- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- games@sh.itjust.works
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered boasts remastered visuals, enhanced combat, improved movement, enhanced monster behaviors. A skill tree revamp, transmogrifications, new finishers, and so much more. The fantastic Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions are included. The upgrade is free for all Witcher 3 owners. Coming Sept. 29, 2026.
I’ll say that W3 starts horribly slow. White Orchard is one of the most boring training zones I’ve done, and Velen is rough. It’s needed for sure, but it doesn’t hook you very well. I highly recommend pushing through to Novigrad where you start meeting your friends like Triss, the story really picks up, the side quests get more involved, and it helps carry it through.
I love story rich games, Mass Effect is my #1, then RDR2, and then probably Cyberpunk 2077. Witcher 3 was very good, but to me the story just never quite gripped me like the others. The world however is phenomenal, and that’s what kept me playing.
So Velen is the second area? That’s where I am. It feels like mostly side quests strung together. I started with the butcher/baron dude, did his quests, and now I’m following Ciri’s trail. Also dealt with a witch and a village of kids.
I’m with you on the story games. I need to try RDR2 again. I did the intro and not much else, back when it was new. Borrowed it, and had to return it. I also like Mass Effect (all of them, including 4/Andromeda), and Cyberpunk 2077. I’ll also add Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the first three Deus Ex games. I generally prefer the ones where you make it your story (Bethesda games and Cyberpunk). The difference with The Witcher and, I suspect, Red Dead, is, it’s not YOUR story, it’s HIS. In The Witcher 3, you play Geralt, and you can act out of character, but it’s still his story, and you know you’re acting out of character. For example, I set a monster free because I think the alternative was some kids would die? I’m pretty sure Geralt himself would have gone the other way, but the choice was mine and I chose the kids. I like how the game doesn’t give you easy choices. They’re both wrong to a degree, it’s just you pick the one you can live with. So I definitely like that.
Yeah it’s technically the second if you count white orchard, which you can or could not, it’s a small starter area. Velen is the first real actual area you’re in. If you dealt with the witches you’re actually pretty close to being done with Velen, I’d push through to Novigrad.
RDR2 is interesting. I agree my first playthrough I played about to Chapter 2 and put it down. Didn’t get it, everyone told me it was amazing but did not get it. About a year or two later I picked it up again, and played more, and it picked up, and then up more, and then holy shit. RDR2 is now just absolute perfection, I play it probably once a year now! I actually amend my first, I think it might have over taken ME, which is really hard for me to say but it’s just such a spectacular story.
Personally I don’t have the issue of playing as someone else. Usually I play as the opposite sex in games anyway. However I’m also very empathetic, and so I really feel what the main character is feeling no matter who it is. I think the trend of all of those games is that they’re all absolute gut punches, they really hit you in the feels in the good way, and shows what happens when you let writers truly write.
My strategy in The Witcher 3 is to always do the lowest-leveled quest, so I never end up too strong for any of them. However, through the course of Velen, I’ve gone from “the lowest leveled quest is 1-2 levels above Geralt, guess I’ll do my best” to “the lowest leveled quest is 1-2 levels below Geralt, might as well just get it out of the way.”
I also, as a guy, play girls in games, but mostly because it makes sense. Fallout 3 got me on that, where there was a perk (Black Widow or Lady Killer depending on your gender) that would grant you a buy/sell bonus against merchants of the opposite sex, and a damage buff against them as well. So I’d play a girl because most of the villains were male. The best early vendor is a woman, but she also gives a ton of quests, so I’m never really hurting for money by selling her stuff I find along the way. As soon as I got to Rivet City (the aircraft carrier in the south), I’d start focusing on the male vendors, at least until I had a decent amount of money. In games like Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 2077, it just seems like a poor choice to play the guy. Like, they hired a male voice actor to record the lines for guys who couldn’t stomach playing a woman, guys who could never play Tomb Raider for example, but I feel like they went out of their way to get a really good voice actor for the female version. Saints Row is actually an outlier here since the guy can be voiced by Troy Baker, but Laura Bailey’s almost equally good, so it’s not like the female Boss is a bad choice or even a lesser one.
That sounds about on par for the witcher there, that’s mine too. That stupid riddles in the dark quest is where a lot of playthroughs go to die because of it’s completely wrong leveling.
I’m with you tbh, on the characters. Jennifer Hale did so so much better than Mark Meer in Mass Effect. Mark did great, but Jennifer just brought it to another level. Then cyberpunk. Holy shit, female V was so good right? I honestly have never played as male V because as soon as I get to the character creator I remember how good it is to play female V and I just can’t. The raw emotion she brought for that whole game was just perfect. That game was so great, could have you beating up a guy for catcalling you with a baseball bat to 5 minutes later you’re tearing up over the next gut punch. I’ve never played Saint’s Row, but I might just for Laura Bailey
I loved White Orchard.