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The Witcher 3 gameplay video - "Precious Cargo"

erawsd said:
Ah, nvm then.. I didn't realize that it was ok to deliberately mislead your audience as long as you're doing a "promotional GTAV style video". My bad.
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What? Deliberately mislead? What are you going on about.



Sony is t going to upload a trailer with Xbox button prompts and vice versa. MS does this all the time, editing the button prompts on PS4 footage so they can post it on the Xbox dashboard.


It's all PC footage in the end, which will be better, but still is an approximation of how it will look on all 3 platforms.



Especially on YouTube, where the 1080p and compression will level the IQ playing field on the platform differences anyway.
 
I'm getting serious Red Dead vibes from some of the gameplay footage CDPR has put out (which is great). Can't wait for this to hit.
 
BigTnaples said:
What? Deliberately mislead? What are you going on about.



Sony is t going to upload a trailer with Xbox button prompts and vice versa. MS does this all the time, editing the button prompts on PS4 footage so they can post it on the Xbox dashboard.


It's all PC footage in the end, which will be better, but still is an approximation of how it will look on all 3 platforms.



Especially on YouTube, where the 1080p and compression will level the IQ playing field on the platform differences anyway.
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So what? In either case its PC footage being dressed up for their respective console -- the reasons are entirely irrelevant. And its not something that even bothers me, the only reason I posted it was because someone else asked for an example where Sony has done the same.
 
looks absolutely amazing, can't help but hate that MMO'ish yellow circle on the minimap outlining where the next goal for a quest is.

Hope it can be turned off.
 
BabyFaceKillah said:
I wonder how long your beard can grow that's a really cool feature.
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I hope after 70 hours he looks like this

chevalier1z0u1e.jpg
 
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
 
Last Hearth said:
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
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All RPG quests can be reduced to either kill or fetch quests, how the quests are presented is what matters. Is it fleshed out and is there a nice and engaging story behind the quest, or did the devs not even bother with creating any sort of narrative? The latter is a straightforward fetch quest, the former is not.
 
Last Hearth said:
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
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When people say "fetch quest" they mean an arbitrary, straightforward task - like killing twenty-five goblins, or picking up ten wooden swords, generally for no discernable reason, and always ending with a binary result (failure/success). When the player needs to investigate, find, and report back - which can have different outcomes depending on how thorough they were - it is the farthest from a fetch quest you can get.

Play DAI if you don't understand what a fetch quest is, that game is filled to the brim with them.
 
Last Hearth said:
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
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Have you read through any of this thread?

EatChildren said:
If you just search for the box and don't bother with anything else, you can come back to the merchant just fine. The quest does not prompt you to investigate more until you actively investigate something that is out of place but not necessarily the box.
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If you don't bother to further investigate, you will not have the option to expose his lies.
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If you want a more challenging approach to catching the man maybe you should find out where he is operating from? Maybe he has friends, after all he mentioned a unit. Maybe you could use other ways to knock him down? Maybe you forgot how to horse for a moment and lose his tracks.
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And last but not least, this is a prologue area Quest. It is intended to help players get more comfortable with the game, how it works, and the systems in play. For this we also have to take into account people who have never played a Witcher Game, or an RPG, or maybe even a Video Game before. Which is why the structure is relatively straightforward. However there are still many variables at play here that you could nto see in a single play of the quest.
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Not to mention, the video itself shows that you have multiple options/decisions to make within the context of the quest. If TW3 is anything like TW2, aiding a certain group of people vs another will have consequences down the line.
 
Last Hearth said:
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
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The point was to show that even fetch quest, one of the few, can be done much more interestingly than what Bioware offered in their latest AAA EA backed RPG.
 
Last Hearth said:
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
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you don't understand what people are complaining about when they criticize kill&fetch quests. of course they don't think that killing a guy or getting an item is generally bad, in most RPGs main quest you are in the end killing someone or getting something, often even both at the same time.

when people criticize kill&fetch quests, they mean where that's everything you do. like in MMOs where you have to kill 8 bandits or get 8 wolf furs.

however, what we see in this witcher video is splendid quest design for a simple side quets. not only has it a voiced interaction with an npc (ok, bad games do that often too) but you get more dialogue/monologue during it, with some development and a twist that even lets you choose how you want to handle it, giving you more possibilities the more you chose to uncover. and past witcher games even offered many consequences for your choices.

I hope you see a difference between this and what people usually call out as bad kill&fetch quests.
 
Last Hearth said:
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
Click to expand...

It seems that you're lacking some experience since if you watched the video you wil be able to tell the difference between bad and good fetch quests.

Go play more rpgs, please.
 
robertsan21 said:
Kind of shitty of MS to show the PC version and have it branded as Xbox version.
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Did you expect something else? Remember the Tom Raider uproar?
Edit: but obviosly being shady when advertising games pre-release is a industrial standard nowdays as everone seems to do it...


On topic: it all looks so good! cant really understand why people are upset about voiceacting or the facial animations.
Geralt was always on the calm side, and his facial animations are pretty decent.
 
While the game is undeniably fantastic from a technical standpoint, the facial animation, voice acting and dialogue are less than stellar.
 
Hrothgar said:
All RPG quests can be reduced to either kill or fetch quests, how the quests are presented is what matters. Is it fleshed out and is there a nice and engaging story behind the quest, or did the devs not even bother with creating any sort of narrative? The latter is a straightforward fetch quest, the former is not.
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Exactly. People complained about the fetch quests in DA:I because most of them started out with some dialogue explaining the quest (with few, if any dialogue choices to be made), and then you did the quest and it was over.
 
SpeedOfNuts said:
While the game is undeniably fantastic from a technical standpoint, the facial animation, voice acting and dialogue are less than stellar.
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The dialogue is a bit campy in parts, but I will say that the larger plot trends in the Witcher universe have been pretty enthralling. This "low" fantasy revigorates contemporary problems. This a world full of politicking, backstabbing, racism, and anti-feminism. I was unimpressed by a lot of the chatter in TW2, but the overall lore and world-building is one of the best in the industry.
 
Lukas Japonicus said:
Yeah, it really stands out against how good the rest of the game sounds. The voices don't sound planted in the game world. This is a common problem in videogames these days.
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Yes, this actually bugged me a bit

I'm really hoping the quests are this detailed the majority of the time. This one in particular is still a basic fetch quest, but actually has some relevance to the larger narrative and has interesting choices that you can make. This game looks so damn good, it's scary.
 
Last Hearth said:
So if this is not a fetch quest, then what is?

Note I am not complaining. I've always argued that most RPG quests can be reduced to fetch quests when you get down to it. That's why it's ridiculous to complain that an RPG has "too many fetch quests"/

And it seems the developers of the Witcher jumped on that bandwagon and bragged that their game would have "almost no fetch quests", and here we see a game play demo and bang, a fetch quest.
Click to expand...

Like a lot of videogame jargon, "fetch quest" seems to be one of those where some people use it in its most literal sense while others use it figuratively. I fall into the latter just because the literal meaning of "fetch quest" is far too broad to actual mean anything -- like you said, just about everything in an RPG can be drilled down to a "fetch quest". Its like saying I hate "conflict movies".

When most people talk about fetch quests, they mean quests with barely any purpose or emotional involvement. It feels menial and meaningless, but you do it anyway because you want the reward. Its exactly like a dog fetching his master's newspaper. The dog don't care about the newspaper or its purpose, hes just doing it to get a treat.

If this quest was just the guy asking you to get the box and then you return, get some exp, and never see him again... it would definitely be a fetch quest. However, its multi-layered. There's actually a story with some twists and turns, the outcome is left up to you, and it seems like it ties into a larger story. In contrast, there's quest in Inquisition where someone asks you to deal with rogue Mages throughout the lands. They marks 5 locations on your map, you have no idea who these Mages are or their motivations, player engagement is just go to the X and kill them. When its all over the NPC just says "thank you" and they like you a little more. Unfortunately, that is how a lot of the side quests are handled in that game.
 
Nabbis said:
The lighting looks really bad. Oh well.
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Without being a snob, what do you mean by lighting?

I see basically everything you see in every game ever, a global light, cascade shadow maps (good looking ones here), presumably ibls for global relighting (its not like the shadows are pitch black), and smaller sources are done with point lights.

What doesn't look good about that exactly?
 
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
One or two extremely minor issues, but hardly even worth mentioning.

Even just a simple fetch quest took a very interesting turn, and this is exactly the kind of intriguing stuff I expected out of The Witcher 3. Just as long as they don't end up having many Ubisoft-tier collectibles (Gwent cards and a few chests and that's it), it'll be utter perfection.
VA is fantastic, dialogue was super engaging, facial animations/lip-sync seems fucking great to me even if they don't hold up to something like The Order and a HUGE improvement over TW2 (Which is what I consider the most important comparison, not against other games with 5x the budget and are 10x smaller).

Then again, didn't even need to see the footage to know all this. I really wish I wasn't so weak and could go dark on the game...
 
misho8723 said:
What the hell? People are complaining on the facial animations in this game? Are you crazy? Show me better facial animations in a RPG with more than 800 NPCs.. and even when it comes to videogames, they look fantastic.. LA Noire was praised for it, but in that game they went overboard with it - it looked goofy and silly.. but here, it looks atleast normal
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I think it's because some people are mistakenly comparing it to linear games with scripted cutscenes, which are a completely different thing. But, you're right, as far as dynamic in-game conversations these look fantastic. I honestly can't think of any games that have done it better.
 
Dictator93 said:
Without being a snob, what do you mean by lighting?

I see basically everything you see in every game ever, a global light, cascade shadow maps (good looking ones here), presumably ibls for global relighting (its not like the shadows are pitch black), and smaller sources are done with point lights.

What doesn't look good about that exactly?
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I don't know, i can't put my finger around it. It just does not look as good as the one modded in my Skyrim. Especially the contrast and light source vectors in the dark.
 
abundant said:
Exactly. People complained about the fetch quests in DA:I because most of them started out with some dialogue explaining the quest (with few, if any dialogue choices to be made), and then you did the quest and it was over.
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DA:I was about as bad as it gets lol. The witchers quests are vastly better in Witcher 2 are anything to go by. DA:I is not exactly a good example.
 
Looks good but something strikes me as off in the footage. I'm leaning toward the animation but it just seems weird. Just stands out a lot considering how high quality everything else looks.
 
HeelPower said:
Wish the camera were closer to Geralt.

Its just so far out that it takes you out of the game.We're inching on top down view here.(hyperbole but you get the point)

Maybe it will fell better when you actually play the game ? idk
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I don't like that either. They should have kept it like The Witcher 2, or maybe a bit further out, but not this far.

I'm hoping, like you, that I'll like it more once I play it. Otherwise, let's hope for a mod that fixes it.
 
Tad off-topic, but I wonder how much development of Witcher 3 has cost CDPR. I found some old figure of 15M USD, but that was pre-delays figure.

Hard to believe that Witcher 2 cost them "only" 10M USD to develope.
 
Exentryk said:
I think it'll feel better when we play it, even tho it might look awkward. They made the animations such that first and foremost they were responsive, and then adjusted the animation to fit. So I think it'll feel much better when we play it.
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I think the combat looks outstanding, it's more a question of how it will feel and how well it works in the context of the game. Visually, though, I think it looks awesome. I think it looks better than the combat in Bloodborne, for example.
 
Just watched, looks great. Atmosphere is amazing and the world combined with the horse riding is giving me serious RDR vibes, which makes me very happy.

Might pre-load this sucker on XBO today.
 
cackhyena said:
I mean, all the stills look gorgeous. I'm just not gonna cut a game slack when it's this disappointing to me in that area. If it means a more believable world because the character/s I follow for 10s of hours are more realistically acted out, I'd take a world half the size they've built here to be able to accomplish that feat. *shrugs*
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But how can you be so disappointed when no other similar games do it better? That's pretty unreasonable. It's like getting mad at Infamous Second Son, let's say, for not looking like real life.
 
SaberEdge said:
I think the combat looks outstanding, it's more a question of how it will feel and how well it works in the context of the game. Visually, though, I think it looks awesome. I think it looks better than the combat in Bloodborne, for example.
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I really can't agree based on what we've seen - I'm incredibly excited for Wild Hunt but the combat looks nowhere near as fluid or visceral as Bloodborne. That's not to say it looks bad of course, but the combat in Bloodborne is weighty and has a sense of impact (both with sound and visuals) that Wild Hunt, along with most other action RPGs, lacks.

Really enjoyed the video, been waiting for a big open RPG for a while. The side quest looked great, some decisions to be made, good variety, hopefully the majority of the side quests in the game are the same standard.
 
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