The Witcher 3: Close look at the new trailer.

E3 is well underway with the game media buzzing about the new Xbox, speculating about the PS4 conference and maybe holding a vague amount of hope that perhaps Half-Life 3 will maybe be released one day. Unlike Half-Life 3, however, we were treated to something that actually exists! A new trailer for my most anticipated game of the whole conference, The Witcher 3!

As you will remember if you played The Witcher 2 in its entirety the third game continues the story of the invasion of Nilfgaard, the mighty empire to the south of the Northern Kingdoms and the largest and strongest nation in the world of The Witcher. Whether or not Geralt directly interacts with elements from Nilfgaard often remains to be seen, however, considering the title is 'The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt', it is a good bet that a healthy portion of the third installment of The Witcher will focus mainly on Geralts personal and background story between himself, Triss and the yet-to-be-seen Yennefer.

The trailer opens with Geralt riding on horseback through a mountainous forested area in a prime example of one of The Witcher 3s newest features, an open world and mounted game play.

Continuing, we see a hooded, bearded (and a fine beard it is) Geralt riding through a desolate landscape with a hooded figure to his left. The figure, from what I can tell is male (Dandelion perhaps?). Around them, scattered along the ground are bodies and banners in what is presumably a recent battlefield. Although it is hard to see, one of the banner colors are blue and white while the other is black and yellow. If this color scheme is correct, this may be the recent sight of a battle between Nilfgaard and Temerian soldiers. If this is the case than Nilfgaard has cut into the north quite significantly.

'They say he was a man obsessed;
chasing memories, faces, sense'

In the next scene Geralt is showcasing some stylish new leather and chain armor. The armor style is consistent with the previous games philosophy of realism, nothing about it is silly or impractical, in fact the shoulders have a 'Lorica segmentata' look to them; almost Romanesque.

After a quick scene with Garelt riding his steed into a town and up to a burly looking gate guard with heavily furred armor and a viking-like helmet and beard (Beards: The Game), we are treated to stunning fly-over of the world of The Witcher.

"Multi-Region". I'm not really sure what this means. My only two guesses would be that the game is cut into chapters like the second and each chapter has it's own open world, or they are speaking in geographical sense in which the entire world is open and spans several regions. I'm assuming (and hoping) that the latter is the case. In spirit of this open world we see once again Geralt galloping hastily on his horse, which also makes me wonder, is there fast travel? If there was you would probably not need a horse unless The Witcher is following with Elder Scrolls system of discover and unlock fast travel points. I hope there is no fast travel feature as that can sometimes damage the potential of organic events happening in the world. These questions, however, will remain unanswered for now.

Afterward, we see Geralt facing down a town up in a roaring fire. There have only been two small towns in this game series that warrant Geralts attention. The outskirts of Vizima, and Rivia. Now I'm not saying it's probably Rivia, but it's totally probably Rivia.

The remaining sequences show Geralt riding (he apparently really likes his horse) through several cities and towns, all of which seem to have their own unique flavor. Some looks Gothic or even renaissance while others look medieval and impoverished

And of course, my favorite part.

Is that a flooded building to the left?

BAM.

What's that? You wanted a second Wind Waker? Well guess what, you get Wind Waker plus boobs and beards.

Just how open is this world that you not only need a horse for what looks like 90% of your travels, but also a boat as well? Information on the world scale of The Witcher 3 is still in the shadows, but my interest is piqued for more info on whether or not this world is as colossal as I hope it is.

The last scenes show very fluid combat with what looks like reactive animation. Every fight shown in the trailer looks like a cut scene, even more so than The Witcher 2.Wolves, giants, harpy's all seem to use animation and AI that make the fights feel truly authentic, the way Garelt immediately swings at that harpy when it swoops into range. The combat look damn impressive..

You hyped yet?

So that was a little taste of the game I'm looking the most forward to, and how delicious it was. CDPorjekt has set the bar high for them on this one, but from the quality that they have been able to put out as a studio who it's really well-known, I have no doubt that they have the talent and drive to make the best possible game they can and I look forward to more information about it, and really look forward to actually playing it.