the most incisive/funny commentary I heard on the sex trading cards is that it “literally objectifies women,” which is a pretty good point. can’t get much more literal about showing off your conquests than that.
again, have not actually played first game, do not want to endlessly wring hands over one thing from game I have not played being blown out of proportion, but it’s unnecessary dick-waving at the least.
I would recommend skipping the first game simply because the later ones are so much more mechanically refined. I played the first one up to the first major city you go to and while I enjoyed my time with it (I didn’t even encounter the dreaded nudie cards either!) the combat was something I found myself simply enduring in between bouts of talking to characters and exploring.
The Witcher 3 is a completely different beast. While it took me a minute to get a handle on the combat it actually turned out to be pretty fun once I did. And the questing and exploring and everything else is leagues better as well.
Man, I found Witcher 3 to be pretty mechanically boring. There’s not too much going on with that combat. I was playing on one of the harder difficulties too. And the skills system doesn’t make any sense. A lot of times I didn’t have enough slots to pick interesting skills, so leveling was sort of a only-one-choice or a no-choices-whatsoever ordeal.
The story (and even the side story/world building/normal-ass witcher stuff) was the interesting thing about that game to me, and when it started to lull and lose momentum I fell off of it.
I think I was still tracking down Dandelion or something when I stopped playing. I seem to remember a bath house too. Any like must-see story bits after that point? I’ve put like 30-some hours into it, but it’s hard to see me returning to it. The main arc with Ciri didn’t seem like it was going anywhere very quickly.
Gwent was pretty rad, but even that wore thin eventually. Gwent did have some good music, though.
And re: sex cards: yeah, maybe don’t make women literally collectibles in your game.
The skill system doesn’t make a lot of sense until you’ve leveled up enough to unlock most of your slots. Then you use your skills to do specific character builds, like focusing on certain spells or playstyles. Due to the way the percentages stack you can make Geralt an unstoppable powerhouse in your favorite playstyle, whether that’s a pure melee character, a mage or a crafter/alchemist. Bombs don’t seem that powerful at the beginning but if you build right you can take out entire bandit camps with a single grapeshot.
Basically, it’s not just equipping the right skills but equipping them with the right mutagens and using the potions/decoctions as complements to your style. It’s kind of a big time investment (like everything else with the game lol) since that whole aspect is kind of locked off until you have at least 1/4 your skill slots unlocked (and of course it’s not really explicitly laid out for you except for the few tutorial tool tips at the beginning when you first open up that menu) but there’s quite a bit of flexibility there over the longer run.
Ironically everyone is a collectible in 3 thanks to the in-world characters of import also featuring in the in-world collectible card game, women and men alike. In one quest Geralt has to retrieve a playing card of a former lover but makes no mention of their familiarity or even acknowledges that he’s a person she’s met. You also run into people who you already have in your deck.
Which isn’t to say Gwent is chauvinistic, it just prodded me to realize the acquisition is the gross part of the first game’s collectibles.
I like how restrictive the character system is! I dislike the descendants of FF7’s jack-of-all-trades, master-of-all system so it’s nice to be constrained to picking between absurd damage resistance and DPS.
All videogame romances are an abomination to me
Re, my dark souls comment. Perhaps I should have clarified by saying that it’s instances like the sex scenes in Witcher that remind me how much Dark Souls gets right about games in general, not directly comparing the two games.
But do we honestly think the weird uncanny valley sex scenes add anything to the narrative? What’s a better vehicle to do that, the item descriptions in Dark Souls or watching Geralt flex his pecs as he moans over some succubus? Which option actually builds a world and adds depth to the experience? Like most things it’s subjective, but I find the effort put forth from Witcher to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
However, I actually am a fan of the sex scene in Killer 7 because it just turns the whole of that game right on its ear when it happens. It’s just so atonal and unexpected, and I think if you’re going to use sex in some form of interactive entertainment then this is way you ought do it.
Just use sex as some sort of change of pace, or to change the complexion of the game somehow. I guess what I’m saying is make it actually interesting, because watching Geralt have sex fails to be interesting in any sense.
I’m left wondering why it’s in there in the first place but the truth is that we all know why it’s in there. It’s in there because the neck beard/buttertoll nexus that comprises the fan base of the book series demands that it be in there, and that’s fine but the books we can all agree are probably all run-of-the-mill male power fantasy nonsense. CD Projekt could have developed a game on the RA Salvatore universe and it would have been the same godamn thing.
In conclusion, I don’t mind the sex that’s in there because it’s harmless but it’s just not interesting or implemented well and not worth defending on this sacred forum because we’re all better than that.
I still think it’s virtually impossible to call the sex boring without calling the witcher’s entire approach to narrative boring
The sex in the two games I’ve played represents maybe 1% of my total playing time. I’m confused as to your familiarity with the games based on the mischaracterization, and because you’ve chosen to discuss a hypothetical audience’s prurient interests in lieu of experience with the game.
I suppose the scene in killer7 differs substantively in that Harman is not explicitly the protagonist? I think “atonal” could apply to just about any scene in that game.
buttertolls sound delicious
The last 3 or 4 books are at least 50% Ciri POV (+ not infrequent Triss and Yennefer chapters) so if anything it is also a female power fantasy? She has sex too btw 
Even 1% is an overestimation. The sex scenes are like 1 minute each in a game that take at least 50 hours to beat. It’s fractions of a percent of the game’s playing time.
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I think a player character having sex with a NPC is super gross because how could that ever be a equal relationship? You’re basically a higher lifefrom.
but you’d still eat an npc, rite
Just one of the many ways in which Bethesda is ahead of the game - acknowledging the godlike nature of PCs and allowing cannibalism.
(But no sex)
For some reason even Witcher 2 runs like garbage on my computer (while Skyrim’s totally fine), so my enthusiasm for semi-realistic male witch genitalia must be left unrealized
I assume this game contains fully rendered male pudenda, I could not play through enough to verify
[quote=“Ronnoc, post:33, topic:829, full:true”]
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I think a player character having sex with a NPC is super gross because how could that ever be a equal relationship? [/quote]
exactly how I feel about real life relationships
I mean, that too
if only someone could make a videogame about masturbatory solipsism
Wait
dreaming in an empty room