Mask]

The issue codexers have with W3 is that it lacks the autism you need in your games.

The best joke about Witcher 3 is not anything written in the game; it's probably the stats screen.

The joke being that there are no stats in it.

 

[Curratum]

The issue codexers have with W3 is that it lacks the autism you need in your games.

The best joke about Witcher 3 is not anything written in the game; it's probably the stats screen.

The joke being that there are no stats in it.

You'd be shocked to discover that I am against lots of numbers in tabletop rpgs as well and I think advantage was the best thing to ever happen to D&D.
I don't want stat increases, I want abilities that change things you can do and cannot do.

Number crunchers in any game are the absolute embodiment of autism.

 

[S.torch]

That is nothing, just wait until Disco Elysium enters the top 10. The amount of people whining will be delicious.

 

[BanEvader]

That is nothing, just wait until Disco Elysium enters the top 10. The amount of people whining will be delicious.

>no combat
>not an RPG
Simple as.

 

[luj1]

these faggots with anime avatars are scared of combat in real life too

g-g-give meh muh storytelling and w-waifus

 

[Lim-Dûl]

Conduct a new poll for top 101 cRPGs, ignore Polish votes.

 

[S.torch]

these faggots with anime avatars are scared of combat in real life too

Is that so? That's why combatkiddies spend their time crying in every part of the forum? Because they're manly?

 

[Curratum]

these faggots with anime avatars are scared of combat in real life too

Is that so? That's why combatkiddies spend their time crying in every part of the forum? Because they're manly?

Don't mind the angry, manly serbo-croat, he just can't help it.

 

[BanEvader]

these faggots with anime avatars are scared of combat in real life too

Is that so? That's why combatkiddies spend their time crying in every part of the forum? Because they're manly?

They're masculine, autistic tears, over our failure to optimize and min-max our builds to the nth degree.
I fucked up my pure PSI build in Underrail recently, and now, I live with the pain.

 

[The_Mask]

You'd be shocked to discover that I am against lots of numbers in tabletop rpgs as well and I think advantage was the best thing to ever happen to D&D.
I don't want stat increases, I want abilities that change things you can do and cannot do.

Number crunchers in any game are the absolute embodiment of autism.

You're attempting to perform a magic trick here. I kind of agree with this post, in the sense that I condone C&C in RPGs; both mechanically and story-wise. But this has nothing to do with the lack of mechanical agency the player has in Witcher 3.

Or I am misunderstanding your post. In which case I admit to it, and I am asking you to help me understand.

 

[Curratum]

You'd be shocked to discover that I am against lots of numbers in tabletop rpgs as well and I think advantage was the best thing to ever happen to D&D.
I don't want stat increases, I want abilities that change things you can do and cannot do.

Number crunchers in any game are the absolute embodiment of autism.

You're attempting to perform a magic trick here. I kind of agree with this post, in the sense that I condone C&C in RPGs; both mechanically and story-wise. But this has nothing to do with the lack of mechanical agency the player has in Witcher 3.

Or I am misunderstanding your post. In which case I admit to it, and I am asking you to help me understand.

No, I mean that when I'm playing D&D, I'm getting a stat increase that is completely irrelevant in the larger scheme of things and it gives me a +1 to hit and to damage or whatever the ungodly fuck.
I don't want that. I would much rather have Witcher 3's new attack modes, arrow parries, etc etc. I want shit that is qualitatively different, not something that increases numbers.

I don't miss the numbers much, I can still have fun with the abilities. Plus you do get gradual number crunch increases the more you pool points into the incremental skills.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

There should be a secret list for the true RPG players, one that can only be viewed with an invite.

 

[agris]

I don't want that. I would much rather have Witcher 3's new attack modes, arrow parries, etc etc. I want shit that is qualitatively different, not something that increases numbers.

As someone who wasted 100+ hours completing W3 a few years back, I am incredibly puzzled as to why you hold it up as an example of what you claim to like.

Regarding new shit that is qualitatively different, the Witcher was criminal in introducing new mechanics during a quest only to let them lay fallow and unused throughout the rest of the game. Remember the lantern that lets you speak to the dead? Or the eye that reveals illusions? A lot could be done with such mechanics, but it was completely unused throughout the entire game except for their respective quest chains.

And we both know why: because Witcher quests boil down to following your witcher sense (quest compass) to the next objective, and mashing buttons. Because it's an action game / cutscene simulator. You are in a box - an elaborate, pretty, good-sounding box - and you are not to deviate from the path.

To your point about numbers, the game used number bloat to artificially gate content and equipment. You could easily discover or stumble upon an area that due to the underlying mechanics of the game meant that you had 0% chance of success due to how HP and damage scaled like an Asian MMO. It was the antithesis of emergent experiences and the occasional success-against-all-odds that you can find in real cRPGs like Fallout or Underrail.

So while I understand the content of your message, W3 seems like a completely discordant game to hold up as an example of it. You know what would have been somewhat unique? To incorporate aspects of castle management since you are the keeper of whatever the fuck the witcher Craig was called. Or to muster a dive into a dungeon where who you bring and the the results of your expedition are not pre-defined, somewhat like how Archolos structured its expedition into Vardhal (although the final outcome was pre-ordained).

Witcher had all the money, production values and time needed to be a real cRPG but obviously the economics dictate that it is a crowd please-er. So you get dumbed down linear quest structure, bareboned MMO mechanics and itemization, quest compass (witcher sense) and a dearth of options for solving problems because all those things are intellectual COMPLEXITY. And complexity is - for some reason - the bane of modern AAA RPGS.

Actually, it isn't a mystery as to why: it's because that is what sells. Relationship simulators, cutscene simulators, trite power fantasy. The market that bioware tapped into with Mass Effect and Dragon Age has just continued to grow, to metastisize like a soft-mass tumor. Only this tumor has money, and throws it at shitty games like the witcher.

edit:

 

[Curratum]

It's not the best example, it's just an example of how a game can still work without a roguelike-like sheet of eleven stats, eighty resistances and twelve affinities.

Anyone who can ever bring up anything that has to do with Gothic in any way, I usually disregard, but I actually read your whole comment, even after I got to the part about Archolos.

There is no golden medium, there is no game that can tread the happy middle ground between the so-called "prestigious" rpgs and the "casual" ones that sell. Calling a game like Witcher 3 "shitty" is just retarded, I don't know how to even react to it.

I can understand not liking the depth of the gameplay, because it was relatively shallow overall. But to completely dismiss the game as "shitty" and compare it to new Bioware games is just disingenuous nerd rage.

 

[agris]

I can understand not liking the depth of the gameplay, because it was relatively shallow overall. But to completely dismiss the game as "shitty" and compare it to new Bioware games is just disingenuous nerd rage.

By what standard am I to judge a game by then, if not my own?

 

[Ibn Sina]

Because it made the feminists seethe that all the women were wearing high heels and had makeup. The butthurt tore a blackhole in the universe.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

From my recollection Codex was always pointing out dubious mechanics, clunky combat and other numerous faults that make W3 not-so-monocled experience, it's always been seen as a game that hides a lot of mediocrity under huge amounts of bling. No idea why the sudden butthurt as if some dumbfucks here were first people on the planet to discover problems with a decade old game.

I guess some self-proclaimed gamurs can't face the realization they're just as easily tricked by bling as a normie playing on his $100 console with mouth full of doritos.

 

[agris]

I guess some self-proclaimed gamurs can't face the realization they're just as easily tricked by bling as a normie playing on his $100 console with mouth full of doritos.

I think people have different moments of realization that the codex, as a whole, is fairly mainstream in it's tastes. And for some, realizing this can be unsettling. Then there's others that view it as a leading indicator of codex's decline, providing a nice confirmation to an already closely held belief.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

I tried playing Witcher 3 despite its janky mechanics but eventually said fuck it when I got to this part



Bullshit starts at 1:12. You get two opposing options, but both lead to a fight anyway. You then leave the cutscene and are given back control, but this is another farce, as another cutscene begins seconds later the moment either you or the 2 other guys take any real damage. Then you apparently face the most dangerous opponent in the whole game: some random fuckwit in a tavern. Monsters? Easy. Undead? No problem. Ghosts? Sure. But this motherfucker right here casually boots Geralt onto his back like it's nothing, then while Geralt lies on the floor like a poor upside-down tortoise his buddy gets killed. Your dialogue choices, combat skills, and even your jedi mind tricks are meaningless against the power of Random Tavern Guy. After that, faced with the terrifying prospect of having to fight against (or run from) a few seemingly unarmed peasants, Geralt instead chooses what seems like a death sentence, again leaving you no agency in the matter.

Wow such clever writing and interesting consequences.

Fuck off.

 

[Decado]

Lets pretend I'm retarded for a New York minute here.

Okay.

Elex? A return to form for Piranha Bytes? Sorry, the Codex prefers the soullessness of the Witcher.

If you think Elex is better than the Witcher -- no matter how bad you think the Witcher is -- we are no longer pretending that you're retarded. You're actually retarded.

 

[Curratum]

From my recollection Codex was always pointing out dubious mechanics, clunky combat and other numerous faults that make W3 not-so-monocled experience, it's always been seen as a game that hides a lot of mediocrity under huge amounts of bling. No idea why the sudden butthurt as if some dumbfucks here were first people on the planet to discover problems with a decade old game.

I guess some self-proclaimed gamurs can't face the realization they're just as easily tricked by bling as a normie playing on his $100 console with mouth full of doritos.

The majority of the codex masturbates over Gothic games and PB titles in general. Codex is not allowed to call any game "clunky", ever.