The Witcher 3

The final expansion, Blood and Wine, is rumored to release within the next month. Hearts of Stone wasn't bad. This one sounds like it will put that one to shame.

https://www.vg247.com/2016/04/28/th...skellige-isles-combined-to-release-before-e3/

Blood and Wine officially confirmed for release on May 31st.

Looks really good. Article with vid at the link:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-blood-and-wines-unique-monsters-and-/1100-6439757/

My daughter and her boyfriend did a flute/piano cover music video of Geralt of Rivia to celebrate the release of Blood and Wine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGy9-TAjfPw

If you like it, please share on social media. Whatever proceeds from ad revenue they make goes towards producing their next cover video.

Blood and Wine has been well worth the $20 cost for this DLC. I've gotten about 25 hours of content out of it, and I haven't even done all of the small side missions. It's visually stunning, too, with very pretty landscapes, especially in the "fairy tale" chapter (which is one of the most bizarrely cool levels of the entire game).

If you liked Witcher 3, I strongly recommend getting this last expansion.

Hey everyone, I'm just playing the game right now. Loving it, the dark and sexy yet unbearably cheesy world of the Witcher is my jam. Does anyone want to talk about what happens the the bog? I just went out of my way to free the spirit in the tree, based on the premise that letting children get eaten is not ok and those crones were seriously getting in my craw. Did not go well, as some of you might be aware, a little traumatized by the outcome.

EDIT- Still having intense guilt after taking a night to think about it. I tend to always pick the 'bleeding heart' option in games like this, usually knowing things don't always work out how you want them to. Don't care much about the baron, he had his moments but was not the wise, compassionate ruler you'd want him to be. Didn't like much the way that dude hanging out by his corpse spoke of 'big changes coming'. From the way the baron's men behave, I can't imagine anything good is gonna come of that. Still, I understand even if he lives the baron leaves Velen anyways. And besides, if homeboy is ready to off himself that easily, I can't imagine he's really the TCB hardass he claims to be, even if he does keep his men (somewhat, but not really) in line. Hopefully with no legitimacy, those thugs will not find it so easy to rape and pillage as they used to, even if things don't get better immediately. And as much as I want to reload, I'm just not ok with baby-eating, and surprisingly at ease about a horsey Elder God running on the loose. Sorry for the rant (and spoilers), I doubt this is the only time I'm gonna go through this in my playthrough.

ooh, that last little bit there got my attention. Which friend of Geralt's would I possibly trust? Certainly not anyone with 'ennifer' in their name. Went to Fyke Island already, happy to assist & booty call Kiera with her slippery ethics, sent her on her way with the plague research and didn't think twice about it.

I always like the way these games force you to think about these issue & what your definition of 'the right thing' is. I don't regret letting the demon mare escape one bit, just like I'm the only person in the world who happily took the 'green door' ending from Mass Effect 3 . CD Projekt's outlook reminds me a little of Joe Abercrombie's particular cynicism, more focused on human awfulness & chaos as a driving factor in our lives as opposed to a more grandiose sense of tragedy. As someone who's become fascinated with Polish culture & history, I wonder about how much this informs the game. Also, the noir element of the game is a big selling point for me, I can see all the Sam Spade comparisons now. We shall see where this goes...

Well, that explains why that review drew so much blowback. Just like with the last game, CD Projekt takes it's own approach, one that sometime fails, sometimes succeeds, but all in all adds up to an awesome game and a unique experience. And I suspect Polygon will be eating crow for saying that for some time to come.

You talked earlier in the thread about only being able to hook up with certain characters, they probably wanted to keep consistent with Geralt's 'awesome heterosexual male awesomeness', I wouldn't fault them for it necessarily, but it'd be funny, and as far as I'm concerned in character, to get Geralt some male hookups. We all know the dude's straight, but he's nearly a hundred and has shtupped every hot sorceress available. Maybe he'd want to try something new for a change, maybe he'd find out he enjoys it.

Yeah, hear dat. Gwent is highly addictive, and I'm not gonna start on my 'Witcher and women' thoughts. The Eastern European vibe was something that got me hooked, all those lovely painted beams and crumbling brick buildings, swamps, trade cities, wood-carved idols and such. Would've liked the game even more if they had szlachta and hussars. Hadn't heard 'Popiel', though I'm gonna be reading that real soon.

Anyways, I'm liable to spin off on a tangent that'll get moved to the SF/F thread, but in general the Polish & Slavic touches are far more interesting to me than elves and dwarves and whatever. I'd love to see a fantasy game that does away with those tired cliches all together. I know everyone loves playing as an elf and all, but the whole formula for a while has been 'gritty Tolkien'. I don't even know if I'd consider the Witcher inaccessibly Polish anyhow, tons of pop culture references, aforementioned Tolkienism, many of the fairy tale shoutouts are well-known, and finally, Geralt's noir detective personality.

Big fan of the witcher series here. Finally got around to reading the books too.

So many things I like about the series, but skimming through the thread I do not believe I saw much mention of how unbelievably amazing W3's soundtrack is outside of the cover posted above (very lovely btw). All the games have good soundtracks, but W3 just hits the spot for me. Was really happy to see the GOG version provide the soundtrack for free in both flac and mp3. Witcher in general also has some of my favorite writing, whether it's for the characters or the world itself. I would say it's my favorite story-telling in a game since Thief 1 & 2. Funnily enough though, after all this time I still can't be bothered with gwent. Just ain't my thing.

Aw, Gwent is my jam! Don't know how many of you young folk remember a little thing called Triple Triad, memories of standing in SEED hallways for hours, no interest in going outside and playing the game. Agree about the music, lovely, lovely, lovely. Maybe the best. Ditto on the writing, though there are any number of those narm moments carrying over from the last game. Don't know where I come down vs. Dragon Age on the characters, though I haven't decided, don't flamewars me please!

Any thoughts on the books as you're reading them? Worth it?

Kjbartolotta said:

Don't know how many of you young folk remember a little thing called Triple Triad, memories of standing in SEED hallways for hours, no interest in going outside and playing the game.

Click to expand...

Heh, I remember Final Fantasy VIII. They also put Triple Triad in Final Fantasy XIV. Unfortunately, I really do not like FF8 as a game. IX was always more my jam, and it had a card game as well. IX is my favorite FF in general and has my favorite cast of characters in the series. 8, along with 7, I just never cared for.

Kjbartolotta said:

Any thoughts on the books as you're reading them? Worth it?

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If you like the Witcher I'd say so. Especially since all the games take place after the books, and you can read about how Geralt met all those characters and learn about the events they reference in the games.

On a side note about Dragon Age, I really do not like Inquistion at all. I thought the first game in the series was alright though, especially since it was nice playing a classic styled PC rpg for the first time in years. I still think Jade Empire was Bioware's best game, but that's probably just cause I love wuxia stuff and asian mythology and what not.

Know this thread's mostly gone quiet, but hey, I'm still playing it and there's lots to think about. Just dumped Yen, surprisingly painful, and just like in real life I hem and haw, put off the inevitable, and say all the wrong stuff to try and preserve her feelings. Ugh, had to go trawl Skellege for treasure a while to clear my head. Still happy to take the Triss direction, even though the game seems to want to push you towards Yen (and I know this a flame-worthy topic, approaching xbox/ps or trump/hillary level).

I didn't care for Yen at all at first, started warming up to her and clearly she's got some good to her and loves Geralt quite a bit. But all that running hot-and-cold affection is too much for me, and twenty years is a long time to work things out. And Triss, with her independence, compassion, and red hair, reminds me of the person IRL I plan to spend the rest of my life with. So that's why I went team Triss, still painful. But, off to Kaer Morhen and game is winding down for me. I expect there won't be any other difficult decisions to make in the end-game, right? Smooth sailing from here? Right...?

Anyone here also read the books?

I enjoyed the books, but I enjoyed the game even more.

What do you think about the TV series? Season 2 should be coming out in 2021.