I take it back. I turned down the difficulty to the easiest setting and between that and finally understanding the crafting system things are looking up. It doesn’t hurt that the missions become much more entertaining once you get to Novigrad.
Now I’m starting the Touch of Evil expansion and being slaughtered all over again.
I bought the first game years ago during some Steam sale, it sat on the “shelf” for a long time before I got around to playing it, and once I did, the combat was so unintuitive, so needlessly complicated and tedious that I didn’t even get to a second fight. I immediately deleted it, possibly sent the developers a harshly worded email, and ignored the series entirely since then.
But I may give 3 a shot, if the combat really is completely overhauled, because I like that type of game.
I finally finished the Blood and Wine expansion pack just before Christmas. This is the first game I’ve got to the end of since Resident Evil 4 where I immediately started on New Game + (though I don’t think the RE4 one was a “proper” New Game +, you get the idea). Turned the bugger up to Death March. It’s proper hard. And yet, I’m still totally enjoying it - despite having played it through once already and dying a lot. It’s easily in my top 5 games of all time and I’d encourage anyone who likes RPGs to give it a go.
In fact, I think it’s ruined RPGs for me. I’ve tried playing Fallout 4 (after enjoying 3 and New Vegas) and I just can’t get with it. I’m alternatiing between W3+ Death March and FFXV and the latter is OK but it’s not W3. I probably need to find some other genres to play until Cyberpunk 2077 comes out.
I think the second time I got a “you banged her!” topless trading card in the first game was when I gave it up. Either that or the third hour I spent traipsing through a brown sewer. I really didn’t see the appeal of that game.
This one, though–I have some problems with it because I’m still a goddamned SJW, but it’s freakin’ beautiful and fun to play.
It’s just really unseasonably warm in this world.
Very locally.
And by very locally I mean in the titty region.
Honestly I can’t even be THAT mad at it, it’s so weirdly juvenile in the middle of an otherwise smart grownup game. It’s like they had, say, fifteen people on the board of directors and one of them was a middle school boy, and he was allowed to do a very specific percentage of the work.
The original books are written in the same vein (as far as sex), from what I understand.
Oh, they’re grosser.
Wait, what?
There was a new expansion?!
I’m sure he means Hearts of Stone - the first quest in that is something about “evil’s first soft touches”
Are they otherwise worth reading? Is the translation from Polish clunky?
I’ve only read the first five books, but I wonder what you’re talking about. There’s very little actual sex, and certainly nothing nearly like the gotta-fuck-'em-all collector card mini game from Witcher 1. Geralt is not a poon hound. Female sexuality is not treated as a sin to be punished. Dandelion’s caddishness tends to go unpunished, but it is not glamorized either. I recall one scene where a woman saves Ciri from rape, but then herself coerces Ciri into sex. None of that was lurid fan service. It was a young woman’s frightening introduction to sexuality, and it’s counter-balanced by the fact that most of the other women in the stories are in command of their sex lives, and enjoy sex in healthy ways even if the other parts of their relationships are torrid.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. I just finished the main quest arc. It was interesting, but O’Dimm doesn’t really fit into the wider game world, IMHO.
Oh, I’m thinking mostly about the end of that business when he meets Yen. With the djinn. God, those two totally deserve each other.
I actually thought the books were fun - the first one (it’s a collection of short stories) is sort of a fractured fairy tales thing, which I wasn’t expecting but really enjoyed. I’ve read the first three. I’d recommend them, so far. Can’t tell if I like them because I already liked the setting and the people or not, but I like them.
I don’t know, it seems like a fairly typical plotline – two people meet, hate each other, and circumstances hurl them together. Well, the hate was mostly on Yennifer’s part. I actually tend to sympathize with Yennifer. She’s a bitch, but she has to be. But Geralt as presented in the books doesn’t deserve the shit he puts up with from her. He keeps coming back for more, though.
Hey, if he refuses to grow some self respect…
Yeah, a fairly typical plot line where two people end up immediately banging in the wreckage.
In general I love The Witcher 3, however, I am occasionally reminded that the controls suck dogs balls, particularly when fighting a lot of enemies at once. Things like Geraldt getting stuck between a table and chair, dodging in an unintended direction, and non obvious reasons why he can’t cast a sign right now. I had a fight with some eleven living statues last night and the combination of the above along with long load times (PS4), an auto save point that was just as the fight started, and the game not accepting any control inputs for a second or two after loading despite the enemy being able to get a few hits in themselves made for a very frustrating experience.
Having just picked up the GOTY edition for 25$, any recommendations for people just getting into it in terms of what to do/not do on one’s first playthrough?
In terms of general plot and playing behaviour : with the exception of the first zone, you don’t have to finish every quest or plot thread in one region before moving on to the next, so don’t hesitate to move to another area and fuck around if you’re getting tired of the one you’re in. Similarly, if you find yourself stuck on a difficulty spike, go do something else for a while. XPs are really plentiful.
Gwent is good. Gwent is life. But the Gwent tournament is basically unwinnable without a really solid deck filled with unique characters, decoys and kill spells. Leave it for later.
Combat-wise : groups are dangerous. Don’t get in the middle of one. Dodge to the edges, murder a bloke, dodge away again. Quen is your bestest friend in all the world.
Aard stuns dudes or fling them to the ground. Stunned dudes can be instantly killed, as can people on the ground.
On the subject of fighting from horseback : don’t button mash, instead leave the attack button pressed down, Geralt will arm his strike but wait until you release the button to attack, and time will slow down when you’re close to an enemy so you can get the timing right. Sword strikes from horseback do more damage the faster your horse is going relative to the target.
Don’t bother buying weapons or armour. The stuff you get on quests and particularly the Witcher-specific gear is better. Speaking of which, don’t sell off your starting Witcher armour even if it gets obsolete, there’s an upgrade that requires the base chain shirt as the base material.
Buy every potion, oil and bomb formula you can afford. They’re more or less all useful, and once you’ve made one you’ll have it forever. Unlike previous Witcher games, you don’t have to make potions over and over, instead they’re automatically refilled if you have alcohol. Same goes for oil and bombs.
Low-grade mutagens can be pooled to make bigger ones, so don’t sell them off unless you already have all the big’uns you need.
If you’re on PC, do yourself a solid and get a mod to remove encumbrance/item weight. It doesn’t add anything to the game besides being a pain in the dick.
Don’t kill trolls, you monster.
Don’t rely solely on your quest journal and/or map indicators for what to do next. Listen to what people say. Think. Some quests require actual thinking/are more complex than they appear.
Oh, and the crossbow’s pretty shit outside of its main role of clearing underwater monsters and making flying things fall to the ground (also clown one specific boss). Don’t bother spending XP on crossbow-related feats, or crafting materials on special ammunition, or waste money on better xbows. Trust me : you won’t make the crossbow any good.
OTOH, poisons and oils are great. Always take the time to prepare them before fights, they’ll make your life much easier.