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The Witcher

Azurephile gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Azurephile gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Recommendations:

The Witcher (first game): Not so great, not really recommended

The Witcher 2: Good game kind of recommended

The Witcher 3: Strongly recommended, must play!

The Witcher (first game): Not so great, not really recommended

The Witcher 2: Good game kind of recommended

The Witcher 3: Strongly recommended, must play!

This summer, one of my friends mentioned that he was playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I knew the game was popular, but otherwise knew nothing else about it. I noticed that The Witcher series was on sale during Steam's Summer Sale. The entire series cost about as much as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so basically it was as though I bought the third game at a discount and got the other two games for free.

I started out with the first game and I wasn't too greatly impressed. It was an ok game, although parts of it really got on my nerves. For instance, in one city at night you can hear a baby constantly crying. The game introduces you to the character Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher, who is basically a mutant that has special magical abilities and is pretty much a monster slayer for hire. He carries two swords, one is steel for humans and the other is silver for monsters or non-humans. Although a contract killer of monsters, Geralt finds himself hesitantly getting involved in local politics in an era that's most like our Middle Ages. Although I didn't really enjoy the first game, I did like the character of Geralt and knew I would continue playing the rest of the series.

During the time I spent playing the first game, my expectations grew, hoping, and even knowing that the second and third games had to be much better. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was definitely better than the first game. Before playing it, I took a break to play some other games and by the time I was ready for The Witcher 2, I pretty much wanted exactly what it gave me, a game that didn't require me to use my brain so much, and one that would tell me a story. I wasn't very disappointed.

Geralt returns in The Witcher 2, however he has amnesia and thus his memories begin to return as the story unfolds. The game starts out showing the assassination of a king who is being entertained on a ship. This CG movie was really good. This game was, to me, a great improvement over the first. It wasn't very difficult, likely because I selected an easy difficulty setting. The tutorial at the beginning is good, but it still leaves some things out, which I had to look up. In fact, there were only a few things I had to look up, mostly things that occur in the beginning. The first boss fight was the most difficult of the entire game and it took me a few tries and “Googling” to get it right. At that point, I was intimidated and tempted to give up playing, but I pressed on.

The game continues as another king is assassinated and Geralt is wrongly accused, thus he goes on in order to clear his name. He finds himself hesitantly in the midst of politics again. One of the interesting aspects of the game is that you get to make decisions in the game and they, presumably, change the outcome of events, though I can't attest without “investigation” whether this is entirely true. I liked that at points, I could choose whether to spare or take a life. I spared some lives, but not all. I enjoyed the story a bit and I kind of like how it turned out. I thought the second game was a great improvement on the first, I still found it to be an “ok” game. I still enjoyed the character of Geralt.

I just recently finished the second game and decided to start playing the third. This one contains a lot of DLC, the majority of which is free, although there is at least one that you can buy. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a grand improvement over the first and second games. While following the main quest, various side quests open up in which Geralt can take on monster killing contracts or help out other NPCs. That is what I'm doing right now in the game, exploring outside of the main quest.

One of the main differences, in the third game, is that Geralt rides a horse named “Roach.” I found the name to be humorous because one of the main characters in the second game is a man named “Roche” (pronounced just like “roach”). The graphics are great, although the sound volume seems to vary at times. One thing I love about these games is that they have performed exceptionally well on my PC without any obvious frame drops.

These games remind me of a few others. Some of the music in the second game sounds a lot like Oblivion. The third game reminds me a lot of Red Dead Redemption.

If you play the third game, I don't think it's essentially necessary to play the other two, although you won't notice the returning characters. Although there are new characters which were never even mentioned in the first two games. Still, I think the third game could be enjoyable even if you don't play the previous games of the series.

These games are based on a "book series" by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/11/2015 at 12:29am

I'm really enjoying The Witcher 3. It's very much better than the first two games in the series. However, I'm glad I played those because it makes me appreciate this one more. Plus, I recognize returning characters.

While nearly every DLC for the game is free, one is expected to be released in a couple of days, for a price. I have pre-ordered it. It seems yet another is coming after that. I didn't buy the Season Pass.

Also, a massive update (6+ gigs) was released for the game, fixing a lot of bugs. This was part of why I decided to start a new game. I also decided to play the side-quest card game, which I ignored my first time through.

There is plenty to do in this game, multiple quests and side-quests. I think it's fun and interesting and therefore highly recommend it.

jaelte wrote on 10/11/2015 at 07:20am

Man, I need to drag myself back to that game before Fallout 4 comes out and monopolizes my next 150-200 hours or so of gaming. I think I'm about a third of the way through it.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/11/2015 at 02:08pm

I'm not sure how far I got in the game. Steam says 61 hours, but I noticed my first few hours were reset after installing some DLC, so I've actually played a little more than that. I haven't finished the game and I'm not sure how far into I got. I never left Velen. I'm not sure what level I got, but I don't think I reached 20 yet. I can see how very easy it is to spend hundreds of hours in this game.

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/11/2015 at 05:04pm

To date I haven't really been sucked in by a Witcher game. 2 was great graphics wise but I sort of walked away due to the complexity of the controls. Does 3 simplify that at all Greg?

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/11/2015 at 07:08pm

I thought the first game's controls were complex. It took me a little bit to get used to. The second was better. One way the third one simplifies things is that when you face an enemy, Geralt automatically draws the right weapon. However, other controls get more "complex." There are so many keys you can use. Tab brings up a quick menu with a radial dial so you can switch between items, especially ones that you use by clicking the mouse scroll wheel. You can also press space on this menu to meditate. Backspace brings up a larger menu with nearly everything in it, you can click on what you want to go through such as Alchemy, Character, Inventory, World Map, and Glossary. You can access Inventory with "I" and the World Map with "M." You can switch weapons with "1" and "2." So, I'd say the third has more complex controls, but I don't think that means an increase in difficulty with control usage. I'm not sure how this game makes use of the controller, but as popular (and great) as this game is across all platforms, I'd assume it does it quite well.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/11/2015 at 07:21pm

I think combat is rather simple, use the left mouse button to attack, however that's a "fast attack." To do a "strong attack," you need to hold the left Shift key along with the left mouse button, but I don't often attack this way unless someone has a shield. Signs are used with the "Q" key, you can switch between them using the mouse scroll wheel. One of the things you can use by clicking the moust scroll wheel is the crossbow, but you can use other items this way. Also, I think this game makes the signs more memorable and usable. There are other keys you can use for food (to regenerate vitality) such as "R," "F," and "T."

I would say don't pre-judge the third game based on the first two. The third one is so much better than those two. I did find the story in all of them to be interesting and I do like the characters and being able to make choices throughout the games.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/13/2015 at 09:47pm

Jaelte, have you played Gwent? I ignored it mostly at first, but now I've gotten into it. I like it, it's simple and fun. Did you get the new DLC? Did you get the Season Pass? There's apparently another DLC coming.

One of the things I learned in my second play through was that you can use your crossbow underwater. I'm not sure why the game didn't tell me that the first time. I was wondering if I could attack enemies under water. Thank goodness the game let me know, finally.

jaelte wrote on 10/20/2015 at 04:20am

GregoPeck, sorry I didn't see your questions until now. I've played quite a lot of Gwent. Unfortunately, I think I may have broken the Gwent quest line by advancing the main quest to a certain point at the wrong time. At least I haven't figured out how to get that one mob boss dude (former advisor to a king) to play a game with me in his current location.

Anyway, I don't have any of the DLC yet. I figured I'd worry about it later if I wanted to play more after I beat the game. I haven't had cause to fight under water yet, so thanks for the tip!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/20/2015 at 05:44am

Cool, better late than never! Yeah, you probably advanced the quest involving Djkstra or chosen an option that doesn't allow you to play Gwent with him. I managed to play him, I think. I have his card, too. I really love Gwent. I have a collection, but not every card. I haven't played using any deck except the default, Northern Realms. I like it.

The DLC that just came out has quests with a suggested level of 32. I did two of those quests, actually. One involved a tax collector who decided I had to pay some taxes. He approached me while I was in Novigrad. I have plenty of money, so I decided to go ahead and pay the taxes that were due. Another involved a dwarf alchemist that was missing an apprentice. I ran into that one because I was looking for a White Gull recipe, but it turns out I had it and wasn't looking at the right place under Alchemy because it's an alcohol. I needed that for a sword upgrade, but then I don't have yet have the diagram for another piece I need. I haven't done all of the treasure hunts yet. I did run into a bug during one, though. A missing power cell didn't show up where it should have, so I ended up having to install a mod for the command console and give it to myself.

I haven't finished the main story line yet. It has progressed more than I expected. Meaning, the game didn't end when i thought it would, which pleases me. I usually stay away from the main story line and do side quests. There is absolutely so much to do in this game. I really love it!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/20/2015 at 06:09pm

Speaking of Gwent, I just did the High Stakes quest and won the tournament! =) I got some new leader cards out of that. I doubt I'll collect all the cards. I haven't been playing every merchant or innkeeper nor have I looked to see if they have cards to buy.

jaelte wrote on 10/21/2015 at 04:46am

I was thinking about doing the High Stakes quest, but I decided that I don't have a good enough collection yet. I think my current best deck is a Scoia'tael one, but I'd like a few more cards before I'd consider it consistent enough to try that tournament.

jaelte wrote on 10/21/2015 at 04:50am

As far as the main quest goes, I still haven't left the first major area (with Baron, Dijkstra, King Whats-His-Name, etc.), but I think all the main quest lines are pointing me off to a new zone. I still have so many side quests to finish, though! I've only played ~50 or so hours, I think.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 10/21/2015 at 06:14am

I don't remember when "High Stakes" became available, but I know it took me a long time before I decided to finally do it.

The first time I played, I didn't get make it out of Novigrad, either. I didn't want to finish the main story quest line too soon and you know the game provides plenty to do. When the latest (huge) patch came out, I decided to start over. I still hesitated to move on, but eventually I did.

I finally decided to pursue the main quest to the end and I just finished it tonight. I still didn't do every quest or explore every undiscovered ("?") area on the map. Steam says I played the game for about 150 hours, but I think I played 20-30 more as I noticed my counter was reset after installing some of the free DLC. It's a great game and it's very easy to spend a lot of hours playing it.

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Cygnus Destroyer Reviews Gameboy Classic Super Mario Land

No one really talks about Super Mario Land anymore but I really enjoyed playing this classic on my Gameboy. When my brother got a Gameboy the first two games we had were Tetris and Super Mario Land so I spent much time playing them both. I did find the graphics of Super Mario Land a bit less than what I enjoyed in Super Mario Brothers but really liked the levels and gameplay. This game was pretty hard for me as a kid and I never actually completed it like I did the other Mario games.

That said Super Mario Land and the other Gameboy titles are really impressive considering the Gameboy had a 4 mhz CPU, 8k of system RAM and an 8k graphics chip.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 09/22/2015 at 06:10pm

I loved Super Mario Land! It was my first Gameboy game and I played it a lot. My dad coached all us kids' soccer teams (me and 2 siblings), so I had a lot of practices to sit through. My Gameboy got a lot of work! I have really good memories of this game, and loved the submarine and plane levels.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/23/2015 at 03:04am

Those were great levels. As I was looking at the Wikipedia for the Gameboy it had a 15-30 hour life from those 4 batteries. That's better than smartphones. Then again, it ran at 4mhz.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/23/2015 at 04:41pm

I remember this game! It was one of the first games I had along with Tetris and Alleyway. I thought it was difficult. Memory is telling me it was a long game. I think I did end up beating it at least once.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/24/2015 at 03:32am

It was hard for a Mario game but Cygnus doesn't seem to think so as he didn't mention it. I am going to play it again so maybe it was just harder than I expected at the time.

Travis Admin wrote on 09/24/2015 at 03:40am

It was hard just because the physics were different than what you were expecting for a Mario game. The later Mario games on the Game Boy were more in line with what you'd expect which made them "easier" in a way.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/24/2015 at 04:37am

I liked the sequels, or at least the first one with Wario. Sorry, I haven't watched this video yet....will do soon.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/24/2015 at 04:47am

This also reminds me that a couple of games I loved on the Gameboy, other than Alleyway, was the Zelda and Metroid games.

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Would You Be Convinced To By The Legend Of Zelda By Reading The Back Of The Box?

Uh hell yeah I would have. My parents? They'd take some convincing but eventually I was allowed to by The Legend of Zelda. The premise of RetroLiberty's convinced series is to see if you'd buy the game based on the box art and description yet The Legend of Zelda was featured in many issues of Nintendo Power, conversations with my friends and in store kiosks so I find this one hard to say for sure. Young me would have wanted this one due to the gold box art, art and dungeon screenshots but Zelda was so huge it's hard to say what I would have chose aside from all that.

What about you? Were you convinced?

The Craziest Grim Patron Turn I've Seen Yet

This may very well be the craziest Hearthstone turn i've seen. Basically it features two Grim Patron decks with multiple cards working together. An armor smith card is granting the defender mad armor while the attacker drops two berserkers that gain attack for damage done to all characters. I've gone lethal on someone with about 18 damage dealt in one blow, but 32 for two berserkers is pretty neat.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 09/22/2015 at 06:13pm

That was so rad!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/23/2015 at 03:04am

It was a good match. If you're gonna lose. Lose to that.

JaBo wrote on 09/29/2015 at 06:24pm

I've played the Grim Patron deck and it got boring, they do need to nerf the warsong commaner though to not give charge to summoned minions off other minions again. It's too strong. If I had a way to charge to a minion in priest I'd have this style deck with the heal trigger guys. As is, I've hit someone for 30+ in one swing on T5 with it.

They need to nerf warsong, and add a new neutral minion that gives charge to adjacent minions or can give 1 minion charge. Maybe deathrattle, give your minions charge...something to allow other than warrior to make some fun burst down decks.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/29/2015 at 07:41pm

Grim Patron is a great deck and Blizzard hasn't said they are going to nerf anything associated with it. I don't see it a ton in casual, is it all over ranked?

JaBo wrote on 10/01/2015 at 06:43pm

It's a pretty standard deck. If I play against warrior, it's either Grim Patron, or a control deck which I have started playing (and others it seems) with the new warrior legendary. http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/hearthstone.gamepedia.com/e/e5/Varian_Wrynn%2822342%29.png?version=aa0d3c558d40f77cc6396c1a4844327f

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/12049211_10208050839408116_7237592726228030483_n.jpg?oh=3b5fb1a2b91d63a4e49eccc0fcb3ac88&oe=568C5ABC

and

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/12036595_10208050886209286_1358128675092086035_n.jpg?oh=b185d60af41acf45c2060547bde433f7&oe=56A0B1CE

Yup

JaBo wrote on 10/01/2015 at 06:53pm

I it is a combo deck though, so it's not 100% reliable, I'm pretty strong against it as a control warrior deck because my health stays around 20-30 while my armor can shoot up to another 20-30 and they can't burst me down in 1 turn. But as control priest, I have been burst down from 25+ life to 0 in 1 turn with them having nothing on the board

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/02/2015 at 03:01am

Crazy. I've seen new decks that focus on TONS of card draw and armor for Warrior. It's an interesting deck but I beat it that one time I played it. Your deck, I haven't quite seen that one in casual.

JaBo wrote on 10/02/2015 at 09:26pm

I keep card draw out of my control decks as much as I can for 2 reasons. One, Fatigue Rogue is brutal against control. (Just google that, it's basically flooding your opponent with card draws using Coldlight Oracle and making their draws be burned out and killing them with damage for drawing from an empty deck). I have that deck made right now and it can do well pretty consistently.

The other reason is in a mirror match, it often can go down to who has cards left in their deck and who starts taking draw-damage first. So when I play other control priest decks, they will sometimes (often) include those Northshire Clerics and Power Word: Shields. I do not.

Btw, I shouldn't have jinxed myself. I got hit yesterday for about 60 in a turn by that damn warrior combo. He had 0 creatures on the field and I had like 50+ health/armor. It was pretty annoying. I had 2 creatures on the board and those helped him by increasing the dmg triggers for berserker guy.

My Control Warrior deck has been really fun lately, I am bouncing between that and my Secret Face-Hunter deck.

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Age of Empires II HD To Get New Expansion "The African Kings"

Age of Empires II HD is getting a new expansion titled "The African Kings" adding a new civilization called The Malians. Age of Empires II was released in 1999 yet it is still going strong with the recent HD re-release, The Forgotten Kingdoms expansion and now the upcoming The African Kings. I look forward to more Age of Empires II as this RTS classic, in my opinion, will never go out of style.

http://www.forgottenempires.net/age-of-empires-ii-teasing-at-e3-2015

Oh and Age of Mythology is also getting a new expansion called "Tale of the Dragon" that was also teased at E3. I am still waiting for iD to drop word of a original Doom map-pack but until then this will have to... Read All

Jonathan Blow's "The Witness" Will Launch January 26

This might be a day one purchase for me, if I had a PS4. Jonathan has mentioned it will come to PC but it seems it will be exclusive to the PS4 for a time. The Witness is a very beautiful game and I hope all the hard work has made it incredible. Are you interested to head into The Witness an explore an abandoned island?

"Hi everyone! We finally know the release date for The Witness: it’s 26th January 2016. That’s about four months from now, and it will be a very busy four months as we work hard to make the game the absolute best we can.

We’ll be very happy to get the game out into the world, because we’ve been working on it a long time! We originally thought The Witness... Read All

Get Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 Free On Origin

Remember when in-game live action filmed shots were incredible? Remember when real time strategy games shipped separate campaigns on different CD's? We might not ever return to that but if you want to trip back to the early 2000's EA is giving away Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 free on Origin right now.

I am a big fan of Red Alert and Red Alert 2 really advanced the series in terms of gameplay, graphics and multiplayer. I put the original Red Alert games up on the wall of amazing RTS with Warcraft, Age of Empires, Rise of Nations and Starcraft.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/free-games/on-the-house

Travis Admin wrote on 09/18/2015 at 05:21pm

Speaking of games we played in college!

Snagging this. I haven't played it in ages, I don't know how well it will hold up, but I LOVED this game.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/18/2015 at 05:22pm

Let me know if multiplayer is still on for this.

Travis Admin wrote on 09/18/2015 at 05:34pm

Wasn't it like the old multiplayer, where someone set up a host and the other people connected? If so, it will always be on.

Travis Admin wrote on 09/18/2015 at 07:30pm

Whoa, it's Laura Palmer's dad as the president! I knew he was familiar when I saw him in Twin Peaks.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/18/2015 at 07:34pm

Oh yeah, "speaking of games we played in college!" =)

Travis Admin wrote on 09/18/2015 at 07:39pm

Huh. This think plays as if I was trying to coax Skyrim out of a Voodoo 2. More investigation needed.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/18/2015 at 09:09pm

I didn't realize until I started my download that it includes the expansion, Yuri's Revenge, which I thought was awesome. I wish they would have done that with Dragon Age: Origins (included the DLC)! I still have a couple of copies of this game, but I'm getting it on Origin anyway.

(After install completed.) Ok, this experience is pretty bad. I try to change the resolution, but it goes green and everything gets bunched up on the left side of the screen. The max resolution by the way is 1024x768 with 16 bit colors. I managed to change the resolution. I had to click on the screen where the buttons should be to exit and relaunch the game. However, at the highest resolution setting, the game seriously suffers. Everything moves incredibly slow! At the default (lowest) resolution, things move much quicker, but Tanya dies as soon as you have access to her. On the medium setting, things move more normally, but Tanya still dies just about right away.

I don't know if my other copies of the game would behave differently, but I imagine there may be some ways around these issues. Perhaps we need to change some settings in our Nvidia Control Panel (creating a profile for the game). "More investigation" is indeed needed in order to actually play this.

"Trying to coax Skyrim out of a Voodoo 2," that's really hilarious, Travis! Perhaps someone else with different hardware may have a different experience (especially if their hardware is 15 years old LOL).

Travis Admin wrote on 09/19/2015 at 05:38am

I'm thinking of installing a VM for this, I should have some Windows ME discs around here somewhere.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/19/2015 at 06:47am

That was one recommendation I saw in my Google "investigation" into the issues. It seems that the executable properties should be edited for compatibility with XP. There were also some .ini file configurations. I try anything out, though, but it seems that solutions to the issues are available.

Does Windows 10 have a virtual machine? I thought 8 had it. Maybe that's a feature for one of the higher level versions (like Professional or Enterprise), which I don't have. I noticed my VMWare trial expired, so I uninstalled it. I could try it again and run the game in an XP VM.

Travis Admin wrote on 09/19/2015 at 01:56pm

Hyper-V comes with the Pro editions, but I don't hear many kind words about it. VirtualBox is free and Free.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/19/2015 at 07:29pm

See, I knew you knew what I was talking about, you always know what you're talking about. =) I don't think I was aware of VirtualBox, so thanks for telling me about it.

Travis Admin wrote on 09/20/2015 at 04:11am

VBox is great. It doesn't have the performance of VMWare, but it also doesn't have the price tag.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 09/20/2015 at 06:40pm

Yeah Virtualbox is superb. Let me know if compatibility mode or Virtualbox work better.

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StarCraft II Legacy of the Void Launches November 10th

To keep with tradition, Blizzard has released the Starcraft II Legacy of the Void opening cinematic with the new November 10th launch date. The games launch is only a few short months away but Starcraft II LoTV will launch the same day as Fallout 4. It makes sense, release a few months before the holidays but I wonder how sales will be impacted with the competing with Fallout 4? On one had both games have wildly different audiences but on the other hand, i'll be buying both.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/19893687/legacy-of-the-void-launches-1110-watch-the-cinematic-now-9-13-2015

Does The New Apple TV Compete With Consoles Or Is It Something Entirely Different?

During Apple's latest showcase they unveiled an updated Apple TV. As we have been postulating for the last few years the new Apple TV will supports apps, a brand new Wii like controller(when plugged into an iPhone) and support for 3rd party game controllers. The new Apple TV starts at $149 and while inexpensive will be locked to 1080p and come in 32G and 64G storage options. During the keynote they demoed a multi-player version of Crossy Road. While Crossy Road looks fun I wonder how powerful the new Apple TV will be? Will we see publishers like 2K drop games like Borderlands & X-Com on Apple TV? Will Apple TV support Steam styled game streaming from Macs? Time... Read All

Learn How Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes Work In Fallout 4 With This Informative Video

Greetings vault dweller! Do you know what makes you S.P.E.C.I.A.L? In this informative Vault-Tec video you can learn more about how to approach your new wasteland home. Make sure to watch it twice for safety!

Do you plan on exiting the vault on November 10th and if so what operating system will your Pip-Boy run on?