Only quest I got that I know was timed was obvious. The NPC said it had to be done at a specific time, and Geralt outright said "we will have to do this tonight for any chance of success". Making it pretty clear I had to do the quest that night at the given time.

For some reason the game wont let me use my crossbow

The Play's The Thing, that first part, was pretty funny. And the voice acting and facial expressions, so damn good in this game.

@karkarov: Which is fine, but makes it suck even more when you then run into one were it randomly doesn't tell you. I don't know, maybe it's a bug even.

Really enjoying the game so far. I've got to put in about 7 hours into the game and I just got to Velen after scouring White Orchard for every little tidbit of content. Are there any "hidden" locations in White Orchard that one can miss? I don't know if this game hides locations from you unless you stumble upon them (I went to the notice board and pulled everything off of it in White Orchard).

Digging the visuals so far. I haven't found the FOV to be too tight but I'm playing in a 21:9 aspect ratio. I think that alters the FOV.

Man I just got to Novigrad proper, hoooly shit that city!

I keep jumping in to play for 30 minutes or so and end up dumping like 3-4 hours into it. Game's pretty amazing. I've felt kind of burned out on western fantasy RPGs of late (DAI didn't do it for me, and while I loved the Witcher 1, the second game also wound up being a bit of a slog for me). Game just has that "flow" to it where I jump from quest, to quest, to unexplored location, just constantly finding new, interesting stuff to distract me from whatever it was I was doing. Yes, the movement is finicky, the combat's a bit imprecise, and I've had my fair share of bugs, but the world, the characters, the dialogue, and everything else narrative-wise is just so well done that I've yet to have those control / UI issues really get in the way.

Seriously though, the amount of straight up writing / voice work that went into this game is blowing my mind, specifically because it's all so high quality. DAI had similar breadth, but so many quests were 3 lines of dialogue, a quick murder-spree/collectathon, and then right back for your reward. The number of seemingly simple, innocuous quests in this game that spiral out into their own self contained stories (all of which are well written, and a couple of which I've found legitimately touching) is incredible. It's also really daunting, because I feel like I'm missing something with every quest I choose to skip / come back to later, which is not a problem I've had with a game of this size in a LONG time.

Oh yeah, and it looks beautiful, even with most of the settings dropped down to High rather than Ultra. I love the constant movement in the world. The way the foliage and such is constantly swaying, the dust / other particles that get kicked up by the wind, the way animals wander around the wilderness, the way mobs of monsters sort of meander, all of that really makes the world feel more dynamic than pretty much any other large-scale open world I can remember playing, barring the modern Rockstar games (Red Dead / GTA V specifically).

Overall I'm super impressed, and I'm having a hard time tearing myself away from it.

The mission deadly delights is glitched out for me, already have the key but it won't open. Unless I'm suppose to go there at a certain time since it's a succubus?

Spending too much time climbing buildings to find a good view.

Also just got to Skellige, snow!

I finally met Triss, but i have no clue why she is pissed at Geralt. Got every decision from the first game towards her, especially the one in the final act of TW2, and now the two are talking about anger/reconciling, about how 6 months before (so Loc Muinne) they decided they should stay friends...what the???

I absolutely agree with this so far. Still a fantastic game, but I think the open world nature of it hurts it overall. But then, I also don't think there are many open world games whose open worlds are truly justified and well done.

I figured that after Loc Muinne, Geralt decided to go looking for Yennefer without Triss, and that's why their relationship fell through.

Sidenote: Huge wasted opportunity to not have your Geralt with his gear and such on the title screen

I really like this game.

Ciri having the same voice actress as Female Hawke from Dragon Age is distracting.

This game is literally the best thing I have played in two years, maybe longer I simply cannot believe the scope of it, I'm only 20 hours in and it just blows me away how much stuff is on the map I haven't even made a dent in this beast I can already tell the hour count on this is going to be out of control.

@viciousbearmauling: guess i needed more exposition then, because my first thought was "something went wrong in the save transfer process" :D

A question for those that have rescued Triss personally at the end of Witcher 2 and had her testify at the summit:

(potentially minor spoilery stuff i guess?)

@tennmuerti: Yes, I got posters all around town.

.

Even though I'm still not close to finishing the game or all the side stuff I'll probably end up getting the expansion pass. I just want more.

So I've been in Velen for about 12 hours. But I haven't done any main quests. So a question. Are the two that you get about Ciri both doable, or is it a choose which path to take type thing. There is one where you have to find a witch. And the other is to talk to the baron. It feels like a choose a path type thing. But I'm not so sure.

@sterling: You can do both and the order you do them doesn't matter, so no worries.

@sessh: Cool, thanks for the info.

@sterling: You can do both.

About to make my first tough choice. Can't tell yet on whether to listen to the talking painting or trust this talking tree

@colourful_hippie: I found this part of the quest out of order and decided to leave an come back when I'm supposed to. I've only seen the one side of it, the tree. I was over in that area just farting around and wasn't even doing the main quest its tied to.

@colourful_hippie: I spent a good half hour away from the game (just doing stuff around the house) thinking about it and unable to decide :P

been pretty much mainlining it, feel a bit overwhelmed in the 2nd area...

also it's kinda hard to make $$$$

@colourful_hippie: I was the same way. Sat staring at my screen for a good ten minutes trying to think it through.

Is there a way to kill the crones?

I just finished the ladies of the wood/the quests that splinter off of that (I let the horse beast save the kids if that matters at all)

@colourful_hippie: Yeah. That was a tough choice. I'm sure shit goes bad no matter which option you select but I think I picked the one where it goes worse.

@iodine: Unless there is something towards the end of the game, no.

Ah damn, there have been few characters in this series I immediately wanted to just murder more than them

you'll never have to think about $

Jumped on the bandwagon and bought it today. Didn't play the other two but too many people have been saying "one of the best rpgs ever made" for me to pass this up

Oh god The Volunteer quest was just fucking delightful. Geralt with some Humanity level art skills there.

Totally did the same. Almost made me want to go back and change my choice but I'll live with it since there's a quest that I think will probably redeem what I did

@colourful_hippie: I just finished this entire string. I'll await your thoughts on it before I say anything.

Spoilers sort of...

If you read the books much of what happens in the games only flies because "I have amnesia". Geralt in books only had a one night stand with Triss and regretted it later, at many points in the books rebuffing her. In all honesty she isn't even a major character per se and in the books she is definitely second fiddle to Yennefer who not only has Geralts affection but is also the older, more experienced, more powerful sorceress. Zoltan Chivay honestly gets more feature time in the books, not to mention Dandelion, Yennefer, Ciri, some characters who never even appear in the games due to reasons... Her presence in the games is just massively overplayed and I think it is purely because someone at CDPR loves her character or something. Suffice it to say from a "cannon" perspective once Geralt gets his memory back he has absolutely no reason to pursue a relationship with Triss, the game doesn't sell it well at all but in the books he legit only has feelings for Yennefer.

Anyone find some good looking light armor (chest at least) anywhere?

So far the 2 best looking armors have been the starting one and the free dlc Temerian set. I am bumming around Novigrad lvl 16 at the moment and have yet to find anything decent looking like those 2 sets. Initial hope was that the Cat school gear was gonna be that, but that sleeveless chest piece ... nah son (tho the rest of the pieces are good looking). Maybe it gets sleeves when you upgrade it at lvl 20, here's hoping. The crafted stuff and what blacksmiths sell so far has been kinda ugly all the gambesons, bounty hunter jackets quilts etc etc, it all makes Geralt look poofy and kind of like a rank and file bum.

Yeah, the bulky armor seems to be the "good" armor early on. I've found some good armor right now, Freya's Warriors' Armor LV 17, and it doesn't look fugly. I do not recall where I got it though. There is one quest that seems to be the one to give out good armor, Of Sword and Dumplings, but LV 24. Almost there though.

@bigjeffrey: Yea I got that one, of lower item level, didn't much care for it either, tho it's a bit better looking then the other light armor i've seen so far.

Waiting to find this badass armor

@bigjeffrey: Huh so they do change their look as you upgrade them, thanks that actually does make me hopeful that the Cat set will get sleeves :P Worst case i'll switch to heavy armor for that look cause it is indeed pretty badass looking.

It's time for an idiot/newbie question: Is their a beastiary (sp.) in the first area? I'm doing that wrath quest near the well and stuck on what to do next.

@tennmuerti: Cat school at least from the icon get sleeves in the upgrades. I'm still using the basic one because i'm lvl 17 and upgraded one requires lvl 20 to use, but i cannot wait since i'm not a fan of the sleeveless look too. At least the color scheme is way better than the griffin school (which has those ugly pauldrons that seems made of painted polystyrene, and still has them in the first upgrades with just little spikes added)

@karkarov: He had sex with Triss in the books at least twice. Before the story even introduces her and then once again in Kaer Morhen. Nevertheless you are right of course that Triss makes no sense as his lover without the amnesia thing. Kind of a shame, since I like Triss, but I just refuse to play Geralt against character.

@tennmuerti Probably a stupid question, but where do you even get the Temerian set in game? Downloaded it right when it came out and never found any indication of it anywhere.

@sessh said:

You get the set from the merchant you save from the griffin in White Orchard. Regarding the Triss thing, it doesn't make sense for Geralt to have feelings for her because he's in love with Yen?

@militantfreudian: Thanks for the info.

And no, he obviously does have feelings for her, but it goes against his character (from the books) to act on them (beyond just having sex again maybe), since his true love is and will always be Yennefer. By the way Triss even admits in some dialogue that she plainly took advantage of him having amensia, so she is also well aware of everything.

After having put in 60+ hours in the game I gotta say the way the game "breadcrumbs" you quests by always making you go to a new NPC for information and then that NPC has a new quest for you, that leads to another NPC that has information who again has a new quest for you etc etc is starting to get old. Not that I'm complaining about the amount of content, but it starts feeling overburdening. It just very rarely gives you a feeling of closure, allowing you to move on and do something "fresh". I can probably count on one hand the amount of loose threads I've actually completely finished.

When do you upgrade things? I've seen the game mention it but I'm level 10.5, on the backend of the Baron quest (and finished the Metz half of the main quest) and haven't actually noticed anything about upgrading besides the tool tips.

@nodima: when you find upgrade diagrams. There are quests for them, but you can find them by just wandering the world.

Encountered a couple of weird bugs. The first is regarding the quests with the dwarf's burned down forge in White Orchard. So I didn't turn the arsonist in, but when I came back to White Orchard and talked with the dwarf who had his forge rebuilt, Geralt mentioned that the arsonist died because the dwarf turned him in to the Nilfgaardians.

The other bug is related to the weather. Immediately after finishing the first quest after the prologue, it started raining. I don't know if it's because the village, Heatherton, was frozen, but the rain droplets initially didn't appear. I had to restart the game for the rain to show properly, but whenever I reloaded my save, the rain went away again.