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The Witcher III: Blood & Wine |OT| One last contract, one last plough

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Developer: CD Projekt RED
Release: May 31
Platforms: PS4, XBO, PC
Price: $19.99

Size: 11.9 GB (PS4), 15.03 GB (XBO)



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Welcome to Touissant, the land of summer, a remote valley untouched by war. The land of wandering knights, noble ladies and magnificent wineries. What better time to visit than now, when this kingdom of virtue is torn apart by a series of savage massacres! Geralt of Rivia, a legendary monster slayer, takes on his last great contract. Blood and Wine is where beauty clashes with horror, and love dances with deceit.

Blood and Wine makes The Witcher 3 complete -- it’s Geralt’s final mission. It contains more than 90 new quests and over thirty hours of brand new adventures. This expansion features a new dynamic Point of Interest system, a new GWENT deck, new endgame mutation mechanics, and even a place Geralt can call home...all happening in a new region as big as No Man’s Land in the base game.

ADDITIONAL INFO (thanks dmax)
Here's a dot point summary of all the big info from the new previews for Blood and Wine!

The Numbers:
• 30+ hour adventure.
• Over 90 new quests.
• Over 40 new points of interest.
• Dynamic points of interest system. Killing bandits in their main hideout will affect the number of enemies in surrounding camps.
• 14000 lines of dialogue (Hearts of Stone had 6000).
• 100 individual pieces of armor (including new Witcher sets).
• More than 20 new monsters.
• New Game + maximum level increased to 100.

Armor and Weapons:
• New Witcher armour class ‘Grandmaster’.
• New armour merchant who is the only one able to craft this level of Witcher gear.
• Can get blue, hooded armor from Witcher 2, armor from Witcher 1, Ursine Witcher armor with furry pauldron that was in the artbook but cut from the main game.
• More than 30 new weapons.
• Can now dye armor. Dyes can be bought from a merchant, crafted or looted. Only obtainable in Toussaint. Pink is among the colors.


New Mutation System:
• Mutations. 12 new abilities. Mechanic is unlocked through a quest started by a letter from Yennefer. Examples: Signs can have critical hits causing the enemy to explode, instead of dying Geralt is healed and has damage immunity, opponents knocked down by AARD freeze and die instantly. Can only utilize one at a time.
• The UI resembles Witcher 2’s character customization screen. Basically they’re super strong abilities/stat boosts that require mutagens and skill points to unlock. Can only pick one at a time but you have to unlock earlier ones to get the others.
• Despite unlocking it at level 34+ (recommended level to venture to Touissant) the system and anything you’ve unlocked carries over to New Game+ so you won’t have to unlock it again.

UI Changes:
• Greatly redesigned User Interface.
• Can now rotate Geralt in stats screen.
• Books moved to glossary.
• Upon looting a readable item a little notification pops up in bottom left of screen. Upon clicking in the right stick (on Xbox One controller), you can read the text of recently looted books, letters, notes etc without having to go to the menu, inventory, finding the right book and so on.
• Option to remove fish-eye effect from Witcher sense.

Home Base:
• Geralt gets his own motherfucking vineyard.
• It’s called Corvo Bianco.
• You can renovate it with large sums of money, the option I saw was for 5000 Orens.
• You can add a greenhouse of sorts where you can grow herbs for all your Witcher potion needs, an armorer’s table, a stable for Roach (with its own stat bonuses), upgrade your bed, renovated interior and exterior, secret lab, guest room.
• Guest room where old friends will come to stay. They said the names Triss and Yennefer, but were reluctant to reveal the names of anyone else who might visit.
• Scaffolding and workers will appear after you choose to build something. Each change takes a certain amount of in-game time to complete, but you can just meditate til everything’s done.
• Can display your armor, weapons, paintings and books.
• Some paintings can be bought, or specially made, others are obtained through quests.

Music:
• Over 2 hours of new musical content in the game.

Other Tidbits:
• Can enter Geralt in a tournament, creating his own logo and team colors.
• Can enter under a fake name, although you may not fool everyone.
• You can of course race horses, but other events involve crossbow shooting and a grand melee. Seems like there will be more but they didn’t want to say.
• No new unique weather effects, but the lighting has been prepared specially to reflect the feeling of Southern Europe.
• No new hairstyles.
• Grass has been optimized, more of it but less expensive.
• Improvements to cloth tech (see interview for more detail).
• New sword sheathing option. With this new option Geralt no longer automatically unsheathes his sword at the start of combat. Also, he no longer switches weapons to match the opponent. The player has to do it on their own.

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TRAILERS

Developer Diary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvQYNZmWHqY
New Region: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEJT5XRftOU
Launch Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP-ZsLYGJfQ


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F.A.Q.

  • Q: Which sidequests fail after the 'point of no return'?
    A: The Warble of a Smitten Knight sidequest appears to be the only one.

  • Q: Can I start B&W if I haven't completed the base game?
    A: Yes. You can either begin with a preset Geralt with some default weapons/items, or if you're leveled high enough in your existing save.

  • Q: What is the recommended level required to play the expansion?
    A: Level 35, or 64 for New Game+.

  • Q: How large is the Toussaint map?
  • A: Roughly as large as Velen.

  • Q: Can we travel from Toussaint to the base map as we play the expansion?
    A: Yes.

  • Q: What will be the size of the download file for the Blood and Wine expansion?
    A: 10-15GB, depending on your platform.

  • Q: Do choices from Hearts of Stone matter in Blood and Wine?
    A: No, choices from Hearts of Stone don't matter in Blood and Wine.


    More FAQ answers can be found in this spoiler-free CDPR thread.
 

Rellik

Member
Today I cleared out all my remaining quests and finished off the last few trophies I needed for the platinum. My body is now ready.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
I played W3/HoS on PS4, but have a nice PC now. Are there any options for playing this fresh? Or maybe save game editors?
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
Can't wait.

Does anyone know where the preload will begin (is there even one)?
 

Rellik

Member
Can't wait.

Does anyone know where the preload will begin (is there even one)?

Already up on Xbox One and some PS4 users. It looks like some of us on PS4 and PC aren't getting one at all. Don't quote me on that though.
 
Since Overwatch came out, time management has been difficult.

I guess I don't need to worry about playing too much Overwatch this week.
 
So stoked. PC should finally get here Tuesday and I can play my Vive and then jump into more Wircher 3. On my 4th play through I think. So excited for more. One of the best games ever made.
 

Aeana

Member
This thread is technically too early, but I'll let it go.

Nice to see that the game will be available for at least a few hours tomorrow even if it's late in the day.
 
Loaded up my clear file in preparation - working on filling my coffers in anticipation of armor, weapon and vineyard upgrades.... 12000 currently, probably not enough.
 

Hypron

Member
I'm handing in a report tomorrow... Which means I might have some time in the afternoon to play this. Yesssss
 

Rellik

Member
Loaded up my clear file in preparation - working on filling my coffers in anticipation of armor, weapon and vineyard upgrades.... 12000 currently, probably not enough.

I'm around the same as you and also feel that money is going to be nothing compared to what we need. Hopefully there's plenty more to make in the expansion.
 
Playing H&S right now, and it's a lot bigger than I expected. Not gonna rush through it for this though. Excited to know that another excellent expansion will be waiting for me.
 

SugarDave

Member
I can't wait to sink my teeth into this.

Does anyone know how many greater mutagens you'll need to really get going with the new mutagen skills? I think I have 10 of each at the moment.
 

Griss

Member
Can't wait.

My only problem is that I've got all the trophies except Gwent and Death March. So I was thinking about doing a 'Gwent March' playthough on NG+, but that would take forever to catch me up to the DLC.

On the other hand, I play on the second difficulty level and at this point it's so easy that I'm not sure I'm really getting the proper 'Witcher experience'. Never need to use potions, decoctions, all of the stuff that makes Geralt Geralt.

It's a tough one...

EDIT: Is NG+ good? Is it worth it? Or is it better to start fresh?
 

aett

Member
I just got to level 31 in the main game and it seems like the story quests are wrapping up, so I'm gonna start the HoS quests. I hope I can take my time and enjoy it, because I am so ready to play B&W.
 

Boke1879

Member
Really just felt the hype consume me today. Bought the LE from Gamestop with gwent cards. Probably won't play this right away because I'm finishing up Ratchet and I want to do some things in the base game of Witcher 3. Like POI, armor and things like that.

But I'm too hype to play Blood and Wine.

 
Can't wait.

My only problem is that I've got all the trophies except Gwent and Death March. So I was thinking about doing a 'Gwent March' playthough on NG+, but that would take forever to catch me up to the DLC.

On the other hand, I play on the second difficulty level and at this point it's so easy that I'm not sure I'm really getting the proper 'Witcher experience'. Never need to use potions, decoctions, all of the stuff that makes Geralt Geralt.

It's a tough one...

EDIT: Is NG+ good? Is it worth it? Or is it better to start fresh?

Enemies certainty have way more health on B&BB and Death March in NG+. The boss fights take longer, so there is more of a chance to get killed.
 
So is the PS4 correct in saying this actually unlocks about 5 hours before midnight tomorrow? Would be nice to play some on the holiday.
 

Adnor

Banned
Shinobi you should add the GOG link to the OT :p

Can't wait for it, loved the main game and the first expansion.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Shittiest expansion pack ever.
 
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