CD Projekt is not for sale - CEO

[erek]

Even with the dismal failure of Cyberpunk 2077, the CEO isn't yet ready to sell

"After two years without a major new release, CD Projekt is due to present "Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty" in Los Angeles on June 8 during the Summer Game Fest: Play Days.

"We are also planning a range of other events around the world, and will have more information to share in the coming weeks", Kicinski said.

"Phantom Liberty" is the last game produced on company's own RED engine, with CD Projekt switching to the external Unreal Engine 5 for upcoming projects, which include among others a new Witcher trilogy, a remake of Witcher 1 and a Cyberpunk sequel.

CD Projekt has sold over 20 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077 so far. It also said that it had sold more than 50 million copies of "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" so far, with the entire Witcher trilogy's sales now exceeding 75 million copies."

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cd-projekts-first-quarter-profit-rises-1-yy-2023-05-29/

 

[Conman]

Dismal failure? Who writes this shit? I cant wait to read their next article about the colossal failure of No Man's Sky.

 

[DooKey]

What is your opinion of this story AI erek?

 

[NKD]

Dismal failure? Who writes this shit? I cant wait to read their next article about the colossal failure of No Man's Sky.

I was thinking the same thing lmao.

 

[Lakados]

Cyberpunk 2077 made more money for CDP in the 2 years since its launch than Witcher 3 has to date.
So by those standards, The Witcher Franchise is an abysmal failure beyond proportion.

 

[LukeTbk]

dismal failure of Cyberpunk 2077,

Behind a paywall, but this was not in the reuter article, right ?

Highest selling premium games in 2020:

Rank	Game	Units sold	Revenue	Genre(s)	Publisher
1	Animal Crossing: New Horizons	31,800,000[21]	$2,000,000,000[20]	Social simulation	Nintendo
2	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	< 25,250,000[c]	< $1,913,000,000[d]	FPS / battle royale	Activision (Activision Blizzard)
3	FIFA 20	Unknown	$1,083,000,000[11]	Sports	EA Sports (Electronic Arts)
4	Grand Theft Auto V / Online	20,000,000[24]	$911,000,000[11]	Action-adventure	Rockstar Games (Take-Two Interactive)
5	Cyberpunk 2077	13,000,000[25]	$609,000,000[11]	Action RPG	CD Projekt
6	Among Us	12,700,000[e]	Unknown	Party / social deduction	Innersloth
7	Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout	11,000,000[29]	Unknown	Battle royale / platformer	Devolver Digital
8	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	10,450,000[21][30]	Unknown	Kart racing	Nintendo
9	Super Mario 3D All-Stars	8,320,000[21]	Unknown	Platformer
10	NBA 2K21	8,000,000[31]	$889,000,000[11]	Sports	2K Sports (Take-Two Interactive)

Would like to fail like this

 

[DukenukemX]

Cyberpunk 2077 made more money for CDP in the 2 years since its launch than Witcher 3 has to date.
So by those standards, The Witcher Franchise is an abysmal failure beyond proportion.

Witcher 3 made them 1/3 of their revenue last year, which is still impressive for a 2015 game. Also, Witcher 3 is a beloved franchise that most likely propelled Cyberpunk 2077, because any other game studio would have been crucified for this game. Cyberpunk 2077 is a bad game, and not just from the bugs and performance issues which they are still being fixed to this day. The game is bad from a gameplay perspective. The game has 4 layers of quests, the first is the main quest line which is where most of the quality went into. Second is the secondary quests which are almost nearly as good as the main quests but slightly worse. Then you have side quests where each area has a particular person that you can do quests for, which are just barely scripted standard fetch quests or collect quests. Finally you have the NCPD quests which are so barely scripted, I'm amazed they even bothered to put them into the game. There's also the cyberpsycho events but they are just as easy and quick as the NCPD ones. This is a gun game where shooting is kinda rare. It's not Deus Ex: Mankind Divided levels of bad, which is where this game got it's inspiration from, where not killing and stealth is optional mostly, but it does happen from time to time. There's also the waiting. So much waiting in this game. If you fuck up the dialog choices with Keanu Reeves like I did then you can't do the secret ending. Also the endings sucked no matter what you did.

Sure Cyberpunk 2077 made them more money, but nobody is gonna remember this game beyond all the crappy bugs it was released with. Witcher 3 is a beloved game to the point where CDPR is gonna pull a Skyrim and re-release the game. It's so beloved that when Henry Cavill left the TV show, the internet was upset. The only reason Cyberpunk 2077 made more money is because of Keanu Reeves, graphics, and the pandemic, but beyond that I wouldn't recommend this game. You can only do what they've done with Cyberpunk so many times before people look at the game for what it is, and that's a bad game. This feels like a UbiSoft game, and nobody plays UbiSoft games anymore. CDPR's reputation can only take it so far. That's like saying the WiiU was a failure, but look at the games.

 

[Lakados]

Witcher 3 made them 1/3 of their revenue last year, which is still impressive for a 2015 game. Also, Witcher 3 is a beloved franchise that most likely propelled Cyberpunk 2077, because any other game studio would have been crucified for this game. Cyberpunk 2077 is a bad game, and not just from the bugs and performance issues which they are still being fixed to this day. The game is bad from a gameplay perspective. The game has 4 layers of quests, the first is the main quest line which is where most of the quality went into. Second is the secondary quests which are almost nearly as good as the main quests but slightly worse. Then you have side quests where each area has a particular person that you can do quests for, which are just barely scripted standard fetch quests or collect quests. Finally you have the NCPD quests which are so barely scripted, I'm amazed they even bothered to put them into the game. There's also the cyberpsycho events but they are just as easy and quick as the NCPD ones. This is a gun game where shooting is kinda rare. It's not Deus Ex: Mankind Divided levels of bad, which is where this game got it's inspiration from, where not killing and stealth is optional mostly, but it does happen from time to time. There's also the waiting. So much waiting in this game. If you fuck up the dialog choices with Keanu Reeves like I did then you can't do the secret ending. Also the endings sucked no matter what you did.

Sure Cyberpunk 2077 made them more money, but nobody is gonna remember this game beyond all the crappy bugs it was released with. Witcher 3 is a beloved game to the point where CDPR is gonna pull a Skyrim and re-release the game. It's so beloved that when Henry Cavill left the TV show, the internet was upset. The only reason Cyberpunk 2077 made more money is because of Keanu Reeves, graphics, and the pandemic, but beyond that I wouldn't recommend this game. You can only do what they've done with Cyberpunk so many times before people look at the game for what it is, and that's a bad game. This feels like a UbiSoft game, and nobody plays UbiSoft games anymore. CDPR's reputation can only take it so far. That's like saying the WiiU was a failure, but look at the games.

I remember Witcher 3 launch being a bug-ridden mess with terrible performance, undoable quests, and constant crashing.
I mean Horse on Roof meme much?

 

[Flogger23m]

Cyberpunk 2077 is a good game. It couldn't quite achieve greatness, and the engine build is buggy and they can't really get it working right. Which is why they're using Unreal now for future games. I still enjoyed it more than Witcher 2/3. The bugs of course brought it down, and that wasn't excusable. But in the current state it is fine. Bugs aside it is a memorable game for me. Certainly not the best, but left a lasting impression that is one of my gaming highlights from the past few years.

 

[1337Goat]

Yeah, I thought Cyberpunk was great. It's not like it's meant to be the ultimate video game ever made, but for what it is, I enjoyed it a lot, and would recommend it to anyone who likes games.
If they make more stuff, I'd at least show interest in it, even if it ends up being another bugfest.

 

[THRESHIN]

Say what you will about the release state of their games, these guys do fix them. Hopefully they'll learn and get the release in better shape for future games.

If they were to sell out it would be to some big conglomerate like EA or 2K. Anyone that thinks the quality of games is going to improve is lying to themselves. They'll just milk it dry and ditch it because they're total vampires.

I say good for them. I hope CD Projekt continues to grow as a developer.

 

[DukenukemX]

I remember Witcher 3 launch being a bug-ridden mess with terrible performance, undoable quests, and constant crashing.
I mean Horse on Roof meme much?

Skyrim has a lot of bugs in the game, still to this day, but nobody cares because it was a good game. You do side quests in Witcher 3 you get an interesting story where Geralt acts like Sherlock and you have to actually investigate. Side quests are voice acted and well done. In Skyrim you walk into a cave and find a goddess who will give you a sword, or you find an ancient civilization that were technologically advanced and their constructs are still working to this day. In Cyberpunk a side quest involves you losing all your gear because you were tricked into buying a porn that made you pass out, which at the end all you achieve is getting back your money and weapons. The quest was a waste of time.

 

[erek]

Dismal failure? Who writes this shit? I cant wait to read their next article about the colossal failure of No Man's Sky.

the game is horribly broken for me still, random physics glitches like this all the time. piece of the scenery stuck to my wheel right here:

 

[DukenukemX]

the game is horribly broken for me still, random physics glitches like this all the time. piece of the scenery stuck to my wheel right here:

View attachment 573510

I played the game like a week ago, and plenty of bugs. Summoning my car will often eject some other car into the air because it teleported it on top of another car. Some quests wouldn't finish like cyberpsycho ones where I couldn't loot the body. Reloading the game would allow me to loot the bodies. One quest where I couldn't put a girls body into the trunk because the car was upside down, and it was a known bug so I had to kill her to complete the quest. As I was playing it, the game was getting patches so still to this day they're fixing the game. The menu would fuck out when I break down weapons, but an update fixed that. I'm also playing the game on Linux and while it would run stable for hours, at some point the game locks up and restarting the game would always lock it up. So I had to restart my PC, but is this the games fault or the fact I'm running Linux and maybe a MESA driver isn't too happy with it? God of War ran forever on my Linux setup with no stability issues what so ever. I still remember how CDPR was gonna port Witcher 3 over to Linux but bailed, so this lack of Linux support is still going to effect my opinion on them very negatively. So yea, games still buggy and the latest 1.62 patch added more problems than needed, because they added Ray-Tracing.

 

[erek]

I played the game like a week ago, and plenty of bugs. Summoning my car will often eject some other car into the air because it teleported it on top of another car. Some quests wouldn't finish like cyberpsycho ones where I couldn't loot the body. Reloading the game would allow me to loot the bodies. One quest where I couldn't put a girls body into the trunk because the car was upside down, and it was a known bug so I had to kill her to complete the quest. As I was playing it, the game was getting patches so still to this day they're fixing the game. The menu would fuck out when I break down weapons, but an update fixed that. I'm also playing the game on Linux and while it would run stable for hours, at some point the game locks up and restarting the game would always lock it up. So I had to restart my PC, but is this the games fault or the fact I'm running Linux and maybe a MESA driver isn't too happy with it? God of War ran forever on my Linux setup with no stability issues what so ever. I still remember how CDPR was gonna port Witcher 3 over to Linux but bailed, so this lack of Linux support is still going to effect my opinion on them very negatively. So yea, games still buggy and the latest 1.62 patch added more problems than needed, because they added Ray-Tracing.

GTA V / Online has spoiled me somewhat from a really polished game standpoint. To me, Cyberpunk is junk still even after all the patches

 

[erek]

Even with the dismal failure of Cyberpunk 2077, the CEO isn't yet ready to sell

"After two years without a major new release, CD Projekt is due to present "Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty" in Los Angeles on June 8 during the Summer Game Fest: Play Days.

"We are also planning a range of other events around the world, and will have more information to share in the coming weeks", Kicinski said.

"Phantom Liberty" is the last game produced on company's own RED engine, with CD Projekt switching to the external Unreal Engine 5 for upcoming projects, which include among others a new Witcher trilogy, a remake of Witcher 1 and a Cyberpunk sequel.

CD Projekt has sold over 20 million copies of Cyberpunk 2077 so far. It also said that it had sold more than 50 million copies of "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" so far, with the entire Witcher trilogy's sales now exceeding 75 million copies."

View attachment 573382
Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cd-projekts-first-quarter-profit-rises-1-yy-2023-05-29/

Additional interpretation,

“CD Projekt Dismisses Rumors of a Sony Takeover Bid
by T0@st Today, 13:08 Discuss (2 Comments)
CD Projekt has responded to this weekend's rumors of a possible takeover bid by Sony's gaming division (Interactive Entertainment) - a leaker well known within the Destiny 2 community suggestedthat the (publicly traded) Polish games publishing and development group was on the cusp of signing up as first party entity. CD Projekt president and CEO Adam Kiciński addressed this matter in a company earnings meeting, he affirmed that no change in operations was incoming: "Nothing has changed in our end...So, I can repeat what we have been saying throughout the years - CD Projekt is not for sale. We want to remain independent. We have, I believe an excellent strategy. Not easy to execute, for sure, but it's very exciting to follow our own path. So it's a pure rumor." One of the company's PR representatives, Ola Sondej, also denied (on Twitter) that acquisition negotiations were in-progress: "Yah, we're not in such talks with Sony."

The earnings call also resulted in an announcement of The Witcher 3 selling more than 50 million copies - pointing to it being the ninth highest-selling game of all time. The Witcher franchise (consisting of three main line titles) has achieved lifetime sales of more than 75 million units. Despite this good news, CD Projekt has experienced a decline of 20% in net sales (for Q1 2023) - it seems that a reliance on continued revenue from older games can only go so far. Half of the main development team is committed to supporting Cyberpunk 2077, and finalizing a DLC campaign - Phantom Liberty, although CD Projekt has not yet set a firm release date for this extra content. Preview code is destined to make an appearance at this year's Summer Game Fest (June 9 to 10). Multiple Witcher games are in the pipeline, as well as a Cyberpunk sequel.”

 

[Armenius]

Behind a paywall, but this was not in the reuter article, right ?

Highest selling premium games in 2020:

Rank	Game	Units sold	Revenue	Genre(s)	Publisher
1	Animal Crossing: New Horizons	31,800,000[21]	$2,000,000,000[20]	Social simulation	Nintendo
2	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	< 25,250,000[c]	< $1,913,000,000[d]	FPS / battle royale	Activision (Activision Blizzard)
3	FIFA 20	Unknown	$1,083,000,000[11]	Sports	EA Sports (Electronic Arts)
4	Grand Theft Auto V / Online	20,000,000[24]	$911,000,000[11]	Action-adventure	Rockstar Games (Take-Two Interactive)
5	Cyberpunk 2077	13,000,000[25]	$609,000,000[11]	Action RPG	CD Projekt
6	Among Us	12,700,000[e]	Unknown	Party / social deduction	Innersloth
7	Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout	11,000,000[29]	Unknown	Battle royale / platformer	Devolver Digital
8	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	10,450,000[21][30]	Unknown	Kart racing	Nintendo
9	Super Mario 3D All-Stars	8,320,000[21]	Unknown	Platformer
10	NBA 2K21	8,000,000[31]	$889,000,000[11]	Sports	2K Sports (Take-Two Interactive)

Would like to fail like this

Cyberpunk 2077 is up to over 20 million units sold as of September last year.

 

[toast0]

So, I can repeat what we have been saying throughout the years - CD Projekt is not for sale. We want to remain independent.

Aka, we are for sale, but the sales price is much higher than the offers have been.

 

[Flogger23m]

Skyrim has a lot of bugs in the game, still to this day, but nobody cares because it was a good game. You do side quests in Witcher 3 you get an interesting story where Geralt acts like Sherlock and you have to actually investigate. Side quests are voice acted and well done. In Skyrim you walk into a cave and find a goddess who will give you a sword, or you find an ancient civilization that were technologically advanced and their constructs are still working to this day. In Cyberpunk a side quest involves you losing all your gear because you were tricked into buying a porn that made you pass out, which at the end all you achieve is getting back your money and weapons. The quest was a waste of time.

I have never played Skyrim, but I am familiar with Fallout 3, NV and 4 and Witcher 2 and 3.

Witcher 3 side quests all blur together and heavily rely on the same basic and outright infuriating "eagle eyes" vision. Where you run around the world with this stupid color overlay that is used so heavily in games. Some of the investigations are okay, but some are outright boring. The whole game drags on and on only for the basic plot point to pop up sparsely. It has a lot of words, but not a lot to say.

Fallout 4 did increase the quality of side quests, and I did like the main quests of FO3/NV and even 4. But a lot of the quests in those games are effortless time wasters. Where you essentially mash buttons and a quest starts and finishes. An example is one from NV where you "train recruits" by listening to dialogue lines. The NPCs don't actually do anything, they you just see one's face as they rattle off some one liners in a dialogue box. Quest over.

Cyberpunk had some good quality side quests, some more average for video games. But the overall quality was easily better than most average open world games.

 

[Armenius]

I have never played Skyrim, but I am familiar with Fallout 3, NV and 4 and Witcher 2 and 3.

Witcher 3 side quests all blur together and heavily rely on the same basic and outright infuriating "eagle eyes" vision. Where you run around the world with this stupid color overlay that is used so heavily in games. Some of the investigations are okay, but some are outright boring. The whole game drags on and on only for the basic plot point to pop up sparsely. It has a lot of words, but not a lot to say.

Fallout 4 did increase the quality of side quests, and I did like the main quests of FO3/NV and even 4. But a lot of the quests in those games are effortless time wasters. Where you essentially mash buttons and a quest starts and finishes. An example is one from NV where you "train recruits" by listening to dialogue lines. The NPCs don't actually do anything, they you just see one's face as they rattle off some one liners in a dialogue box. Quest over.

Cyberpunk had some good quality side quests, some more average for video games. But the overall quality was easily better than most average open world games.

There are very few quests that require the use of Witcher Senses to find your way.

 

[Flogger23m]

There are very few quests that require the use of Witcher Senses to find your way.

I played dozens of quests. That includes the monster hunting ones. I still had a lot of those left, I just couldn't bring myself to play them. Maybe I will do them all some day but it has been years and I don't recall what graphics mod I used.

 

[AlphaQup]

Maybe I will do them all some day but it has been years and I don't recall what graphics mod I used.

If it helps, w/e mods you had most likely don't work with the DX12/Next Gen update anyway. I had to redownload the new version of basically every mod I had (and excluded the top 5 that are now bundled in with the download from Steam like the HD textures, etc.). So few worked any more and I got tired of playing mod-combo roulette trying to pick them out I said screw it and started fresh.

This'll be my 6th or 7th playthrough though, so consider me a bit of a fan

 

[LukeTbk]

Say what you will about the release state of their games, these guys do fix them. Hopefully they'll learn and get the release in better shape for future games.

Considering how well their model of releasing when the hype is still there and fix later worked, I am not sure if it would be learning for them to push release to fix them.

 

[Twisted Kidney]

the game is horribly broken for me still, random physics glitches like this all the time. *snip*

It runs like a dream for me now, even at 5K. The fact that it's still so bad on so many machines (you're not alone) tells us how little time was left to optimize 2077 when they shoved it out the door.

You can almost hear John Carmack ranting about how shit optimization is all over gaming these days.

 

[Usual_suspect]

GTA V / Online has spoiled me somewhat from a really polished game standpoint. To me, Cyberpunk is junk still even after all the patches

I am just now getting around to seriously sitting down and finally getting through story mode in GTA V. While the game is optimized rather well, with minor hitches here and there like night time performance dropping off for whatever reason, and inconsistent performance at 1440p with my 4070Ti--for whatever reason I can't maintain a solid 120+ FPS, my frame rate constantly dips into the 80's and 90's, even when there's nothing happening on screen. I've tried turning down draw distance, turning off MSAA 2x/TSAA, I've tried disabling all advanced graphics options, etc. still happens. Outside of those little things--the game is absolutely stunning considering it's age, and seeing that it only uses like 4GB of VRAM to do all that, it's like wow, some developers and publishers should take note.

 

[Red Falcon]

the game is horribly broken for me still, random physics glitches like this all the time. piece of the scenery stuck to my wheel right here:

View attachment 573510

 

[DukenukemX]

I have never played Skyrim, but I am familiar with Fallout 3, NV and 4 and Witcher 2 and 3.

Skyrim is probably the best open world game ever made. There's a reason people still mod that game.

Witcher 3 side quests all blur together and heavily rely on the same basic and outright infuriating "eagle eyes" vision. Where you run around the world with this stupid color overlay that is used so heavily in games. Some of the investigations are okay, but some are outright boring. The whole game drags on and on only for the basic plot point to pop up sparsely. It has a lot of words, but not a lot to say.

I don't remember it being like that. Nearly every side quest was a gem, and gave good rewards. Haven't played the game in years but it is one of the greats.

Fallout 4 did increase the quality of side quests,

I think we played two different games. While I don't consider Fallout 4 a bad game, it isn't an upgrade over Fallout 3 and NV. Besides the lack of an ending that is based on the choices you make in the game and no morality system, there was the settlement quests. Which are still better than the NCPD and cyberpsycho quests from Cyberpunk 2077.

and I did like the main quests of FO3/NV and even 4. But a lot of the quests in those games are effortless time wasters. Where you essentially mash buttons and a quest starts and finishes. An example is one from NV where you "train recruits" by listening to dialogue lines. The NPCs don't actually do anything, they you just see one's face as they rattle off some one liners in a dialogue box. Quest over.

Can't think of the quest you're talking about, but all the Fallouts had good side quests, minus Preston Garvey settlements. For the most part, every Fallout Vault is a messed up place to be, with messed up history. Who doesn't remember the Cannibal quests, the quest where you get to choose to nuke a settlement, and finding out that Paladin Danse is a synth.

Cyberpunk had some good quality side quests, some more average for video games. But the overall quality was easily better than most average open world games.

I did all the quests in Cyberpunk and it took me over a month. Not a one was worth a damn. The worst part is that any side quests you complete offer the worst possible ending to the game. The only minor exception are the ones with Johnny Silverhand, mostly because it gets you the best ending in the game, and by best ending it's the same ending just hard and one person doesn't die. Also doing Johnny Silverhand's quest will get you his 1977 Porsche 911/930 which I respect because that's when Porsche actually made good cars, unlike the four door SUV crap they make today. Even still, his quests are just going around finding his music that he made, and talking to old friends who are somehow less interesting than he is. One quest involves me going after a van full of music equipment and me throwing a grenade in it, and that's it. That was the better of the Johnny Silverhand's friends side quest. To make matters worse the side quests mostly reward money, which is useless unless you plan to buy all the crap cars and apartments.

If anyone is interested in playing this game for whatever reason, I can give you some tips.

1. Technical Ability is the best talent tree in the game as it allows you to make some of the best gear in the game and upgrade it. Body is the second best as it'll give you more health and allows you to get through dialog options and open doors. Intelligence is also often used for dialog options but is probably the worst talent tree in the game unless you plan to stealth your way through the game. You don't want to stealth your way through the game. Reflexes and Cool will probably get you the best damage abilities in the game for swords and guns/rifles but try to pick a weapon type and stick with it. Body will get you more damage from shotguns and machine guns for example.
2. Doing secondary quests is fine since you get more bang out of your time in terms of content to see. Side quests are worth doing despite being boring because you generally get a decent reward when you compete them all for the person. If the quest doesn't ask you to stealth or not kill, then just run and gun because doing so otherwise is a waste of time. This game doesn't punish you for killing. Avoid NCPD quests as they're there to help you level and make money, and that's it. Cyberpsycho quests are easy to do and quick, plus gets you a reward from one of the side characters when completed.
3. Get yourself Cyberware Malfunction as some enemies will literally dodge bullets, especially the Cyberphycho's. They are generally unbeatable without this cybermod. PAX is also a good mod for guns since your weapon won't kill people but disable them, which is generally want you want to do for better rewards for fighting Cyberphycho's as the person wants them alive.
4. Swords do the most damage in the game, like crazy fast damage. A Katana will eat through the last boss in the game in seconds, even on the secret hard ending in the game. So think about going into Cool talent tree.
5. Don't buy legendary weapons because they don't benefit from the perks you pick up in the Technical Ability talent tree. If you can upgrade or make your own weapons, that would be the best route. You can also upgrade rewarded unique weapons and clothing from green and blue all the way to legendary so keep that in mind. Remember money is time in this game, so unless you enjoy doing crappy quests then avoid spending money.
6. Also don't buy cars because you get some of the best cars through quests and they're free.

 

[LukeTbk]

I did all the quests in Cyberpunk and it took me over a month. Not a one was worth a damn

I do wonder if you lie to yourself a little bit, like a I have watched all 8 season of games of thrones and it is a terrible show.... (and I was not paid to do so), maybe you liked it more that you want to admit to yourself or isn't a bit strange so much a game one do not like ?

Didn't like Cyberpunk (will probably retry it one day, I paid it an high price tag), not sure if I achieved an actual 8 hours in it, felt too overcomplicated mechanics wise for little reason and do not like shooting with a controller but didn't like driving and the rest using keyboard-mouse...

 

[Flogger23m]

Skyrim is probably the best open world game ever made. There's a reason people still mod that game.

I haven't played it so I can't confirm for myself, but the quality looks bad much like Fallout. Those games are certainly quantity and not quality. But still Bethesda does open world better than most by a large margin. The problem with their games is the animations, voice acting, camera angles, combat, repetition and whatnot aren't good. They excel in having an actually interesting world to explore and generally a story that you can shape.

For Skyrim and the other games in the series, my only relation is laughing at videos showing off the aforementioned bad quality aspects.

I don't remember it being like that. Nearly every side quest was a gem, and gave good rewards. Haven't played the game in years but it is one of the greats.

I greatly disagree. Many side quests in 3/NV were like that.

I think we played two different games. While I don't consider Fallout 4 a bad game, it isn't an upgrade over Fallout 3 and NV.

It was better in every way except the branching dialogue options were limited, which was quite the downside. They added voice acting which was great. In Starfield they seemed to throw in the towel and just halfass and go back to no voice acting. As is a lack of voice acting garanutees their dialogue options will be diverse enough.

I did all the quests in Cyberpunk and it took me over a month. Not a one was worth a damn.

I find it hard to believe you played the whole game then. They're not quite Mass Effect level although I don't really consider Mass Effect side quests to be optional. But many had a lot of nice lore with the city. Like the one about elections, the news station, etc. Some of the character related side quests were good to. But maybe you just don't like story/lore based quests and prefer more of the gathering item type?

 

[AlphaQup]

I do wonder if you lie to yourself a little bit, like a I have watched all 8 season of games of thrones and it is a terrible show.... (and I was not paid to do so), maybe you liked it more that you want to admit to yourself or isn't a bit strange so much a game one do not like ?

Didn't like Cyberpunk (will probably retry it one day, I paid it an high price tag), not sure if I achieved an actual 8 hours in it, felt too overcomplicated mechanics wise for little reason and do not like shooting with a controller but didn't like driving and the rest using keyboard-mouse...

Yeah, I'm getting the same vibe... seriously, how can NOT ONE or the side quests make you not feel anything. 2 shell shockers that come to mind are the crucifixion one and the farm-based one... DukenukemX , really? Alright...

I loved the game, 130hr completionist playthrough. Only had 1 glitch in a quest with a workaround, I personslly never experienced a anything gamebreaking, day 1 player too.

This is more of a general statement, but I tire of the outrage culture that seems to be so prevalent these days.

EDIT: Actually, I think it's more folks not realizing a game just isn't for them, maybe they'd be better off playing something else. Not everything has to be up their alley.

 

[M76]

I played the game like a week ago, and plenty of bugs.

I played the game in early 2021, after the first patch came out and loved it. Tried to revisit it like 6 months ago, and I swear it was worse than 2 years prior, it had more bugs, not less and more annoying at that. IDK how much of an effort they are making to fix it, but not much I'd wager, they already made their money. They are just imitating work with a B-team, who don't know what they are doing. Which will backfire when the DLC comes out as a ton of people will revisit the game expecting it to be fixed, when it is clearly not.

 

[PC-Only]

Seems this thread is talking about all kinds of opinions on several related games and genres that has stirred up my opinions, so will give them real quick

Witcher 1? One of my all-time favorite games. Fantastic atmosphere, great moral themes, great role-play, excellent characters, excellent story.

Witcher 2? Another of my all-time favorite games. All of the above a second time, with better gameplay, and an even better and more exciting story.

Witcher 3? A disappointment. Good game but not great. Open World was a real detriment to the game's pacing and story. And even regardless of the pacing, the story was not compelling or interesting like the first two. There never was any great revelations, twists/turns, or "edge of your seat" events like those in the first two games. At least not in almost all of the game. The only story that was close to the same level of quality as Witcher 1/2 was from the DLC "Hearts of Stone". In terms of overall open world gameplay / atmosphere, also inferior to Bethesda games, despite being superior on the technical side.

Cyberpunk 2077? Haven't played it yet - waiting to buy it once both the last DLC comes out and they have released the final "major" patch for the game. But I do know that once it is finished, it will have still not achieved anywhere near what they advertised and promised. Doesn't mean it won't be worth buying, just it will never be anywhere close to what they said it was going to be (even right before release when they knew for certain they were lying), despite what fanboys claim. And although I will reserve full judgement until I have actually played it, it sounds like the story and role-play is nowhere near Witcher 1/2 quality. Major CDPR reputation hit that their next game will have to overcome.

Witcher 1 Remastered? Intersting idea - would be great to get new Witcher 3 fans to experience the superior Witcher 1 story that many ignore due to its weaker gameplay reputation. But definitely worrying that they are going with an "open world" remake. Hopefully they have learned a lot of lessons from Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk that allows them to make it open world without sacrificing the story pacing like they did in Witcher 3.

Fallout 3? Another all-time favorite game. This was actually my first Fallout game and first Bethesda. Played FO1/FO2 many years later. I think overall it was a great game, but it could have been much better had it stuck more closely to the themes and role-play elements of FO1/FO2. FO3 urban atmosphere + FO1 "seriousness" (with less campy comedy) + FO1/FO2 role-play options would have been even better.

Fallout New Vegas? Definitely superior gameplay to FO3. But...overall weaker than FO3. This is actually one of the extremely rare instances where I think one game's atmosphere and world is so strong, and another game's atmosphere and world is so weak, that the game with inferior gameplay (FO3) is better than the game with the superior gameplay (F:NV). FO1/2 were old 90s 2D isometric games with a high-level map consisting of a large number of locations represented by small play-area maps. You can get away with a desert high-level map and the actual play-area maps being made up of a small number of buildings or geographic points of interest.

But Fallout New Vegas is a 3D open world. The large empty repetitive desert was completely uninteresting. Not like FO3 - in FO3, at least relative to the technology at the time, there was always another place around the corner or off in the distance that inspired, "wow that looks interesting!", and off you went. If Obsidian had a higher budget and were given more time by greedy Bethesda leadership to complete their original vision of the game, which was a non-insignificant difference than what they were able to complete in the end, maybe then it would have been able to rival or exceed FO3.

Fallout 4? A leap backwards in RPG gaming. Essentially converted Fallout from an RPG into an open-world FPS. Nothing wrong with the changes in combat mechanics, but truly an epic disaster removing all role-playing options from the game, not only going backwards from New Vegas (which was already matched by 90s Fallout 1/2), but going backwards even to an entirely inferior level even below Fallout 3. Truly a shameful game design by Bethesda. I only eventually purchased it years after release when it included all the DLC for a very low price, and only because by then there were huge mod collections that significantly improved the game, but still not to the extent that it matches past Fallout games.

Skyrim? Only non-Fallout Bethesda game I have played so far. Played it years ago for 50+ hours and did not complete. Actually plan to serious play it for the first time, heavily modded, sometime soon. But vanilla Skyrim I did not find even near as compelling or interesting as vanilla FO3/FNV.

Starfield? I look forward to seeing what they do. Definitely more interested in a sci-fi open world than another Elder Scrolls. But Bethesda has shown no sign of significant improvement with any of the games they have released for the past twenty years. So I hope for the best but my expectations are not any higher than the worst. If they want my money, they will do three things:
1) Excellent role-play, not dumbed down like FO4.
2) Quality over quantity content. Though with open world that is more expensive since it necessitates higher quantity too.
3) Superb modding support.

Sounds like they will probably continue #3. I am not holding my breath on the first two.

Anyway, more close to the original topic, if CDRP continues with open world games, they have a LOT of improvement to do from where they last were with Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. Open world games are expensive and hard, and so far CDRP's open world quality is a far cry from the quality of their original non-open-world games.

 

[polonyc2]

too bad...I was all set to put in my bid

 

[M76]

Seems this thread is talking about all kinds of opinions on several related games and genres that has stirred up my opinions, so will give them real quick

Just because you asked for it This will probably upset a lot of people, but that is not my reason for saying it, even if some regularly accuse me of lying about games because I have an expectation of them But no, this is my completely honest opinion of these games.

Witcher 1, I don't remember much of this game, I definitely played it, but all I recall is that I abandoned my playthrough not that far into it. I think I found it boring.

Witcher 2, Probably my favorite part of the series, or rather I'd say the one I disliked the least. I liked the general gameplay even if the combat was a bit iffy at times. I got about halfway into the game when I decided to no longer put up with Geralt's assholery. I freaking hate the character, he is a rude, uncivilized idiot, who treats women as wet rags. I actually quit playing the game during a cutscene which just had too much dudebrodery for my tolerance levels.

Witcher 3, Tried to play it, but I felt it starts off exactly where I left it off in Witcher 2, Geralt being a complete jerk. Plus it has gameplay design elements that I feel are questionable, so it was a short lived attempt. Damn GOG says it was 5 years ago, maybe it is time for another attempt?

Fallout 3, I loved the open world and the exploration, but damn the game was a slog. I have hundreds of hours in it probably (DK exactly, it was before Steam) but I think I only completed the main story once or twice.

Fallout NV, I have mixed feelings about this one, in many ways it is a huge improvement over F3, like the faction system and the hardcore mode was amazing, which really made me mad that they didn't include that in F4. But I feel it failed in the two most fundamental aspects, the story and the open world. The story was very weak imo, much like in Outer Worlds, and the world didn't feel that open, movement was often restricted by corridors and one way approaches. If we had F3 with NV's mechanics that would be the perfect game. But standing alone both are flawed.

Fallout 4, Contrary to popular opinion I liked this game, finally it graduated from clunky mess to an actually serviceable shooter. Until now you had to rely solely on RPG stats to get things done, in F4 finally skill can give you a fighting chance even if you have a "bad build". Oh how I hate that term. I never cared about stats in RPGs I choose skills and level up based on what I like and not trying to be some crazy specialized OP character. I even choose my gear based on cosmetics and not stats, but I digress. I think F4 is the most rounded game in the series, the world is just big enough, but not too big as in to get lost in it or become overwhelming. The main quest while not ground breaking it's better than the previous two. The side quests are hit and miss, some very good, some less so. Overall this is my favorite Fallout so far.

Morrowind, Played it once, it seemed outdated and clunky, and this was before the time I started enjoying RPGs, so skip.

Oblivion, I don't want to lie but I probably have over 1000 hours in this game, I played the crap out of it, both as original, and modded to shreds. From 2006 to 2013. Still my favorite Bethesda game.

Skyrim, It was a bit of a let down after Oblivion, my main problem with it is that I was never a fan of winter environments in games, so about the only part of the world I enjoyed to explore was the underground bits. Still played it a lot but not nearly to the extent of Oblivion, maybe one tenth of that, and barely got into modding it.

As for Starfield I don't expect it to release this year, call me a pessimist. What I really hope is that it won't become an A-RPG, and moves more towards the immersive sim genre instead.
What I fear most: Too much focus on resource gathering on barren planets, that have 2km by 2km explorable territory on them.

 

[Flogger23m]

Witcher 3? A disappointment. Good game but not great. Open World was a real detriment to the game's pacing and story. And even regardless of the pacing, the story was not compelling or interesting like the first two. There never was any great revelations, twists/turns, or "edge of your seat" events like those in the first two games. At least not in almost all of the game. The only story that was close to the same level of quality as Witcher 1/2 was from the DLC "Hearts of Stone". In terms of overall open world gameplay / atmosphere, also inferior to Bethesda games, despite being superior on the technical side.

I agree, it dragged on and on and the actual story was bare. Find this girl - you found her. Find this other girl now.

Witcher 2 had some decent political/faction decisions towards the end that were interesting. The decisions you made at the end of 2 were largely thrown out in 3. I am looking forward to the Witcher 1 remake regardless, mainly for the story. Witcher 3 had better gameplay than 2 without a doubt though.

Anyway, more close to the original topic, if CDRP continues with open world games, they have a LOT of improvement to do from where they last were with Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. Open world games are expensive and hard, and so far CDRP's open world quality is a far cry from the quality of their original non-open-world games.

I think Witcher 3 was one of the better open worlds if I am being honest. I even enjoyed Cypberpunk but the open world was clearly rushed. Sections were under used and it remind me a lot of STALKER where sections of the map were essentially very under utilized. The oil fields and tent areas had a few short missions and that was it. The game needed more time spent in the high rises as well. For such a big tall city, you spend so little time up there.

 

[PC-Only]

The story was very weak imo, much like in Outer Worlds, and the world didn't feel that open, movement was often restricted by corridors and one way approaches. If we had F3 with NV's mechanics that would be the perfect game. But standing alone both are flawed.

Agreed. And I wasn't a fan of Outer Worlds either. Out of all the various games mentioned, I thought that one was the weakest of all. I don't know if it would have been better had I picked a lower difficulty level, but when playing on highest difficulty, I just got bored of it and quit at or before the half-way point. It was a chore working my way clearing out areas and nothing interesting was happening in any of the plots.

Fallout 4, Contrary to popular opinion I liked this game, finally it graduated from clunky mess to an actually serviceable shooter. Until now you had to rely solely on RPG stats to get things done, in F4 finally skill can give you a fighting chance even if you have a "bad build". Oh how I hate that term. I never cared about stats in RPGs I choose skills and level up based on what I like and not trying to be some crazy specialized OP character. I even choose my gear based on cosmetics and not stats, but I digress.

Agree with you on the "metagaming" builds. I choose my stats based on how I want to roleplay my character in dialogue/choices/interactions in the world. Which is why I disliked FO4's design so strongly But I do hate the concept of "bad builds" and people using that excuse with poor gameplay in some games. Every single build should be viable, just offering different gameplay paths. If there is a non-viable build, why was it offered to the player in the first place? However, I do like it when if I choose non-combat stats, I have much more difficult combat, while opening up other gameplay paths.

I don't go so far as to pick gear for cosmetic reasons though lol. But I do think it is a problem that Fallout and some other RPGs don't take into account cosmetic options for gear as much as they should.

Morrowind, Played it once, it seemed outdated and clunky, and this was before the time I started enjoying RPGs, so skip.

Never tried it, but if/when I do, it will either be using OpenMW modernization project - though I wonder if they are EVER going to reach 1.0 on that 2008-started project - or TESR Skywind.

What I really hope is that it won't become an A-RPG, and moves more towards the immersive sim genre instead.

That would be nice.

Witcher 2 had some decent political/faction decisions towards the end that were interesting. The decisions you made at the end of 2 were largely thrown out in 3. I am looking forward to the Witcher 1 remake regardless, mainly for the story. Witcher 3 had better gameplay than 2 without a doubt though.

Yep that was one of my huge disappointments with Witcher 3. The choices you made in Witcher 1 had almost no effect on Witcher 2, but the choices you made in Witcher 1 also did not indicate a large effect on the world. In Witcher 2, your choices indicated a huge effect on the world. And the choices/paths were very compelling and interesting. In Witcher 2 I accidentally played through one major path, not realizing one of the choices I made would have such a huge effect, which ended up sending me down the less ideal path for me, which I did not even know until after I finished the game. But that less ideal path was still extremely exciting. I ended up enjoying it so much, I immediately afterwards played through the entirety of Witcher 1 for the first time, imported my save into Witcher 2, and re-played through the other path, which I enjoyed even more.

I was so excited to see what would happen with my huge world-changing choices in Witcher 3 and...nothing. Just a generic boring story with a few random references to the exciting events of Witcher 2. Blah.

 

[Flogger23m]

Witcher 3, Tried to play it, but I felt it starts off exactly where I left it off in Witcher 2, Geralt being a complete jerk. Plus it has gameplay design elements that I feel are questionable, so it was a short lived attempt. Damn GOG says it was 5 years ago, maybe it is time for another attempt?

It is superior to 2 in terms of gameplay. And it isn't exactly an awful game, just long winded and the gameplay still isn't that great. Combat is passable but never becomes that great. Yes characters say a lot of words but lots of the dialogue blurs together. I enjoyed the game overall but it really isn't as good as the hype makes it out to be. Witcher 2 had a better, more constrained story but it was very rough in gameplay and animations.

I liked Geralt and don't mind his character being cold and keeping others at arms distance, but you aren't the only one who dislikes Geralt of Rivia's behavior and character design. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands made a parody of Geralt's character traits and named him Garret of Trivia. Some better lines about how people consider Garret of Trivia to be a jerk but I didn't screen grab those.






Cyberpunk is without a doubt my favorite of the 3 CD Projekt games I played. I am disappointed they are going back to Wither but after the rough launch of Cyberpunk that is expected, fall back to a more popular IP and milk it until it is dead.