The Witcher -- violence, sex, and alchemy as part of your daily balanced breakfast

dlc is hard

game is p good at changing the atmosphere as you go through it - just got to oxenfurt after a lot of wandering south of midcopse (lots of bandit camps - bandit camps are definitely my favourite sidequest) - the music and atmosphere at oxenfurt is brilliant, and the way it looks.

agree that bandit camps are the most fun --- the parry/counter mechanic works a lot better with humans is part of it, i think

game is p good at changing the atmosphere as you go through it - just got to oxenfurt after a lot of wandering south of midcopse (lots of bandit camps - bandit camps are definitely my favourite sidequest) - the music and atmosphere at oxenfurt is brilliant, and the way it looks.

yeah, really like how Velen is all creepy scraping noises and sad violins and the whole region feeling like it's really base and sick and tragic

then you spend the whole big colourful capital city section with everyone dressed in bright colours and the most maddeningly infectious chirpy lute riff everywhere you go

agree that bandit camps are the most fun --- the parry/counter mechanic works a lot better with humans is part of it, i think

yeah there's more of a sense of carnage than i dunno, using a yrden to kill some irritating wraith.

btwi know it says blocking is for humans and dodging is for monsters, but mostly i dodge humans too, like my general tactic for big groups is a huge igni, preceded by an enhanced dragon's dream, if i have time - then i try to pick off anyone who got major burn damage. i dodge constantly and back off so it's just me vs one guy and i don't get surrounded. sometimes use mind control if the guy has a shield, but usually igni and quick attack does the job. i barely ever use strong attack or aard. i don't use block much either, dodge seems to work even better.

some of the midcopse bandit camps are cool, they had like 20 level three bandits instead of a few stronger ones - there are loads of new animations for killing people who are at a far lower level.

lol what have i become

i ended up abandoning fallout 35 hours in (i just didn't care anymore) and diving into this instead, mostly due to checking in on this thread on occasion and getting jealous. i'm level 4.5 or so, having just cleared out everything in white orchard (i think) and talked to the emperor.

the combat is great. i was awful at first because i was just mashing attacks and leaving myself open. now i'm learning how to hang back a little, and leveling up and getting better sign skills modifies things in a pleasing way as well. i know there's a stamina system of sorts during combat so that you have to occasionally recharge rather than attacking endlessly, but i can't seem to find the indicator on the HUD. it's almost better that way, though, because i find myself reacting intuitively and guessing at when i've recharged enough, rather than relying on an indicator to tell me i'm good to go.

the voice acting is so much better than fallout, too, although i really hate the Batman growl that most video game action heroes seem to use.

this game is stupid good and very addictive. always one more thing to do, one more element to finish the current storyline, one more quick run to get some food and water to prepare for a run at what might be a boss.

xpost but still, i'll take that over fallout's incredibly lame beaver cleaver voice for the main character

i wish i could delete the gwenty quest (gotta collect 'em all!) because i swore a sacred oath to never, ever play that game again.

Been kind of getting into Gwent the last few times I've played, actually.

once you have a few hero cards in your deck does gwent just become easy mode? or does it get more challenging

Oh by the way the Witcher 2 is free on xbox 360 at the moment, I won't link to it because it's different for different regions but it's searchable at xbox.com. Also playable on Xbox One via back compatibility. You'll need to grab it soon though, think it expires in a few days.

gwent tends to become more strategic once you have a few good cards unless you're playing the local inkeep or nonquest types in which case then, yes, very much easy mode.

I SIGNED UP FOR A GWENT TOURNAMENT NOT FISTS OF FURY AGHHHHHHHHG

one minor gripe would be that the story gets kinda tedious and overbearing somewhere from bloody baron to the novigrad and the missions finding dandelion. like some really long cut scenes and i was starting to feel like skipping them. i'm not sure finding ciri is that interesting a storyline.

how completist are you all being? i've done big clusters of question marks in some areas, but this game seems to be just vast - and like if i'm in the city where the missions advance the main quest, i'm more likely to keep pressing on with that.

have to say since i got advanced dragons dream and advanced grapeshot, and coupled these with a v levelled up igni, i am causing mayhem. like these gigantic mushroom cloud explosions and limbs fly everywhere. it's hilarious.

my problem is i'm too completionist, so if i see question marks i can't stop myself doing them... which means if i sit down for 3 hours, 2 hours of that will be side quests or just treasure hunt, and so i'm getting through main story VERY SLOWLY. I know some people have shot through the main story in 40-50 hours or so as they ignored the side quests etc... so its really down to what you as a person want to do!

but yes finding dandelion was a bit of a bore at points - but then it also had the stage play etc!
enjoying skellige much more now i've moved onto that.

these games would be way better with a silent character-created protagonist rather than reddit wish fulfillment sex having cool guy geralt.

^ a thousand times this; i feel very PUA sleazy picking the obvious sexytimes answer tree

lol true

though i suppose you could argue it's an attempt at reprogramming the users

"hmmmm... should i act like a total asshole to this woman or treat her human? i guess i'll treat her human"
three hours later
"holy shit everyone in this game wants to fuck me... i've got to start treating women human IRL i guess"

"also, i need to get rippling abs, learn magic and splurge on those catseye contacts"

i feel like the gamification of human interaction is the creepiest thing about those kinda dudes

sometimes geralt (and this game) surprise me with wit. not often i guess, and i'm damning with faint praise, but there's a p decent wit bubbling under in this game, relative to other games.

lol at the irish accents on skellige.

the graphics there are amazing.

This is a great game. For me (and not that I play many games) it combines the best aspects of Red Dead Redemption and the better Assassins Creed games.

I've not long reached Skellige, as well. Lovin it. Loving the vastness of the whole game. Like, when you get a new mission you go to the map to see where you have to go and you follow the yellow arrow, and you follow it and follow it and follow it, and it just scrolls for ages and it's like ho-ly fuck. I'm gonna be at something of a loss when I complete it all, tbh. lol.

I got overwhelmed by the size and stopped to play Arkham Knight.

yeah i took a lil time out from playing anything and found it a lot easier to jump back into arkham knight and shadows of mordor (which i still haven't really figured out) for a few quick punchups than heading straight back into the vastness of the witcher. excited too because i just sorted out a projector/screen setup and it's totally indulgent and awesome, this game looks fantastic at 120"

Some intense games of Gwent happening over here.

lambert, lambert, what a prick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reQNMG1sMng

amaziing. that tune really gets the blood up for slaughtering some novigrad street gangs.

FINISHED. got a good ending. what a game!

witcher 3 is good

yes! have to get back into it. so fun to play stoned for hours on a wintery day .

Beat the actual game. Started on the DLC but haven't gotten very far. Total blast though.

i recently started on this too. i had tried the first one at the time and hated it so i mentally wrote the series off since. but i saw and got so many recommendations for 3 that i had to get it in the end and yeah it is exceptional. movement still nearly as clunky as i remember it from 1 tho.

i finished the tutorial area and just started on the next area. it's so huge, and i love that the side quests and stuff are well written and interesting. i haven't really delved into gwent at all. is it the kind of thing that gives advantages or just a bit of fun on the side? should i worry about it now or can i go back to it later?

Worry about it now because you'll need the special cards from certain characters (like the Baron) that will disappear and you'll never catch up with the quality level of cards NPCs have in Skellige or Novigrad.

it's also just fun. it's a p nicely designed game and quick to play a match

don't worry about the vastness, just enjoy the fact that even the smallest side quest is going to be pure quality, and there are hundreds of hours of enjoyment in that thing. I actually think the story of Hearts Of Stone is better than the base game, it really is wonderful....

due to this year of shittiness i've actually kept blood and wine back for as long as possible, first reason being so that i have a guaranteed excellent thing to enjoy in christmas holidays, and second reason being that i'm gonna be fucking sad when i have no more of this to play.

fuck gwent if it doesn't appeal, i never played it even once.

this is the best game.

well i played it once, but after that i never played it again.

must try the expansion packs, though i still haven't finished the original, i'm too addicted to randomly grinding my way around the question marks. there's nothing i love more than a huge bandit camp.

I love how the bandits never learn how dumb it is to attack you, even the last guy is always there confidently shouting abuse at you as you stride menacingly over the severed limbs of all his friends, deflecting crossbow bolts back at him

fuck gwent if it doesn't appeal, i never played it even once.

this is the best game.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Thursday, November 17, 2016 4:40 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cosign all of this

I love how the bandits never learn how dumb it is to attack you, even the last guy is always there confidently shouting abuse at you as you stride menacingly over the severed limbs of all his friends, deflecting crossbow bolts back at him

there's a lovely bandit beach down south somewhere, like about 100 of the fuckers around some boat. sort of like a club tropicana for bandits except instead of drinking in speedos you maim and burn them all with bombs and igni.

it's like south west as far as i recall.

I just finished Blood & Wine, which pretty much gives you a whole new game world to explore, which has the added bonus of being like a fever-dream version of 14th Century Provence

and i'm back.

i played a couple hours last night, bumped up to LVL6, and kept dying during the Bloody Baron mission where you have to keep the torches lit while the Pellar completes his spooky chants. i was getting to the point where i was saying "oh come on! come on!" in annoying little kid voice, out loud, after every loss, so i went to bed. in the cold light of the morning i realized that i probably should have adjusted my Sign skills so that they're more effective against Wraiths, who were just tearing me apart. Also I leveled up and didn't even take the time to pick a new skill or do anything else. Negronis. I had a few and it affected my decisionmaking. I'm sorry The Witcher III.

anyway i had a great time getting back into it after however long it had been since i moved on. this time i anticipate sticking with it a lot longer.