The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

A lot of bugs and glitches have been removed - especially quests that could not be completed.
I don't know at which patch you played last time. Right now crafting materials have no weight, documents have an separate section in inventory, you now have a chest, where you can deposit stuff (like different witcher gear) you don't want to carry with you all the time, igni and irden have been nerfed and a lot of minor tweaks etc.
 
Any improvements to combat?

I think my biggest issue was that combat was growing a tad stale (I was playing on the highest difficulty).
 
mfmaxpower said:
Any improvements to combat?

I think my biggest issue was that combat was growing a tad stale (I was playing on the highest difficulty).
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There were some patches/DLC that added in more combat finishers and a more responsive movement set which I think improved on combat variety. Also, the most recent changes to magic intensity have toned down the magic spam with certain builds with takes away using certain exploits as "I win" buttons.

I think the medium and short range combat of the Witcher 3 is about as good as it gets in terms of swords and magic. The horseback combat and the lack of any real long range combat (not really any bow and arrow combat... the crossbow is not really satisfying to me) *may* leave you feeling less than satisfied if that's what you're into, but I'd say with the recent balance changes this is probably the best medieval fantasy combat ever made.

For me, it beats out the Souls/Bloodbourne combat system, as well as the Assasin's Creed combat (although that's not really "fantasy" based), and narrowly edges out the Dragon's Dogma combat system. Heck, even if I did slightly prefer another game's combat at this point, I'm so absolutely spoiled by everything else the Witcher 3 does on top of the combat (the production values are staggering... a seemingly endless supply of AAA content all over the game) that doing anything in the virtual world of the Witcher 3 is satisfying.

Last game to get me that interested in chasing down outside information (books, other media) was the Mass Effect series.
 
For me the combat is nowhere near Souls for depth or agency. The finishers are great and it's definitely good fun, particularly if you like it a bit more frenetic and centred on the idea of fighting several people at a time, but it doesn't have anywhere near the same need for timing, or the variety of actual fights you experience.

The combat is good though, and I do like it a lot at times. It's definitely more along the lines of AC's combat than Souls so it's not really an apples-apples comparison. It could have used a lot more variety in fighting humans but it's still fun when you find yourself in amongst 5 or 6 enemies.

Again, the horseback fights are awful, you're better off doing a couple of strafing runs and then dismounting. But that's usually well worth it anyway.
 
romagnoli said:
For me the combat is nowhere near Souls for depth or agency. The finishers are great and it's definitely good fun, particularly if you like it a bit more frenetic and centred on the idea of fighting several people at a time, but it doesn't have anywhere near the same need for timing, or the variety of actual fights you experience.

The combat is good though, and I do like it a lot at times. It's definitely more along the lines of AC's combat than Souls so it's not really an apples-apples comparison. It could have used a lot more variety in fighting humans but it's still fun when you find yourself in amongst 5 or 6 enemies.

Again, the horseback fights are awful, you're better off doing a couple of strafing runs and then dismounting. But that's usually well worth it anyway.
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Oh, most definitely there will be people who prefer the Souls combat system over the Witcher 3... although what I think gives the Souls system a bit more suspense is the punishment of death resulting in you character being downgraded. In the Witcher 3, death's punishment is merely a loading screen and you try again like nothing happened.

I know some people prefer the 1:1 control of the Souls series over the Witcher 3's contextual animations... (In Souls, you press a button to attack, the character always swings his weapon the exact same way immediately; in the Witcher 3, you press a button to attack, and the character will swing his weapon in a contextual manner depending on distance to the opponent and previous animation...) but after playing the Witcher 3 for so long, I've gotten used to all the different Witcher 3 attack animations and know how to trigger them.

I've played through Witcher 3 twice, both times on the hardest difficulty (and I don't play 100% of the content by any means. Main quest, then pick different side quests each time.) with the 2nd playthrough being a "permadeath" playthrough, meaning that if I died (other than a glitch) I erased that character. That was a fun and suspenseful playthrough. I recommend. Along with the Witcher 3, I've only done artificial permadeath challenges for Skyrim, Mass Effect (series), and Far Cry 2/3/4 previously although I've yet to complete the Far Cry 3/4 challenges. Anyways, it makes the game way more fun to have such a harsh penalty for death as long as you are disciplined enough to enforce it.
 
The more I play Fallout 4, which I truly love, the more I miss Witcher 3 (I only played the first ten hours or so before deciding to save it and gear up for the new Fallout by completing New Vegas).

There's so many little details in Fallout 4 where a character says two utterly conflicting statements one after the other (my favourite example being "I've heard what taking 'addictol' is like, I'm never taking that" - try again when your charisma is raised - "I didn't even know there WAS a treatment for addiction, wow, thank you"), where I think "damn, that totally ruined the immersion for me, the attention to detail in this is terrible compared to Witcher 3".

It's making me appreciate just how good a game Witcher 3 is, and I'm itching to get back to it.
 
I need to get back to this, with Xmas coming in tidied up and put everything away, so need to look out again and get back into this. Will buy the season pass too so that I have 2 new adventures (1 current, 1 to follow) with Geralt.


FD
 
This game, it's something else. Some spoilers below.

I'm really glad I pulled the trigger on it, although, how the hell I will ever be able to find time to finish it, I have no idea. I don't know how much I have played it (is there a way to see that?) but it feels like ages. I'm in the middle of the Red Baron stuff but I am doing side quests to bring up my level. Assisted the Peller recently with his ghost ritual and will have to deal with his ghost father later, don't want to do it right now as the spectres creep me out, which is funny as I have had the easiest time dealing with those so far. Prior to that I finished the Keira missions, those were a lot of fun and had a "happy ending" for Geralt to say the least.

The ability stuff is a pain though, I found out last night that I had been walking around for ages with unused ability points because I hadn't assigned them to slots. I had activated the abilities, but not moved them to the slots on the right. Motherfucker. Also I was eying this sweet armor build from a blacksmith in Oxenfurt, I had even found out stuff in my inventory to dismantle to have enough to craft the armor. The Blacksmith was totally pumped as well, to make a sick armor for me. But then I saw the bitter truth, "level 16 required" I am level eight. MOTHERFUCKER!!!!

Still, what a fun game. I'm in a pickle now though, chasing a monster in Oxenfurt (the one I had to get drunk to lure out) and even if use the shield as I jump into it's lair, it murders me with one hit every time!

Maybe I will find time tonight to figure stuff out.
 
I've never really been into rpgs but I picked this up for 16 quid on the US store ..game is amazing ..I've only really just started, just managed to kill the griffin after a number of attempts :) ..not sure I'll find all the time to finish it
 
Turns out that Vampire boss was way above my level as well, so no wonder it managed to murder me with one hit almost every time. I'm actually kind of proud I got a couple of hits in there a few times. It's sometimes hard to figure these things out as they never get spelled out when you take the job, only when you go back into the menu and quests and scroll through them.

I have moved on now, don't know if that thing will still be where I left it once I have the required level, or if it will simply become a failed mission. Another thing that is confusing is that once I got to Novograd, the game would automatically move the quest marker and say "find a boat to get to Skellige" or something like that, but when I go to the menu, this quest has a suggested level 16, double my level.
 
Keep an eye out for whether or not the quest title has a skull next the name in the top right of the HUD (which means it's out of your league). I agree that there are a couple of things which could do with tweaking there. I found being level 8 or 9 the hardest point of the game, because so many of those '?' points of interest were too tough so I'd ride in on my horse, then ride the hell out at top speed.

I always find it funny with games like this that you have to level up. I thought I was meant to be a legendary fighter of men and monsters, with the scars to prove it?? Geralt's been through two games already - what's he been doing since? Has he just been on a Christmas binge that stretched out to 3 years or something?
 
I just looked up my trophies on the game, I have four, one being a trophy for having sex (and finishing a questline... but let's face it, it was for the sex part).
 
Has anyone played Hearts of Stone yet? I've started playing again. Close to the end. Trying to get all the question marks in the Skelly Isles sea before fighting the main boss
 
Some spoilers.

I am now at level 10. Still running random errands around Velen. A lady asked me to rid her home of ghosts and I did, got a nice sum for it as well. Now she's asking me to do some other stuff, put her wedding band on a tombstone so her late husband won't pester her in her sleep. There is something off about her though, she kind of disappeared the moment I accepted the quest and Geralt even made a "what the" remark on it. There is going to be some twist on that whole thing, she probably turns out to be some witch or something. or I will release the spirit of her husband and have to fight it.
I'm reminded on the moment that I inadvertantly released the "pesta" when I set a ghost lady free, there was a huge hint that releasing her spirit was not a good idea (Geralt caught her in a lie) but I don't think there was another way to finish that quest. The Pesta also disappeared almost instantly and I haven't seen her again (thankfully). With lighting reflexes I might have been able to put a magic trap on her but I never loaded a previous save or anything to find out.

I like that some times, quests turn out to be super innocent stuff. I had braced myself for a showdown with the Pellers father as I found his body in the swamp but instead there were a few drowners that I killed almost instantly and then I simply had to set fire to the corpse. Went back to the Peller, he gave me good coin and then promised a sweet deal on any alchemy items from his shop. Nice dude.

Now I am considering if I should follow the Baron back to the swamps to free his wife. I have a bad feeling about the it since Geralt kept telling the Baron it was a bad Idea but the quest level is 9 and it seems like an interesting quest. I will try to get myself up to level 12 first, I am halfway through level 10 and when I reach level 12 I will get to use a good silver blade I had crafted for me.

Then I should be ready to f*ck some shit up.
 
getting some quests going in Novograd and the Experience points just get piled on. In the Broken Flowers quest I have to talk to 5-6 ladies and the game hands me 150 EXP just for talking to them (each time). A couple of times I had to do a bit more. Up to level 13 now, doing errands for Djikstra and waiting for a chance to get back to the Bloody Baron and finish his questline.
 
Should I have a particular amount of money at the least before the trip to Skellige? I have never really been able to save anything. Mostly gone up to 3000 for a short period. Now have only 1300 or so I think.
 
Money never really became an issue for me as I recall. I don't really know what I'd spend it on... other than crafting diagrams.
 
Yeah can't say money was really something I was bothered about.

Actually whenever I felt necessary I passed on receiving money from some of the people who I thought could do with it more than me.


FD
 
I think I'm close now, as I'm on a mission called Final Preparations. I have played some Witcher 3 almost every single night since Jan 1, and those hours seem to be finally adding up. I'm absolutely getting the season pass or whatever that thing is called. Just want to throw money at those dudes now.
 
Yeah I'm gonna pick it up too, I've just started on Assassins but am going to defo get this, it is another £20, but there's a lot of gameplay seemingly in the two games so will be well worth it.


FD
 
Watching the end credits.

Really glad I picked this up. I'll probably go on a bit longer about it later. Right now I just want to mark somewhere that I ended it, after about 2 1/2 months. And it took some sessions, man I wish I could see excactly how much I have played it. Bet the hour count is insane.
 
Still to play the DLC new story, however the new upcoming story looks really nice, very colourful world it seems.

Once I get Until Dawn out the way, think it's back to Witcher for me and get the DLC's out the way.

I said originally that Shadow of Mordor was better, but when I think about the story and the characters, Witcher is the better I feel now that I think about it more. Probably one of my fav games of all time, certainly high up on the list.


FD
 
Isslander said:
I think I'm close to the end in Hearts of Stone, it's been great. Very memorable missions.
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Likewise. I have about 7 missions left I think. Been 3 weeks since I've touched it. Going to get back into it since the next dlc, Blood and Wine comes out soon.

The Numbers:
• 30+ hour adventure.
• Over 90 new quests.
• Over 40 new points of interest.
• Dynamic points of interest system. Killing bandits in their main hideout will affect the number of enemies in surrounding camps.
• 14000 lines of dialogue (Hearts of Stone had 6000).
• 100 individual pieces of armour (including new Witcher sets).
• More than 20 new monsters.
• New Game + maximum level increased to 100.

Armour and Weapons:
• New Witcher armour class ‘Grandmaster’.
• New armour merchant who is the only one able to craft this level of Witcher gear.
• Can get blue, hooded armour from Witcher 2, armour from Witcher 1, Ursine Witcher armour with furry pauldron that was in the artbook but cut from the main game.
• More than 30 new weapons.
• Can now dye armour. Dyes can be bought from a merchant, crafted or looted. Only obtainable in Toussaint. Pink is among the colours.
• You can acquire the golden, plumed armour of the Touissant knights, and the same goes for Roach!

New Mutation System:
• Mutations. 12 new abilities. Mechanic is unlocked through a quest started by a letter from Yennefer. Examples: Signs can have critical hits causing the enemy to explode, instead of dying Geralt is healed and has damage immunity, opponents knocked down by AARD freeze and die instantly. Can only utilise one at a time.
• The UI resembles Witcher 2’s character customization screen. Basically they’re super strong abilities/stat boosts that require mutagens and skill points to unlock. Can only pick one at a time but you have to unlock earlier ones to get the others.
• Despite unlocking it at level 34+ (recommended level to venture to Touissant) the system and anything you’ve unlocked carries over to New Game+ so you won’t have to unlock it again.

UI Changes:
• Greatly redesigned User Interface.
• Can now rotate Geralt in stats screen.
• Books moved to glossary.
• Upon looting a readable item a little notification pops up in bottom left of screen. Upon clicking in the right stick (on Xbox One controller), you can read the text of recently looted books, letters, notes etc without having to go to the menu, inventory, finding the right book and so on.
• Option to remove fish-eye effect from witcher sense.

Home Base:
• Geralt gets his own motherfucking vineyard.
• It’s called Corvo Bianco.
• You can renovate it with large sums of money, the option I saw was for 5000 Orens.
• You can add a greenhouse of sorts where you can grow herbs for all your witcher potion needs, an armourer’s table, a stable for Roach (with its own stat bonuses), upgrade your bed, renovated interior and exterior, secret lab, guest room.
• Guest room where old friends will come to stay. They said the names Triss and Yennefer, but were reluctant to reveal the names of anyone else who might visit. Surprise Iorveth/Saskia visit??
• Scaffolding and workers will appear after you choose to build something. Each change takes a certain amount of in-game time to complete, but you can just meditate til everything’s done.
• Can display your armour, weapons, paintings and books.
• Some paintings can be bought, or specially made, others are obtained through quests.

Music:
• Over 2 hours of new musical content in the game.
• The title screen song is a reworked version of the Bruxa song from the CGI trailer.

Other Tidbits:
• Can enter Geralt in a tournament, creating his own logo and team colours.
• Can enter under a fake name, although you may not fool everyone.
• You can of course race horses, but other events involve crossbow shooting and a grand melee. Seems like there will be more but they didn’t want to say.
• No new unique weather effects, but the lighting has been prepared specially to reflect the feeling of Southern Europe.
• No new hairstyles.
• As of the preview event (3/5/16) they were still working on the final boss fight.
• Grass has been optimised, more of it but less expensive.
• Improvements to cloth tech (see interview for more detail).
• New sword sheathing option. With this new option Geralt no longer automatically unsheathes his sword at the start of combat. Also, he no longer switches weapons to match the opponent. The player has to do it on their own.
• CDPR staff were given a sheet that says “We do not talk about Cyberpunk” for this press tour.
• Bioware staff apparently cheered when Witcher 3 was delayed out of 2014.
• Nilfgaard and Northern Kingdoms physical Gwents cards exist, unsure if they’re being packaged with this expansion.


Copy and pasted from wccf tech
 
This game is amazing. Went back to it after a move had meant it went out of mind, but level of detail is just ridiculous. If someone had told me 15 years ago a video game good look like this, have this much to do and have this strong a story...I would never have believed you.

Totally going to buy blood and wine - should I do hearts of stone too?
 
I'm about to get back into the Witcher to finish Hearts of Stone and then get blood and wine. I'd say absolutely get Hearts of Stone, it's great.
 
I'd got as far as Skellige (IIRC) on the XBOne version, so had ploughed a lot of hours in. I've now just got the PC version and all the DLC, as I'm always interested in the modding side of games. So I've downloaded a few mods, too.

I look forward to starting all over again, this time on the PC. Although it is slightly daunting as I certainly recall doing a shit load of stuff on the XBOne.
 
Monsters and bosses being up scaled to your level has saved this game for me. My level 70 Geralt died for the first time in months after a 10 minute boss fight. Money matters in Blood and Wine, especially if you want your own vineyard. Save them coins.
 
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