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The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

Joined
May 4, 2017
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629
Thanks at least for giving a thought to my words.

I think I've may also played wrong TW3, because instead of tasting it day by day, I've done a 48 hour marathon in 5 days so I'm sort of pissed\annoyed
 

Falksi

Arcane
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Feb 14, 2017
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Nottingham
Yennefer is a snobby annoying cow, who I'd love to punch in the face.

Triss is fucking lush and everything a woman should be. Submissive and knows her place. I'd also like to punch her in the face, but in a sexual way, then I'd buy her dinner after.

No contest for me, Triss wins every time.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Yennefer is a snobby annoying cow, who I'd love to punch in the face.

Triss is fucking lush and everything a woman should be. Submissive and knows her place. I'd also like to punch her in the face, but in a sexual way, then I'd buy her dinner after.

No contest for me, Triss wins every time.
Redhead also.
 
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Good, now I have to find Ivo Gaspar and Ference because these fuckers piece of shit didn't think that one could play a ruthless Geralt bored and really annoyed to doing fetch quest for others.
 
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The reaction of Ciri to the wild hunt after killing a certain character at the battle of Kaer Mohren is my same reaction after I've seen how this game turned out to be
 
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Soon I'm going to make a The witcher 3 review analyzing every quest, it will be a huge work, but it will be worth it because I will rate all what's inside from fetch quest to the others.

I also need the help of the people that have played Dragon age inquisition and its fetch\escort quests for similarities and so on. I'm pretty sure that things done by The witcher 3 would be considered decline if done by Bioware, instead when done by Cd project people like to bow and lick their purulent ass, admiring the courage or wittyness of them actually using these quests to joke about how currently quests are done by current rpg developers.

I'm also going to review the dialogues Geralt has, last but not least the minimal choices he has, and how he acts and so on.
 

Master

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1,160
You are one brave motherfucker, for an Italian. Good luck and hope you make it to the end.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Soon I'm going to make a The witcher 3 review analyzing every quest, it will be a huge work, but it will be worth it because I will rate all what's inside from fetch quest to the others.

I also need the help of the people that have played Dragon age inquisition and its fetch\escort quests for similarities and so on. I'm pretty sure that things done by The witcher 3 would be considered decline if done by Bioware, instead when done by Cd project people like to bow and lick their purulent ass, admiring the courage or wittyness of them actually using these quests to joke about how currently quests are done by current rpg developers.

I'm also going to review the dialogues Geralt has, last but not least the minimal choices he has, and how he acts and so on.
:mrpresident::hero:
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
It's like if the character themselves are drifted away by what they say with empty words and lack of meaning. Roleplaying would mean that I have a true take on what I'm supposed to do, with different point of views that made me feel my actions fulfilled by a purpose.

But there is no purpose here, just blank exposition and a choice between two characters where you have a little background whose potential is untapped (Triss used you by not telling you the truth and trying to fuck with you, both literally and not) and no real attachment (Jennifer is totally new and she ain't made memorable to the player).

Well, the order of "default" story path kinda screws you over too. I followed it as much as I could (damn quest reward scaling.. I outlevelled some quests anyway), so went Velen -> complete Novigrad -> only then Skellige. I liked Triss, so went with it.
But in Skellige you finally get some quality time with Yennefer. And the devs really do show you a unique connection between Geralt and her. So I kinda regretted my choice... but alas, it was already too late.
 
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Feb 11, 2007
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Waifu picking is still a very serious business I see. :lol:




Also, Triss every time. As fun as psycho-bitches can be, Yen is just too unstable for me. The very first meeting with her and she is already burning bridges by getting all pissy on Gerald for sleeping with Triss when HE HAD NO FUCKING MEMORY OF YEN! And she knows this is true, but she still thinks this isn't a good excuse? Wtf?!
 
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And she knows this is true, but she still thinks this isn't a good excuse? Wtf?!
High-fidelity, realistic wombyn behavior?
Could be for Yen, but I don't recall Triss being this bad. Hell, when after dumping her she starts throwing a fit and throws this into your face again, and you point out the obvious again, she teleports you into a lake and implies next time she would do it one mile in the air. Psycho bitch is a psycho bitch. Compared to her Triss is a saint.
 

AwesomeButton

Proud owner of BG 3: Day of Swen's Tentacle
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
I like how the game itself is considered "retarded" but arguing over which waifu is better is some kind of hightened discussion.

It's a very well executed interactive movie. The rest is edgelords being edgelords.
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
All who prefer Triss for waifu haven't read the books. If you'd read the books you would change your opinion on Triss real quick.
Never got there as the books turn to crap real fast. I got bored around the time Geralt gets around to fighting the fuckwit that kidnapped Ciri, and it's my understanding it only gets worse from there on.

The novels are not great. They outstay their welcome and keep dragging on, soap-opera style.

It's the short stories where it's at, though. Did you read them as well?
 

Haplo

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Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Eh, I used to agree with you... but then there was the pretty awesome unicorn... and afterwards The Last Wish quest which really made me question my choice.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
It's a strange choice between Triss and Yen.

Both of them have basically tricked Geralt into loving them. Yen did it with the love potion and Triss did it while Geralt had amnesia.

My first playthrough I felt Yen was the more convincing romance because of Geralt's history with her and obvious feelings for her, but The Last Wish quest made me realize that in the end, it was really up to the player who Geralt actually loved.

That said, Yen is the more interesting choice for me in this game. For some reason, Triss feels written more like a little girl in TW3 than she does in the previous games. I can't tell if it's the writing, the art style on her face or just the new voice actress.
 

fantadomat

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Edgy Vatnik Wumao
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Waifu picking is still a very serious business I see. :lol:




Also, Triss every time. As fun as psycho-bitches can be, Yen is just too unstable for me. The very first meeting with her and she is already burning bridges by getting all pissy on Gerald for sleeping with Triss when HE HAD NO FUCKING MEMORY OF YEN! And she knows this is true, but she still thinks this isn't a good excuse? Wtf?!
You are just describing every real woman. Most of them would burn the whole house down not only the mattress. Scorn of a woman is a scary thing.
 

Anthedon

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Did Gaunter O'Dimm always show up in White Orchard? Just started a playthrough with the FCR3 mod and there he is.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Did Gaunter O'Dimm always show up in White Orchard?
yes. it was foreshadowing. at the time I didn't think about it. Then later when I bought the expansion pack I about lost it when I saw him.

another example of foreshadowing is for blood and wine...in a trailer for the TW3.



 
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Expectations
After playing The witcher 1 and 2 my expectations for The Witcher 3 were high, but not too high due to the fact that I had seen some dip in quality inside TW2, a game that should have capitalized on the strength of the prior one, but didn’t.


[The Witcher 1]

The witcher 1 made you feel like a Witcher. You were considerably better than a human when fighting, but don’t forget that witchers hunt monsters, and monsters would still pose a danger to you. This is especially clear when you have to face the beast.

One time, after playing TW1 a lot of times, I wanted to see if I could face the Beast without an oil, basically ignoring
> my background,
> what it means to face a beast of such power,
> the stories around the beast itself

proving to myself that oils were only an annoyance that could be easily ignored and with them the game mechanics.

I was wrong. I found myself in a corner glitching to face the beast (if I remember well I had moved Geralt near the house in a spot where the Beast wouldn’t be able to hit me but I would).


Against the beast you were forced to use the oil, because there was a huge difficulty spike that would have thought you that the game doesn’t forgive you for not acting like a witcher, and it had a beautiful alchemy system tailored to your needs. You were to use all the tools at your disposal.

Right after facing the beast, you could choose if you wanted to save the witch or not, putting you in face of your decisions not only in the next chapters, but even in the endgame, basically proving that a game where your decision matters could be made and it was there in front of your eyes.

Same could be said for Alvin, proving that you could even face new challenges and subvert your own expectations, with a dialogue system tailored to that. For example, I remember more than two choices when talking to Alvin, proving that Geralt would act not only as Geralt, but also tailored to the player agency, making the player identify as Geralt and actually caring for him and what was around him.


[The witcher 2]

I liked The witcher 2, because it was really a paragon when it comes to different choices and chances given to the player. The first one is between Iorveth and Roche, basically netting you two different paths with you different point of views, actually expanding the world in new ways and giving the players more insights to everything that is going around him, in a world where political matters become huge right in the end; but you are being used by these political matters right at the beginning, unwillingly and unknowningly.

And where you could see and hope that the amount of choices would make you actually think what to do, because in this game you thought that what would you do would matter, but guess what, nothing you did is really looked upon in the next chapter of the witcher saga.
[The Witcher 3]

The witcher 3 is a really weird game. To be honest a part of me thinks it isn’t a rpg, but more of an action interactive movie where you move from one spot to another making the story go on, but without the urgency or agency a player is supposed to have in such a game.

Thing is that I would like to get invested in it, but the game simply won’t you. This is first, suggested by the limited amount of dialogues choices first, and second by ignoring what you did in the prior chapters.

In the witcher 2 I had joined Iorveth and fred Saskia, but none of these things mattered. For a game that has so many Goty prizes I had expected that they wouldn’t alienate me or at least these players that made such a choice, instead of casting myself in such a world I didn’t make but I was forced to live in.

The witcher was always proposed a game where every choice matters and what you do as an effect, be it now or later, on what happens next, basically making you question yourself. Do I follow the code (be neutral) or do I take a side? Making you realize that even not taking a side could be a bad choice, because you were forced to endure what you had made and making the player question if the code was right or not.

In the witcher 3 these choices do not matter at all, but the issues is that some of the quest would not need such an effect to be cast upon the player, just impersonating yourself in the quest giver could make myself immersed in the world. Stellar examples are “the cat and the wolf” quest and “save my husband” (now I can’t remember then name) quest where you can’t simply act like I personally would, forcing myself to play another agency, another journey, that of Cd Project.

When I go into a game, I don’t need a huge open world with no loading screens to be amazed, but I need sheer quality, quality that makes me question myself and re-write my personal parameters on what a good game should do, not what a good game should have done.

[so, having a huge continent for me is pointless if there is no meaningful content in it. But more to it later...]

Another issue that I’ve found is that not only the alchemy system was watered down, but you are not needed to use oils and so on, even in higher difficulties, basically making you a god amongst humans, especially because apart from your mutations you aren’t much different from humans (actually in game guards have even a higher level than you, proving that the mechanics are not well thought by Cd project).

On top of this, you start once again from Level 1, like if you had never done anything before, but developers weren’t even intelligent about it. Issue is, I shouldn’t need to kill a creature to make the note appear on the bestiary, simply because I’ve already probably killed it in TW1 or TW2. Not to add on top of that, that there are special creatures in the prior game that would have netted you special mutations, that I would really loved to see in this game, even from the beginning, implying that not everything was lost just because they couldn’t think about a smart way to merge mechanics with a good levelling curve.

Monsters are pointless too. There is no special way nor meaningful way to beat them. Drowner, werewolf, warg, wild dogs, wraith, there is so little variety in the way they fight, making you essentially parry against human and dodge or roll against monsters, with a little variety for some fights, when they charge at you.
There are monsters where you just smash, then move to their left, smash, then move behind them, smash, then move to the right: is this a sign of good encounters where Geralt beat their wits, or are these just ominomous (when it comes to intelligence) monsters?

I didn’t tell you the best thing: without mods, you can meet monsters with a red skulls, that are simply unbeatable because developers didn’t think of actually manually deciding their stats, they just make the game arbitrarily set their dmg or health to a certain threeshold just to make the player face unbeatable odds, and on top of that, MONSTERS DO NOT GIVE XP, or at least if they do it is so little and unmeaningful that you are forced to do quests to level up.

And on top of that not only quests are silly, but they are thought like shit. You are supposed to do the quests on the level the developers think you should have done them, making you have to search on internet the order in which said quests are done or face a xp penalty, with people actually defending this system telling “isn’t the experience (note the pun) of the quest enough for a player? Does it have to have a reward”?

Great quests, really: you just use your witcher senses and follow the red items, with Geralt making a remarks on them every time you click E. Does it sound like a game or an interactive movie?
Dialogues are silly too, because none of them surprised me for the creativity behind it, and I actually found myself wanting to skip or skipping things because they were simply pointless. Actually, more than once I found myself thinking that they were made this way on purpose to make the player waste time and think “oh, how many hours Witcher 3 made me play, I’m so happy for the purpose”, because it seems like spending meaningful time on a game is over-rated.




First quest: Twisted Firestarter

As soon as you enter White Orchard, you can do this quest where a certain dwarf asks you if you can find the guy that started the fire that destroyed his forge (and not even well, given that the dwarf is still working).

You just right click the mouse and follow the traces behind the forge until you find the arsonist, which tells you that he did it because the dwarf is getting rich out of the occupation.

You confront him and can choose to get the money from him or bring him to the dwarf. You bring him to the dwarf, he gets hanged and you get the help of the blacksmith whenever you wish.

Okay, let’s put this quest in the witcher 1: bringing the arsonist to justice (the Nilfgaardian invader), would have made people in the village actually start to despise Geralt from what he has done and Geralt would have had to face discriminations from shops (be it higher prices) or people would outright refuse to talk to him. None of this happens at all.

Ideal quest for an interactive movie, but with no point in a world like the one of the witcher.

2/10
 

SpoilVictor

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84
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In the witcher 2 I had joined Iorveth and fred Saskia, but none of these things mattered. For a game that has so many Goty prizes I had expected that they wouldn’t alienate me or at least these players that made such a choice, instead of casting myself in such a world I didn’t make but I was forced to live in.

The witcher was always proposed a game where every choice matters and what you do as an effect, be it now or later, on what happens next, basically making you question yourself. Do I follow the code (be neutral) or do I take a side? Making you realize that even not taking a side could be a bad choice, because you were forced to endure what you had made and making the player question if the code was right or not.

In the witcher 3 these choices do not matter at all, but the issues is that some of the quest would not need such an effect to be cast upon the player, just impersonating yourself in the quest giver could make myself immersed in the world. Stellar examples are “the cat and the wolf” quest and “save my husband” (now I can’t remember then name) quest where you can’t simply act like I personally would, forcing myself to play another agency, another journey, that of Cd Project.
I don't know if You played Mass Effect trilogy but it swiftly cures anyone who expects their choices to matter in following installments of any given series. To be honest it isn't bad will of devs or anything just simple development reality: no one have time and money to make drastically different versions of the game based on choices from previous one. Little things carry over (like Letho quest if spared) but all big choices will always be backdrop if at all.

I've finished W3 yesterday (still got Expansions to beat) and I'm pretty satisfied by this action-adventure game. It is shitty RPG (if RPG at all) but hey! I knew what are they doing so I can't complain.
 

Anthedon

Arcane
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Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I played a bit with the FCR3 mod now. It's a mixed bag. The reduced max levels for skills has you swimming in skill points even faster compared to vanilla. From what I gather this was done so you can swap skills depending on the enemies you face. While that's a nice idea, it's also completely unnecessary. The game is not even remotely difficult enough for skill choice to matter significantly. The nerfs/buffs to uber skills and items make sense. The automatic night vision is pretty hit and miss for me, it works only in some places (the author acknowledges that in the mod description too). The buff to companions is nice, Triss & company actually contribute to fights now. They were completely useless before.

The mod was updated recently, so these things might change if Andrzej Kwiatkowski keeps working on it.
 

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