Raxivace is Losing at Street Fi-TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER UPPERCUT

[Raxivace]

PS4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus dropped today. Anyone else pick it up?

I still have mixed feelings about the game thematically, but this new version looks gorgeous and they added some modern-ish controls finally. Rather mysteriously, there are golden coin collectables in the game now too, though nobody knows what they do yet or why they're there.

[maz89]

Never played it on PS2 sadly. Got crazy reviews back then apparently. Don't know if it's worth picking up.

[Raxivace]

I think its at least worth a playthrough. I go back and forth on exactly how much I like the game but this is also the third time I've bought it so something keeps drawing me back.

It generates some kickass screenshots at least.

[maz89]

So I should get it for the PS4? Hmm.

Side note: what games MUST I play on the PS4? (I'll be getting my hands on it for a couple of weeks. Will play Uncharted Lost Legacy first.)

[Raxivace]

So I should get it for the PS4? Hmm.

Side note: what games MUST I play on the PS4? (I'll be getting my hands on it for a couple of weeks. Will play Uncharted Lost Legacy first.)

I dunno which of these would be to your tastes or which you might prefer on the PC, but these have been my favorite PS4 releases so far.

-Bloodborne
-Final Fantasy 15
-Evil Within
-Evil Within 2
-Resident Evil 7
-P.T. (Good luck finding a copy)
-Super Robot Wars V
-Tales of Berseria
-Persona 5
-Friday the 13th
-NieR: Automata

[maz89]

I have RE7 but I'm too much of a chicken to play it.

Thinking of grabbing a copy of Persona 5 and Nier Automata. The latter is the one that featured a psychotic version of Romeo and Juliet?

Bloodborne seems interesting. Is it as difficult as the titles in the Dark Souls series?

[Raxivace]

I have RE7 but I'm too much of a chicken to play it.

Ah you're missing out. I think what little horror is there is offset by the extreme goofiness.

The latter is the one that featured a psychotic version of Romeo and Juliet?

Yup. If possible I recommend playing the original Nier first but Automata does stand on its own.

Bloodborne seems interesting. Is it as difficult as the titles in the Dark Souls series?

I thought it was honestly easier than the first two Dark Souls games (Haven't yet played the third) for 90% of the game but I've known people that thought it was harder. It relies on you playing ore aggressively than Dark Souls did which throws some people off I guess. No shields*, so the days of turtling are gone!

*Well sort of, there's one but the game makes fun of you for wanting to use it.

[maz89]

I saw my brother play quite a bit of RE7. Did seem like fun tbh, but I don't know... I've only played the third person action adventures of the franchise (namely, Veronica, RE4 and RE5... I have no recollection of RE6) so I feel like I'll be breaking some unspoken rule by playing RE7, lol.

Can't play the original Nier because I don't have a PS3 anymore... Automata would have to serve as the start.

A few games you haven't mentioned that Metacritic has: What Remains of Edith Finch, Undertale, Horizon Zero Dawn. Have you played them but didn't like them? Or have you not come around to them yet?

[Raxivace]

OG Nier is also on 360 if you have one of those. 90% of RE7 has nothing to do with the other games (And frankly makes more sense when you ignore the other games) if that's a concern.

I haven't played any of those last three.

[maz89]

Or Witcher 3.

Just sayin'.

[Raxivace]

Or Witcher 3.

Just sayin'.

I promise that's coming up soon in my queue of gaming! I'm trying to finish Shadow of the Colossus and Xenoblade 2 first. And also maybe my second playthrough of Super Robot Wars V. And I might go back to the insanity that is Drakengard too. Super Robot Wars X comes out at the end of April as well...

Look there are a lot of video games okay.

[Raxivace]

Well I've finished Shadow of the Colossus. As a semi-remake its great, though I still have some mixed feelings on the game as a whole. I've played it three times now and all three times I've had different feelings about it, so that's something I guess.

Also I think during one cutscene the main character sort of kind of sees the future? That's a new idea that had never occurred to me before.

Time to go back to Xenoblade 2.

[Raxivace]

I'm approaching Xenoblade 2's endgame now, should be done with it within the next week or so.

Is there a general guide or checklist of stuff to do in Witcher 3? I'd like to be finished with the game before the end of April, but since I here its long as hell it might help to have something to structure playing it a little bit.

[maz89]

No... just start and get swept away by the visuals, characters, story, music, etc.

Maybe you could do a quick wiki read of the story of Witcher 2, but it's not necessary as you'll piece together the what's what and who's who as you progress. (For the record, I went back and played Witcher 2 after the Witcher 3 ended... and I enjoyed it, despite the dated graphics and relatively clunky controls.)

I did like to do the side missions before the main ones to prolong the game as much as possible. This may sound obvious but do make sure you keep a lot of backup saves (as is customary for RPGs of this kind - in case you do a mission you didn't know would cause another to become inaccessible). I also did a lot of exploration in the Witcher 3 (as I did in Skyrim) because it was a shitload of fun and it often lead to some interesting, creepy, bizarre, humorous side quests.

I can't believe this is finally happening. You really did stick to your "early 2018" expectations.

God, I miss this game. I don't want to hype it more than I already have, but 150 hours totally well spent. The last few weeks, I've been trying to muster the enthusiasm to finish Skyrim with the demi-god I've created through hours and hours of skill grinding. I guess I made the game too easy for myself... even on the Legendary setting. On the bright side, you won't face this problem in Witcher 3.

[Raxivace]

I beat Xenoblade 2. I ultimately enjoyed the game (And will probably replay it at some point), and even with all of its flaws I still greatly prefer it to the first Xenoblade...I just wish it didn't have the flaws that it did. It's still getting patched though, so at least Monolith Soft recognizes some of the issues and are making an effort to fix them (Though some of them are just too baked into the game to be fixed with basic patching).

Witcher 3 starts tonight.

[Raxivace]

So I played a few hours of Witcher 3. Still don't quite have a hang of the particular flow of this combat yet (Though by the end I was getting better), but I'm enjoying it. I don't understand the card game at all- brings back memories of Triple Triad and Tetra Master from the Final Fantasy and games how little I understood those at first (Though I eventually got the hang of Triple Triad and would say its straight up better than the main game its a part of).

I'm mostly puzzled right by how slow EXP gain seems to be. I did like five or six quests and Geralt didn't level up once. Maybe its because I'm playing on the hardest difficulty, though its still kind of weird when I've been fighting dudes like 1-4 levels above me this whole time and am still at Level 1.

I'm not sure I quite understand how the game wants me to be gathering materials for crafting. I've been picking a bunch of random shit up for a few hours and still can't quite seem to craft anything useful.

Two most memorable quests so far and have been one where I caught an arsonist, and one where I fought the ghost girl from The Ring. The latter was actually a bit of a puzzle since I was still learning the combat and didn't understand how to hurt her reliably even with burning her body, though I read online about which magic to use.

Enemies sure seem to hit hard on this difficulty though, and its been a bit of a problem to maintain my health. Presumably this will be mitigated as I get further into the game and have better gear, higher levels, stronger weapons etc.

[Raxivace]

Also is it just me or is this dude I met in the Griffin quest just Bronn?

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/wit ... 0728181328

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/gam ... 0422210515

[maz89]

Haha, I think if he had brown hair, I'd have caught it too.

Gwent is loads of fun! I was indifferent to it early on as well... until I finally practiced and got the hang of it. Collecting all of the cards in the game became a necessity. You should know that there will be missions later in the game where you will have to defeat difficult opponents and having a wide set of cards (and being knowledgeable about the tricks) will be an advantage. (Of course if your Gwent skills continue to suck, you'll have to physically defeat the opponent in such missions, which I'm sure works for you too - but still, beating someone at a card game is a lot more gentlemanly that slaughtering them, right?)

Yeah, I think you'll see the EXP climb as you progress deeper into the story. It goes up pretty quickly then. I wonder if you had encountered that ghost girl sooner than you were supposed to, as you would have known which magic to use otherwise (the game is user-friendly, for the most part).

And that's correct - as you get better gear and learn to craft and use potions/buffs, a lower difficulty won't be challenging enough. I think I changed the difficulty after I'd finished playing one third of the game. A friend had told me I would never explore the potions aspect unless I did so... and he was right. The game became a lot more fun when I was compelled to use everything in my arsenal.

[Raxivace]

I'll have to mess around with Gwent some more later.

Yeah I already noticed a bit of an EXP bump already. A few more sidequests and finishing the Griffin quest already bumped me from Level 1 to Level 3. Having some abilities now really makes a difference too- I went with the healing in the daylight one and upgraded the mind control one.

Hey, Charles Dance is in this game!

[maz89]

Hey, Charles Dance is in this game!

I'm sure I knew that at some point, but forgot. And yes that does deserve an exclamation part because he is well suited to the game, don't ya think? It always gave me GoT vibes, anyway.

[Raxivace]

He's very good at projecting a very regal sort of presence. It's in Game of Thrones obviously, and I'm seeing it here too, though he even riffed on for the sake of comedy in that Your Highness movie. Did some of that in that And Then There Were None adaptation from a few years ago too, where he played the judge character.

He's one of those actors that I just always enjoy seeing now, especially when I don't expect him.

[maz89]

All this tells me is that I need to dig into more Charles Dance stuff. I honestly miss his work in the earlier seasons of GoT. Can never forget those tense scenes with Arya in season 2 (I think).

[Raxivace]

All this tells me is that I need to dig into more Charles Dance stuff. I honestly miss his work in the earlier seasons of GoT. Can never forget those tense scenes with Arya in season 2 (I think).

Yeah those Arya season 2 scenes are great.

Looking at his IMDb page, apparently Dance was in Alien 3 of all things as well, and I totally don't remember him being there. Might be time to give that a rewatch.

[Raxivace]

The more I play this the more I find the balance in the combat here to be honestly kind of strange. I find myself having way more trouble against gangs of 2-4 generic enemies than any of the actual bosses. The part in the cave where you have to defend Keira from weird crystal wolves as she closes portals took me several tries to beat at level 4 (Same with the battle against the clones, though those I at least would expect to be tough), but the golem boss and the Wild Hunt boss that looks like he waltzed in from a volume of Berserk were both fairly simple. The Wild Hunt guy I even beat on the first try.

I'm Level 5 now, hopefully that will give me a bit of an edge for the time being.

[maz89]

Gangs of enemies can be hard. Are you using dodge effectively?

There'll be some bosses that are quite difficult to beat later on... Dark Souls kind of difficult... just you wait. (Unless you're just exceptionally good with timing, which, given your experience, you very well could be.)

[Raxivace]

Gangs of enemies can be hard. Are you using dodge effectively?

I'm trying but the dodging doesn't always feel effective. A couple of times trying to dodge enemies has got me trapped in geometry, which hasn't happened to me since like the PS2 days. I just fought a boss too that got caught in geometry itself and I was able to combo it to death while it just stood there, which was pretty .

I'm Level 10 at the moment, I think I'm done with the story in Velen? The main story is giving me the choice to go between Skellige or Novigrad to find Trish. Tons of sidequests left in Velen though, and one or two of them look to be major areas. Haven't quite decided where I'll be headed next.

[maz89]

Ok, you're really speeding through this game. Already done with Velen? I took my sweet time there since Velen was huuuuge. I hope you're not thinking of progressing to Novigrad or Skellige without completing those side missions... Anyway, what were your decisions in the main Velen story? I hear nothing about how deliciously engaging you're finding the story/themes/visuals.

Also, if that geometry stuff happens again, it will just be evidence for the fact that this the game sucks on the PS4, lol.

[Raxivace]

Anyway, what were your decisions in the main Velen story?

Uh I killed the tree spirit, made the lubberkin, and had the Baron ride off to cure his wife. I think those were the big decisions I made.

I think I'll be moving on to Novigrad soon after a few bigger sidequests I have going right now.

BTW I've got the hang of Gwent now and its pretty fun.

I hear nothing about how deliciously engaging you're finding the story/themes/visuals.

I mean I'm liking the general quests, I think they're all pretty engaging for the most part. Thematically I don't have a read on the game yet, though if it doubles down on this fatherhood stuff with Ciri then that will be pretty disappointing since its easily the worst bit of the game so far.

Also, if that geometry stuff happens again, it will just be evidence for the fact that this the game sucks on the PS4, lol.

Counter-point: the controller lights up a different color whether you have your steel sword or silver sword unsheathed. Therefore the PS4 is actually the best system to play the game on.

[Raxivace]

I think I figured out what's throwing me off about the dodging in Witcher 3- its that Geralt doesn't have any i-frames. Or if he does have some, its significantly fewer than in other action RPG's like Dark Souls and Kingdom Hearts.

It probably would have been better if they sacrificed some realism and Geralt had more i-frames in his sidesteps and rolls but they drained some stamina as compensation (Or more in the case of the rolls). Instead what's there is kind of awkward and runs a little too counter to what the games it takes inspiration from actually do.

I see that there's an ability to reduce damage in dodges, and I guess I'll have to invest in it. It's kind of a shame when its sort of a basic feature of the dodging in other games.

[maz89]

What's i-frames?

And yeah, dodging is a key part of the combat. I remember keeping my armor light and going for the agile warrior build.

Re: fatherhood stuff... Weeellll... I think there's a ton of characters/events/choices in the game that make The Witcher 3 the thematically rich, deeply engaging, mythologically dense masterpiece that it is and to reduce the game down to just Geralt's relationship with Ciri is a kind of disservice to that. But, to come back to your reservation, I'll take this opportunity to confirm that the fatherhood stuff is indeed a well the Witcher 3 will return to, lol.

So tell me about those memorable side quests.

[Raxivace]

What's i-frames?

Invincibility frames. A lot of games will make you invincible for a brief moment (I.e. certain frames of animation) while dodging.

Re: fatherhood stuff... Weeellll... I think there's a ton of characters/events/choices in the game that make The Witcher 3 the thematically rich, deeply engaging, mythologically dense masterpiece that it is and to reduce the game down to just Geralt's relationship with Ciri is a kind of disservice to that. But, to come back to your reservation, I'll take this opportunity to confirm that the fatherhood stuff is indeed a well the Witcher 3 will return to, lol.

I'm not trying to reduce Witcher 3 down to that, its just as a running throughline throughout all of the stuff that does interest me in the game I think its kind of weak, at least so far. Like despite playing as her like four or five times I'm just not sold on Ciri as a character, which kind of weakens my views on that part of Geralt's character. Hopefully this changes some whenever I finally find her, but there's too much Gwent to play first (Seriously, Gwent is getting really addicting. Once I'm done with Witcher 3 and its DLC's I'm buying that Gwent standalone game).

So tell me about those memorable side quests.

Probably the best one overall was the one with Keira and the spooky ghost tower. The whole buildup with sailing to the island, trudging through it, and then finding this haunted location and talking to the lying ghost chick was really cool (Though I believed her for some reason and the one fisherman dude got killed). Going back to talk Keira down from was basically killing herself was also good (I actually goofed and picked the wrong dialogue option when I first did this part and got into a boss fight with her. I played it out anyways to see what it was like, and while its probably a better ending to the questline I went back and loaded an old save to pick the dialogue I had actually wanted).

There was a related quest after all of this where I had to defend the Pellar and his followers those godawful fishmen that kind of sucked though, especially in comparison. Killed some witch hunters who deserved to die for being jerks after that. There was a bit after that where I learned the Pellar had killed his father and I had to burn the corpse, which not being as interesting as thought it would be and perhaps a bit too matter of factual. I think I read that the Pellar could have died in this quest, and I'm glad he didn't because I liked his goat and wanted someone to be around to take care of her.

I think I mentioned this before, but I also liked the quest where you journey into the swamp with the Baron and his men to find those damn witches, though that's more of an epilogue to those two main questlines in the story.

I also found a weird bandit camp called Devil's Pit that seemed really detailed and big for being just a bandit camp. I expected it to get populated after clearing it out at least but that never happened. I googled to see if I was missing something, but apparently it was part of a dropped questline or something, which is kind of disappointing because its a neat little setpiece with an evocative name.

Most of the sidequests I've been doing the last two days have just been clearing out other bandit camps and monster nests, hunting down rare Gwent cards, and now I'm on the hunt for Witcher gear.

[Raxivace]

Rare good post on Twitter hints that Geralt is going to cameo in a non-Witcher game.

My guess is the new Soul Calibur, since they always have bizarre guest characters.

[maz89]

What's i-frames?

Invincibility frames. A lot of games will make you invincible for a brief moment (I.e. certain frames of animation) while dodging.

But, IIRC, if you do it right, Geralt doesn't take any damage.

I'm not trying to reduce Witcher 3 down to that, its just as a running throughline throughout all of the stuff that does interest me in the game I think its kind of weak, at least so far. Like despite playing as her like four or five times I'm just not sold on Ciri as a character, which kind of weakens my views on that part of Geralt's character. Hopefully this changes some whenever I finally find her, but there's too much Gwent to play first (Seriously, Gwent is getting really addicting. Once I'm done with Witcher 3 and its DLC's I'm buying that Gwent standalone game).

Fair enough. For me, it was the opposite. The few times I played as her gave me a better idea of who she was. Well, come to think of it, exposition doesn't' necessarily equal character development but, here, I thought that being in her shoes helped set her up as a believable, exciting character in the universe. The flashback at the beginning had a sweetness to it, which was nicely contrasted with the bleak state of affairs in the present. Playing as Ciri certainly made me root for Geralt.

And I can totally understand the Gwent addictiveness (I may have become addicted to it much later than you though - like I said earlier, I avoided it until I couldn't and then I really began to enjoy it).

As far as the sidequests go, yeah, the Kiera stuff was indeed memorable. And I really liked the tone in that journey to the swamp with the Baron too. There was no happy ending there, and it resonated with the cruel, merciless side of the Witcher universe (which made Gerat's search for Ciri seem even more desperate).

Finding the Witcher gear was a treat too. I never tired of the combat mechanics. Gaining experience to increase perks was a big motivator too.

Have you reached Novigrad? I assume you went there instead of Skellige like most rational people.

[maz89]

Rare good post on Twitter hints that Geralt is going to cameo in a non-Witcher game.

My guess is the new Soul Calibur, since they always have bizarre guest characters.

I don't think I've ever played that but for Geralt... okay, wait, I'm not sure if I'll play that, lol. I like Geralt and all, but it's really The Witcher as a whole that I love.

I'm cautiously optimistic about The Witcher 4, even though the developers initially said they said they wouldn't make it (they later said "we were talking about Geralt's story but there are other stories to tell too". Phff). I just hope they don't go the Mass Effect way... (I say this despite not having played ME4, which I really, really want to at some point being a die-hard fan of the trilogy. I'm sure I've mentioned this.)

[Raxivace]

Yeah I've been doing stuff in Novigrad now. Haven't touched the main story here yet, though I've been collecting cards, doing some more sidequests, and I think I've marked a signpost in every village on this map now. I have to admit I misunderstood at first and thought Novigrad was a whole separate map and not just the top half of the one I was already on- knowing that did make the game's scope feel slightly more manageable to me, though even then its still fuckin' huge. I do like the feeling that you're kind of subltly retaking this country as you restore deserted villages, take out bandit hideouts, kill witch hunters, fulfill Contracts etc.

I did meet Lambert, and not like 20 minutes later he wants me to go to Skellige to hunt someone down. Haven't done that yet despite the quest still being in my level range, and Lambert himself seems a bit...unstable, which has me wondering about how this will play out. Not sure if I'll go to Skellige early yet or not.

Other most memorable thing was accidentally happening upon the location for the hunt for the Royal Wyven when I was only Level 11, when the quest itself was like Level 23. By making sure to only aggro one of the two baby wyvern's at the beginning I was able to take both of them out, and then the Royal Wyvern itself was pretty easy since its just one big enemy and Quen is OP. It actually got stuck on top of the cave at one point, which actually made it a little harder to get to attack safely also made it look like a giant chicken or something.

But, IIRC, if you do it right, Geralt doesn't take any damage.

If I'm dodging away from an enemy's attacks I won't, but I can't dodge through them which makes it a bit rough. Its a big problem for me when I'm surrounded by enemies, especially gangs of drowners and those other guys that throw mud or fecal matter or whatever the hell it is at you. Easily my most hated enemies here.

Look I like The Shape of Water and all but fishmen need to be genocided.

[Raxivace]

Rare good post on Twitter hints that Geralt is going to cameo in a non-Witcher game.

My guess is the new Soul Calibur, since they always have bizarre guest characters.

I don't think I've ever played that but for Geralt... okay, wait, I'm not sure if I'll play that, lol. I like Geralt and all, but it's really The Witcher as a whole that I love.

I like Soul Calibur and was already planning on picking up the new game lol. The cameo characters are usually fun- I remember the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II had Link from The Legend of Zelda and the Xbox 360 version of Soul Calibur IV had fucking Yoda in it. Spawn of all characters was in another one. Geralt should be a pretty good inclusion if that's what's going to happen.

I'm cautiously optimistic about The Witcher 4, even though the developers initially said they said they wouldn't make it (they later said "we were talking about Geralt's story but there are other stories to tell too". Phff). I just hope they don't go the Mass Effect way... (I say this despite not having played ME4, which I really, really want to at some point being a die-hard fan of the trilogy. I'm sure I've mentioned this.)

Mass Effect lost me early into the first game, so I've been off that train before it was cool lol.

If they do make a Witcher 4 I'll probably play it. Might even go back to the first two games at some point, though we'll see about that.

[maz89]

Well, good to know that you're taking your time to "re-take the country". My biggest fear was that you'd just do a speedrun and ask me why I put 150 hours in the game. :p

I remember leaving the Lambert quest for later too. It's a good one, thematically tying in with Witcher's commentary on the nature of man, free will vs destiny, moral relativism, etc.

I'm amazed at how you managed to do a Level 23 quest at only Level 11. I'm telling ya those glitches don't happen on the PC. Then again, different lighting on the controller for the steel and silver swords is a cool gimmick.

Don't forget that there's two expansions that will increase the scope of the game by another 15%. Both of them are fantastic.

[maz89]

There are annoyances in ME, for sure, in particular the clunky controls/combat and the tiresome exploration on that buggy. But I absolutely loved the characters, story and score. Really, that weird electronic swooning kind of score really had me hooked, and then, when towards the climax of the first game, you discover a warning from a world long gone, it sent chills down my spine and I fell in love with the game. It really stirred a sense of dread, as well as a bittersweet tone in its "we'll all probably die but it's worth trying anyway" message. And then ME2 was just brilliant (this is the game I played first before going back to ME and finding an underrated treasure). ME3 had an upgraded combat system but it was flawed - not because of its critically panned ending but due to some other lame, audience-pandering, cliched subplots. Too bad you'll never play 'em. : (

[maz89]

You'll "probably" play Witcher 4... that should be a given after W3, really.

[Raxivace]

Well, good to know that you're taking your time to "re-take the country". My biggest fear was that you'd just do a speedrun and ask me why I put 150 hours in the game. :p

Nah, I had always planned on doing all of the content I could for the game. I don't think I mentioned this before, but I'm also going for all of the Trophies as well (If for whatever reason you want to track my progress on that front, you can do so here.).

I am actually kind of curious as to what speedruns for this game are like (Especially given how customizable Geralt is), though I won't be looking at any until after I'm done with the game myself.

I'm amazed at how you managed to do a Level 23 quest at only Level 11. I'm telling ya those glitches don't happen on the PC. Then again, different lighting on the controller for the steel and silver swords is a cool gimmick.

I forgot to mention that I do have a full set of Witcher gear now too which helped, though it doesn't have any of the upgrades yet. I forget which one it is off of the top of my head.

Don't forget that there's two expansions that will increase the scope of the game by another 15%. Both of them are fantastic.

The version of the game I got came with both DLC's, though it'll be a while before I get to them.

[Raxivace]

There are annoyances in ME, for sure, in particular the clunky controls/combat and the tiresome exploration on that buggy. But I absolutely loved the characters, story and score. Really, that weird electronic swooning kind of score really had me hooked, and then, when towards the climax of the first game, you discover a warning from a world long gone, it sent chills down my spine and I fell in love with the game. It really stirred a sense of dread, as well as a bittersweet tone in its "we'll all probably die but it's worth trying anyway" message. And then ME2 was just brilliant (this is the game I played first before going back to ME and finding an underrated treasure). ME3 had an upgraded combat system but it was flawed - not because of its critically panned ending but due to some other lame, audience-pandering, cliched subplots. Too bad you'll never play 'em. : (

Yeah they just never clicked with me at all on any front and between not liking Mass Effect or any of the Bethesda stuff I've mostly just stayed away from WRPG's until Witcher 3.

I do remember hearing about that ending controversy for ME3 and thinking it made gamers sound entitled and whiny though lol.

[Raxivace]

You'll "probably" play Witcher 4... that should be a given after W3, really.

Eh you never know. I could die in a freak accident before Witcher 4 comes out for all we know.

[Raxivace]

Fought another Wyvern today, this one was Level ??? while Geralt was only Level 16. Guess what happened during the fight? Watch this documentary footage to find out, since I remembered the PS4 Share function exists.

[Raxivace]

I think I'm finally going to make my way to Skellige now. The few parts of Novigrad I have left to check out now all seem to have groups of enemies a bit above my level, so I'll have to come back and finish it later. Not sure I have any other major sidequests I can do it at the moment here either, other than the Gwent tournament which I'm holding off on for a bit longer.

EDIT: LOL during the final race in Novigrad I was having a lot of glitches too. I think Geralt loaded under the map during one attempt, and eventually I loaded the race...without the other two competitors on their horses. The horses were sitting there, and I casually trotted to the finish line.

Man the PS4 version really is janky as hell. I've never seen a game with this many issues like this before.

EDIT 2: OTOH Geralt being confirmed for Soul Calibur VI is cool.

[maz89]

Fought another Wyvern today, this one was Level ??? while Geralt was only Level 16. Guess what happened during the fight? Watch this documentary footage to find out, since I remembered the PS4 Share function exists.

Hilarious! WTF. Listen, and I repeat, this shit didn't happen on the PC.

[maz89]

Dammit, given that I won't have any time to play Soul Calibur VI, I'll just have to feast on youtube extracts of the game or whatever. Work's gotten a bit crazy. :/

[Raxivace]

Hilarious! WTF. Listen, and I repeat, this shit didn't happen on the PC.

Yeah its bizarre. For a while there, the deeper I got into the game the glitchier it got, though it seems to have calmed down now.

Dammit, given that I won't have any time to play Soul Calibur VI, I'll just have to feast on youtube extracts of the game or whatever. Work's gotten a bit crazy. :/

Sorry to hear about your work. :(

Soul Calibur games are largely just fighting games with little in the way of story or anything, so there's not too much of that you'll be missing out on on that front. I personally just enjoy the combat/guest characters like Geralt/the female characters usually having skimpy outfits because I guess I'm just shallow tbh.

[Raxivace]

I've been thinking about the Novigrad section of the game again since I believe I've now done everything there except the Gwent tournament. I find it weird that people really criticized this part since I thought the main story path here was pretty solid. The gangster stuff was kind of a fun change of pace from the Baron/swamp witches, and the play I think was a fun section.

The sidequests in this area OTOH...I don't think I liked any of them tbh, even if you ignore the more obvious throwaway Contracts and such. I was hoping Triss' big sidequest might flesh out her character like Keira's did and it was just kind of dull running around sewers. Maybe I'd feel different if I'd played the other games but she just seemed kind of there to me. Yennifer is way better.

I feel like the worst offender though was the Carnal Sins sidequest, and other than the glitches is easily the lowest point of this game for me. I thought it would become a favorite quest of mine early on, because hey its an actual murder mystery type of thing with a kind of Jack the Ripper vibe, we're breaking into a morgue to do a secret autopsy...and then it just turned into a really bad retelling of Se7en. The motivation of the killer in Se7en only made in any sense because he was specifically reacting against American secularization and so on. In Carnal Sins (The quest name itself a Se7en reference), we have the exact same motivation from the killer, except in a location that is already becoming more highly religious. The theocratic local government is publicly burning books and witches ffs, how is this "lol people need to remember Eternal Fire!!!!" at all a compelling motivation?

Beyond that though, there's the double fakeout. Early on you meet the suspiciously young coroner who is so obviously suspicious that I didn't think this game was bad enough to actually make him the killer. Later on they try and make you think the Reverend who works in the morgue is the real killer, making people wanting to remember the religion or whatever. Its not him, of course, and this is where I think the quest falls apart completely. It is actually the coroner, who is really a vampire, who is also just...really into the church of the Eternal Fire. He has the exact same motivation for killing we were meant to think the priest had, and for no reason. First of all, why would a fuckin' vampire worship this church? Isn't the religion against supernatural creatures like vampires explicitly?

This quest would have been way smarter if the vampire had been trying to frame the Church of the Eternal Fire and use the public killings to somehow turn the Novigrad citizens against the Church. That would have introduced something resembling an actual moral dilemma- are random sacrifices that could potentially save the entire city of a corrupt religious authority worth it? Even when one of the victims is a sympathetic ally, who was only victimized because of a situation Geralt put them? Even if such a plan still might not actually work? If you just kill the vampire anyways, what is the difference between the Eternal Fire and the Witchers themselves?

That might have been interesting, and that's just an idea I thought up off of the top of my head and would involve minimal changes that what's already in the quest. Instead what we have doesn't even make a whole lot of basic logical or emotional sense.

tl;dr version: Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, a throwaway budget game from like 2009 that features Sherlock Holmes going to a pet shop multiple times and another character who tries to turn men gay through grossing them out with disembodied uteri, has better, more thoughtful writing than Carnal Sins does.

[maz89]

lmao, I honestly don't think anyone has ever evaluated Carnal Sins to this degree. Clearly, not even the writers themselves, lol...

Just to play devil's advocate, I don't think there's anything innately unbelievable about a vampire worshipping a Church - many gay people are into religions that despise them too. But I guess your point is more about how poorly this thread was developed. ;)

I do disagree about the Triss sidequest lacking oomph. But I can understand you not being too fond of the character because she is indeed relatively mellow, good-natured and friendly (her unrequited love for Geralt gives her that plain good-girl-next-door vibe). Don't think you've been acquainted with Yennifer properly yet, but let me tell you she can be quite annoying. Still ended up going with her though because, well, mythology and fate and shit.

[Raxivace]

lmao, I honestly don't think anyone has ever evaluated Carnal Sins to this degree. Clearly, not even the writers themselves, lol...

I actually did Google around a bit to see if anyone had similar views on this quest as me. Closest I found was this Reddit thread, and I'm kind surprised I didn't find more people like that given how insanely popular The Witcher 3 is. Most comments I found online seemed to be about people falling for the trick ending, which is interesting in its own right I guess (And I must admit to goofing myself during that confrontation the first time through since I thought the prostitute was in immediate danger).

Just to play devil's advocate, I don't think there's anything innately unbelievable about a vampire worshipping a Church - many gay people are into religions that despise them too. But I guess your point is more about how poorly this thread was developed. ;)

It maybe could have worked if they addressed it more, I guess. Instead it feels like they were more interested in the misdirect without thinking much about how much thematic sense what they were going for makes.

I think the difference with these religions is that its not like homosexuality is the only or even necessarily the main subject they address (Which is different than my understanding of the Church of the Eternal Fire's views of magic and magical entities). A text like The Bible has so much crammed into it that I don't think its too absurd too imagine more liberal interpretations of them that ignore the homophobia and anti-LGBT views in favor of, I dunno, general messages about Jesus and love and forgiveness or whatever. Not that I excuse these religious texts for having any bigoted views in them to begin with or that I have anything but contempt for people that preach hate for LGBT people, of course.

The comparison I had been thinking of was the Ku Klux Klan, and fighting them or whatever only to find out that the Grand Wizard was a black guy, sort of like that one Dave Chappelle sketch (NSFW). If you're going to have that kind of twist, it should probably be explored a decent amount (Which even Chappelle manages to do).

I do disagree about the Triss sidequest lacking oomph. But I can understand you not being too fond of the character because she is indeed relatively mellow, good-natured and friendly (her unrequited love for Geralt gives her that plain good-girl-next-door vibe). Don't think you've been acquainted with Yennifer properly yet, but let me tell you she can be quite annoying. Still ended up going with her though because, well, mythology and fate and shit.

I've done some of the story stuff in Skellige now with Yennifer at least, but I'm not done with it yet. It just seems like she has more of a personality, whereas Triss felt a little bit too girl-next-doorish, yeah. Also she didn't let me talk to her to fix this second statue, which is pissing me off. I hope her damn boat sank.