Should TW3 have been like the previous two titles? No open world?

[Journey_95]

Should TW3 have been like the previous two titles? No open world?

Its obvious that they are having problems I think going open world was a bit too much for them
As a fan of the previous two titles I would have been more happy if they just remained like that in their style and not added a big ass open world
We would probably be playing TW3 already...And I mostly care about the story and characters (with good gameplay sure) and not about endless open world like skyrim

I'm really worried about the game
What do you think? Anyone else here for the story and pissed off because of the delays for open world

 

[His_Majesty]

I think you can only draw conclusions after you've played the game.

 

[n0rv]

Giving up, because something seems to be too hard to achieve, does not make it legendary.

 

[paulthu]

Yeah I think it's too early to have this discussion. Depends on how TW3 turns out. It's been the "downgrade" people have been complaining about lately but graphics should be the least of their worries when trying to make the open world work.

 

[Cheylus]

Before today: 3 months before the game release, and I still didn't know why they chose to make a lengthy open world.
100 hours of gameplay with TW2 combat system in endless space, even slightly improved and more flashy? No thank you.

I don't know if they have problem or anything though. The delay is a good thing, even if I'm bored and disappointed with their PR to the point I don't think I care about the game anymore.

 

[Ljesnjanin]

I don't know...Wicther 1& 2 are not open world, but I enjoyed playing them nonetheless...
Wait until May...Only thing we can do, really...

 

[greySynapse]

Its obvious that they are having problems I think going open world was a bit too much for them
As a fan of the previous two titles I would have been more happy if they just remained like that in their style and not added a big ass open world
We would probably be playing TW3 already...And I mostly care about the story and characters (with good gameplay sure) and not about endless open world like skyrim

I'm really worried about the game
What do you think? Anyone else here for the story and pissed off because of the delays for open world

I think you are misunderstanding the delay.

You seem to be assuming the delay is because of "open world". We don't actually know the specifics of this delay, and people are currently complaining about the graphical quality downgrade.

I also think there are less people that are pissed off than ones that aren't about the delay. We want a solid product after all.

But there's a technical answer to your question. Video Games aren't capable of TRUE open worlds with procedural-ly generated environments and quests (as far as I understand). Open World simply means a larger amount of space than a "closed" video game, there are still boundaries set in place. That, in-addition to being able to go travel the majority of the game-world without the need to fulfill conditions.

The Witcher 3 features very large regions with fixed quests and characters, the quantity of quests and characters supplements "open world" we experience, I know there's a dev quote on quests that included something about handmaking everything in the game rather than having many "throw-away" quests. With that in mind, we can expect a very well thought out and fleshed out world to experience.

Additionally the ability to go anywhere in the world is fantastic for TW3 because of being able to take up monster contracts in many different places without the need to progress main storyline. I personally am okay with the larger style and am really interested to see how everything is connected within the level maps which are probably absurdly huge.

Assuming the game retains the narrative quality of the first two titles, there's no reason to assume the story won't be good. So I'm going to simply suggest patience and to worry after the release.

Edited - Grammar.

 

[owein]

When the w3 was reveald and they anounced that it will be an open world I felt that my dreams come true. After the countless hours I spent with playing skyrim, I know what I missed from the previous games: to explore a huge fantsay world, to go everywhere and do everything I want and to completly experience what is to be witcher like it was written in the books. If the developpers need time to finish it than I dont mind if I get quality game when it finally releas. Until the releas I gonna play withe dragon age 3 and pillars of enternity so I can wait. (sorry for the bad grammar I amn't native)

 

[Rudlee]

Even if everyone agreed with you right now, do you think the devs are gonna throw away all of the stuff they've done while so deep in the development process?
A bit too late now.
''Well guys, people said that they might not want the open world thingy, better ditch it!''

 

[Ljesnjanin]

When the w3 was reveald and they anounced that it will be an open world I felt that my dreams come true. After the countless hours I spent with playing skyrim, I know what I missed from the previous games: to explore a huge fantsay world, to go everywhere and do everything I want and to completly experience what is to be witcher like it was written in the books. If the developpers need time to finish it than I dont mind if I get quality game when it finally releas. Until the releas I gonna play withe dragon age 3 and pillars of enternity so I can wait. (sorry for the bad grammar I amn't native)

While playing Skyrim I missed things from Witcher: story, quests, dark atmosphere, interesting NPCs, fantastic dialogues, choices and consequences, even combat...Hell, I missed entire game
And that is why Witcher 3 is ambitious project...Adding Witcher qualities to open world is not an easy task.

 

[Scholdarr.452]

I think there is a reason why the best story-driven RPGs were all set in pretty manageable worlds/levels. The multi-region/map approach seemed to be the best compromise between story pacing and openess so far. So yeah, I doubt that the big open world will benefit the original strengths of the series like the storytelling and deep choice and consequence or the believable surrondings. Of course it brings new stuff to the plate like more exploration but that's not actually what I personally value most when playing Witcher games. A proper combination of deep storytelling with proper pacing and meaningful progression and a huge believable, lifelike, immersive open world is pretty much the Golden Grail of RPGs. Believe me, almost every developer would like to do that but nobody actually managed it so far. Maybe CDPR will but I'd be surprised if it won't come at certain costs and flaws...

 

[braindancer12]

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

Just wait how it will be.
I think the open world was a good idea.
But they HAD lots of plans. They might have overtook themselves in one or two elements/categories.
Not to fear though, I am sure TW3 will still lift RPGs on the next level. (How much better it will be is the question, not if it will be better).

 

[OliverDK]

No I don't. It think going for an open world was the right call.

And I will state what I already wrote in the delayed thread that my speculation (which is all we really can do with the limit information CDPR have provided) that the reason for the delay is console related. If one have been following the development of TW3 one would know that already months ago developers in various interviews video/articles stated that the game was DONE. They had the game running in developer mode on high settings on GTX 660s - 680s.

All that was left was ONLY optimization of the game, first of to get it to run on consoles (which they stated they had the game loading so it was very positive), second of to have it run smoothly on all platforms. I believe (and I think the delay kind of proves that) that they the ran into problems here with the graphic fidelity on consoles (not the PC) and that is the reason for the delay again.

That's also why we have seen a more or less obvious degradation in the graphical fidelity over the past few months because limitations of the console just couldn't handle the intended quality CDPR set out for.

In other words I don't for one second believe they have run into problems gameplay-wise or game mechanic wise because of the game being set in a open world. I think we can all reast easy on that point. This is furthermore proved by the fact that not long ago CDPR said that they had people working on DLC because there was noting for some of the developers to do because the game was ONLY being optimized (in the final stages) so instead of sending them home they were put into creating DLC.

I truely believe that for PC the game could safely be released on February 24th and the problem is the console versions that don't run the game to a quality that is satisfactory on that date. I think PC gamers kid themselves if the believe this game will be any better for us with this delay which I see people write over and over again.

And no I am not stating this to somehow initiate a console flaming war. It is just my speculation for the new delay. I feel confidant about that there aren't any game mechanic or gameplay wise issues with the game and that this is not what are being addressed in this delay.

 

[Phinnway]

They said they wanted to make TW2 open world but didn't have the technology to do it at the time. This isn't something they're doing "just because." It's the direction they've wanted to take the series all along.

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

They said they wanted to make TW2 open world but didn't have the technology to do it at the time. This isn't something they're doing "just because." It's the direction they've wanted to take the series all along.

Exactly.
Hideo Kojima said the same about Metal Gear Solid V and that he always had that vision for the series.
Such a vision is not just coming to you, you develop the idea over years and wait for the right time and technology to make it happen.

 

[Sorowfortesque]

As we said in France "Ne jamais vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué"

Which mean, wait for the game before judging it.

 

[echohaxorelite]

Exactly.
Hideo Kojima said the same about Metal Gear Solid V and that he always had that vision for the series.
Such a vision is not just coming to you, you develop the idea over years and wait for the right time and technology to make it happen.

And MGS V is gonna make a sweet title

 

[val.mitev]

This.

 

[sidspyker]

No.

Ever since the first game they wanted to do a proper open-world. TW1 was pretty open, just had a lot of loading screens but considering all the areas and their sizes and enter-able buildings, it was rather evident that they were held back by the tech and not by ambition.

If you play the games ONLY for the story, the onus is on you, the developers are not catering to 1 specific person and his or her needs but offering 1 package with a multitude of things that make a game.

Open-world and Level/Map based both have their advantages and disadvantages, in either case something has to be sacrificed for something else. Baseless speculated conclusions on something on a game that has not been released nor any of us have played really serves no purpose(unless it's fearmongering). The delay could be for any number of reasons.