Silverware wrote: ↑Wed Aug 29, 2018 12:24 amTo be fair, Witcher 2 and Deus Ex; IW were both EXCEPTIONAL console versions. Witcher 3 managed to balance both styles, and hopefully '77 goes a step further.
First of all, it's funny that for the next few years we'll be referring to "76" and "77" and everyone will understand the distinction.
As to whether DX:IW and TW2 were "exceptional" console games... that is so far into the realm of opinion that they have named a mountain after it. My own view is that DX:IW was not at all a bad game, but that as one of the first games for the first generation of Xbox/PS2 consoles it definitely suffered from console crippling versus its last-generation PC progenitor. Even Warren Spector has, in so many words, agreed that DX:IW suffered from being console-first.
TW2 is more of a judgment call. Again, I absolutely do not consider it a "bad" game. But I do think, as the first console-first game from CDPR, it visibly suffers from comparison to the PC-specific The Witcher. I mean, that first section alone, where you're walking back and forth on a two-dimensional line punching a dragon on the parapets of a castle, is ludicrously constrained compared to what the original game let you do... and it wasn't even an open-world game. TW2 improved considerably after that. And their high-level design choice of two completely independent Chapter 2 adventures... wow. That's breathtakingly audacious. But the size of each area of the world, and the limitations of action in each area... it just felt noticeably cramped, and "I am the developer and this is the correct way to play my game" to me after the original PC game. "Consolitis" seems to me like a pretty reasonable diagnosis for that experience. Again: not a bad game. But not a game with the feeling of freedom that a PC-only sequel would have had, I believe.
And you'll notice I'm not comparing TW2 to TW3. That wouldn't be fair; TW3 is one of the greatest computer games ever developed, despite being designed within the Procrustean confines of consoles.
Really, it's sort of the highest possible praise I can give CDPR: to say that, despite being designed first for crippled consoles instead of the wide-open PC, The Witcher 3 was so extraordinarily good that I actually think 77 could be completely enjoyable even if it, too, is designed within console constraints.
Your opinions are usually very well-founded. So I'm curious: why don't you think 77 will be your kind of game?
Now I want to play that game. The first person to ascend to Beau Brummel-hood wins.