I'll have to finish it first but right now I still prefer Skyrim. But it's easily #2 for me right now, just ahead of Mass Effect (1, the only good one).

I tried to, but I didn't liked it at all. I find it boring and tiresome.

mountaindewslave said: fatslob-:O said: Why am I the only guy who despises The Witcher franchise so much ? I feel like I'm left out of the party ... I agree. the Witcher series lacks a certain flavor in my opinion... .. like the games are good, they have interesting plots and quests but I feel as if they are somewhat limited in terms of customization and freedom of vibes / decisions. it's always 'play as Geralt making good decisions or play as Geralt making bad decisions!'   for me by far the best RPG in the last decade would still be Fallout 3. just far more creative and innovative than anything since.  what's awkward is the OP compares the Witcher 3 to other games like Dragon Age Inquisition, as if DA I was any good (it wasn't)

I only compared W3 to DA:I in terms of world size.

Oh and DA:I was the game of the year last year so...

Completely agree with OP.

I'm 120 hours clearing all interrogation marks on the map, doing all side quest (not getting into gwent at all btw).

Imho, it's the best game I've ever played.

Actually TW3>>>TW1>TW2, but the serie as a whole is in another dimension compared to the competition.

Seems like a really dividing topic. I can see how a lot of people would be put off by it, it's not like Skyrim or Fallout, certainly not Mass Effect.
I disagree with the notion that it is so heavily mainstream though, certainly more so than the first two but still miles behind ME, Skyrim and Dragon Age, with Gothic being the main influence, this should be clear, one would be hard-pressed to call the Gothic series mainstream (as mentioned, Gothic 3 is my second favorite open world RPG).
I'm surprised that quite a few found such gaping flaws and issues in TW3 and then use games Skyrim and Fallout 3 as examples of better productions; these two titles (and others) certainly have their fair share of gaping flaws.

Yeah, it definitely not as mainstreamed as those games, perhaps that's why some people find it difficult to get into - IMO, it happens often when (what are usually more of a niche) genres get into mainstream and have as much hype as W3 had.

On the other side, as a fellow Gothic fan, I'm sure you can see how much it pales in certain design desicions compared to Gothics, land design vs quests for me being worst offender - honestly, even Skellige, that is way better designed than Velen, has its fair share of problems - I feel like they've really tried to make big world just for the sake of it and went too horizontal. But even compared to Witcher 2, specially Flotsam, a lot of places in W3 tend to be dull.

But, you're right, finding flaws in W3 and then pitting it against Skyrim as example of excellent open-world WRPG is quite silly, given how much latter was mutilated compared to Morrowind in order to catter to mainstream.

I want to play it
On ps4 or pc ?

I played on ps4 and the framerate isnt solid 30. it was "playable" though. I also played ocarina of time and co many years back in 20 fps so it was enjoyable for me and im not a big fps-junkie anyway. But if you are used to 60 fps or whatever, better get it on pc.

Btw. they promised they want to improve the perfomance in the next patch. So it might get better. Imo they should just lower the resolution to 900p on ps4 and would achieve 30-50 fps easily.

Gothic 3 is very varied without coming off as silly, having different civilizations across such a relatively small map could have been a disaster but the towns and characters emote enough of an atmosphere to make it work. The voice-acting is often off key though.

I think a large part of the reason I enjoy The Witcher 3 more than Gothic is that I really, really enjoy the mythology, world and overall setting, this is also why I choose to forgive the cardinal sin of too much exposition dialogue in the book(s); I simply like it.

Skyrim is a really good game but I've never gotten past the 50-55 hour mark, the world is just too similar, that's also one of my main gripes with Fallout 3; locations are extremely similar to one another and you find the same enemies, loot and items absolutely everywhere. This is an area where I find a game like Kingdoms of Amalur to be superior to most open-world RPG's (even though it's not truly a completely open world).
My main running issue with the Elder Scrolls games is the tendency to become grossly overpowered almost regardless of the choices you make, you reach a point where the challenge stops and it never comes back, Skyrim manages to be even worse than Oblivion in this regard.
This is another thing I love about The Witcher 3; the level progression is slow and the challenge is present all the time, even at 55 hours in, I'm still getting my ass kicked rather often either by making mistakes or by simply running into monsters with a higher level.

Like I said; I understand people's complaints, I really do, but the setting, music, voice-acting, combat, crafting, visuals and almost everything in The Witcher 3 sits really well with me and I've yet to find something that annoys me as much as Mass Effect's side quests, Skyrim's insane overpowering early on and Fallout 3's large world severely lacking in variation (and challenge, the off-putting AI is also a big minus for me).

As far as mainstreaming goes though, I'm not above enjoying titles that are mainstream, heck; I love FIFA 15 (despite hating EA), but the vast majority of mainstream RPG's take it either too far or not far enough, especially where writing, difficulty and immersion are concerned.
A lot of customers seem to want button mashing and slick, shallow dialogue, but those are not my idea of a good RPG.
Skyrim would be a good example of a very mainstream title that I did enjoy.

I don't really understand the whole "mainstream" argument. What does it mean?

W3 isn't an easy game, yknow, if that's what people are saying. It's freaking difficult and that's what's great about it. Maybe that's why people hate it? That it's hard and takes awhile to figure out the combat system?