Witcher 3 Gameplay from GDC and PAX

[Rawls]

super easy mode again?! (wyvern was a cakewalk)

I think most of your concerns are valid (though a few are really a matter of preference). However, on this one I think it can be explained because its a gameplay viewing at a conference. They aren't going to show us a epicly challenging fight that lasts for 20 minutes because they want to show several different elements in as few minutes as possible. Rather than showcase one element (such as combat) they want to show setting, dialogue, quest design, investigation and battle all in one 8 minute video. I think that's why they are playing with a very high level character. Just so they can show off as much as they can as quickly as possible. It is after all only a one hour panel.

 

[Scholdarr.452]

Many comments here really scared me. Hard-core PC players community howling at grass tufts ? Really ?
I'm wondering, reading all these (often ludicrous) negative reviews, what the devs are thinking about this community. Some people are crying about grass growing through little rocks in a cave ? About not having enough dynamics shadows with the grass ? It's insane, that's all I can say.

I agree. There are much bigger issues than the level of detail of grass and minor graphical diffferences. Like the overwhelming dumbing down everywhere and the apparent overusage of bad mechanics like Witcher senses....

 

[truthinoneword]

I am ready for the Witcher 3.

View attachment 11037

 

[n0rv]

Xbox happened

Nope. It's PC.
https://twitter.com/Bacon_is_life/status/574285822624727040

 

[minicrom]

I agree. There are much bigger issues than the level of detail of grass and minor graphical diffferences. Like the overwhelming dumbing down everywhere and the apparent overusage of bad mechanics like Witcher senses....

Agreed. It's not max setting. It's the only thing we can say right now and which is official. So to all downgrade fan I suggest we start talking of something important and interesting before we give to CDPR the idea of making a game about us who would be called "The Bitchers" (not my joke but I don't remember where I read it and I laughed)

---------- Updated at 11:55 PM ----------

Nope. It's PC.
https://twitter.com/Bacon_is_life/status/574285822624727040

Well that's settled then no worries to have.

 

[Phinnway]

I agree. There are much bigger issues than the level of detail of grass and minor graphical diffferences. Like the overwhelming dumbing down everywhere and the apparent overusage of bad mechanics like Witcher senses....

About the Witcher senses. I agree that they're bad; I complained about them a few pages back. But some people pointed out a couple things to me.
(1) The Witcher senses are probably one of those features they had really big plans for that got cut, and now we're stuck with this watered-down version. So even though they suck, they're probably not what the REDs wanted them to be.
(2) You do have to look at the clue for a few seconds before the red highlights appear. And someone pointed out that, with all the other things your Witcher sense will pick up, you will have to listen to what Geralt says to know exactly what to look for. So even though it's still handholding it's probably not quite as heavy-handed as they devs make it look in the gameplay demo.

 

[Sigma_Primaris]

I agree. There are much bigger issues than the level of detail of grass and minor graphical diffferences. Like the overwhelming dumbing down everywhere and the apparent overusage of bad mechanics like Witcher senses....

I don't share this point of view, to me it's not dumbed down because I mostly play games like this for story and immersion only (not for testing my skills in hard difficulty for example). And I absolutely don't want to miss any quests or piece of content, so if some exclamation points on a minimap and the witcher sense tickles you, I personnaly will make the choice to use these dumbed-down mechanics when I need them, if I need them. I hope you will have the possibility to preserve yourself from using them.
And I presume you wasn't talking about this oversimplified combat against the wyvern, because it's certainly just for the demo.

 

[Garrison72]

Nope. It's PC.
https://twitter.com/Bacon_is_life/status/574285822624727040

Then MS slapping their XBOX logo on that youtube vid is bullshit.

 

[AndreasZ94]

The game looks amazing. Only complain i have is that a few textures especially some of the grass and trees in the distance look blurry and not as sharp as the 35 min demo. Also I think the footage is 99% on pc high settings. But an official confirmation would be nice. I understand they will probably not say for marketing purposes but it is a little frustrating having to wait ultil May to see what all three versions actually look like. I don't want to get excited about the game looking this good only to find out the game looks considerably worse on consoles and i don't just mean visually but also in terms of framerate, screentearing, pop in etc.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

That doesn't really answer the question. It would but only if we knew if the wyvern was a few levels below Geralt in the vid. If no the fight would be super disappointing for "mini-boss" fight...

Again, I don't get the purpose of showing off such fights. I want to see just ONE great fight in a video, a fight in which Geralt really has to be careful, a fight in which he almost dies. A fight without super easy mode, a fight without Geralt being 10 levels above enemies or whatever. Just REAL gameplay, you know. That PR stuff "only for the looks" is just meh imo.

Chill.. see that when you play it on Hard at home alone, if they show people that TW3 is only as hard as Dark Souls. Well..I myself would be like nope to hard, they want all kinds of gamers to play TW3, new and old. I say they could show some pre-recorded footage on hardest difficulty, and specify that up front so gamers like you can stop having a cow lol.. It would be cool and fun to watch though, no offence and please don't have a cow after reading my post, I'm just messin with ya

 

[Phinnway]

Then MS slapping their XBOX logo on that youtube vid is bullshit.

In that case, when the game launches maybe people will yell "DOWNGRADE!!!!" at Microsoft instead of CDPR.

 

[Mohasz]

(...) But some people pointed out a couple things to me.
(1) The Witcher senses are probably one of those features they had really big plans for that got cut, and now we're stuck with this watered-down version. So even though they suck, they're probably not what the REDs wanted them to be. (,,,)

I'm really starting to believe that's exactly the case, though we may never know the truth. We'll have to live with that I guess, whatever.

 

[thislsmadness]

The default position is to disclose which platform footage you put out is on. Period. The burden, the onus of an explanation lies with those failing to meet this standard, a standard that's upheld in every other area of business, but that for whatever reasons some are willing to suspend against their best interests as consumers on this very specific occasion.

Who is lying about what platform its running on? CDPR has told us what every one of these trailers have been running on. And every single time its been PC footage on high settings. Logic would dictate that this trailer would be the same.

Let's not have semantics get in the way. Game looks very good and yet perceivably less stellar than what the VGX and SoD trailers suggested. Because when people watched them for the first time they took them to be representative of the overall fidelity in the game. That was a fair and reasonable assumption. Now, it's highly probable those VGX and SoD assets will be there in the game alright, exactly as they were originally shown, as Marcin promised.

But what footage morsel after footage seems to corroborate is that they're not representative of the overall, typical texture, geometry, shadow and AO quality in the game. Maybe that's not what a downgrade is. You can call it Kentucky Fried Chicken, for all I care.

There has been roughly 150minutes of footage that has been released since the SoD trailer. And we're not even talking about a large space of time. Literally, the next day after that trailer they got on stage with MS and showed off 5minutes of uninterrupted play. They made the tour to other E3 locations the same day with an expanded 10minutes of footage. A month after that they gave us a 35minute playthrough. Then we got two separate playthroughs of that same sequence in different languages. Then Elder Blood trailer. Then the 15minutes in January, then the compressed to hell GDC footage, and now another 8minutes. I wont even mention the dozen of screen shots that have been posted.

Continuing to hold on to the perception that the entirely of the game would look like that 1.5 minute VGX trailer when there is, literally 100times as much footage to contradict that notion? That is not reasonable, caveat emptor has to kick in at some point.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

Then MS slapping their XBOX logo on that youtube vid is bullshit.

Well that's not cool is it, well fuck an A... I hope the XB1 gameplay looks and plays that good by May, or that is a bullshit move hmm.. guess we will see soon enough

 

[Rudoli]

That doesn't really answer the question. It would but only if we knew if the wyvern was a few levels below Geralt in the vid. If no the fight would be super disappointing for "mini-boss" fight...

Again, I don't get the purpose of showing off such fights. I want to see just ONE great fight in a video, a fight in which Geralt really has to be careful, a fight in which he almost dies. A fight without super easy mode, a fight without Geralt being 10 levels above enemies or whatever. Just REAL gameplay, you know. That PR stuff "only for the looks" is just meh imo.

Take a look at this video then, If you don't want to watch the whole thing thing then just skip towards 23:50 to see the werewolf fight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlq2t91ZUGw&ab_channel=cdp.pl

 

[thislsmadness]

I don't know why anyone is surprised by MS posting PC trailers on their youtube. They've been doing it for many years.

 

[TheEvilChris]

It was not my intention to annoy anyone with my previous comment. I had thought it done with a lighthearted tone, but I do apologize to anyone I offended.

Heck, if the thing that stood out as "the worst" in the video is that the grass doesn't look good (and I know there are other complaints, I read the thread) then that is not a bad thing at all. To those who don't like the grass (or Witcher senses or inventory layout or whichever complaint you have) hopefully you will see improvements in what you currently dislike before the game is done and we certify and it's done. This was by no means the final build of the game, we're still polishing, refining, fixing, etc. Hopefully the grass, or whatever you disliked in this video, is improved to you being happy or at least accepting of it's final state. I can say that my years in gaming has told me we will ABSOLUTELY not make 100% of the people 100% happy about 100% of everything. Everyone has their own opinion about what is great, good, good enough or bad. We are working to make Wild Hunt the very best game it can be for the most people who play it, but I know we will not make a 100% perfect game (I personally don't believe any company has ever made one), but we are working to make it as close to 100% for the most players as possible. Heck, people can't agree on what the best flavor of ice cream or best pizza topping is, having everyone agree on what is or isn't "the best" (or even "teh ok") in something as complex as a video game is nigh impossible.

Oh, and one last thing. This really should go via a private message, but I do not want it construed as a threat because it isn't one and I want it out in the open. I don't especially mean to criticize this person, but he/she is the most recent person to use this term here, so I am calling them out:
To Spiritshard (and any that feel this way) - The downgrade thread was closed by a moderator, but I fully support that they closed it. It was closed because it had outlived its usefulness and had the same few people saying the same things. If you perceive this a censorship you really need to have a better understanding of what actual censorship is. Stopping people on page 2 complaining of a downgrade and not letting them voice their opinions is censorship, letting people give their opinion for days in a thread that reaches 300 pages is not. Letting people such as yourself who have clearly stated they will not be buying the game still come here to complain is not censorship. Banning you or preventing you from posting would be censorship. We aren't doing that because we hope you (and everyone else who isn't currently planning on buying the game) will change your mind and try Wild Hunt when it comes out. And we want to hear what you dislike as we value the feedback, pro and con, as we finish the game. This IS a free exchange of ideas. This isn't censorship.

If you (or anyone)want to discuss it with me further, lets take it to private message. I am happy to discuss the point if you disagree.

Thanks folks

Edit: Oh. And I honestly don't know whether this was PC or Xbox footage. It was recorded at the studio and I haven't had time (what with being at PAX and it being a weekend) to find out and give you an answer. I'll try though.

 

[gregski]

Then MS slapping their XBOX logo on that youtube vid is bullshit.

Maybe they slapped their logo on the video in case people start reposting it from there. It's not like it says - "Xbox Footage".

And now after Damien said it's most likely PC on high, this might actually resemble the final Xbox quality as devs stated many times they are targeting PC-high-like specs on consoles. Which, if that's the case, is actually pretty impressive for Xbox one(final resolution notwithstanding).

So it's MS being on the edge but still, not really crossing the line. More like missing it for a few milimeters

 

[Master_Dandelion]

@TheEvilChris To be honest that previous comment was extremely true and I like you for the honesty. It's such untypical for DEVs to let the emotions go.
You have nothing to be ashamed of.

The game itself reminds me of Gothic series I'm almost dying to roam the world
The one thing I would change is that the world is too beautiful( Yeah i know, silly). I remember that Sapkowski's world was rather greyish.

 

[truthinoneword]

About the Witcher senses. I agree that they're bad; I complained about them a few pages back. But some people pointed out a couple things to me.
(1) The Witcher senses are probably one of those features they had really big plans for that got cut, and now we're stuck with this watered-down version. So even though they suck, they're probably not what the REDs wanted them to be.
(2) You do have to look at the clue for a few seconds before the red highlights appear. And someone pointed out that, with all the other things your Witcher sense will pick up, you will have to listen to what Geralt says to know exactly what to look for. So even though it's still handholding it's probably not quite as heavy-handed as they devs make it look in the gameplay demo.

At least it doesn't turn the screen into this.

View attachment 11040


Detective mode, or ruin puzzle mode, or WALL HACK GET OWNED SCRUBS. Is one of the weirdest, and mystifying trends I have seen in gaming. A gameplay mode that gives absolute situational awareness for free. From a gameplay perspective its awful, but from a stupid I am so cool because I can see through walls for no apparent fucking reason, it's awesome. So my feelings are a little mixed about it as far as features go.