RPG Tourist

Warning: Minor Spoilers I have now breezed through Witcher 2. At least it feels that way compared to Witcher 1. Geralt can meditate wherever he pleases and the maps seem more compact and much more interesting. Despite many improvements I have some complaints. Geralt can only drink potions while meditating. This means either a full metal alchemist perennially poisoned Geralt or the save a lot, die a lot strategy. All the best gear and character abilities are reserved for Chapter 3 none of which carry over for a second play through. I found character development the most confusing of the three games. I tried to hold out for greater mutagens but only ever got two greater vitality mutagens and by the time I could spend them I was nearly at end game anyway so what was the point? I know that I missed some Chapter 3 content but I was more interested in story progression and didn’t really care. I believe that there is a fair amount of randomness in game play and others may have had a b...

Minor Spoilers Yes, yay! I have finished Witcher Enhanced Edition. Although there is a lot of things I like about it, I must admit it was a slog. I was not inspired to try out the premium content. I don’t think it matters to the story arc anyway. The story, the characters and the alchemy system are cool and you can pick out advanced abilities to complement combat styles you like. The gift giving can lead to some hilarious NPC interactions. Unfortunately important characters can show up in unexpected places or at specific times and Geralt can’t meditate wherever he likes. Climbing and jumping is also restricted and he can’t take short cuts across some of the maps. This means a lot of tedious running around for Geralt. I’m not sure how many quests I failed or how many rewards I missed but I don’t care much. The whole amnesia thing worked well for me because I didn’t know what to expect from the game and for the most part Geralt just goes along to get along until he’s forced i...

I’ve been granted some access to the PS4 again and in the meantime Playstation has released a couple of free game titles. So for a short period I was playing three games at once. Whee! Once I started encountering some cool references to the original game in Witcher 3, I stopped and turned all my attention to Uncharted Drake’s Fortune. I appreciate the remastering but I soon remembered what caused me to abandon it in the first place. At one point I left the room to have a toddler tantrum. Then I thought to turn down the camera sensitivity. Things went much better until the mutant uglies showed up. I truly wasn’t expecting this although when Nate first discovered an abandoned U-Boat I should suspected that something gruesome would turn up. It wasn’t long before I set the controller down and said “I don’t want to do this.” Maybe turning the camera sensitivity back up might help. On the bright side I have finished Witcher Enhanced Edition.

Having temporarily lost access to the PS4, I decided to try the Witcher Enhanced Edition once more. I had left it in Chapter I because of repeated fails at vanquishing main boss The Beast. I couldn’t remember much else about the game so I decided to start over and quickly realized what the problem was. Once you get used to games with a lot of freedom of movement, it isn’t easy to return to restricted movement. Because Geralt can’t jump over fences and take short cuts through the map, he is reduced to running in endless circles. Chapter I’s tedium probably led me to rush through it and I wasn’t really prepared to face the end battle. This time I made sure to do everything possible before I even went to the cave. I tried to knock the Beast down and take him out but failing at that I sent Geralt to that safe space behind a house and dealt with all those Barghests from there. Soon I was on Chapter II which offers a couple of more interesting areas to explore. The swamp has the sam...

Warning: Spoilers The past few weeks have been disruptive and self discipline has pretty much gone out the window. I have mostly been escaping into Witcher world when I can. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I don’t really remember. I remember most of the main story missions but there are many quests and locations I had forgotten about completely. Thanks to a geared up Roach I am not nearly as anxious about exploring or leveling up. I’m finding it hard to play Geralt as a jerk because he’s generally fairly decent anyway. I struggled with the Keira quest line but finally rationalized that Geralt wouldn’t care much about being used and he didn’t sleep with her because he didn’t like her, right? He didn’t romance her the first time but that didn’t make any difference to the story so once again he gruffly sent her off to Kaer Morhen. At this point I decided that Geralt only goes out of his way for his friends but takes the easy way out whenever he can. And is sometimes ju...

I haven't progressed very far with my dice program. I managed to put together some code without triggering a show stopping execution error but the computer player made dumb decisions and calculation errors. I am now in a cycle of refining and testing.  Predictably I have not stopped playing video games either. I finally finished off the last Assassin's Creed Origins DLC and moved on to my Witcher 3 NG+ save. This time I am playing Geralt as a gambling, womanizing jerk. He has just discovered that Ciri has turned up in the region with the Wild Hunt in pursuit. Even though he has agreed to look for her, he privately believes the search might only lead the Wild Hunt to her. He decides to just continue doing what he does normally and collect information along the way.  On my original play through I avoided alchemy abilities and Gwent. This time Geralt is a horrible looking toxic mess and just loves to play Gwent. Huh. Go figure. He is currently wandering Velen looking for...

Warning: Spoilers    Before I tackled the final missions, I decided to tame the SnowBlood Wolf. It’s nice to have an effective wolf at my side again. At least his growls mean something beyond “I think I might be voraciously hungry”. Unfortunately he’s not quite as strong or as fast as the demented BloodFang so the sabre tooth got recruited for the fight with top Udam, Ull. This mission was more involved than I expected but I still felt well prepared to face down Ull. Tough doesn’t describe this guy. I could barely put a dent in him and his minions kept appearing. My second effort succeeded by playing frantic healer to my beast and BloodFang eventually subdued the big man. My reward for this was a plot twist and more villagers. I was so exhausted that I quit for the day. The following day I decided to go after Great Scar Bear before rushing off to the Izila homeland. I had a difficult time finding my way to his region and managed to die a couple of times in the proces...

Warning: Spoilers    This isn’t what one would call a “frictionless” tour through the countryside but I have been enjoying the journey. The challenges are an incentive to constantly upgrade. Thanks to the Steam controller, I finally got frustrated. I ran into the ludicrous Urki, a man way, way before his time. He sent me on the first of his ill fated missions. I needed to collect materials that he believed would enable him to fly. I could not for the life of me take out a raven for it’s feathers even though I had detected their tendency to briefly settle on nearby rocks. I only succeeded once I finally thought of trying the keyboard. Thanks to aim assist I haven’t been that troubled by sensitivity issues on the right track pad so I haven’t bothered to fiddle with it. His next missions were just as stupid. The second one went fine but I managed to bug the third one out. I was supposed to collect honeycomb from bee hives which was a new twist. So I shot the damn thing and on...

Warning Spoilers I’m 26 percent of the way through the game now. More of the map is exposed and I’ve cleared off all the easy objectives and nearly all the medium ones. Most importantly, I have gained a bear and a smilidon. I want to call the smilidon Snagglepuss but no. The bear acts like a big goofy dog. They are much stronger than any other pets. Smiley has a disturbing habit of picking up corpses and tossing them. I read a guide recently and learned how much I don’t know. I’m not using my pets to advantage. Well I am using Smiley like a pit bull. He tries to kill anything he doesn’t intimidate so that’s good otherwise he just skulks along snarling and intimidating me. I didn’t know I could use the owl to direct the pet. This is another case of me seeing an on screen prompt and not seeing it. Thanks to me, Takkar is the least stealthy hunter going. The only way I get stealth bonuses is by repeatedly waiting for the owl to return. I forgot that I can slide into cover from a ...

Warning Spoilers   Recruiting new specialists was the next essential step towards more upgrades. This meant venturing a little further out towards slightly tougher areas. I gained a cave lion companion in a desperate but effective attempt at not being eaten. Cave kitty is stronger than Wolfie and a rather terrifying walking companion. I’m not sure it’s ominous growls mean anything and beasts now sneak up on me more often. Hunting is easier though. Pissing seems a bit of a theme in this game. I got peed on by one armed cave dweller Wogah the Crafter. He called me “piss man” and ran off chortling all the way. “Oh just wait until I get out of this baffling jaguar infested cave” I thought. I forgave him when I found the grappling hook. Yeah okay seems sketchy but its a game after all and we need cool gear and fun things to do. I’m sure you don’t need two arms to construct one either. Then there was sarcastic hunter Jayma who called me “mammoth feet” and sent me off aft...