Witcher Developer Reveals New Next-Gen Engine

I totally agree with his assessment of current RPGs. I hope they can pull it off.

I LOVE THESE GUYS!

Its funny, they favor the story over the game world. I will reserve judgement until they pull it off.

Would that not only go to reinforce his thesis? Technological limitations put game makers into the uncomfortable position of having to do one or the other but not both. The Bethesda interpretation of Gamebryo, for example, makes doing highly reactive or emergent stories very difficult. Notice how reactivity to the player's accomplishments is spotty at best even among eyewitnesses in Skyrim? Or how script-heavy numerous elements in Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas and Skyrim are and must be? A stable platform could easily become the standard for that type of game (Bethesda muck-a-mucks, if you're reading this, and I know you are because you're always knocking down my door for insight...in my mind...if CD Projekt RED delivers you desperately need to consider dumping Gamebryo/Creation for REDengine 3) and allow both elements to be done well at the same time in a single game.

I just don't see it happening because the two styles of game clash on a mechanics level. Elder Scrolls RPGs are different from The Witcher RPGs, because the Elder Scrolls RPGs are more about the power fantasy, go anywhere mentality vs the tightly controlled, linear plot point story-telling the Witcher has. If they can combine then, im all for it. I just don't think its feasible because of core mechanics in what they want to do.

New Vegas solved that problem quite elegantly by throwing out level scaling in favor of regional monster locations (Cazadores appear in certain areas, but not just anywhere, the Deathclaws have five locations to themselves, etc.) and beef gates.

Actually, id say New Vegas solved that through the character interaction and plot intricacy more than anything else, but even then it was still not a perfect transition. In fact, many complain about that aspect of the game; that it was too focused and there was little incentive to explore. At least, those who I spoke to.

As I said, it will be a tall order to try to combine the two, buu I just don't see if it can be done, at least perfectly.

I was just referring to the exploration issue. Static unique loot and ranged scaling seems an effective compromise, but raw on-the-nose level/monster/loot scaling is just awful. Just play Oblivion to see it.

That is not what I was referring to though. You are right, of course, but that doesn't solve the major issue behind the disparity of the story/gameplay scenario, where The Witcher is as shackled as any narratively-driven RPG.

Ironically, due to static unique loot (and fixed base item stats in Skyrim but that's another discussion) the incentive to explore is actually higher in New Vegas. The lack of scaling means that items such as the Rat Slayer are more valuable the earlier one gets them.

I disagree. If anything New Vegas was the most linear of the open world RPGS in recent memory. I never really felt like I had a reason to explore the world. A similar problem happened with Borderlands 2, and it was because the main plot really took precedence in anything I actually did, to the point where its all I did for a while.

It's perfectly possible to head North right from the start. It's not easy, and an inexperienced player is more likely to get themselves killed than make it anywhere but from Goodsprings go to Sloan, then Neil's Shack and then take the mountains and stay on the upper ridges until you get to Repconn HQ. From there you're pretty much home free. If you've beaten the game once heading North at the start is a great idea, especially if you want to do some heavy metagaming.

Ambitious indeed, but thats the type of thinking the industry needs in order to advance in the future.

I'm definitely interested. The engine used in The Witcher 2 is a pretty decent one and visually it looks great for being a DX9 title. Definitely looking forward to what their new one can do.