[Henke]

I'm really looking forward to this game. Based on what I've heard I think it can turn out absolutely great.

http://www.thewitcher.com

[Kolorabi]

Yes, it looks very sweet. The setting seems imaginative and interesting, and the screenshots look very good indeed. Has it been picked up by a publisher yet?


From the website:

The game-world shares many common features with other fantasy lands. However there are also many distinguishing elements setting it apart. The world is not black and white, and there's no clear distinction between good and evil. Therefore it is populated by believable characters that act like real humans. It is a vivid and colorful place bearing many analogies to our reality, it is also a world full of violence and vulgarity, a place where only the strongest and most cunning can prevail. From the player's point of view the most important feature of this world is existence of witchers. They are members of a brotherhood of warriors, trained to kill monsters in order to protect people. There are only few of them left now, and time comes for one of them to play a very important role in the story that is about to unfold.

[RLacey]

Nice Bioware engine, that. Nice looking game, too, of course. Hopefully the gameplay will match the graphics .

[Kolorabi]

The rendering engine has apparently been completely rewritten by the CD Projekt team (and now supports pixel and vertex shaders, for instance), and the gameplay mechanics have been changed _a lot_ from what we saw in Neverwinter Nights (which is apparently the version of the Aurora Engine that CD Projekt is using). Plus, the game is using the Karma physics engine. Edit: There's detailed information about the changes here .

The main reason I'm looking forward to this game is really that it seems to be aimed at adults - the devs say they've tried to move away from the typical "fairy tale" stuff we see in normal RPGs. I guess that's one of the reasons I loved Morrowind so much too - it was far removed from the standard Tolkien-based fantasy stuff that we're used to.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Kolorabi

The main reason I'm looking forward to this game is really that it seems to be aimed at adults - the devs say they've tried to move away from the typical "fairy tale" stuff we see in normal RPGs.

Adult in what ways? Will the story have subtle and complex issues addressed? Will the characters themselves deal with things like identity, ethics, and love? How deeply are these 'adult' themes explored? That's what I'd like to know.

[AFGNCAAP]

Hey, I was wondering when somebody posts about it, if at all. You know, the local press names The Witcher the only Polish game in production that excites the game journalists and fans worldwide. So I wanted to wait and witness this supposed hype rather than generate it.

Besides, I'd have to try rather hard to seem excited. Although I keep my fingers crossed for it, I won't hold my breath just now. Firstly, it seems like an emphasis on "action" part of this "action-RPG" will be too great for my liking. If so, I can only wish luck to those who enjoy this kind of gameplay more than I do.

Then there we have the "mature and original World" factor. Normally it would be a shining point of the game for me. Unfortunately, having read the excellent books The Witcher is based on, I have somewhat skewed perspective: I wonder how much from the source material will the developers manage not to destroy. Again, the decision to adapt epic and serious story into a hack'n'slash doesn't make my giving a benefit of a doubt to CDProjekt any more easier.

Oh, and odd as it may be, I am not really blown away by the graphics, I guess the backgrounds, when shown on screenshots, would do. But the E3 trailer that reveals the gameworld in motion... it's not ugly, but it doesn't catch my eye either (the way the scenes from, say, Doom 3 do - even though I had precisely zero interest in Doom series). And I have always considered my expectations in that field to be set lower than average - so when everyone around hopes the gameplay lives up to the graphics, and I don't think of graphics as particularly impressive, you must understand my lack of faith.

To end my impossible rant on a positive note, the feature that sounds truly promising to me is the complex sword-wielding system. This is, to my knowledge, first attempt at making it a vital gameplay element since old Die by the Sword.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

That 'truly adult' thing is what's really niggling at me. In all honesty, I've heard that crap shat out before, and in the end many of the games that say that haven't really explored it nearly as deeply as they could. I mean, why can't making extremely difficult choices based on love, loyalty, ethics, and philosophical beliefs BE a great part of gameplay, too? In the end, you get great combat and exploration.....meh.

[AFGNCAAP]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Adult in what ways? Will the story have subtle and complex issues addressed? Will the characters themselves deal with things like identity, ethics, and love? How deeply are these 'adult' themes explored? That's what I'd like to know.

I'm willing to bet that deeply enough to satisfy you, friend, if the game turns out to be at least half-true to the spirit of the original source. My concern is, as I complained above, that it's hardly likely to happen.

EDIT: Again! You type too fast.

[Henke]

From what I've read in PC Gamer the game is based on the books by Andrzej Sapkowski (a polish author whose books have never been translated), so the story is suppose to be rich and complex. The battles will be fast and direct (no turnbased crap ). The game will deal with good and evil and how there is no distinct separation between the two.

In one sequence shown at E3 the hero fights a vicious monster. When the monster is laying at the ground defeated it will start to prey for its life saying that it's really a normal human being that has been transformed by black magic. If you choose not to kill him then you will make enemies with your employer but you can help the monster to regain his human form. But the monster isn't necessarily speaking the thruth. Your choices will reflect how different people will see you and the game will have three different endings. The story is suppose to present harsh subjects like racism among others.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Henke

In one sequence shown at E3 the hero fights a vicious monster. When the monster is laying at the ground defeated it will start to prey for its life saying that it's really a normal human being that has been transformed by black magic. If you choose not to kill him then you will make enemies with your employer but you can help the monster to regain his human form. But the monster isn't necessarily speaking the thruth. Your choices will reflect how different people will see you and the game will have three different endings. The story is suppose to present harsh subjects like racism among others.

I know that RPGs like Knights Of The Old Republic have touched on the issue of racism, but afaik there really haven't been any games that plunged VERY DEEPLY into such issues and had it so that they were an essential part of the gameplay experience.

Then there's that recent FPS/RPG hybrid, Boiling Point, where you can do what you want but at the expense of losing face with certain factions who may want to kill you.

I dunno, I feel that we still have an insanely long way to go before we feel like we have to put the game on pause and spend some time thinking about our choices before jumping back in.

[Henke]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

...there really haven't been any games that plunged VERY DEEPLY into such issues and had it so that they were an essential part of the gameplay experience.

I dunno, I feel that we still have an insanely long way to go before we feel like we have to put the game on pause and spend some time thinking about our choices before jumping back in.

This game is suppose to do exactly that, so fingers crossed that they will succed in their task.

[AFGNCAAP]

Originally Posted by Henke

In one sequence shown at E3 the hero fights a vicious monster. When the monster is laying at the ground defeated it will start to prey for its life saying that it's really a normal human being that has been transformed by black magic. If you choose not to kill him then you will make enemies with your employer but you can help the monster to regain his human form. But the monster isn't necessarily speaking the thruth.

That would be fabulous - this is the kind of situation Sapkowski's Witcher would likely have to deal with (it's pretty showing that I've never seen this scene mentioned in the magazines I looked into - I guess the information about Aurora engine and lack of multiplayer must have been more interesting to the target readers ). What I'd prefer to see though, is such a challenge at a core of gameplay rather than as a gimmick between killing zombie #43 and wyvern #17.

[Kolorabi]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

Adult in what ways? Will the story have subtle and complex issues addressed? Will the characters themselves deal with things like identity, ethics, and love? How deeply are these 'adult' themes explored? That's what I'd like to know.

Well, that's quite difficult for us to know right now - we can only look at the website and previews, and see what they're trying to do. As others have said, the world is based on a series of critically acclaimed books, so the source-material seems to be interesting enough, at least.

One example of the more mature and less black&white tone of the game is one of the important NPCs, a king called Foltest, who had a daughter with his own sister. He's not described as an evil or perverse person, but rather a tragic figure.

Then there's the issue of racism - humans are in control of most of the area (the only other race who has their own free kingdom is the elves), and the other races are oppressed and persecuted, and there's a lot of conflicts between humans and the other races (especially the elves who fight a guerilla-like war against them).

I don't know how important this will be to the story or how the game will deal with it, but there's potential here, and that's what I focus on. When the game gets closer to release, we'll see if it squanders it away or manages to do something with it.

If you're interested in a real mature RPG, you should seek out Planescape: Torment, btw. It's by some of the people who made KOTOR II, and it's generally regarded as one of the best mature games around.

[Henke]

Am I the only one who missed that you can download the E3-trailer from the webpage (I thought it was well hidden)? The only thing it establishes is that the action looks cool, but that sure is something.

[AFGNCAAP]

Originally Posted by Henke

Am I the only one who missed that you can download the E3-trailer from the webpage (I thought it was well hidden)? The only thing it establishes is that the action looks cool, but that sure is something.

The website is indeed hard to navigate. Not only because part of it stays in Polish even on the "English" version. I did see the E3 trailer, but it was a while back on some magazine's cover CD.

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by AFGNCAAP

The website is indeed hard to navigate. Not only because part of it stays in Polish even on the "English" version. I did see the E3 trailer, but it was a while back on some magazine's cover CD.

Be nice if they used a more common divx or whatever codec the avi is in. I can watch the older movies but not the new one and I cannot be arsed getting newer and newer video decoders. Its bad enough when trailers are in the horrendously processor intensive WMV flavour of the month.

[Kolorabi]

Some nice new screens: http://www.worthplaying.com/article....thread&order=0

[squarejawhero]

Thanks for bumping this for me. I'm really excited about this one.

[AFGNCAAP]

Originally Posted by worthplaying

When the game starts our witcher is a young man and not a very experienced slayer of monsters - everything is still before him. He is a talkative, witty and a bit cynical. He often comments on his adventures and events. He looks like a human, but is a mutant, created and trained to fight the most dangerous monsters. He is tall and slender, and although not very beautiful, women consider him handsome. Some changes in his appearance are visible - unnatural color of hair, eyes and complexion, different than that of ordinary humans. This is the result of elixirs he was given as a child. Also his reflex and graceful movements are remarkable.

This is the witcher at the beginning of the game. His personality further on depends on your actions. He can become a noble hero or a foul villain. All his behaviors, actions and deeds are remembered by the inhabitants of this world and are reflected in the character’s Reputation.

Eh? So Geralt (the books' main character) is not a hero of the game? Thanks goodness, actually, as it would lead to either confusion or lots of spoilers for the player who haven't read them (the game is said to take place after the novels).

On the other hand, "talkative, witty and a bit cynical" - is not a description of a witcher, which are rather monk-like in their attitude. Unless the story will involve his training gone bad. Also, "noble heroes" and "foul villains" are two terms that completely don't fit the world where the game is set. This is no Star Wars to have two distinctive paths - rightful and sinful one - to follow.

[/rant]

[Henke]

Have anyone heard anything new about this game lately? They don't have a planned release date yet which is frustrating. I'm really, really looking forward to this game. It seems almost to good to be true.