By the way I'm going for Cat Armour. It looks amazing at the 2nd tier IMO. But the first tier was a fucking farce so you have to endure that a bit.
By the way I'm going for Cat Armour. It looks amazing at the 2nd tier IMO. But the first tier was a fucking farce so you have to endure that a bit.
I think I hunted down the schematics for them all last time for the option and the experience and some of the bits they're hidden in are cool. Settled on Wolven as it looked like classic Geralt on roids but I'm changing it up this time for purely aesthetic purposes.
OK, finished the Battle of Kaer Morhen yesterday, and the following quest on Bald Mountain that you sort of had to do after.
Amazing quests, even though both felt strangely short somehow. I think also I have basically a completely overpowered Geralt or something. I play on the easy setting so it's not like it was ever very hard (I don't much like a challenge tbh, but maybe I should increase it a bit), but still. I've put almost all of my Ability points into Fast attack, which gives that a ton of bonus, and I have the Cat School Ability, which aslso gives you boosts for fast attack if wearing light gear, and I wear the Feline Armour & Swords, and I have two massive red mutagens that boost my attack power - so yeah. I think my fast attacks seriously do more damage than the strong ones.
I killed...
Toggle Spoiler
Now I'm finally able to run around again so gonna aim to polish off all secondary quests I have remaining and see if there are any I have missed. The Racing ones on Skellige I don't much care to do though, I've done a few horse races and find them a bit boring so maybe I'll just fuck that off.
I also finally killed Harrisi, a massive spider I ran into in some quest that I got at like level 7. Bit weird, you'd relatively easily get to the end of that quest being level 7 and then a massive level 33 Spider shows up and snaps you in half. Anyway, she deder than tupac now.
Yeah I tend to only do heavy attacks on enemies that are staggered, weak ones do the trick.
I seem to recall Imlerith gave me a bit of bother the first time, the big twat.
I'm at the point where
Toggle Spoiler
so in the meantime I'm gonna sweep up some secondary quests next. I honestly can't remember what Keira wants off me so might do that first.
Got back into Street Fighter. I don't remember being this bad at it. I also got a bit carried away and ordered one of these:
Fuck that. I remember getting some "arcade" controller for the Mega Drive with some game or another and it was shiiiiit.
I fully expect it to make me even worse, but maybe after a while I might become better. Or I will sell it in a month for a small loss.
I've always liked the idea of buying an arcade controller but always backed out last minute.
Even I think it's a bit much in the end, that should speak volumes.
Also I had a fight with a Wight the other day on Witcher. It took me ages and almost killed my silver sword until I paused to Google why it wasn't dying..
I had strayed too far from the crypt with my dodging
Those schematics for a silver sword which I can't build yet were well worth it.
Never played Tekken. Tried Dragon Ball Fighterz but it is way too fast for me.
OK so I installed Hearts of Stone and am into that now. This guy Gaunter O Dimm is clearly some sort of deranged fucker, and I'm pretty sure this other guy de Elviec or whatever that's supposed to be the arsehole is not all he seems.
It's refreshing doing some new content and battling some new foes (that toad is the best thing I've fought in the whole game so far, the first really massive monster actually).
But it's very strange getting into a whole new massive questline when you have your Main Quest basically on hold right before the end. That makes me feel like I should have done HoS earlier really, but then I'd have been too low level I guess.
I think basically I've done most secondary quests in mainland Velen/Novigrad now and on the main Skellige islands, so think I'm mostly done with that stuff. There's probably about 10-20 quests left behind though that I havent found or whatever.
What I really can't be fucked to do is clearing all the question-marks out in the water around Skellige. Such a fucking drag fighting Harpies in a boat for some smugglers loot that I don't seem to need.
Do you remember O'Dimm from his brief appearance right at the start of the main game?
And yeah, I'm not doing all the watery ?s unless any contain armor diagrams I need.
I played far too much of this over the weekend. It's absolutely got its hooks back into me.
I didn't really but he introduced himself as "DO YOU REMEMBER WHO I AM" and I said No then said he helped me find Yen, at which point I checked the Bio or his Wiki or something and turns out all he did was sit in a pub and point me in the right direction in White Orchard, like thanks mate thats some masterclass wizard puppeteering right there; "try going north".
But it's definitely a nice touch that they sort of planned for his re-appearance. He makes me well uncomfortable. Got this really smug, stupid and plain look to him as well, like random village NPC's, which I can only assume is very intentional.
It's hard to say if I thought there was something up with him the first time or not but he's definitely got something amiss about him and how evasive he is the first time.
I've also made a point of not using a horse trophy thing that gives me more XP and not doing that on gear where possible because as you've already mentioned and I had forgotten you don't half level up quickly if you're being thorough. The Wolf armour treasure hunt is a level 14 question. I've not been to Kaer Morhen yet so I can't do it and am already level 18.
That said it is fun sometimes when all you're fighting is some random mooks who try to jump you or get set on you by a story baddie and you sweep through them in no time. Especially if you trigger a badass finishing move that gibs three of them in one go.
Holy shit you are already level 18? Took me weeks to get to that point.
I'm level 34 now and mooching around in Northeastern Velen now is providing some change as some of the battles are actually a little challenging now, but the right amount (also increased the difficulty one step).
That said, it does feel a little shit that I killed off some of the Main Story baddies just a little while ago in a few hits, while now a few Level 34 Drowners is actually a bigger challenge than supposedly some of the most powerful foes in the game
I haven't actually done any exploring past what you do in the main quest in Kaer Morhen yet, so that's also sort of on the to-do list. But kind of feels a little difficult going back there. Emotionally
Yeah but aren't you only doing an hour or two at a time? I have zero responsibilities and a lot of time on my hands. :P
Yeah. And still it seems to go by too quickly :/
Street Fighter V is free to play on Steam right now, so I gave it a go. Hopped straight into online ranked matches and managed to win three out of 20+ matches.
Yesterday I got into the game with the mission of doing the Runewright setup quest. I stumbled upon the quest where his mate outside his tent needed some schematics but it was unsolvable (apparently a bug) so that was a massive waste of time. The rest of the night was spent clearing ?-marks in eastern Velen. Got into this misty forrest called Dreadwood or something and had a pretty epic fight with a Level 37 Leshen, and also stumbled upon a random Level 37 Golem standing around in the fields around there, both which were more of a Boss Fight than any actual boss fights I've had so far.
Also, Shani . Somehow the stuff with Triss, Yen and Ciri is starting to feel a little distant and not so important anymore. Gonna be weird "coming back" to that. Might try to update the main quest just a tiny bit next time I play to sort of keep the flow between these things going, but also it seems a good idea to just keep immersing myself in HoS stuff.
@Ian - I bet you do something like this too - but each time when I'm done playing for the day, before I save I find a really nice spot, like on the shore overlooking Novigrad or on top of a Hill or a nice patch in the woods or something. I'll meditate until the weather is just right, whatever seems approrpriate for the spot, then strike a pose, adjust the cam a bit and ceremoniously stare into the sunset over the novigrad temple isle or whatever for a few moments before switching off. Like saying good bye. Feel fucking ridiculous every time but still do it
I do quite a bit of gazing lovingly at the weather and take the odd screenshot (I had a particularly good bit yesterday where there was the sunset in one direction and a lightning storm start in the other which was stunning) but when I finish up for the day I tend to get myself so I'm ready to get straight into something the next day. Either at my next location or ready for where I want my next ride to be.
I love the trolls in this game so I was quite pleased to find a new one yesterday, where you encounter one who's being attacked by nekkers.
i really should try W3 but I've had it downloaded for 3 weeks and gave it up while watching the intro the first time (though i was exhausted at the time)
Come and watch me ding level 60 in UBRS! https://twitch.tv/baz9torres
I'm a twit
Hearts of Stone finished...
Toggle Spoiler.
Now, I'm back on the main quest and...
Toggle Spoiler
I hadn't played in a few days and was thrown into the deep end when I played yesterday.
Toggle Spoiler
Yeah that Warewolf murdered me at first as well. Not to mention when I did the "Missing brother" quest at level 6 or whatever and ended up facing a massive lvl 33 spider
Anyway, finished the main quest last night!
Toggle Spoiler.
The highlights of the game (excluding Hearts of Stone) were:
Toggle Spoiler
So now I'm onto Blood and Wine...
Toggle Spoiler
I dunno if you've spent much time in the cities and that yet but quite aside from Toussaint being gorgeous it's just nice after hours of scorn in Velen and Novigrad to play Blood and Wine and having people respecting you for being a witcher. Obviously won't go into how it works as an ending until you see it for yourself.
Replaying it and it hooking me all over again is cementing this as my favourite ever. I'm on Skellige now. I may need to up the difficulty because... well, to give you an idea of how over-levelled I am the Wolf armor treasure hunt in Kaer Morhen is level 14 but you can't do it until the main story takes you to Kaer Morhen. I'm not at that stage yet but am level 22....
Still, I'm in the first set of bear armour now and no longer have to look at the unsightly paunch the Griffin armour gives you so life is good. Making a point of riding anywhere which has ?s on the way is even throwing up a few small quests I didn't see last time which is nice.
I was gutted that combat was the only option with the farting trolls.
Do you find yourself making different choices or playing differently at all? I just can’t see myself doing that the second time even though you sort of should try I guess.
I would like to see how some of the early choices of W2-lore might have played out differently. For instance I killed Letho in W2 and was consistent with that but then saw he could have been a character in this and sort of regretted that.
There are a couple of things where I can't honestly remember what I chose last time but certainly for the big stuff I suspect I'll do much the same thing. It's kinda set in my head as to how I feel the story goes and as you've said, my previous attempts at replaying RPGs a "different" way tend not to end up with me straying too far from how I did it the first time, if at all.
In terms of playstyle I guess going bear armour makes me a bit tankier but unless I bump the difficulty that won't make an awful lot of difference.
Also one thing I'll say is that the "follow the glowy bit" form of investigation (Witcher, Arkham, others that aren't immediately coming to mind) are fine and moderately diverting and can help define a character (Geralt's senses are superhuman and he's smart enough to use them to not just be man-wot-smashes-monsters-with-swords, Batman has all the technology) but having now played games like Return of the Obra Dinn and Disco Elysium it feels a bit shallow.
Those two examples are very different games but what they have in common is that they allow / require you to actually come to conclusions of your own. I realise putting this into something like the Witcher or an Arkham game would be hard because a) those games are basically one massive investigation so scaling the idea down to a few scenes for Geralt/Batman wouldn't necessarily work and b) in Witcher / Arkham you're playing as an actual established character with history and abilities so obviously that comes with them doing a little of the legwork and coming to certain conclusions. But still, it'd be nice if this sort of thing could feature actual puzzles rather than hunting for primary colours.
New season of Call of Duty out today. Can't wait. I'm still regularly top 2 every map. God I love this game.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/202...-of-empires-2/
This makes me think of the chastening experience of playing Cjay, I think it was, at AOE.
There I am still farting about chopping up my sheep and deciding which ore I should worry about mining first and my scout happens across his enormous stone walls and he's fisting me up the arse with shiny metal knights and whatever the fuck else.
I'm not the one staring at virtual landscapes MATE.
That's only because you're a nerd and not an aesthete like me, buddy.
Speaking of, I created a new character in Disco Elysium, focused on physicality, just so I could beat the shit out of Cuno. Proceeded to miss a 78% chance of success roll and ended on my arse. Decided to quit that run immediately after.
51 GB download for season 2 of COD. Liberties.
Should have seen the two cunts lolling at me. Even Katsuragi couldn't stop himself from the bantz.
Back in the days of Warcraft 2 (yes, 2), I remember participating in a 7v1 online game against a guy called Jeremy on the Garden of War map. Now, me and my mate both thought we were shit hot at this game, having taken down AI computers 2v6 on the same map.
The 7 of us lost. That blew my mind at the time, and I still can't figure it out today. Unless this guy had managed to create some cheats/hacks in the very early days online gaming, which would be impressive in itself.
Slightly different thing but me and Cord (RIP) once got absolutely thumped 1 vs 2 at Rocket League by a guy with the username Francois Hollande.
I like to imagine it was really him.
Yeah it definitely is gorgeous, but so far it kind of lacks the ambiance of Velen, Novigrad and Skellige. And I miss hearing "Truth is we're already dependent on the Black ones. Econamacleee". It's also full of little nods and clever jokes from the Devs, which is nice, but thus far almost a tad much, it's a little immersion-breaking almost.
But getting into it a bit now, and getting a letter from Yen helped sort of give a little bit of context to the situation. Though it's still a little odd Ciri is missing from the equation without any mention at all.
I already have a bit of a stressful Quest-backlog. It's always the same when you visit a Notice board and see like 3 quests. Do I nab all three now and have this stressful list, or do I risk forgetting about returning? Always go for the former. Better safe than sorry.
On riding (or walking) - the more I played the less I started fast travelling. In fact, I think a major mistake I did in how I structured my playthrough was doing too much fast travelling out of some sort of sense of urgency. It left me feeling after a while like I had to go just exploring, and then it became a bit of a chore tracking down ?-marks. So trekking one way or another (I actually ended up preferring running) seems the way to go.
Also what the fuck is up with the Gwent music in B&W?
I'll need to tell you when I get back to it.
Is it a bit lively?
It's quite jarring. Was absolutely nothing wrong with the base game music.
Toussaint is starting to give me the creeps. It's really empty and quiet, and the weather is always the same. It's very odd.
Yesterday I did the Tourney quest with this kid Guillaume. He was fucking annoying. Everyone in Toussaint is fucking annoying actually.
I just wanna smack them all in the head for speaking so weirdly and rhyming and being a general parody.
I just remember enjoying not being spat on for being a mutant freak.
The new Call of Duty map is bad and it's definitely not cause I'm getting fucking destroyed on it. Too many sightlines.