The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Cerb]

Learned what lesson? 2 and 3 were both consolized.

2 was extremely so. 3 was OK, to me.

 

[norseamd]

2 was extremely so. 3 was OK, to me.

2 was quite good to me until the game mysteriously ended out of nowhere.

 

[futurefields]

Will it be necessary to play both Witcher 1 and 2 to appreciate what The Witcher 3 has to offer? These games are seriously long according to HowLongToBeat (some of the longest single player games around)

 

[ArenCordial]

Will it be necessary to play both Witcher 1 and 2 to appreciate what The Witcher 3 has to offer? These games are seriously long according to HowLongToBeat (some of the longest single player games around)

I don't think so. The prologue apparently can take up to 5 hours so I expect you're going to get introduced to most of the lore/factions/etc that will be important to the game there.

They know they will have people unfamiliar with the series since its never been on playstation and even those who played both games will be unfamiliar with a lot of characters from the books who weren't in the previous games. One of the major plot points of the first two games was Geralt had amnesia but starting in 3 he's cured it and goes hunting for his missing friends. So the Reds have said they know they need to get people familiar with whats going on even if they have played the first 2. Additionally the journal and books in the game usually will give you insight into most of this anyway.

So I think it will be if you've played the first 2 you'll get more out of it, but you shouldn't be lost. If you do get the time I recommend both Witcher games, they are both great (though not without faults) in their own right.

 

[Mem]

Will it be necessary to play both Witcher 1 and 2 to appreciate what The Witcher 3 has to offer? These games are seriously long according to HowLongToBeat (some of the longest single player games around)

The benefit of playing Witcher 1 and 2 is you get to know Geralt's background as a Witcher and more about them and also his friends/companions etc and some of the politics in the Witcher world.


A must?...No,but it helps to enjoy the Witcher World.


You can always play them later at some point to fully appreciate the Witcher world.

Personally glad I played the previous two and looking forward to TW3 game.

 

[Carfax83]

Massive three page preview from German game site Gamestar.de.

They also confirm again that a single GTX 980 in combination with a Core i7 4790 and 16GB of RAM can run the Witcher 3 on ultra quality (with Hairworks enabled) at a nearly continuous 60 FPS, presumably at 1080p.

If I had to guess though, this doesn't include MSAA. MSAA is a massive performance drain in any modern game, although since the Witcher 3 uses a forward rendering engine, it may have a smaller performance hit than other games like Dragon Age Inquisition that use a deferred renderer.

 

[norseamd]

Would CDPR downgrade the Witcher 3 just so it could run full settings at 60 FPS on one GTX 980 because of their partnership with the green team?

 

[Carfax83]

Would CDPR downgrade the Witcher 3 just so it could run full settings at 60 FPS on one GTX 980 because of their partnership with the green team?

No.. But a single GTX 980 is a beast GPU, so it's not as though it's a slouch. And I'm pretty sure thats without MSAA, and at 1080p resolution...

Also, ultra quality usually isn't max quality anymore in most games. To get max quality typically requires a custom config. Ultra quality may not have HBAO+ or advanced GPU PhysX.

Those will probably have to be enabled separately.

 

[norseamd]

Right but if it just managed to run at Ultra at 1080P at 60 FPS with not much room above or below that would be amazing for Nvidia for marketing purposes and would seem somewhat suspicious.

 

[Carfax83]

Right but if it just managed to run at Ultra at 1080P at 60 FPS with not much room above or below that would be amazing for Nvidia for marketing purposes and would seem somewhat suspicious.

Thats a bit paranoid if you ask me. CDPR are partners with NVidia thats true, but like I tell people repeatedly, PC games are programmed for APIs, and not for architectures with the possible exception of Mantle..

The Witcher 3 will be programmed for DX11 spec cards. If it runs better on NVidia hardware, then it's because NVidia has had more time to tune their drivers for the game since they've had some of their gameworks programmers on site.

Also, NVidia DX11 drivers have substantially less CPU overhead than AMD DX11 drivers, which will likely be a factor as well.

 

[tidy]

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[Carfax83]

Wow, is the 16GB of RAM significant, or just what they happened to have in the system at the time? I would love to see a game making good use of 16GB of RAM.

I think thats just what they had in the system. It's highly unlikely the game will utilize that much RAM..

But still, if anyone were to ask me how much RAM to recommend for a high end gaming system, I would tell them 16GB. Some games are already very close to using 8GB (including VRAM buffer), so with an extra 8GB you have loads more for other programs to use, and you can disable the pagefile for extra performance and to save your SSD some writes..

 

[StinkyPinky]

Interested to see how a 290x goes on this game. Will AMD gpu's be crippled?

 

[norseamd]

Interested to see how a 290x goes on this game. Will AMD gpu's be crippled?

Hope not but the chances are in fact high for bad performance on AMD hardware.

 

[Fire&Blood]

From the article Carfax linked, they got exclusive, unrestricted access to the game:

We are already impressed by Kaer Morhens more detailed look, but our adventure companion CD project - the German level designer Miles Tost - frowns: "That's still an old version. Let me see if we can not afford the current play. We have in fact worked in the past few weeks, especially in the performance. "Short inquiry, we must. So early lunch for us while the IT department installed the latest version.

On our return we want equal continue playing, but Miles sends us first in the graphics options: "Now we can show the maximum graphic detail that is the first time" So we turn grass density and texture, water and terrain details are all based on 'Ultra' stroke!. Because in our face-PC (Intel i7-4790, 16GB RAM) also a Geforce GTX 980 slaves, we also select the option "Nvidia Hair Works". The result of our skin from the shoes!
In Geralt's lined face we recognize each skin pore, his long shadow spreads in the setting sun like a bed sheet on a dense colorful flower meadow, the light breeze makes the white hair fluttering in the wind realistic. But even more important than all the graphic splendor: Even with ultra details the updated game runs almost continuously at 60 frames and thus even more fluid than the previous version, in which we were only with high details go.

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/artikel/the_witcher_3,49062,3085201.html

 

[escrow4]

Will it be necessary to play both Witcher 1 and 2 to appreciate what The Witcher 3 has to offer? These games are seriously long according to HowLongToBeat (some of the longest single player games around)

As I said, if you don't have a clue about the Wild Hunt or Ciri or Geralt "dying" in Rivia or the previous wars with Nilfgaard, you probably should play them or look at the wiki's. They are also not that long, No 1 took me 50hrs or so, No 2 was way shorter at barely 35hrs. I spent 70hrs in Inquisition by comparison. You are losing the feel of the world and the immersion.

 

[futurefields]

Started The Witcher 1 tonight. Man this game has odd controls. Still trying to figure out how to attack. Should I use mouse or mouse/keyboard?

 

[tidy]

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[Cerb]

Started The Witcher 1 tonight. Man this game has odd controls. Still trying to figure out how to attack. Should I use mouse or mouse/keyboard?

After a few attacks, the cursor changes color. But, just before that, you should see the animation have a flash of orange/red, and that is an easier queue, IMO. Personally, I had a hard time getting through the initial bit before trying Flash Mod (maybe due to the blood decal/animation changes?), which is included with the game.

Also, you don't have to have just the right stance, though sometimes only one may work against a given enemy. Some enemies are best fought by changing stances, or aggressively using fast style, depending on the situation (while low in damage against enemies best killed by strong style, fast can reduce the chances of an attack that may knockdown or stun you, and in some cases, prevent attacks altogether). Fast is always a good choice to try first against unknown/new enemies. With group style, the enemy you click is the one that determines all the to-hit, so with a mixed group, click the enemy that you would fight one-on-one with strong style.

Oh, and Igni is way overpowered in TW1. It and Aard are the only signs worth spending serious points into.

Spoiler

Finally, when you see that expensive rattle to buy, BUY IT, even if it is your last bit of coin at the time.

 

[Majcric]

As much as I enjoy the Witcher games, the story is forgettable to me. I played half way through the 1st and finished the 2nd but hardly remember anything about the story.

 

[Martimus]

Oh, and Igni is way overpowered in TW1. It and Aard are the only signs worth spending serious points into.

I would say Aard is the most powerful ability in the Witcher 1, since you can knock down almost every enemy, and all enemies have a one hit finishing move when they are knocked prone.

 

[Igo69]

Can't wait to play this game.

 

[Subyman]

As much as I enjoy the Witcher games, the story is forgettable to me. I played half way through the 1st and finished the 2nd but hardly remember anything about the story.

I really enjoyed The Witcher 2, but the story wasn't that great. The main villain was practically hidden the entire time until he was needed to conveniently end the game. About twenty other games have used the same plot

Spoiler

someone kills the leader and it is blamed on you, like in Dishonored as well.

 

[Merad]

After a few attacks, the cursor changes color. But, just before that, you should see the animation have a flash of orange/red, and that is an easier queue, IMO. Personally, I had a hard time getting through the initial bit before trying Flash Mod (maybe due to the blood decal/animation changes?), which is included with the game.

If you have the difficultly level past a certain point it disables the visual cues, FYI. You can still time based on sound though.

Oh, and Igni is way overpowered in TW1. It and Aard are the only signs worth spending serious points into.

Axii is quite useful too, especially later in the game when most enemies come in groups. You can pretty reliably hex 1-2 opponents to fight for you, you just have to be careful not to hit them and break the spell. Sadly axii got nerfed pretty hard in TW2, it has to be channeled for about 5 seconds before the hex takes effect.

Supposedly all the signs were rebalanced significantly in TW3 so they are all "useful." Fingers crossed.

 

[Cerb]

I would say Aard is the most powerful ability in the Witcher 1, since you can knock down almost every enemy, and all enemies have a one hit finishing move when they are knocked prone.

Yes, but Igni also rocks. Aard is definitely something to max, unless the player specifically wants a harder game (if so, though, Flash Mod should be the starting point, since it also includes difficulty modding that can be applied). But, many monsters strong against stun or knockdown are susceptible to fire, or its side-effects, that also tends to be true of monsters weak to stun or knowckdown, including most humanoids, and the damage alone can be enough to change the odds if you have to kite. Igni is usually a way to keep enemies at bay while picking them off, or as an add-on to group style, at least in TW1. With Flash Mod changes especially, the long time kill moves take can be a death sentence, when fighting against groups.