McBain
Player Valuation: £80m
The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt
Poland has a rich and vibrant history of gaming I'd suspect, and purely based on me playing this game, of which, of course, has been the rock in my pipe for the last week. Even opening the game is eventful. Jam packed, you are greeted with the standard game manual, a compendium of knowledge, stickers, a soundtrack, a map and a lovely note from the people at CD Projekt Red.
What a sensational touch and had me as teary eyed a 47 year old bearded man infront of a new Star Wars trailer.
And so, in you pop, disc, and here we go. It's either Disappointment Mountain or a Sea of Good Gaming with my hard earned.
This is no Sea. This is an Ocean.
The details in this opening screen set the tone for what's about to come. You are now Geralt of Rivia, oh ye of sounding like a Knight in a Coffee Commercial. You kind of look like a cross between Mel Gibson and Clint Eastwood and you sound like Christian Bale gnawing on shovels of road base. It's to be expected, the latest in the line of Gaming action heroes is more John Marsden than Niko Belic. He perches at the foot of a cave in an alive screen, meditating, which is just so crisp you could snap it off and dip it in sugar. It looks amazing right from the get go and you instantly have second thoughts about buying that new LCD TV to go with it.
The comparisons with Red Dead and the Rockstar gang here are strong, and the game is all the better for it. The character looks and moves fluently, and the control set up is easy to use once you get your head around it. It's the one thing that needs to be spot on in one of these games. Compared to Fallout or Skyrim it's an absolute pleasure to stride asunder rather than a repetitive chore. You get two swords, a steel for slicing human scum and a silver for fantasy scum. An excellent combat system, not quite as good as Arkham, but ruthless nonetheless, blocking and dodging while maneuvering to reign down blows to dispatch enemies. You also know magic, and can summon five different skills to defeat foes. This is great, different signs hurt different enemies, meaning you must do some research into the Beast you're fighting. Add to this an extensive list of stuff to find, to either dismantle to raw materials to craft items and magic potions, or to sell.
You arrive in White Orchard, kick your mare Roach in the guts and you're off into the wilderness. Roaming the White Orchard storyline is more a sand pit for the move over to Velen, and then to the city of Novigrad, The Skellige Isles, which is basically Scotland and your own home fortress of Kaer Mohren. Just FYI, this game is Ginormica. There is so much to do, you could be playing this for months. The stories and cut scenes are high quality. There's never an easy way to do something, or there is you just hadn't realised it.
It's not all moon beams as the local population treat you quite suspiciously, resorting to outright abuse in some cases. It's up to you, to travel the land, helping people and liberating over-run townships to regain some respect. It's genuinely hilarious most of the time, well written and beautifully performed. Better than AI than in GTA in most respects. The story you have to pay particular attention to. There's mostly ways around solving things with violence, and your actions will affect the storylines in the future. The game is well documented online so you'll be able to google any situation to find the best route. Some times though, it's the lesser of the two evils and there will be some uncomfortable moments.
It ain't all swinging swords though, and there's lots of time for romancing the ladies, playing a card game called Gwent and horse races dotted around. The quests are in four categories. Main quests, Secondary quests, Witcher contracts and Scavenger Hunts. They are found on noticeboards around the world, or by chance encounters. There's plenty of places to buy different gear and ingredients, and missions with Blacksmiths to negotiate with the Underworld to get them working again to furnish you with upgraded gear. You don't have to convict to a mission, they are in stages and you can pick them just by selecting them, even when you're in the midst of another quest.
It's the kind of game you build up in. As in real life, you will just get viciously ended if you try to go too big too soon. It's a big old scary world in here, one filled with thieves, demons, the undead, griffins, spirits, giants and all manner of beasts, real and fantastical. Little things, like Fast Travel posts, good autosaving, and loads other stuff I can't remember right now make this a real advancement in the genre. I wanted a PS4 as to buy Battlefront later in the year, but i couldn't care less about that now. It's the best game on the system hands down.
CD Projekt have moved the goalposts with this effort, and it will be up to the others to see this as the new standard. I can't wait to see how Rockstar respond.
Poland has a rich and vibrant history of gaming I'd suspect, and purely based on me playing this game, of which, of course, has been the rock in my pipe for the last week. Even opening the game is eventful. Jam packed, you are greeted with the standard game manual, a compendium of knowledge, stickers, a soundtrack, a map and a lovely note from the people at CD Projekt Red.
What a sensational touch and had me as teary eyed a 47 year old bearded man infront of a new Star Wars trailer.
And so, in you pop, disc, and here we go. It's either Disappointment Mountain or a Sea of Good Gaming with my hard earned.
This is no Sea. This is an Ocean.
The details in this opening screen set the tone for what's about to come. You are now Geralt of Rivia, oh ye of sounding like a Knight in a Coffee Commercial. You kind of look like a cross between Mel Gibson and Clint Eastwood and you sound like Christian Bale gnawing on shovels of road base. It's to be expected, the latest in the line of Gaming action heroes is more John Marsden than Niko Belic. He perches at the foot of a cave in an alive screen, meditating, which is just so crisp you could snap it off and dip it in sugar. It looks amazing right from the get go and you instantly have second thoughts about buying that new LCD TV to go with it.
The comparisons with Red Dead and the Rockstar gang here are strong, and the game is all the better for it. The character looks and moves fluently, and the control set up is easy to use once you get your head around it. It's the one thing that needs to be spot on in one of these games. Compared to Fallout or Skyrim it's an absolute pleasure to stride asunder rather than a repetitive chore. You get two swords, a steel for slicing human scum and a silver for fantasy scum. An excellent combat system, not quite as good as Arkham, but ruthless nonetheless, blocking and dodging while maneuvering to reign down blows to dispatch enemies. You also know magic, and can summon five different skills to defeat foes. This is great, different signs hurt different enemies, meaning you must do some research into the Beast you're fighting. Add to this an extensive list of stuff to find, to either dismantle to raw materials to craft items and magic potions, or to sell.
You arrive in White Orchard, kick your mare Roach in the guts and you're off into the wilderness. Roaming the White Orchard storyline is more a sand pit for the move over to Velen, and then to the city of Novigrad, The Skellige Isles, which is basically Scotland and your own home fortress of Kaer Mohren. Just FYI, this game is Ginormica. There is so much to do, you could be playing this for months. The stories and cut scenes are high quality. There's never an easy way to do something, or there is you just hadn't realised it.
It's not all moon beams as the local population treat you quite suspiciously, resorting to outright abuse in some cases. It's up to you, to travel the land, helping people and liberating over-run townships to regain some respect. It's genuinely hilarious most of the time, well written and beautifully performed. Better than AI than in GTA in most respects. The story you have to pay particular attention to. There's mostly ways around solving things with violence, and your actions will affect the storylines in the future. The game is well documented online so you'll be able to google any situation to find the best route. Some times though, it's the lesser of the two evils and there will be some uncomfortable moments.
It ain't all swinging swords though, and there's lots of time for romancing the ladies, playing a card game called Gwent and horse races dotted around. The quests are in four categories. Main quests, Secondary quests, Witcher contracts and Scavenger Hunts. They are found on noticeboards around the world, or by chance encounters. There's plenty of places to buy different gear and ingredients, and missions with Blacksmiths to negotiate with the Underworld to get them working again to furnish you with upgraded gear. You don't have to convict to a mission, they are in stages and you can pick them just by selecting them, even when you're in the midst of another quest.
It's the kind of game you build up in. As in real life, you will just get viciously ended if you try to go too big too soon. It's a big old scary world in here, one filled with thieves, demons, the undead, griffins, spirits, giants and all manner of beasts, real and fantastical. Little things, like Fast Travel posts, good autosaving, and loads other stuff I can't remember right now make this a real advancement in the genre. I wanted a PS4 as to buy Battlefront later in the year, but i couldn't care less about that now. It's the best game on the system hands down.
CD Projekt have moved the goalposts with this effort, and it will be up to the others to see this as the new standard. I can't wait to see how Rockstar respond.
