The Witcher series

[Panda Tar]

I'm having a hard time LIKING the battle system of W1 - Director's Cut Blah, blah. Given that I'm starting the series yet, I bought the first one really cheap and I am trying. But the battle system is soooooooooooooooooooooooo ... bizarre. Stopped playing before the first hour.

[Kalah]

I'd encourage you to keep going. All the games are frustrating until you learn the controls, but W1 especially is great once you've mastered it. Customize the controls if need be.

I'm in Skellige, and this land is clearly inspired by (nay, taken straight from) Norwegian viking culture. Everything from funeral proceedings to boats to nature. Oh and I discovered that when you climb a hill that is too steep, you slide back down. Guess what I did when I found a snow-covered hill? Who knew Geralt invented the downhill skiing!

[Kalah]

As I said, "Skellige" = Norway. Here's some nature.

[Panda Tar]

It'll take a while until I get back to it. ^^ But only the battle system was a bit unnerving. And I was only testing the game, seeing if it was working.

[Kalah]

Check it out. No skis, but I did slide all the way down the mountain, slalom turns and all. Wheeee!

[Pol]

Game in game, and this is the reason why we love to play!

[Kalah]

Yeah they have really made it big this time, not just with "dice poker" but a whole game in itself. When playing Gwent, I thought it a bit silly at first, but there are dozens of subquests related to the game and then it can actually be quite good fun, giving me a break from all that monster killing.

[Kalah]

Sometimes I'm annoyed with the length of the cutscenes, but just now there was one that was excellent. I've been running all around the world looking for Ciri, and then I find a hut on the Isle of Mists, with some dwarves inside. When they open the door, they regret to inform me that sadly, the woman inside is cold and doesn't breathe. The cutscene then proceedsslowly, with gentle music. Great visuals, not rushing it but taking one small step at a time: Geralt opening the door, Geralt looking inside, bits by bits the room is revealed, Geralt walking inside etc... A really moving scene.

[Kalah]

Just finished the game and apart for some unexpected crashes during cutscenes throughout (don't know why), I gotta say W3 really is a great game. I've spent weeks on it, and just like I did with Baldur's Gate back in the day I'm kinda sorry it's over, but also a bit relieved that I can now spend my time on other things. This really was a time-drainer.

If you're looking to play W3, I suggest using guides to get an inkling of which paths to take, as there are some choices you can make in the game. For instance, there are several possible endings, all as consequences of your choices.

I got the best ending. Really happy with that.

Oh and this is how I ended up equipment-wise; I went for the "Griffin school" and this is the highest upgrade you can have: the Mastercrafted. It's a bit blingy, to be honest; witchers don't really care about bling, only quality. But other than that, pretty cool.

[Kalah]

OK, last one. This is the mountain I snowsurfed down.

[Kalah]

Currently enjoying the Blood and Wine expansion's story. While the Skellige isles are clearly inspired by Old Norse viking culture, the duchy of Toussant is drawing upon a Mediterranean French vibe. The architecture and open plazas, the vineyards (one of which is my own property), it's all very lovely.

[overall]

i skipped this whole witcher series somehow i didn't found this game very interesting... although it has got lots of prices and praises...
and Baginski did some neat trailers on it... i'm more waiting for this Polish companys Cyberpunk 2077 how ever its gonna turn out...

[Anonymous]

Just finished the expansions, leaving me at level 54 and I'm now so overpowered that even the mighty archgriffin in Skellige was done for in 10 seconds.

Oh and did I mention I really like the scene where Geralt finally finds Ciri? It's great to see that emotionless brute almost breaking down completely when he thinks she's dead.

The Blood and wine expansion is pretty big. You get character developments, looots of quests, awesome weapons and armour, and your own vineyard. Totally worth buying. The boss fight in it is the hardest fight in the game, hands down.

[Panda Tar]

Got the Complete Edition two days ago. I have played around 3h. I'm playing from bits to bits to absorb information. Managed killing the wraith after some walking around, trying to get over the ludicrous amount of details upon crafting. Killed by kappas, or whatever their name is. Also mistook my gold amount for the shopper's ...

Anyway, it's getting interesting. I have more love for some NPCs in minutes than 99% of Mass Effect Andromeda's NPCs after 130 hours playing. That tells much about writing.

[Panda Tar]

The more I play it, the more it looks like Bioware tried to copy and paste some mechanics used in this game directly in Mass Effect Andromeda, without important bits of consideration: big mistake.

Anyway, having fun finding 'lost' stuff every now and then, making deconcoctions, pondering on skills, etc. One thing I'm not really having the great time of my life is the crafting. I'm not sure if it's my fault that I ended up first getting at Navingard almost at level 16, most of the things I'm finding to craft are either outdated or not ... really good? I only crafted 2 equipment that I really used, one was a lv 2 steel sword and then some gloves.

There was this minor problem, I think, after I ran into a pack of wolves, I was at lv 12, and they were 22, so it was really bothersome killing only 1. It happened that 4 of them started chasing me ... forever. I was in the middle of a conversation, doing another quest, then they suddenly popped up in the middle of the camp, something like VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY far from where I found them. Luckily, the folk I was talking to were armed, and they helped distracting the wolves, while remaining immune to the beasts attack. So I could quen myself and igni them to death. Talk of a slow ... dull ... pointless work about it. Not even a decent amount of XP to get a chunk of raw meat.

[Panda Tar]

After almost cleaning all Vellen from "?", just leaving those on the northeast related to the Expansion beyond ... Oxfurt? Forgot the name. Level 22, actually, and only now I went to Skellige! HOHO SHould have gone before, because I'm finding crafting stuff I should have found ages ago and they are now outdated. Oh, well, that happens. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Skellige is beautiful. And there are songs with traditional tunes we also have in HoMM4 alright. Nice.

I'm playing the nice-guy-Geralt right now. Completely loyal to Yennifer (hopes it pays off!), said goodbye to Triss (aaaawwwwnnnn ), had some fun watching Geralt talking to sheeps and goats, helping the poor, getting cards (gimma cards!) and dying stupidly every now and then. Not to mention some bugs with Roach and the skiing motion. There was this time I was getting out of the Novingrad sewers and had this 10 inch inclination on the doorway. Somehow, Geralt got stuck in a skiing posture on that inclination and I had to reload because he found it made sense getting stuck in the air like that. Some strange stuff seems unchecked every now and then, but I'm very pleased with the game, paying less than the half I spend on MEA for the complete edition even, surely worth it.

[parcaleste]

Won't spoil you anything, but the best thing in the line of storytelling in the game for later is if you hit and try to be with Triss AND Yen at the same time.

The second game I discovered that Yen is annoying me to tears and kick her ar$e out of the equation.

Currently I am playing the Gwent Open Beta - it's free, if you want to check it out. But way different now than the in game game.

[Banedon]

^I played some Gwent, it has lots of strengths. From a game design standpoint I like it over every other CCG except possibly Magic. But it also has lots of problems. Some of the more major ones:

1) Some cards make mulligan decisions completely pointless because you always mulligan them (e.g. two thirds of the Veskel / Lambert / Eskel combo).
2) Some cards are so much more powerful than others that you always want to mulligan into them (gold > silver > bronze).
3) Most importantly, there's no play mode with rewards except against other humans. Since new players have fewer cards, they tend to get crushed, which is not fun. Games like Hearthstone have an arena where everyone is on an equal footing, games like Magic Duels have an AI grind for cards, Gwent has nothing.

#3 is killing the game for me. I quit some time ago, recently tried to play again, but quit after a few games because of it.

[Panda Tar]

I'm still playing the first walkthrough, stopped when playing the Blood and Wine. Most likely because I had other things to do and also because I was a bit tired of Open World games, after playing, and regretting, MEA and playing W3 in a row. So, I'm giving it a little to room to resume playing and then finishing the game.

Bought W2 too, so my next try will be playing 2, then 3.

[Kalah]

I've started Witcher 1 again, I'm about 3/4 through it now. Then doing the second one, then another round at number 3. Think I can get them all done over the summer?