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Witcher 3 downgrade arguments in here and nowhere else

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Sanctuary

Member
Clean shaven Geralt is too John Slattery.

821746c25da42da7ea9a8a154f0e2335.jpg
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Looks like they were gonna go full grit back in 2013 and then started drifting closer to pastel-colours instead.
 

CHC

Member
The community manager said it hadn't been downgraded

Well then obviously he's full of it. But either way, the finished game's graphics have been shown plenty so there is more than enough information out there to make a purchasing decision (and I'll bet I can guess what 98% of people in this thread are going to decide....)

It still doesn't change the fact that early footage of games should not be looked to (especially 2 years later) as some kind of absolute indicator of what the finished product is going to look like. Remember Crysis?
 

red36

Neo Member
That's the PS4 version.(assuming you're referring to him standing still in the water) Have we seen it do this in the PC version as well?

Hmmm…. Do you happen to have the source of that GIF?



That's what I thought. Also the GIF iirc did not show how the ripple originated and kept looping. I'd like to see the full video to understand if such ripples happen all the time if you are standing in it, no matter what.

Let's just wait and see then. Hey if physics based water is in then it's a win. As far as im concerned this game will be great no matter the downgrade. Still I'm not expecting anything on that list that's not a plugin to be in the game. The argument has already degraded from" if it has tesselation then the whole list is wrong" to " maybe the pc version has tesselation. Let's be realistic going forward ppl, then be happily surprised if proven otherwise. Hell I know my pre-order and expansion are rock solid. Still that's NOT physics based water.


Side note clean shaven Geralt is the only Geralt. In the book's he hates a Beard.
 

ufo8mycat

Member
Looks like they were gonna go full grit back in 2013 and then started drifting closer to pastel-colours instead.

i think I am the only one who finds the new version more aesthetically pleasing to look at simply due to the different art style. Goes to show you art style can make a game more pleasing to look at even if it is not at the same level technicaly

The 2013 version looks like the contrast is cranked. I don't know that is just me.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
Well then obviously he's full of it. But either way, the finished game's graphics have been shown plenty so there is more than enough information out there to make a purchasing decision (and I'll bet I can guess what 98% of people in this thread are going to decide....)

It still doesn't change the fact that early footage of games should not be looked to (especially 2 years later) as some kind of absolute indicator of what the finished product is going to look like. Remember Crysis?

Ok, but again, CDPR continued to promise no downgrade had or would occur and that they even suggested that the graphics would probably get better.

That, I think, is the springboard for why this has blown up the way it did.

Because you have the people following the game getting strung alone this entire time in spite of seeing what is perceived to many as a clear downgrade. Yet they get told that everything will be alright in the end, it will be as good or better. Then it clearly isn't.

Then you have another subset of defenders that try and carry water for CDPR and claim no downgrade happened. Still, to this day. To this moment. So they push back and it becomes a huge point of contention. In fact some of the posters with the most posts in this thread are the ones that are arguing there is no downgrade.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
i think I am the only one who finds the new version more aesthetically pleasing to look at simply due to the different art style. Goes to show you art style can make a game more pleasing to look at even if it is not at the same level technicaly

The 2013 version looks like the contrast is cranked. I don't know that is just me.

Yeah it currently has this painterly look to it that I dig.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Clean shaven Geralt is not enough John Slattery, and that's why it doesn't work.

Geralt doesn't have enough swagger to pull off no beard anymore, honestly.

Good point, but I was being facetious. I don't like how clean shaven Geralt looks at all, but he does remind me more of (a poor man's) version of Slattery.

Yeah it currently has this painterly look to it that I dig.

"Painterly" is dev speak for blurry textures and too much color saturation. Pretty much every modern Blizzard game looks that way now. I'm all for color in a game, but I don't really like my Witcher games looking like Kingdoms of Amalur. That's a far cry from the atmosphere of the first game.

The_Witcher-PCScreenshots16667Q1_2007_3_9.JPG


Color, without looking ridiculously cartoony.
 

viveks86

Member
\Let's be realistic going forward ppl, then be happily surprised if proven otherwise. Hell I know my pre-order and expansion are rock solid.

Not questioning a random website with unverifiable insiders on what could have been easily written by anyone following this thread isn't being realistic either. If we are going to scrutinize, we need to scrutinize both sides. Agree with the rest of the post though. It's difficult to outright dismiss the article, but it's certainly questionable until we have more evidence. We will find out soon enough
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Good point, but I was being facetious. I don't like how clean shaven Geralt looks at all, but he does remind me more of (a poor man's) version of Slattery.



"Painterly" is dev speak for blurry textures and too much color saturation. Pretty much every modern Blizzard game looks that way now. I'm all for color in a game, but I don't really like my Witcher games looking like Kingdom's of Amalur. That's a far cry from the atmosphere of the first game.

I wasn't talking about texture quality or style, but rather the use of colours.
 

Sanctuary

Member
I wasn't talking about texture quality or style, but rather the use of colours.

So was I for the most part, and while I don't think TW3 looks ugly, it does remind me way too much of DA:I with the color palette they chose. It also makes certain armors look like they are made of rubber instead of leather or metal.
 

FLAguy954

Junior Member
Reposting:

2013

nwqnoy.gif


2014

boevir3vu4urr.png


2015

cwf3didhej8b.png


Compression, time of day, weather, seasons and all that, but I think it's safe to say there are a lot of details that have been removed/reduced.

I still think it looks great and I think they did a great job. While it still isn't entirely impossible the PC-version will look like the gameplay from 2013 (like CDPR are saying), it's very unlikely.

ZaPdZww.jpg


Well, there it is.

What they did is pretty much reduce the graphical fidelity but tried t 'compensate' with a shift in art direction via bright colors and better character models (for the most part). Damn.
 
Reposting:

2013

nwqnoy.gif


2014

boevir3vu4urr.png


2015

cwf3didhej8b.png


Compression, time of day, weather, seasons and all that, but I think it's safe to say there are a lot of details that have been removed/reduced.

I still think it looks great and I think they did a great job. While it still isn't entirely impossible the PC-version will look like the gameplay from 2013 (like CDPR are saying), it's very unlikely.

Wow.
 

red36

Neo Member
Not questioning a random website with unverifiable insiders on what could have been easily written by anyone following this thread isn't being realistic either. If we are going to scrutinize, we need to scrutinize both sides. Agree with the rest of the post though. It's difficult to outright dismiss the article, but it's certainly questionable until we have more evidence. We will find out soon enough

Right. However the article itself says take it as a grain of salt, just like any pr statement from cdpr. If it's not clear by this Media swarm they have been pulling, they are in it to win it. They aren't going to get hampered by a little downgrade fiasco, and more power to them.

But to those that really care about truth and love the game anyway, it is already evidenced.
 

Astral Dog

Member
I think its weird to blame consoles for this,why its not more probable this a budget/development issue?

dont know much but there are many people saying that the consoles are at fault, can we be sure about that?
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
I posted these earlier in the thread. These 2 really show how much atmosphere was lost with the downgrades.

W2475ee.gif


ilo8ZEuf1yn7w.gif


[edit]

Completely subjective but I think the new artstyle really hurt the swamps. The old colors looked a lot better here.
 
I posted these earlier in the thread. These 2 really show how much atmosphere was lost with the downgrades.

W2475ee.gif


ilo8ZEuf1yn7w.gif


[edit]

Completely subjective but I think the new artstyle really hurt the swamps. The old colors looked a lot better here.
This is some severe downgrade lol. Worse than watchdogs no joke.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Completely subjective but I think the new artstyle really hurt the swamps. The old colors looked a lot better here.

They looked a lot better everywhere. They've completely changed the aesthetics of the first two games with this. To be fair though, the first gif is a bad comparison. There are other shots of that same area at dusk or later that look way better.
 

Coflash

Member
It still doesn't change the fact that early footage of games should not be looked to (especially 2 years later) as some kind of absolute indicator of what the finished product is going to look like. Remember Crysis?

LOL

I doubt anybody thought that prerendered stuff, initiated half way through the gameplay, would have actually made it into the end result (or could have). Nothing like that is even present in any of TW3 videos. This isn't even a worthy comparison.
 

Szeth

Member
I think its weird to blame consoles for this,why its not more probable this a budget/development issue?

dont know much but there are many people saying that the consoles are at fault, can we be sure about that?

It was both. They didn't have the budget or man power and had to develop the game simultaneously across all platforms, which, thanks to the hardware limitations of consoles, forced them to scale back the graphics.
 

viveks86

Member
But to those that really care about truth and love the game anyway, it is already evidenced.

Dat conviction. Wish I had it one way or the other. As much as I share the same fears as most in this thread, I still feel there is something amiss in all the evidence we've seen so far. Sometimes I simply can't convince myself even if it's staring me in the face. I really need to play the damn thing before I can be sure. lol
 

Revengineer

Unconfirmed Member
I posted these earlier in the thread. These 2 really show how much atmosphere was lost with the downgrades.

W2475ee.gif


ilo8ZEuf1yn7w.gif


[edit]

Completely subjective but I think the new artstyle really hurt the swamps. The old colors looked a lot better here.

I can't deny that I think it has been downgraded, but I still think that the downgraded version is the prettiest open world RPG I've seen. I think it beats Skyrim due to the density that I've seen thus far, and I'm okay with a better Skyrim with Witcher fights, mechanics, and most importantly story.

That being said, it's pretty much blatantly obvious now isn't it?
 

Sanctuary

Member
Dat conviction. Wish I had it one way or the other. As much as I share the same fears as most in this thread, I still feel there is something amiss in all the evidence we've seen so far. Sometimes I simply can't convince myself even if it's staring me in the face. I really need to play the damn thing before I can be sure. lol

It's more like you keep clinging to this unrealistic hope that the game is going to look much better than your eyes are telling you it does?
This has happened with literally every downgraded game.

I've actually been staying pretty far away from spoilers and most extended gameplay videos, but I just noticed how the equipment icons look. Color coded Diablo 3 much?
 

CHC

Member
LOL

I doubt anybody thought that prerendered stuff, initiated half way through the gameplay, would have actually made it into the end result (or could have). Nothing like that is even present in any of TW3 videos. This isn't even a worthy comparison.

The situation was nearly identical, people spent months after the launch of Crysis expressing disappointment about how "very high" settings didn't match the quality of pre-release footage, that video included (which they made a big deal about saying was all in-game and all doable by players). Doctored up pre-release footage is nothing new; neither is internet outrage about it.

Only difference here is that people know what the game really looks like before it is actually released.
 

red36

Neo Member
Dat conviction. Wish I had it one way or the other. As much as I share the same fears as most in this thread, I still feel there is something amiss in all the evidence we've seen so far. Sometimes I simply can't convince myself even if it's staring me in the face. I really need to play the damn thing before I can be sure. lol

Sensible, ill be right there with you, soaking it up!
 

Sanctuary

Member
Cool. You got me all figured out, I guess.

It was a question, not a declarative statement. But anyway, in every downgrade thread there are always people constantly unrealistically believing that there's going to be some eleventh hour switcheroo that never comes. It's not even always a matter of them not seeing what's there, it's that they don't want to believe it.
 

viveks86

Member
It was a question, not a declarative statement. But anyway, in every downgrade thread there are always people constantly unrealistically believing that there's going to be some eleventh hour switcheroo that never comes. It's not even always a matter of them not seeing what's there, it's that they don't want to believe it.

Well, if I tell you I'm not one of them, would you believe it? :)

You have to let go, viveks86. Let the sadness in.

Post another questionable GIF comparison and I'll let the sadness sweep me away, albeit for different reasons. :p
 

Maximo

Member
Reposting:

2013

nwqnoy.gif


2014

boevir3vu4urr.png


2015

cwf3didhej8b.png


Compression, time of day, weather, seasons and all that, but I think it's safe to say there are a lot of details that have been removed/reduced.

I still think it looks great and I think they did a great job. While it still isn't entirely impossible the PC-version will look like the gameplay from 2013 (like CDPR are saying), it's very unlikely.
Oh god my soul, it hurts.
 

Raven77

Member
Someone on the official CDPR Witcher forums pointed out something I hadn't noticed before. The NPC density in the main cities (from the stream footage, etc.) is really awful it appears. Looks like 5-7 NPC's on screen at anyone one given time. Seems kind of odd for a city populated by tens of thousands of people...

Obviously the game can't render hundreds and hundreds of people but come on, it's pretty barren.
 

Phreak47

Member
Looks like they completely gave up on the natural color and light diffusion that gave the early shit so much atmosphere (including, literally atmosphere).
 

Coflash

Member
The situation was nearly identical, people spent months after the launch of Crysis expressing disappointment about how "very high" settings didn't match the quality of pre-release footage, that video included (which they made a big deal about saying was all in-game and all doable by players). Doctored up pre-release footage is nothing new; neither is internet outrage about it.

Only difference here is that people know what the game really looks like before it is actually released.

Identical? Erm, not quite.

The o̶n̶l̶y̶ difference here is that one is clearly a prerendered trailer, as demonstrated by how the suit powers are expanded upon in the video (eg: going to a molecular level), and the other is a trailer that was all (at the time) in-game (in an incomplete game, as articles would suggest).

If anyone (especially in 2007) thought that the CGI in that video or anything surrounding it was actually in game, then they were clearly uninformed, ignorant of what was possible at the time, or delusional.

And IIRC (as a PC gamer at the time), most of the complaints were in regards to not being able to max the game out, and the high system requirements. The game looked phenomenal at the time (as still does IMO).

Let us also not forget that Crysis came with a demo before release, yet at the moment we can't get a simple yes or no from the developers as to whether or not TW3 has been downgraded in the capacity that everyone believes it has been, or any clarification as to what has happened since the initial & early reveals.

I don't think I need to say anymore. If you still think that's comparable then I've nothing more to say.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
A good point to this i think is that atleast unlike Watch Dogs or Dark Souls 2, the end result still looks very beautiful across all HW if you look at it in a vacuum. Even though you can tell things have been taken away from the PR trailers and gameplay footage, i've been amazed by the things i have seen from gifs of the pS4 version leaked
 

tuxfool

Banned
Dat conviction. Wish I had it one way or the other. As much as I share the same fears as most in this thread, I still feel there is something amiss in all the evidence we've seen so far. Sometimes I simply can't convince myself even if it's staring me in the face. I really need to play the damn thing before I can be sure. lol

Then there is also the fact that people keep on posting bullshit gifs without a care in the world in accurately determining between what has changed and what hasn't.

Randoms then come into the thread and cry "what could have been" without actually considering artistic changes and technological changes.

A good point to this i think is that atleast unlike Watch Dogs or Dark Souls 2, the end result still looks very beautiful across all HW if you look at it in a vacuum. Even though you can tell things have been taken away from the PR trailers and gameplay footage, i've been amazed by the things i have seen from gifs of the pS4 version leaked

Not good enough. People would rather cry about a nonexistent product.
 

Phreak47

Member
I was listening to a streamer complain about "consoles ruining everything" about the Witcher 3 news when he got triple SLI Titan X rig for free.

Well uh, I don't know who that guy is, but just because someone got a rig for free doesn't necessarily mean it is contradictory or hypocritical of him to make that observation.
 

vpance

Member
Checked out a bit of the streams today. I think DA:I looks better overall, except for character models. The lighting just seems very flat and last gen.
 

Fbh

Member
For me, it's not about what the game looks like. It still looks fine. It's about the lies and contradictions from a company that most people thought was above all of this.

Yeah, I can relate to that.
One of the reasons I like CDPR despite not being much of a Witcher fan is because in interviews they allways sound like a "no bullshit" dev. And they have been pretty great supporting their games both with the update to The Witcher 2 on PC with the extra content from the 360 version and the fact they don't have shitty DLC or pre order bonuses and crap like that in the Witcher 3. This is indeed pretty dissapointing comming from a company that I thought was above Ubisoft tactics

I can fully relate. I love From Software and they are still one of my favorite devs out there, but I had to admit I lost some of my respect for them after the whole Dark Souls 2 downgrade came to light
 

buffelo

Neo Member
Well uh, I don't know who that guy is, but just because someone got a rig for free doesn't necessarily mean it is contradictory or hypocritical of him to make that observation.

It's just reality at this point. It's prohibitively expensive for a lot of devs to make separate versions of games for the consoles and pc. It really is a damned shame though. I thought CDPR were going to continue to be the champion of pc players and put them first, but it looks like they're just trying to provide the best experience for everyone in a more populist fashion. Disappointing, but I'm not enough of a pc elitist to say that I'd want the consoles to get a bad experience at the expense of pc. Still, I really hope a pc-centric dev comes along that can really push the hardware to the max without having to worry about the consoles.
 
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