RPG Codex - 2008 In Review

Dhruin

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Yes, that time of the year again. RPG Codex has their 2008: The Year in Review piece up. As you'd guess, it essentially boils down to "there were no RPGs" but the surprise is half the article is actually a diatribe on The Witcher:
Here's a trick you can try at home. Make something and release it to the world at large. When people complain about obscene loading times that give you enough time to circumnavigate the world, make a cup of tea and read War and Peace three times over before you get into the next area, a translation that isn't too bad but is missing out on extra Dwarf cock and the fact you've built a city full of clones, just re-release the exact same thing only with a fancy bit after the title that makes it sound like you did something to improve it. That about sums up The Witcher: Enhanced Edition.
More information.
 
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I guess they didn't like The Witcher? Oook, what exactly do they like?
 
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I wouldn't say that "they" didn't like The Witcher. I'm pretty sure it is mostly just Dark Underlord.
 
Sorry my bad, I meant DU :) What exactly does DU like or feel is up to his standards if The Witcher wasn't?
 
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Who really cares what he does and doesn't like? The important thing is to discover what games YOU like, and enjoy those!!
 
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Yep, pretty much DU hating the Witcher. Internally he's also called the Bitcher *shrug*

Since I never really understood his arguments I can't really recount them.

He started off with: the EE would start a trend of releasing buggy games, patching at a later time and hyping the patch.
Now it boils down to:"They are releasing the same game 3 times! Those *insertinsultthatwouldbeallowedonrpgcodex*"

The truly interested could always go over to the codex and browse the news items for TW. I wouldn't bother, though *shrug*
 
I think he was attempting to be witty.

I thought that he was discussing how rather than actually playing games in 2008 he spent the year accumulating his vomit, feces and urine in a big bucket while thinking about the crappy state of games by seeking out only negative things about supposed RPG's released during the year , especially things that lament how they don't measure up to th e'good old days', then meticulously detailed the process of taking the game boxes, putting them on his desk, and dumping the contents of the bucket on them.
 
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I found it an amusing enough read, but then I never mind people being scathing about things, especially when pickings have been pretty disappointing.
 
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Hmm, RPGCodex core members always seem to look like an "elitist" branch of RPG fanatics, I don't blame them. I have a girlfriend, they have not :)
Anyway, The Witcher is an interesting subject. I bought the game, hated it, then downloaded the EE patch, and still hated it.
I admit: there is absolutely no REASON behind my opinion, so zip it :)

For their credit: the list starts with Avernum, so I guess the message might be this: UD feels that an indie effort was worthier than the million-dollar cannons down the list.

By the way, I believe 2008 was a fantastic year for RPG lovers: Fable2, Fallout3, Avernum5, Mount&Blade... and The Witcher EE....
Not a bad lineup, methinks.
 
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I think they still feel a need to erase the blemish of that first, almost gushingly positive Fallout 3 review ;)
 
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I am still clueless to why people complain about slow loading times, I played the normal edition of TW with the patch, and after that they were quite fast, and I do not have a top of the line computer by any means!
 
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I thought that he was discussing how rather than actually playing games in 2008 he spent the year accumulating his vomit, feces and urine in a big bucket while thinking about the crappy state of games by seeking out only negative things about supposed RPG's released during the year , especially things that lament how they don't measure up to th e'good old days', then meticulously detailed the process of taking the game boxes, putting them on his desk, and dumping the contents of the bucket on them.

That is, Mike, mostly what the Codex is about these days. I call it the "Roshambo"-syndrome that has infected the Codex with DU and Section8 as the posterboys for all the ESF refugees that think they can score by dissing Bethesda.

It's telling that the new and improved Vault Dweller is less and less visible there.

OMG: Decline of the Codex!
 
The Codex is d0med!
 
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Hmm, RPGCodex core members always seem to look like an "elitist" branch of RPG fanatics, I don't blame them. I have a girlfriend, they have not :)
Anyway, The Witcher is an interesting subject. I bought the game, hated it, then downloaded the EE patch, and still hated it.
I admit: there is absolutely no REASON behind my opinion, so zip it :)
Thank you! I played it for a few hours, and also didn't like it. Maybe it's just not my style of game (for the record, I also didn't like Gothic 1 or 2 or 3)
 
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Thank you! I played it for a few hours, and also didn't like it. Maybe it's just not my style of game (for the record, I also didn't like Gothic 1 or 2 or 3)

The first part of that statement is ok. The part in parentheses means something is seriously wrong with you. ;)
 
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Interesting.

The Enhanced Edition had several significant improvements, but I think the key part this person is missing is that it's free.

So, this person is perceiving free improvements, no matter how small you try to make them, as a negative.

To me, this means the person in question is unreasonable to the extent that I wouldn't personally bother interacting with him. I consider myself quite tolerant, but complaining about being handed a gift you didn't have coming is beyond what I can accept from a human being.
 
I can see where he's coming from on the Witcher issue. The game was simply very flawed on release with an awful translation and horrendous loading times being the worst offenders. This is somehow not only excused, but applauded due to CD project releasing the Enhanced Edition.

It's not about patching, it's about the fact that this game got released with some really big flaws, and CD project is cashing in on it by re-marketing and re-releasing the game (not exploiting current customers mind you, since it's free) through the use of bug fixing and minor translation upgrades (like the article says, the differences are hardly earthshattering).

I think it's nice that they patched this stuff, it made me enjoy my copy a bit more after all. But I really, really don't want to see this become some sort of industry standard where a company is "forgiven" for releasing a game, which might have big problems with it, because they patch it later on and also cash in on it again.
Shouldn't we expect to get games that are at the very least decently translated?

That said, I think the title of The Bitcher is well deserved due to that novel sized rant he's got going there (and which has been repeated through Witcher news comments a lot), but I can definetely see his point.
 
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The Enhanced Edition had several significant improvements
Name them. EE simply added a couple of reskinned models that were supossed to make characters look less generic - they failed at that, BTW - and slightly revamped the inventory system. That's it.
To me, this means the person in question is unreasonable to the extent that I wouldn't personally bother interacting with him. I consider myself quite tolerant, but complaining about being handed a gift you didn't have coming is beyond what I can accept from a human being.
You missed the point, completely. DU isn't complaining about free goodies, he's complaining about the hype campaign that was ridiculously overblown, considering the not-so-high number of fixes and their rather trivial nature.
 
The Codex is d0med!

Decline of the Codex!

And seriously guys, DU has every right to hate the Witcher even if it's a bit obsessive, he argues pretty clearly why he dislikes it. And the Enhanced Edition really shouldn't have got the attention it did (either in hype form or from the angry diatribes of DU on the Codex), being just a patch/expansion and hardly worth more notice than a port.

Hell, the end conclusion is "2008 was a really bad year for RPGs". That's a fair point, and it's the same view we're taking over on GameBanshee for our end-of-the-year round-up (which is getting to be a bit late but eh).

I am still clueless to why people complain about slow loading times, I played the normal edition of TW with the patch, and after that they were quite fast, and I do not have a top of the line computer by any means!

"I don't have this problem" should never equate "I don't get people complaining about this issue". It's a technical issue on the PC. The fact that you don't have it means exactly nothing to other people's experiences. "It runs fine for me" is not a good answer to "this game is buggy as hell"
 
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