The Witcher: A New Saga Begins

Ray2097 said:
I used to hate unreal engine, but UE5 looks really impressive...
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UE3 is really the only one I hate since it ruined an era of PC ports with its entrenched consolization concepts. Later versions got better, but it is still a pain in the ass making tweaks to get them to behave properly. UE4 showed off many promises of what is coming in UE5, and the ports using it are generally of a higher quality than they were with UE3.
 
Armenius said:
UE3 is really the only one I hate since it ruined an era of PC ports with its entrenched consolization concepts. Later versions got better, but it is still a pain in the ass making tweaks to get them to behave properly. UE4 showed off many promises of what is coming in UE5, and the ports using it are generally of a higher quality than they were with UE3.
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UE3 had some annoying texture related issues as well. Lower budget games would have bad texture pop in and some other things. I think it required a good bit of development to move past those issues if using UE3.

As for the console ports, that is true but it was more of how the era of development went. 360/PS3 era was when most AAA and AA games started coming to consoles and PC. Previously games were either different (see Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1/2 PC vs the console versions) or on consoles or PC only. UE3 made it very easy to port from Xbox to PC, at least compared to the past. So while a lot of the ports sucked, they might not have happened otherwise. Or sucked just as bad or maybe worse if using a different engine. But it was a new era of making as many games multiplatform as possible with the exception of niche games (PC) and exclusives (Sony/Microsoft) so understandably there were some bumps along the road.

Then again, we still see bad ports that use UE4 like FF7 Remake. A bad port is typically a symptom of laziness or lack of time/money.
 
Krenum said:
According to the Witcher Wiki, School of the Lynx implemented early forms of guns for hunting monsters, this would be cool to have in the game!
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Oh man that's interesting. I never really liked the crossbow mechanic all that much, some better ranged weapons would be a welcomed addition.
 
I have so many games on my backlog that I bought on sale that I'll probably get the newest Witcher when it's $9.99 for GOTY.
 
w35t said:
Oh man that's interesting. I never really liked the crossbow mechanic all that much, some better ranged weapons would be a welcomed addition.
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A lot of devs have dropped the ball on HDR in the past so hopefully UE5 will help make that easier to implement. From the press on the engine I've read before it supposedly does. It also might help with general bugs and performance overall, like others said where an in house engine might "fall apart" (at the seams).

For reference - playing some Elden Ring here and there currently but haven't put a ton of time into it. Around level 24. Witcher game's combat by comparison has always been the most janky part of the game series to me, even though witcher3's was a little better once patched. Hoping that the combat and inventory systems end up better on the new engine. The rest of the game story, (characters, dialogue, lore), world/environments, graphics etc were all enough to still make it a great game for me though.

Hulk said:
I have so many games on my backlog that I bought on sale that I'll probably get the newest Witcher when it's $9.99 for GOTY.
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I usually wait on game sales too. Some I even wait so long they hit humble bundle but I jumped on elden ring. Before that nioh2 was another early buy. I'll see how I feel about witcher (edit) 4 :p depending what I have to play already when it comes out. Almost always end up better off waiting at least 3 to 6 months or so just for the games to be patched more fully, especially if they aren't dependent on an online world and online player population/popularity/progression. Nioh2 definitely had me kicking myself a few times that I bought it within a week or two of launch due to bugs - one that completely froze my ability to continue loading the game at all for a few days (and which I only got past trying workarounds myself that were suggested online - not a released patch fixing it at the time). Really great game though once I got past some issues and others were ironed out with patches.
 
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That's great news. I loved all three of them, warts and all. 🐺

I suppose it's a bit early to speculate about recommended system requirements, but keeping hardware upgrades in sync with major CDPR releases has worked well in the past. ;)

+1 for GOG.

I wonder how long this thread is going to be by the time the game is officially released. :D
w35t said:
I never really liked the crossbow mechanic all that much
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I don't think anyone did. They were only useful for a few specific events IIRC. They were annoying in the hands of enemies though, especially when the game decided that Geralt was not in combat and kept sheathing his sword while denying him the option to parry. I won't miss horse races if they're removed, either.
 
I think it would be a mistake to make a Witcher game without Geralt as the protagonist. The whole universe really seems to be centered around him(especially with the wild elves backstory) and it would be hard to recreate that for a new character without wholesale changes or creating a Geralt light of sorts, of the already introduced characters the only one I can think of that might be good is a younger Vessimer(sp?). From what I understand the books go into more of the side characters stories but still all feature Geralt as the most important central figure, deviating from the books even more would give them more freedom but also make it easier to screw it up.

I suppose we'll see when it launches, hopefully it's the best yet in the series but TW3 is going to be a tough act to follow.
 
Ebernanut said:
I think it would be a mistake to make a Witcher game without Geralt as the protagonist. The whole universe really seems to be centered around him(especially with the wild elves backstory) and it would be hard to recreate that for a new character without wholesale changes or creating a Geralt light of sorts, of the already introduced characters the only one I can think of that might be good is a younger Vessimer(sp?). From what I understand the books go into more of the side characters stories but still all feature Geralt as the most important central figure, deviating from the books even more would give them more freedom but also make it easier to screw it up.

I suppose we'll see when it launches, hopefully it's the best yet in the series but TW3 is going to be a tough act to follow.
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Yeah that can be a problem but they can make it work if the rest of the game is good. I am doubting there will be Geralt, except maybe side quests. Maybe he will be a recurring side character but I doubt it. I don't think they'll do prequels but if they do possibly we may play as Geralt. I suppose adapting the books is a possibility.
 
Krenum said:
I hope its not a prequel. I'd like to see the main characters from the previous games in it, but have them be in the background.
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School of the Lynx is a fan fiction school that takes place after the games, it is the merger of the School of the Wolf and School of the Cat. So my guess is it takes place after the prevous games. I'm not a fan fiction lore expert, just learned this in some youtube video I watched last week.
 
Curious if they will go with a fixed Protagonist, or "Create your own". I like that the Witcher series had Geralt as the primary character throughout(with the ability to play as Ciri being a fun bonus I wish they had done more of). In my opinion, it keeps a cleaner story. I love Mass Effect, but I dislike the FemShep vs BroShep debate as to which one is canon. Some games it doesn't really matter, but narrative driven ones throw me off if they are creating a world and story larger than the first game, or set of games.
 
Armenius said:
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Makes sense to focus on core competencies, clearly CD Project Red core competency is in building narratives / worlds. Unreal core competency is providing technological solutions to bring those virtual worlds to life. Unless you are someone like Id Software, it increasingly makes sense to outsource technical aspects of the engine so that you can focus on better world building / story.

Now it would be really cool if they remastered Witcher 3 in Unreal 5....... But I am probably the only person on planet that got distracted and did not progress much in Witcher 3..
 
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imsirovic5 said:
Makes sense to focus on core competencies, clearly CD Project Red core competency is in building narratives / worlds. Unreal core competency is providing technological solutions to bring those virtual worlds to life. Unless you are someone like Id Software, it increasingly makes sense to outsource technical aspects of the engine so that you can focus on better world building / story.

Now it would be really cool if they remastered Witcher 3 in Unreal 5....... But I am probably the only person on planet that got distracted and did not progress much in Witcher 3..
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It is interesting to see how trends go. For a while UE 2.5 and UE3 were very popular with many major titles. Gears of War, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Splinter Cell, Brothers in Arms, Rainbow 6 Raven Shield, Red Orchestra, Unreal Tournament, Killing Floor, Borderlands, Batman, Mirror's Edge.

UE4 had a lot of games, but not as many major AAA games. Seemed like developers were going back to making in house engines. Remedy, Ubisoft (multiple engines), EA, Crystal Dynamics, Sony (probably multiple engines), Avalanche, Dawn Engine for Deus Ex and more. Now, it seems like that is trending back to off the shelf engines. EA made Jedi Fallen order on UE, Crystal Dynamics is moving to UE, CD Projekt is among others. With the troubles of Frostbite recently I can see more EA titles outside of Battlefield going to UE.

Suppose new royalty models and further difficulties in designing modern engines is making the trend swing back.
 
Flogger23m said:
It is interesting to see how trends go. For a while UE 2.5 and UE3 were very popular with many major titles. Gears of War, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Splinter Cell, Brothers in Arms, Rainbow 6 Raven Shield, Red Orchestra, Unreal Tournament, Killing Floor, Borderlands, Batman, Mirror's Edge.

UE4 had a lot of games, but not as many major AAA games. Seemed like developers were going back to making in house engines. Remedy, Ubisoft (multiple engines), EA, Crystal Dynamics, Sony (probably multiple engines), Avalanche, Dawn Engine for Deus Ex and more. Now, it seems like that is trending back to off the shelf engines. EA made Jedi Fallen order on UE, Crystal Dynamics is moving to UE, CD Projekt is among others. With the troubles of Frostbite recently I can see more EA titles outside of Battlefield going to UE.

Suppose new royalty models and further difficulties in designing modern engines is making the trend swing back.
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UE4 had a few things working against it. They switched from a one-time fee for licensing to a subscription model similar to Unity, and Unity was the new kid on the block that developers wanted to use.

Unity was really the first big competitor for UE on the scene, but I think since that time developers figured out that Unity can't fit the diversity of genres that UE can as easily. UE4 was also in development for quite a long time, so it didn't feel as cutting edge as other versions did by the time it came out.

UE5 feels exciting again, and being free up to a certain amount of sales is reached makes it attractive.
 
My only knowing experience with Unity was Battletech. If they had used literally ANY other engine, I think that game would've been a masterpiece. Unity loaded slow, was clunky, goofy texture issues. Nothing about it made me hope another developer uses it.
 
IDtech5 is my favorite Engine you can see ants crawling on the ground in Rage 2.
I think when Ashes of Creation comes out using Unreal 5 that will be the best.
 
Suddenly I lost interest in the game...

I'll get roped back in before launch, but FFS why do they need to make this multiplayer. They barely know how to balance a single player game, can't imagine how unbalanced a multiplayer Witcher is.
 
polonyc2 said:
they also announced that they are working on multiple other new Witcher games outside of the main saga...

https://www.ign.com/articles/cd-pro...punk-polaris-canis-majoris-sirius-orion-hadar
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this sounds the most interesting...

codename Canis Majoris - A full-fledged Witcher game, separate to the new Witcher saga...It will be developed by an external studio headed by experienced developers who have worked on past Witcher games...it's not currently clear which developer is working on this project
 
vegeta535 said:
Yea, I am tired of developers wasting dev time on crappy MP that no one is playing after day 1. Just stop and focus on making a epic new Witcher saga.
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Exactly. Unless you pour a lot of effort into building up the game it will be dead day 1. I know in the past some games used to have semi decent multiplayer and single player modes wrapped up into one game but that has largely passed. The multiplayer will be dead within a few weeks. I can see them making a separate multiplayer game but forcing it into all SP games going forward is not the right way to do it.

It seems like they are trying to tackle a lot of things at once. New Cyberpunk, new Witcher trilogy, and spin offs (even if done by 3rd parties) and multiplayer. Color me a bit skeptical that they can do all of this at once.
 
Marcin Iwinski announced he stepping down.

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https://twitter.com/cdprojektred/status/1577319162782834689
 
Flogger23m said:
It seems like they are trying to tackle a lot of things at once. New Cyberpunk, new Witcher trilogy, and spin offs (even if done by 3rd parties) and multiplayer. Color me a bit skeptical that they can do all of this at once.
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DFenz said:
Marcin Iwinski announced he stepping down.

https://twitter.com/cdprojektred/status/1577319162782834689
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I agree that too many big changes are going on at CDPR...new Witcher trilogy, Cyberpunk sequel and a new IP?...plus Witcher side stories being handed off to other studios...and the long time CEO stepping down...sounds like a complete restructure...with all the negative publicity they got after CP2077 (and falling stock prices) it seems they are trying to fix things by developing a ton of new projects...I wouldn't be surprised to see someone buying them out
 
The last thing I want is a Cyberpunk sequel. If they butcher the next Witcher I’m done with CDPR.
 
Hoping they can pull it off, but I'd be lying if the 'multiplayer added to all new games' doesn't raise red flags with me. It felt like, besides being purchased by EA, Bioware really started to spiral when they tried to push multiplayer components onto their games.
 
A witcher every two years... yessss.
Let's just hope they don't have issues like they did with Cyberpunk.. I think the world would be come utterly depressed.
 
SeymourGore said:
Hoping they can pull it off, but I'd be lying if the 'multiplayer added to all new games' doesn't raise red flags with me. It felt like, besides being purchased by EA, Bioware really started to spiral when they tried to push multiplayer components onto their games.
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In the case of BioWare, though, it actually worked. The MP in Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition was pretty good.
 
Armenius said:
In the case of BioWare, though, it actually worked. The MP in Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition was pretty good.
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I'll agree with you partially on the ME3 multiplayer, I enjoyed it as well, at first. The matches would get pretty intense, and the way you'd have to alter your strategy depending on which evil race you were about to play against was engaging.

But, it felt very grind-y at times. You'd spend multiple matches leveling your character, and then restarting at level 1 (or whatever it was called) resetting all your progression so you can build up your rank. And the way ME3 tied the single player campaign (I can't remember what the score was called, 'readiness' or something) to the multiplayer, it felt like multiplayer was not optional.

Still, for me, it seemed like when Bioware started to add these multiplayer components to their singleplayer games, that's when the quality of the singleplayer started to lower. Felt to me, it was at this point EA was concerned with ensuring financial success with their games, and at the time, singleplayer games were considered niche and multiplayer gaming was where publishers thought the real money was.
 
Armenius said:
In the case of BioWare, though, it actually worked. The MP in Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition was pretty good.
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I think it was underwhelming in ME3. Just wave based on a few maps. It was okay, but if I remember the waves were something high like 10. It would get old after 3-4 waves. And the gameplay wasn't exactly complex or good enough to be that engaging.
 
Flogger23m said:
I think it was underwhelming in ME3. Just wave based on a few maps. It was okay, but if I remember the waves were something high like 10. It would get old after 3-4 waves. And the gameplay wasn't exactly complex or good enough to be that engaging.
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Yes, 10 waves. The group I ran with could do Gold difficulty matches in around 8 minutes on average. Platinums took 12-15 minutes depending on the enemy faction (Reapers were always the worst). The enemy waves and objectives got more interesting as BioWare released updates. It was honestly pretty lackluster at launch.
 
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