Reviewing the full 35 minute Gamescom 2014 demo

[theta77]

I really liked the part where you talked to the Ealdorman after you had killed the monster. He sounded like a man who accepted his fate and wasn't resentful. Very authentic and interesting for such a minor character.

One of the main themes in The Witcher 3 is shaping fate. Geralt is an outsider, but as usual he can influence other people and make things change. It's realised on many levels - from political scope to personal life. Still, some people won't change, as in real life. Major change requires hard working, putting some efforrt, or just love. I hope You'll appreciate how emotional choices will influence things in the game, because in TW3 the way You deal with loved ones and strangers will have stronger impact on events, than in previous inttallments.

 

[HellKnightX88]

That sounds awesome, thanks for the insight!

 

[Jupiter_on_Mars]

I really liked the part where you talked to the Ealdorman after you had killed the monster. He sounded like a man who accepted his fate and wasn't resentful. Very authentic and interesting for such a minor character.

EDIT: Can someone please provide me with a link for the 5 GB version? I want to start the nitpicking.

One of the main themes in The Witcher 3 is shaping fate. Geralt is an outsider, but as usual he can influence other people and make things change. It's realised on many levels - from political scope to personal life. Still, some people won't change, as in real life. Major change requires hard working, putting some efforrt, or just love. I hope You'll appreciate how emotional choices will influence things in the game, because in TW3 the way You deal with loved ones and strangers will have stronger impact on events, than in previous inttallments.

Yup, that was great. My favourite part in the whole Ealdorman's performance. To those who say he should have shown hesitation before imitating Vincent Van Gogh, that's what the close-up shot of his grip on the dagger is meant to convey. Not really hesitation, more like acceptance, a man coming to terms with his own sacrifice.

Subtle yet powerful.

 

[theta77]

Yup, that was great. My favourite part in the whole Ealdorman performance. To those who say he should have shown hesitation before imitating Vincent Van Gogh, that's what the close-up shot of his grip on the dagger is meant to convey. Not really hesitation, more like acceptance, a man coming to terms with his own sacrifice.

Subtle but powerful.

The idea:
He is the leader of the local community. Protecting his people is his duty. When it comes to dealing with strangers or outer evils, he is the one who has to do it. Ealdorman is a simple man - Geralt doesn't respect him. But then the sacrifice must be done, because there are worse fates than cutting of the ear. And he does the sacrifice - maybe because he is afraid of those evelis, or maybe because he is responsible. Geralt wouldn't do it. And that makes Ealdorman interestning character.

 

[Lyca5050]

10. Again, Gran’s VA is superb. But I don't fancy Johnny's. He's supposed to sound annoying, I know, but this borders on the caricature. His off-putting tone was perhaps accentuated by his l Oliver Twist's speak. The subtle balance voiceless Johnny exuded, the wonderful play on expectations - a boy who’s a godling - was tipped too much in favor of pure adolescent demeanor.

It's not Oliver Twist speak (known as Cockney) but Johnny's dialect is what English and some other countries would call 'Country Bumkin' which means a person from a rural area and that would make it a more fitting dialect considering he lives in a remote farming area. I quite liked Johnny's character he's more accurate than in most games for sure.

 

[octavian123]

Yup, that was great. My favourite part in the whole Ealdorman performance. To those who say he should have shown hesitation before imitating Vincent Van Gogh, that's what the close-up shot of his grip on the dagger is meant to convey. Not really hesitation, more like acceptance, a man coming to terms with his own sacrifice.

Subtle but powerful.

That is EXACTLY what I felt and that is exactly why I liked him.

EDIT: Why do the witches have such a hard-on for ears?

 

[dragonbird]

It's not Oliver Twist speak (known as Cockney) but Johnny's dialect is what English and some other countries would call 'Country Bumkin' which means a person from a rural area and that would make it a more fitting dialect considering he lives in a remote farming area. I quite liked Johnny's character he's more accurate than in most games for sure.

Agreed. It really grated on me when they cast Stephen Merchant in Portal 2, because even though I gather it was well-received, it was just totally the wrong accent to me for the character. But using the accent for rural characters in a fantasy game works just fine.

 

[Jupiter_on_Mars]

It's not Oliver Twist speak (known as Cockney) but Johnny's dialect is what English and some other countries would call 'Country Bumkin' which means a person from a rural area and that would make it a more fitting dialect considering he lives in a remote farming area. I quite liked Johnny's character he's more accurate than in most games for sure.

It sure doesn't sound like London cockney, but rural? Are you sure?
But words like «Flabbergasted», «Surreptitious» and «Shenanigans» don't strike me as colloquial, let alone rural.

@Dragonbird , I don't mean the accent,. I mean Johnny's vocabulary, which isn't typical rural, as exemplified in the above quoted words. The reference to Oliver Twist was meant to imply that Johnny's accent is peculiar, not that it's Cockney per se.

For the most part, I have no quarrel with the lines themselves. It' the delivery I question. I love voiceless Johnny.

 

[Sycophant.568]

Just watched it. Looking cool, but that's obvious.

Voice acting is mediocre. Subtitles don't match what characters say (eg old woman saying "brother has turned" and subtitles saying "brother's turned" etc) The quest and its conclusion is obvious from ten miles out. Don't mean to rail on the story department, but if it's going to portray moral ambiguity, it should be subtle about it (and the VA work did not help.) Unconvincingly trying to sell "ancient evil awakens", Johnny not pacing himself, and the old woman looks like she said something around the lines of "I will not grant you audience, but if you help this kid on a random fetch quest who will then convince me, I will be persuaded" when you first meet her in the video.

Also, to CDP, take note - Stop using that goddamn shaky cam that Game of Thrones is so fond of. It sucks ass. Static camera angles work much better.

Noted texture pop-in everywhere, from Novigrad where it played havoc with distant LOD, to Velen where trees and shadows kept popping in ten metres from Geralt, and low-res textures everywhere. Especially apparent in conversations eg - Geralt pacing about that pustule in the dungeon, and it's limbs come into view, and the textures look like something out of 1999, and you can see blocky meshes - not enough polygons?

Water physics still is very unrealistic - liked the blood diffusing into water, but the stock effects really hurt it eg. Aard does not create a wave, but multiple ripples like I was angling stones across a lake. Also, physics is not in sync with Geralt - I sometimes noticed ripples appearing in places he was about to set foot in before it happened. Grass physics need to be worked on - as of now, it looks like Geralt has an invisible force field around him that push roots away, but allows him to clip through longer grass. It is jarring. On that note, Geralt's hair, sword is clipping through everything.

Also, descriptions of random NPCs on their heads is disingenuous. Show, not tell - a poor man's attire should tell his financial straits, but there is a redundant speech bubble saying "Poor Man" above his head anyway. The names are cool for named characters, interactive people and objects, but being everywhere is not a good thing. Note that this is not inclusive of speech bubbles for dialog,which I think is fine just as it is (could use some text wrapping, but that's about it.)

Horse riding animations look bad. I expected better than RDR, but it looks like a modder's effort on Skyrim. Effort here would pay off big time, since players will be staring at a horse's ass for quite a bit of the game. Also, horse ass too shiny. Same goes for OTS camera angle - Geralt needs to be more in the centre of that camera, because as of right now it looks like it crawled out of a TPS.

On the upside, Novigrad looks good. Especially like the shadowing on NPCs and their routines - lot of effort went into those. No Man's Land looks appropriately bleak, though a little bare of clutter. Areas look organic, map looks good, and so does the draw distance. Will await more.

 

[octavian123]

Yes, some graphical effects are unfinished but I thought the VA was really good for the most part.

 

[dragonbird]

It sure doesn't sound like London cockney, but rural? Are you sure?
Words like «Flabbergasted», «Surreptitious» and «Shenanigans» don't strike me as colloquial, let alone rural.

This one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BErF_KpU5fw

Listen in particular to the way "I" is pronounced (Oy). It's one of the West Country accents, but it's a long time since I lived in England so someone else would need to narrow it down. But definitely rural rather than city, and not one of the London accents.

The words themselves have no regional connotations.

 

[Sycophant.568]

Yes, some graphical effects are unfinished but I thought the VA was really good for the most part.

I'd say the alderman VA did a fair job (apart from the ear thing, and the lame blackout that was included for some reason) and so did the 3 witches at the end, but rest of it, and especially Geralt's lines were badly done eg when he says goodbye to Djakastra, I have no idea who he is talking to. Same goes for his conversation with the alderman, and some of his lines - 2 options say a)Where is she now and b) I don't believe you. Demo guy picks option a, and Geralt voices option b.

 

[adridu59]

Geralt's lines were badly done eg when he says goodbye to Djakastra, I have no idea who he is talking to.

It's esp. that he keeps speaking after having left. I mean speaking when stading up to leave is ok but here he leaves a bit prematurely. Otherwise I don't have any complaints with voiceover.

 

[Lyca5050]

It sure doesn't sound like London cockney, but rural? Are you sure?
Words like «Flabbergasted», «Surreptitious» and «Shenanigans» don't strike me as colloquial, let alone rural.

For the most part, I have no quarrel with the lines themselves. It' the delivery I question. I love voiceless Johnny.

Yes I'm sure his accent is rural. That does not mean he could not use or understand types of words like flabbergasted etc. We don't know why Johnny lost his voice but it was obviously a punishment/torment as Johnny seems to enjoy words and the sounds they make, he is an eccentric character.

I did like that Johnny is one of the few types of non human characters (not including dwarfs and elves) who has contact with humans openly as himself and ties in with the village ethos of getting along to survive, this seems like a really interesting village.

I guess Johnny is just like marmite you either like him or not.

 

[Jupiter_on_Mars]

Yes I'm sure his accent is rural. That does not mean he could not use or understand types of words like flabbergasted etc. We don't know why Johnny lost his voice but it was obviously a punishment/torment as Johnny seems to enjoy words and the sounds they make, he is an eccentric character. I did like that Johnny is one of the few types of non human characters (not including dwarfs and elves) who has contact with humans openly as himself and ties in with the village ethos of getting along to survive, this seems like a really interesting village.

I guess Johnny is just like marmite you either like him or not.

Like I said, the mention of Oliver Twist' speak was meant to imply the distinctiveness of hic accent, not so much its provenance. His accent could well be rural. The vocabulary isn't, that was my point, and the reason why a reference to Oliver Twist sounded somewhat appropriate. Again, I find his lines great. He verges too closely on the caricatural with his VA. And, pretty much like marmite - which makes a great pasta sauce, by the way - you must use it with great discretion.

Sadly, it's not the case.

 

[crimzonwarrior]

God I, so wanted to explore those dialog options. Didn't trust the "witches" the moment they talked bad about Johnie. Most likely the tree spirit was the original entity that protected that area, and the demonic crones imprisoned it allowing monsters, and undead to over run the area. It would have been great if there had been an option for Geralt to "notice" the child limbs hanging out of the witches clothing, and than precede to rectify his mistake.

 

[gregski]

Also, descriptions of random NPCs on their heads is disingenuous. Show, not tell - a poor man's attire should tell his financial straits, but there is a redundant speech bubble saying "Poor Man" above his head anyway. The names are cool for named characters, interactive people and objects, but being everywhere is not a good thing. Note that this is not inclusive of speech bubbles for dialog,which I think is fine just as it is (could use some text wrapping, but that's about it.)

Agreed. I would love if they left the names/descriptions only for characters you can interact with but ditched all those unnecessary, "ordinary" ones. Of course, you would be able to interact with random NPCs so they drop a line or two - like in TW2 - but text over everyone's head just bloats the screen without adding too much value.

 

[Lyca5050]

God I, so wanted to explore those dialog options. Didn't trust the "witches" the moment they talked bad about Johnie. Most likely the tree spirit was the original entity that protected that area, and the demonic crones imprisoned it allowing monsters, and undead to over run the area. It would have been great if there had been an option for Geralt to "notice" the child limbs hanging out of the witches clothing, and than precede to rectify his mistake.

As with all Gerald's choices they have a repercussion - who will protect the village when Geralt moves on as he won't stay after killing the witches. So yet another moral conundrum you could kill the the nasty witches that protect most of the village as a necessary evil. This would open door for all the nasty monsters to lay waste to the town, did you hear that monster noise when Geralt came into town even he didn't want to look at it. The lesser loss of life option would be to leave the old hags let them have the odd child and some ears.

 

[octavian123]

Why do they have a hardon for ears???

 

[Lyca5050]

Like I said, the mention of Oliver Twist' speak was meant to imply the distinctiveness of hic accent, not so much its provenance. His accent could well be rural. The vocabulary isn't, that was my point, and the reason why a reference to Oliver Twist sounded somewhat appropriate. Again, I find his lines great. He verges too closely on the caricatural with his VA. And, pretty much like marmite - which makes a great pasta sauce, by the way - you must use it with great discretion.

Sadly, it's not the case.

Tbh this makes it more fun for me I've met some oddballs that make absolutely no sense - real people can be over the top and eccentric and I love them for it. For me Johnny is now more memorable than just the godling in the swamp who was just like a boy.

.