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The Witcher 3, near 300 hours later

Game of the generation for me so far. This game is open world done right, no other game(including BOTW) has done open world as good as TW3 IMO.
 
This thread inspired me to get back into my Death March replay of the game. Just go into Velen. First thing I do? Find a quest I never even ran across in my first 70 hour playthrough of the game. It's something special.
 
Agreed OP. I'm at 270+ hours on steam, the most of any game by far for me. I pop in from time to time to just explore as well. I did a random npc quest last week that I had never found before. Blew my mind.

The god damn soundtrack too. I could listen to it forever. That Velen theme gets stuck in my head all of the time.

The graphics on PC are also unreal. Sometimes I pop in just to oogle at them.

It's my #1 favorite game of all time. For my money it's the greatest game ever made.
 
I was drawn into BOTW way more, even though I was a huge fan of Witcher 1&2. I'll have to give it another chance sometime, but I kinda just fell off during the first big city.
 
Coriolanus said:
Why would you ever go after them? Their loot is trash and they're just too much of a pain to go after. No point, tbh. At least with the land chests its just a quick detour.
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I can't honestly say I know what I was thinking. I probably just had to clean the dots off the map. I have open world problems.
And I did really like the game and didn't want it to end, so whatever I could do to put that off seemed okay.
 
Brandon F said:
The 'Red Hood' bandit mission you stumble on especially left me pretty floored, and that is just some easily missed optional town quest in the middle of the swamp somewhere. Up there with Hearts of Stone as some of the most memorable content in the game.
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Why? It's super short and simple.
 
Сооl, I just installed The Witcher 3 for the first time yesterday (my first Witcher game) to fill the time gap until I get the Switch with Zelda. According to all the praise, I'm counting on some quality times on my first playthrough.
 
daedalius said:
I was drawn into BOTW way more, even though I was a huge fan of Witcher 1&2. I'll have to give it another chance sometime, but I kinda just fell off during the first big city.
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I was the opposite. Witcher 3 made Zelda feel like a joke for both visuals and narrative (and having one of the best minigames). Even the OST for W3 edged it out so Zelda was basically just a fun sandbox game that's entirely optional to even experience.
"because its fun" doesnt cut it when so many online multiplayer games are more polished and have it beat for emergent gameplay.
 
Stoze said:
And yet multiple people in this thread have stated they've spent close to 300 hours or more, so your anecdote isn't proof against that.

If you take into account things like doing all or most of the PoIs, reading all the books, notes, bestiary entries, doing all the sidequests, main quest, running or using Roach to travel instead of fast travel, spending time trying out different builds (and mods on PC), exhausting dialogue options, going into interiors and looting, it adds all up.

Even if that stuff took you, say, 150 hours instead of 300, you have to realize people have different playstyles and do things at a different pace in games, and in a huge open world RPG those differences are amplified.
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And if you play Gwent this game can be a real time sink.
 
I can't get into Witcher 3 at all because it's setting is uninteresting for me. Also I don't really like Geralt... and I don't like the combat either.

However, these threads give me so much hope for Cyberpunk 2077.
 
SCHUEY F1 said:
This thread made me go back to The Witcher. Such an amazing game.
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Same here- I got about 10 hours in last year before my Christmas Steam splurge, and put it to one side while I played through Firewatch, Oxenfree and Life is Strange. I started a fresh, new game last night, and am already totally sucked in. By the sounds of it, this will likely keep me going until Christmas this year...
 
Carn82 said:
Just a heads-up, Blood and Wine takes place after Hearts of Stone, narratively.
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Damn! Thanks. I'll put Touissant on hold then. At least I've barely begun there =)

EatChildren said:
Much of the comfy immersion factor that keeps me returning can be attributed to the asset density, topographical believability, and additional touches/details that bring together entire scenes. I've raved about it before, but whoever at CDPR were involved in advising the artists and programmers on how foliage looks and is distributed, along with believable terrain erosion and structure, deserves a round of applause.

I think that's a key difference with Wilt Hunt above so many other games. There's some degree of procedural work; I'm fairly certain a lot of the foliage distribution is handled by terrain/texture format types being associated with specific foliage, rather than literally every blade of grass hand placed. But the cohesiveness of these algorithms and believability of the assets results in landscapes that are unbelievably high in detail that go on for miles and miles. The sense of scale is phenomenal, and never feels artificially zoned or segmented.
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Yep, as an ecologist I've been ecstatically happy about this. It's still not quite perfect - a lot of the dense and ancient forests still use the same grassy groundflora as open environments, instead of ferns, woodland plants, or simply no groundflora at all in the light-starved sections - but the majority of the environmental details are the best in the industry. They actually understand woodland edge effect which is the first time I've ever seen it used in a video game, and something I really lamented the lack of in Oblivion. And then there's Skyrim which didn't have anything resembling a forest at any point in the game. Bethesda really need to hire some ecologists for their next TES game. CDPR clearly did.
 
Still have to play Blood and Wine. I've been postponing it for months because I don't want the game to end. Might finally start if when I finish Andromeda.
 
EatChildren said:
I've raved about it before, but whoever at CDPR were involved in advising the artists and programmers on how foliage looks and is distributed, along with believable terrain erosion and structure, deserves a round of applause.
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100% agree. I grew up near the woods and The Witcher 3 was the first game that nailed the natural dispersion of trees, plants and their diversity. It feels so natural. I think Horizon did a pretty good job of this too.
 
Are....are you me..?

I have almost 400 hours in witcher 3. Atm im doing my third playtrough with mods and then im going to uninstall the game for good. What a gem!
 
Darkstorne said:
Yep, as an ecologist I've been ecstatically happy about this. It's still not quite perfect - a lot of the dense and ancient forests still use the same grassy groundflora as open environments, instead of ferns, woodland plants, or simply no groundflora at all in the light-starved sections - but the majority of the environmental details are the best in the industry. They actually understand woodland edge effect which is the first time I've ever seen it used in a video game, and something I really lamented the lack of in Oblivion. And then there's Skyrim which didn't have anything resembling a forest at any point in the game. Bethesda really need to hire some ecologists for their next TES game. CDPR clearly did.
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A friend of mine is also an ecologist and he made pretty much the same remarks, pretty cool :) I believe there are actually some different bird calls in different areas, as in, where they should be.

some articles on the world design:

https://www.vice.com/en_se/article/designing-the-world-of-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt
https://80.lv/articles/world-building-of-witcher-3/
 
Including all the DLC, TW3 is one of the greatest games of all time.
Certainly, the best game of the generation so far, I've never felt so absorbed in a world like that before.

I got that Playstation email giving users their play stats since they joined PSN and The Witcher 3 was my most played game of 2016 at 175 hours.

Crazy to think how much higher that count should be considering I started play in mid 2015.

Thanks OP, in the midst of my giant backlog you've made me want to go back and dip into that world again -_-
 
My fav game of all time. I just finished reading all the books. And now I'm going to replay the entire series from Witcher 1. With all the knowledge from the books from the start. And playing all the games in a row. First time I played them it had years between them and when you start Witcher 1 you don't really "get" the world until you finish it. So can't wait to start them in order after the books now.

Witcher 3 will be my fav game of all time for a lonnnng time I feel.
 
Auctopus said:
100% agree. I grew up near the woods and The Witcher 3 was the first game that nailed the natural dispersion of trees, plants and their diversity. It feels so natural. I think Horizon did a pretty good job of this too.
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I agree. They are probably the only ones thus far to have a believable natural environment nailed.
 
Still having this game unfinished is one of my main reasons for not buying a Switch. I'm not sure why I stopped playing but I definitely want to get back into it after Mass Effect.
 
This is the game of this generation. Why end something so good that just keeps on delivering?
I just hope that CDPR maintains the same attitude while developing Cyberpunk, as they did with W3.
 
xenorevlis said:
Found the clip described earlier, of the random off-screen attack during my time lapse recording. Added subtitles :P

https://twitter.com/MultiverseMob/status/851147685721554944
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And not even one fuck was given, haha.

Carn82 said:
A friend of mine is also an ecologist and he made pretty much the same remarks, pretty cool :) I believe there are actually some different bird calls in different areas, as in, where they should be.

some articles on the world design:

https://www.vice.com/en_se/article/designing-the-world-of-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt
https://80.lv/articles/world-building-of-witcher-3/
Click to expand...

Good read, thank you.

Loved that bit:

Populating the open world of the game is a very complex process. Take herbs, for example – many of them were planted to match their natural environmental needs. For example, some plants are growing near a body of water, or even underwater, while others might be found on top of mountains, or in the middle of a meadow. This system works great, and when players realise that there's a pattern to it, they might try to predict what kind of herbs can be found where. What's more, monsters are spawned in a similar fashion. Drowners are always near water, in swampy areas, while Nekkers spawn in forests, and Griffins nest in high mountains.
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I've been always amazed by how cohesive the world in TW3 feels, I guess this is partly why, meticulousness is a trait I value the most when it comes to open world games, it's easy to make a big map, fill it mindlessly and call it a day, attention to detail like the one mentioned above is what sets apart open worlds that feel phony/fake from open worlds that feel tangible.
 
EatChildren said:
Much of the comfy immersion factor that keeps me returning can be attributed to the asset density, topographical believability, and additional touches/details that bring together entire scenes.
Click to expand...

I just started a third (!! - I too have a problem) playthrough of the game coming straight out of ME:A, and the difference in design, asset density, animation, and overall in-setting plausibility could not be more stark. I am routinely blown away by some little touch -- the way a character's eyes dart away in a conversation when he feels uncomfortable, for instance -- that makes a scene leap to life. And Velen + Novigrad is the best city + evirons I've experienced in gaming. The world is just such a pleasure to be in.

Ditto for the characters - I had half-forgotten how each character speaks using appropriate syntax and diction, as opposed to everyone spewing the same generic half-assed fantasy dialogue. Intellectuals are pretentious, old people tend to ramble, spies mask their feelings with cynical humor, sorceresses are sophisticated and arrogant, and so on, and it all feels natural.

One random note: anyone playing this on PC should at least try playing using the "Friendly HUD" mod to hide the HUD -- most specifically, the minimap -- when out of combat. I realized sometime in playthrough #2 that I was spending most of my time staring at the minimap when traveling, which spoils most of the beauty of the world. The mod lets you navigate using a floating marker in an otherwise unblemished screen, and it is a vast improvement. Friendly HUD + hidden map markers makes for a very immersive experience. Playthrough #3 is looking promising...
 
obeast said:
I just started a third (!! - I too have a problem) playthrough of the game coming straight out of ME:A, and the difference in design, asset density, animation, and overall in-setting plausibility could not be more stark. I am routinely blown away by some little touch -- the way a character's eyes dart away in a conversation when he feels uncomfortable, for instance -- that makes a scene leap to life. And Velen + Novigrad is the best city + evirons I've experienced in gaming. The world is just such a pleasure to be in.

Ditto for the characters - I had half-forgotten how each character speaks using appropriate syntax and diction, as opposed to everyone spewing the same generic half-assed fantasy dialogue. Intellectuals are pretentious, old people tend to ramble, spies mask their feelings with cynical humor, sorceresses are sophisticated and arrogant, and so on, and it all feels natural.

One random note: anyone playing this on PC should at least try playing using the "Friendly HUD" mod to hide the HUD -- most specifically, the minimap -- when out of combat. I realized sometime in playthrough #2 that I was spending most of my time staring at the minimap when traveling, which spoils most of the beauty of the world. The mod lets you navigate using a floating marker in an otherwise unblemished screen, and it is a vast improvement. Friendly HUD + hidden map markers makes for a very immersive experience. Playthrough #3 is looking promising...
Click to expand...

I usually also hide the floating marker and with the Witcher senses key you can bring up your minimap. So your entire screen will be unobstructed for most of the game.
 
His Majesty said:
I usually also hide the floating marker and with the Witcher senses key you can bring up your minimap. So your entire screen will be unobstructed for most of the game.
Click to expand...

I spent hours yesterday perfecting this, and am childishly pleased by results.

I eventually settled upon a default of no HUD, life bar + buffs in combat, and a minimap that only appears when I hold "C." I tried having the minimap appear by default during witcher senses, but found it too intrusive. I set up the floating markers to toggle with a mouse button push and to appear by default in witcher senses. So I see the minimap only when I ask for it, see floating markers only when I toggle them or in witcher senses, and mostly spend the game with no UI active at all.

The menu pop-up it adds w/ keybindings for every potion is also a huge quality of life improvement.

Great, great mod. Game-changing, imo. I kinda regret ever playing the game without it. In retrospect, CDPR dropped the ball by essentially forcing you to play with the minimap active in the default UI. They should have had an option for a floating marker variant, or something like it.
 
Yeah similar to GTA V, removing most of the HUD and especially the Minimap just opens your eyes to details so much more. You almost forget sometimes how reliant we become on staring at Minimaps, like in GTA V you end up spending more time 'playing Pacman' on the Minimap streets and avenues than actually paying attention to all the little fire escapes, alleys, stacked boxes, wooden planks between buildings, and other details that are otherwise hard to appreciate when you're relying on waypoints or the minimap. Best thing I ever did in GTA V, and MGS V for that matter (what a difference it makes to have no red triangle Markers to play stealth 'Pacman' with.

Witcher 3 was the hardest to go HUD-less (on PS4 without mods) because the HUD options weren't that great. Didn't like how the HP bar only disappeared at full health, and certain things still felt like the relied on it a bit (e.g. looting corpses in the grass). But I did it for a New Game + where I cared less about loot anyhow and had a bit more familiarity with the world, and it makes such a superb difference.

First time I ever tried it, I encountered a bear at Lv2 lol on Very Hard
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYSNmxctHzU
To this day still one of my favorite moments I had with the game haha
 
This thread made me go back to finish Blood and Wine. This has to be the greatest game ever made, just every aspect of it is incredible.


That is, apart from armour design. Often Geralt looked like he was wearing my Nans quilt.
 
Replaying on pc with lovely mods - any ideas on how to downsample to 1080p on windows 10? I have the latest drivers for my 1060 installed.
 
Freeman76 said:
This thread made me go back to finish Blood and Wine. This has to be the greatest game ever made, just every aspect of it is incredible.


That is, apart from armour design. Often Geralt looked like he was wearing my Nans quilt.
Click to expand...
one of the best parts of a New Game+ is to go back and choose a 'theme' armor for every story section

- Viper to start with, to match Vesemir;
- once in Velen, I liked going with Bear (maybe not with the fur though) to match the Bloody Baron and his big robed armored
- enter Novigrad and meet up with Triss (or quite a few of the other city/infiltration sections of the game with Dandelion, etc) ... break out that Cat armor and perfect time to use the GM Cat hood
- especially looked awesome for the bank heist (Black Moon looks cool too)
- I also liked going with more 'ornate' armor to better 'fit in' during the auction with the lighter Nilfgaardian armor
- Skellige goes with with the fur Bear armor too but is the perfect type to use, obviously, the Skellige armor since the model is so well done
- back into the city or dungeons with sorceresses -- Wolven fits the mood well, lighter in appearance but not as stealthy looking as cat
- went with Bear again for HoS because my headcanon says the main menu screen says it's the canon look for it haha ;p
- and then Manticore, with the lighter wear, the white linen for the warm breezy climate of Toussaint, and the 'witchery'-ness of a toxicity build for fighting vampires and a great 'look' to retire in
 
obeast said:
I just started a third (!! - I too have a problem) playthrough of the game coming straight out of ME:A, and the difference in design, asset density, animation, and overall in-setting plausibility could not be more stark. I am routinely blown away by some little touch -- the way a character's eyes dart away in a conversation when he feels uncomfortable, for instance -- that makes a scene leap to life. And Velen + Novigrad is the best city + evirons I've experienced in gaming. The world is just such a pleasure to be in.
Click to expand...

I'm going to be coming of my Mass Effect NG+ soon and I'm planning on going right into a NG+ for this, and I couldn't be more excited.
 
KyanMehwulfe said:
one of the best parts of a New Game+ is to go back and choose a 'theme' armor for every story section

- Viper to start with, to match Vesemir;
- once in Velen, I liked going with Bear (maybe not with the fur though) to match the Bloody Baron and his big robed armored
- enter Novigrad and meet up with Triss (or quite a few of the other city/infiltration sections of the game with Dandelion, etc) ... break out that Cat armor and perfect time to use the GM Cat hood
- especially looked awesome for the bank heist (Black Moon looks cool too)
- I also liked going with more 'ornate' armor to better 'fit in' during the auction with the lighter Nilfgaardian armor
- Skellige goes with with the fur Bear armor too but is the perfect type to use, obviously, the Skellige armor since the model is so well done
- back into the city or dungeons with sorceresses -- Wolven fits the mood well, lighter in appearance but not as stealthy looking as cat
- went with Bear again for HoS because my headcanon says the main menu screen says it's the canon look for it haha ;p
- and then Manticore, with the lighter wear, the white linen for the warm breezy climate of Toussaint, and the 'witchery'-ness of a toxicity build for fighting vampires and a great 'look' to retire in
Click to expand...

the real lesson here is that no one of sound mind should ever use Griffin.
 
Thanks to this thread I'm on ModKitchen right now cooking some mods lol, jesus, there goes another 100 hours of my life playing this game again
 
MontyBrown said:
My first playthrough of the game took 60 hours.

My second with both DLC packs took 45.

No way is there enough content to spend 300 hours in the game.

And I say this whilst considering it one of the best RPGs ever.
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first playthrough + both DLC packs = 200h (for me)
5KqE0Oj.png
 
168 hours into the vanilla experience. Beat the main line, but still have tons of side content left to do. I haven't even touched the expansions yet either. Hoping to get back into it after finishing up some backlog games. Oh and the hopeful Scorpio patch.
 
Witcher 3 is one of the few games that makes its 'open world' truly work. It's rich, dense and beautiful. DLC is also some of the best I've ever played.
 
Is there any way to be OP by maybe the 30 hour mark? and then be a powerfull witcher steamrolling everything?

I hate the combat and I just want to not care for it and just enjoy the vistas and stories and stuff not named combat.

After 15 times I have downloaded this game it still dont click with me.
 
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