DVD Talk Forum - The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015

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- - The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/video-game-talk/620462-witcher-3-may-19-2015-ps4-xbo-pc.html)

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Less than a week for what's essentially a brand new Witcher game!
Where's the hype, you assholes!

Some reviews (all through the roof positive)

IGN - 9/0

Eurogamer - "exceptional"

Gamespot - "in progress"

PC Gamer - 94/100

Destructoid - 9/10

Videogamer - 9/10

Gamepressure - 10/10

:jawdrop:

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

I'm about 50 hours into Witcher 3 and still loving it.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

I started a new game plus on the harder difficulty, but then stopped right at the beginning. I think I'm going to have to dust it off and play again. Do I need to finish the game before I can jump into the DLC?

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by spainlinx0 (Post 12810846)

Do I need to finish the game before I can jump into the DLC?

No, they just show up as a new mission on a bounty board.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

New 1.20 patch soon - lots of stuff (likely includes Blood & Wine too)

Quote:

Improvements

Adds book titled 'A Miraculous Guide to Gwent' which displays number of gwent cards missing from player's base-game collection and information on where to find them, thus facilitating completion of achievement titled Collect 'Em All. Tome in question can be obtained either from gwent playing scholar in Prologue or from merchant near St. Gregory's Bridge in Gildorf district of Novigrad.
Adds option to display herb names above available interactions.
Adds option in Options/Gameplay to enable enemy level upscaling. If foes are too easy to defeat due to level difference, upscaling will render them a challenge. Change will not affect experience point gain, loot, or quest rewards. Option can be enabled or disabled at any time, even during combat (however, Vitality/Essence of foes is then fully restored).
Adds option in Options/Gameplay to disable automatic drawing and sheathing of sword.
Increases incidence of, and thus chances of finding, several monster-based ingredients required for crafting high level alchemy formulae.
Improves Player Statistics panel, adding maneuverable Geralt model. Improves visuals in panel for better readability.
Adds new functionality to books and scrolls. When first collected, they can be read immediately using single button without need of navigating to Inventory panel. All found but not yet read books and scrolls are stored in Quest Items and Other categories. Once read, books and scrolls can be sold as their content is saved in Books section of Glossary.
Improves overall visuals in Character Development panel.
Improves Inventory whereby items are divided into additional subcategories within their grids: weapons and armor; oils, potions and bombs; quest items and others; food and equestrian gear; crafting and alchemy. Additionally, introduces redesign of tooltips enabling their resizing with single button. Also, item comparison is easier than ever given addition of summary of changes in stats.
Improves Inventory navigation when using gamepad. Slots are divided into sections and right stick can be used to jump between them.
Improves Crafting panel in merchant shops. Adds option to purchase missing diagram components directly from Crafting panel when talking to merchant, as well as clearer descriptions and option to resize item descriptions.
Introduces redesign of Repair panel in merchant shops. Adds single button enabling players to repair all equipped items.
Improves Remove Upgrade panel in merchant shops.
Improves Quick Access Menu whereby it can be accessed in one of two modes, with action either paused or slowed depending on button used.
Adds functionality whereby crossbow bolts can be switched via Quick Access Menu rather than being equipped from Inventory.
Adds counter for bombs and crossbow bolts to Quick Access Menu.
Improves region maps by adding pin filtering, more intuitive quest tracking, and a region overview for faster navigation.
Adds three new custom pins allowing players to mark areas for future reference.
Improves Adrenaline Bar which better displays number of stored Adrenaline Points and their status.
Improves display and behavior of Buffs, displayed in more intuitive manner showing time left, strength percentage, stacks, charges, or permanence where applicable. Buff icons now blink for approx. 10 seconds before expiration. For improved visibility, names and exact expiration times for all effects are only visible when Quick Access menu is active.
Changes icons for decoctions, rendering them recognizable at first glance.
Changes icons for oils, rendering them recognizable at first glance.
Changes gwent card icons in shops, rendering factions recognizable at first glance.
Changes icons for mutagens.
Adds feature whereby equipment exceeding player character level can be previewed on character.
Improves sorting in Journal whereby active quest tab is always open and tracked quest is at top of quest list.
Improves quest item visuals so that Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine quest items are now tagged with blue and red exclamation points, respectively.

-Gwent-

Quest titled Collect 'Em All is now marked as failed if player does not succeed in collecting Milva, Vampire Bruxa and Dandelion gwent cards during gwent tournament in quest titled A Matter of Life and Death.

-Visual-

Fixes PC-specific issue whereby there was no change in appearance between Nvidia Hairworks 3-day beard (stage 2) and full beard (stage 4).
Fixes issue whereby Geralt's clothing was not properly restored after sex scenes.
Fixes visual issue whereby guards holding torches would have inverse kinematics when animated.
Fixes PS4-specific visual issue whereby texture of water puddles would not fade properly.

-Gameplay-

Updates description of Superior Blizzard potion. Potion now slows time for a short period whenever an enemy is slain. Additionally, during this period actions do not deplete Stamina if 3 Adrenaline Points are available.
Fixes issue whereby indicator for Oil charges would appear incorrectly in New Game Plus mode.
Fixes issue whereby Flood of Anger skill could endlessly increase Sign intensity.
Fixes issue whereby Ciri could be missing her scabbard in certain situations.
Fixes issues whereby damage from Northern Wind bombs could be calculated incorrectly.
Fixes issue whereby pool of experience points would invert to negative value when player reached level 70 cap or used Potion of Clearance.
Fixes PC platform-specific issue whereby only the 'E' key would open Stash chest despite user manually changing relevant key binding

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

I wonder if they'll finally fix the glitch for getting the DLC Wolf School Gear.

Edit: Apparently it does:

"Fixes issue whereby interaction could be missing from chests containing loot in quest titled Scavenger Hunt: Wolf School Gear."

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Have they fixed the audio on the One yet?

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Tomorrow, bitches!

(though I wish it were out today, since I don't have to work)

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Actually, today! Well, 4pm PST anyways.

And you better start the pre-download now, as it's more than 12-gigs worth and a large update to the regular game as well. Should be ready by 4. Whoop!

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Played for about 90 minutes. So far so good - it's pretty much more of the same - in a good way.

The new update really changed the menus and maps, all for the better. Roach is still retarded though...

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Yeah. I haven't downloaded any of the DLC yet as I want to get the main story done, but the menu and map changes caught me by surprise.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Just the first couple missions of the main story of the Blood & Wine have been great.

But I mostly tooled around the new map, uncovering locations, notice boards and compiling a long list of missions that I'll tackle in order of their marked level. The map is about half the size of the Velen map, or around the same size as the land masses of Skellige, minus all it's water.

I like the winery they give you as a base of operations. Kinda cool for Geralt to have a home base that you can upgrade.

Can't wait to get home and play more!

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

I may not have the time for this until the weekend.

What levels are recommended for this? I'm guessing it's handled the same way as Hearts of Stone ... load up any save you want and have the new quest show up on a board, or the option of starting a new game with a generically equipped Geralt of the proper level.

I should have enough save games to pick something appropriate. I'd be interested in hearing how good the balance for recommended levels turns out to be. I was playing Blood and Broken Bones difficulty but I was generally overleveled by a couple of levels for the quests I was doing (it was just impossible for me to stay properly leveled with all the stuff I wanted to do).

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by brainee (Post 12815034)

What levels are recommended for this?

They say level 34, and I was 40 when I started, but there's a new option for enemy scaling, that balances out enemies to meet you at your level.

Quote:

I'm guessing it's handled the same way as Hearts of Stone ... load up any save you want and have the new quest show up on a board, or the option of starting a new game with a generically equipped Geralt of the proper level.

Yeah, pretty much. I just loaded up my last save, which was a bit after Hearts of Stone, then a new notice was on whatever your nearest bulletin board is, and it starts from there.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by slop101 (Post 12815107)

They say level 34, and I was 40 when I started, but there's a new option for enemy scaling, that balances out enemies to meet you at your level.

Does that scale bosses/uniques too?

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by brainee (Post 12815159)

Does that scale bosses/uniques too?

Not sure, but I'd assume so.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by slop101 (Post 12815107)

They say level 34, and I was 40 when I started, but there's a new option for enemy scaling, that balances out enemies to meet you at your level.

Just started messing around with Witcher again ... getting used to the patch updates and trying to get reacclamated to the controls.

I take it you're doing playing as level 40 with the enemy scaling? How is that working out so far? What difficulty setting are you playing at?

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

I'm on normal, but I haven't turned on the scaling (yet). The enemies in this expansion are a bit tougher than the earlier game, for now.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

I still have to finish the main quest. I think I'm right at the end. Then I'll have both DLC's to play through. I think I'll wait for a deal on them. Or a GOTY edition maybe.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickdawgy (Post 12817248)

I still have to finish the main quest. I think I'm right at the end. Then I'll have both DLC's to play through. I think I'll wait for a deal on them. Or a GOTY edition maybe.

How much of a deal are you looking for? I've regularly seen Witcher III + Season Pass (all DLC) for under $50. So I think the DLC alone is $20-25. If you already have the game, it'll be some time before the GOTY edition is cheaper than that.

Side rant: I hate how DLC hardly ever seems to drop in price. A GOTY edition is out and cheap but the DLC alone is a lot more. Why is that? If an older game drops in price, why does the DLC never drop along with it? I don't know about other consumers, but that practice loses money from me. I either wait for a cheap GOTY edition, or I'll never buy any DLC.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Older (physical copy) games drop in price mostly to clear stock. It's almost not worth them doing the same with digital games - but there is a occasional flash sales, which take off a lot of the retail price.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

I'm actually surprised that there isn't a physical GOTY copy out in stores.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Finished Blood & Wine over the weekend.

Story-wise, I think I liked Hearts of Stone better, but B&W had the far better/bigger world and side quests.

I even went back to the main branching patch of the main story to see how it plays out both ways. They're actually quite different and it's worth doing both. Spoiler on where to save if you want to go back and replay a segment you might otherwise miss:

Spoiler:

Anyhow, I got the "good" ending (out of three), and it was totally satisfying. I also really liked the epilogue*, which put a nice ending to the whole series.

*

Spoiler:

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

Any tips for a new player just starting out? I've cleared out all the questions marks in White Orchard and have moved on to Velen. Still getting used to combat but it's fun so far. I'm level 5.

Re: The Witcher 3 - May 19, 2015 - PS4, XBO, PC

If you plan on beating any of the Gwent-related missions I would suggest playing for cards every chance you get... meaning every new merchant, innkeepers, etc. who gives you the option to play, play them until you win and get their free card to add to your deck. There are also a few 'missable' cards, so be careful of that.