Witcher 3 - PCWorld: First Impressions

HiddenX · May 19, 2015

The Witcher 3 is released.

PCWorld talks about their first impressions with the PC version:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC) review impressions: Smoothly slaying monsters

I was worried.

After months of excitement about The Witcher 3, it seemed like it was falling apart in the run-up to launch. All of the reviews that went up last week were conducted on debug PS4 consoles. PC codes, meanwhile, were pushed back time and time again until finally I was told we’d receive code on launch day, probably. And all this from a PC-friendly developer like CD Projekt.

When a game’s coming in that hot on PC, we’re right to be worried. Mortal Kombat X, Assassin’s Creed Unity—these are just two recent examples where the PC version came at the last minute and featured huge problems not caught on consoles.

So yeah, I was worried about The Witcher 3. For no reason, it turns out.

NOTE: All tests in this article were conducted with Nvidia’s latest Witcher 3 game-ready driver installed, which was provided to us prior to release.

Monster slayer

To be fair, I’m only ten-or-so hours in at the time of writing, which is why you’re getting impressions today instead of a full review. And I plan to experience all The Witcher 3 has to offer, so who even knows when a review will hit?

But from that ten hours, The Witcher 3 seems to be an amazing accomplishment. Much of what I’ve played so far I already covered in my preview of the first four hours—You’ll start in the small town of White Orchard for a massive, three-hour long “tutorial” area and then head to Vizima to meet with His Imperial Excellency Emhyr var Emreis. If you’ve never played a Witcher game you might feel a bit lost, but your companion Vesemir will help you through the worst of it with some subtle flavor text.

Yada yada yada. This is all fodder for a real review. Let’s talk about how it runs. That’s the big concern here, what with people dissecting old E3 demos on YouTube to see whether the game’s graphics have been “downgraded.”

Downgraded or not, the graphics in The Witcher 3 are gorgeous. However, I would say The Witcher 3 certainly isn’t the graphics card-punishing beast that Witcher 2 was. Running at 1080p I was able to max out most of the (extremely granular) settings except Nvidia HairWorks and maintain a steady 60 frames per second…on a single GeForce GTX 970. The only things I dipped were grass density and crowd size, and I left those on High.

(...)

More information.

HiddenX · May 19, 2015

Some Watchers' first impressions can be found in this thread.

you · May 19, 2015

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And here is the bottom line from the above review:
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And I also think the PC controls are not great, to say the least. After playing the tutorial I abandoned the keyboard for a gamepad—clearly the input device the game was designed around. The keyboard controls are unnecessarily convoluted, with “Dodge” for instance requiring you to press Alt and W/A/S/D at the same time. Considering how much you’re dodging, it’s a huge pain.
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Sounds ilke this is not a game for pc players.

BrianOConnell · May 19, 2015

I find the controls (K&M) are fine. I agree the dodge button is awkward but thats about it. I might switch it with the roll button because I prefer to use dodge. A bit more realistic than roll spamming and so far as I can see they perform the same function more or less bar the distance you end up from the enemy afterwards.

Thorwyn99 · May 19, 2015

you said:
—
And here is the bottom line from the above review:
-
And I also think the PC controls are not great, to say the least. After playing the tutorial I abandoned the keyboard for a gamepad—clearly the input device the game was designed around. The keyboard controls are unnecessarily convoluted, with “Dodge” for instance requiring you to press Alt and W/A/S/D at the same time. Considering how much you’re dodging, it’s a huge pain.
—
Sounds ilke this is not a game for pc players.

Kinda expected that after Witcher 2, it played much better with a gamepad too, and they didn't even have console versions at first.

Luckily I don't have much of a problem with using a controller for anything but shooters.

crpgnut · May 19, 2015

I hope they have an easy mode. I hate rolling around and dodging. I prefer to think, not twitch. I don't own a controller...wait, I do. I bought one to see if it made Witcher 2 any fun but it didn't work. I'll give it a whirl though. Perhaps I can focus on magic and not have to twitch to win. Can I play the mage girl instead of Geriatric?

Dez · May 19, 2015

WTF is this shit? Movement keys can't be rebinded?

At this day and age? Are cd projekt guys just morons ? Same shit again? Wasn't this game meant to be optimized for PC ? I'm very dissapointed.

Edit: Seriously if i was reviewing this game, this would be -10 in a score. I hate this kind of crap. I expect a patch assap which will fix this.

Saxon1974 · May 19, 2015

Well sounds like its very consolized....oh well got plenty gamed to play anyway. If it gets patched to be more PC optimized later might pick it up. Didn't like witcher 2 though so if more of the same not Interested

azarhal · May 19, 2015

Dez said:
WTF is this shit? Movement keys can't be rebinded?

They can be rebinded, you need to edit a file called input, the UI appear to have limitations.

TheMadGamer · May 19, 2015

Is that confirmed that as of right now you cannot remap keys on the PC?

Dez · May 19, 2015

Found this thread

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/36609-Key-binding-is-that-a-troll

I'm glad that I didn't preorder. I remember exactly that Witcher 2 suffered from similar issues. I will definitely postpone my purchase.

I mean all the money they spent on pr and they overlook a basic thing like this. Getting controls to work should be a high priority. I think reviewers should not give them an excuse for this. It is not too much to ask that keys should be rebindable through menus.

fragonard · May 19, 2015

Modifying an .ini isn't terrible if it gets you what you want. Not ideal but not that bad either.

@crpgnut, yes there is a mode called "story only" not sure exactly what it does but it's def easy mode.

Format92 · May 19, 2015

I'm also postponing my purchase. Playing in a PC with a controller for me is a no go. I hope they improve playability with Keyboard + Mouse.

ChienAboyeur · May 19, 2015

Thorwyn99 said:
Kinda expected that after Witcher 2, it played much better with a gamepad too, and they didn't even have console versions at first.

TW2 was preparation ground for them to learn how to make a console game. They had already switched platform.

Learning, learning... They learned from TW3 too, stuff like binding the human player to a preset avatar put off players who look for association, next episode in the franchise, this is going to be a custom avatar etc

Caddy · May 19, 2015

In other words, this should play awesome on the PS4 :biggrin:

JDR13 · May 19, 2015

Good lord... a bunch of crying babies in this thread, and they're bitching about a game they haven't even played.

TW3 controls just fine with K+M. Not being able to rebind some keys is a temporary annoyance at worst. It only takes a few minutes to edit the .ini file.

HiddenX · May 19, 2015

Discussions should be about story, skills, quests, gameworld, combat and other gameplay elements.
Gfx, GUI, FPS, PC vs. console are secondary topics for me.

Thrasher · May 19, 2015

Boy, any goodwill CDP had from me is gone now.

JDR13 · May 19, 2015

Yeah, how dare they make a game that works well with both a controller and K+M! Bastards!!

zahratustra · May 19, 2015

I'm really heartbroken that some of you you are not playing TW3. I REALLY am. Trust me. Cross my heart and hope to die. DEVASTATED. I'm just crying myself to sleep...

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