The Witcher

[deanb]

You're approaching the final leg of Act 2. You have Act 3 to go, so no you're pretty golden. As for teleporting people

 

They'll show up, I did similar with mine. Basically done some quests a wee bit too early than the game sort of expected.

 

[Mr. GOH!]

Sweet Jesus, I forgot that this game was split into Acts. I think the last time I saw an Act transition was just when I got to Velen, many, many, many hours ago.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Mr. GOH!

[danielpholt]

So is anyone going to be downloading the mega-patch? 7+gb for a patch, whats happening? 

[deanb]

I think I already have.

[danielpholt]

I think I already have.

 

My connection has been known to drop to a crawl for a few weeks after downloading anything substantial, and I'm not sure why. Not to mention the fact that a 7gb file would take almost 15 hours to download on this connection. Fuck. 

[Mr. GOH!]

It downloaded in under 10 minutes for me. The alternate look for CIri DLC did not download, though, for some reason.

[Hot Heart]

Doesn't seem to be up for some people on EU PSN (me, for example). Not that I've touched it in a while; decided it'd be better to get Arkham Knight squared away for the "true" ending. Just 180+ Riddles to solve/find...

[deanb]

First expansion announced for pre-order

http://www.gog.com/game/the_witcher_3_wild_hunt_hearts_of_stone

 

edit:

More info. If you buy it boxed at a store you get physical Gwent cards so that's kinda neat

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-09-08-first-witcher-3-expansion-gets-a-release-date

(if you already bought the expansion digitally there's stuff you can do to get the gwent cards, see article)

[deanb]

 

Soon I'll be back. Not sure if I want to wait for the expansions to all drop, or play them as they come out.

[deanb]

 

One week to go I guess.

[deanb]

Patch 1.10 is so large it has 600 fixes, tweaks and improvements that spans a 13 page PDF:

http://wpc.4d7d.edgecastcdn.net/004D7D/media/THE%20WITCHER%203/Pdf/patch_1_10_changelog_en.pdf

 

It will be 20GB on consoles and 6-20GB on PC (I imagine it's a delta update, so if you've previous updates it'll be smaller)

[Eleven]

So I finished this, really satisfied with the ending I got.

 

Don't click on the link, because of obvious spoilers, but this site lists all the possible endings.

http://www.vg247.com/2015/05/28/the-witcher-3-how-to-get-the-best-ending/

 

Ending stuff:

First things first. I really, really can't stress how happy I am about the fact that NOBODY in the cast died (yet, at least, I haven't played the DLC!). Well, except for Vesemir, but I'm fine with that.

 

So let's see...

 

Ciri becomes a witcher. I didn't know Ciri's background since I've not read the books. I only knew she was the emperor's daughter early in the game when the emperor said so. I had assummed she knew, but ran away because "you know, kids". Gonna have to read up on these events I guess for background. Almost fucked up on this ending though, as 1 wrong choice and Ciri would have died. I basically got the minimum requirements for this ending to happen.

 

Killed Radovid, because he really is a prick. Killed Dijkstra because he was also a prick. I would have supported him (I believed his impassioned(?) speech where he talked about how Redania prospered before Radovid) if he hadn't planned on killing Roche and Ves.

 

Cerys seems to be the best ending, I would even say objectively, for Skellige. Other rulers end up with lots of deaths but I guess that's just how their people are, so it might not be bad for them from their POV.

 

Triss ending. Freshly-baked cakes FTW.

 

 

Some other stuff.

 - I enjoyed Triss' storyline, a huge part because the ending caught me by surprise. Really, I may just not be watching enough movies to see that cliche but when Dijkstra said "Turn around, Geralt", I got really annoyed that I had been double crossed, yet again! I was ready to fight. Ended up making me smile instead.

 

 - The end of that Dandelion quest, that spawned into a new quest where Priscilla got beat up, made me mad. I really liked Priscilla's character, she seems like a nice, fun person. I wonder if she's still lying there on the hospital bed? Anyway, this is one of the sidequests that stand out to me and is my favorite. Shani was mentioned in it as well. Yey Witcher 1 reference!

 

 - Yennefer throwing out the bed, which was also a Witcher 1 reference. And subsequently bringing it up during conversation with her. Then being teleported to the middle of a lake. Just hilarious!

 

 - Cerys keeps commenting about how Geralt and Yennefer's relationship. I wonder if there was a point to this? Are they just trying to emphasize the dynamic in Geralt and Yennefer's relationship? I like it, although it's a bit odd.

 

 - Speaking of Yennefer, The Last Wish sidequest was really well done. I notice that you, the player, gets to decide if there was ever a spell. If you side with Yennefer, then no, there was no spell over them (or it doesn't matter). If you don't, Geralt's words reflect that the Djinn spell was broken, but only on Geralt's side, screwing Yennefer in the process as Djinns are known to do.

 

 - Kaer Morhen stuff is great! My favorite part of the game. I loved Geralt's interaction with everyone in there. Also, the getting drunk portion is hilarious if you just go along with it. Lambert is one crazy mofo. Eskel had a badass scene with that reverse grip (during the siege).

 

 - I felt Triss (yes, I'm biased) was really under-represented in the whole thing. If I hadn't sent her to Kaer Morhen as a result of the romance with her, I wonder if she'll even be in the rest of the story. She could be dropped out of the story entirely and nothing would need to change. She does nothing of significance after saving the mages of Novigrad. Only thing I can think of possibly changing is the part where you have to recruit the other sorceresses but Yennefer could easily delegate that task to Geralt (I mean, instead of delegating it to Triss who in turn delegates it to Geralt). Although thinking back, her role was small in the past games anyway, was even a damsel in distress in 2.

 

 - Ciri's voice acting is really, really good. I love hearing it. The accent and just the manner in which she speaks, especially when she's feeling enthusiastic about something.

 

 - Always found Dandelion's voice to be... off. Seems out of place. Like he doesn't belong in that time period.

 

 - Roche losing his mind that Ves rushed into battle, with her shirt wide open. LOL.

 

 - Zoltan is the best friend anyone could ever have.

[Eleven]

Ciri has an explanation for that "window" in her outfit top.

 

(This is from Hearts of Stone, Geralt has this huge mark on his face, can ask  some people about it. No real spoilers for Hearts of Stone.)

 

https://vid.me/WiJc

Edited November 18, 2015 by Eleven

[deanb]

http://imgur.com/a/qktqY

 

Lass makes her BF a gwent set for Xmas.

[deanb]

 

Looking good.

[Mister Jack]

Looks like I picked a good time to finally start this game.

[deanb]

Yeah, this is the final DLC. I'll be diving back in now it's all "complete". Really is a well made game. And hey, they fixed the issue with the candles on treasure chests

[Eleven]

Since Overwatch is down (on PS4), I'm playing Blood and Wine.

 

Hurray CDPR for giving consoles love! Bigger interface, and they fixed that damn chaotic inventory. There's still too many fucking items but at least now segregation is better.

 

Also turning off that damn fish-eye effect with Witcher senses. That thing gave me headaches.

[Eleven]

I don't understand...

 

People loved the Kaer Morhen armor, so they gave us the Viper Armor. Now they didn't even add an upgrade for it, taking it out of the options again. Why???

[Hot Heart]

I started playing again and got the new update, which does a lot of nice things. However, it did introduce some bugs which I was worried would fuck me over at one point. I did what is probably the worst section in the game

 

 

...going through the portals with Avallac'h and it was saying I was overencumbered, even though I was at 125/160. I figured, "Oh, I guess because Roach isn't here" but that started to sound dumb because what is your actual carrying weight if Roach isn't there? Because I wasn't far in, and expected some tough fights or something, I reloaded an older save and ditched a load of stuff to bring me way down but then it still said I was overencumbered. I think, "Okay, maybe I can manage. Worse case scenario, I use the decoction that lets me carry more for a while. Of course, I get to the poisonous fumes bit and I can't run at all.

 

Fortunately, it must have been a bug because then after I die it just removes that. I also had the game crash on me after finishing a big fight.

 

 

Anyway, I'm still loving it and it's actually surprisingly easy to dip back into (once you remember the controls). I also decided to capture a video of me going overkill on some crappy drowners.

[deanb]

This was sort of known before hand due to Trademarks, but now it's all official and you can register for a beta of the standalone Gwent game. I'm mixed on this cos the game within Witcher 3 was very weighted in your favour, especially once you get Spies in play. However they're obviously re-balancing it for PvP play. Also my other iffiness is how the Adventure Game was made digitally too, but that mainly sucked cos the board game did.

 

Anywho, here's the sign up site:

https://www.playgwent.com/en

[Hot Heart]

While I'm sharing my captures, here are some Witcher ones:

 

The time I turned a "the sheep is bait" mission into a "THE SHEEP MUST SURVIVE AT ALL COSTS" mission. And then it continued to follow me even when I hadn't mind controlled it.

 

"Why do they call you 'Madman'?"

[Saturnine Tenshi]

 

 

[IDDQD]

If you're digging the OST I'd recommend giving any of Percival's album a spin. Here's a full playlist for Slava: CLICK

 

Some of those tracks were actually written into the game's soundtrack, so it's a great listen if you like the music from the game.

 

I've also finished Blood and Wine recently. Man, what a trip. I'm having a serious case of post-game blues, kind of like when I was done with Mass Effect series. Kind of sad that there won't be any more Witcher games but given how amazing the third one was, I'm also excited for any future CDPR projects. Please, please, let it be that cyberpunk game...

 

I'm mixed on this cos the game within Witcher 3 was very weighted in your favour, especially once you get Spies in play.

 

I haven't played that much with the other factions but wasn't the Northern Kingdoms deck the only one larded with spy cards? That's the only reason I was using this deck because it was impossible to lose once you've been dealt a hand with about 4-5 spies.

 

The thing about the game being weighted is spot-on, though not always in your favor and sometimes it's the AI that's simply cheating or acting stupid. It's evidenced the most in tournament quests. Case in point: in the tournament from the main game I've been always dealt a suspiciously weak hand (I must have been really lucky to get any of the special cards), while in Blood and Wine's Gwent tournament, when playing against the final opponent, he simply petered out of the game in the last round to let me win, even though he had a clear advantage.

[deanb]

The  GOTY is out, and with it a new patch for the non-GOTY edition (tbh if you have the "Season Pass" you have the GOTY). So grab that if you're on GOG Galaxy or what not.