The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Interviews and Preview
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Both Xbox360Achievements and GameReactor have video interviews with writer Jakub Szamalek, while Dealspwn chatted with producer Marek Ziemak and also produced a preview for the title. Here's a snip from the latter:
A tangential detour has a brief look at the combat system, which has been refined and revamped to allow for "dynamic and spectacular control over Geralt's blades and actions". Ziemak talks of the team wanting to create points of interest that attract the player's attention out in the open world, using geographical landmarks, building constructions and ruins, and other aesthetics methods and tricks to pique the curiosity of the gamer.
Geralt heads for a ruined tower in the distance atop a hill, and is attacked upon reaching the summit by one of the game's many Special Beasts. This one -- part stag, part bear, part dragon? -- has a range of special attacks, with the AI for many of the beasts Geralt will encounter being crafted in bespoke fashion from scratch. The Steargon (not its real name) has a psychic third eye that can hypnotise our hero, changing the world into a shadowy realm of stark, black swirling clouds. The creature cloaks itself, only its glowing third eye visible, and Geralt must adapt until the hypnotic power wears off.
It's visually stunning stuff, although we're none the wiser as to whether or not the combat in this game will actually be an enjoyable improvement over that of the previous game, but it points towards something far more interesting: we'll be able to properly walk in Geralt's shoes and become the titular Witcher. Monster hunting is very much the order of the day in Wild Hunt, and Geralt can now track beasts for bounties as his character should. This dynamic world is bristling with unique creatures and marauding fiends for Geralt to take down and sell off, and thus for the first time, we'll be able to roam a fully open world, taking beastly bounties and ridding townships of their monstrous menaces.
