Interviews and Articles - 2015

[Agent_Bleu]

So we won't see Ultra until the release of the game?

I have to comment here.

Indeed, Damien says it right there we'll only get to see Ultra after the game releases. I do hope this was stage euphoria speaking, a Freudian slip. There is no justification for withholding Ultra gameplay. I am basing off my decision to play on PC or buy me a PS4 on how good Ultra looks. We're 2 and 1/2 months away from release. I take it they're still tweaking Ultra. Now, that's a reasonable explanation and I am perfectly fine with that. On the other hand, the «slap across the face» reference is just coy and silly.

Damien is a great speaker, nonetheless.


As far as animations go, I thought they actually looked smoother compared to the 35 minute demo.

 

[MUPPETA]

To me moving is ok, stiff but that way looks more bad ass,
only red effect when is bitten by wolf is out of place, to much exactly
still no other setting than sunny day, want some clouds and storm in action

 

[Psycroptoxic]

Also, I don't know why but Geralt's animations, especially walking and running look...stiff, like only lower part of his body was moving... In 3rd person perspective game looking at the character should be a pleasure and right now I can't imagine doing this for 100+ hours without cringing.

Actually the jogging animation resembles the one seen in 35 min demo which is great since jogging in the January demo is super stiff and unnatural. Walking and sprinting animations seem to be the same in all 3 videos.

What I'm worried about is the complete lack of jog-to-walk transition animation in both January demo and this video, although whether that animation plays or not might depend on how fast the player changes the stick position. Naturally bringing up the question of how it all works with M+KB.

Weekend is Coming.

 

[Cyrex13.951]

Game looks great, and , like they said, it will look even better on Ultra settings, but I'm very satisfied with this too!
Only thing that catch my eye, is when Geralt encounter those bandits, one bandit is just standing still on that stone bridge, and like he doesn't hear fighting few meters behind him.. Perhaps he has headphones in his ears and listening music form his smartphone

 

[EliHarel]

Animations - they look fine to me, not worse than anything shown before and better at some places. The backwards dodge is much less jarring than the "megaman dash" of the 35 min. We see the new version against the Ekhidnas in the 12 min, and we see it again now against the wolves. Also, I'm not sure if it's wishful thinking\seeing, but I think there are subtle changes to his movement when going up or downhill.

Special effects - purge them with fire. I really dislike the red effect on screen when hit, the projectile trails, the white-or-red sword trails based on light or heavy attack, and there are probably more I don't know about yet. Really, I like my battles with as little artificial additions as possible. Keep it "clean". Let the only effects be those of actual magic.

Combat - I'm still not sure whether blocking is an active (and timed) or passive action by the player. I really hope it's the former. But there wasn't much blocking to go by here. And like some people mentioned, there seems to be 3rd bandit who's oblivious to what's happening, and he's standing just a few meters away.

Highest settings - I find this a bit fishy. The main thing that comes to mind is that they don't anticipate optimizing it before release. Maybe they'll prove me wrong and at May 19 people will really run ultra settings without difficulty if they have the right specs, and they'll get two slaps across the face and a kick in the ass. But I'm skeptical about this.

Misc - I love how the wind moves the environment, and I love how the grass and plants react to Geralt's passage. And that igni in the wind? Downright glorious. I also like how the shadows are stretched due to the sunrise.

 

[chuck_n01]

I little bit strange....We have 27 exp. for killing Wolf (too easy kill) and only 6 exp. for Bandit (a far more dufficult kill)
00

 

[frynse]

Special effects - purge them with fire. I really dislike the red effect on screen when hit, the projectile trails, the white-or-red sword trails based on light or heavy attack, and there are probably more I don't know about yet. Really, I like my battles with as little artificial additions as possible. Keep it "clean". Let the only effects be those of actual magic.

This, this, this.
Some of the minor effects you'll hardly notice, but stuff like BLOODY SCREEN needs to die in its crib.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

I said that a long time ago, no red screen edge effects when we get hit, oh well... they missed it I guess lol.....

 

[thislsmadness]

Animations - they look fine to me, not worse than anything shown before and better at some places. The backwards dodge is much less jarring than the "megaman dash" of the 35 min. We see the new version against the Ekhidnas in the 12 min, and we see it again now against the wolves. Also, I'm not sure if it's wishful thinking\seeing, but I think there are subtle changes to his movement when going up or downhill.

Special effects - purge them with fire. I really dislike the red effect on screen when hit, the projectile trails, the white-or-red sword trails based on light or heavy attack, and there are probably more I don't know about yet. Really, I like my battles with as little artificial additions as possible. Keep it "clean". Let the only effects be those of actual magic.

Combat - I'm still not sure whether blocking is an active (and timed) or passive action by the player. I really hope it's the former. But there wasn't much blocking to go by here. And like some people mentioned, there seems to be 3rd bandit who's oblivious to what's happening, and he's standing just a few meters away.

Highest settings - I find this a bit fishy. The main thing that comes to mind is that they don't anticipate optimizing it before release. Maybe they'll prove me wrong and at May 19 people will really run ultra settings without difficulty if they have the right specs, and they'll get two slaps across the face and a kick in the ass. But I'm skeptical about this.

Misc - I love how the wind moves the environment, and I love how the grass and plants react to Geralt's passage. And that igni in the wind? Downright glorious. I also like how the shadows are stretched due to the sunrise.

I think those "red sword trails" is actually blood on Geralt's sword. Its hard to see but you can almost make out little blood drops when Geralt lands that upward slash. Reminds me of this screen shot:

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

The purple sign,spell magic effects looked kinda cheese. It looked better in the first demos, the purple/white-ish runes glowing on the ground seems good enough, without the extra raised up pointy, bright purple cones Everything else looks fuckin great above and beyond the strange bandit AI and the red attack screen edges and white arrow trails. The mood and graphics look awesome, keep it real reds

 

[EliHarel]

I think those "red sword trails" is actually blood on Geralt's sword. Its hard to see but you can almost make out little blood drops when Geralt lands that upward slash. Reminds me of this screen shot:

Yeah, there was blood trailing after the sword in this video that makes it more difficult to say whether these effects are on or off. When I wrote that I was thinking about the general material shown so far, not just this video. In the 35 min, for example, you see very clearly a red trail when Geralt uses his heavy attack (say, against the tree spirit once it's exposed, and against the shielded bandit in the swamp), and a white when using light attacks.

 

[Vigilance.492]

What I'm worried about is the complete lack of jog-to-walk transition animation in both January demo and this video, although whether that animation plays or not might depend on how fast the player changes the stick position. Naturally bringing up the question of how it all works with M+KB.

The lack of a transition looks a little odd when so many games these days now have the transition, but it remains one of the few aspects of the game which helps remind me that CDPR might still have the "PC First" attitude. Due to the lack of an analog stick, set speeds that you shift between upon different key presses has tended to be something that these days is more-so only used by PC games.
Also I don't think it has anything to do with CDPR being lazy or something like that, because they not only have mo-cap but IK working in a very advanced matter (Maybe not Asscreed level but pretty damn advanced, especially considering this is their very first implementation of it), so they're perfectly capable of implementing a smooth transition system, but the small glimmer of hope is that they didn't because that's how it functions best on PC.

I little bit strange....We have 27 exp. for killing Wolf (too easy kill) and only 6 exp. for Bandit (a far more dufficult kill)
00

Actually the Wolves were level 4, the bandits were 1 & 2.

 

[MkTama]

I'm not worried at all by the graphics, I'm sure that this game, maybe without winning the prize for the best textures and so on (which is simply normal given the open world), will be beautiful on our screen when it's released. Like other said, my only concern is with the animations. Some feel weighted and pretty, some are too stiff IMHO, and in general Geralt seems too much like a tank rather than the agile warrior he sould be. The head disappearing probably is a bug which will be fixed, nothing to worry about

 

[dooot]

The purple sign...

Oh come on. From now on we should call aard - blue sing, igni - red sign and so on

 

[shinstyle]

ugh.. the red screen splash (when hit) is ugly. rest looks absolutely gorgeous!!

 

[Theissar]

I didn't like the red splash either. Up until now it hasn't bothered me to tbh though.

 

[fchopin]

It looks good but I want to see the mouse and keyboard used for a change.

 

[Exentryk]

What if you were being attacked by arrows from behind while in a chaotic group fight? That red light would help people know that they are getting hit.
They could tone it down by using the red light flash just on the HP bar or something tho, and that may be a compromise?

Honestly, it doesn't bother me.

 

[Sken]

What if you were being attacked by arrows from behind while in a chaotic group fight? That red light would help people know that they are getting hit.
They could tone it down by using the red light flash just on the HP bar or something tho, and that may be a compromise?

Honestly, it doesn't bother me.

Or Geralt could react to getting hit instead.

 

[dexter2]

What if you were being attacked by arrows from behind while in a chaotic group fight? That red light would help people know that they are getting hit.
They could tone it down by using the red light flash just on the HP bar or something tho, and that may be a compromise?

Honestly, it doesn't bother me.

Geralt could just stumble and groan. That would be sufficient.