I’ve been playing The Witcher lately…  Made it through the tutorial-y bits in the beginning.  There’s that nice cutscene where Reralt is an absolute badass and punches a monster in the face.  Then you find him laid-out in a cart, nearly dead, with no memory.  He’s recovering in a Witcher stronghold when it gets attacked, and the badguys make off with some alchemical goodies.  The remaining Witchers head off to the four corners of the Earth to recover their stolen goods.  I, as Geralt, wind up on the Outskirts of Vizima.

Vizima is a fairly large city.  It’s currently suffering from a plague, so they’ve barred the gates.  I’m stuck in a small community outside of Vizima – a suburb, if you will.  This community is beset by some kind of beast that keeps summoning up barghests and terrorizing the populace.

There are some contracts for Witcher work – kill some drowners, collect some ghoul blood, take care of some barghests…  And those all earn me some money.  But then there’s the need to eventually get into the city of Vizima.  The only way to do that is to get a pass through the quarantine.

The local Reverend has a pass, and he’ll let me have it, but I have to earn his trust first.  He wants me to take care of the beast, and he wants me to help out his friends.

Initially he tells me that lighting some magic candles will get rid of the beast.  So I do that.  And it doesn’t work.  Then he asks me to do some research…  Check with the local Witch to see if she knows anything, because he suspects she’s to blame…

I check with her, she brews a potion and consults some oracular child…  Turns out the evil misdeeds of the villagers have summoned the beast…  I tell the Reverend this, he says he’ll take care of it.

Next up, I’m off to help Odo.  He’s a drunken farmer not far from the Inn.  He’s got some kind of monstrous plants growing in his field that he needs me to kill.

Then I go see Haren Brogg, a local merchant.  Drowners keep getting into the crates he keeps down by the river.  So I have to go there at night and kill the drowners.

Next up it’s a visit to Mikul.  He needs me to kill some ghouls in a crypt.

Those tasks complete – the Reverend is willing to give me his pass if I take care of the local bandits – The Salamandra.  This is fine with me because they’re tied to the folks who stole our alchemical supplies.

I bust in to the bandit hideout…  And get faced with my first truly challenging fight.  A bunch of thugs, and some kind of bandit boss.  It’s one hell of a fight.  And there isn’t much room to maneuver.  So I die a lot.  Eventually I chug a couple potions before even entering the building, and then keep using my wind spell to keep people stunned and at a distance.  Eventually I survive.

Then I head down into the basement/caves…  Find some more bandits to kill, and it’s a much easier fight this time.  There are some children to free, and then I run into the local Witch again.

Turns out the locals are a bunch of scum.

Mikul raped a woman, who then took her own life, which is what drew the ghouls to that crypt in the first place.

Haren Brogg has been selling arms to local rebels, and then turned around and sold their heads to the authorities.

Odo killed his own brother while he slept.

The Reverend was aware of all this, and also aware that everyone’s been paying tribute to the local bandits with children, and he also renounced and exiled his own daughter when she became pregnant.

The reason the beast is here, killing people, is because of these scumbags – not the Witch.

I leave the cave and get to listen to the Reverend spewing some truly misogynistic filth.  He seems to have a problem with all women, not just the Witch.  Even when faced with the truth of all their crimes, he still wants to burn her just for the hell of it.  I intervene, there’s no burning, and the crowd disperses.

Then I get attacked by the beast itself, and that’s one hell of a fight.  The beast is tough, and I’m periodically paralyzed with pain.  Can’t attack or defend myself or anything.  And there’s a never-ending horde of barghests to deal with, too.  The Witch is there, healing me, but she keeps getting struck down.  And I’ve got so many potions in my system that their toxicity alone is nearly enough to kill me.

It takes some work…  But, eventually, I prevail.

Then the Reverend shows up again – he’s decided to kill me and burn the Witch anyway.  Another fight ensues…  But it isn’t tough.  They’re just villagers, and are not trained for combat.

I collect my pass from the Reverend’s dead body, and head for the gates of Vizima.  Mikul meets me there – he was at his post, and missed out on all the festivities.  But he turns me over to the guards and I’m thrown in jail…

But at least I’m in Vizima now.  And I’m thrilled to leave that horrible town behind.  What a disgusting collection of thugs and villains.  I’m almost sorry I killed the beast…  It seems like they genuinely deserved its predation.

Hopefully Vizima proper isn’t as depraved as that Outskirts Town was…

Looks like the new update is out, and it’s a big one!

This update requires both a client and a server update.

Changelist:

1.6:

New features:
+ Added Nether support to multiplayer
+ The client will ask minecraft.net if the current login is valid. If the server says “no”, a warning message appears in the client. You can still play the game even if this happens.
+ Added craftable maps
+ Added hatches
+ Added tall grass in some biomes
+ Mushrooms now spreads (very) slowly
+ Added server property view-distance. Sets the radius of terrain updates (in chunks) to send to the players. Range 3-15, default 10.
+ Added dead shrubs in deserts
+ Added allow-nether (set to true or false) in server.properties
+ Blocks destroyed by other players in multiplayer now shows the breaking block particle effect
+ Doors make sound for other players in multiplayer
+ The record player now supports more than 15 different songs (you can’t get the records yet, though)
+ Activated dispensers make sounds and trigger particles in multiplayer
+ Players stuck in walls will slide towards the nearest gap if there is one

Changes:
* Disabled Advanced OpenGL until we can fix some bugs with it
* It’s no longer possible to build solid blocks on the top layer of the maps (sorry!)
* Made booster tracks speedier
* Severely nerfed fire so it spread slower, and doesn’t spread infinitely
* Seeds are now found in tall grass, using a hoe on the ground no longer works
* Compressed network traffic more agressively
* Blocks that don’t change appearance when the data changes don’t send block updates when their data changes now
* Arrows shot by players can now be picked up by all players
* Nothing riding anything or being ridden by anything can enter portals

Bugfixes:
* Fixed running out of memory corrupting the current level
* Fixed the side textures of grass getting extra dark when mining them
* Fixed anaglyph 3d rendering mode having severe visual bugs
* Fixed the crash screen vanishing immediately
* Fixed not being able to target blocks when at x or z pos 1000
* Fixed the achievements screen messing up the sky color
* Fixed saving while sneaking dropping the player through the ground
* Fixed a system clock change messing up the game speed
* Fixed rain sounds not playing with fast graphics enabled
* Fixed hair and cloaks being rendered in the wrong locations on sneaking players
* Fixed the attack/swing animation not being applied to the armor layer
* Fixed player rotation not being loaded correctly when loading a saved game
* Fixed arrow physics, making them not get stuck midair when you open a door
* Fixed arrows hitting reeds, portals, and other non-solid blocks
* Fixed keybindings not getting saved properly under certain conditions
* Fixed the player not being able to sneak off lowered blocks like cacti
* Fixed a bug where the player could mine without swinging their arm
* Fixed boats placed on snow being placed too far up
* Fixed submerged boats rising very very fast
* Fixed sand dropping onto boats getting stuck in a falling animation
* Fixed a game crash when riding a vehicle or animal into the nether
* Fixed falling while riding not dealing damage to the rider
* Fixed buttons and levers too close to the player being impossible to use
* Fixed dispensers shooting through walls
* Fixed fire hurting through wall corners
* Fixed entities reaching water through wall corners
* Fixed placing doors next to cacti creating half-doors
* Fixed buttons and levers being placeable on leaves in “fast graphics” mode
* Fixed furnaces and dispensers not dropping their contents when destroyed
* Fixed dispensers biasing later slots
* Fixed farmland taking too long to dig
* Fixed tilling below some blocks being possible
* Fixed tilling the underside of blocks somehow working
* Fixed fences and stairs sometimes becoming invisible
* Fixed walking on top of fences not producing step sounds
* Fixed fire sometimes existing mid-air as an invisible block of pain
* Fixed fences and wooden stairs not being flammable
* Fixed fire effect on burning entities sometimes getting rendered in the wrong location
* Fixed fishing rod rendering being a bit lacking
* Fixed fishing rods being stackable
* Fixed mining glass hiding the clouds behind the glass
* Fixed rain falling through liquids
* Fixed items in glass blocks not getting ejected properly
* Fixed water interacting strangely with glass
* Fixed glass not blocking rain sound
* Fixed fences and signs preventing grass from growing
* Fixed rain and snow being incorrectly lit
* Fixed grass staying alive below stair blocks
* Fixed the achievement screen not pausing the game
* Fixed some screens breaking the sky tint color
* Fixed fullscreen mode switching causing mouse issues and screen closes
* Fixed chat messages surviving through game switches
* Fixed ice so it regenerates regardless of whether it’s snowing or not
* Fixed rain falling too slowly
* Fixed levers being placeable on weird locations
* Fixed floor levers sometimes not delivering a signal downwards
* Fixed floor levers sometimes not being removed when the floor is removed
* Fixed rail tiles sometimes not properly connecting to a new neighbor
* Fixed minecarts next to each other causing extreme velocities (sorry!)
* Fixed wolves not following their owner if the name has different caps
* Fixed creepers retaining charge level when they can’t see their target
* Fixed dying in the nether spawning new portals
* “Fixed” beds in the nether
* Fixed inventory acting weird when portaling by making the portal close all screens
* Fixed wooden pressure plates being mined with pickaxes
* Fixed redstone repeaters having the wrong particles
* Fixed saplings being plantable through snow onto non-grass blocks
* Fixed ore density varying per quadrant from the center of the world
* Fixed dispenser graphics being one pixel off. ONE PIXEL!!!
* Fixed mushrooms spawning everywhere during nights
* Fixed animals only spawning near light during the night
* Fixed the multiplayer join screen input field being too short
* Fixed IPv6 addresses being parsed wrongly. To connect to a specific port in IPv6, use the format [1234:567::1]:25565
* Fixed network packets being sent unbuffered, causing huge amounts of packets being sent
* Fixed entity positions going out of synch sometimes. They get re-synched every 20 seconds now.
* Fixed inventory icons not animating after being picked up in multiplayer
* Fixed mushroom soup not leaving a bowl in multiplayer
* Fixed entities above the map height limit becoming invisible
* Fixed healing not flashing the health bar in multiplayer
* Fixed arrows being animated really strangely in multiplayer
* Fixed arrows triggering too many entity move updates in multiplayer
* Fixed the compass not pointing at the spawn location in multiplayer
* Fixed fires being impossible to put out in multiplayer
* Fixed record players spawning client-side fake records in multiplayer
* Fixed records not playing for other players in multiplayer
* Fixed players spawning in the wrong location and quickly lerping to the correct location
* Fixed monsters not being visible for players with their difficulty set to peaceful
* Fixed pigs getting hit by lightning in multiplayer spawning client-side zombie pigmen
* Fixed loads of exploding tnt generating way too many particles, possibly crashing the client
* Fixed bonemeal use in multiplayer sometimes spawning fake client-side trees
* Fixed saplings sometimes spawning trees client-side in multiplayer
* Fixed weather sometimes changing client-side in multiplayer
* Fixed grasscolor.png and foliagecolor.png not being read from texture packs
* Fixed stats getting saved to different files in offline mode if the caps in the player name differ from the true spelling
* Fixed fireballs not being visible in multiplayer
* Fixed ghasts’ fireing animation not being visible in multiplayer
* Fixed receiving more items than the maximum stack size sometimes causing an oversized stack in the inventory

Seems kind of appropriate, seeing a Witcher comic on Penny Arcade while I’m playing through The Witcher…  Of course, they’re talking about the sequel, and I’m just playing the first one…

It doesn’t look like there’s much of a tutorial in The Witcher 2…  I guess I can’t say I’m surprised.  The intro in this first game is pretty rough, too.  Hopefully playing the first one, then going right into the second, will smooth my path a bit…

I did like Tycho’s observation though:

This game doesn’t really play like others, your skills either from action titles or the role-playing genre won’t really cross apply. A Witcher is tough, but he’s not optimal unless he takes time to prepare for a fight, which involves the brewing, consumption, or application of various things inside or outside the body. This is one of the things that make up the odd cadence of this world. So much is left to chance.

This is one of the unique things I really enjoy about this game.  It does not play like a typical action or RPG title.  Not really because the controls are different…  Or the gameplay mechanics are different…  But because the beings that inhabit this world simply do not work the way they do in other games.

The opening movie in The Witcher shows Geralt sitting in some forgotten ruin, waiting for the sun to go down.  The monster comes out at nightfall, Geralt chugs a potion, and then leaps into action.  The battle is long and drawn-out…  You see Geralt use a couple different weapons, and unleash some magic.  And he just barely wins.

That movie, I’ve discovered, is a genuinely accurate portrayal of the gameplay.  So often you see things in intro movies that never show up in the game…  But this one is 100% accurate.

Monsters lurk in the darkness and come out at night.  You use your time in the light to prepare for the battle.  You research your foe, find its weakness, discover what alchemical ingredients you can rip from its corpse to help you in the future.  You scout out the area of your battle, make sure you understand the geography.  You meditate, and brew up some potions and oils to aid in your fight.  And then, when the sun falls and the battle starts, it still isn’t a done deal.  There’s still an element of luck.  At best, you’re an even match for the monster.  At worst, you’re dinner.

I just finished up that first town – the Outskirts of Vizima, around that big Inn.  I’ll post my thoughts about that section, and specifically the last fight, elsewhere.  But it really does illustrate this difference very well.  If you are not prepared ahead of time, things go very, very badly.  I didn’t die 47 times, but I could have.  Easily.

When I first heard about The Witcher back around 2007, I wasn’t terribly interested.

The name sounded kind of silly.  There were reports of technical difficulties, a bad UI, and clunky combat.  Folks talked about how you basically just wandered the countryside, killing monsters and bedding women.  It sounded like a fairly unappealing and generic RPG, and I had other things to play.

But, in the interim, I’ve heard tons of good stuff about The Witcher over on Penny Arcade.  Tycho couldn’t wait for the sequel to be released.  Then I saw that it was good enough to earn a couple “game of the year” awards…  And they released an Enhanced Edition…

Obviously there was some merit to this game that I’d simply dismissed.

So, I grabbed a copy of The Witcher:  Enhanced Edition and gave it a try…

Right off the bat there’s a very long introductory movie.  We see the protagonist – Geralt – doing battle with a nasty monster.  The voiceover explains that Witchers are professional monster hunters.  Augmented by training and alchemy, they take the fight to the monsters.  We see Geralt cast spells, wield weapons, and punch this monster in the face.  He looks absolutely badass.  And this is all being done, apparently, just so he can sleep with a princess.

Then we see Geralt several years later, nearly dead, being hauled along in a cart towards some mostly-ruined castle.  We find out that he’s lost his memory and is starting over basically from scratch.  And this is where we take control of the character.  There are a few tutorial-y bits where you learn how to move, interact with the world, fight, cast spells, etc.

Bad stuff happens, people die, things get stolen…  And eventually you’re sent on your way to track down the villains responsible.

The amnesia angle is a little cliche…  But I guess I don’t know how else you’d start a badass like Geralt over again from level 1…  Unless you used flashbacks, which are also pretty cliche.  So I wasn’t very impressed with that.  Combined with my earlier dismissal of the game, things were off to a rocky start.

The controls are just plain weird.  Not bad…  But weird.  It’s some strange combination of point & click adventuring like Diablo, and button-mashing action like Soul Calibur.  Walking around, talking to people, picking up items, fighting monsters…  It’s all slightly off.  Definitely does not work the way I would expect an RPG to.  And, again, combined with everything else it was leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

The UI is very, very cluttered.  Inventory, skills, quests…  All of it seems very crowded.  Lots of extra eyecandy on the screen.  Un-necessary bits of decoration everywhere.  Rather hard to tell what you’re supposed to be interacting with.

The controls are weird as well.  Lots and lots of buttons to map.  I generally use ESDF as my movement keys, which leaves plenty of extra buttons available for anything else I need…  But I’m left feeling like I don’t have enough buttons.  Typically this happens when you’ve ported a console game to the PC, because you’ve got so many buttons right under your fingertips…  But I don’t think that’s the case here.  Honestly, I don’t know how the hell you’d control The Witcher on a console.  Seems to be entirely too much going on at once.

So, yeah, very rocky start.  Feels very rough and cumbersome.  And this is the new and improved version…  I can’t imagine what the original release was like.  But there’s got to be something to this game if it was good enough for Tycho to rave about, and good enough to earn Game of the Year…  So I kept playing.

And I think I’m hooked.

What drew me in, ultimately, wasn’t really the game itself…  But, rather, the world I’m playing in.  It all seems very rich and nuanced.  Very gritty and dirty and real.

You start out in that first town with a cutscene that shows some daemonic dogs chasing a woman and a kid.  The woman doesn’t make it.  The kid is orphaned.  Right away I’m seeing things that don’t normally happen in an RPG.  Sure, Dragon Age pushed the boundaries…  But this seems even dirtier, even grittier than Dragon Age managed.

I wandered around for a while, talking to people.  They’ve all got very distinct personalities.  Lots of non-human hatred.  They don’t like me because I’m a witcher.  They don’t like dwarves, or elves, or anyone who isn’t human.  Lots of distrust.  Prices are raised for me.  But they still need my help…  There’s jobs posted, monsters to be killed.  And there’s a real sense of reluctance to the folks hiring me.  It really seems like they genuinely don’t want my help, but don’t have any other options.

I spent the night at the Inn, then went out wandering in the morning.  I guess I didn’t really notice the whole day/night cycle initially…  Just spent the night at the Inn because that’s what you do in an RPG.  I went out wandering across the countryside, looking for trouble.  Trying to find barghests and ghouls and drowners and whatever else…  But they were nowhere to be seen.  Just regular townsfolk going about their business.

It started raining, and folks ran for cover.  Everybody ducked inside buildings, or under awnings, or beneath trees.  Suddenly people weren’t walking the paths or sitting around campfires – they were trying to stay dry.  And they were complaining about the weather.  The paths and roads developed puddles and looked muddy.  It was amazing.  The rain wasn’t just some superficial, cosmetic thing…  Everyone reacted to it, and the world changed in subtle ways.

Then the sun started to set, which surprised me a little bit.  And then the monsters came out, which surprised me even more.  The monsters actually came out at night – just like in all the fairy tales.  People ran home, ran to the guards, locked their doors.  One or two stragglers were left outside…  Wandering home, or conducting shady business.  They didn’t look too happy to be outside after dark – they kept glancing around, moving furtively.  Just waiting for monsters to appear.

One lady was attacked by thugs, and I helped her out.  Then escorted her home.  My reward for this good deed?  I’ve been invited to meet her just after sundown at an abandoned mill nearby.  I guess witchers accept booty in addition to gold in payment for their work.  Interesting.  Why the abandoned mill?  Because she’s a discrete girl who doesn’t want to shock her grandmother.  Even more interesting.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to collect all the required quest items.  I killed plenty of drowners, but didn’t know how to remove their brains for the quest turn-in.  Had to go find a book about drowners to learn their anatomy better…  Also grabbed books on other monsters in the area, and local wildlife, and flora…  All of which can be used to brew up some interesting alchemical potions – which seem to be a fairly important component of the game.

I made it back to town, back to the Inn, early in the morning.  The inn keeper was sweeping up, and there weren’t a whole lot of people around.  Nobody was drinking or carousing…  Just a couple people eating.  There was a different girl tending tables…  And then the girl who’d been there yesterday, the one I escorted home last night, came wandering in and relieved the one who was working.

This very rich and detailed day/night cycle surprised me.  I’ve been playing MMOGs for so long that I expect things to remain mostly the same, no matter what time of day it is.  But, in this game, the time of day matters.  Folks close up shop and go home…  Monsters come out to play…  People wander from one place to another, and carry out various duties…  Certain abilities only work at night, or when the moon is up…

The end result is that the world feels genuinely alive.

I find myself genuinely curious to find out what’s going on in this world.  Who knows who…  How the different pieces fit together…  Why one person hates some other person so much…  Why there’s so much distrust of non-humans…  Why the witchers were attacked…  Who Geralt is, and what happened to his memory…  What’s in that cave down by the river…  Why can’t I get into that crypt on the hill…  What’s going to happen to the orphan boy…  Where are the monsters coming from…

I can certainly see why Tycho likes it so much.  And why it earned Game of the Year awards.

Despite all the initially-rough edges and bad impressions, I’ve been sucked into this game and I can’t wait to play more.

More DF Development Blog goodness…

The first thing I noticed when I entered the pyramid was two groundhogs lying in pools of their own blood. I guess they should keep the door locked if they don’t want the wildlife gumming up the traps. With my keen observational skills, spatial sense, focus and intuition, I was able to spot even the traps that rodents hadn’t set off. Various ancient corpses were set into slots in the walls, including the odd dwarf. Eventually I reached the sarcophagus, surrounded by bodies that had been disinterred from the catacombs beneath the city and set here along with their fallen queen. That should have been warning enough, but the alpaca bone figurine was too tempting. The moment I seized it, the queen arose, and with a gesture her followers rose with her. I managed to spill her desiccated guts with my trusty axe, but that didn’t stop her from animating my body after I was dead.

Sounds like this next update is going to be a lot of fun.  I may just have to try out Adventure mode.

We went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie on Friday…  Wasn’t terribly impressed with it.

I’m not going to complain that it was predictable, because that’s silly.  Of course it was predictable.  Captain Jack goes looking for the fountain of youth – assorted swashbuckling and seafaring and magic and doublecrossing occurs – and somehow, in the end, he doesn’t get the treasure.  That’s been the formula for all the other movies, and that’s basically why I went to see this one.  The formula works.

Well, it used to work.

To start with, Blackbeard just isn’t that good a villain.  Barbossa, Davey Jones, Captain Norrington, and Lord Beckett were all far more interesting villains.  They had personality.  They had drive.  They had motivation.

All Blackbeard has is some magic powers.  He isn’t interesting at all.  Seems like more of a cardboard cutout than a villain.  And it’s especially disappointing when we’re told that he’s the pirate all other pirates fear…  Really?  This guy?  That’s the best you can do?

Then you were missing some good supporting characters.  Will Turner is gone…  Elizabeth is gone…  Governor Swann is gone…  Mr. Gibbs is back, but he hardly gets any screentime.  Barbossa is back, but he doesn’t have all that big a role either.

Terri never liked Elizabeth much.  And I’ll readily agree that she got annoying after a while.  And the new female pirate – Angelica – is less annoying.  She seems to be able to hold her own as a real pirate…  But all she does is whine about saving her father.  The doesn’t really do much on her own.  She’s just basically window-dressing.  She’s basically an extension of Blackbeard’s character.

The biggest problem though, in my opinion, is Jack Sparrow.

What made him so interesting in the previous movies was his unpredictability.  Was he making things up, or planning ahead?  Is he really that good, or just lucky?  Is he on your side, or have you been betrayed?  What is he up to?  What is he thinking?  What is he going to do next?  Can he be trusted?

Sure, by the end of the first movie we’d pretty well established that he was a good guy…  Maybe not a nice person, but a good guy.  But in the sequels they just raised the ante.  Now we had Davey Jones coming after him.  Now we had the prospect of eternal life at the helm of the Flying Dutchman.  There were threats and rewards that Captain Jack might actually betray someone over…  So…  Is he still a good guy?

This time around, however, he really didn’t seem that interested in the treasure.  Right from the start, he just seemed to be wandering along with nothing better to do.  He wasn’t on a mission.  He had no quest.  He just kind of wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got shanghaied.

So, throughout the movie, there didn’t really seem to be any threat that Captain Jack was going to betray anyone.  And worse, there weren’t any other characters we cared about him betraying.  Jack was the central character – not Will Turner or Elizabeth.  We weren’t engaged with any other character the way we had been with them.  So we didn’t really care if Jack double-crossed somebody – they were all inconsequential anyway.

At the end, when Jack tricks Blackbeard into saving Angelica, I was not at all surprised.  There was absolutely no reason why he would have saved Blackbeard.  Blackbeard had absolutely nothing to offer Jack.  There was, again, absolutely no threat of betrayal.  So, of course, jack would do the right thing and save the beautiful Angelica rather than the evil Blackbeard.

The whole movie just felt kind of flat and uninteresting.

Sure, there were a couple neat swordfights…  And some nice special effects…  And a couple dramatic getaways…

But, ultimately, it just wasn’t engaging.  It didn’t feel like any of the characters really cared about what was going on, and it’s hard for me to care if the characters don’t.