For those who want it all here:
journalist played 10-12 hours, had full access to the game and reached level 7
game is already at Sony & MS for admission
resolution on Xbox One will definitely stay at 900p in order to offer a stable performance
fluid gameplay on 1080p with everything on maximum +nvidia hairworks on GTX 980 -> looks
Ultra settings are impressive, especially the rich vegetation and character models; there can be scenes where difference between high and ultra won't be that noticeable; lighting is impressive: for instance evening light falling on vast flower fields of a parfum-maker
Looks insanely good for an open world game
two big cities with Novigrad and Oxenfurt (which is really big as well)
you cannot enter every house in Novigrad but it's cleverly masked if you can't enter one
Novigrad and No man's land are connected, only seperated maps, only loading time between main land and Skellige
Novigrad+No man's land are much bigger than Skyrim alone
no button for opening doors anymore, all doors are swinging doors
extremely lively interiors, every interior tells a different story
There are around 25 "villages" in No mans land and Novigrad *there are towns in the game of the same size of Flotsam
cities have a realistic eco-system and surroundings with real suburb parts in which craftsmen are located like in medieval times
last active skill-slot (12th) at level 50, level cap could be even higher
whole world feels quite realistic and organic
Combat with gamepad very intuitive and fluid
diving is still not optimal in terms of controls, but you can dive everywhere
gamepad controls are apparently much better than mouse/keyboard according to the journalist (m/k on TW2 level)
it's still too easy to rob people, robbing system in general is lacking
whole game is consequently open world so pacing could be difficult for some
passages with Ciri are like a linear action-adventure, not like a RPG, plays differently and more action-fueled than Geralt's passages (no inventory, no skill tree, depending on the scene Ciri has certain skills)
side quests are great and each tells its own story with people actually reacting to Geralt
sound and subtitles can be combined freely from different available languages
there will definitely be a day-one patch
high grade of visual violence with dismemberments with a higher gore-level than TW1 or TW2, but still feels organic and consistent
items can be crafted and decomposed
best items in game must be crafted
game world can change based on your decisions
there was indeed no slider or adjustment option for the draw distance/LOD but according to the journalist he was happy with it
there is the cleverly constructed illusion of a realistic world but traveling is never boring and there is always something to discover
even if you disable markers for quest givers on the map the game gives you audio-visual hints like people screaming for help
the journalist never had the feeling that the world is "empty"
no sudden changes of environments (e.g. desert to humid regions), organic and consistent world
"sandbox elements" and random stuff is limited, so no fights of townpeople against dragons like in Skyrim, you can only influence the world to a certain level
as far as the journalist has experienced it there will be little to no enemy respawning, enemies haven returned during his two days in the game
the game is open world but actually almost everything is "controlled" and "planned" by the developers
The Quests aren't randomly generated, they appear on the same spot
He did not encounter any simple fetch quests
many things are commented by Geralt e.g. when he tracks down leads with the Witcher senses
mutagens can be very powerful, like 40% damage enhancer for signs
very different enemy types that feel and play differently
no "clone" NPCs, every NPC in Novigrad for example looks differently
every potion and bomb must only brewed/crafted once
potions have different quality levels, can be improved, e.g. Swallow can offer more healing and more slots
crafting is extensive
you can for example increase the inventory limitations of your horse by crafting bigger saddle bags but you must actually go to your horse to be able to have access to these bags
every region has its own color setting and feel
Most dynamic/impressive Weather System the reporter has ever seen.
clouds cast shadows
bad weather like storms can happen everywhere
game loading time is extremely short on the high-end PC
saving and loading times are also extremely short
some huge buildings and story-relevant special areas have loading times, normal buildings do not
story branching in quests is excessive and impressive with not always "transparent" or easily visible effects, for example one quest had six "decisive" elements that could have gone down in a different way if the journalist behaved differently
"it will be impossible to play Witcher 3 two times in exactly the same way"
different to Bioware games dialogue options are not "obvious" and every possibility makes kind of sense, no sign whether an answer is "good" or "bad", only quest relevant options are marked (opposite to chatter and non-quest related dialogue options)
due to the complex way of story branching it's difficult to find times and locations where "things went wrong" if you want to develop your game in a different way
Ghwent is awesome according to the journalist, great design and entertaining
fist fighting is without QTEs now, it's just like normal fighting with hard and fast strikes and such
there are now negotiation minigame for quest rewards like bargaining for a monster hunt (before and after quests?)
there are horseraces similar to RDR, biggest focus on stamina management during races, you can even buy better saddles for horseraces
every item you choose is visible on Geralt's ingame model
Geralts beard will grow. You have to go to a barber after a few days
you can enter and play whatever region you want but you get hints where to start by your main quest (e.g. search Ciri in Novigrad's surroundings) if you want enemies that are on a similar level to yourself, but it's up to the player how he wants to progress
Level 24 Wyvern one-shotted level 7 Geralt
soundtrack was good, but neither really negative nor outstanding, but dynamic and decent, fits to the situation and location
some reactions from NPCs to things you did, but rather small comments, journalist admitted that he didn't play the game long enough for probably bigger reactions
tutorials are integrated into the story/progression and worth the effort due to good dialogues
the game is really immersive and "drags you in", feels and plays a lot more fluidly than the predecessors without being less complex
there is a chance that they won't be able to hold the level until the end of the game (speculation since two days were surely not enough to get to the end) but the journalist was truly and deeply impressed by what he saw and played
potions are quite important, especially on harder difficulty settings
EDIT:
And from the later post:
A thing that he really appreciated and I liked very well as well is the importance of logic and consistency of the game world to the developers. This shows in small things like, killing a wolf will never drop a weapon but killing an enemy equiped with an axe has a high chance of dropping an axe as well. Or for instance there is absolutely no limit on where you can dive, even though on some place there is absolutely nothing to dive for but just to keep the consistency you can still dive.
During his 2 days(not just playing, he also was able to just free fly through the world and things like that) he encountered 3 bugs. One was a savefile that couldn't be loaded but was fixed with a restart of the game. The second was a locked camera during a fight once and the third was a horse that somehow ended up on top of a pillar.
On the topic of monster hunts. While in itself they are pretty cool a very interesting fact about it was the rewards. In fact you gain mutagens from the big monster hunting quests which can be used in a as it sounded a little bit more complex manner. One way to use them is to increase your skills which can give you at the highest level of combination of skills and mutagens a significant increase of your skills. They are also used in high-tier potions. To conclude, the mutagens are pretty useful and thus the monster hunting quests are more than just cool quests.
On the topic of sidequests and decisions, Witcher 3 has in contrast to other games no problem of denying you content based on your decisions. For instance in one sidequest you could choose to enter a brawl of soldiers of some sort and if you did not an entire dungeon is completely denied to you for this playthrough. Also very interesting, the decisions and consequences are not as obvious as in Witcher 2 where at the end or the beginning of a chapter you had to choose between one or the other. In the Witcher 3 it is way more integrated into the gameplay and "every-day" decisions. As he summarized it: It will be impossible to have the same playthrough twice.
