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[Denton]

I thought it would be a good idea to compile everything that came out of E3 so far, instead of letting it get drowned out in the Sword of Destiny trailer thread. Plus I just made it to full member and making Witcher 3 thread as my first is too good an opportunity to pass up

GAMEPLAY VIDEOS:
So, first, we have the, now classic, Sword of Destiny trailer, which will positively blow your socks off:
Max quality download
High Quality Stream

Then we have various gameplays that popped out:
First 1080p direct feed footage
MS E3 Conference gameplay
IGN gameplay demo, showing Novigrad and surroundings
Gamespot gameplay demo, showing more combat and dialogue interaction
Gamespot again, without commentary #1
Gamespot again, without commentary #2

INTERVIEWS:
UPDATE: Angry Joe E3 Interview
UPDATE: RPGSite technical interview
UPDATE: Awesome funny interview by MD with John Mamais
UPDATE: GT indepth Interview with John Mamais by Mr. Bloodworth
UPDATE: Escapist Interview
UPDATE: Playstation Access interview with John Mamais
UPDATE: Interview about Game of Thrones comparison
UPDATE: Interview with director on gamertagradio
UPDATE: Interview with senior level designer on gameswelt. Enterable houses, dungeons..
Interview with Director. Design, Combat, CDP Philosophy.
Interview with Senior Level Designer.
I loved this nugget at the end:
"We advertise the game with a hundred+ hours of gameplay. Whoever finishes the game in a hundred hours will get a medal because it's gonna be a speedrun."
I planned to take 2 weeks off work for this, seems like it will not be enough. Note that this playtime reffers to mainquest + sidequests. Mainquest itself is advertised as being 50 hours long.
Giantbomb roundtable, John Mamais talks about CDP being PC focused. Starts at around 2:30:00
Interview with Effects Artist, about many things
Interview with John Mamais, article form.

VIDEO IMPRESSIONS:
Gametrailers detailed impressions by Mr. Bloodworth, well worth a watch.
Max Scoville from Destructoid is on Witcher induced speed
Gameslean short impressions
Kevin vanOrd loves Witcher 3 at 6:06:20, detailed impressions
Kevin vanOrd loves Witcher 3 again in dedicated video impressions
Jeff Canata speaks about his Witcher 3 impressions - "It's the game I want to the most in the world, right now." Starts at 1:05

ARTICLE PREVIEWS:
Could Witcher 3 be one of the best RPGs ever made? - by Gamespot
PC Gamer - "If it's not the beard of 2015, I'll be shocked."
HardcoreGamer short preview
Xbox official preview.
CraveOnline preview
Joystiq - The massive, bloody world of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
Gamerant preview
ActionTrip preview
Polygamia preview
UPDATE: Videogamer preview
UPDATE: Polygon E3 preview
UPDATE: RPG Fan preview
UPDATE: RPGSite preview

Some info from Polygamia polish preview (thank you Witcher forums!):

Some other bits from that interview:

- they are thinking about a system that would let players choose the state of the world at the beginning of the game - for those who don't have their saves from TW2. Most probably by choosing different options in dialogues in TW3 prologue. But that is not yet 100% decided to be in the game.

- yes, there will be Oxenfurt

- there will be references to Sapkowski's last book "Season of Storms" - its places, characters etc (!!!!)
- about difficulty: the game is divided into different difficulty areas(like in Gothic) - so in theory, you start in No Man's Land but as the game is open world you can go to Skellige, where you'll meet more difficult enemies etc. Also, each area will have powerful monsters, guarding some powerful items, that should give you both more challenge but also more XP.

- the game will have something CDPR calls "storybooks". These will be beautifully painted and animated "boards" that you will get when loading the game or through your journal, that will summarize the plot so far and update themselves after each significant quest or point in the game. They are supposed to help players in keeping up with the main storyline should they get distracted by side activities and motivate them to progress with the main adventure.

- Monster Hunting: these quests are divided into phases. After you find or stumble upon such quest the investigation phase starts, where you gather info about the monster causing trouble. Once you recognize the monster, you have a special "panel" available with all the info about the monster you managed to gather and ways & advices on how to get rid of him. The more info you gathered - either from reading books, investigating or experience(meeting monsters from the same family before) - the more advice you will get about monster's strong & weak points, special abilities, his vulnerabilities and so on. After you come back with a trophy to the quest giver you will be able to bargain about your reward's amount!

- Collector's Editions for PC and PS4 are sold out

- what's left before February 2015: debugging; fixing cutscenes; bug fixing and overall QA

Plenty of new screenshots

I plan to keep this updated as I can, let me know if I missed stuff.

 

[JaseC]

It should be noted that the 100 hours refers to 100% completion. The main quest line is said to comprise about half that.

 

[Some Nobody]

Watching the IGN trailer for this has got me more hyped than ever. Beautiful, beautiful world. Super excited to immerse myself in it.

100 hours, though? No way. Took me 130 hours to finish Amalur's main and side quests + DLC, and supposedly you can beat that in 72 hours. This will prolly take me forever, lol.

 

[Denton]

It should be noted that the 100 hours refers to 100% completion. The main quest line is said to comprise about half that.

How I understood it is that if you want to experience everything (that you can in single playthrough) without speedrunning, it will take much much more time than 100 hours. Am I wrong ?

 

[Jb]

Awesome thread, thanks a bunch

 

[JaseC]

How I understood it is that if you want to experience everything without speedrunning, it will take much much more time than 100 hours. Am I wrong ?

Yes.

Edit: Misunderstanding on my part.

 

[Denton]

Yes.

I uh...I mean that article is a year old. Whereas this, that was said by the guy in charge of building the world:

"We advertise the game with a hundred+ hours of gameplay. Whoever finishes the game in a hundred hours will get a medal because it's gonna be a speedrun."

To me it really seems to mean what he says - that the game will take average gamer lot more time than those advertised 100 hours, if the gamers wants to see everything and do most, if not all, quests. Which I am that kind of gamer. Even in the context of the whole interview that is how I understood him.
But hey, we will see when it releases. Even if it takes me "only" 80 hours, it will already by twice as long as Witcher 2. And I love Witcher 2 and finished it twice, going for a third playthrough soon.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Man, I wouldn't lose my time discussing if the game is going to be 85 hours, 100 hours or 110+ hours. It's going to be a big game.

 

[Philippo]

Glorious, my most anticipated game of the gen.
If the XBO demo is anything to go by, i won't have to complain about compromises on the PS4 version.
We need someone to mount the various gameplay videos (MS conference, IGN and Gamespot demo) in one, until we get a proper one from CDPR.

 

[Kajiba]

Definitely checking everything you linked in the op when I have the time.

Awesome thread.

 

[GavinUK86]

Glorious, my most anticipated game of the gen.
If the XBO demo is anything to go by, i won't have to complain about compromises on the PS4 version.
We need someone to mount the various gameplay videos (MS conference, IGN and Gamespot demo) in one, until we get a proper one from CDPR.

Where did you see an XBO demo? All the footage so far is from PC. They said so on one of the GameSpot live demos.

 

[JaseC]

I uh...I mean that article is a year old. Whereas this, that was said by the guy in charge of building the world:



To me it really seems to mean what he says - that the game will take average gamer lot more time than those advertised 100 hours, if the gamers wants to see everything and do most, if not all, quests. Which I am that kind of gamer. Even it the context of the whole interview that is how I understood him.
But hey, we will see when it releases. Even if it takes me "only" 80 hours, it will already by twice as long as Witcher 2. And I love Witcher 2 and finished it twice, going for a third playthrough soon.

I linked to an article because I didn't want to tell to you to just watch a video you linked to in your own post. At about 4m50s into the GameStop demo, CDPR says "It's a 50-hour main storyline and a 100-hour game."

Edit: Misunderstanding on my part.

Where did you see an XBO demo? All the footage so far is from PC. They said so on one of the GameSpot live demos.

The X1 stage demo was indeed the game being played on an X1. The post-conference demos have all been on PC.

 

[Denton]

Man, I wouldn't lose my time discussing if the game is going to be 85 hours, 100 hours or 110+ hours. It's going to be a big game.

I agree, but dammit I need to know how much time off work to book! ;-)

Definitely checking everything you linked in the op when I have the time.

Awesome thread.

Thanks, my pleasure.

I linked to an article because I didn't want to tell to you to just watch a video you linked to in your own post. At about 4m50s into the GameStop demo, CDPR says "It's a 50-hour main storyline and a 100-hour game."

That does not disprove what the senior level designer said though. He himself says that they are advertising it as 100(+) hour game, but he thinks it will take longer.
Nonetheless as Turin says, this argument is kinda meaningless anyway. I am sure someone will finish the game in 20 minutes Dark Souls 2 style, while I will spend hundreds of hours of quality time in there.

 

[Philippo]

Where did you see an XBO demo? All the footage so far is from PC. They said so on one of the GameSpot live demos.

Wasn't the one played at the MS conference on an Xbox One?

 

[Dragon1893]

The highlight of E3 along with Blooodborne.
This game will blow everything out of the fucking water.

 

[Durante]

Just looked at the Gamespot videos, thank god someone put up gameplay without inane commentary.

Looks great, except the tearing. But that won't happen in the final (PC) version.
I still think people saying stuff like "where did this come from" weren't paying attention -- it doesn't look that much better than W2 at maximum settings. There are significant improvements, and of course it's open world now which is a huge difference in terms of available resources, but it's not suddenly beautiful out of nowhere.

 

[JaseC]

That does not disprove what the senior level designer said though. He himself says that they are advertising it as 100(+) hour game, but he thinks it will take longer.

I misread your earlier response, sorry. I was originally making the point that the 100-hour time doesn't refer to the main quest line but rather the entire game. This isn't explicitly mentioned in the quote you've provided in the OP and so some people are likely to interpret "finishes" as simply "reach the end of the story", which is why I said:

It should be noted that the 100 hours refers to 100% completion. The main quest line is said to comprise about half that.

We're actually on the same page. I was just saying you may want to clarify what the "100+ hours of gameplay" is in reference to. Anywho, yada yada looking forward to the game yada yada already pre-ordered on Steam.

 

[GavinUK86]

The X1 stage demo was indeed the game being played on an X1. The post-conference demos have all been on PC.

Wasn't the one played at the MS conference on an Xbox One?

Maybe i'm just too skeptical for my own good. I figured if one demo was on PC they all were.

 

[GHG]

Thanks for this.

Was going to go and look for the IGN video before but now I don't have to .

 

[SparkTR]

Maybe i'm just too skeptical for my own good. I figured if one demo was on PC they all were.

A dev confirmed the conference was X1, and the show floor was PC. And you can see it anyway, the conference was missing the fur physics while they were present elsewhere.

 

[JaseC]

Maybe i'm just too skeptical for my own good. I figured if one demo was on PC they all were.

For what it's worth, a CDPR employee said this in reference to the MS conference.

 

[Denton]

Just looked at the Gamespot videos, thank god someone put up gameplay without inane commentary.

Looks great, except the tearing. But that won't happen in the final (PC) version.
I still think people saying stuff like "where did this come from" weren't paying attention -- it doesn't look that much better than W2 at maximum settings. There are significant improvements, and of course it's open world now which is a huge difference in terms of available resources, but it's not suddenly beautiful out of nowhere.

Precisely. I just fired up Witcher 2 few days ago again and it looks nextgen in the broad strokes. There are specific details that are not up to scratch - facial animations are fairly basic, shadows are dithered, level of detail is too aggressive - but when looking at the game, even its prologue as a whole, without focusing on these details, it looks absolutely beautiful even now, 3 years after release. Not many games can match it.
Improving on those details and bringing it into open world with all it brings (like jumping,climbing, diving..) is perfectly fine for me.

I misread your earlier response, sorry. I was originally making the point that the 100-hour time doesn't refer to the main quest line but rather the entire game. This isn't explicitly mentioned in the quote you've provided in the OP and so some people are likely to interpret "finishes" as simply "reach the end of the story", which is why I said:

We're actually on the same page. I was just saying you may want to clarify what the "100+ hours of gameplay" is in reference to. Anywho, yada yada looking forward to the game yada yada already pre-ordered on Steam.

Ah, now I get it. Yeah I can see how it could be read that way. I did not even think about it because it seemed obvious to me that main quest could never be 100 hours long. Frankly, even 50 hours seems way overblown.

 

[Turin Turambar]

I hope they do this

- they are thinking about a system that would let players choose the state of the world at the beginning of the game - for those who don't have their saves from TW2. Most probably by choosing different options in dialogues in TW3 prologue. But that is not yet 100% decided to be in the game.

As I don't have anymore my Witcher 2 save.

 

[JaseC]

Ah, now I get it. Yeah I can see how it could be read that way. I did not even think about it because it seemed obvious to me that main quest could never be 100 hours long. Frankly, even 50 hours seems way overblown.

Yeah, I always subtract 25% from developer-touted figures to account for overstatement. It's proven to be reasonably accurate thus far, haha. But I certainly won't be complaining if the game does take me 100+ hours to complete (I always chase 100% completion if a game is tracking my progress, even if it means running around after collectables as in Ubi's games).

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Wasn't the one played at the MS conference on an Xbox One?

One demo has a press "A" prompt. But that could also just be using a controller connected to PC.

 

[Denton]

I hope they do this



As I don't have anymore my Witcher 2 save.

I don't either, which is why I downloaded Witcher 1 save reflecting my playthrough from Nexus, imported it into TW2 EE, whose third playthrough I will start once I re-read the book saga including the Season of Storms. Just hope our translater will get it out in time.

Yeah, I always subtract 25% from developer-touted figures to account for overstatement. It's proven to be reasonably accurate thus far, haha. But I certainly won't be complaining if the game does take me 100+ hours to complete (I always chase 100% completion if a game is tracking my progress, even if it means running around after collectables as in Ubi's games).

I updated the OP to clarify it reffered to sidequests too.
I chase 100% only rarely, in AC games I usually speed through the story because I am sick of the game after some 25+ hours. However in Watch Dogs I voluntarily do everything, love it there.
In Witcher 3 I will take my time

 

[R1CHO]

Good thread man, it was needed.

I am watching the interviews now.

Interview with Director. Design, Combat, CDP Philosophy.

This one is interesting, he talks about the new alchemy system (maybe it's the info was already known), I like it, i think the potions were cool in previous games, but not perfect gameplay wise, I think they are making a good decision.

 

[KingHenrik30]

holy shit

 

[JaseC]

I updated the OP to clarify it reffered to sidequests too.

<3

I chase 100% only rarely, in AC games I usually speed through the story because I am sick of the game after some 25+ hours. However in Watch Dogs I voluntarily do everything, love it there.
In Witcher 3 I will take my time

It's interesting you bring up Watch Dogs as I hate that the MP component is tied into the completion rate -- sure, the missions are relatively few and the requirements seem easy enough, but it rubs me the wrong way that I can't hit 100% in the "SP" campaign because of the MP cross-pollination. That being said, the writing was on the wall with Black Flag's social collectables, so I was hardly shocked, and similarly I'm expecting Unity's co-op missions to be part of the 100%, but at least I don't have to worry about any of that with TW3.

 

[Ventilaator]

Finished Witcher 2 just recently.

Geralt looks weird in this somehow. Like he's significantly taller or something.

 

[Toreal]

For instance, there are certain monsters in the game, that if you’re not at a certain level, or you’re not prepared in a certain way, you just won’t be able to beat it.

I was afraid the game might be to easy with all the accessibility talk but that quote was exactly what i wanted to hear.
I really liked the higher difficulty leves in the witcher 2 where you had to use potions, bombs and traps or you would get your ass handed to you.

 

[dripdripsplash]

Looks soo goood. Taking my time with Witcher 2 though, just got it.

 

[Atraveller]

Thanks for this thread, I want to see some Gamersyde videos of the demos that are not captured from streams.

 

[Dolor]

Great OP. Probably won't read much of it because I have already pre-ordered on Steam, and I don't want to spoil myself. Everything I have heard up to now confirms to me that I have nothing to worry about. My only concern at this point is that CDPR institutes Steam trading cards because I want some more badass profile backgrounds.

Witcher 1 and 2 (for slightly different reasons) were two of my favorite games of the last decade, so I have absolute faith in CDPR. Hopefully, I am not disappointed.

 

[Denton]

It's interesting you bring up Watch Dogs as I hate that the MP component is tied into the completion rate -- sure, the missions are relatively few and the requirements seem easy enough, but it rubs me the wrong way that I can't hit 100% in the "SP" campaign because of the MP cross-pollination. That being said, the writing was on the wall with Black Flag's social collectables, so I was hardly shocked, and similarly I'm expecting Unity's co-op missions to be part of the 100%, but at least I don't have to worry about any of that with TW3.

I agree that normally tying MP into completion rate is bad. In case of WD I do not mind as much, since MP is so neatly integrated into SP, and is, *gasp*, actually fun to play (I usually dislike MP in games, I prefer all my games to by SP only).
I am happy though that CDP decided to completely disregard any kind of MP in TW3. Just pure laser focus on singleplayer is what games need.

Thanks for this thread, I want to see some Gamersyde videos of the demos that are not captured from streams.

Yeah I do not understand why can't CDP provide some high-res direct source footage to Gamersyde already. Preferably with Vsync enabled, too.

 

[friday]

I still think people saying stuff like "where did this come from" weren't paying attention -- it doesn't look that much better than W2 at maximum settings. There are significant improvements, and of course it's open world now which is a huge difference in terms of available resources, but it's not suddenly beautiful out of nowhere.

To me the biggest thing is the seamless transition from wilderness areas to cities and finally to indoor areas. That blows my mind, and really it should be something all open world games strive to achieve.

 

[Rixxan]

To me the biggest thing is the seamless transition from wilderness areas to cities and finally to indoor areas. That blows my mind, and really it should be something all open world games strive to achieve.

Agreed

This game is looking truly massive, cannot wait

 

[drgambit]

The question on my mind: is card collecting back in the game?

 

[Durante]

To me the biggest thing is the seamless transition from wilderness areas to cities and finally to indoor areas. That blows my mind, and really it should be something all open world games strive to achieve.

Well, Risen did that years ago. Of course, not at the same fidelity.

I do agree that all games should strive to achieve that.

 

[Tekku]

Oh god, I wished there was a thread like this for every good game that was shown at E3.

Great work!

 

[Denton]

Well, Risen did that years ago. Of course, not at the same fidelity.

I do agree that all games should strive to achieve that.

You mean Gothic.


Although yeah the scale and scope is much bigger in TW3. But they actually namedropped Gothic as inspiration multiple times, which is fantastic.

 

[JaseC]

The question on my mind: is card collecting back in the game?

I hope there's something comparable to the sex cards in the original game. Not for the bare-chested women component but rather to satiate my desire for collectables. I can certainly understand why the cards didn't make a return for TW2, however I was disappointed that they weren't replaced with something similar.

 

[DemurOnion]

Yeah, I always subtract 25% from developer-touted figures to account for overstatement. It's proven to be reasonably accurate thus far, haha. But I certainly won't be complaining if the game does take me 100+ hours to complete (I always chase 100% completion if a game is tracking my progress, even if it means running around after collectables as in Ubi's games).

I'm going to make a game that you will never complete and have to pay 5 dollars just to keep going. But we track your progress. Allll goooooood.

 

[JaseC]

I'm going to make a game that you will never complete and have to pay 5 dollars just to keep going. But we track your progress. Allll goooooood.

Sounds good to me.

 

[danwarb]

Glorious, my most anticipated game of the gen.
If the XBO demo is anything to go by, i won't have to complain about compromises on the PS4 version.
We need someone to mount the various gameplay videos (MS conference, IGN and Gamespot demo) in one, until we get a proper one from CDPR.

The consoles are essentially the same, they'll tweak the resolution. I hope we're not complaining about compromises to the PC version. 2 was already console friendly before it was a 360 game so I'm not worried.

Good to see the console version looking nice though.

 

[misho8723]

 

[Raptor]

Awesome thread!!

Love how in the IGN video the dev was asked if dismemberment was a new addition and he said something like "yeah a lot of people love that stuff so we put it in" lol, he is talking about me more likely, the gore and dismemberment is the best implementation I have ever seen in this types of games and it really made me hard teh first time I saw it.

Just incredible.

At this point in time I don't know if is either this or Batman for my most anticipated 2015 game.

Is a tie

 

[valkyre]

I hope tha we can disable the UI when not in combat. I mean I dont want so much stuff on my screen and CD Project really tends to put a lot of stuff in the way. It breaks immersion.

Have they said anything about this?

 

[a secret-boss]

More Open than the Corridor of Trees that Dragon Age showed

 

[Lanrutcon]

Please please please have a good combat system.