Windows 10 "Unboxing"!

I upgraded to Windows 10 - it's free and it sounded good from what I've heard. Watch the installer in pictures if that's your thing.

Storytelling in The Witcher: Wild Hunt - an analysis of the series so far.

After having played a further several hours of The Witcher 3, I have encountered much more story elements. I should add that while I have tried to avoid any story spoilers (just a few minor game play elements) for the Witcher 3, if you want a completely new and surprising experience, until you play the game for the first time, you may want to avoid this.

Taking Control

In the Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, there are a few points in the game where the player takes control of a different character for a few minutes to show some aspect of the story from the other character's point of view, rather than protagonist Geralt's. For instance, at one point you play as a general on the battle field walking to meet his compatriots. In another point, you play as a captured enemy solider reliving some memories to reveal the location of a secret base. In both cases, the game, forces the player down a specific path, without needing to orient themselves in the game world. Often in story driven games, the enemies during these sorts of sequences are deliberately easier to kill and the alternative character may have much faster healing abilities, again for gameplay simplification purposes.

 The Witcher 3 uses this technique as well, to show what happened to a character that Geralt is looking for. In this case, in the story Geralt is told the events by a witness, but the game allows the player to experience them directly and actually influence the story to a small degree.

On a technical note, CD Projekt RED has improved the user interface in Witcher 3 to show the above sort of tips when the player first encounters a new screen. In this case, they explain that you are playing as another character and that you don't have access to your inventory.

In The Witcher 2, the game didn't pause to explain that you're playing as someone else for story purposes, so I felt it was actually a little jarring initially. Of course the character model is different  - which you notice is "off" - however the HUD didn't give much indication that I was no longer in a cut scene, so I initially didn't think to try to interact as I would if I was playing, instead of just watching. Once I realised I was playing as another character, of course I just played it the same. 

In The Witcher 2, these sections were quite self contained so you couldn't get lost. The Witcher 3, has so far has also set these areas in a relatively closed off section of the game world - actually inside a small canyon or dried river so that the player can really only travel forward. I actually tried turning around and running in the other way, but the valley seemed to continue in the other direction for quite a ways. And even then if you became disoriented, you could always follow the quest direction marker to get back on the path again. It's quite likely that this part of the world was specifically designed for this quest.

Reliving

In a similar vein as above, the games also Both The Witcher Assassins of Kings and Wild Hunt have told memory recall flashbacks to the player as interactive sequences played like normal gameplay. This technique provides a much more engaging story to the player than just a simple cut scene movie would.

The prologue in the Witcher 2 actually gives the player a chance to influence the story further along by way of your actions and dialogue choices with the character Geralt is conversing with. Without giving too much away, Geralt is being interviewed and his responses to the interviewer are acted out by the player. What's interesting, is that at various points, the game switches between the re-enactment and the interview, giving the player some dialogue options which changed the progression of the re-enacted story.

In the Witcher 3, the game opens with a flashback scene giving the player an introduction to the world of Witchers (in general) and the important characters in the story. In this playable-flashback, you're given opportunity to practice combat, Witcher skills, and introduced to the characters through direct interaction and dialogue conversation sequences. After this opening area, this part of the story is revealed to be a dream that Geralt is having while resting with the other witcher (companion) who the player was previously introduced to in the opening gameplay. They then have some conversation which the player can direct to learn more if they desire. After this the rest of the game continues with a horse ride to the next town.

Story Progression

The Witcher series of games have always been story heavy and The Witcher: Wild Hunt is no exception. The story structure in Wild Hunt (so far as I've played at least...) seems to be more similar to The Witcher than Assassins of Kings.

The original game in the series is clearly divided in to 5 acts, plus a prologue and epilogue. The prologue gives the player an introduction to the concept of the Witchers, and begins the story of the stolen witcher secrets. First, you need to make your way to the capital city performing tasks and helping the inhabitants of the neighbouring city, before they grant you access to the capital city of Vizima. Once you gain access to Vizima, the first couple of chapters progress from finding and researching the conspirators, to attempting to capture them. Finally, a break in the action to enjoy the Lakeside during Act 4, and returning to action to catch up with the conspirators in Chapter 5, concluding in dealing with the mastermind in the Prologue.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings follows seems to have taken a much more discreet path in it's plot progression. In each chapter the story moves to a different city as Geralt finds out more about the Kingslayer's whereabouts. The quests, dialogue, action and cutscenes also deal with the political landscape and how it's being shaped by the assassinations - so much so that the politics actually overshadows the hunt for the perpetrator. While the story and setting were interesting and the quests seemed to fit in to the story, I found this too distracting from the perceived main story. The politics of the fictional world were very hard to follow, and of course I wanted to find the killer.

So far, the story progression and structure of Wild Hunt reminds me of The Witcher rather than the Witcher 2. Being an open world game, The Witcher 3 is not divided into specific chapters, but the main story quests do branch off into further quests, expanding the story. During the prologue, the player needs to help the town with a monster problem (just as well he's a professional monster slayer) in order to gain information on the whereabouts of his friend. After the two are reunited, the rest of the story opens up, and Geralt is tasked with finding an important character. There, Geralt is given an initial lead and instructions on where to gain further information. He then has to meet three people who might have had dealings with the person he's after. These people also need Geralt to complete various tasks for them before they'll tell Geralt the information he seeks.

This plays similarly to the first game, revealing more information directly related to the main plot-line as you progress through the game, so you feel like you are solving the mystery. In second game, I got the impression that much of the mystery was actually solved for the player during unrelated quest-lines, instead of guiding the player through their own discovery. Contrast that with Wild Hunt's story progression where quest completion reveals information directly related to the main plot, and fits in well with the theme of the setting - war, poverty, city, wealth, etc.

Overall Feelings

It's been an interesting progression of the game development through the series, from a game using a modified but licensed game engine, to developing their own more capable engine from scratch, to finally building an open world game to rival games from even well established developers. 

The Witcher: Wild Hunt has a very purposeful and engaging story, it's well written and is tied together completely too. This will be the final game with Geralt as the main character, and this story looks like it will finish up quite nicely. Out of Witcher 1 and 2, the second game had the better graphics and gameplay, while the first game had the more engaging and satisfying story. I do notice one other point of difference between all three games, and that is atmosphere and my personal emotional state while playing the games. I will discuss that in further detail in a future post though.

The Witcher: Wild Hunt

First up: The game runs and is playable on an nVidia 560 TI! For all the hype and articles suggesting it wouldn't run or needs an nVidia GeForce GTX 660 to play, the game runs! And it looks gorgeous.

Launch

Yay! You can skip the splash screens!

 Oooh Pretty!

CDPR! Cześć Hello!

Then the game goes through a short video (again in their graphic novel style from Witcher 2), explaining Witchers, and the current war going on.

The Menu and Game Config

The main menu loads fast! In The Witcher 2, even after you skip the opening titles, the game has to load.... something.... which a good 30 seconds or more, so you're sitting there looking at one frame of the opening cinematic until the menu loads. Whereas in Wild Hunt it loads in a few seconds after the cinematic (even if you skip it).

The Witcher 3 - Installer!

Witcher 3 Digital Download Unboxing! 

I thought I'd do an installer review, just for fun.

English! I choose you!

Streaming Adventures

Recently I've been experimenting with Steam's In Home Streaming and Big Picture mode. I have a spare Mac Book Pro and Steam is available for Mac OSx now, so I thought I'd try it out. (Truth be told, it's been available for some time but this story will go beyond that.)

Valve recently released a new technology, In Home Streaming designed to allow gamers to play games even on platforms where their game of choice ianr supported. For example playing on the couch using a small laptop which might be more comfortable.  In Home Streaming is a client-server technology tgat works wothin your local network to capture the video and audio from your desktop computer and sending it to your laptop pc, and and the same time, sending to the inputs back to the host pc. Of course, it doesnt have to be a desktop to a laptop .Could be cross platform as well so you can play Windows games on a Linux or Mac pc.

In Home  Streaming works surprisingly well, passing the  game's output to the client and passing back the control to the server.

What I wanted to do was to be able to play PC games on the TV and use Logitech's F310 Xbox 360 compatible controllers. I'm going for the whole "lean back experience".

After much experimentation, i finally got all the pieces in place for playing games on the TV.

I tried to use the Mac natively but the game controllers weren't supported on Mac so I switched to using Windows under Boot Camp.

I'm not very good at playing games on a controller but racing games or simple games are ok. Music games like Audio Surf aee very fun on the TV with nice sound.

This post was actually created as part of a speed blogging session for BarCamp so it's a bit unplanned.

The Witcher 2. Finished.

So, I've finished The Witcher 2 - Assassins of Kings, in only about 3 months instead of the 2 to 3 years that the first game took (of course, there were large breaks during that time where I was not gaming or playing other games). The Witcher 2 took about 40 - 43 hours of play time which puts it quite close to the developers' estimate of 40 hours. In those 3 months of Witcher 2 I probably only took  1 or 2 week breaks as the game had a much faster pace

What's Changed

It wouldn't be a sequel without a comparison to the earlier game, and CD Projekt RED has given us much to compare! New story, new gameplay, totally new engine.

New Story

I'll be brief here so as not to give anything away, this story takes place over 4 main distinct areas - 2 battle fields and two towns. The game sticks quite closely to the story this time, with only a few side quests per chapter. As much as the side quests in RPGs are fun - optional quests that you can choose to veer off and take a break from the main story, I think it worked quite well here to limit them. The game seemed flow a bit better and didn't get as tiresome. 

New Gameplay

A modern game deserves modern gameplay and CD Projekt RED have succeeded in this regard. The combat is a lot faster paced with full support for game controllers since it is also released for consoles. After the first few fights I got used to the new combat system, but I'll always think fondly of The Witcher's system of combat. There was something epic feeling about pressing X for Group attack style or C for Fast and having to decide which combat style to use depending on which enemy you're fighting. In the The Witcher 2 you left-click for Fast attack or right-click for Strong (or is it the other way?). I was never able experience proper combat with this new system, I ended up just everything enough times it died. Though according to the GoG.com forums, this new system would give increased control. In first game, you really only had to click when the cursor changed to a flaming sword icon, then you'd get the combos and attack bonuses.  Hopefully I'll get a better feel for the combat system in the third installment.  This video by "WrathzRevenge" on YouTube gives a good indication. There is some swearing though, please supervise your kids!

In the Witcher 2 you now have the ability to use the Witcher Sign Axii during conversation to influence the conversation a certain direction or gain knowledge that the character wouldn't otherwise have told you (previously you could only use Axii during combat, and it didn't seem very useful there anyway). As well, you can Intimidate (threaten) the character into cooperating with you, again for an increased chance of them giving you something or doing something for you. Another new addition to conversation is time based dialogue.  To encourage the player to make a particular choice and simulate a sense of urgency, some dialogue lines have have a time attached. 

These additions worked well I think - using Axii during a conversation gives the player as Witcher a powerful feeling, while giving the player some chance to use the ability even if they mightn't bother during combat. I never used it during combat, primarily because it seemed to use precious seconds during a battle and well, I wasn't that coordinated to try it, even in the first game. (Actually, I never used Yrden the trap sign in Witcher 1 either, I think it seemed useless the one time I tried it.) Intimidation is an expected ability for a (in-)famous Witcher to have, and these days it's a common ability in modern RPGs.

Minigames

The Witcher gave us fist fighting and dice poker minigames for player enjoy if they didn't feel like hunting monsters. The Witcher 2 adds arm wrestling and updates the mechanics of the dice poker and fist fighting games. Notice I said "updates", not "improves". The fist fighting matches are now a WASD based quick-time event (but fortunately, they are actually achievable), and with the new engine now look quite nice and fluid. Video by Keenage

The dice poker games have unfortunately gone backwards, with the printed numbers on the die in a such an exotic font that it's quite difficult to read and the player's mouse influencing the roll of the dice to such an extent that you could roll them outside of the game board.

 

Fortunately, due to the faster pace of the second game, there wasn't as much time to sit around playing dice games.

New Game Engine!

In the first game, CD Projekt licensed the Aurora Engine (and heavily modified it to add more 3D and special effects) from Bioware, known for the Neverwinter Nights games. As I discussed previously, this did have some limitations, the most noticeable one for me was only being able to walk around on pre-defined ramps to areas that were raised compared to other areas. 

For The Witcher 2, CD Projekt was able to use the funds they raised from the first game and expertise they learned to build their own game engine which you've seen above. This new engine is much more capable and now provides for multiple levels within an area such that you can climb up or down to get to, such as ledges via ladders or valleys via rock faces. When click on the ladder or rock face to climb it, Geralt automatically does that action and animates for the player. You don't have to keep holding the key to climb.

In the Aurora Engine, every area was a separate rendering scene so the game needed to load and unload maps even when you entered a simple area like a house or a whole new area like a cave. In RED Engine the transition between outside areas is seamless and fluid - you can enter a cave from the forest as you would in real life - by waking down it! One curious thing though, While there wasn't any loading time so speak of between an outdoor area and an indoor area you had to click the door to open it. This was fine and makes perfect sense... Until you have to follow an NPC and they open the door for them self, but then promptly slam it in your face, rudely interrupting your following of them on your mission!

Things I Miss From The First Game.

Actually, I miss most of my favourite game play elements! But some are more important than others...

Adding custom waypoint markers - This was quite handy in W1 to help prevent the player getting lost, particularly in the swamps where it's important to follow a particular route through the swamp. This would have been very useful in some parts of W2 in the forests since the trails weren't marked very well and again, if you didn't take the right path, you'd end up some where else in the forest.

Click to move if you're lazy and pausing the game even in mid battle - Clicking to move didn't really make sense in this new game anyway, it's a product of older RPGs and this game only had one camera view, Over The Shoulder. The only real problem is you can't play the game while eating because you need to actually control Geralt now. (Before, I could take a spoonful of food and click to move around and he'd automatically walk there.) Pausing the game in the middle would have been cool to look at the effects, but I think they were deliberately going for a faster paced game this time.

Alcohol and potions. In The Witcher, you could collect alcohol that you found or bought, and you actually need it as an alchemical base to brew potions with. You could also drink it and walk around the game drunk. In The Witcher 2 you don't even need a base for potion brewing anymore, just the plants or animal parts, and you can't drink outside of a conversation with an NPC. You can't even eat food to gain a bit of health back, with was fun to watch. I guess they wanted to focus on the game and story, rather than having the player run around trying to get alcohol for potions. It certainly simplifies the game and made it less tedious, but it was just kind of fun to get the ingredients together or watch the screen get blurrier as Geralt gets drunk. They have also restricted the potion brewing to only potions you have recipes for - no more mixing up random things to make new potions. But again, it does help to condense the game and make it more accessible.

Extras

The Witcher 2 includes a new Arena mode which is just a combat mode with no impact on the story. You can try out different combat types or just fight monsters or humans quickly, without worrying about the main story. 

The developers also provided support for XBox compatible game controllers, which I found very difficult to use though, being a PC gamer, I suppose that's just me. The Witcher 3 gameplay videos I've seen, show the developers using a controller to demo the unreleased game, which will also debut on the consoles at the same time as the PC version.

I'd like to try out the Arena mode more and maybe the controller... control system and write a more detailed post about them in the near future. 

Witching Thoughts - Post Game thoughts on The Witcher

So, I finally completed The Witcher by CD Projekt RED. It probably took me at least 90-100 hours for the main game. These statistics came from my Xfire profile and ManicTime time tracker for PC.

http://www.significant-bits.com/witcher-and-fisstech

Favourite game play elements:

• Click to move if you are lazy.
• Witcher attack styles.
• Drinking alcohol makes you drunk.
• Combining potions with special ingredients to make extra strong ones.
• Hold down alt key to highlight objects.
• You could press space key to pause the game even if mid combat and change Signs or drink potions. Look around the world.
• Adding custom way point markers to the map.

Chapters and environments:

Prologue - Kaer Moren new and fresh. What's interesting is the premium module The Price of Neutrality actually uses the Prologue map as a real level even though in the original game it was only an in-game cut scene. This was because the cut scene wasn't just a video, it was a scripted camera animation path using the normal game engine.

Chapter 1 - Outskirts of Visima like a small country town. It serves as an introduction to some of the characters and the continuing story line. This level wasn't too tedious though it was lengthy (it felt about the length of chapter2), it seemed to provide enough variety.

Chapter 2 and 3 are set in Visima itself. Great looking city. These two chapters get a bit long and tedious. But they form the bulk of the story line. In these sections, there was a lot of running around between the city areas and the swamp area, with the swamp area being particularly annoying as there were so many things out to kill you. Chapter 3 was probably the longest in my opinion.

Chapter 4 moves to the Lakeside. The atmosphere here was wonderful, relaxing and the story line here provided a much needed break from main storyline. This is my favourite chapter in the game - this "diplomacy" chapter where you were just helping characters sort out their domestic disputes (with monster killing too of course) was very fun, and a few of the characters were quite memorable.

Chapter 5 and the Epilogue returns Geralt to Vizima to finish what is was started in the Prologue. This section, forming the conclusion of the game was quite interesting to look at - the environments were varied but they made sense, and weren't too tedious.

Annoyances

You can only walk up a ramp or stairs even if the height above the ground is quite enough to easily jump down. This of course is a limitation of the game engine CDPR used, and they managed to improve this in second game by allowing you to climb up ledges or hop down from a height. In The Witcher 2 you can click at the edge so Geralt will jump down or climb up, or ascend or descend ladders. (It will play an animation for this.)

Some of the enemies were quite difficult for the player character's level of experience, even with potions and stuff you still die several times. Come back, level up a but more and it's easy. If you don't like frustration... edit the save game like I did if it was too frustrating and ruining the actual fun. Actually this may have been improved in Witcher 2 as I haven't felt the need to that this time. Sometimes I still read the walkthroughs or play videos just to realise something obvious I missed though.

Some of the buildings seem almost as tall as Geralt from the outside, but inside they are normal height. Typically though RPG buildings are 1/3 scale from the outside.

Premium Modules

The premium modules were fan made bonus adventures that CDPR had professionally voiced for the release of the Enhanced Edition. (I don't believe that they were fan made mods anymore - I once did, but from reading around I think they are indeed developed by CDPR; but they had that fan made feel to them.)

Side Effects - 3.5 hours.

Side Effects has a very fun, "fan mod" feel about it, it's all the cool things you'd like to do in the game rolled up into a short story! It felt like exactly the sort of game I'd make if I were making a game with the editor, and... precisely the games my classmates made during our game design subject at university.

Price of Neutrality - 3 hours.

This module was fascinating and nostalgic because we were playing back with the other Witchers at Kaer Moren (and they were voiced by the original cast), but there a couple of frustrating times when I had to redo particular battles with monsters or that it was very difficult to survive a particular fight. But still I'd recommend playing it, just bear that in mind.