Witcher 3 is shite [split topic]

[Dog Botherer]

love this game. yeah the leveling is crap but i don't really worry about that, i'm here for the story. one criticism i have is the sheer amount of cool weapons that drop with crap stats. yes i want to use the mad looking sword with the curvy blade, but the shit boring weapon does 50 more damage and sets cunts on fire.

gimme good cool swords.

[Chollis]

No one has come close to it for world building and characters you genuinely come to know and love by the end.

yep. i felt genuinely bereft after finishing it, bit sad i know. i was so immersed in all of it. i'm trying to hold off playing it through again until the remastered version comes out, cannot fuckin wait to see what Toussaint looks like on Ultra settings then.

[Zetetic]

Whole point of an RPG is progression even if it is at odds with the story.

I'd suggest that the point of a role-playing game has something to do with role-playing.

It's worth noting that the gear and skills (if you insist) systems still allow for aesthetic and mechanical customisation, and a sense of increasing character ability, even without the levelling mechanics. Indeed, the levelling mechanics break the gear system, as Dog Botherer notes, largely forbidding you from choosing stuff for aesthetic reasons or making the runes stuff worthwhile until you start maxing out.

Pretty sure Vesemir says something right at the start about how a Witcher is always learning and improving so that also fits in with the [levelling] elements.

Or in Geralt's case, repeatedly forgetting everything he's ever learnt. (Which they try to narratively justify in the first game, and - sensibly - abandon for later games. But they should've abandoned most of the mechanics alongside it.)

So that leaves you with the problem of random level 16 bandits killing you. Fair enough on that one. Certainly wasn't enough to spoil the rest of the game though.

I don't think it makes it unplayable, but it makes it far, far less engaging and damages the sense of who you're playing as.

Like I say - I am astonished at how much better a game it is with the levelling stuff largely disabled. (And, as such, think it's a powerful example of how genre-expectations can really work against a game's design.)

It has gating, or at least levelled quests and enemies in various parts of the map, but they're all sensibly grouped together so you're never (as you were in W3) sprinting past some pack of double hard bastard robbers to get to a big soft seven foot troll that you can take down with ease.

Of course Witcher 3 has some inter-region gating that makes an awful lot of narrative sense and softly guides the player into following the story in a way that makes sense without forcing an excessively fast or slow pace.

It's just that it's almost completely disconnected from the levelling system, again emphasising how pointless that levelling system is.

[bgmnts]

If you want a story read a book you illiterates.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I highly recommend playing it on Easy. Go on, I won't think any less of you.

[druss]

I highly recommend playing it on Easy. Go on, I won't think any less of you.

Fuck that, deathmarch all the way. Makes the world seem far more dangerous and it feels a lot more rewarding.

It's not even that hard if you use Quen a lot, first few levels are a bit tricky but you're so OP by the end that it's only a few moments of not concentrating on a boss that can kill you.

[druss]

I'd suggest that the point of a role-playing game has something to do with role-playing.

"Whole point" was probably the wrong term. To put it another way, a large element of every RPG game I've ever played has been character progression.

I'd quite like to play W3 with a non levelling mod but I prefer playing it on a massive screen in a comfy chair, plus my PC won't be able to run it as well as my PS4 (or PS5 when I grab one).

[mobias]

Really emphasises how clunky and shit the combat in W3 was.

Sadly the technical limitations of the current gen consoles is why the combat in W3 is so shit. Basically the way it works is the more detailed and sprawling an open world game is the less detailed the combat mechanics can be. Highly detailed fighting animations like you get in something like Dark Souls take a shit ton of processing power. Similarly its the reason why GTA has notoriously clunky shooting and fighting mechanics. There just isn't the bandwidth when there's so much other stuff going on in the game world to process.

Apparently its going to be one of the things thats really going to change with the new gen consoles. Suddenly we'll find a massive open world game like Witcher can also have great fighting mechanics.

Still astonishes me how much better a game it is if you mod the levelling out.

There are so many great mods for PC that for me really changed and improved the game play. One of my favourite mods on PC is the dynamic camera mod where you have total control where the camera is in relation to Geralt. It always bugged me on console that you were constantly stuck with this one camera position. Its great setting it so you go into first person viewing when using Geralt's witcher senses. So much more immersive.

I still don't know just how much of an overhaul they're doing of W3 for the new gen consoles and new graphics cards. I've heard some people saying its a total overhaul of the game whilst others have said its just going to be locked at 60fps at native 4K with proper HDR. I'll be disappointed if it is just that though.

[Mister Six]

Sadly the technical limitations of the current gen consoles is why the combat in W3 is so shit.

Horizon Zero Dawn was made for a current-gen console.

[Mister Six]

Of course Witcher 3 has some inter-region gating that makes an awful lot of narrative sense and softly guides the player into following the story in a way that makes sense without forcing an excessively fast or slow pace.

It's just that it's almost completely disconnected from the levelling system, again emphasising how pointless that levelling system is.

Yes, because it's shite.

The card game is good though.

[Timothy]

Horizon Zero Dawn was made for a current-gen console.

Horizon was a fun game but Witcher is in everything but combat way better imo. The world, the robots and the quests in Horizon were quite dull. The combat kept me playing where the opposite was true in the Witcher for me. Combat could have been better but the world, lore and characters and quests (and the amazing soundtrack) were so great that I never got bored of it.

Witcher with combat as great as Horizons  would have made the Witcher even better.

[Mister Six]

As in, slightly good?

[kalowski]

I highly recommend playing it on Easy. Go on, I won't think any less of you.

I play everything on easy.

[Timothy]

As in, slightly good?

As in from absolutely brilliant game to almost perfect game. Clunky combat or not The Witcher 3 is imo one of the best games ever made. To me its probably the best game of this console generation.

[mobias]

Horizon Zero Dawn was made for a current-gen console.

Not as much going on though. Witcher 3 had crazy, and for then quite groundbreaking, procedural generation tech for the myriad of cutscenes, more NPC's to worry about, and all the necessary audio, plus other stuff I'm sure. All of that takes up processing bandwidth.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Horizon Zero Dawn is boring as fuck compared to the Witcher (for me). HZD controls better, looks better, is a lot more polished, has an original and interesting setting, and the way you open up the world is better designed. But it's boring as fuck. The Witcher III is such a good adaptation of the books because it's full of short stories which draw on various folk stories and fairytales, mostly giving them nasty bitter little twists. It's also (in my playthrough anyway) a great love story. Characters like Yennefer are way more complex and interesting than anyone in HZD. The only thing I would really want to change on the writing front is to take out the nerd pop culture references, but most of them went over my head anyway.

[Dog Botherer]

didn't catch many references but i did notice one npc called Dolores Riorden or something similar

[Blue Jam]

I kept on playing it though as so many other people seemed to be enjoying it and I'd paid a lot of money for it.

Hmmm. It seems my mistake here is playing it on Game Pass for a quid when I should have paid £60 for it and played it on a PC with a load of mods.

As for the combat being clunky and repetitive and boring- I dunno, combat is a pretty big part of a game for me...

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my planned first purchases for when I get a PS5, from reading this thread I think it might be more my thing than W3.

[Jerzy Bondov]

didn't catch many references but i did notice one npc called Dolores Riorden or something similar

That one's okay, I will let that one go. There's a bounty hunter called Djenge Frett which is a reference to Jango Fett from off of Star Wars. That's the one that bothers me. It's a shit quest as well.

[Mister Six]

Not as much going on though. Witcher 3 had crazy, and for then quite groundbreaking, procedural generation tech for the myriad of cutscenes, more NPC's to worry about, and all the necessary audio, plus other stuff I'm sure. All of that takes up processing bandwidth.

Psshhhh bollocks. "The combat is shit because of the way they animate dialogue in cutscenes." Come on.

[bgmnts]

What I will say about the combat is that there is probably a good deal of depth there but most of the time I just spam igni and hack n dodge.

[Mister Six]

Horizon Zero Dawn is boring as fuck compared to the Witcher (for me). HZD controls better, looks better, is a lot more polished, has an original and interesting setting, and the way you open up the world is better designed. But it's boring as fuck. The Witcher III is such a good adaptation of the books because it's full of short stories which draw on various folk stories and fairytales, mostly giving them nasty bitter little twists. It's also (in my playthrough anyway) a great love story. Characters like Yennefer are way more complex and interesting than anyone in HZD. The only thing I would really want to change on the writing front is to take out the nerd pop culture references, but most of them went over my head anyway.

"Yeah, my car only has three tyres and the engine is made of toffee and the steering wheel is embedded with razorblades, but look at the walnut panelling on the dashboard!"

That's what you people look like, you oafs.

[Dog Botherer]

That one's okay, I will let that one go. There's a bounty hunter called Djenge Frett which is a reference to Jango Fett from off of Star Wars. That's the one that bothers me. It's a shit quest as well.

doesn't really bother me, i don't think. the game doesn't really take itself too seriously as a whole, you spend 5 minutes hacking some monster cunts to death only for the dwarf cunt you're supposed to be saving falling 20 feet, dying instantly. Geralt just shrugs and goes and kills then next monster cunt. funny.

[Zetetic]

As for the combat being clunky and repetitive and boring- I dunno, combat is a pretty big part of a game for me...

I think, along with the levelling system, this is actually another one of the mistakes of the Witcher 3 (not you).

It's not that I think it shouldn't have had mechanical combat as a decent part of the game, it's just that it foregrounds it so much because CD Projekt seemed to think it needed to... when all it does it make the game worse than it should be.

[Jerzy Bondov]

doesn't really bother me, i don't think. the game doesn't really take itself too seriously as a whole, you spend 5 minutes hacking some monster cunts to death only for the dwarf cunt you're supposed to be saving falling 20 feet, dying instantly. Geralt just shrugs and goes and kills then next monster cunt. funny.

That bit was my biggest laugh I think. You're right, it doesn't take itself too seriously.

[Dog Botherer]

That bit was my biggest laugh I think. You're right, it doesn't take itself too seriously.

yeah it's hands down the funniest game i've ever played.

[mobias]

Psshhhh bollocks. "The combat is shit because of the way they animate dialogue in cutscenes." Come on.

Not just because of that, obviously. The accumulation of everything else going on under the hood.

The more vast, sprawling the detailed an open world game is the more certain gameplay aspects of it have to pay the price. Its pretty obvious really.

Horizon Zero Dawn is boring as fuck compared to the Witcher (for me).

I just thought the whole premise of Horizon was a load of nonsense. It was like some stoned teenager came up with the idea of making a game about giant robot dinosaurs and someone somewhere thought that sounded like an amazing idea and worth chucking hundreds of millions of dollars at. It was fantastically produced though and thats what it owes all its success to. Strip that production away its just a load of utterly generic crap.

[Thursday]

Why would they even make robot dinosaurs that attack everyone? It doesn't make sense!!!

[Mister Six]

Not just because of that, obviously. The accumulation of everything else going on under the hood.

The more vast, sprawling the detailed an open world game is the more certain gameplay aspects of it have to pay the price. Its pretty obvious really.

Whaaaaat? First off, the world isn't that complex. Most NPCs are small bands of enemies that lurk in a particular location, stationary NPCs you can talk to or uninteractive figures who patrol a small set route. It's pretty much on a par with Horizon in that regard, really. Probably less so - I don't recall encountering wandering bands of enemies that would fight one another in W3, for example.

Secondly, tweaking the fighting controls so they aren't absolute shit, adding more varied weapons and moves that are actually useful, creating a levelling system that provides more reward than a 2.5% increase in fire strength - none of these things are going to drain the processor in any noticeable way.

I just thought the whole premise of Horizon was a load of nonsense. It was like some stoned teenager came up with the idea of making a game about giant robot dinosaurs and someone somewhere thought that sounded like an amazing idea and worth chucking hundreds of millions of dollars at. It was fantastically produced though and thats what it owes all its success to. Strip that production away its just a load of utterly generic crap.

Do you... do you know what the premise actually is?

(Also I'm assuming you're lumping in the absolutely perfect, fine-tweaked, fantastically balanced and varied gameplay with "production"? And if not, is it wise to dismiss Horizon's success as just being people favouring good aesthetics over a good game when even the Witcher 3 fans on here are admitting that it's the story and design that appeal because the gameplay is cack?)

[Thursday]

Bald men fighting over whether an average comb or average hairbrush is better.