All things The Witcher

[Sean]

Indeed. So I think the best thing we could do is commit to completing all the Zelda games over the next 18 months.

Crazy talk. No one would be that silly.

[JaySevenZero]

So yeah, as I've already mentioned, I'm deep, deep into The Witcher 3, so deep in fact that when I'm not playing it I'm listening to the soundtrack instead. Now, in addition to that, I'm also listening to Polish folk band Percival, who happened to perform a bunch of tracks for the score. Whilst the video isn't of music for the game (I'm gonna save that for a Sound of Play!), it wouldn't be out of place if it was, as it's kinda awesome.



The band is made up of members of a Polish metal band, the similarly - but longer - monikered Percival Schuttenbach, whose very name came from a character in Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels. The fact that CDPR got the folks to help create music for the game is just the kind of attention to detail that has sold me into this game from the very beginning.

[Todinho]

That's pretty cool! The level of effort and carft that went into witcher 3 really is amazing as is the support CD Projekt has provided which is kinda of amazing if you think about how the company started and how hard it was to get the first witcher game off the ground it's pretty amazing work for a relative short amount of time. Btw Jay this is your first witcher game right? Do you feel like going back and playing the others now that you`re enjoying this one so much?

[JaySevenZero]

I have The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings for the 360 but it remains unfinished. Whilst it didn't grab me in the way that its sequel has, it's quite likely that I'll go back and finish it after I'm done with Wild Hunt.

[DomsBeard]

I have The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings for the 360 but it remains unfinished. Whilst it didn't grab me in the way that its sequel has, it's quite likely that I'll go back and finish it after I'm done with Wild Hunt.

Pretty sure it was Games With Gold

[Combine Hunter]

Even though I don't think it's special in the same way 3 is, The Witcher 2 is totally worth playing. The writing is just as strong, plus Act 2 can be REALLY different based on your choices, to a degree that even 3 doesn't quite manage....but the combat and general interface is really fiddly compared to 3.

[Todinho]

I have The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings for the 360 but it remains unfinished. Whilst it didn't grab me in the way that its sequel has, it's quite likely that I'll go back and finish it after I'm done with Wild Hunt.

It's definetly worth a shot,in some aspects I still prefer those early games to Wild Hunt, but it will probably be alot harder to go back to after 3,but it's interesting seeing the evolution of these games from the first one until now,now that I finnished Wild Hunt I get the feeling this was the game they wanted to make all along but they were constricted,so it's kinda interesting to see how each game inched a little bit closer to what they wanted and acomplished now,which kinda got me exicted to hear you guys cover the series in Cane&Rinse eventually.

[JaySevenZero]

Another thing I'm constantly impressed by, as Josh touched upon, is the strength of the writing with even small, secondary mission NPCs being given that little bit more substance and depth than we've been accustomed to. I'm fascinated to know the process of how they go about writing the dialogue for these games because it feels incredibly 'local' in the use of regional accents (perhaps influenced by Game of Thrones?) and vocabulary. I've read that the voice work for The Witcher 2 was done in London and I imagine it was the same for the sequel.

[Todinho]

Yep they really nailed that in Wild Hunt but from the first game they've have always been good at portraing peasant life(for lack of a better term) maybe that's something straight from the books but that type of writing was one of the things that drew me in the series at the start,you take this and compare it to something like Dragon Age and you can see the difference.

[Flabyo]

The novels are very much in the European folk tradition. The early short stories are essentially well known fairy tales like Snow White, Beauty and the Beast etc... but with the Disney filter we know them with replaced with an Eastern European one. Geralt is pretty much the 'guy who knows all the old tales' who strides into the mess and sorts it out. Often without much thanks for it.

When they become a proper novel series later on (co-incidentally when the character of Ciri essentially becomes the main character) they become more like traditional fantasy than folk tales, but that Eastern / Central European flavour to them means they're quite different in feel to fantasy novels we're more familiar with which are more inspired by Celtic, Nordic and Norman culture.

(Also, Yennifer is even more insufferably arrogant in the books than she ever is in the games. I don't know what Geralt sees in her...)

[Combine Hunter]

What!? Yennefer (This is the correct spelling ) is my favourite character in the Witcher 3! Haha

[Flabyo]

Some of the names are spelt a little differently in the books, translation conventions and that. (And we won't go into the fact that Hexer rather than Witcher was the preferred translation for a while, certainly was when the TV series was made.)

Yen is definitely a great character, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with Geralt romancing her, Triss is far better for him

[Todinho]

Triss for life! Which is funny for me to say because I hated her in Witcher 1 but in Witcher 2 and 3 she became one of my favorite characters,and especially after what she is willing to go through in 3 for Geralt that's a keep I'll tell you that,and having no context for the books Yennefer and Geralt relationship just sounds really toxic and unhealthy XD.

[JaySevenZero]

That TV series - Oh boy!

That said, if Netflix or Amazon were looking for a violent fantasy series to give Game of Thrones a run for its money then I think they could do a lot worse than look at this particular franchise.

[JaySevenZero]

I finished the main campaign yesterday and I have to say that The Witcher 3 ranks as my favourite example of games of this ilk (fantasy RPG) to date. I've loved the likes of Dragon's Dogma, Fable: The Lost Chapters, Dragon Age and Skyrim (despite the PlayStation issues with that game) but I feel I was just more invested in the world and characters in this game than any of the others. I started a new game plus almost immediately with the ambition to play things slightly differently as to some of the quests (hindsight's a beautiful thing!) and then I'll probably endeavour with the DLC.

[Ghost World]

I brought The Wither 3 in a sale months ago but haven't broken the virtual seal! I'm defiantly starting it in the new year so any tips for a new adventurer? I've heard starting on a harder difficulty makes you value the combat a lot more.

[Combine Hunter]

I'd go with normal at first, and crank it up to hard once you're into the meat of the game. I think hard is too brutal early on.

[DomsBeard]

I'd go with normal at first, and crank it up to hard once you're into the meat of the game. I think hard is too brutal early on.

Yeah I'll second that. I played 3 or 4 hours at launch on hard and it was a touch brutal.

[JaySevenZero]

So, quick question for any of you who've played the DLC. How does it fit into the game, that is to say, is it completely stand alone or is it begin with a new objective on the map?

[Combine Hunter]

Both actually, haha! You can either bump into the quest within the open world, or just start it separately with your current character or a new one.