Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

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Irish Iron
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Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Irish Iron »

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy this is goooooooddddd!

Shockingly hard even on the easy levels. So many throw something across the room in fury moments as the oh so familiar ‘you ****ed up and now are dead’ screen pops up. I’ve shut the game down so many times swearing its too bloody difficult to be taken seriously, only to start back playing it 5 minutes later.

Huge world to explore and the graphics are lush. Storyline is riveting and voice acting superb, as you would expect from a flagship game such as this.

Your guys’ beard actually ****ing grows as you play! Didn’t notice it at first until he had a shave, then a couple of ingame days later I was ‘**** dude, you need a shave again!’ Except you are nowhere near anywhere to shave, so he is happily growing a badass beard as we play.

RPG at its finest.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Faubert's Boot »

I really can't wait to be able to afford this, gonna be a while though! The map is 3.5 times the size of Skyrim, absolutely insane.

Just a couple of questions Irish,

Looking at the map there's just 4 towns/cities or something? Are they big or is there more? Remember Skyrim having more than that.

When going through the wilderness, how alive is the world? Is there people walking about, enemies and animals?

Cheers
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Irish Iron
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Irish Iron »

Faubert's Boot wrote:I really can't wait to be able to afford this, gonna be a while though! The map is 3.5 times the size of Skyrim, absolutely insane.

Just a couple of questions Irish,

Looking at the map there's just 4 towns/cities or something? Are they big or is there more? Remember Skyrim having more than that.

When going through the wilderness, how alive is the world? Is there people walking about, enemies and animals?

Cheers
I have just started and only just left the starter area so I can't say for sure, but so far it 'feels' enormous. I suspect as well that a lot of blank areas on the world map are to incorporate future DLC's (or not) depending on demand.

The mob population so far, feels just about right. I'm not tripping over random encounter after random encounter so I can take the time to soak up the sights (of which there are loads) but populated enough that I'm not searching around for the next fight when I'm done rubber-necking.

The starter area for example, is a land that two armies have just finished fighting over, so some of the scenery is pretty grim, but fascinating in its gory attention to detail, while just over a hill a beautiful untouched vista awaits. The same with hamlets you visit, those touched by the war have a lot more down-beaten inhabitants as one would expect while, those villages that escaped the fighting appear more upbeat and carefree.

Some tweaking is needed though; I came to a part of the map where the ground was just littered with rabbit corpses which I suspect was that the spawn rate of little critters wasn't properly matched to the predation in the area.

Other bugs and this one is a big one, is freezing going into your inventory which requires a hard reboot of your machine, hitting both xBox and PC versions and losing any progress past the last save. I'm sure they'll patch it soon though. There are a few workarounds online about it, I've tried a few and one of them seems to be working for me so far.

It strikes me as a lot harsher world than Skyrim as well. Seeing a woman bawling her eyes out, outside her burnt out home is quite shocking in a game, they are clearly going for the realism of war angle, whereas everyone in Skyrim seemed to have a studied indifference to the revolution and assorted monsters that inhabited their world.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Faubert's Boot »

Thanks Irish, great stuff :thup:
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Beavis Danzig »

top of my "when i get a new graphics card" shopping this.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by westhamgardner »

Put about 10-15 hours into this now as I am off work sick.

Good game, absolutely massive maps and pretty difficult even on the easier difficulty settings. The storyline depth and detail of the landscape is incredible and it is very addictive.

My only gripe is the movement controls and the horse should be better, they aren't appalling but not as crisp as most modern games.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Irish Iron »

Beavis Danzig wrote:top of my "when i get a new graphics card" shopping this.
If you buy a new Asus GTX 900 series card you get the game free. Two birds......?
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Irish Iron »

Some early do's and don't's:

Re the game breaking bug I mentioned before, hard freezing in inventory, it seems most people find relief changing either between borderless windowed and fullscreen or even visa versa. But clearly this is only a PC workaround and since I tried it I have frozen since, although less often.

There are more code centric patches available online but try at your own risk. There has to be a patch soon though.

Crafting: f*** me, will anyone ever get this right? You spend so much time early game collecting **** you have no idea if it is useful or not and are too scared to junk just in case. This game also has a 'weight limit' as well, as unrealistic as those are in RPG's, despite the fact that a wolf just dropped a sword, where the f*** did he hide that?

However, you only have to learn a potion, bomb, oil etc once and you regen them automatically during meditation along with your health etc. And early perks and buys mean that you shouldn't hit your weight limit too often.

So, sell everything you have above 10.

Additionally you pick any recipes up as you go along. I have loads of 20+ level recipes already that I'm no where near using, but at least I know what to look out for.

Fast travel: I know, I know, you are a Skyrim vet and you want to hard slog through the whole map on foot even if that means trashing your inventory every couple of miles. Forget it. 3 reasons.
1) you will need the money, so sell everything. Your repecs cost 1,000 crowns and you will want to respec
2) everything degrades over time and use, and while you can take on a mob 5 levels above you if your gear is tip top, if everything is broken, even the rats will kill you. So you will want to know where you friendly blacksmith is and use him. Plus using him will improve his skills so he will eventually be able to make a weapon he couldn't before.
3) The next mob on the map might be 20 levels above you. Yes, maps are not level specific and I think that is a good thing. Even though I'm an ass-stomping Witcher, even at early levels I have a feel of invincibility about me, but I have to still look around corners.

Combat: It is hard.

You can't set the game at easy mode and one-click your way through it, I know I tried. Geralt, your beardy hero is a trained assassin/warrior/mage combo and he wants you to use all his skills. So use them. It is a bit clunky for a 4.1 gen game, but that is Witcher for you. But, and this is crucial, when you master the attack, parry, dodge combo's required to turn your Geralt from a fumbling, self-stabbing, facing the wrong way buffon, into a pirouetting master with eviscerating killing blows, the game comes alive.

Shag everything: Some of the best comedic moments are between the sheets........ Plus you don't have to commit.

Horses and boats are not just for your convenience, they do open up parts of the map you wouldn't see by yourself, so use them.

Conversely, I have yet to discover a dungeon on horseback or boat.

Dan a ran-aran a dan dan
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by chalks »

Huge lover of the Skyrim type of game, so grabbed this today with a view to playing through the night

Got friends round for dinner but going to f*** them off early :thup:
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Whitters »

I do wonder why any game maker thinks crafting is anything other than an incredibly tedious exercise. Really put me off WoW when it was introduced and similarly on other games of a similar ilk I've tried.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by knock-knock »

Really enjoyed this so far which surprised me

Not usually my sort of game, there's a little bit too much going on at once for my liking in this but i enjoy the boss fights they are INSANELY difficult! I am being well 'ard and playing on top difficulty though... Ive died something like 123 times now :lol:

Not into all the crafting and gathering materials unless its very very basic which is why i avoid games like this but like i said, enjoying it so far...

Between this, Destiny and Project cars im pretty set for the next two months at least
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by MB »

Got a digital version for free when I bought my Xbox One. Just got to wait for my broadband limit to reset on 1 June so I can download it!

May be the game to finally pull me away from Destiny.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by chalks »

been playing it a lot over the weekend, but it still hasnt quite grabbed me

hoping it will
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by chalks »

starting to get irritated by the lengthy cut scenes that seem to be every other minute
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Up the Junction »

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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by Irish Iron »

Well its a begrudging, almost positive hand waggle from Mr Yahtzee which pretty much makes it game of the century so far.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... unt-Review" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by k-r-c »

I finally tried this last night. Not for me to be honest.

Will be taking its way to CEX for a trade in.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by essexguy »

As a massive fan of the original on the PC, I am absolutely loving this game on the ps4.

So much nostalgia as a lot of the old characters from the original pop up.

I've played about 20 hours but I'm probably about 5 hours into the story line as I'm obsessed with doing the side quests and hunting down those question marks.

The combat is fantastic once you get used to the controls, and I love some of the animations like when you slice people in half or chop off their heads.

My only criticism is when you are running around the maps either on foot or on horseback, always getting stuck and bumping into things. And its annoying when you are on your horse in full flight and the horse then just stops for no reason. There could be more fluidity around how Geralt moves around, but that is just something very very minor.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by claret parrot »

I loved Skyrim despite the glitches but this is boring the arse off me.
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Re: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

Post by MB »

claret parrot wrote:I loved Skyrim despite the glitches but this is boring the arse off me.
It lacks the instant impact of Skyrim and the cut scenes pissed me off at first.

I also need to invest some time in the combat as struggling with it. Think I'm being too aggressive.

Will give it a few more hours before passing judgement.
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