The head of CD Projekt RED, Adam Badowski, says that The Witcher 3 will release on, as Game Informer puts it, all top of the line consoles and PC in 2014. This seems to suggest The Witcher 3 will be looking beyond the current crop of consoles, especially as the magazine cites it as "a next generation RPG" on the cover.

According to Game Informer the open world in The Witcher 3 is 30 times larger than the previous game, which will make it even bigger than Skyrim.

Free expansion packs will release after the launch of Wild Hunt next year, akin to The Witcher 2's continuous, free post-release support.

Wild Hunt isn't broken up into acts, as the REDengine 3 permits the exploration of a vast, open-world without loading screen interruptions. Enemies won't scale to Geralt's level, though, so you can wander into territory filled with too-tough monsters who will wreck our intrepid hero. Along the way, you can expect to encounter friendlies and enemies in a dynamic world affected by unpredictable weather, including randomly generated storms, and water physics while sailing.

Fast travel is a go, and Geralt can mount horses for both transportation and combat.

Geralt will play the part of monster-hunter and detective throughout his quests, which developer CDP claims will occupy more than 100 hours of players' time. He'll have almost five times the amount of unique character animations, too.

Each new area of the game – Skellige, the metropolis of Novigrad, and "No Man's Land" – has its own story. Non-linear storytelling with branching paths dictates that avoiding the central plot of seeking out Geralt's lost love, Triss Merigold, will have ramifications.

In combat, you can interrupt attack animations to dodge or block, which depletes stamina. Dodging isn't a big somersault anymore, however – Geralt pivots to evade attacks while maintaining the momentum of a fight. Enemy AI has been retooled as well, and quick-time events are out entirely.

- The team felt it missed the huge freedom of open-world games like Skyrim
- Proper mounted combat still being tested
- Currently not a definite part of the game
- Horses will be in, though, since they’re important for navigation
- Ships float on the water in true physics interactions
- Team has doubled in size
- No chapters, acts, or any artificial break-points
- Geralt can seamlessly cross from one end of the world to the other thanks to REDengine 3
- No loading screens while traveling in the open world
- Can explore on foot, by horseback, and via boat
- Pursue yor long-lost love, play the game of empires on behalf of the northern kingdoms that still claim independence, and thwart the nefarious Wild Hunt
- Fast travel: instantly revisit any discovered location
- Director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz: “A huge goal is to keep the high quality o four quests, with all the cinematics and impressive events and moments.”
- Point of interest will always be in sight
- Players will be beckoned to explore dank caves, embattled villages, decaying ruins, etc.
- Over 100 hours of hand-scripted quests
- Quests: help villagers, engineer the succession of the Skellige kings, etc.
- Use monster hunting for adventure, incoming, and unique rewards
- There are mini-games based on the area of the world
- Ex: Skellige has knife-throwing
- Gain exclusive rewards from mini-games
- Don’t have to complete mini-games to proceed in the story
- Monsters, bandits, traders, animals, and more will attack anyone they deem hostile
- Enemies don’t scale to the player’s level
- Slaying monsters, fighting hostile humans in the different forms they come in, collecting items, leveling up are in the game
- World 40 times larger than the last game
- Three different aspects to narration
- Lowest level: free-form activities like monster hunting, crafting, individual standalone quests
- Second step: political situation and Nilfgaardian invasion is resolved through the core plotline of the major areas (Skellige, Novigrad, No Man’s Land)
- Each land has its own storyline
- Can abandon the storyline, but will have repercussions later
- Not doing a plotline is a choice the player has
- Main narrative: search for Geralt’s loved ones and conflict with the Wild Hunt
- Multiple branches of narratives that feed into each other
- Don’t have to do anything outside the main storyline to beat the game
- Could have help in a main-line encounter from an ally you gained in the Skellige archipelago if you’ve completed certain quests in certain ways
- Major events in the main storyline are “gates” for the state of the world
- Ex: village threatened by bandits might be abandoned after certain events if the player doesn’t help
- Weather effects are dynamically generated and fully modeled as real volumetric clouds rather than being simply painted on the skybox
- In contrast to the last game, Geralt encounters communities and individuals with monster-related problems that need solving
- There aren’t contract-like assignments this time
- Press the left trigger to turn on Geralt’s witcher senses
- Can glean information from a crime scene upon discovering it
- Within range of a scene of interest, the mechanic conveys clues to the player through the witcher muttering to himself and/or visual depictions of past events that represent Geralt’s reasoning
- Time of day and other conditions determine where monsters appear and their abilities
- Can strike critical areas in combat based on how much you learn about monster anatomy and tactics
- The team is deciding between using a handful of in-combat special moves for particular attacks and a slow-motion quick-time event style
- Monsters you defeat leave otherwise unobtainable alchemical and crafting ingrediants needed for making of unique items, potions, mutagens
- These allow Geralt to gain special powers and upgrades in the new mutation development tree
- These kills serve as the witcher’s primary method of income

Or did you really feel that your attacks often just passed through enemies, or that the obvious sounds and animations of hitting and/or blocking were not enough?

Kinda wished you'd stop calling everything that might make the combat feel less satiosfying for you "Hit Detection". There was no problem with the hit detection in witcher 2, nor were there any problems with feedback. They did however have a tremendous issue with balancing the combat, where some stuff was just by far more useful than others.

Well i don't know what game you played but i found it to be very clear when you hit or got hit. Swings connected as expected and so forth.