Witcher 3 - 11 things CD Project Needs to do - editorital @ Strategy Informer

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I am not saying the other things shouldn't be there. But imagine you explore for 4 hours without finding any of the things you mentioned above.. at times like that you can at least think… well I got a level and I can now try to beat that beast and go and explore that other place I couldn't before, because I wasn't powerful enough.

Well, the implicit part of my point kinda was that an open world game, even a big one, doesnīt have to come with exploration where itīs possible to spend 4 hours without finding any of the things I mentioned above, even when one is trying to (aka when one is not avoiding points of interest on purpose, etc).
Also, Iīve forgot to include random encounters that could yield unique benefits and/or interesting experience.

Originally Posted by vurt
I couldnt care less about horse riding and sailing, it's gimmicky and doesnt improve gameplay the least. Until they tell us they've included swimming (hopefully diving too) and jumping(climbing) - both which are a must for true exploring, i will call this "open world" hype a complete bluff

At least according to some previews/marketing, jumping and climbing is in and jumping is supposed to be freeform (havenīt seen any details on climbing yet).
One preview also mentioned swimming is in as well (stamina is supposed to play some role in that and itīs supposed to go down much faster when swimming in cold waters).
Speaking of which, I donīt see how boats are gimmicky - so far they have been shown to be used in cold regions where it makes sense because the water is too cold for swimming. In that context it would be actually swimming that would be more gimmicky, as one may say it at times is in Skyrim.
Also, while there are good chances horse riding will end up as gimmick, it doesnīt have to, especially if itīs significantly faster than the gimmicky Skyrim iteration.
Nothing wrong with reservations though .

Originally Posted by crpgnut
- 36 final states of the world and 3 epilogues (each 1 hour long)

So we watch a movie at the end, that could be okay….

No the epilogue is a chapter of the game, not a movie. It's referring to 3 potential epilogue segments of game-play at an hour each.

Originally Posted by vurt
I couldnt care less about horse riding and sailing, it's gimmicky and doesnt improve gameplay the least.

It could. They have not spoken of fast travelling so far. Or have they?

Time and space are important. Horse riding and the associated decrease in time travel could allow to improve the relationship between time and space.
It would open the way to two paces in the world: the world set on a pace of walking, and the world set on the pace of riding.

I doubt it will be the case as I do not think they are going the organic world way.

As to sailing, certain places could only be accessible on a boat due to the tides etc