Review The Escapist bitch-slaps The Witcher

[Deleted member 7219]

Re: re

crappy writing and voice acting

am i the only one who thinks the voice-acting generally rocks? i only just made it into the city (past the first village) but i was immediately struck by the high quality of the acting. Granted i started playing right after watching someone play two worlds (talk about crappy voice acting).

I agree. I thought the writing and voice acting were really good.

 

[Section8]

Since I play CRPGs for the story that's a problem for me.

And there it is. From the sounds of it, he's hated something about every CRPG he's ever played and if story is his holy grail, maybe he ought to look toward genres more befitting his tastes. Either that or go pick up a bunch of Salvatore pulp from somewhere.

Still, I can't believe anyone would willingly slog through NWN repeatedly for all the "story" it had to offer, and not be able to stomach The Witcher. My theory is, The Witcher bested him. Since NWN and for that matter, a couple of the other games he mentions have very little challenge and gameplay resistance - you can basically sit back, be passive and let the game play itself until the next step in the cliched saga - then it seems a logical conclusion.

And as for the misogyny, why not just get over it? It's like people bitching about how gangsta rap is so aggresive and violent. It's also hilarious if you see it for the tongue in cheek humour that it is. So do what I do - get naked bitches on your tip and join them in laughing off the Witcher's rather silly James Bond-esque misogyny.

 

[doctor_kaz]

Why is it that shitty reviews like this one always seem to be written for games that need positive exposure the most? Bad dialog? It's only here and there. It's not prevalent in every conversation. I am in Act IV and I haven't any problems following or understanding a conversation. Objectifying women? Christ, get a fucking sense of humor. The game obviously doesn't take itself seriously in this department. Bad voice acting? It's not that bad. I'll bet that this same guy spoojed all over Oblivion and it's shitty convention of having three people voice everyone in the entire world, not to mention sometimes changing voices in mid-conversation. Combat? I have had absolutely none of the problems that this guy has had. Maybe it's related to camera view. There are ways to get through tough combat in the game. You have to sort of discover them. The powerups (i.e. potions and weapons coatings) work much differently than most games. You have to get used to them. I wonder if this is largely related to Atari almost abandoning PR for the game. They don't hand out $800 bags of goodies like Bungie does, so they can't buy their way out of bad reviews.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

It's a shame really. I liked this guys other reviews, but he's totally wrong about The Witcher and after some of the stuff he's said (bad dialogue and voice acting? WHAT THE FUCK?) he's lost all credibility in my eyes.

 

[Herbert West]

Objectifying women? Christ, get a fucking sense of humor. The game obviously doesn't take itself seriously in this department.

Yes, it doesn't seem to be 100% serious, however for most part- it is. Not because it's the devs point of view, it's simply one of the properties of the world portrayed in that game. It's a men's world, with all the vices that come with it, such as objectifying women. I can't understand how the fuck most reviewers fail to grasp it and call the devs sexist. Most if not all artist portraying unpleasant issues are sexist, rotten and evil by that logic.
TW world is flawed and corrupted, it's not the same planet or even in the same universe as fairy-tale oblivion.

 

[bezimek]

Of course you are right Herbert West but most reviewers didn`t read books of Andrzej Sapkowski.

I think that card collection mini-game in Wiedźmin is tasteless and unneccesary. It is added for 12-14 years boys In Wiedźmin 2 it should be removed.

 

[Brother None]

Are you serious? 10 hours is more than enough time for a game to start getting good. Even if you play one hour and you didn't like it, then the game has a problem. I have no idea if Witcher's first 10 hours are good or not, but in general, it would be absurd to say that you need to play more than 10 hours to form an opinion. Hell, I gave Fallout 2 away because the Temple of Trials sucked. I don't intend on playing 10 hours of Oblivion to confirm that it sucks.

Yes, and as a gamer, that's fine.

Escapist Magazine is a paying employer, as far as I know, these people get paid for this.

I get paid for working on GameBanshee too. When previewing Hard to be a God, I played the demo through 2 times and twice more with different builds just to be sure I explored it properly, I re-read the book which I hadn't picked up in ages, and only after investing that much time, way over 10 hours, did I consider myself qualified to do a preview.

Doing a review based on 10 hours is simply unprofessional. It's not a matter of whether or not it's the game's fault for not impressing you in 10 hours, you're a journalist. You don't get up and walk out of a movie theater 30 minutes in, no matter how horrible it is, it's your job to watch the whole thing so you can warn others not to.

I'm also disappointed this is coming for the Escapist. They recently reached 1 million visitors a month and I'm happy for them, but I'm starting to worry if they're not going the way of all "major" gaming sites and letting their quality control slip as they grow. And like I said on RPGWatch, I also think they're just riding on Zero Punctuation's popularity. There was none last Thursday, and immediately their user statistics take a hit. How apropos.

 

[One-guy]

Oh, common. Guy does not like the game, that's fine. His own opinion. I just dont understand his complaining about the story, but...hell, maybe he thinks that NWN 2 (not MotB) story is very original
The thingies that makes me angry are those f***ng complaining about "objectifying women". God damned political corectness is trying to terrorise players!? This is a f*** fiction with an alter universe, not a virgin-like fairy tale with western society (full of love and peace and freedom and all that bullshit we call "highter civilisation"). This world has never tryed to be perfect. Even more- it was designed to be brutal, violent, full of hatress and discrimination. Grow up to that or go back to play another titles with full equality, political language or any other stuff that you are able to accept.

 

[Herbert West]

I get paid for working on GameBanshee too. When previewing Hard to be a God, I played the demo through 2 times and twice more with different builds just to be sure I explored it properly, I re-read the book which I hadn't picked up in ages, and only after investing that much time, way over 10 hours, did I consider myself qualified to do a preview.

You sir, are most worthy of respect

 

[asper]

The thingies that makes me angry are those f***ng complaining about "objectifying women". God damned political corectness is trying to terrorise players!? This is a f*** fiction with an alter universe, not a virgin-like fairy tale with western society (full of love and peace and freedom and all that bullshit we call "highter civilisation"). This world has never tryed to be perfect. Even more- it was designed to be brutal, violent, full of hatress and discrimination. Grow up to that or go back to play another titles with full equality, political language or any other stuff that you are able to accept.

So it's childish to criticize those boobie cards? And according to you they are added to portray a "mature" and "serious" world? Yeah, the teenagers drooling over their keyboards are experiencing a grim and brutal world for sure.

They were just added so the game sells more, and are meant to titillate male players. Totally unnecessary for the portrayal of the world.

The problem is that some (most?) people interpret things like these as a sign that you should have sex with a lot of girls, and girls want it etc.

edit >> Btw, personally I'd say a world in which some hero guy runs around and has sex with lots of willing chicks is not at all "brutal" or "violent", but exactly a silly and childish "western fairy-tale" (Just talking about the sex aspect of the Witcher here). Exactly the opposite of what you're saying..

 

[doctor_kaz]

And what's up with this "lack of polish" business? Want to see a lack of polish? Try playing Neverwinter Nights out of the box with no patch. Or Mass Effect for that matter (from what I've heard). I find The Witcher to be at a very high level of polish, considering the huge scope of the game.

 

[vrok]

BTW, run the Oblivion test on this guy. How did he rate it?

Sorry haven’t played enough Oblivion to make a judgment. Maybe… 2% of the game?

The test is only 20% complete. You'll have to wait.

edit >> Btw, personally I'd say a world in which some hero guy runs around and has sex with lots of willing chicks is not at all "brutal" or "violent", but exactly a silly and childish "western fairy-tale" (Just talking about the sex aspect of the Witcher here). Exactly the opposite of what you're saying..

So having (in TW it's more like being able to have) sex with lots of willing chicks is silly and childish? Damn. Life is made of fail, eh?

 

[MountainWest]

interpret things like these as a sign that you should have sex with a lot of girls,

Why not? I'm sure you agree there's worse things than having sex.

and girls want it etc.

They do. Fuck, they're worse than guys these days. Angelic girlie girls are a relic of the past, a time when they were oppressed for real.

 

[obediah]

edit >> Btw, personally I'd say a world in which some hero guy runs around and has sex with lots of willing chicks is not at all "brutal" or "violent", but exactly a silly and childish "western fairy-tale" (Just talking about the sex aspect of the Witcher here). Exactly the opposite of what you're saying..

So having (in TW it's more like being able to have) sex with lots of willing chicks is silly and childish? Damn. Life is made of fail, eh?

Seems like a ridiculous concept to me.

 

[Nael]

Re: re

crappy writing and voice acting

am i the only one who thinks the voice-acting generally rocks? i only just made it into the city (past the first village) but i was immediately struck by the high quality of the acting. Granted i started playing right after watching someone play two worlds (talk about crappy voice acting).

I agree. I thought the writing and voice acting were really good.

Especially after the 2nd Chapter. I think I mentioned this here before, but it felt like to me that the voice actors were reading their lines chronologically from the beginning of the game and were perhaps confused by the hackjob performed by Atari (or whoever did the translation). Later on in the game I think the voice actors felt more confident and even seemed to ad lib a few lines where something was obviously missing. It's a shame it came to that, but it does work down the stretch within the game. That or I just got used to the retarded shit (which is entirely possible).

 

[Atrokkus]

Oh god, im speechless. that was one of the most retarded reviews i've ever seen.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

The thingies that makes me angry are those f***ng complaining about "objectifying women". God damned political corectness is trying to terrorise players!? This is a f*** fiction with an alter universe, not a virgin-like fairy tale with western society (full of love and peace and freedom and all that bullshit we call "highter civilisation"). This world has never tryed to be perfect. Even more- it was designed to be brutal, violent, full of hatress and discrimination. Grow up to that or go back to play another titles with full equality, political language or any other stuff that you are able to accept.

So it's childish to criticize those boobie cards? And according to you they are added to portray a "mature" and "serious" world? Yeah, the teenagers drooling over their keyboards are experiencing a grim and brutal world for sure.

They were just added so the game sells more, and are meant to titillate male players. Totally unnecessary for the portrayal of the world.

The problem is that some (most?) people interpret things like these as a sign that you should have sex with a lot of girls, and girls want it etc.

Cruel facts of life for the emotionally delicate:

• Men frequently consider women from a purely sexual viewpoint.
• The vast majority of women, at least at some point in their lives, will exploit this fact for their own benefit.

I find it interesting that the outcry centres either on Geralt's promiscuity or the (rather tame) display of the female flesh. Nothing has been mentioned on manipulative and mercenary nature of the women Geralt beds. As far as I can recall, all the ‘ladies’ Geralt encounters use sex as either a means to extract something from him - be it an item, or aid, or compliance - or as payment for services rendered.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

Gothic's controls are awkward for about 5 minutes.

 

[Zomg]

That was the first thing that writer ever wrote for the site, too. So, apparently he got published on the merit of that review. Escapist, balls.

 

[bozia2012]

Where Bioshock had me gaping at the scenery, The Witcher had me ignoring that Geralt would walk through monster corpses to loot them. Character models frequently had bits of long grass sticking out of their stomach, or two characters would walk through each other in cut-scenes. This is hardly what I was expecting from a game powered by BioWare's Aurora engine.

I find it funny watching this guy reaching for Bioware's cock with his short hands.

Misogyny: it seems that "portraying evil makes you evil" in his book.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Well, it makes sense if he had major gripes with Fallout and Ultima 7 that he'd have even more issues with the Witcher.

He's just not a CRPG fan. That's cool, but why have him do a review of a CRPG that would theoretically be aimed at CRPG fans that haven't played it yet? I could understand this review on a more casual gamer oriented site or magazine, but ths is odd coming from the Escapists.

 

[mondblut]

The problem is that some (most?) people interpret things like these as a sign that you should have sex with a lot of girls,

Damn right we should.

and girls want it etc.

Why wouldn't they?

 

[Nael]

Do I expect my supernaturally agile mutant protagonist to push aside tall stalks of grass and weeds as he walks through a field?

Well... yeah, I guess I do.

I have played plenty of 3d games don't suffer from such terrible and persistent clipping. That includes games built on older versions of the Aurora engine--namely KotOR and Jade Empire.

/smack

 

[cuthbert]

It seems like this guy went into the review with a pre-defined idea of what a good rpg is supposed to be, the witcher didn't fit that criteria so he didn't like it. Also the only thing generating traffic for them seems to be Zero Punctuation reviews, so a review like this isn't surprising.

 

[DraQ]

As a storyteller with nearly 20 years of tabletop roleplaying experience, I...

...fail to realise one must present actual arguments and evidence in a review, rather than trot out the 'I am teh rollplayer'.

.