The Witcher 3

I sided with the Tree Spirit at first because it seemed like the lesser of two evils, but the reactions of the other characters made it clear that was not the case.

Oh, another thing I learned—a dude seems in desperate straights and a quest marker pops up, you better take it. No exploring the continent and leisurely plodding back to save a burning house. Poor elf-lady died in my replay because I was in a hurry and didn't stop to kill the bandits torching her house.

There's actually a book that talks about it. The tree spirit is the mother of the three Crones. She went insane and was thus imprisoned in the tree. If you release her Downwarren's basically wiped out, I believe. If it's any consolation, If you get the Ciri is a Witcher ending, all three are eventually killed by Ciri.

edited 6th Sep '15 8:13:09 PM by theLibrarian

I got distracted from this game a while back by work and a few new releases (Batman, Shadowrun, Satellite Reign, Mad Max etc) so need to get back to it and finish off. I wasn't bored per se, but feeling a bit overwhelmed. And also a tad frustrated that I'm not sure I'm at the right level - some quests sat at lvl 23 whilst I'm 18, and thinking of ways to boost myself a bit more.

However, now everything's being updated will jump back in. NEED to finish Novigrad and head to Skellige. Haven't even found Dandelion yet. I am so lax.

Still, GOTY!

Hearts of Stone teaser:

edited 11th Sep '15 8:27:06 AM by SecondKaitenhammer

I was playing through the Battle of Kaer Morhen and the game had reached such a crescendo of action and drama that I thought to myself: "Oh, this has got to be the final level." Last stand, and all that.

How surprised I was to learn that the game just keeps going after that. There's still seems to be several hours of story left.

I absolutely love the plot and the characters. I'm thinking of grabbing the books. It's the first time in a long time that a seemingly bog-standard European Fantasy setting has interested me.

This is one of the games I picked up when we bought the X Bone and I have been enjoying it so far.

I am in Valen at the moment just sort of bumping around and finding things that tear me a new one or some surprisingly easy enemies. I am at the point where I am looking around for blue prints for better kit and quests I can do the level up.

Yeah the blueprints for the Witcher items are damn good. I prefer the Cat School gear, because being light armor it has faster stamina regen plus the pieces have attack power bonuses on them. Ultimately all the Witcher armor sets pretty much have the same armor value at the highest level (mastercrafted) so it's really just personal preference at that point.

Bear School. Coz it's the most stylish.

Whatever works. I want to find some better crossbows as well. I have the plinking one but it is kind of anemic.

I agree with Bear School. I love those coattails.

On a New Game Plus, it's surprising how many activities that I engaged in previously to great enjoyment now seem utterly tedious, like assembling a new Gwent deck. Why does it have to reset, I wonder?

At least you found Gwent fun at one point.

I found Gwent tedious from the get go. It's terrible.

Velen's awesome for the Bloody Baron and the Crones.

I started my replay, figuring I'd make different choices. Does the tree spirit mare ever reappear? I got to Downwarren to see all the corpses and get the Crones' spiteful reply, but that's it. Also, for that path, it's nice to see Graden's a pretty cool dude, besides the witch-hunter/fanatic part.

With the fight at Kaer Morhen, I love how your carefully-acquired allies actually do cool shit instead of popping by for a cameo. And how Geralt plays matchmaker with those sillies Lambert and Kiera Metz. Also, Roche and Vex going apeshit if Letho shows up.

Anyone hear (old, I know) Sarkeesian's critique at the gendered insults thrown at Ciri in-game? I like a lot of Sarkeesian's stuff but dear god, play the game! OMG, fighting lowlife thugs and gangsters and they call you shitty names? Whaaa?!?! Witcher 1's sexy cards were stupid, Witcher 2 less so, but Witcher 3 is quite on-point with its female characters.

edited 6th Oct '15 11:16:52 PM by Phoenixflame

edited 14th Oct '15 11:57:45 PM by Ghilz

So Hearts of Stone came out!

I'm never gonna finish this game xD I aim to do everything, or at least as close to it as I can, and with DL Cs that are apparently as long as AOK, with everything else in the regular game world...

Very late to the party (actually finished the game some while ago), but now, while rereading the books, I just have to get this off my chest: Boy, do I hate how CD Project whitewashed Nilfgaard. It's almost offensive. And in turn, they also made Radovid a Straw Madman. But I just refused to follow that obviously intended path, if only to deny Philippa Eilhart revenge (seriously, if anybody deserved it it was her, it's sad that she gets away with everything in the games).

To be honest game-North is better under Nilfgaard anyway. I know witchers don't take sides but I can't let the Church of the Eternal Fire run amok in good conscience.

Well you can also choose Djikstra. Sure, you'll have to kill Roche and Ves for that, but honestly, Roche lost all my sympathies in the third game with his coward-ass submission move during Reasons of the State, which was also totally hypocritical. And he was never a totally nice person to begin with, so...

But yeah, I admit I choose Radovid (or rather, did not take steps against him) for my first walkthrough, out of sheer stubbornness.

edited 17th Oct '15 3:39:47 PM by Forenperser

Loving Heart of Stone so far. Some Oceans 11, sexy mysterious rogues, a funny joke about Frog Princes, and, best of all, Geralt, possessed by a rakish noble, going to a peasant wedding. Also, an important dude actually first appearing in the White Orchard prologue. I just encountered the Caretaker and NOPENOPENOPE.

edited 21st Oct '15 9:05:14 PM by Phoenixflame

So I have put hours into this so far and still just reached level 11. Thanks level 15 spiny blue drowner on the coast. My crafting menus are chock full of powerful gear I can't use for 30 levels like the various bits of Ursine equipment. Thankfully I have found plenty of decent equipment and odd things in the wilderness. I can't seem to go an hour without tripping over a bear somewhere in the wilderness.

Discovered a giant moose demon guarding a treasure, found a bunch of cannibal camps and cleared those out, and in general causing chaos and deciding I really don't like the Eternal Flame. Every last one has been a sadistic, vicious, nasty, bully. Every time I run into them I want to cut them in half. Then I saw the execution in Novigrad of the woman and the Doppler. Now I want to wipe their order out.

edited 22nd Oct '15 7:21:17 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Every DLC quest I downloaded is too buggy to complete. This is some bullshit.

Huh? What platform? I was really impressed by the lack of bugs for a game so ginormous.