The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

UFO · 23 Jul 2016 at 09:34

Fanatic said:
I would guess the final patch will be when they release the complete pack with game + all DLC in one.

Yeah probably, thanks.

Paul_cz · 23 Jul 2016 at 22:33

So as I am finally doing my second playthrough of Witcher 3, one thing strikes me. Before TW3, the two games I played and finished recently were Batman Arkham Knight, and Inside.

With Batman, at around hour 25 I was getting a bit tired of it and was hoping it would end soon (and it did around 2 hours later). Great game, but I had enough of it.

Inside, I found extremely overrated by the gaming press. It is an interesting platformer with neat atmosphere, but the complete lack of variety and challenge made me a bit bored of it, and this has 3 hour playtime! I did finish it, but it would be 6/10 from me.

And now with Witcher 3, I am at 25 hours of this second playthrough. I know I am basically at the beginning of the game (haven't even been to Novigrad or Oxenfurt yet). And I am enjoying every second as if I didn't already spend 220 hours on a playthrough year ago. The scale combined with quality is just unparalled in this game. No wonder it is at number 1 highest rated PC game of all time on metacritic, won the most GOTY awards of all games ever, has 96% rating on steam etc.

What I also like is how much better I am at it. Playing on Death March I am doing better than year ago on Blood and broken bones, since I already know how to be effective at the combat. So much fun.

Just did the quest with burying Filip Strenger's daughter.

Mark A · 23 Jul 2016 at 23:36

Quick question, can I complete the main quest then go and do the dlc quests?

I am currently lv25 and just got to the isle of mists quest, but seem to be levelling really slow. I dont have many side quests left and a lot are grey. The main story is below my current level as well. So not sure how I am going to get another 10 levels to start the dlc quests before finishing the main quest...

Wish the levelling in games like this worked better. I am now seriously overleveled compared to all the quests I have left and am finding gear that is below my current level. Makes the game no fun. I liked finding a new sword or armour to replace what i had, but now I just sell everything i find as its useless. Also enemies are just defeated with ease and no need to use oils or signs, just hack and slash a few times. I have already set the difficulty to death march, which has made no difference as the enemies I am finding everywhere are like lv15

.

EDIT: I do have loads and loads of '?' on my map, not sure how much xp you get for these, I guess I could do a load after mopping up the rest of the side quests.

Matmulder · 24 Jul 2016 at 02:40

Well, I'm glad for certain spoilers on the internet for a change

I was trying to finish the lower level quests before I moved onto Skellige - however if you do this, you pretty much 'lock' yourself into ...

romancing Triss. At this point, I've not really spoken much with Yen, so I ended up inadvertently doing Triss's romance quest without realising.

I assume you can back out of it, but it'd be nice to be fully introduced before I make any kind of choice. Time to load a previous save!

dante6491 · 24 Jul 2016 at 03:22

Matmulder said:
Well, I'm glad for certain spoilers on the internet for a change

I was trying to finish the lower level quests before I moved onto Skellige - however if you do this, you pretty much 'lock' yourself into ...

romancing Triss. At this point, I've not really spoken much with Yen, so I ended up inadvertently doing Triss's romance quest without realising.

I assume you can back out of it, but it'd be nice to be fully introduced before I make any kind of choice. Time to load a previous save!

I went through with it as I had followed that path from W2. Given I've now read the books I will sway the other way, especially given the importance of The Last Wish Quest, on my NG+

Paul_cz · 24 Jul 2016 at 10:01

Mark A said:
Quick question, can I complete the main quest then go and do the dlc quests?

I am currently lv25 and just got to the isle of mists quest, but seem to be levelling really slow. I dont have many side quests left and a lot are grey. The main story is below my current level as well. So not sure how I am going to get another 10 levels to start the dlc quests before finishing the main quest...

Wish the levelling in games like this worked better. I am now seriously overleveled compared to all the quests I have left and am finding gear that is below my current level. Makes the game no fun. I liked finding a new sword or armour to replace what i had, but now I just sell everything i find as its useless. Also enemies are just defeated with ease and no need to use oils or signs, just hack and slash a few times. I have already set the difficulty to death march, which has made no difference as the enemies I am finding everywhere are like lv15 .

EDIT: I do have loads and loads of '?' on my map, not sure how much xp you get for these, I guess I could do a load after mopping up the rest of the side quests.

You are still about halfway through the main quests. Got a pretty decent way to go and you will level up, it goes very quickly then, don't worry.

I would recommend doing all the quests, even grey ones. Eventhough you do not get much XP, the quests are interesting and fun for their own sake.
To make enemies harder you can enable scaling in the options.
And yes, it is actually recommended to play both Expansions AFTER the main quest is over. If you get one of the good endings, they both work well as a post-ending events.

Matmulder said:
Well, I'm glad for certain spoilers on the internet for a change

I was trying to finish the lower level quests before I moved onto Skellige - however if you do this, you pretty much 'lock' yourself into ...

romancing Triss. At this point, I've not really spoken much with Yen, so I ended up inadvertently doing Triss's romance quest without realising.

I assume you can back out of it, but it'd be nice to be fully introduced before I make any kind of choice. Time to load a previous save!

You only get "locked" into Triss relationship if you tell her you love her. And even that you can frak up if you tell Yennefer the same thing

Mark A · 24 Jul 2016 at 18:46

Paul_cz said:
You are still about halfway through the main quests. Got a pretty decent way to go and you will level up, it goes very quickly then, don't worry.

Really? I'm nearing 200 hours so thought i'd be near the end :eek:

.

Thanks, I'll look into the scaling, never even knew about that. Really glad i still have a fair bit of main quest left

. Still really enjoying it, just want some tougher enemies and some loot that isnt usless.

For example, i just did the Brothers in arms quests last night and was given a special sword called Winters blade. i was expecting this to be awesome, but it was much worse than the sword i already had

Paul_cz · 24 Jul 2016 at 22:12

Mark A said:
Really? I'm nearing 200 hours so thought i'd be near the end .

Thanks, I'll look into the scaling, never even knew about that. Really glad i still have a fair bit of main quest left . Still really enjoying it, just want some tougher enemies and some loot that isnt usless.

For example, i just did the Brothers in arms quests last night and was given a special sword called Winters blade. i was expecting this to be awesome, but it was much worse than the sword i already had

I mean if I remember correctly by Isle of Mists you just found Ciri, no ? So there are quite a few more quests after that with lot of interaction with her. Treat her well.

As for loot, yeah sometimes it is not balanced the best, but frankly loot is so extremely low on my list of priorities in games, especially narrative-driven games like this...

I just did the Blood Baron / Crones questlines, and what a god damn masterpiece this is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL914rMdV3c

And somehow I still enjoy the combat even after 270 hours of playing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8oVql0rXes

Mark A · 24 Jul 2016 at 23:27

I set the enemies to scale and its back to being a lot of fun now

. Just nearly got owned by some foglets lol. Might even have to switch to medium armour now from light.

Yeah the loot isnt massively important in a game like this, but with all the hidden treasure spots and chests it would be nice to occasionally find a nice sword. In the early part of the game it was working like that, so I guess later on they just expect you will be using the Witcher gear so wont care about finding loot at that point. Which is fair enough I guess.

I think I will be at around 270 hours or maybe even more by the time I have completed it and the dlc as well. Its definitely one of them games I wouldn't tire of and could easily go back to in a years time and playthrough again like you have done. I might get Fallout 4 finished up and play through the new skyrim game then maybe go back for another playthrough of TW3.

ethan · 29 Jul 2016 at 12:26

cheapest and genuine place to buy Witcher 3 add-ons please

Just recently finished the Wild Hunt and am still trying to continue my addiction for it it with the add-ons. Thanks

Radox-0 · 29 Jul 2016 at 13:05

CD Keys will save you a £1 per pack over GOG prices for the GOG edition of the game and you can get a further 5% off with a voucher. https://www.facebook.com/cdkeyscom/app/393344207416996/

Paul_cz · 29 Jul 2016 at 17:52

ethan said:
Just recently finished the Wild Hunt and am still trying to continue my addiction for it it with the add-ons. Thanks

Just buy it on gog...that way you know all your money goes directly to devs. With sites like CD Keys you never know who actually gets your money.

Omaeka · 29 Jul 2016 at 18:12

Blood & Wine ending...

The difference between the very best and very worst ending is whether you read all of the count's carers notes in her book. I never read the top two which details how Synna and the Duchess were together as children, and because of this Synna murdered her yet if I'd of read those 2 entries they'd of consoled and forgiven each other. BLEGH

Disco_P · 30 Jul 2016 at 00:54

Omaeka said:
Blood & Wine ending...

The difference between the very best and very worst ending is whether you read all of the count's carers notes in her book. I never read the top two which details how Synna and the Duchess were together as children, and because of this Synna murdered her yet if I'd of read those 2 entries they'd of consoled and forgiven each other. BLEGH

the B&W ending was a bit pants. Given 3 days to complete a task only for the game to jump forwards 3 days to another cutscene is by far the worst part of witcher 3.

Paul_cz · 1 Aug 2016 at 16:03

Bit-tech did a nice TOP 50 PC games series of articles.
You will never guess which one ended up number 1:
http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2016/07/29/50-best-pc-games-5/2

The write-up is something I could sign wholeheartedly:

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Having watched the evolution of CD Projekt’s work since the original Witcher debuted in 2007, I expected The Witcher 3 to be good. But I didn’t expect to be sat here, championing it as the best PC game ever made. Nevertheless, here we are.

I’ve played The Witcher 3 for over a hundred hours, and I could happily spend another hundred riding through the windswept swamps of Velen, dashing through the twisting streets of Novigrad, and sailing between the misty isles of Skellige. There are dozens of ruins and caves and other locations which remain unexplored in this vast and stunningly realised world, each with a little tale of its own to tell.

Indeed, it isn’t the scale of The Witcher 3 that makes it such an incredible achievement. It’s how it makes this world worthy of such a time investment. Like Half Life 2, every aspect of the game has been painstakingly thought over, only on an impossibly greater scale. The Witcher 3 has side-quests that would form the entire plot of lesser games, deep and twisting storylines in which the situation is rarely as it initially seems. A simple contract to kill a monster lurking in the woods can reveal a complex love triangle and a decision that can determine the fate of an entire village.

In The Witcher 3, players encounter Deus Ex-style decisions with almost every new adventure they embark upon. But as BioWare knew when designing Mass Effect 2, such choices only matter when the player cares about the characters. Hence The Witcher 3 isn’t simply huge, environmentally stunning and mechanically deep, it’s a game that is also warm and funny and heartfelt and sad.

The Witcher 3 is often a dark game, showing the effect of war on rich and poor alike with unflinching realism. It’s a game that elegiacally states, 'There are no happy ever afters.' Yet it is also able to find solace in quieter moments, a drink and a game with a couple of long-time friends. A stolen kiss at a midnight ball. A sharing of stories on the eve of battle. A reunification with a long-estranged daughter. The simple joy of the open road on the dawn of a summer morning. It’s also perhaps the first mainstream game that could genuinely be called sexy, as it embraces the fun and humour and absurdity that is a natural part of human passion, rather than ignoring or dismissing or satirising it.

Witchers are supposed to feel no emotion, which for much of the medium’s history would make Geralt of Rivia the perfect videogame protagonist. And yet, as shown by the well of humanity barely concealed behind Geralt’s cat-like eyes, CDProjekt has created what is almost certainly the most emotionally rich game in existence. For this reason, amongst a thousand others, I believe it to be the finest example of what gaming can achieve.

Having been gaming for 24 years, I would compose very similar list. Right now I am in Skellige in my second playthrough, in total having played 345 hours of Witcher 3.
Still such enjoyment.

Cheers

robmol · 1 Aug 2016 at 16:13

Recently started a second playthrough (NG+) myself, with a few graphical mods and max settings with FriendlyHUD on my new GPU it's just a pleasure to play. I'm trying to do all the opposite decisions and dialogues (from what I remember) this time and there are already parts it feels like a new game.

Should I be using enemy level scaling on NG+ death march? I started at level 56 I think. I'm also using a little mod that levels my manticore armor with the character as I think it's the best for RP and lore, it will be interesting to see how that works out later on. I'm not worried about min maxing all the stats this time around purely an immersive playthrough!

Mayh3M · 1 Aug 2016 at 17:32

Paul_cz said:
So as I am finally doing my second playthrough of Witcher 3, one thing strikes me. Before TW3, the two games I played and finished recently were Batman Arkham Knight, and Inside.

With Batman, at around hour 25 I was getting a bit tired of it and was hoping it would end soon (and it did around 2 hours later). Great game, but I had enough of it.

Inside, I found extremely overrated by the gaming press. It is an interesting platformer with neat atmosphere, but the complete lack of variety and challenge made me a bit bored of it, and this has 3 hour playtime! I did finish it, but it would be 6/10 from me.

And now with Witcher 3, I am at 25 hours of this second playthrough. I know I am basically at the beginning of the game (haven't even been to Novigrad or Oxenfurt yet). And I am enjoying every second as if I didn't already spend 220 hours on a playthrough year ago. The scale combined with quality is just unparalled in this game. No wonder it is at number 1 highest rated PC game of all time on metacritic, won the most GOTY awards of all games ever, has 96% rating on steam etc.

What I also like is how much better I am at it. Playing on Death March I am doing better than year ago on Blood and broken bones, since I already know how to be effective at the combat. So much fun.

Just did the quest with burying Filip Strenger's daughter.

Nice. Once my GTX 1080 arrives I'm going to do my second playthrough as well. I've not played any of the expansions yet and just bought the expansion pass. Your experience makes me even more hyped. And yeah, this is one of the greatest games ever made.

Sem · 1 Aug 2016 at 17:55

Paul_cz said:
Bit-tech did a nice TOP 50 PC games series of articles.
You will never guess which one ended up number 1:

The write-up is something I could sign wholeheartedly:

Having been gaming for 24 years, I would compose very similar list. Right now I am in Skellige in my second playthrough, in total having played 345 hours of Witcher 3.
Still such enjoyment.

Cheers

For me Skellige made the Witcher 3 change from one of the best adventure/RPG games to THE best adventure/RPG game ive ever played

such a brilliant part of the game it had the best quests, atmostphere music, characters the whole lot

Digital X · 1 Aug 2016 at 18:09

Got rid of a god awful way too shiny reshade, and replaced with "Filmic" enjoying this one a lot more.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1573/? Looks good in game, all nitty and gritty colours, no fantasy stuff here.

Zethor · 1 Aug 2016 at 18:21

I need some mods for this game as I can't go through it in its current state.

I hate the console-like minimap and route helper thing. Are there mods that change it? I assume turning everything off would make things quite confusing.

Are there any mods that improve the combat?

Mods that improve the loot?

Thank you!