Witcher 3 - Still dominant @ PC Gamer

The Witcher 3 outsells many games in 2017 without loot boxes etc.:

The Witcher 3 outgrossed some of 2017's biggest games because it's just that good

Without the trappings of loot boxes or 'games as a service,' the single player RPG still managed to outsell almost everything on Steam.

2017 was a hard year for some high-profile singleplayer games, and there was more than a little hand-wringing that the genre as we know it might be dying, replaced by 'games as a service.' We argued that in fact they're not dying, just changing, but it's easy to look at Steam's highest earning games of 2017 and spot the commonalities. Free to play mechanics, skins and loot boxes and crates and keys, all play a major part in 'living' games like Rainbow Six: Siege,Warframe,PUBG and Dota 2. And then there's The Witcher 3, which doesn't have any of that shit. And it's still raking in the dough.

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More information.

And yet EA will be thinking how much more money this game would make with loot boxes.

There's a lot of gamers out there who love treadmill games. Get on the treadmill... run weeks, months, years on the treadmill, then boast the meager goods you acquired by running on the treadmill to those still furiously running on the treadmill to acquire what you acquired... mostly, all for the sake of showing off a set of pixels that few others have. I too once ran on a treadmill game (WoW) but stopped in 2011 and I've learned my lesson.

The reason why W3 still sells well is because it's a good solid game with plenty of unique content to keep you busy for hundreds of hours, all treadmill free. I personally only play non-treadmill games these days, but that's just me.

So that is the question - would loot boxes hurt or help witcher 3 (from a revenue perspective). I can't really say with regards for the market but I will say that I will never intentionally buy a loot box game at full price and will never buy a loot box game that actually requires you to purchase the loot boxes to have success with the game - but i might be a minority.

I am glad this has sold well. It's a great game.

If there were an alternate universe in which this game was exactly the same as is but also had loot boxes in which people may spend real money to purchase weapons, power-ups, etc., I would still experience the same enjoyment from playing it. I just ignore loot boxes anyway, and judge games based on whether or not I enjoy the game.

TheMadGamer said:

I personally only play non-treadmill games these days, but that's just me.

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Same, as of about 3 years ago. It's a great feeling to be off it.

Sadly, more and more AAA games are adopting the treadmill model, something that used to be mostly limited to Diablo clones, MMOs, etc. Fortunately, plenty of other options out there now.

Am I the only one who thinks the combat is mediocre? Or that the focus on levels everywhere is jarring?

Those issues can be fixed with mods (mostly) but I don't really understand why people are being so hyperbolic when it comes to this particular game.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's not good but it's certainly not without flaws and to me it's more of an action RPG than an actual RPG (but then I'm first and foremost a pen and paper RPG fan). I'm clearly in the minority and that's fine but I don't feel that it's the greatest game ever made like so many people on the net.

Gloomseeker said:

Those issues can be fixed with mods (mostly) but I don't really understand why people are being so hyperbolic when it comes to this particular game.

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Because its a greater game than the sum of its parts.

Gloomseeker said:

Am I the only one who thinks the combat is mediocre? Or that the focus on levels everywhere is jarring?

Those issues can be fixed with mods (mostly) but I don't really understand why people are being so hyperbolic when it comes to this particular game.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's not good but it's certainly not without flaws and to me it's more of an action RPG than an actual RPG (but then I'm first and foremost a pen and paper RPG fan). I'm clearly in the minority and that's fine but I don't feel that it's the greatest game ever made like so many people on the net.

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No, you're not the only one. I've posted about that as well, but it gets largely poo-pooed here.

Combat is mediocre at best, exploration is hurt by so many repetitive POI's and the focus on levels hurts loot and exploration even further. having played the first 2 games having yennifer and ciri play such big roles in the main story here only proved to distance me from my role as geralt even further.

having said that the side quests and their presentation are second to none and were enough to get me through the game alone.

So I'll be in the minority with you. I'm used to it but usually I'm in the minority from the mainstrean not from my fellow watchers. :lol: Oh well, what are you going to do?

Combat's awful, it's the rest of the game that makes it good.

Being fair, the Witcher series has never been about amazing combat. I would say the combat is unoffensive and gets the job done, allowing you to experience the rest of it.

I really like Witcher 3 but to me it simply isn’t as good as Witcher 2. But there are some really great quests with outstanding writing. It’s a very good game with some disjointed content due to its open world nature.

Combat and loot are bad, but oh my, it's the stories, music and characterisation that elevate it above other titles. And the cities!

The success is well deserved and I hope they can repeat it with Cyberpunk.

To me, the biggest factor and strength of the game is the immersiveness… the other day, I was just goofing around in the game, and stopped on top of a hill in the wilderness, looking around for a moment - taking it all in. And was really reminded of how amazing the designers made a living, breathing world, in a computer game. The environments, the sky, the wind, the ambient sounds, the music, the colors, the whole combined experience is masterful. Stuff like this can be hard to explain, but the witcher 3 has it, in spades.

Good to hear I'm not alone!

By the way I don't know if this is the right place for this but if you're looking for a mod that makes combat and exploration more interesting then I'd suggest giving this mod a try:

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2521/?

The only people more annoying that "witcher combat is bad" people are those "soulsborne is the best" people. Annoying as fuck, without fail. Nobody cares.

Paul said:

The only people more annoying that "witcher combat is bad" people are those "soulsborne is the best" people. Annoying as fuck, without fail. Nobody cares.

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You mean, you don't care.

Let's face it. Combat definitely wasn't great in The Witcher series. It's boring. It's one of the reasons I couldn't continue on with TW3 after a few hours.

Story, visuals, music, characters were all great.

In that way, Witcher 3 was above and beyond the competition.

Gameplay was drone-like in how straightforward it felt. I'm talking follow the light Ubisoft drone-like.

I was never engaged or challenged when "solving" anything - because they'd mainstreamed it into the ground. Every single quest that wasn't entirely combat focused was ruined by magical senses that highlighted everything you had to do - and there was no way to have the slightest doubt as to what you should be looking at.

Now, that's not a Witcher 3 problem - it's a modern AAA game problem. I feel exactly the same about Skyrim, Batman or - as mentioned - any modern Ubisoft game. There's no cerebral challenge in these modern games.

Combat, even on Death March - became a pushover way too soon for my tastes.

I'm not blaming them for making it accessible at all - I understand the need to appeal wide. I just prefer a more old-school approach.

The only reason I even mention the mainstream issue is that, for all its faults, the first Witcher didn't feel mainstream in that way - it felt old-school.

Witcher 2 was something in-between - but the combat was VERY challenging on the hardest difficulty. To me, that is. It felt just right.

As for C&C - that's great in all Witcher games - but it has zero influence in terms of accessibility or challenge. It's separate from the mainstream issue I'm talking about.

Also, I've never been big on dialogue-driven choices - because it feels less like actual roleplaying and more like picking which choice you're least at odds with.

It's cool - but not a big deal to me. It's another reason I'm not as big a fan of Obsidian games as most are around here.

They also do great C&C for the most part - but it just doesn't mean much to me.

Like Sakichop - I don't always notice it, and I really don't care which choice the developer wanted which consequence for. It almost never feels like MY choice - so it's more like flicking through a Sword and Sorcery book to see what might happen, but that never really appealed to me either.

I understand it's a big deal for some of you, but there's no reason to make it into some kind of objectively great thing.

Like anything else in games, it's down to personal preferences.

Person A: The witcher 3 is a great game.
Person B: Yup, best game this year
Person C: Aha! Great means flawless but the combat is flawed, so you are wrong.
Person D: Exactly!
Person A: But I do agree about combat ...
Person D: Also, we have a minority opinion. Please stop suppressing us.

:/

purpleblob said:

Let's face it. Combat definitely wasn't great in The Witcher series. It's boring. It's one of the reasons I couldn't continue on with TW3 after a few hours.

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Let's face it. That's simply your opinion.

It's no surprise that someone who prefers party-based games with TB or RTwP combat didn't like the combat in TW.

While I don't think it's their strongest point, I enjoyed the combat in all of the Witcher games. I even liked it in TW1 which was an acquired taste for many.