Damn.  Steel's impressions!

I think we played different Skyrims. The last ES game I remember to have truly engaging quests was Morrowind, and perhaps the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion. I don't recall many memorable quests in Skyrim beyond going somewhere and killing someone or something for something that didn't matter because everything was leveled anyway. That's it. I spent over 200 hours in Skyrim both in 360 and PC. I modded the fuck out of it. And I still wouldn't say that Skyrim quests hold a candle to these. I guess if you apply a reductionist approach any game can sound the same as every other game ever. You go somewhere, follow some map, do shit and get stuff. Hey I just described every single RPG in existence or upcoming. I never said it was anything new, I only think the execution is far better than most other RPGs out there, as well as the way things are presented.

travo said:

What's your preferred difficulty, Steel?

Right now I'd say Blood and Broken Bones is the sweet spot, but only because I'm still fumbling about with controls. I have played the entire trilogy on MKB and I don't feel like switching to a gamepad right now. I rotate through signs with mousewheel, dodge with ALT, roll with spacebar. I don't have a single issue with MKB controls in this game.

SteelAttack said:

I think we played different Skyrims. The last ES game I remember to have truly engaging quests was Morrowind, and perhaps the Dark Brotherhood questline in Oblivion. I don't recall many memorable quests in Skyrim beyond going somewhere and killing someone or something for something that didn't matter because everything was leveled anyway. That's it. I spent over 200 hours in Skyrim both in 360 and PC. I modded the fuck out of it. And I still wouldn't say that Skyrim quests hold a candle to these. I guess if you apply a reductionist approach any game can sound the same as every other game ever. You go somewhere, follow some map, do shit and get stuff. Hey I just described every single RPG in existence or upcoming. I never said it was anything new, I only think the execution is far better than most other RPGs out there, as well as the way things are presented.

Right now I'd say Blood and Broken Bones is the sweet spot, but only because I'm still fumbling about with controls. I have played the entire trilogy on MKB and I don't feel like switching to a gamepad right now. I rotate through signs with mousewheel, dodge with ALT, roll with spacebar. I don't have a single issue with MKB controls in this game.

No I am not just reducing it. You are talking about a quest where a woman was hanged in a well, she loved some guy, and there is some material keeping her in the world. You free her spirit from the world when you defeat her. Wow amazing... I am pretty sure I rmember I quest in Skyrim where a ghost haunted an area with the exact same story. There were quests where you were taken to other dimensions, become a pawn in some mages twisted game, get drunk and lose all your clothes and memory in another. I have no clue what you are doing, skyrim is filled with amazing quests and they usually have better gameplay than hold button and click on glowy stuff to proceed. Now it's the first area so the rest of the game can be amazing but nothing in that prologue screams amazing revolutionary quests. It's well written, that's about it.

SteelAttack said:

Skyrim. Better gameplay. o_O

It's clear we're never going to share the same viewpoint on stuff so I better just drop it here.

You can play Skyrim as a wizard, a thief , a warrior. You can only play witcher one way, and while the combat is improved It is not high level stuff. I just hated whn ganes get retroactively hated, now Skyrim sucks? It's a masterpiece. Maybe witcher turns out to be too but nothing in that prologue really stands out.

You can play as a warrior -- Swords, Crossbows, bombs, Dodging, etc.

You can play as a mage -- Magic traps, Fireballs, Telekinetic Pushes, Control Enemies to fight against each other.

You're a morally iffy character: You can steal to get items you need, if you don't care about what people think about you and how they treat you...

Witcher 3 is one of the most diverse games in the ways you can play it...

Besides stop comparing this game to Skyrim, they try to do different things.

Also, it's not about being able to play it in many different ways. The game is The Witcher. you get to play as...a Witcher. It's not called The Sorcerer, or The Bard. The Witcher. You do witcher stuff. That means kicking butt with a mix of sword, magic, throwable weapons, bombs and doping.

SteelAttack said:

I don't hate Skyrim, I still love it. But that doesn't mean I am not able to see its shortcomings. You love saying "masterpiece" because a game got many awards or high scores. What is special about Skyrim's combat of all things? What would you say is "high level combat" in an RPG?

Skyrim's swordplay is two enemies hacking and slashing about while moving forwards or backwards depending on who is winning. The Witcher 3's combat is elegance, it's dancing, it's high art. It's like comparing a prima ballerina with a twerking obese woman.  

Skyrim gives me options. First let me address leo, leo there are not multiple ways to play, those are skill trees not different classes. It is impossible to play this game with magic of bombs alone. They are the equivalent at being better at ranged attacks or close attacks but still fall into one combat system. The problem with this series is that it's an RPG with an action games combat system. Now that is fantastic, I love that idea if the combat system was good. But it can't hold a candle to stuff like batman. So it's left in the middle as a game with action game mechanics that are ok and an rog without any of the combat strategies that come into play in those games.

Yes if you simply fight as a soldier Skyrim fights are boring but there is total freedom in how to play. You can sit back and cast spells to kill enemies. You can turn yourself invisible, use a bow and arrow to snipe enemies from afar. ive lead enemies into other enemies and watch them duke it out. Can't you poison some enemies by reverse pick pocketing them. Yes it's clunky and messy but it's free, I come up with the strangest ways to kill things and yes a lot of it is running backwards. I highly doubt in witcher you will ever have some 10 minute long battle where you are kiting a super strong monster through woods and mountains, yes it's messy but I created that whiole ten minute battle cause I felt like it, I created that moment myself. Enemies in witcher act like action game enemies, they stick to a certain arena like area for the most part (some wolves and such are an exception) and you battle them the same way each time, using the combat moves provided just like Batman or AC or DMC or any other action games.

So all I ask is if you are going to go the action game route then be good at the action or have other elements to supplement it. witcher is combat and walking around talking to people and that is pretty much it. Perhaps a stealth layer would have been nice. Or the game could have well designed dungeons but this series does not, maybe witcher 3 surprises me and there is a dungeon with traps and puzzles, but I doubt it.

It's a story fans dream,  it's a cool mix of action and rpg but I need more for this game to really be considered in the class that you guys are putting it in. Also we are in the prologue our opinions can change greatly, we have seen nothing.

have fun and use a rubber.

SteelAttack said:

I'd totally play a game called The Bard, though.

Get The Bard's Tale on XBOX or PS2. Its a Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance style hack n slash.