Witcher 3

[villarule123]

19 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Gwent is **** brilliant

The whole **** game is.

[Stevo985]

12 hours ago, villarule123 said:

The whole **** game is.

Well yes, quite.

But Gwent is an entire game in itself. It's brilliant.

Funnily enough I couldn't get into the stand alone game they released. But I loved the simpler version in the Witcher

[The_Rev]

I've been playing this since the next gen patch having never touched it before (always meant to but for some reason I never did pick it up) and I've probably put 110 hours into the game as I type this.  Finished the main story and am a fair way into Hearts of Stone.  I've got lots of thoughts on the game, it's definitely one of the best I've ever played which is mostly because the characters and writing are so good but I've never really got into Gwent.  I probably don't need the time sink as the main game is taking up way more than I expected it too, but beyond a bunch of achievements am I really missing anything by not engaging with it?  I had my fill of deck builders with Hearthstone. 
 

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by The_Rev

[hogso]

26 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

I've never really got into Gwent.  I probably don't need the time sink as the main game is taking up way more than I expected it too, but beyond a bunch of achievements am I really missing anything by not engaging with it? 

In real terms, there's the XP gain from various related quests, there's a significant amount of gold from the tournament in Novigrad, and there's a unique sword plus a separate unique reward (which I won't say any more about as I'm assuming you haven't started Blood & Wine) from the Toussaint tournament.

The Toussaint tournament presents some really fun moments in its story too, which revolves around a rich bloke and his brother inventing a new deck and trying it pass it off as a legitimate alternative to the established decks by having it win the tournament...but the Gwent purists aren't having any of it. There's a line of incidental dialogue that goes something like "What next, a rocket polishers of Novigrad deck?". I think it's so funny because it's so true to real life, and changes to made to established games to try and inject some life into them. 

You may not be bothered about any of those things though, especially if you clear all the Skellige markers as gold shouldn't be an issue then, and the sword isn't amazing. 

Probably the biggest thing you're missing out on is the happy little face NPCs make when you ask them to play.

[The_Rev]

I've not found gold or XP to be hard to come by at all.   The game seems to be quite aggressive in throttling XP at points, I did an absolute shedload of the sidequests in the main game and came into Hearts of Stone at something like level 38 and I'm now 41 so it's giving me trivial amounts of XP (50 or so) per quest when I'd have probably been getting 500-1000 if I'd done it at level 32.  I dare say the same will happen in Blood and Wine when I make it down to Toussaint.   I've had the box ticked which keeps NPCs levelled up with Geralt since I got to about level 20 so every monster nest or bandit camp I clear out usually gives me loot worth 500-1000 crowns.  I've dumped a load of it in at the runesmith and I know I'll need a ton more for Grandmaster level Witcher Gear but it feels so easy to be on top of that stuff unless you are only interested in mainlining the critical path that I'll probably reach a point where I've got more money than I know what to do with.  I dare say the prices of the runes and Grandmaster gear in the DLC are an admission from the devs that players needed something to dump their money into. 

[Chindie]

Gwent is shite. Thankfully you can ignore it.

[The_Rev]

Completed the main quest, bloody loved it. Completed Hearts of Stone which I thought was even better (your frenemy von Everec totally reminded me of Finchy from ‘The Office’) and now Geralt has made it into Toussaint for some Blood and Wine.  

 

First port of call was getting Grandmaster Gear and going to see the dude who sells dye.  UTV. 

Edited February 21, 2023 by The_Rev

[hogso]

I hate those stupid glasses. 

I loved Gaunter O'Dim in Hearts of Stone and appreciate that the devs came out and said his character was inspired by Walter O'Dimm / Marten Broadcloak / Randall Flagg, as if it wasn't obvious, but nice to see the acknowledgement. As a massive Stephen King fan it's very easy to imagine that the world of the Witcher is another level of The Tower, Master Mirror is their Walking Dude, Geralt is their Gunslinger, the other Witchers his Ka-tet...

Having played it, and then read up on the differences in outcomes to the finale of that questline though, I do want to go back and do something different, as the other rewards seem really good (if not fitting to my head canon for Geralt). 

All Things serve the Beam. 

[The_Rev]

Which way did you go? 

 

Spoiler

I just stood back and watched von Everec get his soul taken.   He was an entertaining guy, but one who seemed sorry he got caught rather than sorry he actually did it.   Plus he'd spent about ten hours tying to get Geralt killed, whereas O'Dimm was just offering a service.  (and the dog told me not to mess with him)

 

[Risso]

On 14/02/2023 at 09:08, Stevo985 said:

Well yes, quite.

But Gwent is an entire game in itself. It's brilliant.

Funnily enough I couldn't get into the stand alone game they released. But I loved the simpler version in the Witcher

Gwent in the Witcher was brilliant. I loved the mechanics of the game itself, and the way you could get cards from various NPCs was good if you enjoyed the game, but not a key part if you didn't. The standalone game was crap.

[MaVilla]

Not sure if any of you noticed, but you meet gaunter o'dimm in the main witcher 3 game (pre dlcs) towards the start, you meet him in the tavern, he actually sits down and talks to you.

Edited March 4, 2023 by MaVilla

[hogso]

On 26/02/2023 at 10:30, The_Rev said:

Which way did you go? 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I just stood back and watched von Everec get his soul taken.   He was an entertaining guy, but one who seemed sorry he got caught rather than sorry he actually did it.   Plus he'd spent about ten hours tying to get Geralt killed, whereas O'Dimm was just offering a service.  (and the dog told me not to mess with him)

 

Spoiler

I dispatched Gaunter, it seemed like thing my Geralt would do. Or try to do anyway, it's not exactly easy, or should it be! 

As I alluded to though, at some point if I ever replay it all, I want to cash in a wish with him instead. 

 

[hogso]

Went back and finished the main quest line this week - the only things left to do in the entire game (I think?) are all of those stupid markers in the oceans of Skellige, and I can't imagine anyone has ever done all of them. 

Well, I've got a few odd trophies to do for plat too, I guess. 

I really loved the ending I got, I can't imagine there's a better for one my Geralt. It was just perfect (except for me wishing that there were some 'my ending' appropriate post game quests).

The game was so good I immediately fired it back up for an NG+ on Death March difficulty. And I'm the sort of gamer who barely ever plays on the hardest difficulty. 

[hogso]

Inching closer to plat. Death March run completed yesterday - any semblance of difficulty for more or less the entire game is depleted to nil in NG+ if you have a good build around Euphoria. As long as you carry over sufficient items and a levelled Aerondight, you're laughing. The only slight caveat is the sections playing as Ciri, but even they aren't that hard. The toughest being the Crones fight, but once you deal with the camera and arena size, that's not so bad. And I say that as someone who generally isn't very good at video games. 

Just a couple of miscellaneous trophies left - Overkill (bleed, poison and fire inflicting upon 10 enemies simultaneously) and Master Marksman (50 enemies killed via headshot with a crossbow).

And that'll be that. My current total playtime according to the PS5 clock for a playthrough doing EVERYTHING (OK maybe not everything but as much as possible, I think) plus this Death March run is 160 hours. I think I bought the game in a sale for like a tenner. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by hogso

[Villan_of_oz]

On 16/12/2023 at 20:53, hogso said:

Inching closer to plat. Death March run completed yesterday - any semblance of difficulty for more or less the entire game is depleted to nil in NG+ if you have a good build around Euphoria. As long as you carry over sufficient items and a levelled Aerondight, you're laughing. The only slight caveat is the sections playing as Ciri, but even they aren't that hard. The toughest being the Crones fight, but once you deal with the camera and arena size, that's not so bad. And I say that as someone who generally isn't very good at video games. 

Just a couple of miscellaneous trophies left - Overkill (bleed, poison and fire inflicting upon 10 enemies simultaneously) and Master Marksman (50 enemies killed via headshot with a crossbow).

And that'll be that. My current total playtime according to the PS5 clock for a playthrough doing EVERYTHING (OK maybe not everything but as much as possible, I think) plus this Death March run is 160 hours. I think I bought the game in a sale for like a tenner. 

Brilliant game and I loved reading that!