Topic: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[idolminds]

zomg

World supposedly 20% bigger than Skyrim's
30-40 minutes to cross world on Horseback
New streaming technology (CDRED Engine 3)
Geralt's Memory is restored
No chapters/acts
Dude is fucking DONE fighting for everyone else
Everything from solving MYSTERIES to slaying monsters
Coming out on "all top-of-the-line" consoles - I'd say that confirms next-gen is in.

Also check out that cover. Geralt rocking a beard!

Game Informer issue has it. Prople that have a digital sub for the mag on Zinio got it early or something. Official announcement should happen tomorrow with real info.

[Quemaqua]

Damn. That sounds great. I still haven't played the 2nd.

[Xessive]

Maaaan... Oh, maaaan... Good news, very good news!

[gpw11]

Damn it, I won't care anymore in 2014 (this is a lie)

[idolminds]

CD Projekt RED announces The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Designed to be the crowning achievement from the renowned RPG developers; for the first time will combine mature, nonlinear story with a vast, fully open world.

CD Projekt RED has officially announced the title of their next upcoming game: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Further, they've announced that this, the ultimate game in the series, will also be the final Witcher game from the studio. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt combines CD Projekt RED's trademark decision-based storytelling flair with a living open world larger than any other in modern RPG history.

"The captivating and nonlinear story of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt takes place in a rich, truly open world environment. A world which is thrilling to explore, full of daring adventures, momentous quests, memorable characters, and unique monsters. Players will freely travel through woods, lakes, mountains, cities, and villages. Each region is inhabited by distinct populations with their own customs, legends and problems. The world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is 30 times bigger than The Witcher 2," said Adam Badowski, head of the studio.

"Imagine playing a dark fantasy game with the same great nonlinear story as in the previous Witcher titles, but now told in a world you can explore freely with no artificial boundaries. The war-ravaged world is so huge that to reach further places you will need to ride a horse or sail a boat to get there. A world where your choices have truly epic consequences. From the development side, this goal is extremely demanding. Our team had to make significant design changes and our tech had to be rebuilt. But we believe that this will lead to a completely new level of nonlinearity and a whole new, richer gaming experience. As a gamer, I would love to play this kind of RPG and I think this is what many players are waiting for. This is our dream come true at CD Projekt RED, and we hope it will be the same for you!" adds Badowski.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the final episode of the award-winning RPG series and the last part of the legend of Geralt of Rivia. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the most robust and breathtaking game ever created by CD Projekt RED. Open world free-roaming exploration is an adventure in itself as the player will gallop through war-ravaged lands, sail misty waters and track down dangerous beasts for money. An improved combat system will allow players to feel like a real monster-hunter, a witcher who uses his superior senses and fighting skills to survive in a dark fantasy world--while he embarks on a quest to save his loved ones. The new core mechanics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt immerse the player in the experience completely, with no Quick Time Events, only intuitive RPG gameplay.

Badowski continued, "People may ask if this is really going to be the last Witcher game. Yes, it is. Why? Because we believe that we should end the series on a high note. Technology has progressed to where we can finally tell the story the way we want, with the visuals we want, in the world we imagined. This will be the ultimate fantasy RPG experience, and while we're hardly out of stories to tell, we believe it's time for us to look to new worlds and new horizons to keep pushing the boundaries of what we can create."

For all of those who have never experienced the adventures of Geralt before, this will be their last chance. The game will be accessible all players--those who are fans of the series and those who just love RPGs--thanks to availability on all major high-end platforms and an introduction designed to smoothly introduce all those who visit the world of the Witcher for the first time."

The game will be released in 2014 simultaneously on all high-end platforms. Making use of the same remarkable art direction from The Witcher 2 combined with the support of in-house technology--the recently-announced RPG-oriented REDengine 3--The Witcher 3 will take full advantage of the technical capabilities of modern hardware and will set a new standard for RPG visuals.

CD Projekt RED has added a whole new section to their website. If you want to find more information, please go to www.thewitcher.com

For more details check out the latest issue of Game Informer, available for online subscribers starting from today. There you will find exclusive materials in a 14 page cover story, including early screenshots and concept artwork.

[MysterD]

PC Gamer -> First Look on W3.
PC Gamer -> W3 will have 36 different ending variations.

[MysterD]

IGN -> No Multiplayer in TW3.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won't have multiplayer, as CD Projekt Red believes it has "no place" in a "strongly story-driven game".

The company's head of marketing Michal Platkow-Gilewski told Eurogamer that the decision was an easy one, as the team wanted to focus on the climax of Geralt's story.

"There's no place for multiplayer in so strongly a story-driven game as The Witcher 3," he said. "We want to focus on the single-player experience, delivering more than 100 hours of truly immersive gameplay. Geralt can be only one."

Multiplayer almost seems to be a given component in most games these days, what with it cropping up in predominantly single-player titles like Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3.

[Xessive]

Fine by me. It was never an expectation anyway.

I'm still not sure who the Hell asked to have multiplayer in Tomb Raider!

[idolminds]

Only multiplayer I'd want is dice poker, and that could just be a separate promo game.

[MysterD]

Fine by me. It was never an expectation anyway.

Amen.

I'm still not sure who the Hell asked to have multiplayer in Tomb Raider!

The publisher, probably.

[MysterD]

Debut Gameplay E3 2013 Trailer.
GameSpot -> TW3 is 35 times the size of TW2.

[MysterD]

Destructoid -> TW3 on the PC will allow you to import your TW2 PC save.
Rev3 Games -> Max Scoville talks about his impressions w/ TW3 at E3 2013.

[MysterD]

CDP talk TW3, DRM, and DLC:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/06/17/the-witcher-3-developer-discusses-dlc-and-drm/

Those who feared the people at CD Projekt RED would change their customer-friendly stance may now allay those concerns. CD Projekt RED CEO Marcin Iwinski assured Rock Paper Shotgun that the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt would remain DRM-free.

“From our perspective, we’ll always choose the most gamer-friendly solution,” Iwinski said. “And on the platform where we have control—which is PC—we’ll release on GOG day one and DRM-free.”

As for DLC, Iwinski said CD Projekt will charge for new adventures and stories, but minor things like new gear will be free.
That policy might change on the console platforms, but the developer said it’s working to provide the fairest deal for consumers. Iwinski also briefly touched on CD Projekt’s latest game, Cyberpunk 2077, only to say that working on two games at once makes sense from a business perspective.

“The fact that we have a second game in development just gives us a better way to reallocate resources – QA and whatnot,” Iwinski said. “It’s just a better way to manage the process internally. It’s better for the people and the team.”

Hopefully gamers will answer CD Projekt’s DRM strategy—or lack thereof—in a better fashion than they did for The Witcher 2, which Iwinski estimated had 4.5 million illegal downloads during the first six weeks of launch.

[MysterD]

Expect FREE goodies to go up for TW3 on this page:
http://thewitcher.com/killingmonsters/

Week 1 = Wallpapers
Week 2 = Main Theme MP3 and WAV

[MysterD]

Destructoid -> Warner Bros to publish TW3 in NA.

[idolminds]

"What are you doing?"

(click to show/hide)

"Killing monsters."

Geralt is so badass.

[Xessive]

Oh yeah.

[Quemaqua]

God damn it, why did I watch that? That was awesome.

Sigh. I miss having time for games. I never even got to finish the first one after I lost my save.

[MysterD]

GameSpot -> Interview on the Open-World aspect of TW3:WH
RockPaperShotgun -> Their impressions on TW3:WH presentation from GamesCom 2013.
GameInformer (on YouTube) -> Interview w/ Mark Zeimak (Gameplay Producer) on TW3; improving the game series w/ Enhanced Edition versions and sequels; their fans; etc
DSOG -> Technical interview on TW3 w/ CDPR on Global Illumination, Tesselation, DX11.2, Windows 8, Fur Tech, etc.

[MysterD]

CDP slaps everybody trying to sell DLC right in the face.

Buy Witcher 3, you will get 16 FREE DLC's

Doesn't matter when you buy it, where you buy it, what platform you buy it on, what version you buy, etc - 16 free DLC's period for everyone buying Witcher 3.

[gpw11]

16 Free DLCs quantifies nothing for me.

[Quemaqua]

Free extra shit. Like we used to get when developers would be cool and stick new little things in patches and stuff just for fun. Before games sucked.

[gpw11]

Yeah, but to me that could be free quests (awesome, I guess) or free haircuts (who gives a fuck).  Whatever.

[MysterD]

From Witcher's site -> Here's what 4 of the FREE DLC's will be:

[Quemaqua]

Well sure, I mean DLC always kind of can be "neato" or "who fucking cares?" This all falls into the latter category for me so far except maybe the contract, but still, it's free stuff. If something catches your eye, no hemming and hawing about paying three bucks or whatever.

[W7RE]

"beard and hairstyle set"

That looks more like shaving cream than a beard.

[MysterD]

Well sure, I mean DLC always kind of can be "neato" or "who fucking cares?" This all falls into the latter category for me so far except maybe the contract, but still, it's free stuff. If something catches your eye, no hemming and hawing about paying three bucks or whatever.

Bingo - free is free.

[Quemaqua]

It is shaving cream. There are hands holding a razor blade next to his face in the picture.

[W7RE]

It is shaving cream. There are hands holding a razor blade next to his face in the picture.

oh lol, my bad.

[Xessive]

The whole thing is CD Project RED's satirical sense of humour on the subject. They're ridiculing what has, for some odd reason, become the status quo. Gotta love 'em

[MysterD]

Polygon -> The Witcher 3 announced you will have playable multiple characters.
While CDP didn't say last night at THE Game Awards 2014 who you'd play as, people are thinking it could be either Ciri or Yennefer (since they're both in the trailer).

[MysterD]

PC Gamer -> Witcher 3 PC System Requirements.

Here's what you'll need:

Minimum System Requirements
Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz
AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660
AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870
RAM 6GB
OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
DirectX 11
HDD Space 40 GB

Recommended System Requirements
Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3,4 GHz
AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770
AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
RAM 8GB
OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
DirectX 11
HDD Space 40 GB

[MysterD]

Great. Just freaking great.

So, Witcher 2 was the game I really built this PC for.
Now, Witcher 3's the game to really make me want to upgrade.

How fitting.

[insert foul language here]

[idolminds]

haha yeah

[gpw11]

Guess I'll just buy a PS4?

[Cobra951]

Great. Just freaking great.

So, Witcher 2 was the game I really built this PC for.
Now, Witcher 3's the game to really make me want to upgrade.

How fitting.

[insert foul language here]

That game is unwinnable, man.  As soon as you dive in, you get swept down the stream.  There is just no good answer, since consoles are closed, restrictive and are not the same thing at all.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm getting fed up with the gaming scene.  It's in a low point right now, I think.

[idolminds]

Well part of it is the new generation transition. I've gotten a LOT of use out my PC with minimal upgrades (replaced a burned out video card). Shit, I only have 2GB of RAM and still on WinXP and its only in the last year or so where its gotten annoying for things not being able to run. The upgrade cycle wasnt so bad since the last console gen ran so long and no one really wanted to push PCs too hard. I think we got a little spoiled.

On the other hand, I hope its a jump and then stays level for a while. I dont want to go back to when new videocards jumped so much that you needed a new one every year or two.

[MysterD]

Eurogamer -> Two Paid "Expansions" announced for The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt developer CD Projekt Red has revealed two major expansions to its upcoming fantasy RPG.

Entitled Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine, these two add-ons should take players in the neighborhood of 30 hours to complete.

Hearts of Stone is pegged to be the shorter of the two expansions with a roughly 10-hour playtime. Set in the wilds of No Man's Land and Oxenfurt, series stalwart Geralt of Rivia will get roped into a contract with a mysterious figure called the Man of Glass. We suspect it won't be a crossover with Samuel L Jackson's character from Unbreakable.

Blood and Wine is slated to be the larger adventure with an estimated playtime of 20 hours. This will be set in the all new region of Toussaint, a supposedly peaceful land hiding a dark secret.

"With the development of Wild Hunt coming to an end, the team has embarked upon the creation of two new really big adventures set in The Witcher universe," said CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński. "We remember the time when add-on disks truly expanded games by delivering meaningful content. As gamers, we'd like to bring that back. We've said in the past that if we ever decide to release paid content, it will be vast in size and represent real value for the money. Both our expansions offer more hours of gameplay than quite a few standalone games out there."

Hearts of Stone is due in October, while Blood and Wine won't premiere until Q1 2016. They'll both be available on PC, Xbox One and PS4.

The Expansion Pass is going for $24.99 (about £17), though individually Hearts of Stone will be $9.99 (about £7) while Blood and Wine will be $19.99 (about £14).
Alternatively, you could save a few quid by buying the game with the Expansion Pass for $79.99 (about £54).

[MysterD]

Youtube -> Witcher 3 - Gameplay Trailer.

[idolminds]

I was out of town last week so finally got the watch that latest trailer.


Holy mother of god.