The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Carfax83]

Good news everyone. Gamestar.de had two days of exclusive playtime with the Witcher 3 with no restrictions, and they found that on their machine which was equipped with a GTX 980, 4790 and 8GB of RAM, they were able to enjoy a fluid 60 FPS for the most part. The only area they experienced performance issues was in Novigrad, which is very dense. Game is also very stable with few bugs..

But they said it was a massive improvement over the January preview, and goes to show that CDPR are right on track! :thumbsup:

Source

And a brand new screenshot. Gotta love that dismemberment!

Also, here's a downsampled screenshot of the one that ArenCordial posted:

 

[Carfax83]

This is the summary of the Gamestar.de's editor in chief's experience with the Witcher 3 over three days. He gave out a TON of info, and put to bed some concerns over graphics, particularly ultra quality and vegetation. This is courtesy of a CDPR forum member who speaks German:

• Translation courtesy of users on the Witcher 3 official forums:
• journalist played 10-12 hours, had full access to the game and reached level 7
• game is already at Sony & MS for admission
• resolution on Xbox One will definitely stay at 900p in order to offer a stable performance
• fluid gameplay on 1080p with everything on maximum +nvidia hairworks on GTX 980 -> looks
• - Ultra settings are impressive, especially the rich vegetation and character models; there can be scenes where difference between high and ultra won't be that noticeable; lighting is impressive: for instance evening light falling on vast flower fields of a parfum-maker
• Looks insanely good for an open world game
• two big cities with Novigrad and Oxenfurt (which is really big as well)
• you cannot enter every house in Novigrad but it's cleverly masked if you can't enter one
• Novigrad and No man's land are connected, only seperated maps, only loading time between main land and Skellige
• Novigrad+No man's land are much bigger than Skyrim alone
• no button for opening doors anymore, all doors are swinging doors
• extremely lively interiors, every interior tells a different story
• There are around 25 "villages" in No mans land and Novigrad
• there are towns in the game of the same size of Flotsam
• cities have a realistic eco-system and surroundings with real suburb parts in which craftsmen are located like in medieval times
• last active skill-slot (12th) at level 50, level cap could be even higher
• whole world feels quite realistic and organic
• Combat with gamepad very intuitive and fluid
• diving is still not optimal in terms of controls, but you can dive everywhere
• gamepad controls are apparently much better than mouse/keyboard according to the journalist (m/k on TW2 level)
• it's still too easy to rob people, robbing system in general is lacking
• whole game is consequently open world so pacing could be difficult for some
• passages with Ciri are like a linear action-adventure, not like a RPG, plays differently and more action-fueled than Geralt's passages (no inventory, no skill tree, depending on the scene Ciri has certain skills)
• side quests are great and each tells its own story with people actually reacting to Geralt
• sound and subtitles can be combined freely from different available languages
• there will definitely be a day-one patch
• high grade of visual violence with dismemberments with a higher gore-level than TW1 or TW2, but still feels organic and consistent
• items can be crafted and decomposed
• best items in game must be crafted
• game world can change based on your decisions
• there was indeed no slider or adjustment option for the draw distance/LOD but according to the journalist he was happy with it
• there is the cleverly constructed illusion of a realistic world but traveling is never boring and there is always something to discover
• even if you disable markers for quest givers on the map the game gives you audio-visual hints like people screaming for help
• the journalist never had the feeling that the world is "empty"
• no sudden changes of environments (e.g. desert to humid regions), organic and consistent world
• "sandbox elements" and random stuff is limited, so no fights of townpeople against dragons like in Skyrim, you can only influence the world to a certain level
• as far as the journalist has experienced it there will be little to no enemy respawning, enemies haven returned during his two days in the game
• the game is open world but actually almost everything is "controlled" and "planned" by the developers
• The Quests aren't randomly generated, they appear on the same spot
• He did not encounter any simple fetch quests
• many things are commented by Geralt e.g. when he tracks down leads with the Witcher senses
• mutagens can be very powerful, like 40% damage enhancer for signs
• very different enemy types that feel and play differently
• no "clone" NPCs, every NPC in Novigrad for example looks differently
• every potion and bomb must only brewed/crafted once
• potions have different quality levels, can be improved, e.g. Swallow can offer more healing and more slots
• crafting is extensive
• you can for example increase the inventory limitations of your horse by crafting bigger saddle bags but you must actually go to your horse to be able to have access to these bags
• every region has its own color setting and feel
• Most dynamic/impressive Weather System the reporter has ever seen.
• clouds cast shadows
• bad weather like storms can happen everywhere
• game loading time is extremely short on the high-end PC
• saving and loading times are also extremely short
• some huge buildings and story-relevant special areas have loading times, normal buildings do not
• story branching in quests is excessive and impressive with not always "transparent" or easily visible effects, for example one quest had six "decisive" elements that could have gone down in a different way if the journalist behaved differently
• "it will be impossible to play Witcher 3 two times in exactly the same way"
• different to Bioware games dialogue options are not "obvious" and every possibility makes kind of sense, no sign whether an answer is "good" or "bad", only quest relevant options are marked (opposite to chatter and non-quest related dialogue options)
• due to the complex way of story branching it's difficult to find times and locations where "things went wrong" if you want to develop your game in a different way
• Ghwent is awesome according to the journalist, great design and entertaining
• fist fighting is without QTEs now, it's just like normal fighting with hard and fast strikes and such
• there are now negotiation minigame for quest rewards like bargaining for a monster hunt (before and after quests?)
• there are horseraces similar to RDR, biggest focus on stamina management during races, you can even buy better saddles for horseraces
• every item you choose is visible on Geralt's ingame model
• Geralts beard will grow. You have to go to a barber after a few days
• you can enter and play whatever region you want but you get hints where to start by your main quest (e.g. search Ciri in Novigrad's surroundings) if you want enemies that are on a similar level to yourself, but it's up to the player how he wants to progress
• Level 24 Wyvern one-shotted level 7 Geralt
• soundtrack was good, but neither really negative nor outstanding, but dynamic and decent, fits to the situation and location
• some reactions from NPCs to things you did, but rather small comments, journalist admitted that he didn't play the game long enough for probably bigger reactions
• tutorials are integrated into the story/progression and worth the effort due to good dialogues
• the game is really immersive and "drags you in", feels and plays a lot more fluidly than the predecessors without being less complex
• there is a chance that they won't be able to hold the level until the end of the game (speculation since two days were surely not enough to get to the end) but the journalist was truly and deeply impressed by what he saw and played
• potions are quite important, especially on harder difficulty settings

 

[SLU Aequitas]

This is the summary of the Gamestar.de's editor in chief's experience with the Witcher 3 over three days. He gave out a TON of info, and put to bed some concerns over graphics, particularly ultra quality and vegetation. This is courtesy of a CDPR forum member who speaks German:

Thanks for posting that, lots of info in there

 

[Kelvrick]

Hmm, my 7950 is going to have some problems at 1440p. Sounds like 1080p for me.

 

[Artorias]

Yeah this game is going to go on the backburner, my i72600k/280x is going to get murdered. No way I'm buying a $700 card to play this now. I guess I'm going to wait for the next gpu node shift and get a new computer then.

 

[BSim500]

This is the summary of the Gamestar.de's editor in chief's experience with the Witcher 3 over three days. He gave out a TON of info, and put to bed some concerns over graphics, particularly ultra quality and vegetation. This is courtesy of a CDPR forum member who speaks German:

"gamepad controls are apparently much better than mouse/keyboard according to the journalist (m/k on TW2 level)"

Again?...

 

[ArenCordial]

Again?...

I read on the CDPR forums that the Gamestar previewer asked them about it in the article and developers said that they aren't done tweaking KB/M yet. Take that for what you will. Hopefully it will get better if not then at worst it will play similar to the Witcher 2.

For my 2 cents though 3rd person melee combat games do tend to play better with controller anyway (Shadow of Mordor, the Arkham games, the Souls games definitely). If they can get KB/M close to the Arkham games for PC I'd say thats good enough for me.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I didn't think TW2 KB/M was that bad. The only real problem was the camera got a hair wonky in certain areas. Any of these Batman-style 3rd person action games are going to be a bit better on the controller by nature, but I just need serviceable KB/M since that's what I'm used to.

 

[escrow4]

2 cities only in a huge world, hmmmm; the Witcher world has different states and more than that. That said, there is a focus on "organic" and "consistent" plus the devs have shoved stuff in, nothing really random hmmmmm. I still have a strong suspicion that things were tweaked and cut back because console.

 

[Dankk]

This is the summary of the Gamestar.de's editor in chief's experience with the Witcher 3 over three days. He gave out a TON of info, and put to bed some concerns over graphics, particularly ultra quality and vegetation. This is courtesy of a CDPR forum member who speaks German:

Nice list. The Witcher 3 is shaping up to be one hell of a game.

I didn't think TW2 KB/M was that bad. The only real problem was the camera got a hair wonky in certain areas. Any of these Batman-style 3rd person action games are going to be a bit better on the controller by nature, but I just need serviceable KB/M since that's what I'm used to.

Looks like I'll probably be using a gamepad for this one, as I did in TW2. I don't really prefer one over the other; I switch between them depending on what works best for a particular game, and while TW1 was a purebred M+KB title, the series has definitely changed direction in leaning toward a gamepad-oriented design.

 

[norseamd]

2 cities only in a huge world, hmmmm; the Witcher world has different states and more than that. That said, there is a focus on "organic" and "consistent" plus the devs have shoved stuff in, nothing really random hmmmmm. I still have a strong suspicion that things were tweaked and cut back because console.

The map is more than a few fold over the size of the Skyrim world map. For what has been made so far in video games I would say that is more than fine even for me.

 

[flexy]

Yeah this game is going to go on the backburner, my i72600k/280x is going to get murdered. No way I'm buying a $700 card to play this now. I guess I'm going to wait for the next gpu node shift and get a new computer then.

If it says it runs well on a 980, this means it runs ok on a 970 too and in particular when you overclock it a bit. And used 970s go for far less than $700, I just got one for €300.

(My reasoning here also that we are *likely* not seeing a 8GB 970/980 Ti any time soon respective according to rumors only in 2016. Otherwise I would have waited too).

 

[Spjut]

I think no DX12 was to be expected, but what about DX11.1/11.2? Has it recently been confirmed that the game only uses DX11.0?

 

[Riceninja]

my 7590 is sweating nervously

this will probably be my gpu's last hurrah before i upgrade

 

[Fenixgoon]

my 6990 is ready to provide free heating to my apartment

 

[escrow4]

I think no DX12 was to be expected, but what about DX11.1/11.2? Has it recently been confirmed that the game only uses DX11.0?

Nope, something on DSOGaming, its built for DX 11 with their own homebuilt movie.

 

[alcoholbob]

60 fps at 1080p with a 980? So 40fps at 4K should be possible with a TiX then :O

 

[Carfax83]

 

[Carfax83]

2 cities only in a huge world, hmmmm; the Witcher world has different states and more than that. That said, there is a focus on "organic" and "consistent" plus the devs have shoved stuff in, nothing really random hmmmmm. I still have a strong suspicion that things were tweaked and cut back because console.

Witcher 3 is more of a medieval inspired World, so two large cities is enough, plus there are roughly two dozen villages similar in size to Flotsam from the Witcher 2.

 

[HeXen]

I'd be a lot more interested in Witcher 3 if there was a first person option like Skyrim. I like the map style, reminds me of older rpg games.
Sounds like a great game but no matter how hard I try or how many times I try, I just cannot get fully immersed in a 3rd person game. I usually quit playing after a couple hours just like I did in Witcher 2. I never even enjoyed GTA 4 or Max Payne 2 until someone made a first person mod...afterwhich I thought they some of the best games ever.

 

[Mem]

Yeah this game is going to go on the backburner, my i72600k/280x is going to get murdered. No way I'm buying a $700 card to play this now. I guess I'm going to wait for the next gpu node shift and get a new computer then.

You will be able to play it,just tweak the video settings and you will be fine,not everybody has the top of the range video gear,one great thing about PC is you have so many options when it comes to video/graphic settings.

 

[Carfax83]

 

[Dahak]

Only problem with that pic, seeing as he is playing it on a pc, why is he using a controller
and a Logitech one at that?

 

[Carfax83]

60 fps at 1080p with a 980? So 40fps at 4K should be possible with a TiX then :O

We don't know the full context of that comment about playing the Witcher 3 at 60 FPS 1080p ultra settings on a 980.. For all we know, they may not have had MSAA running.

Then again, the Witcher 3 uses Umbra 3 which really speeds up rendering as only viewable areas are rendered, and everything else is culled.

So it may be possible.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Great, now I need to rebuild my gaming rig....