The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Neil79]

http://whatifgaming.com/developer-i...-from-2013-list-of-all-features-taken-out-why

 

[Witcher1979]

http://whatifgaming.com/developer-i...-from-2013-list-of-all-features-taken-out-why

Nice find Neil, pretty much proves in writing really that this gen of consoles are shocking and we will be stuck with this hold back for another 8 years or so until the PS5 etc. Can't remember the life cycle of PS3/360. Unless we are very lucky and this cycle is cut very very short.

 

[ICEx21]

I rally don't get it, did you started gaming yesterday?
When did a game look as good as in trailers? Marketing, you know, that's part of the industry.

Does the game look great today? I think so. With all the amazing things they achieved, you still bother with those screenshots ._.

(yes I didn't expect it from CDPR, but it's industry standard, nothing surprising is happening)

Marketing yes but the majority of people that are complaining were judging the game by the in game footage and taking a trusted developer at their word when they said the game wouldn't be downgraded at all but optimised.

Nobody expected optimise to mean massive downgrading and yes you're right the game does still look good but nothing as good as the in game footage we were shown before.

I've never understood why people are so quick to accept anything less than what they've been sold, the company has made a lot of money in pre orders on the back of some of the in game footage that's been shown in the past 2 years so IF the final article looks worse than what it was 2 years ago then that is unacceptable especially when you look at the delays.

PC footage hasn't been shown yet so I'm really hoping they blow us away and haven't gimped things as much as the console versions.
Undoubtedly it will be one of the best games this year regardless of how it looks but I just wish these developers actually delivered what they promised rather than us finding out about all their changes at release.
I'm still going to buy the game as I've been waiting for so long for it but if it is gimped it will feel tainted for me and now I have no company that I will ever pre-order from and that makes me sad <----my sad face

 

[Amatsubu]

Some of those don't look too bad, but on others it's ridiculous how badly the textures have been downgraded

Particularly this one:

http://polygamia.pl/Polygamia/51,96455,17905381.html?i=3

The wood texture on the wood on the fence to the right,

And: http://polygamia.pl/Polygamia/51,96455,17905381.html?i=4

The wood texture on the stairs and the house, and the stones on the right

Also the sunflowers in the field in the first image - in the top version you can see each individual plant, in the bottom it's just a green mass with yellow bits.

Yeah, it looks like a completely different game at times;/ What's especially saddening is that they could've easily made the PC version look like the top pictures (that gameplay was running on PC, after all) but they said they didn't have the resources to prepare three different versions using platform-specific assets so they just made everything identical across all platforms (bar the resolution/framerate and, possibly, nvidia-exclusive effects I suppose).

I'm plunging into my usual habit of pulling a Negative Nelly on everything but, as of now, the game looks mediocre at best and I don't expect a huge graphical leap from the PC version.

Having said all that, I'd really love to be proven wrong with a game that looks at least close to the Gamescom 2014 gameplay.

 

[ColdAsIce]

Little skeptical regarding the link, as the person won't go on record. However, if true, this will be the 1st time CDPR have gone against their PC user base. I wouldn't be surprised if the PC version has higher detailed textures with more gfx options but they don't want to sing about it as this could upset both Sony and MS just before release.

My understanding is that all the review footage so far has been from the PS4 copy, so we shall see!

 

[northwestdakota]

If the PC version has been downgraded, that raises a couple of important questions for me to consider. Firstly, as has already been pointed out, why do I need a £500 card to run the game at the same level that a much inferior console does? More importantly, what's the point in buying expensive PC hardware for games?

The most demanding game I own is GTA5, it runs really smooth on my 2 x 780Ti's, no troubles at all. I have been considering an upgrade to a 390x or 980Ti when they are available, but what would be the point if this is true about the Witcher? I can't think of any other game out this year that would need more than I have to run 1440 at max settings. The Witcher 3 for me was justification to spend big on video cards, it was my hope that they would be the last AAA developer to build a game around what a PC can do, not what a console can do. I guess it’s down to Star Citizen now…well that or some mods for TW3 like we had with Watch Dogs.

CDPR have potentially really shot themselves in the foot here, PC consumers do not want to hear about why the game will look the same as console, they want to hear about patch updates that will give us more graphical options and hi res textures etc.

 

[kinger8938]

Dark souls 2 did this downgrade thing, and it was a shame but i forgot all about it as soon as i fired it up and its one of my all time favourites. Everyone does it, i doubt its deliberate its hard to say

Either way i would say if its a big problem for some, speak with your wallet and dont buy it. But tbh its done, we all want to play it so maybe move on. It sounds like maybe letting them get away with it but who knows what happened behind the scenes

 

[kinger8938]

Dark souls 2 did this downgrade thing, and it was a shame but i forgot all about it as soon as i fired it up and its one of my all time favourites. Everyone does it, i doubt its deliberate its hard to say

Either way i would say if its a big problem for some, speak with your wallet and dont buy it. But tbh its done, we all want to play it so maybe move on. It sounds like maybe letting them get away with it but who knows what happened behind the scenes

 

[Born_2_Kill_83]

I bought TX mainly for this game, imagine how I feel, if it runs it great but the money isn't well spent as wheres the extra GPU power gone if its the same as the PS4, granted I will be running @ 4K so hopefully this will make up for some of the loss in graphics options.

 

[ColdAsIce]

I would need to search through youtube but I am 99% sure even at PAX it was mentioned that the game play videos were not even running max settings, as they were to be kept as a surprise for the final product :S

PAX was only in March? Surely not everything could have changed from then.

 

[Neil79]

Nice find Neil, pretty much proves in writing really that this gen of consoles are shocking and we will be stuck with this hold back for another 8 years or so until the PS5 etc. Can't remember the life cycle of PS3/360. Unless we are very lucky and this cycle is cut very very short.

Yep! As many have said it's not just the downgrade but it's the lies this company has pulled, this isn't just bullshots we are talking about. Because of this I really feel that a lot of people will cancel their preorder and just pirate it. Even it it's not the way to go about complaining

 

[spoffle]

I bought TX mainly for this game, imagine how I feel, if it runs it great but the money isn't well spent as wheres the extra GPU power gone if its the same as the PS4, granted I will be running @ 4K so hopefully this will make up for some of the loss in graphics options.

Surely you're aware that a Titan X isn't ever going to be value for money right?

They never really will be money well spent unless you're a big fan of nVidia.

Yep! As many have said it's not just the downgrade but it's the lies this company has pulled, this isn't just bullshots we are talking about. Because of this I really feel that a lot of people will cancel their preorder and just pirate it. Even it it's not the way to go about complaining

It doesn't seem to be confirmed that the PC version has been downgraded though has it?

 

[Martini1991]

I don't really care about the downgrade, but the game (at least on the PS4 version) just looks bad to me now. I don't know how to describe it... it looks somewhat "disjointed" and incomplete in my eyes. In some of the footage I've seen, the graphical fidelity is all over the place, from textures, foliage, and to the overall colour palette. It looks inconsistent imo. Even outside of that the animations etc. vary, some look pretty good where others looks clunky. Especially the water... sailing looked (in terms of presentation) awful to me.

Witcher 2 was the same though, Witcher 2 was arguably one of the best looking games when it came out, but some parts were definitely weaker. Inconsistent textures are seemingly a part of games these days though.

Again, back with GTA 5 (Since this is like the biggest launch in recent history, and one I had little enthusiasm for graphically) has some pretty excellent texture work.

 

[Amatsubu]

Well, if they couldn't have pulled off those graphics even on PCs then I'd be ok with that but, as the guy said, PCs had more than enough grunt to stay true to CDProjekt's original vision.

I don't get this, why should we suffer because consoles are weak? And what's with saying they didn't have the resources to make the best out of each platform? If you don't have the money/manpower to utlise/cater to each platform's strengths/weaknesses then simply don't release games on all three platforms. What's the bloody point (besides teh monies)? Abandoning your vision to release something on platforms which clearly weren't suited to running it decently without a crapload of compromises seems like an utterly daft idea. At least let me max it with tablet-level hardware so that I won't be ashamed I fell for yet another clever marketing ploy and upgraded my rig in anticipation of what I thought would be an exceptionally good looking game.

Rant over, waiting for the PC release to see how good or bad the game really looks.

 

[Maverick2332]

Dark souls 2 did this downgrade thing, and it was a shame but i forgot all about it as soon as i fired it up and its one of my all time favourites. Everyone does it, i doubt its deliberate its hard to say

Either way i would say if its a big problem for some, speak with your wallet and dont buy it. But tbh its done, we all want to play it so maybe move on. It sounds like maybe letting them get away with it but who knows what happened behind the scenes

Bingo.

 

[Winky_The_Winking_Turtle]

What's the bloody point (besides teh monies)?

You answered your own question.

 

[razorpakk]

[...]anything less than what they've been sold[...]

The "final draft" is sold to us, not the preview.
I only judge what I get to buy, the rest is all work in progress. In every creative work you go through various versions of your product, but only one gets to be published.

 

[kinger8938]

Bingo.

Thanks

I know i cant not play this game, so just have to accept the issues if any And enjoy the game for how it is on day 1

 

[Kelt]

Already linked...

Coded for the lowest common denominator out of the Xbone, PS4 and PC (no prizes for guessing which one).

 

[ICEx21]

The "final draft" is sold to us, not the preview.
I only judge what I get to buy, the rest is all work in progress. In every creative work you go through various versions of your product, but only one gets to be published.

Those were the shots they used to promote their game and to garner sales at the same time iterating that it's in game footage and won't be downgraded, by this alone they set the standard we should be expecting.
Nobody expected it to take a massive step back in terms of visual quality considering the delays and up until the start of this year repeated claims from CD Projekt about not downgrading the game.

To be honest at any point they could have said "we're having to review how the game will look due to the lack of resources" because let's face it, they'd have known about this for a long time but of course that puts a negative spin on things and could have a negative impact on sales not to mention the amount of backtracking they'd have to do on the PR side. You don't even need a marketing degree to work that one out.

"In every creative work you go through various versions of your product, but only one gets to be published."

Yes, you do go through various versions of a product but you tend to choose the best one, this clearly isn't.
If downgrading on the pc is confirmed then this would be a case of scaling back to cater to console demands also another thing they said right at the start they wouldn't do.

I've been following this game from the very start and love what CD Projekt do but I'm not so blind to see when they're wrong.

All these are ifs and buts right now and nothing is confirmed till next Tuesday