Witcher 3

Khalan_sl said:

Ive tried about 10X to finish Witcher 1, can't get past the first city before getting bored and giving up. I refuse to play the second too since I havent beat the first... Time to man up.

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Szlia_sl said:

I never played any of the Witcher games, but I recently read the first book. I was surprised because it's the strangest mix of dark fantasy, riff on classic fairy-tales and, last but not least, a very healthy dose of humor (and not only through is bard friend). Somehow the games did not seem to have this tone. Have they?

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supertouch_sl said:

although the voice acting was much improved, i thought the witcher 2 was fucking horrible.

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Beef Supreme_sl said:

If you never played the games, how would you know whether or not CDPR captured the tone of the books?

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Vorph_sl said:

Odd. I'd say the story was excellent--though still not as good as The Witcher of course--and I'd especially praise CDPR for not being afraid for fork the plot early on into two arcs that were so significantly different. It was the combat system that was a bit of a let down to me. Granted, it was vastly superior to anything Bethesda has done, but they promised combat inspired by Demon's Souls and fell way short of that mark. I felt like they never managed to come up with a difficulty level that was challenging without being cheap, and the controls just weren't as tight as they should have been.

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Szlia_sl said:

I was a bit unclear here: it seemed not as humorous from the promotional material and the reviews I glanced over. I also was at the Games Convention in Germany in 2006 and met the guys of CD Projekt who explained us with a straight face they were about to revolutionize computer RPG and that there would be a before and an after The Witcher. We were more than a bit skeptical about how awesome their game would turn out to be and how great that amazing polish fantasy author was (who, at the time, was not translated). I certainly do not remember them mentioning anything about humor, that's for sure.

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Mixtilplix_sl said:

No experience from killing mobs in the wild, you will only gain experience through quest turn ins.

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Tuco_sl said:

Wait, open world but you only get advancement from quests? That's fucked.

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Pasteton_sl said:

I'm glad I didn't give in and get a new pc this year.
whats the cheapest config that will run this at 60 fps i wonder

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The Wild Hunt is a strange pan-European myth focusing on a spectral hunting party skimming above the ground, in pell-mell pursuit of whatever quarry they can chase down. To see the Wild Hunt is to bring disaster - at best, your death, but most likely a war or plague.

For Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher of the series, that disaster has already come. (If you want to avoid spoiling the earlier games, we recommend skipping the next two paragraphs.) During the PC-only The Witcher, the amnesiac Geralt was repeatedly taunted by a spectral figure calling himself 'The King of the Wild Hunt', who Geralt could fight and even kill. At the end of The Witcher 2, the series' debut on Xbox 360, Geralt managed to recover his memories, recalling that he'd traded himself for his love, Yennefer, who'd been taken by the Wild Hunt of his world - a group of otherworldly Elves, with a taste for genocide.

However, riding with the Wild Hunt seems to trigger amnesia, hence Geralt's confusion. Having also ridden with the hunt, Yennefer might well not know who she is - or remember Geralt - and the end of The Witcher 2 implies that she's in the enemy's city of Nilfgaard itself. We're betting that Geralt will catch up with his adopted daughter, Cirilla, a powerful sorceress, princess and trainee Witcher, who once resurrected both Geralt and Yennefer, who has spent time in the Elven otherworld, and who the Elves of the Wild Hunt might be searching for.

The disaster linked to the Wild Hunt isn't just in the past, though. As The Witcher 3 starts, war has come to the Witcher's world, a war that's been brewing from the very first moments of the first game. The assassinations of the previous instalment, by a party of other Witchers, have left the world's north in chaos. Now the Nilfgaardians, a Rome-style empire from the south of the world-spanning continent, have invaded, intending to dominate the entire area. The armies of the north are falling before them and they seem unstoppable.

This is where the plot of The Witcher 3 starts; with Geralt free of his amnesia, hunting for his lost kin, whilst a massive army conquers the lands he knows, leaving a trail of monsters in its wake. The characters that Geralt knew from the previous game have moved on; his on-off romance with Triss Merigold is over, his minority friends are all in hiding, and Vernon Roche, once the spymaster to a king, is now an outlaw.

Creator of the series, CD Projekt RED, has emphasised that it has moved away from the overly political plot of The Witcher 2 - which often felt like the Star Wars prequel's yawnworthy focus on intergalactic trade tariffs - and is instead paying more attention to Geralt's personal story. "We wanted to boost the feeling that you are the Witcher," says lead writer Marcin Blacha. "Geralt is a middle-aged man who's in trouble, not a young kid looking for adventure." "I don't think he's going to be nearly as adventurous sexually," agrees senior writer Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz, "but don't quote me on that."

Worlds apart
CD Projekt is changing much for this final game, pushing its technology to the limit. "Technology has progressed to the point where we can finally tell the story the way we want, with the visuals we want, in the world we imagined," says studio head Adam Badowski. The team have built an entirely new engine, so they can make a truly open world for players to explore, that they claim is thirty times the size of the (admittedly small) Witcher 2.

What we've seen of it so far is impressive, straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies: huge draw distances, showing hills rolling down to the sea and high mountain passes covered in snow. Out there are distinct cultures, scattered across the land in villages and cities. In this world, like Skyrim and unlike Oblivion, enemies do not scale with the character - wander into a high-level area without enough tools or the right equipment and Geralt won't live to regret it.

So far, we've seen two travel systems that can be used to explore this huge area. First off, there's sailing. We've not seen how this works yet, or the mechanics of control, but the whole feel is that of a very dark Legend of Zelda, combining Windwaker and Ocarina of Time, with Geralt exploring the frozen seas of the North in a small dinghy, complete with other galleys and even whales. Second, Geralt is able to ride horses (which are probably the best-looking horses that we've seen in any game since Hudson Horstachio in Viva Pi?ata).

That's not all that's been changed though. There's a new tutorial system, making up for the incredibly irritating opening of the first game, a new targeting system, which makes combat slightly more friendly, and a brand new animation system that makes it easier for Geralt's combat moves to flow between styles, and gives you a chance to break off attacks that simply aren't working.

Beyond these changes, we're betting that The Witcher 3 will offer the same mix of slightly overlong dialogue trees, truly challenging monster-hunting and exploration. Each monster has to be tracked to their lair, a process that should teach you how to defeat it - information that'll be displayed in combat using a new 'Witcher Sense'. "Monster hunting will be the main source of income for Geralt," says Ziemak, "not only in terms of gold but also crafting ingredients which can be later used for crafting the most powerful items."

CD Projekt RED has also confirmed this is the final chapter in Geralt's story: there'll be three different epilogues, depending on how you've played the prior title, and how you end up playing this one. As Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz puts it, Geralt has to finally find and protect those who are "important to him in his tumultuous, grimy, morally-questionable life." In this moody open world, with its twisty morally-grey plot, we can't think that either the man or his kin have much of a chance for happiness - but we're looking forward to trying.

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CD Projekt RED have always stayed true to their vision and this is clearly shown in their reluctance to release The Witcher 3 on current gen consoles and instead go for next-gen and PC. They are pleased with the PS4 as well, and quest designer Pawel Sasko revealed a lot more about the system to us in an exclusive interview.

?After the announcement of the PS4 many graphics programmers commented that Sony?s upcoming console is a high-end PC and I agree with them,? he said.

?The change of architecture made a lot of developers happy, including us. From a technical standpoint, the biggest disadvantage of PCs is customizable hardware in almost infinite number of ways. That?s why working on PS4 gives us comfort that every gamer is going to have a quality time with The Witcher 3.?

He also revealed why they didn?t show the game during the PS4 reveal event where the entire world was watching and could have proven to be a great marketing tool for the game.

?It was obvious for us that the reveal of new console was a great moment to show our game. But on the other hand, the most important thing about the whole event was PS4 and its features. As we expected, all the games and console itself drag out player?s attention from everything else,? he revealed.

?The Witcher 3 is our beloved child and we want the world to know how good the game will be. It might have been a bit too difficult to get the attention of all the gamers while so many good titles were being announced during Sony?s press conference. So we chose to show the game separately.?

The game comes out in 2014 for the PS4, Xbox 720 and PC. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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