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[EdibleExplosives]

Fuck that. In many ways the first Witcher is superior to the second.

Yup, the first is one of my favourite RPGs, awful combat aside.

 

[Interfectum]

It's one of the best RPGs of the last decade.

Yup. The first Witcher game is a great fucking game. The dialogue, the story, the moral choices... I have a feeling a lot of people are writing this game off so they don't feel like they have to play through it.

 

[bombshell]

What they said about fetch quests:

Nor have CD Projekt Red simply padded out The Witcher 3's Skyrim-exceeding open world with unimaginative busywork. They've systematically banished fetch quests from the game—or, at least, as much as a team can when making a high-fantasy RPG. It's one of the ways the Polish developers are refining their identity through the creation of The Witcher 3, where quest and narrative design is being meticulously worked and reworked right up until release. The philosophy is, if you need to have a fetch quest, make sure the story does a damn good job of hiding it.

“When we do have these situations, which is rarely, we compensate for it with the narrative,” writer Jakub Szamalek explains. “It'll definitely be an interesting story in itself – you'll be intrigued by the NPC's motives, and where this is all leading. Even when you have a simple structure it's something we're compensating for in the story.”

The reason for abolishing fetch quests? CD Projekt Red don't like them much either. “We are trying very hard to limit such interactions of structures to a minimum because we don't think they're interesting.” Instead, they want to be radical.

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-witcher-3-preview-how-to-build-an-rpg-with-36-endings/

 

[Tovarisc]

I've not been able to read a lot of the reviews yet but did any of them suggest more carrying weight for Garalt? I've been playing 2 and I'm constantly getting over encumbered.

There is still weight system in place to go with grid look of inventory. What I have seen from videos they have revamped weights on items totally and seems that you can haul more stuff than in TW2 before going over the limit.

Also you can expand carry limit by getting saddlebacks for your horse.

Gnomes are in the game by the way, hype!

Didn't want to know this.

 

[MUnited83]

No reviewf from itsGWC yet? Dissapointed

 

[braves01]

Any news on framerate of console versions?

The Kotaku review listed it as a negative and said it affected combat.

 

[erawsd]

PS4 is the only version reviewed, and some of the journalists are noticing framerate issues. Like here, the Kotaku one:

They are all linked in the OP so you could read them...

Wonder why they wouldn't just turn it up to "Dark" difficulty if it got too easy.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

PS4 is the only version reviewed, and some of the journalists are noticing framerate issues. Like here, the Kotaku one:

They are all linked in the OP so you could read them...

"Tasteless"
seems like someone is also getting his balls cut off on this sequel.

 

[aravuus]

what happened to their promise of no fetch quests?

I guess they lied, though I haven't seen them say the game won't have fetch quests.

Like someone said, a game of this size and length will always have a number of quests most people would consider fetch quests. I'm not sure why it's so surprising to some people.

 

[-tetsuo-]

You can reduce almost any RPG quest to "fetch quest" if you want. In the case of The Witcher you're generally going to fetch a monster's head or something. What makes this series good is that everything along the way is a lot more interesting than in other RPGs. So while the bare skeleton of the quest is still "go there, get this," the places, characters, and enemies you encounter all have a lot more character and don't really feel repetitive.

Obviously I haven't played this game, but I've played the previous two and based on the review scores I'm confident it'll feel the same.

I've beaten the other games, I know how CDPR rolls. But, I promise you, this game will have a lot more " i need some carrots" and "this drowner stole my book" than the other ones.

 

[Quotient]

you can import W2 saves over but I cant find anything on what it actually does, none of the reviews seem to mention it because they got PS4 copies

How does the import work on PC? Witcher 2 saves were tied to steam-cloud, does the Witcher 3 auto-detect the saves, or do you need to re-download Witcher 2 in order to get your saves and manually import them into Witcher 3?

 

[Rajang]

10/10 from Gamespot!? That's massive, they don't hand those out left and right.

They gave MGS4 a 10 and it was by the same reviewer. Yep.. MGS4.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

The IGN review feels slightly contradictory:

...but it’s mixed in with too much padding in the form of meaningless fetch quests and collectathons. Every time I felt like I was on the verge of an interesting revelation, I’d have to suddenly stop to escort a goat, or search for a lost, narcoleptic dwarf.

And then go on to say this:

The payoff here is twofold: in keeping with the lore, these represent your most reliable stream of income, which is refreshingly significant due to an appropriately stingy in-game economy.

The other upside is that, more often than not, these hunts and other side activities provide interesting insights into a land being destroyed by war, and the many forces that play a role in shaping it.

So which is it?

 

[WaxPineapple]

So, what are the common negatives among the reviews so far? Framerate, fetch quests (apparently), some bugs, anything else?

 

[Blade30]

what happened to their promise of no fetch quests?

They didn't really promise that, well at least no "bring me 10 wolfs pelt, then you'll get your reward" stuff, whereas you only do it for exp and game progressing. It's more about doing a quest that's not waste of time and you can remember it as "Good thing I didn't leave out that quest", likewise to listen to npc chatter.

 

[McHuj]

The grass in GTA brings my PC to it's knees, how is this possible on a PS4? I don't get it

Last gen port vs a game built for the current gen from the ground up.

 

[Alpende]

Those are some good numbers. Can't wait to play this. Only downside is I have a test on the 30th. Must resist playing this too much during that period.

 

[mrklaw]

Yeah, I read similar quotes in every AAA game lauch. Bloodborne, Project CARS, AC Unity, TW3, Evolve, The Evil Within, etc.... every fucking time.

"Ey boys, don't worry, there are performance fixes in Day 1 patch. Don't listen pre-release date reviews performance complaints".

Big problem is when reviewers avoid to comment on the issue because the dev promise that these problems will be fixed with this day 1 patch reviewers can't install.

well the xbox getting updated to support dynamic resolution up to 1080p suggests they have some performance improvements in place? Wonder if they should have gone the other way with PS4 and added dynamic res to maintain framerates?

 

[stn]

I need to finish The Witcher 2 now.

 

[MR ARCADE FOREVER]

IGN reviewer complains about framerate on the PS4, I should have built a decent pc on time for this game

 

[LiK]

Glad its reviewed well. My pre-order at BestBuy with the steelbook is intact. Probably wont get to play it until the summer. With House Of Wolves dropping the same day and ESO a few weeks later.

i'll just finish HoW story stuff and then dive into TW3

 

[ProvenDeadly]

How is the combat in these games? One thing that really turned me off of Dragon Age was the boring combat.

 

[antitrop]

Yup. The first Witcher game is a great fucking game. The dialogue, the story, the moral choices... I have a feeling a lot of people are writing this game off so they don't feel like they have to play through it.

The Witcher 1 really picks up in the third act, it's just a shame that the second act in the swamp drags so hard. But even then, I didn't think the swamp was all that bad, and that's what I see people complain about the most in that game.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

It's one of the best RPGs of the last decade.

Agreed. In many ways I preferred the original.

Only parts that drag a bit was the terrible pacing at the starting areas and the combat mechanics, though I think I preferred it to the roll happy combat of TW2.

I need to finish The Witcher 2 now.

You and me both.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

how bad is the framerate on the PS4 version?

i'll just finish HoW story stuff and then dive into TW3

Also a good plan.

 

[FATALITY]

Sub 30

source?

 

[iNvid02]

How does the import work on PC? Witcher 2 saves were tied to steam-cloud, does the Witcher 3 auto-detect the saves, or do you need to re-download Witcher 2 in order to get your saves and manually import them into Witcher 3?

from what i read they said it would look in the witcher 2 folder in my documents for any saves

 

[mnz]

Ugh-oh. Amazing reviews, and 1 million preorders is great news, my congrats to CD Projekt Red, but... My hype is like 0 right now. I was very hyped year ago, but now, after all those promotional videos and positive reviews, i'm feel literally nothing about TW3. Last game i was really hyped before release date was Bioshock Infinite, and it's still hurts (damn you Ken Levine for my broken hopes). Sorry for pessimistic notes, it's just one week until release, and it's not good that game is already so overhyped, IMO

Sounds like you are more into video game sites and PR than actually playing games.

How is the combat in these games? One thing that really turned me off of Dragon Age was the boring combat.

The Witcher 1 was pretty much active-reload for sword fighting and not much else and 2 was some kind of Mass Effecty take on action games with magic. Combat is not really the strong suit of the Witcher games thus far

 

[Sephiroth_GR_]

IGN reviewer complains about framerate on the PS4, I should have built a decent pc on time for this game

Some of the technical issues will be fixed with the Day 1 patch.

 

[Summer Haze]

source?

Multiple reviews have noted framerate drops, but we don't know for certain if the day 1 patch was applied.

 

[antitrop]

How is the combat in these games? One thing that really turned me off of Dragon Age was the boring combat.

Passable at best, bad at worst.

 

[BigTnaples]

what happened to their promise of no fetch quests?

They never promised no fetch quests. They just didn't want to make a game that was all fetch quest and no meat. They succeeded.

 

[Houndi101]

Wonder why they wouldn't just turn it up to "Dark" difficulty if it got too easy.

Even with it the first and second game were easy in the end

 

[Darryl M R]

I keep on hearing that the game gets easy, so even though this is my first Witcher game I guess I will look for the highest (non perma death) difficulty.

 

[Kalor]

I'm glad to see that the game is good as I've been looking forward to it for a while.

 

[tattooed_dwarf]

what happened to their promise of no fetch quests?

Where did they promise this?

 

[Staf]

Great reviews. Looking forward to my first dip into the Witcher series. I am, however, a bit worried about this sentence from the IGN review : "...but it’s mixed in with too much padding in the form of meaningless fetch quests and collectathons.". That's really off-putting to me, got enough of that stuff from Dragon age...

 

[Emerson]

I've beaten the other games, I know how CDPR rolls. But, I promise you, this game will have a lot more " i need some carrots" and "this drowner stole my book" than the other ones.

I just don't see the problem at all. As long as there is plenty of content (is anyone questioning that?) who cares if there's a "go get my shit" quest now and then? If you're engrossed in the world and the characters, you'll probably enjoy doing just about anything. And if you don't, skip that one and do something else.

 

[FATALITY]

Multiple reviews have noted framerate drops, but we don't know for certain if the day 1 patch was applied.

framedrops now is sub 30 fps?

 

[Onimusha78]

Last gen port vs a game built for the current gen from the ground up.

Good point. Framerate still seems to be suffering though

 

[Zomba13]

Can't wait for this. Glad I've been mostly ignoring stuff about the game. I saw the stuff about the visual downgrades which is always sad but at this point expected.

Glad to see it reviewing well. Only thing left to decide is whether to play it with kb/m on my 1680x1050 monitor or use my 1080p TV and a DS4.

 

[Mutagenic]

Not surprised by the Gamespot review. They've been going in HARD on this game for awhile now.

 

[Tigress]

Ignore the guy he was in the ps4 thread yesterday calling geralt generic because he's white and told this guy who disagreed that he's using gamergate logic breeeeh

I think the guy is obviously wanting to dislike the game (as witnessed by him already saying the reviews are undeserved when he hasn't even played the game yet) but let's not twist his words. He was saying a combo of traits including being white made geralt generic. I wouldn't say I would disagree but I don't think that makes it a bad game or even a bad character.

 

[EatChildren]

I've read a handful of reviews, here's my 5c on some of the hotter topics.

RE Main Quest: Few of the reviews downplay it, some outright praise Geralt's personal journey. That's something to remember, maybe for new Witcher fans. An overwhelming majority of RPGs place the protagonist in the middle as the chosen one/god/hero/lord of everything. The series isn't like that. Sweeping changes happen, but often as a backdrop or around your character rather than to or purely because of your character. Keep that in mind you'll always, in a way, play second fiddle to the world itself.

RE Endings: Reviews are divisive but remember there are multiple endings with variations OF those endings based on progress of the plot. It seems you just kinda get a summary of how it all ended, for better or worse. You're never guaranteed a happy ending. Or a cathartic abundance of closure. Maybe your ending will be exactly as you wanted. Or maybe it will be unexpectedly tragic and a bit of a downer. That's how these games roll. The Witcher 2 fucking ended on sorcerer/sorceress genocide and a mass invasion, neither of which you could prevent.

RE Fetch Quests: Seems the main quests are the culprit, and I could see how: you're probably tasks with far reaching "get X of Y" to progress. But most reviews don't paint fetch quests in the same way people are familiar with from the likes of Inquisition and Skyrim. Most reviews praise context and development of quests. Most quests in games can be distilled down to basics of fetch, but context is key. And that context, along with ramifications, sound like the game's biggest strength.

 

[Summer Haze]

framedrops now is sub 30 fps?

For a game that runs at 30fps on PS4, drops below that would be sub-30fps, yes...

 

[Shyakugaun]

While all of you are still arguing, im just here waiting on Biogamergirl to decide my faith of a purchase

 

[antitrop]

framedrops now is sub 30 fps?

Framedrops that affect combat certainly are. I'm not a guy to complain about minor, insignificant drops to 29 or 28 or whatever, but if reviewers are saying the framedrops noticeably impact the gameplay during combat, then I will be going with the PC version.

I wanted to get the PS4 version just for Trophies, if possible, but seems like they couldn't get the performance up to snuff.

 

[viveks86]

Wonder why they wouldn't just turn it up to "Dark" difficulty if it got too easy.

Difficulty curve is an important part of game design, so if they thought it suddenly got too easy, it's worth pointing out.

 

[Primethius]

source?

Multiple reviews indicate pretty shoddy performance.

 

[erawsd]

Even with it the first and second game were easy in the end

Its somewhat different here since CDPR has said that you gain less experience and get very little stat bonuses on Dark mode, while on easy and normal these thigns are "generous".