I love me some Witcher, and I love the way the games are laid out, in a progressive narrative structure. I also adore open world games, but I'm not sure the Witcher narrative can be married to an open-world format. What do my fellow GOG lackeys think on this? Oh, and a smexy screenie of the update RED engine:

http://s.cdaction.pl/obrazki//REDengine-3-duzy-screen_4bc9.jpg

Was it actually said anywhere that Witcher 3 is going to be open world, or are you saying that because Mortal Kombat uses an engine designed for FPS games, Mortal Kombat is a FPS?

CDPR has said it like a dozen times now.

I love me some good open world RPG, but they do pose potential pitfalls. Far too often, "open world" really means "repetitive side quests tacked on to a linear story". If CPDR can somehow avoid that with TW3, I'm all for it.

Eh...the idea doesn't appeal to me, but CDProject has handled The Witcher pretty well to this point. As long the team hasn't been swapped for a completely new one, I guess it would work out.

I take it you've locked "We'll be releasing a new game" as "We'll be releasing The Witcher 3", since they haven't actually said anything about TW3 yet as far as I know.

/edit: pay no mind. I'm tired and grumpy. it'll probably be TW3, but we still have no clue what they mean with the open world even if it is.

You are tired and grumpy, go to bed. I've looked into this, and by open world they've said 'you can go anywhere with no obstacles or loading screens.' And of course it's going to be Witcher 3. Geez.

Open world can mean anything and nothing, if anything Witcher 2 chapters can be considered as small self-contained "open worlds", you can freely explore, engage in side quests, etc...

Personally I don't think it will change a lot, maybe bigger "chapters", or a single huge chapter where more and more zone get accessible as the story progress, but nothing too "drastic". (I don't think we will see Geralt start climbing buildings to unlock viewpoints or drive over pedestrian in its pimped horse carriage ;) )

As long as they keep it story-heavy, instead of "make your own entertainment" like Just Cause. Nothing wrong with the latter, but I don't think it is what Witcher needs.

Mafia was a great example of a story driven open world game IMO.

They'll get many sales if they replace collectible roots or crappy crystals with 100 girl cards.

Maybe it is just me, but I LOVE the idea of an open world for The Witcher 3... ^_^

I think the thing they really have to deal with is the possibility of running into main quest things too early. And adequately explaining why they weren't there the last time you checked.

That was one of my main complaints about FO3 and FO:NV.

Having read the first witcher book, which is a series of excellent short stories, I think having an open world format that allows for stories like those to be told would make this the best witcher game to date.

It's fully possible to do a open world game with good, well flowing plot, L.A. Noire is a good example of that.

L.A. Noire is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. A very linear story (or several connected short stories) with random repetitive side quests. That is not open world done well, that is open world done blandly. L.A. Noire was actually a very good game, but the "open worldness" might as well have not been there.