The Witcher - Preview @ 1Up

First of all:

That review was completely useless, and a waste of internet space. No, wait, it was beyond useless. I actually got to the bottom of the page looking for the 'next' button, and was dumbfounded at the thought that the review was actually considered finished!

Secondly: I have to say that as excited as I was about this title, I'm starting to be put off by the, IMHO, excessive emphasis on the 'adult' features of the game. I agree with the points Txa made. In their attempt to make the game realistic, they may have overreached and ended making it gratuitous. I personally find it a little disturbing to be hacking away at a grossly disfigured naked woman with a broadsword, and I feel that sort of entertainment is bound to have negative consequences on our sensitivity.

Despite it's obvious superiority (IMHO) in the graphics dept., I'm afraid The Witcher has lost out to Two Worlds in my RPG wish list.
 
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As it ends up, this *is* the one from GfW ... so this might be a tempest in a teapot.
 
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I'd be very surprised if the "adult content" amounts to any significant impact on the game and I wouldn't draw any conclusion from it whatsoever.

Two Worlds may indeed be a better a game - who can tell? What I do know, is that CD Projekt has shown multiple videos and given very specific examples of multiple solutions to quests and different consequences. Can anyone show me one such video or concrete example from Two Worlds?
 
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The Witcher looks pretty much more interesting than Two Worlds for me. Actually it's right now the most promising title coming out this year for me. I absolutely hate the art direction of Two Worlds, also it seems to be a bit of a TES or (hopefuly) Gothic clone, at the same time I find The Witcher's art to be really great and games looks pretty original in gameplay, of course it also offers the most important thing for me : the choices and consequences, aswell as good writing.
 
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The Witcher looks pretty much more interesting than Two Worlds for me. Actually it's right now the most promising title coming out this year for me. I absolutely hate the art direction of Two Worlds, also it seems to be a bit of a TES or (hopefuly) Gothic clone, at the same time I find The Witcher's art to be really great and games looks pretty original in gameplay, of course it also offers the most important thing for me : the choices and consequences, aswell as good writing.

I'll second everything you said. Especially when it comes to the art direction in Two Worlds... Totally makes all those "cool gfx engine features" promised obsolete.

I can gladly take outdated gfx for the sake of a good game (still enjoying
Gothic 1) but bad art direction really puts me off.

I am a bit wary of this game... Seems to me like an Oblivion clone at this point
(I hope I am wrong, really since its just this and the witcher for the foreseable
future). I think I 'll wait for the opinions on this forum first for this one...
 
Oblivion clone? When development on The Witcher started nobody even associated the word "oblivion" with a game from Bethesda. ;)

All the talk of The Witcher being a clone of any other game is nonsense. It´s based on novels by a Polish author whose name I´ve forgotten. CD Projekt certainly analyzed just about every other successful RPG on the market, especially because their mother company publishes most of them in half of Eastern Europe. Apart from that it´s completely independent.
What I can say for sure after a visit at their GC booth is that they´re 100% behind their game. They´re very enthusiastic about it (*) and take clear positions on certain aspects important for roleplayers. In this respect you could compare it to the first Gothic, which is a typical love-or-hate-game.


(*) Most other games you see at a show like the GC are treated as "one among many" by their publisher. Competent but without much emotion.
 
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Oblivion clone? When development on The Witcher started nobody even associated the word "oblivion" with a game from Bethesda. ;)

I obviously meant Two Worlds... and btw a game can change direction to
become a clone even in the final stages of development...

There is ofcourse no such indication (quite the contrary from what we saw in the
vids discussing choises and consequences) for the Witcher, for which I have high
hopes still...

Now if only PB could get that patch out so I can have something to while away the months till september... ;)
 
Oblivion clone? When development on The Witcher started nobody even associated the word "oblivion" with a game from Bethesda. ;)

*waves hand* I did :p

But then again, we also got the timing wrong - we suspected the third TES game was going to be called 'Oblivion' ;)
 
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I hope that they won't screw up the Witcher - the game looks fantastic (whatever that means in the great scale of things). But I have to admit that I always slightly shiver if I have to read about "mature" content. You hear that a lot nowadays, and it usually means lots of blood, gore, brutality, and, on rare occasions, sex. I'd really like to see a developer coming foward saying that their game will feature "mature" content in the sense of complex storylines or a believable game world.
Instead we're constantly getting stories like, "there is something bad going on in the south - go there and kill the evil god that just awoke from it's long slumber... bla bla bla..." Somehow I doubt that such stories become more believable or mature by implementing the ability to have sex with women on your way south... or because of the ten different death animations that are possible if you're dispatching an enemy.

Witcher does at least seem to have a somewhat original setting - it would be a shame if they gave away this opportunity.
 
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Yup..

No wonder games are still considered lesser entertaiment if the most important thing a reviewer mentions is nude woman. But enough of that.. I'm personally thrilled.. Witcher really feels from the screenshots and infos i've read a truly orginal game, and the roleplaying side is said to be quite strong. Its first on my waiting list :)
 
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Today Ive stumbled upon new screenshots of The Witcher:
http://www.cdaction.pl/?strona=wyswietl&id=881

Also there is a some sort of cinematics for download, but seriously i didnt have enough self-denial to download it( 222Mb with speed about 6 kb/s! - tragic...)
 
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Yep. These screenshots just further emphasize how amazing the art direction is for this game. I share most of the concerns that others have expressed regarding TWO WORLDS on this thread. But something that bothers me concerning THE WITCHER is that I've never seen the hero dressed out with any different equipment..... ever. While I'm sure it is a genuine role-playing game with significant quest choices, it seems to offer precious little in character development. - No armor, no axes, no ranged attack (sans magic).

I make that observation because it seems there is an unspoken wish among all of us that the next RPG released will be the "perfect" RPG. Some are hoping Two Worlds will be it, others say The Witcher. The problem is, there will never be such a thing as the "perfect" RPG.

And before I get jumped on, let me just say that I know no one would realistically expect perfection, but like I said, it's sort of an unspoken feeling... I will probably end up playing both, and my bottom line is: Give me a game with half of the fun/engaging factor of the first GOTHIC and I will be ecstatic!!
 
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No, that's a valid concern. There is different equipment but the source material means it's hard to provide the usual diversity. I've asked CD Projekt about this in past interviews but I haven't been satisfied with the answers...we'll give it another go down the track.
 
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As a person who read the books about Geralt(your game protagonist) I must say that on paper Geralt rarely changed his equipment. Ofcourse he had such moments (like obtaining dvarven sihil - according to book truly wonderfull piece of metal). So if they want to stick with the original ideas there will be little space for dressing our character, but afterall if we want to dress our heroes we can always pick Sims or Diablo or that kind of crap :) .

My hopes for The Witcher are: strong main plot, sticking with sarcastick type of character that Geralt had, atmosphere from the books ( author doesnt like happy endings :) )...so concluding I dont need new shinny clothes, I need shinny old style( without map markers :p and journal as solution what to do next, yeap I'm talking about big O ) RPG gameplay.
 
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I like the idea that Geralt is who he is, that he is kind of a pariah dog in a society that makes use of his abilities without providing much reward. Perhaps every quest won't be about helping the baker recover his daughter's dowry or killing the bandits in the camp just outside town.Almost certainly, he is not the Chosen spawn of any God or scion of an ancient doomed bloodline. I have hopes that things will be gritty, ugly, seamy and perhaps even lewd.
Equipment and levels, powerful abilities and so forth are important, I'm not discounting them, but I have no problem with them not being the main focus of the game.
After finishing a long messy relationship with Titan Quest, I don't care if I never upgrade a piece of equipment or have the L337est armor evah. I would like a story, please. Please???
 
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If you want a story, read a book!! :biggrin: While I agree, I've found that even though most games claim to have a rich and epic story, they wouldn't know one if they tripped over it!!
 
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And speaking of books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Wish-G...7107966?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178691905&sr=8-1

Still waiting for my copy atm...

Anyway, as mentioned above I would expect minimal options for character customization as far as equipment and looks go. Personally that is not a very
great concern. I would like some diversity on the skill tree though, but as G1
showed us, it is quite possible to get a very enjoyable game despite a
minimalistic approach in those aspects if the rest of the "recipe" is right...
 
Thanks for the link, nessosin! Great screenshots!
 
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I actually enjoyed the preview, gave me a bit of history on CD Project. So far the hype about it hasn't really affected me; click moving, no loot and the Aurora engine killed my interest. However, if they've worked with titles like BG.. well, that certainly changes things now doesn't it? Hopefully they've learned from its depth and story, and implemented something similar in The Witcher.. that would definetly make it one of the big titles of 2007.
 
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