Witching Hour

I just finished The Witcher demo, and I'm impressed. Not with the "mature" content, even though it's implemented better than in most mature games. People don't curse because they can, but because they are emotionally inclined to, fair maidens will give it up for coin (because they can), and guards are selfish little powermongers that will ask for a bribe just to not look at you in a funny way (because they can, and because of narrative causality.)

The protagonist makes a pleasant change too, being powerful, well-trained and overall decidedly un-wimpy. He also likes to shag maidens, which is good, because if I were a whitehaired, broad-chested, monster-slaying, contract killing, bounty huntin', gambling, drinking, bad-ass mother-fucker (named Geralt, sup with THAT) I'd demand some pussy to be thrown my way in exchange for liberating the countryside of strange green-glowing Dobermans.

Anyway, I'm going to see when the 360 version comes out, my pc is struggling at mediocre resolutions already and in my experience, retail gameplay is always jerkier than demo gameplay. Too bad, because this gem could fill the WoW-shaped* hole in my gaming heart, if it weren't for one slight snag: Over-The-Shoulder camera. If you've played the game, you will know what I'm talking about. You can choose either that or Diablo-o-vision, and I'll be DAMNED if I click-to-move in an action rpg**.

Over-Yer-Shoulder-Vision works, and it actually takes only a little while to get used to it. I had no real issues with getting stuck behind walls or fences or other local flora, it's just that I've been staring at a character in the middle of my screen for so long now, I have trouble accepting that another good game would want to relocate my avatar to somewhere else.

This can probably only be solved by spending insane amounts of time on The Witcher, I suppose. Sounds good!


* CBH-shape, to be honest. Nothing will ever compare to human females from WoW.
** Click-to-move is to direct movement what Apple computers are to Real Gaming Hardware.