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[SomTervo]

I'm just approaching Act 3 now, over 100 hours in, and... It is still flooring me.

Every hour I play. The next hour. The next. The next again.

Every single hour a new place, person or quest development overjoys me and draws me further into the world. I finish a great conversation, fully brain-deep in the story, turn around, and there is a magnificent, majestic landscape stretching off into the distance... Which I can ride out into and explore on horseback to my heart's content. All the way to the end of the world, finding new people, places and conversations.

And I'm past the 'combat hump' so now combat is broadly easy, probably a 4/10 challenge, but it still feels like I'm doing something, so it's now the best of both worlds.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Fallout 4 has no business winning GOTY awards.

Witcher 3 at least has enormous ambitions and scale to bank on, even if they fall pretty much flat on their face by making the game a chore to play.

 

[black070]

Picked it up again from the January Sale - already completed it but will give it a replay with the expansion, well deserved. Bloodborne would be my pick though.

 

[OnionPowder]

Wow 2014 was a dark year if Dragon Age was winning game of the year awards.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Oh please. Most of the questlines in the game involve pressing mouse right to activate witcher senses to follow linear questlines for clues.

Novigrad Haunted House still stuck with me for how embarrassing it was, gameplay-wise.

The game definitely overuses that mechanic, but that's only a part of the overall experience.

 

[SomTervo]

uncharted 2 is naughty dog not understanding what makes an underdog fun or an everyman work. i liked it enough, but i much preferred actually climbing the buildings and locations than running from their destruction. it just felt like more skill was involved (that's nothing to say of how it wasn't done earlier with beyond good & evil, but i don't think naughty dog people were actually inspired by the works of the cosmic deity, michel ancel).

I think you're going to enjoy Uncharted 4. It looks legit like they're taking the best aspects of Uncharted 2/3 and The Last of Us and mashing them together, while adding in dialogue choices and branching/open levels and pathways.

 

[Cincaid]

Sunk 50~ hours in the PC versions before I put it down. Was playing on Hard and didn't hate the combat as much as some did, but especially the story and repetitive sidestuff didn't do it for me. I'm sure partly it was my own fault, as I'm a completionist and did everything I could find, but I simply burned out eventually.

That said I will probably pick up the GOTY-version for my PS4 when it's released and give it an honest attempt with trophies as a carrot. Is that version running well, or is it sub-30fps all the way?

 

[Crayolan]

here's the only times an m-rated western game didn't get the majority of the awards:

2009: uncharted 2 (western-made, t-rating)
2005: resident evil 4 (japanese-made, m-rating)
2003: star wars: knights of the old republic (western-made, t-rating)

at least, going back to 2003. i would just have to assume that gta vice city got it in 2002.

Probably because gaming media is too north american-focused. The rest of the world barely gets any representation compared to NA, even Japan pretty much only has Famitsu.

 

[BouncyFrag]

This image is more accurate:

It's not mine, but I really like it.

 

[roytheone]

And CD Project established their Witcher franchise with Witcher 2. So, Witcher 3 was not some "unknown" IP.

Last year, most sequels from known franchises were out in same year and go against each other. Fallout 4, MGS V, Witcher 3, Halo, 5. Fine, great competition. But none of them are not even close to GTA V. Many were disappointed with Fallout 4, MGS V, Halo 5 etc... That was not the case with GTA V in current-gen and on last-gen.

So they were all close to GTA V?

But I think the thing is that you can't really compare GOTY winners of different years with each other. If the witcher III and TLOU were released during the same year, TLOU may have destroyed the Witcher in GOTY awards, or The Witcher may have destroyed TLOU, we can't possibly know. So you can't say one of them is "defiantly the most successful game ever", you only can say things like "percent wise it has the highest percentage of GOTY awards" or "it has the most raw number of GOTY awards".

 

[TEH-CJ]

Is the combat that bad? People seem split on the issue but how can a core mechanic being divisive lead to so many awards?

If someone (me) cares only about "gameplay" and nothing for story, should they bother?

The combat is fucking awesome and only second to bloodborn. Don't understand the hate.

 

[SomTervo]

Oh please. Most of the questlines in the game involve pressing mouse right to activate witcher senses to follow linear questlines for clues.

Novigrad Haunted House still stuck with me for how embarrassing it was, gameplay-wise.

Those bits get pretty dull, yeah – but they're only ever lines which join the dots of other (almost always great) scenes and adventures. Practically every story point, conversation and action scene on either side of any 'witcher sense scene' is phenomenal and it all adds up to an experience which is greater than the sum of its parts.

Also, I'd infinitely prefer the 'witcher sense' approach over Elder Scrolls 'A–B quest markers' or GTA's 'follow the GPS' approach. Neither of those games have a 'witcher sense' mechanic to fill in the cracks, they are constructed solely of the GPS thing (which of course TW3 has but CDPR knew when it would get extra tedious and replaced that with 'witcher sense').

 

[c0Zm1c]

I think it's deserved but I'm also very surprised how well The Witcher 3 has done for GOTY awards given how divisive it is. Though I do find it completely bizarre how so many people really hate the combat in the game. I loved it!

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Probably because gaming media is too north american-focused. The rest of the world barely gets any representation compared to NA, even Japan pretty much only has Famitsu.

So this year is a step in the right direction.

 

[Meia]

How much effort are you willing to put?

Because if folks recall Witcher 2 is also a VERY good game and heavily praised too as a whole.

If folks want to jump into Witcher 3 it's possible to do it without prior knowledge. If you want the best experience though, since the game relies so much on the characters do the following:

- Read the short story compilations
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316029181/?tag=neogaf0e-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316389706/?tag=neogaf0e-20

- Play the Witcher 2

The short story compilations you'll get done fairly quickly and are introduced to all of the major characters from Witcher 3 (aka Dandelion, Yennefer, Triss, and of course Ciri).

Playing the Witcher 2 I'd recommend reading the wiki entry of the Witcher 1 to understand the basics of what's going on atm which you wouldn't understand unless you instead played the Witcher 1. Basically (Witcher 1 basic set-up spoiler)

Spoiler

Geralt appears again after everyone thought he was dead, but with amnesia. He doesn't remember Ciri or Yennefer or know where they are

. The Witcher 2 goes over these plot points.

That was always the problem: I had witcher 2, but didn't have 1 and didn't really want to play through that one. This way at least gives me an idea to approach this, thanks.

 

[strafer]

Remember when this was impressive?

 

[Lux R7]

The combat is fucking awesome and only second to bloodborn. Don't understand the hate.

wat. you mean in this gen?

 

[Crayolan]

So this year is a step in the right direction.

Looking into the source NA actually only actually represents a little over 1/3rd of the total outlets, so it's not as bad as I thought. I was expecting a decent bit over 50%.

Still not international enough IMO, but not terrible as it is.

 

[Bedlam]

No need for your superior tone dude, plenty of room for everyone to enjoy the games they do without shitting on things needlessly.

And try not to speak for everyone. There are fans of the game on this very page saying how much they enjoy the combat.

Yup.

I'm a huge Souls fan but enjoyed TW3 a great deal as well (minus the bugs). Its combat is far from the disaster that some make it out to be. Quite to the contrary, its more than serviceable and especially shines on higher difficulties when you have to fight strategically and use all tools available to you. That said, there is definitely room for improvement (hitboxes!) and I can't wait for CDP's next game.

 

[OléGunner]

The doll from Bloodborne.

Ahh of course! Thanks.

That said I will probably pick up the GOTY-version for my PS4 when it's released and give it an honest attempt with trophies as a carrot. Is that version running well, or is it sub-30fps all the way?

I started the game a couple weeks ago and had to get 15Gb worth of patches.
Performance is really good apart from a few framerate hiccups in Novigrad that I personally have experienced so far.

Naturally you have your infrequent open world bugs here and there too but nothing severe.

I think it's deserved but I'm also very surprised how well The Witcher 3 has done for GOTY awards given how divisive it is. Though I do find it completely bizarre how so many people really hate the combat in the game. I loved it!

When in full flow it's like Geralt is dancing around his enemies
Great feeling.

 

[SomTervo]

Is the combat that bad? People seem split on the issue but how can a core mechanic being divisive lead to so many awards?

If someone (me) cares only about "gameplay" and nothing for story, should they bother?

The combat is fucking awesome and only second to bloodborn. Don't understand the hate.

I wouldn't call it "fucking awesome", but I really enjoy it personally. You have to really get in the zone, think strategically, and play safe on the two harder difficulties. You have to think like Geralt to do well – which is the very fucking definition of role-playing and is really immersive.

Up to where I am, though, there are two really badly designed fights. However, that is two out of some 300+, so pretty decent design ratio!

ponpo - if you care only for gameplay, TW3 will probably take about 5 hours to get going and even then, it's not precise or taut like Souls or a proper fightan game or anything. It's very janky in comparison to those (though still better than many games). It's an adventure-driven and story-driven experience first.

Combat is an important part of its clockwork but not a focus.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Looking into the source NA actually only actually represents a little over 1/3rd of the total outlets, so it's not as bad as I thought. I was expecting a decent bit over 50%.

Still not international enough IMO, but not terrible as it is.

There has to be some hardcore french group that makes a new wave and then gaming criticism becomes a global affair hahaha.

 

[Carl7]

Bloodborne at least is being robbed by a fantastic game. Witcher 3 has set the mark for what AAA should mean.

 

[Bedlam]

Sunk 50~ hours in the PC versions before I put it down. Was playing on Hard and didn't hate the combat as much as some did, but especially the story and repetitive sidestuff didn't do it for me. I'm sure partly it was my own fault, as I'm a completionist and did everything I could find, but I simply burned out eventually.

That said I will probably pick up the GOTY-version for my PS4 when it's released and give it an honest attempt with trophies as a carrot. Is that version running well, or is it sub-30fps all the way?

After all the patches, it actually runs surprisingly well with only very few minor dips here and there.

I played the first expansion recently (awesome, even better than the main game!) and it was a pretty huge difference to my experience a couple of months ago as far as performance goes.

 

[Intel_89]

I'm not into WRPG's but I'll give it a go once my girlfriend is done with the game.

Good for them on the whole 166 awards.

 

[Lux R7]

Bloodborne at least is being robbed by a fantastic game. Witcher 3 has set the mark for what AAA should mean.

mhmm no.I mean, for my tastes, that mark should include a CC (i hate set characters in huge rpgs), good combat mechanics and superior art direction.

 

[SomTervo]

Sunk 50~ hours in the PC versions before I put it down. Was playing on Hard and didn't hate the combat as much as some did, but especially the story and repetitive sidestuff didn't do it for me. I'm sure partly it was my own fault, as I'm a completionist and did everything I could find, but I simply burned out eventually.

That said I will probably pick up the GOTY-version for my PS4 when it's released and give it an honest attempt with trophies as a carrot. Is that version running well, or is it sub-30fps all the way?

It's running pretty good for me. They patched it a lot. Played a lot before and after patches and it's definitely better now. I think random areas get hit by drops, but on the whole it's a near-steady 30.

 

[Sioen]

Deserved. This is the best game I have played in a very long time.

 

[Interfectum]

Fallout 4 doesn't deserve any of those GOTY awards.

 

[thuGG_pl]

mhmm no.I mean, for my tastes, that mark should include a CC (i hate set characters in huge rpgs), good combat mechanics and superior art direction.

Art direction is amazing in W3. Combat is also good, above average in RPGs.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

mhmm no.I mean, for my tastes, that mark should include a CC (i hate set characters in huge rpgs), good combat mechanics and superior art direction.

Better art direction than TW3? Yeah I guess that's something one could try strive for, but it would be in the bottom of the list of things to improve, it is basically the strongest part of it.

 

[Anno]

Not mine, but probably my favorite amongst games with enough widespread popularity to really have a chance. CDPR certainly made an amazing game with such a massive scale that it overwhelmed me a couple times.

 

[SomTervo]

mhmm no.I mean, for my tastes, that mark should include a CC (i hate set characters in huge rpgs), good combat mechanics and superior art direction.

> it's a role-playing game. You role play as Geralt, a monster-hunter-for-hire, hunting for his ward (adopted daughter). You do not play 'random hero X'.

I have never played a game which truly puts you in the shoes of the protagonist like this, through all the mechanics and world-building and dialogue choices. A character creator would 100% go against the point of the game.

> the combat mechanics are serviceable. Yeah, they're not amazing, but you can get through them and when they sometimes properly click it can be really satisfying.

> TW3 has art direction almost on par with Bloodborne. Of course it's not better - BB is world class - but it's a very different kind of universe. Apples and oranges. IMO The Witcher 3 has better art direction than the Lord of the Rings films or Game of Thrones – works which are universally lauded for their art direction. And TW3 is a giant open world bigger than GTAV or Skyrim by 3-4 times. It is consistently stunning and believable, inch by inch, foot by foot, mile by mile. The first room you walk into, the hundredth, the thousandth. The first glade you come upon, the thousandth. The only boring bit is the seafaring in Skellige which starts of amazing but gets tedious.

Then you've got technical stuff like really good (not best) facial animation, unique camera direction for 1000+ quests, amazing lip-synch for every single model in the game (again, thousands).

It is a true achievement.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

That was always the problem: I had witcher 2, but didn't have 1 and didn't really want to play through that one. This way at least gives me an idea to approach this, thanks.

No problem. And don't worry about playing the Witcher 1, I'd recommend against it because it plays and looks nothing like Witcher 2 and 3. The combat is completely wack ( I think it has no supporters unlike Witcher 2 and 3), the graphics and art style are ugly, and characters' personalities don't match up with the novels nor the other two games (for example Triss basically acts like Yennefer).

All you need to know from Witcher 1, and I am not exaggerating since it's almost completely disconnected from Witcher 2 and 3, is what I told you

Spoiler

Geralt wakes up with amnesia and finds the other Witchers of his school and Triss, doesn't remember where Yennefer and Ciri are (or who they are). Also you're basically helping out a king. At the end of the game as you're leaving his services you hear some noises and you rush back to find a black hooded figure trying to kill him, you fight and kill the enemy and take off his hood, only to notice his eyes resemble witcher eyes.

And that's the set-up for the Witcher 2. Enjoy.

In Witcher 2 you might meet 1 or 2 characters max that come from Witcher 1, but they are minor and don't rely on you remembering them.

 

[Ultimadrago]

All well deserved for the best game of 2015. I'm very pleased to see Witcher 3 run off with the trophies.

CDProjekt Gods, etc.

 

[PastorOfMuppets]

Granted, I'm biased because I played Witcher 3 and not Bloodbourne which is the game is supposedly robbed of many GOTY awards this year but I'd just like to point something out to the Witcher 3 critics in this thread who knock it for the open world thing and the bad combat.

Even if you don't like open world games, you can't really argue that The Witcher 3 based on the balance of size and detail of the world, it is the one of the most well designed of all time. Shenmue might have been more detailed but it was limited in size, Elder Scrolls Daggerfall was larger (it's open world was literally the size of Britain) but it was procedurally generated and had no character or flavour. Witcher 3 manages to maintain the balance of size AND detail which it should absolutely be lauded for.

Secondly, I can understand why some people don't like the combat but I don't understand why you would compare it to Bloodbourne or the Souls games. They designed entirely around combat and are often held up as the best of that specific sub-genre of games. The Witcher 3 is trying to walk a fine line between good combat telling a good story within a massive open world that also has to be interesting enough so players don't feel like they're doing fetch quest #129 and it does all those things very well. Some aspects you might find worse than others but you can't really argue that there's any one aspect of Witcher 3 that's flat out terrible. Just that you might not like it compared to this X game. And said game that Witcher 3 is compared to is usually the best of the genre which is saying a lot. It seems like you guys will resort to hyperbole UNLESS a game has:

Storytelling as good as The Last of Us in an open world the size of the known universe with platforming at least equal to that of Super Mario Galaxy and combat as good or better than Bloodbourne. Leveling must be balanced while remaining unique, multiplayer has to be a skilled based affair while remaining forgiving to new players and the dialogue must be as well written as this year's Hugo Award nominees.

As video gamers are, you guys cannot seem to comprehend that some games are not bad, just you may not like the specific genre and resort to ridiculous hyperbole. At least try to see why other people might like the game as much as they do.

I seriously wish that next year's GOTY is some hardcore PC exclusive space sim that requires you to buy a $200 flight stick to fully enjoy so I can read the rationalizations from gamers. Can you imagine the arguments people are preparing for the possibility of Star Citizen sweeping the GOTY awards next year? "Star Citizen was the shittiest game of all time, the platforming sucked."

 

[EthanC]

My tastes are mainstream but they don't match up at all with these mainstream selections. I'd get rid of Witcher, Bloodborne and MGS and replace them with Tomb Raider, Destiny Taken King and Mario Maker. But my criteria for judging games boils down to 'fun'. Hard to hate on the actual selections much. Overall it was a pretty good year for gaming.

Fallout 4 doesn't deserve any of those GOTY awards.

Sure it does. It was a lot of fun. Not as much fun as reading all the salt it generates, but fun nonetheless.

 

[semiconscious]

Fallout 4 doesn't deserve any of those GOTY awards.

am i the only one who's explanation for enjoying fallout 4 is the same as jessica rabbit's explanation for why she loved roger: 'he makes me laugh'? because fallout 4 made me laugh (both deliberately & inadvertently) more often than pretty much all the other games i played in 2015 put together. & i consider that an accomplishment. for me, not necessarily a goty accomplishment, but, to the extent playing a game's supposed to be fun, i can easily see others considering it so ...

 

[Lux R7]

> it's a role-playing game. You role play as Geralt, a monster-hunter-for-hire, hunting for his ward (adopted daughter). You do not play 'random hero X'.

I have never played a game which truly puts you in the shoes of the protagonist like this, through all the mechanics and world-building and dialogue choices. A character creator would 100% go against the point of the game.

> the combat mechanics are serviceable. Yeah, they're not amazing, but you can get through them and when they sometimes properly click it can be really satisfying.

> TW3 has art direction almost on par with Bloodborne. Of course it's not better - BB is world class - but it's a very different kind of universe. Apples and oranges. IMO The Witcher 3 has better art direction than the Lord of the Rings films or Game of Thrones – both works which are universally lauded for their art direction. And TW3 is a giant open world bigger than GTAV or Skyrim by 3-4 times. It is consistently stunning and believable - inch by inch, foot by foot, mile by mile. Then you've got technical stuff like really good (not best) facial animation, unique camera direction for 1000+ quests, amazing lip-synch for every single model in the game (again, thousands).

It is a true achievement.

the user i quoted was referring to a "new mark". I don't want that mark to include a set character (not in the witcher game, but in the new games to come), i want that mark to include a superior art direction, i wan that mark to include better combat mechanics. I really don't know why you felt the need to defend the witcher or list what the game does good.

 

[Dark_castle]

This image is more accurate:

It's not mine, but I really like it.

Savage.

 

[eot]

Remember when this was impressive?

There are more random game sites handing out awards than there were publications back then.

 

[Exentryk]

One of the producers (Masaaki Yamagiwa) of Bloodborne picked Witcher 3 as his GOTY. He wrote something about Witcher 3 always being a step ahead in terms of GOTY awards, but sees the CDPR team as good rivals. Someone else might be able to translate it properly and fully though.

＜質問1＞2015年に発売されたゲームの中で、最も感心させられた（あるいは衝撃を受けた）タイトル

タイトル名：「ウィッチャー3 ワイルドハント」
「Bloodborne」と同年にリリースされる大型RPGということで、発売前からかなり意識したタイトルであり、そして発売後も評価やセールス、いくつかの賞において常に一歩先にいる悩ましい存在でした（笑）。しかし、実際にプレイして、細部までのゲームの作り込みや、発売後の無料DLC配信など、「ユーザーの方々を喜ばせたいからやっているだけ」だと言わんばかりの強い自負のようなものに触れ、今では良きライバルだと勝手に思っています。

 

[Cincaid]

I started the game a couple weeks ago and had to get 15Gb worth of patches.
Performance is really good apart from a few framerate hiccups in Novigrad that I personally have experienced so far.

Naturally you have your infrequent open world bugs here and there too but nothing severe.

It's running pretty good for me. They patched it a lot. Played a lot before and after patches and it's definitely better now. I think random areas get hit by drops, but on the whole it's a near-steady 30.

After all the patches, it actually runs surprisingly well with only very few minor dips here and there.

I played the first expansion recently (awesome, even better than the main game!) and it was a pretty huge difference to my experience a couple of months ago as far as performance goes.

Awesome, great to hear. Thank you!

 

[Chase17]

I'm just about in Act 3 of the game. It absolutely deserves all the acclaim. Congrats CD Projeckt Red!

 

[mxgt]

FO4 getting more than Bloodborne is absolutely disgusting.

 

[Dennis]

Your favorite GOTY? Geralt took its head.

 

[Copper]

Fallout 4 doesn't deserve to be up there with those caliber of games. It was a decent game but definitely not on par with the others.

 

[Tjamato88]

I just picked The Witcher 3 back up after finishing Until Dawn yesterday and was having a blast with it. I forgot how fun this game is. I'm really hoping to really dive into it this week and knock out a big portion of it.

 

[RespectThySole]

Since the raw number of GOTY awards they count each year seem to fluctuate a lot, I decided to look at the percentage of all the GOTY awards the winner ended up getting:

Currently Witcher 3 has won 58% of all the goty awards counted.
In 2014, Dragon age won 33 % of all the goty awards counted.
In 2013, The last of us won 48 % of all the goty awards counted.
In 2012, The walking dead won 19 % of all the goty awards counted.
In 2011, Skyrim won 56 % of all the goty awards counted.


I haven't looked at the years before 2011, maybe I will do that later, but out of those 5 years, percentage -wise The Witcher III is the most successful game right now! Skyrim is VERY close though.

That year had a total of 522 GOTY awards counted.
Last year had 406 GOTY awards counted.
This year they are at 294 GOTY awards, so I i wouldn't be surprised if the Witcher 3 ends up passing the 200 mark too.

Impressive. It will easily pass 200. Might get to 250 as well depending on how many awards there are in comparison to previous years.

 

[BBboy20]

Battlefront

What?