I've never played any of the Witcher games but the previews I've seen looked pretty damn good. What other game would you compare it to in general?

Few days ago it was like $3

Playing through it now and love it!

Played mostly through the first one, it was good the combat was a little off though, great story.

Gonna get through 2 before next week then I'll hop right into 3.


Edit: As far as comparing it to other games. Hmm lets see. It has the rpg elements of a Mass Effect, you have main quest and sub quest. The choices you make effect your story later.

The combat I would say is a little Assassins Creed, but not quite. There are talent trees to put points in at each level. Generally before you set out to go on a mission you should drink a few potions (that you can make) to give you bonuses depending on what you're up against.

Kinda crazy it feels like combat is similar to other games yet I can't quite put my finger on what exactly to compare it to.

the first game can be mad clunky in terms of gameplay. If you want a precursor, I'd suggest starting with the second.

With that said, a lot of the gripes with the second also have to do with a high combat learning curve, similar to the Souls games. This has supposedly been alleviated with the third game though. I've started up the second game twice now, and I agree that combat can take time to get into.

My advice is to watch some youtube vid catching you up with the events of the first two games, then just jump right into the third. Apparently a huge game so if you dig it you'll have plenty to sink your teeth into.

>My advice is to watch some youtube vid catching you up with
>the events of the first two games, then just jump right into
>the third. Apparently a huge game so if you dig it you'll
>have plenty to sink your teeth into.

>With that said, a lot of the gripes with the second also have
>to do with a high combat learning curve

The enhanced edition of the second game comes with a tutorial that wasn't included when the game was first released. The tutorial isn't bad and helps understand the flow of combat.

Honestly just playing for about an hour I got pretty used to it. It's still not the best combat I've used in a game but as of now I'm finding myself flowing pretty well as far as using my powers in between to mix things up a bit.

I would watch clips of the first one or at least read a wiki on it. Then try out the second. Loving the story and I'm heavily invested in the characters now.

>The combat I would say is a little Assassins Creed, but not
>quite.


This is what's holding me back from taking advantage of the PS+ discount for pre-orders. I had a marathon session with the first AC marveling at the graphics and architecture, and tried as best I could to at least emulate the same awe at ACII, but ultimately the combat just didn't grab me and I didn't touch either much past my first couple days with them.


And from what little I've seen of this game the voice acting seems kind of stilted and the combat, yea, pretty AC-like. The Gamespot folks are REALLY jazzed on it but I'm more in line with Giantbomb's approach, that this may be a great game but it may not be a great game FOR ME.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

that this may be a great game but
>it may not be a great game FOR ME.

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-review/1900-6416135/

gamers are starving for new content so everything tastes like filet mignon

i'm sure this game is of a very high quality but i'd take the 100% scores with a grain of salt. this game is still pretty niche and probably has significant technical, graphical, and mechanical issues just like the last 2 entries in the series

>i'm sure this game is of a very high quality but i'd take the
>100% scores with a grain of salt. this game is still pretty
>niche and probably has significant technical, graphical, and
>mechanical issues just like the last 2 entries in the series
>

They gave it an 8 on their provisional scale in great part due to a litany of technical issues that are supposedly getting patched day one.

Finna just jump right in.

I'm playing through it now. Tell me you don't get invested in the race war between the humans and the non-humans lol.

I almost threw a trash can through my screen on some Radio Raheem shit.

keep forgetting that I have it but from what I've played it's rather dope. Thanks for the reminder I'll try and play some today.

*EDIT* To answer the question: The game is fuckery on 1 million but there's sex on a unicorn.

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

Anywhoo, what choices did y'all pick to start the game?

If I leave La Valette alive then he could play a role later.

If I leave with Roche then he'll murder non humans later which is bad since I'm a witcher.
If I leave with Lorvieth it gives one of the leaders reasons to kill non humans. I have to save Triss because she's a healer and I need her healing. Screw breaking the curse on Saskia because it gives the guy a reason to start the witch hunts. Why in the shit should I save Aniss? She winds up being used as a pawn anyway...

I'm unsure about leaving the Sorceress alive, ditto for Letho. Letho is evil Witcher on some bullshit. This could make things harder for me later as well as either the humans hate me or Letho hates me.

Seriously, choices in the Witcher 3 come down to what is less evil.

---

The game is playable at 4 PM PST (fuck your eastern standard time niggren)

*EDIT*

OP, did you buy this game early and get a spanish copy? People were paying 100 euros for this game early.

> If I leave with Lorvieth it gives one of the leaders reasons
>to kill non humans. I have to save Triss because she's a
>healer and I need her healing. Screw breaking the curse on
>Saskia because it gives the guy a reason to start the witch
>hunts. Why in the shit should I save Aniss? She winds up being
>used as a pawn anyway...


I left with Lorvieth, and saved Saskia. Triss still lives anyway because Letho saves her. Non humans get treated like shit, so I had to side with him, other dude was racist as shit to them elves lol.

>I'm unsure about leaving the Sorceress alive, ditto for Letho.
>Letho is evil Witcher on some bullshit. This could make things
>harder for me later as well as either the humans hate me or
>Letho hates me.


I left the Sorceress alive. There is a witch hunt for them now, Letho said it was a fate worse than death since I did't kill them. Maybe they'll owe me later. Also since Letho was kinda conned into killing the Kings by them I couldn't really take the blame on him even though he knew what he was doing.

I let Letho live because he saved Yennifer years ago, and also saved Triss. All he wants is the rebuild his coven of Witchers and be on his way, couldn't hate on him because of it.

That's the save I'm going with into The Witcher 3, felt all my choices were pretty good and I'm satisfied with my outcome in 2.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/18/8620223/witcher-3-guide-witcher-2-witcher


Wish I had the time to jump into this, damn

The videos have got me amped.

On steam now getting the final piece to the pre downloaded, looks like it showed up an hour early on here.

....

The first area you come across in the prologue gives you a choice. You can ask the guy for money or do the task for free. If you do it for free then the guy recommends you to his cousin that owns a bar. If you ask for money then gives it you grudgingly with a pissed off look. Either your homie looks at you WTF or this dude gets mad at you.

Money is really hard to come across in this game so that's more fuckery.

Because I keep refusing money on some "I don't take gold from douchebags" or "I don't take gold from sad sacks".

But I do have some things to sell, if I ever find a merchant who will buy them.

with little static for the most part.

One lady paid me in food for finding her g-damned frying pan.

And then I've been coming across a lot of deserter/bandit camps. I've come across some money called florens or orens or something. I have to go exchange them at a bank in another city to convert them to the game's regular currency.

But yeah, making dough is a bitch.

I also wish there was a better tutorial for alchemy in the game. I just keep picking the hell out of damn near every flower I see and hope that I have enought to make some sort of potion or blade oil.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

>One lady paid me in food for finding her g-damned frying pan.

>I also wish there was a better tutorial for alchemy in the
>game. I just keep picking the hell out of damn near every
>flower I see and hope that I have enought to make some sort of
>potion or blade oil.

The way it works with the potions is you only have to make them once, then after that they'll always refill every time you meditate. Very different than the other entries in the Witcher series, kinda like it. Strange how the potions only last a few seconds though. Maybe the time bumps up with more points in that tree.

Honestly haven't messed with the blade oils too much, do those reset as well when you meditate or is it a you use you lose type of deal?

And yeah, every point put into the Alchemy tier raises the duration of potions, oils, and decoctions by 5%. Though oils apparently use a charge-based system, so I don't know if that value ups the number of charges.

So far (at level 12, second-highest difficulty) alchemy seems ridiculously powerful. Decoctions seem mostly for long-term toxicity to trigger Trial of Grasses bonuses, but some are crazy (like Ekkimara). And bombs! I regret not cooking up Grapeshot ASAP, because that just destroys whole crews of bandits.

Before my go to sign other than the shield one was the trap.
The trap seems pretty week now in its early stages it just slows them, not really what I'm looking for.

AXII, however, now freezes them in place allowing you to do what you want to with them. Great for bosses.

I have 29 hours into this game and still doing things in the area of Act 1. Even the side quest are amazing.

not the Serpents, but enough.

I just wish there were more blacksmiths around, the load times on PS4 when you've got to travel to one location just to fix weapons and then get back to where you were are a real pain in the ass.

But I was wrong about the combat from the videos I saw, it's not necessarily deep but it is fun learning the weaknesses of enemies, and as my weapons have gotten stronger it's been cool seeing some gorier dismemberment stuff come into play.

If anything it's a great addition to the Game of Thrones overdrive I'm currently in. Would be nice to get the 4th episode of the Telltale game in the next week or two.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

I only got a little into it, because I didn't like the combat. How does it fare in 3?

"But the Gimp is asleep"
"Well I guess you'll have to wake him up, won't you?"

Heard this line last night. So much hidden stuff in this game.

Then I did some magic with a miscarried fetus that helped me solve a mystery of a man that gets drunk and beats his wife.

Yes, that happened.

only thing is I'm a little lost on progression.

Like I'm in the world map after they sent me to Velen. I want to go back to where I was before I met with the fancy dude. Now I'm at the part where I'm playing as Cirri.

Pretty cool, but my Geralt is still only at level three and all of the upcoming quests that I have are like level 10 recommended. Guess I gotta get used to how Witcher games flow....

(my fault though. Fallout/Skyrim are my rpg standards)

______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

If you're six hours in and playing as Ciri then you may want to do more side quest and Witcher contracts first. The good thing is the side quest are fantastic in this one and are more than just fetch quest like we've seen in other games.

...after this Cirri joint, I'm going back into the countryside.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

Got to Velen did like two of the Bloody Baron's missions and said screw the main mission. That mission with the giant fetus is not something I'm looking forward to, AT ALL.

My play style is akin to Pein in Naruto. Show up cast my shield and use Aard to blow people away.

This card game is better than any card game on mobile right now. I make
300 crowns an hour playing Gwent. My deck is strong as shit after playing for so long.

Its so addicting seeing as its a meta game inside of a main game.

The Baron is nasty with his deck. When I finally beat him I shout out loud like I just beat a boss in the Souls series

It's a trick where he pulls one card and automatically adds all of the other cards in his deck that have the same value. Had to trick him by using snow, fog, and snow again in succession. Got my ass beat 10 times before I figured it out.

miss the dice poker game from Witcher 2

I've won a few matches, but totally by luck.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

All this talk about the card game is really pushing me to get this game.

I spent an ungodly amount of hours playing Triple Triad in FF8 (best thing about that game).

And I hear nothing but good things about Witcher 3... reddit can't shut up about the damn game.

I was so turned off by Witcher 2 for some reason though... barely got past the early tutorial every time I fired it up. Like it was too dense for me, I didn't have the time to go researching every little thing about the game (which I tend to do with these deep games).

hit up the west coast and plains of Velen, west of Crow's Perch. It took me forever to get from level 4 to level 6, but then I felt confident enough around random mobs to venture out on my own and cleared all the hidden locations over there plus several side missions and the Kiera Metz storyline and now I'm halfway to level 11 with some pretty dope gear including a steel sword that has a 9% chance of setting enemies on fire and seems to spark the flame way more often than that.


Also, it's funny how skeptical I was of this game only to pre-order it right before it came out and be sort of astounded. I'm getting flashbacks to my experience with Ocarina of Time so far.



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Try to complete it to grab some of the Witcher set gear.

I'm rocking the Griffin set right now and its easily better than some random stuff that's higher level. The stats are crazy for this gear and my silver sword demolishes everything it comes across in no time.


As a matter of fact I wouldn't craft any other gear unless you're seriously in need some an upgrade. Only thing I would be crafting is the different level Witcher set gear.

And man this game is on an epic scale. Easily the best thing I've played this gen.

Got more into the crafting this past weekend. Got all the Griffin gear except for the chest piece. I still need the monster eyes ingredient. I loot every damn monster I can and never get eyes. The rest of the set is pretty cool.

Accidently crafted some armor that I can't even use yet, but the stats look crazy.
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cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

When you go to a blacksmith you should get them to dismantle some of your items. I forget the item that breaks down into an eye but it should tell you before you dismantle it.

That one confused me for awhile too. If its something you can't seem to find this method works the best, unless you can purchase it from them.

.....I've gotten the dismantling thing down, but nothing in my inventory gave me eyes. I got blood, feathers, essence...everything but the damn eyes.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

They drop some stuff that can be turned into monster eye or fiend eye.

Find a spot with them and try to farm it like crazy, I think I had one thing in my inventory that turned into a monster eye, I believe it was a fiend eye.

is that you can go back and loot the Monster Nests after you detonate them. I probably didn't start doing this until yesterday.

Anyway, the point is I've got 10 monster eyes.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

-Finally worked my way up to level 8.

-pissed I have tons of plans for armor and weapons I won't be able to use for a whiiiile. I got a level 27 schematic for a sword I'm DYING to use.

- whoooo, checking out questions marks on the map, then running into a level 18 Cyclops when you're only level 7 is harrowing. I was able to loot a chest he was guarding though. But I know that location has more to it.

-finally made it to Novigrad. Think I made it there early due to some good choices, cause if I didn't have a border pass, I would have been ass out. Wish the merchants were better. I'm not that impressed so far. But changing my orens and florens to crowns at the bank? CHA-CHING!

-I haven't even gotten to Skellige yet. Velen has a ton of stuff to do. Novigrad looks like it has a ton of stuff to do. I've found little nooks and crannies that don't even show up on the map.

This game is truly epic in scope and well done. I love an open world rpg you can just meander around in without even doing the main quest for a while.

______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

>
>- whoooo, checking out questions marks on the map, then
>running into a level 18 Cyclops when you're only level 7 is
>harrowing. I was able to loot a chest he was guarding though.
>But I know that location has more to it.
>


Yea, I won't spoil where, but I was clearing out a section of the map on Velen, went through a cave and came out the other side to find two level 25 Wyverns hanging out on a crest guarding some loot. I tried to sprint the hell out of there, got stuck on a rock or something, and one of them one-shotted me. I wanted to be mad but all I could do was laugh. I've had some lame deaths in this game but that one was super unexpected so I just chalked it up to #WitcherLife and moved on.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

And still not in the last area of Act 1.

The thing that sets this apart from other RPG's is that I actually like doing the side quest and they matter. They almost feel like main quest because its so much more than the standard fetch quest that are thrown in other games to drag them out.

The choices matter. I saved this chick at the beginning of the game, only to have her do a dick move like 40 hours later, not like I can go back and reload to make another choice because I'm way too far in the game. You just have to live with it.

Was all over Bloodborne, honestly think this is the best thing I've played so far this gen because of how deep I'm invested in this game. I have to explore every nook and cranny of this game.

...and the side quests are high quality. Like I really hope Bethesda Softworks are paying attention. The sidequests are seriously well written and involved.

The nooks and crannies seem to be endless. I came across some peasants trying to hang one of the Black Ones who had deserted and was making his way back to his wife and kids.

I stopped them and got a completed quest that I didn't even know I had and wasn't on my list. This joint is deeeeep. And I've barely scratched the main quest.

I used to say Skyrim and Fallout 3 were my rpg standards. This might change my mind.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

.

i'm a mechanics guy. generally speaking, it's extremely difficult for me to care about narrative and characters in video games. i find an overwhelming majority of video game writing to be very poor. all this talk about becoming invested in characters and the world doesn't appeal to me

i've heard the movement in the game is really bad and that the combat takes a lot of getting used to. what i've seen on stream is that the fighting seems like a less involved version of post-arkham asylum combat. what do you make of how the game plays and how the controls feel?

The Witcher games aren't known for having fantastic combat, but it works.

You pretty much have to switch up for each encounter. If you're playing it like a button masher then you pretty much have to play on easy. People forget you can parry, or dodge. The other games you really had a roll to get out of the way. In this game the roll takes you too far away so they want you to focus on the dodge or parry and block more.

Some enemies disappear, you may have to lay down a sign so they can't do that once inside of it, all the while moving away from their attacks.

It's not the deepest fighting system, and coming fresh off of Bloodborne I had to adjust myself. But with so much going on in this game, even though the mechanics aren't a perfect 10 I would still rate it an 8. There is a lot you have to think about with certain encounters, especially if you're playing on one of the harder difficulties.

It works here though, which is why this game is so amazing to me. For them to cram this much story in, and still have a decent although not perfect combat system says a lot.

I love it overall, but I'm something like fifteen hours in, and I still have to consciously work to remember what button does what (this is on PS4, by the way). Maybe that's just me, though.

The mechanics are a problem, too. Not just the fighting mechanics (which I can imagine I just haven't mastered, for the above reason), but just moving around is a chore. To loot an item or interact with an object, both the camera and the character need to be pointed at it, close enough but not too close, and even then there only seems to be about an 80% chance the "loot" (or whatever) icon will show up, so you might have to back up, try again, back up, try again. Maybe this is par for the course, but it's made especially bad because Geralt seems to have about three times as much inertia as he should. (Maybe that's why when you brush against someone in the street they bounce back by the equivalent of like three feet.)

Like I said, I love it overall, but it's a testament to the story and design that such a frustrating game is so universally hailed. I'm starting to see why there's a play mode where you just watch the cutscenes and don't do any actual interacting.

It keeps counting when you're in the pause screen, which may be the case for every version but I spend a lot of time on the pause screen doing other stuff (like right now...), but with PS4 (and maybe Xbox One?) when you go into Suspend Mode the game technically stays at the Pause screen so it's constantly ticking. I have 6 and a half days of playtime with this game logged, basically as long as the game's been out even though I spent most of that first Tuesday playing House of Wolves.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

This joint almost feels like too much. I"m side-questing and crafting like a mofo though.

All that and I'm only like 18% thru the game. Only thing that sorta pisses me off about the game is the achievements. Like there should be more achievements for story progression. A lot of the achievements are for sheer stunting. Meh.

Anyways, I still have notice boards I haven't touched in Velen. I'm gonna get thru most of those before I get back on the main quest and Skellige.
______________________________________________________________________________

cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

I was wondering about the achievements as well, seem stingy as hell

I was trying to do the "right" thing and play through all of Witcher 2 before this one, but I gave up on it a long time ago.

I had to restart W3 because I fucked myself in a dungeon by breaking my silver sword and running out of potions and food to keep myself alive.