Nope, the third map is the starting area, White Orchard - a mini introduction zone.
I meant how is the size of the 3rd map relative to the 1st? Where would it fit?
Nope, the third map is the starting area, White Orchard - a mini introduction zone.
The playable area on the first map is roughly 4x4 times the size of the third map.I meant how is the size of the 3rd map relative to the 1st? Where would it fit?
White Orchad is like the first zone in OOT. So fun, so big, until you reach the real big ones.
It even goes beyond that. I'm an ecologist (survey for protected wildife/environments) and I'm amazed at how much research they've put into understanding flora. Their woodlands and forests have it all - edge effect, canopy, understorey, field layer, the kind of attention to detail I WISH other open world developers would use (The Elder Scrolls in particular has always had awful forest/woodland design). Heck, they even have pollarded trees around settlements when I'll bet less than 0.1% of the players will really notice or understand them.
They've set such a high bar for environment design it's going to take a lot to be beaten.
The playable area on the first map is roughly 4x4 times the size of the third map.
It even goes beyond that. I'm an ecologist (survey for protected wildife/environments) and I'm amazed at how much research they've put into understanding flora. Their woodlands and forests have it all - edge effect, canopy, understorey, field layer, the kind of attention to detail I WISH other open world developers would use (The Elder Scrolls in particular has always had awful forest/woodland design). Heck, they even have pollarded trees around settlements when I'll bet less than 0.1% of the players will really notice or understand them.
They've set such a high bar for environment design it's going to take a lot to be beaten.
I'll recommend this to both of you since you both pointed out the same thing but if you aren't playing The Witcher 3 in the original Polish then you are missing out. On the PC this is easily fixable with the Polish language pack. On the consoles, not so much.
With all due respect to the English voice actor (Doug Cockle), Jacek Rozenek IS Geralt for me and has been since the original game. Having played all three games now in Polish there's no way I could listen to someone else voice Geralt. Rozenek does a great job and his portrayal of Geralt is nuanced without being flat. You really should make the switch if it all possible.
You know, I see they are hiring a urban planner for Cyberpunk 2077, I wonder if they hired an ecologist for the Witcher 3\
And they say Cyberpunk 2077 is also the biggest game they have ever made T_T
There's a fascinating short story in one of the books where Geralt is asked by a king to act as an ambassador to the ancient forest kingdom of Brokilon. He spends days venturing to the ancient and peaceful Dryads in the heart of the woods, and passes on his message: "Allow humans to expand into the forest, and the king promises a small section of the forest will be left completely untouched, for Dryads to remain unharmed and unhindered by humans." Naturally the Dryads refuse, but this is such a common example of how we act in the real world. It's practically my job in a nutshell. I survey a large area of countryside/woodland proposed for housing development, find protected species like great crested newts, badgers, bats, barn owls, dormice, what have you, and the developers have to "mitigate" by leaving a pathetically small patch of that environment intact and protected from that day onwards for the wildlife to enjoy. Not even remotely a good deal for them, but they can't exactly complain about it in a court.
It was essential that these games focus so much on environmental design. The books are love letters to nature, and hate mail to humanity.
The real sad part is how they often complain about having to leave anything untouched at all.
I need to do this with Kaer Morhen. It's a small map, but probably the most breathtaking in my opinion.
I still hope this means city depth. I'm fine with a smaller map than witcher as long as I can go into way more buildings. That'd make more sense for an open world city game.
Damn. I'm playing on PS4. Got it on release - a few months before I built my gaming PC.
I'm still OK with Geralt's English voice, but it could be a million times better. I can imagine how much better the Polish version must be. Similar to how Heavy Rain is definitive in French.
And they say Cyberpunk 2077 is also the biggest game they have ever made T_T
I didn't know about this. It certainly makes sense that they would have some world building tool.
Depends the aspect ratio but otherwise pretty good as the engine is really, really fucking optimised at culling and scaling content, since it wont render AI and other details in full until the avatar is near. So I can enable free cam and fly and fly all the way to the other side of the map without a stutter or load.
There was a thread about it IIRC they said it is bigger in every way. Bigger gameplay, bigger world, bigger ambition re detail, bigger story, bigger choices.
Pretty mind-numbing prospect. TW3 was already unprecedented.
My two pence I think the world will be bigger than TW3's, but as you say, not in width breadth. Perhaps it will be as wide/broad as Velen/Novigrad but I think it is mainly going to be very tall rather than very wide. A towering metropolis. Probably something like the city from Transmetropolitan.
Still really bothers me that pretty much every open world map is just surrounded by water world. Its less egregious if its implicitly stated that you are on an island or a series of small archipelagos or something but there has to be a better way to rope the player in than just WATER!!
Thaaaaaat's basically what I want.
In the European PSN store you can download other languages (Polish as well I think) for Witcher 3, don't know about XBL or US PSN
There was a thread about it IIRC they said it is bigger in every way. Bigger gameplay, bigger world, bigger ambition re detail, bigger story, bigger choices.
Pretty mind-numbing prospect. TW3 was already unprecedented.
My two pence I think the world will be bigger than TW3's, but as you say, not in width breadth. Perhaps it will be as wide/broad as Velen/Novigrad but I think it is mainly going to be very tall rather than very wide. A towering metropolis. Probably something like the city from Transmetropolitan.
I can take some more shots later that are closer, higher resolution. Here's one half of Novigrad/Velen I tool earlier (or less than half, really).
Just played my first three hours.
Map is absolutely ridiculously massive and amazingly well done for an open world game.
Eh...
Cute but not nearly as impressive as what Xenoblade Chronicles X pulled off
Eh...
Cute but not nearly as impressive as what Xenoblade Chronicles X pulled off
Still really bothers me that pretty much every open world map is just surrounded by water world. Its less egregious if its implicitly stated that you are on an island or a series of small archipelagos or something but there has to be a better way to rope the player in than just WATER!!
I think you missed the point - it's about the terrain seen from way above looking like aerial/satellite photos, underlining the realistic composition of the world. And XCX is on the opposite side of the spectrum in this regard - by design.
Taken by NeoGaf member EatChildren, who is a Vogue Australia cover model apparently
Read his tag. I dare say it is safe to ignore whatever this guy posts.I think you missed the point - it's about the terrain seen from way above looking like aerial/satellite photos, underlining the realistic composition of the world. And XCX is on the opposite side of the spectrum in this regard - by design.
There was a thread but it was far from clear if the guy meant a bigger world.
http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1120920
I'll recommend this to both of you since you both pointed out the same thing but if you aren't playing The Witcher 3 in the original Polish then you are missing out. On the PC this is easily fixable with the Polish language pack. On the consoles, not so much.
With all due respect to the English voice actor (Doug Cockle), Jacek Rozenek IS Geralt for me and has been since the original game. Having played all three games now in Polish there's no way I could listen to someone else voice Geralt. Rozenek does a great job and his portrayal of Geralt is nuanced without being flat. You really should make the switch if it all possible.