Poll: Witcher or Oblivion?

[Capt. Crankypants]

Why can't we like all the things?! =(
Loved the witcher for it's fantastic story and dialogue and beautiful beautiful scenery. I always found the combat dull though. The Signs made it a bit better, but -click- -click- -click- wasn't too engaging. Basically, everything other than the combat was done very well.

Other hand, loved Oblivion because of it's amazing freedom and cave exploring and choice of play-style. Never enjoyed being a sneaky, backstabbing dark-elf bowmaster as much in my life. The story was kindof meh, and it didn't look as good, but I didn't care, because it's so liberating to be able to go where you want and fight how you want. Oh, and the arrows lodging in creature's/people's corpses where you hit them was just such a classy touch, loved it.

 

[Volkov]

The Witcher by a longshot. Greatest RPG of the last 5 years, DESPITE having well-defined problems.

 

[infohippie]

I've tried a couple of times to get into The Witcher, and failed both times. Geralt is instantly unlikable, and everyone else (at least, in the first few minutes) is instantly forgettable. The bad guy looks kind of silly, which is an odd complaint I know, but it stands out to me. The combat seems simplistic and boring, as do your options for leveling up. The story doesn't really draw me in, possibly because I want to punch Geralt in the face just for looking like a dick. That, and the bad guy doesn't really do anything bad enough to earn my hatred. Then I go to some generic looking town and get attacked by boring looking ghost dogs who kill someone I don't know.

I have a feeling I'm selling myself short. I'll try again one of these days, and hopefully stick with it long enough to get to the good parts, if any.

Which "bad guy" are you talking about? Azar Javed, the big muscular fire mage? Or The Professor, smaller guy with glasses and crossbow? Remember, they assaulted your School's home, killed a young witcher trainee - the only one your School had remaining - and stole the various mutagens required to make new witcher trainees. Basically they just cut off your group's entire future, as well as now having opportunity to learn to use the secrets witchers have guarded for generations, not even allowing your closest allies to examine.
That whole intro bit in Caer Morhen is kinda crappy, don't judge the rest of the game by it. And the first proper chapter, with the "ghost dogs" (barghests), is something I find quite enjoyable once you start to get into the plot for that chapter, although most people who like The Witcher don't think it actually starts to get good until a good chunk of the way into the next chapter after that.

 

[infohippie]

It does. It significantly improves on the original (and really, any mainstream ARPG/WRPG to come out in the last few years) in pretty much every way.

Truly? I mean, I really dislike the first Witcher, but I was also disappointed as I felt it had a lot of lost potential. If the sequel is truly a much, much better game and improves on the things I mentioned in my previous post significantly, I might get interested in the series once more.

I can't help but be skeptical however. I'm going to have to look into it before I decide to give it another chance.

He's right, it really does. Heavily branching plot lines, much improved characterisation, much improved handling of sex and relationships in-game, better voice acting, way better combat (while also being much harder) and IMO it even manages to do quick time events right!
The areas you get to explore are amazingly detailed and very atmospheric, and as icing on top - the sheer graphical quality! It's prettier than Crysis, and requires a similarly beefier computer to turn everything up to full, but is still surprisingly gorgeous even on low settings.
My biggest issue with it would have to be that it's way too short. It took me about thirty plus hours to first beat it, but an intro, two large chapters, and one short chapter is just not enough for me. I'd have really liked to see a couple more chapters, but I guess we'll wait and see if there are some good expansions on the way. Having said that, it does have pretty good replay potential.
Also, the two groups of whores you meet (and can indeed hire if you wish) all have comedy-oversized breasts - please try to see past that. At least the main love interest character has a much more normal sized rack.

 

[Custard_Angel]

The Witcher is regarded extermely highly by its fans and not that highly by others it seems.

Oblivion has a bit of a broader appeal in my experience.

 

[Keanan Wolfenden]

I can see where this who thing is gonna go where the Witcher fanboys are gonna have a all out war with TES fanboys. All I have to say is have fun with you're little war and I am reserving judgement till I get to play Witcher.

 

[The Madman]

Depends, are we counting multiple games in the series? Because if so my list would probably go something like this:

Oblivion < The Witcher < Morrowind < The Witcher 2

Oblivion I found a disappointment after Morrowind, hell, I was so excited that I bought and still own the collectors edition of Oblivion from the day it was released. But the world, the overarching story, just everything about the game and its setting just felt so... bland. Where was the unique and dangerous world of Morrowind? The quirky steampunk influences? The grand tales of conflict? The ancient ruins and civilizations? The massive backstory and veritable library of optional dialogue and books that came with it?

I didn't get any of that, instead I felt everything was just so damned generic and repetitive, something I not once for all its flaws experienced while exploring Morrowinds amazing world.

So yeah, The first Witcher is better than Oblivion by far. Still the Witcher itself also had and still has flaws aplenty. It's a bit of an odd complaint but the games just too damned long, and this comes from a guy who's done multiple 100+ hour playthrough of Baldur's Gate. But The Witcher just feels stretched out with long, tedious and entirely un-entertaining bits that greatly diminished the otherwise fantastic story and themes present throughout the game. Dialogue and cinematics were also handled extremely clumsily in places, even with the Enhanced Edition, leading to a couple places of head-scratching confusion and stupidity.

That said the way the game takes your actions into consideration and how even seemingly tiny decisions made hours earlier can end up having a massive impact on the plot is amazingly well done, plus the themes and setting are fantastic. But then I also had read and own the first Witcher book translated into English so I had a much better idea of what was going on than I imagine someone who hasn't read the book might have.

Still I'd rate Morrowind higher than The Witcher. Witcher 2 on the other hand, yeah, pretty much none of my complaints up there count for that game (Not that it's perfect, far from). It's pretty damned impressive really and shows that the developers honestly listened to their community and feedback and took that into account towards creating something better than their previous efforts.

Oblivion < The Witcher < Morrowind < The Witcher 2

 

[StBishop]

Oblivion VS almost anything else?
Oblivion loses.

 

[Woeps]

I'll have to go with Oblivion, tough I do like the Witcher series a lot

 

[Conza]

Having been a HUGE Tes fan for years i was surprised to find that when i recently started playing The Witcher i actually liked it a LOT more than Oblivion. It had a far more engaging story and more rewarding gameplay and when i finished it i found that i could probably never enjoy Oblivion again, it just seems crap to me now. Sorry guys.

Yes, I'd tend to agree with that, even though I didn't like Oblivion that much to begin with. Don't worry though, Skyrim 'should' *cough*, be a match for the Witcher 2, if it isn't, it'll be ashame, but Oblivion had a very MMO feel to it, which I didn't like.

 

[frehls]

hue

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

gonna have to say oblivion, i really wanted to like the wither but everything about the gameplay was so unintuitive i gave up on it after an hour

 

[ColeusRattus]

I chose The Witcher, because, despite all it's shortcomings, it's the better game.
If you'd had asked The Witcher VS. Morrowind, the result woul've been the same, but I'd had to ponder it before clicking.

Having said that, Oblivion is by no means a bad game. It's a bland one, but still fun.

What surprises me though is the harsh negative reaction towards The Witcher, but then it dawned on me: It's like in the music business: Oblivion is the huge star with perfect production value. But it aims at a general public, thus it's made NOT to alienate anyone. As a result, it's pleasant, most people enjoy or at least tolerate it. But it is bland and doesn't really spark any passion about it.

The Witcher, on the other hand, is the quirky record of an experimental band. The production quality is bad, and it sounds unique and controversial. Now this uniqueness alienates a huge part of the mainstream audience, while other love it to bits.

Now of course the majority will think Oblivion to be the better game, but to us few, The Witcher can't be bested by it.

And another comparison:

While in Oblivion, you're at first awed by the shere size of it, it quickly becomes apparent that everything you can do feels somewhat hollow and superficial. All culminating in a huge bossfight between mountain tall gods... you're merely watching.

The Witcher is the other way round: the prologue and first chapter in The Witcher are a huge drag and the game would've been better off if it had severely shortened those parts. But it picks up, and as you're more and more sucked into the setting, the more compelling it gets.

 

[ruben6f]

Oblivion, I find that is more immersive to be able to create your own character than just having some random guy wich I can't relate too.
I still liked the witcher the graphics were amazing and I liked how each NPC in the game looked different from another NPC.

 

[The Big Boss]

Having been a HUGE Tes fan for years i was surprised to find that when i recently started playing The Witcher i actually liked it a LOT more than Oblivion. It had a far more engaging story and more rewarding gameplay and when i finished it i found that i could probably never enjoy Oblivion again, it just seems crap to me now. Sorry guys.

So you made a thread to basically tell us you don't like oblivion anymore?
Good job

Figure that out all on your own?
Good job