RPG: Oblivion vs. Witcher

Hello all,

I'm looking for a good non-MMO RPG to take up some of my time, hopefully in a sufficiently engrossing manner. I read several pages back in the boards but didn't find a similar topic, but if there is one, just point me to it.

Oblivion and the Witcher are the two I'm looking at. Can anyone offer some comparative thoughts? I'm also open to other suggestions.

As for hardware, I'm running a laptop with a 2.4 GHz i5, ATI Radeon 5650, 6 GB RAM. (Which I presume is enough to handle either of these two games, but if I'm wrong, that'd be good to know as well.)

Thanks!

May also suggest Dragona Age: Origins, Mass Effect and Fallout 3.

Yeah I guess what I'm looking for is a good story-driven game. I do enjoy MMOs but looking for a change.

As for DA: O, it seems enticing but I've heard it requires a pretty powerful system; would I be able to run it well enough to enjoy it on my laptop?

I didn't really like The Witcher all that much... I loved Oblivion (back in its day I REALLY loved it)...

Witcher was to "slow" for me and felt more or less linear... In Oblivion, you can do pretty much whatever you want, whenever you want... Like literally, you can put 100 hours in the game and never even play the main quest...

The Witcher has a demo, you should download it and try though... Maybe you like that sort of gameplay.

Yeah I guess what I'm looking for is a good story-driven game. I do enjoy MMOs but looking for a change.

As for DA: O, it seems enticing but I've heard it requires a pretty powerful system; would I be able to run it well enough to enjoy it on my laptop?

babafats

Oblivion was engrossing for days on end.

I was never able to get past about six hours with The Witcher. Didn't much care for the main character or the plot, and for the most part, the game dragged on really slowly. The gameplay just reminded me of Neverwinter Nights 2, and that got me thinking about how much more fun I would probably be having playing that.

Maybe that game gets really hot at about hour 7 or so, but I doubt I'll ever have the patience to make it there.

As for DA: O, it seems enticing but I've heard it requires a pretty powerful system; would I be able to run it well enough to enjoy it on my laptop?

babafats

The Witcher is WAY better

Hey, is the Witcher more linear? because to be honest, I'd rather a game be linear. I have both DA:O and Oblivion and like DA:O better because the story was driven from point to point. I haven't fully experienced oblivion yet but maybe it's just me that I don't like having to find where to go next.

You may be interested to know that the witcher is more demanding than Oblivion in terms of hardware, I am playgin oblivion right now on a laptop with T6400 + Ati4650 and it runs great on medium-high... I remember the witcher used to crash a lot when I played it (enhenced edition)...

Hey, is the Witcher more linear? because to be honest, I'd rather a game be linear. I have both DA:O and Oblivion and like DA:O better because the story was driven from point to point. I haven't fully experienced oblivion yet but maybe it's just me that I don't like having to find where to go next.

enorox

The Witcher is the most linear of those three games, with the player generally being limited to one town/city and its surroundings per chapter (although there's still a lot to do and explore within those areas, and plenty of deep, grey moral choices to make that'll affect how events play out).

Hey, is the Witcher more linear? because to be honest, I'd rather a game be linear. I have both DA:O and Oblivion and like DA:O better because the story was driven from point to point. I haven't fully experienced oblivion yet but maybe it's just me that I don't like having to find where to go next.

enorox

Hmm, I might have to check it out. what's the combat like?

Hmm, I might have to check it out. what's the combat like?

enorox

Witcher has the weirdest combat for an RPG I've seen. It's based on timing when you click the left mouse button and I'm not really a big fan. DA:O is based on tactically managing your group, and you are able to pause and assign attacks at any time

Hmm, I might have to check it out. what's the combat like?

enorox

ChiliDragon, I posted my specs in the original post, but here they are again: i5-450 2.4 GHz, ATI Radeon 5650, 6GB RAM.

It sounds like DA: O has at least somewhat of a blend between the open-endedness of Oblivion and being story-driven, which does sound appealing.

ChiliDragon, I posted my specs in the original post, but here they are again: i5-450 2.4 GHz, ATI Radeon 5650, 6GB RAM.

babafats

Sounds new and interesting, will deff give witcher a try

Edit, at least for me since I haven't played KOTOR or anything like the combat you described

The Witcher.

If these two games were any more different, they'd be different genres altogether. I love both of them, but for very different reasons. Based on what you said, I think you'd enjoy The Witcher more.

Did you people even play Oblivion ? The Witcher had horribly bad combat. Oblivion also is much easier on the eyes graphically. Seriously this isn't even close. Oblivion is the one to choose.

DeViLzzz

Get Oblivion. It may not have been as good as Morrowind but i still put hundreds of hours into it and i never really liked the witcher, it doesnt feel as open as oblivion.

Iloved the withcer much more than Oblivion. Oblivion tried to surpass Morrowind but I was less impressed with it. The Witcher is a really fun and addictive RPG.

Definately the Witcher.

The Witcher is a completely absorbing experience. Whereas Oblivion is a steaming pile of cow dung that flies would be reluctant to land on. The game is basically broken straight out of the box. Yes there are various mods to fix simple things like the map (they couldn't even get that right) but you really shouldn't have to download all this stuff just to get the game working. Thats just my preference out of the two. I'd probably get Dragon Age instead. Its more polished than The Witcher. biggest_loser

I love The Witcher combat system and the mini-games, but Oblivion has lot of thing to offer. I reccomend Oblivion in this case:)

The Witcher. It's one of my favorite games ever.

But get The Witcher and Morrowind instead of Oblivion. It's worth it.

Neither game has particularly good combat, Oblivion's consists of simply hitting in a pattern similar to 1-2-3-block-strong attack-1-2-3-block-strong attack-repeat ad nauseum, bows are included though arrows travel neither fast nor far, and spells are included though there are only 4 combat spells and they all have the same visual effect, so a level 1 fire attack spell looks identical to a fire spell at level 50. The Witcher has an equally simple timed combo system that essentially makes fights into a timed click fest where you occasionally press a hotkey for a potion or to cast a spell.

As far as story The Witcher excells well past Oblivion in this regard with great characters, good writing, and a lengthy story arc that gives Geralt decisions not routed entirely in either good or evil. It's not simply a case of be good, be neutral, be evil, that you experience in many Bioware games. Oblivion gives you no such options and the main quest can be completed in under 5 hours. Each guild takes about the same amount of time and you illogically can join all factions in the game. There are no faction requirements as in past games so potentially everything can be completed fairly easily because of Oblivions system of leveled monster encounters.

In terms of visuals The Witcher is better. Oblivion uses low res textures, bad distant lod, and texture and foliage popping and ugly randomly generated npc faces look awful. The Witcher doesn't have as much variety in characters but what is there looks good and handcrafted set pieces make each area unique whereas Oblivion will rehash the same fortress over and over.

Neither game has much replay value. For Oblivion you can restart as a different race as ultimately c-lass doesn't really matter as every skill can be leveled up completely on one character. For the Witcher you can play through and try different options to see how the world is affected as you progress.

Personally I recommend the Witcher. I slammed through Oblivion in no time and quickly became bored and haven't gone back to it, even mods can't fix a game that isn't that fun to begin with. The Witcher will give you a better length, better story, and in my opinion better gameplay.

I haven't played The Witcher, I will and I want to, but I haven't played it. As for Oblivion, it was absolutely amazing when I first played it. Very deep, engrossing and fun. I packed well over 100 hours into it and kept on questing long after I finished the campaign.

I would also suggest Dragon Age: Origins. It's my favorite game this generation on any platform. It's just a wonderful game with great characters, a cool story, fun combat and the works. I love it, I beat it once and I immediately started a second playthrough. Lots of cool decisions to make.

I also enjoyed Mass Effect, though I personally think Dragon Age is a much better game. If you go for Mass Effect start with the first one, though I hear the sequel is better I haven't played it yet. I'll probably play ME2 on my 360 since I can import my character data, but the big draw for ME2 is importing your decisions into the game. It becomes very personal.

I loved Oblivion (back in its day I REALLY loved it)...

Buttons1990

May also suggest Dragona Age: Origins, Mass Effect and Fallout 3.

dramaybaz

Oblivion is broad, not deep, and merely creates the illusion of depth by utilizing the vast amount of content they put in (quantity over quality approach). As far as role-playing goes, the Witcher's more limited but is also more significant in the development of your main character, and it's considerably better written.

As far as an actual RPG goes, the witcher easily. Oblivion is more like an action with simplified RPG elements. That being said, its still a good game, but if you want an actual RPG. The Witcher.

I would go with with the poster who suggested DAO. It's better than both Oblivion and the Witcher. I didn't like the Witcher and still don't understand all the high ratings it gets. If you get Oblivion you have to install mods. Without mods, Oblivion is very boring. With mods Oblivion is awesome.

So I would say get DAO. If not grab Oblivion. I would only get the Witcher if you can get it for under a dollar. You can then use it as a beverage coaster.