We all know that The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is easily one of the most beautiful games out there. Even three years after its initial release, it remains a visual triumph — and it leaves high hopes for what the development team is going to do next with Cyberpunk 2077.
But what if The Witcher III didn’t look so good? What if, for some god forsaken reason, someone decided to run it on the lowest graphics settings possible? Well, then you’d get a look at the ugly side of Geralt of Rivia that you didn’t expect to see.
Gamespot recently posted a new Potato Mode video that shows the hosts playing along to the hit CD Projekt Red releas, but with the worst graphics you could possibly imagine. Look at the initial screenshot of Geralt and you have a pretty good idea of how bad it’s going to get. We’re talking pop-ups all over the place in the environment; glitches galore; and so, so, so much more. It’s like a gloriously hilarious nightmare — or something along the lines of playing The Witcher IIIon the original PlayStation. Or Sega Saturn, maybe.
Hosts Joey Yee and “Witcher expert” Jake Decker are featured in the latest episode of the show, which is devoted to making good games look really, really bad. And boy, did they succeed here.
The clip starts out nicely enough on the high graphics settings; but about two minutes in, you’ll see Joey and Jake make an adjustment and suddenly turn the game into a polygonal mess. And then it gets running and suddenly you’ve got Geralt appearing in purple and dealing with some of the ugliest trees ever planted. The character interaction are also something else as you stare into the dead, dead eyes of the people that you’re conversing with. Also, that hair.
The team plays around with the visual options over the course of the video, but that doesn’t mean things get any better. In fact, they kind of get worse; this is especially true as you run through villages and realize how brown everything is. And then there’s getting to the love scene. No, we aren’t kidding.
Anyway, check out the video above, then rub your eyes and get back into the normal version of the game. It’ll be like a world of difference.
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Minecraft players who have been enjoying the first phase of Update Aquatic have found an innovative way to use the Pufferfish to their advantage.
One of the many new features added through Update Aquatic was the spiny Pufferfish that expands to defend itself when players draw to near to it. It can be a pain for players to navigate around – unless you have one of those fancy new Tridents to sort out the new mob – but these new Pufferfish addition can also be used by players to fend off more hostile enemies.
A Redditor by the name of SonicwaveMC shared the news within the Minecraft subreddit that Pufferfish could injure not only players, but also other mobs like Creepers and Skeletons. The user submitted a video that shows the Pufferfish defense system in action by dropping a gaggle of enemy mobs into a Pufferfish deathtrap as many of the fish expand to fend off the foes while making short work of each enemy.
You’ll notice that some of the Pufferfish do perish in the process, but this doesn’t appear to be a result of the fish hurting each other. A potion thrown by a Witch at the last second hits the water and clears out some of the Pufferfish, so the damage to the rest of the Pufferfish school isn’t done by the fish themselves.
The fact that they can damage mobs while not damaging each other opens the door to new defensive possibilities. One of the first things joked about in the Redditor’s thread was that this could be used to create a discount moat that protects players’ structures with Pufferfish instead of something more menacing like sharks or piranhas, but there’s still some truth to the joke. These new animals could absolutely be used to fill a body of water that surrounds something you don’t want enemies getting near since they’ll actively defend themselves against anything that gets near them. They’ll still damage players as well though, so you’ll have to make sure your entrance and exit strategy is Pufferfish-free.
It also makes sense to use the Pufferfish in a defensive manner like this since you really can’t do much with them otherwise. You can use them to create a water-breathing potion, but they’ll poison players once consumed and can’t be used to tame Ocelots. Players will have the most luck using these in Creative mode where you can place them where you please, but if you can reroute a large school of Pufferfish to the proper destination in Survival, it’ll be quite the defense against mobs.
Every episode of Game of Thrones opens with a bird’s eye view of the Seven Kingdoms (and occasionally Essos as well), as we admire one exotic castle after another. And while most of us might be content to simply take in the sight, one fan was not. Jake Schadewe used Minecraft, a video game that allows you to build anything you like using small blocks, to recreate the famous castles of Westeros down to a stunning level of detail. Behold, Schadewe’s recreation of King’s Landing.
From the Red Keep, to the Dragonpit and the Great Sept of Baelor, its hard to notice any details that Schadewe missed, although this is obviously before Cersei had her big moment. We think we even see the tunnel Arya came out while chasing cats back during season 1. King’s Landing looks like it took the most time to complete, but Schadewe’s other recreations were no less impressive. From the barely mentioned and never seen Gulltown in the Vale, to the godswood of Winterfell, Schadewe went all out.
Schadewe admitted via Reddit, that his creation is “actually helping” as he applies for software engineering jobs. Just don’t tell them how long you spent on it Mr. Schadewe. The full gallery can be found here, and includes renderings of Castle Black, Dragonstone, Riverrun and many more.
We can’t decide what’s more impressive, Schadewe’s version of King’s Landing, or that one they’ve been building in Belfast for the past couple months. What does everyone else think?
Gamers have been invited to help shape the future of Exeter City Centre – on Minecraft.
Exeter City Futures released a unique map of the city, which encourages Minecrafters to put forward their ideas on how to shape the future of the city.
The map, generated from Open Data, is an interactive and accessible map which can be used to redesign the city.
The best idea will be incorporated into a final version of the map, which will be released later this year.
The project is part of a collaborative vision of Exeter in 2025.
Rick Lawrence, Digital Media Officer at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM), explained the work that went into to recreating the city centre at the meetup, on Friday at the City Futures Space in Broadwalk House, Southernhay.
Following the talk there was an opportunity to join a 16-person online server and collaboratively create a vision of future Exeter via Minecraft.
Some of the challenges Exeter City Futures is inviting people to answer to are how a car-free city centre would look like, a sustainable High Street, and alternative transport ideas.
We have been given a glimpse of the official Japanese box-art for the physical edition of Minecraft on the Nintendo Switch. The physical edition of Minecraft is coming to Japan this summer and will also be coming here in the west at the same time.
Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
This installment of YouTube Millionaires is brought to you by Epidemic Sound.
The hottest MC on YouTube is Minecraft. The blocky video game has inspired loads of music videos, and one of the channels offering the best Minecraft music is MC Jams. Led by creator Dwayne Russell, MC Jams offers catchy, singable tunes that appeal to many of the young kids who love the building blocks of the Minecraft world. Thanks in part to Russell’s professional background, MC Jams has gathered a strong audience that numbers more than one million subscribers. Here’s our chat with him:
Tubefilter: How does it feel to have more than one million subscribers on your channel? What do you have to say to your fans?
MC Jams: It feels like…wow! Very exciting. Never thought it would get that big. And of course, I would say to the fans that it’s all theirs. I am their slave! Ha ha ha.
TF: How did you first get excited about the world of Minecraft music?
MCJ: I first got excited when I saw my son listening to Minecraft songs a million times a day. I did not understand it at first. Then I saw all his friends did that too. So I figured since I wrote music for a living I could make those songs easy. I made one and he did the visual. I started a channel and posted the video. I was shocked that despite being on a brand new channel it got thousands of hits! So I made a few more. And it took off from there.
TF: How long does it take to make one of your music videos from start to finish?
MCJ: It averages from three weeks to a month. But sometimes there are unexpected issues so it can take longer. We try to make a new video every three weeks. Now that we are doing new stuff like the Psycho Girl Show it might take longer because my time is being divided up more.
TF: What do you think separates a good Minecraft song from a bad one?
MCJ: That’s a tough question because some songs that I think are bad get tons of views. I always say that music is like ice cream. Some people like chocolate and some like vanilla. Other than that I bring my professional training to my songs. I apply those trained skills you find in hit songs anywhere. I hear other people making Minecraft songs that don’t always apply those skills but still, people like it, so who am I to say it is not good. It’s just ice cream!
TF: Who do you see as your target audience, and how do you ensure your videos are appropriate for them?
MCJ: It looks to me like they range from 5 to 15. They all seem to like to play games of course, especially Minecraft. This is one of the reasons we are making our own games now, to try to give them things they will like and play. And they are all over the world. As far as making it appropriate I use the community section of my channel to take polls a lot. They tell me what they want and I make it!
TF: What do you think about the state of children’s videos on YouTube?
MCJ: Well, I do take the time to search channels once in a while to see what is out there and I see for the most part it is good. To be honest I don’t like if anyone puts adult implied subjects in kids videos. I hate that. My motto is that if it ain’t in a Disney movie then it ain’t on my channel. I’m pretty much in the same camp as Ssundee and Preston. I keep it clean with only a hint of puppy love subject maybe. The new Psycho Girl Show will have puppy love subjects in it.
I’ve put some modern style dance moves in my videos which some kids call it twerking, but to me it is just dancing. People shake their butt when they dance and so my characters do too. It’s all in fun. At one point there were channels putting explicit thumbnails and action in their Minecraft videos. I actually lead the charge to remove them. It is not appropriate for young people. It gives us a bad name and hurts business. If I see them do it again I will try to stop it.
As far as the recent controversies I think YouTube has done the best job they can to clean things up. People criticize YouTube, but since they are so big it is not easy to change things. There is and always will be work to do but the state of children’s videos on YouTube is good right now. I hope it continues to get safer and better.
TF: Why do you think Minecraft has had such a long shelf life on platforms like YouTube?
MCJ: I can’t say for sure but I think it is because of all the YouTubers in the beginning that played the game and made videos like CaptainSparklez and Sky and all those guys. I hate to see some of those guys quit. Minecraft is still going strong in my opinion. I’m thinking there will be a Minecraft World theme park and a Minecraft Movie in theaters one day. Why not? There is a Lego park and movies. As long as channels keep it alive I think it will stay as the staple game for younger audiences.
TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?
MCJ: Well, as I mentioned earlier we are airing the new Psycho Girl Show on the Psycho Girl channel starting this summer. I would like that to blossom into something on other networks if possible. Would be cool if it became a Netflix series or a YouTube Red series and more people would get to see it. Also, the games we are making excite me. I would like to build the game company. We are releasing our second Android game soon too. I would not mind making bigger games. Maybe even get into multiplayer first person shooter games someday. Since my background is writing music for TV, I would love to write music for my own games. That would be cool!
