Prime Junta
RPGCodex' Little BRO
- Joined
- October 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540
Short version:
"Yeah, baby!"
Long version:
I played through the "prologue" to the game, which, incidentally, would be a perfect demo -- it sets the scene, introduces the characters, introduces the mechanics, and generally gets you started on the right foot. It's really well thought out -- a far cry from the "harvest fair" solution you usually tend to get. So these are very early impressions. I'm just so pleased with the damn thing I can't stop myself gushing about it here.
Anyway, on to the observations:
* Witchers are absolutely terrible housekeepers. There are evil-looking birds pooping all over the place (including indoors), there are rats, all the walls are full of holes, the floors are full of cracks, and I had an entire staircase collapse under me.
* I can't say I trust their cooking either. I've found all kinds of highly suspicious ingredients all over the place, and I'm pretty sure that in the long run they're not good for you.
* Triss must be one hell of a sorceress to be able to dress that way while living in a completely isolated fortress in the middle of a bunch of rather rough fighting-men.
* She's clearly a much better housekeeper. Her room is the only one in the place that actually looks fit for human habitation.
* However, she's also clearly doing something right -- both of the other sorcerers I've met so far had some severe problems with their complexions that I would suspect are due to overexposure to the arcane arts. Not so Triss, her complexion is perfect. Perhaps it's because she's allergic to magic.
* That must've been one hell of a potion those jokers got me to mix for her. One minute she's out like a light and half dead, the next she's... never mind.
More seriously: thus far, there's very little that's hit a false note. Specifically, two things: the voice acting, and Triss's outfit. The former isn't god-awful by any means, but it's pretty uneven and a far cry from the best (e.g. VtM:B at its best). I would have preferred none at all, I think. As to the latter, IMO they would have done better not to get that far into chainmail bikini territory. Especially if they have a situation where the clothes come off -- that would have had more impact if she was wearing more to start with.
The game mechanics are pretty nice, IMO. The twitch factor seems somewhat below Jade Empire. Click-spamming won't work, since you actually have to keep the mouse pointer on the guy you're fighting and not click when there's a little "no parking" sign on the sword icon. OTOH character development clearly does matter -- I put my hard-earned talents into improving my strong style, and the results were immediately obvious: enemies suddenly went down like ninepins plus I had some nifty new moves in the animation.
In other words, "action RPG" sums up the combat mechanics pretty well, but in a good way -- yes, there is action involved, but being a mouse-god only gives you a limited edge, with your real capabilities being determined by the way you've developed your version of Geralt.
The game looks really good and runs really well (so far) at 1920 x 1200 with most stuff on on my rig (AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ recently OC'ed to 4800+ spec, GeForce 8800 GTS, 320 MB). The only way you can tell it's Aurora Engine is the pacing of the load screens (which, incidentally, are a lot shorter and no more frequent than in Bioshock -- and not many people were complaining there.)
Oh, that naughty postcard thing? Not what I was expecting from the shits-n-giggles reviews. Few (if any) mainstream video games actually handle sex in any way other than the fade-to-black-implied way; the single scene in the prologue is way more tastefully done than most stuff you see on prime-time TV. Perhaps it gets raunchier later on -- but if it's done in a similar tone as the first one, they're doing fine, nipples or not.
And I absolutely do not see how *that* would bump up the game's rating.
"Yeah, baby!"
Long version:
I played through the "prologue" to the game, which, incidentally, would be a perfect demo -- it sets the scene, introduces the characters, introduces the mechanics, and generally gets you started on the right foot. It's really well thought out -- a far cry from the "harvest fair" solution you usually tend to get. So these are very early impressions. I'm just so pleased with the damn thing I can't stop myself gushing about it here.
Anyway, on to the observations:
* Witchers are absolutely terrible housekeepers. There are evil-looking birds pooping all over the place (including indoors), there are rats, all the walls are full of holes, the floors are full of cracks, and I had an entire staircase collapse under me.
* I can't say I trust their cooking either. I've found all kinds of highly suspicious ingredients all over the place, and I'm pretty sure that in the long run they're not good for you.
* Triss must be one hell of a sorceress to be able to dress that way while living in a completely isolated fortress in the middle of a bunch of rather rough fighting-men.
* She's clearly a much better housekeeper. Her room is the only one in the place that actually looks fit for human habitation.
* However, she's also clearly doing something right -- both of the other sorcerers I've met so far had some severe problems with their complexions that I would suspect are due to overexposure to the arcane arts. Not so Triss, her complexion is perfect. Perhaps it's because she's allergic to magic.
* That must've been one hell of a potion those jokers got me to mix for her. One minute she's out like a light and half dead, the next she's... never mind.
More seriously: thus far, there's very little that's hit a false note. Specifically, two things: the voice acting, and Triss's outfit. The former isn't god-awful by any means, but it's pretty uneven and a far cry from the best (e.g. VtM:B at its best). I would have preferred none at all, I think. As to the latter, IMO they would have done better not to get that far into chainmail bikini territory. Especially if they have a situation where the clothes come off -- that would have had more impact if she was wearing more to start with.
The game mechanics are pretty nice, IMO. The twitch factor seems somewhat below Jade Empire. Click-spamming won't work, since you actually have to keep the mouse pointer on the guy you're fighting and not click when there's a little "no parking" sign on the sword icon. OTOH character development clearly does matter -- I put my hard-earned talents into improving my strong style, and the results were immediately obvious: enemies suddenly went down like ninepins plus I had some nifty new moves in the animation.
In other words, "action RPG" sums up the combat mechanics pretty well, but in a good way -- yes, there is action involved, but being a mouse-god only gives you a limited edge, with your real capabilities being determined by the way you've developed your version of Geralt.
The game looks really good and runs really well (so far) at 1920 x 1200 with most stuff on on my rig (AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ recently OC'ed to 4800+ spec, GeForce 8800 GTS, 320 MB). The only way you can tell it's Aurora Engine is the pacing of the load screens (which, incidentally, are a lot shorter and no more frequent than in Bioshock -- and not many people were complaining there.)
Oh, that naughty postcard thing? Not what I was expecting from the shits-n-giggles reviews. Few (if any) mainstream video games actually handle sex in any way other than the fade-to-black-implied way; the single scene in the prologue is way more tastefully done than most stuff you see on prime-time TV. Perhaps it gets raunchier later on -- but if it's done in a similar tone as the first one, they're doing fine, nipples or not.
And I absolutely do not see how *that* would bump up the game's rating.
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- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540