The Witcher vs Mass Effect: Geralt slashes Shepard!!!

[Hamon]

Do you even bother to listen to the dialogues in the game? To ask such questions one have to run through the game ignoring everything written and spoken.I'm enjoying ME right in this moment. My 4th playthrough. It's a fine game, really and I understand and like it's storyline and universe. Just the same I understand and like TW universe.I don't buy any of your argument.

When do I start feeling like a character with a purpose instead of some memoryless wanderer.

You ask the same question while playing the best cRPG ever made - Planescape: Torment or KotOR?The rest is just ignoring the story. I could ask just the same about ME. Why am I on Citodal or where-ever, why do I care that some robots go after some protoss becon?

Presentation. It's all about presentation. ME works because of it's presentation. For example, I dont have to read about their universe. It's narrated in the journal. Awesome presentation. I dont have to read about the Citadal because the AI units give me a tour. Fantastic. And at the beginning of ME, really I dont care that the Geth and Saren are after a beacon. I just wanna find the bastard and serve him justice. I wanna lift someone with my biotics and blast em. It just so happens that along the way it turned out to be a compelling, fun, epic adventure. This game is no PST or KoTOR. I'd know. I just finished playing both within the last few weeks. (I still have the 4-disk PST from 10 years ago!) Those games are brilliantly crafted. Im in Act2 of this game and I'm struggling to continue due to lackluster combat and bizzare dialog options that make no sense what-so-ever. For example I just got out of the sewers, ran all the way back to the dungeon cells to get my gear. I talk to Vincent, the Captain, and there's a dialog option for Salamaders. WTF?! I dont remember at all talking to him about investigating them. Hell, I dont even know why I'm investigating them. I just remember the Professor and some Mage stole something from the Witchers, we're hunting for them, Triss is in the city waiting for me and by chance (but not really I suspect) the Professor is in the same dungeon and got bailed out. I feel like a scatter brain in the game. But talking to the Captain was like, if you wanna go free kill a ****** for me in the sewers, and I was like ok, if it gets me out of the dungeon and moves the plot along, I guess I have to. What I wanna do is go find Triss. Cause we're looking for some payback, witcher-style. I'm totally lost in this game.One thing that's killing my immersion in this game is shaky-cam. After trouncing about I get to a cut-scene with a dialog and my head is spinning from nausea that I cant concentrate on what people are saying, And if I have to start writing down dialogs to remember who I interacted with and why then this game is fail. I've never ever had to do that in 25+ years of gaming. I was willing to overlook the shaky-cam but Act2 in the city, OMG. I'm about ready to throw up the chocolate toffee almonds I'm munching on. I dont usually play FPS, cause they make me sick, but this game for some reason is making me physically ill, and paradoxically so because its not a FPS. I think I'm going to have to shelf this game until there is some patch that fixes the shaky-cam. Either that or sell this game. That's why I havent registered it yet.

yeah, it's the presentation. I really like both games. I played both games three times through. As stated: the witcher is a nice piece of debut. But comparing in to a slick budget monster that mass effect is, it's a rather unfair matching. ME's Sounddesign, voiceacting and presentation are far superior. The witcher contains too many cranky to embarrasing voiceovers which make a soapy impression, judged by the english version. What I like better here is the detailed smuddy enviroment. Red's support though is gold and they are on a good way with their work ethics. And Bioware however should be ashamed releasing the DLC for such a high amount of cash (is it me but didn't they announce more than just one expansion?). Anyway both games are win, win for me.

 

[hamenaglar]

One thing that's killing my immersion in this game is shaky-cam.

The Witcher allows to choose 3 different cameras, one of them is TPP camera. I don't get it how The Witcher camera is shaky and ME not, when both look the same.HamenaglarThis is just a matter of taste. Protocakes says The Witcher is bland, you say ME is bland, in my opinion both are great.

Yes, however witcher actually features moral choices that actually affect something. They have choice and consequence. No such thing really in Mass Effect. Witcher features villians that are more real than evil, they have their motivations, their reasons as to what they are doing. Perhaps they are misguided perhaps they aren't. Mass effect features intelligent robots that want to destroy the world for the sake of destroying it. In the end ME has a cliched story and characters I wouldn't expect to find even in croatian SF&F novel (and some of them are pure horror to read). And that's without even touching the repetitive nature of the game. I don't think the games were better in the past and I don't think they are better now and I find it incredibly sad, considering how much the gaming industry has grown. I know nobody agrees with me.I at least hope that CDPR will take this as a compliment and will continue trieing to be creative in story and game design.

 

[zelos]

I finished Mass Effect recently (it was even cheaper to buy than Witcher) and I think it's the far better game.You just install it, download the little patch and the addon adventure and off you go. The story is quite good, you have futuristic weapons, but the game doesn't overfocus on combat.I recommend Mass Effect to anyone who like good RPGs.The witcher just sucks, before you get to play you have to invest days getting it registered just to install the stupid 1.4 patch. Graphics don't work, the refresh rate is messed up and there seems no proper way to fix it (in Mass Effect graphics are set up properly automatically at game startup - never had to bother with it).