Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.

[mook]

Cons:
- Performance - framerate can be really iffy
- Animations can sometimes be quite awkward and inconsistent. As I was fighting it, the gryphon was flickering about like anything
- Cutscenes - there are so very many of them, and I don't quite have the heart to skip them because I'm afraid of missing good line readings and character animations
- It doesn't yet feel open-worldy enough, though I'm not that far in admittedly

is that on PC?

the only trouble i'm having so far is two or three freeze ups when using the inventory. that, and so far it appears to be constantly fucking sunset of sunrise - squinting into the shadows looking for stuff is gonna get right on me pipe.

[Pit-Pat]

is that on PC?

the only trouble i'm having so far is two or three freeze ups when using the inventory. that, and so far it appears to be constantly fucking sunset of sunrise - squinting into the shadows looking for stuff is gonna get right on me pipe.

Nah, PS4 - I imagine it looks and feels quite a lot nicer on PC

[The Boston Crab]

You've reached the end of the world, in three directions. Is this just a pre-open world area then? I'm only an hour or so in. That message got right on my wick.

[brat-sampson]

You're in the prologue area. It's practically a sandpit compared to what comes next, which I reckon is a really nice way of doing it. What you see on the map is what you get though and you have to quick travel if you want to get back to White Orchard after entering the biggun.

For the record, I haven't found the edges of the main area yet. Not that they're not there, but jeeze, it's stupidly big, there's a good 10-15 hours before you even need to enter more than around 70% of it, and later on there's another area (the Skellige Isles) that looks to be about 2/3rds the size of theNovigrad/Velen region. It's a bit ridiculous frankly. The best part so far is the lack of filler. All the contracts come with some decent preamble working out what the monster is, letting you do your prep, seeing what rituals/techniques Geralt uses to force it into the open then a nice bashy fight. The other side-quests you collect are all pretty much uniformly excellent too. The only problems with the scale are firstly trying to make sure I'm not over-leveling myself for too many things, for which I'd suggest if that's a concern aim for side-quests as they seem to give a lot less XP than the central questline, tackle interesting doable side-quests as they come up and don't be afraid to take on a quest that's meant to be a level or two above you as you can probably still pull it off if you're lucky. Second issue is with the larger city/village areas which while massive and bustling, most of the population aren't interested in talking to you. Sure they'll mutter as you go past or give a line if prompted, but I'd have liked more !s around the city maps and less of the only picking up quests from noticeboards, which is about the only way to do it.

[The Boston Crab]

Not particularly engrossed in this, I'm afraid. I've got out into the open world and legged around a bit from one end to the other pretty much. Seen a couple of mildly interesting incidents but generally just like dogs and those blue arsed aquaman cunts. I'm also mildly disappointed by the visuals. It looks pretty but there's something of the cartoony Zelda Skyward Sword super saturation to it, only less pretty to me. Maybe I'm just a bit jaded. I feel like you can never actually focus on any one object or have a proper look at anything. It's impressive in a holistic way but doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

I also think the combat is crap early doors. I'm sure it gets better when you can mix it up a bit more but there doesn't seem to be that much skill to it. Maybe I'm wrong here.

The individual quests are well presented and seem pretty interesting, decent dialogue and some unusual twists. I suppose I need to get more into the actual game and main quests. The griffin fight was good, actually. It does feel very GTA though, in that it's fun to just leg it around soaking up the vibe but it seems pretty pointless pretty quickly and you can play for an hour and turn it off having effectively done nothing.

[fit bird]

Never usually been big on dungeons and dragon things like this, but my mate's got it on his PS4 and we've been getting into it like proper nerds. Just walking around doing little jobs for people and killing wolves.

Only problem is all of the writing is tiny! We've had to move our chairs so close to the screen our faces are pressed up against the glass just to read it, even on his big fuck off tele.

[The Boston Crab]

Fair play to the developer, I think they've listened to feedback on the miniscule stupid text and it's being addressed in a forthcoming update. In the meantime, go to accessibility and turn on zoom facility, will help.

[brat-sampson]

Sorry, Ciri, this game is Gwent now.

[mobias]

Thinking about getting this today. A bit of me is still undecided. After not getting into Bloodborne I'm a bit wary of spending 50 quid on yet another game I'm not going to get my moneys worth with. I've just had so few decent gaming experiences with my PS4 so far. I'm desperate for something to play.   

[Hank_Kingsley]

Just started this yesterday having not played any of the earlier ones. My feelings, combat is pretty decent. Better than Dragon Age Inquisition. Possibly better than Skyrim. Not keen on the horse, prefer to run everywhere.

Haven't got to grips with the alchemy yet, nice to have a decent sized inventory. Enjoying it more an hour or so in than I did at a similar stage with DA:I, but I ended up getting quite into that once I levelled up more.

[mobias]

Got it this afternoon and put a couple of hours in this evening. Enjoying it so far. There's a lot to take on board and get to grips with. I never got into Skyrim but I'm going to persevere with this. The graphics are indeed just a bit cartoony but look better with the colour saturation turned down a notch. Looking froward to playing it some more anyway.

[mook]

look for some info on something else entirely, i found this.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/psa-witcher-3-has-an-xp-bug-but-that-might-not-be-/1100-6427663/

"Quests that are six levels (or more) lower than yours are not granting experience,"

so tidy up and put away sharpish it seems, until they fix it.

still not got around to playing anything more than next to bugger all of this yet. i'm going through a bout of galloping insomnia too - SO I'VE GOT PLENTY OF FREE TIME!!1!

[brat-sampson]

I think you might be mis-reading that, it seems he meant quests 6+ levels below you aren't giving experience... and that's normal. They're not meant to. Hence 'anything else should be giving exp.' I haven't had any appropriately leveled quests not giving me xp, but now wont expect any from ones I've kinda left behind.

Actually the level balancing/quest level diversity is probably my biggest issue with the game as a whole. There's enough content aimed at levels 10-15 to get you from about level 8 to 18 at least, meaning if you want to try and see everything the game has to offer, you're inevitably going to be spending some time running around doing quests that are beneath you and being rewarded with gear that's worse than what you've already got. Not quite sure how to fix this but I'd suggest they should have made more things aimed towards the end/post-game rather than peaking it all around the middle. I'm doing them all anyway, because they're all at least interesting and well written enough to be worth it anyway, but I'm definitely going to be raising the difficulty from here on out, just to keep the combat fair and I guess just generally give out less xp for main quests. Hard thing to balance though if you want it to please everyone from completionists to those who want to just get through the story without having to fanny about for hours leveling up to progress.

[Lt Plonker]

I appear to have fucking awful judgment in this game. One bad decision after another. Anyone done the Fyke Island quest yet? Talk about dropping the ball at the end of that one. 'Kin 'ell.

[mobias]

Well I'm glad to say I'm thoroughly enjoying this. Its everything I hoped it would be. Still getting to grips with the somewhat convoluted and fairly involving user interface. And I agree all the fonts are way too small if you play the game from any distance away from your TV. I'm not at all clear at what I'm doing or supposed to be doing. I'm about to leave bait for the Griffin I think. I'm sure it'll all become clear.

Really enjoying the whole world and taking it all in. Its definitely bringing back memories of Red Dead Redemption. Its that same sort of highly detailed open world which is a lot more focussed than GTA. Unlike with GTA I'm actually enjoying the interactive cut scenes with their differing narrative branches. The writers evidently know how to keep them long enough to help further the story but short enough that they're not too rambling. Something Rockstar could learn from.

I'm also really liking the graphics and art direction. At first I thought was a bit too overly cartoony but now I'm into it I'm finding it all just suitably stylised and fantastical. My only criticism of it all so far is the fact a goose has to walk around with the word 'goose' above it. I know what a goose looks like thanks.   

edit. I slayed the griffon. I've now got to track down the daughter of that king chap or whatever he is. I presume now I'm in the main world and have escaped the prologue area? I've taken on a side quest to find a missing wife who walked into the woods alone and appears to have been killed by a werewolf. I'm now on the hunt of the werewolf lair but I got attacked by a bear and killed. Bears appear to be tougher than griffons in this world.

Anyway this is fucking ace! I'm level 3.   

[mook]

   
... I presume now I'm in the main world and have escaped the prologue area? ...

no, i think you're still in the "prologue area."

i haven't got to this bit:

Bears appear to be tougher than griffons in this world.

yet... but if you look at the detail of that quest in ..erm "quests" it will tell you what level you'll need to be to beat it.

i'm going to devote the majority of sunday afternoon to this, just dipping if for twenty minutes every now and this ain't cutting it.

[mobias]

no, i think you're still in the "prologue area."

i haven't got to this bit:

yet... but if you look at the detail of that quest in ..erm "quests" it will tell you what level you'll need to be to beat it.

i'm going to devote the majority of sunday afternoon to this, just dipping if for twenty minutes every now and this ain't cutting it.

Ah cheers for that. Its raining here today in Edinburgh so I feel no guilt in spending the entire day engrossed in this. I'm going to hand that werewolf his ass on a plate for killing me last night.

How does the multiple side quests thing work in terms of starting them but not finishing them? Can I start a few but go back to them later?

[mook]

yep, as far as i know at any rate.

pishing down here too, perfect gaming weather, i can't play game if the sun is out. definitely going to stuck in and make some bloody headway on this today.

[Bhazor]

I've never been able to give The Witcher series the love it probably deserves because I find the unrelenting misery so exhausting.  With its 95% rapist population it just becomes darkly comical like a bad grim dark fanfic. Everybody gettin' raped, everyone talkin' about their next rape, everyone talkin' about whether they should rape or lynch the elf. The level of reactivity in the writing is fantastic. I just wish the choices weren't all equally terrible. Can I just get one kid who isn't sold to a nonce at the end of a quest? Theres a lot of the writing I did like. One part I remember fondly from the first game was the Stag night quest. Get drunk, call my kid an asshole, have fight with all powerful waifu and then fall asleep fully clothed face down on the bed. Or the quest to make a steak in the middle of a party.


Either way my PC is too busted to play anything close to the graphical level of Witcher 3 so I'll probably not play till next year.

[fit bird]

The things that really got on my nerves about this were the dialogue options in cutscenes. You'd pick something that sounds really innocuous and then he's pulling his sword out or calling somebody a fucking nosey bastard.

[mobias]

The swimming mechanics take a fair bit of getting used to. I just drowned in some underwater caves because Geralt seemed to be swimming in pretty much every direction I didn't want him to. GTAV's underwater swimming is far better done.

I've learnt now not to start exploring out round the map too early on. So many of the side quests and contracts are levelled way higher than what my character is. I guess its a good way of keeping you in one area to begin with and level up your character.

If you do a contract for someone and they offer you money for completing it what are the differences in outcome between taking the cash or refusing it? Whats gained by turning down the money?   

[The Boston Crab]

It makes you feel that all the bad things you do in real life aren't so bad.

I don't really get what I should be doing in this game. I've wandered off too far from the main quest, I've acquired about fifty other quests from notice boards but I've not followed any up. I seem to just run around until I get in a fight against some higher level enemies, inevitably dogs, bandits or those stupid blue guys and then I die and reload the same old save miles away, and then I lose interest. It's kind of similar how I play GTA. I think I should just follow the main questline until this draws me in.

[brat-sampson]

If you're not doing the actual quests then yeah, I can see how it would be a bit underwhelming. The ?s aren't really all that interesting in general, just some random loot that's likely either too high level or worse than what you have. I might just turn them off the map so I don't feel I should be 'completing' them like Ubisoft trinkets, which I don't think they're meant to be.

If offered the choice to turn down reward, there's not really any benefit to doing so, unless it makes you feel better. Most later contracts don't seem to give you the option, and generally you should probably take the money. This is your job after all.

[mobias]

If offered the choice to turn down reward, there's not really any benefit to doing so, unless it makes you feel better. Most later contracts don't seem to give you the option, and generally you should probably take the money. This is your job after all.

Yeah that was my thinking. I've earned that money the hard way and I'll bloody well take it. I was just wondering if there was some sort of morality measurement built into the game, similar to Red Dead Redemption's honour system, that might effect the out come of things.

I don't really get what I should be doing in this game. I've wandered off too far from the main quest, I've acquired about fifty other quests from notice boards but I've not followed any up. I seem to just run around until I get in a fight against some higher level enemies, inevitably dogs, bandits or those stupid blue guys and then I die and reload the same old save miles away, and then I lose interest. It's kind of similar how I play GTA. I think I should just follow the main questline until this draws me in.

Going off the beaten track to explore doesn't seem to offer much if you're not involved in any actual game play. From what I've seen of it so far anyway. Similarly with Just Cause 2's huge map you start to see a fair amount of repetition in the game world design. There's a lot of clever procedural generation in the graphics but its not the same thing as GTAV's painstakingly hand crafted San Andreas.
That being said it is still an incredible world with so many nooks and corners to explore. Exploring it all as part of missions and quests is definitely the way to do it though I think.

[Ignatius_S]

There are definite benefits by turning down cash. Turning down a reward, will usually give a different one instead. See below for examples:

*edit* Personally, I would say the ? map markers are worth exploring - I gained quite a few crafting recipes so far from them.

*Minor contract spoilers in the prologue*

...If offered the choice to turn down reward, there's not really any benefit to doing so, unless it makes you feel better. Most later contracts don't seem to give you the option, and generally you should probably take the money. This is your job after all.

With the Griffin one, if you accept the cash you'll get 300 XP and 150 Crowns but if you turn it down, you'll get 500 XP.

With the Devil by the Well contract, turning down the reward will get you a more valuable gem then the cash. The standard reward is 20 Crowns (although you can push that up by several more) but if you refuse it, the farmer gives you some flattering flannel and then decides it's not right that you're going away empty-handed, then gives you an amethyst - selling should net far more crowns, but it's useful for crafting later.

At the beginning when saving the merchant from the griffin, if you refuse money, he'll tell you about the tavern and that a relation runs it - this gives you a warm welcome and (I might be wrong about this) they give you free stuff. Choices add flavour but, I believe, can have an impact much later on.

Personally, I think it's best going with the role that someone likes to play. With the Griffin contract, it was very satisfying the way you turn down the coin (which obviously wasn't part of the deal). Money isn't going to be a huge issue, I feel in the game and my gut feeling is that increased XP from contracts will be be useful.

[mobias]

Put in a good few hours this evening. I'm ready to give it a rest until tomorrow night now. I just finished off there trying to get a goat back to a cottage by ringing a little bell only to have to face off a huge fucking bear. I'm going to have to read up online stuff covering the story. I'm getting fairly lost now in what the fucks actually happening. I've upgraded my swords but other than that I don't seem to have done much to further Geralt's abilities. I'm about 50XP's below reaching level 4. I need to do a few more side quests I think.

[Pit-Pat]

There are definite benefits by turning down cash. Turning down a reward, will usually give a different one instead. See below for examples:

*edit* Personally, I would say the ? map markers are worth exploring - I gained quite a few crafting recipes so far from them.

*Minor contract spoilers in the prologue*

With the Griffin one, if you accept the cash you'll get 300 XP and 150 Crowns but if you turn it down, you'll get 500 XP.

With the Devil by the Well contract, turning down the reward will get you a more valuable gem then the cash. The standard reward is 20 Crowns (although you can push that up by several more) but if you refuse it, the farmer gives you some flattering flannel and then decides it's not right that you're going away empty-handed, then gives you an amethyst - selling should net far more crowns, but it's useful for crafting later.

At the beginning when saving the merchant from the griffin, if you refuse money, he'll tell you about the tavern and that a relation runs it - this gives you a warm welcome and (I might be wrong about this) they give you free stuff. Choices add flavour but, I believe, can have an impact much later on.

Personally, I think it's best going with the role that someone likes to play. With the Griffin contract, it was very satisfying the way you turn down the coin (which obviously wasn't part of the deal). Money isn't going to be a huge issue, I feel in the game and my gut feeling is that increased XP from contracts will be be useful.

I've actually got to the stage where I'd rather not level up any further as I'm about 3 or 4 levels above the recommended level for the story quests I'm on. I would say don't try to level up too quickly, as if fights are too easy they're a little less exciting. I've tended to take the money in any case - a man got to have a code.

[Hank_Kingsley]

Was having some bother with a miscarried foetus so I just fucked it off and got in a boat and enjoyed the coastline for a bit. Then I ended up in a city and hung out with some whores and solved some crimes. Now I've got a wicked sharp sword and I'm planning on coming back and smacking the shit out of a dead baby.

[brat-sampson]

I

Spoiler alert

saved the botchling

[close]

so that made it easier. Cranking up the difficulty to Blood and Broken Bones has definitely helped with regards to the over-leveling problem. Most loot being pointless is still a thing though.

Currently level 19, 50ish hours in and doing the intro quest on Skellege. They weren't kidding about Bigness.

[Pit-Pat]

Can you change the difficulty in-game? I'm also level 19 - arrived on Skellige fairly recently and have done a few little quests and contracts. It's almost unbelievably big.