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Some of the explicit ones are just.... really, really bad - apparently the explicit versions came in the Enhanced Editions because enough gross dudes demand it.
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Sep 26, 2017 16:34
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The explicit versions were in the original European release, too.
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Sep 26, 2017 16:44
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Robindaybird posted:Some of the explicit ones are just.... really, really bad - apparently the explicit versions came in the Enhanced Editions because enough gross dudes demand it. The Claptain posted:The explicit versions were in the original European release, too.
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Sep 26, 2017 17:04
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Another tech tip: Every time you call up the main menu, the game reads all the headers of the saves present in the saves folder and stores them in memory. Remove older saves to a separate folder, but keep at least one final save for the next instalment in there. A notable difference between W1 and W2: W1 creates full, new save files with every quick-save while W2 keeps overwriting the qs-file. Old Grey Guy fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Sep 26, 2017 |
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Sep 26, 2017 18:33
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My favorite finisher was when you had a dagger as a secondary weapon. Geralt just whips the guy down to the ground and then quickly stabs all of his organs in alphabetical order. Rather funny to watch when it's done in a crowd of enemies, since you're invulnerable while doing a finisher so they just sit around watching you murder their buddy. I seem to remember group style being a really good one to keep as default, since it was reasonably fast and when upgraded the added damage started to get really substantial.
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Sep 26, 2017 20:19
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Stroth posted:It was the Director's Cut, not the Enhanced Edition. Since, well, this:
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Sep 26, 2017 20:35
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Oh, one nice touch--Witcher 3 recreated Kaer Morhen as seen in the Prologue almost exactly, even down to that hilltop outpost. You don't often see that attention to detail between games.
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Sep 26, 2017 23:55
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Why is nobody going north? Only frozen wasteland up there?
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Sep 27, 2017 05:26
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This game seems familiar. Seriously, good luck...do chapter 2 in a way that flows nicely and you'll succeed.
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Sep 27, 2017 06:40
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OAquinas posted:My favorite finisher was when you had a dagger as a secondary weapon. Geralt just whips the guy down to the ground and then quickly stabs all of his organs in alphabetical order. Rather funny to watch when it's done in a crowd of enemies, since you're invulnerable while doing a finisher so they just sit around watching you murder their buddy. ... At some point during the potion brewing process, Eskel (or Lambert?) are supposed to teach you how to fist-fight. Incredibly easy to miss. If you fight the Frightener, you can (with the right decisions) get a Red-Meteorite sword before you even enter Vizima proper. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Sep 27, 2017 |
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Sep 27, 2017 06:45
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Xander77 posted:At some point during the potion brewing process, Eskel (or Lambert?) are supposed to teach you how to fist-fight. Incredibly easy to miss.  We fist-fight Eskel right after we're done with Triss.
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Sep 27, 2017 07:28
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It's hard to believe that this game is 10 years old. I loved RPGs, which is why I had to play this one. I remember being so annoyed at the loading times every time I entered or exited a house (something that happened a lot in the next section, if I'm remembering correctly).
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Sep 27, 2017 07:30
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painedforever posted:I remember being so annoyed at the loading times every time I entered or exited a house (something that happened a lot in the next section, if I'm remembering correctly).
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Sep 27, 2017 07:32
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Doc Morbid posted:Having the game on an SSD really helps with that, any load times I'm getting are maybe a couple of seconds at most. Well, yes. It's also 10 years old. I think I had 1GB of RAM about 10 years ago. I don't think the game would've been a success if loading times were a problem for everyone. I keep thinking I should get back to playing it. I bought it on a Steam sale last year, I think it was a dollar-fifty? I might enjoy it now that my PC can manage the annoyances. And y'know, if I'm playing along with you, I can check out all of things I missed, and maybe see if I've gotten any better at combat (most likely not, I've always been terrible at video-games).
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Sep 27, 2017 08:20
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I want to say that the amnesia thing is pretty drat well done in this game. I knew nothing about the story going into the game and I purposefully avoided reading the books while Geralt still has amnesia in the video game story. Only like three times or so would I have liked to have more information because the game didn't really give any and in-game Geralt seems to know what was going on but in the end even those worked. Also, if you do decide to fight the frightener, that is an experiment in frustration. The intended game mechanic doesn't work too well.
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Sep 27, 2017 09:33
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Part 03: The Outskirts ------   It's not far now. We'll be there soon.  People's eyes in this game look kind of terrifying in the dark.   See what I mean?   Judging from the look (and sound) of that, the aforementioned dogs are gnawing on some poor bastard right up the road. This doesn't seem like a safe place for these two people to be walking around.  Run to the inn as fast as you can. And don't look back. Understand? They're evil dogs. Run! Well, yes, those dogs do seem just a tad evil. I noticed they also kill the frame rate if you run the game at 4K, even on a decent machine (not that The Witcher's graphics exactly benefit from doing so anyway, and the UI becomes even more tiny).    Alvin and Caroline have just about made it to the inn without getting caught by the spectral dogs.    Alvin barely makes it through the gate before it is closed by the guards.  As for Caroline... she doesn't fare quite so well.  Alvin finally collapses, after taking one last look towards Caroline.  Apparently, Geralt was watching all of that from the sidelines, and now this redheaded woman (who clearly knows him) wants him to step in. I think it might be too late for Caroline by now, though.  What? How is that even... she was about to get mauled in the cutscene just now! Or is this another peasant woman who happens to look exactly identical to her?    The voice acting for all these guys is pretty awful. It's not great for the most part, really, but some of these random peasants are particularly  .   Fat peasant man turns out to be correct about that one, because all the guards tend to bite it when the barghests attack. That lady who has Caroline's model did manage to survive this time, though (Caroline herself is supposed to be extremely dead, and her body is just out of shot to the left).  I hope you like seeing Geralt fight ghost dogs, because we'll be doing a lot of that in this chapter.   Magic, surely... The Beast!!! That's got to be the leader of those barghests.  We don't have time to worry about any ghost dogs right now, though, because Alvin suddenly starts floating a couple of feet above the air and talking in a creepy, unnatural voice.   The Time of the White Frost and White Light... The Time of Madness and Disdain... Tedd Deireadh, the Final Age.  A seed that will not sprout but burst into flames! That was an apocalyptic prophecy if I've ever heard one. Those who have read the books should have a pretty good idea of what just happened and what Alvin's deal is (we'll learn more about that soon enough). Alvin himself doesn't appear in the books, but the writers of the game reused certain plot elements when they developed the character.   Yes, seems so. Oh! I do hope he's not hurt. I'll need to find someone to take care of him. He shouldn't be alone. We'll stay at the inn in the meantime. Wait a minute. I ran into wild dogs on my way here, but they were nothing like these, and I don't mean just the green fur... Know anythlng about them? They've been terrorizing the village for some time. Every few days, a villager is killed. The pack is led by a large hound, perhaps a wolf. People call it the Beast. Someone might pay to have the Beast slain...Why exactly were Caroline and Alvin taking a casual nighttime stroll in the woods if the village is currently being terrorized by a bloodthirsty pack of man-eating ghost hounds?  I'm seeking men who wear the sign of the salamander. Seen anyone like that in the area? Shhh, not so loud. There was someone, but the peasants grow silent at the mere mention of him. The Reverend might know more. You may also want to ask him about the Beast. I'll do that. There are several questions we can ask here, but I think this is the most obvious one at the moment.   Shani is a returning character from the books, who made her first appearance in Blood of Elves. She used to be a medical student in the Academy of Oxenfurt, and while there she once helped Geralt hunt down a mage named Rience. Shani also participated in the Battle of Brenna, one of the most famous battles in the Nilfgaardian Wars.  Hm. I'm afraid I can't help. Medicine is a fledgling science here in the north. I can say that your memory might come back on its own. It's not that bad. I'm actually getting used to it. I hate to admit it, but sorcerers are somewhat more effective at this than we are. Maybe one of them could help. It's been a long time since I've heard mention of Salamandra. Do you know anything about them? I think they're a group of bandits who terrify the locals. Yesterday they returned a boy they'd whipped with a lamia. A lamia? A Mayhen crop with small barbs and hooks. It rips away skin and flesh with each strike. Most civilized countries have banned them.Well, that's lovely.  Sounds like Salamandra, all right. Ransom and the Reverend? Huh, that's interesting. Something tells me that the Reverend is not going to tell us anything about such matters, even if we ask nicely.   They killed someone I was fond of... and stole something of mine. I wouldn't want to be them. What brings you to this village? I'm traveling to St. Lebioda's Hospital in Vizima to help fight the catriona plague. When are you leaving? Once I've helped the victims of the dog attacks, I guess. I can't abandon them. It'll delay me, but some are certain to die without my aid.Speaking of which, maybe she should take a look at Alvin. The kid's been writhing down there on the ground for quite some time now.  I don't know. I'll look after him for now. Maybe a villager will take him in. He seems clever enough. Surely someone will want him.That's all the dialog we're getting out of Shani right now, so let's go check out the inn.  Our next order of business is to find the Reverend, but that can wait until morning. First off, we'll loot all the bodies out here.  Since we got the bestiary entry for barghests, we can loot their skulls.  There's a campfire outside the inn and we can use it to meditate, but we won't do that just yet. As the tutorial mentions, we can also use the Igni Sign to light campfires, but we haven't yet learned that particular Sign. Even if we had, flint is so plentiful we might as well use it.   Maybe I can find some witchers' work...  Notice boards are our primary source for "collect ten bear asses" style kill-and-fetch quests. On this board we find contracts for some barghests, drowners and ghouls, along with the Professor's arrest warrant.  We've already got four skulls, so we're off to a good start. We'll go see this herbalist tomorrow, but for now let's just head inside the inn.   Kalkstein here is the guy who posted the ghoul contract, and we'll come back to him once we've killed a few of those creatures.  Right now we just want to rest and maybe store some items, so we should talk to the innkeeper.    Your kind's not welcome here... I said I wanted a beer. We have no more. ... Very well. I'll see what I have. Good man. Everyone drink up! We're closing. Innkeeper, do that again and I'll get angry. Wouldn't want that, would you? N...no. All right. I'll just tend to my business and be on my way...What a stimulating conversation. We can ask the innkeeper a few questions, but he doesn't have anything particularly relevant to say so let's just get a room for 5 orens.  We could've meditated at the campfire outside and saved those orens, but whatever. We've got some more skill points for upgrades, so let's start off with Stamina level 2...  ...and Oil Preparation, which is what it says on the tin. We can now create oils and slap them on Geralt's sword for extra damage against certain enemies. I think the only oil recipe we have at the moment is for necrophage oil, which deals bonus damage to ghouls and other undead-type creatures and should come in handy when we start doing those contracts.  Finally, we'll boost our group attacks a bit. We'll be fighting a lot of enemies in packs, so this will make things go a little smoother.  Looks like Alvin's doing better, let's ask him what's up.   I wonder what'll happen to me now... Waiting for your kin to come? No. My family has passed on. Sorry, kid. It's all right. I barely knew them. There are a few other folks in the inn that we might want to talk to, and we'll start with Vesna here.    By chance? Really. If only the local peasants chanced to do good once in a while... Ugh, no matter. What can I get you? We could try to clumsily hit on Vesna here, but that would just make her mad. Instead, we'll look at the stuff she is selling (mainly food and booze), not that there's anything there we want at the moment. Or anything we could even afford right now, as we're a bit short on orens.  Fortunately, that is something we can fix pretty quickly if we talk to Fat Fred here.  We can fight some of the other guys here as well (and I did so off-screen), but Fat Fred is the guy we need to beat up if we want to progress the Fistfight sidequest.   So, let's beat him up then.  We can choose between three rewards here. The ring is actually worth 120 orens, which is more than the gold reward so I probably should've picked it instead. It's not a huge deal by any means, and we can easily make those extra 20 orens elsewhere.  Shani is nice enough to heal us when we approach her after the fight.  Her healing also affected this gentleman sitting at the table nearby. Let's find out what his deal is.  Well, I don't know about sensible, we did just partipate in a bare-knuckle boxing match after all.   The only Leuvaarden I know of is Berengar Leuvaarden, who was part of a conspiracy to overthrow Emperor Emhyr of Nilfgaard... and then betrayed his co-conspirators. I can see how that name might have become infamous in the last few years.   Unfortunately. My friend disappeared in the cave beneath Vizima's walls. You think he's dead? I don't know. I'll pay you 200 orens to rescue him or provide for a decent burial. Sure, let's do it.  Why through the cave? We heard goods were smuggled into Vizima that way. I'll do what I can. Be careful. My friend has dealt with monsters before. If he's dead, surely danger follows.We'll keep that in mind.  The next person of interest we might want to talk to is this nondescript drunkard. Unless you try to speak to every NPC, or know he can be talked to, you'll probably miss him.    S'all the same. The Beast'll have us all. I'm glad we talked.Yes, that was a great talk, wasn't it? It's not over just yet, though.  We're gonna get wasted with this guy, because... well, because we can.   We've got some Kaedwenian Stout and some Viziman Champion, five pints in total. That should just about work for the drinking contest, even if this stuff isn't exactly the finest beer in Temeria (Viziman Champion is described as "vile"). *FIVE PINTS OF lovely BEER LATER*    Strong head you have there. Don't I get a prize for winning? Drank with a merchant recently. Weak-headed, he was. Take his book. Thanks. If you don't have Monster Lore, you can get the bestiary entries for ghouls and graveirs from this book. You can also buy the book from certain merchants, but it costs a small fortune (200 orens, I believe) so drinking that guy under the table is a more cost-effective method for getting the book. Or you can just take Monster Lore and not worry about it, because one bronze talent is basically nothing.  Getting drunk in The Witcher isn't nearly as fun as the Euphoria physics shenanigans in GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, or even your controls getting reversed in Carmageddon II, but it's not too bad either. You'd think Geralt could handle five pints of weak beer a bit better than this, but sadly that is not the case so he'll have to go get some fresh air to clear his head.   Yeah, I figured I'd save those five orens and just meditate outside to sober Geralt up. We've gained another level, so let's see what upgrades we should get.  First, we'll power up our Aard Sign, adding a chance to stun enemies.  Then, a bit more strength for some extra damage and health. Always nice to have. By the way, this menu is looking wonky as hell with the "even bigger fonts" mod, which doesn't even seem to do anything to the dialog subtitles so I'll probably just go back to the regular "bigger fonts" mod the next time I record.  Another upgrade for our group style, and we're done.  MUSIC: The Dike I will say the Vizima Outskirts are not the most exciting locale I've ever visited in an RPG, and running around here will eventually get a bit old. However, the music is fantastic and helps make things a LOT more tolerable.  There's a random traveler we can talk to for some good stuff somewhere in this area. Maybe this is him?  Oh wow, I didn't actually expect it to be him.   I've never heard that before, though it's possible. The little medic will care for you. Shani can't help. Shame. Ah, now I remember... Geralt of Rivia. I hired you in Novigrad to rid my storage of garkains. If you say so. I hadn't sufficient coin, but you helped me nonetheless. Guess I was generous, then. My business has grown, so I'll pay this old debt. I could use the gold.We certainly could.  And there we go, we get 100 orens just like that by simply talking to this dude. 100 orens isn't a huge amount of cash or anything like that, but especially at this point in the game every little bit helps.  We need to make our way to the west to find the Reverend. The other destinations in the hidden parts of the map are related to sidequests: for example, the one next to the cursor is the house of Abigail the herbalist.  This whole area is apparently supposed to be a pretty good recreation of what an actual rural village in Poland during the Middle Ages would have looked like, and of course the surrounding countryside is meant to look like Poland as well.  Before we continue on our way, let's have a chat with this hunter at the campfire.  Greetings. Wonder how I know you? No? So be it. What do you want? I'm looking for witchers' work. Since you're here... A monster supposedly haunts the lakeshore, devouring peasants late getting home. A ghoul may have made its lair in the crypt. How much for each? You witchers do nothing disinterestedly. Kill a monster, bring me proof, and I'll reward you generously. Did the peasants say anything more about the lakeshore monster? Just that it hunts by the lake at night and kills people. What does the creature from the crypt look like? Perhaps a standard ghoul, but who knows? See for yourself.Well, that was helpful. If what the hunter says is correct, we're looking to kill a drowner and a ghoul, but really it's quite obvious we'll be looking at stronger versions of each monster. We've already got contracts to kill several drowners and ghouls, after all. Speaking of drowners...   Come on, we're in the same profession. It seems so... So, how much for a drowner? Depends, but on average... 80 orens. I've never come close to that. I knew something was wrong with those prices. Calm down...Looks like Geralt's gotten shafted in the past. People appear to have been underpaying him because of their dislike for witchers and hoping he doesn't notice.  Really, being a witcher kind of sucks.  What was that? Nothing, nothing...Another exciting discussion. Time to move on, we'll get back to him once we've got the monster bits he wants.   We can enter the houses here to find some rather underwhelming loot, nothing really worth showing off. At least the loading screen art is as nice as ever. Some of the abandoned houses may have ghouls lurking inside, although that's more common at night.  As we follow the road westward, we come across a village that is (slightly) more lively than the places we've seen so far.  Talking to these random old ladies can be a good idea, because they can tell you about various herbs and monsters in the area. They'll want something, of course, usually food.  We'll give her a loaf of bread, and in exchange she tells us how to identify sewants and celandine.  Of course, there is no way to tell which old ladies can actually be interacted with, so you just need to pester all of them.  Well, it's not just old ladies we can chat up.   If we bring this peasant woman a flower, we'll earn another "romance" card. We don't have any flowers on us at the moment, though, so that particular roll in the hay is going to have to wait.   Now that we know how to identify celandine, we're able to pick the herb and get the alchemical ingredients it contains. Any plants we don't recognize will just show up as "Unknown herb" and can't be interacted with.  As we approach the main part of the village, we're stopped by a bunch of fat men with pitchforks.  The NPCs in this game are impressively ugly, I must say.  We're militia. We keep the peace. I'll be going. We needs to see you're not ill. I'm immune. Don't know what that means. We got to check. What's that? Godspeed.I see the village has their best and brightest protecting the people from the Beast.  Before we go meet up with the Reverend, let's check out the gates to Vizima proper. I heard something about a quarantine, but maybe they'll let us in because we're immune to disease?  Oh. Okay then. I guess we'll have to find another way in.  There's the Reverend. I thought he was supposed to be the local leader or something, sweeping the churchyard doesn't seem like the kind of job a man in his position would usually perform. Maybe he's just really particular about sweeping and refuses to let anyone else do it.  Before we talk to the Reverend, let's quickly take a look at a little easter egg. That's supposed to be the barrel of a WWII-era German rifle sticking out of the church tower window.  The Reverend appears to be about as happy to see us as nearly everyone else around here.   There's nothing to speak of! Indeed there is. I seek Salamandra. I heard they come here. They'll kill us because of you. I have ways of showing gratitude... What ways? You're troubled by a Beast? Not your business! I'm a witcher. I could help.Honestly, I wouldn't mind too much if the Beast showed up right now and bit this idiot's face off.  I'm not Berengar. If you want my trust, bear the Eternal Fire's light to the people and dispel the darkness. You'll find five chapels around the village... Also, the Beast appears to be made of fire, which makes scaring it off with a couple of small flames a rather unlikely scenario.  All right, but it will cost you 100 orens. Very well, but the Eternal Fire must appear at night in all five chapels.Right, this will obviously be completely pointless but the Reverend isn't going to give us the time of day if we don't play along with this nonsense.  Here's one of the five Eternal Fire shrines we need to light, but we can only do so during the night. We've got some time to kill and I don't feel like sitting down to meditate just yet, so let's see what else we can do.  Sure, let's go meet Abigail and see what's going on with her.  We'll just jog along the shoreline to fill in the map, and I think this route to Abigail's hut is slightly shorter as well.  Some ruffians in the fishing village are harassing a dwarf, and we're not having any of that.   You'd be better off moving along... Love nonhumans, do you? Sheath your weapon. And stop waving those arms around if you want to keep them. Oo, a live one. Get him, lads! Kill the deviant! You asked for it... The most frustrating aspect of The Witcher's combat has to be Geralt's reluctance to draw his sword until everyone's already getting in his face. I don't understand why he can't just draw it automatically when combat starts, but that's how it is.   Still, a bunch of racist losers aren't going to give us any trouble, especially with the dwarf going to town with his axe as well.  Well then, turns out this dwarf also knows Geralt. What a coincidence we just happened to be there to help out an old acquaintance.   Who are you? You drunk? I'm your pal, Zoltan Chivay. Where have you been, why haven't I heard from you, what about...? Not sure I can explain much... Ah, you don't need to tell Zoltan Chivay anything. Let's just say I'm glad to see you, though it would be nice to resolve some matters... You misunderstood. I lost my memory. I only remember the last few weeks... Zoltan looks weird as hell in this game. In any case, the reason Zoltan is so surprised to see Geralt and so eager to "resolve some matters" is that he was there when Geralt died years ago and saw the whole thing with his own eyes.  Yes, a nasty matter. My friend was to meet me in this village some time ago, but he never appeared. Think he might be in trouble? I hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised if he were. He joined the Squirrels recently and agreed to trade with the hawkers. Squirrels and hawkers? The Squirrels, or Scoia'tael as they call themselves, are nonhumans who hope to gain equality by shooting folks from behind trees. And hawkers are merchants who sell arms to the Scoia'tael - illegally. I see.Geralt's had some run-ins with the Scoia'tael before, although obviously he remembers none of that.   Thank you, my friend. So, how are you doing? You know me, my schemes. I hope to start a modest business in Vizima, bringing in goods from Mahakam. The Brekenriggs are pressuring me...The Brekenriggs/Breckenriggs/Breckerings/Breckenridges (the spelling of the name tends to vary throughout the game) are Zoltan's in-laws to be. Mahakam is the homeland of the dwarves.  I certainly hope so. I made some investments during the war. As they say, money needs to move. Just as long as it doesn't run away... Geralt... Can you tell me more about the Squirrels? They're nonhuman little shits who were fed romantic tales. They've taken up arms to fight for freedom and other ideals. During the war with Nilfgaard, Emhyr used them to wreak havoc in the kingdoms. I don't know who supports them now. I need to go, Zoltan. We'll talk later. I think this is a decent stopping point for now. Next time, we'll meet Abigail the herbalist, light some fires, kill a lot of ghost dogs and escort a girl to her grandma's house. ------ DMorbid fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Oct 15, 2017 |
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Oct 3, 2017 20:15
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Faces and hair are always difficult to get right. The Witcher still looks pretty good for the most part, and at least it isn't as bad as Oblivion could be. On the other hand, there are mutilated corpses in Outlast that don't look as bad as some of the townspeople in Oblivion...
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Oct 4, 2017 06:36
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At least it's a sort of believable ugliness and, yeah, not uncanny valley stuff.
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Oct 4, 2017 07:06
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Yeah, I didn't necessarily mean it as a bad thing. This is kind of a dirty and unpleasant world in general, and the NPCs suit that aesthetic just fine.
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Oct 4, 2017 08:42
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One thing I like about the witcher games in general is that the neighbourhoods look livable. Not in the way of "I want to live there" but someone clearly thought what people living there would build. You get farms with the storage houses and outhouses and fenced gardens. You get one mill by a river, one church in the biggest village - and a market, even if the player doesn't need to interact with it. It's not unique to Witcher by any means but it's realistic. Then of course you still want to check every box and barrel because these poor people keep leaving their coins everywhere and don't mind if someone takes them. That's of course RPG 101 but it bothers me more when the setting is otherwise great.
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Oct 4, 2017 09:48
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I think, if there's something I comprehensively disliked about The Witcher, it's that the dialog always felt stilted (which happens when the native language isn't English). Does it get any better later in the game, or later in the series? I know I mentioned the combat, but I didn't dislike the combat in The Witcher, it's because I'm terrible at video games and will get my rear end handed to me more often than not. Re: my current attempts at playing the Batman Arkham games, where my Batman is a drunk who stumbles from bad guy to bad guy, hoping that they'll pass out from their knuckles getting bruised on Batman's head... So... who's Shani supposed to be, in the backstory? How different is she from the books?
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Oct 4, 2017 10:20
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painedforever posted:I think, if there's something I comprehensively disliked about The Witcher, it's that the dialog always felt stilted (which happens when the native language isn't English). Does it get any better later in the game, or later in the series? Doc Morbid posted:Right now we just want to rest and maybe store some items, so we should talk to the innkeeper. ... Geralt refusing to draw his sword (even during fights he starts) is right up there with NPCs who have an elaborate getting up / sitting down animation, and will terminate a conversation of their own accord to go through it. Relatively minor, but goddamned consistent aggravations. I wonder if there's anything more meaningful than a bronze talent / a few coins (in a game with endless cash) you can save by talking to NPCs like the old peasant women, anywhere in the game.
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Oct 4, 2017 12:19
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I've only played & watched footage of Witcher III til now. They, uh, improved their character models something considerable, I see.
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Oct 4, 2017 12:47
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Rangpur posted:I've only played & watched footage of Witcher III til now. They, uh, improved their character models something considerable, I see.
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Oct 4, 2017 12:51
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Zoltan no, what happened to your faaaace
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Oct 4, 2017 18:11
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Xander77 posted:TW1 is basically a Neverwinter Nights mod. Yo, that game is charmingly jank.
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Oct 4, 2017 23:54
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Sindai posted:Zoltan no, what happened to your faaaace He fell up some stairs. Don't worry, he'll heal up fine.
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Oct 5, 2017 00:20
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I'm remembering how when you stepped out into Sigil in Torment you met people who wanted to thank you and people who wanted to kill you, but I imagine anyone with a genuine grudge against Geralt and the hope of seeing it through to blood would probably be way too overdone for the early game.
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Oct 5, 2017 03:56
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Rangpur posted:I've only played & watched footage of Witcher III til now. They, uh, improved their character models something considerable, I see. Xander77 posted:TW1 is basically a Neverwinter Nights mod. Essentially this. Though not just TW3, but even TW2 is a massive step up from this game, visually speaking. I'd go so far as to say TW2 is a drat good looking game in general.
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Oct 6, 2017 13:42
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Part 04: Eternal Fire ------  We saved Geralt's old friend, the dwarf Zoltan Chivay from some racist assholes at the end of the last update. Those guys had some interesting items on them, so let's have a look.  We can now play The Witcher's big minigame, which is dice poker. Dice Poker is, uh, poker with dice, and that's about it really. I'll play a round or two at some point to show it off.  On the shore, we come across several packages, crates and jars. I'm sure that'll never come up again and these are here just for flavor.  At the end of the Merchant's Bridge up ahead lies another gate to Vizima, but since the city is under quarantine that's not going to help us very much.   While we are in the neighborhood, we might as well explore a couple of empty houses. This guy must've lost a drinking contest quite badly.  Well, he won't mind us taking his alchemy stuff.   Our current destination is the hut inhabited by the local herbalist, Abigail. She put up that contract for barghest skulls, and even though we don't have those skulls yet we might be able to get something useful from her.   That man is clearly in need of a herbal remedy of some sort, but we don't care about him so let's just get inside.    I'll remember that. Don't worry, I'm not all bad. The sinner will recover. What do you want? Do you have any magic against phantom hounds? What about your sword? I heard witchers carry two - a silver blade for monsters and steel for humans...Yes, uh, about that. We're obviously supposed to be carrying both a silver sword and our steel sword, but for some reason Kaer Morhen seemed to be all out of silver blades.  Vesemir, Eskel and Lambert (and Leo, I guess) were carrying only one sword each, as well, even though Lambert actually brings up the dual swords if you listen to his fighting style tutorial spiel.   Yes, yes we do want to pay 30 orens. Abigail is selling us the recipe for specter oil, a blade coating that increases our damage against spectral enemies by 100% for 24 in-game hours. I'm pretty sure she is the only vendor that sells this formula in the entire game.  You can replace the Naezan salt with hellebore petals if you wish.That'll come in handy as well, because hellebore is plentiful around this area. We'll need to be able to recognize it first, of course, but Abigail also sells the "Field Plants" book which identifies all plants growing in the Outskirts. So, we'll buy that as well for 200 orens.  When talking to Abigail, we also have the meditate option available. We'll make use of that and create some potions.  When we come to, we discover that Alvin is now hanging out in Abigail's hut. Shani did say she'd try to find someone who would take the kid in, and it looks like Abigail might have done so.   What do you mean? He has powers perhaps beyond his control. For now, he sleeps well with the herbs I brew him. That's good of you. Few in these times would be willing - it's another mouth to feed. With winter approaching, if I grow hungry, I'll eat him. Haha! Doubtless the villagers think so, believing me a monster. Are you one, Abigail? We all hide a monster inside us.That's all we're getting out of Abigail for now, so let's head back outside.  We didn't talk to the blacksmith near the inn yet, so we shall fix that.  Greetings. Yes, I'm a dwarf. No, I don't support the Scoia'tael. Yes, I've paid both taxes and bribes. Many times. Today, in fact. I'll be calm in my grave. Optimistically, that won't be long now.Err, nice to meet you too, I guess. That is quite a mighty beard.  Make sure and show up for the execution, too. They once herded me off to see a nonhuman get hanged. Let me tell you, laughed my head off. I gather they don't like nonhumans around here. Neither here nor anywhere in the northern kingdoms. An official in Vizima recently won an innovation award... invented a gallows especially designed for dwarves. What's so innovative about that? Nothing. But think of the savings! When you're producing them in the hundreds, all that extra wood can be used to make other goods - toy swords, for instance. Yet another stimulating conversation in the Outskirts. In any event, here we learn how blacksmiths work in The Witcher: we bring them three pieces of meteorite to forge a new sword, or three runes to upgrade our silver sword (spoiler: we're getting a silver sword at some point). Right now we don't have any meteorite, so we'll have to make do with our regular steel sword.  And here is how our wolf medallion works, or at least how it's supposed to work. By default, the medallion vibrates when monsters are near, but we can set it to detect magic. There's a bug that makes it revert to the default behavior whenever you load the game, so I tend to just keep it in monster-detecting mode at all times. It's not as if I ever remember to pay any attention to the medallion in the first place.  In front of us is a Place of Power, the kind of thing the medallion would detect if we set it to magic mode. These spots of concentrated magic generally aren't too hard to spot either way.   Using the Ritual of Magic increases our Sign intensity by 100% for five hours. If we put more points into Intelligence, we can also learn the Ritual of Purification and the Ritual of Life, which remove all toxicity and increase Geralt's health regen respectively.  The crypt in the far northeastern corner of the map is locked, so we'll have to find some way inside later on if we want to kill that ghoul the hunter talked about. There's not much else we can do right now, so let's wait for the night.  As the darkness falls, monsters begin roaming the Outskirts. For the most part, that means a whole bunch of barghests.  Of course, nightfall also means we can finally start lighting the flames at the Eternal Fire shrines.  Lighting that fire certainly didn't scare off these mutts.  The red markers are the fires we need to light, so it's gonna be a bit of a walk. We should have enough barghest skulls for Abigail by now, so we'll stop by her hut on the way.   I do. They're yours... for a price. I knew you'd manage it. And take this mandrake root. You might find it useful.Excellent. Completing the barghest contract also gave us enough EXP to level up again, so let's upgrade some stuff. I also made the Frightener's Vision potion and drank it, so we've got four bronze talents to put into our skills this time.  First off, we'll improve our group style with Trip II, adding +30% to Knockdown chance when we're fighting at least three enemies. Next up is Endurance Regeneration +25% in the Stamina tree.  Then, Fast Steel level 2, and Hail of Blows 1 (Damage +20%). That'll do it, time to meditate for a while and then get back to work.   I meditated for a couple of extra hours because I wanted this event to trigger. There's something going on up ahead at the crossroads, kind of hard to tell from such a distance but it looks like a woman being harassed by a group of guys.  We met Vesna earlier, she's the barmaid at the inn and was probably on her way home from work when these thugs stopped her.  Yeah, those are some bandits all right, but at the moment I'm more worried about that ghoul that is lurking somewhere to the right. Vesna should be fine and the bandits will not do anything until we actually trigger the conversation with her.   The reason I want to take care of the ghoul (who seems very happy to see us, judging from the way he's hopping around) is that sometimes he might wander up to Vesna and the bandits, and I don't want him messing things up there. We'll be having enough problems as it is.  Err... what the hell happened back there while we fought the ghoul?  At least Vesna is still alive, so let's get over to her before some other weird poo poo goes down.  What actually happened during our fight with the ghoul was that a barghest spawned in the middle of this group of NPCs and killed at least one of the bandits while damaging others.  I don't know what would've happened if Vesna had dropped dead at that point, but we probably would've failed the quest that's about to start.   Let's get rid of these morons already.  "Butch" here gets a sword in the cranium, which isn't quite what Geralt threatened him with but still effective enough.  Vesna has absolutely no sense of self-preservation, so she "helps" us fight the bandits by slashing her useless knife in their general direction. Luckily, this one is focused on Geralt, so Vesna should be fine.    Oh boy, here we go. Time for an escort mission!   Before we do anything else, we'll enter this abandoned house. Why, you ask?  Entering a building restores all of Vesna's health, that's why. She was already down to half health at the start of the quest because of that stupid barghest, and this escort mission is rough enough without that handicap.  We will also savescum like there's no tomorrow, because Vesna doesn't have much health and it doesn't take much for her to die. I was so focused on getting her home that I decided to run past one of the Eternal Fire shrines (I expected that a bunch of barghests would just pop up if we got near the shrine, because they always do), so we'll have to come back for that later.  The next shrine has at least four of the ghostly jerkbags, because of course it does.  why is there a cutscene now, these dogs are not loving dead yet     What the poo poo Geralt, they're very much not gone and two of them are biting your asses right as we speak. Escort missions are bad enough when they actually work as intended, but this one also has to be bugged to all hell. I don't know if the dogs can actually damage us during the cutscene...   ...but that would explain why Vesna drops dead almost immediately after the scene ends. Luckily, we've been quicksaving every five seconds so we can fix this.  There we go, now that looks a whole lot better and Vesna even manages to be kind of useful. Barghests are very weak to Aard, and any attack will finish them off when they're knocked down. Including Vesna's knife, which she uses to stab the gently caress out of this mutt.   That's also another shrine lit.  There are some more houses between us and the next shrine, so we'll duck inside to get Vesna's health back up to full. We also find a nice bonus, a book about swamp monsters. Reading this gives us the bestiary entries for drowned dead and bloedzuigers (also drowners but we had that from Monster Lore), and it normally costs 200 orens to buy.  The next shrine has five of these fuckers. The good news is that Abigail will still buy barghest skulls for five orens apiece, so we can at least earn some decent cash from killing them.  That would be the Beast, but where did it come from and is something controlling it?   We'll go in and out of a house one more time and then prepare for the home stretch.   Doesn't look like any more barghests are attacking, so we should be fine from here. Vesna's grandmother's house is right next to us.    What could possibly shock her? Everything, except if we met to pray together. But listen, I know this one place... The old mill. I don't like that green glow behind Geralt.  Well, we've got some specter oil just for that purpose! Or, well, we would if we had remembered to buy some bear fat to use as a base. That probably would've made the escort quest a lot less painful, to be honest. I'm good at video games.    Sounds good, we'll be there.  And of course, pretty much the instant we finish our conversation with Vesna, more barghests spawn in. She can still die at this point, but she seemed to make her way inside the house just fine so I don't think we need to worry about her.  The barghests absolutely wreck the village militia.    And there's the last shrine. Well, it would be, if we'd lit that other one earlier. I suppose we should go take care of that.   Sometimes, we run into these rabid dogs around the Outskirts. If we get too close to them, they suddenly drop dead, and you'll never guess what happens next!  ...Yeah. Moving on.  If we cross the Maribor Gate bridge and take the stairs down to the right on the Vizima side of the river, we reach the mill where we'll meet Vesna later. This time, we'll just pass by because we can't enter.  Further along the riverbank, we run into some rather heavy rain (which actually started when I loaded the game here, it was clear when I saved) and a creature we haven't encountered yet.  This fine fellow is Nadir, the drowned dead that has been terrorizing the shore lately and has a bounty on his head.  Nadir is larger and stronger than a regular drowned dead, which is mostly just a stronger palette swap of a normal drowner. Knocking him down with Aard is a very good idea because he can gently caress us up when we're this low-leveled, and is also able to dodge our regular attacks. Making some necrophage oil probably would've been a decent plan as well, but since we don't have the ingredients we'll just do without.  We don't need necrophage oil to stab Nadir in the junk.   Some more drowners crawl out of the river. This went quite well because the basic drowners didn't start showing up until after Nadir was dead; if you get surrounded here while Nadir is still standing, there's a strong possibility you get utterly clobbered.  How about that, we got enough drowner brains to complete the contract for the Reverend. We can turn that in when we go tell him his stupid shrines don't work.  And here's the trophy we're going to present to the hunter as proof of killing Nadir. Trophies are kind of special in that they actually show up on Geralt's model until you give them to someone. You can see the hook icon on the bottom right, that square highlighted in green is the trophy slot. You can only carry one trophy at a time, so you might want to turn in one contract before you start another.  We're finally at the shrine we skipped earlier, and of course there's yet another pack of barghests for us to grapple with.  Well, that's that. Lighting the fires did precisely gently caress all, as we've established, and we're pretty worn down from fighting all these creatures. Luckily there's a campfire nearby, and that's also where the royal hunter is hanging out.   You can see Nadir's head hanging from Geralt's belt there. In hindsight I probably should've tried to get a better look at it, but oh well.  200 isn't too bad, I guess. More importantly, we've gained another level so let's get to meditatin'.  Hail of Blows II for 25% bonus damage in the fast style, then Half-Spin II for the same amount in the group style.  And while we're boosting our damage output, let's also take the strong style's Crushing Blow for +20% damage.  Well Reverend, got any more good ideas?   The beasts still haunt us! I told you it wouldn't work. Where's my payment? Ah, yes, your payment... The curse must be stronger than I thought. Doubtless caused by that witch, Abigail, an evil woman! A witch? Maybe she can tell us more...Geralt, we already met her. Get it together, my man.   We must know from whence the Beast came. Learn the truth. I will, for 300 orens. So be it.Cheapskates.  As long as you can prove you killed some. I have drowner heads. My reward?Well, technically we just have drowner brains. I like to think Geralt just takes out a sack and dumps all the brains on the Reverend's shoes. At least that's what I would do in his stead.   Wow, a whole 100 orens for... I think we brought him three drowner brains. That's a lot less than the royal huntsman would get for a drowner, as we saw earlier.  The Reverend seems to think Abigail is responsible for the Beast. She didn't seem like a bad person when we talked to her earlier, but it's definitely too early to start making any kind of judgments about the people we've met. Or... well, the Reverend is an rear end in a top hat, I think we can safely say that by now.   Nothing yet. What's your side of the story? Hm! I had nothing to do with it.  Aren't witches wise in the ways of magic? Yes, but this beast is beyond me. Although, I know someone else. Who would that be? The boy Alvin. He's a strong Source and a diviner. What he knows we could not hope to imagine... However, if I were to give him a certain potion...A Source is a person born with magical abilities they can't control, often manifesting in stressful situations.  No need to fret, he'll be fine. Bring me the petals of five white myrtle and your questions will be answered. Myrtle grows outside the village. If you lack knowledge of herbs, I have this book. It's yours... for a price.We already bought that on our last visit, and I also spent quite some time picking herbs off-camera, so we have more than enough white myrtle already.  Thanks, game. Now, this right here is why you want to get the Herbalism skill as early as possible - you can't progress the main quest until you get those white myrtle petals. If you're a first-time player, you may not notice that you actually have to invest a point in Herbalism and it's not automatically unlocked like alchemy was, and find yourself in a situation where you've put all your points into other stuff.  We'll just buy some oil ingredients and this book that adds the bestiary entries for dogs and wolves, and then we'll present the myrtle petals to Abigail.   How is it made? Interested in witches' secrets, are you? The recipe is yours if you swear to take it to your grave. I swear. Draw close and listen... Blend two ounces of cadaverine with the myrtle petals. Speak your name backwards, turn about three times leftwards, spit into the fire and stir the potion again.I'm positive Abigail is just loving with Geralt at this point.   Will do. Thankfully, we don't need to spend any real time farting around the Outskirts, all we need to do is exit and re-enter Abigail's hut.  So let's do that.   As a side note, Abigail's hair has a tendency to occasionally freak the gently caress out in these scenes.  No complaining. Now... SPEAK! Bad children, torturing the witch's puppy again? Groarrr!!! Grrrr!!! Innocent blood... evil faces twisted by drink and desire. "Plow her well. Show her you're a man"... blood-stained gold ... the Beast is born! GROAARRORROAAARR!!!" Alvin's voice actor is not very good, so this whole creepy monologue ends up sounding even more ridiculous than it looks on paper.  How will you defeat human villainy? With your sword? You, who died and still walk amongst the living? Who has summoned me?  I'm sleepy... Hmmm. Alvin, go to bed. Geralt... another witcher, Berengar, preceded you. He left these missives...  Well then, that was kind of creepy and also kind of stupid. Next time, I guess we'll go talk to the Reverend again and then see what our next move should be. ------ DMorbid fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Oct 15, 2017 |
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Oct 14, 2017 23:41
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Enjoying this game so much. 
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Oct 14, 2017 23:55
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Oh, Abigail! Her card, I remember, was really creepy too. Serious fan disservice. Have you gone over leveling up in any of the posts? Like, what to prioritize in the early game in terms of stats or skills? Or, what you prefer to go for early in the game, and what you tend to avoid?
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Oct 15, 2017 02:58
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I wonder if it's just the resentful dead dogs striking back after years of animal cruelty. These are peasants, after all.
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Oct 15, 2017 04:36
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painedforever posted:Oh, Abigail! Her card, I remember, was really creepy too. Serious fan disservice. Fan disservice is a great term and more games should have it.
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Oct 15, 2017 07:56
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That escort quest was downright impossible for me without first completing the fire bearing quest. The bargheists spawn for the shrines every time you get close to one of them and the escort quest itself spawns some more. At worst I think I had 8 of the dogs attacking at once and Vesna just doesn't survive. I think they butchered more than just the village militia at the end there, too.
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Oct 15, 2017 10:10
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This game is a bit jank to be sure, but it holds a special place in my heart. If nothing else it's amazing to see the giant leaps of improvement between each game in the series. Also, every woman in the game having a giant rack is a bit, uhhhh
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Oct 15, 2017 11:06
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Thank you for enduring this jankiness so I don't have to. I've been meaning to play Witcher 2 and 3 but the original looks beyond my patience and goodwill.
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Oct 15, 2017 11:19
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Groetgaffel posted:Also, every woman in the game having a giant rack is a bit, uhhhh 
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Oct 15, 2017 14:03
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Poil posted:At least it's better than the Risen series. How bad could it be? 
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Oct 15, 2017 16:43
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Doc Morbid posted:
Lord, I was hoping you'd be able to get this exact piece of jankiness at this exact moment; made me laugh like a loon the first time I saw it. This game is rough in all ways that are both good and terrible, sometimes at the same time. I usually completed the escort quest and the fire shrine quest at once too, often because I had no choice... I think it has to do with talking to Vesna in the Inn- if you don't do that, I think you can do them both separate.
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Oct 15, 2017 18:22
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