Renzatic on 28/5/2015 at 03:36
It's been really well behaved today. I've clocked in about 2-3 hours, and it's only frozen on me once. I'm patched all the way up to 1.04 and have all the DLCs installed, by the way.
Malf on 28/5/2015 at 05:30
Same for me last night too. Not a single crash.
Kinda bugs me more though, as intermittent crashes with no sure pattern of when they're likely to occur are some of the worst to diagnose and fix.
Renzatic on 28/5/2015 at 07:09
The only thing I can say is that, more often than not, it tends to crash during conversations. Considering that's when the game enables ubersampling, I'd assume that the fancy features being put to use during those moments is putting extra stress on something or other, which causes the drivers to flake out.
The one time it consistently died on me was during the final conversation with a character named Hattori. It crashed on me three times before I was able to successfully work my way through it.
Though like I said, this is more often than not. It's far from being the only time the game crashes. I've had it freeze on me while running about before, and it's entirely random when it does it. Like yesterday, I had about 6-7 crashes. Today? Just the one, which happened during a conversation scene.
On a positive note, The Skellige Isles are absolutely stunning. It looks a lot like Skyrim, specifically around Whiterun, though with Witcher 3 graphics.
(
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3018396/Witcher3_10.png) Hell, it deserves a screenshot
Malf on 28/5/2015 at 08:12
Yeah, finally got there myself last night after banishing every last green or grey Velen/Novigrad quest from my log.
It is indeed very pretty, and I loved the little continuity touch of
finding the captain's body on his wrecked ship.
I kind of wish there was an option to track no quests now though. I like wandering out to discover things on my own, but with the dotted line on the radar all the time, it acts like a subconscious draw.
I also ended up flitting back and forth between Velen and Skellige once I found the smiths at the castle and realised I was missing a few Cat gear diagrams. My initial Cat gear was beginning to show its weakness at level 18+ with Geralt taking more damage from monsters than expected.
It also meant I got to clear up a few more contracts that I'd left behind, including some red ones that were WAY above my level. Although I admit I eventually gave up on one fight and ended up kiting the monster far enough away from the loot that I could run back and grab it.
Oh, and I got around to making my PS4's pad work with it too. My old wired 360 pad is a little loose these days, and has a tendency to drift on the left stick. Thankfully, (
https://inputmapper.com/) InputMapper made it trivially easy to set up.
Malf on 28/5/2015 at 10:06
I just need to comment on how well Witcher 3 fleshes out Geralt.
I've always loved that the games have never been about him being the chosen one and saving the entire world from some evil only he has the power to defeat.
But here it goes one step further in to narrative maturity, and we discover through little conversational pieces that while he's a great Witcher and lover, he might not always be the sharpest tool in the shed. He's obviously out of his depth when it comes to politics and he's a terrible actor. He's got a lot of the middle aged man's grumpiness about him, and sometimes his attempts to make things better just end up making things worse (the wonderful little encounter on the outskirts of Novigrad where he interjects with an Elf woman being harassed being a particular highlight).
And on top of that, the sections where you play as Ciri highlight that even though he's a good Witcher, he's definitely not the best. Her unique abilities highlight just how limited and reliant on preparation Geralt really is. Indeed, a lot of the characters Geralt associates with are far more powerful than him, whether that's through sheer skill and ability or through the political power they wield.
I find myself constantly wondering how much of Geralt's love for Yennefer and Triss is real, and how much of it is glamour; the way Geralt is portrayed in this game seems to gently encourage such thinking. Is Geralt really in love with these women, or are they using magic to manipulate him to achieve their own ends? Or is he just plain stupid when in the presence of beautiful women? Indeed, the encounter with Keira Metz certainly seems an overt statement that he's less than bright when he lets his lust guide him.
All this serves to make him a more believable character and makes him a much more compelling protagonist than any flavour of, for example, Shepard.
Sure, it's still a power fantasy, but I find it's well tempered with these little character imperfections.
Gryzemuis on 28/5/2015 at 12:33
Quote Posted by Malf
but with the dotted line on the radar all the time, it acts like a subconscious draw.
Options -> Video -> Hud configuration -> Path to objectives on Minimap -> Off.
Malf on 28/5/2015 at 12:43
Ah, thank you :)
Briareos H on 28/5/2015 at 14:02
I find your approach to character building a bit strange considering the game is a RPG. Your post reads as if these traits define Geralt unconditionally and you praise the game for fleshing him out that way; thing is, besides the fact that he indeed isn't as powerful as many of his friends, the game does an excellent job at not setting his other character traits in stone.
[spoiler]My Geralt was lauded as an actor, to the point where he was asked if he had attended a school. With regards to his sentimental life, he is in the process of coming to terms with the fact that all this time, he has only been chasing a love for someone he idealized far too much and realizing too late that he'd rather spend the rest of his life with Triss. Triss, who hasn't been using Geralt to further an agenda one bit. Can't exactly say the same about Keira Metz --she tried to outsmart Geralt although quickly ended up giving the mage's research back-- but I'm not sure I understand what you mean about her. I know I will meet her again later but at this point my Geralt has been pretty clever in his relationship with her, both of them fine with being friends with benefits. I don't remember meeting that elf girl outside Novigrad although I'm willing to bet there are at least two different outcomes as well. I have yet to see anything that warrants saying he is out of his league when it comes to politics, either.[/spoiler]
Renzatic on 28/5/2015 at 15:03
I'm agreeing more with Briareos on this. Geralt's general personality is fairly well defined, and he does have his strengths and weaknesses you need to consider, but his failings are more due to how you play him, rather than how the game wants him to be portrayed. Like he can be manipulated through glamor and lust, but only insofar that you can be. Can make bad a bad situation even worse through his involvement, but only through your decisions to do so. The game never forces anything on you, or makes anything a foregone conclusion.
Geralt is as much roleplayed as he is played through.
Tony_Tarantula on 28/5/2015 at 15:06
I got up to the second playable Ciri sequence After un-cursing the Baron's botchlig and Malf kind of beat me to the point on what I was going to say.
More than anything else its' the writing of this game that impresses me. The writers of this game have an understanding of the human condition that is far beyond what most American producers have. All of the characters are multi-layered, complex, and possess interesting virtues and flaws. Hell even the peasants are better written than almost any character in other RPG's. I get the feeling that the developers designed the characters first, tried to give them a personality and motivations that would be convincing for their situation, and wrote the dialog after.
It's particularly noteworthy how the game handles very heavy issues: domestic violence, prejudice, corruption, etc. are handled in a way that is far more complex than most games do.....and is completely free of the shallow posturing and pandering that dominates most American games( For example, compare the way the hunter in White Orchard is handled compared to how literally any gay character in a bioware game). The game's relationships are also handled well.....like the game was written by and for adults rather than by and for 15 year old male virgins. Hell that criticism applies to the entire game. Rather than the infantilized, binary writing I've sadly gotten used to I've been blown away with the maturity that the game expects its players to have and provides in return.
I'll also say that it's the first game I can think of to have dialogue that is natural enough to benefit from having decent social skills. It's not like other games where the "nice" dialogue choice is always right: you need to be able to quickly read the type of personality you're talking to in order to get what you need out of a conversation. One good example was where A character seemed a bit dissapointed that Geralt had bowed, as if he was expecting an opportunity to be amused by Geralt's trademark irreverence
