I'm Portuguese, I know my history. After the formation of Portugal and later at the end of the reconquista most mourish population migrated (most of them forced) or gathered in guetto like areas in some major towns. It's a fallacy that Portugal as a country was a European Caucasian minority society in the middle ages.
The Witcher 3 | Review Thread
- Thread starter Kenzodielocke
- Start date
That's a very good point, they have certainly released at the right time. The last game to come out of note for me was Bloodborne which I snapped up because I was hungry for new content. I wish more games released through the year but everyone wants a piece of that summar pie I guess. At least The Witcher will benefit.
I don't think he was trying to go at you or anything, he was just explaining why devs probably chose not to include the feature. It is a good suggestion that would make the world a little bit more believable, his explanation was just laying out why it won't have made it in.
A game in Japan made now would have a team of heroes, with a afro-american sidekick/lead and a strong girl (strong in terms of attitude, with very positive forward-thinking attitude).
I am stll not back from the Robin Hood game with Morgan Freeman. How many educated black people were present in the England of the middle ages ? Recreation of past time in lights of recent good progress in community and sex equality is weird.
Story that happen NOW, I am ok with that.
Lord of Rings is fully white, because Tolkien was immune to this influence (Middle Earth is a recreation of the pre-middle age England). Now, written in the current age, it would have black,asian and strong girl characters.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
My Middle Ages history knowledge is rough at best so I'm not surprised I'm wrong. But you get what I mean.
I'm glad to hear that the combat is more fluid and less janky but it being so simple might be a big problem for me. I was able to deal with the bad combat in W2 because it was a 40 hour game, and the story was enough to get me through.
This being open world and with so much side stuff to do, I wonder how it'll hold up after 100+ hours?
This being open world and with so much side stuff to do, I wonder how it'll hold up after 100+ hours?
As if someone wont buy this at Poland
Nice reviews so far, but I'm also in the camp that is worried about the combat.
I really did not care for Witcher 2, gameplay was a huge turn off, it probably didn't help that I played it right after Dragons Dogma.
But honestly, I even prefer Elder Scrolls combat to Witcher 2, at least ES was janky and broken enough I could make my own fun with it, Witcher 2 was just so dull.
Everything else looks so nice though.
I really did not care for Witcher 2, gameplay was a huge turn off, it probably didn't help that I played it right after Dragons Dogma.
But honestly, I even prefer Elder Scrolls combat to Witcher 2, at least ES was janky and broken enough I could make my own fun with it, Witcher 2 was just so dull.
Everything else looks so nice though.
That is actually wrong. In the south and the east of Middle Earth were Haradam, darkskinned tribal humans and the Easterlings, yellow skinned humans who served Sauron. The Haradam are more middle eastern than african, so we still lack an equivalent for those, but I really don't know if you actually want that given how the other two are and the pride and virtues are resevered for the white men of the west
That is actually wrong. In the south and the east of Middle Earth were Haradam, darkskinned tribal humans and the Easterlings, yellow skinned humans who served Sauron. The Haradam are more middle eastern than african, so we still lack an equivalent for those, but I really don't know if you actually want that given how the other two are
And the Witcher has Zerrikania which is Middle East/Africa. Azar Javed from the first game was from Zerrikania, hence his darker skin colour.
As for Polygon review - Arthur Gies hated The Witcher 2 and it seems the Wild Hunt didn't change his mind. Same with Jeff from GB. Is there any reviewer that disliked previous game and changed his mind this time? It may be good indicator for people who didn't like TW2 for the same reason those 2 disliked it.
plasmawave
Banned
At least it should be better than Skyrim's combat, easily.
That is actually wrong. In the south and the east of Middle Earth were Haradam, darkskinned tribal humans and the Easterlings, yellow skinned humans who served Sauron. The Haradam are more middle eastern than african, so we still lack an equivalent for those, but I really don't know if you actually want that given how the other two are and the pride and virtues are resevered for the white men of the west
That is actually true (I did not wanted to overelaborate).
The south and east parts are "outside" of the feary-taled reimagined England as Tolkien see it. England is Anor/Gondor/Rohan, the rest is Africa/Eastern Europe population.
Just wanted to point that out, because LOTR isn't fully white and I was under the impression that middleearth isn't a isle and the lands of Haradim and Easterlings are just next to Mordor. It also doesn't hinder it from appearing slightly racist to me in hindsight
I'm in the same boat as you. I feel like it could be great, but after being burned with Dragon Age (that got great reviews too), I'm thinking maybe I should just wait until it's on sale.
Just wanted to point that out, because LOTR isn't fully white and I was under the impression that middleearth isn't a isle and the lands of Haradim and Easterlings are just next to Mordor. It also doesn't hinder it from appearing slightly racist to me in hindsight
Tolkien had lots of criticism of sexysm/racism during the years.
My point is LOTR is a book written by a guy who live in the early 20s.
GOT is the same book written by a 21s century influenced guy.
The world of The Witcher is inspired most directly by fairy tales and includes elements of mythologies from all over, including Asia, with very few direct analogues to real world history.
It might be set in the middle ages visually, but its society is much more modern and its racial composition features so many fantasy races and mixes of them, including humans with non-human pigmentation.
When major plotlines which affect the characters even in Wild Hunt depend on the existence of a Djinn, it becomes quite silly to act like an all-white setting somehow makes more sense than a slightly more diverse one.
If there ever was a fantasy setting that could effortlessly introduce ethnicities and mythological elements overlooked by the original author, it's the world of The Witcher.
I would have like to have seen more characters from Zeerikania in the series. It seemed like a fascinating place in the first game but I don't think it's been referenced since.
Also The Witcher does tackle mature themes like racism and discrimination, but instead of basing it on skin color, it's based on species. The elves and dwarves are typically shuffled into ghettos and are routinely treated less than fairly. Just because the game doesn't depict a white guy attacking a black guy doesn't mean the game isn't trying to address these issues. Take the X-Men movies for example. Director Bryan Winger is gay and has spoken about how the films can be seen as a gay-rights allegory ("Have you ever tried not being a mutant?"), yet there are no gay mutants in the film. That doesn't mean the creators aren't discussing the issue, they are just doing it in a non-orthodox way.
Also The Witcher does tackle mature themes like racism and discrimination, but instead of basing it on skin color, it's based on species. The elves and dwarves are typically shuffled into ghettos and are routinely treated less than fairly. Just because the game doesn't depict a white guy attacking a black guy doesn't mean the game isn't trying to address these issues. Take the X-Men movies for example. Director Bryan Winger is gay and has spoken about how the films can be seen as a gay-rights allegory ("Have you ever tried not being a mutant?"), yet there are no gay mutants in the film. That doesn't mean the creators aren't discussing the issue, they are just doing it in a non-orthodox way.
One of the, if not the best post in this entire thread.
Read Gies' review just now. While I will have to experience his last bit about mistreating women in such a game for myself, it's a great, well-balanced review
review and voices some concerns I had myself.
robertsan21
Member
I'm going to wait for a review of the game that is released and has the day 1 patch applied.
It seems to be inconsistent which reviews had the patched version and which did not or if the PS4 issues exist even with the patch. I'm gonna have to be patient
from what I understand is that non of the reviewers had the patch that they are releasing on the 19th. The patch that reviewers had was something entirely different from the one we are getting on the 19th
In PS4 Witcher tread you have people playing with patch applied and their post-patch impressions.I'm going to wait for a review of the game that is released and has the day 1 patch applied.
It seems to be inconsistent which reviews had the patched version and which did not or if the PS4 issues exist even with the patch. I'm gonna have to be patient
robertsan21
Member
The level design was generally weak in Witcher 2. The woods were unclear, the navigation was cumbersome (this will hopefully be fixed with more mobility for Geralt this time around) and a lot of the areas had no clear "signage". And those mines....man...those were horrible.
Yeah, one said this:
There's other impressions if you continue from that post.
robertsan21
Member
NICE!
I knew they would patch the framerate issue. Hopefully Reviewers will update their reviews, might be a big impact for some. Not that the game can get much better scores than it already have, but still
Solemn_In_Berlin
Member
The problem with that is that it can assume (consciously or not, intentionally or not) that the white male is the master race or worse, the only human that matters. And you can't necessarily pin that down as being due to authorial intent as per the reading theories of Abrams. It's not that simple and shouldn't be.
AnthonypUK
Member
So the witcher got same score from Arthur as scream ride? I thought the witcher was supposed to be good!
So the witcher got same score from Arthur as scream ride? I thought the witcher was supposed to be good!
People constantly misunderstand how Polygon scores reviews. The reviewer doesn't choose the score, rather it is decided by committee based on the review text.
So based on some gameplay videos, here are the questions asked to you about The Witcher 2's story near the beginning of the game.
I wonder if these are all of if there are smaller ones for the PC version if you use your Witcher 2 save. I wonder if there are even call backs to the first game. I'd love to see Siegfried again.
Killed Aryan at the siege in the prologue or let him live
Joined Vernon or Iorveth
Helped Vernon/Iorveth or Triss at the end
Killed/Saved Sile
Killed/Didn't kill Letho
Joined Vernon or Iorveth
Helped Vernon/Iorveth or Triss at the end
Killed/Saved Sile
Killed/Didn't kill Letho
I wonder if these are all of if there are smaller ones for the PC version if you use your Witcher 2 save. I wonder if there are even call backs to the first game. I'd love to see Siegfried again.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
I played on 360 but can't remember any of my choices. Bah.
Part 1 (starts at 12 minutes in)
Part 2 (continues right from the beginning)
I'm surprised people can't remember their choices. The ones they ask about are pretty big and affect the story in a major way. On the plus side, if you regret making some decisions, you can change it now!
Give War A Chance
Member
When I read IGN's little "blurb" from the review, it really doesn't sound like a game that really matches their score.
"Straightforward and fetch-quest-heavy main story overstays its welcome..."
"...when I'd start to burn out..."
"Even if the plot isn't terribly interesting..."
Jeez. The story isn't good, and the quest structure isn't good, but you're giving it a 9.3? I don't know what IGN even is anymore. Has it become a parody site?
That being said, I've got this game pre-ordered, and can't wait for Tuesday to find out for myself. I don't know about those jokers at IGN.
"Straightforward and fetch-quest-heavy main story overstays its welcome..."
"...when I'd start to burn out..."
"Even if the plot isn't terribly interesting..."
Jeez. The story isn't good, and the quest structure isn't good, but you're giving it a 9.3? I don't know what IGN even is anymore. Has it become a parody site?
That being said, I've got this game pre-ordered, and can't wait for Tuesday to find out for myself. I don't know about those jokers at IGN.
I played the game 4 years ago and have read some of the books since then so all I can really remember is if I hung out with Roche or Iorveth.
I think another reviewer, maybe Gamespot, mentioned that they played through the main story in 50 hours. If 45 hours is rushing then I'm going to be pretty happy.
I'm not normally a person that criticizes reviewers, but if I were doing a review I'd want to experience a chunk of the side-quests and other secondary material. The side stuff in DA: I was so meaningless that it detracted from the main game for me. Every time I picked up a stupid letter in the Hinterlands I could just see the accountant cutting the budget for voice acting. Based on other reviews, however, it doesn't look like Witcher 3 will suffer from this problem.
It's like that gta v review all over again. A female reviewer said how great she thought the game was and everyone should play it but mentioned how she did not like how females were done. People were calling for her to be fired and saying that she was using things she shouldn't the criticize the game.
Seriously, I got the impression the game was good from Gies and I actually appreciated he dared criticize it for its portrayal of women and lack of any creature not white (and no, supplanting elves really isn't the same thing). I think those are fair criticisms for a game but it does seem a large portion of gamers think that kind of stuff should be hands off (I bet it's a large part of the "reform reviewers" claim of gamer gate).
CDPR has multiple times stated that clock on Steam is wrong and game is supposed to release on same time at global scale no matter of digital platform. I guess they have told Valve/Steam this few times already.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
This kind of racism occurred all across Europe and even in America. It'd definitely be silly to overlook it.
Suzushiiro
Banned
Yeah, that's the thing- complaining about lack of racial diversity in a work made by Americans makes sense, because America has fairly large populations of every race and most of them (including some of the ones with white skin) have various histories of being treated unfairly by society (and some still are, of course.) So as part of correcting that the more progressive parts of our culture have been trying to get our fictional characters to have the ethnic diversity of our real life.
It's self-centered to hold creators from a country that is 95%+ the same race, such as Poland or Japan, to that same standard. They didn't grow up in a culture where that stuff was a big deal, so it's not something they should be expected to think about when creating their characters.
PS Access, How Witcher 3 Lets You Make Witcher 2 Decisions (And What They Mean); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_INEnvuPnk
Steve Youngblood
Member
I don't think "self-centered" is the right assessment here. I mean, looking back at the books, I think it's fair to suggest that it wouldn't be realistic to apply the recent progress to promote more diversity in games to books written decades ago. But as for the games? While they may originate in Poland, they are large-scale products being developed for a global audience. While I think the context is important and is enough for me to not necessarily agree with Gies, it doesn't automatically invalidate his argument.
Right now, Gies is largely on his own here with his criticism. As such, I don't think that CDPR is feeling the heat with regards to their portrayal of women and minorities. But if enough fans and potential customers arrived at similar conclusions to Gies? I think you might see a greater push for diversity in spite of the arguments about the historical context of the world. The games aren't beholden to the canon of the novels anyway.
But I wouldn't worry too much about that. Some people were deeply offended when a couple of people complained about how women were portrayed in GTA V. And what was the result there? GTA V sold about a billion copies (only a slight exaggeration). I don't think the Housers are terrified about having to compromise their vision to assuage the concerns of the recent progressive groundwell in games critique. I think we can let these dissenting voices have their say even if we don't necessarily agree with them or let what they're complaining about affect our enjoyment of the games.