What games are you playing now?

you said:

To be honest while some bioware games had really good side quests the builk of them were not that great (imho). Some of the witcher 3 side quests are not great but a lot of them are very good - even better than (imho) the main story.

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Well, I'd agree that the most recent Bioware games have been a little less interesting than they used to. For my part, I find most Bioware writing a little melodramatic - but it's mostly well done - and I find they're very good in terms of finding great voice actors and the pacing of dialogue is more in line with my preferences than some of the W3 stuff which just seems to go on and on. I also find some of the W3 voice actors a little weak.

That said, the Bloody Baron questline and a few others have been absolutely magnificent.

But I also really liked most of the quests in Dragon Age Origins and the first Mass Effect.

Both companies focus on story and characters - and I don't think they're too far apart from each other if we look at their best stuff.

But the style is different. Bioware is more Hollywood and CDPR is more subtle and subdued.

I definitely prefer CDPR overall for writing, it's just that W3 is too dense and exhaustive and doesn't really have much more than the story to engage me.

Yeah, I couldn't resist for very long, took a gander at Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter yesterday, and got pulled right in! I only played for an hour but that was long enough to whip through the prologue and to look forward to all the greatness I'll be revisiting soon!!

Struggling to maintain interest in W3…. Damn, I really want to get through it - but it's just so dull at this point. All fights are the same, progression has slowed to a crawl - and it's not needed, loot is better with my mod but is also not needed. Witcher contracts all feel the same, more or less.

I'm probably going to focus on the main quest and rush through it at this point.

I'll see if I can't power through it in the upcoming weekend.

I played Witcher 3 last year and thoroughly enjoyed it until near the end of the first DLC then it started to slog. I finished it however and someday I should play Blood and Wine since I heard it's quite large and very good.

Darth Tagnan said:

Struggling to maintain interest in W3…. Damn, I really want to get through it - but it's just so dull at this point. All fights are the same, progression has slowed to a crawl - and it's not needed, loot is better with my mod but is also not needed. Witcher contracts all feel the same, more or less.

I'm probably going to focus on the main quest and rush through it at this point.

I'll see if I can't power through it in the upcoming weekend.

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Will you remove that stupid grinding loot mod already? You ruined the game with it.
Yes, follow the damned story already, forget sidetracking that isn't gwent.

JackOfOwls said:

I played Witcher 3 last year and thoroughly enjoyed it until near the end of the first DLC then it started to slog. I finished it however and someday I should play Blood and Wine since I heard it's quite large and very good.

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I felt exhaustion only at the end of the second DLC. The ending part with 2 vampire sidekicks pwning everything was just draaaaaaaaaaaaaaag.

Working through a replay of Divine Divinity. Controls seem a little more cumbersome than I remember from back in the day and I had to follow a guide to get the steam version to actually run...but other than that the game holds up pretty well!

Playing Cyrodil PvP with my longtime PvP guild in ESO for the Midyear Mayhem event. Double AP rewards. Yeah I'm addicted, but it's also rather social, which I need right now.

The problem with TW3 is that there's almost too much content. I think trying to do every single quest and contract in one playthough is a mistake and inevitably leads to burnout for a lot of people.

JDR13 said:

The problem with TW3 is that there's almost too much content. I think trying to do every single quest and contract in one playthough is a mistake and inevitably leads to burnout for a lot of people.

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That's exactly what happened to me with Skyrim. I played every quest I could get and also did a good deal of wandering on my own, which resulted in total burnout. I gave up probably only about half-way through. Even as recently as Zelda: BotW I didn't learn my lesson and did EVERYTHING I could find then ended up dropping the game and its main quest-line with two major bosses left (those Shadow of the Colossus-type biggies). I should have learned my lesson with Skyrim. I think the best advice I ever read on playing these massive open world games with a ridiculous amount of content was to try to stick to the main quest-line (assuming it's not too stupid and tedious) with maybe only a few sidequests to keep it interesting. The game remains challenging in many cases and has some variety. This person used Dragon's Dogma as an example. I keep promising myself to follow that advice since it seems sound. But damn, some of these games are just so alluring you want to see everything.

JackOfOwls said:

That's exactly what happened to me with Skyrim. I played every quest I could get and also did a good deal of wandering on my own, which resulted in total burnout. I gave up probably only about half-way through. Even as recently as Zelda: BotW I didn't learn my lesson and did EVERYTHING I could find then ended up dropping the game and its main quest-line with two major bosses left (those Shadow of the Colossus-type biggies). I should have learned my lesson with Skyrim. I think the best advice I ever read on playing these massive open world games with a ridiculous amount of content was to try to stick to the main quest-line (assuming it's not too stupid and tedious) with maybe only a few sidequests to keep it interesting. The game remains challenging in many cases and has some variety. This person used Dragon's Dogma as an example. I keep promising myself to follow that advice since it seems sound. But damn, some of these games are just so alluring you want to see everything.

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Yeah, I've burned myself out a few times by trying to be too methodical and not playing more organically. I remember going back and forth across the map in Morrowind because I had it in my head that I wanted to see every single thing there was to see in the game. I ended up stopping after about 90% of the map and never went back.

I used to be very OCD about trying to finish every quest and seeing every location in games. I find that I enjoy games a lot more now since I'm no longer allowing that compulsion to govern my play style.

I'd give The Witcher 3 a 6/10. The DLC an 8/10.

The story peaks early on with the Bloody Baron questline. The questlines in Novigrad and Skellige are fun, but a drop in quality. The overall plot and ending are terrible.

The combat system is awful. My only enjoyment was blasting enemies with Aard.

Exploration and sidequests were fun at first, but after awhile I started to notice how tedious and repetitive they were. I usually like open worlds, but I feel it was a negative here.

The DLC were great. Blood and Wine felt like the best parts of the main game except more colorful and less tedious. Heart of Stone had very good writing.

Well, I think Witcher 3 is a great game. It's just not a great fit for me or my preferences.

I felt the same way about the first Witcher - and the more I play Witcher 3, the more it reminds me of the first game.

I absolutely loved Witcher 2, though - which was a much more focused experience with almost the entire game revolving around the main storyline. It had almost no filler content.

I think, for me, Witcher 3 would have been a better experience if it was designed in that way.

This time, though, I was prepared for it - and I've done almost zero exploration or loot hunting - because I know those elements of the game are terrible.

It's not that there's too much content - because the content is almost universally
of high quality. All the quests are good or great.

The problem with the content, from my point of view, is that the gameplay doesn't serve as interesting underpinning. The vast majority of what I'm doing in-between dialogue cutscenes feels like busywork.

It was better in the beginning, because you don't really "find" your build before around level 10 - when you have a few toys and you can pick your armor type and corresponding support skills. But once you've reached that point - the combat, as beautiful as it is - is extremely easy in the vast majority of fights. But the progression halts and stops being interesting way, way too soon considering the scope of the game - and I believe I've made my opinion about the exploration clear before.

It should be noted that there are exceptions. I believe I've had two fights in these past 30 hours or so that were actually challenging enough to cause my death.

Again, I can see why people love the game - and I didn't meant to start yet another W3 debate.

There's no denying it's a quality product - like I think all the Witcher games are quality products.

Sometimes, games just aren't for everyone. It's not a problem.

I will still try to complete this, because now I'm determined. I just probably won't bother doing many of the side quests.

I will do the main narrative, because I want the story. I did buy the two expansions with the intention of completing them as well, but I sort of doubt I'll bother.

dteowner said:

Deeply sucked into Darkest Dungeon over the past few weeks. Fun little game. Another one of those very simple games with deceptively deep gameplay. Total time sink.

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Thanks. Currently being sucked in. Very lovecraftian.
Should I get the DLC too?

If you lost interest then move on. There is no obligation to play or finish a game. There is no social benefit. It is meant to be fun and if it isn't fun drop it.

Darth Tagnan said:

Struggling to maintain interest in W3…. Damn, I really want to get through it - but it's just so dull at this point. All fights are the same, progression has slowed to a crawl - and it's not needed, loot is better with my mod but is also not needed. Witcher contracts all feel the same, more or less.

I'm probably going to focus on the main quest and rush through it at this point.

I'll see if I can't power through it in the upcoming weekend.

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you said:

If you lost interest then move on. There is no obligation to play or finish a game. There is no social benefit. It is meant to be fun and if it isn't fun drop it.

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Thank you, but I'm not doing it for social benefit or because I feel obligated. I do it because I think the story is going to be worth it - and I've already invested so many hours in the game that I feel it's frustrating to never finish it. This is my 4th or 5th time trying to finish it.

I did exactly the same thing with the first Witcher game a few years ago. I tried getting through it 3-4 times - and eventually just forced myself to complete it.

I'm very happy with that, because I really enjoyed the story - and especially that separate story with that lady in the lake.

Also, when everyone around you keeps insisting it's the best thing ever - you can't help but be curious if there's something you missed. While I'm very confident in my opinions, it wouldn't be the first time a game turned out better than I would have thought.

Doesn't look to be the case here, but I'm still curious to experience the content.

Darth Tagnan said:

I will do the main narrative, because I want the story. I did buy the two expansions with the intention of completing them as well, but I sort of doubt I'll bother.

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I did every quest and liked them all. Some of the most emotional moments were in them ail questline though. I particularly loved finding Ciri. I cried at that scene. Masterfully done.

But I highly recommend you not skip the expansions. At least Hearts of Stone, which I did finish. It's one of the most beautiful pieces of virtual storytelling ever.

I did not finish Blood and Wine yet. When I finished the base game, and the first expansion I was already almost 200h in. And have been playing W3 for the past month religiously. From 4-5 hours daily. With weekends at 8-10h. I was so overdosing on witcher. That month was one of my most weirdest gaming experiences. Towards the end of the month the whole experience started to feel like a blur. Like I have been playing W3 for as long as I could remember. Really weird. So I needed to take a break. I'll get back to Blood and Wine at a later date. But I would have to conclude that I either took too much with the game, or there is too much content.

Just my opinion but in the Witcher the main quest was fantastic - best of the three. In witcher 3 I found the main quest a bit of a let down but some of the side quests are absolutely fantastic - unfortunately some of them are boring. If you fail to complete the main quest i don't think you are missing much.

Having said that I didn't care much for blood and wine but thought heart of stone was fantastic - while a lot of folks liked blood and wine (talking main quest only).

Darth Tagnan said:

Thank you, but I'm not doing it for social benefit or because I feel obligated. I do it because I think the story is going to be worth it - and I've already invested so many hours in the game that I feel it's frustrating to never finish it. This is my 4th or 5th time trying to finish it.

I did exactly the same thing with the first Witcher game a few years ago. I tried getting through it 3-4 times - and eventually just forced myself to complete it.

I'm very happy with that, because I really enjoyed the story - and especially that separate story with that lady in the lake.

Also, when everyone around you keeps insisting it's the best thing ever - you can't help but be curious if there's something you missed. While I'm very confident in my opinions, it wouldn't be the first time a game turned out better than I would have thought.

Doesn't look to be the case here, but I'm still curious to experience the content.

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W3 middle of Keira quest sequence

Everyone who doesn't like the witcher series... No wait, everyone who is not absolutely in love with the witcher series deserves to be crucified. I carefully measured my words there

I'm completely into the surge now. Less frustrating now, as I leveled up enough or learned to play the game. It's not perfect (as is the dark souls franchise) but some challenge in the gameplay is so welcome. I remember from another thread that someone didn't like to learn the enemy moveset, but what else constitutes the challenge? Hopefully not randomization.

A random thought that came to me: leveling up can be seen as a difficulty mechanic. People that are having a hard time will just level up a bit more.i wonder how many devs take that into account. They could just go for a single difficulty and tune the leveling more.

Everyone who declares what game everyone else should love deserves to be crucified. I carefully copied my words there

ilm said:

Everyone who doesn't like the witcher series… No wait, everyone who is not absolutely in love with the witcher series deserves to be crucified. I carefully measured my words there

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