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Comments
I refuse to believe any game has managed to top infiltrating area 51 and stealing a jetpack in a normally urban setting
I simply refuse it.
Just got home. Been driving since 2 PM to get my sister to her Quaker retreat. Clocked out to about 245 miles plus a stop at Panera bread. I’m a little tired right now.
I came back with my father in bed and beer in the fridge. I appreciate that he wants to do stuff like this for me but I really don’t deserve it after all the other things he gets me and as much money as I cost him already, especially since my sister looks like she’s going to be needing medications.
Tasty beer though.
So, I just started playing The Witcher, and
oh
oh god
is
is he supposed to be waving the sword over his head like that
because
if he is
i'm not sure i can take this game seriously
Because /adv/ taught me the way to a girl's heart is through her nerves, I shall spam her Facebook with loud music vids of a genre we were debating the quality of, knowing the hangover she'll be nursing come morning. Surely this will enamor her to me in no time at all.
^^ While the waving is a bit of a creative folly, it's a real guard -- a variation of vom Tag in the German school. It also appears in Japanese swordsmanship. Not really a guard I like much (the shoulder-level equivalent is much more versatile), but it's a good visual representation of being in a heavily offensive, high-damage style.
That said, you'll probably spend much more time in the fast and group styles.
Oh hey, I just found out [AoD] / Dr. Sunshine is a Touhou fan now. That's not one I expected to be.
I'm OK with this.
THE IRONY! IT HURTS!
Trying to decide what games to play next. Right now, I'm thinking either The Witcher/The Witcher 2, Baldur's Gate/Baldur's Gate 2/Throne of Bhaal, or Planescape Torment.
IJBM, what do?
Planescape.
Planescape.
This Pokemon Liveblog is going surprisingly well c: And only one Pokemon has died so far.
Juan wants me do more of the Smallvile liveblog.
He is trying to keeeeel meeee.
If I didn't have college, I'd do it for you, well, not exactly, because I don't have a hatecrush on it.
Planescape it is then, I guess. And it's cheaper than getting BG/BG2 on GOG. :V
I love hate to be contrary, but The Witcher and its sequel are really excellent games. I'd recommend those. Unfortunately, the tutorial for The Witcher is kind of boring, but the game then opens up into lots of awesome. In fact, The Witcher strikes me as what D&D ought to have been and ought to be. It's got all the hallmarks, but tempers them with realism, historical accuracy and a well-learned perspective on mythology and folklore.
And by that I mean that The Witcher has awesome magical dungeon crawls but appeals to my tastes. A lot.
Yeah, the prologue didn't really hook me at all, which is why I was considering putting it off until after Torment or BG.
I'm already downloading Torment, though, so you're too late. :V
>what D&D ought to have been and ought to be
>realism, historical accuracy
All I'm sayin' is this, alright, mang:
Luring a striga out of her crypt by fighting her into retreat, getting into her tomb and sealing it shut so as to spend the night there to break the curse is more interesting than going into a dungeon fightan' things without any kind of plot or character investment.
Also, you still use magic and shit so that base is covered.
Also, better potions and alchemy and stuff.
For instance, my current quest seems inspired by The Hound of Baskerville, except the Hound is a residual revenant and I have to get to the bottom of its rage and anger. I can throw fireballs and shit and go into crypts and
shut up i make completely objective and sensible statements all the time
But D&D is a tabletop. It's plot is dependent on the DM. It isn't always just going into a dungeon fighting things without plot or character investment.
play baldur's gate (or torment, from what I've heard) and tell me that that there's no plot or character investment
Yes, Forzare has it right.
>more interesting than going into a dungeon fightan' things without any kind of plot or character investment.
This tells me more that you've had shitty DMs than anything about D&D.
Harry Potter x Kamen Rider Fourze crossover where Harry's Animagus form is a Fourze driver
gogogo
I think Alex is rubbing off on me. I just had a mini-rant on the overexposure of Katanas in Western Culture to my Mother, spurred on by an off-hand mention (by me) of those umbrellas that have sword handles as their holder-bit-thingies.
I was shut up when she told me she didn't know what a Katana was :V
^Yeah, katana exposure is mostly in nerd/martial art culture.
^^Only if you do a Doctor Who/Persona 4 crossover where the Doctor meets his shadow.
It's different in The Witcher. While there are scenarios where you fight random monsters and stuff, the whole job description of a Witcher is "monster hunter". So the whole theme of major encounters is set around defeating monsters in a narratively interesting way. While I haven't played Baldur's Gate, I've played Neverwinter Nights and other BioWare RPGs besides, and they don't characterise the plot around such engagements nearly so well.
For example, in the section I'm in right now, the Hound summons aspects to fight me -- lesser spirits that take its shape. There are other monsters about, but only in specific areas; ghouls in the crypt, drowners at the riverbank and aggressive plant monsters in some underground areas. All the same, even these monsters only ever come out at night or in areas that are naturally dark.
The game carefully and effectively sets up boundaries for the monsters and contexts for encounters with them, whether related to the main plot or not. So far, there hasn't really been such a thing as a regular encounter; everywhere I go and everything I do, I've got a specific purpose. It might not be a quest as set out by the game, but a step I know I have to take to accomplish what I wanted.
For instance, I needed to go into a crypt and slay some ghouls. My payment was entry into a city. But the crypt was too dark to fight in normally, so I had to acquire a potion that temporarily gave me night vision (appropriately called "Cat"). To accomplish this, I bought a book about natural herbs which allowed me to harvest particular plants in game mechanic terms. Then I acquired ingredients and brewed the potion myself, allowing me to take the fight to the ghouls in pitch darkness. Had I not done that, I would have been surrounded and killed in short order.
The issue here is plot and character investment as it applies to the characters. Given that the player character in The Witcher is a monster hunter by trade (and the game mechanics support this), it much more effectively suggests and executes scenarios in which encounters are interesting, varied and relevant to the plot. I still haven't solved the issue of the Hound, but that thread has just taken a turn towards the murderous. I have a mystery to solve that will evidently have me examine an old, unsolved crime. This is the bread and butter of The Witcher in all mediums; the reconciling of monster hunting with character and plot on a level that exceeds the standard, nameless and pointless obstacle.
Your goal will never be to kill a monster for shits and giggles unless it's a particularly common mook or you go out of your way. Encounters have purpose, serving to communicate something rather than just being there for being there. Even repeatable encounters (such as the Hound's lesser reflections and general wildlife in The Witcher 2) exist to provide tension and change the conditions of the area. The Hound's reflections, for instance, only come out at night -- so now, you don't want to walk around at night if you can help it, unless you want to kill them specifically for the alchemical ingredients they're liable to drop.
I really applaud The Witcher and its sequel for the way it lines up general plot and character progression with the monster hunting theme. Most games are prone to throwing more of the same at you, and it seems like pointless and contrived padding. But I never felt, in either game, that the experience was padded out with enemies except where it would be thematic to include them anyway. Games are all about that reconciliation of gameplay with narrative, and while both Witcher games are certainly imperfect, they hit pacing, encounters and their relation to the whole tone, atmosphere and plot right on the head -- certainly in a way I've never seen BioWare accomplish.
If they fixed the damn combat and expanded the mechanics related to monster hunting, those games might deserve a 10/10.
I've not completed The Witcher yet, but I also have to hand it to The Witcher 2 for having, probably, the best overall story I've witnessed in a game. Even if the ending left me wanting more and felt a bit incomplete. Probably because it takes after JRPGs in that the character you play is established and somewhat limited by existing characterisation. Unlike most other WRPGs, it doesn't give you completely free rein with the character, so the plot feels much more relevant and personal. This is the sort of storytelling most other RPGs can't touch from the start -- by opening up so many options, the developers lose focus and therefore potential to tell a more cohesive story. This obviously works splendidly for some games, but The Witcher's approach gives it something most WRPGs don't even approach, and something which many JRPGs strive for by fail to attain.
tl;dr the whole structure, context and narrative of The Witcher kicks the shit out of other stuff on a systematic, structural level before it even beings to compete on the surface, at which it wins also. If, say, Dark Souls is the gem of JRPGs right now, The Witcher is the West's equivalent. Kind of poetic, too -- each game is excellent, but they've exchanged the type of narrative that is usual for their culture of origin.
WHY DO I WRITE HUGE POSTS
NO-ONE WILL READ THIS
NO-ONE
Alex...
you are aware that I'm inebriated 75% of the time I'm on this site, right?
I will consider how this will be done.
and goddammit alex im busy here
^^ I count on it, I assure you. :>
How knightly of you to depend on opposing your prime rival with a clear and unfair advantage. =P
Not chivalrous, true, but I assure you that it's not unknightly by a long stretch. :>