The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt review

[gambit6613]

Awesome! Any pointers on where to start? I tried using Witcher sense around the area but not finding much...

Try looking around the back of the forge, Witcher sense will pick up tracks and you go from there, very good fun mission i thought.

[Shozuki]

Try looking around the back of the forge, Witcher sense will pick up tracks and you go from there, very good fun mission i thought.

Cheers mate will do!

[Tobal]

One thing i do love is the sky and weather effects, i have yet to encounter a game that could compete with Red Dead Redemption but this is just another level of detail. The amount of colour is outstanding, watching the sky turn from sunshine to moody stormy weather in which just about every tree i can see is swaying amidst the storm, never seen anything like it in real-time.

When the wind first picks up and your in the middle of a forest or near water i have to say i was very impressed with the atmosphere, the fantastic sound effects really help alot to. I think BF4 was the last time i was properly impressed with weather effects.

[Rossco]

Hello again, Rossco (P Coltrane)!

So I'm quite enjoying this! 4 hours spent on it so far. Spent a lot of time fiddling with setting and ended up just locking framerate at 30fps with everything max. So much better than jumping between 60 and 30 constantly. Nice and smooth now so I can actually enjoy the game.

Killed my first monster which was cool then just started wandering about. Came across many enemies that were too strong for me so will have to return to them another time.

Quite overwhelmed to be completely honest right now though. Seems like a lot to do and the story is just so deep.

Something I think is sub-par is the controls. I'm playing on PC but using 360 controller and it's so fiddly and jumpy. It's not fluid and smooth running about changing directions quickly. Seems like clunky. Maybe I will get used to it in time though.

Overall, really enjoying it and can't wait to play some more tomorrow. And I still stop in awe at how beautiful it is every 30 seconds or so!!

[shaffy_oppa]

I've just started it and already hooked, world is massive and beautiful.

I'm playing on death march difficulty and it's a nice challenge but I'm not sure if exp gain is effected by the difficulty or not. I killed a level 5 wolf at level 1 and seemed to have only gotten 2 points. The brother side quest gave me 25...

[wakka]

Sank 4 hours into this tonight. From the small taste this has given me it seems pretty sublime so far. The most impressive graphics I've ever seen on a console too, they're stunning.

Due to its similarities to Elder Scrolls I can't help but constantly compare them - I do miss the character creation and some of the hallmarks of those games, e.g. being able to talk to every NPC. But Witcher reaps massive dividends by being different to that. The set character of Geralt makes dialogue cinematics...well, just that, cinematic! Rather than an NPC talking into space while you bunny hop round the room spamming a spell so you can get some grinding done

Not having every NPC voiced with proper dialogue means they can put more NPCs in the game, too, which helps to make it feel more alive. Striding straight into buildings with no loading is also excellent, no doubt a benefit of dicing the full world map up into pieces.

In short I'm loving it so far and can't wait to play more. ^_^

[Uli]

SweetFX seems to be working fine and lots of presets are available already to make the game look more natural and in line with the original vision of the game. all the game now needs is proper indoor lighting and tesselation. hopefully this will be added via official patch.

https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/screenshot/25182/

https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/screenshot/25185/

[PaTaito]

SweetFX seems to be working fine and lots of presets are available already to make the game look more natural and in line with the original vision of the game. all the game now needs is proper indoor lighting and tesselation. hopefully this will be added via official patch.

https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/screenshot/25182/

https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/screenshot/25185/

Isn't the way it looks designed by the devs? are you saying that is somehow incorrect?

[Brad]

Nice first impressions Wakka, thanks.
Edit: that reads a bit sarcastic but it's not!

[yesteryeargames]

What difficulty are you guys playing on ?

Think I picked the 2nd hardest and it's pretty tough , the main reason that you can't meditate to recover health , food and money is hard to come by .

Any tips ?

[MrKirov]

I'm doing the same- just keep doing the main quest and it'll level you up to around level 4, and get you some cash. Then you should be okay to go around the starting area and loot yourself some new gear and items

[gambit6613]

Anyone else playing this on PC find that the sound levels are quite low, even at max settings. I know my laptop speakers aren't great but WItcher 3 seems to be really quiet.

On a sound note, really enjoying the music but have to comment when using the headphones the weather effects sound amazing, i advise everyone to try it. Watching the storms blowing a gale through the woodlands and listening to the trees is incredible, the sense of atmosphere is wonderful

[Uli]

Isn't the way it looks designed by the devs? are you saying that is somehow incorrect?

no. as i said, the original vision and the preview footage showed a darker grittier world in a mostly natural, partly monochrome colour palette. this new bright and warm look is apparently the way the final game should look but lots of fans aren't really happy with it, me included. google "witcher 3 downgrade" and you get the whole picture.



@ Gambit
you pretty much gave yourself the answer. play this with a proper stereo set connected or at best a surround setup.

[wakka]

The surround sound is excellent on this. Open world games have always been one of the best applications around for that technology IMO. The audio in the cutscenes is awesome too, deep and immersive.

After a certain point Uli, I think you just have to enjoy a game for what it is. It's incredibly common for games to not match the graphical levels promised 2 years earlier, and the Witcher is still a stunningly beautiful game. You'd probably have more fun playing if you just let it go.

Or you could just wait a year for modders to make it look like the E3 2013 video.

I actually like the bright colours too. Skyrim was very, very dark and grim and depressing. It was wonderfully atmospheric but it's nice to inhabit a sunny, grassy fantasy world - a bit more like the Cheydinhal area of Oblivion.

[PaTaito]

no. as i said, the original vision and the preview footage showed a darker grittier world in a mostly natural, partly monochrome colour palette. this new bright and warm look is apparently the way the final game should look but lots of fans aren't really happy with it, me included. google "witcher 3 downgrade" and you get the whole picture.



@ Gambit
you pretty much gave yourself the answer. play this with a proper stereo set connected or at best a surround setup.

Ok so its just personal preference then...i ask because my pc display is calibrated, so i had to wonder what the point was.

SweetFX is just for user tinkered color correction then right?