The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[Rahdulan]

That is one of my largest gripes about this Wiedzmin trilogy - haven't read the books - that as a rule, you know every sentient non-human will be sympathetic, unless made abundantly clear they're evil. HoS was great because it eschewed that bullshit, cast aspersions on everybody, and I had to actually think about what was going on - at least twice.

Witcher 3 maybe I agree, but I remember 1 and 2 having quite a lot of morally ambiguous elves. Dwarves maybe not so much (though they are a gang in TW3) but then dwarves are often treated as cuddly Scots.

Dwarves definitely mellowed out in Witcher 2, but Scoia'tael as a whole in the first game and elves in the second were outright racist terrorists who didn't even care about their supposed ideals when push came to shove and just wanted to massacre some humans for revenge. I mean, not to say there wasn't racist sentiment directed towards non-humans and all that, but yeah.

 

[RNGsus]

That is one of my largest gripes about this Wiedzmin trilogy - haven't read the books - that as a rule, you know every sentient non-human will be sympathetic, unless made abundantly clear they're evil. HoS was great because it eschewed that bullshit, cast aspersions on everybody, and I had to actually think about what was going on - at least twice.

Witcher 3 maybe I agree, but I remember 1 and 2 having quite a lot of morally ambiguous elves. Dwarves maybe not so much (though they are a gang in TW3) but then dwarves are often treated as cuddly Scots.

I'm probably looking back through a new lens after all that happened in 3. Maybe they didn't want to give the impression all non humans were a threat to the multiverse, so they went full retard with them to balance the Wild Hunt.

Anyway, vampires suck.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Anyway, vampires suck.

No shit, Sherlock.

 

[Life of the Party]

My problem with Blood and Wine was that because of 'a fairyland hiding a dark secret' I expected some mega-conspiracy where everyone and their mothers turn out to be vampires. Thanks, David Icke.

Instead, we got one guy and even he was more of a victim than a villain. Weak.

 

[Storyfag]

My problem with Blood and Wine was that because of 'a fairyland hiding a dark secret' I expected some mega-conspiracy where everyone and their mothers turn out to be vampires. Thanks, David Icke.

Instead, we got one guy and even he was more of a victim than a villain. Weak.

True. The devs mentioned "Brotherhood of the Wolves" as inspiration, and completely failed to deliver those vibes.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

^Cheery and colorful sells better (notice the trend with successive cdpr games), as does first person and easy.

The whole "toussaint is just a farm for human kobe beef" didn't go further than a book.

 

[Ivan]

 

[Ivan]

So Blood and Wine does not stop delivering on quality. I'm honestly surprised there isn't a quest giver for the bandit leaders. I've just been taking them out via my own expeditions into the countryside. I ran into what I think was the "toughest" gy and I could swear there were like 20 npcs coming at me. I think I've wrapped up all of the side content, now for the main quest. Regis is a true bro. I love his outfit, hair, syntax, and voice.

 

[Storyfag]

So Blood and Wine does not stop delivering on quality. I'm honestly surprised there isn't a quest giver for the bandit leaders. I've just been taking them out via my own expeditions into the countryside. I ran into what I think was the "toughest" gy and I could swear there were like 20 npcs coming at me. I think I've wrapped up all of the side content, now for the main quest. Regis is a true bro. I love his outfit, hair, syntax, and voice.

Let it be also said that Regis is done extremely faithfully to the original novels, which is no small feat in itself.

 

[Master]

My problem with Blood and Wine was that because of 'a fairyland hiding a dark secret' I expected some mega-conspiracy where everyone and their mothers turn out to be vampires. Thanks, David Icke.

Instead, we got one guy and even he was more of a victim than a villain. Weak.

True. The devs mentioned "Brotherhood of the Wolves" as inspiration, and completely failed to deliver those vibes.

TW1 reminded me of that movie in some parts.

 

[RNGsus]

I still don't like blood and wine. I decided to go back to a slightly older save last night, because I did enjoy the secondary and witcher quests. Might play more this evening in fact. That main quest though, I can't be bothered.

 

[Ivan]

Odd, is it Regis & Detlaff that isn't doing it for you? Anna?

I'm loving it, almost at the end, the game did the whole (DO OTHER SHIT NOW OR ELSE) prompt

 

[DalekFlay]

I remember a time when I was borderline the worst Codex storyfag. Glad to have my possible supremacy removed.

 

[RNGsus]

What can I say? I don't like vampires. Its less about the story, which wasn't bad, more about the characters this time. Although I went in assuming there would be more cloak and dagger cheese. If I had to narrow it down, its Detlaff.

 

[Carrion]

B&W's main quest has a number of things that annoyed me. For one, it's not a very good fit for an open-world game, or any game with side quests for that matter. At times it reminded me of the worst parts of TW2, where you're just thrown from one scene to another like you were just a spectator in an action movie. It's always fucking infuriating when a game teleports you around the map without asking, and B&W loves doing it. The rest of the expansion has this laid-back, light-hearted adventuring feel to it, but the main quest tries to keep you on a tight leash with the usual fake urgency crap. The story feels kind of disjointed too, like they came up with the quests first and then tried to shoddily connect them to each other using typical video game / detective story clichés like magic potions that require super rare monster parts or that incredibly convenient wine-smeller guy. It's set up like a detective story but it almost never feels like one due to the way it's structured. The dialogue and the characters are for the most part either pretty good or really fucking good, but once again the villains are the weakest ones of the bunch. As for the endgame,

Spoiler

I thought the vampire attack was stupid, and the build-up to it was even more stupid. The story didn't need some epic end-of-the-world scenario to work. However, iit could've been cool if it was handled the right way, like if it only took place if Geralt spent too much time fucking around instead of trying to find Dettlaff. Instead CDPR chose to go for an awkward time jump and forced failure that felt like a kick in the groin.

The main quest does have its moments, but the side quests are the strongest part of B&W for sure.

 

[Ivan]

Wowie, so I just wrapped up Blood and Wine and thus Witcher 3 as a whole. Also, while I agree w/ Carrion that the story went to shit with the introduction of Syanna, I would still maintain that Toussaint is my favorite open world bit of the entire title. Easily one of my top RPGs but it is exhaustingly epic, like finishing a fat Russian novel, or Moby Dick. There was some tedium to put up with, itemization sucks ass, leveled enemies sucks ass, but the world is a joy to marvel at, the music is great, the characters are well realized.

Glad to mark this title as completed.

Now onto something completely different:

Yakuza 0 :D

 

[RNGsus]

Spoiler

I thought the vampire attack was stupid, and the build-up to it was even more stupid. The story didn't need some epic end-of-the-world scenario to work. However, iit could've been cool if it was handled the right way, like if it only took place if Geralt spent too much time fucking around instead of trying to find Dettlaff. Instead CDPR chose to go for an awkward time jump and forced failure that felt like a kick in the groin.

The main quest does have its moments, but the side quests are the strongest part of B&W for sure.

Yeah, that was kinda bullshit, and right about how the story itself plays out. I think if Detlaff wasn't the autistic toy-maker and vampire extraordinaire, but somebody we had to match wits with - like what if Predator was in Beauclair - that would have been enough. Just a few quests would have been enough, the side quests were great. The opposite of HoS in that regard.

If the Wiedzmin stories are anything like HoS, I should actually read them. Not sure where my book that came with twitcher1 went...

 

[Storyfag]

I remember a time when I was borderline the worst Codex storyfag. Glad to have my possible supremacy removed.

Plane tickets, bitch.

 

[Frozen]

Detlaff is just a weak antagonist, no real sinister motivation just cucked by a stupid bitch.
I was hoping they would resurrect Vilgefortz as a vampire, and he trying to use their species for his world domination complex, then you again team up with Jen and Ciri to finish him up for good.
Its not a terrible story as it is just meh.

 

[RNGsus]

Eskel had a better vampire contract. He shared part of it in the bros git drunk 'quest' at kaer morhen. Is that from a short story?

 

[Storyfag]

Eskel had a better vampire contract. He shared part of it in the bros git drunk 'quest' at kaer morhen. Is that from a short story?

Nope. That's entirelly CDPR.

 

[Falksi]

I found Detlaf cool as fuck. Up ther with Roche & Iorveth as a top bro IMO.

 

[Invictus]

Finished all the Witcher books but the last “prequel” one and polished off Witcher 2 on Friday.... I found the game a bit wordly and definitely a departure of the Eastern Europe fantasy setting both of the first game and the first books I read (Last Wish and Sword of Destiny) but I really enjoyed a few of the NPCs and the combat I found it really made me feel like an unstoppable fighting machine

Started Witcher 3 over the weekend and oh man, while I enjoyed the combat more in Witcher 2 almost everything else here is top notch; I literally would start playing and look up and 5 hours would have gone bye
Almost everything about this game is top notch; even the most throw away of sidequests has depth and some thought put into it to make it feel unique and fulfilling.

For all the angsty edgy wannabes who dare to call this the Twitcher and dare to compare it to Bioware crap or even Skyrim... this game is just a pure joy to play and enjoy

Definetly reading the books gave me a lot more enjoyment of the games overall, getting inside jokes and background history for characters and relationships, but as a pure gaming experience this is definitely one of my favorite games of all time

 

[ColCol]

Should I play the Witcher 2 first? Or does it not really matter?

 

[RNGsus]

It doesn't matter, unless you just want more game to play.