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[GoonerTRON]

Wow

 

[Virdix]

I just skimmed the review myself but it comes across sort of exactly what you didn't hope for.

http://www.gamesradar.com/witcher-3-wild-hunt-review/opm/

This snippet that sent the tone of the review made me roll my eyes.

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. The ‘Skyrim killer’; the ultimate open-world RPG; the game delayed by its developer to ensure your adventure is so polished you can see your delighted simper in its every frame.

Also he goes on about how Witcher 3 isn't truly open world because there are zoned areas (Kind of like how Whiterun in Skyrim was it's own zone separate from the world exterior) Basically semantics wordplay at work here.

Wouldn't Skyrim not be openworld by that definition? since dungeons and other areas have load screens? lol

Watched Gamespots Lobby with Kevin Van Ord, it was awesome to watch someone talk about he game so passionately even with that other guy getting annoyed with his long winded answers.

 

[swazzyswess]

so people aren't taking GSKevin's nearly rabid Witcher fanboyism into account when allowing themselves to get ridiculously hyped? I think the opinions of people lukewarm on the previous games would be a lot more indicative of the consensus consumer opinion of the game.

 

[Leb]

As impressive as this is overall, especially the art direction, I'm actually still quite disappointed. The Witcher 2 was such a graphical powerhouse, I guess I just expected more from this game from a visual standpoint. From everything posted in the thread, including the shot above, it merely looks on par with, or comparable to the kinds of visuals we've been getting recently from other games that are also large or open scale.

Load up your copy of TW2, making sure that everything is on Ultra and that Ubersampling is enabled, and then load a save in Flotsam, walk out into the forest and tilt the camera all the way back until you're gazing at the top of trees where they meet the sky.

I think the result will genuinely surprise you.

 

[neojubei]

It's crazy to me that of all the games, we're getting hyped about The Witcher... lol never would've thought that back when Witcher 1 came out. I mean it's a fine game, just never seemed like something that would generate hype like this.

yeah me too. i wish witcher 2 had this kind of hype when it came out

 

[Poimandres]

Wow, great reviews! I'm pretty interested in this despite not having played either of the other 2 games (pretty sure I own both lol). I wonder if I'd get better performance on my PS4 or PC with a 670 2gb.

 

[hlhbk]

I am just coming into this thread after a long day of work. Absolutely thrilled after seeing the reviews considering I built my new gaming rig specifically for this game. Just saw the title. What did Gerstmann say?

 

[viveks86]

Load up your copy of TW2, making sure that everything is on Ultra and that Ubersampling is enabled, and then load a save in Flotsam, walk out into the forest and tilt the camera all the way back until you're gazing at the top of trees where they meet the sky.

I think the result will genuinely surprise you.

I don't have a copy. What happens exactly? Just curious

 

[wanderingprostheyltite]

Load up your copy of TW2, making sure that everything is on Ultra and that Ubersampling is enabled, and then load a save in Flotsam, walk out into the forest and tilt the camera all the way back until you're gazing at the top of trees where they meet the sky.

I think the result will genuinely surprise you.

This reminds me of that speech from I Heart Huckabees about what happens when you're in a forest by yourself or something to that effect lol. Is the answer "everything?"

 

[EmptySpace]

I am just coming into this thread after a long day of work. Absolutely thrilled after seeing the reviews considering I built my new gaming rig specifically for this game. Just saw the title. What did Gerstmann say?

not sure. probably the usual jaded stuff.

 

[erawsd]

so people aren't taking GSKevin's nearly rabid Witcher fanboyism into account when allowing themselves to get ridiculously hyped? I think the opinions of people lukewarm on the previous games would be a lot more indicative of the consensus consumer opinion of the game.

Its not like his is the only review. There are 36 other reviews in the OP and 32 of them are scores of 90% or more. The lowest score of the lot is an 8.0. I think its safe to say that the prevailing opinion is that this is a pretty good videogame.

 

[Derp]

Load up your copy of TW2, making sure that everything is on Ultra and that Ubersampling is enabled, and then load a save in Flotsam, walk out into the forest and tilt the camera all the way back until you're gazing at the top of trees where they meet the sky.

I think the result will genuinely surprise you.

What happens?! Someone do it! It's important! Quick!

 

[Leb]

I don't have a copy. What happens exactly? Just curious

The carefully constructed illusion falls apart, badly. You see the sparse, low poly canopy disappearing into a murky fog, all set against a flat, monochromatic sky.

TW2 looks great, don't get me wrong, but I think its singular aesthetic is derived from its strong art direction much more than it is from any hyper-advanced technical achievements.

 

[Lulubop]

I am just coming into this thread after a long day of work. Absolutely thrilled after seeing the reviews considering I built my new gaming rig specifically for this game. Just saw the title. What did Gerstmann say?

Pretty sure the title says to stfu about it.

 

[Vestal]

It's crazy to me that of all the games, we're getting hyped about The Witcher... lol never would've thought that back when Witcher 1 came out. I mean it's a fine game, just never seemed like something that would generate hype like this.

Its been building to this. Aa slow burn of sorts really. Cdp deserves this though, they are an amazing developer who really understand their audience.

 

[Tigress]

Sounds like "open world" term for RPG make people expect something like Skyrim this gen.

Guess it's kinda like MMO --- where Skyrim is the sandbox kind while Witcher is the theme park kind.

For me all I care is even if they do kinda sway you to do things in a certain order, I don't feel railroaded (I did feel kinda railroaded in Witcher 2 but they weren't trying to claim full open game though you could tell they were still trying to give you the feel of one. For me it just seemed to make it more obvious it wasn't one when they tried to make it feel like one when it wasn't).

I didn't feel railroaded by Fallout New Vegas and it also did the certain areas are more dangerous (though not sure about quests) thing. And Fallout 2 isn't making me feel railroaded and there are definitely more scary quests in some areas than others (I'm still waiting to get more powerful before I go after the Wanamingos). So I am not sure I'll agree with that one review that claims it feels very guided cause if you go in the wrong direction quests will get too hard.

Still, the PS Magazine review is interesting to me cause it's the first real negative that speaks to things I usually like in an WRPG (I really do like a true open world feel). It's disappoinging you can't just sail to those areas but have to fast travel, I will say that (but I already thought it was disappointing some areas were flat out locked until you got a certain point. Vegas never locked anything, you'd just get shocked if you went in the wrong direction).

Also, it kinda disappoints me if it is true that other than sidequests you really won't find anything random (like the random monster encounters in Skyrim). I was kinda assuming you'd have random monster encounters other than side quest related. I'm hoping they were kinda harsh on it and it's not as bad as they say in that regard. I would be disappointed if everything you do in the game has to be side quest related and there's no just killing random monsters/hunting that has nothing to do with anything (other than maybe wanting to level up or gain materials or just have fun fighting something).

 

[hlhbk]

The carefully constructed illusion falls apart, badly. You see the sparse, low poly canopy disappearing into a murky fog, all set against a flat, monochromatic sky.

TW2 looks great, don't get me wrong, but I think its singular aesthetic is derived from its strong art direction much more than it is from any hyper-advanced technical achievements.

I loved the Witcher 2 but it was a technical mess. On the specs below I had massive pop in of all objects, graphically flickering (which can't be fixed), and clipping on PC. Everyone always talked about how much of a technical marvel it was but I just never saw it at all.

 

[2thepoint]

not sure. probably the usual jaded stuff.

EDIT: NVM.

Didn't see thread title.

Witcher 3 has now been elevated to Day 1 based on these incredible reviews.

 

[hlhbk]

Haven't seen his comments, but yeah, probably jaded stuff.

If he is so tired of games or journalism or whatever, why doesn't he just find another job instead of being so draining, and basically down on everything.

I just read them, they weren't jaded at all. Why aren't we talking about what he said? It's a legit concern.

 

[PopcornMegaphone]

I've read a few reviews and they are vague about this question: How accessible is the plot for newcomers of the series?

 

[hermeslyre]

The carefully constructed illusion falls apart, badly. You see the sparse, low poly canopy disappearing into a murky fog, all set against a flat, monochromatic sky.

TW2 looks great, don't get me wrong, but I think its singular aesthetic is derived from its strong art direction much more than it is from any hyper-advanced technical achievements.

You don't even need to look up. Just look forward.

You know the old Turok engine on the n64? Inpenetrable fog 50 feet out from the player character in every direction. Flotsam forest is just like that, the fog is just a little further away.

 

[Darklor01]

I've read a few reviews and they are vague about this question: How accessible is the plot for newcomers of the series?

I read one saying that for newcomers if they can fight through the fact the tutorial is thrown at you including things you don't need until later, and hang in there until things get going, the reward is worth it. The implication there, I think, being, it's not weakened for vets and not impossible to noobs.

Edit: I misread. No comment on plot accessibility in the article. Sorry, missed the point entirely.

 

[GravyButt]

I've read a few reviews and they are vague about this question: How accessible is the plot for newcomers of the series?

Curious as well. Any links to give us a better understanding of 1&2? Only got to play a bit of 2.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

I just read them, they weren't jaded at all. Why aren't we talking about what he said? It's a legit concern.

Firstly, I want to note that a number of people have been banned for ignoring the warning in the thread title. But if that alone isn't enough, I also offered this.

If you missed it earlier, the title was edited because his innocuous tweet completely derailed the thread. It was a tweet that he wasn't enjoying the game. This is fine in and of itself, but it lead to a lot of damage control/metacommenatary about Gerstmann and Giant Bomb. It dominated several pages of the thread. Seeing as how Giant Bomb hasn't submitted a review, this was all irrelevant and frankly annoying to read. I promise you that I'm neither praising nor criticizing Giant Bomb here, and this isn't meant to serve as commentary about that site's quality. It has nothing to do with Giant Bomb and everything to do with the fact that the conversation surrounding Gerstmann's limited, non-review commentary about the game was drivel.

I have absolutely no desire for this to come across as a "no criticism allowed" post. If Jeff posts an actual review, it can obviously be discussed in here. But we don't need meandering meta-discussion about one personality when that person hasn't even reviewed the game.

 

[Easy_D]

What happens?! Someone do it! It's important! Quick!

Since he mentions UberSampling I'm gonna guess the framerate tanks when you do it.

 

[Vik]

I was hyping the witcher before it was cool

 

[OmegaDL50]

I loved the Witcher 2 but it was a technical mess. On the specs below I had massive pop in of all objects, graphically flickering (which can't be fixed), and clipping on PC. Everyone always talked about how much of a technical marvel it was but I just never saw it at all.

Well that sounds....interesting.

I started up playing The Witcher 1 for the first time a few days ago that has obviously a bug that remains unfixed.

On an i5 3570k system with 8GB of ram and a HD7950 I should be able to run the game flawlessly at fullspeed with all of the graphics options maxed in the settings menu, this being a game from 2007 mind you, Of course it was naturally single threaded and thus my quad core wouldn't benefit here, But I don't think memory on my GPU or system would have mattered allowing me to brute force it.

The the real time gameplay graphic stuff was fine, However EVERYTIME a cutscene or NPC conversation with no choices played the game would reduce to horrible stutter and frame drops.

You know what fixed the problem. Unchecking the depth of field box in the Graphics Options.

I have no idea what depth of field has to do with in-game cutscenes. That baffles me.

I plan to move on to the Witcher 2 as soon as I finish the first game in preparation for 3. I hope I don't have to do any weird fixes or some work around like the one I mention above.

 

[ColonialRaptor]

I hate this hype, i know it's going to be good but can it possibly meet my expectations? I want it to be the best game ever for me and I've no doubt it will be but frak the hype train has me deep within its grip.

 

[Grady]

For me all I care is even if they do kinda sway you to do things in a certain order, I don't feel railroaded (I did feel kinda railroaded in Witcher 2 but they weren't trying to claim full open game though you could tell they were still trying to give you the feel of one. For me it just seemed to make it more obvious it wasn't one when they tried to make it feel like one when it wasn't).

I didn't feel railroaded by Fallout New Vegas and it also did the certain areas are more dangerous (though not sure about quests) thing. And Fallout 2 isn't making me feel railroaded and there are definitely more scary quests in some areas than others (I'm still waiting to get more powerful before I go after the Wanamingos). So I am not sure I'll agree with that one review that claims it feels very guided cause if you go in the wrong direction quests will get too hard.

Still, the PS Magazine review is interesting to me cause it's the first real negative that speaks to things I usually like in an WRPG (I really do like a true open world feel). It's disappoinging you can't just sail to those areas but have to fast travel, I will say that (but I already thought it was disappointing some areas were flat out locked until you got a certain point. Vegas never locked anything, you'd just get shocked if you went in the wrong direction).

Also, it kinda disappoints me if it is true that other than sidequests you really won't find anything random (like the random monster encounters in Skyrim). I was kinda assuming you'd have random monster encounters other than side quest related. I'm hoping they were kinda harsh on it and it's not as bad as they say in that regard. I would be disappointed if everything you do in the game has to be side quest related and there's no just killing random monsters/hunting that has nothing to do with anything (other than maybe wanting to level up or gain materials or just have fun fighting something).

I feel the exact opposite. I would hate random events or monsters that serve no purpose. Game is big enough as it is. Would take away from the whole hunting aspect of you constantly encountered large beasts in the game.

 

[LEGGZZZZ]

This just makes me all the more hyped for Cyberpunk 2077, man oh man...

 

[nib95]

This just makes me all the more hyped for Cyberpunk 2077, man oh man...

Game of the Forever material right there.

 

[Exentryk]

Don't really care for reviews, and I already had the game pre-ordered. But I guess these numbers are good for people that don't research, or need someone else's opinion to make up their own?

Pretty sure the title says to stfu about it.

Having it in the thread title is giving it unnecessary attention. It should be removed.

 

[hermeslyre]

Well that sounds....interesting.

I started up playing The Witcher 1 for the first time that has obviously a bug that remains unfixed.

On an i5 3570k system with 8GB of ram and a HD7950 I should be able to run the game flawlessly at fullspeed with all of the graphics options maxed in the settings menu, this being a game from 2007 mind you, Of course it was naturally single threaded and thus my quad core wouldn't benefit here, But I don't think memory on my GPU or system would have mattered allowing me to brute force it.

The the real time gameplay graphic stuff was fine, However EVERYTIME a cutscene or NPC conversation with no choices played the game would reduce to horrible stutter and frame drops.

You know what fixed the problem. Unchecking the depth of field box in the Graphics Options.

I have no idea what depth of field has to do with in-game cutscenes. That baffles me.

I plan to move on to the Witcher 2 as soon as I finish the first game in preparation for 3. I hope I don't have to do any weird fixes or some work around like the one I mention above.

You're kidding. I remember that DOF bug! I thought it was just a performance issue.

I played it way back in 2007, on an overclocked Athlon 64 single core 3700+ San Diego CPU and a Nvidia 7600gt. The game ran perfectly with cutscene DOF off. I can't believe they never fixed that, or that on a 7950(!) it was still an issue! Crazy.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Having it in the thread title is giving it unnecessary attention. It should be removed.

You're right. It was much better pre-edit when like half the posts were dedicated to discussing how cynical Jeff is and what his 2014 game of the year was all because he tweeted 140 characters or less of a vaguely negative sentiment.

 

[red36]

most games seem to really take issue with having the camera anywhere near a model. Everyone is 6 feet away from the camera and their entire model is visible? Fine. Have the camera two feet from a character such that the computer only has to render a fraction of what it normally would and all hell breaks lose.

W1 had spotty performance. Yet imo it was among that years best games.

 

[Griss]

Well, I'm not happy about the downgrade and I've never played a Witcher game and I'm not sure if this is for me...

But this reaction can't be ignored. I'm in.

 

[bro1]

Pretty sure the title says to stfu about it.

Wtf? We can't discuss what a reviewer says because it goes against the narrative of the thread?

 

[Exentryk]

You're right. It was much better pre-edit when like half the posts were dedicated to discussing how cynical Jeff is and what his 2014 game of the year was all because he tweeted 140 characters or less of a vaguely negative sentiment.

While that may be one solution to that problem, having it in the title you're inviting people to look up what Jeff said.

Perhaps adding a stern post in the thread while the discussion was veering offtopic might have been a better solution? Or some other ways that mods can counter the issue rather than adding it to the thread title?

 

[hlhbk]

Firstly, I want to note that a number of people have been banned for ignoring the warning in the thread title. But if that alone isn't enough, I also offered this.



I have absolutely no desire for this to come across as a "no criticism allowed" post. If Jeff posts an actual review, it can obviously be discussed in here. But we don't need meandering meta-discussion about one personality when that person hasn't even reviewed the game.

Ok. 10/4.

 

[Digital Snake]

Anyone know if there is any difference in buying the game physically or digitally? By that I mean is there DLC code with they physical version vs the digital one?

 

[hlhbk]

Well that sounds....interesting.

I started up playing The Witcher 1 for the first time a few days ago that has obviously a bug that remains unfixed.

On an i5 3570k system with 8GB of ram and a HD7950 I should be able to run the game flawlessly at fullspeed with all of the graphics options maxed in the settings menu, this being a game from 2007 mind you, Of course it was naturally single threaded and thus my quad core wouldn't benefit here, But I don't think memory on my GPU or system would have mattered allowing me to brute force it.

The the real time gameplay graphic stuff was fine, However EVERYTIME a cutscene or NPC conversation with no choices played the game would reduce to horrible stutter and frame drops.

You know what fixed the problem. Unchecking the depth of field box in the Graphics Options.

I have no idea what depth of field has to do with in-game cutscenes. That baffles me.

I plan to move on to the Witcher 2 as soon as I finish the first game in preparation for 3. I hope I don't have to do any weird fixes or some work around like the one I mention above.

The issues I listed are well known and happen randomly to people.

 

[Ophiuchus]

That is beautiful.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

While that may be one solution to that problem, having it in the title you're inviting people to look up what Jeff said.

Perhaps adding a stern post in the thread while the discussion was veering offtopic might have been a better solution? Or some other ways that mods can counter the issue rather than adding it to the thread title?

This will be the last bit of meta-discussion on this matter, but I promise you that the title edit gives the greatest visibility. There's over 2000 posts in this thread. Most people don't read all or even most posts in a thread. A stern warning in the form of a post (which has occurred!) will go ignored by most that aren't actively reading at the time of the post going up. Adding it to the OP wouldn't help either as most people aren't going to re-read it.

 

[mohsinkhan]

This sounds great, but I havent played any previous entries, I wouldnt even know where to begin.

 

[Vire]

This sounds great, but I havent played any previous entries, I wouldnt even know where to begin.

For what its worth, many reviews specifically mentioned that the game does a fairly good job of getting newcomers up to speed.

 

[Majine]

I predict GOTY awards this year will be fairly unanimous.

 

[mgs2master2]

is there a polygon review out yet? i am kinda curious. they are usually the first to jump to these.

 

[fuzzyreactor]

Never played Witcher 2 but I thought Witcher 1 was bad. Should i give this a shot?

 

[RoboPlato]

I predict GOTY awards this year will be fairly unanimous.

This and Bloodborne are already reviewing pretty much neck and neck and there's several big games that have yet to come out. I doubt we'll see many of the same choices for top honors across the board.

 

[IchigoSharingan]

Polish reviews are extremely biased

let them have their pride.