Witcher 3 - Preview Gameplay

Update: A video compiling some recently released gameplay clips has turned up today. Even with the graphical downgrade that some are complaining about, it still looks amazing. Look at the draw distance! It reminds me of a Fantasy Red Dead only more dense with more to do.

Best quality video is available here.

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Media peoples around the world got to play Witcher 3 recently and CD Red posted a video with some new footage. I wonder if Jeff's doubts about the game's quality came from someone who attended this event. Either way, still excited. I won't bother myself over such whispers. Better to wait until it's released.

Check out Geralt's new robe armor thing. It's a cool look for him.

Absolutely cannot wait.

Yes! My hype for this is overwhelming. Why can't it be May already?

I'm super pumped!

I tried to play the first Witcher and found it overwhelmingly boring. If I end up picking this up on PC, I hope I like it more. At least it will probably look pretty.

@bollard: "the first Witcher." Well there's your problem. The second game was much better received and more playable.

The Witcher is the Mad Max to Witcher 2's Road Warrior. The Terminator to Witcher 2's Terminator 2. Just pretend like the sequel was actually the original and you'll be fine.

This game seems far too good to be true. It looks like it's almost everything I want out of an RPG. Defintely gonna try to keep my hype to a minimum though, I've been left disappointed by games far too often in the last few years.

I guess the only things left that I'm curious about are:

- The side quests. Are they gonna be unique and interesting like TES quests, or are they gonna be more Dragon Age Inquisition style?
- The equipment. I want to see a lot of it. I dislike going incredibly long stretches wearing the exact same thing.

@aegon Jeff's doubts came from the last delay announced few weeks ago. The event took place this week in San Franciso. I wonder if anyone from Giant Bomb (or CBSi, or other outlets for that matter) attended it, since most people were getting ready for PAX South. I guess we'll find out everything on Monday, when embargo lifts.

Also, there's gonna be an official livestream of the game on GOG's Twitch channel.

Perfect comparison. I'd add, the Witcher is also Alien to Witcher 2's Aliens.

Also, you can dive right into the sequel and it explains all of the necessary things from the first game. Witcher 1 is a treasure for those of us who can overlook stale combat and jankiness for the awesome world and characters, but anyone interested in general can dive right into Witcher 2 without really missing anything.

Man, Geralt beefed up since the last game!

I love CD Projekt Red's attitude. This game is also looking to be something special. Cant wait!

The video looks really good. Hoping the combat can feel at all Dragon's Dogma-esque (obviously it won't have the grabbing, but still).

Giant Bomb isn't a place I take seriously for their takes on RPGs at all. Regarding what Jeff said.

This is a site where Dragon Age hardly got a mention in GOTY stuff this past year and is talked about as if it's bad.

Those are bad examples. Aliens is almost mediocre, a big step down from the first one. The Terminator is pretty good.

Alien and Aliens are pretty much separate genres and I think define some of the best those genres can offer with Alien being a horror film and Aliens being a action movie, both have incredible atmosphere and can stand on there own as good movies. Aliens is far from "mediocre".

Aliens takes a long time to get going and the action is only thrilling the first time. After that, it's just boring. The dialogue, spoken by cartoon characters, is painful. It's the worst James Cameron movie I've seen. Alien was more than a horror movie. It had a sense of wonder and impressive art. Aliens is just a dumb action movie.

@steadying: After DA:I, I was concerned about the side content in this game as well. However, they said that there will be roughly 50 hours worth of side content. In a game world that's bigger than Skyrim's that doesn't seem like an awful lot, so I'm hoping that's a sign of quality.

Recently in a Quick Look Jeff even mocked the fact that some sites actually gave Inquisition the GOTY title. Like others I love GB but yah it's definitely not a place where more classically built RPG's are enjoyed - which is fine of course, I personally don't care about a lot of games the guys hold in high reverence.

Eh, I can't really blame Jeff for mocking that. DA:I is a solid entry into the genre, but nothing revolutionary. It doesn't come close to Skyrim, imo.

Can't wait, although every time I see this game I'm reminded that I have 3 hours left in The Witcher 2 (I've been attempting a smooth transition into 3!)

@bceagles128: Hey man, plenty of people would argue that Skyrim is incredibly lifeless with no discerning characters or an interesting plot - not to mention the plethora of bugs. To each their own.

I really hope Witcher 3 plays as well as it looks. Still have the collectors pre-ordered.

@artisanbreads: The only thing Inquisition deserved from GOTY was Most Disappointing. GB was right to dismiss it.

Wait ... what did Jeff said about the Witcher 3? .... also they didnt place any attention to the grand Witcher 2 so I dont thnk GB is goin to cover the Witcher 3 properly , nor Bloodborne.

Yeah it's a bummer because Patrick was the only guy I know who was vocal about looking forward to playing it but he's gone now. I know Vinny is the only other one who likes the Witcher

When the gameplay was shown, I was like "Oh my GAAAAAAAAAAAWD :D :D :D"

I WANT THIS GAME! NOW! SQUEEEEE!!!

I'm still incredibly skeptical about The Witcher 3. CD Projekt haven't made a compelling argument for why they went all-in on an open world design, and they've been making some alarmingly bold claims about how dynamic the game is. It seems like there's a very real chance the game gets crushed under the weight of their ambition.

I've updated the first post with the new gameplay footage.

@aegon: The devs have commented on the "Downgrade" rumour, and chalked it up to them having difficulty with the youtube compression system. They've released a couple of the newer trailers as high-quality videos available for download in order to reassure folks that the final game will look as amazing as promised. I've unfortunately managed to lose the link, but it's genuine stuff, I tell you. Looks considerably better than these youtube versions, barely comparable in fact.

Edit: Geralt named his horse Roach. 10/10. (For the uninitiated, Dandelion always makes fun of Geralt for naming every single horse he's ever owned Roach.)

@aegon: Hehe Grossbart brothers, didn't think I'd ever see them in a video game, much less the witcher..

Man, I almost never get this excited about upcoming games anymore, but this just looks incredible - those environments! Hope the PS4 version runs well!

Giant Bomb is by far the place I trust the most for general opinions on video games but also, sadly, the among the least useful to me in terms having staff members that are enthused by RPG games (which are probably my favorite genre). Of course they can't be all things to all people but it does leave a bit of a hole in terms of coverage that I end up having to go elsewhere for.

but anyway.... Witcher looks really, really good. I saw it demoed at EGX last year and it was by far the most impressive thing I saw

@meptron: I think the PS4 version running at 1080p/30fps is confirmed.

Did he just call that horse Roche??

Looks great to me.

This certainly does look better than the first two. I played two on 360, and liked it, but was disappointed by it, and I got the first relatively recently, and enjoy it, but not to an extent that it's holding my attention above other games I can play, which is unfortunate, as I really want to play it, and so I may after I go through some titles I'm playing now. I wish they had something similar to The Keep, as none of my data will transfer into the third. Also, what did Jeff say? The game looks as good as ever... Some may scoff at this, but the game looks similar enough to Dragon Age Inquisition to me, and I'd be excited to play another game like it.

@vahleticar: That's what I was thinking when I heard it, but no, it's just Roach. I guess in the books, his horse is called Roach.

@vahleticar: Yeah, Garelt names his horses Roach.

@james_hayward: Vinny was the one who pushed for Witcher 2 on the last GOTY where the Witcher would've qualified on. Being that he has double dad duties now, I wonder if he'll be the one doing it this time. It could be Alex but I don't remember him having any sort of opinion on the games. It should have been Patrick this time around since he's genuinely excited for the game but he's no longer here.

Wow, that world looks really alive. The way trees and cloth sway in the wind. Plenty of characters and animals roaming around. Gorgeous vista's everywhere. Great music and sound effects. Voice acting seems fine as well.

The only things I didn't like was the UI. It's all over the screen. I hope you can turn some of it off, I mean I can see that's a rabbit and the other white animal with wings is a goose, don't need a badly tracked nameplate floating above it.

I think I'm going to like this game very much :)

EDIT: Link to some less compressed version (3 GB) !

When watching the gameplay video without Youtube compression you'll notice some great graphical details. Their leather and metal shaders are nothing short of awesome. It's almost like the real thing.

Bounty hunter's name is hilarious.

Famous bounty hunter Djenga Frett can't possibly be an accident.

That is the most realistic forest I have ever seen in a video game. Holy shit. Even if there have been graphically impressive games with forests before, they still looked "video-gamey" to me but this looks like a real forest near the arctic circle.

Have you not seen Uncharted 4? Sure it's more of a jungle but still…dat vegetation.

Uncharted 4 jungle looks impressive graphically, but it still looks like a video game environment. Witcher 3 forest and its vegetation looks more like a real life forest.

Was i the only "HOLY SHIT-ING" when he slided that reef like a bos??

If anyone's interested, here is the twitch archive of the live dev commentary and Q&A session afterwards.

[edit] link

Yeah, I like that animation too.

Drenge Fett lol.

Looks good. Definitely Red Dead-ish (which is a big compliment from me).

My one complaint is probably the faces (the movement is a little stiff) but probably pretty on par with Dragon Age Inquisition.

@icemo said:

You should play The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

The movement on foot looks kinda reminds me of Fable?

Anyway, man, this game. Looks more and more amazing every time they show it. Pleeeeease don't disappoint like Dragon Age did.