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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 
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Minor Diety
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Started playing the second expansion for the Witcher 3, Blood and Wine.

It takes places in the duchy of Toussaint, which is basically France in the universe of the Witcher. They make wine, eat croissants and other decadent food, are all about art and chivalric values and so forth. It's a bit of a difference from the war-torn, bleak universe of the Witcher as Toussaint is a stable vassal of the Nilfgaardian Empire and hasn't been touched by war for decades. And the climate obviously is pretty sunny and dry (given all the wine they cultivate there). Even the actual quests and narrative are a bit different from the usual Witcher stuff...it's more about social and political stuff, but as with anything seemingly 'perfect' there are of course dark forces brewing underneath.

It still has plenty of combat and contracts though, so don't get me wrong. It's not a walking simulator. :D Some of the quests in the game are amazing, and as with the base game this is one of the few 'serious' RPGs that manages to elicit a laugh or a chuckle from me through its writing. I just did a quest in which I got high on shrooms (basically) and ended up solving a case in a buddy cop routine with my horse, who I could understand during the high. Glorious. :-)

Oh, I see I never mentioned that I played and finished the other expansion, Hearts of Stone. It's a bit different from Blood and Wine, in that it doesn't add a whole new region to the map and is incorporated into the map of the base game (which is already immense). It's also a more personal, contained story than Blood and Wine. Very powerful though, with an amazing villain.

All in all, anyone who has not played the Witcher 3 (and its expansions) yet should really do so. :P

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Sat Jul 22, 2017 6:17 am
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Felix Rex
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It's on my list. I want to pick up the base game and all the expansions at one time. I'll probably do it on the next big sale.

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Sun Aug 06, 2017 7:20 am
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Mon Sep 11, 2017 1:17 pm
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Thanks for that, got a few smiles out of me. :-)

If you've played all the Witcher games, this is also a pretty great "farewell" to the fans:


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Sat Sep 16, 2017 3:44 am
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
So Satis, how are you liking The Witcher 3? Meeting your expectations so far?

I'm tempted to start it again in the game + mode, or on a higher difficulty. Not sure yet.

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Sat Mar 24, 2018 4:25 pm
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
It's an excellent game... I said more in the other thread. :roll:

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Fri Apr 13, 2018 1:34 pm
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Haha yes, I saw your comments. Glad you like it, I think it's pretty great too as you know.

Both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are really high quality expansions, so you won't be disappointed.

Did you end up with Triss or Yennefer btw? If anyone.

What were your favorite moments and/or characters in the game?

For me, the Bloody Baron questline was one of the highlights (including all of the related storylines such as the Ladies of the Wood, his daugher/wife etc), as well as the defense of Khaer Morhen and more particularly Vesemir's death and funeral. I loved most of Skellige, and Gaunter O'Dimm is an amazing villain (in the same way that Olgierd is a tragic one). I don't want to go into Blood and Wine as I don't think you've playerd it yet, but let me know when you have.

Oh yeah, and Gwent. I fucking love Gwent. I may have a habit. :roll:

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Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:10 pm
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I did finish it and there were definitely highlights and ... err... lowlights.

The bloody baron and related quests were amazing.
I ended up causing his wife to die and him to commit suicide. Oops.


My favorite thing in the game, though...
Is the interactions between Geralt and Ciri, the whole father/daughter bonding thing. Like them trashing the elf's lab/house together, and burying the guy in Skellige that saved her. I ended up having her become empress, so I got a really melancholy ending. Great stuff though


I also liked the main Skellige quest with determining who takes over running the place. It was a fun series of missions.

Heart of Stone was ok... Gaunter and Olgierd were both very interesting, as was the primary questline
Going into the painting was really cool too.


Blood and Wine was also pretty good, for the most part. There was a lot of repetition, though them adding an entire new province is pretty cool.
My favorite thing in this was definitely the fairy land. So dark and awesome.

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Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:36 am
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Hahaha don't worry about the Bloody Baron, it ended the same way for me. :P One of the things I love about the Witcher games is that you can try to do good and still end up with fucked up situations. Oh, and
what about that messed up quest of burying the dead baby to lift the 'curse' on her?
Shit man, those are narrative lenghts only CDProjekt Red would go to. That shit really hits home.

And yeah, I totally agree about the Geralt and Ciri dynamic. It just really, really worked. Honestly, most of the character relationships work so well in this game, in part because they are great, complex characters. Generally speaking, there is no PURE EVIL or ABSOLUTE GOOD in the world of the Witcher. Even the 'best' characters in the game have their bad sides, be it vanity, jealousy, vengefulness...and even the worst ones have a redeeming quality to them. There's so many great characters that there's almost no space here to name them all. Even Geralt himself, for all his gruff witcheriness, consistently gets the piss taken out of him by his friends. :) You already named some great Ciri moments but also
Vesemir's death - basically sacrificing himself - and funeral, and the moment you find Ciri in the cabin in the painting (?) and think for a moment she might be dead. I dunno, just worked. In my game, Ciri 'diseappeared' and became a Witcher btw. :-) I wasn't so melancholy, and put a big smile in my face. Bastards built it up to a big reveal, but the "Zirael" sword already kind of gave it away. ;-) If you want to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nopPSNjkBSA


Oh and THAT PARTY WITH THE OTHER WITCHERS AT KAER MORHEN hahahaha


Yeah, I concur on that part of Blood and Wine. I also really liked the pace of the main storyline. It was a bit of a change from the base game and hearts of stone, more intrigue, detective work and politics. There was one scene in particular that really made me go 'wow, this is good stuff':
the one where you are talking to the Duchess + the noble lady, and Emiel and Detleff join unexpectedly. And you have to sit through the conversation, knowing who he is and what he has done, but unable to reveal anything. Linked to the exact moment if you don't remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cySnGqH8cI&t=7m40s


Also, Triss or Yennefer? :P I ended up with Yennefer, who is amazing in her own way (and kind of the canon soulmate), but I've always been a Triss boy. But I fucked it up with her. :-(


If you ever feel like it, I recommend the books. They are remarkably similar to the game in tone, and the world is really an exact copy. The first 1-3 are still finding their footing, but after that you got some of the best dark fantasy I've ever read. Really worth it, if you already like the witcher's universe.

Like you, I hope they come back to the witcher's universe at some point...it's just so complex and interesting. It's the right way to do 'adult' games, instead of the usual meaning of just showing wanton tits and violence. I wouldn't mind if it was from Ciri's perspective, for example. Anyway , definitely replaying this game at some point, at a higher difficulty. The combat is surprisingly deep once you know how to do it. I like how getting surrounded or flanked by even weak enemies is a huge problem, as it would be. Would be a nice challenge to master it.

Oh and did you catch Gwent fever? I did....and I'm not even an OCD boy like you. :lol:

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Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:22 pm
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
I did not catch Gwent fever. In fact, I purposefully stayed away from it. I played a total of one hand when I was forced into it in hearts of stone when I accidentally talked to some halflings at the wedding where I was... escorting... that guy's brother. Kinda annoyed me. I also totally lost and had to wear the donkey ears. But hey, that ended up kinda cool.

I ended up with
Yennefer as well. I actually pretty much went down that path before I even met up with Triss. I like them both, though the stuffed unicorn still puzzles me.
Agreed how the quest to
bury the dead baby
was pretty bizarre. But there were a lot of bizarre quests. I remember
there was some idiot that kept challenging you to duel for some chick's honor. After like the 2nd or 3rd time I got sick of him and just killed him.
I'm kind of curious where that would have lead if I hadn't ended it.

After I finished the main game, I did google every possible ending. I knew I wouldn't play again. The ending you got I think would've been the one I preferred, but the one I did end with was great in its own way. Regarding
Vesemir dying, I honestly didn't care. It seemed so forced that it just had no impact. The whole fight was such a setup and staged that it popped me out of feeling invested.
I'm probably just jaded. However, the part
where the 3 witchers were getting drunk as hell
was definitely awesome. Some hilarious stuff. In fact, I really liked pretty much every time you ran into another witcher.
The guy from school of the cat that slaughtered a village after they tried to cheat and kill him was great. So was the blood and wine one where Dr. Moreau or whatever tried to 'cure' his witcher son.
That was a really interesting story to me.


Anyway... lots of really great stuff in there. I just wish there had been less fluff.

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Sun May 06, 2018 12:20 am
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Post Re: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
You stayed away from it so you wouldn't get OCD? Or because you hated the idea? Haha

re: the guy you mentioned...I wouldn't know, I killed him after 2 or 3 times myself. Felt a bit like "dude, I've given you fair warning, now it's time to die".

About the
battle at khaer morhen
, I agree that it was a forced set piece and that it felt out of place. But I still think
Vesemir's death was quite meaningful from a narrative pov, as he was the mentor for all of the other witchers in the school and a sort of father figure for Ciri. But perhaps it's because I have read the books and have a longer "history" with Vesemir, who knows.

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Fri May 18, 2018 3:48 pm
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