The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Open World, Horses, and The Next-Gen

[ODX]

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Witcher 3 was revealed yesterday by the amazing guys over at CD Project RED. It'll be completely open world, 30 times bigger than the Witcher 2, and include horse riding and sailing. Release date is scheduled for 2014, aka the next gen consoles. I'm seriously super excited, Witcher 2 was great and a joy to look at. Witcher 3 looks even more amazing. Remember that they still have over a year of development left, so it still looks more like the Witcher 2, but holy crap it's amazing how much they've done already. These guys are artistic geniuses:

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[Donut]

im reaaaaaaally tempted to buy 1 and 2 on steam while theyre on sale, but i already know i will never have the time to get to them before they go on sale again. i think i might wait until theyre all 75% off.

[ODX]

I would say now is your best chance to get into them, if not later by the time Witcher 3 is on the horizon.

Just for a rough guess as to how long it'll take you, Witcher 1 took me 34 hours to beat (and doing a decent amount of sidequests) while Witcher 2 took maybe 27 or so with decent amount of sidequests. Witcher 2 also begs to be played twice since the second chapter is in an entirely different setting depending on who you side with, so double that and maybe get up to 50 hours of reasonable playtime.

But they're both awesome.

[Pooky]

For some reason I never really tried to get into this series. What makes this compelling over other RPG games?

[ODX]

It's much more lore-based than a lot of other RPGs, especially coming off of a well-known Polish series. Most of the appeal I find is in the story (and Witcher 2's graphics), which has excellent writing and some minor/major choices strewn throughout.

Compared to something like Skyrim, there's not nearly as much freedom to run around (it's split into chapters, which are separate areas that are still relatively big but not the entire map), but the story is top-notch and great to play through. I don't really know what else to tell you other than to look at some gameplay videos and see if it's something you'd want to try. You can always just play other games and then get in on Witcher 3 when it comes out in a year+.

Edit: Oh, and CD ProjektRED is an awesome developer. They release all updates and DLCs for free to players, and as of the past two games, have released "Enhanced Editions" within the first year. They're pretty much major updates to the game that add more content and tons of fixes. They never try to cheat you out of money, and so that's why I'll buy Witcher 3 right at launch.

[Sanctus]

For some reason I never really tried to get into this series. What makes this compelling over other RPG games?
Same here.

[ODX]

Average playthrough will take around 50 hours, 36 different world states, and 3, hour-long each, epilogue chapters. Save game importing should hopefully be good to go. Oh, and jumping! Shit I will be playing this for hours after hours:
http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/28/witcher-3-is-50-hours-long-new-previews-offer-fresh-details/

-Top of the pile is that an average play-through will take you 50 hours, ending up on one of 36 world states, leading to one of three hour-long epilogue chapters at the end.

-Save games will dictate which character return from previous Witcher titles, but Geralt’s backstory willstay the same regardless of what you did before. It’s not yet clear what the true canon ending of Witcher 2 is.

-Geralt’s Axii spell returns but this time it tames horses in the wild, or if you can’t be arsed you can just buy one.

-There’s also new fire spell called Ignii that lets Geralt burn things in the environment using a constant stream of flame.

-You can also hunt animals for fur and other resources by tracking their colour-coded markings in the wild. The day-night and weather cycles dictate when areas can be accessed and what beasts appear in the wild.

-Away from the wild plains, towns are said to be denser, and citizens will rat you out to city guards if they see you stealing or generally being a dick. You can waste time in cities by playing card and axe-throwing minigames.

-Geralt can now level up to 60 by earning experience through finishing quests. Hunting doesn’t dish out XP as it only gives you resources and money. Speaking of which the world’s economy is dynamic and is affected by what you sell, and how much.

-Geralt can even jump now – praise gravity! He also has a new combat mechanic that lets him target body parts, which is a bit like VATS in Fallout 3. QTEs have also been scrapped.

-Known areas are the world’s capital Novigrad, the Skellige Islands, and the wasteland wilds. You can travel the islands via boat.

Phew. So, what do you think. Excited?