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[scitek]

You look just as out of your mind as before. No, W3 does not look better than this:

In fairness, Unity doesn't even have a day/night cycle since everything's pre-baked.

The gaming press, as a whole, - one more time - didn’t warned me about the issues the game had and I paid 60 euro for a game that at the moment is unplayable for me…

Just gonna address this part in particular, but I haven't had a single issue aside from having to ALT+Tab out of the game each time I start it in order to fullscreen it. It's very possible that reviewers didn't have any issues with the game, either. Especially those playing PS4 copies.

 

[DOWN]

People so desperate trying to believe there's a way they can disqualify Unity lmao

Rational people: AC Unity looks better, you see?
W3 Stans: It's smaller

Would you just plain look at the games instead of trying to deflect? I have been told way too many times about Unity's lighting. All that means is W3 compromised lighting for scope, and that's fine but it looks worse.

Daylight looks awful for me on PS4 so far (and frankly I can't stand that the water looks dyed blue only in the way that portable restrooms know), whereas Unity at least still has the lighting intact in the environment:

 

[robertsan21]

People so desperate trying to believe there's a way they can disqualify Unity lmao

Rational people: AC Unity looks better, you see?
W3 Stans: It's smaller

Would you just plain look at the games instead of trying to deflect? I have been told way too many times about Unity's lighting. All that means is W3 compromised lighting for scope, and that's fine but it looks worse.

Daylight looks awful for me on PS4 so far (and frankly I can't stand that the water looks dyed blue only in the way that portable restrooms know), whereas Unity at least still has the lighting intact in the environment:

Regarding blue lakes, that is nothing weird. we have them everywhere.

 

[Cave Johnson]

Regarding blue lakes, that is nothing weird. we have them everywhere.

Doesn't look anything like portable toilet water I've been to.

 

[mnannola]

Unity's not on there.... right?

You're right, I could have sworn when the bundle came out a few days ago it was in there. Maybe they removed it. Maybe my memory has failed me again.

 

[alexandros]

People so desperate trying to believe there's a way they can disqualify Unity lmao

Rational people: AC Unity looks better, you see?
W3 Stans: It's smaller

Would you just plain look at the games instead of trying to deflect? I have been told way too many times about Unity's lighting. All that means is W3 compromised lighting for scope, and that's fine but it looks worse.

Daylight looks awful for me on PS4 so far (and frankly I can't stand that the water looks dyed blue only in the way that portable restrooms know), whereas Unity at least still has the lighting intact in the environment:

Ugh, that's a pretty bad-looking shot.

 

[Papacheeks]

The point is that CDPR lied to all of us PC users, whose support made CDPR the company that is today…

They supported the marketing of the game through fake footage since 2013, 2014 and 2015, and they managed to make 1.5 million people to preorder the game (multiplied by 60 they got 90 million dollars only from preorders)…

All the gaming press gave extremely high reviews, reviews based on early unfinished review copies, and no one actually talked about the downgrade or the great technical issues the game has - reviews that made me preorder the game… (Especially on PCs)

To come out now as a company and say (read the interview I posted), after they collected all the preorders money, that they chose parity because they did not have the money/resources to create the original vision of the game, with all the trailers since today to explicitly say that they are in-game real-time gameplay, is just crazy…

And I have a great issue with CDPR taking the lies PR approach, because in my mind I believe that it is one of the most gamer friendly companies out there…

And it’s not only the graphics downgrade that I have an issue with, but the crashes, the stuttering, the frame rate/frame pacing, the controls, the camera etc

And I play the game in a PC that costs 2000+ euro…

In an interview that happened on 28/01/2015, on game pressure, Adam Badowski (Managing Director of CD Projekt RED) said that they made the characters better and blames the graphics downgrade to lightning in the VGAs trailer when compared with the gameplay trailer of 2013…

We are talking 4 months before the official game release, so they had perfect knowledge on how the final product would looked like, and they still lied to their future customers…

http://www.gamepressure.com/e.asp?ID=51

And I copy the part of the interview I am referring about:

Have you followed the comments under The Witcher 3 VGA trailer? Many people were complaining about the drop in graphics quality in comparison to the first video materials.

Yes, we’ve seen them…

Aren’t you afraid that after its release the game will share the fate of Watch_Dogs, where the game was being compared to the first E3 gameplay?

If someone rewatches the trailer they will notice that the character models look better in the game; even Geralt is more polished – for instance, he has better shaders. We’ve added a bunch of details and we’ve significantly improved the facial expressions and the lip sync. We have 7 different dubbing versions, so we’re not able to record the changes on actors’ face with the performance capture technology, like it was done in, say, Call of Duty. That wouldn’t fit on three blu-ray discs. Keeping that in mind, we’ve implemented a dynamic system based on vowels and consonants, similar to the one in the previous two installments, where it did rather poorly. WithThe Witcher 3, the difference is astounding – we have set the bar really high for the entire industry as compared to other games that rely on this system (such as BioWare games – author’s note); that’s another thing that wasn’t visible in the trailer.

Meanwhile, the quality of the lightning in the trailer remains a matter of taste. We’ve made a mistake choosing to render some shots in dark and greyish colors. To put it simply, that was the option picked by the engine. I think that there will be locations that will look jaw-dropping, and no one will claim that they differ from what was seen in the trailer. Unfortunately, there will also be fragments where the game will look worse. It’s the same with GTA – when the wind picks up and it gets grey, especially in the forest, the graphics seem certainly worse than in a neon-filled and lively city.

To finish it off here, I had enough as a gamer of companies that overpromise and under deliver…

I expected this kind of behavior from all studios/publishers, except CDPR (and a few other studios that i trust), and I have to say that I am very sad that one studio that I supported through the years, and watched grow to the company that it is now, lied to my face, only to pocket the preorders money…

I haven’t lost my faith in them and I believe that in time they will fix the Witcher 3 (maybe a future enhanced DX12 edition would be the best way to play the game), but my experience with the game so far was problematic…

The gaming press, as a whole, - one more time - didn’t warned me about the issues the game had and I paid 60 euro for a game that at the moment is unplayable for me…

I will never preorder anything from any company in the future, no matter the hype, before I see actual gameplay from the final product…

I bet all my money that the next AAA release, that we all expecting, Batman Arkham Knight will have the same downgrade issues, when comparing real time (or in engine) gameplay from trailers with actual gameplay…

If I ever see on an announcement trailer – E3 is in a month don’t forget – the words, In Engine Footage or Real Time Gameplay, I will just think piss off…

Your whole fucking argument is null, because it isn't a shit game like Watch Dogs or AC:Unity. It still looks and plays great. Right now PC reviews are being put up and some have talked about some of the bugs, and possibly the change in graphics from original 2013 reveal.
Also We have followed them from 2013, 2014, 2015. The 35 Minute gameplay from 2014 is pretty damn close to what we got in 2015 release.

And if you read the interview you would understand that they flat out admitted the specific setup, and trailer was catered for PR, and was not 100% even completed tools/engine nor did they even have it running on console dev kits at the time.

Things change, Kingdom Hearts 3 has been shown in more or less gameplay form. ANd has now switched engines, I wonder if anyone is going to give to shits if the game is fantastic?
Am I bummed a little? Sure, but the game still looks fucking great, plays great, and is going to be supported with refinements and updates, and modding.

They have been open about the games development, and people need to understand things in a tailored trailer are not the same as someone on stage with a controller in hand giving a demo.
All the stuff we saw leak about the tech and what not was from engine builds, and did did not show the game running in real time on a console code.

If you want to go and make a huge stink along with countless other's on this thread fine, it's your god given right. But you and other's act like CDRED shit in your mouths and told you you had to like it, when they have been the most humble and open developer willing to at the games launch talk about this very topic, and be understanding of why people like your self might be a little pissed.

I can understand companies like DICE, Ubisoft and what not don't have the best track record and have taken advantage of consumers/gamers good will. But CD RED isn't one of them. They are a developer like any other that will have development woes and mostly can't talk officially about it until the game is released or NDA is lifted.
I feel they delivered on their promise of a well realized world in which it's a blast to explore and look at a beautiful world that they created with such talent.

I bought the 150$ collectors edition(Signed by every employee at CD RED), and was happy my RIG could play it, if they had gone with the original engine, I don't think i would be able to enjoy the game playing it at such bad frames. I'm glad they made the changes so that most people's PC's could run it.
What issues did you have? I installed it on 05/19/2015 installed the patch and started playing.

No problems what so ever. And seeing the glowing PC reviews which were not pre-release, I would say a lot of other's have no issue with it either.
Just because you have had not the greatest experience doesn't mean your in the majority.
CD RED delivered, and I am happy to give them my money, and will continue to buy their products as I have in the past with My hard Copy DIrectors Cut of Witcher 1, and Collectors edition fo Witcher 2:Assassin of Kings.

One last thing: Were you pissed off Borderlands turned out the way it did look wise? They within 6-12 months of it's release changed the way teh game was rendered and gave it a cell-shaded look. As apposed to the original Fallout wasteland look they had before. I didn't see any uproar about that, and that was within 6-12 months of the games release. The game came out people loved it, it was in their eyes a great game. So in the end did it really matter?


s

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

Well, I used to want to be mad at this game for the graphics downgrade. I went in thinking it would be pretty ugly and that I'd just enjoy it for the gameplay.

Sure... grass could be better. Water could be better. LOD could be better. Lighting could definitely be better....

But while I'm playing.... the visuals just come together beautifully and I can't stop taking screenshots. Usually that's the mark of a good looking game for me. Of course it's subjective but yeah, I'm satisfied with it. So methinks I'll just bow out of this thread now, but you guys keep fighting the good fight.

See you all in the "Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition - It's still downgraded" thread

Exactly, to me its a beautiful game and the game is just the cherry on top.

 

[Skyzard]

"It's okay because the game is good (pretty great even), stop talking about the downgrade."

 

[Rivitur]

…

In the future you will be able to turn on the option of ubersampling, which, upon the release of The Witcher 2, was killing the game, and will probably do the same with this title, so we don’t want to unlock it for now. It makes the game look better, but the requirements are insane

.
He said this in the interview as well. So this should help right?

 

[Raysod]

In fairness, Unity doesn't even have a day/night cycle since everything's pre-baked.



Just gonna address this part in particular, but I haven't had a single issue aside from having to ALT+Tab out of the game each time I start it in order to fullscreen it. It's very possible that reviewers didn't have any issues with the game, either. Especially those playing PS4 copies.

When I write about the press reviews as a whole, it is not the first time that they give high scores, without informing people of the technical issues of a title…

I have also watched my friend play the PS4 version of the Witcher 3 (I thought that if the game is good/better optimized on PS4 maybe to buy it and play it on my PS4) and the game has the same issues (stuttering, frame rate, controls, horse ai, combat bugs etc – we even experienced a crash when going to the palace for the first time, in the scene where you choose your clothes – I had the same crash on my pc), that exist on PCs at the moment…

To continue on the press, we are seeing that they give some studios a free pass and other studios get destroyed for the exact same issues.

In Watch_Dogs everyone was vocal and very aggressive towards Ubisoft for the downgrade and now everyone is saying that what CDPR says is logical. Or Ubisoft’s (or any other publisher’s) developing teams don’t follow the rule of money/budgeting/time when developing a game.

Take From Software and Bloodborne for example. After so many months we are still waiting for frame rate/loading time/gameplay fixes, the company gave us nothing and now they dared to announce an expansion on the game…

Or look at Rockstar, which always takes a free pass on the technical issues/bugs of its games from the press…

I believe that The Witcher 3 is a great game, which I want to (and paid to) experience without issues, but I think that CDPR made a lot of bad decisions on its design and I believe that we PC users got seriously screwed to be honest…

I have spend more time experimenting with drivers, configurations and ini files than playing the game (due to crashes) at this moment and I still have issues so I had enough…

As a person and as a gamer I really had enough of paying of broken products, that get fixed later (or fixed at all)…

On the matter of CDPR and Witcher 3, I am very disappointed with the developer, not angry, just disappointed…

 

[cripterion]

Broccoli tastes better than burger, though.

What about a burger with broccoli?

 

[DOWN]

Regarding blue lakes, that is nothing weird. we have them everywhere.

RIP me in USA (flat florida murky)

What about a burger with broccoli?

hew does that?

 

[rashbeep]

People so desperate trying to believe there's a way they can disqualify Unity lmao

Rational people: AC Unity looks better, you see?
W3 Stans: It's smaller

Would you just plain look at the games instead of trying to deflect? I have been told way too many times about Unity's lighting. All that means is W3 compromised lighting for scope, and that's fine but it looks worse.

Unity looks incredible at times, it has detailed character models, great texture work, amazing interior lighting, etc. However, it compromises a shitload to look like that. The game looks good until you go about 30 feet from the player. NPC pop-in and architecture LoD are really terrible. I'd also say that the daytime lighting is less than flattering. AC:U has a technical edge over TW3 in a number of ways, no one can really deny that, but as far as maintaining an overall cohesive image TW3 beats it for me.

 

[Gaz_RB]

When I write about the press reviews as a whole, it is not the first time that they give high scores, without informing people of the technical issues of a title…

I have also watched my friend play the PS4 version of the Witcher 3 (I thought that if the game is good/better optimized on PS4 maybe to buy it and play it on my PS4) and the game has the same issues (stuttering, frame rate, controls, horse ai, combat bugs etc – we even experienced a crash when going to the palace for the first time, in the scene where you choose your clothes – I had the same crash on my pc), that exist on PCs at the moment…

To continue on the press, we are seeing that they give some studios a free pass and other studios get destroyed for the exact same issues.

In Watch_Dogs everyone was vocal and very aggressive towards Ubisoft for the downgrade and now everyone is saying that what CDPR says is logical. Or Ubisoft’s (or any other publisher’s) developing teams don’t follow the rule of money/budgeting/time when developing a game.

Take From Software and Bloodborne for example. After so many months we are still waiting for frame rate/loading time/gameplay fixes, the company gave us nothing and now they dared to announce an expansion on the game…

Or look at Rockstar, which always takes a free pass on the technical issues/bugs of its games from the press…

I believe that The Witcher 3 is a great game, which I want to (and paid to) experience without issues, but I think that CDPR made a lot of bad decisions on its design and I believe that we PC users got seriously screwed to be honest…

I have spend more time experimenting with drivers, configurations and ini files than playing the game (due to crashes) at this moment and I still have issues so I had enough…

As a person and as a gamer I really had enough of paying of broken products, that get fixed later (or fixed at all)…

On the matter of CDPR and Witcher 3, I am very disappointed with the developer, not angry, just disappointed…

Witcher 3: Attack of the Ellipsis...

 

[EatChildren]

The problem with reviews is that they're ultimately subjective experiences not uniform across the board nor indicative of the experience you'll necessarily have on a technical level. Numerous reviews did mention bugs and framerate concerns. Read them. Controls are subjective; I have no issue with them, so now what? Am I supposed to dock points for bad controls when I don't find them bad at all? Reviews ultimately scored high because the sum total of parts made for an experience those particular reviewers found heavily outweighed the flaws.

Personally, having grown up playing CRPGs, I can't think of an ambitious CRPG that didn't launch (and often stayed for a long time, if not forever) littered with bugs. Game breaking bugs are the big problem, and Witcher 3 does have that for some people, unfortunately. Yet for others there are none.

If you feel more journos should be covering the "downgrade" then fine, whatever. But fixating on reviews doesn't really serve a point. Reviews are subjective analysis of a game experience and resonance that won't ever be directly transferable to you because you're not the person writing the review. They're not a place for "the game was downgraded, 4/10".

 

[Zakalwe]

Your whole fucking argument is null, because it isn't a shit game like Watch Dogs or AC:Unity. It still looks and plays great. Right now PC reviews are being put up and some have talked about some of the bugs, and possibly the change in graphics from original 2013 reveal.
Also We have followed them from 2013, 2014, 2015. The 35 Minute gameplay from 2014 is pretty damn close to what we got in 2015 release.

And if you read the interview you would understand that they flat out admitted the specific setup, and trailer was catered for PR, and was not 100% even completed tools/engine nor did they even have it running on console dev kits at the time.

Things change, Kingdom Hearts 3 has been shown in more or less gameplay form. ANd has now switched engines, I wonder if anyone is going to give to shits if the game is fantastic?
Am I bummed a little? Sure, but the game still looks fucking great, plays great, and is going to be supported with refinements and updates, and modding.

They have been open about the games development, and people need to understand things in a tailored trailer are not the same as someone on stage with a controller in hand giving a demo.
All the stuff we saw leak about the tech and what not was from engine builds, and did did not show the game running in real time on a console code.

If you want to go and make a huge stink along with countless other's on this thread fine, it's your god given right. But you and other's act like CDRED shit in your mouths and told you you had to like it, when they have been the most humble and open developer willing to at the games launch talk about this very topic, and be understanding of why people like your self might be a little pissed.

I can understand companies like DICE, Ubisoft and what not don't have the best track record and have taken advantage of consumers/gamers good will. But CD RED isn't one of them. They are a developer like any other that will have development woes and mostly can't talk officially about it until the game is released or NDA is lifted.
I feel they delivered on their promise of a well realized world in which it's a blast to explore and look at a beautiful world that they created with such talent.

I bought the 150$ collectors edition(Signed by every employee at CD RED), and was happy my RIG could play it, if they had gone with the original engine, I don't think i would be able to enjoy the game playing it at such bad frames. I'm glad they made the changes so that most people's PC's could run it.
What issues did you have? I installed it on 05/19/2015 installed the patch and started playing.

No problems what so ever. And seeing the glowing PC reviews which were not pre-release, I would say a lot of other's have no issue with it either.
Just because you have had not the greatest experience doesn't mean your in the majority.
CD RED delivered, and I am happy to give them my money, and will continue to buy their products as I have in the past with My hard Copy DIrectors Cut of Witcher 1, and Collectors edition fo Witcher 2:Assassin of Kings.

One last thing: Were you pissed off Borderlands turned out the way it did look wise? They within 6-12 months of it's release changed the way teh game was rendered and gave it a cell-shaded look. As apposed to the original Fallout wasteland look they had before. I didn't see any uproar about that, and that was within 6-12 months of the games release. The game came out people loved it, it was in their eyes a great game. So in the end did it really matter?


s

Better post.

 

[Raysod]

Your whole fucking argument is null, because it isn't a shit game like Watch Dogs or AC:Unity. It still looks and plays great. Right now PC reviews are being put up and some have talked about some of the bugs, and possibly the change in graphics from original 2013 reveal.
Also We have followed them from 2013, 2014, 2015. The 35 Minute gameplay from 2014 is pretty damn close to what we got in 2015 release.

And if you read the interview you would understand that they flat out admitted the specific setup, and trailer was catered for PR, and was not 100% even completed tools/engine nor did they even have it running on console dev kits at the time.

Things change, Kingdom Hearts 3 has been shown in more or less gameplay form. ANd has now switched engines, I wonder if anyone is going to give to shits if the game is fantastic?
Am I bummed a little? Sure, but the game still looks fucking great, plays great, and is going to be supported with refinements and updates, and modding.

They have been open about the games development, and people need to understand things in a tailored trailer are not the same as someone on stage with a controller in hand giving a demo.
All the stuff we saw leak about the tech and what not was from engine builds, and did did not show the game running in real time on a console code.

If you want to go and make a huge stink along with countless other's on this thread fine, it's your god given right. But you and other's act like CDRED shit in your mouths and told you you had to like it, when they have been the most humble and open developer willing to at the games launch talk about this very topic, and be understanding of why people like your self might be a little pissed.

I can understand companies like DICE, Ubisoft and what not don't have the best track record and have taken advantage of consumers/gamers good will. But CD RED isn't one of them. They are a developer like any other that will have development woes and mostly can't talk officially about it until the game is released or NDA is lifted.
I feel they delivered on their promise of a well realized world in which it's a blast to explore and look at a beautiful world that they created with such talent.

I bought the 150$ collectors edition(Signed by every employee at CD RED), and was happy my RIG could play it, if they had gone with the original engine, I don't think i would be able to enjoy the game playing it at such bad frames. I'm glad they made the changes so that most people's PC's could run it.
What issues did you have? I installed it on 05/19/2015 installed the patch and started playing.

No problems what so ever. And seeing the glowing PC reviews which were not pre-release, I would say a lot of other's have no issue with it either.
Just because you have had not the greatest experience doesn't mean your in the majority.
CD RED delivered, and I am happy to give them my money, and will continue to buy their products as I have in the past with My hard Copy DIrectors Cut of Witcher 1, and Collectors edition fo Witcher 2:Assassin of Kings.

One last thing: Were you pissed off Borderlands turned out the way it did look wise? They within 6-12 months of it's release changed the way teh game was rendered and gave it a cell-shaded look. As apposed to the original Fallout wasteland look they had before. I didn't see any uproar about that, and that was within 6-12 months of the games release. The game came out people loved it, it was in their eyes a great game. So in the end did it really matter?


s

There is no reason to be upset with my opinion on the performance of the game...

When I write my opinion on a game it is based on the experience I had with the game – a product that I paid money to play…

In the matter of downgrade the developers of The Witcher 3 came forward and declared publicly that the downgrade is true and they did it because of lack of resources (after pocketing 90 million dollars from preorders)…

If you go now to the new official Witcher 3 website you will see that any old gameplay videos are removed at the moment. And this happened after the release of the game, after the great reviews, after the record braking preorders, and after the company made most of its day one sales…

The game has problems in a lot of its design choices and it is not only the graphical downgrade that I have issues with…

In my PC (i7, Titan) I experience stuttering, frame drops, crashes, freezes of about 20-30 seconds (especially when going to menus), camera control is awful, auto-lock is awful, the character controls are bad, the horse AI is bad, animations are junky, sound has issues (even lip sync does not work as is supposed to be) and lots of other minor issues/bugs…

My main issue with the game is the crashes. I can live with everything else, but not the random crashes. You play for some time and as you get immersed in to the (beautiful) world of the game – boom – random game crash…

You haven't experience anything from the above on your PC?

I had CDPR very close in my heart, until the recent marketing lies with Witcher 3, and as they say in my country – if someone dares to lie to you for the first time and you accept it unquestionably, they will do it to you again and again…

The only thing that I said in my post conclusion is that I will never preorder anything from any company going forward into the future, before I see gameplay from the final retail version of a game…

They companies lost my trust with their marketing tricks – so they will lose my business/money as my only means of defense against their practices…

 

[rashbeep]

Also, now that the game is out did anyone want to make a comparison between the final build and the 35 minute demo? Possibly a recreation of the Johnny quest. I'd do it myself, however I don't think I'm anywhere close to that quest.

 

[cripterion]

RIP me in USA (flat florida murky)


hew does that?

Never heard of vegetarians?

 

[Zakalwe]

In the matter of downgrade the developers of The Witcher 3 came forward and declared publicly that the downgrade is true and they did it because of lack of resources (after pocketing 90 million dollars from preorders)…

No they didn't. They explicitly stated they didn't consider it a downgrade.

They admitted compromises had to be made and that they should have been more transparent.

 

[jett]

You look just as out of your mind as before. No, W3 does not look better than this:

Heh, compared to this the in-door locations in The Witcher 3 are positively last-gen.

Shit, you don't need to compare them to anything, they just suck. The wilderness is truly TW3's only area where the visuals shine.

 

[Dictator93]

Heh, compared to this the in-door locations in The Witcher 3 are positively last-gen.

Shit, you don't need to compare them to anything, they just suck. The wilderness is truly TW3's only area where the visuals shine.

It has been said before, but even disregarding consoles, there is mighty fine reasons why the indoor locations in TW3 do not have that type of indirect lighting.

 

[Zakalwe]

Heh, compared to this the in-door locations in The Witcher 3 are positively last-gen.

Shit, you don't need to compare them to anything, they just suck. The wilderness is truly TW3's only area where the visuals shine.

"Only area"

Good thing this "only area" makes up such a massive portion of the game's world then...

 

[Fuz]

No they didn't. They explicitly stated they didn't consider it a downgrade.

They admitted compromises had to be made and that they should have been more transparent.

I've read that interview. It's even worse than admitting it plainly:
"We toned the graphics down but we don't call it a downgrade."
Disgusting PR speak.

 

[jett]

It has been said before, but even disregarding consoles, there is mighty fine reasons why the indoor locations in TW3 do not have that type of indirect lighting.

I don't know what those mighty fine reasons are, I just know that the in-door location you go to after you leave White Orchard looks horrid.

"Only area"

Good thing this "only area" makes up such a massive portion of the game's world then...

Yes, that's a good thing indeed.

 

[EatChildren]

I dislike the interior lighting in Wild Hunt too, not because it's not Unity, but because it frames and lights characters differently in dialogue sequences versus gameplay. Which is pretty normal in theory (frames conversations better), but in practice results in a lot of weirdly flat lit looking characters that aren't receiving local lighting and thus not casting shadows on themselves (something you get outdoors during sunlight).

But it's also pretty mixed. The bathhouse looks phenomenal and is completely indoors. Other parts...not so good.

 

[Raysod]

The problem with reviews is that they're ultimately subjective experiences not uniform across the board nor indicative of the experience you'll necessarily have on a technical level. Numerous reviews did mention bugs and framerate concerns. Read them. Controls are subjective; I have no issue with them, so now what? Am I supposed to dock points for bad controls when I don't find them bad at all? Reviews ultimately scored high because the sum total of parts made for an experience those particular reviewers found heavily outweighed the flaws.

Personally, having grown up playing CRPGs, I can't think of an ambitious CRPG that didn't launch (and often stayed for a long time, if not forever) littered with bugs. Game breaking bugs are the big problem, and Witcher 3 does have that for some people, unfortunately. Yet for others there are none.

If you feel more journos should be covering the "downgrade" then fine, whatever. But fixating on reviews doesn't really serve a point. Reviews are subjective analysis of a game experience and resonance that won't ever be directly transferable to you because you're not the person writing the review. They're not a place for "the game was downgraded, 4/10".

I agree with what you are saying but most reviewers played The Witcher 3 on console (PS4), without the day one patch installed (which fixed 600+ issues), so they had a worst gameplay experience compared with the rest of us…

And they still didn’t mention any problems to their readers/audience…

When a company sends a review copy of a game, which is not the final retail version, to games media, they provide a letter that says that they know the issues/serious bugs that the game has (and they provide the reviewers a list with known problems) and they say that all these issues will be resolved by the time the game goes on sale…

The same happened with Witcher 3 and most reviewers gave a free pass on CDPR because they believed that in the final retail version of the game the problems would be fixed…

CDPR knew the issues of the game, that’s why they didn’t provide early PC review copies (they even put down compare videos from websites) and only gave PS4 or Xbox One review copies to the press.

It was the gaming community that talked about the issues of the downgrade and of the technical problems of the game and not the press…

I expect to be informed for the technical state of a game from the reviewers and myself be the one that makes the choice of what is acceptable for my money, than a reviewer weighting the bugs/problems with the good parts of the game and decide if the game is good or not…

 

[Zakalwe]

I've read that interview. It's even worse than admitting it plainly:
"We toned the graphics down but we don't call it a downgrade."
Disgusting PR speak.

Or: it's humble admittance of their inexperience and desire to do better in future.

The message they wrote shows a lot of humility, I'm quite confident it's as far from "disgusting PR speak" as you could possibly get.

 

[Kamina]

Broccoli tastes better than burger, though.

What the hell where you smoking?

 

[Dictator93]

I don't know what those mighty fine reasons are, I just know that the in-door location you go to after you leave White Orchard looks horrid.

All the indirect lighting is baked for four seperate times of day, each area of the game has to have four seperate light maps. TW3 doesn't have 4 times of day, rather an infinite amounts as well as many more places to enter and much wider ground.

The majority of disk space that Unity takes up is due to its light map data, if the witcher 3 had a similar fidelity of lightmaps for more times of day... it would be in the hundreds of GB on disk. It would also be a decidedly more static world.

 

[Raysod]

No they didn't. They explicitly stated they didn't consider it a downgrade.

They admitted compromises had to be made and that they should have been more transparent.

First read the interview

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...he-witcher-3-graphics-downgrade-issue-head-on

And then check this post:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=163839271#post163839271

And then we can talk

 

[Fuz]

Or: it's humble admittance of their inexperience and desire to do better in future.

Nope, it's not.
It's just denying an obvious fact. PR spin. Damage control.

 

[GHG]

After just playing this game for the last 6 hours maxed out on the PC... I have to say some of you are nuts.

You can't compare worst case scenario TOD's/weathers with the TOD's/weathers that were cherry picked for the trailers.

You just need to play it on the PC maxed out for an extended period of time to understand what I'm getting at. When it all comes together (which is a lot of the time by the way) this game is stunning.

 

[Arjac]

That's a great analogy.

Only a matter of time now until Godwins law is validated in this thread.

It's no coincidence that certain CDPR members acted "strangely" after the secret meeting with Mattrick and Tretton

I don't feel gullible at all, I saw the reviews, saw the footage of the PS4 version, went out and bought it. I'm very impressed.

No, your PS4 placed you in an altered state of consciousness to make you think you enjoyed it.
#Wakeupsheeple

 

[Yoda]

Those of you defending CDPR are really missing the point. Does the game look BAD? Of course not. Did a developer use traditional bait and switch marketing to help drive buzz about the game? YES.

If you say "oh well what does it really matter? I'm enjoying the game and felt I got what I paid for." Consider the higher-ups who will then look at the reception + sales. If they can cut costs in X area (visual fidelity) then its not even close to a reach for them to purpose cutting in another area to lower total dev costs and maximize margins. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be profitable, but when you do it with lies and misleading people and don't pay a penalty, no only isn't there an incentive to not do it again.... There is an incentive to push it even further.

It's silly people think they need to be in one camp or the other. You can appreciate the game (I'm enjoying the story myself) without being an unpaid shill for bullshit corporate tactics.

 

[Fuz]

Those of you defending CDPR are really missing the point. Does the game look BAD? Of course not. Did a developer use traditional bait and switch marketing to help drive buzz about the game? YES.

If you say "oh well what does it really matter? I'm enjoying the game and felt I got what I paid for." Consider the higher-ups who will then look at the reception + sales. If they can cut costs in X area (visual fidelity) then its not even close to a reach for them to purpose cutting in another area to lower total dev costs and maximize margins. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be profitable, but when you do it with lies and misleading people and don't pay a penalty, no only isn't there an incentive to not do it again.... There is an incentive to push it even further.

It's silly people think they need to be in one camp or the other. You can appreciate the game (I'm enjoying the story myself) without being an unpaid shill for bullshit corporate tactics.

This has been said so many times already... and still people don't get the point.

Besides, it's not even the graphical downgrade that pisses me off the most, it's the designed-for-pad controls that you can't even redefine, the xbone ce exlusive and the pr spins that made me lose all my love and respect for cdpr, more than the graphic issues themselves (that still suck, tho).

 

[Zakalwe]

Nope, it's not.
It's just denying an obvious fact. PR spin. Damage control.

To me, it's very clear with the tone and wording that they're sorry for the way they handled it and have learnt from their mistakes. It reads very sincerely, and I think you're a little blinded by cynicism of you can't see it.

Now we wait and see it this translates to them sticking by their word in future. I have every faith they will.

The bait and switch thing is fair to say, they should have been more forthcoming as soon as they realised they couldn't keep up with the footage they were showing. They acknowledged this, and have said they learnt a lesson.

Just because you've been burnt continuously before by /other/ devs doesn't automatically put CDPR in the same boat. They made a mistake, that doesn't make them Unisoft. Not yet anyway...

 

[Papacheeks]

There is no reason to be upset with my opinion on the performance of the game...

In the matter of downgrade the developers of The Witcher 3 came forward and declared publicly that the downgrade is true and they did it because of lack of resources (after pocketing 90 million dollars from preorders)…

If you go now to the new official Witcher 3 website you will see that any old gameplay videos are removed at the moment. And this happened after the release of the game, after the great reviews, after the record braking preorders, and after the company made most of its day one sales…

The game has problems in a lot of its design choices and it is not only the graphical downgrade that I have issues with…

In my PC (i7, Titan) I experience stuttering, frame drops, crashes, freezes of about 20-30 seconds (especially when going to menus), camera control is awful, auto-lock is awful, the character controls are bad, the horse AI is bad, animations are junky, sound has issues (even lip sync does not work as is supposed to be) and lots of other minor issues/bugs…

My main issue with the game is the crashes. I can live with everything else, but not the random crashes. You play for some time and as you get immersed in to the (beautiful) world of the game – boom – random game crash…

You haven't experience anything from the above on your PC?

I had CDPR very close in my heart, until the recent marketing lies with Witcher 3, and as they say in my country – if someone dares to lie to you for the first time and you accept it unquestionably, they will do it to you again and again…

The only thing that I said in my post conclusion is that I will never preorder anything from any company going forward into the future, before I see gameplay from the final retail version of a game…

They companies lost my trust with their marketing tricks – so they will lose my business/money as my only means of defense against their practices…

1. WTF? They said they didn't even have the consoles to put it on yet to test the current build when they showed that trailer.

Admitted that when they tried it didn't work, because consoles couldn't handle the current engine build(Possibly same issue Kingdom Heart 3 was having, which is why they switched to more scalable engine U4)

Did you read the article?

Now your making assumptions. It's called a legal agreement not to Divulge company information. An NDA. Which when the game released they could talk about. And they have kind of hinted at that changes were made and modified to the engine, to get the game on consoles. How long did it take Creators of AC:unity to talk about how buggy they game was and problems they had getting their engine to work on current consoles? 4-5 Months after the game released.

Different circumstances . The witcher 3 isn't a buggy, broken mess AC:unity was. So they didn't have to really hide anything. Anyone with a brain could see graphical changes were made from Reveal up to release of Witcher. ANd most of us understand how the development process works to the point that sometimes you have to scrap something to make it work. Hellraid just went back to drawing board after seeing gameplay playthroughs with developers.

Shit happens, and changes. If they wanted to be complete dicks and be shady they would have removed all the old media from sites, and not done an interview and not have an open line to the community.

Did the console versions restrict the PC version?

"If the consoles are not involved there is no Witcher 3 as it is," answers Marcin Iwinski, definitively. "We can lay it out that simply. We just cannot afford it, because consoles allow us to go higher in terms of the possible or achievable sales; have a higher budget for the game, and invest it all into developing this huge, gigantic world.

"Developing only for the PC: yes, probably we could get more [in terms of graphics] as there would be nothing else - they would be so focused, like if we would develop only on Xbox One or PlayStation 4. But then we cannot afford such a game."

Why did the graphics change?

"If you're looking at the development process," Iwinski begins, "we do a certain build for a tradeshow and you pack it, it works, it looks amazing. And you are extremely far away from completing the game. Then you put it in the open-world, regardless of the platform, and it's like 'oh shit, it doesn't really work'. We've already showed it, now we have to make it work. And then we try to make it work on a huge scale. This is the nature of games development."

It was captured PC footage, not pre-rendered, Badowski confirms, but a lot had to change. "I cannot argue - if people see changes, we cannot argue," Adam Badowski says, "but there are complex technical reasons behind it.

"Maybe it was our bad decision to change the rendering system," he mulls, "because the rendering system after VGX was changed." There were two possible rendering systems but one won out because it looked nicer across the whole world, in daytime and at night. The other would have required lots of dynamic lighting "and with such a huge world simply didn't work".

This reads, the current lighting engine was not feasible on consoles. And as they elaborate DX 12 would be needed for PC to be achievable, and when your doing all three platforms, you have to make decisions that will affect work flow.

Looking at the game now, and seeing I'v put 15 hours in and am amazed by the sheer size and use of colors, I think they made the right decision.


2. Your wrong on the 2013 trailer it's still there close to the end of the Media section. The first reveal trailer that used the old engine. It's there they aren't hiding anything.
Here you go

notice: the publisher of the video and it's on the website at the end of media selection.

Notice the date: June 2013 meaning E3 reveal trailer.

Their not hiding anything from their development process. If they were they would deny everything and would have removed the trailer, and screenshots the minute they changed engines.


To third Bold question. No, I havn't had it crash on me once, and made sure to defrag, and run registry cleaner before I installed the game, made sure to do clean install of new Nvidia drivers.

New patch has given me better performance with more graphical effects on than previous patch. Some people on steam were having issues, but found out the crashes are more related to steam overlay than the game.

I have GOG version from disc, and no issues.

Metacritic for PC version is at 93-94. So I don't know what your issue is, you have ea better system than I, and I have no problems running the game.

Some people on steam with your same setup are having some issues, but most of them have been fixed after recent patch.
Most reviews and discussion on steam has been nothing but praise, and they even talk about the "downgrade" and how it doesn't matter because they are enjoying the game so much.

Seems to me if your really irritated, then return the game uninstall it and don't play it. If you want to stand by what you believe return the game, and stop bitching.

I did for Mortal Kombat x because of the DLC goro, and bad impression it gave me business wise. Regardless of how good the game was.

This has been said so many times already... and still people don't get the point.

Besides, it's not even the graphical downgrade that pisses me off the most, it's the designed-for-pad controls that you can't even redefine, the xbone ce exlusive and the pr spins that made me lose all my love and respect for cdpr, more than the graphic issues themselves (that still suck, tho).

What PR spins? You mean not being able to talk about internal issues they were having while the game was in development? Which unless is something the company says is fine commenting on you can't because of NDA's?

You mean that?

This is just you nit picking the game, as others on this thread and other witcher threads are not having the you are having with the controls. I had weird issue with the controller I was using, but tweaked sensitivity. BTW, the minute you move the mouse it changes to keyboard and mouse controls for you automatically.

Issues are more with how contact sensitive controls are, like you run if you barely push the sticks, of keys.

They will optimize it I'm sure.

To think they wont make control changes like they did for Witcher 2?

 

[DOWN]

Serious question: Why the tree LOD worse than Unity and can it be corrected for the next game? They lose all separation of leaves and branches from a rather short distance. Pine needles turn into pine blankets so close on PS4 AC games and Inquisition seem to smartly dissolve the texture down so that leaves stay separated instead of it looking like trees covered in blankets all over the place, especially on console.

Unity looks incredible at times, it has detailed character models, great texture work, amazing interior lighting, etc. However, it compromises a shitload to look like that. The game looks good until you go about 30 feet from the player. NPC pop-in and architecture LoD are really terrible. I'd also say that the daytime lighting is less than flattering. AC:U has a technical edge over TW3 in a number of ways, no one can really deny that, but as far as maintaining an overall cohesive image TW3 beats it for me.

Unity supposed to look unflattered by its daytime lighting? Good until 30 feet? Either misremembering or trying with those lies, but I'm going to have to give cohesive image to Unity. I think it looks current gen while W3 is artful cross gen. Wish every game could look at least as good as Unity, even if it means dynamic lighting (I don't recall anyone saying the choice of lighting was a negative for Unity until W3 started getting called out for looking flat). Vanilla vs. tweaked W3, the jump is huge. Vanilla vs. vanilla, it just makes W3 plain disappointing for me.

 

[rashbeep]

Unity supposed to look unflattered by its daytime lighting? Good until 30 feet? Either misremembering or trying with those lies, but I'm going to have to give cohesive image to Unity. I think it looks current gen while W3 is artful cross gen. Wish every game could look at least as good as Unity, even if it means dynamic lighting (I don't recall anyone saying the choice of lighting was a negative for Unity until W3 started getting called out for looking flat). Vanilla vs. tweaked W3, the jump is huge. Vanilla vs. vanilla, it just makes W3 plain disappointing for me.

I mean, I have the game and sunk a few hours into it (on Ultra). I have a preetty good idea on how it actually looks like while playing. The 30 feet remark was an exaggeration on my part (apologies), but the LoD in Unity is a well known issue, that won't really hide itself unless you're taking well composed screenshots like the ones you posted. Just from the title credits when the camera pans out to show this impressive shot of the city, every single building there looks like it has not even loaded into the scene properly, and just destroys the overall image. I can take a few screens myself to illustrate this if you wish. NPC LoD swaps literally as you are walking by them is not an exaggeration though, and can't really be captured in screens either. And yes, the clear day lighting looks pretty bad to me. Extremely washed out and very unflattering in a number of areas. Sunsets/rises look quite nice though.

A full ToD cycle is also a great thing to have in a game like TW3, which wouldn't really work in Unity I don't think.

 

[DOWN]

I mean, I have the game and sunk a few hours into it (on Ultra). I have a preetty good idea on how it actually looks like while playing. The 30 feet remark was an exaggeration on my part (apologies), but the LoD in Unity is a well known issue, that won't really hide itself unless you're taking well composed screenshots like the ones you posted. Just from the title credits when the camera pans out to show this impressive shot of the city, every single building there looks like it has not even loaded into the scene properly, and just destroys the overall image. I can take a few screens myself to illustrate this if you wish. NPC LoD swaps literally as you are walking by them is not an exaggeration though, and can't really be captured in screens either. And yes, the clear day lighting looks pretty bad to me. Extremely washed out and very unflattering in a number of areas. Sunsets/rises look quite nice though.

A full ToD cycle is also a great thing to have in a game like TW3, which wouldn't really work in Unity I don't think.

I think you are mistaking exposure effects, HDR, and GI for washout. I'm aware of the LOD in Unity (you can get the idea in the rooftop wide shot I quoted) and crowds, which I hope they improve in future entries. Unity could have used a ToD cycle but it doesn't look as good (they've had it in the past). And still, I can't imagine many people would think W3 looks more advanced than Unity. Not many at all. With how low in detail W3's world seems to be on PS4 compared to the PS4 versions of Unity and GTA V, I think I'll take whatever graphical compromises people claim those two take since it got them ahead of W3 vanilla.

I sincerely hope CyberPunk is a smaller game that takes a lot of graphical cues from Unity if it means avoiding the dated aspects of W3's visuals, the desperation and hope people had to fix its limits with tweaking before it even released, and the turnout on PS4. Getting as close as I can to this is important to me:

 

[Yoda]

What PR spins? You mean not being able to talk about internal issues they were having while the game was in development? Which unless is something the company says is fine commenting on you can't because of NDA's?

Being under NDA doesn't change the fact it's what they did. You don't need enough evidence to convict them in a court of law to see their promotional material was labelled as IN-GAME and when confronted about downgrades about a leaker (who posted on these forums non-the-less) they claimed NOTHING had changed. Those who were skeptical got the usual conspiracy-theorist esque cynicism.

Now their answers have ranged from motion sickness due to filters, to DX12 compatibility problems, to "if we didn't target consoles the budget wouldn't have been there". Know whats funny? All of those reasons are valid and could have been said to the community at ANYTIME during development.

If they don't want the community to be in the loop during the development process, fine; but if they are going to actively promote their game during said process, then the consumer has a right to obtain information about the product, information which isn't bullshit or corporate PR.

 

[Coma Ecliptic]

While I don't disagree that Unity has amazing image quality, I'm surprised how short some memories are on how that ran at launch and still runs. The game was gorgeous, but will be remember as the most unoptimized game I can remember in recent history. I don't believe anyone on Neogaf forgot, but using Unity as a representation of an open world game must be a joke (pretty ironic too). If the Witcher 3 maintained the original IQ shown, but ran at sub 30FPS, would you be singing the same tune? My guess is the internet would be furious that they had delayed it so many times only to have it run so poorly. It's definitely a catch-22.

The issue with the industry right now is they're trying to cater to graphic obsessed consumers with "Target rendered" reveal "Gameplay Trailers", when in actuality they're running a slice of the game that has been polished for the EXACT precise trailer or demo shown. Usually it's running off of Tri-SLI machines that are extremely unrealistic to the general person buying games. I would prefer they show the game in an AS-IS state and not try to bullshit the community. The bullshot trailer reveals are never going to end well, especially going forward.

I suspect that TW3's original trailer was running on DX12 or some form thereof. If you read up on DX12, it is very possible to hit that target rendering demo with the way it handles draw calls and utilizes the CPU/GPU. This is where you could draw parallels between TW3 and Unity. Had Unity launched this year as a DX12 launch game, I believe the way it ran would have been a completely different story. It definitely would have been just as buggy, but running at low 30FPS in areas would have not been an issue.

It's a bummer it doesn't look as good as we saw it look, but maybe CDPR has a surprise up their sleeve after the DX12 launch for a TW3: Enhanced Edition.

 

[misho8723]

This has been said so many times already... and still people don't get the point.

Besides, it's not even the graphical downgrade that pisses me off the most, it's the designed-for-pad controls that you can't even redefine, the xbone ce exlusive and the pr spins that made me lose all my love and respect for cdpr, more than the graphic issues themselves (that still suck, tho).

Ehmmm, controls on M+K are pretty much great when it comes to me.. I'm right handed, so thats maybe why.. I only changed the Strong Attack to Right mouse button and Witcher senses to V.. menus operate great with M+K, comabt is fun with them - more control with camera compared to gamepad, double tap move keys to dodge is nice, etc.. yeah, right now I don't have any reason to switch to gamepad.. I can't play Batman, AC, etc. games on PC without gamepad, but Witcher games are still in my view best controlled with M+K..

 

[Raysod]

1. WTF? They said they didn't even have the consoles to put it on yet to test the current build when they showed that trailer.

Admitted that when they tried it didn't work, because consoles couldn't handle the current engine build(Possibly same issue Kingdom Heart 3 was having, which is why they switched to more scalable engine U4)

Did you read the article?

Now your making assumptions. It's called a legal agreement not to Divulge company information. An NDA. Which when the game released they could talk about. And they have kind of hinted at that changes were made and modified to the engine, to get the game on consoles. How long did it take Creators of AC:unity to talk about how buggy they game was and problems they had getting their engine to work on current consoles? 4-5 Months after the game released.

Different circumstances . The witcher 3 isn't a buggy, broken mess AC:unity was. So they didn't have to really hide anything. Anyone with a brain could see graphical changes were made from Reveal up to release of Witcher. ANd most of us understand how the development process works to the point that sometimes you have to scrap something to make it work. Hellraid just went back to drawing board after seeing gameplay playthroughs with developers.

Shit happens, and changes. If they wanted to be complete dicks and be shady they would have removed all the old media from sites, and not done an interview and not have an open line to the community.

This reads, the current lighting engine was not feasible on consoles. And as they elaborate DX 12 would be needed for PC to be achievable, and when your doing all three platforms, you have to make decisions that will affect work flow.

Looking at the game now, and seeing I'v put 15 hours in and am amazed by the sheer size and use of colors, I think they made the right decision.


2. Your wrong on the 2013 trailer it's still there close to the end of the Media section. The first reveal trailer that used the old engine. It's there they aren't hiding anything.
Here you go

notice: the publisher of the video and it's on the website at the end of media selection.

Notice the date: June 2013 meaning E3 reveal trailer.

Their not hiding anything from their development process. If they were they would deny everything and would have removed the trailer, and screenshots the minute they changed engines.

To third Bold question. No, I havn't had it crash on me once, and made sure to defrag, and run registry cleaner before I installed the game, made sure to do clean install of new Nvidia drivers.

New patch has given me better performance with more graphical effects on than previous patch. Some people on steam were having issues, but found out the crashes are more related to steam overlay than the game.

I have GOG version from disc, and no issues.

Metacritic for PC version is at 93-94. So I don't know what your issue is, you have ea better system than I, and I have no problems running the game.

Some people on steam with your same setup are having some issues, but most of them have been fixed after recent patch.
Most reviews and discussion on steam has been nothing but praise, and they even talk about the "downgrade" and how it doesn't matter because they are enjoying the game so much.

Seems to me if your really irritated, then return the game uninstall it and don't play it. If you want to stand by what you believe return the game, and stop bitching.

I did for Mortal Kombat x because of the DLC goro, and bad impression it gave me business wise. Regardless of how good the game was.

I would totally agree with you, if CDPR came out and gave this interview before the launch of Witcher 3 and talked about parity and graphics downgrade. Now that they took the preorder money and the first few days sales, the interview, no matter how humble they seem, is just damage control and a PR trick.

On the matter that they didn’t have the final console hardware on their hands on 2013 is irrelevant, because we are talking about the PC version here. And even if they didn’t have final console hardware, they knew the specs and had pc configured with hardware with similar power of the consoles – to be released. How do you think the companies that design launch titles for consoles make their games?

Have in your mind that I never said that The Witcher 3 is a broken game or that it is not a beautiful game. I talked about the proven graphics downgrade and the annoying bugs that I experience in my time with the game.

The game engine (RedEngine) has serious performance issues with Kepler based hardware and although the recent patch 1.03 gave me 3-4 more fps overall, it didn’t resolve the crash issues I have. (On 1080p I get around 40fps, with ultra details, without hairworks etc)

On the issue of old videos, they removed all of them in the new official Witcher 3 website. They cannot legally remove official videos, which they showed in large trading shows, from news reporting websites. They also removed the old videos from their official YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/WitcherGame

All of this is just PR damage control and nothing else…

So let’s just agree that we have different opinions and we disagree on the performance of the game. I am not lying when I am saying that I have serious problems in my hardware and I cannot see how issues that I talked about, bad controls, stuttering, frame drops, bad horse ai, bad collision detection etc are not present on your gameplay experience.

My conclusion is that after the experience that I had with The Witcher 3, I will be extremely cautious with the next CDPR game (or any other company for the matter) release and I hope that you respect that…

On your recommendation to return the game, I will not do that because I still believe that CDPR will fix the issues sometime in the future through patches and then I will be able to enjoy the title in its full glory…

I said that I am disappointed with CDPR and not angry anyway…

Oh and I don’t care what score has a game on Metacritic, or care about game scores. I had great fun with games that scored 6 or 7 and if I am interested on a game I usually watch some streams, then buy it, play it and create my own opinion on my experience…

 

[Papacheeks]

I would totally agree with you, if CDPR came out and gave this interview before the launch of Witcher 3 and talked about parity and graphics downgrade. Now that they took the preorder money and the first few days sales, the interview, no matter how humble they seem, is just damage control and a PR trick.

On the matter that they didn’t have the final console hardware on their hands on 2013 is irrelevant, because we are talking about the PC version here. And even if they didn’t have final console hardware, they knew the specs and had pc configured with hardware with similar power of the consoles – to be released. How do you think the companies that design launch titles for consoles make their games?

Have in your mind that I never said that The Witcher 3 is a broken game or that it is not a beautiful game. I talked about the proven graphics downgrade and the annoying bugs that I experience in my time with the game.

The game engine (RedEngine) has serious performance issues with Kepler based hardware and although the recent patch 1.03 gave me 3-4 more fps overall, it didn’t resolve the crash issues I have. (On 1080p I get around 40fps, with ultra details, without hairworks etc)

On the issue of old videos, they removed all of them in the new official Witcher 3 website. They cannot legally remove official videos, which they showed in large trading shows, from news reporting websites. They also removed the old videos from their official YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/WitcherGame

All of this is just PR damage control and nothing else…

So let’s just agree that we have different opinions and we disagree on the performance of the game. I am not lying when I am saying that I have serious problems in my hardware and I cannot see how issues that I talked about, bad controls, stuttering, frame drops, bad horse ai, bad collision detection etc are not present on your gameplay experience.

My conclusion is that after the experience that I had with The Witcher 3, I will be extremely cautious with the next CDPR game (or any other company for the matter) release and I hope that you respect that…

On your recommendation to return the game, I will not do that because I still believe that CDPR will fix the issues sometime in the future through patches and then I will be able to enjoy the title in its full glory…

I said that I am disappointed with CDPR and not angry anyway…

Oh and I don’t care what score has a game on Metacritic, or care about game scores. I had great fun with games that scored 6 or 7 and if I am interested on a game I usually watch some streams, then buy it, play it and create my own opinion on my experience…

WTF are you talking about the videos are organized by newest to oldest go down and the VGX trailer is there at the Bottom, next to the very first 53 second teaser?

That link I gave you in previous post is from their youtube page.

And on The witcher 3 website they are there too? VGX isn't on there, and nor is the teaser trailer that show nothing for gameplay. But the VGX trailer is on the official Wither 3 youtube page. And a larger trailer with the same VGX footage is on the Witcher 3 website, you have to hit next couple times as it goes newest to oldest.

Seriously stop making fucking shit up. You obviously didn't read a damn word I said about NDA's. Which is why they couldn't talk about anything in terms of production issues. Same went for Titanfall Geoff Keighly did his own investigating and interviewed them after the game came out. Their publisher is WB pretty sure when it comes to things about production issues which they had earlier on they don't want anyone to know about it until the game is out, so people can decide for themselves. And is also something that comes down the line, especially for shareholders at WB.

I bet CD RED wanted to comment to all the posters on CD RED forums but couldn't because of NDA, and WB looking over their shoulders.

Yes some companies are more shady than others how they go about it, and CD RED could have been more upfront during early interviews, then again some things depending on NDA's you can't talk about. They have been talking about the production of the game for years, on how things change. I gave you examples from Hellraid to even Borderlands.

Look at Stig amuson's game that got cancelled, someone leaked it info on the project getting canned, and then Sony had to make an announcement about it.


Which was much later than CD RED who came out literally a day after launch to talk about it in depth.

I never said you lied about having technical issues, just know there are a lot of people on here with similar setups that don't share your sentiment that's all I was saying.

Everyone on the official thread for this game has nothing but praise for the game and have not complained about Horse AI, and the likes in a game that's super huge and well made.

 

[plasmawave]

No they didn't. They explicitly stated they didn't consider it a downgrade.

They admitted compromises had to be made and that they should have been more transparent.

Lol so if devs don't consider it a downgrade it's not one?

 

[Skyzard]

Lol so if devs don't consider it a downgrade it's not one?

We made some improvements during the 2 years we had since!


I'm more annoyed with the people excusing it because the game is good (something pretty agreeable). What if the game wasn't that good? You'd have jack all to show for it and on top of that you've defended the misleading practice of bullshots so you can expect more to come too.

 

[Papacheeks]

Being under NDA doesn't change the fact it's what they did. You don't need enough evidence to convict them in a court of law to see their promotional material was labelled as IN-GAME and when confronted about downgrades about a leaker (who posted on these forums non-the-less) they claimed NOTHING had changed. Those who were skeptical got the usual conspiracy-theorist esque cynicism.

Now their answers have ranged from motion sickness due to filters, to DX12 compatibility problems, to "if we didn't target consoles the budget wouldn't have been there". Know whats funny? All of those reasons are valid and could have been said to the community at ANYTIME during development.

If they don't want the community to be in the loop during the development process, fine; but if they are going to actively promote their game during said process, then the consumer has a right to obtain information about the product, information which isn't bullshit or corporate PR.

Please show me where Gearbox openly during production told community members about changes made to the art direction for Borderlands? To my understanding it wasn't til we saw new footage less than 5 months from release they officially made an announcement about it.

Kingdom Hearts 3 switched engines recently after seeing a in-game trailer last year or so.

Shit happens. Could they have gone about it better I agree 100%. But also a game of that magnitude that's got a big publisher behind it it's not un common to have no talk about issues of development until game has come out.

IE titanfall The Final hours.