The Witcher
Kotaku has a short piece on their time with the upcoming game The Witcher. It’s looking good. I’ve been looking forward to this game for a long long time. Since before I began following NWN2, which is years ago.
When I was eagerly awaiting NWN2, I remember deluding myself into thinking that they had more then enough time for development. That building a new rendering engine from scratch with only 2 short years was plenty of time. That tacking on a prettier interface would be all that was required to turn NWN into a modern slick game. Ah well, it didn’t turn out. NWN2 is plagued by some of the worst load times I’ve encountered. It runs like a sick dog on my system, while other more graphically impressive games run like a dream. Oh and the much lauded toolset needs at least 2 gig free memory to not crash repeatedly, and it will still be cumbersome and horrible.
Anyway, luckily CDProjekt have been making the game I’ve been dreaming would exist for years. And they have been spending the years required to do it. Browsing a few major sites will show you how pretty it looks. The official site has a very impressive trailer. Beautiful even.
But I think the aspect most interesting to me is that there will be no ridiculous alignment system. Good and evil is all a matter of perspective. I’ve always been shitted off by the DnD alignment system that every rpg seems to emulate to some degree (either that or you can only be ‘good’). In fact I once mathematically proved that such an alignment system is fundamentally inadequate for describing a moral system, it was very hand wavy.
I’ve dreamed of an rpg that does away with it all together. Why should we have a conversation choice that is essentially good, neutral or evil? They aren’t literally that choice, but they stand out like obelisks. How often would a person make a choice like that in the real world? Almost never. Not to mention systems based on that always enforce upon the player predefined ideas of what good and evil is. (Fallout 3 has been talked up alot with exactly that mechanic and it makes me have no faith in it. Having played Oblivion I’m not convinced they know what a story really is).
The Witcher breaks this tradition. I know I’m getting my hopes up, but it just sounds so good! The story sounds captivating and unconventional. The fighting even sounds fun in it’s own right, which is unusual for an rpg.
My PC is aching in anticipation.
Thanks for the link. Though I often read Kotaku, I’m not sure if I would have read that specific article carefully if someone hadn’t pointed it out to me (possibly because the name of the game still makes me laugh.
Madej illustrated the point by heading to an inn to meet with an NPC who has a quest for him, only to find the NPC laying dead in his room. The game then presented a flashback to a point several hours back in the game where the main character was given a choice between handing over weapons he was guarding to a band of elves or fighting them. Having handed the weapons over, the elves then used them to start raiding human villages, causing the death of this NPC down the line. Now his quest line is gone forever, and there is no quick and dirty way to go back and change the decision you made.
This seems like a much more interesting way of handling consequences then a simple good/evil meter.
Your site is a great read, kudos.
Awww shucks 
I like yours too.
That’s a great example.
Gave Last.fm a shot, really enjoying it so far, might even write my next post about it. Kudos for the recommendation.
One thing is really bugging me though; I’ve read in a few places that I could turn on “Loved Tracks Radio” to only listen to tracks that I’ve tagged as “loved”, but I can’t seem to find a way to enter this mode. Do you know how? I don’t actually want to listen to it (I’m enjoying discovering new music), but I’d like to see the list of songs that I’ve tagged as “loved” so far.
Never mind, figured out 5 minutes later that this option is only available to paying subscribers. Oh well.