[Mentalist]

Maark, on 25 May 2015 - 07:40 AM, said:

Gnaw, on 24 May 2015 - 05:52 AM, said:

I'm reading so very much good stuff about this game. Has anyone seen a OS X release date for it?

A Mac? Playing GAMES!? What sorcery is this*!

*Probably Quen or Aard

no way, it's Axii. He just thinks it's a Mac

[Maark Abbott]

In answer to the horse comment earlier:

[Mentalist]

So, Jim Sterling was one of the few people that gave TW2 a rather poor review.

Here's what he thought of the Wild Hunt:
http://www.thejimqui...ld-hunt-review/

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 26 May 2015 - 01:27 PM

[Aptorian]

I'm on the fence about this game.

Should I buy it now or should I wait a year and play the enhanced edition that will almost certainly make the game even greater? I mean I am not going to put 200 hours into the game twice.

[Morgoth]

It's spectacularly fantastic right now. In a year I'll probably want to play it again, that time with expansions, but I'm very happy I bought it now. Especially considering the risk of spoilers.

[Aptorian]

Spoilers is probably my chief concern as well.

I think that the fact that they spent an extra year or so polishing it makes it worth buying it now.

It's just that inkling notion that Witcher 2 had so much extra content added to it. Then again this time around most of that will probably be sitting behind a season expansion pass.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

It's ficking brilliant. It's like red dead with swords, and better. That is high praise since I think red dead was one of the best games on the last console generation.

[Aptorian]

Anybody know what is up with GOGs galaxy installer?

This piece of shit application keep crashing on me. The whole reason why I haven't been playing GOG games is because I want the ease of a Steam installation. Now I buy this game that is tied to GOG and their installer cuts the installation off every time I'm a 100 mb into the download.

Thought it was my proxy server but that didn't help.

Thought it was some kind of fire wall thing. No.

You can't see or read anything in the application that explains what is going wrong.

What the flying fuck.

So now I have manually download the chunks of files and assemble them myself?!

Fuck everything about galaxy. At least Origin and Ushop works.

[Mentalist]

Apt, on 28 May 2015 - 11:23 AM, said:

Anybody know what is up with GOGs galaxy installer?

This piece of shit application keep crashing on me. The whole reason why I haven't been playing GOG games is because I want the ease of a Steam installation. Now I buy this game that is tied to GOG and their installer cuts the installation off every time I'm a 100 mb into the download.

Thought it was my proxy server but that didn't help.

Thought it was some kind of fire wall thing. No.

You can't see or read anything in the application that explains what is going wrong.

What the flying fuck.

So now I have manually download the chunks of files and assemble them myself?!

Fuck everything about galaxy. At least Origin and Ushop works.

Weird. I used the GOG Downloader (not Galaxy, the old one), and it all went smoothly. (22 GB pre-load + day 1 patch + 3 GB of Russian subs) Last I used it was yesterday, actually-I downloaded the 2 latest patches (about 500 MB total), no issues.
Edit: you also don't need to "assemble" the installer, save of having all the files in the same directory. Only one part of the installer will be the. Exe file, the rest (for me) are files that are supposed to be open with VLC player. Don't worry about them, just download the installer (6 parts, I think?) and run the. Exe.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 28 May 2015 - 01:34 PM

[Aptorian]

Yeah, I may have been exceptionally grumpy earlier. Getting 4 hors of sleep will do that to me. Took a nap, I am happier now.

I messed around with the file selection and when I clicked on the "pre-load" link from before the launch it began a 50 GB download with no hitch. Why that works and the actual in library file does not work for me I have no idea about.

Put about an hour into it so far. It's absolutely phenomenal. I wasn't expecting the game to be able to run close to ultra on my rig, but I've managed to turn most features up to max and the game looks and feels fantastic.

The complaints I've heard about the controls are apparent but I never played 1 and 2 for the combat experience. The way they are introducing you into the world, story and character is brilliant. I just ran into a Gryfin and now they've cut the reins and I have a tiny village to explore that feels like I am actually in the countryside.

This game is super engrossing.

[Mentalist]

I'm taking tomorrow off work to run some errands, but i'm expecting to get some solid Witchering done this weekend, get close to completion of the original. Will then move onto TW2, maybe give Dark mode a try.

Looking forward to playing Wild Hunt so much...

[Aptorian]

Okay, put around 10 hours into the game so far.

I can't quite peg down my opinion of the world. It feels less dense than for example Skyrim. There's much more territory that is just a field or a forest with few if any quest related or monster related stuff. That makes the game world feel a bit empty at times but it also lends an eerie atmosphere to the exploration where you really do feel like you're riding through an European countryside.

This also ties into my problem with the experience system. As far as I can tell you get no xp from killing monsters. Which is smart because it makes you focus on doing the quests and so experience much more of the games stories. However it also means that I find myself in a combat situation and, unless I am fighting to get to a chest or shrine, I will just run the fuck away because there's no real reason to fight monsters.

I think that's a shame. As a monster hunter there should be some kind of sub-currency barter system where there are bounties on drowner brains, harpy feathers, necker claws, etc. but they don't really figure this into the world. It sort of makes the "hunting" aspect of the Witcher persona seem contrived.

That said the world really is fantastic to travel around in. Definitely the best open world I have experienced. I had this awesome encounter recently. I was just picking off question marks on the map when I got to a mountain region and ran into a gryphin. I'd just killed the prologue gryphin and I'd levelled up so obviously I thought I could take this thing on. 2 minutes into the fight I realise I am way out of my league. It's a level skull monsters and I am doing no damage to the thing. So I flee over a mountain pass meaning to take refugee in a castle in the distance. I escape the gryphin and get to the castle. But the drawbridge is up and around a tower comes what looks like a red flying pig. Then it comes closer and it's a fucking giant wyvern. So now I running from a giant pig dragon and of course I run into a pack of wolves. So there's a really angry Gryphin nearby, a giant flying monster and 10 wolves on my ass, I ran so far I was on the other end of the map before I looked behind me again.

Which sort of leads me to my complaint about the combat system. It does not feel very rewarding. I have a fast and strong attack to chose between but often I will find that I have just landed a perfect hit on a monster and yet it will still be able to relatiate before I have a chance to dodge. When you experience this with three monsters at one time and you don't have any kind of instant health regen it makes dying in combat feel sort of cheap.

Still that is partially about learning the condiations of fighting in the Witcher I guess. I have to love getting on my horse and doing strifing runs. Just charge in on the horse and fucking decapitate a fool before it even sees me. God that's satisfying to see that blade make impact.

Anyway, that's the world. The actual story is phenomenal. I love every last bit of it. So many great toutches, unique characters, dialogue, etc. My favorite guy so far has been the Emperors assistant guy. Such an asshole and yet likeable character at the same time.

[MTS]

Just found a Chtulu reference and a GoT sky cell reference (complete with dead Tyrion) both in the same area!

Man I love this game.

[Traveller]

It really is fun just roaming around picking up random encounters - the stories have all so far been engaging, and the quirky twists in some of them to keep it fresh.

Last night I opened up a ton of new quests, then promptly spent most of the time playing Gwent. Which gets kind of addictive - when you win and get a new card, you want another go with it in the deck, and each conversation I'd start with an npc about a quest would result in 'how about a game of cards?'

This post has been edited by Traveller: 30 May 2015 - 03:40 PM

[Aptorian]

Just finished the 3 ladies questline.

I sort of knew parts of it because I'd watched previews, etc. but god damn that was a creepy and horrifying storyline. I love how you can tell weird European folklore is involved in that story.

Also got to see a flashback of Ciri in action. Holy shit that woman kicks a serious amount of ass. I wonder if you're capable of what she did at level 30?

[MTS]

Traveller, on 30 May 2015 - 03:37 PM, said:

It really is fun just roaming around picking up random encounters - the stories have all so far been engaging, and the quirky twists in some of them to keep it fresh.

Last night I opened up a ton of new quests, then promptly spent most of the time playing Gwent. Which gets kind of addictive - when you win and get a new card, you want another go with it in the deck, and each conversation I'd start with an npc about a quest would result in 'how about a game of cards?'

I'm around level 20 and only really started getting into Gwent. Kinda feel like I've shot myself in the foot not starting it till now, as I'm loving it so far! Just got my first Hero card (Iorveth from the Scoia'tael deck though - I'm still using Northern Realms mainly).

I'm guessing I won't be able to collect all the cards though, as I never played the Bloody Baron before

Spoiler

he hung himself.

[Traveller]

I played the Bloody Baron but it was clear he had WAY better cards than me at that point (I'm around level 5).

I've just finished the Wandering in the Dark quest (nice to get out into the sun again) and have been picking up new cards wherever I find them, so I'll go back for a rematch. I only just went through the deck to discard all the crummy ones, and now that I figured out which ones are good to hold back for round 2 I'm winning nearly all the time.

This game is going to guzzle my evenings, the map is goddamn enormous. And I'm finding uses for all the crap lying around. And now I have a boat, which is just gorgeous (although a bit of wind direction would be nice but I shouldn't complain)

[Aptorian]

I don't know how I missed it around launch but there's a cinematic story trailer for W3.

It's like that trailer for... I can't remember if it's the first or second game, where you see Geralt hunting a cursed woman and fighting the monster. Only, this one is even better. Really sums up how fucked up you get during the fights with these monsters.

This post has been edited by Apt: 31 May 2015 - 09:50 AM

[Tapper]

Traveller, on 31 May 2015 - 09:25 AM, said:

I played the Bloody Baron but it was clear he had WAY better cards than me at that point (I'm around level 5).

I've just finished the Wandering in the Dark quest (nice to get out into the sun again) and have been picking up new cards wherever I find them, so I'll go back for a rematch. I only just went through the deck to discard all the crummy ones, and now that I figured out which ones are good to hold back for round 2 I'm winning nearly all the time.

This game is going to guzzle my evenings, the map is goddamn enormous. And I'm finding uses for all the crap lying around. And now I have a boat, which is just gorgeous (although a bit of wind direction would be nice but I shouldn't complain)

The Baron is tricky, but doable.

Spoiler

So far, in Velen, my best set-up is a Foltest Siegemaster deck. For the baron especially, just wait until you draw into the Siege line Medic, a couple of Siege engines and a 1-2 of Decoys. The first round you can often win because he throws spies at you - both Thaler and Dijkstra have low strength and you will require 1-3 cards from hand to win that round: if you pass too early, he will throw down some mediocre units to take the round, too. In the second round, Medic a Spy then Decoy the Medic and play it again. This will allow you to recycle the Spies the Baron throws at you, which puts you roughly equal on cards in hand. The Foltest bonus (not to mention Commander's Horns) will allow you to generate strength almost exponentially.

[Traveller]

Cheers, that matches with my deck build anyway - I've got a lot of seige engines and the leader card that gives them a boost. I've also got decoys and the medic so I should be ok.