Ranwen's Witcher - WISIbla: "It's the hair, stupid."

Ein paar Dinge, die ich schon die ganze Zeit sagen wollte und die in die normalen Posts einfach nicht passen.

Erstens mal habe ich, noch bevor ich das Spiel näher angeschaut habe, schon eine Witcher-2-Preview in Koshs Spielezeitschrift gelesen (die übrigens bekannt ist für ihre Plattwitze :ugly:), und die hatten dieses Bild wie folgt untertitelt:



Triss ist völlig fasziniert von Geralts Pferdeschwanz. Und seiner neuen Frisur.

:ugly: Flach, gaaanz flach, aber sie guckt auf dem Bild ja sowas von blöd, daß ich den Schreibern den Gedanken auch nicht so recht verübeln kann.

Überhaupt ist der Pferde... also, die Frisur, ne :ugly: ... DAS Kommentar-Thema Nr. 1 bei den meisten Witcher-2-Vorschauen (und das, wo doch angeblich die meisten Gamer männlich sind. 'ssollndes?). Das, und die Stimme. Wobei VA ja mit das letzte ist, was sie an dem Spiel machen dürften, und insofern die momentanen Stimmen exakt das sind, was die meisten vermuten, nämlich 'sounds like Polish game developers talking in Englisch'. Aber es scheint so, als sollte Doug Cockle (er sollte wirklich mal über einen Künstlernamen nachdenken... in einigen amerikanischen Foren wird der Name nämlich ausgesternt :ugly:) seine Rolle als Geralts Stimme wieder aufnehmen. Ich habe darüber auch fast nur Positives gelesen. Und stimmt ja auch.

Den deutschen Hörbuch-Geralt fand ich gewöhnungsbedürftig (nicht schlecht, aber... gewöhnungsbedürftig :ugly:), und nachdem ich Geralts Stimmenbeschreibung im Buch gelesen hatte (resounding and metallic), paßt Doug echt perfekt. Die deutsche Buchstimme ist mir zu verräuchert. Kann man hören, er macht das okay, aber paßt nicht so gut.

Zurück zur Frisur. :grin: Einige Kommentare sind echt zum Weglachen. Eine Antwort auf das ubiquitäre "Nooo! Let his hair down again!" besonders:

He probably saves those wild hair moments for the card game encounters. For the everyday life, ponytail. Hair obscuring your sight (or your mouth) is certainly annoying, and Geralt seems to have finally realized that in this sequel. How did he manage to be so efficient in combat until now with loose hair escapes me. Horse grease, probably.

(von hier).

Tjaja, es sind die Haare. :grin:

Wer braucht schon Realitätsnähe.

Und da fiel mir dann auch endlich ein, woher ich Vollpfosten den Look eigentlich schon lääängst kennen können sollte, nämlich von ihm hier:



D'oooh. Hätte ich wirklich drauf kommen können.

Es ist übrigens Absicht, daß das Bild so wenig luciustypisch ist, denn die Ähnlichkeit fällt da mehr auf ;). Das da ist aus einem Interview, und es ist eben nicht Lucius in Character, sondern Jason in Lucius-Klamotte (and wig). :grin:

Ansonsten habe ich einige gute bis sehr gute Reviews zum Witcher 1 gelesen, und die schönste will ich euch (in Auszügen) kommentieren:

The capital city, Vizima, where you will spend most of your time, is sprawling and sinful, yet beautiful, with a real sense of history. It looks like some forgotten European city that has had both good times and bad, filled with twisting streets, dirty slums, unnecessary stairways, and unexplained monuments. This is a far cry from Oblivion's pristine collections of dollhouses.

:rofl:!

You are the infamous monster hunter Geralt of Rivia - which comes as something of a surprise to pretty much everyone, since you begin the game with no memory, five years after your supposed death. Folks, you heard me right: you don't get to create your own character. You can't choose to be male or female, you can't choose your class (the game has no classes), you can't choose your name. You can't even play as some kind of anthropomorphic animal person!

This is all okay, though, because Geralt is a great character. Understated, cynical, great with the ladies - he's everything an action anti-hero ought to be. One of the witchers, a group of sterile, genetically modified freaks designed and trained to kill monsters professionally, he's also an expert swordsman blessed with supernatural abilities and gorgeous hair.

Ahja, wer könnte die Haare vergessen. :grin:

The Witcher features a cunningly named "Hero Screen." That's right, man. You're not just a "character" . . . you're a goddamn hero.

*g* Das hatte ich mir allerdings auch schon gedacht.

[Waffenslots] This has a couple of consequences: first, it means there is some strategic element involved in equipping yourself, since you can't carry a weapon for every possible eventuality; second, it means no "phat lewt" syndrome. You won't be spending your time grabbing weapons and armor from all your fallen foes and dragging them back to the store. You just can't carry that much!

Ah, reality's a bitch ;).

What the journal really means for The Witcher is that knowledge is absolutely essential. I spent more money in the game on books than on anything else. Books! Not the latest +7 sword, but books, scrolls, bribes and gifts for informants. The society of The Witcher is shadowy, and characters have many faces. You will need knowledge to survive and thrive. And that, my friends, is great.

[Bild vom üblichen Büchersortiment eines Händlers]

Reading is gud.

And, besides, we all love a man who reads. :grin:

Überhaupt, seine klassische Bildung - Geralt neigt auch im Buch dazu, seine Mitmenschen freundlich zu korrigieren, wenn die über ihre Fremdwörter stolpern. Gmmmpfffhihi. Mehr dazu demnächst.

Combat is fun. It's action-oriented, without being a clickfest like Diablo or Morrowind. There is satisfactory tactical depth, and a nice balance between player skill and character skill. Moreover, it looks fantastic - all of the animations are motion captured, and Geralt just looks like a badass as he slices and whirls his way through a battle.

Kchch!
Ich sagte doch, er macht astreinen Schaukampf. :grin: Und sieht gut dabei aus.

In the expert opinion of Peter Molyneux, RPG combat should be all about making you "feel cool." The Witcher succeeds.

Joh, einem Peter Molyneux kann man da schlecht widersprechen. Und selbst wenn's wer anders gewesen wäre, er hätte recht.

[Alchemy] Finally, you have to use your creations. During combat, this can be done either with the active pause or quick slots (the number of which depends on your armor). Unlike most RPGs, you won't be hoarding potions and keeping them for some rainy day that never actually arrives.

Tatsache. Das ist mir auch schon aufgefallen. Man braucht den Kram wirklich.

Visuals and Sound
The Witcher looks fantastic. It's simply the prettiest 3D RPG ever made. It looks far better than NWN2 and runs more smoothly, too. Partly this is the engine, which seems very solid, but mostly it's the art direction, which is nothing short of inspired. This is the first fantasy world since Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 2 that is visually convincing for me. Man, when the camera in the opening scene pulled back and panned over to the Witchers' crumbling, half-destroyed castle glowing softly in the sunlight . . . I fell in love.

Kann ich fast komplett so unterschreiben.

I guess this is the place to finally talk a little bit about the much-mentioned sex. Yes, you can have sex with women in the game. Yes, upon having sex with a woman you receive a "collectible card" showing her, generally topless and in some provocative pose, which is accessible from her character entry in the journal. Yes, the American version is censored. (Americans do not have nipples. True fact.) No, you do not get to watch (or control!) any actual animated intercourse. Instead, a tastefully blurred monochrome cutscene of Geralt . . . uh . . . "laying-down-kissing" some generic woman plays in the background as the "card" takes center stage. Anyway, the point is that this is not a major element of the game. If you buy the game for the sex, you will be disappointed. If you are completely uninterested in the sex, it is not required and will have no influence on your enjoyment. One thing worth noting is that the sex fits surprisingly well into the plot of the game, often coming about fairly naturally as a result of saving someone's life or spending time with an ex-lover.

Sagt alles zu dem Thema in einem Absatz, wofür andere Foren ... deutlich mehr Text brauchen. :grin:

Voiceovers: the bane of modern day RPG development. Given that the game was made by a Polish developer and translated to English, one might suspect a certain lack of quality in the voiceovers. A certain - what shall we call it? - "Gothic-ness", perhaps? However, with a few exceptions, the English voiceovers are of surprisingly decent quality. There are some mis-emphasized lines, and a few truly bizarre accents, but by and large the voice actors are very competent and manage to hit the right emotional tones. Geralt's voice actor (that's right, all of your lines are voiced, not just those of the NPCs) has a particularly good voice for the character: cool, dark, collected, and all man, baby.

:rofl:

Characters never seem to change voice actors or accent in the middle of a dialogue (a sentence I could never have imagined feeling the need to write before playing Oblivion).

WTF?? Ich meine, ich hab Oblivion immer noch nicht gespielt, aber... waas?? Stimmt das? :ugly:

(Die Review ist auch in einigen Punkten beim Witcher definitiv veraltet, weil sie Dinge kritisiert, von denen ich weiß, daß die mittlerweile per Patch geändert wurden.)

It's a good thing the painted loading screens are so damn pretty, because you're going to be staring at them. A lot.

:grin: Auch das hat sich wohl spätestens mit der EE deutlich verbessert.

Conclusion
The Witcher has heart. It has soul. If The Witcher sang the Blues, you'd want to listen. This is a game made by people who genuinely loved what they were doing, and it's clear that rather than asking themselves "How can we best serve the market?", the developers instead asked "Wouldn't it be awesome if . . .?" It has all the enthusiasm and the quirkiness (for better and worse) of an indie game, but the production values that only a multi-million dollar budget will buy.

It has flaws - plenty of them - but ultimately it's a great game.

So say we all.

[/WISIbla]