[SkX0]

Opinions:
I'm pretty sure the subject I'm going to talk about regarding W3 have been decided already but I am just interested in the opinions of others.

I have not yet finished a play through on W2 yet (seems like there was always a new patch with changes.) I just finished playing W1 EE for the 2nd time, updated W2 to the enhanced ed. and have got as far as Flotsam (act1.)

I did previously get about 1/2- 2/3 through W2 and I have to say that I think W2 went a bit overboard with the cinema tics, this maybe my only complaint about W2. I'd love to see what others think on this topic. Just hoping the Devs. would use the cinematics less this time around.

[Yakkuz]

Sincerly i LOVE the Witcher 2 cinematics.

[Saoe]

Perhaps he means QTE's. TW3 will have none.

[cmdr_silverbolt]

Curious, why don't you like the cinema? I loved the cutscenes because they provided exposition, which is important for a story-heavy game like W2. I also enjoy the various facial expressions and body language that you get to experience in the movies which you otherwise might miss. For example, in the initial movie for W2, where Letho assassinates Demavend, the facial expression on the archer when he's done shooting is priceless- proud because he's feeling like a badass, and there's also a bit of relief because he didn't fail in front of his king.

The cinema allows the player to experience characters in more than one dimension, and also offers a bit of reprieve from whatever you were doing before. I don't think the cinema was overdone since I play Witcher games primarily to enjoy and watch the story unfold.

[cmdr_silverbolt]

Saoe said:

Perhaps he means QTE's. TW3 will have none. ›››

Wait, what! I loved QTEs. Why couldn't they improve them by making them harder? Ah, well.

[Geralt_of_bsas]

SkX0 said:

Opinions:
I'm pretty sure the subject I'm going to talk about regarding W3 have been decided already but I am just interested in the opinions of others.

I have not yet finished a play through on W2 yet (seems like there was always a new patch with changes.) I just finished playing W1 EE for the 2nd time, updated W2 to the enhanced ed. and have got as far as Flotsam (act1.)

I did previously get about 1/2- 2/3 through W2 and I have to say that I think W2 went a bit overboard with the cinema tics, this maybe my only complaint about W2. I'd love to see what others think on this topic. Just hoping the Devs. would use the cinematics less this time around. ›››

If you mention cinematics, or QTE scenes, regardless of that there is a lot less of both after the prologue and arriving flotsam.

Its just that in the prologue the "RPG type" of gameplay hasnt started yet, so its very linear and scripted, plus it sets the beginning of the story, after that you wont find many.

[Corylea]

I think well-done cutscenes can add a lot to a game, and I've been impressed by the quality of CDPR's cutscenes, so much so that I made a calendar with screenshots taken from TW1's cutscenes.

I tried playing one of the Final Fantasy games once, because a friend of mine adores them, but it was cinematic after cinematic after cinematic, and an hour into the game, I still didn't feel as if I'd had the chance to actually PLAY the damned game. So I agree with you that it's possible to have too many cinematics, but I didn't think that either of the Witcher games did.

[KnightofPhoenix]

If anything I'm hoping TW3 will have more cinematics.

[slimgrin]

I'd be fine with them cutting back a bit. The prologue in particular has quite a few cut-scenes. I guess it depends on how and where they place them, so as to not interrupt the flow.

[FoggyFishburne]

cmdr_flashheart said:

Wait, what! I loved QTEs. Why couldn't they improve them by making them harder? Ah, well. ›››

Improving them... by making them harder... w00t :|

QTEs are only viable in a cinematic scene if it's reasonable possible to complete them seamlessly on your first try. Otherwise they're just annoying. They serve only to frustrate the player by punishing him for not reacting in time in an environment where he probably just wants to watch the conversation or scene unfold naturally, without any stupid gimmicks. In general, QTEs are stupid. They add absolutely nothing to a game other than detract from player autonomy. In an interactive medium, the more freedom to express yourself through gameplay, the better. Constricting the player by forcing him to press a certain button at a certain time and if he fails, he dies, is bad game design.

If QTEs are a passion of yours, I recommend God of War. Excellent game and the sequels are equally awesome in terms of scope and gameplay.

EDIT: Right forgot to add this though it's fairly obvious: I'm so fucking happy there's not gonna be any QTEs in Witcher 3! Phew, dodged that bullet!

[AnthonyF1227]

SkX0 said:

Opinions:
I'm pretty sure the subject I'm going to talk about regarding W3 have been decided already but I am just interested in the opinions of others.

I have not yet finished a play through on W2 yet (seems like there was always a new patch with changes.) I just finished playing W1 EE for the 2nd time, updated W2 to the enhanced ed. and have got as far as Flotsam (act1.)

I did previously get about 1/2- 2/3 through W2 and I have to say that I think W2 went a bit overboard with the cinema tics, this maybe my only complaint about W2. I'd love to see what others think on this topic. Just hoping the Devs. would use the cinematics less this time around. ›››

The prologue has tons of cut scenes, but it's mainly to setup the plot of the game. After that the cut scenes aren't nearly as plentiful. I'm starting to go through the game again now for the first time in a while (for the 9th time or so), but I can't recall Acts 1, 2, & 3 haven't a lot of cut scenes. Sure, there's a lot of dialogue, but that's typical for an RPG.

[cmdr_silverbolt]

I thought the QTEs were easy, so I can't relate to the idea of them being punishing. Yes, they do rely on having sharp mental reflexes and good hand-to-eye coordination. They're not any particular passion of mine, but I did enjoy them in W2. It's pretty predictable when they're likely to show, and all you have to do then is have the presence of mind to press the right button. That said, I thought they were boring in that the button to press did not change if you failed the first time around, so I did not appreciate how scripted they were.

It would have been interesting if the dev team had figured about some way to implement them in a more dynamic fashion, but I guess too many people complained about this one. Either way, I don't think the combat in W3 is going to be wanting for lack of them.

[AnthonyF1227]

All of the cutscene QTEs can be disabled anyway (Disable Difficult QTEs in options). If you do that, the only time you use them are for when you have to fill up the little bar (click fast) and fighting.

That's usually the first thing I do when I start a new game because I'd rather watch the cut scenes than having to press buttons and then if I click the wrong one I die.

[cmdr_silverbolt]

You're right- they can be disabled, so I don't understand why the dev team had to nix them altogether. The QTEs add a bit more challenge during combat. But like I said, they can be pretty boring when you do them a second time around, and if CDPR was going to repeat that sort of thing, W3 will be better off without QTEs. Besides the first one ever, it's possible to get all other QTEs on the first try, the ones during combat and fist fighting.

[dragonbird]

cmdr_flashheart said:

I thought the QTEs were easy, so I can't relate to the idea of them being punishing. Yes, they do rely on having sharp mental reflexes and good hand-to-eye coordination. ›››

The indications were that it came down more to the PC, not the player. There were SOME player limitations, but it never required that good reflexes or coordination (Source: I have neither, but never had problems with QTEs). There were cases of people having problems seeing them on the screen, but usually it seemed to come down to the mouseclicks not getting picked up - a purely technical issue.

The three main areas where we saw a lot of complaints were the ballista in the Prologue, the early mandatory fistfights, and the Kayran. The ballista seemed to be a combination of reflexes and mouse-clicks not being recorded, but the problem seemed to go away after later releases, so I think CDPR fixed it. The fistfights seemed to be mainly either not knowing how (in which case the problem went away) or because of bugs in key-mapping (which the user had to work round). The kayran is still a problem, and is definitely technical - there's a lot happening on-screen, and any player who's got that far should have more than adequate reflexes.

[cmdr_silverbolt]

Was it possible for players to turn off the Difficult QTEs in the earliest version of the game? If not, then I am glad this problem was addressed. Anyways, while the technical issues may pose a problem for some people, it doesn't make sense to deprive all players from being able to experience an improved version of QTEs for the next game. Actually, if W3 combat has more difficulty in other aspects, I couldn't care less about QTEs being gone.

[dragonbird]

cmdr_flashheart said:

Was it possible for players to turn off the Difficult QTEs in the earliest version of the game? If not, then I am glad this problem was addressed. Anyways, while the technical issues may pose a problem for some people, it doesn't make sense to deprive all players from being able to experience an improved version of QTEs for the next game. Actually, if W3 combat has more difficulty in other aspects, I couldn't care less about QTEs being gone. ›››

Not sure about version 1, but I think so. I got it on version 1.3, and it was definitely possible to turn them off then.

[▫ Dona ▫]

KnightofPhoenix said:

If anything I'm hoping TW3 will have more cinematics. ›››

I'm with you. I love cinematics in games, especially the well-done kind TW2 had. It's great to see characters do moves and interact the way they never do in 'regular' gameplay. Hell, I don't think I'd care much about Roche if it wasn't for his little scene in the end of Act 2.

But yeah, timing is important. Hour-long intros can get tedious, no matter how good they look. And I say this as a Metal Gear Solid fan

[Felix42]

cmdr_flashheart said:

Was it possible for players to turn off the Difficult QTEs in the earliest version of the game? If not, then I am glad this problem was addressed. Anyways, while the technical issues may pose a problem for some people, it doesn't make sense to deprive all players from being able to experience an improved version of QTEs for the next game. Actually, if W3 combat has more difficulty in other aspects, I couldn't care less about QTEs being gone. ›››

It was but on weaker pc's even the "easy" QTE's would be impossible. I didn't fail a single QTE on my first playthrough, but when I played it again on my laptop I was forced to turn the graphics down to 640x480. Otherwise against the Kraken, the bar would become full several seconds after i was thrown off the tentacle.

[mothra]

QTE in most games is just a cop-out and bad design.
If they want Geralt to do things they cannot realise ingame then it should happen in a cinematic or not happen at all. Why impose a totally different system of interaction on a few rare occasions that have nothing to do with the "normal" gameplay ? And then make them just a "memorize this/react quickly" challenge ?
If the game would be designed around QTEs for everything it would be less painful than
"oh, we ran out of ideas, give them a button to mash so they don't get bored"
TW is about player expression through dialogue, weapons, armor and combat choices (character build) and not some QTE EVERYBODY has to do in EXACT the same way. If you design your game around it (e.g. Batman combat is a series of endless QTEs you can string together as YOU see fit) then it works.

Only QTEs that worked in TW2 were the "decide your dialogue choice in a certain timeframe" occasions (also rare).