The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [2015]

[the_dog_days]

I've got about twenty hours into Blood and Wine and it's like the devs took the best parts of the base game, put it into a tighter package, added more cinematics and improved uses of POI. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but now that I have a better sense of what they are trying to do I like it more than I like B &W more than TW3.

[WDeranged]

I've got about twenty hours into Blood and Wine and it's like the devs took the best parts of the base game, put it into a tighter package, added more cinematics and improved uses of POI. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but now that I have a better sense of what they are trying to do I like it more than I like B &W more than TW3.

 

That's how it feels to me, like they boiled down the main game to its essential components.  I'm also really enjoying the tonal shift, seems the devs are blowing off steam by poking fun at all the tropes of the genre.

Edited June 6, 2016 by WDeranged

[Sabotin]

On the other hand I find it bothering that there's many references and modernisms in the game. I was even expecting people to be upset about it like for siege of dragonspear. Overall the expansion was quite enjoyable though, I liked the lower amount of "random stuff" on the map, too. Still I think I prefer hearts of stone, though I'd be hard pressed to point at something as the reason why.

[the_dog_days]

The modern euphemisms do bother me, but because the original game is in Polish, I can't be sure if that's CD's or the translator's fault so I just brush it off.

[Fenixp]

When it comes to cultural references, I'll just post this video with Hearts of Stone spoilers in it again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHsmiFJqJc

It seems large chunks of the game are not only filled with references but even based on them, I'm just far too stupid to notice. Not that I'm complaining. Besides, everybody who's finished HoS positively needs to watch that.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Fenixp

[HoonDing]

Very clever indeed.

[Lexx]

Got myself the Ursine / bear school set now. It's like the most pretty armor I've found so far. Kinda sucks for it is a heavy armor, as I usually don't wear them heavy stuff... but because of the way it looks, I totally have to. Now I can't spam signs anymore, though. :€

[WDeranged]

So I spotted a reference to the 'duck face selfie' phenomenon, made me chuckle 

[Vaeliorin]

There were two 80s pop song references I encountered in short succession that honestly kind of annoyed me. One of the prostitues in the brothel has a bark about being a material girl in a material world, and then in the dueling lessons quest Geralt says something about girls just wanna have fun. They honestly both seemed kind of out of place, but likely wouldn't have bothered me if I hadn't run into them within a few minutes of each other.

[Katphood]

I started the first treasure hunt in Hearts of Stone and got killed by a few wild boars, but then I reloaded the game and went ahead and started a level 20 treasure hunt which I hadn't completed earlier and killed a dragon in the process. 

[WDeranged]

There were two 80s pop song references I encountered in short succession that honestly kind of annoyed me. One of the prostitues in the brothel has a bark about being a material girl in a material world, and then in the dueling lessons quest Geralt says something about girls just wanna have fun. They honestly both seemed kind of out of place, but likely wouldn't have bothered me if I hadn't run into them within a few minutes of each other.

 

Normally this would bug me too but for some reason I'm enjoying it all.  Might be because I've played a lot of Witcher 2 & 3 this year.  Blood and Wine is a gloriously bright and stupid contrast to all that mud and **** 

[Humanoid]

Sadly it looks like in the year since I've played, Geralt still hasn't learned how to walk down stairs. And, as far as I can tell, there's still no walk toggle for the gamepad either. It's unfortunate that in a game where I want to take things slowly and RP walk everywhere, actually attempting to do so is awkward and unwieldy.

 

Anyway, up to the bit where I have to fight the title villains, so I should be moving on to the actual new content soon-ish.

[SadExchange]

When it comes to cultural references, I'll just post this video with Hearts of Stone spoilers in it again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHsmiFJqJc

It seems large chunks of the game are not only filled with references but even based on them, I'm just far too stupid to notice. Not that I'm complaining. Besides, everybody who's finished HoS positively needs to watch that.

This was great to watch.  Thanks for posting it.  Can't wait to play through the expansion on the pc again.

[the_dog_days]

I started the first treasure hunt in Hearts of Stone and got killed by a few wild boars, but then I reloaded the game and went ahead and started a level 20 treasure hunt which I hadn't completed earlier and killed a dragon in the process. 

 

I almost never say this in video games, but those boars are cheats. If I recall, there's five of them and they spam that charging move that gives you no choice but to roll and rolling in TW3 always causes a second delay for your follow up action. Stunning doesn't work great and without some kind of poison, bleeding, or burning effect on the boars it's difficult to do damage because of their movements. I didn't try Axii, maybe, similar to the giant spiders (whom I also hate), they're weak to Axii sign.

[Katphood]

I finally got rid of them. The trick is to lure them with the crossbow and dodge their incoming attacks. I also spammed the Igni sign when ever I could.

[Lexx]

Started Hearts of Stone now, because I think I've done most of the stuff in the main game up until the point where the endgame is going to start (bring all the friends to witcher castle). Have to say that toad boss battle was the hardest one I had to get through yet... had to reload a truckton of time, and I play in god damn story mode... the loading times were the worst. Finally beat that damn thing with cursed oil + a decoction that gave me vitality whenever I used anything stamina draining. Basically I was jumping around, hitting every once in a while and whenever possible spammed Quen... Before I had this fight I was actually thinking about switching the difficulty to a lil bit higher again, but now... nope. Stays in story mode.

[SadExchange]

Don't want to ruin too much but I believe there's quite a bit more content for the main game after the big battle at the witcher castle:) so feel free to go and keep plugging away at that if you feel underpowered.

[Lexx]

Hmm that would be good. I was wondering why there is so much lvl 30+ stuff (gear, etc.) in the game, while the main quest right now tells me it is made for lvl 22. Also there are no new message board quests for me, except two or three which are also around lvl 30.

 

I don't know, maybe I did the quests in the wrong order or something. Was doing quite a bunch of low level quests shortly before starting the DLC, and all of them gave me like what, 2 xp or something... that's basically nothing. Well, at least money isn't an issue for me anymore.

[Humanoid]

Sidequests are intentionally made worth much less XP than main quests, combined with them being vastly below your level, they're really only there to appreciate as little self-contained vignettes about Witcher life.

[the_dog_days]

@Lexx: The first mod I installed was full XP for all quests for this very reason.

[Lexx]

This Gaunter 'o Dimm in Hearts of Stone reminds me a lot of the man in black from Stephen King's Dark Tower. The names are similar, the behavior, the tricks and even the way he talks is how I imagined him. Heh, had this impression right from the start and now that I am uncovering his background, it's really awful similar.

[HoonDing]

Considering CD Project have never come up with an original idea on their own, it's very likely.

[Malcador]

Finished off Blood and Wine, not very happy with the ending but the only save I have before the branching (which was obviously going to a bad ending, thinking about it) is quite a ways back and I don't feel like doing all that stuff over again. Bah.

[Pidesco]

This Gaunter 'o Dimm in Hearts of Stone reminds me a lot of the man in black from Stephen King's Dark Tower. The names are similar, the behavior, the tricks and even the way he talks is how I imagined him. Heh, had this impression right from the start and now that I am uncovering his background, it's really awful similar.

 

I haven't read Dark Tower, but the Hearts of Stone plot seemed like a take on Faust, to me.

[Lexx]

The general story, yeah, like this dude in that yt video said. My post was only about the character Gaunter 'o Dimm. I've never read Faust, so no idea if a character with the same "feeling" appears there.