RPS Feature Don't be afraid, don't be very afraid
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I have a mental firewall about how recent a game can be before I’m allowed to write a Have You Played? about it. In my head, The Witcher 3 is about three months old and therefore invalid.
It’s two years old next month. I’ve had it on my hard drive for two years now, thinking “yeah, I’ll finally finish that next weekend.” Read the rest of this entry »
RPS Feature The plot thickens
This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites a developer to help him put their game up on blocks and take a wrench to hack out its best feature, just to see how it works. It’s about the sweat, grease and genius behind the little things that make games special.
Here’s a question: How do you solve a problem like Geralt? There he is, stern and stalwart, everyone’s favourite low fantasy drifter. A man of rank bogs, blasted no man’s lands and rugged islands. A man who isn’t much of a laugh, or awfully fun to have a drink with.
But what if you want to extend his world, and expose him to new adventures? That’s what last October’s expansion to The Witcher 3 [official site], Hearts of Stone, aimed to achieve, but it had to get Geralt doing things he’d never normally do. So how did CD Projekt manage to get him drunk and dancing at a wedding, robbing a bank, and appraising fine art? Their solution was deft.
RPS Feature Critical Distance
On The Witcher 3 [official site], preview events and getting it wrong.
RPS Feature Every Witcher way but lose
Many games suffer from a little bit of distance. You play them and they seem great, but once the novelty has faded, so has part of their soul. I’d say Dragon Age: Inquisition is a good example there. It’s a game I enjoyed, but it’s also one I’ve not really thought about since its credits rolled.
With The Witcher III: Wild Hunt [official site] though, the scale of CD Projekt’s accomplishment still hasn’t fully sunk in, and probably won’t until the next big RPG that doesn’t live up to the many, many amazing bits of design that game offers. I’m of course talking of the big stuff, like its sweeping plot and open world. More though, I’m thinking of the details; the smaller stuff, like how the scripting system is advanced enough to stop a fight after a specific comment of “Wait, you’re Geralt?!” or the exquisite attention to detail on even the smallest of quests. It’s CD Projekt’s masterpiece; the Witcher experience they’ve been working towards since getting the license all those years ago.
And now it’s been out for a while, let’s look at some of the more spoilery bits.
“Various improvements to horse behavior”. That was a patch note Marsh showed me last week. I had hoped it was one of God’s own patch notes and He was finally going to address the problems with those four-legged jerks but apparently it was CD Projekt Red talking about The Witcher 3 [official site] and the upcoming 1.07 patch. Disappointing.
RPS Feature Holding out for an antihero
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] is only a couple of days away! The final adventure of Geralt of Rivia, and CD Projekt’s chance to prove that they can take the RPG skills they’ve honed in the first two games to a sweeping open world. We’ll have a review up for you as soon as possible, but until then, here’s some CliffsNotes to get you up to speed on what’s happening, where to buy it, and why you haven’t already seen a WIT.
In an ideal world I’d be reviewing The Witcher 3 [official site] for RPS (not that we got code at the same time as consoleland, waah waah what a cold and hostile universe this is), but now I’m a beleaguered dad I barely have time for morning ablutions, let alone 100-200 hours of stabbing and sexing. All being well, I will start a relaxed-of-pace diary series about the earlier chunks of the CPD’s humungo-RPG next week, however. I’m looking forward to it, given the broadly rapturous reception. Just a few days now; the hype-cannon has fired off this ultro-flashy CGI trailer as a near-climactic volley.
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It may be you’re the sort that wants to go into a game cold, knowing as little as is possible. It may be that your keen to be there on day one but want all available information to guide your purchasing decision. If you’re one of the latter, IGN’s video of the first 15 minutes of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] may help. It skips the introductory cutscene but picks up right after, showing the initial quests, dialogue and combat. It’s embedded below and looks pretty authentic to my starting experience with most games, up to and including dying to a relatively weak mob of enemies after ten minutes.
What is a roleplaying game without an extravagant pre-rendered introductory cutscene these days, eh? One I can start playing that much quicker, that’s what. But The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt means to take its place in the RPG premiership, and it’s got the CGI to prove it. Killings! Fire! Vast armies! Decapitated horsies! Devouring earth! Tribal drums! Yodelling! Beardmen!
There were so many great games in Cologne this year and yet I decided that the first thing I’d write about from the show would be the one disappointment. Maybe disappointment comes more naturally to me or maybe I just wanted to get it out of the way – whatever the case, later that evening, I was slightly annoyed with myself for sending a grumpy dispatch rather than a chronicle of the good times. The Witcher 3 presentation that I watched is now online, so you can watch it for yourself below, and then use the comments section to solemnly agree with my judgement, or to thank me. Because if you do enjoy the video, it’s thanks to the expectations that I so graciously lowered.
You may or may not have heard, but CD Projekt has partnered with Fuero Games to make a Witcher MOBA. A mobile Witcher MOBA. It’s called Witcher: Battle Arena, so you won’t confuse it with Witcher: Hockey Arena or Witcher: Arena Rock. And yes, I know this world already has more than enough MOBAs, but this one looks kinda OK. So I had to ask, what are its PC prospects? CDP was, as ever, straightforward: a PC version could happen, but it’s not happening yet. You should probably gird your lusty loins for more spin-offs of Geralt’s lustacular lustventures, though. CDP seems quite keen on doing those.
RPS Feature Who Witches The Witchers?
Oh, I do so love a good disclaimer. Why, I think I see one galloping over the hill right now! Look at it go, diving in to interject just as I was about to say something ill-conceived/stupid. So: I largely think The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt looks excellent. I got to watch (though not play, sadly) a new 45 minute demo of it during E3, and it encouraged me to peel off another layer from my carapace of hardened skepticism. There were bustling towns, bizarre characters, and beardly moments of derring do. In the spirit of SENSATIONALIST FEAR, however, I did notice a few cracks in the game’s lovingly rusted witcher armor. These are they. Read the rest of this entry »
There are four main types of games likely to show up in the big E3 presentations. They are Men With Guns games, Men With Swords games, Men In Cars games and Men In Shorts games, and I seem to have drawn the longsword. Having just peeped at Dragon Age, I’ve now plucked The Witcher 3 out of the Enormous Hat O’ Videos. It’s a ridiculously impressive slice of in-game footage, suggesting that CD Projekt are either liars, extremely hard-working and talented, or from the future. Perhaps this sort of giant open world (actually seeming to deserve that tag) with mythical beast hunts is considered ordinary at E3 2025 but it looks damned impressive from 2014.
In an alternate universe, people are scared to death that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is going to collapse under the weight of its own ambition and snap the neck of its brilliant potential in the process. And to be honest, I’m still feeling the tiniest bit of that in this universe. Going from Witcher 2’s traditional (though ambitious) trawl to an open-world 50 times its size is no small step, after all. But with each passing day – each live demo, each frighteningly well-cut trailer – I can’t help but feel optimistic. Maybe the PR hype brainwashing machine has finally made a fool of me, but I have really high hopes here. See why below.
In a moment that nearly bled the world’s supply of frowny face emoticons dry, CD Projekt recently announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won’t be vaulting, cavorting, or Geralt-ing about until February 2015. The hunt, at this particular moment, is off. But you know what? I think I’m gonna be OK. I think… yeah, I’m gonna be alright. I’ve endured worse, like that time I was born into a cold, unfeeling world of chaotic fury that could snuff me out in a heartbeat and also the third Batman movie not being very good. I am strong. I am immovable, indefatigable. I’ll carry on unless… unless, well, The Witcher 3 gets delayed again. Pretty sure that’s my breaking point. CD Projekt, however, swears it won’t happen.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt isn’t strutting down the beardwalk until 2015. Boooooo. But we shall save mourning for another day, as there is work to be done and questions to be asked. After all, CD Projekt isn’t just a Witcher factory anymore. It’s also working on Cyberpunk 2077 and a couple mysterious “smaller” games. When Geralt – CDP’s clear ace-in-the-hole – gets shuffled back into the deck, what does that mean for everybody else? I got in touch with CD Projekt to find out.
It was all going to be so simple. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was set to come out toward the end of 2014, and I was going to tear into it like a ravenous wolf cub, all fur and fang and aggression, no hesitation or 9-5 desk job or mortgages I should be worrying about. But that, sadly, is no longer the plan. CD Projekt’s open-ish world opus has been pushed into 2015. It’s all in the name of making the best game possible, but… oh jeez what is this entire freshly sliced onion doing in my eye? It’s getting in the way of all that bitter sobbing over The Witcher 3 I was going to do.
The day that everyone’s been eagerly awaiting is finally upon us. After years of suffering through CD Projekt’s childish “videogame” machinations, The Witcher is assuming its proper place on sturdy, grown-up tables the world over. The Witcher Adventure Game – which is not a Witcher adventure game – is a four-player role-based romp through the series’ witchy wilds. All the trademarks are in place: recognizable characters, quests with choices and multiple outcomes, and – yes, thank the heavens – Geralt’s beard. Trailer and info on how all these jagged jigsaw pieces fit together below.
We’ve no new Witcher 3 videos of late, but if you scroll through these really, really quickly, it’ll be just like watching a low frame rate, abysmally edited video. Make some sword-swooshing noises as you do it, for added effect. The genesis and/or novelty of these 65 1080p screenshots of CDP’s next massive roleplaying game is somewhat indeterminate at present, but I’m sure a good number of them will be fresh to your eyes. PCs with low memory should perhaps be wary of this doubtless RAM-hungry post.
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