-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings |OT| Plough 'Em All
- Thread starter Snuggles
- Start date
- Status
Stahsky
A passionate embrace, a beautiful memory lingers.
ThoseDeafMutes said:
I thought Triss' hair looked pretty nice. Geralt's wasn't that bad, either. And as far as the skin textures, yeah I agree. Very odd how most of the game has such nice textures yet Geralt's battered body looks rather low rez in comparison.
DennisK4 said:
I wonder if there is any word on how he normally keeps his hair in the books. I read the first, but I don't remember much about his hair aside from it's color.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Triss' hair wasn't bad, but Geralts looks awful whenever he makes sudden moves and it animates. Ves was bad from memory also. Most characters are bald, have short hair or wear helmets, of course.
VisanidethDM
Banned
Van Buren said:
In this perspective, yes, we can agree - the game is massively better than the competition, but the competition is turd.
VisanidethDM
Banned
DennisK4 said:
But it doesn't reflect the character from the books!
reptilescorpio
Member
It really started to bother me by the end. I wanted to know what he was hiding under that damn turban. Bald? Cornrows? Hopefully they solve that mystery in the DLC.Kyaw said:
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Kyaw said:
Well Triss stuns/damages me with fireballs every single time I'm in a fight with her (this was the real reason I told her to stay put during the final fight). On the other hand, she has mastered the Strip-All-Clothes-Off spell, which is pretty nifty.
reptilescorpio
Member
Triss x1000. Red heads. Yum. Looking forward to Geralts old lover in the next game. The best thing about sorcerers is that they use their magic to make themselves look hot. That is magic everyone can be happy with.Kyaw said:
He probably got picked on by dwarves as a kid for looking like a pretty boy. Now his badass 'tude makes sense!Jintor said:
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Jintor said:
Sorceress' derive their powers from boners, which is why they typically have huge busts and dress like hookers.
reptilescorpio
Member
Make sure to read the manual and use Quen to protect yourself. Aard is great for stunning an enemy to stop them ganging up on you. Roll lots. Run at the start.Jinaar said:
fizzelopeguss
Banned
Kyaw said:
Loredos mum.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
I can't remember Loredo's mum.
Somebody post a picture.
For science.
Somebody post a picture.
For science.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Oh, her.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Dragon I did, Letho I don't remember, old woman definitely not.
Refreshment.01
Member
This is one of the few games where "kiting" makes sense to me. Geralt is a mutant but is not Dante or Kratos, his is vulnerable like any other human. So it makes sense to fragment enemy groups by kiting, trap setting and magical signs. It seems like the most realistic approach in terms of what the Witcher character is. I heard that when Samurais where outnumbered the best way to proceed was to flee from combat, when possible, or try to outrun the enemies and take swings at then one by one. Thta's pretty much the way i play the game.Jintor said:
Check something like Assassins Creed, you don't kite in that game, because enemies take turns to attack. So combat while looking cool becomes shallow. So Ubisoft fucked up that part of the game there.
But i do agree combat in this game is far from perfect but not bad.
Also in Chapter 3...
Did anyone do that too?
The part where you come down the cliff path to Loc Muinne, you see the Order of the Flaming Rose, if you turn right and continue the path between the steep valley, you encounter TWO big ass Arachnids, you get trapped in between them and inevitably die on normal difficulty or higher.
Did anyone do that too?
Stahsky
A passionate embrace, a beautiful memory lingers.
Kyaw said:
I ran into that. Was just swinging away like a retarded when suddenly half my health vanished. I somehow won, though. But I was sitting at like 4% HP throughout most of it.
I was talking to someone on skype and mid-way through my sentence I just yelled "Oh shit fuck, TWO OF THEM?"
You dont even get any significant loot in the cart wrecks... I thought it was just one, so i wanted to back out and put down a trap, then looked back and FUUUUCK another one!?
Also MotionJoy question, does it work with USB PS3 controller instead of bluetooth?
I used it a while ago and i had to do this driver signing thing everytime i reboot. Is it resolved now? (Planning on using PS3 pad with Splinter Cell Conviction from steam sale)
Also MotionJoy question, does it work with USB PS3 controller instead of bluetooth?
I used it a while ago and i had to do this driver signing thing everytime i reboot. Is it resolved now? (Planning on using PS3 pad with Splinter Cell Conviction from steam sale)
Refreshment.01 said:
You kind of have a point - like, thematically, it makes sense - but in-game it's pretty much like an MMO - run around a rock in circles continually because you never tire and enemies are stupid idiots, occasionally dropping a snare or a sign and stabbing some idiot in the back. Not exactly a barrel of fun.
"Action RPG" doesn't mean half action game, half RPG. It means real time RPG combat. Taking inspiration from Arkham Asylum for certain parts of the game doesn't mean it's "heading in that direction" or trying to be a hybrid of genres.Jintor said:
I don't think Mass Effect was a particularly successful melding, if that's the game you're referring to. As a shooter it wasn't all that great. You certainly wouldn't compare it to the best shooters out there. To appreciate the combat in that game you have to accept it in the RPG context it's in. The same goes for comparing TW2 to Bayonetta et al.Jintor said:
Is such a game possible? One that allows for a full RPG level of character customisation, and still has best in the business action? Maybe. Demon's Souls is close, but I'm not sure what the pure action fan would think of the slow pace of it. I think someone said earlier it was bad because it was slow. The speed is possibly necessary to allow for customisation elements to have an affect.
I don't want to see them "let the RPG elements go" as you say. We have too much of that in too many games already.
If that's the case, you're sort of making it boring yourself aren't you? I've never played it, but wasn't the point of Bayonetta all the optional stylish moves?Jintor said:
toastyToast
Member
back hits on hard without the ability that reduces the damage is vicious. normal soldiers can do over 150 damage, its crazy.
get caught in an animation and roll a second too late and die.
get caught in an animation and roll a second too late and die.
They have signed drivers available now. http://www.motioninjoy.com/Kyaw said:
Still can't get it to work though, you might have better luck.
Fredescu said:
Perhaps I'm projecting my desires for an action game with RPG elements, but I feel that's where Witcher 2 is attempting to go - otherwise, why would there be a combo element to fighting, why would you be able to roll around yourself, dodge blows, block depending on your button presses and inputs? That's not what RPG combat has hitherto been about; it hasn't previously been about direct control of your character, about finding the weak points yourself and avoiding blows. Those are elements of an action game, not an RPG.
I've really got to try Demon's Souls one of these days. Anyway, I see your point about taking combat in its RPG-context, but that doesn't excuse many of Witcher 2's fundamental combat flaws. Take the inability to hit things that you aren't personally targeting (without the whirl ability) - even in a RPG-related combat context, it's simply stupid to be able to wave your sword around without hitting something that is indicated to be directly in front of you. It's these kind of RPG elements that I'm talking about losing - the needless combat inhibitors, the conventions that don't mesh with the combat-style that is being approached. It's like if in ME2 accuracy wasn't based on whether or not they were in your crosshairs, but instead on invisible dice-rolls that occured whenever the projectile came in contact with their model. That kind of thing.
I suppose you could theoretically kite enemies in Bayonetta, but the point was that the combat system in that game was so fluid it was relatively easy to dart from enemy to enemy, dodging blows or countering moves while easily continuing your combo; everything flowed into everything else. Trying something similar in Witcher 2 just gets you instantly hitstunned to death (hitstun and inability to cancel out of moves in W2 is probably a major source of my complaints). Of course, that said, I don't know how you could convert kiting-esque behaviour in a singleplayer RPG to be less like an MMO, but I'm sure there's a cool way to do it.
VisanidethDM
Banned
Fredescu said:
Not even remotely so. Demon's Souls has a terrible, simplistic combat system that is elevated to greatness by context. It's nowhere near being as responsive, varied and precise to make it a paragon of action gaming. It works well in Demon's Souls, because stripping the player of control and safety is half the game's magic, but it's not a high quality combat system.
Demon's Souls is the kind of game where if you can trap a magistrate behind a wooden column and have him eat stabs as the AI struggles to find a place to have line of sight and throw a fireball you don't think "man, this stuff is broken", you think "YAHOOOO A FREE PASS I MAY END THIS STAGE AT LAST!!!".
Now for the actual question, which is if we could have an action game that has the quirks of an RPG (gear, talents, speccs, %s and spells) and the responsiveness of a DMC... the answer is definitely yes, as long as you accept that RPG mechanics will eventually screw the balance of an action game and roll with it. If we can have beat'em ups handling leveling mechanics, we can work out action games implementing lightweight RPG mechanics in the same way.
The core point would be that of tricking the player by keeping the scaling of abilities in check (making sure that, say, maxing swordplay doesn't triple your damage) and then you could really run things as a GoW/Darksiders clone.
â Narayan
Member
Hahaha! I thought that scene was great. She totally deserved it.Kyaw said:
Jintor said:
You just cried fowl on an entire sub-genre of RPGs, you realize that right? A rather old sub-genre at that. I actually found The Witcher 2's combat to be a bit easy on the grand scheme of things (even on Hard) and a pleasure to control. Some minor gripes but nothing to royally fuck it over.
That was kind of silly and it's a pain in the ass to have to rely on lock-on targeting when you want to "swing swing, switch target leap swing, swing, roll, Igni, parry, swing" etc. instead of focusing down one dude or releasing your lock-on and hope it switches.
That said ... the amount of times where you had 4+ enemies at once was so rare that I can't remember the last time this actually became a problem. 2-3 enemies were just never a big deal.
You can do the same in The Witcher 2. Since I'm doing my playthrough now without Quen, combat has really opened up to look a lot more fluid and less "hurr durr I'm a tank." Proper parries, quick attacks in between their swings, rolling to re-position, etc. all being done instead of just "dodge away, reapply Quen."
Hell, it's not until this playthrough that I realized you can attack things behind you; Geralt will just stab backwards. That alone has made my combat flow so much better than before.
scy said:
Are we talking Diablo-style click-fests? Or Dark Messiah/Oblivion-style RPGs? I confess to not being a big fan of either.
My game never seems be reactive enough for me to try this when fighting more than 3 opponents (or one opponent who will murder you in three hits if you don't have quen on)
VisanidethDM
Banned
Jintor said:
Or just not have kiting at all. You don't turn your back to enemies. It's silly. Devs are just generally afraid of implementing a solid, skill-based defence system because they don't want to frustrate players. And a simplistic defense system trivializes a game.
The process goes something like this:
Dev A: Ok, how do we handle defence?
Dev B: B parries, A+directional dodges.
Dev A: Ok, now we need to build up a system that keeps the two opinions in balance. Unblockable attacks will do?
Dev B: Yes but it's an RPG, we need to have scaling in these abilities, it will be a mess. We need to rebalance all monsters, and their attacks.
Dev A: What if we make it skill based?
Dev B: Like?
Dev A: Neutral stance you move around and attack and stuff. Hold down left trigger, you go parry mode, and the analog stick brings your guard in position to parry - high attack with up, low attack with down, left and right etc. Right trigger toggles dodge, front rolling, left and right strafing/quick sidesteps, back you jump back. Some things you need to handle in specific ways - like, the troll clubbing down with a tree you need to backstep or possibly sidestep if you're quick. The poking fencer noble needs to be parries as he'll read your dodges, etc. Then you can mix up stuff. And we can have multiple enemies attacking at onces, and people queueing defensive manouvers. Heck, we could have parry work with the left analog and dodge with the right one, and you being able to dodge and parry at the same time on multiple fronts! We could have something that looks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNNqHxiEuTQ#t=02m01s
Dev B: Dude that's amazing but... will people get it? It's a bit... complicated. Like, hardcore. And will take a shitload of work. It's somewhat convoluted.
Dev A: Damn, got a point there. Options?
Dev B: Parry is OP, but has cooldown/erosion. Add some kiting.
Dev A: Sounds good.
- Status