The Witcher 3 Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[pippin]

Probably they know they reached a certain limit when it comes to texture quality, but don't want you to realize that right away.
Depth of Field and Bloom are probably two of my most despised effects. DoF makes the game look like how I see without glasses on and Bloom is directly painful to my eyes.

 

[Athelas]

I think I know what you mean (and that does look indeed pretty bad), but I think that's more of an issue of color grading and saturation.

 

[Metro]

No, it's more about the rendering altogether. Everything looks like plastic.

Yeah it's another post-processing thing they add to give things an odd cartoonish look. It was in Torchlight 2 and there was some option to disable it... was called... halo lighting or something like that.

 

[Murk]

I think I know what you mean (and that does look indeed pretty bad), but I think that's more of an issue of color grading and saturation.

Oh definitely -- I don't know the proper term to describe it, but it is definitely an ongoing thing that seems to be spreading. I bring up instagram because it is a common filter people use on it for their photos (image in spoiler)

Spoiler

Just... an ugly look, and I do not understand the popularity. The witcher games have a lot of these effects too -- but I disable many of them, and the result is a much crisper and cleaner look that is much more pleasing to me.

Yeah it's another post-processing thing they add to give things an odd cartoonish look. It was in Torchlight 2 and there was some option to disable it... was called... halo lighting or something like that.

This look was my biggest beef with D:OS -- the cartoony style was fine, but the colors and brightness and lighting was a sore. In dark areas, the game looked great, but navigating certain parts of Cyseal was legitimately painful on the eyes. Oh well. People like their bright and shineys.

 

[Multidirectional]

Far Cry 3 during daytime is the worst offender when it comes to overly bright shit out of recent ones for me. It's not often game makes my eyes hurt but that one managed it. Visual style of Blood Dragon was such a relief compared to that.

I love the way Witcher 2 looks, especially with the Bloom turned off. Nice colors, great texture detail (although they achieve it with a bit too strong sharpening effect). As long as Witcher 3 keeps the same look while improving LOD system and draw distance and maybe adding some DX11 shit like better AO and tessallation it will be more than fucking fine.

 

[Merlkir]

Witcher 2 has completely unrealistic colours. The very first arena scene is ridiculously blue and the fire is absurdly red. They went real heavy with post processing.

 

[J_C]

Witcher 2 has completely unrealistic colours.

Who cares? It is not meant to be fotorealistic. From an artistic standpoint, W2 had great visuals.

 

[Merlkir]

Ah, dunno, the fire bugs me a bit. It's less crazy in the battle sequences, it was just the arena where it hit me right away.

 

[Multidirectional]

I'm not a huge fan of how arena looks either. I was talking about the actual game though, which looks great. Fuck realistic colors, they would make it look worse.

 

[toro]

I'm so happy this shit was postponed cause I'm waiting for the new AMD/ATI card.

On the other hand, is quite likely that both things will disappoint me. Oh, well.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...is-afraid-of-badly-polished-games-on-next-gen

Witcher 3 dev: "Market is afraid of badly polished games on next-gen"
"We don't want to release the game with bugs."

Yesterday's announcement of a further delay to The Witcher 3 - to 19th May 2015 - cited "many details that need to be corrected" and rued how "we set the release date too hastily". It came from the Board of CD Projekt.

A member of that Board, Adam Kiciński, said a bit more talking to Polish financial journalists (CDPR is a public company) later that day.

We Witcher a merry Christmas, we Witcher a merry Christmas...

"Gamers ..." he said (in a translation supplied by Eurogamer Poland), "took our decision very well. [The] market is afraid of badly polished games on next-gen platforms."

Undeniably, the faulty releases of games such as Assassin's Creed: Unity, DriveClub and The Master Chief Collection are still fresh in people's minds.

"We want to disarm the opinion that [The Witcher 3] doesn't exist," he went on, tackling another concern. "It will be closed by the end of the year in line with the schedule.

"There's a lot of small errors though, because the game is huge. It's the only reason behind the delay. We didn't assume it will be this big. Only after putting all the pieces together it turned out it's bigger than the two first put together. Let me remind you: it's open and not linear. We are just learning how to play it and we have to catch the little pieces. We know what to do, we just have to do it. We don't want to release the game with bugs that undermine the gameplay."

Again, Kiciński stressed - as did the Board collectively yesterday - that the February release date (itself a delay from autumn 2014) was set too early. "We announced the release date very early and we're paying for it now," he said.

It's an admission that undermines the promise CDP co-founder Marcin Iwiński made in May 2014 of "no more delays" to the game. "This is not our first game; we are not newbies," he said then - "we planned [the February 2015 date] well".

Nevertheless, the goodwill CD Projekt earns from the community elsewhere - by offering all planned Witcher 3 DLC for free, for example - means hard moments like this tend to be viewed with leniency and understanding. Your comments below yesterday's article are testament to this.

"We want to put our names under this game," Kiciński stressed again, "it has to be fun."

 

[Lyric Suite]

They should delay the game until they get it right. Pissing off people by postponing the release won't be as bad as pissing off people for releasing a shitty product. Not after the Ass Creed fiasco.

 

[polo]

The mistake was to set a release date too early of a game this big, and open worlded, which its a first for them.
Should just said "2015".

 

[made]

we're talking about a straight up downgrade in the visuals

Are you insane? The detail in these shots is astounding.

Spoiler

 

[Multidirectional]

Fuck, I'll need to buy two GTX980s for that!

 

[Talby]

we're talking about a straight up downgrade in the visuals

Are you insane? The detail in these shots is astounding.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Merlkir]

You know, that must've taken 50+ hours of work. The artist must be an interesting person.

 

[Roguey]

We didn't assume it will be this big. Only after putting all the pieces together it turned out it's bigger than the two first put together.

 

[Merlkir]

I finished the new Witcher book - "Season of Storms". It's a bit disappointing, but also quite interesting. It feels (very strongly) like a reaction to the games and the way the Witcher franchise has been taken over by other creators, and adopted by new types of fans.
Story spoilers inside:

Spoiler

In feel it's more like the short stories than the saga, although there are fewer folktale elements and a more politics in it. The structure of the book is puzzling at first, the important parts are at the beginning and at the very end. The middle is like a computer game - Geralt completes quests, mostly related to his lost swords, but also exactly something you'd find in a Witcher game, just random monster hunts with very loose connection to the overarching plot.
There are dick mages who use genetics and sorcery to produce new species and creatures (mostly of the creepy murdery kind) and don't care what happens to their creations when they run away (hint: they eat peasants). (there are even references to mages wishing to study Geralt and his mutations, to improve their own homunkuli, for "security purposes", perhaps referencing the Salamandra plot of the first game)
Geralt is hired as a bodyguard for a king of a little country, who gets killed on his watch (*cough* Foltest *cough*). Most of the middle part seems like footnotes Sapkowski had lying around somewhere, stringed into a video game playthrough, connecting the beginning and end of the "book". It might've worked better as a short story. Still, the framing of the book is Geralt's relationship with Yennefer - what most of the short stories were about, before Ciri came and initiated the saga. Their relationship is also obviously something Sapkowski cares about, so much so he rewrote it a few times.
He also fucks up the chronology at the end, quite beautifully. I think it must be a joke played on the beginning of the first game, the way Geralt survives and on the fact that Ciri comes back in game n.3. IIRC a Polish codexer spoilt the ending when the book first came out, but basically Geralt is still alive after a hundred years, hunting the remaining "experiments". Either his mutation works this way, or he's been time-travelling, possibly with Ciri? It'll be interesting to see if it's coordinated with what the Wild Hunt will be about, or if it's just Sapek trolling. :D
Overall it's nothing groundbreaking, but still a pleasant read for the fans.

 

[Infinitron]

Apparently, you are going to be able to play as Ciri, but I don't know how much. They are going to fuck it up... I just know it.

It's polish: http://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp?ID=89439

 

[Infinitron]

And english http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/12/15/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-will-let-you-play-as-ciri

 

[Perkel]

Suprising but from what they wrote this looks like TW2 multiple characters.

 

[His Majesty]

New screenshots. Apparently the tutorial is set in Kaer Morhen during Ciri's training.

pictures

 

[hell bovine]

Apparently, you are going to be able to play as Ciri, but I don't know how much. They are going to fuck it up... I just know it.

It's polish: http://www.gry-online.pl/S013.asp?ID=89439

So they bring Yennefer back, but you get to play as the second most annoying character (first being G-boy) from the books. I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to play this one either. :/

 

[SarcasticUndertones]

Apparently, you are going to be able to play as Ciri, but I don't know how much. They are going to fuck it up... I just know it.

How could they possibly fuck up an idea that's this bad in itself?

Really.. we get a delay and then they suddenly announce that we'll get to play some no-name that's there only to appeal to the crotch fumblers? I see no reason for two playable character in a game I want to play about a witcher, especially not one who's sole existence is to pander.. she's in the books? I don't care, I didn't read all of the books they aren't particularly good.

Why can't we just get more stuff with Geralt, afterall that why we're all playing it isn't it? I mean.. come on.. if you are playing the witcher to play a character other than the witcher then you're playing the wrong game for the wrong reasons... a minority might want to, because they've now been told they can, but exactly who was clamouring to play some random female in a male oriented storyline before in was announced?

Seriously fuck this shit.. if they'd left it out then it wouldn't be needing a delay.

Pandering with this AND Cyberpunk 2077..CDP really are becoming a second-rate Bioware.