🚀 go-pugleaf

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>
> * The Witcher 1 (replay)
> I /really/ want to replay the third game of the series, but I've set
> myself the goal of playing through the first two games first that I
> might experience the totality of the entire saga (one of my issues
> with my first play-through of the Witcher 3 was that I'd forgotten
> much of the plot of Witcher 1 & 2. Unfortunately, neither of those
> games were particular favorites of mine. Nonetheless, like a child
> promised ice cream if he just finishes his Brussels sprouts, I
> earnestly attempted to work my way through the older titles.
>
> Not that I truly disliked the first Witcher; in many ways, it felt
> like a breath of fresh air when it was released in 2007. In an era
> when Bioware-style RPGs dominated, its grey-on-grey morality and
> meaningful choices were a refreshing change, and the scope of the game
> is still impressive today. While many RPGs have you determine the fate
> of a kingdom, few offered the same feeling of being able to determine
> its soul as you navigated the treacherous political and
> racially-charged waters of a nation on the brink of civil war and
> genocide. Unfortunately, the gameplay itself was not as well-polished.
>
> The actual mechanics - while somewhat clunky - were acceptable; I got
> to enjoy the combat - with its dependency on properly-timed
> mouse-clicks- after a while just because watching the protagonist leap
> and dance about as he slaughtered monsters was so much fun. The
> alchemy - source of the hero's powers - was less fun, just because the
> character's inventory was so small. An infinite stash was available to
> hold the excess, but it was always so tedious to get to - usually four
> or five loading screens and an annoying conversation away - that it
> was frustrating to use. The maps were gorgeously rendered and
> impressively sized - especially in comparison to many of the Witcher's
> competitors of the time - but the game overstayed its welcome far too
> long before opening up the next region. The swamp - where probably
> half of the quests take place - very quickly became tedious.
>
> Worse, the story just couldn't support its own plot, with characters
> and events being haphazardly introduced, then ignored for an act or
> two, only to suddenly have relevance 20 or 30 hours of gameplay later.
> This becomes much more noticeable in the late game, when I was thrust
> into the political intrigue and realized I had no idea who most of the
> people were, what their factions represented, or why I should care one
> way or the other. There is a lot of useful detail provided in in-game
> books and glossaries, but I found these dry and - thanks to the tiny
> font - painful reading. There's a clever and mature tale buried in the
> game but it does little to make it accessible to the player.
>
> Still, while playing The Witcher was often a tedious slog, it was
> generally a rewarding one. Despite its age, the game was still fairly
> good looking and it is still a more adult adventure than most CRPGs on
> the market today (and not just because of the sophomoric sex scenes).
> It just takes a lot more effort.

Witcher is one of those game I should like but don't, much like PS:T. 
It's also one of the few (perhaps only?) games I gave up on returned to 
later and actually finished, unlike PS:T which I never could get 
through.  The gameplay I just found unforgivably bad, extremely poor 
combat, MMO style crafting-grind, and walls of text of 'history' etc. as 
written by wannabe poor writers.

So #3 is better?  Is it worth checking out considering my gripes with 
#1, should I skip #2?  I never played #2 as #1 just wasn't for me and I 
had no desire to repeat the process.

> --------------------
> And that's how I wasted an August, rather than visiting the beach or
> hiking or kayaking like I really wanted to do instead. What about you?

Sounds like you didn't play anything really enjoyable.  Better luck in 
September!

>
> What Have You Been Playing... IN AUGUST 2016?

Um.  *looks sideways* *mumble mumble* look over there \/

- Justisaur