Is CDPR the most overrated developer?

They haven't released anything I like, but they seem to have some sort of cult following. I never understood the hype behind Cyberpunk, it never looked good to me at all. Now CDPR is offering refunds on the game? I personally think they are a crappy developer, especially by releasing a broken game and then setting the industry standard that refunds are acceptable. This will do the gaming industry no favors, now people will want refunds for every game after they complete it.

Ubisoft. Until they stop selling millions of units of their copy/paste adventures, it shall always be Ubisoft.

Been saying this, and been factually correct for years.

Which is great.

I've always said the same thing. I think Witcher 3 is crap too, but I just kept my mouth shut because I didn't want to hear it from the fans. The CDPR fans are, like I said, some sort of cult following and they are rabid.

To me they are, yes.

Kallie Plagge deserves an apology.

Sure, her reviews are politically motivated activism from far-left indoctrination that still cannot be taken seriously.

But, the actual things people were getting their titties in a twist about, turned out to be more or less correct.

Might as well have spammed "it's soylent green" over multiple paragraphs with "HELP" typed in bold font at the end.

Dumbos giving The Quartering free clicks again.

How embarrassing.

Can't say for certain since I never played any of their games, but now I can say I likely never will.

I rarely preorder and CP2077 was the first one I ever cancelled and I have no regerts.

jeez, do we need to create sticky "CDPR blowback" thread?

Its a pretty competitive field, overrated developers.

Kojima and Naughty Dog would be my picks. (i've felt that way about ND for years, nothing to do with TLOU2)

Bethesda would have been in the conversation but their reputation has really taken a steep dive

I mean, personality wise Kojima does basically come across up his own ass.

But overrated? His contribution to the gaming medium seems significant, to say the least.

I have yet to enjoy any of his games though. and that is what matters

granted I didn't play the classic MGS games, if they ever get remade maybe i'll understand.

Oh man, I really disagree with this one. I don't like the Naughty Dog games, I mean, I can have fun with Uncharted, but I don't have any fun with TLoU. But, the ND games are so polished and well made. Bethesda games, no one makes a better Western RPG. Fallout 4 is my favorite game of the generation.

I haven't thoroughly liked any of Kojima's games since the MGS trilogy. Never even bothered with his walking sim. I don't think he even likes games anymore. Just listen to the pretentious drivel he spouts in CP 2077.

The classic MGS games are why Kojima is so praised. Death Stranding and everything else he's done in the last many years has been mediocre.

yet the games still get glowing reviews.

I think calling him overrated on his last decade of output is fair

But seriously, I suppose you aren't alone since Skyrim sells like mad. But I hard disagree on the quality

A game can be polished and well made and still be overrated.

It is fair, yes. He hasn't made a great game since MGS3, sixteen years ago. I wish the series had ended with MGS3 or 4.

Yeah but that's not the same as a legit broken game. I don't care for Naughty Dog either, but at least they have yet to release a downright busted game.

No a lot of people are enjoying cyberpunk its not overrated

@ProtossRushX: Yeah all the Twitch streamers that made Cyberpunk 2077 their next business plan, sure must be loving it.

@xantufrog: I’ve bought every Elder Scrolls game but haven’t been able to get into a single one, not sure why. Fallout on the other hand, it’s probably my favorite franchise. Fallout 4 is my game of the generation. I’m on my 3rd play through right now, probably spent hundreds of hours in it, and I can’t even remember any major bugs or anything.

I know Bethesda has also been guilty of bugs in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, but to me, they are just so much better, expansive, everything about them is better than a game like Cyberpunk.

I've enjoyed a lot of busted games way more than most of ND's output.

a polished turd is still at turd.

(not that ND's games are turds, they are just mediocre mostly)

They made one critically acclaimed game in The Witcher 3 and people started heralding them as the best dev on the planet.

The Witcher 2 has good writing, great graphics and music but the gameplay sucks.

The Witcher is just bad.

I suppose Thronebreaker and the Gwent Game are pretty good but they’re smaller titles. One fantastic AAA game does not a great developer make.

its at 79% positive on steam.

its a vocal minority screaming on the internet dictating the "its a flop" narrative as usual.

and the terrible, terrible console version.

@arkephonic: I wanted to love FO4 (especially with the Boston setting). I spent a TON of time playing it, but never did finish. My experience was pretty mixed - I think my biggest complaint is that basically every aspect of the game felt too shallow. The leveling system, the base building, the quests. It had the right amount of things to do and systems to use, and the world was at the right scale.

@with_teeth26: Your point is null when the outcry was strong enough to get the dev team to make a public apology. Also the outcry is majorly over the base last gen consoles, not Steam.

Yeah, that makes sense. What works for one person might not work for another. For me personally, there's something about Fallout that really hits me different. I really like scavenging, going into new areas and looting stuff. The fact that all the items are interactive, you can pick them up, move them, take them with you, use them, combined with playing it again in glorious 4k, it's the perfect game for me.

@arkephonic: I do love the world, and the music. Like I said, I'm really torn on it - half of me loved it, if that makes sense :-P

well yea exactly. most people on PC who can actually run the game are enjoying it.

the last-gen console version is a disaster and CD absolutely deserve to take shit for that. Doesn't change the fact a lot of people are really enjoying it on PC.

@with_teeth26: As I've stated early on at the wake of the controversy: it's a shame it's crashing and burning, because underneath all the problems there appears to be a well-intentioned game created by people who were clearly passionate about the project.

My best take a lot of corporate politics, industry pressure and greed is what tanked this piece.

@xantufrog: I think Bethesda became "Burger King'd".

For all their jank and issues stuff like Daggerfall and Morrowind felt like they had a specific identity as to be memorable regardless of their foibles.

Later games like Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim feel like crowd pleasers following trends.

The dragon in Skyrim and Oblivion gates personify that.

What was popular around the time of Oblivion? Lord Of The Rings. Let's make a gate into saurons dimension. People will like that! Give them, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of it.

Lots of it.

What was the most requested thing in Oblivion? Dragons.

Let's remove the actual grandiose, majestic nature of it, where meeting one in a game like Baldurs Gate II feels like something special.

Show the motherfucker immediately, have you fight it within the first 40 minutes, then copy paste that fight until the actual joy of the concept of a dragon is like waiting for a taxi to arrive.

But as you say, critics claps, people bought it in the millions.

So eh, whiny forum users. Nobody cares. Woe.

You're right. I'm sure they really tried hard to make a great game, but it's obvious they tried to get this game out before Christmas for sales and it was just too early. This game clearly needed another 6 months of development or maybe even 1 year.

No mention of Rockstar? Yea their worlds are impressive... but their games are a chore to play - post GTA San Andreas.

The above also describes Witcher 3.

its only crashing on burning on last gen base consoles though.

the majority of sales were on PC. and it sold like hotcakes. It probably doesn't seem like it now but they will come through fine in the end and the game will survive this, albeit with some scars to the reputation.

sounds like its mostly fine on next-gen consoles as well

@uninspiredcup: yeah Morrowind is actually one of my favorite WRPGs - despite its jank, from Morrowind it's a hard fall in my esteem to Skyrim. There's plenty I'd change if making it for myself, of course, but I still play Morrowind off and on to this day along with other old classic RPGs.

Like you said, though - people gobbled Skyrim up (including me, technically, since I bought it and gave them money...) so at the end of the day I'm just an angry nerd in some backwater of the web ranting about how guilds and magic crafting are implemented :-P

I dunno if they are the most over rated but they are in the conversation. Good characters and stories. Mediocre combat. Lots of wasted exploration time and going back and forth.

Similar to the movie games. Great presentation, better game play please.

I always find it funny how gaming vultures swoop in at the the first mistake or chance they get at any popular game, developer or publisher.

To me, yes. Not because of Cyberpunk either.

I see them as being up there with ND and Rockstar. Not to say all of these studios games are straight up bad, some range from average to good. Just weird seeing the gaming Jesus treatment when so many games that play significantly better get overshadowed.

I do understand that people play games for reasons other than gameplay, just weird seeing these types of games being considered "all time greats" for the medium.

@xantufrog: Please do this is getting daft most of these like this are not even system wars threads

They turned into a publically traded game company and became trash. Just like blizzard.

Game devs should try to stick to the valve route if possible.

Ubisoft is the king of crap

Same. The case with many older games.

It's kind of hard to quantify, and it is a meme, but do believe their is such a thing as "soul" when it comes to games.

A lot of these older games, were smaller teams in rooms, with far more limited resources and a far more specified audience. Many of them geeks themselves devoid of influence and expectations now.

Something like Gothic, on paper, is straight up fuckin' bad in so many ways and took me 3 attempts for it to click compared to something like Skyrim, yet ultimately opt to play it over a Skyrim run any-day.

No I don't think so, they are very passionate and (well, generally) good devs that make great games. To me they deserved the praise they got... that is before the botched release of CP2077. Every good dev hits a snag eventually I guess.

Everyone views games differently. I highly value atmosphere, world building, story, and immersion. I know you are very interested in gameplay and mechanics which of course are important. I know you praise DMC5. I am playing it right now and it is highly over rated. The story structure is disjointed and the level/environment design is weak. The combat has depth to it if you want to mix things up, but you can also just mash buttons and play the game without issue. It sucks not being able to switch the devil breakers on the fly. It can also feel clunky and the camera is terrible. It doesn't even have proper rotation. The presentation is too over the top with all the flashy stuff on the screen which makes it hard to see what is going on. I am on mission 10 right now and the game is a 6/10 so far IMO.

What CDPR has done with GoG is pretty amazing, so no, I wouldn't say they are an overrated publisher-developer. They found their niche and managed to not only compete with, but complement, Valve and Steam. They did it fairly and honestly, too, which is more than I can say for The Epic-Tencent Store (the other big online platform retailer).

With that said, The Witcher series has more or less been CDPR's biggest seller and only seller (for the most part) until now, and it is a good series. Not just the three core games, but Gwent and Thronebreaker as well (I might actually argue that Thronebreaker is better than The Witcher 3, but that's just me).

So I would sooner argue that Cyberpunk is one of the most over-hyped games ever, but I don't think CDPR is overrated.

Yes, damn those who are affording you more options as consumer, what an abhorrent precedent to set. How dare they.

I can't speak on the merits of CP2077 specifically as a game as I've yet to play it, but give me a break. CDPR isn't my favorite developer, but I support them for being one of a few ones out there who offer a great value proposition for their products. In a day an age where you get nothing but a download for $59 from 99% of companies, we got this with the Witcher III:

and this for CP2077:

This standard edition gives some collector's editions a run for their money. They have a following for a reason, from those who actually have some appreciation for a developer who takes the extra mile when they need not.

@BassMan:

Sure. Not like DMC5 is my top game, just a game I like lol. Don't even post about it much, probably have me mixed up with Champ.

As for specifics, if you're on mission 10, you've only just gotten your hands on the main character. And don't have the full kit for any character. Like most action games, these aren't one n done affairs, you're still in the tutorial run. Won't even begin to peel the layers back for a good while.

And yeah, you can mash it out on normal. There are 4 difficulties past that, can't mash through DMD and beyond. That being said, DMC isn't Ninja Gaiden, Bayo, TW101, etc. It's not about kicking your ass, it's about you styling with the deepest set of mechanics in action based gaming. Player expression takes priority over raw efficiency.

Anyways, I'll always appreciate a game that provides enough range for stuff like this:

Clunky 😂

Enjoy your CDPR combat my guy. 👍

Nah, Rockstar, ND and Kojima in that order. At least Kojima has good game design and mechanics with MGS V and to a lesser extent 4. Can't even say that about Rockstar and ND.

CDPR just made one AAA game to be precise which was a huge hit: Witcher 3. Outside of that, their projects were budget titles.

@ConanTheStoner: Yeah, I don't care for multiple runs. I just want to play through the game and move onto the next game. I have way too many games to play.