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. 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.

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.

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:

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.

It's an excellent game... I said more in the other thread.

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?

I did finish it and there were definitely highlights and ... err... lowlights.

The bloody baron and related quests were amazing.


My favorite thing in the game, 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


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.

Hahaha don't worry about the Bloody Baron, it ended the same way for me. 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 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



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':



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.

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 Agreed how the quest to was pretty bizarre. But there were a lot of bizarre quests. I remember 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 I'm probably just jaded. However, the part was definitely awesome. Some hilarious stuff. In fact, I really liked pretty much every time you ran into another witcher.

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

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 , I agree that it was a forced set piece and that it felt out of place. But I still think