The Witcher III: Wild Hunt

This post has just made me insanely excited for tomorrow! My little boy is ill at the moment and I have had to take the day off to look after him.  Should give me a little more time to play this when it arrives!!!

It looks blooming awesome, but then after getting the second one I hardly played it at all basically due to being the video game playing equivalent of a magpie always running to something else shiny. Makes me feel silly to even think of buying this really

I'm getting a copy at the weekend. Amazed that you get all that stuff with the standard edition, most companies would slap a special edition sticker on it and charge an extra tenner but CDPR have more class.

I'm caving and will be going out and buying it during my lunch break today

I've just noticed that CDPR have also included a code for a digital comic as well as one for Battle Arena, they just keep on giving.

Spent more time with the game last night and most of this morning and yes, it's ploughing awesome . I can't say more than that without getting into possible spoiler territory although I'm still early because just dicking about and exploring is so much fun.

Needless to say, you NEED this game in your life.

So I played for a few hours this evening and feel like I've not achieved anything at all. Besides the opening and tutorial it feels like I've spent lots of time already in this world but not scratched the surface. A few side missions, a few collectibles and a couple of main mission objectives and my evening delving in was already over  but I loved it! I can't wait to outcome game on next! Those question marks are very addictive to explore, and I like how missions give you a recommended player level, meaning I should find that I can do all missions eventually by staying within my limit - helpful as I'm not traditionally great with these games. I've already wanted to build a bomb but don't know where to get the ingredients for it! But those amateur RPG player quibbles aside its just fantastic! The first main mission is shaping up nicely and I can't wait to get back into it.

So I've had a scavenger quest bug out on me. It seems I went and explored a question mark and completed the quest unintentionally but when I found the quest beginning via a letter it has logged itself in my quest book with no way of me completing it as I've already done so unintentionally. Irritating as it means it's sitting there in my quests. 

But you really can't underestimate the compulsion to go get those question marks. I just can't stop myself.

Got my copy today.

I've literally only had time to play the tutorial so it's way too early to give any kind of meaningful impression at the moment, other than to say it looks gorgeous. Don't know what all those people moaning about graphics downgrades are on about.

Anyway with next week off work I'll be getting stuck into the game.

megablast16 wrote:Don't know what all those people moaning about graphics downgrades are on about.

That'll be the fucking asshole PC Elitists, who are worse than any f'ing fanboys in existence. 

Yes, the game may not look quite as good as it did when it was showcased back in 2013 (although it's still fucking gorgeous) but CDPR wouldn't have had anywhere near the content in-game to cater for back then. It's likely that the modders will soon take care of that anyway so why give a fuck? Better to have CDPR in a position to launch on mutli-platform to maximise sales than cater exclusively to the PC asshats*

*Apologies if that sounds a little harsh but those fucks and their attitude really pisses me off.

Yeah they suck all the joy out of playing games with their obsession with frame rates and resolution levels. The proliferation of comparison videos and performance analysis from the likes of Digital Foundry just feed this obsession too.

I seem to have had a question mark glitch on me too.  One of the abandoned locations (a statue) that has no enemies for me to clear.  Its just a bit annoying.  

Otherwise, this game is brilliant.  Sooo satisfying to play and the detail provided to each quest is very impressive.  There is soooo much to do but I know I am in it for the long run.

aaroncupboard wrote:I seem to have had a question mark glitch on me too.

Same! Had a Person(s) in Distress glitch on me, pretty sure I've cleared out all enemies and searched the local area but the key to open their cage is nowhere to be found. Given the scope of the game, I can forgive the occasional glitch although it is a little frustrating.

It seems that in almost every quest there is something that really impresses me, done a couple more of the side quests as well as one of the main ones today and they have been absolutely fantastic. These are all pretty early ones too so I really can't wait to see what else is in store, however long that may take, there's far too many distractions in this game (in a good way ).

Really enjoying it so far

A lot more accessible than the first game which is great! Shame that I am going on holiday later this week so I am going to fall way behind on playing this (like I do with every game ). Still this is the first western RPG to really grab me in ages.

Just beat the Griffin in White Orchard, I was expecting a tough battle but actually it wasn't too bad. Anyway still early days and I'm still getting to grips with all the systems and generally exploring, doing the odd side mission and seeing what's what. I also got my first Trophy for the game, quite by accident (the one for killing 5 enemies in under 10 seconds, actually getting it against a pack of wolves mostly using the flame attack). Enjoying it a lot.

Really enjoying the game overall but I am the only one who thinks that the majority of the voice acting is atrocious?

The main three or so characters are fine but everyone else just seems so wooden and forced!

Feeling a bit of a slog already on Blood and Bones difficulty. Up to level 4 and finding myself a bit limited by what's available to me now. Didn't help that I failed a couple of quests in White Orchard through no fault of my own. Whose idea was it to have a horseback chase where your horse, incredibly prone to getting stuck on things, spawns so far away? Chap was gone by the time I even got on it.

I think the voice acting is pretty good actually. I like the accents and think a lot of the extra characters are quite humourous. 

I am also on level 4 and finding the number of missions open to me is a bit limited as well. I'm just cracking on with the main story at the moment.

cal_el wrote:Really enjoying the game overall but I am the only one who thinks that the majority of the voice acting is atrocious?

The main three or so characters are fine but everyone else just seems so wooden and forced!

I don't think they're too bad, I've heard a lot worse in games.

cal_el wrote:Really enjoying the game overall but I am the only one who thinks that the majority of the voice acting is atrocious?

I actually think it's pretty decent, or maybe it's due to the fact that the dialogue in general is so well written (IMO) that I'm just not noticing any shortcomings in the voice acting.

I finally arrived in Novigrad yesterday (at Level 13) and found the city quite overwhelming due to it's size and I'm still trying to find my way around the place without getting too lost. I'm also on 'Blood and Broken Bones' difficulty and for the most part it hasn't been too bad, there's actually been a few occasions where I wonder if I should have started on 'Death March' instead. 

I don't think I've ever had as much fun exploring an open world game as I have done in this one, there is just too much good stuff to stumble across and I love the fact that most side quests so far have felt like they've actually meant something.

The number of side quests and missions has really opened up for me now.  There are loads that I have gathered from noticeboards all around.  I am prioritising them in level order - smallest to largest.  

Every single side mission has been brilliant.

The voice acting has seemed pretty good to me. However, I hate Geralt's. Also, CDPR have fallen in to the trap of hiring people to put on atrocious stereotypical Midlands accents instead of just hiring people actually from the place. Although practically every TV show and movie is afflicted with this.

Maybe there's a dearth of people wanting to be actors from that region?

Managed to spend a rather brilliant four hours on this yesterday, a proper chunk of gaming time and it just flew by.  I spent time doing a range of side quests, main quests, contracts and just general exploring.  Yet again, the quality of the missions is outstanding.  From the smallest contract to what initially seems a small side quest that barrel rolls into an epic sequence of events, everything is well written, interesting and fun. 

The combat is really opening up too.  My mixture of small attacks mixed with axii goodness has always been my go to process, until I met a particularly nasty Lady O'the Woods and had to completely rethink my strategy.  Was a difficult fight but oh so satisfying once I completed it.

The world looks stunning as well.  The range of different locations is natural and there have been many gorgeous views on my journey.  At the moment, I am exploring Novigrad and it is a mightily impressive location.  

I love this game.  

Now excuse me, I have some Gwent players to destroy.

The game has been pissing me off a little recently. I found myself in a dungeon but was unprepared for this and really struggled to make it out alive. It was persevere or lose two hours play to load a previous save. I've also been caught out by the manual save system a few times too which is just irritating. 

But according to the stats I've put in 19 hours into this. Don't know where all that time has gone!