The Witcher - Review @ The Escapist

Are you guys for real? What bugs? What patch? The release day patch only fixed minor bugs because there were not any major bugs to fix. The Witcher is the most bug-free and polished game released this year. Just compare it with NWN2, Bioshock, Mass Effect etc. Performance-wise it runs smooth as silk, even in low-end systems. There are only two major problems, loading times and crashing with certain configurations, both of which promised to be addressed in the next patch.

My thoughts exactly. The Witcher seems to be suffering from unfair criticisms like "lack of polish". Other than loading times (an engine problem, hard to blame on polish) the game is well polished considering how ambitious it is. I have had it crash on my once and I mostly love the interface, especially the journal system, which is arguably the best ever made. I have yet to encounter a single broken quest and I can't think of a bug that I have run into yet. It's as if people so automatically expect a niche-targeted hardcore PC RPG to be bug-ridden that they just label it that way.
 
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Well maybe it depends on our own definition, while true it's the most polished of the ones you listed, I have had lots of bugs, many of witch I have listed in other threads.

Now by bugs, I am meaning broken quests, gameplay and interface issues, if you mean by bugs something else, that's cool by me, but I consider these things bugs.

Like I mentioned I can verify most of the things Corvus listed, at the same time I can list many more since I have put so much time into it, imo you guys have the best case about it being called a review instead of a preview.

I really like the game but clearly some of us are having problems, as the most recent post I made, these are all in chapter 2, the Lionhead Spider Cult, Lumberjack quest in the Swamp, Investigation and Grandma.
Chapter 1, there were at least 2 times, hostiles were allowed to attack me or a companion (I was protecting), while I was forced into conversation with another NPC.
Take the Grandma as a problem, it's basically built as a random scene of about 6 to 8 responses, at my moment of peak frustration with this specific quest I had to speak and get kicked out 10 times, before I finally go into the party.
Think about it, I know this is an extreme case but it did happen, if it takes about 1 min per load, I had to load going out and back in 10 times each, plus any Autosave, which does happen more often on quests (in my experience) which this was, so at the very minimum that is 20 minutes of being F**King rudely kicked out of the gameworld and in this case I don't mean Grandma being rude. ;)
Think that would frustrate any of you guys? Maybe unless some of you might have unlimited playtime for games and it doesn't matter how much time you waste on one game. <shrug> :)

Don't get me wrong I am damn glad you guys aren't having problems and I am glad you guys ARE standing up for the game, as we all know we sure don't have many RPGs now days, certainly not this quality and they need all the support they can get, so don't let up. :)
 
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I haven't encountered any of those bugs. Perhaps I'm lucky. I have run into a repeating conversation bug once or twice, but that is pretty forgettable. As far as interface issues go, I love the interface.

I thought that the grandma part was kind of funny although a tad annoying.
 
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I know this is an extreme case but it did happen...

Sure, which was one of my points; exaggerating the unimportant. If I had no other source of information and I didn't own the game, I would be left with the impression that The Witcher is a bug-ridden game just by reading your post.

Now if you expect games to not have any bugs at all, this is simply not going to happen. The original NWN is still being patched after so many years for example.

But when the bugs are only rare and few and there are easy workarounds, when there is not a single major bug and when the engine is optimized for performance to such a high degree, now that is what I call a polished game. Unless your definition for 'polished game' is different.

By the way, many of what you are describing are not bugs. Inventory design for example is not a bug. Sure, it could be better, but that doesn't make it a bug. Hostiles attacking you after a cutscene is also not a bug. The game expects you to be well prepared and it will punish you if you are not. I suggest registering in the official forum, you will find plenty of people there willing to give you directions and help you with your problems.
 
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I too am bug free as far as I can tell--but there do seem to be some odds and ends of quests that don't tie up, and now that I'm in Act 5 I've had two crashes--fortunately I save compulsively almost as much as the game does. My load screen times have only been annoying in Vizima where I had constantly to go in and out of houses at short intervals--other than that they've been just a mild moment of boredom which the game easily offsets by what happens after it loads. My experience of gaming tells me this is all pretty minor stuff. :)

Still, I don't think this "reviewer" was experiencing the same level of annoyance that Acleasius has. If he had, I doubt he would have made his ten hours.
 
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Lethal Weapon said:
By the way, many of what you are describing are not bugs. Inventory design for example is not a bug. Sure, it could be better, but that doesn't make it a bug. Hostiles attacking you after a cutscene is also not a bug
That maybe true but I never mentioned either of those, however the ones I listed are bugs. :)
Those others are all repeatable as well, I will glady break them down for you to do if you wish.
The only one I said was extreme circumstance was Grandma and it's only extreme because it's random, many people have had problems with it.
Workarounds? Humm almost sounds like fixes for bugs. :)

I too found it funny the first 3 or 4 times doctor_kaz, it was a very creative and original quest, however apparently it might need a little tweaking. :)
A redundancy check might be nice, after say 4 failures it auto gives you a possible winning chance.

Edit
Exaggerating? Not in the least.
 
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To tell you the truth, Acleacius, your writing style and English being my second language makes it at times really hard for me to understand what you mean. When you complain about the interface my guess was that you meant the inventory since everything else is near perfect. I really don't know what you mean by the grandma bug.

Let's not turn this thread into The Witcher Technical Help forum though. Again, I suggest you register in the official forum as the best way of getting help. If the purpose of your posts was to imply that you are struggling to play a bug-ridden game however, I have to say that your experience is exactly the opposite from anyone else's.
 
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It's no problem Lethal Weapon, my problems with the interface, have been posted numerous times, with the main problem being the camera.
It could be argued that's not the interface, yet how the camera operates, effects what, how you see the game through the interface and with Grandma I mentioned an extreme case I had and a possible solution.

I have no desire, nor have I tried to turn this into a Tech Help thread, afaik I have been on topic, you may feel differently or this maybe due to my writing style you mentioned.
The purpose of my post was exactly what I said/stated nothing more or less, nor do I believe, I am the only one experiencing problems, regardless of my writing style.

This thread is, afaik about a review and reviewer whom had problems, from the start it sounds many things went wrong and you guys have pointed out some legitimate mistakes. As I mentioned I don't know Corvus nor am I sure I have ever read any of his reviews, Dhruin mentioned Corvus had done many in the past without these sorts of problems and had done a decent job, iirc, so I will take his word.
All I have done is mention problems, I have encountered that were similar and when it seemed you thought I was possibly overreacting or incorrect I offered to share details with you how to reproduce them.

So if I haven't been clear, my English poorly applied, my writing style or heck, it could be me trying to make sense, in a post while I am too tired to make sense, so if any of this has made me difficult to understand, you have my apologizes. :)
 
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This was back when the game was just released. If I'd known it wasn't going to press right away, I would have taken more time with the game.

Anyway, the patch wasn't out then. So no, I didn't run it with the patch.

This is bullshit. The Witcher was released in Europe on 25 October. Patch 1.1 was released on 26 October. Patch 1.1a was released on 27 October. The Witcher was released in the US on 30 October.
 
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Yes, but if you mention that on their site, you'll be banned too!! :)
 
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This is bullshit. The Witcher was released in Europe on 25 October. Patch 1.1 was released on 26 October. Patch 1.1a was released on 27 October. The Witcher was released in the US on 30 October.
If they got it from Atari it's still possible to have played it before the patch came out. The retail version was sent out from Atari almost a week before the European release date.
 
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if the review is released a month after the game's release, it's fairly ridiculous to present the player with an unpatched version
I fundamentally disagree. The unpatched version is still the version available on retail shelves. This is the version that people pay money for. I think it's a great disservice to consumers to base a review on anything other than the version that ships to retail. If a game has problems when installed “straight out of the box” then consumers need to know. A reviewer isn't in a position to spot and raise retail release problems if he or she is playing a post release version.

A sidebar is the appropriate place to discuss patch versions, but the core review itself should only rate the retail version.
 
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The unpatched version is still the version available on retail shelves. This is the version that people pay money for.

That would be a fair point if patches cost money. But they don't.

If a game has problems when installed “straight out of the box” then consumers need to know.

As in the consumer needs to say "it's a good idea to patch this, the retail version has some nasty bugs but the patch fixes them all?" Yes. Duh.
 
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A sidebar is the appropriate place to discuss patch versions, but the core review itself should only rate the retail version.

Most places will do the version available when the review play-through is started. Since it was a 'day 0 patch' for the US, that should mean that it would be reviewed as such and noted.
 
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I fundamentally disagree. The unpatched version is still the version available on retail shelves. This is the version that people pay money for. I think it's a great disservice to consumers to base a review on anything other than the version that ships to retail. If a game has problems when installed “straight out of the box” then consumers need to know. A reviewer isn't in a position to spot and raise retail release problems if he or she is playing a post release version.

You're 100% right... if you believe that games are like blenders or televisions. It is certainly a major issue if you have to take the TV to the service center before you can use it as intended, even if the service costs you nothing.

However, IMO this attitude is at the very core of what's wrong with games journalism. Games aren't blenders or televisions. They're more like books or movies.

What's more, games are even less like blenders or televisions because they're software. Patches and versions are a fact of life with software. The industry standard for reviewing a piece of software is to review the latest officially released version where available, not the initial release. Just pick up any trade magazine; you'll see. For example, pick a Windows Vista vs Windows XP comparison -- there are plenty. You will find that they're reviewing Win XP SP2 with the latest patches against Win Vista with the latest patches.

I can sympathize with your frustration with premature releases and buggy games, but what you're suggesting (a) won't help and (b) is fundamentally wrong-headed.
 
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So you guys think that the review sucked just because he played the unpatched version for a few hours? :lol: Right. I just got a sudden urge to reinstall Oblivion :wall:
 
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So you guys think that the review sucked just because he played the unpatched version for a few hours?

No. It sucks that his opinion piece based on playing the unpatched version for a few hours is being called a review, when it clearly is not.
 
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You're not making any sense BN. That text is a pile of crap no matter what you call it, review, preview, first impressions or whatever.
 
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You're not making any sense BN. That text is a pile of crap no matter what you call it, review, preview, first impressions or whatever.

That's a more subjective call, and you could possibly be right, but I think objectively it can simply be pointed out that it does not fulfil the professional requirements to be called a review, 's all I'm saying. If it were released on his blog under the nomer "one-hour photo op", nobody'd care.
 
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MudsAnimalFriend said:
If a game has problems when installed "straight out of the box" then consumers need to know.
As in the consumer needs to say "it's a good idea to patch this, the retail version has some nasty bugs but the patch fixes them all?" Yes. Duh.
No. As in what I actually typed: the consumer needs to know if there are problems out of the box. The vast majority of games are sold in retail stores and the version on the DVD will never change no matter how many patches are released. Install, uninstall, reinstall, bounce of the wall - still the same version. The consumer has a right to know if extra work is required to get a working product on their hard disks. If it's unreasonably buggy off the DVD then one has to physically obtain a patch (not a trivial issue for every user) and, in the case of reinstallation, store or re-obtain it (often difficult in the case of older games). Patches represent extra hassle and are thus an additional, non-monetary, cost.
 
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