The only thing worse than the whining, crybaby threads are the circle jerk threads.

Wouldn't it be great to have Motorhead, Judas Priest or, I dunno, Killswitch Engage riff it out while killing a boss? :-D

I envision Geralt comming near a boss fight and you hear: "This... Is... The.. Painkiller!!!" ;)

BTW Bioware is a gigantic operation now, and it behaves like any other corporation today - no unified soul and a lot of complication for such a focused product/industry. And a lot of rehashing, of course.

This (below).

I keep being surprised (in a good way) by the story, its characters, the intensity and variety of some fights, and I am loving it so far ^.^

Inventory management is a console'y mess, yes, but I have no concerns about it being improved in a near future.

Whether or not you're right about Skyrim of course remains to be seen, but if we're both honest, we're both going to buy it anyway :-).

FWIW, I agree with you on your minor quibbles; I have a couple of my own but they have already been beaten to death and I suspect they'll be addressed by patches very soon anyway.

There's far more to love about this game than not.

I'll definitely be picking up Skyrim, and have enjoyed the last couple ES games (after heavy modding) for what they were. Although unless Bethesda has suddenly developed an entirely new philosophy on how to make RPGs, I dont see any way Skrim will hold a candle to TW2 as an RPG experience, especially given all the reports of the further dumbing down of the ES rpg mechanics in Skyrim. But Im sure it will be pretty, and fun to walk around and look at all the scenery again.

Nothing in Morrowind or Oblivion indicated a narrative role playing experience a fraction as good as TW2 though. In terms of sheer probability, I dont see any indication of it happening in Skyrim either. And frankly, the combat doesnt even look as good as TW2. It just looks better than Oblviion, which wouldnt be hard.

My thoughts exactly. Skyrim will in all seriousness be dumbed down even further, with more gigantic fonts for menus and all that crap. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't have an inventory to manage at all. They just want to make a game where you pick the most powerful and biggest weapon you can find laying around and bombastically fight an enormous monster while sparks fly and some walking around from A to B. Anything deeper than that is not needed for consoles, so they will not do it. They may stuff some witty mechanic in there to blind us, but I don't see more than that sadly. Except for bugs from not testing the PC version enough.

Personally, I am done with buying Bioware and Bethesda games. As much as I will (probably?) miss ME3, there has to be a way to put those Facebook mimicries of cRPGs to a halt.

I am grateful to other companies, among which CDP of course, to offer us some very good alternatives.

Honestly, if you want an RPG contender for TW2, I think it will most likely come from Deus Ex: Human Revolution, not Skyrim. That game also looks to be pretty interesting in terms of player choice and charater/gameplay felxibility.

The lines between "immerive sim" and "RPG" can be pretty blurry, and with its prefab protagonist that can be tweaked in a few different ways,, TW2 is actually much closer to something like DX.

+1 for DX:HR.

Thank you for mentioning it, and reminding me there is a good hope for another good game this year.

DX 2 was bad. DX Human Rev is being developed by Square Enix (ok, sure an Edios studio owned by Square Enix that has a very blaise list of recent work on its resume).

Frankly, if it turns out to be a good game, I'll be greatly surprised. But, my expectations are another repeat of DX 2.

I mean, I loved DX, but was burnt badly by DX 2, and am not seeing any evidence that DX 3 is anything else but yet another snatch and grab attempt to capitalize on an old game's popularity.

Skyrim will likely be another Oblivion. Just this time around we won't have the ugliest faces every made in video game history. That fact alone means Skyrim is going to have to work really, really, really hard to be a bad game in my eyes. ;p Sure, it'll likely have an almost non-existent story like all Elder Scrolls games, and I generally place story as #1 when I play a game, but there have always been enough small stories in these sandbox games for me to not mind playing a sandbox, so my expectations are that Skyrim will be able to hold my attention very well. I think the bigger question is if it is actually going to be released this year. :p

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My expectations were similar, and I share your opinion of DX2, but Rock Paper Shotgun speaks highly of DX: HR, and I tend to trust those guys. They were, after all, crucial in building my confidence for TW2, after being roundly disappointed by the first game.

DX:HR is a game I'm very interested in seeing in the future. I'm not sold on it yet, by any means, but I've got my eye on it.

For me, I love TW2 for two simple reasons. Firstly, the game world looks and feels immersive and real. Secondly - but compliment and emphasizing the first point, the characters in the game are deep, multifaceted and believable also.

I really love how the Sapkowski world (and thusly the CDPR games) sits dangerously close to the standard fantasy archetypes, but mix it up in the most fascinating - and also believable ways. The tension between the Squirrels (not daring to spell the Elven name without reference) and the humans feels real - and does anyone remember the Mage's tower back story in TW1? Such a simple but ingenious twist on the Rapunzel myth!

I think Skyrim has 3 stats, less skills, no traits, etc. etc. so yeah definitely even more dumbed down considering oblivion was a dumbed down morrowind. The only thing that could save it is if bethesda actually make a half decent story and decent quests (which they MIGHT have learnt from their dallying in the fallout universe but i highly doubt it).

I love that fact that this is an actual PC game firstly. CDPR for quite a little while has quickly become my favorite developer for a great many reasons. This game is excellent in everything it does. I find the difficulty perfect, it looks amazing and once I figured out how the combat flows its a total blast.

Looking at some of the users avatars on this post, let met just say this: baldurs gate series, planescape torment and the witcher = pc rpg gaming at it's best!