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games: The Witcher

Hey guys,

This week I have mostly been playing the Witcher. And you know what, it’s pretty damn good. I want to check out the books now, but although they are available in a variety of European languages, only one has been translated into English. Hopefully this will give their publishers a kick up the butt about sorting that out. (Or maybe I’ll get off mine and improve my French). Anyhow, have a look at this dark fantasy RPG for PC and prepare yourself for a long and deep immersion in the game. You can pick up the game here.

Subscribe or check back on Wednesday for a look at Gears of War for PC.

Dziękuję i do widzenia,

Katharine

comments

Norbit
November 5th, 2007 - 12:09pm

This game isn’t really my cup of tea because the whole ‘turn based’ fighting thing really turns me off games. This looks a bit better though so I might see if I can dl the demo I saw knocking around a while ago.

Dobry rewia BTW

JCFG
November 5th, 2007 - 7:33pm

Nice review! :D

David
November 6th, 2007 - 6:18pm

Hi Katharine!
Greetings from Poland.
I really liked your review. The Witcher is certainly the best RPG’s released this year, one of the best RPG’s of the decade and - in my humble opinion - one of the ten best computer RPG’s ever. Despite the fact, that I just love the fighting system that CD Projekt RED implemented in the game I still think that this game’s biggest advantage over other RPGs is the storyline. It’s almost as good as in Fallout, Fallout 2 or Planescape: Torment.
BTW - wish you could experience polish version of the game. I had the pleasure of playing both polish and english versions. Even though I really enjoyed the UK version I’ve got to tell you - you are missing half of the humorous dialogue lines in english version of the game.
Oh, and as far as crashing is concerned - I had the same problem. Before downloading the patch from The Witcher’s website the game crashed a couple of times (five or six I guess). After downloading the patch I suffered only one crash, so the problem is almost fixed.
Thanks for the review.
Pozdrawiam ;) P.S. You should definately check out Sapkowski’s books. They’re awesome!

Go4broke
November 6th, 2007 - 10:58pm

Nice review, catches quite a bit of what I’ve seen so far in the game. I think the one thing your missing is that for a fantasy story, this game isn’t a tolkein knock off. It comes across as truly original in re-imagining the fantasy genre.

It is darker, grittier than most games but then thats a good part of its appeal.

Combat system, I like although trying to explain it to someone is difficult, it works surprisingly well, just one of those things you need to try it to understand it.

Katharine
November 7th, 2007 - 11:36am

Thanks guys :)
On combat - It’s not a bad compromise at all between turn based and more immersing systems, but it does take a bit of getting used to and whether you like it will be more of a personal preference than it being categorically good or bad. I think Go4broke is right, you need to try it out!

And good point about not being another Tolkien rip off. I took that for granted, but it is worth pointing out for those who are only casually interested in fantasy genre games.

And David - great to have a Polish view on the game, thanks for posting. It’s unfortunate that we often lose out in the translation. I will check out Sapkowski’s books - thanks for the recommendation.

GLight
November 8th, 2007 - 10:25am

I play 12 hours and game not crash O.o i think that your PC have bad configuration :P. Ohh sry Witcher crash ones… when i was exit from game xD

David
November 8th, 2007 - 1:48pm

No problem Kathrine. Just don’t make the same mistake that some of my excited about the game friends from US made - do not even try watching the polish Witcher movie (as far as I know it’s possible to rent it in States). It’s the lamest thing ever. It actually makes Ed Wood’s films look smart and professional. In fact it’s so horrible that very few people had the strength to watch the whole thing.
And by the way - it might be a rumor, but I’ve read on one of polish websites, that CD Projekt RED is going to release an expansion pack with a new story and a very powerful editor allowing players to create mods, quests, etc…

ktchong
November 9th, 2007 - 1:10am

The Witcher has sold one million units worldwide in just a week. So that’s a good news.

http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/gb/dokument.aspx?iid=65509

mAx
November 11th, 2007 - 7:08pm

Correction here - it has not sold 1mln units- it is lunched in 1 mln units.. Ad meritum - this is most “grown up” and sirious crpg i ‘ve ever played . It makes Oblivion look like fairy tale..

SourStones
November 12th, 2007 - 7:47am

Another greetings from Poland…not so mate..rather a Polish person living in Australia !
Gotta admit that was a bloody professional review there….You knew what you were saying which is rare in the industry (no offence meant… gamedaily)…No bias there as far as I am concerned. Keep it up!!

Ps. Thing about the books is that some Polish would come in handy…and, of course a great deal of knowledge about Polish culture..

Have a good one!

Neara
November 18th, 2007 - 10:52am

Nice review, you get to the point without psychobabbling for hours like others do. Really enjoyed watching it since most strenghts of the game and it’s few weaknesses are listed. Good job on it. And your british accent is very cute ;) .

Greetings from germany

Triton
November 29th, 2007 - 4:03pm

Greetings from Canada,
Just discovered channel flip, a really nice hub of technology reviews! Is it me or this game seem like the spiritual sucessor of an old bioware game : Planescape Torment? The grim feel of the game bring back nostalgia of this game.

Anyway, I was still wondering if I should or not buy this game, your review was fair enough and convinced me to take a good look at it after the end of my university session.

Keep up the great review, love the accent!

( Sorry for the grammar, I’m french-canadian ;) )

ktchong
December 27th, 2007 - 4:31am

This game is speculated to be coming to the Xbox 360. The developer (CD Projekt) recently put up hiring ads on their website looking for 360 programmers, specifically those with skill in “parallel programming.” (Which basically means porting a program that’s designed to work in one environment into a near identical product that can perform in a different environment or architecture.) It’s just speculation, of course,

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