Male Seeking Quality Single Player Action Adventure that Loves XBoning

[Easy]

I played on "A Story and a Sword" difficulty, which I think is considered "Normal", so as I got to the higher levels, combat even against bosses and damage-sponge monsters became easy. Like if I can hit a level 30 elemental for 75% of their health in one hit with 5 points in Rend and some oil, or Whirl an Arachas to death in like 5 seconds, then the challenge is non-existent. Will go for a harder difficulty next time.

Yeah, live a little! Death March is where it's at. (Though if you go in thinking your many hours of Dark Souls grinding is gonna carry you through all the fighting, you're in for a whole bunch of salt and frustration. Rolling into monster attacks and mashing quick attack over and over is just not gonna cut it.)

 

[Requiem]

decades

For resident evil 4? It's only a little over ten years old. You're right though, it does control surprisingly well.

 

[AndyM03]

Just got into the gwent beta yeah boooooooooooooooooooooooooooys

 

[13thforsworn]

Just got into the gwent beta yeah boooooooooooooooooooooooooooys

I've had it installed for a while but have yet to try it. I think I'll do that right now.

 

[AndyM03]

I've had it installed for a while but have yet to try it. I think I'll do that right now.

I've only played like 4 games but i'm liking it a lot!
Would play with you but i'm about to go out. Will post my GoG account when I get back.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

So. Recently bought both expansions after a friend talked it up, and so far I've beaten Heart of Stone and made some progress in Blood and Wine.

Spoiler: Heart Of Stone

Man. So I was told that the story on this one was pretty great, and definitely wasn't wrong. It's a bit too similar to the Bloody Baron, but was less tragic. Was a bit confused where this lay on the timeline, though. I've got both references to Radovid living and being dead, and the war still going on despite Redania being leaderless. Not entirely relevant though.

The wedding quest went on a bit long, but whatever. Mostly fun anyhow. Shani was nice. Definitely was informative as to how big a dick Olgierd was even before Gaunter O'Dimm got involved. Who I totally lied about and said I remembered him. The heist was decent. Got those Viper Diagrams that... I actually haven't used yet. I let Horst live and killed his brother. And looted the shit out of that vault. Really loved the trippy flower quest though the house. Excellently done.

Also, that spade from the caretaker is my favorite weapon. The vampire effect works well with the immortality build I have now. The hilariously OP Gourmet ability for improved passive regen, Maxed out the combat ability where if I lose all my health I regain it all at the cost of one adrenaline point, which I start off every battle with thanks to a different ability, and earn new ones like every five seconds because of all the bonuses to adrenaline point gain I have. Don't even have to invest much in Quen, really. I'm also immune to damage when I roll dodge.

As for the ending, I let Gaunter take Olgierd's soul because 1) I'm not fucking around with what is basically Satan, 2) Olgierd was a dick even before his "heart turned to stone" and frankly made his choice to get in this mess, and 3) I'm not fucking around with the goddamn Devil. Then, because of the distrust, I opted to not get a reward because guaranteed it'd go bad in some way. Bad idea from a meta perspective? Probably. But IC it seemed like the way to go.

Two major complaints though. One: That glitched treasure hunt. Really goddamn annoying. I imagine that had to do with the indecipherable armor scrolls, and so now I'm shit outta luck on those. Found some workaround that said it'll work if you just re-install the game, which not only didn't work but it took forever. There's not a lot of side content here, so it's annoying that what we got is broken.

Then the bigger and second complaint: that fucking runesmith. Goddamn, is that just a black hole of money. 30 fucking grand to get you your tools, then oh, let's buy something... but nope. Can't, because the components for you to craft the runes can't be found, but have to be crafted themselves. And how do I do that? Oh, I have to use crafting diagrams that I don't have, and can only buy from him. Then it's still like a grand per rune. Fucking hell. At least the other mastercrafters gave me a free sword/armor for my trouble. This guy's a fucking dick.

So I'm in Toussaint now. Man, is this a place. Made a bit of progress, and I gotta say it's pretty fantastic. I loved beating up the obnoxiously arrogant knights with a fucking shovel, though unfortunately I've got a new steel sword that I kinda have to trade it out for. Throwing it in a chest instead of hocking it, though. Paperchase was a hilarious premise. Honestly wouldn't have minded if it kept me running around a bit longer. Birdperson was a long as fuck sidequest but super worth it. And I left off on a hunt for a sculpture's testicles. The tonal shift in Toussaint is giving me whiplash and I love it. I'm also realizing that I may have to go get that potion that clears my ability points for the sake of these mutations, which is kinda annoying but oh well.

 

[Easy]

Then the bigger and second complaint: that fucking runesmith. Goddamn, is that just a black hole of money. 30 fucking grand to get you your tools, then oh, let's buy something... but nope. Can't, because the components for you to craft the runes can't be found, but have to be crafted themselves. And how do I do that? Oh, I have to use crafting diagrams that I don't have, and can only buy from him. Then it's still like a grand per rune. Fucking hell. At least the other mastercrafters gave me a free sword/armor for my trouble. This guy's a fucking dick.

Blatant moneysink is blatant. Some of the enchantment perks are kinda cool, but overall yeah, fuck that guy. Beggar-ass dude showing up and crying about his lost tools and shit, won't even hook you up with the solid discounts after you've financed his entire home and business with enough cash to have bankrupted entire kingdoms. Gypsy AF.

As for the ending, I let Gaunter take Olgierd's soul because 1) I'm not fucking around with what is basically Satan, 2) Olgierd was a dick even before his "heart turned to stone" and frankly made his choice to get in this mess, and 3) I'm not fucking around with the goddamn Devil. Then, because of the distrust, I opted to not get a reward because guaranteed it'd go bad in some way. Bad idea from a meta perspective? Probably. But IC it seemed like the way to go.

Olgierd has a really cool voice in Polish, though, and while he was still kind've a dick before and after that cursing, O'Dimm was a whole lot more so and, also, thwarting horrible monsters is totally witcheriffic, so I went with the curse removal thing. Turns out, the steel sword you get as a reward from that is totally badass, to the point where even The Shovel pales in comparison, so I felt pretty good about it. Also got to use the advice I got from a talking dog way back, and also had drinks with Olgierd as previously and disingenuously arranged.

...okay, that last part was a lot better than it sounds, alright?

 

[13thforsworn]

I plan on tackling the expansions soon-ish. I'll be off school and starting my full-time summer job in two weeks, so I'll report back in once I buy them during the GOG summer sale.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

Okay for the first time in a while I found time to play this game. It's really awkward because I spent a long while to hunt down the Grandmaster Witcher gear only to find out it's worse than the shit I already had. So I built out a kit I figured was my top tier, and went all out with it. Like even went back to that Ofier gypsy cunt and got some enchantments (25% health regen per kill, double health regen per food, auto-light armor), but goddamn not ten minutes later do I get a better steel sword. Or, mostly better. New sword has better damage but the effects on the old sword are baller af. So I'm sticking with what I got because god fucking dammit that cunt forced me to spend more on enchantments than on like anything ever.

Seriously Projekt Red. Fuck you. Now, and forever, because I love your game, but then you went and made me hunt down some goddamn cow milk to get that enchantment. And fuck you for that.

Anyhow, back to Blood and Wine. Anna Henrietta went from "I respect you because you refuse to not get in the thick of it yourself" to "fuck you, ya dumb cunt" because I handed the goddamn perpetrator of the murders over to her and she got pissy at me for it. I mean, like, you told me like fifteen minutes ago that the blackmailers were super priority, but oh man because it's your goddamn sister it's all reversed. Even though we talked about how your sister is prolly behind all this shit. Now you're pissy at me for not killing Dettlaff which I fucking told you Geralt can't do because only a vampire can kill another vampire for good. God fucking dammit.

Anyhow. I left off today at the point where I needed to choose between breaking Syranna out of prison to bring her to Detlaff or to go to Olianna (who was so obviously a vampire) to go to that Ancient One or whatever. Conveniently, as I was debating the decision, I called it a night to go be social.

So, thoughts? I'm really loving this game, and all my sidequests are done so this is all that's left. Right now... idk what to think. I'm leaning towards bringing Syranna to Dettlaff, because fuck her, but I kinda don't wanna piss off Anna Hanrietta because she's chill. But I also really trust Regis, because he's really the closest friend I have left in Toussaint and is actually reliable. So idk. Problems for later.

Edit: It's also kinda funny how she asked "Well is anybody else a vampire?????!" and Regis was standing right next to me.

 

[Easy]

It's really awkward because I spent a long while to hunt down the Grandmaster Witcher gear only to find out it's worse than the shit I already had.

Not with the bonus effects, it isn't. Some of those aren't very good, but three pieces of Griffin gear can double how many Signs you can cast, and six pieces can turn you into an unstoppable storm of arcane destruction within any of your vastly-oversized Yrden fields if you don't mind wearing some kinda stupid-looking armor while you're at it. With three/four/five pieces of Feline gear, your fast attack damage is effectively increased by thirty/forty/fifty percent. Six pieces ups that to sixty percent unless you're attacking an enemy from behind, in which case it's at least a whopping 135% damage and also stuns your opponent. I personally got a lot of use out of the 3/6 Wolven gear bonus, cause I had a lot of points in alchemy and all recipes filled, so being able to have three oils equipped at once meant that I could wander the countryside into all kinds of unknown turf and never afraid of anything, but that's admittedly a lot more situational.

Last decision in B&W is a tough call, I gotta say. Regis is obviously the more well-informed of the two, but they're both clearly letting some heavy bias get involved in their decision-making. It kinda comes down to 'Duchess wants to save the people of Toussaint as quickly as possible while minimizing risk to her sister' and 'Regis wants to save the people of Toussaint as quickly as possible while minimizing risk to his dear friend', as I saw it.

Sister's a manipulative bitch and a nasty woman who started this whole mess, Detlaff's a victim and a generally decent guy who also flipped out and decided to massacre an entire city just to get back at his horrible ex-girlfriend, and will remain an emotional time-bomb in the heart of human civilization for millenia to come if Regis gets his way. Good luck picking one to sacrifice.

 

[Requiem]

Not gonna lie, people talking about how to min max the final tier gear in any game makes me feel good. It's fun seeing people talk shop. I love this thread for that.

 

[Easy]

Just sayin', man. Slightly lower base stats, incredibly powerful bonus effects... Grandmaster Witcher gear is pretty good shit.

(Well, except the Manticore and Ursine sets. Those bonus effects are pretty meh.)

Yeah.

I played through regular game and NG+ on Death March all along, so getting to know all the specs and values was pretty important. Combat gets hard AF on top difficulty sometimes, especially on NG+.

Lotta people didn't really care for combat in TW3, but I found that once you've got all the mechanics down, (which a lot of players never will, because they're often neither intuitively obvious, nor well-explained), it's pretty damn good. Kinda like an anti-Dark Souls, I'd say, cause Dark Souls combat got exponentially more boring for me the more I came to master it. Hella fun at first, though, and always good to PvP with - things that can't really be said for TW3.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

Game beat. 10/10 would play again in a couple years when I feel like devoting another assload of hours to the game. I remember at the beginning of all this being told that I need to play 2 before 3 not just in a "know the plot" sorta deal, but because if I play 3 there's just no way I'll be able to go back and sit through the less developed Witcher 2. And man... ain't that the truth.

Spoiler: My B&W Ending

The happily ever after-ish ending. The monster was slain, and the sisters reunited, even though the sister was more evil than the monster. Goddamn. But worst of all, Regis has to leave Toussaint, because being constantly hounded by lesser vampires probably won't hurt him all that much unless Orianna or that Ancient One get involved, but it certainly must get annoying.

Dettlaff was an annoying boss at first... then I said fuck it and decided to be an actual Witcher and brewed some Vampire Oil, at which point he just got straight wrecked. Not entirely sure what the fuck that final phase brain arena or whatever was. Kinda hoped that Annarietta, especially after asking for me to stay to give the impartial opinion, would, y'know, not pardon the sister who set a vampire on the city and plotted to murder her. I mean, yeah, the shitty "curse" definitely led to a shitty childhood so I can see how Syanna became Syanna and that sucks. But it doesn't change the fact that Syanna is guilty af and deserves punishment for her crimes. So, y'know, having Annarietta ask for my opinion then more or less ignore it when I say "she's obviously guilty" is really unsatisfying as a player but honestly makes 100% sense in-universe and whatnot. Yay for false-agency.

The Fablelands quest was pretty great though. A dystopian fantasy land is a weird balance, but they nailed it with the monster pigs (the fuck), whatever that giant was, and Rapunzel hanging herself. Reminded me of that great dimension hopping level in the main series. And thinking of that reminded me of the line Ciri made about how one of the worlds she hopped through was this super futuristic one. So here's looking forward to the Ciri cameo in Cyberpunk 2077.

I think Blood and Wine (at least with my playthrough) lays out a decent retirement plan for Geralt. I rejected the notion that Geralt would chill in Toussaint and dedicate himself to the wine trade. It's back to the path for him, specifically a path to Kovir where Triss is (though hey, surprise visit). Big complaint was something that Triss reminded me of when she joked that their future involved Zoltan moving in, which is that man would he and Dandelion have fit in amazingly in this DLC. Like, the tone of Toussaint is so damned perfect for Dandelion's idiotic hijinks. We still get a nice ending for Geralt. Kovir as a mainstay with Triss, Toussaint as a vacation home, and he still goes about being a Witcher to stay occupied. And, of course, plenty of visits to see Ciri.

I am satisfied saying that, if I had to go back and change things, I'd probably still make most of the same choices; at least the major ones. Radovid and Djikstra die, romance Triss, be the fun dad so Ciri lives (although I don't know why you'd ever want to change that one), you get the idea. I may not buy the ribbon so Syanna dies and maybe not kill Dettlaff, though Easy has the excellent point that the guy's a fucking menace to the world because of his impulsiveness and instability. May decide to help Olgierd against O'Dimm. Definitely will tell the runewright to suck a dick. But with such branching options, it's great to come out of your first playthrough of such a long game and feel satisfied with your choices. Especially given the tone of the series.

Anyhow, a friend recommended Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was probably recommended earlier in the thread. I also have Watchdogs 2 that I got at Christmas and played all of like an hour of before being like "eh... let's play Witcher 3" because I'd yet to finish the main game at that point, and I haven't really managed to touch it since. I also just got gifted Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I'm actually a little pumped about.

 

[Null Hypothesis]

Inquisition is really good, but it has a ton of arbitrary side stuff that it makes you feel like you need to complete. Which I believe you originally wanted to avoid. If you do end up getting it be sure to at least get the final DLC they released, the other DLCs are pretty mediocre, but the final one is really cool and wraps up a lot of the loose ends the base game leaves open.

 

[Easy]

I remember at the beginning of all this being told that I need to play 2 before 3 not just in a "know the plot" sorta deal, but because if I play 3 there's just no way I'll be able to go back and sit through the less developed Witcher 2. And man... ain't that the truth.

Right!? Witcher 2 was a good game, absolutely worth playing, and most probably worth playing twice. But if you try going back for a second time, you just gotta think: "Well, it's not that this isn't worth my time, but... wouldn't it be more worth my time to replay sum'dat Witcher 3, instead?"

The happily ever after-ish ending. The monster was slain, and the sisters reunited, even though the sister was more evil than the monster.

Yeah, but only cause the monster was a monster to begin with. If a human were to do the same things in the same situation as Detlaff, then he'd be considered as a monster too (and/or very, very evil).

Kinda hoped that Annarietta, especially after asking for me to stay to give the impartial opinion, would, y'know, not pardon the sister who set a vampire on the city and plotted to murder her.

Technically she only set a vampire on a few people that traumatized her as a child; the vampire tried to massacre the city on his own and against her wishes, and she was entirely willing to sacrifice her own life in order to stop him, at the time.

Other than that, though, I totally agree. Pardoning her should have, objectively, been completely out of the question.

All's I can say is that Anna Henrietta doesn't just sympathize with her sister's story, but has also spent the last couple decades feeling guilt-wracked about how she's directly to blame for it. Perhaps it could be interpreted something like: "If twenty years of being beaten, raped, cold, and hungry is a pretty fair punishment for killing some dudes that honestly kinda had it coming, then we can call it time already served and hopefully go back to being sisters again, now that we're pretty much even."

The Fablelands quest was pretty great though. A dystopian fantasy land is a weird balance, but they nailed it with the monster pigs (the fuck), whatever that giant was, and Rapunzel hanging herself.

I didn't know who that girl who sold flint was until I looked it up, but it's my favorite of them now that I have. The original version couldn't last one night on the streets because she was meek and obedient and simply did as she was told; the Fablelands version, on the other hand... well, you get the idea.

Yay for false-agency.

Man, what cheesed me harder than that was how in my first run, I went through every single optional precaution to keep the Duchess from getting murdered. The guards were supposed to be ready and waiting for that hairpin shit, damn it.

Big complaint was something that Triss reminded me of when she joked that their future involved Zoltan moving in, which is that man would he and Dandelion have fit in amazingly in this DLC. Like, the tone of Toussaint is so damned perfect for Dandelion's idiotic hijinks.

Holy shit I'm kinda mad that you brought that up, because I didn't even know how much I wanted it until just now.

I may not buy the ribbon so Syanna dies and maybe not kill Dettlaff, though Easy has the excellent point that the guy's a fucking menace to the world because of his impulsiveness and instability.

Besides, you didn't kill Detlaff. Regis did. And if fucking Regis finally ends up deciding that Detlaff's gotta go, shit, I'd say Detlaff's pretty definitely gotta go.

May decide to help Olgierd against O'Dimm.

I don't regret doing so, because fuck O'Dimm. And also cause Geralt can go back and kill Olgierd anytime, if the latter does end up giving him cause to regret it.

Anyhow, a friend recommended Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was probably recommended earlier in the thread. I also have Watchdogs 2 that I got at Christmas and played all of like an hour of before being like "eh... let's play Witcher 3" because I'd yet to finish the main game at that point, and I haven't really managed to touch it since. I also just got gifted Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I'm actually a little pumped about.

All I can comment on here is Inquisition, which is pretty good. Lotta blatant time-killing/grinding-type activities involved, unfortunately, but that's most RPG's.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

So. Uh. Since then.

Played Rise of the Tomb Raider. Beat it. Solid game, but seemed a lot smaller than the first one, though maybe that's because Witcher 3 took a hundred and fifty very worthwhile hours out of my life and I have to relearn what's reasonable since the fact is that I'm not going to get a Witcher 3 on a regular basis. It's like losing your anal virginity.

Also, Xbox Games Pass came out. So I'm trying that. So far I played Lego Batman 1. Beat it. Solid game, Lego/10. AI was kind of trash and one of the bonus levels (which of course was the one I saved for last) was a pain in the fucking ass, but I went in and more or less got what I expected.

Now I'm on Sunset Overdrive and... and oh boy is this a game. At some point the schtick may wear off on me... but for now it's a game where there's cartoonish onamonapia, the first gun you get is "the Flaming Compensator" (complete with ballsack), and it takes itself about as seriously as Saint's Row or Deadpool. The punk level is absurd, and so far I love it. I'm still figuring out how to meld the parkour/fighting blend because I'm bad at games, and I'm still trying to find my groove with the crazy arsenal (which harkens back to when I was a kid playing Ratchet and Clank... which was made by the same developers so that makes sense), but honestly if an open world game in this day and age makes you look at the fast travel system and think "why bother?", then it's a win.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

Sunset Overdrive beaten. Like a month ago but whatever. Regardless, final verdict more or less still what I wrote above. Could've used a bit more meat to it, but oh well. Enjoyable if not exceptional. Solid B grade, though mileage may vary. Big issue was side quest repetition. A lot of "go out, fetch these five things/go to these five spots and come back". Decent fun doing it, sure, but the repetition was ugh. There were also a few points where the parkour system seemed to be trouble because of confined spaces, but that could easily just be me sucking. Also reveled in itself a bit, but not intolerably. Still, no regrets.

Speaking of repetition... Watch Dogs 2. Although, to its credit, the repetition was usually a side quest repeating itself for too long rather than the side quests being too similar. Like, goddamn, I had one side quest where I just had to hack like ten ATMs and hop all the way across the map for each one. No combat involved or stealth or anything. A bit of parkour to reach the box, then that's it. You get to either fuck with the person that comes in or shower them with cash, which is fun at first but wears itself out rather fast. Another was a graffiti one where you never did the actual painting, you just had to find your way to high spots all the way around the map over and over and over and over again. Like, I think they split that quest into like four or five sets of high points, and each set had 3-5. Ugh. Again, different side quests all are fairly different from one another and generally have a story to them, which I appreciate. But come on. Definite improvements over the first one, though. I will say that it felt a bit easy, especially once I got the quadcopter drone. RC vehicles were a great improvement, but they also meant that I often didn't have to go into a restricted area to get a task done. Quadcopter to scope it out and set off the easy traps, then send in the car to sneak around and perform the task (game sets itself up so that the car can physically interact with a computer or whatever in your place but a copter can't). I also like never used a gun. Ending was definitely super sudden. idk if I'd recommend it still if you're not into that kinda game, but it's not bad and was fairly worth my time.

And now... I'm sifting through things. Replaying all the AssCreeds before Origins comes out is an exercise in "hell no". May do II, Brotherhood, and Black Flag though. They're the best ones anyhow. Maybe Revelations or Rogue, but not III. Don't entirely feel like playing them now though. But I'll definitely need to give myself some sort of challenge mode for the Ezio games. Once did a playthrough of II where it was no HUD, which was kinda fun, but I wanna find a good way to up the ante. Only hidden blade maybe? Whatever. Problem for later. Have a couple other discs I need to finish/play too, but main things are what I have downloaded on the XBONE right now.

1) Borderlands (first one). Kinda really wanna play it. Kinda have a problem where I'd be playing solo, and it's a built for co-op game.
2) Banjo Kazooie. I remember it's kindof a bitch on some mechanics, but it's a straightforward game to blaze through and has retro cred.
3) Bioshock. Great game that I often am just not in the mood for. Rapture is just so damn gloomy.
4) Brothers: Tale of Two Sons. I remember hearing good things about this but I've never been much for indies. Eh. Whatever.

 

[Requiem]

I would suggest playing the first asscreed again as well. Don't worry about doing everything, just get the assassinations done and play through the story. Seeing the difference between 1 and 2 is tremendously eye opening in a positive way. Plus the first one doesn't get the love it deserves for the stuff it got right.

 

[13thforsworn]

Haven't been reading this thread but I started Heart of Stone. Not that far in, just finished the bit with Vlodimir von Everec going to the wedding. I like the Polish/cossack theme of this expansion. I'll report back when I've played more.

 

[Steal Thy Kill]

Brothers: Tale of Two Sons was surprisingly short. Like, I know it's an artsy indie game and all, but still. I hope it didn't cost too much when it actually came out because while it was nice... honestly I don't think I'd pay more than $5 for it. Control scheme was annoying to acclimate to, but at least the game wasn't very punishing about it.

Bit the bullet and we're doing solo Borderlands now. Wasn't sure really who to pick so I RNG'd Roland. Maybe I should've gone for Brick because I'm bad and could use a bullet sponge but whatever. Dicked around a bit and killed Nine-Toes. First Person open worlders still feel weird. I have no idea what I'm doing with my skill point loadout so that'll be fun. There's a lot of support skills in there so... great pick for a solo run. Good job me. I do laugh at the "shoot allies to heal them" ability. Will probably just pour skill points into the obvious things like more health and bullet damage.