>OP states Skyrim is the pinnacle of open world games.
>Abandon thread.

Witcher games should have a central plot stronger than Elder Scrolls ones, so they should appeal more those gamers that tend to lose involvement in open world games where the central plot is weaker.

Although I enjoyed the gameplay of the Witcher 2, which was a big improvement over the Witcher 1, there are better combat systems out there. The Witcher series shines when telling a mature, gritty plot with interesting characters. If they can fill the open world in the Witcher 3 with as much interesting characters, stories, and quests as they likely have in their main story, we're in for a treat.

Well, at the very least, the witcher 3 will have a bunch of sex scenes so if ur ever bored, you can go do one of the many whore in the game and fap

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I dug skyrim, however they definitely could have improved on the side activities and have made the gameplay more robust and tighter.

I have seen people playing Morrowind. It strikes me as the one I would despise the least. I'm debating whether or not to put it on my backlog, as I didn't particularly like Oblivion or Skyrim and I've found Fallout 3 and Dishonored disappointing at best. And I'd forgotten you could change viewpoint. It still feels awkward, though.

I can see what you mean by a map being distracting, but at the same time it's necessary. IRL people have a 180 degree field of view (or very close to it) but a monitor can only display about 30 degrees without distorting things. A map is essentially necessary to make up for the lack of peripheral vision. And it doesn't help that most video game makers design their maps like mazes rather than real places.

That said, Witcher 3 looks to do everything I want in open world. The demo showed Geralt using senses and stumbling across content while on another quest, which both circumvents the need for a map and means there's more than enough content to keep me interested and away from wanting a fast-travel option.

Really, the only reason I'm interested in open world games is because I'm tired of corridor games. People give FF XIII flak for being linear, but Tomb Raider did exactly the same thing. And it wound up with some utterly ridiculous things, like Lara storming a machine gun nest WWI style. Anyone with any sense of self-preservation would go around, but NOPE, that's not allowed because of the level design. I can't be the only one who finds being forced to be stupid immersion-breaking.

The Witcher 3 doesn't have much to do to beat Skyrim in my books.

Skyrim has no focus, no story (it has somethign that ressembles one but lets be honest its crap and short as hell), its basicaly an open world and you do whatever in it wich isnt quite how a lot of ppl like to play theyre games. Witcher is not like that, its a game with a strong narrative to keep you moving foward set in an open world, you can go play in the open world playground if you want but if you dont theres the story there keeping you interested.

Witcher 3 is the game I'm most excited about out of all the announced games.

I have really tried to get into the TES games, but always failed. Morrowind, Oblivion - they are ok, but something is always missing in them for me. On the other hand Witcher games are awesome, I get sucked into them the moment I start the game. They reming me of the Gothic experience. To me there is no doubt about the fact that Witcher > TES. I'm awaiting the next Witcher and hope for a remake of 1 and 2 on PS4/Xbone. When it comes to TES, the thing I'd want the most would be to get one (Morrowind preferably) released on Vita, so that I get extra motivation to play it because of the platform. Maybe being able to play it on the go and in bed would allow me to get into it, cause I just can't find motivation to stay with these games in from of the big screen.