Witcher III : PT III : Blood and Winos

[Leafs at Knight]

Hardest difficulty isn't that bad tbh. Just upgrade Quen? to give you health when getting hit, and fine and use the Griffin set which recharging your signs super fast. Dodging is your best friend. The final boss was very tough though.

Still plan on buying it for PC one day, and doing another full playthrough (which would be my 4th), and do a alchemy/oil build.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

I never played the game because of the combat. The combat in my opinion is competent and gives you enough of a sense of who you are in the world (a monster hunting killing machine) to immerse you between dialogue and exploration.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I find combat to be a ton of fun.

It isn't super tight but it's fluid and rhythmic. Geralt is very nimble while most enemies are not, use that your advantage.

I hate Dark Souls for making people think than anything not like it is "clunky". That franchise is a blight on the industry because of the insane fanboyism is spawned.

Sort of like how kids who grow up on Apple products can sometimes be utterly incapable of operating any other kind of device. People think it means Apple's design philosphy is amazing (it is very strong mind you) when in fact it is a vision, there are other ways to do things with their own benefit.

Or how often people complain about driving in games. Their inability to adapt actually says more about them than it says about the game.

If anything, I'd say Wild Hunt's weakest aspect is the RPG: dialogue trees are super shallow and quests progress always in the exact same way. It is why Assassin of Kings was so good, but with how big the world is in Wild Hunt it coudn't be as in-depth.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Dark souls didn't invent its own combat, Zelda did. And I have my issues with dark souls too, specifically the overreliance in Invincibility frames.

I find witcher 3s combat I would say genuinely bad, but I've said that a million times by now and there's no point in rehashing it. I was just saying that it didn't earn the one hit kill difficulty it essentially has because the combat is very imprecise and sluggish, there seems to be a lot of lag on parry timing and activating spells as well as really bad target tracking.

Dark souls never encounters that because it has no difficulty setting. And any unfair difficult deaths it has are only emphasized by very bad loading times, not "look at your phone for the next 90 seconds" loading times.

I also liked the witcher 3 quests and dialogue options. I like that there are multiple fail states for each quest and you have to actually work to solve the mysteries like a detective. Its literally the only reason I like the game. I turn the difficulty down and play it for that.

Speaking of quests that don't branch out, i never played witcher 2 (at least not for more than 15 minutes) so I'm not sure to what degree that happened, but blood and wine solved that. The main quest branches out into two very different paths which I was very impressed by. It was a fantastic and im gonna be getting around to taking the second path at some point.

 

[Bocephus86]

Speaking of quests that don't branch out, i never played witcher 2 (at least not for more than 15 minutes) so I'm not sure to what degree that happened, but blood and wine solved that. The main quest branches out into two very different paths which I was very impressed by. It was a fantastic and im gonna be getting around to taking the second path at some point.

There are three acts, basically, 1 and 2 being roughly the same length and 3 a little shorter. Act two can be completely different & there isn't a way to do both in the same play through.

There are a bunch of other impactful branching as well but that was the most extreme I've ever encountered in a game. I still prefer 3 for all the other improvements, though, and felt there were enough choices to let me be me, to an extent.

 

[Morbo]

yeah the money thing is kind of ridiculous...yeah thanks for wrapping up that questline you ran to 5 different spots on the map for...here's three fiddy

 

[aleshemsky83]

yeah the money thing is kind of ridiculous...yeah thanks for wrapping up that questline you ran to 5 different spots on the map for...here's three fiddy

The werewolf quest is just insane for this, though i guess that's the point. You find out early how to kill him, or you can work much harder to reverse the curse and get a lousy sword as a reward.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Are any of the sword or armor rewards worth earning for any of the quests? Once you get the school specific armor/swords nothing else compares, really.

 

[SniperHF]

Are any of the sword or armor rewards worth earning for any of the quests? Once you get the school specific armor/swords nothing else compares, really.

I occasionally found non set swords that were worth using. But usually not.

 

[Bocephus86]

I also found myself wanting to use complete sets, especially for the gear as there are full set bonuses. The rare swords I found that are better were not better enough to spoil the theme haha.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Are any of the sword or armor rewards worth earning for any of the quests? Once you get the school specific armor/swords nothing else compares, really.

Same.

Was a bit of an issue with the game.

I have to think some mods might help in that regard.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Goodness gracious I just found out the coins you pick up in this game aren't real money. You need to take them to the bank and exchange them. Why?

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Goodness gracious I just found out the coins you pick up in this game aren't real money. You need to take them to the bank and exchange them. Why?

Different groups use different currency. It doesn't affect you in terms of being able to buy things, but it is just added flavor to flesh out the world. With the area being so conflicted with warring nations you would think there are different currencies floating around.

 

[Bocephus86]

It also doesn't get factored into your "money" amount, you'll see the other currancies in your misc. inventory (IIRC); I actually didn't realized that was happening until I got to Novograd, talked to the bank (for Gwent) and did the full dialogue tree; ended up being like a free 2000 money for me as I wasn't expecting it and the conversion is like 1 to 3.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

I forgot how easy it is to get sucked in. Hadn't played the game for a few months and now all I want to do is keep playing.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Are any of the sword or armor rewards worth earning for any of the quests? Once you get the school specific armor/swords nothing else compares, really.

I occasionally found non set swords that were worth using. But usually not.

I actually crafted my first witcher sets during the blood and wine dlc (going through hearts of stone now) and with the introduction of the grandmaster smithing (which I'm guessing is from the blood and wine dlc) basically any non witcher armor is pointless since it takes away your bonus, even aerondight which is far more powerful than any other silver sword isn't worth it.

That said, I notice Griffin and cat school are by far the best sets.

Finally, maybe I'm off base here, but I feel like crafting and alchemy materials shouldn't weigh anything. Theres like a million materials and the way look is designed (its basically randomized outside of a few monster parts) you're more or less encouraged to hang onto everything, yet it really starts to pile up. I have 170 carry capacity and around 120 is taken up by crafting and alchemy materials.

I'm more or less satisfied with the Griffin set but id get the cat set too to become a dps machine if it weren't such a grind.

Edit: ah, crafting materials do weight nothing. Loot, which can be sold or broken down into crafting materials, have weight. Woops.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

I like the manticore set because I think it looks really cool.

As far as alchemy, I wonder if they made alchemy and armor crafting a little too difficult. Some times you have to grind to acquire the materials or crowns needed for whatever you need.

And then with the mutations in the Blood and Wine DLC, it is a major pain to get red mutagens and actually spend my ability points.

 

[CBJx614]

I know this is the wrong place for it, but it's definitely Witcher related didn't see anything in this thread so.

The Witcher TV Series: Netflix Orders Eight Episode Season

To clarify that statement a bit more, the upcoming Netflix series will be based on the original Witcher novels and is not directly related to the CD Projekt Red video game franchise aside from the similarities that the two naturally share.
That fact adds a slightly humorous twist to this announcement when you consider that Sapkowski recently spoke out against the artistic merit of the Witcher game saga by calling into question the medium's ability to properly tell such a grand story. Before that, Sapkowski also admitted that he chose not to take a percentage for the adaptation rights, which he later came to regret when the series went on to gross over a billion dollars.

 

[Warden of the North]

I know this is the wrong place for it, but it's definitely Witcher related didn't see anything in this thread so.

The Witcher TV Series: Netflix Orders Eight Episode Season

Sapowski sounds like an old guy who equates modern video games to Pacman, both in his criticism of the mediums ability carry a story and his decision to not take a cut of the profits. Although I would presume the mere existence of the games has boosted the sales of his novels.

I enjoy that he created Geralt of Rivia and the Witcherverse, but lament the fact he could not embrace the other mediums continuing on his stories.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I heard bad things about hearts of stone but after finishing it I really liked it. Not as good as blood and wine but still solid.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Yeah B&W has a bit of an unfair advantage considering it was developed specifically as a farewell to Geralt, making it a much more light hearted and rewarding affair. HoS is more of the same drab environment with a very well executed story, which doesn't make it stand out as much considering the entire game is full of well executed stories.

Also the one misstep in the entire game+expansions was the rune additions in HoS. What a waste.

 

[Whiplash27]

idk, I thought HoS was great when I played it. Had lots of humor, good villain, good story.

I've always said that if anything is poorly executed in TW3, it's the main story. Too much of a break from TW1 & TW2 where it tried too hard to tie back to the books and left out too many of the themes explored in the prior games (especially TW2). It expected players, regardless of if they read the books, to have an immediate connection to Siri and Yennefer, who they've only heard of a bit in the second game, while kind of putting the more established characters into the background. Additionally, the wild hunt really wasn't as menacing as they seemed, had no personality really, and the final boss was kind of lame. Gaunter O'Dimm was a better villain than Eredin.

Coupled with the fact that the entire political side was just a joke, especially how they turned Radovid from an intelligent, but ruthless ruler into a complete nut job not worth siding with.

I still loved the game and think it's one of the best single player games I've played, but personally I still prefer the stories of the first two games. Honestly, I think if they redid TW1 in the new REDengine and brushed up the dialog a bit, it could probably be the best of the trilogy.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

idk, I thought HoS was great when I played it. Had lots of humor, good villain, good story.

I've always said that if anything is poorly executed in TW3, it's the main story. Too much of a break from TW1 & TW2 where it tried too hard to tie back to the books and left out too many of the themes explored in the prior games (especially TW2). It expected players, regardless of if they read the books, to have an immediate connection to Siri and Yennefer, who they've only heard of a bit in the second game, while kind of putting the more established characters into the background. Additionally, the wild hunt really wasn't as menacing as they seemed, had no personality really, and the final boss was kind of lame. Gaunter O'Dimm was a better villain than Eredin.

Coupled with the fact that the entire political side was just a joke, especially how they turned Radovid from an intelligent, but ruthless ruler into a complete nut job not worth siding with.

I still loved the game and think it's one of the best single player games I've played, but personally I still prefer the stories of the first two games. Honestly, I think if they redid TW1 in the new REDengine and brushed up the dialog a bit, it could probably be the best of the trilogy.

For the record, I wasn't saying HoS was bad or "only good". Just that when compared to B&W it really feels inferior because of the fact B&W was a more "uplifting" epilogue to the entire Witcher franchise.

As far as the story, it was perfectly acceptable for what it needed to be. The beauty in the game is the world and your interactions with it, and not some amazing grand plot.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I find combat to be a ton of fun.

It isn't super tight but it's fluid and rhythmic. Geralt is very nimble while most enemies are not, use that your advantage.

I hate Dark Souls for making people think than anything not like it is "clunky". That franchise is a blight on the industry because of the insane fanboyism is spawned.

I find that interesting as well, because with the possible exception of Dark Souls III, I found the combat extremely clunky in that series.

DS3 might not have had clunky combat, but it sure had clunky PvP/Co-Op.

I'm obviously biased in my dislike of the Souls franchise, but give me Witcher any day....well, maybe not the first one.

I know this is the wrong place for it, but it's definitely Witcher related didn't see anything in this thread so.

The Witcher TV Series: Netflix Orders Eight Episode Season

Very interesting.

Again, I'm probably heavily biased, but I find myself watching less and less TV for the very reason that as a medium, it falls short of what games can do when made well.

Take Game of Thrones for example: I mean, sure, the story is good, but the game play is terrible!

 

[Do Make Say Think]

TV is garbage now. Been that way for a while, we had a mini golden age that began in the 2000's but things are back to where they were: formulaic and insulting.

In general people forgive way too much in favour of setting/story. That Modified Carbon show is a great example: great setting and plot but the execution is just awful.

And Breaking Bad stopped being good after season 2.