The Witcher 3 | Review Thread

Wasn't too hot on the previous Witcher games and some of the stuff in the reviews sounds like it could be concerning (story, combat, fetch quests). I'll wait for the release hype to die down and see what the general consensus is before I pick it up.
 
Can someone please clarify this for me, I couldn't find in answer in the 33 pages of this thread. Games Radar said that an oncoming day one patch will address framerate issues while Jeff's tweet implied that the version he had already had a day one patch applied to it.

What's the deal? The framerate being shit is make or break for me with this game.

Review copies were the latest version of the game.It was only ready on PS4.
There is further patches to come, including what CDPR called the day zero patch.
 
All the reviews have made zero mention of any performance issues on the XBox One.

The current conversation is of frame-rate problems on the PS4.

Considering that we know that MS has a marketing deal for Witcher 3 and that the XBox One version is graphically inferior to the PS4, I don't expect any review of the XBox One version until the game is released.

Do you think MS would want a week-long conversation on the graphical differences of the PS4 and XBox One versions?

10/10

Sogood.gif
 
All the reviews have made zero mention of any performance issues on the XBox One.

The current conversation is of frame-rate problems on the PS4.

Considering that we know that MS has a marketing deal for Witcher 3 and that the XBox One version is graphically inferior to the PS4, I don't expect any review of the XBox One version until the game is released.

Do you think MS would want a week-long conversation on the graphical differences of the PS4 and XBox One versions?

they have had no mention of performance issues of the xbox version because only the ps4 version was sent out for review
 
I guess now we know why cd projekt red allowed an early embargo release on the reviews, they knew damn well that their game was good those clever bastards.
 
I7oQNV7.jpg

id appreciate it if you not post pics of me, pls thx
 
Oh, I'm buying this game eventually.

But I only played TW2 on 360. Can we actually transfer saves to PS4?

Because I heard something about a barber asking you questions in a bath regarding past game choices to set the world state for TW3.
 
Can someone with a technical understanding of the PS4 tell me if the fact that all of the reviews were played on the debug consoles could impact framerate? Would the game be compiled in debug mode as well?
 
Review copies were the latest version of the game.It was only ready on PS4.
There is further patches to come, including what CDPR called the day zero patch.

Well that's terrifying. I watched both the Gamespot and IGN video reviews and the framerate is worse than I possibly imagined.

I don't really care if it's getting 9's and 10's. I simply can't take sub 25 fps games. It honestly kills all enjoyment of the game for me, (Unity comes to mind).
 
Because reasons.

Seriously though, why wouldn't it be the PS4 version sent out?

Because there are mainly pc devs, CDPR supposely have a deal with MS (though to what that encompasses, I guess none of us really know) and Witcher has no history on Playstation platforms.
I can wait, for the pc review but the big day 1 patch sounds like a bullshit excuse to me. Especially considering the PS4 version has framerate problems.

EDIT : Holy hell some peeps still going on about that one tweet. Game is getting rave reviews, it will be ok!
 
I'm kind of worried you mean things will just go in the opposite way you think so pick the other option.

But really, it does sound like it could be a lot of fun to make choices if the scenarios are well thought out and reasonably elaborate sometimes, which is what His Majesty's quote implies below.


I would say the choices do not trick you ever, its just you don't always know the longer term consequences of such choices. Also, some choices will be difficult and you know what the outcomes will be of either choice. No tricks, just moral ambiguity.
 
they have had no mention of performance issues of the xbox version because only the ps4 version was sent out for review

Don't you see!?! That's what they want! Everyone will talk about the PS4 issues and people will think "The Xbox One version must not have issues!"

Step 4. Profit for M$

The PC version fits into this conspiracy for the reason I will outline below:
 
Has anywhere mentioned how possible it is to play the game without all the UI except the health bar? I hate minimaps dragging me to POI's but it worries me if a quest I receive says something along the lines of "it happened in that cave" without any explanation purely because theres a minimap!

From the videos i've seen Witcher sense leads you to the discovery of most quest plotlines which is nice. Im just hoping a lot of the game isn't engulfed in the fact that theres a minimap telling you everything to do.
 
Has anywhere mentioned how possible it is to play the game without all the UI except the health bar? I hate minimaps dragging me to POI's but it worries me if a quest I receive says something along the lines of "it happened in that cave" without any explanation purely because theres a minimap!

From the videos i've seen Witcher sense leads you to the discovery of most quest plotlines which is nice. Im just hoping a lot of the game isn't engulfed in the fact that theres a minimap telling you everything to do.

You can turn it all off one by one.
 
The cog in the small machine comment is illustrating the fact that Geraly is simply a Witcher, often seen as an outcast in society, he isn't expected to change the entire world. He's just one guy caught up in the political game of the world and trying to survive, his actions may have consequences but they aren't going to settle large scale disputes or solve a massive crisis.

This video does an excellent job breaking down why TW series approach to storytelling is so unique and great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRsqAmuxjNk

That is refreshing, I was worried more about the choices not panning out in satisfying ways.

I've seen that video before I think, subscribed to the guy and don't remember watching anything else of his, I'm in the mood for it so I'll rewatch it though.

I would say the choices do not trick you ever, its just you don't always know the longer term consequences of such choices. Also, some choices will be difficult and you know what the outcomes will be of either choice. No tricks, just moral ambiguity.

Nice that's reassuring, I got a good impression from some of the scenes in gameplay previews too. That's a cool draw for the game. The story and npc interaction does seem like it would be decent and engaging.
 
From Videogamer's review regarding the day one patch:

We were told by Bandai Namco games PR that the review build was post gold, and included some fixes but not all that will be found in the Day 1 patch for retail versions of the game.
 
Has anywhere mentioned how possible it is to play the game without all the UI except the health bar? I hate minimaps dragging me to POI's but it worries me if a quest I receive says something along the lines of "it happened in that cave" without any explanation purely because theres a minimap!

From the videos i've seen Witcher sense leads you to the discovery of most quest plotlines which is nice. Im just hoping a lot of the game isn't engulfed in the fact that theres a minimap telling you everything to do.

For example in the Precious Cargo quest the questgiver tells you his cart got off the road and wheeled into the swamps. Without a quest marker, your first instinct should be to search the road nearby for cart tracks, eventually using witcher senses.

The same goes for the quest where you have to find a creature called Johnny. The questgives gives a general location of where he was last seen and using Witcher senses you can stumble upon his tracks which lead into his cave. So I am confident that most, if not all quests, can be resolved this way.
 
Has anywhere mentioned how possible it is to play the game without all the UI except the health bar? I hate minimaps dragging me to POI's but it worries me if a quest I receive says something along the lines of "it happened in that cave" without any explanation purely because theres a minimap!

From the videos i've seen Witcher sense leads you to the discovery of most quest plotlines which is nice. Im just hoping a lot of the game isn't engulfed in the fact that theres a minimap telling you everything to do.
This is one thing of the reasons I enjoyed the compass in oblivion and skyrim so much, just points you in a general direction and allows you to figure the rest out on your own if you choose.
 
You can turn it all off one by one.

I'm definitely turning all off except the minimap and the enemy health indicator.

With the world being so big, turning off all the DA : Inquisition style icons on the map, means you'll explore at your own risk and peril, I like that.
 
Well that's terrifying. I watched both the Gamespot and IGN video reviews and the framerate is worse than I possibly imagined.

I don't really care if it's getting 9's and 10's. I simply can't take sub 25 fps games. It honestly kills all enjoyment of the game for me, (Unity comes to mind).
They've emphasized they're working on patches but if you want a game that never dips you might want to keep away as an open world game with as much content and graphics as this is guaranteed to have dips on the ps4 considering it doesn't have that dynamic thing the bone has
 
Planning to get this on PS4, so the frame drop news is a bit disappointing, even though I expected it. It may sound crazy, but I really wish devs would somehow include an option to drop the resolution in exchange for better framerate on consoles. I don't really need 1080p on my 32 inch, 720p native TV. Probably hard to implement, but I can dream. I played like 90 hours of GTAV on first gen consoles so I should be alright with the frame rate though.

The only other complaint that irks me is the fetch-heavy main quests. I'm playing through Witcher 2 for the first time and about to finish the floatsam area/first chapter, and none of the main quest has felt like filler to me. If that really does turn out to be the main case in Witcher 3, that will be unfortunate, but everyone has a different opinion on what fetch quests actually are.

Otherwise it sounds like the game is great though, will be purchasing it next week.
 
Because there are mainly pc devs, CDPR supposely have a deal with MS (though to what that encompasses, I guess none of us really know) and Witcher has no history on Playstation platforms.
I can wait, for the pc review but the big day 1 patch sounds like a bullshit excuse to me. Especially considering the PS4 version has framerate problems.

EDIT : Holy hell some peeps still going on about that one tweet. Game is getting rave reviews, it will be ok!

Eh. All of that is trumped by CDPR's freedom to send out the version that they feel best represents their game at the time it's being reviewed. To most non-enthusiasts, the version being reviewed is of no consequence whatsoever.
 
For all those wondering about whether we played with patches or not, I never got anything beyond the original disc they sent, but they were actively responding to any bugs I reported, requesting me to send over save files, etc. So they are actively continuing to work on fixes between now and launch.
 
What games DO the Giant Bomb guys like? Just wondering.

do we insult Giant bomb on this forum? I must be too old and probably shouldn't come here any more :/

or is it a genuine question? Jeff seems to be liking bloodborne, if the podcasts are anything to go by. He thought he would hate it, or atleast that's the impression I got
 
Gamestar.de has a beautiful review.
One of its founders has this to say in conclusion (google translate):

Heiko Blade: When I was 16 years ago, the grand and decision serious stories of role-playing masterpiece Planescape: Torment was reading, I thought to myself how long it will take probably until no longer play such stories in my head, but are really experienced. It took exactly 16 years. For The Witcher 3 is much more than just a fantastic role-playing, it's a new milestone and benchmark for the art of interactive storytelling.

Finally, there are no qualitative differences between the main story and more the side quests, every conversation with even the most insignificant figure was staged with the same attention to detail. At last my freedom of choice is no longer fooled or reduced to a few key points, but the power is from the first secondary task and the great finale in the player's hands. Everyone is The Witcher 3 experience differently, make different choices, explore other venues, experience other adventures or even missed completely.

Brief: Everyone writes their own story. Exactly finally distinguishes games from books and films. So far, unfortunately, too often only in theory, in The Witcher 3 fascinating and entertaining practice. A practice in which the future will be measured every other story-driven games. So we define a milestone.

Original:
Als ich vor 16 Jahren die grandiosen und entscheidungsschweren Geschichten des Rollenspiel-Meisterwerks Planescape: Torment las, dachte ich mir, wie lange es wohl dauern wird, bis sich solche Geschichten nicht mehr nur in meinem Kopf abspielen, sondern wirklich erlebbar werden. Es hat genau 16 Jahre gedauert. Denn The Witcher 3 ist viel mehr als nur ein fantastisches Rollenspiel, es ist ein neuer Meilenstein und Maßstab für die Kunst des interaktiven Erzählens.

Endlich gibt es keine qualitativen Unterschiede mehr zwischen der Haupthandlung und den Nebenquests, jedes Gespräch mit jeder noch so unbedeutenden Figur wurde mit der gleichen Liebe zum Detail inszeniert. Endlich wird mir Entscheidungsfreiheit nicht mehr nur vorgegaukelt oder auf wenige Schlüsselstellen reduziert, sondern die Macht liegt von der ersten Nebenaufgabe bis zum grandiosen Finale in den Händen des Spielers. Jeder wird The Witcher 3 anders erleben, andere Entscheidungen treffen, andere Schauplätze entdecken, andere Abenteuer erleben oder auch komplett verpassen.

Kurz: Jeder schreibt seine eigene Geschichte. Genau das unterscheidet Spiele schließlich von Büchern und Filmen. Bislang leider viel zu häufig nur in der Theorie, in The Witcher 3 ebenso faszinierende wie unterhaltsame Praxis. Eine Praxis, an der sich künftig alle anderen story-lastigen Spiele messen lassen müssen. So definiert man einen Meilenstein.
 
For all those wondering about whether we played with patches or not, I never got anything beyond the original disc they sent, but they were actively responding to any bugs I reported, requesting me to send over save files, etc. So they are actively continuing to work on fixes between now and launch.

Great to hear that they are constantly working on it and polishing it even more.
 
Wasn't too hot on the previous Witcher games and some of the stuff in the reviews sounds like it could be concerning (story, combat, fetch quests). I'll wait for the release hype to die down and see what the general consensus is before I pick it up.

Pretty much this. Not a fan of the previous games, and now everyone just goes nuts because it is open world. Not a selling point for me.
 
do we insult Giant bomb on this forum? I must be too old and probably shouldn't come here any more :/

or is it a genuine question? Jeff seems to be liking bloodborne, if the podcasts are anything to go by. He thought he would hate it, or atleast that's the impression I got

Yeah it was a genuine question not a slight. I've never really read any of their reviews but they don't appear too enamoured with many recent releases. Just going on from what I've read on here btw.

DOTA 2, Destiny, Mario Party, and Windjammers.

Thanks!
 
So has it been confirmed that the review build doesn't have this patch included? I thought I read somewhere in this thread that the review copies basically had it and there were still issues.

Gamesradar said there's a day one patch which should correct at least some of the problems... so I guess review copies don't have it.
 
For all those wondering about whether we played with patches or not, I never got anything beyond the original disc they sent, but they were actively responding to any bugs I reported, requesting me to send over save files, etc. So they are actively continuing to work on fixes between now and launch.

Thanks Daniel. I think the point of confusion is that Jeff from Giant Bomb said that "The review disc they sent over was said to already have the Day 1 patch applied".

How did you find the framerate personally?
 
Great reviews, people should be happy instead of constantly bitching.No game can be perfect, you judge the whole package, a few issues will be fixed as much as they can with patches.
 
For all those wondering about whether we played with patches or not, I never got anything beyond the original disc they sent, but they were actively responding to any bugs I reported, requesting me to send over save files, etc. So they are actively continuing to work on fixes between now and launch.

Thanks for letting us know! Out of interest: I understand that you've played it on a debug console, correct? I don't know much about PS4 but would that have any impact on the framerate? Debug code usually doesn't run as good as the release.
 
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