The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt review

[Bassman]

Well, I had this and Project Cars on pre-order from Amazon. A few weeks ago they had a special where you could buy 2 games for ?80 which included those two games... if you re-ordered. At the time the total was around ?84. I'm glad I couldn't be bothered. Each game cost me ?39 on release!

[boxhead]

I've played this for about 6 hours now and I absolutely love it.

I usually can't be arsed with open world RPGs and skyrim bored me to tears but this is so well realised and detailed that I genuinely can't help but love it. it reminds me of red dead redemption in some ways (probably those skies and the horse riding) and the dialogue is utterly brilliant and put mostly everything else out there to shame.

I watched a group of wargs frolicking about and toy fight with each other for about 10 minutes last night and at that point i knew for sure that this is a great game. I love all the little things that didn't have to be there but are.

[Bassman]

A couple of annoyances... so far.

Still in White Orchard (though I have now seen the Emperor). I'd destroyed 2 Monster Nests, which used up my bombs. I had a third Nest to destroy and wanted to make more bombs. Alchemy failed as, even though I had 0/2, it wouldn't let me make any more. I eventually dropped my existing (non) bombs to destroy them so that I could make more.

What is it with the Treasure Hunts? I have read something first, so go to my inventory and read every document in sight, exit the inventory, only to be told to read something. What am I missing?

All the Power Sources around the place mean I have more abilities than I can currently use and some Ability Points still to allocate.

A minor frustration is button pressing twice to bring up the map.

I must say I am enjoying the game and have picked up some decent items clearing all but one ? around White Orchard. The remaining one is underwater and proved fatal. I presume there must be a way to fight under water.

[MrKirov]

If you meditate and have alcohol in your inventory, your bombs and potions will restock and you don't have to make them again. It tells you this if you continue the main missions.

Also, if you swipe on the touch pad up or down it takes you straight to the map- left is quests and a right swipe is inventory iirc.

The treasure hunts sometimes involve more than one map, so if it's not progressing then you're probably missing one/the next one.

The starting area does have lots of power points, just keep them if don't know what to level up. You'll level up from the ones you find faster than you level up traditionally. As you level up you gain more slots to put your skills, so it's worth keeping them. I don't think that's a negative?

A crossbow is given to you, again in the main quest, which lets you fight underwater and pull enemies.

Sounds like you're exploring too far, too early.

[hudson]

My horse is walking 30ft in the air right now :/

[Bassman]

I have only been exploring that first area. Managed to hit Level 4 before leaving (giving me the third ability). I killed a few wolves and levelled up.

I wasn't complaining about the Ability Points, as I knew a new slot opened for them every two levels.

I found it disconcerting that the read document message still remained after reading all my documents. At least getting these sidequests has provided plenty of scope for crafting.

I knew meditating restred potions. It made no mention of bombs. Does this come up later. If that is the case, it is a little odd seeing as there are the Monster Nests in the first area.

I found some Master items in the first area, plus a fairly powerful Magic Sword (Level 4).

[Rossco]

Most people seem to be saying they spent quite a bit of time in the first area. I must have bombed off from there quite early as I don't even remember what it looks like and have been wandering all over the map for a while now.

Not that it's affected my play at all. Still completely engrossed in this.

Bit confused on one of my quests right now though for the Baron...

I have found the

->Open Spoiler<-

Barons daughter and told him she isn't coming back. I now need to search all remaining leads for his wife but there are no map markers and I can't find out anything from anyone.

Hmmmm!

[Bassman]

Finished a couple of the Treasure Hunts in White Orchard. Dirty Funds is outstanding. I have the Scrawled Notes, but it is not a key item, so has no effect when I read it, so I can't complete it.

When I first loaded the game, I had no Crossbow. On looking at my Inventory just now, the Crossbow was there... hmm.

I was successfully dealing with the underwater things to access the last ?. I suspect I ran out ammo. The control scheme (as far as I could see) gave no hints as to how to fire the Crossbow. Found out by trial and error. Will check my ammo next time I fire up the game.

[MrKirov]

Standard bolts are unlimited, it's ines that you make that aren't. Have you fought the Griffon yet? I believe it does he crossbow tutorial then.

[Bassman]

I completed the Griffon but there was no Crossbow tutorial.

Apparently there is a bug in the Dirty Funds Treasure Hunt side quest. Looks like I managed to find it!

Another annoyance. I suspect in getting my stuff back after seeing the Emperor, the game decided to equip my default swords rather than include my much more powerful Magic Sword which was previously equipped.

After that, for some reason on returning to White Orchard, my Vitality didn't seem to be regenerating. It was daylight. I unequipped the ability to regenerate and re-equipped it and that seemed to solve the problem.

Anyone else had any issues?

[MrKirov]

I seem to be stuck on version 1.01 and can't download v1.02 on PS4. I check for updates and says nothing is there, even though others have it :/

[Yakumo]

There's a version 1.02? When did that come out? The Xbox One version is still 1.01. I installed mine last night for the first time with the latest update.

[MrKirov]

Apparently it's an EU only patch to fix a specific SKU bug, seeing as I got mine from Simplygames I assumed Id have it too- I knew they did grey imports, but i assumed they were from Europe...where the hell are they sourcing them from?!

[Rossco]

1.03 went live for PC yesterday. Cutscenes were much smoother and no crashes compared to every session I played prior to that. So hopefully on consoles soon too!

[dvdx2]

Settling down soon for a few hours on the ps4 version - looks great