Topic: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt thread

@Kidfried Yeah, if I played Skyrim for the first time now, I wonder if I would be as enamored with it as I was at release, after having played games like HZD.
The Witcher also reminds me a little of Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning maybe. Is that a fair comparison? I loved that game at the time. The combat is a little more akin to the old God of Wars except with the huge open world high-fantasy setting /multiple side quests type of setting like Skyrim.

@Th3solution I went back to the game a while after completing the base game in order to give the DLC a go. It took me a little while to get used to the combat again, particularly as they'd introduced enemy scaling since I'd played it so I ended up being constantly murdered by what were originally quite low level enemies.

The DLC is fantastic though and this is the only game I've ever gone back to just for the DLC. Blood and Wine is definitely end game stuff but Heart of Stone isn't necessarily. That said, as the stories as so separate from the main game, it makes sense to play them as their own thing.

@Thrillho I would actually recommend playing Hearts of Stone before the ending, because it does tie into the end-game of the main game. In hindsight I wish I did Hearts of Stone first before I finished the rest of the game.

I agree that Blood and Wine can be played on its own, preferably at the very end.

@Th3solution Umm, no the combat in TW3 felt nothing like the old God of War games. Not played Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning so can't comment on that. In TW3 it is not about taking on hordes of enemies, more about preparation in applying oils to your blades and drinking the right potions before you fight.. You also have powers you can use like a telekinetic wave that can throw back, knock down or stun an opponent. I mostly used these to separate enemies from packs as it easy to get out numbered.

@Thrillho Ah that would explain why I kept getting my behind handed to me when I played it again.

@JohnnyShoulder it was quite annoying coming back in as a top level Witcher and being routinely battered by what were previously lvl1 wolves..

I keep wanting to do a replay of this game but there’s always so much new stuff coming out. But maybe it’s best left as being as amazing as I remember first time through.

Also, to anyone hopping back into the game or playing for the first time, do check out the other DLC as CDPR released loads of stuff for free ranging from Gwent cards and extra hairstyles through to whole new missions, some of which are excellent.

@Th3solution I recently tried the PS4 version of Skyrim. 7 years ago the combat system already felt awkard and it aged so badly that now it feels like a game from the 90s.

@andreoni79 I loved the Dragon Shouts. (Fus Ro Dah!). But yeah, otherwise, I don’t think things like hit detection or aiming were very good as I recall.

I've been playing the Withcer 3 on the PC (I actually found mods that remove the nudity and profanity from the game). I got it a while ago, but never got to sharing my putting my thoughts down. I'm about 60 hours in and it's fantastic. The lack of quality difference between the main story and most side-quests is awesome. They're so good. The grey morality and hard decisions are awesome too. I love how it makes you really think about what to do. I also like how you see the world through the lens of Geralt, and you often feel like you're Geralt in a world rather than a world built for Gerarlt (random loot locations aside, which I think the game could do without. I think getting new gear less through random loot and more through buying it with the occasional reason to get a good sword would be a better idea.) You only do things that would makes sense for Geralt. It makes for a "linear" with choices that makes more sense than usual. You have freedom to act as the character, but not as someone else
It also means that it makes for a terrible Skyrim killer or comparison. Skyrim is to let you be anything, and everyone in the world has an identity and you can interact with them. It makes no sense for the strong sense of Identity the Witcher has.
I also like the oil and steel/silver sword mechanics - it gives the game flavor and makes you feel like a Witcher. I actually think the game gets too easy though on normal despite hearing about it's supposed difficultly. I put up the difficulty because it was losing that sense of satisfaction. I do think it's too easy to be over leveled for quests though. I'm not sure about that being a good way to balance difficulty with the levels as they do here.
Overall though, it's just as good as I've heard, and it's one of my good friends favorite games in addition to all the praise for I've heard here, so it's an amazing game for sure.

I started the Witcher 3 this weekend for the first time. And thought I’d post some very early impressions.

I’m a little torn. I can definitely see it’s allure, but it was maybe a mistake to play is to close to having finished RDR2. Of course the two games are nothing alike on the surface, but at their roots they are both huge open worlds with living NPCs running around, have a strong narrative but tons of side content, and a strong protagonist. Just right off the bat my first impression is that technically speaking, the game is showing some age. It’s hard to be critical after just a couple hours, but I’ve had frame rate drops and studders on my vanilla PS4. Graphically the game looks fine, but after experiencing RDR2’s beautiful world and well rendered characters, Witcher 3 looks and runs a step or two behind. Of course this is to be expected, so I’m trying not to hold it too much against the game, but characters faces appear wooden, inanimate, and move stiffly. After complaining about Arthur Morgan moseying around so slowly, I find now I wish Geralt was a little more precise and walked at a slower speed. Moving around the screen, he just darts to and fro quickly and sometimes inaccurately. I run past items 2 or 3 times that I want to pick up, and just tap to turn around and he goes past again. It’s a much less realistic movement. Same applies to Roach, who seems to handle in a more “video-gamey” type of way and feels more like driving a car than a horse. Again, the contrast of RDR2 and this game is what makes it so jarring to me, I think. For example, the voice acting is adequate, but Geralt’s voice seems kind of hammy to me. He has a nice gruffness to his voice, but the delivery is just not on par with gaming’s highest quality such as Arthur’s.
I’m also at the point in the game’s early hours where I’m overwhelmed by the game systems, menus, combat, crafting, etc. It feels similar enough to Skyrim and Dragon Age Inquisition that I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it, but it’s a little rough right now. I finally had to stop and let it all simmer in my brain for a little bit while I played something else.

I had really hoped the game would grab me and be one of those games that I just couldn’t put down - one that I would feast on for hours and forego food and drink in favor of playing, but so far I’m merely tolerating it until I get over the newbie hump. I think it will come. I definitely realize that I can’t adequately judge this game until I’ve played for a few dozen hours.

@Th3solution It's difficult to believe, but back in 2015, TW3 was a technical achievement as far as open worlds go. Facial animations and cut-scene animations were one of the best. It definitely shows its age today; so it's best to focus on what won't age; and that's the great variety of content, tons of lore and great side quests and narrative.

It took me a while to fall in love with it. At first I was overwhelmed with all the mechanics, thinking I'd never be able to comprehend all of it. Then I discovered Gwent, and I didn't stop until I completed everything (except for that one broken side quests that can't be completed...). Took me 250 hours, the most time I ever put in a single playthrough, and I don't regret it.

@Th3solution This was always a risk, the longer you left it and the more recent open world games you played, the less impressive TW3 would be for you. Sounds like I'm telling you off now! 😅 For me it is still one my favourite games this gen.

@Th3solution Wait until you discover that Geralt loses health if he falls from such great heights as off the top of a table

I thought the voice acting was pretty good, if you can forgive the fact that everyone in the fantasy world speaks in regional British dialects (as they always seem to). Geralt's deadpan delivery has some great moments and I personally feel it suits him well as a sort of world weary and quite indifferent character.

I hope it does grow on you and be sure to download all the free DLC which ranges from extra combat finishers and additional haircuts through to entire new missions.

@Thrillho Yeah, I have died once in the game and it’s when I was finishing up an early side quest helping a guy find his brother who went down in battle. When I finished I looked at the map (speaking of - is there a way to get to the map with pushing one button only, or am I going to have to push the touchpad and then select map this entire game?) and saw that I wasn’t that far from town where I could pick up the trail for the next objective so I just decided to run there since Geralt seems to sprint about as fast as Roach canters, and I just ran right off a short cliff to my death. Fortunately I only lost a couple minutes.
And I have the complete edition, so I assume all that DLC is preloaded on the disc.

@JohnnyShoulder Lol, No problem, I remember you saying that was a risk about the longer I waited the more dated the game might look. I was a little surprised at the performance hiccups though. The game flat out got stuck on the loading screen once already and I had to hard-quit the game from the PS4 menu.

@Octane I have played my first game of Gwent with the professor in the tavern, and although I won the match, I’m still not sure how other than I clearly had better cards than him. I’m sure there is some strategy to it whereby you can make even bad cards competitive, but I don’t know if I have the patience to work at it. How important is playing Gwent to the game experience? Will I be required to play it in order to complete the main stories and side quests? Because if it’s like the mini games in RDR2 or Yakuza, then I might just ignore it.

@Th3solution It's a side thing. You can play against quite a few NPCs, win exclusive cards, and there are even a couple of side quests that are all about Gwent, including an entire tournament.

Some weaker cards have their own strengths, but there are definitely objectively stronger cards (the actual stand alone card game fixes this issue). It's all about bluff and knowing your deck. Because it's so simple and short, it worked really well as a side thing in the game IMO.

@Octane Yeah, it was a relatively simple tutorial and quick game, as opposed to something like Mahjong in Yakuza. I went crazy for that card game in one of the final fantasy games (8, I think?) - so I might like it eventually.

@Th3solution The Witcher 3’s strength has never been its open world. It’s been the narrative and quest formed within that world. Looking at it as a world to explore and just be in, it’s not very good. It does a good job of making stuff like enemies feel in place, but it felt to me like it was never than a backdrop to a level on game. Compared to Skyrim even it’s not very good.
The quests and story are amazing though. The side-quests are better than RDR2 I’d wager. Heck I’d say a lot are indistinguishable from main story quests in production and quality, with many tying into the main story, and as I understand, having consequences related to the main story. It also has excellent choice and moral greyness in trying to do the right thing. Because you have a strong main character with a set character you always feel like you have enough choice because you make decisions as Geralt, not a custom character. Choice is something RDR2 doesn’t have much of either. It also make you feel like a Witcher in world interaction and combat and such, even better than RDR2 does I’d say because it doesn’t let you go on murder sprees. It’s all grounded around Geralt. I started playing it this year and felt the facial animations are just fine, but I also play it on a PC with maxed out settings, so I don’t know what that changes in graphical comparisons between our experiences. So I’d you remember it’s not about being open-world and never was super strong there, I think you’ll be fine.

@Th3solution There are a couple of quests later on which are Gwent based. I seem to remember entering a Gwent tournament (think of it like a poker tournament), but you had an ulterior motive in finding out who the main suspect was in a murder investigation you had taken on. Or something along those lines. I really enjoyed Gwent, found it a nice diversion to the other stuff. It can be tricky at first, but once you got some decent cards and you know how to use each type of card you be itching for another game.

Nicely said @Jaz007

@Jaz007 @JohnnyShoulder That’s good to hear, regarding the choice and consequence. I really like those ethical dilemma situations in games that make you really have to think about your value system (or in this case I guess - Geralt’s value system) and especially when the choices have ramifications to outcomes.
Yeah on PS4 the facial animations are not any worse than say, Horizon Zero Dawn (although the latter’s traversal and movement animations are much more fluid) but among the last few games I played are RDR2 and Detroit Become Human, which I think are next level as far as crossing the uncanny valley. I guess I’m getting picky when I see the whole dolls-eye thing, and the lack of muscles moving around the eyes and cheeks to portray that extra little emotional impact of the virtual character’s acting. It’s by no means on the level of Life is Strange or The Council or, heaven-forbid Mass Effect Andromeda - which are significantly worse, yet not quite a good as even Uncharted 4 or what I’ve seen from AC Odyssey, God of War (haven’t played them yet) or certainly Death Stranding and TLoU2 footage. But I wouldn’t expect an ‘open world’ game to carry the same graphical prowess of a linear game, since it’s asking the CPU to do so many other things.

And as far as Gwent, I might wait a little before investing in buying cards since coin is pretty rare right now. Especially since I like to play the virtuous role and I keep helping people and then telling them to keep their money after seeing their hardships. 😅
But I have noticed you can just loot stuff from people’s houses right in front of them and they don’t seem to mind - as opposed to RDR2 where you can’t even loot a dead body and suddenly some NPC is running off and telling the law about you and now you’ve got a bounty on your head 😂

@Th3solution Bear in mind that all those games you said had better facial animations etc had a bigger budget to work from and came later on this gen. As @Octane said, it was considered best in class at the time.

More coin will come, as usual with these type of games it takes a few hours of being skint and being frugal before that happens. Some of the better cards you can only get by winning em of other players.

How are you finding the combat? I know some struggled with it. And what difficulty you got it on?