Taenqyrhae Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 I'm playing an RPG on the Xbox 360 that feels extremely familiar to me…it starts with civil war against a philandering king with bastard problems after his young heir (whose mother was also his aunt) dies. There is a shady, sexy sorceress who has tasked me with gathering the blood of Kings for a ritual to revive a charismatic leader after an assassination attempt, a young ruler who could unite enemy factions to rule the North. One of the people I've considered getting the blood from is named Stennis, who is just but not well liked, and whose claim is being challenged by a much larger army from another empire. The game is The Witcher 2, and it's not a perfect match for the ASoIaF series, but parts of it definitely seem inspired by it (it's based on a Polish fantasy series). It's like someone took the Cliffs Notes version of the series and re-arranged and combined some of the characters to make a new story. The setting is more high-magic than the ASoIaF series, with very powerful magicians and giant monsters, but the politics and human characters are constantly reminding me of GRRMs book series. Anyone else play The Witcher 2 and see these similarities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion of the West Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I've played Witcher 1 but I'm not suprised that ASOIAF is influential across the Fantasy genre to this extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleFinger Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 I'm playing an RPG on the Xbox 360 that feels extremely familiar to me…it starts with civil war against a philandering king with bastard problems after his young heir (whose mother was also his aunt) dies. There is a shady, sexy sorceress who has tasked me with gathering the blood of Kings for a ritual to revive a charismatic leader after an assassination attempt, a young ruler who could unite enemy factions to rule the North. One of the people I've considered getting the blood from is named Stennis, who is just but not well liked, and whose claim is being challenged by a much larger army from another empire. The game is The Witcher 2, and it's not a perfect match for the ASoIaF series, but parts of it definitely seem inspired by it (it's based on a Polish fantasy series). It's like someone took the Cliffs Notes version of the series and re-arranged and combined some of the characters to make a new story. The setting is more high-magic than the ASoIaF series, with very powerful magicians and giant monsters, but the politics and human characters are constantly reminding me of GRRMs book series. Anyone else play The Witcher 2 and see these similarities? I've read the novels that the Witcher series was based on...they kick ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Greenseer Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 The Witcher 3 is coming out soon and Tywin Lannister himself voices a character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Cactus Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 One of the people I've considered getting the blood from is named Stennis, who is just but not well liked, and whose claim is being challenged by a much larger army from another empire. That just made me spit my drink. Wow. That seems like a pretty direct copy and paste job. For some reason I never put that together before though. Love the Witcher series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Dovahkiin Snow Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 It's actually free right now on the Xbox 360 marketplace for gold members. I almost downloaded it a couple nights ago. Maybe I will now after reading this. Too busy Skyrimming lately though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Greenseer Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 It's actually free right now on the Xbox 360 marketplace for gold members. I almost downloaded it a couple nights ago. Maybe I will now after reading this. Too busy Skyrimming lately though. It is?! I must have it now. But damn its going to take forever to download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Reaper oOo Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Yeah, I downloaded it for free too. It's actually pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warrewal Halfaxe Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Only read Witcher, didnt notice mamy similarities. Then again, the game aint exactly the books and a long time passes betweem the readings of the two series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Drunkard Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 They aren't that similar other than the feuding nobles whom we aren't often led to sympathize or side with, unlike ASOIAF. Radovid reminds me of a young Tywin, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taenqyrhae Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 That just made me spit my drink. Wow. That seems like a pretty direct copy and paste job. For some reason I never put that together before though. Love the Witcher series There were a couple of names that seemed very similar to ASoIaF characters but I only remember Stennis, seeing him in conjunction with the quest for Kings blood to revive the female Jon Snow is what pushed me to the point where I had to post - the bastard/incest storyline reminded me right off the bat but it wasn't THAT close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dragons Hand Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 The Witcher series is fantastic and dark.The same can be said of ASOIAF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dragons Hand Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Stennis *Shudders* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taenqyrhae Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 It's a good game and I think it's still available for free through Xbox Live if you have Gold. The menus are kind of clunky and the combat takes some getting used to, but the graphics are great for a 3 year old game and it's well written and pretty open-ended. I understand that there's several hours of gameplay that is totally different depending on some choices you make in-game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookiesbane Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Long time Witcher fan here although I prefer the games to the books. The books were published late 80s to mid 90s so the world predates ASOIAF. The games (which are somewhat more morally complex) were published 2007 and 2011 and continue the story after the books. So it likely that the developers were inspired by ASOIAF and other fantasy. Also, why Xbox you peasants? House PC: "Ours is the 1080p 60FPS" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reynestorm Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 On their wiki, the picture of Stennis has him wearing red and gold. I think we have a sympathizer. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dragons Hand Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 The Witcher 3 is coming out soon and Tywin Lannister himself voices a character. Get hype, get hype, get hype. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taenqyrhae Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Long time Witcher fan here although I prefer the games to the books. The books were published late 80s to mid 90s so the world predates ASOIAF. The games (which are somewhat more morally complex) were published 2007 and 2011 and continue the story after the books. So it likely that the developers were inspired by ASOIAF and other fantasy. Also, why Xbox you peasants? House PC: "Ours is the 1080p 60FPS" Because Witcher 2, despite being several years old, does not run very easily on PC at all. A computer that can run The Witcher 2 at 1080p 60FPS is a lot more expensive than an Xbox, and far more computer than I need as I'm not too heavily into gaming anymore. My current computer is only a couple of years old and most games that have an Xbox 360 version run far better on the console than my computer, and some of them are virtually unplayable on my computer. The last time I had a bleeding edge PC that had all the best components and could run the newest games at maximum detail, it was a Pentium II with a 32MB TNT2 video card and 64MB of RAM. Never again will I spend over a week's pay on a computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookiesbane Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Because Witcher 2, despite being several years old, does not run very easily on PC at all. A computer that can run The Witcher 2 at 1080p 60FPS is a lot more expensive than an Xbox, and far more computer than I need as I'm not too heavily into gaming anymore. My current computer is only a couple of years old and most games that have an Xbox 360 version run far better on the console than my computer, and some of them are virtually unplayable on my computer. The last time I had a bleeding edge PC that had all the best components and could run the newest games at maximum detail, it was a Pentium II with a 32MB TNT2 video card and 64MB of RAM. Never again will I spend over a week's pay on a computer. Not really. A what is currently a low level laptop can run Witcher 2 at xbox performance if not better. Maybe your desktop is bottlenecked by a component. Also the initially investment for a good PC is alleviated by the cheaper games. Pentium 2 ? You were a high roller man. I started with a Celeron if I remember well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookiesbane Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Get hype, get hype, get hype. I downloaded a promo video they releases a couple of days ago. 3 GB download for 14 minutes of game play video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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