The Witcher

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Sep 5, 2007

GenCon preview roundup

PC Preview | The Witcher

Sept 5, 2007 Though traditional tabletop games have been losing ground to videogames for years, the hot new thing at this year's GenCon Indy appeared to be mash-ups that merged the best of both worlds to create the gaming equivalent of Frankensteins monster - though more friendly and less likely to lug away your girlfriend. Along with these hybrid creations, the usual MMO suspects were out in force along with a few other intriguing stragglers that we discovered. Legends of Norath The first of ... » Read More

Jul 16, 2007

The Witcher - updated impressions

PC Preview | The Witcher

The problem is, the styling of fantasy so often takes precedence over the point of fantasy. RPG gamers and game developers are both guilty of looking for the orcs and elves first. Got goblins? Get in. Thats the wrong approach. Fantasy is at its best when it acts as allegory, when it uses the mystical to illustrate the real. Frankenstein isnt a book about a zombie with a headache: its about man over-reaching himself at the dawn of the industrial age. Games, it seems, can find this difficult to ... » Read More

Jul 5, 2007

The Witcher - hands-on

PC Preview | The Witcher

"We are afraid of America," said Michal Madej, chief designer for developer, CD Projekt's latest role-playing game, The Witcher and we understand his concerns. Those unfamiliar with Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski's fantastical tales of Geralt - a mutant monster-slayer - won't be dying to find out what happened to the famous killer for hire after the end of the short stories on which the game is based. It's true that many English speaking gamers' will be unfamiliar with Sapkowski's world, and ... » Read More

Apr 3, 2007

The Witcher - hands-on

PC Preview | The Witcher

We find ourselves with The Witcher on-screen before us and almost immediately the withering vines of hope have begun to flourish. We instantly think of Oblivion, but also of the immediacy of Guild Wars (theres no multiplayer, before you ask) - even the multitudinous flavors of White Wolfs World of Darkness universe, in the sense that youre plunged into a fantasy world that at once seems familiar, yet also not quite right. There are quaint cottages and rolling hills, but nothing is quite as ... » Read More

Mar 1, 2007

The Witcher

PC Preview | The Witcher

Let's face it: fantasy RPGs have been in a rut. We get it, already: Elves are slender and noble, Dwarves are boozed-up walking beards, and Good must triumph against the forces of Evil. Enter the works of Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the best-selling Polish stories The Witcher is based upon. Though largely unknown to Western audiences, Sapkowski takes Tolkien's seminal fantasy archetypes, and amps up their relevance by injecting potent modern themes like terrorism, racism, substance abuse, and ... » Read More

Jun 14, 2006

The Witcher

PC Preview | The Witcher

Last month at E3, we took an early look at The Witcher, a title that stabs the role-playing genre right in its evil, exposed jugular - crappy writing. Based on the epic and beloved writings of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher possesses a deep, sweeping fantasy backstory of ancient prophecy, monstrous invasion and a mysterious order. The central focus of Sapowski's books is the anti-hero Geralt, a white-haired mutant called a witcher, trained from birth to fight all manner of ... » Read More

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