The Witcher 3

[lightscamera]

Nah, no DLC for me. I got the games ages ago but just couldn't get going. I then got stuck trying to get past some area and gave up on it for a while. Took about 12 attempts to get past the Shrieker too, but yeah the games brilliant

[SweeperDee]

Nah, no DLC for me. I got the games ages ago but just couldn't get going. I then got stuck trying to get past some area and gave up on it for a while. Took about 12 attempts to get past the Shrieker too, but yeah the games brilliant

For what it’s worth, you could stick the difficulty on “Story Only” (I think that’s the term), which is pretty darn easy but gives you a wee challenge with the bosses. It basically just allows you to progress through the game and focus on the story without the stress of tough enemies.

I’d also recommend getting both DLC’s because they could be 2 stand-alone games in their own right. Easily 200-300 hours worth of gameplay in there.

[lightscamera]

I'll consider the DLC but not changing the difficulty, theres no point if there's not a decent challenge imo. It's just about figuring out the right way to go about each enemy, and remembering to save at decent intervals as "Certain Death" enemies appear at the most random times [emoji19]

[SweeperDee]

I'll consider the DLC but not changing the difficulty, theres no point if there's not a decent challenge imo. It's just about figuring out the right way to go about each enemy, and remembering to save at decent intervals as "Certain Death" enemies appear at the most random times [emoji19]

Dodging is pretty overpowered in the Witcher. Same with Quen; if you max out that ability you’re basically laughing. I went for a mixture of predominantly red and blue mutagens to maximise my damage output to ridiculous levels.

You can make a potion build (green mutagens) which results in you being able to poison yourself with Witcher potions but also become basically invincible. There’s good guides on YouTube if you want to see what different builds there are which could suit your play style.

[forameus]

I'd concentrate on the main quest, then get the DLC once you finish that.  Keeps you focused on the normal game without jumping across questlines.  The way each DLC story is written, I think they're better treated as a separate game.  Hearts of Stone in particular is probably the best single player DLC I've ever played by a significant distance.

[GiGi]

On 20/11/2018 at 08:38, forameus said:

I'd concentrate on the main quest, then get the DLC once you finish that.  Keeps you focused on the normal game without jumping across questlines.  The way each DLC story is written, I think they're better treated as a separate game.  Hearts of Stone in particular is probably the best single player DLC I've ever played by a significant distance.

Yeah it's really good in terms of the story. Blood and Wine is also absolutely fantastic and a beautiful game in itself too. 

When I think top DLC I always remember how magical the Shivering Isles was in ESIV Oblivion. When Bethesda gave a shit. 

[NotThePars]

13 hours ago, GiGi said:

Yeah it's really good in terms of the story. Blood and Wine is also absolutely fantastic and a beautiful game in itself too. 

When I think top DLC I always remember how magical the Shivering Isles was in ESIV Oblivion. When Bethesda gave a shit. 

The best Bethesda DLC usually seems to be made in response to fan critiques aka making the Oblivion game world more interesting in Shivering Isles, adding a post-ending game in Broken Steel and adding more opportunities to play as an evil character in the Nuka World DLC.

[RandomGuy.]

Anyone else come back to play this after watching the show?

Its still glorious.

[Mordecai]

Anyone else come back to play this after watching the show?
Its still glorious.

Done exactly this. In Velen currently. I've stuck it on the highest difficulty setting and been killed by gangs of dogs more times than is acceptable.

[Stellaboz]

Anyone played the first game? Got it free and want to give it a shot.

[Mr Hahn]

On 06/01/2020 at 07:31, RandomGuy. said:

Anyone else come back to play this after watching the show?

Its still glorious.

Done the same and realised I never finished Blood and Wine! Unforgivable really as I loved this game so much. I'm really savouring the last few quests of it now before I start the whole game again.

[Stellaboz]

First one is good fun for an older game.

[RandomGuy.]

On 06/01/2020 at 07:41, Mordecai said:

Done exactly this. In Velen currently. I've stuck it on the highest difficulty setting and been killed by gangs of dogs more times than is acceptable.

I managed to survive until the first fight against the Wild Hunt. Then, when exploring the cave, I fell off a ledge and hit the ground pretty hard....

2 hours ago, Mr Hahn said:

Done the same and realised I never finished Blood and Wine! Unforgivable really as I loved this game so much. I'm really savouring the last few quests of it now before I start the whole game again.

I never even finished the main game   was in Skellige but cant remember where exactly.

New save is up to the witches of crookback bog, tempted to just ditch it and return to my older save. Start of the game can be a bit of a grind.

[forameus]

On 09/01/2020 at 18:45, RandomGuy. said:

I managed to survive until the first fight against the Wild Hunt. Then, when exploring the cave, I fell off a ledge and hit the ground pretty hard....

You can jump down two fucking steps and end up deid in this game.  Fall damage is ludicrous.

On 09/01/2020 at 18:45, RandomGuy. said:

I never even finished the main game   was in Skellige but cant remember where exactly.

New save is up to the witches of crookback bog, tempted to just ditch it and return to my older save. Start of the game can be a bit of a grind.

Yeah, it's a long, long grind.  It's not even as if it's one of those games that sends you out on shitty wee fetch quests to pad the length.  I remember hitting a certain point in the game, fully expect that to be the credits and that's that. And I was happy enough given I'd probably put in 50 hours to that point.  Then you went off to Skellige again and I think it was another 10-20 on top of that.  On the base game.  Then probably another 10-20 on each of the DLC.  It's a fucking enormous time sink.  Glorious though.

[Doctor]

Anyone else come back to play this after watching the show?

Its still glorious.

Its good but it has flaws that were largely overlooked in 2015. Its only really this past month or so that backlash has started on - absolutely no way to avoid sounding like an utter anorak here - more serious games forums.

 

I've been meaning to go back to the DLCs since watching the show but for as fantastic as the writing is, the combat feels less polished than 5 years ago.

 

[Stellaboz]

Only absolute melts would go to a game 5 years old and start criticizing it. Just enjoy it FFS, it's a glorious game and has fantastic writing as you say. 

[forameus]

On 13/01/2020 at 15:16, Doctor said:

Its good but it has flaws that were largely overlooked in 2015. Its only really this past month or so that backlash has started on - absolutely no way to avoid sounding like an utter anorak here - more serious games forums.

I've been meaning to go back to the DLCs since watching the show but for as fantastic as the writing is, the combat feels less polished than 5 years ago.

What bits are they going after out of interest?

I've always quite liked the combat, but having gone back to it on the Switch, you can see now it just devolves into dodge hithithit...dodge...hithithit.  Think it shines in larger battles where you can dodge quite artfully, but I can see it might not appeal to most.  The horse travel has always been fucking w**k.  To be honest, every bit of the actual gameplay is probably done better in other games.

But it's the whole package that is just masterful.  It looks amazing, the world itself is great, and the attention to detail - particularly in the writing - is far, far better than any game I've played.  Even RDR2, which was written terrifically, still didn't have quite the level this did for me.  

[GAD]

2 hours ago, forameus said:

What bits are they going after out of interest?

I've always quite liked the combat, but having gone back to it on the Switch, you can see now it just devolves into dodge hithithit...dodge...hithithit.  Think it shines in larger battles where you can dodge quite artfully, but I can see it might not appeal to most.  The horse travel has always been fucking w**k.  To be honest, every bit of the actual gameplay is probably done better in other games.

But it's the whole package that is just masterful.  It looks amazing, the world itself is great, and the attention to detail - particularly in the writing - is far, far better than any game I've played.  Even RDR2, which was written terrifically, still didn't have quite the level this did for me.  

Again, at the risk of sounding like a nerd, the fighting only really works the way it's meant to at the highest level, in my opinion anyway. At that level you have to use the spells, oils, etc or else you are in trouble and every fight is dangerous. In my first play through, at the normal level, I barely used potions and bombs and all that, every fight was more or less as you said. 

[Stellaboz]

2 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

The music and the sound in general is what elevates it in my opinion.

This doesn't just apply to games but films and TV as well, but soundtrack and general sound has become a huge thing for me to enjoy a  game. Set the atmosphere right and half the battle is done. 

 

[ALJAGS76]

12 hours ago, forameus said:

The horse travel has always been fucking w**k.  

I've not went near my horse unless a quest actually places me on it.

I don't think the game has aged badly at all, I'm 80hrs in on the isle of mists and loving it.