With every new Fable game, we’re inundated with lofty promises. Each new announcement is met with some version of the characterization: “Ambitious as hell, potentially unto its own detriment.” The new Fable Legends doesn’t disappoint in that aspect.

I was lucky enough to get a very early look at the game, and it looks — yes, precariously ambitious, but also — pretty freaking awesome.

It’s a massive departure from previous installments, which have only really dabbled in multiplayer. The desire was clearly there, even if the execution wasn’t all it could have been.

With Fable Legends, the creators wanted to place the joy of cooperative multiplayer at the heart of the experience. The optimal set up is this: Five players hooked up via Xbox Live (as of now, it is an Xbox One exclusive), four of whom will join forces as a team of four Heroes. The fifth player — and this is where it gets a little crazy — takes on the role of “The Villain.”

The concept is essentially to make The Villain a sort of Dungeon Master figure in the game. The Villain takes control of enemy forces though an RTS-style top-down map view. Since the visual style is solidly in the Fable world, the Villain’s view almost resembled Lionhead’s old Black and White games.

Besides just being clever about monster placement, The Villain has an arsenal of other skills at her command. These skills are often activated through the summoning of certain special monsters which confer special abilities like Artillery strikes or explosive proximity mine placement. The Villain can place “totems” to confer buffs on all of her minions, which the Heroes can then destroy.

The Villain’s primary goal is to split the Heroes up, because they are strongest when they work together. So he can raise gates and barriers to block their progress (and also impale/damage the Heroes with the gate’s spikey bits if his timing is good). The Heroes can destroy the gates, but its a good way to disrupt the team both in terms of displacement and time wasting.

As for the Heroes themselves, there are a number of hero types, both ranged- and melee-focused classes with classic Tank, DPS, and Support style roles. At present, the team has 6 playable characters, but the long term goal puts the number of options in the 12 – 16 range. Each character has their own skill and stat progression, and access to a number of different skills. When embarking on a mission though, you’re only allowed to bring three of your available skills with you. That way, you have to organize and work with your team mates to develop an optimal cooperative load-out. There is versatility in the characters, but only to a point. A sword-and-board hero will always be a sword-and-boarder, but based on her equipment load out, she can orient more towards offense or defense as needed. The ranged characters play more like a traditional FPS game (technically TPS). There is no automatic health regeneration, so you will likely need a healer for a proper run.

The combat is fast and flashy, with lots of explosions and spells flying every direction, it felt a little chaotic and hard to track, but that’s probably just because we were thrown into a demo with little foreknowledge. Much like Left 4 Dead or Borderlands, when Heroes go down, you can run over and revive them — but it does take a while to do, so you’ll need to be relatively safe to give it a try..

Since there’s no innate health regeneration, it’s important to play the early areas well. Sort of like in Left 4 Dead, the healing is limited, so you need to do well in the first stages or else you’ll be too resource-starved to handle the bigguns at the end.

Besides these mission instances, the creative team is determined to make this a thoroughly Fable experience. Complete with chicken kicking, comical villagers, seducable NPCs, and on and on. The equipment system will be more reminiscent of Fable than Fable 2, that is: You will be able to customize your character’s appearance, but your equipment will also confer stat bonuses, etc.

Each of your heroes will level individually, and you will loot chests for items and such. The Villain also has a level progression system, but instead of looting treasure chests you loot the corpses of your slain victims— er, friends. You loot the corpses of your slain friends.

There will also be an AI system which can take control of any one of these five positions, you can play four player co op and let the AI handle the villainry, or you can play single player and let AI control your three hero comrades.

Despite the dungeon-crawler-y aspect of the missions, the creators insist that you will still enjoy the full narrative joy that you would expect from a Fable title. As for the setting: In the previous Fable games, you were seeing the sort of death of the Hero in the world of Albion. For this title, the creators have gone back to long before the time period of the original Fable, and back to a sort of Golden Age of heroes. So don’t expect the steampunky, gunpowdery style of Fables 2 and 3, but do expect a return to fantastical fairy tale themes..

It looks very promising from a purely gameplay standpoint. The primary weakness of the game that I’ve identified is this: There is no couch-side co-op. So in order to play with your friends you’ll either need to drag your Xbox One and TV over to each other’s houses, or more likely: sit alone in your house and interact via voice chat. This won’t be an issue for a lot of folks, but I see the lack of couch-side as a serious drawback. Besides that, though, I will be eagerly awaiting further news from the folks at Lionhead.

It is impossible to play this game without thinking of Dark Souls. Namco Bandai has clearly taken notice of the success of those titles, and it looks like they’re trying to dominate that segment of the market with more titles.

Lords of the Fallen is being developed by CI Games and Deck 13 — not From Software, the creators of Dark Souls.

During the hands-on demo, there were two paths to take, one took you through a short level with a magic-user wielding a staff, and the other put you directly into combat with an enormous demonic knight wielding a flaming sword, putting you in the role of a a hammer-wielding fighter looking like a hybrid of War from Darksiders, Dr. Doom, and a Dark Souls character.

Lords of the Fallen has an aesthetic entirely its own. It is a lovely mix of grungy, bloody, creepy, and shiny-badass exquisite equipment. During the level playthrough, I picked up a new set of armor which completely changed the look of my character.

The Boss Fight

I took the boss fight first, and promptly died over and over. As you do in these types of games. But through trial and error I eventually learned how I had to fight the battle. As in Dark Souls boss fights, the Demon Knight was pretty obvious about broadcasting his next move with just enough lead time for you to shield-up or dodge-roll. As in Dark Souls, you have an Endurance bar which drains when you attack, roll, or block with a shield. The endurance regenerates faster if you’re not actively holding your shield up. You also have the option to switch between single-handed-plus-shield or double-handing the hammer you’re hefting.

So I died a lot. A whole lot. The combat is fast and heavy, requiring immaculate timing and patience. It was difficult but fair (mostly, caveat below), and finally winning the fight was extraordinarily satisfying.

The only way in which this boss fight mechanically differed from a Dark Souls was an increased emphasis on dodging and rolling. Personally I found this a lot more natural, fluid, and fun than Dark Souls’ sometimes clunky and slow fighting (even though it is intentionally clunky and slow in those games). The increased emphasis on dodge-rolling does bring Lords of the Fallen’s combat system a few shades toward a more traditional action-adventure game like Darksiders.

This was still a pretty early build, but the Demon Knight had one insta-kill move (whether you were shielding or not) which was a little inconsistent in its tracking and hit area, making the boss fight a little irritating at times.

The Level

Then I took a quick foray into the level-traversal side of the demo. The magic wielded by the other character was pretty satisfying. Again, though, if you’ve played Dark Souls, you already know how the fighting goes for the most part. Even a trio of low-level enemies can easily kill you if you fight stupid, and even the grunts take some work to dispatch. The magic wielder swapped between spells by equipping different magic gauntlets. There is a “mana” bar and the spells have a cooldown.

You’ve got your classic action stuff, fighting, loot chest smashing-in-ing, and a creepy ass dungeon to crawl. There were some interesting environmental opportunities as well. At one point a hulking, heavily armored knight came charging out of a hallway. With a heavy downward swing, he opened up a hole in the floor, down into a presumably bottomless pit. I situated myself on the far side of the pit, and when the hulk charged me he dropped down the hole and disappeared. Problem solved.

In short, if you’re a fan of Dark Souls, you’re almost guaranteed to like this game. Keep an eye out for this one.

The Sony conference was nearly a full two hours long, packed to the proverbial gills with announcements.

Destiny

We start with an ominous look at the planet Mars, with some dudes in righteous space suits armed with rifles. They come upon some sort of hovering sphere. They call it “The Traveler.”

The time setting is post-colonization of our entire solar system. Massive technological advances have brought our civilization to new heights.

But the Traveler had an enemy… And wouldn’t you know it? That enemy decided to come wreck up our happy people party.

The aesthetic is a beautiful sort of a Halo-meets-modern-techno-Final-Fantasy hybridg. Destiny is coming to the PS4, and after that trailer, I’m more excited than ever for it. (And the magnificent Peter Dinklage was doing the voiceover? Perfect.)

Destiny will also launch with a newly-announced White PS4 bundle: 500GB system, white console, white Dual Shock 3 controller, and a 30 day PSPlus subscription.

PS4 owners can also play the Destiny alpha this weekend! The beta will be available on July 17.

The Order: 1886

Andrew House came out to announce a brand new IP exclusive to PS4.

We got an absolutely beautiful look at an atmospheric, dark, grungy Victorian-esque building. Our tour guide, as it were, was a man with an impressive mustache and an oil lantern.

He comes upon a zombie feasting down on a corpse. When the zombie notices our mustachioed hero, he morphs, werewolf-style, into a hulking behemoth, and begins chasing down the lantern-bearer.

I was certain the video was entirely pre-rendered until a little button prompt popped up on screen. Another scene that looked pre-rendered proved to be otherwise when a targeting reticle popped up.

It looks great so far, but actual visibility is still very limited on this one.

Entwined

Then we watched a very pretty, though non-illuminating video of a couple minimialist bird-like creatures flying around to a beautiful score.

The game is called Entwined, it looks lovely and atmospheric and meditative. Read more about it and find out how you can play it now with this post from our own Miss Mecha Zero.

Infamous: First Light.

SuckerPunch has been developing new IP for Infamous: Second Sun which places you, it looks like, in the role of a female protagonist? The teaser seemed intentionally vague.

Little Big Planet 3!

In addition to Sackboy, there are new character types with different abilities. Oddsock is faster and can jump higher, Toggle can be extra-heavy and extra-small and light, and Swoop can fly and carry his friends over gaps!

Surely this will open up some very interesting new possibilities for level design. Both from the studio and from the player-creators which have always added so much value to the LBP experience.

LBP has always been about the clever usage of essentially simple mechanics, and it looks like LBP3 is going to add a lot of new mechanics to play with.

Oh, also, as you’d expect, it is freaking adorable beyond words.

LBP3 is going to give the Wii U’s couch-side games a run for their money!

Get more info on LittleBigPlanet 3 from Miss Mecha Zero right here.

Project Beast Gets a Name: Bloodbourne

The teaser was almost entirely pre-rendered, so it was grungy, dark, and oozing style, but it also didn’t tell us anything about the actual game. We did see, zombie dogs and shufflers wielding torches, so I guess that’s something.

Project Beast finally has a title, and is set for release some time in 2015.

See more screenshots here on BSR.

Far Cry 4

The gameplay footage starts with a Tomb Raider-type landscape high up in the mountains, sporting long ribbons of prayer scrolls and massive religious statues.

The character quickly acquires a Wing Suit and a grappling hook, and proceeds to scale a cliff face.

He approaches a shack and uses a crossbow to make a stealth kill along the way.

He then plops a sticky bomb onto a barrel just before booting it over the edge.

The team is looking to emphasize multiple play styles and creativitiy in the new Far Cry title.

We’re then treated to a mountainside chase in a golf cart. The player leaps out of his car, kills a driver, steals the driver’s truck, drives that truck over a cliff, jumps out and activates his wingsuit.

Um, you need to see this footage. Check it out right here on BSR. 

Also, Elephants! Big ol’ cute Elephants!

Then a friend shows up in a Mad Max style gyrocopter and gives the player a lift while he rains bullets down from the sky.

After massacring a bunch of people, you are informed that the “Fortress” has been “Liberated.” It’s not hard to see some inspiration from Just Cause playing into Far Cry 4’s development.

Game sharing!

Adam Boyes came out with a big announcement: on the PS4, you will now be able to game-share with your friends, and play multiplayer Far Cry 4 with them even if they don’t own the game!

That is a very new thing for Sony, it will be interesting to see if game sharing takes off for PSN. This is a fantastic idea and I hope it catches on.

Dead Island 2

There’s not much to say here, it was a funny video, but it was a pre-rendered short film, not even really a teaser. If the “teaser” is any indication, though, it looks like Dead Island 2 might be taking a slightly less serious angle.

“Ultimate Evil Edition” of Diablo 3

The “Ultimate Evil Edition” of Diablo 3 on the PS4 is getting “infected” with The Last Of Us. There will be a special The Last Of Us-themed dungeon in Diablo 3, sporting Clickers and Bloaters and such.

Battlefield: Hardline

Another plug for Battlefield: Hardline beta, followed by another trailer.

Okay. We get it. You really want us all to sign up for the Beta.

Disney Infinity

We also got a … very brief glance at Disney Infinity, in addition to some of those little Skylanders style figurines.

Paradox Interactive

Sony announced a new partnership with Paradox Interactive. Who is currently working on a number of PS4 Exclusive games.

We got a very funny look at a very sad Magicka wizard watching reels from his glory days and missing his other Magicka wizard friends.

Then he accidentally zaps his cat.

Then what’s this? A classified? Magicka hiring Wizards?

Magicka 2… “Learn to spell, again!” will be coming to PS4.

Grim Fandango!

Tim Schafer’s classic, Grim Fandango, will be remastered, and is coming to the PS4 and PS Vita!

Learn more about Grim Fandango in this retrospective.

The necessary love-for-indies section

Console debut exclusively on Playstation platforms for: BroForce, Titan Souls, Not a Hero, and Hotline Miami: Wrong Number among others.

And something to keep an eye on: The Talos Principle – This one definitely deserves a bit of delving, but details are very scarce at this point.

Let It Die

And now for something insane from Suda 51.

This was a sparse teaser from something which looks, as previously mentioned, completely insane. There was a lot of growling, monsters, guns, and found/improvised weaponry like nailbats and maces.

Abzu

The folks behind Journey have a new studio, Giant Squid, and they are working on a new, lovely, underwater game which looks to be just as atmospheric and experiential as Journey.

No Man’s Sky

This will have its console debut on PS4.

The trailer treated us to an alien world, with bright colors and alien creatures.

The seamless planet-side to space transition is beautiful and simple. The ship then cruises through the solar system and transitions onto the surface of yet another world.

There was some exciting dogfighting going on both in and out of atmo.

Sean Murray from No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games came out to talk about their inspiration.

He says No Man’s Sky is a science fiction game inspired by Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke. It is an infinite, procedural universe that all players share.

Every player will start on a different planet, and it’s so vast and boundless that it is “actually infinite.” Every player who picks up a pad and plays will help map out the universe.

It’s beautiful, it’s indie, and it’s ambitious as hell.

Friendly ribbing

A mention of the fact that the PlayStation camera would be, a “choice.” Poking fun at Microsoft.

Sony is going to put some resources behind developing with the PS Camera.

They skimmed Project Morpheus a bit, Sony’s new Oculus-style VR rig, which makes extensive use of the Move and Playstation Camera setup.

COO of Sony Computer Entertainment America

Shawn Layden came out to talk about the PSN, PlayStation Now, and PlayStation TV.

“We’ve heard, loud and clear, what you’re looking for: Powerful ways to share your experiences.”

Though personally, this sort of social sharing being shoehorned into my games is something that I have absolutely zero interest in, some people find value and fun in this sort of thing though, so I’m all for it. (As long as games stop trying to post to my Facebook wall.) Games are for fun, if sharing your videos with your PSN buddies is fun, then more power to you. It looks like Sony is committed to making that happen.

Immediate upload of video capture to YouTube will be great for YouTube streamers and the like. Additionally, the PS4 allows for live streaming and watching — great for Twitch streams, etc. Layden also announced Twitch Ustream: you can watch someone’s game play in real time, and you can now interact with that person’s game play experience while you watch. “You can help them, or you can harm them. [Laughs.]”

Further enhanced broadcasting capabilities for the “Play Room” will let you to create custom broadcasting sets.

Sony is also trying to boost the Free-to-Play market on PlayStation.

Currently more than 25 free to play games coming to PS4 in the next couple months, including: Kingdom Under Fire 2, Planetside 2, and Guns Up. There was a lengthy montage of incoming free to play games, some notables included: Fat Princess, War Thunder, and PAIN.

The PlayStation Now game streaming service will enter open beta for the US and Canada starting July 31st for PS4 owners, coming to PS3, and the below-mentioned PlayStation TV later on. Through PS Now, gamers will have access to a ton of PS3 games, including indie and triple-A, and the Vita will have a large library of games.

Sony is not giving up on the Vita.

There are more than 100 Vita titles in development at the moment, including Namco Bandai’s Tales of Hearts R, Ubisoft’s Child of Light, and Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands. Minecraft is also coming to Vita, co-op included.

Next up was the big PlayStation TV reveal. It will be able to pair with your PS4, allowing you to play via Remote Play on a second television in your home. It will give you the ability to play hundreds of PS3 games via PlayStation Now. It will give you the ability to play Vita games on your TV. And it will be available for only $99.

Sony will also offer a bundle for $139 which includes a Dual Shock 3, an 8GB memory card, and a PS Plus vouche.

Mortal Kombat X!

Scorpion and Sub Zero look absolutely terrifying.

We got a look at some actual gameplay footage featuring a few super creepy new fighters — including one clearly inspired by Master-Blaster. Lots of bright shiny powers being chucked around, lots of blood. Exactly what you’d expect from an MK game.

It looks very fast-paced, but that could* just be due to the skill level of the players behind the demo. (*Read: highly likely.)

The moves are flashy. The special moves are just as brutal as the last iteration, and the levels are intricately rendered. Of course, the fatalities are more ridiculous than ever.

Powers

Next up was a big announcement about a TV series based on the “Powers” graphic novel series from Brian Michael Bendis – read more about that from CitizenBot.

The Last of Us

In case you missed the announcement, The Last of Us will be remastered for PS4.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

We got our greasy eyes on a brand new trailer featuring a very young snake. It was a highly cinematic trailer, and cool to boot, but it was more like a movie trailer than a game trailer. It’s entirely possible that there were hints dropped which mean a lot to hardcore fans of the series which I didn’t catch, but in general it looked like more of a teaser meant to get you excited about the game — rather than giving you any information about how the game will actually play.

GTA5

Grand Theft Auto Five is coming to PS4 this fall. It will port with a number of enhancements. Your GTA online progress and characters will also be transferable to the PS4.

Batman: Arkham Knight

From Rocksteady and Warner Brothers:

The long awaited Dark Knight trailer. Batman is back and looking shinier than ever. No, literally, his suit is freaking power-armor.

The in game footage is beyond breathtaking, this is the most fully realized Gotham you’ve ever laid eyes on. The Batmobile looks more hardcore than ever, and is fully articulated in a thousand little ways. The trailer shows Batman transforming the Batmobile into a mobile tank. Then back into ferrari mode, then he ejects, flying over a hundred feet into the air and gliding down atop the roof of his target.

During the trailer, we get a good close up on the new scarecrow, and I think he going to give me nightmares.

Check out the trailer right here on BSR.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Total cinematic teaser with no gameplay exposure whatsover. But: 2015.

What did you all think of Sony’s presser? Feel free to sound off below.

If you are going to take anything away from this trailer it should be that this game looks like it will be everything that “Alien Colonial Marines” was not.

“Alien: Isolation” will be released October 7, 2014

The crew at Entertainment Is Dead gathered to discuss the happenings of Day 0 and 1. While they have been briefly discussing the show press conference by press conference, this is a more in-depth look at some of their favorite trailers and announcements. 

If you missed the Treehouse live event yesterday, you missed a good amount of information on some new IP coming to the WiiU. Shigeru Miyamoto has been locked away working on content that uses the WiiU Gamepad in conjunction with the games, to heighten the WiiU experience. What he has come up with thus far, aside from a new “Starfox” that will be shown at a later date, is a few things that look entertaining.

First: Miyamoto showed off “Project Giant Robot”, the player takes control of a robot they have built to battle other machines over cities. The goal is to knock over the opposing robot in a sumo-style match. The gamepad gives you a first-person view from the robots eyes, while the screen will show the two battling machines.

Photo: Project Giant Robot

Next Miyamoto demoed Project Guardian. This modified tower defense has you placing cameras with lasers around your base to defend from incoming enemies. The game pad gives you a single camera view and control of the defenses, while the television displays all cameras. People watching you play can then tell you which camera has baddies on it, for you to switch views and destroy.

Photo: Project Guardian

Shigeru Miyamoto attended the Treehouse live event yesterday to show the projects he’s been working on. While he did show off “Project Giant Robot” and “Project Guardian” there were hopes from press attending that something bigger was in the works. During this he announced that he is working on a new “Star Fox” title, that is not ready to show. He then asked for patience, as it will be shown when ready. He also mentioned the game should be available by end of next year, which, as we all know in gaming could slip into 2016 very easily. But, we know it’s coming, and that’s what counts!

The announcement of all E3 announcements came today. Sony reported that an HD remake of the original Ratchet & Clank will release alongside the film for the PlayStation 4. Originally released in 2002, the 3D platformer provided gamers with an assortment of creative weapons and unique planets to explore on the titular pair’s quest to save the galaxy.

So why is Insomniac making a remaster instead of a new game? Their last game, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, was great, but it wasn’t even a full-pledged game to some people. It was longer than Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, yet shorter than Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. This gives them a lot of time to make something spectacular, especially for the PS4. The PS4 remake of the original series entry will feature “updated gameplay along with completely new visuals that rival the best PS4 games on the market”.

Blockade Entertainment and animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment are producing the PlayStation franchise’s first cinematic release, while series creator Insomniac Games will also play a role in its development. As you can tell from the trailer, when it comes to this series making it into a full-length movie shouldn’t be hard.

Both the game and the movie will be available in the first half of 2015.

Masahiro Sakurai took the stage tonight in an offline Nintendo event to discuss Super Smash Bros. During the event, Sakurai confirmed that Pac-Man will be playable in game as well as Game ‘n Watch. Once the announcement was made Sakurai and others battled as Sonic vs. Mario vs. Pac-Man vs. Mega Man.

Further tweets from @nintendoamerica confirmed that Pac-Man will have abilities such as: throwing fruit, and eating power pellets. 

More as this develops.

Spoiler Alert: This piece may contain some Witcher spoilers.

As the gameplay presentation gets underway, we see Geralt atop a beautifully rendered horse in a jaw-droppingly beautiful landscape. This takes place immediately following the Griffin slaying mission shown off during the public Press Briefing.

I want to make them stop playing so I can just stare at the sky. It was so damn pretty.

The visual step up from the previous game cannot be overstated. This clearly the most beautiful Witcher yet, and one of the most beautifully rendered games I’ve ever seen. The lighting is vibrant and organic, it filters through the trees and diffuses among the moisture in the air. The specularity on even the horse’s hair is enough impress. It rivals even the most impressive, super-modded Skyrim.

CD Projekt Red has polished the landscape down to the last detail, even the types and placement of each tree and patch of foliage, the architectural style and building material of every individual building, it is all so immaculate down to the smallest detail.

I cannot express how gorgeous this game is.

Anyway, back to the tale at hand: Geralt is en route to Novigrad – the biggest city in the world of the Witcher. He is heading there to meet up with a man named Dykstra, who sent Geralt on the quest to kill the Griffin in the first place. Dykstra is a man with a lot of information to sell, for the right price of course.

The constant chatter of NPC call outs makes the world feel so alive. It’s easy to convince yourself that the world goes on without you, even when you ride away or turn off the system. Novigrad sports a lively community, everything from fishermen and merchants and sailors to mothers, fathers, and children playing games in the street.

And the city feels so very authentic. Each building seems to tell its own story, each has its own style in its own state of immaculateness or disrepair.

Geralt finds Dykstra in — where else — the local tavern. It turns out he took the Griffin job because he is searching for a certain “ashen-haired girl.” We never do get her name in the presentation, so I’ll take their cue and not mention it here. Fans of the series probably already know who I’m talking about though.

The voice overs are better than ever, and that’s saying something since The Witcher series has traditionally boasted some of the best voice work in the gaming.

Dykstra did some digging and found that the Ashen-haired Girl was recently spotted in the company of a childlike creature going by the name of Johnny, who lives in a burrow in the swamps around Valen.

It should be noted that the transition out of the tavern is seamless.

Since it would take roughly 20 minutes to travel the distance required to reach Valen — a distance which looked to be only about half the width of the whole world map — we got our first glimpse of Fast Travel. You’ll need to find a sign post in the world to initiate fast travel, and you can only fast travel to locations you have already discovered. So it won’t be quite as point-and-click-and-teleport as Skyrim, but I think we can all agree on this one: thank goodness for fast travel. Twenty minute pony ride across the world? I don’t care how pretty it is, ain’t nobody got time for that.

 (Disclaimer: Some people not only do have time for that, but enjoy doing it. No judgments here.)

The world changes around you constantly, weather changes may roll in and the time of day is always in flux for example. These things will affect the behaviors of the city’s inhabitants.

The world map itself is cool and old-school, looking like it could have come straight out of a LOTR book. And, holy crap, the world is just massive. It was impossible to tell how the scale would compare to a game like Skyrim, but I’m sure they’re at least comparable.

The inventory looks improved, streamlined, and far more intuitive. There’s also a Diablo style cell-based storage system (a dagger taking up two cells, etc).

Upon reaching the swamps around Valen, Geralt uses his new Witcher Senses mechanic to track down Johnny — in actuality, it’s not a huge departure from the Medallion’s function in Witcher 2, but it looks like they will expand the functionality. Witcher Senses mode looks a bit like Assassin’s Creed’s Eagle Vision, but the world stays closer to its original colors: There’s an FOV blur around the edges, the colors desaturate slightly, and things like footprints and blood stains are highlighted.

The swamp forests are full of fog, swamp gas, and plant life. The environment artists have done an impressive job of making the world feel like an organic end-product rather than a constructed set. Even the reflections on the swamp sludge have the perfect, greasy specularity.

We get our first look at Johnny who, it turns out, is a “godling.” He is small, child-like, and greenish blue with creepy eyes. Wearing a Mogli-style garment at his waist and a circlet of twigs in his blue-black hair.

But our friend Johnny can’t talk. And wouldn’t you know it, he needs a favor. Never could have seen that coming.

As Geralt proceeds through the swamplands, the sound design really jumps out at you. The noises of the forest at rest buzz and swish around you, and the occasional monster noises are as horrifying as ever. His Witcher Sign sound effects are more visceral and satisfying than ever, they feel far more powerful thanks to the improved sound.

The combat is extremely fast and fluid, and there are plenty of environmental opportunities to take advantage of. For example, at one point, Geralt smashes a bee hive to confuse the fight and distract the monsters. Geralt darts around the battlefield with lighting-quick dodges and lunges, herding his enemies towards helpful environmental opportunities. Later in the demo, Geralt uses Igni to set off an explosive barrel of oil, and at another point, he ignites a pocket of flammable swamp gas beneath a monster.

There is much more climbing and vertical movement in the new game: ladders, cliffs, mountains, etc.

Geralt sports a new weapon as well: A small wrist-mounted crossbow named Gabriel with customizable ammunition. He uses it to take out a next of shrieking harpies, and recover a shiny flask from them.

At this point they took a moment to just look around and examine the landscape.

The draw distance is extreme, to say the least.

Terrain traversal in general looks more fluid and intuitive than ever. It looks like, to the same extent that The Witcher 2 vastly improved fluidity over The Witcher, The Witcher 3 will push the fluidity further still.

Johnny gets his voice back thanks to the object you reclaimed from the slain harpies. He’s still childlike and joyful, and a creature of nature to the core, in fact he makes a point of how much he enjoys defecating to the sunrise.

Johnny did see Geralt’s Ashen-haired Lass, running off toward the witch’s hut.

Johnny helps Geralt get an audience with the witch, who doesn’t usually speak to strangers. As we’d expect from a Witcher title, the dialogue is mature and real. It feels sincere and organic, and stylized perfectly to the world.

The old lady casts a magic ritual, and channels a triad of female spirits of the wood, The Crones. As usual, they require Geralt to destroy a dark power before they will tell him what they know about the Ashen-haired lass.

The classic radial pause menu returns from Witcher 2, with a slight reorientation. But the mechanics of meditation, potion drinking and brewing, etc, should feel familiar to fans of the series.

Random encounter monsters are faster and creepier than ever. And during a fight with a few swamp monsters, we saw two separate forms of Igni, one was a cone, AoE flamespitter version, and the other was a single-target, flamethrower style spell. Hopefully this hints at multiple uses for every Witcher Sig

As usual, there is a constant day/night cycle. In The Witcher 3, this cycle will affect the number, power, and type of monsters you’re likely to encounter, in addition to the availability of quests.

The Meditation menu looks largely unchanged, with the expected options: Wait til time of day, consume mutagens and potions, character advancement, and so on.

Geralt continues his quest and spots a werewolf. To prevent the werewolf from using his regenerative abilities, Geralt hits him with a silver shrapnel bomb.

He quickly dispatches the werewolf and moves on to a cave where the “Dark Power” lives. In The Witcher 3, you will now be able to swim and dive to discover secret underwater passageways.

Geralt finds the “Dark Power” who pleads with him to help her. She claims she is the only one who can save the children. This is one of Geralt’s infamous decision moments, a classic moral quandary: Would you trust this creature or not? It could significantly change events going forward. The presenter decides he doesn’t believe the corrupted tree spirit, so he kills her.

Back at the witch’s hut, the Crones take physical form and, well, they’re horrifying.

The ladies reveal all they know about the Ashen-haired woman, but the presentation cuts off before we hear the whole tale. Suffice it to say that, according to the Crones, she “proved a very naughty girl.” Which is, you know, ominous. Also there was a bunch of talk about elder blood.

To summarize: I can’t wait for this game. It looks drop dead gorgeous, fun and fast-paced, and overall, promises to exceed the already high bar of quality we expect from CD Projekt Red.