The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Carfax83]

Here's a short gameplay clip from GDC 2015:

Witcher 3 clip

The foliage physics looks very exceptional to me, and it appears there is also some wind simulation as well as the igni sparks looked like they were being blown by the wind.

Wasn't running on the highest settings either, according to the dev that showed it. :awe:

 

[Dankk]

Here's a short gameplay clip from GDC 2015:

Witcher 3 clip

The foliage physics looks very exceptional to me, and it appears there is also some wind simulation as well as the igni sparks looked like they were being blown by the wind.

Wasn't running on the highest settings either, according to the dev that showed it. :awe:

"I think that's Polish for, 'look out!' "

Made me laugh. Not a particularly noteworthy gameplay clip IMO but worth it for the commentary alone.

 

[Carfax83]

"I think that's Polish for, 'look out!' "

Made me laugh. Not a particularly noteworthy gameplay clip IMO but worth it for the commentary alone.

Yeah, it's not really a good game clip, and the IQ has been severely diminished because of the compression. I just found out that the clip was actually streamed using the new NVidia Shield console (in addition to Twitch and YouTube), which explains the large amount of vaseline blur.

But it still exposes the large amounts of detail we can expect from the game.

 

[Inzamam]

I guess this game is going to be really a good one with nice graphics included.Awaiting to play this game on my PC.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I really want to like this game, but tried both the other games and could not get into them.

 

[Carfax83]

Here's a much cleaner video of the clip, with far less compression:

Witcher 3 GDC gameplay

@ frozentundra123456, yeah as great as they are, the Witcher games aren't for everyone.

Personally I think they are the best RPG games out there, and CDPR are masters of storytelling. It's actually amazing that a small developer like CDPR can pull off such a technically proficient game like the Witcher 3..

This game has more tech than any FPS I can think of from the top of my head, which is strange because you usually don't associate advanced graphics with RPGs.

 

[Gryz]

I really want to like this game, but tried both the other games and could not get into them.

And why exactly ?

I had played The Witcher 1 when it came out in 2007. Awesome game. Load-times were unbelievable long. But they fixed that. And then there was the combat. Pretty bad. In the sense that it felt clunky and not fun. I played until half-way the game, and then stopped. I never continued. I planned to, but never did.

Then I played The Witcher 2. The first half hour is terrible. That might be why you didn't like the game. The first half hour is just a show-off of the engine. You move forward through the story by pressing W and going through QuickTime Events. I hated it. But once you get passed that, the game improves. The maps are rather big and detailed, the graphics were very good at the time, the artwork is nice. Gameplay is ok. If you use alchemy a bit, it makes the game a lot easier. Decent story. I really enjoyed it. The first half hour is not a good indication for the whole game.

I replayed Thief-1 in January. I played it in 1999, and always wanted to replay it. Only took 15 years. I then played Dying Light, and finished it. Nice game. And two days ago I re-installed The Witcher 1. To finally finish the game. I found out I still had my old save-games, so I can start at Chapter III, in stead of the prologue. It's a long game. Within minutes I realized how bad the combat was. But now that I played it a bit, and customized my controls again, it's not so bad. It looks like I will finally finish the game.

I installed a texture pack. I enabled 4xSGSSAA. I enabled SSAO. The game doesn't look dated at all. (It's 7.5 years, after all). Rather good actually. During the last year I've read the first book in The Witcher series. Suddenly lots of little things in the game sound familiar. And that's after only reading one out of 7 books. I plan to keep reading the books a bit. I'll be all prepared for The Witcher III.

TL;DR: If you didn't like The Witcher 1 because of combat, try again. It grows on you. If you didn't like The Witcher 2 because of the first hour, try again, the rest of the game is 10x better than the first hour.

 

[escrow4]

The way Geralt walks looks odd in the latest video. Just . . . . off. Too floaty. Looks like he is placed in the scene, not part of it.

 

[Carfax83]

More footage from Pax East

The sky and lighting effects looks incredible!

*Edit* This footage is likely from the Xbox One.

 

[Enigmoid]

The way Geralt walks looks odd in the latest video. Just . . . . off. Too floaty. Looks like he is placed in the scene, not part of it.

IMO the run animation looks stilted somehow. Too stiff and uniform.

 

[bystander36]

Here's a much cleaner video of the clip, with far less compression:

Witcher 3 GDC gameplay

@ frozentundra123456, yeah as great as they are, the Witcher games aren't for everyone.

Personally I think they are the best RPG games out there, and CDPR are masters of storytelling. It's actually amazing that a small developer like CDPR can pull off such a technically proficient game like the Witcher 3..

This game has more tech than any FPS I can think of from the top of my head, which is strange because you usually don't associate advanced graphics with RPGs.

I've enjoyed the games, and the story telling is excellent, but the actual game play isn't my favorite.

 

[cmdrdredd]

More footage from Pax East

The sky and lighting effects looks incredible!

*Edit* This footage is likely from the Xbox One.

Youtube compression strikes again and it looks ugly even at 1080p. Is there an uncompressed version somewhere? I wasn't impressed by that version but I suppose it looks better than most games and that's saying something itself.

 

[Gryz]

I might be mistaken, but I believe that that recent demo was running on nVidia's Grid !

That means the GPU is not on a machine directly attached to the screen on which it was showing. Somewhere there's a network in between. And networks are always a huge bottleneck when dealing with graphics. I suspect the was already some form of compression before the game was shown on the big screen.

 

[Carfax83]

Youtube compression strikes again and it looks ugly even at 1080p. Is there an uncompressed version somewhere? I wasn't impressed by that version but I suppose it looks better than most games and that's saying something itself.

To me the footage looked beautiful. And this was running at high settings only, so ultra will look even better.

The amount of detail is just stunning, particularly the sky and the cloth simulation. I don't think I've ever seen such a vivid, and realistic looking depiction of a forested environment as in the Witcher 3 :awe:

Here's a direct link to the uncompressed version as you requested:

Uncompressed version

 

[Carfax83]

I might be mistaken, but I believe that that recent demo was running on nVidia's Grid !

That means the GPU is not on a machine directly attached to the screen on which it was showing. Somewhere there's a network in between. And networks are always a huge bottleneck when dealing with graphics. I suspect the was already some form of compression before the game was shown on the big screen.

The first demo I posted was using GRID, but the second appears to be running on PC. At first I thought it was Xbox One because I didn't see any settings in the menu, but the clip is too good looking to be Xbox One footage I think..

 

[StinkyPinky]

Youtube compression strikes again and it looks ugly even at 1080p. Is there an uncompressed version somewhere? I wasn't impressed by that version but I suppose it looks better than most games and that's saying something itself.

I think peoples expectations for this games graphics are becoming unrealistic. It an open world game, so it's hard for them to do Crysis 3 levels of visuals...but they seem to have nailed it imo. It looks a notch above Inquisition which in itself is a good looking game.

My biggest complaint is Geralt looks like a boy with an old mans beard stuck on his face. He looks too young.

 

[StinkyPinky]

To me the footage looked beautiful. And this was running at high settings only, so ultra will look even better.

The amount of detail is just stunning, particularly the sky and the cloth simulation. I don't think I've ever seen such a vivid, and realistic looking depiction of a forested environment as in the Witcher 3 :awe:

Here's a direct link to the uncompressed version as you requested:

Uncompressed version

Damn I just watched the uncompressed version. Geez, youtube really need to ease up on the compression.

I agree the forest and outdoors look amazing. The indoors are only so-so though. I have a feeling this game will murder graphics cards in the outdoors since I can't see how they can render those visuals with those view distances. THey're probably playing it on a 980 SLI rig.

 

[frozentundra123456]

And why exactly ?

I had played The Witcher 1 when it came out in 2007. Awesome game. Load-times were unbelievable long. But they fixed that. And then there was the combat. Pretty bad. In the sense that it felt clunky and not fun. I played until half-way the game, and then stopped. I never continued. I planned to, but never did.

Then I played The Witcher 2. The first half hour is terrible. That might be why you didn't like the game. The first half hour is just a show-off of the engine. You move forward through the story by pressing W and going through QuickTime Events. I hated it. But once you get passed that, the game improves. The maps are rather big and detailed, the graphics were very good at the time, the artwork is nice. Gameplay is ok. If you use alchemy a bit, it makes the game a lot easier. Decent story. I really enjoyed it. The first half hour is not a good indication for the whole game.

I replayed Thief-1 in January. I played it in 1999, and always wanted to replay it. Only took 15 years. I then played Dying Light, and finished it. Nice game. And two days ago I re-installed The Witcher 1. To finally finish the game. I found out I still had my old save-games, so I can start at Chapter III, in stead of the prologue. It's a long game. Within minutes I realized how bad the combat was. But now that I played it a bit, and customized my controls again, it's not so bad. It looks like I will finally finish the game.

I installed a texture pack. I enabled 4xSGSSAA. I enabled SSAO. The game doesn't look dated at all. (It's 7.5 years, after all). Rather good actually. During the last year I've read the first book in The Witcher series. Suddenly lots of little things in the game sound familiar. And that's after only reading one out of 7 books. I plan to keep reading the books a bit. I'll be all prepared for The Witcher III.

TL;DR: If you didn't like The Witcher 1 because of combat, try again. It grows on you. If you didn't like The Witcher 2 because of the first hour, try again, the rest of the game is 10x better than the first hour.

Dont really know, except that I could never identify with Geralt. Couldnt really care one way or the other what happened to him, or what he did. Just my personal take on the game, I have no problem with those who like it. As far a gameplay, combat in the first game was awful, and I hated, absolutely hated the QTEs in the second game. I played that game through to the battle with the Karyn or whatever, and just gave up.

 

[Gryz]

The nice thing about very heavy graphics is that it will take much more time before the game feels out-dated. Only people with crazy expensive rigs can play at the higest settings. The rest plays are normal settings, or low even. No problem, as long as the game still looks good.

Then a few years from now, average new hardware will be able to play at ultra settings. And the game will look even better than before. It might be a reason to play the game one more time. And it might feel fresh again.

I bought The Witcher 1 when it was released. October 2007, that is seven and a half years ago. I played halfway through it. (Until the beginning of chapter 3). Last week I finally reinstalled the game. I still had my old save files. I'm having a blast.

I installed a huge texture pack. And a pack with new models. The game looks great now. Not at all like a game from 2007. I also enabled SSAO and 4xSGSSAA via the nvidia-drivers. I love SGSSAA, it makes the game look so smooth.

It took me a day or 2 to get back into the game. I recently read the first Witcher book by Sapkowski (with short stories). That helped ! I now recognize more names, understand small subtleties, etc. The world makes a bit more sense now. And I now use alchemy, I learned that from The Witcher 2. The biggest flaw in the game is still the combat. It's actually not as bad as I remember. But it is a little simple. (Face your enemy, click, wait for the cursor to flame, click again, wait for the cursor to flame, click again, etc).

Can't wait for TW3 !

 

[Gryz]

Dont really know, except that I could never identify with Geralt. Couldnt really care one way or the other what happened to him, or what he did. Just my personal take on the game, I have no problem with those who like it.

You just posted this while I posted myself about my new experiences this week with The Witcher 1. I actually like Geralt's character. Maybe because I'm not 18 anymore, far from it. I can relate better to a 40 or 60 year old wanderer than tothe average Hollywood moviestar. It also helps when you read the first Sapkowski book. There are fan-translations in many languages nowadays.

As far a gameplay, combat in the first game was awful, and I hated, absolutely hated the QTEs in the second game. I played that game through to the battle with the Karyn or whatever, and just gave up.

The QTE kinda stop in TW2 after an hour. The game changes radically, in that respect. Also, the first hour has lots of names, politics, conspiracies, etc. I felt a bit lost. But once you get through the first hour, the game changes into a simpler story, with Geralt is the center. And just does the typical things in a RPG. Go find stuff, go kill monsters, etc.

I'm playing the 2nd half of TW1 now. And I'm having a great time. It does look like TW1 is a long game. Maybe too long for many people. But if you enjoy it, there's a lot of it.

 

[Mem]

Dont really know, except that I could never identify with Geralt. Couldnt really care one way or the other what happened to him, or what he did. Just my personal take on the game, I have no problem with those who like it. As far a gameplay, combat in the first game was awful, and I hated, absolutely hated the QTEs in the second game. I played that game through to the battle with the Karyn or whatever, and just gave up.

Combat in first was not too bad,I adjusted pretty quickly to it and have played lots of far worst RPG games with terrible combat controls, the second game the story really takes off after you kill the Kayran which a lot of players got stuck at unfortunately,also you can actually replay Witcher 2 from two different sides, you make your choice on which side to go with,on second play through you can try the other side ie new quests and areas so really worth doing IMHO.

QTE I'm not a fan off but it's not a deal breaker to me,end of the day I'm a great fan of the Witcher series and the story,being a mature player maybe I can relate to it more then some other RPGs that are dumbed down and over rated ie Dragon Age Inquistion.

 

[norseamd]

Also, the first hour has lots of names, politics, conspiracies, etc. I felt a bit lost.

Replaying the Witcher 2 at normal difficulty right now. Considering how much more I read about world studies, geopolitics, and grand strategy now the Witcher 2 is very basic as far as politics in the Nordlands.

 

[norseamd]

Combat in first was not too bad,I adjusted pretty quickly to it and have played lots of far worst RPG games with terrible combat controls, the second game the story really takes off after you kill the Kayran which a lot of players got stuck at unfortunately,also you can actually replay Witcher 2 from two different sides, you make your choice on which side to go with,on second play through you can try the other side ie new quests and areas so really worth doing IMHO.

That was hard on normal difficulty compared to easy regardless of the fact that I had got the antidote. Thinking the fight must be impossible without the antidote. Right now I am stuck on the first fight with the Mountain.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You just posted this while I posted myself about my new experiences this week with The Witcher 1. I actually like Geralt's character. Maybe because I'm not 18 anymore, far from it. I can relate better to a 40 or 60 year old wanderer than tothe average Hollywood moviestar. It also helps when you read the first Sapkowski book. There are fan-translations in many languages nowadays.


The QTE kinda stop in TW2 after an hour. The game changes radically, in that respect. Also, the first hour has lots of names, politics, conspiracies, etc. I felt a bit lost. But once you get through the first hour, the game changes into a simpler story, with Geralt is the center. And just does the typical things in a RPG. Go find stuff, go kill monsters, etc.

I'm playing the 2nd half of TW1 now. And I'm having a great time. It does look like TW1 is a long game. Maybe too long for many people. But if you enjoy it, there's a lot of it.

I am probably older than you, but I guess it is just what you want out of a game. I get that some like mature themes, and moral ambiguity. Myself though, I like a more clearly defined character, either evil or good. I know that is not realistic to what real life is like, but I play games to get away from real life, not necessarily to mirror it. And yes, I was pretty lost in all the politics and conspiracies. Maybe that is part of why I could not identify with the Witcher.

 

[norseamd]

And yes, I was pretty lost in all the politics and conspiracies.

That was nothing more than introduction to politics and international relations 101.