1562

Ok, let me tell you why that little seal in the back of the map is awesome. Small spoiler from the books though.

Time of Contempt" minor spoilers

[spoiler]The seal is from the Oxenfurt Academy, the most important academic institution in the Northern Kingdoms. So a map like that is kind of expected to come from there. The cool thing, though, is the signature - Fabio Sachs.

Fabio Sachs appears in the books - in Time of Contempt, to be exact. He’s a bank clerk that gives Ciri a tour of the city of Gors Velen, before she goes into a school called Aretuza. But here’s the awesome part (quoting from the book):

“I don’t want to get married. I don’t want my fortune told. It’s hot and that tent stinks of incense. I’m not going in. Go in yourself, if you want, and I’ll wait. I just don’t understand why you want a prophecy. What would you like to know?”, said Ciri.

“Well…” stammered Fabio. “Mostly, it’s… it’s if I’m going to travel. I’d like to travel. And see the whole world…”

“He will”, thought Ciri suddenly, feeling dizzy. “He’ll sail on great white sailing ships… he’ll sail to countries no one has seen before him… Fabio Sachs, explorer. He’ll give his name to a cape, to the very furthest point of an as-yet unnamed continent. When he’s fifty-four, married with a son and three daughters, he’ll die far from his home and his loved ones… of an as-yet unnamed disease…”

“Ciri! What’s the matter with you?”

So CD Projekt Red is actually honoring a minor character in the books, and showing how much they love the books and the Witcher world by paying attention to such a small detail. Gotta love that.[/spoiler]

1563

Hah hah, that’s super good. I had totally forgotten that.

1564

It’s easy to forget about that. Yet CD Projekt didn’t forget, and actually used such a small detail to enrichen their narrative and honor the original books, when they didn’t even need to. For me, it shows how much they love that world, and how much they want to live up to it in the way they make their games.

1565

It is the kind of detail I appreciate, even if it holds no meaning to me personally. I’d venture to say that maybe 95% of the Witcher game audience has never heard of that dude. But just knowing the care they put in to the world is something I appreciate. Because that belies a philosophy of design that shows they are doing this game as more than simply a product to get out the door.

1566

Yeah, I’m using my controller I think. Hopefully I’ll be able to use the keyboard/mouse for inventory and menu navigation though (most games seem good about letting me use keyboard/mouse while using a controller, but some don’t - hopefully TW3 is one of the former).

1567

You can switch between keyboard and controller at any time, or even use them together, like most recent games. That’s been confirmed in multiple videos of the PC preview.

1568

That map reminds me a little of the paper maps that used to come with the Might and Magic RPGs back in the day.

1569

In theredditI found some interesting explanations about the combat. Thinking back about what I’ve seen already from the combat (including some parts it didn’t make sense to me until now), he is right.

-Special attacks like whirl (you need a skill for it) or heavy over-the-head attacks (holding the heavy attack button) cost stamina.
-Sign casting cost stamina, of course.
-You only can cast a sign when the stamina is full. Stamina at 90% isn’t enough. So you can’t cast two signs one after the other.
-Dodging or rolling is “free” stamina wise if stamina is full, but it costs a little if it isn’t full. This means you can’t abuse dodging waiting until the stamina bar replenishes, as it won’t ever get full if you keep it using.
-All the magic skills increase stamina regeneration.

1570

Fabio Sachs’s map is really awesome awesome detail. I loved that part of the books with him and Ciri exploring Gors Velen.

1571

206k views in the “downgraded Witcher 3” thread of GAF. That’s some kind of a record?

1572

Not even close. There are threads with several million views.

1573

Jeez, that’s quite the downgrade. On the other hand, I honestly can’t even imagine what it would be like to play a huge open world game that looks like this:

1574

Seems as good as it gets before we reach photorealism.

1575

Ouch.

Thats a shame.

But I guess you can blame those who insist their Intel inbuilt video card should be able to run DX12 games at 1920x1080 with max details.
OTOH; With PC games being more ‘flexible’, surely there could be quality toggles to have it run as good as the first “previews”; Although creating those kinds of assets is probably a lot more expensive due to the detail level.

1576

I meant, just comparing with other threads about downgrades :P. Though now I remember the thread of Watch Dogs downgrade was very long.

1577

I’m sure there will be enb mods for this within the first week that will help a bit.

1578

Oh good. The “DOWNGRADE!!!111” virus has spread here now.

I thought it was actually about ethics in journalism.

1579

Leaked video, surely it will be retired in minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqHaPXd1P38

It’s spoilery, well, at least he is doing something of the main quest.

1580

Someone’s console is dying.

1581

I think that’s more the video encoding failing. Though it could be console overheating, the leakers are mainly from Dubai…