The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4)

An absolutely outstanding game that is so massive I don't think I've even scratched the surface of things to do or things to find. I've played for about a week now, and I'm only at level 15 (out of I think 50 levels?) and haven't even left Velen (one of the first areas) because there's just so many quests, so much to find and do and so much to kill. Like, with the other Witcher games, with your quests you get a few different choices to make and these choices can determine which way the game goes from there on in (such as if you decide to kill a character or let them live, it will effect the dialogue later and possibly open a different quest later). Choices can also determine the loot you get. The storyline focuses on Geralt (as usual), a Witcher (a monster hunter mutated and trained to do such) who is on the hunt for a girl he trained and became rather fond of some eight years before. The hunt for Cirilla (Ciri) will send him on a wild goose chase from one place the next taking on countless quests, contracts and treasure hunts while trying to glean any information he can where and when he can find it. If you've played the previous games, you'll see some familiar friendly faces such as Zoltan Cheevay, Dandylion the Bard and Triss Merrigold. Finally, we also get to meet with the notorious Yennifer who was always a big part of the lore but never really seen in the previous games. You also see the occasional familiar face from the last games (like Vivaldi the banker and Vernon Roche). Having played the previous games, I have to say the interface is slightly different from how I remember it, and things like detecting monsters and the potion taking is slightly different to how it used to be. You have "quickslots" now but only so many, and you can only make three of each potion and two of each bomb in total and have those in your inventory (so say for instance you have the ingredients for an endless supply of "Tawny Owl" for example, you can't make them all in advance). You also cannot sell ANY of your options or bombs either. Because of things like this, you end up with a huge cache of flowers and ingredients you can't use all at once and for most of the game are constantly searching for merchants to sell the items to (which is difficult when Merchants only have so much gold to sell). What I like about the game is there is a gorgeous day and night cycle with realistic weather system, and the weather is brought to your attention by Geralt who even mentions when the weather is changing (he'll occasionally say to himself "Wind is howling" or "It's raining" just in case you tend to take such things for granted and don't notice, lol). The weather even effects things like the grass, the bushes and trees as you see the wind dragging the foliage about nicely to make it feel more like an environment than a static graphic surface. It's not quite as pretty as Skyrim in realism, but there's a lot of deeper colour, richer sunsets and nicer water effects. The character design is absolutely fantastic, even NPCs all look different with unique features such as different shaped noses and yes, scars, expressions that make the wrinkles in their faces show exceptionally well, bringing a little touch of realism. When Triss smiles for example, you see smile lines that you don't see otherwise, and when Geralt grimaces you see the wrinkles in his nose and at the sides of his eyes move. Some of the voice acting is very exceptional (some may get annoyed with Geralt's rather monotone voice - it's supposed to be that way, Witcher's mutation means he lacks expression or emotion in his face and voice) while some of it is a bit horrendous, but that's all part of the charm. There is a lot of foul language in the game, I won't lie. The F word is used more than a hundred times (rough guess) and there's occasional female nudity (which, if you've played these games, yes, it's always been part of the franchise, so don't be shocked). This game isn't meant for young kids and under eighteens for a reason so do take note. There's a lot of easter eggs and references to modern films and such (such as Zoltan Cheevay talking about Dandylion having a strange relationship with a woman in the bedroom who would call him "Christian" and insist he call her "Anastacia" - clear reference to Fifty Shades of Grey). It's always amusing to catch these things from time to time. There are so many different locations and things to find, and a lot of them are best found when off the beaten track. Most quests you come across are not ones found on the contract boards, they're found walking around streets and the fields and running into NPCs, etc. While I'm on the subject, I should warn you CAN occasionally fail a quest if you don't act fast enough. There's also sometimes a timer when an NPC asks you to make a decision on something and if you don't act fast enough this too can result in a fail at times. Be warned if you're a trophy perfectionist, I'm not sure but I reckon this could hurt your trophy collection. Also take note, save option. If you don't save frequently, dying sends you back to the instance you last saved, which for all I know could be three hours before which is a bit of a downer. You don't retain ANY of your experience or items if you die and have to return to an earlier save game so do be warned. I learned the hard way. Do take heed though, save before handing in a quest in case you risk failing, this way you can try to get things right. I learned this the hard way too. There's more I'll add eventually but this is just my initial review. I'm so engrossed in this game I can't leave it alone. Every day, every night, I'm addicted more than I was with Skyrim (which it is somewhat similar to). I really do recommend buying, you won't be disappointed.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a serious contender for the throne of open world role-playing games on the Next-Gen consoles for so many reasons. Firstly, the story is beautifully written, the characters feel genuine and it is an honestly emotional journey following their adventures. The protagonist Geralt of Rivia is an iconic Witcher by trade and therefore (due to his training) lacks strong displays of emotion, instead relying on a deadpan, almost monotonic manner of speaking. That is not to say that he does not feel, indeed his journey to find his adopted daughter Ciri is a heartfelt and engaging tale that makes the player want to continue into the world of Geralt and his companions. While there is an engaging main story, it is often commonplace within such RPG titles that side missions often have much less to offer in terms of story, instead they tend to manifest as emotionless methods of experience points to level and upgrade the player's character. While it cannot be said that The Witcher 3 is not entirely innocent of this, many of the side quests of the game are actually lore-bound, meaningful endeavours that do in some small way affect the ultimate ending of the game. In terms of graphics this game stands at the peak of Next-Gen beauty. Facial animations are complex and truly affect a wide array of emotions, and body movements are both fluid and natural. In terms of scenery and the huge world of the game, the quality of the graphics are clear in every aspect, from the sparkling of the water of the sea, to the innumerable blades of grass beneath the player's feet. Day and night cycles follow the player throughout the game as well as dynamic weather cycles from raging storms to light rain, to blazing sunshine. In terms of combat Geralt offers both the classic mixture of swordplay and spellcrafting, as well as the addition of a crossbow. Geralt carries both silver and steel swords for mythical and human enemies respectively which is a nice touch and helps to further immerse the player in the lore of the game. Spellcrafting is simple but effective, meaning that certain spells, such as fire, mind control and shielding work better against some enemies than others. There are also creatable oils that can augment damage against specific enemies, meaning that combat is not necessarily running in swords flailing there is also a degree of planning that is required before committing to certain missions or contracts. Ultimately The Witcher 3 has many aspects that appeal to many players, to list them all cannot be done in a single review and can only be truly experienced first-hand. Whether you want to hear the superb voice acting of Charles Dance as the Emperor of Nilfgaard, or the experience of a dynamic story that is affected by your choices; or the chance to slay mythical creatures with stylish flourishes and aesthetically pleasing spell casting, or perhaps just to sit in a local inn and play the fictional card game of Gwent. The Witcher 3 literally has it all.

I haven't been genuinely engaged with a video game for a long time but the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt changes that. Sorry for the long review but I just had to be very thorough in giving credit where credit's due. I do have a few complaints but anything negative I have to say is easily forgivable by the many things this game does right. + Story - The game has one the best stories I have ever played and the you truly feel attached to Geralt and engaged with the lore as you progress through the storyline. + Combat Mechanics - The combat mechanism is done very well. Geralt's targeting is spot on and using a familiar dodging and parrying system, I was in a familiar Assassin's Creed like fighting environment. In fact, this game's combat mechanism goes a step further with realism than Assassin's Creed as enemies will not conveniently wait their turn to attack you but will often make life very difficult for you if you are outnumbered. Also, the intense gore of a finisher on an enemy is satisfying and brutal. + Soundtrack - Be it from exploring the beautiful islands of Skellige or fighting in the boggy swamps of Velen, the soundtrack will mystify you and do its job really well by adding to the tone and feel of every moment you experience. Plus, CD Projekt Red graciously provided a free soundtrack disc with the game enabling me to listen to very good music whenever I'm not playing. + Side Missions - These are done really well. One thing most open world games lack are interesting side quests. Be it Watch Dogs, GTA V, Batman Arkham Knight or Assassin's Creed, those games might have engaging storylines (some do) but most of their side quests feel just like filler. This is definitely not the case with the Witcher 3. The side quests are equally as engaging as the main story and this is something I have never seen before in a open world game before but is a very positive indicator to show the amount of hard work and detail that has been put in this game. The side quests sometimes influence your main story as well! + Graphics - Whilst the game graphics might not be the best we've seen in 2015, the certainly do not disappoint! In fact, the sheer size and diversity of the world and the meticulous detail that has been used to craft it is nothing short of amazing and it truly showcases the power of the PS4. Scenes from atop the snowy mountains of Skellige to the clear fresh water lakes at Kaer Morhen are breathtakingly beautiful. + Free DLC & Patches - Free weekly DLC just shows that the developers genuinely care for their players and this a very nice gesture of goodwill as it just goes to show that not every AAA game studio is greedy and after your money after you've bought and paid for your game (I'm looking at you EA, Activison and Ubisoft...). The game gets patched very frequently as well which is positive. - Movement & Roach, your (not so) trusty steed - Especially outside of combat and when you are riding Roach, movement is very annoying as Roach does not automatically jump over the many obstacles on the roads. In fact, Roach will at times annoyingly disrupt dialogue sequences and run around for no good reason. Geralt's movement also feel a bit too primitive for a modern game but it's not a big complaint. - Bugs - This game isn't bug free and that is to be expected from a game of this size. One of the side quests (Skellige's Most Wanted) can't even be completed due to a post patch 1.07 bug which is disappointing as this is a very good game overall. - Framerate drops and Loading Screens - This is primarily a issue on consoles but during many dialogues the game would often briefly freeze to load itself. In fact, after reloading the game or fast travelling, the game sometimes visibly took its time to render its massive world. It's a minor detail but one which hinders the experience from being perfect. No game is perfect but what the Witcher 3 does get right is nothing short of remarkable and you can easily forgive minor hiccups for a magnificent game. If you haven't bought it already, this is one experience no PS4 owner should miss out on!

First time to the Witcher 3 world as I have never played the previous two but fear not people in the same boat the game will give you a variety of questions to answer however you wont understand the outcomes of because you haven't played the previous games! That being said if you will never play the previous games there is places online that will advise what the questions mean and give you more of a background into why you are being asked them. The game looks stunning it really does especially during sunset or dawn and you are looking through moving trees! big kudos to that! You do start in a relatively small area which will give you the training you need and a chance to partake in some early side quests before the game really opens up. This gives me my first chance to moan at a few minor faults. - Getting on your horse isn't as easy as any Assassin's creed game, the game expects you to slowly approach your horse and press X while standing in front of it and you can't just run up to the horse and jump on! thankfully getting off is much more easier and quicker! - While on your horse you will find he can get stuck in trees and ditches very easily which can be very frustrating but fear not as the game has included a way to hold down the X button while on a path and the horse will follow the path! excellent! however this doesn't always work 100% and becomes a major pain when hitting crossroads. - Villagers! just repeat themselves and it can be very annoying, yes this also happens in skyrim but no where near as much as every time you pass them - Battle's you seem to be able to lock onto enemies but not bosses! this cause an issue with fast moving creatures as you need your right thumb to control the camera which also is used for combat! using the triggers would have been a better option like Dragon Age. - The game runs very smoothly with little loading time, that is unless you die, than it will take an age to load your previous save back! As much as I moan these are minor faults that can be brushed aside because the look and feel of the game is outstanding but what makes this game great is the missions and sidequests themselves. I have to say I am only 10hrs in and have already come across some of the most satisfying quests I have seen in any RPG that look like they will have some effect to what happens in the future. The combat has it's issues with button setup and camera movements, also a couple of times I have had other characters walk in my way while fighting and even my own horse but this aside it's still fun and I do love the way that every Witcher hunt is different. Preparation and reading up on your enemy can really provide a vital edge to a more easy win! Tracking is a bit of a let down, pretty much hold down the button and look around until you see something red! also can become quit competitive! Characters are all strong and likeable and I do love the voice others of some of the characters including Charles Dance from Game of Thrones and also the beautiful voice of Katie McGuinness who plays as Keira (also some will remember her as Tyrea in Xenoblande. I still have a long way to go I am sure but I have been happy with the quests and side quests given out so far. The dotted line that gives you directions can sometimes be a bit temperamental at times but all the bad points of this game have been washed away by how great it looks and the story itself. The area is huge with lots to discover and the towns and villages are excellent to witness.

As someone who has never played a Witcher game before, this game absolutely exceeded my expectations. The amount of detail and love put into this game is evident in every aspect. From the moment I received the game on release day, greeted by a thank you letter from the developers, a map and sound track CD to the small details like Geralts beard growth, I have been amazed that everything you encounter has been hand crafted. CD Project Red have proven themselves to be the best developers out their, not only by delivering a well polished, brilliant open world RPG but by following this with a large amount of free content, updates and chunky, fairly priced DLC content that rivals some stand alone games in length. They have shown the industry how we as consumers should be treated. One of the main draw of this game is exploration, the world is beautiful, particularly at sunset or sunrise when the whole screen becomes a gorgeous orange shade. The weather system is dynamic and always throws a new twist on the game, as is playing at night or underground. In these situations you can either use a flaming torch or one of Geralts many potions to see in the dark. The map itself is ENORMOUS and if not for your trusty steed Roach, would take hours to traverse. You can travel by water as well on a small sailing boat that has realistic damage effects and brings a fun,fresh, authentic new feeling to travelling. The map is made up of three huge areas that are very diverse from swamps to snowy mountains. The story is brilliant although in my opinion the side missions exceeded them. The amount of content in the main storyline itself is impressive but on top of that is an incredible set of side quests and unique monsters to hunt. Never have I played a game with such deep side quests that weren't just filler. I enjoyed many of these more than the main content. The gameplay is also incredible, as a newbie to Witcher I at first struggled, not use to having to actually think about combat. Unlike games like Assasins Creed or the Batman games, you cannot just 'mash' buttons, you have to be tactical and adapt your style to different enemies. Preparation is also encouraged and necessary, harder enemies often need a combination of potions, oils, decoctions and signs on top of the dodging, rolling and blocking of standard sword play, to defeat. To further deepen combat, you can tailor your play style through a skill tree style system, electing to branch into signs, combat or alchemy. Collecting 'loot' is a big part of the game, and as usual is addictive. Although later in the game it becomes a bit redundant except to gain money, as equipment is usually levelled lower than your current items. However this is solved by a crafting system that enables you to get the best gear, once you've found the necessary components of course - treasure hunting does feature in this game! Choices feature heavily in this game, mainly in the dialogue. You can choose to be cruel in favour of money or vice versa, and there are also romantic choices that play throughout the game. My one criticism with the game is the poor difficulty curve, making combat slightly too easy towards the end of the game. Overall this is the best, most complete games I have ever played. It constantly holds your attention, you discover something new all the time and it never fails to impress. It is extremely fun and I feel spoilt with the amount of content you get (even without the new game plus mode I easily have played for several hundred hours, and I don't play that often!) for such a reasonable price. Highly recommended, must play game!

I have been playing the game now since its release date and it's right up there with the all time greats. My benchmark game is Red Dead redemption on the 360(the PS3 version was graphically inferior) RDR is a marvellous open world game that w3 comes close to eclipsing. W3 isn't as open world as RDR and you have less freedom but it's an amazingly absorbing game of the highest quality. Much has been written about the stunning graphics and I agree are the best I have seen on a console. It's a massive game that inexorably sucks you in and it's as good a book you can't put down. It's a game that requires a minimum of two hours playing time per session, so it's time consuming . But it's time well spent. You get straight into the meat of the story at the beginning and don't have to mess around for endless hours doing nothing like you do in dragons age. This game is almost perfect and I came close to giving it five stars but I must mark it down for the appalling quality of the dialogue. I am sorry to say that the game is full of endlessly gratuitous swearing. The swearing isn't as bad as in last of us, where that level was virtually intolerable. It may be fashionable today to swear continuously but I find it moronic and childish. The game is also marred by a plethora of awful crafty cockney nudge nudge wink wink drivel throughout the game. This is better suited to a Carry on Movie from the 1950s. I have to say that much of the dialogue is so childish that it gives the impression of being written by a five year old. So this is a brilliant and almost perfect game that's let down only by the incongruous dialogue. I great pity that the devs have allowed themselves to include such appallingly childish and vulgar dialogue so as just to appear trendy.

I bought this not really knowing if it was going to be any good, and kind of reckoned if it was anything near as much fun as SKyrim was then I'd love it. Having played it to the extent of losing any kind of life i had before, and religiously since it's release I think it just blows SKyrim away, and is the most immersed I have been in a game for a long long long time. As other reviews have stated, the world is massive, and there is so much to find and do in it, it can really just eat up time without you realising. I've lost count of the amount of times I've suddenly realised it's 3/4 am and I've been on it for 8-9 hours straight. In terms of character progression, it is well balanced, and you do find that you need to be high enough level to complete quests. There is plenty out there that if you're not levelled up enough will just decimate you with the strike of one blow. This is cool, as it just adds to tension and means you can't just hack around and expect to live. Fighting monsters on the witcher quests and main story line bosses is sufficiently challenging as well, you do have to do your research and prepare before facing some foes. Graphics are awesome, and really help with the immersion. If you liked the elder scrolls, skyrim and like RPGs and want a well scripted story line, then pick this up. Despite just having finished it, I am not trading this in, but am going to keep it and replay it on the hardest difficulty once I've had a break from it for a while (or when more DLC appears). Brilliant game, love the amount of extras in the packaging, and extremely good value for money. If only all AAA game developers put this much effort into content and extras!

Never wrote a review before, but just wanted to write my appreciation of the developers and amazement of the game. First of all this game is one of the longest games I've ever played, and I've played the likes of skyrim, oblivion and fallout games, i got this game in may, the day of release and am still playing it now, still with the same feeling as when i first played it. The developers are an example to what most developers should be, by giving away 16 free pieces of dlc for everyone, when they could've just charged people and made quite a bit of money from it, and now that the first of two expansions is out there's been 10 to 15 hours of extra gameplay, with the last expansion out in early 2016, nearly forgot to mention how they've supported this game from day one with their constant patches to fix bugs and to improve the game, the latest patch which was a couple of days ago, was number 11 Now about the actual game, the gameplay is brilliant if you like your games with swords and magic, i can only describe it as a faster pace than skyrim, you have a dodge button where you can sway out the way of attacks and you also have a dodge roll for bigger enemy attacks, you have a fast attack button to give quick slashes and a heavy attack button to give slower but more powerful blows, it all makes for a tactical battle for harder enemies, because you are a witcher, you can drink potions which further enhance your abilities for a limited time, to prepare yourself before battle or during battle, for your swords you can drench your sword with oil depending on which type of enemy/monster you're fighting, which gives you an increase in damage The world is massive, its not a true open world like skyrim, where you can go anywhere at anytime, instead its split into 5 sections which are huge, when you want to go to another section you have to sit through a loading screen I don't really know what else to say, other than this is one of the beat rpgs i have played never mind one of the best games, and would like to say a big thankyou to cd project red for making such a brilliant game and actually caring about is customers who bought the game.