General gaming discussion

[John Arne]

Does anyone play Transport Fever? The new one is out of Thursday. Top stuff.

[Ian]

I've started watching Slowbeef's. The other guys he's got riding side-saddle are ... prepared.

I watched the first half hour of his first episode last night. Already much less annoying than Jacksepticeye.

[Shindig]

Sony just premiered the RE3Make trailer. Looks like it's behind the back, RE4 style. April 2020. PS4 is also getting Untitled Goose Game and Dreams is finally releasing in February.

[Ian]

That's the same as how they did RE2, right?

Also fuck having to run away from that fucker in better graphics. I still remember me and my mate playing through it and being about to come downstairs in the police station and you hear a smash and being like, "Cool maybe we just live up here now."

[phonics]

The only issue is that they brought that mechanic into RE2: Remake so it's not quite as original.

P.S. Everyone should play the RE2 remake as Claire, it's genuinely one of the best games I've played in years.

[Ian]

Wasn't there a stompy tyrant in the original RE2 as well?

The difference is one is unnerving but stomps about fairly methodically whereas the Nemesis charges about after you like a mad bastard.

[Shindig]

Yeah, Mr. X was in the B scenarios originally.

[Ian]

I've made a start on Wasteland 2.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/12/12/get-wasteland-2-for-free-in-gogs-winter-sale/

For fuck's sake. First MYZ and now this are given away for free about a fortnight after I bought them.

I'll let y'all know next time I go to buy an isometric post-apocalyptic game so you can hold off and get it for free shortly after.

[Ian]

The excellent Disco Elysium won four at The Game Awards last night. :)

[Shindig]

And Sekiro took Game of the Year. 'cos it is.

[SincereTheRebel]

133

[Shindig]

Is err... that your GT Sport race wins?

[Mazuuurk]

Finally finished Dragon Age: Inquisition. Well almost, turns out I have some DLC called Trespasser to play as well (I did all the others out of sheer OCD'ing basically).

I kinda wanna go through ut but honestly I feel quite done with that game. It got very repetitive after a while, basically none of the enemies were very different from each other (not even the Dragons which I killed all of as well in the end).


Not sure what's next. Probably The Witcher 3. But I'm also a little scared of embarking on another MASSIVE game straight away.

[Ian]

Mazuuurk I've not played it but from what I've read it sounds like Trespasser might tie in quite closely to the DA4 storyline so it might be worth getting through at some point even if you put it aside for a bit.

Witcher 3. :drool: You're a lucky boy.

[Mazuuurk]

I know. But I keep putting it off because I sort of feel since i haven't had a console or computer for a few years now, I should blast through other titles (like DA:I) before Witcher 3 since I'm basically awed by most stuff anyway.

That said, it took me about 4 months or so to get through DA:I so I guess Witcher 3 will prolly take me until about summer. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

[Elbastido]

Finally finished Dragon Age: Inquisition. Well almost, turns out I have some DLC called Trespasser to play as well (I did all the others out of sheer OCD'ing basically).

I kinda wanna go through ut but honestly I feel quite done with that game. It got very repetitive after a while, basically none of the enemies were very different from each other (not even the Dragons which I killed all of as well in the end).


Not sure what's next. Probably The Witcher 3. But I'm also a little scared of embarking on another MASSIVE game straight away.

If you've done the other DLC, you really should go through Trespasser - it very nicely rounds the whole story off.

[SincereTheRebel]

https://www.paninifootballpl.com/en_int

First ever officially for the prem league

[Ian]

CDPR have come to a new rights agreement with the Witcher author clearing the way for more projects. :drool:

[Gray Fox]

Just got to finishing Star Wars: Fallen Order.

I'd say it's reasonably short. Maybe 10 hours or so if you aren't rushing or overly wandering about looking for collectables. I had to say I'd hoped for longer.

Graphically it looks pretty good in cut scenes, but it absolutely dies in combat. It still has framerate issues and it even crashed on a few occasions. A bit disappointed with it in all. The ending annoyed me as well.

It's still listed at full price everywhere too. I wouldn't buy it unless it were down into the £20's. As it is I may be able to sell it on and not lose much. CeX will still give me £25 cash for it, so I may float it on facebook to sell for a day then just trade it in.

[Ian]

10 hours is comfortably the lowest estimate of a playthrough I've seen.

I made a start on it last night (£10 off for Christmas sale plus the £10 voucher Epic gave me) and the early impressions of the lightsaber combat are very good.

[Shindig]

From what I hear it's Dark Souls for people who don't like Dark Souls.

[Ian]

Yeah and it's working for me so far.

[Gray Fox]

I didn't tire of slicing things up with the lightsaber at any point. Easily the best part of the game.

Once you gain all of your force abilities you can tear through large crowds of enemies with ease as well.

[Ian]

What is it with giant toad-like creatures being twats?

First Witcher 3, now this.

I realise that the big enemy in those fights is really impatience but they can still fuck off.

[Shindig]

I can think of two toad bosses within the souls genre. They're both kinda mint. One of them smokes and wears a bathrobe. Like Noel Coward. The other is a fucking nightmare.

[Ian]

I'm loving the timing of the stormtrooper combat lines in this sometimes.

You've just ploughed through five and then the last one shouts "YOU CAN'T KILL US ALL!"

[Gray Fox]

My personal favourite is when some of them are stood near a ledge, spot you and then shout something. Only for you to force push the group of them off.

[phonics]

I liked when I killed a bunch of them and ones left and he’s muttering you himself trying to pump himself up with stuff like ‘come on, you can do this’

[Raoul Duke]

I bought Just Cause 4 because it was on offer. Pretty fun so far, even if it's just mindlessly blowing shit up. The story is a load of horse cock, as per usual

[Ian]

I liked when I killed a bunch of them and ones left and he’s muttering you himself trying to pump himself up with stuff like ‘come on, you can do this’

I've not had that one yet. :D

[Pepe]

Ride 3 any good, Shindig?

[Shindig]

I dunno. It's on sale at the minute, isn't it? I reviewed the first one which was alright but their fictional tracks were a bit terrible. Seems like 3 builds on it with more tracks and bikes but doesn't change the career mode up.

[Pepe]

I saw it on sale, which is what made me curious.

Started on Disco Elysium. Few hours in and I don't really know what I'm doing.

[Giggles]

Can you transfer a games library to another person on Xbox? I’ve a One S that I’ve never found a decent game for (Madden 19 aside) so I’m giving it to the sisters husband. I don’t want to give him my Microsoft account but the games are no use to me.

[Shindig]

Nope. It's yours forever.

[John]

I very much doubt it. Either empty the account and redirect everything going to it into a new one, or clear the console and let him buy his own games.

[Giggles]

I suppose that’s how they try get you in fairness. It’s only 4 or 5 anyway so they can just float in oblivion and he can start from scratch.

[Pepe]

Physical copies ftw.

[Giggles]

Physical copies ftw.

Would be handy in that isolated case but in no situation otherwise.

Anyway, I thought the huggers would like non physical media?

[Pepe]

I'm guessing the huggers rather be outside rolling on the dirt than playing video games.

[Shindig]

Sekiro's legitimately broken me. I've beaten it twice and, every time I think about another playthrough for trophies, I pack in as soon as the deaths hit. I also played through a season of NBA 2K14 just to get it off my plate. I love how that series does presentation and commentary. It sounds so natural and it makes me wonder why no other sports game gets it right.

[five time]

Just got to finishing Star Wars: Fallen Order.

I'd say it's reasonably short. Maybe 10 hours or so if you aren't rushing or overly wandering about looking for collectables. I had to say I'd hoped for longer.

Graphically it looks pretty good in cut scenes, but it absolutely dies in combat. It still has framerate issues and it even crashed on a few occasions. A bit disappointed with it in all. The ending annoyed me as well.

It's still listed at full price everywhere too. I wouldn't buy it unless it were down into the £20's. As it is I may be able to sell it on and not lose much. CeX will still give me £25 cash for it, so I may float it on facebook to sell for a day then just trade it in.

Were you playing on Xbox? I'm holding off for now due to the reports of frame rate/lag issues for anyone who didn't buy the X.

[Gray Fox]

I was on an Xbox One S.

It's a shame too because when it held up the combat was really fun.

[Ian]

I've had to dial it down a little but it's running fine on my PC, thankfully. Still very much enjoying it and when I fuck up a fight it's almost always because of impatience.

Fairly certain I'm gonna need to look at upgrading some bits and bobs for Cyberpunk though so I need to gave saving my pennies.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I think I'm going to buy a month of Origin Access premier next week to play it.

My CPU fails the recommended but hopefully it will run ok.

[phonics]

I think I'm going to buy a month of Origin Access premier next week to play it.

My CPU fails the recommended but hopefully it will run ok.

Hahaha,

It doesn’t even run well on computers way above the recommended.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

:(

I was hoping I could trial it on the basic one (which I have for some reason) to test it but there's no trial.

Guess I'll just have to buy it on PS4.

[phonics]

Hope you’ve got a pro or that’s where it’s running it’s worst.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I do.

[Pepe]

Got back to Fire Emblem and I think that it might be my favorite game since Zelda.

[Pepe]

Got back to Fire Emblem and I think that it might be my favorite game since Zelda.

I cannot beat the final cunt boss. :moop:

[Shindig]

I need to commit to finishing Final Fantasy VII. It's been on the shelf (digitally) for too long.

[P_3]

Blow it off and wait for the remake/master.

[John]

Apparently WWE2k20 is such a mess it shuts down if you try to play it with a system date this year. The fix is just to change your system date to yesterday. :lol:

I knew it was a buggy piece of nonsense, but that's a different level of shambolic.

[Ian]

Ah, the old "millenium plus two decades bug" we were all shitting ourselves about.

Good work, 2K.

[Shindig]

Blow it off and wait for the remake/master.

Nope. I'm sick of seeing Midgar. I don't want a game that is entirely that and then to wait for 2-3 more instalments to finish the story out.

[Pepe]

I cannot beat the final cunt boss. :moop:

Did it. Good game. Might give it a replay some day.

[phonics]

Can you explain what happens? I stopped before there's some sort of split in the game? It's been out for a year and everyone still walks around it.

Are you only battling after that? Does it change how the game works etc?

[Pepe]

There are some story twists (which I can tell you if you want) but the mechanics of the game remain the same: spend a month doing mostly dull stuff and then have a battle of sorts.

I enjoyed the battles quite a lot for some reason, even though they are quite simplistic, ultimately.

[Ian]

So I was about 22 hours on Fallen Order without having 100%ed every planet. I liked it very much. Young Blando isn't as much of a useless, pasty-faced ginge as I expected either. Still no need for such a generic protagonist but he's alright in the end.

I love that when Vader turns up at the end there is only a very brief 'fight' with him before it's like, "No, just fucking run."

[phonics]

Still runs like an absolute dog for me even on 1080 so I'm just going to bin it off for a while.

[Ian]

The Goose Game is daft but fun. Who knew that so much satisfaction could be derived from stealing a gardener's hat and running away to a lake with it, honking like a bastard.

[SincereTheRebel]

From the box of stickers I bought. I usually get over 100 duplicates from the 500, but after sticking them in the collection. I only have less than 30. Over to swapstick now.

[Raoul Duke]

The Goose Game is daft but fun. Who knew that so much satisfaction could be derived from stealing a gardener's hat and running away to a lake with it, honking like a bastard.

Just started it myself too. Absolutely donned the old dear in the shop and her stupid fucking rake :cool:

[Ian]

Just started it myself too. Absolutely donned the old dear in the shop and her stupid fucking rake :cool:

That stupid dweeb of a kid has been my highlight so far. Little dickhead.

[Disco]

It will forever amaze me how developers actually go out of their way to make things in their games worse from one iteration to the next.

I like Rivals mode in Forza games and I picked up Motorsport 7 in a sale recently, lo and behold this allows you to do laps and simply loads the next ghost once you beat the last one. Contrast that with Horizon 4 where you have to exit and re-load every time you want to get a new target time/ghost. Well done lads, time well spent.

[phonics]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/270326079648956433/662452787665305621/unknown.png

i failed a roll trying to skip out on paying a check
as i ran away i turned back to the bartender and tried to jump out the door while flicking him the bird with both hands
instead i crashed into a cryptozooligist in a wheelchair and died

[Ian]

:drool:

Regular quicksaves are a must.

[phonics]

I'm currently stuck though. I can't get through the racist maori guy or get the body down. Because I only have one health I've had to use all my healing and so I'm not quite sure what to do.

I've nailed my character archetype though on how I'm playing him, he's a doofus that thinks of himself as a rockstar excitedly claiming he's found the solution only when he's been told it by other people. I'm going to be constantly intrigued by the electrochemistry (drug taking stuff) but stop just short of saying yes.

I might restart if there's some stats/thoughts you can recommend.

I went

Intellect:2
Psyche: 4
Physique: 1
Motorics: 5

with a specialisation in Inland Empire.

[Ian]

I went deep into intellect to start and winged it from there. As for your two issues...

For getting by the big lad obviously you can try fighting him but he's solid as you've no doubt seen. The other is accepting his philosophy or telling him you have. There is another way around into the docks if you have the means of passing a check to make a jump.

As for the body I took way longer getting it down than I ought to have done. Have you or Kim tried shooting it down?

[Pepe]

It really is a cracking game. Currently on vacation but can't wait to get back to it. It feels like I am constantly getting donned everywhere though.

[Bam]

What game is Phonics playing in that picture?

[Shindig]

Disco Elysium. It's an RPG that seems to be well-written.

[Bam]

Comes out on PS4 this year. :drool:

[Ian]

It really is a cracking game. Currently on vacation but can't wait to get back to it. It feels like I am constantly getting donned everywhere though.

Yeah in the early stages you are largely staggering from one disaster to another.

I think on my next playthrough I might go full into electrochemistry and see how it goes when you add (more) substance addiction into the chaos.

[phonics]

I refused one of those checks. Failed the other two. Am I screwed?

[Ian]

Some of the checks you can retry, others will become available if you level up that attribute. I've no idea if it's possible to properly get stuck. If you have literally no options and you've explored all of that first area and had every conversation it might be worth killing time (read your case notes if you've got those, or find books to read which passes time) and see if stuff changes with other characters or if Kim will help you out.

Where are you at with getting the body down? have you and Kim both tried to shoot it down?

[Pepe]

The worst one so far was that walrus and his shitty chair.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Started on the first Witcher but I think I might just skip ahead to the third.

The camera is way too sensitive (even at it's lowest setting) and the combat is pretty shit.

[Ian]

If you do persevere Mahow the best advice I can give is that when you get to the bit where you're traipsing between Vizima and the swamp / tower just make sure you've done everything you can in one part before going back to the other to reduce how much trudging you so.

It can be a bit of a grind though so there's nowt wrong with reading the plot or watching a video summary and going straight onto 2

[Raoul Duke]

I've never played the first two but the third is mega

[Shindig]

I've had the second sitting on my 360 for years and only watched the intro. Me and RPGs, man. :(

[Ian]

I've never played the first two but the third is mega

The first has pacing issues at the start and hasn't aged well.

The second is excellent. I've probably rambled on about this before here but I still think it was fucking ballsy to have two separate second acts that most players will only ever see one of depending on a decision at the end of act 1. The thing with the second is that it's a very obvious middle step towards eventually doing the big, polished (mostly) open world of Witcher 3. Especially in the decisions and humour of some of the quests you're doing.

It's very good.

[Mazuuurk]

OK so I'm a bit into Witcher 3 now, have reached level 16 and am messing about in Novigrad looking for Dandelion.

I'm starting to feel very lost though. I've not even explored half of the map i Velen / Novigrad and the game seems to almost insist I go somewhere called Skellige and I'm stumbling across some quests that are for level 6 (useless) and some that are for like level 25 and 30 etc which is way too hard for me and I just do not really know how to approach the game anymore now, so I'm mostly just playing Gwent (which I mostly lose at as well).

I need some handholding.

[Ian]

Do the low-level quests anyway just because they tend to have good writing. I wouldn't worry about Skellige yet, the game tends to let you know the big story quests earlier than you need them as I recall and I don't think you'll be levelled enough for Skellige yet. I think I just went to any quest boards I found and then made sure to work through my quests lowest level up. Obviously you're going to coast that level 6 one say.

But as I said the writing / story for even side-quests can be really good and some of them lead to bigger things.

[Mazuuurk]

Should I do the DLCs before or after I complete the main story?

[Ian]

Hearts of Stone is level 30 or something anyway and Blood and Wine is definitely one to do after. I'd do both after.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I played the tutorial of Witcher 2 today and I'll play through it before 3 for sure.

Got battered in the tutorial fight despite my great plan. I set up every single trap I had then triggered the fight, I then decided to lob a bomb at the first guy despite him moving towards my traps.

The bomb fell short, triggered every single trap and failed to kill the first guy. I did finish him off but the next two then came out and I forgot all about the glyphs and they battered me.

[Yevrah]

I really do need to play more of The Witcher 3. When I'm off EA's drug I shall.

[Raoul Duke]

OK so I'm a bit into Witcher 3 now, have reached level 16 and am messing about in Novigrad looking for Dandelion.

I'm starting to feel very lost though. I've not even explored half of the map i Velen / Novigrad and the game seems to almost insist I go somewhere called Skellige and I'm stumbling across some quests that are for level 6 (useless) and some that are for like level 25 and 30 etc which is way too hard for me and I just do not really know how to approach the game anymore now, so I'm mostly just playing Gwent (which I mostly lose at as well).

I need some handholding.

This is going way back a bit time-wise, but spend the early game "Witcher-ing" rather than worrying about the story. Build up your skills and gear a bit. You can take out a few of the enemies above your level but it tends to be fairly accurate with the comparative ratings of you versus them.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's insane watching Zallard and Sinister batter Mike Tyson's Punch-Out blindfolded sharing 1 controller. Either of them doing something mental is always a great watch on GDQs.

Also really liked the Fallout 4 (it was the Anthology but I only watched 4) run which was madness for all the glitches/warps.

[Ian]

This is going way back a bit time-wise, but spend the early game "Witcher-ing" rather than worrying about the story. Build up your skills and gear a bit. You can take out a few of the enemies above your level but it tends to be fairly accurate with the comparative ratings of you versus them.

Further to this you can draw out the challenge of some stuff that's a little beneath your level by refusing to take any of the idiotic-looking gear like I did.

I saw my first candy-striped, puffy-sleeved garment and gave it a firm Nope. Just work towards the collected armour sets. :nodd:

[Mazuuurk]

I have found the Griffin armour and the Cat/Feline armour and I'm donning the last one but it makes Geralt look like some sort of flamboyant pirate.

The Griffin one is about the same but only level 11 compared to 17, so.

[Ian]

Feline, Ursine, Wolven and Manticore all look the business. And I think between them they cover whichever playstyle you're wanting to go for so it's all good.

I went for Wolven.

[Mazuuurk]

I see Feline looks a lot better when it gets upgraded, so I'll probably go for that. I basically so far have just maxed out my Light attacks and just spam that in every fight.

My problem when playing is I only have maybe 1-2hrs per day, if that, to play. If I do too much "exploring" it sort of ends up feeling like a "lost session" if that makes sense. So what I try to do every time is do one side-quest or treasure hunt, clear a few question marks, play 2-3 rounds of Gwent and then spend the last 30 mins before bed (which quite easily turns into 90 mins tho) advancing the main quest.

I'm not at level 17 and the game keeps telling me to go to Skellige but I'm seemingly not done in Novigrad yet.

Is there a point in going back and fourth?

[Ian]

There are some quests at higher levels that will take you back to previous areas and whatnot. Broadly speaking, as I recall, you can gather up all the quests in an area and clear most of them out and move on.

[Mazuuurk]

But some quests in Velen / Novigrad are for like level 24? Won't I be way over-levelled when getting to Skellige then?

[Ian]

I should do all the quests of your level in an area. They're spread out in a way that I think they want you to be mooching about and revisiting places. Sometimes you'll pick up quests that are way too high and you won't be able to do so don't even worry about them until you're the appropriate level and others you'll pick up that you've levelled past but are worth battering through anyway because they're good little nuggets of story and Witchering.

As Raoul said though I wouldn't worry too much about the main story all the time. If it wants you to go to Skellige now but you've got stuff to do that's at or below your level then feel free to finish that up first.

[Mazuuurk]

Yeah I guess so. I mainly feel I haven't explored all that much of the map, only mostly the north-western parts. I went down south beneath the big lake once but immediately ran into some level 23 Ghouls or something so fucked back off.

The east side I have hardly been to at all past that Bog.

[Ian]

If there's areas you haven't been to I wouldn't fret, I'm pretty sure that sooner or later the game takes you everywhere and then obviously once you've done a bit you can explore the surrounds.

[Mazuuurk]

Cheers thats reassuring. I have this weird thing where I feel I need to play a game "just right". In any game once I have completed the main story, the game usually loses it's charm for me so anything needs to be done before then, so I wanna make sure I do everything that's worth doing before then, and also in these choice-based games I tend to fret a lot about what choices to make as making a "bad" one can really ruin it for me. I have some sort of in-game FOMO or what have you.

What it does is in these massive games by the end I always sort of feel like I've spent SO much time walking around clearing keeps and caves etc that by the time I get back to the main story it feels a bit distant. I like a game where the main story is long enough that you can spread out all the grinding and not miss out on much.

[Ian]

You've probably encountered some already but even some of the little one-off quests have cool or funny little stories. Just hoover up everything, it's good stuff. You could probably leave some of the stuff for the first DLC, Hearts of Stone to space some of the side quests out a little bit if you really wanted. You definitely want to be doing Blood & Wine by itself after the main story for reasons that will become apparent. :)

[phonics]

After I made the mistake of reading the side-effects of the drugs I've been taking

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/270326079648956433/664183302491602965/unknown.png

[Ian]

I need to do another playthrough of the game.

[Raoul Duke]

Gwent is bollocks, by the way

[Ian]

Gwent is fine until after you get a decent deck, at which point you have the same game every time.

[Ian]

Okay we might finally have a VR game I can take an interest in:

1215576064723947521


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHx43Fxls3k

[Disco]

I was ok until he dropped the bottle of perfume. :D

[Pepe]

The wobbly hands. :D

That is fantastic. Might have to give it a try.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

If we could co-op it up imagine The Third Hard dance crew.

[SincereTheRebel]

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/campaigns/2019/wrap-up/?PXP=bda841d8e537b184bc21c9cf3ec230026423f3fc43c8e da672c5df8ed086e26b

Only 44 days last year i never played

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/campaigns/2019/wrap-up/?PXP=0a952f750a24c6eb27caed8e671b65abadeb627d296ad a8ef77b97602da8bdb5

[Shindig]

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/campaigns/2019/wrap-up/?PXP=e3ab1e89c5832a5c5afcd74dc87271d7045f1b741b194 c6b522cb9d109506893

Bleh. Most of my review work is done on Sundays. :D

[Raoul Duke]

I've restarted The Witcher 3 :drool:

[SincereTheRebel]

From what i can remember. Great game.

https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/fahrenheit-indigo-prophecy-remastered/?utm_source=digidip&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=cj&CJEVENT=00c1d659372111ea825203f90a180511

[Shindig]

Nope, just a fantastic first hour.

[Ian]

I've restarted The Witcher 3 :drool:

My resistance to doing this is definitely weakening.

[Raoul Duke]

My resistance to doing this is definitely weakening.

I'd played through and completed it before the two add-ons were released and I couldn't be arsed to go back. It's been long enough though.

[Ian]

Oh so you've never done either DLC?

[Raoul Duke]

Nope. That plus the TV series has got me back in that mindset

[Ian]

:drool:

Blood and Wine is a perfect end to the whole thing and Toussaint and people actually respecting Witchers there is just lovely.

https://i.redd.it/1c03ww7ny8a21.png

That's just a picture not a story spoiler or anything.

[phonics]

I've always been tempted to get the expansion, the main game was just too long for me so I got bored. Maybe a 20 hour stroll in witcher land would be better.

[Ian]

Oh see I have the opposite problem. My fear about replaying it is that I'll give it the full 100+ hours all over again.

[Raoul Duke]

I've always been tempted to get the expansion, the main game was just too long for me so I got bored. Maybe a 20 hour stroll in witcher land would be better.

You can play the expansions straight off either by using your character or a simulated one at a correct level.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I was going to start on Witcher 3 as I bought it on Playstation today (sales, yay) and started watching a recap video of Witcher 2 which just made me want to pause the video and play it myself.

[Ian]

Apparently Horizon: Zero Dawn may be coming to PC.

[Mazuuurk]

Get on the Witcher 3 train lads. Amazing being years late to the party and it's still going on :cool:

I've...

...I did the main quest stuff in Novigrad and have just gotten to Skellige now and done some romping with Yen. Was always shagging Triss in the first two games but figured I'd go for Yen in this one since, well, she's there for one and you sort of are supposed to. But I dunno, Triss seems the funnier of the two characters but maybe that changes. I've still saved the "Now or never" quest so that I can change my mind if I wanna.

I still find it hard not to get sucked into the main story in a way. There seems like there such an urgency to whats going on there that going off on a 4-hour trek in the woods just seems a little off. But now I'm at level 22 and seems like I can take on some more interesting Witcher Contracts so was doing that last night.

I'm getting well into Gwent as well, it was a fucking bore at first but as these things usually go (at least in FF games) - turns out it's fucking fun. Bit pissed I already failed the Catch em All quest from not realizing I was supposed to do a gwent tourney at that ball with Triss. Though I still can only play with a Northern Realms deck. I didn't realize you should look to buy cards from any vendor you see at first so now I'm finding it hard to come across cards. Monster decks seem insane, they just get millions of units on the board somehow.

[Ian]

I still find it hard not to get sucked into the main story in a way. There seems like there such an urgency to whats going on there that going off on a 4-hour trek in the woods just seems a little off

I do tend to agree and this is something that open world games in general often struggle with I find.

I think Arkham Knight actually handled it very well by it letting you kid on that you didn't have the info or whatever for the next main story quest so you could go and clear up some other stuff.

[Mazuuurk]

Yeah true. Also it always seems like out of all the content they make anyway, the ration between "general exploration & side quests" and the Main Quest is always off, like the main quest almost always feels a tad short.

I realize this is a difficult thing to master. Final Fantasy games have a good way of making the main quest story absolutely massive while retaining some side quests, but that's partly also because grinding is a part in reaching the next steps.

One problem with the Witcher in a way is that the main quest rewards you enough XP to more or less get by by playing that only it seems. It's even being generous on it.

But still i feel like there could be more ways of pushing the player around the world map and "forcing" you into side quests as part of the main quest, if that makes sense.

Also I'm saying this having not completed the game, so what do I know. But I already have this feeling of "damn I getting there too quickly!".

[Ian]

I honestly can't remember if I had to make a conscious effort to wander off and explore but I don't feel like I did.

[Mazuuurk]

I do all the time. Maybe I think too much about it. But each night I get to play I'm like "OK, I have 2-3 hours here how do I distribute them tonight!".

[Ian]

How much of a backlog of side quests do you have?

[Mazuuurk]

Off the top of my head, I think I have 5-10 side quests active, some which are like level 10-11 most of which are around my level and and a couple (the armorer ones) that are like 24 or so.

Witcher contracts about the same, closer to 10 of them. Though there we have one or two that are just level 6 or something that I caught way past when they would have been challenging so might not ever do them.

2 Treasure hunts, I think.

So all in all around 20 I guess.

[Ian]

Do all of them. :nodd:

I'm working from home today and the temptation to get Witcher 3 downloading for a replay in the background is getting bad.

[Baz]

I hate how those wrap-up things never count games you play when signed in as player 2+ on someone else’s Playstation.

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/campaigns/2019/wrap-up/?PXP=0e4b74cdca0b0f2d2f8478d2598ae5c64563a18821b87 c5cdc300bddf80b0dd1

It doesn’t even know I played about a thousand hours of Pro Evo. :cab:

[Mazuuurk]

Do all of them. :nodd:

I'm working from home today and the temptation to get Witcher 3 downloading for a replay in the background is getting bad.

Why I think I will :drool:

[Mazuuurk]

In fairness though, the Witcher contracts sometimes get repetetive.

Talk to a peasant
Haggle for cash
Go out in the woods
Follow some tracks
Go back to the peasant
PLOT TWIST
Back in the woods
Potentially: place bait
Kill beast

It's not a bad formulae, but it does seem the same all the time, and the actual fights with the monsters are all mostly the same and a bit anti-climactic IMO.

[Ian]

And the Witcher senses thing is as rubbish as a lot of the Detective Mode stuff in Arkham and whatever other variations but still, I love it. Fuck it, I'm gonna download it.

[Ian]

So I caved and installed Witcher 3 again. When I first fired it up there was a little trepidation that I'd struggle to get back into such a big open world when I'd already done it once. Needn't have worried. It's got me again.

On the road with Roach again. :cool:

[Shindig]

Yo, when Aeris dies, I get all her Materia and gear back, right? I'm coming up on that in FF VII.

[Mazuuurk]

Pretty sure you do, yeah.


EDIT: I googled for safety and actually her accessory and weapon etc will go with her. So make sure she's not wearing any Ribbons.

[Mazuuurk]

So I caved and installed Witcher 3 again. When I first fired it up there was a little trepidation that I'd struggle to get back into such a big open world when I'd already done it once. Needn't have worried. It's got me again.

On the road with Roach again. :cool:


Awesome! :cool:

So I have a question here again. I'm now faffing about in Skellige right, but also went back a bit to Novigrad as per your recommendation. Having separated from Triss, which I kind of didn't really even wanna do, my soft heart required me to go do some questing with Yennefer for comfort (this was right choice, sort of thing). But now I'm right in the middle of some quest that has Yennefer following me around, and I'm sort of suspecting I'm approaching a point of no return in the story here (I read there's a "cut off point" for a lot of secondary quests).

So basically - Can I just leave her standing around in the middle of the quest? I have a million ?-marks to look up in the Skellige waters and I haven't even ventured to the south parts of the map in Velen yet, or even the north-east parts.

[Ian]

I'm pretty sure the game tells you explicitly when the point of no return is so you should be fine to do whatever.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Decided to sack off Witcher 2 and jump into the third.

Died once but liking it a lot.

I did a side quest ridding a well from a Noonwraith and I had none of the things she is weak against (bar the Yrden sign which seems pretty meh) so died the first time as I didn't have any food quick equipped.

[Pleb]

On top of other major games being delayed (I'm looking at you Cyberpunk) Dying Light 2 is on the delayed list.

[Gray Fox]

Better to be delayed than to be buggy or shit, to be fair.

[Ian]

Yrden sign + silver sword is enough for that, 'How, though Specter Oil helps too.

I'd actually forgotten the little quality of life thing that once you've crafted an oil or potion once you don't need to do it again, just meditate to restock them. I see that there's a mod that auto applies oils for you as well but I'm such a dork that I quite like prepping for the big fights and knowing what I need to get myself set up with.

WHy did you give up on Witcher 2, Sir Andy Mahowry ?

[Shindig]

Y'know, the way retroarch handles PSX memory cards doesn't half make you think you've lost saves.

[Mazuuurk]

Witcdher 2 was a quality game, and honestly Mahow I'd try to get through it while you still are early enough into the third to turn back (probably that train has left the platform though - once you start something new and all...).

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yrden sign + silver sword is enough for that, 'How, though Specter Oil helps too.

I'd actually forgotten the little quality of life thing that once you've crafted an oil or potion once you don't need to do it again, just meditate to restock them. I see that there's a mod that auto applies oils for you as well but I'm such a dork that I quite like prepping for the big fights and knowing what I need to get myself set up with.

WHy did you give up on Witcher 2, Sir Andy Mahowry ?

More of a consoler than a PC gamer (I could have just plugged my controller in though) and because of Maz's posts.

[Ian]

:cab:

[Mazuuurk]

Hope I didn't spoil anything for you?

Since we're all on it now, spoilers going fourth I guess:

Couldn't help myself last night and did that quest with Yennefer on Skellige anyway. It was a right fucking mess, as I was doing some side-quest with that werewolf simultaneously and the quests kept randomly overlapping. Now Yen fucked off to the pub on Larvik and says get there ASAP so imma do that and try to tap that bitchy arse, but after that I swear I'm taking a break from main questing for a good long while.

Oh and also managed to sort both master armorer and blacksmith and get the Enhanced version of the Cat Armour yesterday and HOLY FUCKING SHIT what a releif to not have to look at those short hipster-t-shirt arms anymore from the L1 gear.

[Pleb]

Is it worth watching The Witcher Netflix show first or can I dive into Witcher 3 without any prior knowledge?

[Ian]

Either way, doesn't matter. Obviously a lot of people did games > TV show and it works both ways but if you have watched the TV show then you'll know a little bit more about some stuff it mentions.

Also play Witcher 2, don't be a Mahow about it.

[Pleb]

:D

I've brought and downloaded 2 and 3 on Steam so I may give it a go at some point this week. I'm assuming 1 is not worth bothering getting at this point?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Is it worth watching The Witcher Netflix show first or can I dive into Witcher 3 without any prior knowledge?

The TV show follows the books not the games which are a different entity.

[Ian]

But are set before and contains stuff that is directly referenced.

As above though, the order you do them in or whether you're doing both at the same time doesn't matter.

[Raoul Duke]

I felt like playing 3 helped with some of the context of the series that I might have missed if I hadn't seen it

[Mazuuurk]

I haven't watched the Series yet as I've been through all games before (well I'm into this 3rd one now).

Pleb - as with all these things once you've started a newer one of the games it will feel hard to play an earlier version, because of how they get a bit dated. But honestly the 1st game is also a good game so if you don't mind the nowadays patchy graphics I'd go for it. Game-mechanic wise it's pretty much the same in all 3 (You do contracts, hack around with your swords, craft & repair shit, you use the same signs in the same way, there are important story choices, etc).

That said for game 3, playing only game 2 will give you enough context and W2 is after all a superior game to W1 IMO.

[Ian]

Did a bit more last night and got up to the Griffin fight and am going to try and hoover up as many of the ?s as I can this time as I ended up missing a fair few last time. I love even the really quick little sidequests that you find, like the woman trying to get into a hut because she thinks her pan is in there.

Little stories that add to the world. I'm going to try and only fast travel when I've already explored everything between two given points.

[Mazuuurk]

I started doing that a bit myself now, as in just walking/sailing/riding places. Specially in Velen I think it's probably quite good to do.

Skellige is a bit hard to navigate as it's not so clear what is a massive chasm or mountain or something on the way that might make you have to go back and around for 10 mins.

Walking around in Novigrad is also mesmerising. I constantly get lost but I don't even get mad about it as it's just a testament to how well they have build that city.


Though one thing that does annoy me with this game is how you unpractical it is to get a good view on the world map (and being in dungeouns you can get seriously lost, which I get is realistic but c'mon, it's just a waste of time).

[Ian]

I'm sure I'll get over it but at the moment when I'm in any sort of settlement I'm walking rather than even jogging so I can take it all in.

[Mazuuurk]

Hahahaha yeah you will get over that.

Though I get what you mean because it sort of feels a bit wrong to sprint around, even in the woods. But Geralts regular jogging pace is just a little too slow.

[Pleb]

Just started Chapter 1 in Witcher 2, I seem to remember that the prologue was shorter than I expected for some reason :cab:

[Mazuuurk]

Clearing up my massive backlog of quests. It's satisfying to do them, but also it becomes a bit of a "chore". I have a problem in that when I spot a quest I'm always like "Ah, I should accept that right away and then do it later".

So yesterday I met some dude in Skellige maybe 30 hours of gametime after I initially accepted, for instance, and I had no idea what I was supposed to help him with or why (fuck reading the journal). Turns out it was diving for pearls.

Like all of these "old" quests are almost for half my level or so so I'm just killing everything in one shot (wut) and getting 1XP at the end. Now, I get the mechanics of the levelling system but it feels a little skewed. Like it would be nice to get at least SOME XP for these quests. The loot is also terrible of course.

Still, I'm going to try to do all of them.

[Pleb]

What's Endrega Venom and how the fuck do I get/craft it?

[Shindig]

Everything Half-Life is currently free on steam. My graphics card hates it but then it hates most games.

[Pepe]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/01/23/disco-elysiums-new-hardcore-mode-wants-you-poor-sick-and-drug-addled/

:drool:

[Mazuuurk]

What's Endrega Venom and how the fuck do I get/craft it?

You have to loot if from Endrega Workers or Endrega Warriors which are quite big arachnids that wander around usually in forests (Skellige has loads of them but you can find some randomly scattered about in Velen as well).

[Mazuuurk]

Yesterday I did the side-quest for Dandelion and Pricilla where

she gets fucked up by some madman serial killer. I ended up killing this Nathaniel guy thinking that was it but apparently the game got the best of me and some other fucker was the real killer. That was an amazing quest though :drool:.

I've also done almost all the Gwent-quests now, and amassed a pretty mean deck by now. Gonna attempt that High Stakes tournament now.

[Ian]

If you've got a really good deck then you'll soon be at a point where you're steamrollering every game.

And yeah, quests like that are a big part of what I love about the game.

I'm just up to the Bloody Baron stuff on mine and sweeping up a load of ?s on the map.

[Shindig]

I forgot how badly they ported the source engine to the PS3. Physics and motion blur is ... doing some damage.

[Pepe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rqG7to9gD8&feature=emb_title

This has the nostalgia-meter pegged at eleven. Unfortunately it seems that it will just be a pass it to your best player and spam shots affair.

[Mike]

Got an Xbox one X today, game pass is mind blowing. Been playing GTA all evening as I’m shattered so didn’t want to have to pay attention. Might start The Witcher 3 tomorrow.

[Gray Fox]

It really does have some great value in it now. Them bringing Gears 5 straight out on Game Pass was a good move and one that needs to happen more if possible.

I'd love to have seen the rest of the Mass Effect trilogy on there. 2 and 90% of 3 were some of my favourite games.

If they can get AAA titles on there sooner then you get to the point of not needing another service.

[Pepe]

Finished Disco Elysium. Deserves all the praise it has received, really great game. Tempted to give it another run, as I feel I took it too vanilla. Might as well give the hardcore mode a go while I'm at it. Not yet though, need to play something else first. Not sure what. The Witcher 3 is the obvious choice, but I am temped by Total War Rome 2.

[Disco]

Rome 2 not the strongest entry in the series but the heavily updated version (Emperor Edition?) is ok, just expect to have to buy the DLC for most of the interesting factions.

[Pepe]

I know it was shit, but I am hoping that it is fixed by now. Fuck DLC though.

[SincereTheRebel]

100

[Gray Fox]

The Cyberpunk delay has essentially given me 8/9 months now before a game I want(and can get) comes out. So took all of the boxes gathering dust, including one of my kids unused Switch games and ended up with near £60 of CeX credit.

Needed something to fill the void so I thought I'd come a year late to the Red Dead Redemption 2 party. I looked at FIFA but there's little point in me starting up this late in. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint too looked good but I've heard bad things including lots of bugs. Got £35 left of credit so if I've forgotten a game I could always go pick it up.

It also struck me just how little space a 500GB hard drive now is. The games a 100GB install with a 16GB update straight away.

[Raoul Duke]

RDR2 is amazing, so you're in for a treat.

I updated my PS4 to a 500GB SSD and it was a bit of a game changer. Such a ballache having to manage save files. Next console I'm going mega SSD and all digital. Try to get rid of physical media.

[Mike]

Red Dead is so good! Enjoy!

[Shindig]

Rugby 20 is bollocks.

[Ian]

Finished Disco Elysium. Deserves all the praise it has received, really great game. Tempted to give it another run, as I feel I took it too vanilla. Might as well give the hardcore mode a go while I'm at it. Not yet though, need to play something else first. Not sure what. The Witcher 3 is the obvious choice, but I am temped by Total War Rome 2.

What did you think of the ending?

I'm not keen on whodunits where you haven't met the killer and I thought the giant bug rocking up was very unexpected but those are minor qualms about an amazing game otherwise.

[Pepe]

What did you think of the ending?

I'm not keen on whodunits where you haven't met the killer and I thought the giant bug rocking up was very unexpected but those are minor qualms about an amazing game otherwise.

Yeah, the 'it was some random horny old dude you didn't know existed in the end' was a bit lame, but I actually liked when the bug showed up.

Great game all in all.

Started playing Battlemech. Not enjoying it much so far.

[Ian]

Yeah I mean the bug thing was seeded there early and didn't feel out of place. It was weird but I did like it.

[Pepe]

I think that what I regret the most is not helping the ravers with their club. I just told them to fuck off when talk of drugs began.

[Mazuuurk]

OK Witcher update, spoilering as so many are playing here now:

Been clearing off a lot of the secondary quests I had, now I mostly have some contracts that are above my level, for like level 28-35. I'm level 25, soon 26.

But it's weird because I did a little more Main Questing and went to Kaer Morhen and turned that baby into the Elf it was. That part was a bit odd but the other stuff there was absolutely brilliant. Yen is not really doing herself any favours as the romance pick I made, she's right prickly. But the drinking with the lads quest was fucking amazing and kind of made better by the fact that she's basically Geralts bossy girlfriend now. Triss was a lot more fun really, but it still feels like Yen is the "right" choice somehow it's weird. I guess it's more canon or whatever.

Anyway, now I'm up to the Isle of Mists quests and I've read it's a breaking point in the game, so now I'm back in Velen just doing random shit. I haven't got many meaningful side quests to do right now, but I have loads of exploring left to do. So many question marks scattered about, so gonna spend the next few sessions clearing those I think. I also have a lot of unexplored territory in Skellige.

Though it's weird because particularly in Skellige I sometimes run into enemies that are too strong, and there are clearly quests for up to level 35-36 I can be doing later, and I feel WAY over-leveled for the main quest stuff - yet I get the feeling I'm nearing the games conclusion? It's all a bit strange. .


Ian a question - when I get the two expansions as a bundle, I just do that after I've completed the main game right? The save carries over, or? Or should I make sure to do it before or how does it work?

It's been so long since I did proper gaming that I'm not that used to DLCs and that, and the only real Expansions I ever did where the Starcraft ones on PC and those were really new games in themselves.

[phonics]

Do them after, they're very music classic 'Expansions' in that sense. Completely seperate from the other two.

[Mazuuurk]

What are "the other two"?

And yeah I'm doing them after but I'm wondering if my save will transfer over to those even if I complete the game before buying and installing them?

Maybe that's a completely stupid question :uhoh:

[Raoul Duke]

What are "the other two"?

And yeah I'm doing them after but I'm wondering if my save will transfer over to those even if I complete the game before buying and installing them?

Maybe that's a completely stupid question :uhoh:

Either you can continue your save or start with a preset new character. They can be played standalone but story-wise I think B&W is meant to be done after finishing the main quest

[Disco]

I know it was shit, but I am hoping that it is fixed by now. Fuck DLC though.

Yeah it's decent enough, I've certainly had a few decent campaigns out of it but I've gone back to Medieval 2 or Shogun 2 to scratch my historical TW itch. On that note the LOTR mod and something called Planet War (which includes star wars rip offs, Shrek, dinosaurs, and teletubbies) might be the best mods ever made for anything.

[Ian]

Hearts of Stone you could make an argument for doing either before or after the main game is done but Blood and Wine 100% do after the main game is all wrapped up and just carry on with your existing character to do so.

[Mazuuurk]

Think I'll do both after anyway.

Cleared out a whole bunch of question marks in Velen last night, which really kind of almost just becomes a chore as you're just plowing through level 4 ghouls and bandits and what not most of the time.

I have explored most of the southern parts of the map, and that place is fucking ace in a way, just kind of deserted and creepy and has some stronger foes in it.

And then I went to Skellige and had a few rounds with Jutta. I ended up on An Skellig later on where I don't think I'd been yet, and did the quest "Tower outta nowhere" which was fucking amazing. After doing that I explored that island in the sunshine (lovely little place really) and eventually found a mountain you could climb on it and when I got to the top I just stood there and stared into the foggy distance for 10 minutes, saved and switched off :drool:

[Mazuuurk]

Clearing the ?-marks in Skellige is a pain. And honestly, most loot I find now doesn't seem like it's worth it once you have Witcher Gear which just seems better (and better looking) anyway.

Yesterday I also discovered there are DLC's that you can install even though your save game is ongoing so I downloaded a haircut bundle and gave Geralt a boyband haircut and he looks ridiculous.

I'm starting to come back to places I've already been a bit as well. In hindsight, I wish I'd have been a bit more methodical about how I explored the map, as now I've "sort of" seen everything, but there are lots of unexplored pockets. A fog-of-war functionality might have seriously been quite good here.

So anyway. Think I'll advance the main quest a bit more tonight. I'm supposed to round up my old mates now before heading to Isle of Mists. Thing is at level 26, there just doesn't seem to be so much more for me to do before this anymore. I have one or two contracts that are for like level 33-35 (I can manage killing foes up to ca level 30).

[Raoul Duke]

Bioshock Collection on PS Plus this month coming is pretty great.

[Mazuuurk]

Clearing the ?-marks in Skellige is a pain. And honestly, most loot I find now doesn't seem like it's worth it once you have Witcher Gear which just seems better (and better looking) anyway.

Yesterday I also discovered there are DLC's that you can install even though your save game is ongoing so I downloaded a haircut bundle and gave Geralt a boyband haircut and he looks ridiculous.

I'm starting to come back to places I've already been a bit as well. In hindsight, I wish I'd have been a bit more methodical about how I explored the map, as now I've "sort of" seen everything, but there are lots of unexplored pockets. A fog-of-war functionality might have seriously been quite good here.

So anyway. Think I'll advance the main quest a bit more tonight. I'm supposed to round up my old mates now before heading to Isle of Mists. Thing is at level 26, there just doesn't seem to be so much more for me to do before this anymore. I have one or two contracts that are for like level 33-35 (I can manage killing foes up to ca level 30).


OK maybe I jumped the gun on this one. I think basically I'm at the endgame now? I'm only on level 28 though and recommended level for this quest was 22, but I still have contracts for level 33 and 35 in Velen to take care of. What the?
Ian can I do contracts in Novigrad, Skellige and Velen during the expansions? Does the game sort of "carry on" after you complete it?

[Ian]

Pretty certain Hearts of Stone takes place in the main areas so do as you please at that point. Blood & Wine takes place in a whole new area though so while you can come back it makes more sense to get anything you want cleared off.

There are also contracts that they added in after release just because so some of them will be aimed at high end characters. If you've rattled off a load of Places of Power when sweeping up ?s you'll probably be okay to attempt stuff a few levels above you anyway.

I played some more yesterday as I was off.

I'm not at the end of the Bloody Baron questline yet but I'd forgotten that it basically has no good ending.

I've hit a couple of minor obstacles in my attempts to be more thorough with ?s as there are some dotted about that are way too high. I also bit the bullet and bought some relatively expensive Water Essence so I'd finally have Cat (rather than relying on firing Igni at everything for light) and then almost immediately ran into a bunch of water hags who gave me all I needed. Bastards.

[Ian]

Also I've made the important decision: I'm going to go for the Ursine armour this time. Or maybe Cat.

But definitely not Wolven, even though it looks, and is, ace.

[Mazuuurk]

It's so fucking hard. Maybe I'll do Hearts of Stone after the Battle of Kaer Morhen (I googled and found out there a little more stuff happening after that).

Seems like that would provide a little more content while throwing in random unfinished contracts and sidequests as well.

[Mazuuurk]

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.

[Ian]

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.

[Mazuuurk]

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...

...Imlerith in maybe 5 swift blows. Took like 15 seconds. Though even the Crones (what great characters they are btw) was a super easy fight and that was with Ciri...

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.

[Ian]

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

the Bloody Baron has taken some dudes to prep for getting his missus back

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.

[Pepe]

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:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0166/4408/products/1_HitBoxPNG_1c26c453-faa2-4a47-a212-182da447507b_1200x1200.png?v=1553297923

[Ian]

Fuck that. I remember getting some "arcade" controller for the Mega Drive with some game or another and it was shiiiiit.

[Pepe]

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.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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 :moop:

Those schematics for a silver sword which I can't build yet were well worth it.

[Pepe]

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.

I already have this:


Pretty much complete now:

https://i.imgur.com/A7CVuwO.jpg

:cool:

What type of wheel did you get? As for cheap stands, I think that one of those GT Omega wheel stands or a Playeseat are basically the only options. The Playseat sucks a bit since the ople is between your legs though. I used a crappy desk/chair combo for years.

Haven't touched it in months. I'm a lost cause.

[phonics]

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:


I play Tekken 7 if you want a game.

[Pepe]

Never played Tekken. Tried Dragon Ball Fighterz but it is way too fast for me.

[Mazuuurk]

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.

[Ian]

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.

[Mazuuurk]

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.

[Ian]

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. :D 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.

[Mazuuurk]

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 :D


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 :(

[Ian]

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

[Mazuuurk]

Yeah. And still it seems to go by too quickly :/

[Ian]

:console:

[Pepe]

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. :happycry:

[Mazuuurk]

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 :wub:. 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 :D

[Ian]

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.

[bruhnaldo]

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)

[Baz]

‪Come and watch me ding level 60 in UBRS! https://twitch.tv/baz9torres‬

[Mazuuurk]

Hearts of Stone finished...

It was pretty amazing. Gaunter O Dimm was a great villain and the long sequence in the manor was super well done. The wedding sequence was also absolutely amazing in it's own way. Vlodomir was a bit of a don really.

It was strange doing it sort of with everyone from the main quest "waiting" in Novigrad and what not though. The romance stuff with Shani felt much more genuine than any other romance or sex story. Like Yen feels like she's constantly a bit pissy and Triss seems a little obsessed with Geralt. This one had a real 'the-one-who-got-away-vibe' to it, specially I think doing it before the conclusion of the main quest. I also have some vague memory of her from W1. Bit odd you could do that after having "cemented" your relationship with Yen really though.

At the end, I decided to help Von Everec and go after O Dimm. Mostly because I read it was the only way of getting that Viper sword and also I wanted to see what his world was, seemed like it was the more interesting way to end the quest. And even if he was a massive dick I kind of liked von Everec from the start. .


Now, I'm back on the main quest and...

... basically I'm just about to finish the game. I was kind of roaming about for a bit after HoS but really there isn't much left for me to do anymore. The quests I have missed are mostly level 2-4 stuff in No mans land Velen, and random ?-marks out in the water here and there. So I walked around for a bit not really wanting to initiate the End Game but finally I just did, so I did the final stuff in Novigrad. Reasons of state was pretty weird. Ended up killing Dijkstra, as I didn't wanna let him kill Vernon and Ves. Now, in W2 I sided with Iorveth, so Geralt and Vernon shouldn't be pals really, but I dunno Vernon has been a top bloke all of W3 and Iorveth has been nowhere so Vernons my mate now.

Now I'm in Skellige and I think basically right at the end. Running around fetching some stone and shit which will get me to Eredin, supposedly.

I have Blood and Wine lined up here, but we are approaching the end guys. Hold me.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I hadn't played in a few days and was thrown into the deep end when I played yesterday.

Did the Werewolf quest (that regen was a bitch) and then I did a bit more of the main quest and had to fight Nithral.

Didn't help that I don't use oils or whatever and had fuck all food. Near the end of the Nithral fight I had to power drink some alcohol so Geralt was fighting him drunk. If Keira wasn't there I'd have had no chance.

[Mazuuurk]

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 :D

Anyway, finished the main quest last night!

The conclusion felt a little rushed, but all in all it was all amazing. Probably the best game I've ever played, this. Calanthir and Eredin were both dispatched with serious ease (I mean fighting with Ciri is a joke, and I came into the fights at level 39 and I think the bosses were like the equivalent of maybe 30).


The ending I got was Ciri defeated the White Frost (that felt a little anti-climactic btw. You didn't even get to understand exactly what the White Frost even was and how she defeated it etc.) Then she became a Witcher and Geralt supposedly retired to some place with a bath-tub together with Yennefer. All nice. But then he actually ended up just back alone in Kaer Morhen which seriously felt a little weird and somehow really really lonely. That was a proper bummer actually.

As for politics, Nilfgaard retained power over Temeria but let them be a vassal state. I dunno, I felt Emhyr was the lesser of two evils.

You also didn't really get to know what happened with Avalla'ch or Triss, which was a little odd.

But all in all, a satisfying conclusion to the main quest. I also feel like I did more or less everything I could. The weird thing is I already kind of feel like playing the whole thing again, but if I did I'm pretty sure I'd just end up doing the exact same choices. Kind of like how I've started about 5 playthroughs of Baldurs Gate 2 with the intention of "being evil this time" and then always ending up Chaotic Good in the end. .

The highlights of the game (excluding Hearts of Stone) were:


- The crazy murderer quest in Novigrad
- The Battle of Kaer Morhen
- The forests of Skellige
- The whole Kiera Metz episode (including her side quests in that isle)
- Bald Mountain quest with Ciri
- In fact any time you got to spend as or with Ciri whatsoever
- Gwent
- Fighting Ancient Leshens
- Unfolding the story of the Bloody Baron and his wife
- Drinking with Eskel & Lambert
- The Last Wish quest with Yennefer
- Pondering who it is that runs around lighting candles everywhere in this but appreciating they are there
- Just running around in Novigrad





So now I'm onto Blood and Wine...

...and again it feels a little odd. Like where are everyone? It's strange that they have all seemingly just disappeared. Not even Yen is around. And the Witchering with Ciri, what happened to that? But then also Geralt was supposed to retire to a bathtub so that was all a bit off to begin with.

I'm torn. I've only just gotten to Toussaint so haven't done anything yet, but I don't want this to end completely. Though looking forward to getting into it as well if it's anything as good as Hearts of Stone was. I read somewhere this is the very final end to Geralts story and if they make another Witcher game he won't be the main character. And I just refuse to accept that :( .

[Ian]

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.


Probably the best game I've ever played, this.

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.

[Mazuuurk]

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.

[Ian]

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.

[Ian]

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.

[phonics]

New season of Call of Duty out today. Can't wait. I'm still regularly top 2 every map. God I love this game.

[Ian]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/11/ive-decided-to-get-really-good-at-age-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.

[Pepe]

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:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0166/4408/products/1_HitBoxPNG_1c26c453-faa2-4a47-a212-182da447507b_1200x1200.png?v=1553297923

Now that I can hit the button I intend to hit more often than not, I have managed to leave the Rookie ranks and made it all the way to bronze. :cool:

[Ian]

Nerd.

[Pepe]

I'm not the one staring at virtual landscapes MATE.

[Ian]

That's only because you're a nerd and not an aesthete like me, buddy.

[Pepe]

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.

[SincereTheRebel]

51 GB download for season 2 of COD. Liberties.

[Ian]

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.

:D

"The fuck does Cuno care?"

[Pepe]

Should have seen the two cunts lolling at me. Even Katsuragi couldn't stop himself from the bantz.

[hfswjyr]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/11/ive-decided-to-get-really-good-at-age-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.

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.

[Ian]

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.

[Mazuuurk]

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.


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.

[Mazuuurk]

Also what the fuck is up with the Gwent music in B&W?

[Ian]

I'll need to tell you when I get back to it.

Is it a bit lively?

[Mazuuurk]

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.

[Ian]

I just remember enjoying not being spat on for being a mutant freak.

[phonics]

The new Call of Duty map is bad and it's definitely not cause I'm getting fucking destroyed on it. Too many sightlines.