The biggest part that kills me, is that when the 35 minute demo came out, 5 months ago. After they already said the game was completed, after they said they were only delaying for bugs, I was sad because the quality wasn't what we'd seen before.
But then Marcin said the quality was still there, and we all sat here on this forum and broke the images down and were able to see that, yeah, the quality was still there, it was just art direction and sharpening turned off for the most part. The game still looked fantastic.
And then, after five months of bug fixing, to get a game that is so far away from the 35 minute gameplay demo (again, that was only a few months ago) just feels like abject betrayal.
I cannot see any reason to remove the effects that were very obviously working, that made game look absolutely gorgeous (at least compared to the retail build).
I can agree with not getting a person's hopes up when watching CGI, and initial release footage. But a half hour of multi-area open-world gameplay footage that is released around the same time that the game was actually supposed to come out? And it was only being held back for 'polish and fixing'?
How is a consumer not supposed to treat that as exactly what they are going to be getting when the game comes out?
I spent $400 upgrading my computer to be able to play the game that I saw in the 35 minute demo, because the quality was there, and I wanted the best possible Witcher 3 experience I could have. I was stoked about this game. More than any game I've been interested in for the last 5-10 years.
And to now get a version of the game so heavily gutted that I needn't have upgraded my computer at all, to be completely denied the best experience of the Witcher 3 that I was promised during a timeframe when there should be /nothing/ removed from the game. I just. I don't even know how to feel.
I feel like I pre-ordered the witcher 3, and they decided to give me skyrim instead. I know, there will be a lot of hate on this post, asking how I can care about graphics that much, but for everyone whom gameplay means more than graphics, there are people to whom graphics mean as much as gameplay.
I've had great gameplay games for years. I've had great story games for years. If I want amazing intrigue, I'll play a pen'paper game or read a book. But what I wanted was to experience the world of the witcher and feel like I was really there.
This isn't the case for some, I guess, but I can't look at this new version compared to the video that convinced me to buy the game only a handful of months ago, and feel even a fraction as excited about it.
I got my pre-order 20% off, because preorder and owning both previous games. Up until now, I've been telling myself that I can feel good about not cancelling my preorder because at least I'm getting 80% of the game we were promised. I'm not so sure that's the case any more, and I'm really not sure I want to spend money on supporting a company who would so blatantly bait and switch their customers like this.
Well, I have a few more hours to decide, anyway.
Anyways, sorry about the rant, just needed to get that off my chest.