There is no point covering The Witcher 3 as a game, there are a ton of reviews in the wild and they are glowing in their praise for one of the best games of all-time.
However, the Switch version has seen a lot of pre-release criticism, without the game having yet been played, based entirely on promotional and off-screen footage. Many have called the game out on the visual downgrades as well as the inevitable performance issues.
Others though have defended the game stating how it is a miracle the game even runs on a Switch, considering it suffered from performance issues on both Xbox One and PS4.
Lines have been drawn in the sand and you are supposed to pick a side. However there are some of us who don’t really care, it is another good game on The Switch and that is all that matters.
Now that isn’t to say the game should be free of criticism, as there are issues for sure and I am not blind to them, even if I don’t feel like they effect me as much as they do others (it was the same with Borderlands 2 on Vita). The drops in FPS and visual fidelity should be pointed out for sure, but it also shouldn’t be the be all and end all with the game.
The Witcher 3 on Switch seems to be the scapegoat for all ports of any game. If it isn’t perfect then it must be hung, drawn and quartered, tarred and feathered, or any other kind of public humiliation that befits some performance issues, or lack or perfection.
As someone who suffers from mental health issues (took me a while to get to my point didn’t it?), I just don’t see why we need to get hung up on little things. We should forgive the little things, if the overall experience is a good one.
It is one of the things I was taught, when it comes to handling my own issues. I don’t need to be perfect in every area, no one person is, but the sum of my parts is what makes me… well, me.
I would and still do, compare myself to others in ways I shouldn’t. I write about games, but only on the side, yet I compare myself to the best writers out there and drop into a depressive state of mind, when I see they are better than me.
I do the same as a graphic designer, a coach, a father. I do the same when it comes to money, class and everything in life. I compare myself to the best and hate myself when I fall short.
That isn’t ok, that isn’t how one should live life. I know that and I can tell myself that until I am blue in the face and internally I will ignore it and let the other negative voices have a bigger effect on me.
But I can project the positive vibes onto others in a way I cannot do for myself. I’ll get back to The Witcher 3 in a little bit, but I also coach my son’s football (soccer for US readers) team. They are the bottom tier within the club, sitting in the bottom league. Yet I can lift them by letting them know they are doing their best at their level and that is fine, they can improve little by little and that comparing theirselves to the top teams, let alone professional teams is a pointless act and can only ever lead to failure and disappointment.
They need to look at those around their level and aim to be better than them and them only. That will see improvement and potential success, only then should they look at the next level.
They can play using the same philosophies of the top teams (which we do), but we cannot expect the same results, because they aren’t paid to train every day with the best facilities. We learn to do the best we can with the tool we have.
Again, I can tell that to everyone else, as I know that is the right way to look at things, I just can’t do that for myself.
So what does this have to do with games such as The Witcher 3 on Switch?
Well, if we all look at games like this for what they are, doing the best they can, with the tools to hand, we should get less worked up and angry about the little things and concentrate on what brings joy.
The Witcher 3 has minor… yes in the grand scheme of things, they are minor, issues. It doesn’t look anywhere near as pretty as a beefed up PC version, but then it doesn’t have to. It has frame-rate dips in busier areas and overall it is a ‘lesser’ version than other releases of the game.
Yet in my time with it already I am finding joy, I am playing an all-time classic on a handheld and it feels wonderful. So anything that brings joy to us should be celebrated, not picked apart for the litte things as a stick to beat it with.
If we could all learn to be a bit more forgiving with the litle things, with games, our sports teams, movies, celebrities, tv shows and most importantly, other people. Then the world can be a much better place and maybe, just maybe… we can feel a bit better about ourselves.
I love what you’ve written. If we didn’t put ourselves and others under such pressure we could all have a much better time of it. Consumerist society seems to demand that we be discontent, it’s all a bit of a sham really. Don’t sweat about stuff that is ultimately meaningless. Abraham Lincoln once gave his interpretation of the famous Persian adage which says it well – “An Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!” – Not to say that the Switch version of Witcher 3 is an affliction of coarse 🙂
“of course”
Pingback: Overwatch: Wrestling With My Moral Compass | Mental Health Gaming