I wasn't around for the discussion of this expansion pack, so I'll just ask now
What was the general concensus about Hearts of Stone? I personally feel like it was a lot more poorly written, paced, and designed than the original main questline.
>>321826902
DLC is rarely on par with the main game. That's why it's 'DLC'.
That being said, I thought it was just as good. The story was sweet, enemies challenging,HOLY FUCK DAT CARETAKER FIGHTand they put some neat new gimmicks like new armours.
This is the only game I ever bought a season pass for and I feel I'm not regretting it.
The DLC story is better than the main game in every way
HoS is what TW3's main quest should've been. The difficult boss fights and new enemies were also very fun.
Kind of off topic, but I got the Gwent deck for like five bucks at FUCKING GAMESTOP because the shrinkwrap got cut somewhere along the line or something. The box and contents were fine, it just wasn't sealed.
It's pretty sweet.
Anyway, the DLC was pretty cool. It felt like it was just to hold us over for the real expansion, though.
>>321827895
>>321828736
Did someone else pick up a Bloodborne feel of it? That one part, you know which part I'm taking about, definitely felt like they took some inspiration from it.
>>321826902
HoS is fantastic, I dare say its better thant he main game. Better pacing, more varied quests - all of which are interesting and unique. Great boss fights (something the main game was lacking), a pretty cool villain as well
>>321826902
We must've played different DLCs. I found it far better than the main quest. Gives me high hopes for Blood and Wine.
Really? The original questline that blows its load at Kaer Morhen and never picks back up?
>>321828939
I played Bloodborne and HoS, so I feel really dumb asking but what part are you talking about?
>>321829205
the caretaker boss fight I'm assuming
>>321829257
That, or the Painted World. Maybe even O'Dimm's realm.
>>321829257
Ah, I didn't feel anything like that while playing but I can see why someone would feel that way.
>>321826902
The general consensus is that you're incredibly fucking wrong.
It had superb pacing and some of the most intriguing characters and quest lines in the whole franchise.
>>321826902
>I personally feel like it was a lot more poorly written, paced, and designed than the original main questline.
Is this a bait thread? HoS was the exact opposite of that. Particularly in pacing WH was fucking dreadful. That entire middle section of bouncing between fucking useless characters who can't be fucked doing their own job so they get you to do it in true Skyrim fashion and ultimately have no impact on the outcome of anything and it was simply there to pad out the game.
HoS was GOTY and you're a fuckboi if you think otherwise.
Is the Expansion Pass worth fifteen bucks?
>>321829745
Definitely.
How did you guys beat the Toad? Everytime I got close enough to hit it he'd do his jump attack and knock me away. I ended up using all my Swallow's by the end with a sliver of health. I feel like I missed some obvious tactic because it was easily the hardest boss for me.
Are the bosses really nerfed or is it a meme? Do they still pack enough punch to be satisfying boss fights?
>>321829745
worth more than that
>>321829878
Don't use your sword.
Use your surroundings. Notice his attacks put gas everywhere, blow that shit up with Igni and it burns him real bad. While he's burning you can get in a couple attacks.
Master Mirror and Olgierd were neat characters, but I feel like we barely dived into the depths of their characters at all.
Gaunter's final riddle was very simple and terse. It was a big let down for the most interesting character in the dlc.
We learned a lot about Olgierd from other characters, but we had very little interaction with him. He felt like just another task giver for Geralt.
>>321829904
On Death March I died numerous times to all of them. With David Beckham from the Painting being the hardest
>>321829878
Yrden fucks him up good.
>>321829904
Do you mean HoS or the whole game completely. My experience was that the main game bosses were too easy, while the expansion had some fun and difficult bosses.
>>321829904
>or is it a meme
>meme
Goddammit, /v/ is infested with such retards.
>Gaunter O'Dimm did nothing wrong
>>321830024
>>321830097
Thanks, figures the best signs for the fight were the ones I used the least.
>>321827895
Caretaker was easy. If you already weren't a master at Geralt's dodge/parry attacks and utilizing them in every battle then you were probably a playing on casual and tanking everything up until that point.
>>321830032
>It was a big let down
this
>the last thing you see of him is talking some gibberish while clapping and then dissolving in a white light
what the fuck was that supposed to be
>>321829745
Yes.
>>321829745
Yeah you get HoS and B&W, and HoS itself it like a 4-6 hour quest chain (Probably longer)
Its writing shits all over the main questline which was pretty bad in hindsight
>>321830946
>Gibberish
>>321830946
>take that gibberish
>reverse in audacity
>translate
>?????
>>321830946
Well, since he's basically what most people refer to as 'the devil', you obviously can't kill him. That gibberish was supposed to be elder speech I guess.
>>321830946
Gaunter O'Dimm
G.O.D.
Extremely Powerful Ginn with ability to manipulate time and space
He was just toying with Geralt the entire time. Doubt he was actually harmed by him at all.
>>321830946
him speaking english in his true form wouldve been lame dont you think?
>>321830961
The developers claimed HoS added at least 10 hours of new content to the game but I'm sure if you rush right through the main story than it's much shorter.
>>321831205
what does it say?
>>321831306
if you browsed reddit you'd know
>>321831072
>>321831205
>>321831271
he literally says "You think you've defeated me but you are wrong. I can't be killed, I will be back"
it was so lame they didn't even want the player to understand it without looking it up
>>321831397
>It's lame because I said so
It goes directly with his character see >>321831243
>>321831852
It's p fuckin lame m8
The words go with the character but it's anticlimactic as shit
>>321831397
It's known he's a Ginn (Implied he's an Elder Ginn and probably the most powerful).
You can't even kill regular GinnsEven that old one you fight on the boat thoroughly fucks your shit up and all you accomplished was banishing it
It makes sense if you apply the same suspension of disbelief to it as you did the rest of the game.
I really wanted an Olgierd fight
>>321831852
>It's lame because I said so
It's lame because it's the most overused line you'd hear from a cartoon villian
and it clearly harmed him badly to lose that bet, he burst into pieces and dissolves even if it didnt kill him - or did he just put up a show?
>>321832305
but you fight him
two times actually
>>321832305
you fight him (if you choose to defend the guy @ the burning manor
Between the Painted World quest and the Bloody Baron line, it goes to to show that, given time, CDPR can write bar-setting quests for the RPG genre. Not saying they're on par with other narrative mediums, but, for video games, it's without a doubt some of the best shit out there, if not the best currently.
TW3 had some missteps in its main game, but what was polished were real fucking standout gems. If Blood and Wine maintains the same caliber where it counts, I'm absolutely sold on Cyberpunk 2077, especially if they shore up some failings in what's a simply serviceable combat system and run with what worked while fixing what didn't work. If Hearts of Stone shows anything, it's that they know enough to do that. Hopefully they continue that practice.
>>321832305
>he smoothalked him at the manor
>he let that poor guy get decapitated
ishyggdigy
>>321829205
>>321829257
quite obvious he is referring to this
>>321830797
I never died to caretaker but he took me like an hour to defeat. I wasn't used to having to play a perfect game and avoiding being hit completely. I usually was okay with taking a few hits, then healing up with the Quen sign.
>>321830946
It can be translated to roughly: You think you've beaten me? I cannot be killed, and I'll be back.
>>321832881
what's so bad about the combat system? I thought it was fantastic. What would you suggest to improve it? I'm genuinely asking because it seems as if this is a common complaint with the game and it seems as if I'm the only one that considers it to be perfect for the scale of the game. I can understand people wanting a souls-style type of system where stamina regenerates slower and weapon strikes feel more heavy, but I don't think that's feasible in a game that is supposed to have thousands of encounters during a normal playthrough.
>>321833139
tchnically, Geralt has beaten him, and on his own rules too.
>>321830946
He says
>"You are primitive. You think you've defeated me but you are wrong. I can't be killed, I will be back."
>>321831243
>>321832260
i thought he's supposed to be satan or something? would fit to the stealing souls aspect.
>>321832887
The faggot casually murdered the owner of the house, he deserved it.
>>321830047
>>321830123
I mean the DLC in death march yes. thanks for the answersi really should read the patch notes more carefully
>>321834125
Yes, he's based on stories about making deals with the devil, like Faust. I think there's a specific Polish story Olgeird is based on.
>>321834125
He's a very powerful ancient ginn that predates the Witcher's known history.
Ginn are also thought of as very petty creatures who like to do evil/annoying things for their own amusement who also posses immense magical power.
It's not a great leap to think that his idea of fun is the people's idea of evil seeing how everything is probably just a game for him.
>>321833365
I'm with you. I frankly don't understand the gripes with the combat, and I never see any examples of what /v/ deems 'good combat'. Don't say dark souls because that is fucking repetitive unnecessary grinding.
>>321834303
well, then everec deservedlosing his soul, right?
>>321834545
If Geralt let that happen that would go against everything he stands for as a witcher, regardless of how justified it would be.
>>321834545
Well yeah, but fuck gaunter.
>>321831287
I got around 15 hours doing all the expansion quests (but not places of interest),. Honestly, I'd feel I had my money worth even if Hos was like $25
>>321829745
>15
What? Where?
>>321826902
You should have been here for it. It was an unanimous consensus that the DLC was superb. It surpassed the main quest-line at some points, and the characters were top fucking notch. The boss fights were on point too.
If what you said isn't bait, than you just have some serious shit taste.
>>321833365
since it's a little bit better than usual WRPG combat but really lacks variety in abilites (5 spells + variations and some bombs, both of them being mostly just utility) it gets compared to more combat focused games like Dark Souls
and the combat itself is really barebones too, geralt has only 2 different attack combos and gets only 2 more attacks through the skilltree combined with the fact that all weapontypes have identical movesets
>>321834697
so he should intervene in the manor too then, by your logic
>>321826902
>What was the general concensus about Hearts of Stone?
Adds;
>Quests
>Characters
>Items
>Weapons
>Enemies
>Story arcs
>Alternate endings
>Enemy types
>Bosses
It's what all games should aspire to when adding DLC. The DLC is better and longer than some AAA releases like the Order 1866, COD Black OPS 3 and more.
It's shit 3/10 - anon.
>>321826902
>I personally feel like it was a lot more poorly written, paced, and designed than the original main questline
I can assure you, you're literally the only person that thinks this.
>>321834881
The whole wedding part is one of my favorite gaming moments ever. Brilliantly written
>>321834545
I didn't feel a smidgen of remorse over letting O'Dimm take Everec's soul. Guy was basically a bandit with relationship + money problems. Ended up sacrificing his own brother, killing his father in law. Raided random houses and evicted their owners so him & his band of degenerates can have a place to stay until they were bored and moved on to the next victim. He deserved to have O'Dimm torture him for all eternity.however I did reload right before the decision and thought the ending where you save him was a lot more fulfilling
>>321835029
if we were back in 2005, it would not be named DLC but an expansion pack
>>321835139
everything you get from internet is dlc
all games on your steam library are dlc
>>321826902
>What was the general concensus about Hearts of Stone? I personally feel like it was a lot more poorly written, paced, and designed than the original main questline.
You must be joking nigger, you are quite literally the first person I have ever seen say this, even on /v/. HoS was an improvement over the base game in almost every way from story, pacing, characters, boss battles and difficulty. It saddens me that this is what WH could have been had CDPR focused more on the fairy tales and smaller stories than turning into an epic fantasy story.
>>321835106
you monster
>>321835041
>that shani scene where you brought her the alcohol and then got together
10/10 writing consistency, GOTYYAY
>>321834476
>>321834496
I don't doubt you guys, but just saying there was a scene where Geralt explicitly asks him whether he's a djinn or a demon and Gaunter (kind of) negates it with a U-turn question: "Do you really want to know? [...] No, you don't. [...] Everyone that knew my true name is dead..." which gave me the idea he's supposed to be satan. They just didn't officially call him that because the term 'satan' or 'devil' does not hold the same meaning in the Witcher universe.
>>321835139
Cdp themselves are calling Hos an expansion, not DLC
>>321835003
How did he not?He freed the spirit from its bound to the world, letting it, and all of it's abominations, move on.
Geralt doesn't have to kill, there's plenty of instances in the games where he finds alternative means of neutralization.
>>321835079
It was definitely a highlight for me in 2015 too. It was pulled off flawlessly. It could have been a damn disaster, but it was great.
>>321835328
If shethrew up on Geralt instead of puking overboard, scene would have been 11/10
>>321835106
I mean, he did all that because he literally and figuratively had a heart of stone. That was his wish.
>tfw you didn't like Triss or Yen and dump them
>tfw you like Shani
>tfwshe finally dumps YOU
Why is this game so cruel?
>>321835079
>game kept crashing because my computer's cpu kept overheating
>would crash at different parts of the wedding
>probably spent like 3 hours trying to get through it without crashing
>was still a blast
>>321835274
Maybe they're learn from this. Blood and wine is supposed to be quite a bit longer, so if it's equally as good it's most likely gonna be the best "game" to come out in 2016
>>321835445
The researcher guy literally tells you that O'Dim is evil incarnate, so yeah, he's the devil.
>>321835445
Satan is subjective concept too. Geralt is probably seen as "satan" to the numerous monsters he kills and blows up their nests, so it wouldn't be a stretch to think that an all powerful magical creature who has a demented sense of humor and sees everybody as a form of his personal entertainment as satan.
>>321826902
I loved the base game, but the dlc story imo was better than the base game
>>321835779
>Shani finally comes back
>Only to reject you
Wow...... this is just like real life.
>>321835779
I'll miss Shanis white socks to be honest
>>321836306
those stockings with red ribbons were the purest thing i've ever seen, HNNGH
>>321836030
yeah and the way the researcher dies felt like a reference to The Omen
Just finished W3 yesterday. What a phenomenal fucking game. I did love Witcher 2 even with its' overly frustrating combat. But this game... christ.
I'll agree with the anon that said it peaked at Kaer Morhen. I was SURE that was the finale. Awesome cutscenes, everyone banding together in one last struggle! That said, I enjoyed spending more time with Ciri. That snowball fight was cute as fuck, I liked the relationship between Geralt and her. I thought it was done well.
I played HoS before the last main quest and loved it. It made Eredin going down like a bitch sting a bit, but by then I was 10 levels above him anyway. Imerlith was a good main game boss fight. That fucker wrecked me the first time he put his shield down. But all the fights in HoS were unique and challenging! I'm excited for B&W!
>>321836692
>reading the reasercher's notes
>>321835041
>>321835079
>>321835612
OMG I'm glad I'm not the only one.
You may laugh at me, but I'm a pathetic 31 year old loser who never had a gf and the wedding part really gave me weird, but still nice feeling of what I imagine it to be.
Doing retarded shit at a party and dance. Sneaking away like silly teens to a remote place. Drink left over alcohol from strangers and fuck on a boat.
Granted I was drunk, but it made me feel young for a second. ;_;
>>321836306
>>321836582
oh god this
>>321835779
>tfw
I was secretly hoping for an ending where Geralt and Shani would end up together with HoS but when she turned Geralt down, my heart fucking broke.
>>321834912
You can't really call combat simplistic when considering the possibilities when you use potions, bombs, signs and combat in conjunction. Once I came on a group of 10+ bandits. I trapped them with the purple time freezing spell, lit them on fire with a bomb and then charged in the the whirl. I felt like a goddamn butcher, it was over in less than a second after I started cutting and there was blood, dismembered limbs and severed heads everywhere.
>>321833365
I really like the combat as well, you're not alone.
Zombie David Beckham fight is bullshit.
That guy could one shot you, and you have to fight 7 of them.
>>321838098
>>321838195
I feel the game's combat get some undeserved hate. It's not truly excellent or sets the bar, but it does the job and has some depth if you are willing to experiment with it. It's a 7/10 if you're being truly honest with yourself, but the people who dislike it make it out like it's the worst thing ever to hit video games, which it isn't.
I just picked up the game a little while back, finished the bloody baron's quest arc and loved it, especially the stuff with the three ladies and the giant oak.
That music was perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9F1lsULIA
>>321837373
You were controlling someone else's body, just like Olgierds brother did,anon
>>321838000
Hnghh
>>321839426
>Are you sure you weren't peeking?
>>321840007
i'll never get over the fabric textures in tw3, gorgeous
>>321839426
that's such a beautiful picture. I wish it was without subtitles. I actually took a screenshot at this exact point too, but I wasn't fast enough.
>>321838098
>>321838593
a lot of people like Arkham combat and even call it revolutionary. but on /v/ a masterpiece like TW3 gets shit for its combat. 4chan I swear.
>>321838956
That's just the start. Look forward to a great journey.
I was sure I did everything possible in this game, but when I played the expansion, I came across multiple quests that were left from the main game. some places I never visited and an awesome dungeon quest. I feel like a huge shill for saying this, but witcher 3 has ruined almost every game for me, because nothing of this gen can deliver the feels, the freedom, excitement and polish. (hurr POLish, get it?)
>>321832925
I'd actually assume he meant the caretaker fight which was definitely Souls influenced.
But also, the caretaker cutscene reminded me a lot of Father Gascoigne's cutscene.
>>321841339
Witcher 3 ruined a trip for me, i didn't get any awe from the nature around me at the time because i was so used to some of the landscapes in the game. Shit was crazy
>>321841339
I've sort of taken a break from the main plot to do more witcher contracts and side quests.
Currently bashing my head against jenny o the woods. Really don't like having to sit in yrden when geralt is such an erratic fighter and loves to jump around
>>321842823
I personally don't understand how people can not do all the witcher contracts and side quests. It's like you're paying for a game and not want the full extent for your money + most of them are great.
