The Witcher 2 - v2.0 Review @ GameBanshee

That doesn't mean it's a good feature. :)

Personally, I just find the concept of arenas to be very cliche at this point. Even when the arena is integrated into the main game, it rarely adds anything other than more combat and loot.

Oblivion, Dragon Age, Gothic 3, TW II, etc… it's simply been used too many times imo.

It's like the RPG equivalent of a clip episode on a television show, a cheap way to pad out your length without really adding new content. It's basically organized grinding.

Some games spice it up a little by adding some interesting characters to it, like Oblivion had the half orc prince and the adoring fan (hey I didn't say interesting good ;) ) but still it is what it is.

In this case though, it's being released months later and basically as a completely separate game without even any attempts at a story and some half baked 'compete with your friend's score' social network stuff as if it were some Facebook game. Worse yet, I've seen multiple complaints from various people who tried it that the mechanics of it are terrible.

Clearly I am not the intended audience for such an addon, but it seems a wasted effort to me. Truthfully, I've yet to hear anything good about it, but I really do hope some people are enjoying it otherwise it's time they could have spent on something else.

I feel like these guys are trying really hard to make an action game when, in my opinion, their true talents lie elsewhere.
 
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It's obviously meant for the console version, they promised the pc version would get any extras the console version would. We're kind of playtesting and providing feedback for whatever ends up on the xbox disc.

What isn't a cliché in an rpg? Taverns? Dungeons? Towns? Brothels?

Considering how combat centric the societies we play in are, arenas make sense. I felt that in a sandbox game like oblivion the arena provided a nice way of starting from the bottom and get some combat training done and fill the pockets a bit.

I'm glad to hear that the changes to the combat system seem to be for the better, however I won't bother reinstalling the game in the next year or so unless it's for an expansion.
 
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I'm not going to wet my pants over the arena feature but since it must have been relatively easy to make and because it'll both satisfy those who like social elements in their games while keeping the hype around the game alive until the X360 release it was probably a failsafe decision for CDP.
 
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What isn't a cliché in an rpg? Taverns? Dungeons? Towns? Brothels?

It's safe to say that those things have a lot more to offer in terms of variety than an arena. It's not just that an arena is cliche, it's also the fact that it's a very limited concept to begin with. You fight a series of increasingly difficult opponents… and… yeah.
 
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Oblivion, Dragon Age, Gothic 3, TW II, etc… it's simply been used too many times imo.

I don't remember an arena in Dragon Age. Where was that at? Are you sure there was an arena?
 
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The proving in Orzammar(SP?).

Oh yeah, that's right. I kind of forgot about that since it can be skipped, and even if you play through it, it takes a very small amount of time to complete it. Not very memorable either way, but it was there :)
 
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Depending on how loose one wishes to define "arena", it could be said TW2 already had a couple.

Laredo's backyard cavern and King Henselt's camp come to mind

I honestly don't have much an issue with arenas so long as they're well implemented, plausible or (barring the aforementioned) minimal/optional.

What isn't a cliché in an rpg? Taverns? Dungeons? Towns? Brothels?

I have to agree with you here… But don't forget dragons, they're the ArrPeeGee cliche staple of choice these days.
 
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English accents! You have to mention English accents whenever talking about rpg cliches. ;)
 
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Yeah, I have to agree that the Arena mode is pretty pointless from where I'm sitting. I love that they upgrade their games like this for free, but I would definitely have preferred some kind of extension to the main story. I've only played it through once, and I've been looking for a reason to go back. The Dark mode is not nearly enough - and I'm not really that big a fan of branching storyline paths as an incentive to replay what's essentially the same story.

I prefer a meaty expansion or a lot of significant minor C&C stuff to get a more interesting second look of the game.

But nothing will take away the fact that the core game was magnificent - and stands as a very firm number 2 after DE:HR for GotY.
 
If you don't like the arena just skip it ? Anyways I have the gog version and it updated fine. Haven't really tried it kind of stuck in the middle of fallout 2 right now.
 
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