The Witcher 3 Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Zeriel]

So will we have a spoiler free thread once the game is released?

Trying to keep Codex threads separated between spoiler-free and not spoiler-free isn't something I'm paid enough to enforce. We'll start a new thread for the game's releaes, but hopefully people will be courteous enough to use spoiler tags.

 

[abnaxus]

Get ready to roll

 

[Ulminati]

I'll wait until the repack with the patches, crack and DLC to reach a 1:1 seed/leech ratio

So will we have a spoiler free thread once the game is released?

Just make a spoiler-free thread (or better yet, a "GAME IS RELEASED, SPOILERS GO HERE!" thread) and roll reflex save vs Merge.

 

[Jools]

I played TW1 before reading the books and I enjoyed it a lot despite not having any prior knowledge. The game led me to the books, so I guess it did a pretty good job.

Ditto. Word by word. Then Potatowski decided to fuck up his own universe and go full-retard Twilight style, but the first books are still enormously enjoyable and a big sticky dick in the face of the majority of the newly released fantasy literature out there.

Definitely first two collection of short stories are the best.
Novela on other hand has its ups and downs.

Either way one can't exist without one another imo. Those downs are as important to the overall saga and act as sort of a glue that ties together characters.

Blood of elves isn't particularly interesting for people who read two books before it but after better time of contempt saga then goes into overdrive with Tower of Swallows and imo is as good as first two books. Then slows down and finally goes into interesting but not as good Lady of the Lake.

Surprisingly recently released Season of Storms is awesome as it has more to do with short stories than novel (chronologically it is actually before start of novela)

Short stories are awesome (Last Wish + Sword of Destiny).

Blood of elves is pretty awesome too.
Time of Contempt shows the first signs of derp.
Baptism of Fire goes full-out retard.

People in the knows (who have read either the Potato version or the Putin version of the whole thing, rather than the English half-series currently available) told me the series goes only from worse to fuck, from there.

 

[hivemind]

hmm
guess I'll just go back to the politics forums until I get my hands on the game then

 

[Stainless Veteran]

EDIT: 9 hours left.

Decent countdown!
Alternatively: http://www.isitmay19thyet.com/

(and especially, "who is anticipating the game but hasn't flushed his own self-esteem down the toilet of dweebery so much as to need a fucking countdown?)

I'll definitely wait for the first patch. I hope my PC (i7-5820k, GTX980) would be enough to play comfortably even with CDPR derpy optimization skills even before patching, but then again, any open world game is almost always buggy mess on release, even when produced by devs with experience of making such games. So I'll wait for both optimization and bug elimination. Also I want to beat TW2 at last. Tried two times, always got distracted at the last act and postponed my walkthrough.

 

[Zeriel]

EDIT: 9 hours left.

Decent countdown!
Alternatively: http://www.isitmay19thyet.com/

(and especially, "who is anticipating the game but hasn't flushed his own self-esteem down the toilet of dweebery so much as to need a fucking countdown?)

I'll definitely wait for the first patch. I hope my PC (i7-5820k, GTX980) would be enough even with CDPR derpy optimization skills even before patching, but even then, any open world game is almost always buggy mess on release, even when produced by devs with experience of making such games. So I'll wait for both optimization and bug elimination. Also I want to beat TW2 at last. Tried two times, always got distracted at the last act and postponed my walkthrough.

I originally never beat W2 because I stopped in act 3 thinking it was a long dungeon slog based on the looks of the map, but it actually ends like 10 minutes after you enter the city. Should definitely finish it if you got there.

 

[WhiteGuts]

I played TW1 before reading the books and I enjoyed it a lot despite not having any prior knowledge. The game led me to the books, so I guess it did a pretty good job.

Ditto. Word by word. Then Potatowski decided to fuck up his own universe and go full-retard Twilight style, but the first books are still enormously enjoyable and a big sticky dick in the face of the majority of the newly released fantasy literature out there.

Definitely first two collection of short stories are the best.
Novela on other hand has its ups and downs.

Either way one can't exist without one another imo. Those downs are as important to the overall saga and act as sort of a glue that ties together characters.

Blood of elves isn't particularly interesting for people who read two books before it but after better time of contempt saga then goes into overdrive with Tower of Swallows and imo is as good as first two books. Then slows down and finally goes into interesting but not as good Lady of the Lake.

Surprisingly recently released Season of Storms is awesome as it has more to do with short stories than novel (chronologically it is actually before start of novela)

Short stories are awesome (Last Wish + Sword of Destiny).

Blood of elves is pretty awesome too.
Time of Contempt shows the first signs of derp.
Baptism of Fire goes full-out retard.

People in the knows (who have read either the Potato version or the Putin version of the whole thing, rather than the English half-series currently available) told me the series goes only from worse to fuck, from there.

Leo Bonhart made the last three books or so bearable for me.

 

[Perkel]

People in the knows (who have read either the Potato version or the Putin version of the whole thing, rather than the English half-series currently available) told me the series goes only from worse to fuck, from there.

More like it doesn't climb to first two books quality level.

Tower of Swallows reaches first two books excellence. Bonhart is one of the best characters from witcher universe. Ciri alone in that books transforms from whiny brat to actual character.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Short stories are awesome (Last Wish + Sword of Destiny).

Blood of elves is pretty awesome too.
Time of Contempt shows the first signs of derp.
Baptism of Fire goes full-out retard.

People in the knows (who have read either the Potato version or the Putin version of the whole thing, rather than the English half-series currently available) told me the series goes only from worse to fuck, from there.

Leo Bonhart made the last three books or so bearable for me.

Chrzest ognia wasn't that derpy. Worse than previous books, but perfectly good novel in itself. Wieża Jaskółki and, especially, fucking Pani jeziora, on the other hand... Even Bonart/Ciri storyline can't elevate them.

Coincidentally, what wouldn't I give for Sawyer reading Sapkowski's essays ("Nomen est omen", "Niech się ukaże powierzchnia sucha", "Piróg albo Nie ma złota w Szarych Górach", "Poradnika dla piszących fantasy ciąg dalszy; cz. 2" etc) before making PoE.

 

[Jools]

People in the knows (who have read either the Potato version or the Putin version of the whole thing, rather than the English half-series currently available) told me the series goes only from worse to fuck, from there.

More like it doesn't climb to first two books quality level.

Tower of Swallows reaches first two books excellence. Bonhart is one of the best characters from witcher universe. Ciri alone in that books transforms from whiny brat to actual character.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD

I can't stand Ciri and she doesn't make sense (my favourit WTF bit is when bandit guy tries to rape her, but then bandit girl rapes her instead, and she obviously falls in love with bandit girl... Stockholm 2.0 I guess). Nor does Geralt-turned-soft-hearted-daddy. Nor much else really. Reading the Ciri-in-the-desert sequence was like listening to a 12 hours loop of America's "Horse with No Name" while on LSD, pot and vodka. Then the whole thing veered towards some shit attempt at teenage "bildungsroman", getting very close to Gilmore Girls' levels of derp and cheese. All the while, Geralt was being deconstructed from the inside out and re-built into some brony loser with a Tumblr account. This shit was so intense even the politics and economics and everything else that I had enjoyed about Sapkowski's writing got overshadowed and unable to counter-weight the crap. It was too much to bear, I quit the series and will from now stick to TLW and SOD. Sad times.

 

[MasPingon]

Regis was one of the worst characters ever created. While he jumps in, the saga turns into adventures of circus refugees. Two last books were campy as hell.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Nvidia has released a graphics tweaking guide.

 

[Jools]

Regis was one of the worst characters ever created. While he jumps in the saga turns into adventures of circus refugees.

While Ciri turns the saga into "Temeria Troubled Teenage Asylum".

 

[WhiteGuts]

All the while, Geralt was being deconstructed from the inside out and re-built into some brony loser with a Tumblr account.

Yeah that was bad. There was a scene in the books that still makes me cringe to this very day, where Geralt is being retardedly mocked by his companions for being "too serious". I get what the author tried to do, but he completely missed the target.

I also hated Ciri the drug-fueled-psycho-lesbian.

 

[MasPingon]

Nvidia has released a graphics tweaking guide.

I'm just going to pretend I didn't see that.

 

[Sam Ecorners]

My CE sold for $405 on ebay. I guess I'll buy me a 970 now and get the game for free.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic Aberration is an age-old visual artifact associated with cheaper camera lenses and improperly taken photos. In recent years however, Chromatic Aberration has grown popular with game developers, much to the dismay of gamers who prefer cleaner images free of unsightly distortion. In the context of a photographer, or a security guard viewing the game world through a cheap camera, its use might make sense, but when playing in first or third person it merely suggests a trip to the optician is in order.

Thankfully, CD Projekt RED has made Chromatic Aberration an optional effect in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, ensuring a clean, clear image is obtainable. When enabled, it distorts the picture slightly, but no where near the extent seen in other games featuring the effect. This doesn't really come through on screenshots, however.

:D

 

[Infinitron]

"Chromatic Aberration" sounds like a type of D&D monster

 

[Jools]

All the while, Geralt was being deconstructed from the inside out and re-built into some brony loser with a Tumblr account.

Yeah that was bad. There was a scene in the books that still makes me cringe to this very day, where Geralt is being retardedly mocked by his companions for being "too serious". I get what the author tired to do, but he completely missed the target.

I also hated Ciri the drug-fueled-psycho-lesbian.

In fact, The Witcher has probably been my greatest literary disappointment so far, and gets the cake for "most wasted potential", by far. No other series got me hooked up so badly and then slapped me in the face with giant flaming turds so hard. When I approach most fantasy series I always expect tragedy and inanity, but the 180 degree turn taken by TW was something completely new for me. Fantasy series usually start mediocre/tolerable and go shit (eg: Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect series), or start shit and go even more shit (eg: Lisa Smedman, Lady Penitent Trilogy). Some start great and go mediocre towards the end (eg: Lukyanenko's The Watch series). Not even those Dragonlance Chronicles (Weiss/Hickman) sported such a large gap between "initial potential" and "followup shit" as The Witcher saga does (short stories are genuinely 9/10, saga starts at 8/10 and drops 3 points per book).

 

[Jools]

"Chromatic Aberration" sounds like a type of D&D monster

LOL it totally does.

 

[DeepOcean]

Wot? People are saying Witcha 1 plot was better than Witcha 2? What witcha 1 potato fans mean by Witcha 1 being more loyal to the books? The atmosphere? Art style? The music? Because if it is the plot, the potato books must be awful then because Witcha 1 plot is just random, comic book style bullshit. It is a game where a criminal organization steal Witchas mutagens to create supermutants to survive an ice age on the future, if someone said to me they got that from a Captain America comic book, I would easily believe on that. Roll simulator 2 dialog flow, pacing, characterization and plot are way better than Witcha 1.

 

[Nomad_Blizz]

I'll hold off playing W3 until I've completed another plowthrough of W2. Why? To get myself in the mood for W3 of course. Also, these days developers suck and need a number of patches to fix all the bugs (gamebreaking or otherwise).

 

[Sam Ecorners]

Last Witcher saga book was just like last season of BSG: pants on head retarded.

 

[Ultra]

not trying to be a cunt but if your biggest literary disappointment is shitty genre fiction for young adults maybe you should broaden your reading

The Nvidia performance guide is pretty bullish:

"it's entirely possible that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be crowned as the best ever RPG."