The Witcher

I hadn't heard much about this RPG, it just seems to have sneaked out there without much fuss, which is a bit of a shame as it's actually really great. It uses the NeverWinter Nights 2 Aurora engine, but manages to be much, much better looking graphically and also to change the gameplay quite significantly. Combat is realtime, but can be done with a close-up perspective with keyboard controls for action fans and also from an isometric perspective with mouse controls for casual gamers and those who prefer a more strategic approach to combat.

There's a strong storyline and good characterisation throughout, and it manages to be true to the fantasy setting without become bogged down in cliches and also thumbs it's nose at the American-developed family-friendly attitude so many PC RPG's have these days in favour of a more mature setting, complete with strong language, sex, violence, prostitutes and more violence. It's apparently based on the writings of an Polish-born author Andrzej Sapkowski, and has also been developed by a Polish developer, but I think it's fair to say that they've made much better game than I would have expected, and certainly far superior to the rather tedious NWN2 whose engine they use.

Combat is a huge improvement, offering lots of different styles ( six major styles plus some additional ) and a strong tactical element. Many of the bigger battles are very tactical, this is no hack and slash. There are lots of side quests and extra pastimes like gambling, drinking people under the table to get information out of them, fist-fighting, and a strong alchemy system which allows you to both create potions from existing recipes and experiment to find your own.

If you have a machine capable of playing it at high graphics settings ( and the recommended settings are a little inflated, unusually, so you can probably play on high even if the box says you might not be able to ) then it's absolutely gorgeous, much better than Oblivion for me. On medium settings, you lose a little texture detail but it still looks gorgeous, particularly if you enable the depth of field effect which is the first time I've seen DOF put to such good use.

Supposed to be pretty huge too, with one preview I read suggesting 120 hours of gameplay, although those searching for a shorter experience will be pleased to know that many of the quests are optional. I'm loving it anyway.

That game does sound pretty neat. Its minimum requirements surpass my system, though :(

Gabriel, you have convinced me to upgrade.

I am very glad to see The Witcher mentioned here :) Yes, I am from Poland and this is the most anticipated game here.

Give this game a chance, even if there is not much fuss around it. I am eagerly waiting for my copy :D

best greetings
Roman

I was wondering about this game. was disappointed with NWN2 and prefered the original. Maybe I should check this one out :)

It seems to be getting a very good reception from players, but not from critics. I might have to ignore the opinionated minority and have a look at it.

Oooh, touching-nora!

I didn't know the demo was out.

I'll download this now - this one will have some good media too.

Man I'm gonna so RPG-out when I get a new PC next year. This'll be on the list along with NWN2 and Oblivion. Any more I should add?

Gothic 3.

I'm in two minds about Gothic3. It had gameplay quibbles, but I overcame those and it had a lot of great moments. I did have a kind of end-moment where I managed to off the King and sit on his throne - all powerful.

However, due to that and a couple of other things I'd done earlier in the game (and which the game does not stop you from doing), I couldn't finish the game! So it was freeform - but a little too freeform.

Still, Gothic3 has done the most of any game to get me hooked on big sandbox games. In many ways I thought it was better than Oblivion.

two worlds is quite worth getting too. Another nice RPG for PC.

Was wondering about this game. Wasn't really sure what it was supposed to be, but I guess I'll look for a demo.

I thought about buying this today but it is £35.99 which is the highest price normally for a UK game in the high street - if it was £29.99 or less I might have taken the plunge.

My reservation is the lack of reviews of this game. Other than that I really want to buy it and witness the graphics.

Amazon are selling it for £25
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Atari-UK-LTD-The-Witcher/dp/B000PIVX4E/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/203-1138510-8543146?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1193608727&sr=8-1

One other thing that I hadn't experienced much of when I first wrote about this game is the morality scheme they've got going for The Witcher. They make a big deal about this "There is no good and evil, only decisions and consequences." So I figured ok, yeah, the usual reputation crap we get in Oblivion and such.

But I was wrong, it's not like that at all. You don't get the usual "about as subtle as a kick in the teeth with a lead boot" dialogue options. Oh no, there's no

1. Take the wittle fluffy kitten and rip it's eyes out.
2. Tell BogBreath The Damned that you reject his offer.

All the decisions you have to make are grey areas. There's no black and white easy decisions. You might have to choose between loyalty and piety when you're forced to choose between your employer and people in need.

Futhermore, your decisions don't result in gobsmackingly obvious immediate reactions. You don't pick a dialogue option followed by a honking great sign saying "-25 reputation" flashing up on the screen. You don't get anything at all, in fact, no there and then. But rest assured that those decisions will come back to you at some point. You might have had to play for another 10 or 20 hours before you find out what consequences your decisions had, but they do have consequences.

This coupled with a great story and great characters makes for a top RPG in my opinion. I've only seen one official review so far, which was a 7 from Eurogamer, but as Caff said earlier, I have noticed a lot of player reviews saying how great it is, including a number of people who weren't expecting much of it until they played it.

I want it now though.

I am going to buy it tomorrow at full price.

Look at some of the game footage here:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/26580.html

The graphics are borderline sexual. I'm not talking the FMV rubbish - I'm talking the in-game stuff.

I hate mmo's that still use the archaic mouse point to move control system..

Games Have Advanced and the control systems should advance also.

I'm just after stealing the media - it's a bargain at £35.99.

What game are you talking about? The Witcher is ( thank God ) not a MMORPG.

Just seen a video of the combat - looks a bit ropeable. Never understood how you can portray combat where your sword isn't stopped by the body of the enemy - just passes through repeatedly - completely unreal.

This game deserves the critisism it received.

The cameras and controls are annoying - this is enough to put you off playing it.

I've yet to find a feature or point to this game that I actually like.

This game was supposed to offer new features and new ideas - yet, it cannot do the normal features found in average RPGs without screwing up.

There are reasons why the game was released at maximum price - had no demo - had no reviews. It's actually not as good as the developer belives it to be.

the small lady that the hero met in the first movie...her voice sounded like a man pretending to be a lady.
I dont like the green circles, they completely ruin the immersion from the great graphics.
The voice over was OK but a bit corny in places.
Cant really judge the game yet...

The game plays on rails - it is like a FPS. I'm fed up of being told what to do and when to do it.

I'm finding the constant FMV sequences to be utterly annoying.

The cameras and controls are annoying.

There has been a demo for a couple of weeks now. Biggest problem I found was that theres lots of loading, everytime you enter a new building or something your waiting quite a few seconds for the new location to load up.

The game itself if you ignore the weird combat is ok. I wish they had just stuck to button mashing, or simple combos like Jade Empire. If the fighting and frequent long load times were fixed it would be a pretty decent RPG.

I play it in the third person over the shoulder view kind of like oblivion. Seems a waste to use a top down view with all the nice graphics.

I have mixed feelings about this game, I pre-orded it from Gameplay because it was cheap and looked good but I haven't had much time to play it.

Some of the graphics are quite nicely done but others are horrible, for example there's an inital "love interest" at the beginning of the game with a little back story. However, in what seems to be a rather seedy attempt to gain the player's interest she has two huge sphere's (really, spheres)on either side of her chest that:

a) Don't look anything like real boobs.
b) Don't move when she moves (although her clothing does).
c) Are just stupidly over sized.
d) Hang in space with no underwear support.
e) Her outfit has a big gap in the middle for the sole reason of making her cartoon boobs more visble.

There is a bit too much FMV and lack of choice, I know it's called "The Witcher" but to have no races, classes, no real choice of equipment is taking a lot of the openess I want from an RPG.

On the other hand the story does seem to be moving at a reasnoble pace and there are moments of intrestingness.

The "lively" combat is a compelete hoax BTW it's just a clickfest.

I'm really not sure about wether I can be bothered with "The Witcher" particularly when there are so many other games clamouring for my attention (I can't stop playing TF2 and I have UT3 on pre-order).

Darkheart

It's not even a click fest lol. You click when the sword icon appears otherwise you probably wont hit. If you mash the hit key nothing happens because you canceled the last beginning of attack.

What you do is click once, he starts to attack, then the sword icon turns to a fiery one, click again and he adds another combo, wait for the flaming sword and click again.

It's kind of tedious really. There are other races. Come across a dwarf, and some elf Outlaw type characters so far.

The breasts didn't bother me, but there does seem to be a lot of cleavage in the game, and all the women seem to be very defensive about it.

I'm mostly waiting for Mass Effect but might play this game a little in between waiting for that. Bioware are consistently upping the anti with their KOTOR style RPG's.

This thing sucks. It crashes to Windows a lot. It can also destroy saved games - I've just lost 45mins of gameplay to a crash.

puki

There is a patch out - might resolve a few crash issues.

I have the patch.

I'm starting to like the game though - I cheated with my money and stuff. I can now buy everything I want.

Youth today (sigh) - no patience...

Evak
Perhaps the combat gets a bit more interesting later? That was certainly the case with Gothic3 where initially you couldn't hope to go against even the weakest foe without being repeatedly knocked down.

I normally cheat at games anyway.

In fairness, The Witcher deserves credit - considering it is the NWN2 engine. They have done a lot to it.

I'm now used to the camera/controls - hower, I'm not totally happy.

I don't like the 'slot' inventory - ie you can only carry X amount of stuff. These inventories cannot be cheated in the same way as Oblvion-type ones which are linked to weight - whereby you just poke the sucker.

I'm really starting to like this game now.

I am being drawn in.

The player journal is one of the best I have ever seen an RPG game - constantly updating itself to everything.

The player journal is indeed excellent.

I personally find the combat very well done. It's simple but hides a lot of complexity. You can roll, dodge, vault over people, and I love the way magic is integrated so you have spells on the right mouse button. Even a big bad-ass creature which would give you a lot of trouble can ( with a little good fortune ) be taken down relatively easily if you hit him with a stun spell or knockdown, as this gives you an opportunity to make a special attack which does great damage as he's unable to move or knocked down.

For me, this is the spiritual successor to Planescape:Torment. It is somewhat linear, and so was Planescape, but you still have Fallout-style mission choices and double crosses, as well as the choice of any of a dozen or so quests to work on at any given time. It's not open like Oblivion, but you can't have that if you're going to have a strong storyline.

There's some good dark humour in there too if you pay attention, and some nice little motifs and references if you're really, really observant.

The only downside at all for me is - as Evak mentioned - the loading times are a bit of a pain. But it does offer some really gorgeous visuals and many of the outdoor areas are huge, far bigger and more detailed than NWN2. It's only a minor irritation for me though, in an otherwise superb game.

Is it my imagination or was this thread locked earlier by mark and now it's unlocked?

No idea, I never saw it locked. Maybe he was aiming for the Crysis thread and missed?

I upgraded my ram from 1gb to 2gb and the loading and saving times are now less than half!!! and much more acceptable. 3-5 seconds for small rooms as opposed to 20+ on occasion.

One thing that cropped up on the witcher forums today was that the main character/hero Geralt uses the rather foul "C**t" word which in british english is extremely offencive. Was surprised and disappointed :(

Does that have a "UN" in the middle? If so, it is also considered VERY foul here in the US.

I wouldn't worry. The US version of the game has been heavily censored. Meanwhile the rest of us, who hear the word every day of the week, more or less, on network TV even, can finally enjoy a game which hasn't been completely sanitized for the US audience.

Well it's 18 rated, so I guess swearing's fine. It looks pretty cool too.

If you want to expose your kids to that kind of macabre content then you got problems. Censorship isn't bad if applied in the correct situation.

hmm. before I moved to California, I probably heard the "C" word so rarely in 27 years, I could probably count them on 1 set of fingers.

I guess things have changed since I left, and for the worse it seems. I guess it depends on where abouts in the UK you grew up. IO actually can't think of a more offencive word and would rather they had used something like T**t or F***ing t*at instead. They allready use the F word enough times, which is disappointing but doesn't offent half as much.

There really isn't a need for this kind of language in a game. Sometimes censorship is a good thing, its political correctness that annoys me far more.

Which part of 18 rated didn't you understand? Personally I'd be more concerned for people who thought female genitalia were macabre.


How long ago did you move? I wouldn't say it's been particularly recent, but if you moved more than a decade ago, then I'd say it probably has changed quite a bit since then.

I pretty much left when Tony took over, which probably explains a lot :). So about 10 years ago. Not that the opposition was up to much either.

Finally got my copy from Play.com. I swear they used to deliver next day - now it seems to take a week minimum. Anyway I'll install it at the weekend and give it a spanking.

man, I'm grumpy. I'm in the stage in the game where I have to make a racial decision and its peeing me off. Either way I upset my buddies and its bound to have dire consequences later in the game.

BTW, I've been having the odd lockup when the game loads a new section of the game, random and infrequent, seems to be something in the DVD protection. Strange thing is, when I make a disk image and run it off the HD instead the problem goes away, no problems whatsoever.

The game just gets better and better as your character improves. The combat is a lot more satisfying later on too :)

Good to hear - I've just ordered it for its Thursday release (New Zealand).

Who decides when it's the correct situation?

While I understand that, I think most homosexuals are quite comfortable with their sexuality, and don't really need us to go around feeling concerned for them.

Yes there is.

You should probably have moved to China or Iran then, rather than to a country like the US were freedom of speech is a constitutional right. Maybe that would change your perspective?

Just ordered it from there too. Will probably have to wait until I get my new computer to play it. And yeah it's always taken about a week for games from play.com to arrive, but I'm not in the UK.

>>rather than to a country like the US were freedom of speech is a constitutional right. Maybe that would change your perspective?

LOL, in what fantasy world do you live MadDuck?

mmh he said in the U.S. freedom of speech is a constitutional right ... which i think is true

How that is practiced is another story.

Anyhow the posts i read so far got me interested. I might buy this one.

Swearing in an 18 certificate game - so what?!!!

Do people apply the same criticism to films?! No they don't. Films (and games) have a market for both kids and adults alike. And the quicker some people (and the media) woke-up to that fact the better.

The ignorant person who hasn't played a game since pong, jumps out of their chair at the thought of adult content in a game. But that's like seeing a Disney cartoon and thinking all films are cute and fluffy.

Rant over.

Most people I know make a distinction between the "F" word and the "C" word. The "C" word being the strongest in the English language and used very seldom even in film and TV, so it's unexpected in a game and I don't feel it should really have been put in there.

I have to say I rather like the "300" style intro :)

Me too. The thing that convinced me was that both Gabriel (who usually has excellent taste in videogames) and Evak (who usually doesn't) both seem to think it's great. Must be the king of videogames or something.

'300'? That vacuous, adolescent paen to militaristic fascism?

That's a point against it ;-)

Regards the c-word, I am a little surprised to learn that's included. That's still something of a taboo word.

I havent seen the 300, so I can't comment. I have to admit that the intro put me off of the game initialy, fortunately the game itself is much better than the intro and has a lot more depth too :).

I've wriiten a little bit about my first impressions with the game here;

http://www.tankuniversal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=33&p=156#p156

hey cool :). I think maybe some of the games quirks stem from the games Eastern european origins, and the fact that the whole seried of books began life in a very popular polish fantasy magazine.

My wife just read the recently published first book from the series, had to special order it from England since its not out in the US till next year. There was also a film made from the polish TV series based on the books called "The Hexer" which is kind of interesting.

The books have quite a following, have been translated into many languages over the years and only just started being published in English.

My wife has no problem at all with the love cards in the game, but maybe thats because she's originaly from Russia and isn't as easily offended as some.