This art goes unbelievably hard. Geralt is not only DUAL WIELDING, he's using Mohgwyn's spear in his damn off-hand, indicating he might have disarmed him mid-fight?? Also, the corpse is looking badass af
Normal humans exist in Elden Ring, Tarnish are only special in that they are immortal. Physically they might be stronger than your average human, but Berserk which is a huge inspiration for Souls games has similar feats.
Geralt could also technically become a “tarnished” if he finds a maiden that can use runes to power him up. Also most tarnished don’t have the guidance of grace so they’re just normal people with that title behind them. I think our tarnished is the only one that’s actually immortal since no one else can respawn like we do.
With his shackle + Purifying Crystal Tear + the talisman that makes you do extra damage when there’s blood loss + a ton of flasks, it becomes a lot easier. Just gotta over prepare a bit haha
That's what Geralt would do too. His tactics in Fromsoft worlds would be entirely based around using the most effective weapons and items in every given situation
Listen I'm a simple man. I drink my flask, summon my mimic, whip out my staff, put a ring around me and blast a comet azur for so long and so hard up that fat sumbitches ass he's coughing up glintstones when all is said and done and that's the bottom line cause stone cold said so.
I believe some dev at Guerrilla Games had some harsh and unfair criticism on elden ring and also they kind of released at the same time so there's a bit of a rivalry among fandoms but I'm not sure. Just what I have seen here.
Ux is User Experience I believe. UI is User interface. Learned that when Baldur's Gate 3 landed and a bunch of Devs were throwing a jealous temper tantrum.
Not sure. Regardless it’s so counter productive. Why would you get mad at people for liking something, when you can follow the trend and learn from it? I mean, this isn’t a hobby, it’s a job. Alienating customers for liking someone else’s product doesn’t just lose you customers l, it pushes them towards the people you’re complaining about.
Maybe not. I know after I get bodied a few times by hard bosses in Elden Ring I like to cool off steam with a slower paced game. It could be that Paradox is hoping to cash in on that with free Stellaris.
Or you're absolutely right and there was no foresight at all.
They had to have known about it right? Like yeah they’re not direct competitors but I would think having a free weekend around a major new release wouldn’t perform so well for them? Could have easily done it last weekend.
Yeah it's not what I would have done. I would have done it a week early like you suggest because I'm sure plenty of Elden Ring players were restlessly waiting for SotET and trying out new games in the mean time. I know I was.
Exactly lol. You’d think the goal is to get as many players that haven’t played before to try it as possible, and this is one of a few major events in a year that could mess that up a bit. I think even square enix put off a release til next week since it was gonna be released on the same day as the dlc.
Yeah I am currently playing it at 100+ hours in. It's great. Did people not like it? Only thing I don't like is Aloy telling me what to do all the time. Wish she would let me figure it out sometimes.
That really speaks for cd project being a company with real game development genius and not just the basic shit with learned coding to generate money. It’s like an artist with „the touch“ and genius by work vs some music school dude who can write a melody but doesent just have it in him
You mean the one time they had a major disaster of a launch but have been extremely vocal about and actively worked towards fixing and made one of the highest rated games in years. Yeah I think we can probably ignore that
No, I don't think we should ignore that. We should recognize that CDPR did incredible work to restore the game to a functional state and release a really good expansion, but also keep in mind that past console generations still have a barely functional game to this day, that they eroded much of the goodwill they garnered with W3 and that ultimately, CP77 isn't the game that was promised all those years ago, not even to what was shown shortly before release.
Hey if you want to carry a lifetime grudge because you were disappointed with a literal toy, go nuts. I thought the game was pretty good at launch and the 2.0 experience was phenomenal.
As a fully Cyberpunk-pilled individual who fully plans to try and fit CP2077 + Phantom Liberty into his schedule between Shadow of the Erdtree and Monster Hunter: Wilds, I don't think it's "holding a grudge over a literal toy" to be mindful of the fact that a studio's management willingly and enthusiastically misled consumers.
The dev team have done some fantastic bloody work on the game, it's excellent now. But CDPR weren't just overambitious, they exhibited gross mismanagement and actively misrepresented the game ahead of time. Even with the improvements, the above poster correctly labelled issues, including it being more or less unplayable on consoles it was released for.
Being mindful and wary of a company's management is not holding a grudge, it's being sensible with one's wallet. Something everyone could benefit from in this current time.
Almost all of CDPR's goodwill was gathered by one game, I think it can be balanced by one game as well.
But no, I unfortunately don't think we can ignore that they deliberately hid console performance until the game launched.
That’s an executive decision not a development decision like what this post is about. This is about developers congratulating other developers and has nothing to do with executive decisions.
No, just because I presume you're a console player and CDPR previous games before TW3 were mainly on PC that doesn't mean that the goodwill was only because of that one game.. Witcher 1 which is a PC exlusive title to this day sold milion copies just in one year which was a massive success for a Central European studio with their first game and being a PC exclusive title in a time when everyone was saying that "PC is dead" and they put massive content even into the standard editions of Witcher 1 and released an Enhanced Edition of the same game one year later which was free for the owners of the original game and that version was sold for 30 Euros and had 4 CDs from which 3 were bonus content and stuff, plus a ton of physical stuff packed with that and the same is true for Witcher 2 which for example sold better on a single platform - PC - than Dark Souls on two platforms and they were released in the same year and all DLC released for TW2 was for free and again, the Enhanced Edition for TW2 was free for owners of the original game and so on.. not to mention the amount of awards both first Witcher games got from all over the world
That's why people were so hyped for Witcher 3 since it's announcement
I played through the entire game on my ps4, put in 100+ hours. It wasn’t perfect and not nearly as polished as I expect from a product on release, but the news of how unplayable it was was greatly exaggerated
Im sorry a modern game doesn’t play well on a decade old console, it should’ve never been offered on it anyways and they know that hence refunding everyone, what would you have them do to make that right.
>Should've never been offered
Sounds like they can never make it right then, huh? If they announced the game a decade ago for Xbox 1 and PS4 then how did they end up with one that was barely playable on current gen without patches to say nothing of the actual intended-at-the-time consoles?
Currently taking a break from AW2 to play SotE. It’s still horror for me (mainly in regards to how bad I panic when Mr. Dancing Lion looks at me), but it’s still awesome in its own way.
I put 160 hours into ER, watched a couple of half hour long lore videos afterwards, and I still barely understand what happened in the game or why I did what I did.
I am more of a story person so HoS wins for me. As for best in gaming... there are other games that I say have better writing like Torment games, Disco Elysium or Kan Gao games (my top 3 in gaming). Although HoS is VERY high on that too.
Yeah to me Disco Elysium and to a lesser degree Torment games are not in the category as something like HoS, even if it was very good.
They just tackle very different things due to their different nature.
Yeah. Torment games are my all time favorite games with Disco being my second.
Also I highly recommend you games made by Kan Gao like To The Moon or Finding Paradise. Beautiful stories.
I always preferred Hearts of Stone over Blood and Wine because of the sheer dark and mysterious setting it has and of course Gaunther being one of the best villains ever.
Man B&W was just something else, the new plant monster n that stone monster were just amazing.... Added to it the story was top-notch, n mastercrafted armors were fkn expensive...
The scenery is almost unmatched in Blood and Wine and the story is insanely good in Heart of Stone.
2 grand slams in a row. Absolutely love those DLCs.
For me, Witcher 3 wins on storyline and quest structure, but Elden Ring wins on visuals/ atmosphere and fighting mechanics. They are both incredible games in their own way.
My big question about Elden Ring has always been: why didn't they make quests a bigger part of the game and add a quest tracker? It's obviously a deliberate decision not to, but I wonder what their thinking is behind that decision.
(Note: Elden Ring is the only Fromsoft game I've played, and I understand that their previous ones were quite different).
I feel like they are still trying to figure out how to do quests and probably realized that their quest structure doesn't really work that well in such vast open world.
Was just thinking this, their style of just moving NPCs around the map without telling you works for the linear Souls games where you're so much more likely to run into them naturally but doesn't work as well for open world. Honestly even having beat the game multiple times I still forget where certain NPCs move to for their quest and have to look it up.
I had a weird thing where I found Hyetta everywhere by random (while completely kissing Yura) and somehow I got every grape for her as well which made me think I was giving her some easy to find ingredient and not those weird eyes. I don't know how I missed that I was picking those up.
Elden ring is the first big game I think fromsoft has had. Dark souls games feel long because they are hard but on New game plus +1 if your geared out you can get through them really quickly. And they are obviously a lot more linear. So im guessing its just experimentation maybe next time there will be quest markers.
I agree though Elden Ring has better visuals/combat and Witcher has a better storyline. Witchers combat feels like it does too much of it for you. Like you swing and geralt kind of lunges towards the enemy in a way that doesnt happen in Elden Ring.
Man i could not agree more. Durrrr open world doesnt cut it. This lack of quest structure gives a big hit to the lore and storytelling too. Its definitely missing something in this regard and would seal the deal on 10/10.
I feel like it could be because DLC story can focus on less aspects of the game while main story in such RPG has to cover pretty much ALL the bases, all different kinds of settings and quests while also taking place in such open world.
DLCs let you make the scope smaller and so focus better on the story aspect. Best can be seen with HoS which takes place in a small corner of the main map, but it is jampacked with content and it has consistently amazing pace that takes you into variety of scenarios without having to pad out the story. It's pretty much like one of the best Witcher novels.
Also this applies to side quests like Bloody Baron or Peralez. Their scope is smaller, but that allows their stories to be more detailed and intimate. While it is FAR harder to do with main quest in such a game I bet. That is why in many cases there have to be sacrifices made in the main story of such RPG.
"Oh no. The bar is being raised! 😱 Don't they know how hard games are to make."
Yes. But y'all charge the same prices????? So why are we not gonna compare quality and expect more when someone rises above?
Yeah, but not the "competition".
The comments made by some Sony devs about Elden Ring being basically Game of the Year were straight-up embarrassing.
They're all corpos.
What? How can you say over 7000 different individual devs are corpos? There was a single Guerilla member complaining about something that he was probably the only one thinking
Are we still blaming an entire 400+ people studio for one off-hand comment on Twitter from 1 single dev of said studio? Even when the game director of HFW said ER was his favourite game of 2022? Okay
You mean the *principal game designer and lead game dev* on Horizon?
Yeah, salty bitches be salty and release their games right when something else comes out then complain when they get overshadowed.
He didn’t hold either of those functions when making that comment. He was just a quest designer at the time. Also he still is 1 guy from a 400+ people studio. He didn’t decide the release window either btw
Detlaff doesn't get enough praise as a well-written villain. I think that's partly because Master Mirror is more interesting to most, but he's my favorite from Wild Hunt.
He's definitely my favorite boss in the entire game.He feels like a souls boss,I mean there are bosses with that vibe in the game,but his moveset and the fight mechs overall...It's so satisfying to just quick save before him and then to just fight the bastard over and over again...at least for me it is 
That's because they fumbled it towards the end. The effect of the mission ending with the conversation at Orianna's table is ruined by the choices and actions that follow and I never could quite see the character in the same way after that.
Contrast to Hearts of Stone, where they stuck the landing like nothing I've seen before. A villain whistling the tune to their own OST is how you make a goddamn exit.
Definitely one of those moments in the books where you KNOW Geralt is about to get cooked but it turns out he's studied up and, with a little luck (and help from Yen he doesn't know about), he baaaarely manages to pull it off.
Then afterwards he's just complaining about all the tiny mistakes he made and what a useless POS failed Witcher he is.
him having to kill malenia in her rot/sleep addled state even though he's like "I'm trying to help I actually know who took kindly miquella" is a very sapkowski story
Yup, I can fully see her only calming down and listening when she’s in the process of dying, and of course by then it’s too late. 100% a Sapkowski plot haha
It’s got that Eastern/Central Europe depression vibe 😂
From combar, with Witcher 3s story and branching quests would be my favorite game ever. Souls games and W3 already are in my top 10, but combining would be perfect.
Witcher 3 is still up there with the greatest games ever in my opinion, especially with the two expansions. I've never been able to replay it though, it's so massive and I get overwhelmed thinking about doing it all again.
I love to see game devs start to be cool to each other like when Spielberg and Lucas would send congratulations to each other for massive box office hits; sure they compete in a similar market but they don’t need to hate each other. Support builds bonds, bonds build strong communities.
Kinda funny, honestly. Considering most veterans that made Witcher expansion are no longer working at CDPR.
Matter of fact, a bunch of them quit and made other studios.
This has the same vibe of when Endgame surpassed Titanic and Avatar and JC made them beautiful arts to congratulate them. Love to see respect like this in the industry!
I was always passing off Witcher 3 because I couldn't get into it but this type of praise and love just made The Witcher 3 my next go to game after SOTE
It can be a bit of a slow burn. I usually recommend people stick with it until the Baron’s story line picks up (you’ll know when you’re there). If you still can’t get into it at that point, then it’s just not the game for you, and that’s okay.
It’s tough to adapt to the UX and play style at first, but the game is really second to none imo on return for the money and plot. The biggest thing I will emphasize is that you can meditate to full-health almost anywhere while not in active combat.
I can't recommend it enough! On my first tries, I also couldn't get into it (I'm not much into story games), but once it clicked, it was some of the most fun and emotions that I've ever had in a video game. Oh man, if you get into it, you're in for a treat! (not trying to suck off CDPR, imo W3 is just THAT good)
Can't recommend it enough. You have to stick to it for a while initially, but there will come a moment when it clicks and when it does there is no going back.
I love the contrast between the reactions to Elden Ring’s success between passionate game companies and the money hungry scum companies.
Throwback to when Ubisoft and other devs were hating on Elden Ring when it launched.
Might get downvoted for this, but I'd wait at least a month or two before giving the 'crown'. Let more people fully experience it and let the hype calm down a bit
Amazing to see a king recognize another king, respect and love all around ❤️🔥 (Bought The Witcher II: The Complete Edition last week so it’ll be the next game I’ll playing once I finish Shadow of the Erdtree).
I have my doubts that I'll like Shadow of the erdtree more than B&W, but it's super cool to see one game company congratulate another. It is so rare that you see that now an days.
Edit: it'd be cool if we could get a DLC where we get the wolf armor and silver sword or something
When you first jump into the expansion, there are some large trees with corpses hung from them. I kept thinking it looked like the hangman's tree from TW3, then I saw someone left a message in front of one that said 'Visions of swordfighter' lol.
I wonder if I should actually play TW3. I tried out the first game, and got about 60% through, but it felt like a game where not only was everything morally grey, every action I took the game made sure to tell me I made the worst possible decision ever. It felt like getting beaten over the head with a depression stick.
People seem to like the series tho!
Wholesome and maidenful behaviour. Love that art too.
This art goes unbelievably hard. Geralt is not only DUAL WIELDING, he's using Mohgwyn's spear in his damn off-hand, indicating he might have disarmed him mid-fight?? Also, the corpse is looking badass af
If anyone could do it, Geralt could.
Geralt: how do you like that silver Mohg: I mean, doesn't feel GREAT
Normal humans exist in Elden Ring, Tarnish are only special in that they are immortal. Physically they might be stronger than your average human, but Berserk which is a huge inspiration for Souls games has similar feats.
Geralt could also technically become a “tarnished” if he finds a maiden that can use runes to power him up. Also most tarnished don’t have the guidance of grace so they’re just normal people with that title behind them. I think our tarnished is the only one that’s actually immortal since no one else can respawn like we do.
The strong build eachother up, it’s the weak that try to bring others down.
Realest quote I’ve heard online in years
"Thy strength befits a crown."
This is some "game recognize game" shit.
Geralt killing mohg is hard as fuck
~~Geralt~~ killing mohg is hard as fuck
With his shackle + Purifying Crystal Tear + the talisman that makes you do extra damage when there’s blood loss + a ton of flasks, it becomes a lot easier. Just gotta over prepare a bit haha
The best strategy for Mohg (only works for Int builds) is saying: "Ah you were at my side all along"
My true mentor…
I just found out that Our guiding moonlight got the Moonveil nerf (poise damage redistributed from projectile to weapon). Sadge
That's what Geralt would do too. His tactics in Fromsoft worlds would be entirely based around using the most effective weapons and items in every given situation
You just have to prepare... Just like a Witcher
Mimic tear + dual katanas + Purifying Crystal Tear for me.
I didn’t wanna mention Mimic Tear because some people consider that cheating, but yeah that definitely helps haha
People who consider a summon that the devs put in the game to be cheating do not deserve respect
it is not cheating the DLC is so damn hard you need to bring out the cheese just to make it😰
I'm on ng1 and I'm challenging myself by only using purifying crystal tear and not the shackle or talisman
Also, scarlet rot
Listen I'm a simple man. I drink my flask, summon my mimic, whip out my staff, put a ring around me and blast a comet azur for so long and so hard up that fat sumbitches ass he's coughing up glintstones when all is said and done and that's the bottom line cause stone cold said so.
I'm even more simpler man, I just bonked him to death with jumping double greatswords and using health pots when he did his tres dos uno shit
I want to see this crossover.
Ah yes a legend always admires another legend
Two chads complimenting each other on their excellent taste in game design.
Indeed. Meanwhile, Horizon Forbidden West . . .
Damn dude what did Horizon do to get dragged into this lol
I believe some dev at Guerrilla Games had some harsh and unfair criticism on elden ring and also they kind of released at the same time so there's a bit of a rivalry among fandoms but I'm not sure. Just what I have seen here.
Still better than Ubisoft devs crying that Elden ring is getting awards while their PERFECT Ux means nothing to people
Yeah, perfect UI is honestly so important to me, I really appreciate-ZzzzzzzZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Ux is User Experience I believe. UI is User interface. Learned that when Baldur's Gate 3 landed and a bunch of Devs were throwing a jealous temper tantrum.
tbh my user experience was much better playing bg3 than playing any ubisoft titles
I can bang my head on a stone wall and it'd be better. The bar is so low it's on the ground already.
Thats what I meant. My main point is that nobody cares if the game is good.
That was hilarious. A bunch of game devs getting mad at people for liking something they think people shouldn’t like. Textbook coping.
[удалено]
Not sure. Regardless it’s so counter productive. Why would you get mad at people for liking something, when you can follow the trend and learn from it? I mean, this isn’t a hobby, it’s a job. Alienating customers for liking someone else’s product doesn’t just lose you customers l, it pushes them towards the people you’re complaining about.
I think that was more like Pokemon fans trying to get Palworld in trouble for copyright infringement or something
It is Ubisoft. "How dare you not like our unoriginal shovelware that did not add anything interesting in the last half decade".
I mean, UI is important. It certainly carries Persona series, for example.
In other news stellaris picked the worst time ever to have a free to play weekend lmao.
Maybe not. I know after I get bodied a few times by hard bosses in Elden Ring I like to cool off steam with a slower paced game. It could be that Paradox is hoping to cash in on that with free Stellaris. Or you're absolutely right and there was no foresight at all.
They had to have known about it right? Like yeah they’re not direct competitors but I would think having a free weekend around a major new release wouldn’t perform so well for them? Could have easily done it last weekend.
Yeah it's not what I would have done. I would have done it a week early like you suggest because I'm sure plenty of Elden Ring players were restlessly waiting for SotET and trying out new games in the mean time. I know I was.
Exactly lol. You’d think the goal is to get as many players that haven’t played before to try it as possible, and this is one of a few major events in a year that could mess that up a bit. I think even square enix put off a release til next week since it was gonna be released on the same day as the dlc.
I love Horizon, the story is fantastic, but it’s doesn’t hold a candle to Elden Ring.
Yeah I am currently playing it at 100+ hours in. It's great. Did people not like it? Only thing I don't like is Aloy telling me what to do all the time. Wish she would let me figure it out sometimes.
"yo, why he say fuck me for?"
Yeah I love the Horizon games, Forbidden West is still the best looking PS5 game imo
Horizon ForMIDden west
you dont need to shit on another very solid game because one dev got butthurt
"I tip my hat to you - one legend to another"
Game recognize game
Would be glorious to see Geralt just popping in to help me with a tough boss.
That really speaks for cd project being a company with real game development genius and not just the basic shit with learned coding to generate money. It’s like an artist with „the touch“ and genius by work vs some music school dude who can write a melody but doesent just have it in him
We'll ignore Cyberpunk's launch and "no console reviews before launch" debacle then?
You mean the one time they had a major disaster of a launch but have been extremely vocal about and actively worked towards fixing and made one of the highest rated games in years. Yeah I think we can probably ignore that
No, I don't think we should ignore that. We should recognize that CDPR did incredible work to restore the game to a functional state and release a really good expansion, but also keep in mind that past console generations still have a barely functional game to this day, that they eroded much of the goodwill they garnered with W3 and that ultimately, CP77 isn't the game that was promised all those years ago, not even to what was shown shortly before release.
Hey if you want to carry a lifetime grudge because you were disappointed with a literal toy, go nuts. I thought the game was pretty good at launch and the 2.0 experience was phenomenal.
As a fully Cyberpunk-pilled individual who fully plans to try and fit CP2077 + Phantom Liberty into his schedule between Shadow of the Erdtree and Monster Hunter: Wilds, I don't think it's "holding a grudge over a literal toy" to be mindful of the fact that a studio's management willingly and enthusiastically misled consumers. The dev team have done some fantastic bloody work on the game, it's excellent now. But CDPR weren't just overambitious, they exhibited gross mismanagement and actively misrepresented the game ahead of time. Even with the improvements, the above poster correctly labelled issues, including it being more or less unplayable on consoles it was released for. Being mindful and wary of a company's management is not holding a grudge, it's being sensible with one's wallet. Something everyone could benefit from in this current time.
Almost all of CDPR's goodwill was gathered by one game, I think it can be balanced by one game as well. But no, I unfortunately don't think we can ignore that they deliberately hid console performance until the game launched.
That’s an executive decision not a development decision like what this post is about. This is about developers congratulating other developers and has nothing to do with executive decisions.
No, just because I presume you're a console player and CDPR previous games before TW3 were mainly on PC that doesn't mean that the goodwill was only because of that one game.. Witcher 1 which is a PC exlusive title to this day sold milion copies just in one year which was a massive success for a Central European studio with their first game and being a PC exclusive title in a time when everyone was saying that "PC is dead" and they put massive content even into the standard editions of Witcher 1 and released an Enhanced Edition of the same game one year later which was free for the owners of the original game and that version was sold for 30 Euros and had 4 CDs from which 3 were bonus content and stuff, plus a ton of physical stuff packed with that and the same is true for Witcher 2 which for example sold better on a single platform - PC - than Dark Souls on two platforms and they were released in the same year and all DLC released for TW2 was for free and again, the Enhanced Edition for TW2 was free for owners of the original game and so on.. not to mention the amount of awards both first Witcher games got from all over the world That's why people were so hyped for Witcher 3 since it's announcement
the game so bad on ps4 they had to refund everyone and remains bugged to this day
I played through the entire game on my ps4, put in 100+ hours. It wasn’t perfect and not nearly as polished as I expect from a product on release, but the news of how unplayable it was was greatly exaggerated
This is called “survivorship bias.”
Im sorry a modern game doesn’t play well on a decade old console, it should’ve never been offered on it anyways and they know that hence refunding everyone, what would you have them do to make that right.
>Should've never been offered Sounds like they can never make it right then, huh? If they announced the game a decade ago for Xbox 1 and PS4 then how did they end up with one that was barely playable on current gen without patches to say nothing of the actual intended-at-the-time consoles?
And this is why the gaming industry is in shambles
He's talking about game design not shitty mistakes most likely made by execs.
Love that art of Geralt over Mogh. Also while I know I will REALLY like this DLC I don't anything to me will beat story of Hearts of Stone.
Elden Ring is amazing, but Hearts of Stone's writing is maybe the best ever in a game.
Same, really a gameplay vs story descision here. Tho both games are peak so comparisons shouldn't happen anyway
Yeah, whenever someone says X game has a better story than Elden Ring i’m like yeah, no shit
Yeah I really like Elden Ring's lore(probably my favourite video game lore period) but there's tons of games with better narrative
Alan wake 2 is my current favorite. What a game.
I finally got around to doing The Final Draft, god Alan Wake 2 is such a genuine masterpiece
Elden ring and Alan wake 2 are in my top 5 of all time personally, just absolutely enthralling games, I was glued to my seat the entire time for both.
Currently taking a break from AW2 to play SotE. It’s still horror for me (mainly in regards to how bad I panic when Mr. Dancing Lion looks at me), but it’s still awesome in its own way.
Shits scary lol. I’m a big time horror vet and it still makes me jump.
Going to fight the witch lady when you’re playing as Saga made me so goddamn tense
Oh yeah, All the overlaps are super intense. I don’t even think that’s the scariest one haha.
I put 160 hours into ER, watched a couple of half hour long lore videos afterwards, and I still barely understand what happened in the game or why I did what I did.
Agreed. Personally, I liked HoS by far the most of the DLC’s.
I am more of a story person so HoS wins for me. As for best in gaming... there are other games that I say have better writing like Torment games, Disco Elysium or Kan Gao games (my top 3 in gaming). Although HoS is VERY high on that too.
Yeah to me Disco Elysium and to a lesser degree Torment games are not in the category as something like HoS, even if it was very good. They just tackle very different things due to their different nature.
Yeah. Torment games are my all time favorite games with Disco being my second. Also I highly recommend you games made by Kan Gao like To The Moon or Finding Paradise. Beautiful stories.
phantom liberty beats out heart of stone for me, but both are outstanding and made by the same dev too
I always preferred Hearts of Stone over Blood and Wine because of the sheer dark and mysterious setting it has and of course Gaunther being one of the best villains ever.
I love how he shows up in the beginning of the game in the tavern and you have no idea who the hell he is and most likely will forget about him lol
Same! It’s so good. Gaunter is such a great villain.
And some great boss fights! That goddamn frog was a hoss and the groundskeeper was absolutely terrifying and wrecked my world with just a shovel.
Man B&W was just something else, the new plant monster n that stone monster were just amazing.... Added to it the story was top-notch, n mastercrafted armors were fkn expensive...
The scenery is almost unmatched in Blood and Wine and the story is insanely good in Heart of Stone. 2 grand slams in a row. Absolutely love those DLCs.
For me, Witcher 3 wins on storyline and quest structure, but Elden Ring wins on visuals/ atmosphere and fighting mechanics. They are both incredible games in their own way. My big question about Elden Ring has always been: why didn't they make quests a bigger part of the game and add a quest tracker? It's obviously a deliberate decision not to, but I wonder what their thinking is behind that decision. (Note: Elden Ring is the only Fromsoft game I've played, and I understand that their previous ones were quite different).
I feel like they are still trying to figure out how to do quests and probably realized that their quest structure doesn't really work that well in such vast open world.
Was just thinking this, their style of just moving NPCs around the map without telling you works for the linear Souls games where you're so much more likely to run into them naturally but doesn't work as well for open world. Honestly even having beat the game multiple times I still forget where certain NPCs move to for their quest and have to look it up.
I had a weird thing where I found Hyetta everywhere by random (while completely kissing Yura) and somehow I got every grape for her as well which made me think I was giving her some easy to find ingredient and not those weird eyes. I don't know how I missed that I was picking those up.
Elden ring is the first big game I think fromsoft has had. Dark souls games feel long because they are hard but on New game plus +1 if your geared out you can get through them really quickly. And they are obviously a lot more linear. So im guessing its just experimentation maybe next time there will be quest markers. I agree though Elden Ring has better visuals/combat and Witcher has a better storyline. Witchers combat feels like it does too much of it for you. Like you swing and geralt kind of lunges towards the enemy in a way that doesnt happen in Elden Ring.
Man i could not agree more. Durrrr open world doesnt cut it. This lack of quest structure gives a big hit to the lore and storytelling too. Its definitely missing something in this regard and would seal the deal on 10/10.
CD project red has a weird track record of their dlc stories always being better than the main game stories, happened again with Cyberpunk
I feel like it could be because DLC story can focus on less aspects of the game while main story in such RPG has to cover pretty much ALL the bases, all different kinds of settings and quests while also taking place in such open world. DLCs let you make the scope smaller and so focus better on the story aspect. Best can be seen with HoS which takes place in a small corner of the main map, but it is jampacked with content and it has consistently amazing pace that takes you into variety of scenarios without having to pad out the story. It's pretty much like one of the best Witcher novels. Also this applies to side quests like Bloody Baron or Peralez. Their scope is smaller, but that allows their stories to be more detailed and intimate. While it is FAR harder to do with main quest in such a game I bet. That is why in many cases there have to be sacrifices made in the main story of such RPG.
Devs celebrating other dev's success? In this industry? Take note Ubisoft and Guerrilla ..
“Here’s why Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 are BAD for the industry”
“It makes us look bad! Thus it’s bad, obviously!”
"Oh no. The bar is being raised! 😱 Don't they know how hard games are to make." Yes. But y'all charge the same prices????? So why are we not gonna compare quality and expect more when someone rises above?
yeah it's bad for them, not the players
Which is kinda sad, as CD did the same when Horizon ZD came out.
Sony devs always congratulate each other
Yeah, but not the "competition". The comments made by some Sony devs about Elden Ring being basically Game of the Year were straight-up embarrassing. They're all corpos.
What? How can you say over 7000 different individual devs are corpos? There was a single Guerilla member complaining about something that he was probably the only one thinking
Are we still blaming an entire 400+ people studio for one off-hand comment on Twitter from 1 single dev of said studio? Even when the game director of HFW said ER was his favourite game of 2022? Okay
You mean the *principal game designer and lead game dev* on Horizon? Yeah, salty bitches be salty and release their games right when something else comes out then complain when they get overshadowed.
He didn’t hold either of those functions when making that comment. He was just a quest designer at the time. Also he still is 1 guy from a 400+ people studio. He didn’t decide the release window either btw
This happens quite a bit actually. But +1 for the pithy comment. Every thread needs at least one I guess.
For me,B&W will always be the GOAT,but it's nice to see gaming companies get wholesome like that with each other ❤️
this is where I acknowledged that the gaming community (meaning us) are the one starting the console wars, hating each other.
Detlaff doesn't get enough praise as a well-written villain. I think that's partly because Master Mirror is more interesting to most, but he's my favorite from Wild Hunt.
He's definitely my favorite boss in the entire game.He feels like a souls boss,I mean there are bosses with that vibe in the game,but his moveset and the fight mechs overall...It's so satisfying to just quick save before him and then to just fight the bastard over and over again...at least for me it is 
That's because they fumbled it towards the end. The effect of the mission ending with the conversation at Orianna's table is ruined by the choices and actions that follow and I never could quite see the character in the same way after that. Contrast to Hearts of Stone, where they stuck the landing like nothing I've seen before. A villain whistling the tune to their own OST is how you make a goddamn exit.
That Geralt v Mohg art goes hard
Definitely one of those moments in the books where you KNOW Geralt is about to get cooked but it turns out he's studied up and, with a little luck (and help from Yen he doesn't know about), he baaaarely manages to pull it off. Then afterwards he's just complaining about all the tiny mistakes he made and what a useless POS failed Witcher he is.
Gerald would probably try really hard to help out Miquella.
him having to kill malenia in her rot/sleep addled state even though he's like "I'm trying to help I actually know who took kindly miquella" is a very sapkowski story
Yup, I can fully see her only calming down and listening when she’s in the process of dying, and of course by then it’s too late. 100% a Sapkowski plot haha It’s got that Eastern/Central Europe depression vibe 😂
Just Quen.
Geralt would be prepped as fuck with both the shackle and nihil immunity physick.
*"From one legend to another.."* Fucking love that Mohg artwork though.
Now that I like. A company respecting another and giving praise where it’s due.
Blood and Wine brings back some good memories. This is so wholesome.
FF14 delayed their expansion launch because they knew all of their devs were gonna be playing the DLC.
Game recognizes game
I doubt very much I will rate this dlc higher than other formsoft dlcs or blood and wine, but good to see other devs praise each other.
Damn that art is sick.
From combar, with Witcher 3s story and branching quests would be my favorite game ever. Souls games and W3 already are in my top 10, but combining would be perfect.
Witcher 3 is still up there with the greatest games ever in my opinion, especially with the two expansions. I've never been able to replay it though, it's so massive and I get overwhelmed thinking about doing it all again.
That art goes so hard
Art style of Witcher works so well in Elden Ring.
I love all the degen builds lol
I love to see game devs start to be cool to each other like when Spielberg and Lucas would send congratulations to each other for massive box office hits; sure they compete in a similar market but they don’t need to hate each other. Support builds bonds, bonds build strong communities.
The art of 2 of my favourite games crossover goes so fucking hard. I'm saving this image!
Wish I had that art for a wallpaper, because that looks sick!
Some of you act like this doesn't happen all the time. That one knucklehead that worked on Horizon talking shit about Elden Ring was an outlier.
Real recognises real.
That art goes hard! I want it as my desktop wallpaper
That is so cool, especially the 2nd pic with the team waiting at the Mausoleum.
Holy shit the amount of bots in this subreddit lol
Kinda funny, honestly. Considering most veterans that made Witcher expansion are no longer working at CDPR. Matter of fact, a bunch of them quit and made other studios.
:,) I have never played Elden Ring, not my jam, but man, I’m so glad it’s incredible. Hope everyone here has a blast of a weekend playing it.
Very classy
This is super wholesome. Love to see this in the gaming industry.
This has the same vibe of when Endgame surpassed Titanic and Avatar and JC made them beautiful arts to congratulate them. Love to see respect like this in the industry!
I was always passing off Witcher 3 because I couldn't get into it but this type of praise and love just made The Witcher 3 my next go to game after SOTE
It can be a bit of a slow burn. I usually recommend people stick with it until the Baron’s story line picks up (you’ll know when you’re there). If you still can’t get into it at that point, then it’s just not the game for you, and that’s okay.
It’s tough to adapt to the UX and play style at first, but the game is really second to none imo on return for the money and plot. The biggest thing I will emphasize is that you can meditate to full-health almost anywhere while not in active combat.
not on the higher difficulties
I can't recommend it enough! On my first tries, I also couldn't get into it (I'm not much into story games), but once it clicked, it was some of the most fun and emotions that I've ever had in a video game. Oh man, if you get into it, you're in for a treat! (not trying to suck off CDPR, imo W3 is just THAT good)
Highly recommended, genuinely a top 5 at least for me. The narrative and atmosphere are absolutely incredible.
Can't recommend it enough. You have to stick to it for a while initially, but there will come a moment when it clicks and when it does there is no going back.
Horizon devs in shambles
The crossover we didn’t know we needed. I could definitely use some of that nice Quen in Elden Ring
As much as I'm in love with SotE atm, I'm not sure, if it will be able to beat Blood & Wine for me. Nostalgia is so strong!
I did not know I needed an official rendering of Geralt killing Mogh until today.
Seek praise
Thy strength befits a crown.
I love game devs shouting out game devs. too much division and negativity around these days.
I love the contrast between the reactions to Elden Ring’s success between passionate game companies and the money hungry scum companies. Throwback to when Ubisoft and other devs were hating on Elden Ring when it launched.
Love seeing devs celebrate other devs
Might get downvoted for this, but I'd wait at least a month or two before giving the 'crown'. Let more people fully experience it and let the hype calm down a bit
CDPR, From and Larian do not miss. Goat recognises Goat
I mean, Cyberpunk started out as a pretty bad miss.
Very true! Then with plenty of free updates and a GOTY Worthy expansion, its now one of the best games on the market.
See this is how it should be ( Looks at ubisoft employees disapprovingly )
Peak recognizes peak
two extremely good DLCs together!
Ele's poleblade vs Mohg is certainly a choice lol
Wholesome as fuck
I never liked the Witcher 3, but gotta give it to CD Projekt they are cool
In my head I’m imagining CDPR making them come into the office with express orders to “git gud”
Real recognize real
real recognize real
That’s so badass
Hell of an artpiece
real recognize real
Amazing to see a king recognize another king, respect and love all around ❤️🔥 (Bought The Witcher II: The Complete Edition last week so it’ll be the next game I’ll playing once I finish Shadow of the Erdtree).
I have my doubts that I'll like Shadow of the erdtree more than B&W, but it's super cool to see one game company congratulate another. It is so rare that you see that now an days. Edit: it'd be cool if we could get a DLC where we get the wolf armor and silver sword or something
real recognize real
Geralt would definitely fat roll
Class act. Instead of Ubisoft's disgraceful show of envy and ignorance.
That's the coordination of a ff14 static what the hell
Classy. Nice
When you first jump into the expansion, there are some large trees with corpses hung from them. I kept thinking it looked like the hangman's tree from TW3, then I saw someone left a message in front of one that said 'Visions of swordfighter' lol.
The artwork goes fucking Hard.
I wonder if I should actually play TW3. I tried out the first game, and got about 60% through, but it felt like a game where not only was everything morally grey, every action I took the game made sure to tell me I made the worst possible decision ever. It felt like getting beaten over the head with a depression stick. People seem to like the series tho!
Great game i play it all the time!