Witcher 3 - Open World Video @ GameInformer
 

The third installment of GameInformers's exclusive interviews is out. This one discusses the new open world design.
More information.

I kept obsessing on his shoe being untied.

I think its going to be nearly impossible to have the same level of story in a sandbox style game. What they are saying just sounds like PR to me.

This being said I would rather have less story and more open world play anyway, I love sandbox games and one of my biggest irritations with the witcher games were the linear world. I want some story but I would much rather have a big world to explore.

No, it's not. There are a lot of previous examples proving it.
If they can deliver, on the other hand, needs to be seen.

Of course, i hope they are going to take Gothic as a model, far more than Skyrim.

Well Gothic isn't really know for it's memorable story now is it? I cant even recall the story of any of them. You went were you wanted and did what you wanted that's it.

Oh wait it's coming to me Orcs vs Humans vs Gods. You decide if humans need the gods or not.

I don't know…if they can add their unique ideas to a skyrim model I think it could be really good.

Not very likely they would look at Gothic considering how much better Bethesda is doing. The CDP devs mentions Skyrim, and the landscape / setting, from what we've seen so far, looks very Skyrim'ish too. Even Piranha Bytes couldnt help themselves and tried their best to copy TES with Gothic3.

Very interesting interview.

Witcher 3 sounds promising. I like everything they are saying. It seems CDPR might be the company to finally give Bethesda some competition in the open-world RPG category.

This is my take too, but not as long as Geralt is the protagonist. It's impossible to do open world when you don't even have the choice of main character. Also, the main thing that separates Bethesda with the competition is a moddable engine. I'm not sure CDPR has the skillset or desire to do this. Their game, by default, will be much less open than Bethesda's.

While I will tip my hat to the likelihood that TW3 will likely be a fledgling effort at a true open world game, I disagree that it's doomed simply because Geralt is required or that TES success is dependent on mods. In fact, most of the time, the only TES mods I'll download are those to explicitly fix Bethesda's foolhardy bugs and UI choices, not actual content overhauls. Given that so many people forego moddability with an XBox copy, I can't imagine myself being alone in this boat.

Why? The world can be open even if the main character is not.

As long as the main character is customizable in other ways then it's no big deal. To me, anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised if CDPR encouraged modding of Witcher 3, even providing tools. I think mods in open-world games are really going to catch on. If CDPR is really learning things from Skyrim and Bethesda, they will encourage modding as well.

Agree that Bethesda doesn't need mods to stand out. I play a completely unmodded game on my first playthrough. Want I meant to say is that modding is part of what makes Bethesda superior to other open-world wannabes.

Truth. I mostly mean that Geralt is not as open choice as what you get with a character that you choose yourself. Do I want to be an aging, scarred, neutered, albino? No. Okay, TW3 isn't as open as TES. I'd rather have the openess in more places than where I tend to wander. For both better and worse, TES is much more open and will not have a challenger in TW3. It could still be, and I expect it to be, a good game and a new and exciting entrant into the field.

Well hopefully they don't ruin it with consolitis and quick time events. Playing Witcher 2 after paying full price … made me soooo angry. I hated it. Too many long unskippable cut scenes. Too many 'QTE' mini-games… so that Geralt the super monster killer gets punched out by every doofus he meets. I loved Witcher 1 despite all its flaws. Witcher 2 will sit unplayed in my steam account for the rest of time. Witcher 3? I will save my money for real RPGs.

Mods are going to catch on? Bethesda has been doing them since oblivion(well you could mod the other ones but it wasn't as main stream.)

Depends which titles you're talking about. I thought Fallout 3 was sub-par without mods, and Oblivion was outright terrible.

Since Morrowind and some modders are still active too.

I'm not entirely sold on the logic yet that just because "everyone likes open world games", CD Project should necessarily go in this direction, essentially because of the strengths of the previous games. But it is ambitious and I certainly applaud them for the concept and will watch its development with interest.
It'll be amazing if they can pull it off.

A couple of concerns:
1) How much will this open world design compromise their usual strong narrative delivery and available choice & consequence to the player?
2) Will they be able to create enough content to fill their world consistently without it becoming too stale, empty or generic?

I haven't been able to play "The Witcher 2" yet but from what I remember you could disable the QTEs in the menu. Also I think that they said that they are not going to have them in "The Witcher 3".