Looks like the monsters Geralt is fighting are called ekhidnas. So those aren't sirens:
If I'm not mistaken, Damien and Miles said they are a variant of sirens during the stream. Think of drowners and drowned dead, or harpies and erynias.
What do you mean? You're sure that you watched the PC footage and not the console one?
lol @ Djenge Frett
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and lol @ Grossbart brothers
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I'm sure there's lots of other easter egg-ish nods but I wasn't paying enough attention
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On a side note: Geralt's walking animation and especially his running animation still looks ridiculous. His new jacket/skirt armour style also doesn't really help here at all. Maybe CDPR should have asked Ubisoft how to animate a 3rd person character properly while running...
On a side note: Geralt's walking animation and especially his running animation still looks ridiculous. His new jacket/skirt armour style also doesn't really help here at all. Maybe CDPR should have asked Ubisoft how to animate a 3rd person character properly while running...
NOOOO! They should stay FAAAAR away from Ubisoft!!!
I talk about the GOOD things Ubisoft does (yeah, they exist, like animations). CDPR already copied some of the bad things (like herbs on the minimap) so maybe they could copy a good feature for once...
By the way, anyone else worried that the mouse+keyboard controls "were not done yet" and PC journalists were only allowed to play the game with an Xbox controller? What does that mean? To me that indicates that the game was indeed developed with controllers in mind, with mouse+keyboard only being an afterthought that now needs a bit more "porting time" to adjust it best to the controller-focused UI and stuff. Please, tell us what this is all about, CDPR! This is extremely important to old-school PC gamers like me!
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Screw M&K controls i'm sure it'll be fine. I'm more worried about what PC Gamer said about the combat. He said that combat with larger creatures didn't feel as good as with humanoid enemies.
On a side note: Geralt's walking animation and especially his running animation still looks ridiculous. His new jacket/skirt armour style also doesn't really help here at all. Maybe CDPR should have asked Ubisoft how to animate a 3rd person character properly while running...
Or maybe Ubi should ask CDPR how to design an entire game!
The could learn a lot!
I really think that the graphics are on par with the SOD trailer. It's just that the camera angles were more cinematic and there were some post processing effects in play (maybe we'll get it in the ultra settings). Btw I also have a 970 3.5G lol! Never again Nvidia!!!!
Yeah, out of all the previews, the thing I would have liked to read different things about was the combat. Reception of it swung between lukewarm and alright in most cases, and it wasn't showered with loving statements like other aspects of the game.
It doesn't matter too much to me, because I honestly enjoyed TW2's combat, and this was after I approached the game while being conditioned to think that the mechanics are bad, by a dozen different sites. So if TW3 is an improved version, I'm glad. I guess I just wanted to read loving impressions of the combat mostly for CDPR's sake, rather than myself.
But I am very easy to please. I mean, heck, I'm even enjoying VTMB's melee combat right now.
Well, I skipped the lunch break in work in order to write this but hey, I write seldom on this forums so why not skip it once?
This post is based on obsevations made on 17 min gameplay.
Again as in my previous post in this thread, If you don't like post which strives to give critisism(good and bad)
don't bother reading on.
A caveat before I start analysing. I am not going to discuss story side of the game here for obvious reasons.
Thus, I am going to focus in my post to make a jugdment on graph, sounds, music and overall feelling of the game.
Okay, to start off, I must admit that because of my long experience with gaming and sceptical nature I was slow to praise TW series many times. With that being said, I confess the uncompressed version of the 17 min gameplay have put down many of my doubts like fire is put down by a large bucket od water.
OK, enough, let's get into the analysis.
1.Graphics and animation.
A) Bad things first:
Long story short. TW3 engine is beyond any doubt an expanded and polished TW2 RedEngine. There's no question TW2 graph engine was ahead of the curve when it was released, but I have to say this: Even though, it seems that it was heavily upgraded and polished to high shine it still retained its weaknesses.
First off, problems of the engine with properly handling of props attached to the NPCs. In the guards dialogue scene it can be easily observed that swords of the guards are 'hanging on the air' instead of on the belts of said NPc's(especially in one cartain angle, when camera is situated behind their backs). The same thing happened a lot in TW2.
Secondly, in the same scene the texture of the red brick wall is just appaling.
Thirdly, as someone in the other thread said, there's no footmarks on snow. I understand this is nitpicking but on the other hand it is quite an oversight to not include it, expecially, when it has been applied to many other games out there.
Fourthly, I am not sure but I think I was able to catch literally, few water glitches (when Geralt is riding with Vesemir on the road chatting in right upper corner some of water glitching could be observed). But taking in the fact that water is felluva difficult thing to make properly in the game as big as TW3 I declare this thing unimportant.
Fiftly, running aniamtions looks ridiclous, it is just bad and it seems REDs has patched up nothing since TW2 in this aspect. The same goes for NPC movement. It did look cluncky in TW2 and it still looks cluncky in TW3.
Lastly, blood sometimes look ridicoulsly bright(griffin scene).
B ) Now into the good aspects:
As I wrote in my previous post in this thread, vegetaion looks and feels stunning! The physics of wind bending tress is marvelous.
I love the colouristics of the world. Generally, apart from few low res textures here and there the rest of environment seems to be well textured, NPCs espacially. I am loving the way CDPRED has finally dealt with the fur (the talking scene with the mercenary!!!). Horses moves quite naturally and beyond doubt a lot better than in DA:I. In thread about graphics someone was complaing about the lighting effects being too subtle. I cannot agree, in many other games I've seen the sunshne being only a white patch on helms or armours of NPCs, but in this recent gameplay we can see that in TW3 lightining seems to be more elaborated than that(shinging on guards and the landlords armour for example).
Interiors of chamber, a tavern and caverns again resembles the Tw2 ones and this is a huge positive. CDPRED was always hands and shoulder above the competiotion in that aspects and it still is. Interiors seems hugly believable and detailed (but not overly saturated with stuff). Moreover, I must retract what I wrote in my previous post, wet Geralt in bath scene looks good(the whole scene is quite funny Tw style ).
Clothing is a masterpiece, both in terms of art style and graph detail. The whole other thing is facial animaton and faces in general. They are really, really big improvment on TW2 ones. Monsters in terms of art and animatons looks exceptionally good, a strong point in the game I must admit.
In general, graphics and animation are healivy refined and greatly expanded stuff we could see in TW2(same engine btw). Apart form a few obvious and annoying elements graphics and animations seems to be in the foremost departments in its own categories compared to its competitors.
But, as good as the graphics is in reality it is not going to be 'a crowning acheivement' in RPG.
Sound and music:
A)The lows
Actually, there are none. None I could think of(mostly, cus there are no polish version to comapre).
B )The highs
Little was revealed but from what was shown music, both in and out of combat, sounds like a masterpiece!
I know that purists will accuse TW3 soundtrack to be not enough TW1esc but to be frank I don't care. I love the soundtrack.
The rest of the sounds? Well, they are there and they are doing thier job. Ratling of waves and wind can be heard on the saeshore, wildlife in the forest, and livestock makes noises in villages. What else can be said about it? Voice acting seems to be done well, again. Nifgaardians speak in thier language in the camp the excellency has a smidge of an accent, the eldoman sounds belivable as well as the (seneschal?).
The music and soundtrack builds what I call a TWworld feeling, which is called immersion by many. This in my eyes should be the highest praise a music and sounds can get.
HUD, map, combat etc.
I don't mind the size of HUD, but it suppose to be customisable, so I can't crisitse here. Map is going to be another strong point of the game. It's really clear and simple. You can easily identify forest, hills and settelments on it. It's just great in every respects. Loading screens when traveliing fast, it was to be expected. Combat( I am not a specialist here) seems to be TW2 esc but superior in responsivnes(I still don't like the jumpdogde!). I was against the crossbow but I now understand it coulb be difficult to kill fliers without it so I guess It's okay to have it now.
In coclusion:
TW3 seem to be a great game and a polished up TW2 thrown into the psuedo open world. It won't be 'a crowning achievemnt' in terms of graph and gameplay. Storywise well hard to say but in all honesty what new questing mechanic or story telling could be introduced in this day and age where everthing was already done one way or the other? I think the game will succed and sell very well but I must call out REDs for thier PR especially during th whole 2014. As it is now it has small chances of redefining the RPG genre.
Sorry for mistakes or typos I was writting in a hurry.
This post is based on obsevations made on 17 min gameplay.
Again as in my previous post in this thread, If you don't like post which strives to give critisism(good and bad)
don't bother reading on.
A caveat before I start analysing. I am not going to discuss story side of the game here for obvious reasons.
Thus, I am going to focus in my post to make a jugdment on graph, sounds, music and overall feelling of the game.
Okay, to start off, I must admit that because of my long experience with gaming and sceptical nature I was slow to praise TW series many times. With that being said, I confess the uncompressed version of the 17 min gameplay have put down many of my doubts like fire is put down by a large bucket od water.
OK, enough, let's get into the analysis.
1.Graphics and animation.
A) Bad things first:
Long story short. TW3 engine is beyond any doubt an expanded and polished TW2 RedEngine. There's no question TW2 graph engine was ahead of the curve when it was released, but I have to say this: Even though, it seems that it was heavily upgraded and polished to high shine it still retained its weaknesses.
First off, problems of the engine with properly handling of props attached to the NPCs. In the guards dialogue scene it can be easily observed that swords of the guards are 'hanging on the air' instead of on the belts of said NPc's(especially in one cartain angle, when camera is situated behind their backs). The same thing happened a lot in TW2.
Secondly, in the same scene the texture of the red brick wall is just appaling.
Thirdly, as someone in the other thread said, there's no footmarks on snow. I understand this is nitpicking but on the other hand it is quite an oversight to not include it, expecially, when it has been applied to many other games out there.
Fourthly, I am not sure but I think I was able to catch literally, few water glitches (when Geralt is riding with Vesemir on the road chatting in right upper corner some of water glitching could be observed). But taking in the fact that water is felluva difficult thing to make properly in the game as big as TW3 I declare this thing unimportant.
Fiftly, running aniamtions looks ridiclous, it is just bad and it seems REDs has patched up nothing since TW2 in this aspect. The same goes for NPC movement. It did look cluncky in TW2 and it still looks cluncky in TW3.
Lastly, blood sometimes look ridicoulsly bright(griffin scene).
B ) Now into the good aspects:
As I wrote in my previous post in this thread, vegetaion looks and feels stunning! The physics of wind bending tress is marvelous.
I love the colouristics of the world. Generally, apart from few low res textures here and there the rest of environment seems to be well textured, NPCs espacially. I am loving the way CDPRED has finally dealt with the fur (the talking scene with the mercenary!!!). Horses moves quite naturally and beyond doubt a lot better than in DA:I. In thread about graphics someone was complaing about the lighting effects being too subtle. I cannot agree, in many other games I've seen the sunshne being only a white patch on helms or armours of NPCs, but in this recent gameplay we can see that in TW3 lightining seems to be more elaborated than that(shinging on guards and the landlords armour for example).
Interiors of chamber, a tavern and caverns again resembles the Tw2 ones and this is a huge positive. CDPRED was always hands and shoulder above the competiotion in that aspects and it still is. Interiors seems hugly believable and detailed (but not overly saturated with stuff). Moreover, I must retract what I wrote in my previous post, wet Geralt in bath scene looks good(the whole scene is quite funny Tw style
).Clothing is a masterpiece, both in terms of art style and graph detail. The whole other thing is facial animaton and faces in general. They are really, really big improvment on TW2 ones. Monsters in terms of art and animatons looks exceptionally good, a strong point in the game I must admit.
In general, graphics and animation are healivy refined and greatly expanded stuff we could see in TW2(same engine btw). Apart form a few obvious and annoying elements graphics and animations seems to be in the foremost departments in its own categories compared to its competitors.
But, as good as the graphics is in reality it is not going to be 'a crowning acheivement' in RPG.
Sound and music:
A)The lows
Actually, there are none. None I could think of(mostly, cus there are no polish version to comapre).
B )The highs
Little was revealed but from what was shown music, both in and out of combat, sounds like a masterpiece!
I know that purists will accuse TW3 soundtrack to be not enough TW1esc but to be frank I don't care. I love the soundtrack.
The rest of the sounds? Well, they are there and they are doing thier job. Ratling of waves and wind can be heard on the saeshore, wildlife in the forest, and livestock makes noises in villages. What else can be said about it? Voice acting seems to be done well, again. Nifgaardians speak in thier language in the camp the excellency has a smidge of an accent, the eldoman sounds belivable as well as the (seneschal?).
The music and soundtrack builds what I call a TWworld feeling, which is called immersion by many. This in my eyes should be the highest praise a music and sounds can get.
HUD, map, combat etc.
I don't mind the size of HUD, but it suppose to be customisable, so I can't crisitse here. Map is going to be another strong point of the game. It's really clear and simple. You can easily identify forest, hills and settelments on it. It's just great in every respects. Loading screens when traveliing fast, it was to be expected. Combat( I am not a specialist here) seems to be TW2 esc but superior in responsivnes(I still don't like the jumpdogde!). I was against the crossbow but I now understand it coulb be difficult to kill fliers without it so I guess It's okay to have it now.
In coclusion:
TW3 seem to be a great game and a polished up TW2 thrown into the psuedo open world. It won't be 'a crowning achievemnt' in terms of graph and gameplay. Storywise well hard to say but in all honesty what new questing mechanic or story telling could be introduced in this day and age where everthing was already done one way or the other? I think the game will succed and sell very well but I must call out REDs for thier PR especially during th whole 2014. As it is now it has small chances of redefining the RPG genre.
Sorry for mistakes or typos I was writting in a hurry.
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Your review is honest and level-headed and it´s appreciated for that (by me at least). I will, however, disagree with you in something: I don´t think you can really make this assessment:
I honestly think it´s a great mistake to make this statement just by evaluating graphical features (I noticed that the only complains in your post are in the "Graphics and animations" section, so that has to be what compels you to write that sentence).
The main aspect of the game which I think could be genre-defining, if done right, is the successful merge of a story-driven narrative with a responsive open-world environment which also feels very much alive. THAT is what could make TW3 an instant classic and a game to which any later RPG will be compared, not if the textures in a brick wall are good.
Of course, this is extremely difficult and ambitious, so we´ll have to see if CDPR can actually pull it off. But, please, we should really think about our priorities regarding games...