The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[Stark]

Anybody start this up yet? I'm playing on XB1 and I played about an hour last night and didn't get out of the inn, because I started playing Gwent.

[Westane]

Anybody start this up yet? I'm playing on XB1 and I played about an hour last night and didn't get out of the inn, because I started playing Gwent.

Sort of the same.

I'm also on XB1 and, did you notice that opening cutscene running a bit choppy? Could have just been my eyes.

Got to the inn, played a round of Gwent and started talking to people, then had to quit because my KIDS JUST WONT @#$%ING SLEEP WHY WON'T YOU SLEEP DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW AMAZING SLEEP IS JESUS CHRIST JUST GO THE @#$% TO SLEEP!

And... uh... yeah... Hoping to play more tonight. This is my first Witcher game and so far I'm finding it pretty interesting!

[Stark]

Yeah the opening intro is super choppy. It was apparently because of the Day 1 patch. Hope it was worth whatever it fixed, because that sucked.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... -one-patch

[MrPopo]

I played a few hours last night on my PC. It took me longer than I would have liked to find where the download was for the Polish voice pack (I like things in their original voice languages with subtitles). I ended up doing a few early sidequests and discovered some stuff on the map. Now I want to find some saltpeter to build some bombs to destroy nests and do some exploration to get some money and see if I can find any other quests before I advance the main plot.

[s1mplehumar]

I'll wait for the Enhanced Version. That and DirectX 12.

[MrPopo]

Well, I've started the main plot (past the prologue) and I'm getting a handle on how leveling works. There's a really interesting thing they're doing where you have a section you put points in, but each skill you put points in also needs to be equipped. It seems that you can have a max of 12 skills equipped and you unlock equip slots as you level up. There are also four slots to equip mutagens to. Finally, mutagens have a color and your skills have a color; matching them will give you a bonus. This definitely emphasizes specialization, rather than going for a bunch of one-point wonders.

They've also changed how the alchemy works again. Now instead of crafting 10x Swallow potions you craft a single potion once. That will give you three charges, and you can only refill the charges when you meditate at the cost of some alcohol. The same applies to your bombs. It seems the Witcher potions are now in-combat consumables and they give you toxicity, and toxicity also reduces over time. So it's no longer a knapsack problem of what buffs you want, instead it's a brake to keep you from stacking too many buffs too fast. The Thunderbolt potion, which increases damage, only lasts 30 seconds, so it seems it's more intended for picking the right moment for it.

[s1mplehumar]

Patch incoming and this.

Sounds encouraging.

[MrPopo]

So I'm 8 hours in and I feel like I've barely started things off. Like, I've done some of the main quests but it feels like I'm just scratching the surface of the initial "find your target", and I can tell that once I find my target there's going to be some real shit going down. Based on the required levels of some of the schematics I have the max level is at least 30, and probably higher, unless the game is feeling like giving me end game schematics at the beginning. It seems like the quoted times in the 70-100 hour range are probably correct.

Which means I am going to need to focus on this game. I think if I focus on it I'll be able to finish by the end of the month, just in time for preregistration for the Four Job Fiesta. I can't remember how long between preregistration start and the start of the Fiesta, but I think it's in the realm of several days, so that's an available buffer. So I think I can make this work.

[MrEco]

Welp, my patience has finally worn out. I wanted to wait until both the expansions were out for this game before playing it, so I could do it as one big complete package. I'd also hoped to read some more of the books in that time and get a better basis for the story. But I couldn't help myself. Been playing too much Fallout 4 lately, needed a strong dark fantasy setting to comfort me after the disappointment.

I just finished the prologue in White Orchard today and did a couple quests in Velen. I'm loving the game so far. It's too early to say for certain, but I feel like this is gonna be easily better than the Witcher 2. That's a very good thing to me, because 2 was a great game but had a few minor issues that got very annoying after a while, and made me like the original a lot more. 3 seems to be completely devoid of those issues.

Two things that stick out in my mind so far. First of all is a minor detractor. I don't like how quickly potion effects fade away. 30 seconds on average and (if I'm not mistaken) that get's roughly doubled if you take all of the alchemy talents. Complete waste in my opinion. I liked in the Witcher 1 when potions lasted several in-game hours. Made them feel more like something you plan ahead of time to use, and if memory serves correct they had more minor effects to balance out how long they lasted. Now they're very short buffs meant for use in the heat of battle. It makes the entire feeling of how potions work far less interesting to me, and it also add's stress to an already difficult combat system. I've got enough else to think of without having to put on my buffs at just the right moment to maximize their effectiveness, and then try to be extra aggressive in battle to make sure I don't waste there effects (at least for thunderbolt and the like). Considering installing a mod to extend potion length, but I worry that might make the alchemy tree a little less important?

Other thing that really stands out to me is just how great the combat is. I can't say it's perfect, especially with how early in the game I am, but everything feels right so far. Except for the potions... but everything else is great. Different enemies seem to have different fighting tactics (nekker's are very aggressive and head-on, ghouls seem to circle around you a lot, etc). I love that there are two different dodges, and they each serve a different yet similar purpose. Haven't found much use for the crossbow yet, but at least it looks cool. Also I find myself actually switching up signs a lot more in this game. I almost never used signs at all in the Witcher 1, except for some special fights where it was practically necessary. In Witcher 2 I only ever used Quen. In this I switch back and forth between all five of them depending on the enemy, though Axi definitely get's the least use.

If I had to pinpoint one thing that sorta confuses me though, it would be Geralts attack "length." Maybe someone can clear up what I'm missing here. But sometimes when locked onto an enemy and I attack, Geralt will leap a few feet forward while swinging to close the distance between him and the enemy. Sometimes he doesn't though. Is there a special condition that determines when he'll automatically close the distance that I'm missing?

[Stark]

Not sure about the attack length thing, that's odd. The crossbow is best served using it for what it is in the first battle to get you out of the first area: get a flying creature out of the air and somewhere you can hit it. You'll use it with griffins, basilisks, and other dragon-like creatures.