Preview Witcher impressions at GameSpot

[Micmu]

Oh. Well... There goes another illusion. I just hope it'll be done right.

 

[pkt-zer0]

Well, hope this turns out to be a sufficiently non-linear action-RPG. That could actually be good in these dark times.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

It turns out that you inadvertently are the cause of the insurgency's downfall, as the authorities identify the remaining rebel members and ringleaders, including another important NPC.

What? This is pathetic. Didn't these guys learn anything from RPG design school? When you take fat loot or awesome NPCs away, you're supposed to replace them with another NPC / more fat loot. Good thing Bethesda know how to make a decent RPG!

Oh sorry, just in case: /sarcasm.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

What? This is pathetic. Didn't these guys learn anything from RPG design school? When you take fat loot or awesome NPCs away, you're supposed to replace them with another NPC / more fat loot. Good thing Bethesda know how to make a decent RPG!

You misspelled "phat lewt".

 

[Elwro]

BTW, it's "ph4t l3wt".

 

[Excrément]

I am not that sure that the design idea to perform choice without knowing the consequences of your choices is a good idea for a game.
for sure it is more real but fun?
I am happy to know my decisions will have consequences, but not knowing what kind of consequences it will have just reinforce the hazard and not the real choice making.

hope this game will be polished. (!)

 

[Micmu]

hope this game will be polished. (!)

:!: :!:

Hope that Polish know how to polish their games.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Hope that Polish know how to polish their games.

 

[Texas Red]

This actually looks pretty good. Although I want be able to play it with my shittacular PC. Oh well....at least I've got Jack Bauer grabbing alien collars in space.....

I didn't find a systems requirement. Since it is built on the Aurora Enginge (NWN) I wouldn't expect it to be very demanding, or at least it should be quite downscalable for older systems. But I might be wrong

After this(German), the systems requirements for mid-quality graphic settings are
1. Pentium 4 2,8 GHz
2. 1024 GB Ram
3. nVidia GeForce 6600 128MB RAM
Original source seems to be this news, but i can't understand polish.

Thats what they wrote for NWN 2 but with these stats I cant play the game without constant stuttering in most areas and EXTREME loading times.

 

[Elwro]

Strange. I have the same amount of RAM and the same card and only a slightly better CPU and it runs nicely, while loading times are negliigible.
What I've noticed is that some graphical options for shadowing can horribly slow the game. Also, I read somewhere that some of the patches make the game painfully slow.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Ah, this reminds me of the time when Oblivion was coming out, and the efforts to divert attention towards Gothic 3. Any RPG's a good RPG, even when its combat system might be even more action oriented than Bethesda's offering. Still, somebody has to do it.

Actually, before Oblivion and Gothic 3 came out, there was only Morrowind and Gothic 1 and 2. And yes, the Gothics were much better then Morrowind on the list of things the Codex likes. Plus, what we were hearing about Oblivion was a ton of things on the list of thinks the Codex hates: dialogue minigames, fewer skills, etc.

Witcher has taken plenty of flak from Codex regulars and admins. It just also seems to be promising stuff we like. And unlike Fallout 3, isn't completely tryingt o reinvent a proven franchise we all loved the way it was.

 

[OSK]

I am not that sure that the design idea to perform choice without knowing the consequences of your choices is a good idea for a game.
for sure it is more real but fun?
I am happy to know my decisions will have consequences, but not knowing what kind of consequences it will have just reinforce the hazard and not the real choice making.

…So you want black and white choices like KoTOR?

Personally, I think not knowing the immediate consequences of your actions reduces the temptation to power game and forces you to think harder about the possible effects of your decisions. Even if my decision forces me down a path opposite than what I predicted, I find that more rewarding than knowing that my options will either result in +1 good guy points and a magic artifact or +3 bad guy points and extra cash.

 

[Elwro]

Hope that Polish know how to polish their games.

CDP Red have said many times that they are aware of the fact that as an unknown studio they cannot afford the risk of putting an unpolished and buggy debut title on the shelves. I hope they manage to avoid that - they've given themselves quite a few months for betatesting.

 

[Claw]

You guys are being too optimistic.

No.

for sure it is more real but fun?

That depends on what kind of person you are.

I am happy to know my decisions will have consequences, but not knowing what kind of consequences it will have just reinforce the hazard and not the real choice making.

You should make decisions based on intentions. Making decisions based on what you get out of it is gamey... why don't you just read a walkthrough?

 

[Annonchinil]

About NWN2 I heard that the game actually runs worse on dual core CPU's, is this true?

 

[Excrément]

I am not that sure that the design idea to perform choice without knowing the consequences of your choices is a good idea for a game.
for sure it is more real but fun?
I am happy to know my decisions will have consequences, but not knowing what kind of consequences it will have just reinforce the hazard and not the real choice making.

…So you want black and white choices like KoTOR?

Personally, I think not knowing the immediate consequences of your actions reduces the temptation to power game and forces you to think harder about the possible effects of your decisions. Even if my decision forces me down a path opposite than what I predicted, I find that more rewarding than knowing that my options will either result in +1 good guy points and a magic artifact or +3 bad guy points and extra cash.

I don't want bloack &white choices.
I also want to think what my consequences could be but I don't want also unpredictable consequences (and the quest they describe have unpredictable consequences)

 

[Excrément]

You should make decisions based on intentions. Making decisions based on what you get out of it is gamey... why don't you just read a walkthrough?

sorry but I don't see the link.
I want in a RPG play according to the role I am currently creating for myself based on my decisions.
I want to play with the restrictions and the opportunity the consequnces of my choices.
if for example I hate a guy and I want to piss him off so I decide to kill all his family in order to anger him in order we have a public fight (ok stupid storyline but that's an example).
unfortunately this guy is happy I killed all his family because now he get the heritage and so he come to me and thank me.
so the consequences were the complete opposite of what I wanted, that sucks.

 

[dragonfk]

unfortunately this guy is happy I killed all his family because now he get the heritage and so he come to me and thank me.
so the consequences were the complete opposite of what I wanted, that sucks.

Life sucks...

 

[Globbi]

You should make decisions based on intentions. Making decisions based on what you get out of it is gamey... why don't you just read a walkthrough?

sorry but I don't see the link.
I want in a RPG play according to the role I am currently creating for myself based on my decisions.
I want to play with the restrictions and the opportunity the consequnces of my choices.
if for example I hate a guy and I want to piss him off so I decide to kill all his family in order to anger him in order we have a public fight (ok stupid storyline but that's an example).
unfortunately this guy is happy I killed all his family because now he get the heritage and so he come to me and thank me.
so the consequences were the complete opposite of what I wanted, that sucks.

That's somehow what I am afraid of about the Witcher. There may really be lack of real choices, only a few unpredictible and forced - you come to a crossroad in the plot so choose now, and you don't know what for happenes later anyway.
The forced choices in plotline are quite ok but they seem to be only there for hype - "look, we have the best choices ever" while there may not be too many of them and before I even play the game I will know all the possible consequences from prewievs. That leaves not much place for roleplaying.
Will we at least be able to kill a family of a guy I hate (yeah that is a stupid story) or not because it's not in the plot? Or maybe I kill his family, pay to guards for what I did and the guy won't remember anything you did.

 

[OSK]

I want to play with the restrictions and the opportunity the consequnces of my choices.
if for example I hate a guy and I want to piss him off so I decide to kill all his family in order to anger him in order we have a public fight (ok stupid storyline but that's an example).
unfortunately this guy is happy I killed all his family because now he get the heritage and so he come to me and thank me.
so the consequences were the complete opposite of what I wanted, that sucks.

I still don't see a problem with this. It's not limiting your roleplaying at all. You can (hopefully) continue to achieve your goal. Either steal his inheritance, ask for a cut or when he comes up to thank you, bury a dagger in his chest. An outcome doesn't change the intention and thus doesn't effect the roleplaying.

Unless the game has some internal karma system (a la KoTOR) or has severely limited roleplaying, I still don't see the problem with results opposite than what you intended.

Hell, I'd love to see a scenario where you attempt to poison a town's water supply, but instead neutralize an already existing poison. Sure, your evil intention didn't achieve the desired result, but you now have a newfound trust with the townspeople you're free to exploit! Perhaps you'll be asked by the mayor of the town for help, you'll stab him in the back and take control of the town with the citizen's full support!

 

[sheek]

One thing I dislike about the game...

You're supposed to be the best fighter in the description but the world/background section says stuff like you're a vagrant surviving through odd jobs, tracking down crappy monsters and 'clearing mountain paths' for the price of a filling meal or a room to sleep in. What the fuck?

I really hope that's not how it's going to be in the game. Having to kill a million generic monsters or do some dumb nobleman's quest to be able to afford a new dagger. If I really am a non-human superbeing I want to treated like one, not like a common mercenary.

I also hope we don't start with hardly any skills and have to be able to level-up a dozen times before we can take on average monsters. You're supposed to be hundreds of years old and already a legend.

Finally this still isn't really an RPG. All the 'skills' are combat skills, and we don't know about dialog. It seems to me like an action game with branching plots every so often, giving you a choice of different 'levels'.

 

[Elwro]

You're supposed to be the best fighter in the description but the world/background section says stuff like you're a vagrant surviving through odd jobs, tracking down crappy monsters and 'clearing mountain paths' for the price of a filling meal or a room to sleep in. What the fuck?

You're basically an alien. A mutant. Common people fear you. Powerful people don't want to have anything publically to do with you and would prefer you to be dead after you do your work for them. That's the basic outlook.
And what "crappy monsters"?

 

[sheek]

I forget what they're called, the skinny ghouly looking things.

This (the chaos/war) is good news for you. The reward for killing a stray Graveir or Werewolf affords you a filling meal. [...] Hunting down a Shtriga (looks like the most dangerous monster in the game) can get you a few nights rest in an inn

Anyway you're missing the point. If you're so awesome you should be able to claim awesome rewards. Especially since Witchers are the only race who bother to kill these beasts and there are something like five of you in the entire world... It's logical, if the commoners/nobles are giving you scraps they wouldn't give a beggar, like a bowl of slop for killing the monsters professional soldiers are terrified of, because of your race, then you wouldn't do their jobs - boycott. Until they really do need the job done and they'll be forced to change their attitude... Or does the Free Market not work in alternate/medieval Poland?

It doesn't make sense, and I do not wish to roleplay such a weak, easily manipulated character as Geralt appears to be (from this 'background info' section at least).

 

[Elwro]

. If you're so awesome you should be able to claim awesome rewards.

If I remember the books correctly, the witcher was by no means destined to a life in poverty. To the contrary, he could name the prices because noone else would be able to do the job. I thought it was obvious and that's why I focused on the "being an alien" part. I mean, in commoner's eyes witchers are monsters you can hire to kill other monsters. Witchers take your children. Horrible creatures.
So, money problems? I don't think so. Of course, it's usually the poor who have the biggest problems, so mostly you can't expect great monetary rewards.

Or maybe I forgot the books.

 

[Hazelnut]

You should make decisions based on intentions. Making decisions based on what you get out of it is gamey... why don't you just read a walkthrough?

sorry but I don't see the link.
I want in a RPG play according to the role I am currently creating for myself based on my decisions.
I want to play with the restrictions and the opportunity the consequnces of my choices.
if for example I hate a guy and I want to piss him off so I decide to kill all his family in order to anger him in order we have a public fight (ok stupid storyline but that's an example).
unfortunately this guy is happy I killed all his family because now he get the heritage and so he come to me and thank me.
so the consequences were the complete opposite of what I wanted, that sucks.

I see your point, but I think what matters is the extent to which you can predict outcomes. If every choice you make has a consequence that you never would have dreamed of or predicted in a million years then that's gonna suck. But, on the other hand, if some of the choices give slight variations and a few others completely surprising consequences then that's going to be fantastic and really add flavor to the game. It's all about the ratio I'd imagine.