Witcher 3

[Shrinweck]

I just finished the expansion/DLC Hearts of Stone and it was excellent. Arguably better than the Wild Hunt core story (less manipulative family stuff, more philosophy about evil/forgiveness/wishes). The most interesting villain(s) I've encountered in quite a while especially since they don't turn to shit when things get explained. The boss fights are all interesting and for the most part fun - they behave very little like previous enemies. One boss fight is actually impossible to brute force, meaning you have to memorize and counter its mechanics which is something that I love when it isn't getting in the way of the story, which is to say I hated it at the time but love it in retrospect.

There is a LOT of dialog. I didn't check my play time but I wanna say that if you want to listen to all the dialog and do all the new side quests that it blows their 10 hour estimate out of the water.

Incredible DLC.

[Shrinweck]

Finished my NG+ playthrough today but not that many thoughts on it.

The 1.10 patch that augmented Triss' storyline brought it up so that it felt equal to Yennefer.

I thought the bad ending was more fitting than the good ending I got.

Spoiler: show

Ciri as a Witcher felt too much like a 100% good ending to me for this series. Her as an empress would probably feel more authentic but I'm not playing through the game a third time to verify this.

The best thing I found for the first time in this playthrough was Yennefer teleporting you into a lake if you try to excuse yourself for sleeping with Triss by saying you had amnesia.

By the time I hit level 50 in NG+ I'd finished getting every skill I wanted. The skill tree system in Witcher 2 was probably better. Not getting anything when I leveled or found a place of power was a pretty big downer. I ended up switching to bear armor which made combat much easier despite playing the second hardest difficulty. Nearly every fight was easier in bear armor (rather than cat), especially once I did the DLC and unlocked the enchantment that turns heavy armor into light armor.. retaining the massive benefits of armor/damage reduction while not gimping my stamina regen was pretty big. Also the general skill that increases damage for light armor equipped.

By the end of the game the last main quest items were trivial but I got all my fun in difficult even level fights from the DLC last night so fuck it.

I see after playing this game on the second to hardest difficulty why people thought this game was too easy, but if you want Dark Souls go play Dark Souls. This game was about story to me since the original Witcher game. Every monster was just an obstacle to find out what happened next.

[Shrinweck]

The next DLC gets released in a day or so. It seems to be getting rave reviews. PC Gamer gave it a 94 which afaik is the highest they've ever reviewed a DLC. Mass Effect 3's Citadel is probably my favorite DLC ever and that 'only' got a 90.

[Shrinweck]

I finished Blood and Wine. A nice little way to end the series with so many great little moments. About 25 hours to get through it all for me. I think I only missed one or two little things off to the side. I liked the overall plot of Hearts of Stone more but really Blood and Wine was better done in just about every other way.

Didn't quite pander as much as Mass Effect's Citadel DLC as a vehicle to say good bye to the characters, but it still gave me enough to be satisfied.

The funny thing here is that the DLCs for The Witcher 3 both probably had better overall stories than the main stories in all three Witchers lol

[Blotus]

B&W was rad. I agree with everything you said re: B&W and HoS and main story. My new favorite game ever.