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

spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if yenn is an analogue for veronica does that make tris an analogue for betty or bc she's a redhead for cheryl blossom and then trying to figure out exactly what the semiotics of cheryl blossom was supposed to be anyway - this was a good distraction for the otherwise shameful unicorn sex scene

mordy those are 5 minutes you cant have back

I really enjoy this game but it is kinda easy-ish. I'm getting frustrated with the crafting too. I finally got my hands on a master armorer except I dont have recipes for anything decent at my level so its basically an empty victory.

More fetch quests then!

I've already lifted the difficulty once and it's still too eAsy thinking about taking it up to death march

braaaaag

esp if you're using the right oils and making use of the decoctions (there are some feats that apparently boost your toxicity tolerance which i feel like will just break the game entirely if i use -- i have like 3-4 pts i haven't even invested yet in skills). i also have the cat school armor which is great.

breaking up w/ yenn v. sad :(

finally finished this. i have a pretty big backlog of games to get to but that new game+ sure looks tempting. quite a remarkable game - one of the best RPGs i've ever played for sure.

has any one read any of the books or graphic novels? are they any good?

I've read (well, listened to), the short story prequels to the main saga and generally enjoyed them. I'm not a big fantasy reader though so take it with a grain of salt.

I dug the books, the couple first ones I read.

Took me forever to really get that the games were sequels of sorts to the books.

http://i.imgur.com/gra9w6e.jpg

terrifying

ha

i've been chilling in novigrad for the past week. just like solving mysteries and tracking people down. i love that there's a city that actually feels big and like a city within the even huger world.

After some so-so AAA games over the holidays, I fired up my post-Blood & Wine save and am just walking the earth, basically immortal, picking up all the question marks I left behind, finding it a surprisingly soothing way to not think about 2017.

are the add-ons worth picking up? the gameplay can be repetitive but I enjoy walkin around the world they created.

Yeah would recommend, the new area in Blood and Wine is a nice change, and both have some pretty great quests.

Hearts Of Stone story is better than Wild Hunt!

do you carry on as the same level etc in the expansions?

i only discovered the island in skellige called "an skellig" like two days ago, despite it having its own theme music and several really cool side quests. somehow i missed it. anyway finally finished this last night. don't read on if you don't want mild spoilers:

pretty good cinematic end sequences. thought the second last boss, the magician guy, was one of the few really difficult bosses in the game. the last boss was laughably easy, he barely hit me once. i was thinking last night i reckon i've died more in this game by falling off cliffs than during battle.

i also wondered if anyone else does the following:

1. being too lazy or not bothering to use roach, instead walking/running long distances to a marker, as the crow flies. mostly works, occasionally results in stupid routes over mountains and lots of scrabbling/jumping.
2. never using the parry/block action. i just dodge or roll always. i can't even remember how to parry.
3. putting all your experience into sword skills - like once i got a good igni and an okay quen/yrden there was so much experience left it just seemed like upgrading sword attack and defence made the most sense.
4. never fighting on horseback. can't be bothered/it's too easy on foot anyway to need to learn how to move roach in any non-frustrating way during a fight.

yes, you retain your level (and all upgrade, gear etc.) in the expansions, or you can assume a levelled-up version of Geralt if you want.

i also wondered if anyone else does the following:

yes to 1 + 4 for sure. parrying is useful when you're dealing w/ archers (and have the deflect skill) otherwise agree. 3 - a lot went into sword skills (and particularly quick sword -- does any one bother to use both quick & heavy? seemed unnecessary even at the second highest difficulty setting) but putting a little bit in alchemy basically turns the game into a cakewalk. + i say this as someone who doesn't really play the dark souls games bc they're hard enough that i get frustrated - but in general witcher 3 is just too easy. agree about the second to last boss and the final boss too.

i had all these plans to combine the highest level bear swords w/ the highest level cat armor but i didn't even bother getting everything fully upgraded by the end. maybe it makes more sense to do so on new game+.

i put like everything into igni and sword. and i use a lot of bombs which combined with igni is good.

i use strong attack a lot though, like when an enemy is stunned or you have a clear strike, strong attack is really good. also the heightened strong attack where he lifts the sword over his head, backwards, is ludicrously powerful. kinda hard to get a hit in with it but if you do it causes huge damage.

i'm the same - i know i'd give up dark souls after two minutes, i'm mostly okay with witcher 3 being easy but i think they could fix it a bit. like the exp level of bosses doesn't actually tally with difficulty sometimes, there's this one golem or fire elemental in one of the caves that took me longer than any other boss, and it was just level 28 or something when i was about 30. but most of the time i just tear into enemies without even blocking or dodging and they're dead in about two minutes.

humanoids are even easier, i mainly enjoy fighting them cos it's fun to dodge and taunt them. i think if the fighting wasn't so much fun and didn't have such good animations it'd be more frustrating, but it is a problem. like the game doesn't quite know how to balance itself towards the wide variety of skills you amass as it goes on.

xpost i keep finding i have the scrolls for the three highest things but not the most basic one, and hence can't craft it or brew it.

started blood and wine over the weekend, can't stop laughing. the accents and the music and the script. this game is all-time.

i can't complete the final detlaff fight in blood and wine at all. it's about 200 times harder than anything else in this game. i searched for how to do it etc, nothing helps.

maybe kick the difficulty level down a notch? i was looking for a chill vacation vibe by the time i got to b&w so i set it to easy mode. i think detlaff still kicked my ass a few times but i don't remember it being a grind (and i am not a particularly skilled fighter in this game)

lol i'm already on easy. like when he changes form he just fires bats and me and i die every time. i've considered going back to an old save then heading off for a while to level up and maybe get a few more effective potions, though i am a really high level already.

ha oh welp. maybe i was way over-leveled since i'd done everything i could do in the game by then or maybe i got lucky with my "hit random buttons in a sweaty panic" strat

he telegraphs his fire bat attack, it should just be a question of dodging out the way when he telegraphs it then closing in for some sword-thwacking IIIRC

seems to be really hard to dodge, probably a timing thing. glad this game is easy cos the load times when you die are so bad it's hard to have even three goes at a boss.

remember the quen shield that gives back health being pretty critical in surviving that part

http://gematsu.com/2017/03/gwent-witcher-card-game-ps4-technical-beta-begins-march-31

how long does the dlc take, roughly

i'm not enjoying blood and wine as much as the main game or as much as hearts of stone and i can't tell if it's because it's not as good or i'm just finally burning out on this game. the main story feels pretty grim and the side missions are all pretty dull. i do like toussaint though, it's very pretty.

i stopped partway thru b&w. i think for me it was part burn out but also it lost the sense of progression to keep pushing me along. i might try it again in a few months.

weird - i felt most addicted during blood and wine.

so far it feels less creative/weird than the rest of the game. nothing like going into the painting or the final battle against the mirror man in hearts of stone. a lot of straight-ahead fighting and running errands for people. but i'm probably not that far into blood and wine yet.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/17/netflix-to-produce-the-witcher-tv-series

cautiously optimistic

i hope it's just a lot of wandering around in the foothills gathering flowers and whistling for Roach

terrence malick's The Witcher

http://i.imgur.com/LuGknMf.png

LOL

otm

the first tv show ever to be shot entirely within a broom cupboard in an embassy building

hahaha

now you don't need to unlock the sex scenes

this was $25 for the game + both expansions on GOG yesterday and i just built a new gaming pc so i guess i'm finally going to play it. i avoided it before because skyrim burnt me out on this type of game but it's been long enough now i think, and being able to play it on high gfx settings should be a treat, i imagine.

fwiw witcher 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> skyrim

yeah i loved skyrim but this is just so so much better

That's a big promise