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March 28, 2024, 01:10:03 PM

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Witcher 3 is shite [split topic]

Started by biggytitbo, March 05, 2019, 11:54:25 AM

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biggytitbo

Started playing this on PS4, up to the bit with the stupid looking ghost baby. I'm probably playing it all wrong but so far its very clunky and unintuitive controls, including stopping me every 5 seconds to show me a tutorial - honestly he controls in this game is like trying to master a 747 cockpit. Also a tremendous amount of slow paced trudging around doing trivial stuff and busy work, so far.

It looks lovely and the voice acting and motion capture on the faces is excellent but its yet to really grip me. I will stick with it for a bit though as it's often the case with games like this that they get a lot better mid way in but I'm not sure it's really for me.

kittens

i didn't like it because it was so windy all the time. felt like it was bugged or something. if it was just a bit windy i probably would have liked it. life's too short to spend my time in a windy fantasy.

Swoz_MK

The combat is shiiiiiite. That or I've been spoiled by SoulsBorne.

thraxx


Suffers from the poisoned wound that most modern games do: looks amazing, plays like shite.

biggytitbo

It is very windy isn't it, you've got a point. I'm not one to give up early though so I'll be sticking with it a while longer.

Zetetic

The biggest problem is that the levelling system works against enjoying the game and works against the better aspects of its experience.

The Witcher 3 should be a character-driven game where you follow Geralt through main plot through its various subplots bumping into mini-stories along the way - nudging Geralt, but not replacing him with your own creation.

Instead you end up with a game that discourages exploration - since many enemy encounters will be either tedious or unsurmountable, that makes you feel like you're levelling up just another player character in an ARPG, and that makes you deal with a constant and boring loot treadmill.

Switch the levelling system off (or rather damp it down enormously using ESGO, for example) and it's lot better.

(It does slightly more painfully expose that quests are built very linearly - but I think that's acceptable.)

(It also means that what levelling mostly ends up meaning is slowly opening up the mutagens system - which works quite well in isolation a way to let you tinker with how you play the game.)




I don't have a problem with the simplicity of the combat - again, I'm along for the ride with Geralt. The role-playing aspect here is gathering information and preparing for fights, not Dark Souls arsing about.


biggytitbo


biggytitbo

So I'm stuck on the fat cunt baron's wife quest, it just says 'investigate all remaining leads in velen' but there's no more wayfinders. Google says you have to do some other stuff before you can complete it - what stuff, just anything?

wooders1978

This is one of the best PlayStation games of all time btw

Go and do all the side quests at your level before progressing the story is basically the thing to do

biggytitbo

I'm quite enjoying the very slow story, but the rest of it feels super clunky so far. Doing some witch stuff now, saw her tits and they definitely weren't flat.

Al Tha Funkee Homosapien


Zetetic


Avril Lavigne

Quote from: biggytitbo on March 05, 2019, 10:13:25 PM
I'm quite enjoying the very slow story, but the rest of it feels super clunky so far. Doing some witch stuff now, saw her tits and they definitely weren't flat.

I bounced off the game for quite a while but forced myself to keep going because it was too late to get a refund from the Steam store, and then somehow once I got to the largest city a lot of things just started to click into place and I began really enjoying it.  Even with the clunkiness and awkward combat it soon became one of my favourite games of all time, but for whatever reason it took hours and hours of getting through the early quests for that to happen.

Quote from: biggytitbo on March 05, 2019, 08:52:29 PM
So I'm stuck on the fat cunt baron's wife quest, it just says 'investigate all remaining leads in velen' but there's no more wayfinders. Google says you have to do some other stuff before you can complete it - what stuff, just anything?

From memory you have to do another quest that seems unrelated and they link up eventually.

wooders1978

Quote from: Zetetic on March 05, 2019, 10:58:32 PM
:(

The side quests are for the majority well written and thought out Witcher based quests - side quests in general have a well deserved bad rap, but there is no go there and get this shit  -  turn that frown upside down

biggytitbo

There was one 'quest' where i just had to upturn a statue, and even that was a cutscene where I didn't need to do anything as a player.

Harpo Speaks

I'm playing this as well at the moment, having owned it for quite a while now.

I originally bounced off it quite hard and started playing something else instead, only to come back to it last year and finally start getting into it. Unfortunately not long after that, a PS4 system update absolutely fucked up my hard drive, meaning that I had to revert to whatever saves had been made in the cloud. I lost everything I'd done in the last period of playing it, plus hours of progress from my original playthrough as well.

I'm now not far off from where I was in the story, the annoyance was more to do with the additional quests I'd done, gear I'd acquired, how I'd assigned skill points etc.

It's not shite, but I do find it somewhat overrated so far. Probably doesn't help that I have a friend constantly encouraging me to play it and telling me it's THE BEST GAME. The quest writing, characters, and world building are its strongest aspects. I really dislike the way Geralt controls though and the combat never feels particularly fluid. The menu systems are also atrocious and I feel like I'm taking a fucking eye test trying to distinguish what I have in my inventory via an unclear image and miniscule text. And that's post patch - I understand it was worse previously.

Love me a bit of Gwent though.

Bazooka

I trawled through the tedious tutorial and never played it again, but not to say I won't return.

Zetetic

#19
Quote from: wooders1978 on March 06, 2019, 12:45:36 PM
The side quests are for the majority well written and thought out Witcher based quests
I agree.

The problem is the pointless gating behind a terrible levelling system. The game is full of fun little stories that it then mostly discourages you from interacting with.

It does also have too much busywork in travelling all over the shop - the experience of which could be massively improved by better supporting the player to know what stuff-to-do is nearby and how to carry on multiple quests at the same time.

St_Eddie


H-O-W-L

I could never get into the series because it came off as over-grown wank that require more effort for me to get into and enjoy than enjoyment it would give me for being a participant. So, in essence, like a good old fashioned wank, and I don't actually mind wanking because at least then I can imagine all the tits I want instead of doing side quests for tits.

wooders1978

Maybe computer games aren't for you then?
Wanking clearly is, which is fine, I try and make room in my busy life for both

I couldn't get into it for ages because it's mechanically absolutely awful. The movement and combat are aids tier. I can't understand how anyone can look past that stuff and say it's the best videogame ever. It's closer to CYOA books than Pac-Man or Space Invaders.

I ended up putting it on Easy and treating it as a walking simulator kind of thing, just taking in the atmosphere (which I think is brilliant) and the stories/dialogue (which are slightly better than most but get disproportionate praise). I have fond memories of walking through Novigrad and the occasional landscape but I remember almost nothing of any of the stories, and the widely lauded Bloody Baron quest exemplifies my issue with the game.

No matter what you choose, it's always undercut by some attempt to guilt trip you or bum you out in some way. Saved the burning orphanage and all the kiddies did you? Well, one kiddie broke his back jumpin out the window and now he's a cabbage. Aaahh. Think on mate. So you reload and do it another way and no matter what someone gets deformed or buggered and once you've seen through that it becomes a running joke and you realise it doesn't matter what you choose, it's just on a total downer all the time.

Also Geralt makes me think of Xavier Renegade Angel which undercuts his gruff ultimate boner persona.

Zetetic

I think it's meant to be funnier than it's often given credit for.

On "total downer all the time" (and your save-scumming): I wonder if the effect of this is partly down to how confused the experience ends up with the overemphasised levelling mechanics and everything else that pushes you towards feeling that you're playing a Chosen One heading towards infinite world-changing power in a Bethesda RPG or something, when actually the plot is pushing that you're something of a bit player in other people's stories most of the time.

Not that the writing isn't confused on this, mind you. I think the (rushed) resolution of the main plot, which both sort-of makes out that Ciri's story is more significant than anything you've done yourself and makes that story dependent on a small number of moderately casual decisions is a bit broken. (You can drag out a perspective on "what actually makes a difference" there... but I'm not sure it's worth it.)

I actually lied about the save scumming to make a point but at first I was like hmm aaahhh how nuanced this greyscale morality is! After twenny hours I was more like oh fuckkkk offfffffff why is there never just a simple resolution or any happiness that isn't immediately undercut by the game going aaaahhhhhh I bet you weren't expecting that she's got aids!! Over time that's more boring than anything


The gameplay is for people who have no motor skills basically. Wanna play footy? Nah I'm playing hero quest mate  ! They grew up and can't play stret fighter so they think this is a game


It's an interactive story but it's not a computer game

Zetetic

There are a few happy endings. Ish.

Quote from: The Boston Crab on March 09, 2019, 12:38:20 PM
It's an interactive story but it's not a computer game

Oh, no. Take it the podcast.

Probably a good first episode topic. You're very welcome to join to add a touch of class to proceedings.

kalowski

I don't mind a cut scene, but the ones in this are so long I can usually go and make a cup of tea and round of toast before it's time to play again.

Thursday

No you can't because they're aren't usually many long cut-scenes without dialogue choices.