Fine discussion my friends !

I may spice it:

Open world:

- Geralt is a wanderer only plot that involve him made him stay in one place.
- Witcher world and lore is way more bigger than Elder scroll series and it is written by proffesional fameous writter and not by some art developers like in TES. So creating vast world in witcher world isn't anything demanding in therms of creating lore and concepts.
- Witcher world is more "realistic" if we could call it than other fantasy RPG's (still fantasy game). There are no people in gold plate mails or full plate mails just wandering around. People eat, starve, rape, kill, sleep, plunder. So it's not to hard to create content based on medievel era with some changes. So you don't need to create vast castles towers etc because there aren't any in witcher universe. Castles are more like Kaer Moren in W1 designed with pourpouse not by art.

Semi-Open world

- More polish to what made Witcher books and game unique Story not about Dragons and super war. Personal stories and believable dialogs not "you must find a ring ! or world will go to hell"
- Better side quests.
- Cinematic aprooch to events in game.
- More handcrafted art not some generator esque map and random mobs.


I think CDPR know what are they doing dudes :)

As of open world game can't be good like closed one Try Fallout: New Vegas. after crappy Fallout 3 they (obsidian) menaged to sum both worlds. Deliver closed esque story in open world game. :)

Every other RPG? There aren't any other single player RPGs with truly open worlds like TES. Not really. Most RPGs are railroaded.

Now see, I love Skyrim. It gives me:

Exploration - you never know what's behind the next bend

Atmosphere - no limited play world can overwhelm you and suck you in like a TES game

Custom Characters - I decided everything about my character and quests are there to shape that character to my liking.

Organic story telling - On my way to deliver M in quest A, I run into B while trying to travel there on foot. Which sidetracks me for the next four hours when I discover a new dungeon/village/dancing monkeys/whatever. Eventually I do finish quest A, but I now have a great story where "life" interfered with the quest and gave it more realistic feel.

Mods Till You Drop - TES has it's own cult of modders who will add more of everything to the game. I'll get a ton of game play out of it. (I wish Witcher had more)

Become a Monster - unlike most other fantasy games, you can get sick. In fact, you can permanently end up a vampire or werewolf if you're unlucky enough . And guess what? That changes the game play.

Morrowind had an amazing story even with a sandbox world. I'll never forget the cold chills from Sleepers started suddenly babbling bits of prophecy that made no sense. I'll never forget running like a chicken from my first Ascended Sleeper after taking one look at it. Or the constant growing babble about Dagoth Ur (who with a name like that can only be a nasty, evil thing). Or see Red Mountain through a sandstorm complete with eerie lightening and knowing the Big Bad was waiting for me there.

Witcher is an awesome series mostly because it tells a mature/realistic story without kiddifying it and minds it's pacing. Both are awesome but like apples and oranges.
I agree. Open worlds don't necessarily mean confusion and lack of strong story. Granted, you can't tell a fast paced story, but you can tell a strong story.

I really dont get the whole fasination with oblivion, and fallout3.. I play a lotta RPG's and both left me HIGHLY disapointed.

to me the quests were very basic..

The stories,. very week, Nothing really had any depth or made me really think that wow.. i need to help this person. I played for hours, and finally found an interesting old guy living in a land mine, soo yippy do.. 8 hours of game play before i had an interesting moment.

the NPC completly unmemorable.. I cant even name a single one from either game.., thats how bland they are..

Sure the world looks nice, and it had potential, but over all i find the games completely flat, and not worth my time... Biggest waste of money i've spent.. and honestly, i really wanted to love the games.. In the end i found myself being competely uninterested, and they sat on my hard drive for years with out playing once.. yet a 10 year old game like baldures gate kept me coming back.

they are like a sandbox MMO.. but with nothing to do...

While the witcher may not be the create your character and go RPG, its has one of the most engaging stories i've ever played, and tons of characters that i learned to love, hate, or even feel indifferent to..

How exactly is oblivion that unique?? it doesnt mater how you start, You end up with all powers maxed by the end. a game like dues Ex has more varriation by end game than any elder scrolls game i ever played.

Dungeons and dragons has far more varition than elder scroll games could ever dream of.

Play baldures gate, as a theif, then play as a mage, and then as a half-breed.. Its so completely different its not even funny.

TES is one of the most over rated RPG's ive ever played..

I wasn't talking about combat/character abilities. I was talking about decisions that influence that shape the character development of the character you created and the plot.

And I never said that any of the Elder Scrolls games where the greatest ever. Someone else in this thread used them as an example. Therefore, I had to mention them in my response.

I'd also add to link1264's comment--when I see people here continuing to refer to Story and plot--I do not think either is superior when it comes to the Witcher games. there's nothing spectatular here---what carries it is The World of The witcher and the hero you play--the story/plot itself is standard fair--and nothing special. Many RPGs offer better---from Baldur's gate to Planescape Torment- to Fallout 1. What's so great about the plot in either game? My examples have plots that sway far from the norm--Fallout1.....you discover you've been played a pawn in a grand behavioral experiment--along with the rest of society--The baldur's Gate plot mirrors the same premise that sparked 6 starwars movies--you discover your the bad guy's son---and in Planescape torment your driving force is not to save the world- but rather to die---

The witcher's story plots don't come close----in the first you got nookie scorecards in senseless bumping uglies for completing standard fair quests-you picked your girlfriend....both of which were done with far more depth in Baldur's gate II BTW-- and a lost memory background is so writing 101 it has been literally played to death in fiction for as long as I remember. I don't see anything stepped up in The Witcher 2 in this regard--in fact if anything the plot angles are poorly fleshed out and garbbled in a confusing array of half told angles , or incomplete angles altogether.

Honestly a wide open world isn't going to distract from that---nor would making Geralt a little more versitile so one was not forced to play a Jackie Chan wannabe throughout the game.

ok . . . i guess ive been away for too long and it took me forever to read all that, so far I like the point that link1264 made. its reasonable.

BUT . . . there is one thing I disagree and thats about the "Stats" --

I agree that Stats should not be the major thing in a combat, but I like "stats" to have a huge effect on gameplay. and why the hell not? this is an RPG after all, your choices should matter.

Let me tell you a story about witcher 2.

ok, so I'm a magic fan in games, whenever I play a game I go with the mage type character, and with geralt I invested ALL my points in the Mage tree. High Vigor and Spell power . . . in the end I was slaughtering enemies with only my IGNI and QUEN . . . and even when it came to the final fight, I said to my self, this is impossible to beat with sword, because no matter how many hits I made it didnt work, the only thing that affected the dragon was my "IGNI" combined with "QUEN" (since the dragons own feedback from damage was high enough to give him a lightening punch from quen) . . . and then . . .

. . . and then . . . I told myself its impossible to play the game with ANY other build than the full mage build! and so I went to prove my self right by choosing the Swordsman ship tree. I said this cant possibly work and then when I saw enemies fall infront of me by my sword like autumn leaves, I said wow!! the swordsmanship is powerful too if you invest all in it.

but again I said! the Alchemy tree!! who is dumb enough to go with Alchemy!! I mean COME ON! <-- that is what I said to myself. so by that time the Dark Mode was out! and I said lets try this with Alchemy and BOOM!!!! there were skills there that Made me a god! "Impregnation" in alchemy tree increases the mutagen power by 35%!!!! take a greater mutagen of vitality and Bam!! my stats almost doubled. and I only threw bombs! sincem y bomb damage was doubled! everything and everyone just died in groups! it was much fun!

For Arena!!!! I decided to combine! I now knew all about the 3 trees, so I picked the most useful ones of each tree and it was amazing . . . I wont go further . .

What I mean by all this, is that its not only 1 build that will make you successful there are several, and your choices do count!!

Now what I want to see more, is perhaps More deeper stats, Stats that "for example" can help you do a quest that you wouldnt be able to do otherwise.

ALSO -- I would like to explore more from each class. I would like to have greate powers as a mage, or dual wield as a swordsman, and do impressive things like turning iron ore into gold in alchemy tree . . . things like that!

So now that you know my story, whats your thoughts?