Wiedźmin 3: Dziki Gon (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)

Discussion in 'Video Games' started by Bamul, Feb 5, 2013.

  1. Potarto

    Potarto Well-Known Member

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    No, he thinks he can't run it. Also probably feels compelled to play the first ones, in spite of the fact that no major choices from the earlier games really have an impact on TW3's main quest/ending.

    Also I agree. Other than the SLI shadow flickering (which I believe they patched a bit ago), it's been a very stable and smooth launch. Very much so for an open world game of this sort, many generally have some kind of small memory leak at launch that slowly degrades performance over time.
     
  2. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    Well, yeah, but... as someone who has read the books and played all three games, I can absolutely understand and sympathise with anyone who chooses to play the first two before this one. Seriously man, you are missing out on soooo much quality storytelling and worldbuilding. Obviously, you get plenty from having finished W2, but I'm tempted to call all those other people who only jumped on the bandwagon with W3 and are now calling themselves huge fans as posers. :p Though, like I said, I don't count you among those people as you have been interested in the franchise beforehand and played it too. I'm probably a dick for thinking like that of some others though. :lol:
     
  3. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    As I said in one of my earlier posts, those who have not read the books know next to nothing about Ciri and many other major characters without any prior research, and I was reminded of this yet again when a friend on Steam asked me if I could tell him more about Ciri. I wrote a lot more than I intended (but that's what happens when you try to summarise ONLY the early story of a character who has appeared in 5 books), so I figured I could copy and paste it here in case it comes in useful to anyone else.

    WARNING: This contains spoilers for the books (some of which have been translated to English and more are on the way), so if you don't want to spoil various major and some minor plot points for the novels - then DO NOT OPEN THE SPOILER TAG BELOW. ;)

    Basically: she is the descendant of an Aen Saevherne (very powerful Elven mage) woman who lived a loooong time ago (this is why she has a bit of Elven blood in her, though Ciri is a human as most of her other ancestors were humans). Since Lara Dorren - Ciri's aforementioned Elven ancestor - had Hen Ichaer (Elder Blood), Ciri carries the same gene and has it also. It allows her to travel between worlds at her will - though she did not really master the technique in the books and it had mixed results. In theory, one of her offspring (or potentially grandchildren) should be the one descendant of Lara Dorren who will have the most powerful iteration of this ability, allowing them to fulfill Aen Ithlinnespeath (Ithlinne's Prophecy) - which means that a child of the Elder Blood will open the gates to another world once the White Frost comes and the beginning of the end of the world begins, allowing the Aen Seidhe (Elves of the world you know from the games) to survive the prophesised apocalypse and at last re-join their ancient brethren Aen Elle (the People of the Alders - another kind of Elves). This is why so many dangerous people are out to get Ciri - they want to use her child for their own ends, because anyone with that amount of power could do a shitload of terrible things if raised to do so. The Wild Hunt are Aen Elle who leave their world for short periods of time to kidnap human slaves and also to search for Ciri so that the prophecy can be fulfilled.

    Ciri spent her childhood in Cintra, at first raised by her biological parents - her mother Pavetta, the daughter of Queen Calanthe of Cintra, and her father Duny (the disguise of Emhyr, the future emperor of Nilfgaard). She also travelled frequently to the Skellige Islands as a child. After her parents apparently died at sea during a storm (in fact it was set up by Emhyr so that he could disappear and restore the throne of Nilfgaard once the usurper and his supporters were taken care of), Ciri was raised by her grandmother Calanthe. I won't tell you how Geralt's fate became tied with hers before she was even born because that is a whole different story and pretty long too. Anyway, Geralt first actually meets her when she is lost in the dryad forest of Brokilon. He returns her to Calanthe though they clearly become attached during the process. Finally, when Nilfgaard invades Cintra, Ciri escapes (with the help of a sympathetic Nilfgaardian knight). Geralt finds her eventually and looks after her. He becomes a father figure for her. He takes her to Kaer Morhen, where she is trained by him and fellow witchers Vesemir, Eskel, Lambert and Coen (though she is not subjected to any mutations). Triss Merigold joins them later on and also helps to care for Ciri, becoming something like an older sister to her.

    Next she is taken to the Temple of Melitele in Ellander, where Yennefer later joins her and teaches her the basics of magic (whilst the priestesses - along with the high priestess Nenneke - generally continue her education in academic stuff like geography, history and all that). At first, Ciri and Yennefer do not like each other, but this changes over time and Yennefer becomes a mother figure for Ciri. Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri get together at Gors Velen where a massive shitstorm occurs (which is also another story for another day). At another point in the books, much later when Ciri is separated from both Geralt and Yennefer, Ciri joins a band of badass young brigands called “Rats” in one of the Nilfgaardian provinces between the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard itself. This is also the only time in the novels when she has an intimate relationship with someone - of the brigands, a woman called Mistle. Since she never really has a romantic relationship with any man in the books (though does seem curious about men in a sexual way as she grows), it’s very likely that she is a lesbian or bisexual - I don’t know if they develop that any further in W3 as I haven’t finished the game yet.
     
  4. Potarto

    Potarto Well-Known Member

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    Good writeup. Minor spoilers:
    In the game, she's mentioned to have had a crush on a guy who was a childhood friend in Skellige. You can also tell a character during a section as her that she prefers women, though it is a little unclear in the context whether it's just meant to tell the guy off, since there's literally an identical story that another character tells of the same thing happening to them. There's also another piece of dialogue in the game that slightly hints at some potential stuff, but that ones a bit of a spoiler.
     
  5. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    Thestalker told me that the player does sort of get to determine Ciri's sexual orientation later on (or something like that) through dialogue options, but I didn't want any details so I'm not reading your post for now as I'm guessing it's referring to this. :)
     
  6. Potarto

    Potarto Well-Known Member

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    Well, the answer to that is (as addressed in my small little tidbit), sorta.
     
  7. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    74 hours in and I'm just about to walk through the gates of Novigrad for the first time. :lol: Obviously, I took a long break from the game due to my recent cycling trip as well as because of my exams earlier, but now I should have some more time to immerse myself in this beautiful world again - Velen really reminds me of the beautiful Polish countryside. Though I gotta say that after touring Occitania I am also really looking forward to the "Blood and Wine" expansion pack, which will feature Toussaint; it is a semi-independent duchy of Nilfgaard that was quite clearly inspired by France, renowned for its wines and unique political position (no proper army or police). It is described as a very charming place in the books where Geralt has some really interesting adventures, so I can't wait to see how it will be presented in-game.
     
  8. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    Free DLC #14 is out (alternative look for Ciri) and patch 1.07 is finally here with some great new features as well as plenty of fixes. The highlight for me is the addition of storage for the player to stash Geralt's items when he is not using them. This is perfect for all those who like to collect the witcher gear (some of the best armour and weapons in the game when upgraded). Ther are many other new things that have been added which you can read more about in English here and here. Although I have not yet tested this update myself, I've heard that not everyone likes it - some people are experiencing better performance, whilst some others are getting worse fps. There are objectively good new thingies like the aforementioned stash for loot, quest fixes, changes to inventory management and so on, but I've also read on forums that the patch upped the minimum level requirement for some of the witcher gear (this is a dick move as many people now have to run around in their shorts looking for new alternatives).

    Furthermore, CD Projekt have made an online interactive map available in Polish, Russian and English.
     
  9. [YOUTUBE]cW3Sq5wfdIc[/YOUTUBE]
     
  10. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    This reminds me - I've already posted this video earlier, but did not watch it back then in case it had spoilers. Now that I'm already past this moment in-game and most others are too, I'm posting it again with confidence that it has no story spoilers. The only thing it spoils is the song itself, but other than that it does not ruin any parts of the plot at all. So, here it is, a pretty cool comparison of the various language versions of the game:

    [YOUTUBE]lMvAAfPs0UE[/YOUTUBE]
     
  11. NuclearWastE3

    NuclearWastE3 The Toxic Avenger
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    ^:rofl:
    That's hideous!
     
  12. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    Someone downloaded a mod that enables the console and played around with the camera angles, I guess? :flypig:
     
  13. Potarto

    Potarto Well-Known Member

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    ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
     
  14. Skaara Dreadlocks

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    Looks like me in the morning :)

    Also, that video was really neat. I could easily tell when the french version was playing :lol:
     
  15. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    Oh, that reminds me, in case anyone couldn't tell which language was which, someone in the comments posted the times when each version starts in the video:

    English -- 1:03, German -- 1:17, Japanese -- 1:35, Polish -- 1:54, French -- 2:20, Portuguese -- 2:46, Russian -- 3:17

    I only really had trouble with Japanese and Portuguese (when they came on, at first I wasn't sure what languages they were). :p
     
  16. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    Here is an interesting interview that deals with something that is rarely covered when speaking of W3 - the process of creating the whole gameworld plus all of its lore in Polish and translating it to English, as well as all the challenges associated with that:

    [YOUTUBE]Q98XNZq0syU[/YOUTUBE]
     
  17. Ishmael

    Ishmael Well-Known Member
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    I'm reading the books before playing the games. I know the videogames are very good, but do you guys know from which point in the books is a good enough point to start playing the games? Of course I'll still be reading, but I'm still at the first one (The Last Wish) so it's going to take me a while before completing the entire saga. Personally 'd like to reach the point when Ciri is actually a relevant character so I know a bit about her before playing The Witcher 3.
     
  18. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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    First of all, I gotta say that playing W1 and W2 without reading Sapkowski's work would not be tragic. Yes, you would miss out on all the cool references, you would be pretty much lost when it comes to the political intrigue between all the kingdoms and it's always nice to know the main characters before seeing them in the games (you have a much better idea of who they are and it's easier to get attached to them). However, the first two games are actually a lot more accessible from a story point of view than the third one (even though the exact opposite can be said for the gameplay), as Geralt still has amnesia and the plot of both games isn't focused on Ciri and the Wild Hunt. On the other hand, with W3, Geralt's amnesia is pretty much all gone and the story of the game becomes even more complicated and knowledge from the novels becomes really useful there.

    Ciri appears for the first time in Miecz Przeznaczenia (The Sword of Destiny) which is the second part of the series, but she doesn't become that important until later on... in fact, she gradually becomes a more key character with each book. To be honest, it would be best to read all the novels before playing the games - especially if you want more background knowledge on the third one. Most of the main story in W3 is deeply rooted in the key events happening in the last two novels from Sapkowski's saga (Wieża Jaskółki and Pani Jeziora), neither of which have yet been translated to English - but English versions of each of these will be released in 2016 and 2017 respectively. If you read all the books before starting the games, especially the last two novels, you will really feel at an advantage when playing CD Projekt's creations and you will feel kinda sorry for all those who haven't because of just how much they're missing out on. :p Not to mention that the books, at least definitely in their native Polish versions (can't speak for any of the translations personally), are outstanding and worth a read on their own anyway.

    Alternatively, if you can't wait until 2017 to play the last game, I'd recommend reading all the books from the series that have been translated to English so far (English titles: The Last Wish, The Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire - best to read them in that order) and then just having a look at plot summaries of the last two books. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend waiting. You could complete the first 2 games after finishing the first 5 books, then wait through 2016 and 2017 to play W3 after reading the translated versions of the last 2 books. That way you could be proud of being one of the few English-speaking fans of the game with such knowledge of the story and Witcher universe, whilst grabbing the best deal as well (first expansion pack for W3 is scheduled for October 2015, the second one will come in early 2016, so by 2017 they will have probably released a GOTY/complete/ultimate edition that will feature the enhanced version of the fully patched & upgraded game along with both expansion packs at a much better price). :D Moreover, if you speak any other languages beside English, it is worth checking if the books have been translated there. I know for a fact that Czechia and Russia definitely got translations of all books really early compared to other countries, but you can also find them in Lithuania and even Germany (probably a bunch of other states too).

    A while ago, I actually posted in this thread some very basic info about Ciri and her early history, so if in the end you choose the easy way out, you could also check that out after reading plot summaries of the books, but ONLY if you are not planning on reading any more of the novels. Pasting it below:

    WARNING: This contains spoilers for the books (some of which have been translated to English and more are on the way), so if you don't want to spoil various major and some minor plot points for the novels - then DO NOT OPEN THE SPOILER TAG BELOW. ;)

    Basically: she is the descendant of an Aen Saevherne (very powerful Elven mage) woman who lived a loooong time ago (this is why she has a bit of Elven blood in her, though Ciri is a human as most of her other ancestors were humans). Since Lara Dorren - Ciri's aforementioned Elven ancestor - had Hen Ichaer (Elder Blood), Ciri carries the same gene and has it also. It allows her to travel between worlds at her will - though she did not really master the technique in the books and it had mixed results. In theory, one of her offspring (or potentially grandchildren) should be the one descendant of Lara Dorren who will have the most powerful iteration of this ability, allowing them to fulfill Aen Ithlinnespeath (Ithlinne's Prophecy) - which means that a child of the Elder Blood will open the gates to another world once the White Frost comes and the beginning of the end of the world begins, allowing the Aen Seidhe (Elves of the world you know from the games) to survive the prophesised apocalypse and at last re-join their ancient brethren Aen Elle (the People of the Alders - another kind of Elves). This is why so many dangerous people are out to get Ciri - they want to use her child for their own ends, because anyone with that amount of power could do a shitload of terrible things if raised to do so. The Wild Hunt are Aen Elle who leave their world for short periods of time to kidnap human slaves and also to search for Ciri so that the prophecy can be fulfilled.

    Ciri spent her childhood in Cintra, at first raised by her biological parents - her mother Pavetta, the daughter of Queen Calanthe of Cintra, and her father Duny (the disguise of Emhyr, the future emperor of Nilfgaard). She also travelled frequently to the Skellige Islands as a child. After her parents apparently died at sea during a storm (in fact it was set up by Emhyr so that he could disappear and restore the throne of Nilfgaard once the usurper and his supporters were taken care of), Ciri was raised by her grandmother Calanthe. I won't tell you how Geralt's fate became tied with hers before she was even born because that is a whole different story and pretty long too. Anyway, Geralt first actually meets her when she is lost in the dryad forest of Brokilon. He returns her to Calanthe though they clearly become attached during the process. Finally, when Nilfgaard invades Cintra, Ciri escapes (with the help of a sympathetic Nilfgaardian knight). Geralt finds her eventually and looks after her. He becomes a father figure for her. He takes her to Kaer Morhen, where she is trained by him and fellow witchers Vesemir, Eskel, Lambert and Coen (though she is not subjected to any mutations). Triss Merigold joins them later on and also helps to care for Ciri, becoming something like an older sister to her.

    Next she is taken to the Temple of Melitele in Ellander, where Yennefer later joins her and teaches her the basics of magic (whilst the priestesses - along with the high priestess Nenneke - generally continue her education in academic stuff like geography, history and all that). At first, Ciri and Yennefer do not like each other, but this changes over time and Yennefer becomes a mother figure for Ciri. Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri get together at Gors Velen where a massive shitstorm occurs (which is also another story for another day). At another point in the books, much later when Ciri is separated from both Geralt and Yennefer, Ciri joins a band of badass young brigands called “Rats” in one of the Nilfgaardian provinces between the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard itself. This is also the only time in the novels when she has an intimate relationship with someone - of the brigands, a woman called Mistle. Since she never really has a romantic relationship with any man in the books (though does seem curious about men in a sexual way as she grows), it’s very likely that she is a lesbian or bisexual - I don’t know if they develop that any further in W3 as I haven’t finished the game yet.
     
  19. Ishmael

    Ishmael Well-Known Member
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    Thanks a lot Bamul. I think I'll stick with the books for now. Then, after I've finished everyone of them that is translated in english, I'll get to the games.