The Witcher. Why?

[Yureina]

I don't know much about The Witcher. The only things that I have really heard is that it has alot of sex in the game, but is otherwise your typical PC RPG. Sex in a game not only does not sell a game to me, but in fact usually does quite the opposite for some reason. Its not something I have decided to check out though because I already spend far too much time playing with other RPG's, such as Fallout 3.

 

[The Eggplant]

So how did it win RPG of the year awards?

It did? Yeesh...it wasn't awful or any such, and I actually enjoyed most of the attempts at innovation and shoehorning those innovations into essential gameplay that it tried, but still. A solid effort, but dry as dust.... and I say that as someone who has actually taken the time to read most of the books in Oblivion and Morrowind. Yes, including the non-skill ones.

Ambiguous statements about overall game quality aside, Geralt needs to go sunbathing, acquire a severe case of skin cancer, and die. I hated the surly, albinoid little fuck.

 

[Hentaitom]

if you do not enjoy the witcher, then chances are you think that the best RPG to come out of the western world in the last 10 years is Fallout 3.

1. How the f*ck did you arrive at that conclusion?

2. What would be wrong with someone who did think that Fallout 3 was the best RPG to come out in the past 10 years?

OT: There's this little thing called opinion, believe it or not the people that hand out the awards have their own just like you and me.

ill rephrase, if you did not enjoy the witcher, then chances are you though that fallout 3 was a superior game to fallout 2.
the witcher gets back to what crpgs were like when we played Planescape Torment and Baldurs Gate. combat usually takes a back seat in the RPG experience.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I know most gamers today expect instant gratification from their games, but I was raised reading books more than playing games, and so grew up with an understand of rising action leading towards the climax of any tale.

I'll say this right off the bat, I haven't played The Witcher but your comment got my attention. Is it just me or is instant gratification more prevalent amongst gamers nowadays than it was 5-10 years ago? I work in the industry and so many families come in asking if they should buy x-console when they already have y and z-consoles. I don't want to come across as if I'm clinging onto the past, but when I was younger all I had was a SNES, which we had to sell to get a N64. All we had was one console with a few games and that was enough. Now everyone has everything and they always want more. This spills over into what kids want for their games, and this generation is pretty disgusting and they're never satisfied.

I'm not saying anyone here is that kind of brat, but as a whole, gamers are losing/have lost their patience. If they aren't hooked immediately, there's no point in playing. I know with FFXIII it started a little slow and I wasn't very impressed for a while, but I stuck with it because I'm a fan of the series, and I paid for it as well. Now I'm very happy and I don't ever plan on getting rid of it.

Sorry to digress, just wanted to touch on that point. Might've been better to put it in a new thread.

Except it's not always about instant gratification. It's about having fun. If your game is boring and does nothing to draw me in, in any way and the controls make it abysmally unfun to play to go with the characters I can't stand, I'm not going to want to keep playing this game even if I am the only one who feels this way about it. Crying that no one likes the game just because they want instant gratification is just foolish.

I think you missed the point a bit. I understand you play games to have fun - this is not an unexpected assertion. The trouble with game stories is, quite often, that they have incredibly poor pacing. Because of the constant pursuit of the next watercooler moment you end up with a series of action pieces connected by narrow lines. Games like God of War or Modern Warfare are fun to play but ultimately fail utterly in the story department precisely because of an unending drive to find the next little nugget of joy.

This is not to state that you should play a game you don't like until the stage is set and the plot starts to get really interesting. The defenses that have been made in the name of the Witcher make this quite clear in fact. If the core systems are so dissatisfying that continuing for the sake of the story alone seems like a painful process then, by all means, simply stop. The Witcher is hardly the best example of marrying story and gameplay, but it did at least present a tale where your choice had tangible effects. Other games claim to offer such things, and in some cases it may truly pay off in the end (Mass Effect for example) but for the most part the choices you make have no impact on the outcome.