The Witcher 3 Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Roguey]

Combat system: three big changes to solve the problem of being locked into long animations
- Every button press mapped to a single strike
- Each move takes a roughly equivalent time to perform
- Can always interrupt your current action to immediately dodge or block

- One idea: players could access their long-term storage stash from their horse as well as from inns

OMG it's awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome

Day one enhanced edition purchase.

Didn't Skyrim costed 100 million dollars to make? They are making not only one openworld game but two openworld games, how they did found so much potatoes to finance two huge projects?

As Dexter noted, it's all about the exchange rate. Skyrim and Witcher 2 were both made by teams of about 100 but Witcher 2 gets to be much cheaper in US dollars. So of course they want those multiplatform American dollars when $60 is 185 PLN considering new games in Poland are 90 PLN (yeah they don't get the entire $60 but still).

 

[Darth Roxor]

EDIT: I'm surprised it will fall to a Brazilian the responsibility of saying this itt: KURWA!

KUR-WO-DA

 

[logrus]

Combat system: three big changes to solve the problem of being locked into long animations
- Every button press mapped to a single strike
- Each move takes a roughly equivalent time to perform
- Can always interrupt your current action to immediately dodge or block

- One idea: players could access their long-term storage stash from their horse as well as from inns

OMG it's awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome

Day one enhanced edition purchase.

Didn't Skyrim costed 100 million dollars to make? They are making not only one openworld game but two openworld games, how they did found so much potatoes to finance two huge projects?

As Dexter noted, it's all about the exchange rate. Skyrim and Witcher 2 were both made by teams of about 100 but Witcher 2 gets to be much cheaper in US dollars. So of course they want those multiplatform American dollars when $60 is 185 PLN considering new games in Poland are 90 PLN (yeah they don't get the entire $60 but still).

It really depends on a game, a lot of the new AAA+++ titles are sold for more than 100 PLN. I remember cases when it was cheaper for me to grab a UK release from British Amazon instead of buying the localized version, new Blizzard games are NEVER cheap, etc.

 

[Bruticis]

Found a few mag scans floating around

 

[Rahdulan]

I like. Let's just hope they get the horse animations right because I can probably count on one hand how many games did.

 

[Gerrard]

I like how they think "20% bigger than Skyrim" is impressive.

If they said "20% smaller than Just Cause 2" then we'd have something.

 

[Tehdagah]

In-game?

 

[Bruticis]

It appears to be in game, yes. Looks like they are still using speedtree which is horrible.

 

[Multidirectional]

It does look in-game. Probably a QTE fight.

 

[sea]

Why is SpeedTree horrible? Those trees look great to me. Best-looking part of that screenshot.

As predicted, game is graphically stunning, will probably be a dumbed down hack and slash with boobs. I'm sure it'll still be good but yeah, I don't think this will compete even come close to competing with Skyrim in terms of RPG mechanics.

 

[Bruticis]

I don't find SpeedTree to look realistic at all. They may look OK in screenshots but while playing they look terrible as soon as you get close to them.

 

[Average Manatee]

Like Morrowind, for example. It's a much smaller landmass than something like Skyrim

No it isn't.

Yes it is: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1264541-skyrimoblivionmorrowind-heightmap-comparison/

So much for the "world is getting smaller and smaller with each installment" narrative
For some reason Morrowind feels bigger to me. Maybe because of the slow walking speed lol.

Skyrim and Oblivion are 99% literal open world with no major obstacles, so you can literally go from point A to point B, pointing yourself in the right direction and placing an item to hold down the forward key. Morrowind is a labyrinthian series of passages through mountains, so the actual time you'll spend navigating is much longer.

 

[Average Manatee]

I don't find SpeedTree to look realistic at all. They may look OK in screenshots but while playing they look terrible as soon as you get close to them.

The point isn't to look realistic. The point is to be fast because lol consoles.

The trees in that screenshot look much better than normal though. But that may be because Next Gen™ consoles are being developed for now

 

[Metro]

'Open world' requires the ability to climb.

Fixed that for you.

For CD Projekt, baby steps. I'll take the ability to hop over a fence versus having to run around some inconvenient on-rails path.

'Open world' requires the ability to run.

Fixed that for you.

Modified that for you.

Uh, no. Go back to your MMOs, dude.

 

[Average Manatee]

I don't think this will compete even come close to competing with Skyrim in terms of RPG mechanics.

I would never imagine that this phrase could be uttered on the codex. 2013: Skyrim sets the bar to be beat.

 

[Carrion]

Skyrim and Oblivion are 99% literal open world with no major obstacles, so you can literally go from point A to point B, pointing yourself in the right direction and placing an item to hold down the forward key. Morrowind is a labyrinthian series of passages through mountains, so the actual time you'll spend navigating is much longer.

It's exactly the opposite. In Morrowind you can just cast Levitate and take a beeline to wherever you want to go. It's Skyrim where the mountains are constantly blocking your way and you have to take the same tediously long paths all the time.

 

[Metro]

Who cares about the trees, anyway? Just symptomatic about what's wrong with games today: too much focus on REALIZTIK GRAPHUXXX meanwhile you'll probably end up running around on delineated paths. My guess is it'll be about as 'open world' as Amalur which is acceptable for a circa 2005ish MMORPG but not a 2013 single player ARPG. I'd rather have trees that looked like shit but meaningful exploration.

 

[hiver]

I don't think this will compete even come close to competing with Skyrim in terms of RPG mechanics.

Im kinda curious what you mean by this exactly?

I presume you refer to secondary RPG mechanics, right? Like different skills, weapons, few different kinds of magic and so on?

 

[sea]

I would never imagine that this phrase could be uttered on the codex. 2013: Skyrim sets the bar to be beat.

I'm serious too. The Witcher 2 was... not good at all, as an RPG, even if I thought it was a good game overall. I don't see this being any better, especially given CD Projekt are primarily concerned with boob rendering these days.

I presume you refer to secondary RPG mechanics, right? Like different skills, weapons, few different kinds of magic and so on?

Yeah. The Witcher 2 had a decent skill tree, but all the stats were abstracted out to the point where you didn't even have to partake in the character system, just roll around a lot and pick a sword with more damage numbers on it. The speech skills were a joke, you use one enough times and get better at it to the point where it always works, forcing you to just pick the same option every time. Even the alchemy system was dumbed down a bit. At least Skyrim has decent perks, skill leveling, choice of attributes to increase, and less black-and-white equipment system. It's a pretty low bar, although I only brought it up because CD Projekt seem very eager to compare their game to Skyrim directly.

 

[Infinitron]

So, how much do you want to bet that Witcher 3's install directory will mysteriously contain Gamebryo-specific file names and directories?

 

[Average Manatee]

Skyrim and Oblivion are 99% literal open world with no major obstacles, so you can literally go from point A to point B, pointing yourself in the right direction and placing an item to hold down the forward key. Morrowind is a labyrinthian series of passages through mountains, so the actual time you'll spend navigating is much longer.

It's exactly the opposite. In Morrowind you can just cast Levitate and take a beeline to wherever you want to go. It's Skyrim where the mountains are constantly blocking your way and you have to take the same tediously long paths all the time.

I'm just considering walking time. Otherwise we have to also consider fast travel, which makes Skyrim and Oblivion seem pathetic (Hell, Daggerfall too, and is anyone going to complain that Daggerfall is small?). Though if you want to go 100% exploit then Morrowind takes the cake with 1000 acrobatics potions.

 

[Average Manatee]

I would never imagine that this phrase could be uttered on the codex. 2013: Skyrim sets the bar to be beat.

I'm serious too. The Witcher 2 was... not good at all, as an RPG, even if I thought it was a good game overall. I don't see this being any better, especially given CD Projekt are primarily concerned with boob rendering these days.

Ohh I agree, I just think that if you need to reach as low as Skyrim you should just give up on the RPG label entirely. Might as well say that the next CoD is in danger of being slightly less of an RPG than Skyrim.

 

[MicoSelva]

I would play an open world witcher game even if it was a straight TPSlasher game. It's like a fullfilment of all my dreams from back when I was 14 years old. I am still hoping for some decent RPG mechanics, though, even if 90% of them comes from item management, as I don't have much hope for a decent character system anymore, after the two misses in TW1 and TW2.

Although if there actually is level-scaling in the game, someone will be burned alive.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Skyrim and Oblivion are 99% literal open world with no major obstacles, so you can literally go from point A to point B, pointing yourself in the right direction and placing an item to hold down the forward key. Morrowind is a labyrinthian series of passages through mountains, so the actual time you'll spend navigating is much longer.

It's exactly the opposite. In Morrowind you can just cast Levitate and take a beeline to wherever you want to go. It's Skyrim where the mountains are constantly blocking your way and you have to take the same tediously long paths all the time.

I'm just considering walking time. Otherwise we have to also consider fast travel, which makes Skyrim and Oblivion seem pathetic (Hell, Daggerfall too, and is anyone going to complain that Daggerfall is small?). Though if you want to go 100% exploit then Morrowind takes the cake with 1000 acrobatics potions.

Which you had to earn it by working on your skill. Fast travel and Quest compass are cheats for fat Kwan consoltards with 5 minutes long attention spam.

 

[DalekFlay]

Gothic 1+2 and even Risen beat any game made by Bethesda. It depends how much I'll like it if they decide to go the carefully hand-crafted and thought-through Open World style with interesting characters and quests like Piranha Bytes or the "let's fill everything with dragons and caves and shit, even if it's all boring" of Bethesda.

And yet which is incredibly more successful at attracting players?

Looking at Skyrim's sales and MMOs in general I think it is obvious people want quantity over quality when it comes to RPGs. Can't blame CDPR for responding to what people want really, though I guess that has nothing to do with what we wish they did.

Though honestly I thought Skyrim was a step in the right direction for Bethesda and reasonably varied and well designed (world wise).