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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt |OT| Gwent Player, Monster Slayer, EVEN RACISM

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M

misho8723

Banned
Foolishfellow said:
My impressions thus far:

The good:

-The political writing. It is immensely better and more complicated than the plot in Skyrim. This is my first Witcher game and I'm really enjoying the political/war stuff especially. I'm gathering that the Nilfgaardian Empire is sort of a facist/imperialist regime and I find myself usually siding with anyone who is anti-Nilfgaardian. I met that potion lady in the woods who appeared to be anti-Nilfgaard and she seemed like the sort of person that I would ideologically agree with in the real world.

-The quests are much more diverse than your typical RPG.

-The moral ambiguity. Early in the game I thought I was helping someone, but my choices resulted in an excessively harsh punishment for another.

The questionable:

-Combat is still a huge question mark for me. I mainly just think that I'm not very good at it yet (not having played any of the other Witcher games). The game seems to be designed with a heavier sense of movement in mind similar to Dark Souls and Monster Hunter. While I think that is a fine design decision, so far I think that the game does a pretty poor job at providing visual indicators for successfully pulling off moves. I'm specifically talking about parry and block. I seem to be getting the hang of it, but it would be nice if I could actually feel/see when I am pulling off those moves successfully.

-The graphics (Xbox One). The game is very intricate (and sometimes beautiful), but I'm still on the fence about how it all comes together. Sometimes I feel like the colors and textures are a little too overwhelming. I'm someone with relatively good vision and this game's graphics + the small text have been incredibly straining on my eyes. Character facial models are sometimes pretty bad.

The Bad:

-The small text. This needs to be fixed immediately.

-Witcher sense. I'm getting really tired of games that utilize mechanic's like Witcher sense. When you have a game as graphically impressive as Witcher, I think it's ridiculous to include a mechanic that distorts the graphics just for highlighting things in red for the user to click on. This seems to be a trend in lots of videogames these days for example night vision in FPS or abilities to let you see through walls and I just think it sort of ruins immersion. I'll also say that even though the quests are varied, there are too many quests that are essentially scavenger hunts making use of your Witcher sense. From a design perspective I don't see how it's drastically different than some of the fetch quests in games like Skyrim.

-Technical problems like inconsistent FPS.

-Poor animation. Specifically jumping. Also some of the horse mechanics feel sort of janky when running into certain types of geometry.

-Being able to loot pretty much anything and get away with it. It just makes the world feel so much more empty and lifeless. If nobody cares about the belonging's in their hut, it just reminds me that I'm playing a video game.

-Geralt's gravelly voice. Honestly, this is the sort of world where I wish I could create my own character. Geralt is like a blank slate fantasy version of Master Chief. I don't hate him, but it makes me miss the character creation in games like Skyrim.

-The sex/romance writing. Seems very juvenile compared to the fair sophisticated plot points involving the war. Just sort of clashes in my opinion. The sex are tonally very GTA and the political drama seems more like House of Cards or Game of Thrones. I also think that the way the game's camera (during cutscenes) lingers on female characters' body parts is sexist. The developers seemingly tried to counterbalance some of the extreme female nudity by having Geralt take a lot of baths in KY Jelly, but that seems very forced to me. They also don't fragment Geralt's body as much as they do with the female characters. In one of the opening cutscenes there is literally like a 3 second medium shot of butt cheeks. Geralt's body parts are never fragmented in a similar way and his nudity is usually emphasizing the scars on his body or the used for comedic affect like in the opening bathub scene with the scorpion gag. I'm not saying that this is the most offensive thing in the world, but it's the sort of thing that is commonplace in lots of casually misogynistic Hollywood films.

Overall:

I'm still surprised by the near universal critical acclaim that this game has received from reviewers (or are they advertisers, hard to tell these days). I'm enjoying the game quite a bit, but this game is definitely not for everyone. The inventory system and menus are straight out of an older era of PC RPGs. The movement is clunky, heavy, and inaccurate. The game is clearly not yet optimized/stable on consoles. This game is really odd (and kind of a gem) because it's an example of a game that probably should probably only have niche appeal, but somehow got a massive budget and advertising push.
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Man, see here.. I for example really hate Skyrim, one of my personal biggest disappointments ever - boring story, most quests boring, boring world, graphics average at best, combat system terrible, menus and HUD on PC god awful, level-scaling is always in my book a bad idea, bugs everywhere, animations awful, facial animations were one of the worst I have ever seen, movement of characters was bad, etc.. some cool moments there were and aurora borealis was looking great, and some RPG systems were good, but after 5 - 10 or more hours nothing.. but guess what, I still know why the critics and peope were very happy with it.. many people hate TW2 or TW1 (great games), or Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth (fantastic game) and my all time favorite game is Vampire Bloodlines (ton of bugs, bad animations, etc.).. or how I don't like GTA series, but love Sleeping Dogs

TW3 is maybe bad or average in some places, but is miles better than most RPGs from last years that have a bigger budget and more people had worked on them.. story, characters, dialog, VA, the world (and how lively and vivid he is), artstyle, music, atmosphere, main and side quests, choices with consequences, facial animations, and for me even the combat system are the best when it comes to open-world RPG games (and in many places videogames in general) is just on another level..
 
K

KINGofCRA5H

Member
Mashin Haters said:
I just cut a drowner sideways in half. It was so satisfying I almost jumped for joy lol. No bullshit quick time event or fancy cinematic. Just a clean cut like a light saber. Feels good, I love the gameplay.
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Right?! I chopped a guys head off and immediately exclaimed out loud, "ooooooohhhh!!!" it was so satisfying. Looked completely natural, no jerky animations or anything. Totally fluid.
 
V

Virdix

Member
truestatic said:
Light attacking them will get your ass kicked, use strong attacks only against those guys.
Click to expand...

I use light attacks, dodge back and launch a light attack, their guard should'nt be up since you're far away and since Geralts animation launches him forward find the sweetspot and dodge attack dodge attack, at least on BaBB
 
P

Parmadillo Marshmallow

Member
Has anyone had an issue with the map coming up all of a sudden in the heat of combat, as if you had swiped up on the trackpad (PS4)? During the noonwraith fight and a fight with some ghouls, this happened several times. I definitely did not hit the trackpad at all.
 
B

Blitzhex

Member
Anyone find the audio mix all over the place on a 2.1 sound system on pc?
It's weird because Witcher 1 and 2 were loud as hell.
 
S

Sorian

Banned
artsi said:
I don't understand Witcher economy. How am I supposed to make money?

p8cCt8E.jpg


I sold these and he put them for sale at 89 orens.
Geralt can't haggle for shit. No wonder he always needs more money.
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Are you actively selling things like that to the correct shops? I think blacksmiths buy silver for the most, for example.
 
Ooccoo

Ooccoo

Member
Royal Griffin fight on Hard is very unbalanced. Not having fun at all. Doesn't help that Geralt moves like shit in this game.
 
U

UpDownLeftRight

Banned
Akiyama_AE said:
About the bloody barons quest
I have no clue where to go to find his wife i searched the bog and still nothing
any hints?
Click to expand...

There is a side quest related to the bog and the house with the children. Follow through that, it ties in.

LurkerPrime said:
I'm afraid to play it because it might end.
Click to expand...

You're not going to have to worry about that for a while. I've been playing it practically non stop since the midnight launch and the end is nowhere in sight yet from what I can tell.
 
A

Apoleptica

Banned
Admiral Woofington said:
I'm scared to see how much the early merchant will sell me back my witcher armor for lol
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Whatever you sell to a merchant disappears after you leave, really sucks if you want to buy something back. Lost my witcher sword, which I found out later can be upgraded. Oh well it's no big deal as there is a ton of equipment later in the game significantly better than the equipment you start out with.
 
W

webkid94

Member
GOG doesn't seem to track total time played correctly :/ like i'll play for an hour or so and then the game crashes (usually when im in the menus) and the time played is incorrectly shown. Really frustrating.
 
A

aku:jiki

Member
Sorian said:
Are you actively selling things like that to the correct shops? I think blacksmiths buy silver for the most, for example.
Click to expand...
You're right and, man, do I wish the game didn't do that. It's the kind of thing that sounds neat in concept but is just a time-wasting pain in the ass for the player in the long run.

So is the fact that merchants have a finite amount of cash. Come on, CDPR, you're just making me meditate right next to him for 24 hours for no reason.
 
W

woen

Member
Metroidvania said:
My experience was similar to Eatchildren's.

There was a line regarding (Friends with Benefits Spoiler)
Keira not liking Yennefer treating Geralt like a dog, but that was in reference to Geralt saying 'you shouldn't go to Radovid', and the response being in the tone of we can't always get what we want

Hoping that what went down doesn't come back to bite me later, lol.
Click to expand...

With her, I managed to
get the medication notes and send her to the Witcher's home. She seemed nice enough. Why genocide or telling Yen ?
 
Ooccoo

Ooccoo

Member
LurkerPrime said:
You can always turn down the difficulty if it's too "unbalanced," you know. That's sorta the whole point of difficulty settings.
Click to expand...

So I should turn down the difficulty because the first boss fight is unbalanced. To me this reeks of poor game design. BTW I have Quen active with a bonus but the boss deals way too much damage. When it lands after I hit it with the crossbow the camera makes it really hard to actually hit it. It's Bloodborne all over again.
 
S

ScepticMatt

Member
Dominator said:
How do I get out of the Overburdened state? You can't run and the camera stays close to Geralt. It's annoying the hell out of me lol
Click to expand...
You can still ride a horse.

Go to a shop, sell or dismantle heavy items (mostly weapons and armor)

Buy saddlebags to increase your limit
 
S

slash3584

Member
Ooccoo said:
Royal Griffin fight on Hard is very unbalanced. Not having fun at all. Doesn't help that Geralt moves like shit in this game.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that, I just killed it on Blood and Broken Bones and thought it was the most satisfying fight i've had in the game.

I just dodged it's attacks, used the thunder potion then aard his ass and hit it with a strong attack. Also bring it down with bolts while it's flying as the fall damages it a lot.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
Apoleptica said:
Whatever you sell to a merchant disappears after you leave, really sucks if you want to buy something back. Lost my witcher sword, which I found out later can be upgraded. Oh well it's no big deal as there is a ton of equipment later in the game significantly better than the equipment you start out with.
Click to expand...
Fuck. Apparently witcher armor is required for late game armor.Ah playing on normal anyways. On replay ill follow guide to the tee
 
A

Akiyama_AE

Member
UpDownLeftRight said:
There is a side quest related to the bog and the house with the children. Follow through that, it ties in.



You're not going to have to worry about that for a while. I've been playing it practically non stop since the midnight launch and the end is nowhere in sight yet from what I can tell.
Click to expand...

On it I was doing some detective work
 
T

truestatic

Member
Virdix said:
I use light attacks, dodge back and launch a light attack, their guard should'nt be up since you're far away and since Geralts animation launches him forward find the sweetspot and dodge attack dodge attack, at least on BaBB
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but on Deathmarch, you can pretty much lock them up by just chaining heavy attacks. Obviously you won't have that luxury for long if you're getting swarmed, but if you've got some breathing room to deal with an axe guy one on one, try just spamming the heavy swings.
 
L

Laurentius

Member
I typically get bored of open world sidequests within the first 6 or 7 hours. I'm about 18 hours in and haven't found a sidequest that I was bored by or didn't enjoy. They've done an excellent job with them.
 
T

ThomasAnderson

Member
Autosaves in this game could use some work. Nothing worst than finding some good loot, dying, and having to fight for it again. Also, any tips on how to level up? Been stuck at lvl 5 for a while and all of the quests (main and side) are at least 1 or more over me. Went to do a side quest without checking the lvl and after getting 1 hit several times I see it was 35. Playing on death march.
 
F

fierrotlepou

Member
This game is so fucking good I have to stop myself from playing.

I just entered the first "big" city and I'm just wandering around, discovering, exploring.

Amazing. Just amazing.
 
S

Super Stardust

Member
Ooccoo said:
Royal Griffin fight on Hard is very unbalanced. Not having fun at all. Doesn't help that Geralt moves like shit in this game.
Click to expand...
Read the bestiary, it tells you the weaknesses of monsters. Griffins are weak to arrd so whenever he's on the ground use it and it stuns him, hit him a few times then roll away. Rinse and repeat :)
 
P

pswii60

Member
Got my PS4 copy today but I haven't played it because it just gets stuck loading after the second intro cutscene. Anyone else had this issue? Fucking annoying as all fuck because the cutscenes are long and not skippable. I could have screamed after trying it for the 5th time having to watch them yet again to no avail.

This kind of shit really puts me off gaming these days, I dont have the time for this bullshit. Going to plug my Megadrive back in I think.
 
A

Afrodium

Banned
I've fallen into a trap where I think I'm going to be overleveled for most quests. I'm currently level 8 and there's still a bunch of level 6 quests I want to do, but doing those should level me up, causing me to yet again be overleveled for level 7 quests, then the level 8s, etc. etc. I'm playing on Blood & Broken Bones so it's still a bit of a challenge though. I just want to do everything!
 
S

Salsa

Member
m_shortpants said:
Anyone find anything to stop the freezing on PC?
Click to expand...

not that it helps since it changes your whole experience but the only time the game froze for me and crashed once was when I was still trying to get a steady 60

realized I couldnt, went with max settings / 30fps and freeze/crash free ever since

so it might be related to stressing your rig out
 
S

Sober

Member
I died a lot on the Royal Griffin but I thought it was fun as hell to learn on Hard (BBB difficulty). Read the beastiary entry for weaknesses, come back with that stuff if you can (I personally couldn't find the hybrid oil). I must've died like 2 dozen times in the first phase and then easily mopped it up when it tried to escape.

Also just not getting greedy in combat is a thing.
 
R

Reebot

Member
The more I play the more I love the world they've created here.

It only makes the terrible combat even worse in comparison.
 
V

Virdix

Member
Ooccoo said:
So I should turn down the difficulty because the first boss fight is unbalanced. To me this reeks of poor game design. BTW I have Quen active with a bonus but the boss deals way too much damage. When it lands after I hit it with the crossbow the camera makes it really hard to actually hit it. It's Bloodborne all over again.
Click to expand...

Not trying to say "git gud" or anything, but blaming "poor game design" when you are having trouble isnt right. I beat the him first try.
 
A

Afrodium

Banned
Apoleptica said:
Whatever you sell to a merchant disappears after you leave, really sucks if you want to buy something back. Lost my witcher sword, which I found out later can be upgraded. Oh well it's no big deal as there is a ton of equipment later in the game significantly better than the equipment you start out with.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing. There's gotta be Witcher gear available later in the game, right? Kaer Mohren is on the map and they've gotta have some duds.
 
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