“BioWare has changed for sure, but the industry has changed too,” said Badowski. “We have a different strategy for our company. We definitely would like to continue keeping and truly understanding our core rules, how we develop our games, and of course, on top of that, we need to find new things, especially in gameplay, because there’s not such a great progress when it comes to good stories.”

“So here we feel very strongly at the same time, so many great things happened in gameplay [since The Witcher 3]. What are players’ expectations here? And there are great games, great mechanics and plus UI [improvements]. So this is the idea for our development, and we are focusing on that, but at the same time we strongly believe in the core of what we are doing here.”

When it comes to a more systems-heavy RPG like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which pairs compelling stories and characters with more emergent moments that can happen while players are just out in the world, Badowski believes that it might be the next step for not only the genre, but for CD Projekt itself.

“The Kingdom Come kind of simulation, it’s great,” he said. “There’s so many options, you can change the world, it’s super great. And we would like to keep that, we’d like to follow this trend as well. So these are our next steps for sure, and it’s kind of a similar challenge to what we have in The Witcher 3 because of the open world and storytelling here, freedom of choices. But at the same time, we would like to build very fleshy, very well-motivated characters. So it’s kind of in contradiction from time-to-time. That’s a great design challenge.”

Badowski and fellow co-CEO Michał Nowakowski both also spoke about how Larian’s attempts at the genre with massive hits like Baldur’s Gate 3 also help move RPGs forward. However, Badowski also noted that there are major differences between how a turn-based role-playing game handles things like combat and character interaction, versus how an open-world real-time action game does so.

“In Larian’s case it’s turn-based so it’s a different kind of game, and the way you interact with characters is totally different,” said Badowski. “We like to fully build the characters, understand the past and the future of the character motivation. That’s why it takes so much time. [In BG3] there are great characters as well but sometimes your choices, because there’s freedom of choices in Larian’s work, it pushes you to use different tricks than ours. But I think we observe each other, and there are not that many games like that, so that’s natural, yeah, and we see how players react, how fans react to those tactics.”

Nowakowski believes that it might be good for both Larian and CD Projekt RED to stay in their proverbial lanes with it comes to their different approaches to RPGs. Rather, he spoke about how different developers can look at games from the past and build on top of the strong foundations that had already been laid.

“I think we’re still more in the, you know, we’re a big open world,” said Nowakowski. “But a lot of what Baldur’s Gate 3 showed was an inspiration, and to be honest there’s no shame in that. I think everybody who launches games nowadays is looking back on what was done before, and is looking at what worked and what was great and how and if they can fit it into whatever they are doing.”

“So for sure there was a lot of inspiration and what BG3 did, but I think we’re still more sticking to what was The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk, even if we don’t want to just make another game like that, just with better graphics. We do want to innovate in terms of what’s available in terms of gameplay and so on. I hope when the time comes, that’s going to become clear for the fans as well.”

Nowakowski also went on to reaffirm that CD Projekt RED isn’t planning on making games in the style of Larian’s RPGs. However, the studio still feels quite impressed and inspired when it looks at a game like Baldur’s Gate 3.

CD Projekt RED is currently working on The Witcher 4. The game doesn’t yet have a release date.

It includes the base game and Game of the Year Edition and doesn’t account for expansion sales. The title’s last major sales milestone was in May 2023, with over 50 million units sold worldwide.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released for Xbox One, PS4 and PC in 2015 and eventually came to Nintendo Switch in 2019. The Complete Edition marked its dedicated launch for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, bringing ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion, 4K upscaled textures for characters, cross-progression, new content based on Netflix’s The Witcher, and more.

CD Projekt RED is working on a sequel, The Witcher 4, starring Ciri as the protagonist (though Geralt does appear in some form). Other projects, including a remake of the first game and a spin-off, are also in development.

Before The Witcher 3, side quests in RPGs often existed as throwaway busywork to provide levelling experience and a small smattering of flavor lore to the game world. The Witcher 3 turned the concept of a side quest on its head by giving them the same level of importance and quality as the main storyline. Side quests in The Witcher 3 span the gamut of in-depth character arcs, geo-political upheavals, tying up loose ends to Geralt’s past, and the smaller moments that are no less lovingly crafted. And then there’s stuff that is just so quintessentially ‘Witcher’ like the Morkvang werewolf curse quest, which of course gives the player a choice to make affecting the outcome of Morkvang and the inhabitants of the village.

Some of the best-portrayed scenes I’ve seen in a game take place within The Witcher 3‘s side quests. The best part is the player has a legitimate say in which quest they want to see come to fruition. The interactions between these characters feel effortlessly natural – something very rare in an RPG. And the payoff is surprisingly wholesome and satisfying.

Continuity between the novels and lore is also something that is done very well throughout The Witcher 3’s side quests. There’s even a quest, The Last Wish, which echoes the subject matter and title of one of the most beloved Witcher novels. I admit to being a total Witcher newcomer when I first played The Witcher 3 back in 2019 or so, and yet, all of that prior history and lore felt absolutely riveting and atmospheric to me when I stumbled upon it. I felt like a fish out of water to some extent – flooded to the gills with prior happenings and reignited friendships that I knew nothing about. Yet, the world-building and natural exposition of it all made me feel like I was exploring a real fantasy world that had a history and life of its own, regardless of my participation.

Towns and cities have long been a benchmark of worldbuilding in RPGs. I personally hold Final Fantasy IX’s Lindblum as one of the best examples of a lived-in fantasy city that manages to further immerse us into the game’s world. It would take an entire book to chronicle the history of well-realized video game towns, so instead let’s hone in on one of the best – Novigrad.

I’d be remiss not to mention how perfect CD Projekt Red portrayed Novigrad’s density. Sure, the total surface area of Novigrad isn’t as groundbreaking as any town in, say, Daggerfall or well, any of the cities featured in recent Assassin’s Creed games. But size isn’t the be all end all of quality. No, as we’ve seen with plenty of other open-world games, a map can be as big as an ocean yet feel as deep and interesting as a puddle. Density and what is done with said density is what really makes a space come alive.

Novigrad feels like an authentic medieval city due to the level of sheer detail and attention to variety around ever street corner. Like CD Projekt Red’s other impressive cityscape, Night City, Novigrad doesn’t feel like it has copy and pasted elements; there’s an undeniably organic layout to its alleyways and tight corridors. Yes, some buildings are identical to others in their dimensions, but the decorations and embellishments help individualize them, instilling a ‘humanness’ to the place. The set design of Novigrad makes one feel lost in a gritty medieval cityscape. Novigrad, and the other smaller towns in The Witcher 3 to a lesser extent, feels lived-in and alive.

Of course, people contribute to that sensation of liveliness to a significant extent. Novigrad doesn’t disappoint in this respect, with pedestrians going about their business and filling out the busy cobblestone streets in a believable way. Yes, the sheer amount of NPCs populating an area helps sell the sense of liveliness, but it’s really the variety of character models, clothing, animations, and even voices that really make The Witcher 3‘s towns feel believable.

NPC faces and voices within The Witcher 3’s towns don’t repeat often, helping to avoid the uncanny valley sensation that many open-world games suffer from (I’m looking at you, Oblivion). NPCs will often talk about an ailment plaguing them or rant about the state of the world. And nothing feels more like The Witcher than a bitter pedestrian hollering at Geralt to leave them in peace and cause trouble somewhere else. The Witcher 3 set a standard for open-world games with its believable NPC behavior and attention to detail for the voice and outfits of minor incidental characters. And Novigrad is the creme-de-la-creme of The Witcher 3’s lived-in realism that still captures player’s imaginations to this day.

The core combat doesn’t hold up quite as well as The Witcher 3‘s rich story axis, but the emphasis on monster weaknesses and alchemy does have its charms. When played on harder difficulties, it is required to look through the bestiary for specific monster vulnerabilities and ways to approach certain fights. In this way, The Witcher 3 successfully translates the essence of a witcher’s vocation into its beast-hunting gameplay. Applying the right poisons and potion mixes is vital before fights on harder difficulties, contrasting the more arcady combat feel of easier difficulties. I admit I’m not exactly ecstatic about The Witcher 3‘s swordplay; the lack of combo and weapon variety just isn’t comparable to other RPGs. However, the skill tree and strategic weakness-based gameplay is satisfying in its own unique, purely Witcher, way. My preferred playstyle is a sign-focused build. The mind manipulating Axii sign is a treat to experiment and have fun with. Whenever I got sick of swinging my silver sword and dodging attacks, turning an alghoul to fight on my side never got any less entertaining.

Supplementing the combat is all the potions and weaponry Geralt can have crafted. I love when a rich open-world game renders looting worthwhile, and in this The Witcher 3 succeeds. There’s a ton of stuff to loot, between the many monster corpses you find to junk sitting at the bottom of alleyway barrels. The many armors and bombs that can be made from these materials makes exploring that much more fun. The Witcher 3, while not having the most remarkable armor selection, does feature some really cool looking armors for Geralt to don, such as the intricate Kaer Morhen set.

The Witcher 3 is not a perfect game without faults, but it executes what it sets out to do amazingly well and remains unparalleled today. The worldbuilding is top-notch thanks to the bevy of voice talent animating the well-realized characters and the fantastic environmental design. Making each quest meaningful and unique renders every new discovery and character interaction something the player can eagerly look forward to. The Witcher 3 is a masterclass in world design and quest quality, something that requires that unique human touch around every corner to make it feel alive. We won’t get another experience like The Witcher 3 with intriguing NPCs and quests. In today’s AI-accelerated world, The Witcher 3 shines as an example of what detail-oriented craft can produce, and 10 years later, it’s still one of the best of its kind.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Cyberpunk 2077

Stuffing an open world with overabundant icons and waypoints usually hinders immersion, but Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City is such a superbly designed game, that constant signposting doesn’t affect the experience. It’s dense, labyrinthian, a steaming cesspool, gorgeous and bleak; its a city with many mysteries. Night City teaches us that regardless of cyber-genetic augmentation, its citizens are still people with thoughts and feelings. The same can be said of V, who through companions met during Night City’s plentiful and varied main missions often displays tenderness and empathy beyond their chrome. How V resolves side quests and the choices they make, it all impacts the conclusion to their story too.

]]> 606237 https://gamingbolt.com/15-perfect-10-10-games-you-need-to-play Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:15:48 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=601178 [cap-drop]1[/cap-drop]0 out of 10 experiences are rather rare to find in life, and that is especially true of games where any number of elements may soil the experience. Games have only gotten more complex and expensive to make in 2024.

With the advancement of AI technologies and even larger open-worlds, a lot more can go wrong to hamper the experience. Our list comprises a somewhat modern collection of gaming’s best, spanning across many different consoles and genres. By ‘10/10’ we don’t imply the game doesn’t have its faults since no game is perfect; rather, it signifies an experience that excels in all its aspects despite minor flaws. All of the games here are playable on modern platforms as well, so you have no excuse to not try them out. Here are 15 perfect 10/10 games you need to play.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

There was plenty of doubt regarding Bloober Team’s ambitious remake plans for Silent Hill 2 leading up to release, but that doubt quickly turned around when the positive reviews started pouring in. Silent Hill 2 Remake successfully translates the unsettling atmosphere of the PS2 original with modern graphics and an updated control scheme to remarkable results. The story and characters are authentic to the original, with the remake doing a phenomenal job recasting the original voices. Bloober successfully remade a cult classic without altering or changing much of what made the original so beloved, placing Silent Hill 2 Remake on the illustrious level that Resident Evil 2 Remake has enjoyed for a while now.

The Witcher 3

Even longtime fans of The Witcher couldn’t have anticipated just how masterful The Witcher 3’s open-world design and storytelling would turn out. To this day, The Witcher 3 stands as a benchmark for how to make side quests just as engaging, and in most cases even more engaging, than the main quest of the game. I spent many sessions just exploring the immersive capital city of Novigrad alone. It wasn’t just the scope and quantity of things to see and do that made The Witcher 3 so great, it’s the consistent quality throughout it all that made us not want to miss any of it.

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

What if we got a Batman game set in feudal Japan? Ghost of Tsushima would literally be it. The entire point of Sucker Punch’s samurai epic is to give players a vast and versatile toolset to use in both stealth and combat, which you then use throughout the game to strike fear in into the hearts of your enemies. No matter how many times you clear out a camp with lethal precision, it just never loses its luster.

The studio has previously revealed that The Witcher 3 REDkit is a powerful set of tools, and is based on the same set of tools that were used by the game’s developers to design characters, environments, and quests. The tools were originally released as part of a playtest back in April, and according to the studio, will offer mod creators near-limitless freedom.

By using The Witcher 3 REDkit, mod creators will be able to craft new quests, items, weapons, and characters. There will also be tools to create animations, new storylines, and even entire territories.

The Witcher 3 REDkit is currently only planned for the PC version of The Witcher 3, and there is no word on whether the console versions of the game will get the mod creation tools, or any mods, at a later date. The tools were originally announced back in November 2023.

Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski responded that the company was looking at the possibility of licensing the aforementioned IP to external studios. While there are no announcements being made, CD Projekt is looking into whether it would make sense for such a licensing deal to be a one-off deal or if there would be a longer-term partnership.

“The answer is pretty simple here,” said Nowakowski. “The answer is yes, we are considering such a move. In fact, we were pursuing, through conversations, opportunities like that. We have nothing to announce just yet, but when the time comes, we would.”

“As for a one-off or other business model related to any such potential partnership, we would not comment on the specifics here, to be honest, plus there is nothing in place that we’re talking about,” he continued. “But there’s no predesigned business model we’re looking at in this case, whether one-off or shared profits. That’s another story. But when the time comes we’ll definitely share information.”

It is worth noting that, while both The Witcher and Cyberpunk as video game franchises exist thanks to CD Projekt’s efforts, both of the franchises are themselves licensed works—The Witcher from a series of fantasy novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, and Cyberpunk from the tabletop RPG of the same name.

We’ve also seen a mobile game based on The Witcher 3‘s in-game card game, Gwent, which also got a single-player spinoff in Thronebreaker. Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand, hasn’t seen any spin-offs developed for it so far.

As reported by VGC, Rebel Wolves has announced that it has recruited Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz as creative director. Tomaszkiewicz was at CD Projekt RED for nearly 13 years until his departure in May 2021, and during his tenure, he worked as lead quest designer on The Witcher 3 and its expansions, as quest director on Cyberpunk 2077, and as game director on Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales.

“There are so many fantastic RPGs out there today, however, I feel that there’s not only enough space but also a hunger among players for more captivating stories,” Tomaszkiewicz said. “We aim to deliver an experience that will allow for a variety of choices and room for experimentation when replayed. Helping craft this experience with so many talented people will be my mission at Rebel Wolves, and I can’t wait for everyone to see what the team has been up to for quite a while now.”

Tomaszkiewicz’s most recent stint was at Riot Games, which he left after two years in December. At Rebel Wolves, he will lead the studio’s debut project alongside founder, CEO, and game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz.

Rebel Wolves has also revealed that its action RPG, which is set to be the first instalment in a larger saga, has entered the alpha stage of development. The studio intends to share new details on the projects later this year.

In November of 2022, Rebel Wolves announced that it had secured strategic investment from NetEase for its debut project. Read more on that through here.