Renzatic on 19/5/2015 at 01:05
Damn, that's cool. One day, I'll get around to ordering one of these souped up awesome special editions.
Malf on 19/5/2015 at 07:36
I snuck in a quick go before work this morning.
I started once with a Witcher 2 save, then restarted with Save Emulation on, as I couldn't for the life of me remember what had happened in my last play-through (which was apparently 2012). I understand that with emulation on, I get to make the choices, so I thought that would be best.
While it runs incredibly well, even with everything set to Ultra, I had an nVidia driver crash just as I chose to "Run the walls". That was with the nVidia driver released yesterday. Of course, because you can't save up to that point, that meant I had to start again.
Finally got in to the game proper, and yeah, this is going to dominate my life. I was supposed to follow old Witcher dude, but there's soooooo many distractions; flowers to pick, corpses to loot, ghouls slay, horizons to ride towards...
I quickly learned that quicksave is my friend when I waded in to the near-by Ghoul's nest only to get trounced and have to start again. I'm playing on the second highest difficulty, and the enemies don't seem to hold back as they do in other games. They'll outflank you and attack from behind while your attention is occupied elsewhere.
I think I'm going to look into binding signs and bombs to individual keys mind you, as the quick select wheel feels awkward and disrupts play.
And I suspect Witcher vision may get old fast; it seems so completely necessary that I feel it may have the same problems as Detective vision in the Batman games.
But otherwise, I can't wait to get back to it!
twisty on 19/5/2015 at 14:02
How do you find combat compared with the previous games Malf?
Renault on 19/5/2015 at 14:03
Major issues with Green Man Gaming on their W3 presales. Some people have received invalid codes, some haven't received keys at all. I'm in the latter category. I've never had an issue with GMG before, but this situation really sours me on them.
They're offering refunds if people want them, or a 40% off coupon towards another game, but it doesn't make me feel any better. I'll probably take the refund and buy the game proper through GOG.
Malf on 19/5/2015 at 14:53
Quote Posted by twisty
How do you find combat compared with the previous games Malf?
I've not really managed to put in more than 30 minutes actual play, maybe 10 of which were combat, but it seems a lot more convincing than Witcher 2.
You have effective blocks and counters now, right from the start, and Geralt's movement doesn't seem as stilted as it did in the previous game. The animations don't feel quite so rigid.
I can't comment with authority on the stamina system, but it seemed a lot more forgiving than in 2. In the training area, during "free" training, blocking and countering didn't seem to be tied to stamina (someone feel free to correct me if this is wrong). Instead, it looks like just signs and jumping (and maybe dodging) are stamina based.
As mentioned above, enemies seem quite dangerous, come in packs, and don't seem to wait their turn, which is nice.
It's too early to tell, but I think they may have also done away with Geralt taking increased damage when attacked from behind, but I really haven't put enough time in yet to be certain.
I mentioned the quick select wheel being annoying in my previous post, and I think that may be down to playing on mouse and keyboard. I suspect that this game will probably play better on gamepad. It's one of the first things I'll try when I get home. As it stands, when playing on M&KB there's just a little too much going on to feel comfortable. That would probably smooth out over time, but I think analog sticks instead of modifier keys would make for a more pleasant and transparent movement experience.
van HellSing on 19/5/2015 at 16:07
Yeah, I'm taking quite long to adjust to the new mouse and keyboard controls, having just finished a TW2 playthrough.
Yakoob on 19/5/2015 at 17:27
I've plunged into the first hour of Witcher 3 as well. First of all the game looks GORGEOUS on max settings, especially in open world areas. But it drops my framerate to about 15 so I'll probably downgrade it today since I got my fill of eyecandy. The only complaint is really laggy controls that make even walking around tedious, but I attribute it to the low framrate for now.
(Btw, anyone know how to save screenshots? I tried PrintScreen and F9-F12 but nothing, bah!)
Malf, I actually took a very different route then you, following the story instead of freeroaming and ending in the first village interrogating people and playing the new card game, hehe. Guess this shows where our playstyle preferences lie ;p
Writing: The writing and voice acting is great as well and I am playing the Polish version, believable peasant dialects are back. BUT It makes me wonder what the primary language they develop the game for is (I know the studio uses English for inner-communication). For example, all the grunts and shouts of Geralt/Ciri sound really "off" compared to the dialogue, and they mix both a lot during the initial tutorial so it sticks out. Hmm...
(Also, is it just me or does kid-Ciri have GIANT lips :p)
Combat: I'm with Malf on combat, haven't played enough of it, but it seems more action based and responsive than previous Witchers. I'm playing with the gamepad. Havent explored the skill tree much but there are a ton of abilities to unlock and more "pick from xyz in each category" than actual branching. Most seem kinda standard stuff (+25 to damage with bow, +5 resistance to poisons etc.)
Story: Doesn't really allude to previous games at all so far except for the state of the world Nifilgard invading the shit out of the Kingdoms. The initial motivation is frankly really weak - something about a missig girl and chasing after a woman you don't really know. EXCEPT I read the books which is the only reason I even know who they are and what happend, it actually seems to tie into the book's story a lot more - the initial training sequence with Ciri is actually a scene from the it! That's a nice touch for the fans :) It seems to be taking place before the last book ends too so I'm kind of curious how much it will tie into things.
I didn't get any prompt for importing TW2 saves so I'm guessing that didn't happen, I'm not sure if I even have those somewhere in my old windows game data folders (the game is uninstalled). Oh well, don't remember much of the TW2 story so a fresh start is probably better.
Renzatic on 19/5/2015 at 18:20
To me, the controls don't feel laggy so much as spastic and loose, but that's kind of a Witcher staple. The worst thing about it isn't even the games fault. I keep wanting to use the shoulder buttons to attack, and I end up screwing myself over some way, some how.
Other than that, it's pretty damn good. I'm definitely pushing my new computer to its absolute limits. The fan on my GPU screams like its trying to put out the fires of hell, but I'm able to push it with everything up to its fullest (save for crazy hair) and still average around 45 FPS.
Yakoob on 19/5/2015 at 19:24
The controls do feel sluggish to me. I actually had the hardest time picking up herbs because there was a bit of a delay and then Geralt would overshoot by a lot, the "tank controls" come into mind. But as I said, I am attributing that mainly to the low framerate now and hopefully gets better once I downscale the graphics.
Severian_Silk on 19/5/2015 at 19:41
Quote:
Writing: The writing and voice acting is great as well and I am playing the Polish version, believable peasant dialects are back. BUT It makes me wonder what the primary language they develop the game for is (I know the studio uses English for inner-communication).
A friend of mine worked on translating it from Polish into English, so they probably write it in Polish first :cheeky: . And yeah, the Polish versions really do have excellent writing. Just listening to what random NPCs say cracks me up all the time :p .
