The Witcher 3

I loved the original game. Never got into the second one in the same way, and doubt I've completed half of it. One thing that disappointed me was the removal of the rhythm-based combat, which I had liked. I also never got drawn into the story in the same way.

I was seriously impressed with the storytelling from the start with the first one and the ambiguous decisions that you are faced with. I think it was the Of Monsters and Men quest in chapter 1 that first made me notice the quality it had in that regard. It has wow factor really. I liked the chapter structure as well, which added to the feel of being immersed in a story for me.

The novelty of the game was a lot of the appeal for me. Things are a lot more interesting the first time you experience them, than when you are faced with the same basic concepts over and over again. Obviously with any sequel it is different to offer the same feeling of novelty as with an original game - especially when trying to maintain what made the first game appealing too.

The sequel lost some of its uniqueness I think. It seemed more influenced by other highly successful games, a bit more mainstream - less focused on its own particular world and stories. Reproducing elements of the original and mixing them with more generic features I guess. An awful lot of fuss was made about the graphics. Again the wrong thing to be trying to wow people with I think. I didn't think the graphics were that special in any case [and I did play at max settings]

I hope that trend doesn't continue with the third instalment. The removal of the chapter structure doesn't bode well in my mind. Neither am I excited by the game world being bigger than Skyrim. It suggests they are focused on the wrong things. They aren't making the sequel to Skyrim.

The level of investment plays a part of course. Has to be a focus on return on investment. Safer bet to go with proven formulas and what appeals to the broadest range of buyers. Have to be brave to be too different with big budget titles. Compare the level of diversity in games in the 80s and 90s, when budgets were much smaller in general, with the homogenisation of games now.

So yeah. My attitude is that it will be a dead space 3-esque crapfest. Hopefully I'll be happily surprised though.

[Not that I've played Dead Space 3, but I'm willing to take the general comments on it as true.]

Yes, the swamp was rather a slog if you didn't know what you were doing. Especially if you were playing on the hardest setting, and had been using up potions willy-nilly before that, leaving you short on vital ingredients for the big fights. It opens up so much after that though, it's like a whole different game. The investigations, the murder mystery, the side stories, they're just magnificent.

I got bogged down in real life and other things while playing Witcher 2, last time I played I was just about to make a choice on whether to follow Iorveth or Roche. I'm almost afraid to go back to that choice because it's such a big one.

Mickeroo wrote: »

Oh my god the combat is doing my head in in the first one. He either flattens an Enemy too easily or just stands there until he's dead if there's more than 3 of them.

You do need to use heavy attacks against big enemies, and fast attacks against fast enemies, and consider group attacks when there's a group of enemies. It's not hard when you get used to that.

New gameplay trailer from VGX.



If combat is fine-tuned, could be excellent.