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How I learned to love The Witcher 3

Over 9 million votes were cast for the Golden Joystick Awards last year but ok..............clown sites.
Let's see.. PlayStation exclusive or multiplatform game with literally three times the potential audience.

Grand Theft Auto V out beat The Last of Us on that site as well. I'm not interested in popularity contests.
 
I think it's more the fact that, especially on GAF, seemingly every game gets compared to Bloodborne/Souls series to the point where it gets kind of ridiculous. It's usually whenever a new game comes out there is segment of people who constantly post "why can't (x game" be more like Bloodborne/Dark Souls?" regardless if the games are even remotely similar. I do think the Witcher 3 and Bloodborne are more comparable than other games, but they prioritize completely different things. They both have their own priorities. The Witcher is a narrative-focused open world RPG with an emphasis on narrative. Blooborne is an action-driven RPG that focuses mainly on combat. I don't play a game like the Witcher for the combat and I sure as fuck don't play a game like Bloodborne for the story.

For the record, I prefer Witcher 2 to the Witcher 3. I think the latter is a little too talky, but those are my two cents.

Except it also emphasizes combat and is a significant chunk of the player's interaction with the game world. Just because it is narrative heavy does not mean combat is not a huge focus. When you have combat has a huge focus then it is not unreasonable for people who have experienced sublime combat in rpg's before to want the same quality in the game this highly rated. Hence the comparisons to BB and Souls. When they say they want it to be as good as BB and Souls they usually mean it should be as mechanically satisfying as it is in BB when the player kills an enemy or a boss. I mean it is not like Witcher 3 is a Tell Tale game where we focus on the narrative instead of the mechanics.
 
Even so, it's just a money sink and a frustration. What does it actually add to the game? At least once it caused me to fail a quest because I turned up to a place where cutscene starts automatically with a busted weapon, told the quest giver I needed time to prepare, and then got told that they'd wandered off and I never saw them again.

Hmmm, that sucks. I never had problems with the weapon degradation, since there will be a point where you have so many swords that even if one needs repair, you can just switch to the next set until you go to a blacksmith.
 
Play it on deathmarch... I really liked the combat and this is someone who loves souls type games. Its all about perspective, I used to hate souls games after playing character action games like DMC, the less options and clunky combat in comparison turned me off. But then ones you understand how the game functions, the combat warms up to you.

I feel like most people who complain about witcher combat have the same experience where they don't spend time learning the combat and instead wishes it was the combat system of a game which they are familiar with. Trust me, to a layman who has no souls experience, they will find the combat to be the clunkiest game ever.

But in regards to other aspects of the game, if you are not enjoying it then this game may not be for you. No reason to hate it, similar to how I don't like skyrim/fallout but i understand the appeal
 
Let's see.. PlayStation exclusive or multiplatform game with literally three times the potential audience.

Grand Theft Auto V out beat The Last of Us on that site as well. I'm not interested in popularity contests.

A GOTY award from GameSpot and Gametrailers is in the horizon if those are the "big names" sites you care about ;)
 
Bloodorne is actually very likely GT's GOTY.

It is a lock in for GT's GOTY. They just worship BB.

Why are we suddenly discussing GOTY's though? It is not like Souls games ever won a significant chunk of GOTY's. It is the usual accessible mainstream games like Witcher, Skyrim, ME, Fallout etc which have historically always won. It is not some major revelation nor is it relevant when discussing the quality of a game.
 
Just put it on easy. The game still can't really sustain its own length with lots of filler running from one quest marker to the next, but there's definitely a lot to like in there, and the main characters grow on you. I'd definitely recommend trying to move on on a lower difficulty level. The people who say it's one of the best games ever just have a really high tolerance for bullshit imo, or don't care that an rpg has a weak story.
It's a fucking videogame. Everything we do in games is bullshit.
 
A GOTY award from GameSpot and Gametrailers is in the horizon if those are the "big names" sites you care about ;)
lol ok.

Honestly, the only sites that I care about are Giant Bomb and GAF. Even then, I don't really care. I'm sure Witcher 3 will win on here because a lot more people will have played it than the other nominees.

Tomb Raider tragically probably won't even make the top ten on here because no one bought it.
 
Nope, don't believe you. I powered through it on easy, took me waaay longer.

Played on story and sword.

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I understand what they are saying though. Since you like metrics, what is the metric for *cool shit* here?

None. Because what's "cool" to some is unbelievably lame to others. So why get hung up on what other people think?

The only reaction I get when people don't enjoy the same game as I do is "man, that's too bad, sorry you're not having fun like I am"

Much healthier way to treat things.
 
Unless they have changed how they give awards, Witcher 3 is a lock since is their highest rated game of the year. That's how they have operated in the past.
Heartstone was their highest rated game in 2014? Either way, they wouldn't have GOTY deliberations, if that was the case.
But they do, and they have a lot of people who are crazy about BB in the staff, whereas i think just Bloodworth is a stan for Witcher 3.

Even so, it's just a money sink and a frustration. What does it actually add to the game? At least once it caused me to fail a quest because I turned up to a place where cutscene starts automatically with a busted weapon, told the quest giver I needed time to prepare, and then got told that they'd wandered off and I never saw them again.

Yeah weapon degradation is very rarely worth a damn, design wise.
I guess you can have some gimmick weapons like crystal weapons in Dark Souls, but it's hardly worth it.
In D<rk Souls 2 especially was a pain in the ass, and completely useless as an element of challenge.
It doesn't stimulate creativity, just busy work.
 
Let's see.. PlayStation exclusive or multiplatform game with literally three times the potential audience.

Grand Theft Auto V out beat The Last of Us on that site as well. I'm not interested in popularity contests.

So you hold more value in a group of journalists telling you whats game of the year than democratic voting by a huge(9 mill+) group of gamers on whats their game of the year?
 
Combat certainly isn't the best thing about The Witcher 3, that's for sure. Still though, I can't wrap my head around people who say that the combat is "shit" that's just massive hyperbole.

What similar RPGs have better combat then Witcher 3 besides Bloodborne? Dragon Age: Inquisition? Don't make me laugh. Does it need to utilize the Batman/Shadow of Mordor system in order to be good? Honestly curious what the bar is here. It takes some getting used to, but once you get into it Witcher 3's combat offers a good amount of tools that you can utilize to come out of almost every fight unscathed if you play well. The Souls series beats it easily but that's the only thing that the Souls series has going for it. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's easier to achieve when you focus so entirely on one gameplay aspect. The Witcher 3's combat is very solid considering that it's really not even the main focus of the game.
 
Heartstone was their highest rated game in 2014? Either way, they wouldn't have GOTY deliberations, if that was the case.
But they do, and they have a lot of people who are crazy about BB in the staff, whereas i think just Bloodworth is a stan for Witcher 3.



Yeah weapon degradation is very rarely worth a damn, design wise.
I guess you can have some gimmick weapons like crystal weapons in Dark Souls, but it's hardly worth it.
In D<rk Souls 2 especially was a pain in the ass, and completely useless as an element of challenge.
It doesn't stimulate creativity, just busy work.

Hmmmm. I used to follow GT until around 2014 and every year, without exception, the GOTY went to the highest rated. Maybe they changed that since all the firings and new staff, so who knows.
 
I don't think comparisons to Bloodborne are necessarily unfounded. A lot of the time during the combat I was thinking, 'wow Bloodborne does this a lot better'. Hitboxes in TW3 are annoying, as are enemy attack animations that have almost no windup. It's not like TW3 is a walking simulator, there's a lot of combat in the game.
 
The Baron Quest sparked my awe and so I'm going to do what others did and drop difficulty and go on a story ride. I've been playing other games because I wanted to avoid having to do that. Im just not interested in the combat this time and its hurting what I think is an otherwise beautiful atmosphere.
 
That's more or less me. I enjoy the Souls games but I don't quite understand the fervent adoration some people have for their combat such that every other game that doesn't have Souls style combat is some flaming piece of dog poop. Is the Witcher's combat great? No, but its good enough for me, especially in light of how much other awesome content is going on in the game. For me, the Souls games are all about the combat and exploring the different areas... but that's really about it. The Witcher has so much else going on that I can overlook the average combat.

Agree here.

Stop acting like the souls games are the second coming of christ, smh. i'm getting to Skellige on TW3 and i've had such a blast with the game, even though i agree with the criticism about the combat. I use lots of signs and i've managed to do great in normal.
 
Been playing through Bloodborne DLC and W3 is on its way to my house...... curious how I will fell about it, because i really love the combat in BB
If you're like me you'll find a lot to enjoy in TW3 beside the battle system.

Even then the combat itself isn't that bad, as long as you make the necessary preparations for each monster type.
 
So you hold more value in a group of journalists telling you whats game of the year than democratic voting by a huge(9 mill+) group of gamers on whats their game of the year?
Yeah probably, because those journalists don't have budget constraints and play pretty much every big game of the year. I'm not really interested in hearing why Grand Theft Auto V is the best game of the year when the person hasn't even played The Last of Us.
 
What is with people comparing The Witcher 3 with Bloodborne? It happened in the OT too back when the game came out, and it makes no sense. If you went into The Witcher 3 with the expectation that you'd be getting a fast paced combat experience like in Bloodborne, then that's more your fault than it is the game's.

Well, you can compare it to the combat in Demons Souls as well. The speed isn't the issue, more the game mechanics of how to handle sword gameplay in real time.

I have to say, souls has done a really good job there, one that hasn't been adopted by others yet AFAIK.
 
TW3 combat would be more tolerable if the rest of the game wasnt so clunky. Geralts movement animations in particular looks very odd to me.
 
I mean, this is just laughable. Wtf ? I did not find it clunky at all and animations look normal. I did enable the alternative movement system though, which tightens it up (check options menu, it is there).
Sorry English is not my first language i don't know the word to describe it but for example when i push the stick forward a bit the character move way more than i intended also turning around on the horse is kinda stiff and difficult i dunno how to say it but the character movement isn't smooth btw am not talking during the combat
.
Anyway thanks for the suggestion i should enable the alternative movement option it might be the reason
 
Nilfgaard and Redania clashed in the swamps of Velen a few days before the start of the game. That battle took a heavy toll upon both armies which both explains why they are licking their wounds and why there are so many monsters around. Emhyr is waiting for more troops from the south and at the same time is dealing with political trouble at the homefront. Radovid on the other hand is subsidizing the Temeria guerillas to fight Nilfgaard. The bandit camps are a logical effect from that: a lot of deserters on both sides and lowlifes trying to profit from the absence of law in the Velen region. The more north you go, the better the situation gets and you see a noticeable improvement in quality of life once you cross the Pontar.

Nice try man, I guess you have never watched history channel documentaries about war.
It doesn't matter that there is a truce- 10000 men need supplies wheather they are licking their wounds or fighting on. At least one third would be busy going hunting or collecting fruits. No, your explaination does not help - the world in context of the story is anything but authentic. Please note, I'm not hating on the game - I just want W3 fans to change the terminology, because W3's world is as authentic as Ass Creed 1 and to be honest, the latter was more plausible when it comes to world-building and context.
 
And it feels weird.

There are plenty of mainstream AAA games I don't like. I'm not into Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Battlefront, etc....but I don't hate any of those games. They just aren't for me. But I'm really surprised at how much The Witcher 3 is frustrating me.

So I bought the game recently and after a hundred hours of Bloodborne, I finally decided to start it today. I've probably put around six hours into the game....and I think I hate it. The visuals are beautiful and the world itself seems pretty cool, but man....the combat is horrible. The quests are horrible (at least so far). The weapon degradation is driving me insane. It's so insanely expensive to repair anything, at least early on . I have almost no money, even after completing a dozen or so side quests.

I have to be missing something here. Does this game get better? Has Bloodborne's combat completely spoiled me or does it open up and improve as the game progresses?
I really thought I would enjoy this game. I'm honestly a bit shocked at how much I dislike it. Going by all the rave reviews and impressions, I'm just baffled at how much I disagree, at least after the first half dozen hours. What the hell am I missing? I feel like the world and atmosphere are great but the actual gameplay is really, really bland.

I have to admit that Gwent is pretty sweet though.
I own both games, though I will say I played witcher 3 on PC which had a better button response than I would believe PS4 would have.

I did not sink that many hours in bloodborne. But it did not spoil me loving the shit out of witcher 3. But I might be a little bias in not being so critical of it's combat mechanics because I enjoyed Witcher 2 a lot.
I think there's a great balance to the combat in witcher that works for how the constructed world, enemies, and monsters. Like anything that flies can be brought down for an instant kill using the cross-bow, unless it's a quest monster.(it will work though on any flying quest monster to bring them to the ground instantly)

Almost all the flying monsters can be stunned, if harpy comes at you hit it with teh bow, it falls to the ground and hover over it, you hit one button to finish it off.(if you get the horn from skellige, you can equip it, when you use it, every harpy falls to the ground stunned)
In my opinion you are given all the tools to take out multiple people at a time. In bloodborne it's more precise and deliberate to have one-on-one encounters.

Just my 2 cent's OP, sorry From Software spoiled your fun for witcher 3.
 
So you hold more value in a group of journalists telling you whats game of the year than democratic voting by a huge(9 mill+) group of gamers on whats their game of the year?

Yes, because democratic voting on culture always makes what is popular equate to what is best. So Adelle will win album of the year, but if one of my favorite records of the year is Blood Incantation - Interdimensional Extinction, a democratic vote on album of the year isn't going to be much use for me in terms of finding something to listen to.

I'm vastly more interested in what a particular critic or fan thinks, in context of their other opinions, than a blurred average of all tastes, because then at least I have something useful to work with in contrast with my own tastes.
 
Nice try man, I guess you have never watched history channel documentaries about war.
It doesn't matter that there is a truce- 10000 men need supplies wheather they are licking their wounds or fighting on. At least one third would be busy going hunting or collecting fruits. No, your explaination does not help - the world in context of the story is anything but authentic. Please note, I'm not hating on the game - I just want W3 fans to change the terminology, because W3's world is as authentic as Ass Creed 1 and to be honest, the latter was more plausible when it comes to world-building and context.

If you're basing your knowledge on history channel then you have bigger problems lol. You can see early in the game Nilfgaard is requisitioning grains and other supplies from many of the villages in town. Foraging is very important in war when you're deep in enemy territory, but in this game these armies are not very far off their respective borders. Supply lines are most certainly established from their home territories and they're requisitioning the rest.
 
I don't think comparisons to Bloodborne are necessarily unfounded. A lot of the time during the combat I was thinking, 'wow Bloodborne does this a lot better'. Hitboxes in TW3 are annoying, as are enemy attack animations that have almost no windup. It's not like TW3 is a walking simulator, there's a lot of combat in the game.

You can use it as a meter to pinpoint some things that are wrong with the combat, but if you compare the two games as a whole, they're doing very different things, and it becomes a pointless comparison, both in terms of how much development effort was spent on every single aspect (Bloodborne is JUST combat) and also in terms of what any given player will get out of it (hence why all the "this game is not for you" suggestions).

Apples and Oranges are also both fruits.
 
You can use it as a meter to pinpoint some things that are wrong with the combat, but if you compare the two games as a whole, they're doing very different things, and it becomes a pointless comparison, both in terms of how much development effort was spent on every single aspect (Bloodborne is JUST combat) and also in terms of what any given player will get out of it (hence why all the "this game is not for you" suggestions).

Apples and Oranges are also both fruits.

Well yeah, comparing the two games as a whole isn't going to work.
 
I don't think comparisons to Bloodborne are necessarily unfounded. A lot of the time during the combat I was thinking, 'wow Bloodborne does this a lot better'. Hitboxes in TW3 are annoying, as are enemy attack animations that have almost no windup. It's not like TW3 is a walking simulator, there's a lot of combat in the game.

I don't think the endgame is to suggest that there's literally no basis of comparison or that one can't fault Witcher 3 for not having good enough combat if the game's combat is hindering your enjoyment of the title. I think the point people are trying to make is that when fans are pitching this to you as to why it's one of the best games of the year, they're not doing so on the basis of its stellar combat. Almost everyone concedes that it could use work. But people love it in spite of that.

If someone else would rather play a From game, great.
 
I really wish I got GAF's boner for souls games. I played a good amount of Demon's Souls back near when that came out and it was ok. A solid game but really nothing that much more. Tried to play Bloodborne this year and didn't particularly get into it.

At least you think it's decent, I thought it's a pile of shit in almost every way. I mean... Just thinking of the bow mechanics alone, how you can't even look all the way up or down and the invisible walls... Jesus fucking Christ.
 
My only issue with the game (and most large open world games in general) is that I wish it respected my time more as a player. But having said that, I actually enjoyed pretty much every quest I was given in that game.

I do hope to return back to it soon.
 
Sorry English is not my first language i don't know the word to describe it but for example when i push the stick forward a bit the character move way more than i intended also turning around on the horse is kinda stiff and difficult i dunno how to say it but the character movement isn't smooth btw am not talking during the combat
.
Anyway thanks for the suggestion i should enable the alternative movement option it might be the reason

Seriously, try it out. There is some inertia with default system, but the alternative makes Geralt react much quicker. CDP should have made the alternative the default, frankly. We could have been spared of many "clunky trash controls!" posts.
 
I played it right after Bloodborne too and liked it way better. Such great writing, graphics (on PC), voice acting, music, quests, etc. If you're seriously complaining about the quests you must have gotten nowhere in the game.
 
I'm sort of on the same boat, except that I haven't gotten W3 yet. It's on sale everywhere this weekend so I'm on the fence.

If I hated W2's combat with a passion, should I even try 3?
 
If you're basing your knowledge on history channel then you have bigger problems lol. You can see early in the game Nilfgaard is requisitioning grains and other supplies from many of the villages in town. Foraging is very important in war when you're deep in enemy territory, but in this game these armies are not very far off their respective borders. Supply lines are most certainly established from their home territories and they're requisitioning the rest.

My first sentence was an (maybe not so) obvious joke.
No, this makes the scenario even more unrealistic, because approximity to home-turf would mean that the Nilfgardian army was able to resupply and recover in short time.
How many days are you spending in the game? Does anything really change in the game-world? No!
10000 people is a big city by medieval standards. My point is, an army of this size occupies a far bigger area than the fort no matter how much you quote the lore.
Accross 50 square miles much smaller armies would engage in some form - or you could at least witness Nilgardians fighting Drowners, wolves or bandits. Please, stop defending this obvious flaw in the game. All events in W3 are displayed through triggers namely starting quests and dialogues - the world itself is not dynamic! I haven't seen one supply convoy in 100 hours.

In comparisson: thestory in FO4 is shit, but yet I get the authentic impression that this world is inhabited by several factions who can engage in combat randomnly. Man, I witnessed fights between Raiders, Mutants and the Brotherhood. You don't see anything like that in W3.
 
I am always amazed when somebody posts a thread about not liking a popular game and how many pages it goes with arguments.

The Last of Us ones are the best:
"its just another third person shooter with weak gameplay"

I guess I should be glad that I never made a thread about how much I hated Platinum games and specifically Bayonetta.
 
I am always amazed when somebody posts a thread about not liking a popular game and how many pages it goes with arguments.

The Last of Us ones are the best:
"its just another third person shooter with weak gameplay"

I guess I should be glad that I never made a thread about how much I hated Platinum games and specifically Bayonetta.
But TLOU does have weak gameplay?
 
Sounds like a textbook case of "played souls, everything sucks now." :P
It will go away.

Maybe give the game a break for now and try again later. The combat won't improve of course but it at least okay imo. Just don't compare it to BB where the focus is the combat.
 
I'm sort of on the same boat, except that I haven't gotten W3 yet. It's on sale everywhere this weekend so I'm on the fence.

If I hated W2's combat with a passion, should I even try 3?

If you generally hated Witcher 2, of course not. If you still liked the quest design, characters (Geralt in particular), OST and art direction, of course. Just play on easy and breeze through the fighting sections. The combat is a lot better now and in my book probably the best open world/decision game combat there is. The combat really isn't the reason people play those games, though. You should also play Witcher 1 first if you haven't already (which basically has no actual combat), it's an amazing RPG.
 
None. Because what's "cool" to some is unbelievably lame to others. So why get hung up on what other people think?

The only reaction I get when people don't enjoy the same game as I do is "man, that's too bad, sorry you're not having fun like I am"

Much healthier way to treat things.

Of course, but the implicit statement that started the chain was that one game had *cool shit* and the other didn't. The absolute length of a game doesn't necessarily predicate how much *cool shit* there is in a game to any given person.
 
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