The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [2014]

[BruceVC]

 

I wrote "last" because it was meant for a trilogy. If the developers will want to continue however, that is still a matter of the years to come, but I see it would be very difficult. If anyone would like more witcher, then read the books, the original story that takes place before the games. After all this is a game based on literature.

 

That's what I'm trying to do.  But it's taking forever to translate them to English.

 

Thats my issue, my Polish isn't all its cracked up to be

[Nonek]

I had the same problem with the lack of english translations, there are some folk on the official witcher boards who've allready done full translations in various formats however.

 

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20967-our-community-fan-translations/

 

Looks like it will be the last game set in that world however.

[Darkpriest]

This is my most wanted game of 2014.  Though I'm a little surprised it's 2014, and not 2015 or 2016.

 

Well they had plenty of time since the last Witcher to get the story and world concept going. They've also have been developing the new engine since then. I am fairly sure that most of the work now will go on using the engine and the tools they've created to build the worlds efficiently and fast. They'll probably have to spend some time testing all th eplatforms once they will be in advanced stage of production. They've doubled the team size for this one too.

 

I think it's plenty of time to get the "technical" work done. Art style and so on, are probably already pretty much fixed. That said there might be some tweaking, but 1,5year is plenty enough time. Also, it isn't said WHEN in 2014 it will be shipped... so it might be almost 2yrs of development ahead.

 

Oh Joy seems like late 2013 and 2014 will be the golden age for RPGs I can already see Wasteland 2 into P:E into TW3 cycle... to quote a classic -> "nothing else matters"

[Darkpriest]

I had the same problem with the lack of english translations, there are some folk on the official witcher boards who've allready done full translations in various formats however.

 

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/20967-our-community-fan-translations/

 

Looks like it will be the last game set in that world however.

 

Well 3 games is plenty enough. I am full of hope for the Cyberpunk 2077 and TW3, but I'd like to see them using some other licensed fantasy world, or homebrewed, where you can have also customization of your character.

[Azure79]

Nice. I really enjoyed both Witcher games and trust CDP will deliver a greatly realized world and interesting characters. I really hope the combat is much improved over the 2nd installment though. Most of the time I was rolling on the ground or running in circles and just couldn't believe Geralt was one of the best swordsmans in the world. The parrying was unresponsive and I could never tell what kind of attack Geralt would do. Sometimes he did a quick thrust, other times he would spin around and get killed. 

 

I finally just started using magic and potions almost completely and had more fun. 

 

Most recently, I personally had the most fun with close quarters combat in Batman AA/AC and Ninja Gaiden. I want something that's fast and fluid with a lot of options but while also giving the player total control over Geralt. Ninja Gaiden style might be too fast and flashy for the Witcher world, but I can see Geralt, with this access to grenades, traps, bombs and magic, adopt a fighting style a lot like Batman in the AA and AC games.

[Katphood]

I'm more interested in the Cyberpunk 2077 game they are developing. The teaser trailer was crazy! But that won't be out until some time in 2015 or even later.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Astiaks

[Humanoid]

I have no problem with either open-world or more narrowly focused RPGs, but I can't readily think up a precedent for the former case that uses a predefined protagonist - generally it feels more natural to have such a game have a more directed path. Doesn't mean it can't work of course, just that I have poor imagination.

 

 

Tangentially, I'm a bit surprised there isn't a bridging expansion between the previous game to this new one - from an ingame perspective to transition to the new areas we'll be visiting, and from a technical perspective, to get more use out of such a graphically impressive engine that's seemingly been used for just the one product.

[mkreku]

It's open world. Even though I never even made it out of the (first?) city in The Witcher, I'm automatically interested in this because of those two words.

[Keyrock]

Some screenies here.

 

Not much of a step up graphically from The Witcher 2, but that game was already straight up gorgeous.  These are work in progress screenies and they are boasting of "significant improvements" to come.  I think they look pretty amazing as they are.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Keyrock

[Nordicus]

C'mon CDProjekt, give us screenies that use your REDengine 3.0 already!

[Darkpriest]

Some screenies here.

 

Not much of a step up graphically from The Witcher 2, but that game was already straight up gorgeous.  These are work in progress screenies and they are boasting of "significant improvements" to come.  I think they look pretty amazing as they are.

 

It's still as you said work in progress. They will upgrade the visuals significantly. If the quality of what they aiming at for Cyberpunk 2077 (basically teaser quality of visuals), then most likely they will go much further with the visuals in TW3 with their new engine.

 

It's all about the limits of the new consoles. They are developing the game with the new consoles in mind and there is some learning curve there too. Unfortunately they cannot make it this time PC exclusive and then port to consoles. As they are a recognized developer now, they've most likely received also some "marketing incentives" to make sure that consoles will also be there on Day 1.

[Nepenthe]

I have no problem with either open-world or more narrowly focused RPGs, but I can't readily think up a precedent for the former case that uses a predefined protagonist - generally it feels more natural to have such a game have a more directed path. Doesn't mean it can't work of course, just that I have poor imagination.

 

 

Tangentially, I'm a bit surprised there isn't a bridging expansion between the previous game to this new one - from an ingame perspective to transition to the new areas we'll be visiting, and from a technical perspective, to get more use out of such a graphically impressive engine that's seemingly been used for just the one product.

 

Eh, most open-world games a la GTA had really strictly predefined protagonists, so it's nothing new. Or at least nothing revolutionary.

 

I planned on buying a pc for this and other games, but then I blew that budget just on bookshelves today

[WDeranged]

I'm betting it'll be open world in the same way as most Zelda games and not the excessively open world of an Elder Scrolls game, either way I'm interested.

Edited February 6, 2013 by WDeranged

[Syraxis]

I'm ready for more Witcher after the amazement that AoK left me. 

Edited February 6, 2013 by Syraxis

[Humanoid]

 

I have no problem with either open-world or more narrowly focused RPGs, but I can't readily think up a precedent for the former case that uses a predefined protagonist - generally it feels more natural to have such a game have a more directed path. Doesn't mean it can't work of course, just that I have poor imagination.

 

 

Tangentially, I'm a bit surprised there isn't a bridging expansion between the previous game to this new one - from an ingame perspective to transition to the new areas we'll be visiting, and from a technical perspective, to get more use out of such a graphically impressive engine that's seemingly been used for just the one product.

 

Eh, most open-world games a la GTA had really strictly predefined protagonists, so it's nothing new. Or at least nothing revolutionary.

 

I planned on buying a pc for this and other games, but then I blew that budget just on bookshelves today

Don't tend to classify GTA in the genre, but that may be because I've only played the series for a combined 30 minutes or so. Out of the games I've played I guess Ultima 7 comes closest to the classification.

[Ginsu23]

I hope this game will be awesome.  I've loved the Witcher ever since I got the first one a few years ago.  Didn't like the combat as much in the sequal, mainly because they took out combat styles.  I did, however, like the new talent system.  I hope Witcher 3 is the best of the previous two games, with the same attention to detail of the stories, as well as skyrim's open world.  I am very optimistic about this game, hope it rocks!

[Malekith]

Sad news. I don't like sandboxes. I know open world =! sandbox, but they keep mentioning Skyrim... I didn't liked New Vegas either, so if Obsidian can't do it for me CDR sertainly can't

[Keyrock]

I'm surprised that some people liked combat better in The Witcher than in The Witcher 2.  While I thought the combat in The Witcher 2 was far from perfect, I thought it was a VAST improvement over the combat in The Witcher, which I thought was downright terrible.  To each their own, I guess.

[Tigranes]

I originally played TW1 on a terrible computer at 6-8fps, and the combat was excruciating. Of course, before that, I had played Gothic 3 on the same fps, which was worse since every time you died it would take about 4 minutes to reload, whereas for TW1 it only took 2.

 

Truly, poverty is a miserable thing. *sniff*

 

I liked pretty much everything about TW1 and TW2; they are well made games, have their own unique character, and do a lot of RPGy things very well. The only complaint is that the nature of Geralt limits replayability because you're more or less the same witcher every time in terms of combat gameplay. I don't really expect TW3 will change that much, but it's a Day 1 for me nevertheless.

[Keyrock]

I originally played TW1 on a terrible computer at 6-8fps, and the combat was excruciating. Of course, before that, I had played Gothic 3 on the same fps, which was worse since every time you died it would take about 4 minutes to reload, whereas for TW1 it only took 2.

 

Truly, poverty is a miserable thing. *sniff*

 

I liked pretty much everything about TW1 and TW2; they are well made games, have their own unique character, and do a lot of RPGy things very well. The only complaint is that the nature of Geralt limits replayability because you're more or less the same witcher every time in terms of combat gameplay. I don't really expect TW3 will change that much, but it's a Day 1 for me nevertheless.

The combat if TW1 isn't much better at 30fps or 60 fps.   Gothic and Risen are a couple more series with really bad combat.

 

TW1 was fantastic for its moral ambiguity, choices with far reaching consequences, and storytelling, not for the gameplay.  I thought TW2 improved the gameplay vastly, kept all the good aspects of TW1, and took production value and cinematics to levels only equaled by BioWare in RPGs.  I thought TW2 was very replayable for several reasons: 1)  There's an entire act that's completely different depending on a choice you make, and when I say completely different, I mean different NPCs, different quests, different area (overlaps a bit, but the base of operations and much of the accessible area is completely different), etc.  2)  You can specialize in a different branch of the skill tree for a somewhat different gameplay experience.  

Edited February 7, 2013 by Keyrock

[Tigranes]

Heartily disagree. Gothic and Risen have very good melee combat - better than Witcher, and much much better than Elder Scrolls. This is, of course, ruling out Gothic 3 at launch and its famous stunlock bug, and RIsen 2 which was rather poor at that. But TES melee combat is mostly button-mashing, and while TW combat does pretty decent, there is a systematicity and brutality to G2/R1 combat in particular which is unparalleled. It is unique among single-character open world RPGs in that you really have to be on your guard for every battle or face gruesome death, and that there is a small set of tightly interlocking mechanisms you must manipulate to become good at combat. 

 

My comment on replayability - I think both TW1 and TW2 provide good replayability on non-combat terms, i.e. story, quests, etc. I played both 3 times. But although you can distribute your points, the scope of character development, and the extent to which it really changes your experience of combat, is much narrower than other RPGs. You're either a swordsman that drinks potions and uses magic, or a swordsman who sort of drinks potions and uses magic but not really, etc. I like TW's potion mechanics and swordfighting but I think it's a system (and character concept) that has inherent limitations, so I hope they create something much more robust after TW3.

[Bos_hybrid]

Meh, Cyberpunk 2077 is more interesting to me.

 

Still the fact this might be the last Geralt/Triss Witcher is good news. Sorry but I just find both these characters awful.

[alanschu]

TW1 was fantastic for its moral ambiguity, choices with far reaching consequences, and storytelling, not for the gameplay.

 

I actually found this to be the weakest aspect of The Witcher 1.  After hearing about how dark, edgy, and mature the game world was, my jaw dropped (not in a good way) at how excruciating a lot of it was.  When I finally realized that the game's writing was actually intended to be full on campy (when the dude literally said "et cetera et cetera" in a spoken line) I was able to enjoy it a lot more.  At least I felt like when I was laughing, I was laughing with the game rather than at it.

 

 

The first game I felt I had interesting ideas, but struggled mightily with the execution.  It actually reminded me of some of my (failed) attempts to create a dark and mature setting as a module in NWN.  The best part of the first game, in my opinion, was the creative skill tree.

 

The second was an immense joy of fresh air because I could literally see the vast improvements across the board in almost all aspects of the game.  The writing in that one was very good (even if I found the principal motivation/reactions of the characters involved in "the big choice" to be a bit stilted and forced - the idea of creating a narrative story lets me forgive all that, however), and did a lot of things that I felt a lot of companies should take note of when going forward with storytelling and presentation in an RPG.

Edited February 8, 2013 by alanschu

[Nonek]

One thing I hope they continue to prioritise is making their games subtle in the presentation of the story, such as all the hints to the identity of the tower mages wife and apprentice, and the identity of Loredo's mother. Have actual choice and consequence built in, such as the investigation of Azar Javed in act two, where you can actually fail and die due to slipshod investigation, or waste Iorveth's time and die in a hail of arrows. Lastly I hope they do not give in to the modern trend to include sub par Joss Whedon "snarky" (whatever that means) dialogue, it was refreshing to hear serious discussion and no idiotic forced laughter lines aimed at the lowest common denominator in both games, that really needs to be excised from existence.

 

Nice to hear a fair bit of cursing as well, in genteel modern society we might frown upon such but among the working lower classes of the witcher world this fit right in, in my opinion.

[Nordicus]

Full GameInformer interview

 

3 completely different epilogues, you say?