The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[Beowulf]

[...]
The only thing that terrifies me about Witcher 3 is that due to its staggering sales every single dev studio and publisher will think "oh, so this is what a successful RPG should look like" and start aping it. We've already had Horizon ZD and AssCreed Origins. If that continues - which it will - then we'll look back with moist eyes at the golden age when everyone was aping Skyrim [...]

W3 is a stellar example of checkbox design, and it shows, that they were copying features of other open-world games. I'm pretty sure Horizon ZD and AssCreed games would look almost the same as now, without W3.

 

[Falksi]

Most of the quests are boring shit too. Talk to person, get some exposition ("My turtle ran off into the woods go get it back"), go to marker, use witcher senses, click on red stuff, follow red stuff, kill thing, return to quest giver. Words cannot describe the sense of achievement I get from managing to click on red things. Bandits cower in fear at my red-thing-clicking abilities. Maybe some times they'll mix it up and I might have to go listen to 2 or 3 different dialogues by boring fuckwits before I get to click more red things. Wew.

I love the writing, but it's hard to deny the way we're required to interact with the quests is unengaging. The Witcher 3 is faithful to the source material and tries to capture a Witcher's versatile skillset of alchemist, private investigator, and swordmaster rolled into one. Unfortunately many of these roles aren't translated into compelling gameplay. I'm not saying alchemy should've been as involved as Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but it needed some kind of hook. Same with the breadcrumb investigations. The game simply doesn't trust a player's intelligence or resolve against a genuine obstacle.

Alchemy is a perfect example of something they have previously used, and should have used for TW3, to keep things more interesting IMO.

An enemy who's invisible unless you drink a certain potion - thus a quest to contruct said potion; an enemy who you have to sneak a drop of a potion to into a drink to reveal them - again another quest for said potion; combining already existing postions to discover weird & wonderful ones which do random things, some as daft as giving you a constant hard on for days etc; oils which are esential to kill certain beasts else they are invulnerable, and again said quests to get them; oils which do more obscure things such as shrink a blad & allow it to be snuck past guards etc.

There some quick ideas off the top of my head, but TW3 was such a missed opportunity it's unreal.

Dumbtards got they're dumb-playing-game.

 

[Anomander Rake]

I've been playing TW3 in these last days and to be honest, I'm deluded. I think the best one is the first one, but I really liked the second one and I had hoped I would find a good resolution in the third (that's why I've been waiting so much to playing it, so other people would squash the bugs and let me enjoy the experience to the fullest).

--> First, I hate the open world approach they've taken. I don't hate the open world per se, but I think it was just made so big just for the scale of it and it was filled with pointless stuff "?" included just to make it more crowded, but for me it is clearly a sign first of disrespect to the player, second of whole lazyness on the developers (and I can't blame them, after all the world is too huge to make enough good and meaningful content).

--> Second issue I've found is that combat is pointless. There is no skill involved in it, apart from dodging in the right moment, but the issue is exacerbated by the fact that you can avoid oils altogether (I'm currently playing on the difficulty right before the hardest one, can't remember the name) while they would be absolutely needed in the other two installment (TW 1 was a clear sign where I couldn't face the beast without the appropriated oil).

--> Third issue that luckily I didn't face (because I've got a mod that fixes it) is that mod is level scaled around you and the experience is scaled to your level proving the developers never took a look at the issues this has. Apart from the fact that you are bound to do quests in a certain order (making it a puzzle for the player to get them in the right order, because there are many), but you've got the nasty issue that sometimes all you can experience is the content without making the player rewarded for it -> the 5 xp for the completed quest when you are overleveled, or killing monsters for 1 xp is the worst implementation I've ever seen and I'm frankly astonished that TW3 is so praised.

--> Forth issue is that the story does not include at all the true and real consequences you should have brought with you from TW2, I'm mostly talking about Saskia and Iorveth, I would have loved to see developers stay true to their words, but they didn't do that.

--> Fifth issue is that the quests are not so well written as I would expect.
Let's split them between main quest and secondary quest.

> The main quest with the bloody baron for now satisfies me (I just reached Anna), I guess, so I don't have much to complain because I've got yet to go on, but I hope I won't be disappointed.

> While if you talk about witcher quests or secondary contracts I didn't like many to be honest (just the one where a certain sisters asks you stop investigating the death of his own sister).
I guess to this date the oneI liked the most was the quest "cat and wolf", where you meet a fellow cat witcher. I can't remember any other quest and that for me is a clear sign that something is wrong (I've just finished the bloody baron quests and I know I'm a little behind on main quest but I'm currently level 20 so I did many of these).
Even if the cat and wolf quest is well done, there is no real feeling for the player, apart from trying to get into the shoes of the witcher itself.
I say a "true witcher" because Geralt is well known thanks to Dandelion Ballads, so he is almost a mystical figure amongst the witchers. Others don't ahve an easy life.

Also it is talked about the harshness of the world but it seems this thing only works for other Witchers, where the client tries to fuck you up, but no one in the game tries to fool Geralt out of its rewards.

Add to that, Geralt sometimes seems really hypocrite. He is so willing to help people to the point of not getting the 200 coins he is supposed to get, but yesterday while I was on the main road with roach a woman asked me to find his husband. I did and the husband was in an area full of wolves, I killed them all and then told the wife.
Then Geralt make a remarks to the wife of being careful when going to get the corpse of his husband because it may be dangerous

Holy shit the developers think that giving 200 coins back is a behaviour that Geralt would have, but they don't give a fuck about the fact that Geralt leaves a wife to get his husband in an area populated by wolves ready to feast on them?

I don't understand how the fuck no one complained to this date to these shitty quests.

 

[moon knight]

--> First, I hate the open world approach they've taken. I don't hate the open world per se, but I think it was just made so big just for the scale of it and it was filled with pointless stuff "?" included just to make it more crowded, but for me it is clearly a sign first of disrespect to the player, second of whole lazyness on the developers (and I can't blame them, after all the world is too huge to make enough good and meaningful content).

Let's not joke about that, in terms of level design is one of the best open world out there. And no, the pointless "?" stuff is absolutely pointless and doesn't make the world "crowded". If you disable that in the options is even better.

 

[Storyfag]

You're so right. I have a secret agenda to pretend that hidden and fake stat boosts are bad game design for the sole purpose of besmirching CDPR's good name.

I take it all back. Obviously, CDPR can do no wrong.

Are you saying I am using the "acknowledge this user's Agenda" button wrong? I meant to convey my agreement to your visible agenda...

 

[Blaine]

Are you saying I am using the "acknowledge this user's Agenda" button wrong? I meant to convey my agreement to your visible agenda...

The Agenda rating exists as a direct result of my premium-quality shitposting. It's essentially my calling card, like

for prosper. I never asked for it, but at some point the meme became so dank that they turned it into a post rating.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-want-to-know-more.75932/page-20#post-2400769

Agenda-based Brofisting is just an offshoot. The main thrust of my anti-agenda tirade was always against people with proverbial hidden agendas. Essentially, certain people (Jews, communists, etc.) argue in a certain way not because they actually want to achieve the obvious and direct goal of their arguments, but rather to surreptitiously further the advancement of something much more shameful, sinister, and/or controversial.

People are increasingly using the rating the way you used it, and it throws me off.

 

[cvv]

Shit, that's the first time I hear this. I guess it's like the parrot brofist, its meaning and point long lost in the swirling mists of time.

The difference being that the agenda brofist is universally used as a more prestigious and cultured "Agreed" while the parrot meaning is completely up for grabs as far as I can tell.

 

[Grauken]

eh, I didn't even knew this was due to Blaine and always understood it as, you're having a secret agenda

 

[Falksi]

I've been playing TW3 in these last days and to be honest, I'm deluded. I think the best one is the first one, but I really liked the second one and I had hoped I would find a good resolution in the third (that's why I've been waiting so much to playing it, so other people would squash the bugs and let me enjoy the experience to the fullest).

--> First, I hate the open world approach they've taken. I don't hate the open world per se, but I think it was just made so big just for the scale of it and it was filled with pointless stuff "?" included just to make it more crowded, but for me it is clearly a sign first of disrespect to the player, second of whole lazyness on the developers (and I can't blame them, after all the world is too huge to make enough good and meaningful content).

--> Second issue I've found is that combat is pointless. There is no skill involved in it, apart from dodging in the right moment, but the issue is exacerbated by the fact that you can avoid oils altogether (I'm currently playing on the difficulty right before the hardest one, can't remember the name) while they would be absolutely needed in the other two installment (TW 1 was a clear sign where I couldn't face the beast without the appropriated oil).

--> Third issue that luckily I didn't face (because I've got a mod that fixes it) is that mod is level scaled around you and the experience is scaled to your level proving the developers never took a look at the issues this has. Apart from the fact that you are bound to do quests in a certain order (making it a puzzle for the player to get them in the right order, because there are many), but you've got the nasty issue that sometimes all you can experience is the content without making the player rewarded for it -> the 5 xp for the completed quest when you are overleveled, or killing monsters for 1 xp is the worst implementation I've ever seen and I'm frankly astonished that TW3 is so praised.

--> Forth issue is that the story does not include at all the true and real consequences you should have brought with you from TW2, I'm mostly talking about Saskia and Iorveth, I would have loved to see developers stay true to their words, but they didn't do that.

--> Fifth issue is that the quests are not so well written as I would expect.
Let's split them between main quest and secondary quest.

> The main quest with the bloody baron for now satisfies me (I just reached Anna), I guess, so I don't have much to complain because I've got yet to go on, but I hope I won't be disappointed.

> While if you talk about witcher quests or secondary contracts I didn't like many to be honest (just the one where a certain sisters asks you stop investigating the death of his own sister).
I guess to this date the oneI liked the most was the quest "cat and wolf", where you meet a fellow cat witcher. I can't remember any other quest and that for me is a clear sign that something is wrong (I've just finished the bloody baron quests and I know I'm a little behind on main quest but I'm currently level 20 so I did many of these).
Even if the cat and wolf quest is well done, there is no real feeling for the player, apart from trying to get into the shoes of the witcher itself.
I say a "true witcher" because Geralt is well known thanks to Dandelion Ballads, so he is almost a mystical figure amongst the witchers. Others don't ahve an easy life.

Also it is talked about the harshness of the world but it seems this thing only works for other Witchers, where the client tries to fuck you up, but no one in the game tries to fool Geralt out of its rewards.

Add to that, Geralt sometimes seems really hypocrite. He is so willing to help people to the point of not getting the 200 coins he is supposed to get, but yesterday while I was on the main road with roach a woman asked me to find his husband. I did and the husband was in an area full of wolves, I killed them all and then told the wife.
Then Geralt make a remarks to the wife of being careful when going to get the corpse of his husband because it may be dangerous

Holy shit the developers think that giving 200 coins back is a behaviour that Geralt would have, but they don't give a fuck about the fact that Geralt leaves a wife to get his husband in an area populated by wolves ready to feast on them?

I don't understand how the fuck no one complained to this date to these shitty quests.

Agree with a lot of those points.

Carnal Sins, Fools Gold and a handful of other quests are worth the time, but that's about it. Most are dull, including the main one.

In fact the Bloody Baron is by far & away the high point of the main quest, from there's it's fairly boring with a few funnier/warmier bits towards the end, but nothing on the Bloody Baron scale of quality.

As I always advise, don't be afraid to skip to Blood & Wine if you've had enough. Little changes i nthe main game, but B&W is a far better package.

 

[Storyfag]

Are you saying I am using the "acknowledge this user's Agenda" button wrong? I meant to convey my agreement to your visible agenda...

The Agenda rating exists as a direct result of my premium-quality shitposting. It's essentially my calling card, like

for prosper. I never asked for it, but at some point the meme became so dank that they turned it into a post rating.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-want-to-know-more.75932/page-20#post-2400769

Agenda-based Brofisting is just an offshoot. The main thrust of my anti-agenda tirade was always against people with proverbial hidden agendas. Essentially, certain people (Jews, communists, etc.) argue in a certain way not because they actually want to achieve the obvious and direct goal of their arguments, but rather to surreptitiously further the advancement of something much more shameful, sinister, and/or controversial.

People are increasingly using the rating the way you used it, and it throws me off.

Your Agenda and autism are acknowledged. Zero fucks have been given.

 

[AwesomeButton]

This. I've always said that while Witcher 1 is a great, unique RPG and Witcher 2 still retains some of that, despite some dumbing down, Witcher 3 is a full-blown third person action adventure with RPG elements. It also sold 10x as much. They didn't trust players' intelligence and it paid off royally.

It sold so much because of the 30 minutes cinematic demo on E3 which opened up their campaign, and demonstrated visuals and writing beyond the quality of anything yet seen. Only later it turned out that the visuals were downgraded, but by then the game generated so much buzz that the landslide was on. And the writing is on par with the best examples in videogames, I don't know how anyone would deny that. Especially when even renowned game writers are acknowledging it.

 

[razvedchiki]

among the best in the industry?so ....like torment?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Shit, that's the first time I hear this. I guess it's like the parrot brofist, its meaning and point long lost in the swirling mists of time.

The difference being that the agenda brofist is universally used as a more prestigious and cultured "Agreed" while the parrot meaning is completely up for grabs as far as I can tell.

= emphasis, indeed, interesting, worth considering, hmm..., pirates, fjords, tongue-in-cheek, mischievous

NG

LG

_________ CG​

LN

_______

________

CN

LE

________

CE

NE​

The parrot is a creature both majestic and versatile.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

So I complete a quest and head into a tavern to get my pay. 2 angry mongoloids decide they want a fight, and I literally can't say no. The first time around, they both hit me as soon as the cutscene ended and triggered some bullshit where they kill the other guy, so I reload and try again. This time I manage to dodge their instant attacks, and go to fight back. The instant I land a punch on one, it starts the fucking cutscene again. It literally will not let me win. I have to sit there and watch some useless lout just kick over Geralt like he's a fucking mannequin and then watch the other guy die while Geralt lays on the floor like a twat. In my playthrough I've gone around the various islands proving I'm good in a fist fight, beating up all kinds of beefcakes, at one point going up against 2 bad-ass motherfuckers at the same time to secure their help, but noooo, you have to lose to these this random cuntwaffle just because the game says so. Could they really not think of a better way to get the other guy killed? Why not have them pretend to give up and then stab him in the back or something? Yet again the game has to decide for me whether or not I'm capable in a fight, and make Geralt look like a fucking useless nonce yet again. I took away its absurd buffs, now it just outright forces a cutscene instead. I'm trying to enjoy the game but it just keeps stabbing me in the dick. If I wanted to be railroaded this hard I'd go to a gay bar.

 

[Blaine]

PLOT PUNCH

NO FUCK YOU THE STORY GOES LIKE THIS

 

[AwesomeButton]

Yep, why have combat when the outcome will be irrelevant. Better not give the player control at all and go with a cutscene. Either that or provide a win outcome and a lose outcome.

 

[Blaine]

Either that or provide a win outcome and a lose outcome.

Now that's just crazy talk!

This is an aspect of the decline that is often connected one way or another to full voice acting. It's laborious enough writing and scripting complicated C&C, but having to pay actors to speak every single line of dialogue―especially lines that might not be heard by most players, depending on their choices (with touches on another aspect of the decline: THEY HAVE TO SEE ALL OF THE CONTENT OR OUR EFFORTS ARE WASTED)―is a strong contributor to railroaded, Biowarean dialogue trees.

Even New Vegas, which is probably the most inclined cRPG in the Bioware/Bethesduh format, suffers noticeably from this, although they still fit far more C&C into NV than Bethesda ever did into any of its games.

The other major downsides of full voice acting are that in large RPGs, many characters share the same voice actor, and even if there are 30+ actors, you soon get the feeling that you're in a world of clones; and it's tricky for talented modders to create expanded content unless they have access to professional or professional-quality voice actors.

 

[Grauken]

whenever there's voice acting and I can shut it off, I do, as I can read much faster and being forced to endure, even good voice acting, is just torture

 

[Anomander Rake]

I started to skip all the dialogues inside Novigrad. Just give me Dandelion, I don't give a fuck about the rest

 

[Falksi]

I started to skip all the dialogues inside Novigrad. Just give me Dandelion, I don't give a fuck about the rest

Here's a shed load of people to find before you find him.

What a pathetic main quest. Anyone who seriously enjoyed it is a pure fucktarded thundercunt.

 

[Anomander Rake]

Another thing that I hate now is the relationship between Geralt\Triss and Yennefer

How the fuck did anyone with a rational mind appreciate all of this? A thought I've found on internet:

"Imagine you are single (unless you are already) and you meet this amazing girl and you fall in love (unless you already have that right now, then go with this girl for my scenario ... also if you're a girl just re-imagine it with guys or whatever is your preference). She's pretty much perfect in every way, any flaws she might have you can easily overlook. She's beautiful, smart and you have NEVER been this happy in you entire life. You spend an entire year with her in a honeymoon state. You have already been imagining a future together for quite some time already. You won't need any other woman in your life other than her, ever again.

Then you wake up one morning, but this time you remember 10 years of your life that you didn't even know were there. And in this past you remember you had a wife who loves you and misses you and whom you love and miss as well. You have children together, a history. You also spent many wonderful years together, you had a good thing going before something happened and you got separated. You want that again. The family and the love.

But you can't have it back unless you part with what you've been building for the past year. Your new lover doesn't want to let you go and you don't wan't to let her go. Your old lover wants you back and you want her back too, but you also don't want to hurt and lose the new lover.

Who do you choose? HOW do you even make such a choice ... to me that's like having to choose between the lives of your two children, one older and one younger (only, with lovers nobody dies)."

....

10/10 CD project, I hope your fandom (or should I say zealotdom) turns negative upon you and unleashes a shitstorm of epic proportion. But hey, gamers nowadays don't have a brain it seems, that's why whole world is turning to shit if such an endorsed game is shit

 

[Inziladun]

Another thing that I hate now is the relationship between Geralt\Triss and Yennefer

How the fuck did anyone with a rational mind appreciate all of this? A thought I've found on internet:

"Imagine you are single (unless you are already) and you meet this amazing girl and you fall in love (unless you already have that right now, then go with this girl for my scenario ... also if you're a girl just re-imagine it with guys or whatever is your preference). She's pretty much perfect in every way, any flaws she might have you can easily overlook. She's beautiful, smart and you have NEVER been this happy in you entire life. You spend an entire year with her in a honeymoon state. You have already been imagining a future together for quite some time already. You won't need any other woman in your life other than her, ever again.

Then you wake up one morning, but this time you remember 10 years of your life that you didn't even know were there. And in this past you remember you had a wife who loves you and misses you and whom you love and miss as well. You have children together, a history. You also spent many wonderful years together, you had a good thing going before something happened and you got separated. You want that again. The family and the love.

But you can't have it back unless you part with what you've been building for the past year. Your new lover doesn't want to let you go and you don't wan't to let her go. Your old lover wants you back and you want her back too, but you also don't want to hurt and lose the new lover.

Who do you choose? HOW do you even make such a choice ... to me that's like having to choose between the lives of your two children, one older and one younger (only, with lovers nobody dies)."

....

10/10 CD project, I hope your fandom (or should I say zealotdom) turns negative upon you and unleashes a shitstorm of epic proportion. But hey, gamers nowadays don't have a brain it seems, that's why whole world is turning to shit if such an endorsed game is shit

It's more like who do you like better, Big tits with red hair or big tits with black hair.

 

[Anomander Rake]

both of them have little tits, though. Seems like the developers have an appreciation for little breasts.

Seems like these developers love to masturbate over water hags

 

[Anomander Rake]

I am triggered. When everyone paints an rpg game into a huge pile of gold, I can rightly get mad given that I can't get enough of decent rpg doses

 

[Anomander Rake]

It's like if the character themselves are drifted away by what they say with empty words and lack of meaning. Roleplaying would mean that I have a true take on what I'm supposed to do, with different point of views that made me feel my actions fulfilled by a purpose.

But there is no purpose here, just blank exposition and a choice between two characters where you have a little background whose potential is untapped (Triss used you by not telling you the truth and trying to fuck with you, both literally and not) and no real attachment (Jennifer is totally new and she ain't made memorable to the player).