RPS Feature Don't be afraid, don't be very afraid
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I have a mental firewall about how recent a game can be before I’m allowed to write a Have You Played? about it. In my head, The Witcher 3 is about three months old and therefore invalid.
It’s two years old next month. I’ve had it on my hard drive for two years now, thinking “yeah, I’ll finally finish that next weekend.” Read the rest of this entry »
RPS Feature The plot thickens
This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites a developer to help him put their game up on blocks and take a wrench to hack out its best feature, just to see how it works. It’s about the sweat, grease and genius behind the little things that make games special.
Here’s a question: How do you solve a problem like Geralt? There he is, stern and stalwart, everyone’s favourite low fantasy drifter. A man of rank bogs, blasted no man’s lands and rugged islands. A man who isn’t much of a laugh, or awfully fun to have a drink with.
But what if you want to extend his world, and expose him to new adventures? That’s what last October’s expansion to The Witcher 3 [official site], Hearts of Stone, aimed to achieve, but it had to get Geralt doing things he’d never normally do. So how did CD Projekt manage to get him drunk and dancing at a wedding, robbing a bank, and appraising fine art? Their solution was deft.
RPS Feature Critical Distance
On The Witcher 3 [official site], preview events and getting it wrong.
RPS Feature Every Witcher way but lose
Many games suffer from a little bit of distance. You play them and they seem great, but once the novelty has faded, so has part of their soul. I’d say Dragon Age: Inquisition is a good example there. It’s a game I enjoyed, but it’s also one I’ve not really thought about since its credits rolled.
With The Witcher III: Wild Hunt [official site] though, the scale of CD Projekt’s accomplishment still hasn’t fully sunk in, and probably won’t until the next big RPG that doesn’t live up to the many, many amazing bits of design that game offers. I’m of course talking of the big stuff, like its sweeping plot and open world. More though, I’m thinking of the details; the smaller stuff, like how the scripting system is advanced enough to stop a fight after a specific comment of “Wait, you’re Geralt?!” or the exquisite attention to detail on even the smallest of quests. It’s CD Projekt’s masterpiece; the Witcher experience they’ve been working towards since getting the license all those years ago.
And now it’s been out for a while, let’s look at some of the more spoilery bits.
“Various improvements to horse behavior”. That was a patch note Marsh showed me last week. I had hoped it was one of God’s own patch notes and He was finally going to address the problems with those four-legged jerks but apparently it was CD Projekt Red talking about The Witcher 3 [official site] and the upcoming 1.07 patch. Disappointing.
RPS Feature Holding out for an antihero
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] is only a couple of days away! The final adventure of Geralt of Rivia, and CD Projekt’s chance to prove that they can take the RPG skills they’ve honed in the first two games to a sweeping open world. We’ll have a review up for you as soon as possible, but until then, here’s some CliffsNotes to get you up to speed on what’s happening, where to buy it, and why you haven’t already seen a WIT.
In an ideal world I’d be reviewing The Witcher 3 [official site] for RPS (not that we got code at the same time as consoleland, waah waah what a cold and hostile universe this is), but now I’m a beleaguered dad I barely have time for morning ablutions, let alone 100-200 hours of stabbing and sexing. All being well, I will start a relaxed-of-pace diary series about the earlier chunks of the CPD’s humungo-RPG next week, however. I’m looking forward to it, given the broadly rapturous reception. Just a few days now; the hype-cannon has fired off this ultro-flashy CGI trailer as a near-climactic volley.
Read the rest of this entry »
