35 Minute Witcher 3 Gameplay demonstration

[TheFeniX]

So, this is the first big look I've been able to take besides short little videos or the developers talking about how they have a guy on staff who just researches flora to help the immersion. Now, this game isn't going to win any writing awards, but something that sticks out to me immediately is the amount of emoting from the actors. The first NPC interaction at 3:30 plays a lot less like the standard Bioware "says something, play animation, go back to idle animation" and more like two people having a conversation, dialog cuts for player intervention aside.

Now, I'm going to hammer on Bioware because the upcoming DragonAge 3 has been bringing up the most comparisons. But one thing I've learned ever going back to ME1 is that Bioware has the absolute shittiest animators out of any developer I've seen. There's absolutely no flow to 99% of what they do. Facial expressions are the worst: "mannequin face" is everywhere. But 10 seconds into the first Witcher "cutscene" and we see Geralt's face contort into different (and actual) expressions. Body language also feels like the fat guy is actual holding a conversation, rather than playing animations at a given time. There's some issues, such as the old lady's "shrug" animation about 16 minutes in, but nothing I've seen routinely assaults my senses.

The combat looks comical at times, but it still looks like it offers some variety and (to be honest) it looks fun. Game looks good. It looks really good and we're still at a 2015 release date. The nice thing is I can dust off my GoG account for this one... which isn't saying much because I've bought like 1 game in the past 6 months.

[Phillip Hone]

Surprised this hasn't gotten more attention.

The combat DOES look comical, but far less than any of the previous games, and it looks more fun too.

Have to agree with you about animations. Closest I've seen to convincing conversations in a game.

Does Geralt look a little too ... normal to anyone else?

[Thanas]

I really try not to get spoiled too much so I won't watch it. I suspect others feel the same.

[TheFeniX]

Surprised this hasn't gotten more attention.

The combat DOES look comical, but far less than any of the previous games, and it looks more fun too.

It's nice because the comical nature is there due to the way a "superman" like Geralt would move in combat and the animations can stagger poorly. This is a pretty stark contrast to Skyrim and Dragon Age combat looking comical because it's just bad and/or simplified in many areas.

I really try not to get spoiled too much so I won't watch it. I suspect others feel the same.

In case you are interested in watching, the video is much more about how the game plays rather than spoiling the story. The player interacts with 3 "important" NPCs while he's looking for someone. Important is a pretty lose term because you don't even know if you'll really be dealing with them anymore after this story is done. That particular leg of the quest might be spoiled, but there was nothing too terribly interesting in that regard and nothing concerning the overall storyline is shown, with the exception of the "looking for someone."

YMMV when it comes to spoilers, but nothing about the video really revealed anything about the story to me.

[Phillip Hone]

As far as games go, it looks awesome, I agree. TW2 actually had good enough animations, it just looked terrible because Geralt rolled around like Sonic the Hedgehog every other move. It will instantly look 5X better just because we can now dodge by jumping back bit. I'm excited.

I'm worried if my hardware can handle it, though. Even better than TW2 graphics + open world + potentially not great optimization = I'm a little worried.

[Thanas]

So....no significant overall storyline spoilers, eh, Fenix?
XXXXXX doesn't count?
"ASHEN-HAIRED LASS WITH A SCAR ON HER CHEEK" doesn't coun't?

Jesus man. These two are HUGE FUCKING DEALS. Especially for someone who has read the book. They are like...two main characters from the book series, her being just as a main character as Geralt is.

Holy shit. FUCK.

I did not appreciate those huge spoilers in the first five minutes of the video. This is like being spoiled who Vader is before watching it in person.

Fenix, I am never trusting you again.

[TheFeniX]

I sincerely apologize. I haven't read the books and didn't consider characters showing up, yet not going into who they are, spoilers.

[Thanas]

Sorry for snapping at you Fenix, but man.

Here's why this is a big deal:

Dijkstra: Spoiler

Okay, he basically isn't that important. He was just the guy coordinating the war against Nilfgard in the second nilfgardian war (the one before witcher 1). He fell out with the league of sorceresses and then had to flee.

But XXXX, holy fuck.
Spoiler

People who only play the Witcher games think that Geralt is the main hero of the witcher universe. But for a large part of the books, there is a duality between Ciri and Geralt as they are both protagonists. And in terms of actual importance and moving things in the universe, Geralt is actually at best a secondary player in the Universe. The driving force between the Witcher universe in the books is the Nilfgaardian Emperor, Emhyr var Emreis. Although he only appears in a few characters, he is the one causing nearly all things in the witcher universe. When he does show up in person, it is no question who is the most powerful character in the room.

Yet - nobody influences him like Ciri. There is no bigger character who individually changes things in the Witcher universe. Not Geralt, not the emperor, not anybody else. Because the mere sight of her crying stopped the second Nilfgaardian war and caused the Emperor to abandon his plotting. Because Ciri is his daughter, who was raised by Geralt.


And then there is the real kicker regarding Ciri:
She has unlimited potential. She is potentially more powerful than anybody else. She can travel through time and space. She crossed into our Earth. She met the teutonic order and visited modern France. She travelled into the future of her world and others. She unwittingly carried the black plague from Florence into the witcher universe (the plage people in TW1 were dying of? That was her.)

She is being hunted by the elves of another world who want her power to open the portals so that they can cross over and evacuate the elves of another world to one universe where they had genocided all humans (they eventually succeed though it is unknown if due to Ciri). These elves appear as the wild hunt. That king of the wild hunt in the games? That is one who Ciri almost had an affair with. They need her power so that they can open huge portals instead of crossing over one by one.

Meanwhile, if she has children, they are to lead the Nilfgaardian empire into further glory, to usher in a golden age. Or to destroy the world.

At the end of the books she was supposed to be happy at the court of King Arthur.

So you can see the whole new dimension she potentially adds to the story and why having her being spoiled was the proverbial hammer to the toe.

[TheFeniX]

It's cool, I can see why you'd be pissed. I just tend to forget The Witcher games are based on a book series, which explains why the writing tends to at the least be much more.... complete (I guess) than many other game series.

In my defense though, from what I've seen of the promotional work of "The Ashen-haired lass," I figured her existence was pretty well known to anyone interested in the game. My mistake.

[Thanas]

I've been keeping myself from any promo material for the past two years.

[TheFeniX]

Well shit, I hate to be the one to screw it up for you. Wasn't my intention.

[Phillip Hone]

Adding to this tragedy, I only skimmed the game play video for fear of seeing too much, so when I read Thanas's posts in this thread about the spoilers I got spoiled on one or two things.

Well, actually, I knew about one of them before, and I actually don't mind spoilers too much. Still, I think you may want to add some spoiler tags to your post, Thanas.

[Thanas]

Adding to this tragedy, I only skimmed the game play video for fear of seeing too much, so when I read Thanas's posts in this thread about the spoilers I got spoiled on one or two things.

Well, actually, I knew about one of them before, and I actually don't mind spoilers too much. Still, I think you may want to add some spoiler tags to your post, Thanas.

My post was already including spoiler tags? Or what one do you mean?

[Phillip Hone]

Adding to this tragedy, I only skimmed the game play video for fear of seeing too much, so when I read Thanas's posts in this thread about the spoilers I got spoiled on one or two things.

Well, actually, I knew about one of them before, and I actually don't mind spoilers too much. Still, I think you may want to add some spoiler tags to your post, Thanas.

My post was already including spoiler tags? Or what one do you mean?

Your second post in the thread ... sorry, didn't want to quote it. I mean nothing too detailed, just the first name you mentioned might be not be ideal to hear about for people who have read the books.

Speaking of spoiling stuff, do you feel like having read the books improves the experience of the games? I read the first four and right now I feel like I know too much already, and that a lot of TW3 will just be retreading stuff I learned from the novels. What are your thoughts on that?

Reading the books was worth it either way, though.

[Thanas]

Edited.

And yeah, I think the books improve the experience. Especially in TWII there are a lot of injokes on the books. SPOILERS FOR TWII

[spoiler="just two of the top of my head]"Daddy, are there female witchers?"
"Patient clearly insane. Believes to have been abducted by the wild hunt and transferred to a world of unicorns and elves."[/spoiler]