Keyrock

This... This has to be a joke article... or a gross misquote, right? Right!? I knew Microsoft were delusional, but to think they will shift anywhere from almost 3 times as many to nearly 7 times as many units as the 2 most successful consoles of all time (PS2 and DS)? That's straight up absurd.

Perhaps you're intimidated by his skin-tight pantaloons, showing off his well chiseled, rock-hard buttocks.

Here is an RPS "article" with a bunch of stills from the recent trailer and/or hands-off demo. It seems CDPR must have previously stockpiled some of teh grafx, becuase I though Crytek had used up all teh grafx. I ****ing love how badass that giant moose-like beastie looks.

The entire Gothic series has a distinct and rather shocking lack of women (Not sure about Arcania, but that's not really a Gothic game anyway). Risen and Risen 2 are slightly better in this regard, but the populatiuon is still overwhelmingly male.

First question: No, the inventory screen sucks no matter what control setup or platform you use. Second question: Yes, I have played it with a 360 controller and I prefer it to m&kb, though m&kb is fine. It plays really well with a controller, it was clearly designed for one.

I fully expected it. They're out to make money, after all, as they should be. The supposed "consolization" of TW2 doesn't bother me, nor does the further embracing of consoles by CDPR. If and when the PC version becomes a second class citizen, then I'll worry, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, if I get to it. Yeah, TW2 was clearly made with a controller in mind. I see nothing wrong with that. The style of gameplay in the game naturally lends itself to a controller. Maybe I'm less bothered by this because I didn't play TW1 with isometric camera, I always went for third person camera anyway. It just felt better. I always looked at the series as an action RPG and action games quite often just work better on a controller. That's not selling out, that's utilizing the best tool for the job. With that said, I also played TW2 with m&kb and had no problems whatsoever. The UI and menus... well, they sucked no matter if you were using a controller of m&kb, that's an area that definitely needs improvement.

So the Invasion Event has started. It happens every 30 minutes and lasts for 5 minutes. A bunch of portals spawn around Protector's Enclave and waves of trash mobs appear for the slaughter. They drop enchantments that I've never seen before and some bones which can be used as currency to buy stuff... eventually, I think. Pretty meh. Hopefully there's a big ass boss fight at some point, like the end of the event.

I was more referring to the fact that they can set their own deadlines and performance milestones. They are not owned nor funded by a publisher (in fact they have a publisher as a subsidiary), and they have a steady flow of income from their subsidiary, GOG. Thus, they can dictate their own terms on how the game should be made and when to release it. Of course the market will, at least in part, dictate the direction of their product, that's just the nature of business. At the end of the day the main goal for all developers, and I mean ALL developers, no matter how idealistic they try to make themselves seem, is to make as much money as possible.

Yeah, after reading that interview I'm firmly in the Do Not Want camp.

Mother Nature Studios made the best open world game ever, even if it does get quite grindy and frustrating at times. It's free to play and, as expected, pay to win.

Yeah, Amnesia and Penumbra are some of the very few survival horror games that actually manage to capture the horror part of survival horror.

CD Projekt RED are one of the few developers that have that luxury of being able to do things on their own terms. The other two I can think of off the top of my head are Valve and Blizzard because of the cash cows they have constantly filling their coffers (Steam and WoW respectively), even if Blizz licks Bobby Kotick's boots. BioWare, unfortunately, is under the thumb of Dread Lord EArts.

Well, at least I'm already decked out in purples, though I do need to upgrade my helm. On the flip side, this might drive the value of profession crafted purples up on AH.

It only makes sense to release it around Halloween anyway.

Having an expansive open world is only a plus if exploration is fun and interesting. I do like the approach they're taking to points of interest. Rather than have someone in town tell you "go to this cave, I'll mark it on your map" they're trying to put things in the world that would naturally catch your eye and when you go to check it out interesting stuff happens or you find something cool to do. In theory, it sounds good. As already mentioned, the execution will be the key.

Bethesda was downright lazy in Skyrim. The dungeons? Handcrafted my ass. It's the same design over and over. These guys are way more ambitious than Bethesda is. I love TES and Fallout, but look at how far CDPR has gotten with TW3 after only two years of development. They have a bigger team now too. 80+ worked on TW2. Now over 120 work on TW3, plus a seperate team for advancing the new engine. To be fair, the dungeons were less cookie cutter in Skyrim than in Oblivion... Of course what I'm saying is that we're dealing with reasonable facsimile versus carbon copy.

I bought the Medium Worg as opposed to the Heavy Armored Worg because: a) cheaper b) the armor doesn't really do much for me, aesthetics wise Eventually once the horse trade is giving me more AD than I know what to do with (it's already starting to pay good dividends), I'll upgrade the Worg to Rank 3. It would be cool if I could keep the Medium Worg skin, rather than get the armor stuff, just get the speed/toughness upgrade. As it is, the Rank 2 Medium Worg was a much better upgrade than I thought over my cheesy horse. Not only is it faster (despite only a supposed 30% speed increase over the horse, it seems much faster), the combination of extra speed and toughness means I can ride past lev 60 groups and not get dismounted because I'm fast enough to get out of their range and tough enough not to get dismounted before I get out of their range. Also, Baxter is awesome. Sometimes when he's feeling playful, he'll lay down and let you rub his belly. Just don't do it too much, though. You might lose a hand. LadyCrimson, when you get really close to lev 60, let me know and I'll give you some pointers I've learned about the Abberant Assault lev 60 skirmish and some of the Epic Dungeons. Having everyone in a group who know what to do in end game dungeons/skirmishes makes all the difference. Edit: Also, I'll gladly group with you and help you do some of the Whispering Caverns quests and "solo" dungeons if you want. That goes for anyone else here on Mindflayer shard too.

That dwarf sure is a smooth operator.

Dang, I didn't even think of that. There's no way CD Projekt RED can match Bethesda's expertise and output in delivering cookie cutter dungeons. I guess I have to retract my previous statement.

I hear that's got quite the learning curve. Good luck and congrats on your future console.

I played a game of go outside for a bike ride. Unbelievable graphics, so lifelike, and the effects? I mean, you could literally feel the wind in your hair (what little I have left). Also, the 3D is mind-blowing.

I still think Yojimbo (or A Fistful of Dollars, if you're more a Leone than a Kurosawa fan) is a good comparison since Geralt is essentially a mercenary working for wealthy gangs lords, dragged into a war not his own (Scoiatel and humans), sometimes switching sides, always with his own ulterior motives. Chinatown definitely works too, though.

So, in that case, The Maltese Falcon?

That's a bunch of really glowing reviews of the hands-off demo. Hopefully that level of quality reflects on the final product, and throughout, not just in one area or act. They're making a MASSIVE world that, from all accounts, dwarfs Skyrim, so it will be a tall task to populate the whole area with interesting things to do and encounter. Hopefully CD Projekt RED can pull it off. I have faith in them. It will be the Citizen Kane Casablanca of video games. I'm hoping it will be the Yojimbo of video games, but I'd settle for Ran.

That's a bunch of really glowing reviews of the hands-off demo. Hopefully that level of quality reflects on the final product, and throughout, not just in one area or act. They're making a MASSIVE world that, from all accounts, dwarfs Skyrim, so it will be a tall task to populate the whole area with interesting things to do and encounter. Hopefully CD Projekt RED can pull it off. I have faith in them.