Re: Witcher 3-Part 3 ( Expansion Edition)

by Arquitecto Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:34 pm

So glad you enjoyed it McLewis.

B&W was not vintage Witcher in its dark layered theme but was not meant to be either but a swansong to Geralt's trilogy.

And I cannot express how memorable it all was from the culture to atmosphere to the music. All of it.

by Arquitecto Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:35 pm

Myesyats wrote:Boths dlcs are perfect in their own way, Toussaint is perfectly colorful and vibrant and Hearts of Stone is perfectly dark, gothic, grotesque and mysterious. They're great in opposition to each other.

This game was so good I lost interest in gaming pretty much altogether. It's a weird thing.

I've yet to play a video game since TW3 to the DLCs. And it has been a Year.

not that I don't have more games on my list but it leaves you so satisfied you simply don't feel like exploring anything else.

by Lucifer Tue Apr 14, 2020 4:42 pm

Order of Flaming Rose quest ffs. Took down entire order :bow:

The boss Ulrich tried to impress Geralt with huge speech," we are this, "we are that". Geralt in his famous dead tone "to me you're just bandits" rofl

. All hail King Geralt the king of swag and badassery. Molenation

by McLewis Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:35 pm

Probably my favorite thing about the Witcher has been the dialogue choices given for Geralt. Gives us a range of possibilities, more than I've experienced with other games who have this feature. I think what makes it particularly good is that Geralt can still be exactly the character the other NPCs see him as, even if we make him say something that would normally be considered out of character or straight up ridiculous. Brilliant stuff from CDPR.

by McLewis Tue Apr 14, 2020 7:45 pm

Arquitecto wrote:So glad you enjoyed it McLewis.

B&W was not vintage Witcher in its dark layered theme but was not meant to be either but a swansong to Geralt's trilogy.

And I cannot express how memorable it all was from the culture to atmosphere to the music. All of it.

As a history nerd, this game scratched some historical itches that I've only ever had with the Assassin's Creed games. The Witcher world is clearly fictional, but one exercise I've found myself constantly doing while I played through the quests was reconciling and recognizing references in the game that tie back to actual history. Using Toussaint as an example, to me it resembles most closely medieval/Renaissance French duchies like Burgundy, Toulouse, Boulogne and others who were often so powerful that they rivaled the power of the monarchy itself. They were often entirely autocratic and did not rely on other states, much in the way Anna Henrietta's Toussaint was as well. Just fascinating stuff.

The Order of the Flaming Rose was a pretty noticeable callback to militaristic orders like the Knights Templar in the way it was organized and the zealotry on display since these Orders often were this way with non-Christians (mainly Muslims) as well.

by Myesyats Tue Apr 14, 2020 8:56 pm

This game was even more of a treat for me because there was a Polish reference at every corner. From the music, to the monsters (water hag- baba yaga, leshen - traditional polish fairy tales), to Olgierd von Everec (inspired by one of the most famous novels about our war with Sweden in 1660s (the swedish flood we call it) and also ukrainian cossacks), the Bronovitz wedding (another novel, mandatory reading in high school), traditional polish noblemen outfits (especially Olgierd), the Gaunter o'Dim story derived from another novel I read in school, Novigrad being based on Gdańsk (especially the coastline, a city I love and admire), the "Tower of mice" quest probably one of the earliest stories in polish history (leader eaten by mice locked in a tower), the reoccuring "face me if you dare" quest, the summoning of the dead stuff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziady)

This was like all my history/polish lessons crammed into one beautiful game.

by McLewis Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:23 pm

Myesyats wrote:This game was even more of a treat for me because there was a Polish reference at every corner. From the music, to the monsters (water hag- baba yaga, leshen - traditional polish fairy tales), to Olgierd von Everec (inspired by one of the most famous novels about our war with Sweden in 1660s (the swedish flood we call it) and also ukrainian cossacks), the Bronovitz wedding (another novel, mandatory reading in high school), traditional polish noblemen outfits (especially Olgierd), the Gaunter o'Dim story derived from another novel I read in school, Novigrad being based on Gdańsk (especially the coastline, a city I love and admire), the "Tower of mice" quest probably one of the earliest stories in polish history (leader eaten by mice locked in a tower), the reoccuring "face me if you dare" quest, the summoning of the dead stuff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dziady)

This was like all my history/polish lessons crammed into one beautiful game.

Which is great because I am looking for podcasts on the history of the central and eastern European countries like Poland. I have China currently, but will return to Europe next.

by Firenze Mon May 25, 2020 12:40 am

I'm currently balls deep into B&W, should finish it by Tuesday, only really started making progress with the main story in it today, mostly cleared up tons of side quests and what not, just like I did in the original game.

Anyway, only took a global pandemic for me to finally get to it. Still the GOAT game. Sucks to think any return to the verse will likely be end of next gen earliest. I'm not nearly as interested in Cyberpunk, love the Witcher setting.

graphics aren't bad, something like RDR2 is way better graphically (well, it is almost 4 years younger) but that game also never gave me the same stop and appreciate the view moment that the witcher gives me consistently. Colours in Toussaint are lovely.

by M99 Mon May 25, 2020 12:48 am

Historic day in GL

Firenze wrote:
Gonna start Blood & Wine any day now

Been reading this since 2016. Four years in the making.

This can only be topped by idrisozet returning from his 10 year ban (2 years left).

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Mon May 25, 2020 1:19 am

What a moment.

GLs version of the streak ending.

by Firenze Tue May 26, 2020 10:45 pm

and thus concludes the final chapter to the greatest game of all time

curious what can be changed in those last couple of hours, wild ride

since I was playing from a new save file, Dandelion showed up for me at the vineyard in the epilogue, I imagine it would have been Ciri/Yenn/Triss based on vanilla game choices, which would have been a lot better

I also fucked up pretty much every side quest in the game somehow, most left me with a bitter outcome

but I always roll with my choices in these games, no fun if you just reload

by Firenze Tue May 26, 2020 10:56 pm

someone just told me I pretty much did a renegade run with all of my outcomes ffs

tried to do the right thing

by Thimmy Wed May 27, 2020 12:04 am

For a moment there, I thought you were quoting «Somebody Told Me» by the Killers Razz

I know I got at least one negative outcome in B&W, but I’m pretty sure most of them were positive. I didn’t put much thought into my choices, I just went with the flow or impulsively picked a choice I wouldn’t normally make. I’ll definitely replay the Witcher 3 at some point. I imagine there will be an upscaled/remade version by the time they decide to release the next game in the series.

by M99 Wed May 27, 2020 12:17 am

Firenze wrote:someone just told me I pretty much did a renegade run with all of my outcomes ffs

tried to do the right thing

Did you do the Unseen Elder or fairy tale land route?

by Firenze Wed May 27, 2020 12:23 am

I think I'll maybe play TW3 on Switch eventually lol. Sure it's not on par quality wise but the ability to play anywhere is goat.

I did fairy tale route and

Spoiler:

Almost all of the side quests I did I messed up too lmao. Most had unsatisfying conclusions for me, complete opposite of my OG playthrough.

Anyway, Y0, Automata and B&W within a month, shades of 2017 quality wise (funny considering 2 of these games were from that period too) :bow:

by Pedram Wed May 27, 2020 4:27 am

Firenze wrote:I think I'll maybe play TW3 on Switch eventually lol. Sure it's not on par quality wise but the ability to play anywhere is goat.

I did fairy tale route and

Spoiler:

Almost all of the side quests I did I messed up too lmao. Most had unsatisfying conclusions for me, complete opposite of my OG playthrough.

Anyway, Y0, Automata and B&W within a month, shades of 2017 quality wise (funny considering 2 of these games were from that period too)

Lmao you got the mother of all bad endings, I couldn't pull this out if I intentionally tried.

What happened to Guillaume? don't tell me you failed him too

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Wed May 27, 2020 12:46 pm

I have done Firenze ending but i have played Blood and Wine like 5 times lol.

by RealGunner Wed May 27, 2020 1:17 pm

Pretty sure I had Firenze's ending too but i also played it 3 times at least.

I don't think the ending was achieved via picking the worst options. The options from what I remember were actually justifiable.

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Wed May 27, 2020 4:05 pm

Well that's Witcher in a nutshell, even the so called bad decisions usually has merit to them in some way.

by Pedram Wed May 27, 2020 4:49 pm

I mean the game makes it pretty obvious what choices leads to bad endings, you either have to be extremely negligent or intentionally pick them.

I got the best ending (saving both Syanna and Anarietta) on my first BoW playthrough, i think i got that Firenze ending on my third or fourth tries so that was actually harder. Laughing

by Firenze Wed May 27, 2020 5:36 pm

Pedram wrote:
What happened to Guillaume? don't tell me you failed him too

'you've earned your reward, witcher, but you can keep your advice to yourself' and then he stormed off so

Laughing

by Pedram Wed May 27, 2020 5:43 pm

Firenze wrote:
Pedram wrote:
What happened to Guillaume? don't tell me you failed him too

'you've earned your reward, witcher, but you can keep your advice to yourself' and then he stormed off so

You can actually see him being drunk in the city square after finishing the main quest, one of the few times where i think the bad ending was better. Laughing

by rincon Wed Jun 24, 2020 2:10 pm

Beat the Witcher 2 after a FF7R-sized break from my Witcher playthroughs.

Best WRPG I've ever played.

First, W2 enhanced edition on PC on ultra, played on a TV, incredibly beautiful game. It looks like a new-ish game in terms of details, but then even more beautiful in terms of art style.

The jump from W1 to W2 is shocking. The graphics feel like 2 generations apart, the gameplay is a whole different level of fluidity. Most importantly, the story is executed 10 times better. W1 had so many bugs that detracted from the experience, and the story suffered for it. It felt like a mod of NWN2 in every aspect. Only the worldbuilding, story, and dialogue really pulled through in W1. In W2 everything is GOAT.

This game had the exact balance between linearity and freedom that works for me. The narrative was the best in a WRPG I've played by a long distance. Very cinematic. The dialogue is some of the best in gaming, and most importantly this handles the choices in maybe the best way I've experienced in a game.

Most choices were hard in W1 and 2, and this one takes the consequences to the next level, with the whole middle of the game being different depending on your choices. Chapter 3 and the ending also change quite drastically from what I could tell.

In the end I felt that I did my best to be as fair as possible, yet everything went to hell. Very unique feeling in a game. In W1 you get the same feeling going into the final chapter when, no matter how hard you try, war breaks out in Vizima and everything burns. Yet there is a final resolution and you actually "win". Meanwhile in W2 it ended with everything fucked. The only respite was Geralt's personal growth and recovery of his memories by the end of it.

I played the game on Hard from the get go and it probably doubled my playing time. Worth it, Souls level difficulty made for very cool fights and planning of builds and stuff. Ended up with an Alchemy build that made me overpowered by the end if I was poisoned, but otherwise underpowered if I was clean.

Also Roche is a GOAT character. Can't imagine not choosing his path in Chapter 1.

by Thimmy Wed Jun 24, 2020 2:36 pm

I never finished The Witcher 2, but I’ll definitely get to it in the not so distant future.

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Wed Jun 24, 2020 3:31 pm

Without spoiling too much, the reason some pick the Iorveth path is because honestly the content within it is more interesting.

Roche is great though, i wholeheartedly agree.

by rincon Wed Jun 24, 2020 4:19 pm

Roche/Iorveth:

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