I guess it is better to have just one path, with no gameplay changes, and end up at the exact same spot in the end?

It's not a matter of making up definitions. It's a matter of you accepting that you like particular kind of open RPG. A game that allows the player to go off the beaten path is generally, by definition, an open world. Anywhere you can explore that is in no way necessary for the game is an open RPG. Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 are perfect examples of linear RPGs. The Witcher 2 is not, as there are plenty of large environments that the player is capable of exploring.

Mods are mods. All games have them. BGS is one of the few that actively encourages the modding of their games. I'm sure you can go on The Witcher 2 forums and find plenty of modders.

Dragon age is more universally known, and makes a better example than something relatively obscure.

It doesn't make a better example, because DA:O came 2 years after W1, Bioware took a lot of elements from W1, and made an inferior game.

I disagree with you, perhaps the sites you visit use open in a way different than the site I do. Gamespot is the site I most often go to, followed by IGN and 1up.

I have not heard W2 refered to as an open world game(from online sites) nor based on what I read about it would I refer to it as such. But I don't want to argue over the def. W2 is NOT similar to Bethesda or Rock Star style open world games, were there is freedom to go wereever, back track,etc,etc. That is what I like, W2 is not that. I don't think W2 is a bad game because of it, its just not my type of game whatever you want to call it.

Now perhaps instead of trying to convince me its an open world game, you can try a different approach to get me to want to play W2, give me a link to details about the mod kit. Because I love mods. And I am asking because I thought I read there are releasing a mod kit for the game, I don't mean modding like the TW2 4 member mod community. I mean legit mod community because of a real mod kit.

Bethesda redefined what an Open World is, others should follow suit or stop use the term so loosely.

I think a better term to make the distinction would be, Beth games are "open map", as in, once the player goes out on the main map, the player can travel the entire area of the map unrestricted, whereas in Witcher you cannot do that. The game map is broken down in ( I think) 3 sections, and while these sections are huge and have no "pathing" (ie, you can move freely around the entire area of that section of the map depending on terrain, of course) it is definitely not open map: you go to one sectoin, then the next. I don't know how is going to work in W2, but in W1, the story set up this behavior.

I would say that Beth defined what a open world is when is comes to rpgs. And Rockstar for action/adventure. These two company's really brought open world type gameplay to the masses.

Agreed , now i see the light , no other game should be named , indeed there are no other open world games there is only TES and we all must bow down! ty Bethesda Gods and creators of RPG games :bowdown:

By that def all the old the Final Fantasy games up to 9 would qualify though you generally need to get the airship for unrestricted travel, still a bit to close to me.

Just a few final links specifically referring to The Witcher 2 as an open world. I'm certainly not the only one:
http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings/preview/the-witcher-2-offers-immense-choice-also-six/a-2010071311153902003/g-20100323131251436086
http://thisismyjoystick.com/interviews/previewinterview-the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings/
http://www.gamefront.com/the-witcher-2-dev-diary-5/
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-witcher-2/1163558p1.html

I think you will like this thread on The Witcher 2 forums:
http://tw2.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=31173.0

You speak truly, brother. :bowdown:

Thanks dude! LIke I said even if we don't agree about the open world stuff. I still have at least some interest in W2 just not enough to play it, but with the links you just gave me perhaps I will change my mind, I can't wait to read them. But right now I got to go, I am very tired and must sleep for a bit. But I will check out these articles later tonight. As I said before one of the reason I was on here was I hope someone would have a counter to my "can't backtrack" link, not open, does not interest me,blah,blah. Which is looks like you have provided in your articles. Especially the one about the SDK, I have read nothing about that yet and mods are more important than a Beth style open world to me.

Actually the first true open world game I ever played was Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra(1991). It remembers what monsters you've killed in what area's, you can save almost anywhere and the outside world space is all interconnected and fully explorable at lvl 1. That doesn't mean it's not still linear though and that is how Beth redefined it.


I bow to you good sir for unrivaled professional grade extremist sarcasm. Well done.

its funny how so many people didnt see that Sir Drake was being uber sarcastic

I'm sad to say it, but with any forum, there will always be a small group of avid "fan boys" that will defend the game title to the very end, with or without evidence to support them. It is the mentality of "BGS can do no wrong," "These are the best graphics ever for a game," "I won't even consider this game because Skyrim will obviously be better," that truly scares me sometimes. Now BGS is my favorite game developer along side BioWare, but I'm not about to disregard other great games just because Skyrim is coming.

Is there an official TW2 forum?

Have fun.

http://tw2.thewitcher.com/forum/

Witcher 2 is a linear game (despite what they claim, sometimes even using the word "open world". It's not open world). End of story.

This is true. Witcher 2 will not use Radiant AI or Radiant Story, which answers the OP's original question.

I would agree with the OP that Witcher 2 is a non-linear game, and the main quest of Witcher 2 will most likely be more non-linear in nature than the main quest of Skyrim.

I'm not sure whether Witcher 2 would be considered open world or not, the overall map looks like it will be much smaller than Skyrim, and there are "regions" that you visit and I don't know if you can keep going back and forth to these different regions throughout the entire game. Some locations are only unlocked based on your actions in the earlier part of the game.

In any case, I'm sure both games will be lots of fun but they are not really competing with each other in the marketplace since their release dates are so far apart.

They're less than 6 months apart.

We don't know until 11.11.11 since we wont really know how anything in Skyrim plays before then.

Hopefully we'll see live gameplay by then.

The overwhelming majority of sales for any game is during the first 6-8 weeks of release.

Maybe a few people might not buy one or the other, but the number of people making a purchase decision in November who will be considering Witcher 2 will be very small. The vast majority of buyers will purchase it before July 17.

I don't think a live gameplay demo would be able to show off everything about the radiant story and A.I judging by what we do know so I still think we will have to wait for 11.11.11 since they will probably want to show more of the game than just this.