The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[rusty_shackleford]

Ciri has all the protection she needs, an expensive heavy-duty set of plot armor.

 

[Life of the Party]

Ciri is a no.

I actually wouldn't mind playing as the last witcher.

 

[Falksi]

I'm playing this for the first time, got 49 hours under my belt, and just finished a few quests in Skellige. Unfortunately the exploration system in the game is weak so now I'm just focusing on the main quest so I can finish the story. I don't recall the first two games being this way but then again I played TW1 around 12 years ago so my memory is hazy.

Did anyone else feel the Ciri parts where you play as her were out of place? Those segments could have been played out automatically through cutscenes.

Bless ya. You're probably starting to hit the "suffering zone" now, where everything feel a fucking chore, and the main thing keeping you going is your determination to make it through to see what the fuss is all about.

Totally agree with the Ciri sections. Really jarring. As if they were supposed to lead somewhere but didn't.

With all that said, Skellige is probably the best part of the main game simply because it's more compact like the expansions. When you return to the massive nothingness of Velan & Novigrad you'll soon start to really detest it.

 

[xuerebx]

I'm playing this for the first time, got 49 hours under my belt, and just finished a few quests in Skellige. Unfortunately the exploration system in the game is weak so now I'm just focusing on the main quest so I can finish the story. I don't recall the first two games being this way but then again I played TW1 around 12 years ago so my memory is hazy.

Did anyone else feel the Ciri parts where you play as her were out of place? Those segments could have been played out automatically through cutscenes.

Bless ya. You're probably starting to hit the "suffering zone" now, where everything feel a fucking chore, and the main thing keeping you going is your determination to make it through to see what the fuss is all about.

This is eerily too accurate...in fact now I'm just playing to get to the finish line. Hope I'm at least 75% there!

 

[karoliner]

 

[cvv]

Good to see story-based games that are not retarded, woke or infantile selling extremely well. Mind you, it's easier to sell millions if you're basically giving the games away for like 3 or 4 bucks, but still, grats.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I've replaying this recently. I'm sure that I sound like a fanboy but... dude I just love thos game. Sure it has problems, but every time I play it I get immersed ont it and the hours go on so fast. I hope Cyberpunk 2077 does this too.

 

[Riddler]

I want to see another Witcher game but I think Blood & Wine gave Geralt a perfect send off. I'd like to play as another witcher, and Ciri makes the most sense to be that person (another dude would just be compared to Geralt).

I thought Ciri wasn't a proper witcher due to not going through Trial of the Grasses? That means no enhanced reflexes, can't consume potions or see in the dark etc. She'd be a pretty gimped witcher even with her bullshit powers that W3 gave her.

Also it's supposed to be a recurring theme that the time of the witchers is coming to an end, the truly dangerous monsters have nearly all been killed off and society is becoming industrialised and organised enough to not need wandering witchers to defend them. Admittedly that's more of a book theme and W3 in particular has ancient legendary trash monsters all over the place so eh...

At the end of the day if they want to do a Ciri game they will and that stuff will be handwaved away. I'd still rather see a prequel, to see what it's like being a more normal witcher instead of the White Wolf. Eskel would be a good choice.

The main quest ended with another conjunction of the the spheres.

 

[Storyfag]

I want to see another Witcher game but I think Blood & Wine gave Geralt a perfect send off. I'd like to play as another witcher, and Ciri makes the most sense to be that person (another dude would just be compared to Geralt).

I thought Ciri wasn't a proper witcher due to not going through Trial of the Grasses? That means no enhanced reflexes, can't consume potions or see in the dark etc. She'd be a pretty gimped witcher even with her bullshit powers that W3 gave her.

Also it's supposed to be a recurring theme that the time of the witchers is coming to an end, the truly dangerous monsters have nearly all been killed off and society is becoming industrialised and organised enough to not need wandering witchers to defend them. Admittedly that's more of a book theme and W3 in particular has ancient legendary trash monsters all over the place so eh...

At the end of the day if they want to do a Ciri game they will and that stuff will be handwaved away. I'd still rather see a prequel, to see what it's like being a more normal witcher instead of the White Wolf. Eskel would be a good choice.

The main quest ended with another conjunction of the the spheres.

Wasn't it extremely local, limited to that one island?

 

[ekrolo2]

I want to see another Witcher game but I think Blood & Wine gave Geralt a perfect send off. I'd like to play as another witcher, and Ciri makes the most sense to be that person (another dude would just be compared to Geralt).

I thought Ciri wasn't a proper witcher due to not going through Trial of the Grasses? That means no enhanced reflexes, can't consume potions or see in the dark etc. She'd be a pretty gimped witcher even with her bullshit powers that W3 gave her.

Also it's supposed to be a recurring theme that the time of the witchers is coming to an end, the truly dangerous monsters have nearly all been killed off and society is becoming industrialised and organised enough to not need wandering witchers to defend them. Admittedly that's more of a book theme and W3 in particular has ancient legendary trash monsters all over the place so eh...

At the end of the day if they want to do a Ciri game they will and that stuff will be handwaved away. I'd still rather see a prequel, to see what it's like being a more normal witcher instead of the White Wolf. Eskel would be a good choice.

The main quest ended with another conjunction of the the spheres.

Wasn't it extremely local, limited to that one island?

It was. None of the post-game content mentions any massive influx of new monsters all over the Continent. The Conjunction happened again on Undvik and maybe a bit in its surrounding area but it was nothing even remotely of the scale of the first one.

 

[AW8]

Undvik will never not be a funny name. It's an abandoned island where you hear the distant, warning roar of a monster that made all the inhabitants flee. And "undvik" is Swedish for "avoid".

Only Geralt is fearless enough to set foot on the island of Avoid.

Spoiler

"Vik" means inlet, cove or bay in Scandinavian-based languages, and is present in several names, such as the Icelandic capital Reykjavík ("bay of smokes"). It could also be what the word "viking" is derived from. So in addition to the more fun translation, Undvik essentially means "Bay of Und" or "Und's Bay", whoever or whatever Und is.

 

[Riddler]

I want to see another Witcher game but I think Blood & Wine gave Geralt a perfect send off. I'd like to play as another witcher, and Ciri makes the most sense to be that person (another dude would just be compared to Geralt).

I thought Ciri wasn't a proper witcher due to not going through Trial of the Grasses? That means no enhanced reflexes, can't consume potions or see in the dark etc. She'd be a pretty gimped witcher even with her bullshit powers that W3 gave her.

Also it's supposed to be a recurring theme that the time of the witchers is coming to an end, the truly dangerous monsters have nearly all been killed off and society is becoming industrialised and organised enough to not need wandering witchers to defend them. Admittedly that's more of a book theme and W3 in particular has ancient legendary trash monsters all over the place so eh...

At the end of the day if they want to do a Ciri game they will and that stuff will be handwaved away. I'd still rather see a prequel, to see what it's like being a more normal witcher instead of the White Wolf. Eskel would be a good choice.

The main quest ended with another conjunction of the the spheres.

Wasn't it extremely local, limited to that one island?

It was. None of the post-game content mentions any massive influx of new monsters all over the Continent. The Conjunction happened again on Undvik and maybe a bit in its surrounding area but it was nothing even remotely of the scale of the first one.

You could easily spin this as having long-term slower effects. Perhaps things got fucked up and mini-conjunctions are happening continuously all over the place (oblivion gates 2.0) or perhaps the effects took longer to manifest for some reason.

This was a very major (possivly global) event that we haven't explicitly been told the ramifications of.

 

[norolim]

I'm catching up on this thread so, there'll be some late replies.

I'm playing this for the first time, got 49 hours under my belt, and just finished a few quests in Skellige. Unfortunately the exploration system in the game is weak so now I'm just focusing on the main quest so I can finish the story. I don't recall the first two games being this way but then again I played TW1 around 12 years ago so my memory is hazy.

I'm currently in the middle of my 3rd attempt to finish this game. The first time I stopped, because I decided I'd wait for all the expansions. The second time I had to move places and didn't pick the game up again after I settled in. So you can safely deduct 30-50 hours from my total play time for this playthrough. And currently it stands at 159 hours 14 minutes and I haven't even been to Skellige yet. And I'm not bored. Yeah...

Spoiler

I guess, I just like open world games. When I first played Fallout, I loved that I could go anywhere I want and when I go there, shit could happen to me on the way. Obviously the implementation of the open world in Witcher 3 is completely different, but I'm still enjoying it. I'm not sure, what you mean by "exploration system", but I think CDPR handled the open world and exploration pretty well. Yes, Gothic is tighter and more focused, but it's also much smaller. For me at least, the distances between POIs in W3 are perfect. It's not too dense to feel like an amusement park and close enough to keep me entertained. There is also sufficient variety. You have abandoned sites, a few types of treasure places, monster nests, notice boards, Gwent players, people to rescue, dungeons that do not feel samey, so far... Yes, most of these involve combat, and the game could do with a bit more puzzles, for example. Low quantity and quality of puzzles is one of W3's weaknesses. But it's a fucking action RPG. You are supposed to fight a lot.

It also helps that the world in Witcher 3 is very well constructed. Not everyone will notice it, but it's very organic, to the point that tree species grow on their natural terrain (e.g. pine trees on sandy terrain). If you take the world in Morrowind, for example, it immediately fells like a game world (or again, an amusement park). Not because it looks alien, but because the different "biomes" are so close to one another and terrain types change abruptly. In Witcher 3 that's never the case. Whether that's a good thing, is up to you.

So yeah, I'm enjoying this open world, but there are e few things I did before I started. First of all, I turned of the fucking GPS paths and question marks. After I left White Orchard, I also turned of the minimap. Most of the time, I also limit my exploration to the places I need to go to. So if I'm on my way to point A and something on the way catches my attention, I check it out. Then I scout a bit around point A, when I reach it. I explore for the sake of exploration only, when I fell like it, not because I fear I have to or I'll miss some shit. This way I'm still enjoying the game and it's open world even though I don't use fast travel at all (except when scripted).

Did anyone else feel the Ciri parts where you play as her were out of place? Those segments could have been played out automatically through cutscenes.

Those parts are dreadful. The worst thing about them is that they play themselves. Because Ciri is a fucking demigoddess, you hardly need to do anything, except holding the attack button. It would be much better, if someone told you about those events, so that you see Ciri for the first time, when you actually find her. VO costs though .

Good to see story-based games that are not retarded, woke or infantile selling extremely well. Mind you, it's easier to sell millions if you're basically giving the games away for like 3 or 4 bucks, but still, grats.

There is quite a lot of wokeness in Witcher 3, at least in the Polish version. Most of it is pretty subtle, though. Like random comments about "traditional values" or females being "strong and independent" and capable of "taking care of themselves" or "stronger than all men in their squad". I also encountered several smaller quests with those "evil patriots".

CDPR is quite woke and since ideological fanaticism usually gets worse with time, I fully expect them to drop the subtlety in Cyberpunk.

 

[2house2fly]

Yep.
The tunnelers come and fuck everyone up because nobody did anything about them.
...You do remember Ulysses warning that they were on their way to destroy the mojave, right?

I remember killing their queen and them being too scared to mess with me afterwards. The tunnelers aren't going anywhere near the Mojave because it's the Courier's territory

 

[cvv]

There is quite a lot of wokeness in Witcher 3, at least in the Polish version. Most of it is pretty subtle, though. Like random comments about "traditional values" or females being "strong and independent" and capable of "taking care of themselves" or "stronger than all men in their squad".

I think this kind of "wokeness" always existed, if it's wokeness at all. For example there's a 1970s rendition of Cinderella that's still ultra popular here in Czech, Germany and Norway where the Cinderella dresses like a boy, does boyish things like hunting - and does it even better than boys - and is all independent and brave. And everyone loves her. Not sure about Polant, maybe ya'll know this film too, here she is:

Spoiler

And there are countless films and books with genuine, independent, brave female characters, including Witcher.

I don't think that's "wokeness" tho, not in the currentyear sense. There's a palpable difference between strong women and stronk wahmen. Between a brave woman and a stunningbrave one.

There are no strong women in the mainstream anglo culture anymore, only stronk wahmen. There are no independent and brave ones, only stunningbrave ones that need no man. That's the difference.

 

[norolim]

No, I didn't claim, having strong women in your game/film is a sign of wokeness. But repeatedly stressing, that wahmen in your game/film are "strong and independent" and capable of "taking care of themselves", especially using those exact "ritualistic" phrases is woke, though. And that is what I noticed in Witcher 3.

The only Czech princesses I know is Arabela, a lady threatened by the best villain in the history of television — Rumburak

 

[jackofshadows]

There is quite a lot of wokeness in Witcher 3, at least in the Polish version. Most of it is pretty subtle, though. Like random comments about "traditional values" or females being "strong and independent" and capable of "taking care of themselves" or "stronger than all men in their squad". I also encountered several smaller quests with those "evil patriots".

What about the source? Have you read it? With this approach it possible to find plenty of "wokeness" there, take "lodge of sorceressess" alone, what a matriarchal shit is that?

 

[Paul_cz]

Yeah. The Sapkowski books were plenty woke, but in a good way. Same with games. It's not the cheap agenda-driven shit pushed by farleft morons.

 

[Danikas]

Yeah. The Sapkowski books were plenty woke, but in a good way. Same with games. It's not the cheap agenda-driven shit pushed by farleft morons.

‘And then what happens?’ continued Avallac’h. ‘The elves, bored with their boring elven women, start to prefer willing human women, and the bored female elf indulged in the perverse curiosity, of the human male who is always full of vigor and strength. And then something happened that no one expected and no one could explain – elves normally only ovulate once every ten to twenty years, but from mating with humans, they began to ovulate with every intense orgasm. It worked with some kind of hidden hormone or combination of hormones. The elven women understood that in practice they could have children only with humans. Its elven women that stopped us from exterminating you when we were stronger. Later you became stronger and you began to exterminate us. But you still had allies among the elven women, They were the party of convenience, cooperation and coexistence… and they did not want to recognize the reality that it was all about copulation.

 

[DalekFlay]

There is quite a lot of wokeness in Witcher 3, at least in the Polish version. Most of it is pretty subtle, though. Like random comments about "traditional values" or females being "strong and independent" and capable of "taking care of themselves" or "stronger than all men in their squad". I also encountered several smaller quests with those "evil patriots".

CDPR is quite woke and since ideological fanaticism usually gets worse with time, I fully expect them to drop the subtlety in Cyberpunk.

One problem is everyone's definition of "woke" is different. To some a simple "hey racism is bad bro" is too woke, which is pretty silly. Both sides are way too quick to start whining when confronted by something they don't agree with.

For me it really comes down to writing. Bioware's dumb tranny in Mass Effect was bad because she was like "HEY HOW YA DOIN' I'M TRANS BY THE WAY," which was poorly written and presented. Witcher 3 has very good (video game) writing, so any messages it might be trying to send are more nuanced and well presented in general. The lack of bitching about it here for the most part bears this out. Unless most of their writing staff quit I'm sure Cyberpunk will be equally well presented, though the setting and themes of the game will likely lend themselves to content many here will be against simply existing in the game. The whiny bitching will be epic.

 

[norolim]

There is quite a lot of wokeness in Witcher 3, at least in the Polish version. Most of it is pretty subtle, though. Like random comments about "traditional values" or females being "strong and independent" and capable of "taking care of themselves" or "stronger than all men in their squad". I also encountered several smaller quests with those "evil patriots".

What about the source? Have you read it? With this approach it possible to find plenty of "wokeness" there, take "lodge of sorceressess" alone, what a matriarchal shit is that?

Read all the books twice. Sapkowski had a liberal worldview, whether he knew it or not. Remember he started writing the short stories in mid 80s, when Poland was still the Peoples Republic and the divisions were quite different, than they are today. He probably didn't even realise, some of the ideas and characters would be praised by feminists 40 years later. He was likely just a cuck fantasizing about stronk women dominating him. But whether his views were clearly defined or not, he was a more traditional liberal, not the modern radical raging one.

One problem is everyone's definition of "woke" is different. To some a simple "hey racism is bad bro" is too woke, which is pretty silly. Both sides are way too quick to start whining when confronted by something they don't agree with.

For me it really comes down to writing. Bioware's dumb tranny in Mass Effect was bad because she was like "HEY HOW YA DOIN' I'M TRANS BY THE WAY," which was poorly written and presented. Witcher 3 has very good (video game) writing, so any messages it might be trying to send are more nuanced and well presented in general. The lack of bitching about it here for the most part bears this out. Unless most of their writing staff quit I'm sure Cyberpunk will be equally well presented, though the setting and themes of the game will likely lend themselves to content many here will be against simply existing in the game. The whiny bitching will be epic.

I clearly stated, it is quite subtle in Witcher 3. Cyberpunk is a different story though, the world is in a different place now, and the signals coming from the studio are not good. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not expecting too much restraint in the ideology department.

 

[Semiurge]

No, I didn't claim, having strong women in your game/film is a sign of wokeness. But repeatedly stressing, that wahmen in your game/film are "strong and independent" and capable of "taking care of themselves", especially using those exact "ritualistic" phrases is woke, though. And that is what I noticed in Witcher 3.

The only Czech princesses I know is Arabela, a lady threatened by the best villain in the history of television — Rumburak

I though that pic was from Blackadder.

 

[DalekFlay]

I clearly stated, it is quite subtle in Witcher 3. Cyberpunk is a different story though, the world is in a different place now, and the signals coming from the studio are not good. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not expecting too much restraint in the ideology department.

The "signals" most of you rant about are things like having a diversity manager and tweeting out basic support of things like black lives matter, which every corporation does nowadays. Only possible "warning sign" I've seen is allowing you to make a trans character, but starting you off with a male or female body and then letting you do whatever the fuck you want to it is very in keeping with the setting. So is all manner of debauchery in general. If it ends up being poorly written and agenda driven then you can say "I told you so," but at the moment I think it's typical internet sandy vaginas.

 

[norolim]

I clearly stated, it is quite subtle in Witcher 3. Cyberpunk is a different story though, the world is in a different place now, and the signals coming from the studio are not good. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not expecting too much restraint in the ideology department.

The "signals" most of you rant about are things like having a diversity manager and tweeting out basic support of things like black lives matter, which every corporation does nowadays. Only possible "warning sign" I've seen is allowing you to make a trans character, but starting you off with a male or female body and then letting you do whatever the fuck you want to it is very in keeping with the setting. So is all manner of debauchery in general. If it ends up being poorly written and agenda driven then you can say "I told you so," but at the moment I think it's typical internet sandy vaginas.

The left, most of which is radical these days, has been trying to shut down discussion for a long time now. A mere mention of a problem or dissatisfaction is enough to try and ridicule and accuse people of whining, bitching or ranting. And if that doesn't work, they use stronger weaponized vocabulary. They are hoping people will refrain from voicing their concerns for fear of being aggregated into a common pool of sexists, misogynists or other fascists. This allows the left to preach their increasingly aggressive ideology to the silent masses. Well, this shit doesn't work anymore.

So, here is the thing, commie: you go fuck yourself with your gay tactics, and we continue to discuss, bitch and rant about whatever the fuck we want.

 

[Silverfish]

‘And then what happens?’ continued Avallac’h. ‘The elves, bored with their boring elven women, start to prefer willing human women, and the bored female elf indulged in the perverse curiosity, of the human male who is always full of vigor and strength. And then something happened that no one expected and no one could explain – elves normally only ovulate once every ten to twenty years, but from mating with humans, they began to ovulate with every intense orgasm. It worked with some kind of hidden hormone or combination of hormones. The elven women understood that in practice they could have children only with humans. Its elven women that stopped us from exterminating you when we were stronger. Later you became stronger and you began to exterminate us. But you still had allies among the elven women, They were the party of convenience, cooperation and coexistence… and they did not want to recognize the reality that it was all about copulation.