Twig

I read something on a forum somewhere that said it was just a working title. Ah, here: http://forums.eidosgames.com/showpost.php?p=987112&postcount=7 But that was a year ago.

I dunno, a good number of the ones I remember had nothing to do with danger. The ones that did tended to be a bit more involved than I think you're making them out to be. I agree that the writing could be stronger, but I disagree that "He's a womanizer in action only since his words never fit the mould." Though I do remember in the second chapter (I think) walking into a house and talking to the woman there and she was like "i'm so loooonely bone me plz" and I laughed out loud and then said yes. And then laughed again! The thing is that there are people like this in real life. Few and far between, sure, and the fact that Geralt seems to meet ALL of them in the course of however long the game takes in "real" time is a bit absurd, yes, buuut if that's what he is, then that's what he is. I really need to read the books, though, before I make a fool of myself and someone tells me he doesn't have sex with everything on two legs. Besides, the relationships that were more involved (Shani/Triss, of course, and to a lesser extent Abigail and the vampire brothel owner thing) were much better written (not that this is saying much) than the random encounter booty calls. So... there's that. Also, just to clarify: I wouldn't really care that much if they decided to remove 90% of the sex encounters from the game and just stick with the ones that mattered. As I said before, they were mostly just reason to laugh for me. But where's the fun in talking about something if everyone agrees?

But Geralt is a womanizer. I understand desire for better writing, but it is a part of who Geralt is. It is a part of that world. I don't necessarily think the game is better for it (other than making me laugh), but changing one of Geralt's character traits is not the answer. On the other hand, I've never read the books or short stories or whatever they are. I'm only repeating what I've heard. Perhaps what I've heard is blown out of proportion from what is actually in the stories. I keep meaning to read them, though. ):

Everything I've heard is that it's not out of place at all. Geralt just be big pimpin' in the books (and thus in the game(s)). I think the cards are meant to be humorous. Or at least they make me laugh.

Yeah, I get you. FWIW (and sort of tangentially related to the current discussion!), I recently played through Warrior Within and I am utterly convinced WW's aesthetic was designed with the goal of pissing the player off. I forced myself to play for the platforming, but the art style was almost literally painful to have to look at. I couldn't suspend my "disbelief" (or whatever the appropriate word might be) in that case. Plus, the combat sucked. (In fact, the combat sucks in all of the trilogy.) I guess the game at least has to appeal to me on some base level, which Braid did quite a bit. Also, I suspect that the reason the developers allowed you to run out of rewind power was entirely due to the combat. The combat would be far too easy if you had infinite rewind. In contrast, I don't think I ever once ran out of sand during the platforming sections, unless I was especially hurting from a an immediately preceding fight. If there was no combat, I don't think the limit on rewind would have mattered for most people who've been playing games all their life. In other words, those games would have been much better without the combat. End random tangential rant.

Indeed, I am optimistic given their words. I would have probably bought the sequel regardless, but improvements are always welcome!

This is me saying hi. I play video games and stuff. And one day I will make video games. In fact I recently got accepted to Digipen for my Master's in Computer Science. I hope it pays off and was not a huge mistake. Here's hoping Valve hires my team to make Portal 3. (ha ha ha) This is me saying hi.

That's actually Triss. :3 I am pumped for this game. Just recently (finally) finished the first. If they can fix some of the flaws (oh god constant crash-to-desktops) and improve on existing systems (combat could use some beefing up), it will no doubt surpass the first game. Which I love. Yum.

I never examined Braid's story or writing as closely as some of you have clearly done. I find that if I start tearing things apart, it ends up ruining my enjoyment of just about anything. Not just allegedly pretentious or obviously problematic themes/stories, but anything. I have a pretty keen eye for flaws and inconsistencies if I put my mind to it, but I guess over time I've just developed this super-powered suspension of disbelief that I can apply to almost everything. As a result, I absolutely loved Braid. All of it. :3 That said, while I am interested in The Witness, I need to know more. Immediately after finishing Braid, I said I would play anything else he delivered, but there's just so little to go on!