The Witcher 3 bestrides our list of the best PC games to play today, and also ranks high on the best RPGs of all time, so it's always interesting to learn more about its influences. Our colleagues over at TechRadar did just that when they asked the developers at CD Projekt Red to name their favorite PC games of all time. The Witcher 3 was presumably out of the running for this question, or the devs were humble enough to pick different games.
Lead level designer Mateusz Piaskiewicz got nostalgic for Quake, saying that making Quake levels in the '90s helped him get a job in game development. But it's the comments on old RPGs that are especially interesting.
"Gothic II is one of my all-time-favorites on PC—it's one of my first RPG games, and one of most the immersive RPGs I played," said principal narrative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz. "I remember that I was very surprised how every NPC had their own place in the world; how they reacted to various player actions like entering their houses, taking their things, or even just unsheathing your weapon in front of them. This, plus the right combination of immersive gameplay systems, made the world feel alive and believable—you wouldn’t just enter a UI-based crafting panel and craft a sword like you do nowadays, you would heat up the metal first, then form it on an anvil, then heat it in bucket of water, and later sharpen it on a grindstone."
Game director Konrad Tomasziewicz, meanwhile, called out Ultima VII: The Black Gate as the game that made him want to develop RPGs. Check out the full article for more insight from the Witcher 3's dev team.
Witcher 3 dataminers detail the enormous scrapped questline that would have brought back The Witcher 2's best character, and maybe saved the game from its worst bit of writing
Witcher 3 modders datamine a quest where Geralt would have teleported to Night City from Cyberpunk 2077: 'Technologically advanced, but broken. Dying.'
