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What Manner of Witcher-craft Will CD Projekt Bring to E3? Sounds Like Something for Consoles [UPDATED]

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Developer tells Eurogamer they've got something Witcher-related set for the show, and it ain't Witcher 3.

UPDATE: The ESRB just rated an Xbox 360 version of Witcher 2. So, hey, there's that.
 
--
 
Let it forever be known that there is absolutely such a thing as getting a little too cute with your E3 teases. I adore it when developers drop little hints about things they plan for the show, while maintaining a certain level of surprise-protecting secrecy in the process. It builds hype. It's fun. I like fun.

Is that an Xbox port I see on the horizon?
Is that an Xbox port I see on the horizon?

However, maintaining that Goldilocksian balance of "just right" for such teases is difficult, as evidenced by this recent bit of info dropped by a developer from CD Projekt, the studio behind the delightfully lurid Witcher RPG franchise. In speaking to Eurogamer, Senior Producer Tomasz Gop told the site that something Witcher-related is on the horizon for E3. Okay, so far so good. So, what delectable little hints can you drop for us, Tomasz?

"I can't say anything obviously for gazillions of reasons but it is a Witcher game, and I can say that console gamers might be interested in it."

Wow, okay, so that's a bit of an info dump. Not a tease, really. More of a, "Hey, we're doing a console Witcher thing." But hey, at least that leaves some info to chance. Could this be a console port of the studio's just released The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings? Or perhaps it's an announcement of a third Witcher game, which could also be coming to cons--

"No, I'm not going to lie to you, we haven't started work on The Witcher 3," he said. "But it's possible we might do it in the future."

SIGH. Fine. It's probably a console port of Witcher 2. Way to say pretty much everything by trying to say nothing, Tomasz. You've spoiled all my fun. I LIKE FUN.

On the plus side, hey! Now there's probably going to be a console version of The Witcher 2. Now maybe Patrick will quit all his infernal bellyachin'.

Alex Navarro on Google+
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CD Projekt Red
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

164 Comments

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lilburtonboy7489

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Edited By lilburtonboy7489
@Atrithau said:

@lilburtonboy7489 said:

@Mordukai said:
@lilburtonboy7489 said:
difficulty level will probably be too much for console gamers   rofl
As someone who has over 200 hours in Demon's Souls I must say that I kinda resent that statement.
I'm mostly joking. I'm also a console gamer and a PC gamer. But this is very much a pc game in the way that it does not tell you at all what the fuck is going on. A lot of times, you just simply won't know what to do next. You won't know where to go, you won't know how to do important things. It's not that they are hard, it's that they simply don't tell you.   This is something console users won't be used to. It's not a difficulty thing as much as a lack of information. Something that PC users are more used to from getting unfinished games or games from random ass Eastern bloc companies.
What am I reading, there's a bloody indicator for almost every quest on the mini-map. 
LOL. Notice the word "almost". There are quests which have literally no indicator and you will have absolutely no idea what to do. Most do have indicators, but not all. And the jounral doesn't tell you what you need to do either in some cases. I'm not the only one who has brought this up. Several reviewers have as well.
 
And besides that, there are many things the game simply does not tell you. Especially the general mechanics of the game. You literally need to read the manual or search online to figure this stuff out. And again, I'm not the only one who has complained about this.
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lilburtonboy7489

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Edited By lilburtonboy7489
@Mordukai said:
@lilburtonboy7489 said:
@Mordukai said:
@lilburtonboy7489 said:
difficulty level will probably be too much for console gamers   rofl
As someone who has over 200 hours in Demon's Souls I must say that I kinda resent that statement.
I'm mostly joking. I'm also a console gamer and a PC gamer. But this is very much a pc game in the way that it does not tell you at all what the fuck is going on. A lot of times, you just simply won't know what to do next. You won't know where to go, you won't know how to do important things. It's not that they are hard, it's that they simply don't tell you.   This is something console users won't be used to. It's not a difficulty thing as much as a lack of information. Something that PC users are more used to from getting unfinished games or games from random ass Eastern bloc companies.
That's the developers fault imo. Games like Fable, CoD and the such which basically hand you everything on a silver platter. I am not quite sure when that happened but at some point console developers decided that their crowd cannot handle something challenging or hard. That's why I liked Demon's Souls so much. It took me back to the days when console games were challenging and required you to know the game back and forth and not count on everything being handed to you.  
Yea, I agree. The Witcher 2 is the complete opposite of this. It's not entirely a bad thing. I think that not explaining mechanics is a bad thing, but not explaining where to go next is not necessarily a bad thing. I hope the Witcher 2 will turn out to be great on consoles, but this if they leave the game the way it is, console players will be in for quite the confusing ride. Might be good for the platform though if the game sells well. Maybe people will realize that not everything needs to be spoon fed to players (even though it probably does need to be).
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Teclo

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Edited By Teclo

Unless I'm missing something, there is no ESRB page for TW2 on Xbox 360. The link given in the article takes you to the PC version and searching for "The Witcher 2" on the site finds only the PC version of TW and TW2.

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mordukai

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Edited By mordukai
@lilburtonboy7489: Again, that's the developers fault for not putting enough trust that their target crowd have the intelligence to follow a game that requires you to pay attention. It's the same in movies these days when one hand you have people like MCG and MIchael bay and on the other you have directors like Chris Nolan and Duncan Jones.  
 
That whole quest indicator, and lack of direction or explanation just seems like and overlooked or bad game design then purposely put there for the sake of making the game hard. Again I will revert to Demon's Souls. At no point in that game where you find yourself at a loss of what to do or where to go or have no idea how it's gameplay elements work. The developers made sure you had good understanding of the game and t's mechanics but at no point you felt like something was just handed to you. I think it's a measure of fine tuning and development philosophy that a lot of Eastern bloc developers just don't get. I haven't played many of them but that I did always felt like the have the same problem. WHile getting the story and the atmosphere of the game the gameplay element always seems to be lacking. 
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xpgamer7

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Edited By xpgamer7

CD Projekt has no idea how to stop leaks do they.

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phonics

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Edited By phonics
@Ahmad_Metallic said:
@lordofultima said:

@TehJedicake said:

God fucking damn it, this was supposed to be my dream game where only hardcore PC gamers would get it, not to have it ported for consolefags and ruin it.

Why would you not want the game released on consoles? So less people can purchase a fine game like the Witcher 2? So they can't make back revenue just to satisfy some silly notion that they'll be hurting their "loyal" PC fanbase? I don't get it. The game plays better on a gamepad anyway, that's what I play it on, not really any work to do to get it on consoles.

it's not that simple.. every little move is an indicator of something. we've eaten too much shit to just go "hey congratz to our console brethren" 
 
Battlefield used to be a franchise with nothing but masterpieces that ran like charm on PC. then DICE decided to give the console crowd a taste - last year millions of PC players got a Battlefield game that was ported from consoles and ran like shit. 
Crysis was the pinnacle of PC-based video game innovation, with mindblowing visuals, tight controls, innovative mechanics and a refreshing game setting/theme. Crytek decided to give the console crowd a taste - Crysis 2 was ported to the PC, had aim assist, a 'press start' prompt, and less graphical options than Super Meat Boy  Not to mention the simple fact that when a developer who's supposed to be creating an exclusive, is actually spending time, money and efforts on ports, it means the exclusive doesn't exactly have their entire dedication (especially future-wise) How would you feel if you were a Halo fanboy [EDIT - Enthusiast not Fanboy, sorry] who enjoyed that true Xbox 360 game, only to learn that while developing Halo 3, Bungie was working on a PS3 port?  it's not about system wars, fuck it, consoles are pretty cool IMO, but it's about all the other shit that comes with it.
I can't quote this enough and I love how console casuals are completely ignoring it (probably because they don't even know what a Battlefield without 'Bad Company' in the title is) ROFL. Can't blame companies for wanting to make money but dumb ass current-gen console gamers are absolutely murdering gaming. The same 'gamers' who praised Fallout 3 as the greatest 'RPG' of all time. At least we still have Blizzard and Valve who make their games for PC first and the ignorant console crowd who laps up 60 bux for the newest CoD rehash every year second.
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AhmadMetallic

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Edited By AhmadMetallic
@Phonics:  try losing words like "ignorant" and "ROFL" and "noob" so people would actually listen to you. 
 
not that they do, they're too comfortable being Nazis against PCs and calling you an elitist automatically, but hey, we try.
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fjordson

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Edited By fjordson

Wow, lots of stupidity in these comments. It's always funny to see PC gamers get bent out of shape about stuff like this.

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lokey013

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Edited By lokey013

If it does come to consoles I would be most pleased....my computron isn't strong enough to handle the graphics so this would be most good =)
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sins_of_mosin

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Edited By sins_of_mosin

Sounds great.

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lilburtonboy7489

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Edited By lilburtonboy7489
@Heliosicle said:
@lilburtonboy7489: or you know, learn how you do in the real world - by experimenting. I found it really rewarding that I had to figure out how to take on a lot of fights and also work out what to do in quests and stuff, they never don't tell you what to do, they just make you pay attention to the conversations.
Not all things should be left to 'experimenting'. Some things, sure. That's what I've already said. But there are some things, such as basic mechanics, which they should tell you. Discovering cool things is rewarding. Having to read through a user manual to find out a basic mechanic is not regarding, it's frustrating and it's a waste of people's time that they could be using enjoying other parts of the game. Wasting peoples' time is not cool. They didn't leave out some explanations so that it would be a rewarding experience. They left them out because they were overlooked or didn't have time to add them. 
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Edited By TobyD81

Sweet, I want to play Witcher, but I have zero plans on buying a new PC that could play it capably. This will do just fine.

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Edited By onarum

I wonder how much worse will it look on consoles, I hope not that much.