The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat May 16, 2015 12:11 am

I thought I bought this at GoG for the discount and stuff but I got an email from Best Buy today that said my copy in Steelbook had shipped.....weird.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon May 18, 2015 11:09 am

Frost wrote:
Octavious wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
TheMix wrote:
Octavious wrote:As I haven't even beat the 1st one I refuse to buy this. I have both 1 and 2 still to play.
Ditto. And I've started the 1st one three times...
Just based on what I have seen, I think this is a pretty big change in gameplay and you could probably skip the first two especially if you enjoy other open world fantasy games. I am not sure I could play the first one again these days.

I just looked at the minimum specs and I am right on the line. I thought my PC was better than that! It's time to shop.
I really disliked the combat in the first one. Maybe I should just skip to the second. It drives me nuts as I should love these games.

The first one had a great story, but i never loved the combat either, but played to the end just for the story.

Witcher 2 solved all my issues and was more more action oriented with its combat. If the combat in Witcher 1 is that big a turnoff for you, then skip it and just play Witcher 2. If I remember correctly, decisions you made in Witcher 2 will affect gameplay in Witcher 3, right?

I installed the 1st one last night. Still hate the combat, but I've never even made it out of the starter area with the hounds.

I'm on the boss fight now and if after that it doesn't start click I'm going to skip to the second one. This one is a bit long in the tooth with some of the gfx anyway. How much am I going to be lost if I skip to the second?

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Mon May 18, 2015 11:18 am

Octavious wrote:I installed the 1st one last night. Still hate the combat, but I've never even made it out of the starter area with the hounds. I'm on the boss fight now and if after that it doesn't start click I'm going to skip to the second one. This one is a bit long in the tooth with some of the gfx anyway. How much am I going to be lost if I skip to the second?

Oh, not much. Just one of the best plot twists in the history of video games. No sweat.

A friend of mine played through the first game recently to prepare himself for The Witcher 3 (he's also playing the second, I believe). I had told him that the story would pay off in a big way, without going into specifics. Before he reached the end he wasn't really feeling it, but once he actually finished the story his opinion turned around completely.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon May 18, 2015 11:28 am

Yeah, I think the original Witcher was one of the first games I finally realized my old-man brain just couldn't handle what they wanted me to do. I've since learned dialing down the difficulty to wiener mode just lets me enjoy the story and get on with finishing things. I know the first game was still a difficult learning curve because of how combat worked, but I've given up struggling with games that have a worthwhile story.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon May 18, 2015 12:37 pm

Maybe I should do that. I tried the boss fight like 4 times last night and just shut it off. I have no patience for the combat in this particular game. Dark Souls I could try like 100 times and be fine with it.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Mon May 18, 2015 2:15 pm

Octavious wrote: I installed the 1st one last night. Still hate the combat, but I've never even made it out of the starter area with the hounds. I'm on the boss fight now and if after that it doesn't start click I'm going to skip to the second one. This one is a bit long in the tooth with some of the gfx anyway. How much am I going to be lost if I skip to the second?

I'd skip to the second one. It took me until about halfway through the game that the combat finally started to click with me, and that was moreso due to the accumulated skills along the way. I feel the beginning of the game to be the hardest part of the game, due to the fact that you pretty have nothing, but it does get easier as you progress.

I'm having a lot more fun with the second one. Combat flows better, IMO.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Mon May 18, 2015 2:18 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Yeah, I think the original Witcher was one of the first games I finally realized my old-man brain just couldn't handle what they wanted me to do. I've since learned dialing down the difficulty to wiener mode just lets me enjoy the story and get on with finishing things. I know the first game was still a difficult learning curve because of how combat worked, but I've given up struggling with games that have a worthwhile story.

This pretty much sums up how I approach all games these days. The trend towards Dark Souls-ish levels of difficulty is completely lost on me.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon May 18, 2015 2:22 pm

Rumpy wrote:
Octavious wrote: I installed the 1st one last night. Still hate the combat, but I've never even made it out of the starter area with the hounds. I'm on the boss fight now and if after that it doesn't start click I'm going to skip to the second one. This one is a bit long in the tooth with some of the gfx anyway. How much am I going to be lost if I skip to the second?

I'd skip to the second one. It took me until about halfway through the game that the combat finally started to click with me, and that was moreso due to the accumulated skills along the way. I feel the beginning of the game to be the hardest part of the game, due to the fact that you pretty have nothing, but it does get easier as you progress.

I'm having a lot more fun with the second one. Combat flows better, IMO.

I figure I have to at least make it past the first area. If I'm still not feeling it after that I'm giving up. This is like my 4th or 5th attempt.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon May 18, 2015 2:24 pm

Skinypupy wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:Yeah, I think the original Witcher was one of the first games I finally realized my old-man brain just couldn't handle what they wanted me to do. I've since learned dialing down the difficulty to wiener mode just lets me enjoy the story and get on with finishing things. I know the first game was still a difficult learning curve because of how combat worked, but I've given up struggling with games that have a worthwhile story.
This pretty much sums up how I approach all games these days. The trend towards Dark Souls-ish levels of difficulty is completely lost on me.

Dark Souls is about exploring and challenging yourself. The story is pretty much pointless. I get why people wouldn't like it, but I haven't played anything that is more satisfying than that series. I have well over 200 hours into those game if you add them all up.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon May 18, 2015 2:29 pm

The first area of the original Witcher is way unbalanced and very, very hard - it was one of the major complaints of the game when it was first released. Unless you explore every inch of the initial map and talk to everyone you won't have potions, oils and information necessary to kill the first boss creature easily. I think on the default difficulty using potions and oils is recommended. On the hardest, it's necessary. On the easiest, it doesn't matter. Regardless,the game rewards exploration though information, gear and leveling up. In other games they're literally "side quests". In the original Witcher, I don't think they were optional if you wanted to have any fighting advantage. YMMV.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Mon May 18, 2015 2:52 pm

Smoove_B wrote: On the easiest, it doesn't matter.

Oh, but see, that was my downfall with the final boss. I was playing it on easy, which was hard enough for me, and had never bothered with potions and oils. Yet the final boss pretty much makes that mandatory even on easy, which the game plainly tells you before the fight and I had managed to put myself into a corner and gave up. Not one, but 3 bosses, one after the other with no way to recover because hey, remember I didn't focus on potions. Game rules changing on you is BS, and I've seen this kind of thing happening on more than one occasion. Another one that comes to mind is Two Worlds II. The ending to that is just throwing all your skills away into a game of chance with a dragon.

Frost · Post by **Frost** » Mon May 18, 2015 4:15 pm

Octavious wrote:
Rumpy wrote:
Octavious wrote: I installed the 1st one last night. Still hate the combat, but I've never even made it out of the starter area with the hounds. I'm on the boss fight now and if after that it doesn't start click I'm going to skip to the second one. This one is a bit long in the tooth with some of the gfx anyway. How much am I going to be lost if I skip to the second?

I'd skip to the second one. It took me until about halfway through the game that the combat finally started to click with me, and that was moreso due to the accumulated skills along the way. I feel the beginning of the game to be the hardest part of the game, due to the fact that you pretty have nothing, but it does get easier as you progress.

I'm having a lot more fun with the second one. Combat flows better, IMO.
I figure I have to at least make it past the first area. If I'm still not feeling it after that I'm giving up. This is like my 4th or 5th attempt.

If all else fails, you could probably get away with just reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witche ... eo_game%29 to fill in some gaps.

e1123 · Post by **e1123** » Mon May 18, 2015 6:01 pm

Bought it on Amazon and got it early. Playing on PS4 and it looks great. Control feels a little floaty. Font size is breaking my eyes.

Frost · Post by **Frost** » Mon May 18, 2015 6:31 pm

It's LIVE! Steam version is running right now on my pc.

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Mon May 18, 2015 7:11 pm

still locked on the XB1

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon May 18, 2015 7:46 pm

IceBear wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:The same discount is on STEAM if both games are in your library. And somehow I missed the official system requirements:

Minimum:

Intel i5-2500K 3.3GHz
AMD Phenom II X4 940
GeForce GTX 660
Radeon HD 7870
RAM 6GB
64-bit Win 7/Win 8(8.1)
DX11
HDD 40 GB

Recommended:

Intel i7 3770 3,4 GHz
AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
GeForce GTX 770
Radeon R9 290
RAM 8GB
OS 64-bit Win 7/Win 8 (8.1)
DX11
HDD 40 GB
And just like that, my video card (Radeon 7850) is knocked right the hell out. Considering I haven't even finished the second one, I guess I can't really complain.
Another game where my CPU is letting me down. I really need to upgrade, but just can't afford it right now

Mine as well, but considering how much I hated the combat in 2, I'm not particularly heartbroken.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon May 18, 2015 8:45 pm

BB says my order will be here tomorrow. I still dont know why I ordered from BB instead of GoG other than maybe for the steelbox and having a physical copy.

neofit · Post by **neofit** » Tue May 19, 2015 1:32 am

I wish I could find a review by someone who didn't like the first two. AFAIC they both felt mostly like a slightly interactive movie, with all the invisible barriers, and mostly #2 with it incessant cutscenes, even during arena boss fights, all on top of a rather asinine story (I'm a security expert who mistook the incredible hulk for a gandalf, and who better than someone with my judgement to fix it

). I didn't find the combat as bad as other people here find it is, but it didn't make up for the constant feeling of quests being just a diversion between two plot cutscenes. "OK, you can now go and kill a few wolves or whatever now, maybe even help this guy find whatever, but then you'll have to go speak to this guy, then run away to that other location and speak to that other one, and then maybe we'll let you do more things by yourself". These are the only two RPGs of that kind that I never finished. Anyway, when they say that they made a huge open world game, I hear "more and longer cutscenes"

. I think that this time I'll be wiser than usual and will wait for the opinion of someone who got bored with the first two, or at least the second one, otherwise I'll wait for a Steam sale.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue May 19, 2015 3:55 am

I dont know why someone who disliked the first two games would even buy the third one to review it.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Tue May 19, 2015 4:01 am

neofit wrote:I wish I could find a review by someone who didn't like the first two. AFAIC they both felt mostly like a slightly interactive movie, with all the invisible barriers, and mostly #2 with it incessant cutscenes, even during arena boss fights, all on top of a rather asinine story (I'm a security expert who mistook the incredible hulk for a gandalf, and who better than someone with my judgement to fix it ). I didn't find the combat as bad as other people here find it is, but it didn't make up for the constant feeling of quests being just a diversion between two plot cutscenes. "OK, you can now go and kill a few wolves or whatever now, maybe even help this guy find whatever, but then you'll have to go speak to this guy, then run away to that other location and speak to that other one, and then maybe we'll let you do more things by yourself". These are the only two RPGs of that kind that I never finished. Anyway, when they say that they made a huge open world game, I hear "more and longer cutscenes" . I think that this time I'll be wiser than usual and will wait for the opinion of someone who got bored with the first two, or at least the second one, otherwise I'll wait for a Steam sale.

Yeah if you dont liek the first 2 why would you like the 3rd, they seem to drop reasonably quickly in price give it a few months and pick it up cheap.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue May 19, 2015 8:36 am

In case anyone else is having trouble figuring out what "Simulate Witcher 2 Save" meant, choosing ON (or yes) gets you a question and answer session at some point early in the game in which you can select what happened in Witcher 2. It's for those who either don't have a Witcher 2 save game to import, or are playing on a console. If you choose OFF (or no), the game will select default options and you'll be none the wiser.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Tue May 19, 2015 8:45 am

I only got to play for about 45 minutes last night. From pre-load to gameplay took about a half hour of hard drive grinding... maybe I do need an SSD.

Anyway, I didn't get to see enough to judge the game in any way. Lots of mostly brief cutscenes and some conversation with a lot of tutorial mixed in up to this point.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Tue May 19, 2015 8:46 am

Daehawk wrote:I dont know why someone who disliked the first two games would even buy the third one to review it.

I wasn't crazy about the first two games (played each halfway through before getting bored and/or frustrated), but based on all the stellar reviews I still decided to give this one a shot. I thought the first two games were *this* close to being fantastic, but had a whole host of issues big and small that absolutely bugged the hell out of me. I'm hoping they got the mix right this time. By all accounts, it sounds like they did.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Tue May 19, 2015 8:50 am

Skinypupy wrote:
Daehawk wrote:I dont know why someone who disliked the first two games would even buy the third one to review it.
I wasn't crazy about the first two games (played each halfway through before getting bored and/or frustrated), but based on all the stellar reviews I still decided to give this one a shot.

Some day I may be in the same boat. I tried one of these games (maybe the first?) and just got fed up with sloppy controls and obtuse goals. I think I walked away from it when I had to use bells to defeat something pretty early on, but I didn't realize I needed to and just kept getting slaughtered.

Every iteration in a series is different, though, and this game looks beautiful. I may give it a whirl.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Tue May 19, 2015 11:39 am

Haven't spent much time on it, but I'm loving what I see so far. It actually gives me a bit of a Skyrim vibe with the open world exploration and even the UI and menus.

Runs very well on my older Radeon 7800. No stuttering and relatively high (not ultra) settings. Loads up fast and transitions are speedy on a regular HD.

Edit: Found a list of Witcher 3 Tips and Tricks from Reddit.

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Tue May 19, 2015 12:36 pm

I've played about an hour, enjoying it so far.

Playing on a laptop, 17-4710hq, 16 gig ram, GTX970m. Settings all on High with HBAO and hairworks thingy switched on,

Screenie for people.

hud

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Tue May 19, 2015 8:35 pm

Reemul wrote:I've played about an hour, enjoying it so far.

Playing on a laptop, 17-4710hq, 16 gig ram, GTX970m. Settings all on High with HBAO and hairworks thingy switched on,

Screenie for people.

hud

Not making a judgement on the quality of that at all but just wanted to say it looks like your character is riding around in a loading screen. Almost like the vegetation is painted.

I expect it was mostly in motion and it translates differently to a static SS.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed May 20, 2015 1:12 am

e1123 wrote:Bought it on Amazon and got it early. Playing on PS4 and it looks great. Control feels a little floaty. Font size is breaking my eyes.

NO KIDDING! The fonts are SO SMALL, even on a decent sized TV.

I hope they will update this, in some cases it is ridiculously small and unreadable unless you get up and get near to the television.

Otherwise, I am finding the combat much improved, the game world a bit more vibrant, and the atmosphere more fun. That being said, since my last unsuccessful foray into beating the Witcher 2, I have read most of the books, so I think I have a much better grasp on the game world and appreciate it far more.

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Wed May 20, 2015 2:04 am

baelthazar wrote:That being said, since my last unsuccessful foray into beating the Witcher 2, I have read most of the books, so I think I have a much better grasp on the game world and appreciate it far more.

The game throws references to the books at you in ways that non-readers won't even notice is there. The one that got me yesterday was Yennefer's letter starting with "Dear friend". That one had me chuckling for a good while. For those who haven't read the books, Yennefer is teasing Geralt because of a letter he wrote to her once while they were a couple. He agonized over the wording for a while before finally settling for the hopeless "Dear friend" as an introduction, to which Yennefer replied with an exaggerated letter containing numerous references to Geralt being her "dear friend" too, much to his annoyance. That she's still using that as an introduction shows that she's never going to let him forget it.

neofit · Post by **neofit** » Wed May 20, 2015 3:53 am

Daehawk wrote:I dont know why someone who disliked the first two games would even buy the third one to review it.

Because CDP is like spending millions advertising this game as a different, open world game. And the first two were anything but. So part of me is hoping that this one is indeed different, it's not like games like the TES'es and DA's are as common as pixelart crap on Steam

.

-----

There is a short "First Impressions" article on RPS, where I found a rather disturbing sentence:

Probably my favourite thing about the game so far though is that it actually feels like the Witcher experience rather than just an RPG – both in Geralt’s refusal to sort out a griffin plaguing the small starting village until someone stumps up to put a contract out on it, and the general displeasure of just about everyone he sees – something he often makes worse for himself with exactly the wrong smartass comment to exactly the wrong person.

So we have no choice? I mean other games at least give us the illusion of choice. Sure, nobody answers "No, I don't want your quest", almost nobody "Screw you old bat, I'm on a "jerk" playthrough". And here we just tag along while Geralt does his own playthrough, just like in the previous iterations?

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Wed May 20, 2015 5:14 am

neofit wrote:
Daehawk wrote:I dont know why someone who disliked the first two games would even buy the third one to review it.
Because CDP is like spending millions advertising this game as a different, open world game. And the first two were anything but. So part of me is hoping that this one is indeed different, it's not like games like the TES'es and DA's are as common as pixelart crap on Steam .

-----

There is a short "First Impressions" article on RPS, where I found a rather disturbing sentence:

Probably my favourite thing about the game so far though is that it actually feels like the Witcher experience rather than just an RPG – both in Geralt’s refusal to sort out a griffin plaguing the small starting village until someone stumps up to put a contract out on it, and the general displeasure of just about everyone he sees – something he often makes worse for himself with exactly the wrong smartass comment to exactly the wrong person.
So we have no choice? I mean other games at least give us the illusion of choice. Sure, nobody answers "No, I don't want your quest", almost nobody "Screw you old bat, I'm on a "jerk" playthrough". And here we just tag along while Geralt does his own playthrough, just like in the previous iterations?

No you have chocies, multiple ones at time, you can give teh smart arse Geralt reply if you like or choose something else.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Wed May 20, 2015 8:31 am

baelthazar wrote:
e1123 wrote:Bought it on Amazon and got it early. Playing on PS4 and it looks great. Control feels a little floaty. Font size is breaking my eyes.
NO KIDDING! The fonts are SO SMALL, even on a decent sized TV.

I hope they will update this, in some cases it is ridiculously small and unreadable unless you get up and get near to the television.

Thought it was just my old eyes having trouble...glad to hear it's not just me.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed May 20, 2015 8:52 am

Maybe I should have gone with the console version. My PC is bare minimum specs and the game kept giving me low memory warnings last night (then I noticed my sone had Minecraft running under his account eating 2GB. Once I kicked him off the warnings went away, but it has me itching to upgrade. Hopefully the font size wouldn't bother me on the console (I play on a 9 foot screen

).

I am still super-duper early in the game, like less than 2 hours played and maybe 3 quests completed (still level 1), but I am enjoying it and like the possibilities I see. My one big complaint is how ridiculous the swimming controls are (using an xbox controller). I really hope there isn't a lot more swimming through underground caves because that was incredibly frustrating.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed May 20, 2015 8:56 am

coopasonic wrote:Maybe I should have gone with the console version.

Article from this morning suggests maybe that's not a good idea either:

The report says that both versions share the same asset quality, lighting, and alpha effects. The PS4 versions runs at capped 30fps, with v-sync engaged. However, the Xbox One version doesn’t cap its frame-rate, and could go as high as 40fps. While this may seem like an advantage to the PS4 version, both version don’t end up delivering “smooth” frame-rate overall.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed May 20, 2015 9:01 am

I get hiccups in some cutscenes that I would attribute to still having one of them mechanical magnetic storage devices your parents used, but otherwise the gameplay is smooth (with settings on low). I am guessing the console visuals are better than what I am seeing on low (i5-750, GTX 660 Ti, 8GB). My birthday is next week, I can get away with buying myself some upgrades.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed May 20, 2015 12:17 pm

Smoove_B wrote:
coopasonic wrote:Maybe I should have gone with the console version.
Article from this morning suggests maybe that's not a good idea either:

The report says that both versions share the same asset quality, lighting, and alpha effects. The PS4 versions runs at capped 30fps, with v-sync engaged. However, the Xbox One version doesn’t cap its frame-rate, and could go as high as 40fps. While this may seem like an advantage to the PS4 version, both version don’t end up delivering “smooth” frame-rate overall.

To be totally honest, I rarely notice a framerate issue when playing the game on the PS4. During some cutscenes, you get some slight stutter here and there, but the majority of gameplay feels smooth. I think it could be improved, yes, and I was surprised that they locked this at 30 when I swear I read they were shooting for 60 FPS on the PS4. The biggest benefit of the PS4 is the full 1080 resolution, which runs better on my PS4 than my slightly aging PC would have run it.

The font size is a bigger problem for me. That has to be fixed. From the PC version pics, it looks like the fonts there are also sort of small.

Apparently Kotaku also noticed this:
http://kotaku.com/the-witcher-3-s-tiny- ... 705783946#

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 20, 2015 12:54 pm

baelthazar wrote: The font size is a bigger problem for me. That has to be fixed. From the PC version pics, it looks like the fonts there are also sort of small.

If you're playing on a PS4, go to SETTINGS and then click on ACCESSIBILITY. Enable the zoom option by placing a check in its box. Start the game, and when you're having trouble reading something due to font size, press the PS4 button and the square button. It will zoom in and allow you to scroll around. You can't do anything else while zoomed, but it does give you a workaround for the small fonts they used.

Hopefully they'll add an option for larger fonts in a future patch though.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed May 20, 2015 1:23 pm

coopasonic wrote:I get hiccups in some cutscenes that I would attribute to still having one of them mechanical magnetic storage devices your parents used, but otherwise the gameplay is smooth (with settings on low). I am guessing the console visuals are better than what I am seeing on low (i5-750, GTX 660 Ti, 8GB). My birthday is next week, I can get away with buying myself some upgrades.

That's not low end, that's below minimum requirements from what I read (I am in the same boat), but I have to say that I am surprised at how well it runs on my below min requirements machine. Hopefully I will squeeze in an upgrade this summer

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Wed May 20, 2015 1:42 pm

Yeah, I hope they fix the font issue cause dealing with crafting menus is a pain

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed May 20, 2015 1:58 pm

IceBear wrote:
coopasonic wrote:I get hiccups in some cutscenes that I would attribute to still having one of them mechanical magnetic storage devices your parents used, but otherwise the gameplay is smooth (with settings on low). I am guessing the console visuals are better than what I am seeing on low (i5-750, GTX 660 Ti, 8GB). My birthday is next week, I can get away with buying myself some upgrades.
That's not low end, that's below minimum requirements from what I read (I am in the same boat), but I have to say that I am surprised at how well it runs on my below min requirements machine. Hopefully I will squeeze in an upgrade this summer

Yeah, I was just looking at i5 and 660, not realizing I had an ancient i5. Hence this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=90620