New details:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Hands-off Impressions | Capsule Computers - Gaming Competitions
Long article, here's some choice quotes:
I was extremely excited to be able to attend a live, 40 minute demonstration of the title by the studio's Head of Marketing and PR, Michal Platkow-Gilewski, and QA Analyst Lukasz Babiel, both of whom also answered questions in an open-floor forum format following the conclusion of the demo.
The portion of this
100 hour epic (50 hours of side-quests, 50 hours of main quests)we were treated to takes place about halfway through the central plot. 'The White Wolf' has set off to meet an old friend named Crach, who is Jarl an Craite, part of the Skellige region - a rugged, wind-swept archipelago, the design of which was inspired by Norse and Celtic mythology.
The sheer scale of the game world -
35 times larger than that of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings- is evident even in navigating the Jarl's castle;
The world feels alive, organic and natural, to the point where
weather changes actually affect people's behaviours.For instance, if it is raining, villagers will run for shelter, and if it's deathly cold, they will seek a source of warmth.
The new economic system in place sees
merchants charge more for fish the further they are from the sea,for example. And if the fisherman providing said fish run out, they will set sail to catch some more.
Immediately noticeable is the increased speed, fluidity and responsiveness of the Geralt's swordsman skills, which play out
from a selection of 96 new animation sequences, from parries to stabs and slices.Sign usage is also faster, able to be utilised fluidly as an integral part of your offensive arsenal.
Each of the five Signs now have a primary and secondary application, i.e., the Igni fire blast can be held to develop into a flamethrower.
"The potions will work in a different way than in The Witcher 2.
So now you will prepare them, you will drink them before a fight, but you can release the effect of those whenever you want.So it's not like you've drunk the potion and you have 30 seconds of boost and then it wears off. You can start the fight in the moment it suits you, and
if the fight proves hard, you can just release the effect through your metabolism.But if the fight is easy, you can preserve that and use it in the next fight."
Finally, they elucidated to us that the inventory will be akin to a decidedly more traditional, classic grid system, and
the story will have a definitive end - ergo, you will not be able to continue past end-game and tie up loose ends
Lots of pictures and tons more in the link.