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Hero-of-Time

The Witcher 3: Complete Edition

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I'm surprised nobody already made a thread for this. Guess there's not much interest in the game on here, which is no surprise seeing as most people have already played it on other consoles/PC.

Anyway, here are the details.

w3-vizual@2x-en-89cf042d.png

From ERA...

Quote

It has now been confirmed that The Witcher 3 is weighing roughly 32gb on Nintendo Switch, but more importantly that it has everything on the card. No download is required, making it the first game to use a 32gb card since Dragon Quest Heroes I+II exclusive to the japanese Switch launch. With the talk ongoing about games needing a download, it was worth bringing out.

 

Edited by Hero-of-Time

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I was about to. I'm getting that complete edition. Still need to get those Nendoroids..

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I'm still amazed that this is actually a thing. Blows my mind that they've managed to fit it all on a cartridge. 

Edited by Hero-of-Time

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Very impressed that they've managed to fit the main game and all the DLC on the cartridge. Considering it's at least twice that size on the PS4, that's impressive.

Also a nice touch to see that they're continuing with the little extras, in the form of the monster compendium, map and stickers. The only thing missing is the soundtrack, which came with all new copies of the game. Maybe they'll include it as a download code or something.

If I still had my Switch, if be up for picking it up again. I absolutely love The Witcher 3 and have just under 150hours put into it in the PS4 with plenty still left if I want to go back to it. But I'm always wanting to start a new game of it and ill admit the prospect of being able to take it on the go is very tantalising. I hope everyone that picks it up enjoys it when it launches. A whole new wave of gamers will get to experience the game and things like the Bloody Baron quest for the first time and I'm jealous of that.

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Picked this up cheap on Steam at one point, but didn't get very far in. I think I just found myself overwhelmed by the glut of things to do, and with none of them particularly standing out I lost focus and drifted away from it. However Im really enjoying Dragon Dogma at the moment on the switch since you can just drop in and out and just do whatever's in front of you. Maybe W3 on the switch will have the same effect.

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Do I need to have played the previous two Witcher games and have read the book to be able to understand what's going on in this game? Not much coming out is actually of interest in the second half of the year with Pokemon being the exception so I was considering picking this up on Switch, but since it's the third game in the series it kind of implies a need to have played the previous two games.

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14 minutes ago, GenericAperson said:

Do I need to have played the previous two Witcher games and have read the book to be able to understand what's going on in this game? Not much coming out is actually of interest in the second half of the year with Pokemon being the exception so I was considering picking this up on Switch, but since it's the third game in the series it kind of implies a need to have played the previous two games.

No. There is a lot of lore in the Witcher series but 3 does a good job making you aware of everything you need to. I think 3 was a lot of people's first Witcher game.

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I played it having zero knowledge of anything Witcher related, and was fine. You can kind of tell when they reference something from a previous game, but it is usually about something unimportant or unrelated to the main plot.

It looks like they downgraded the graphics massively to cram this onto the Switch (that crow in the trailer looked like something from the PS2 era) but I think this game is worth playing just for the plot, even if the graphics are lame.

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As Happenstance and Bob have said, you can easily jump into The Witcher 3 with minimal to no knowledge of the previous games or books. There are nods and call backs through that hark back to the previous games and there are some things that reference events in the books but it doesn't detract from the experience if you've not read or played any of the other Witcher stuff.

The game does a really good job of ingratiating you in the world, especially as a first time player. There's so much lore that you can read up on in the Glossary in game (which also details character back stories and their relationships with Geralt) or through the books you can pick up in the world and the Bestiary is similarly fleshed out detailing all the beasts and monsters and how to deal with them. So it's a lot to take it but it's so worth soaking it up as it really does add to the overall game and creates one hell of a believable world.

The game is the reason I'm now reading the books and I'm only on the third one, Blood of Elves, which is really the first one at the start of the overarching story arch (the first two are more or less short stories, though Sword of Destiny, the second book, is more of a single narrative broken up) and it's been good coming to them afterward to understand more of the world and such. I'm picking up a copy of the second game on the 360 to play through backwards comparability on the Xbox One to experience that for the first time but I'd really love for CD Projekt Red to remaster the first two.

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It's honestly a feat of technology, being able to put The Witcher 3 onto the Switch. I'd definitely recommend it to anybody whose a fan of RPGS or the like. It's a solid game with great worldbuilding, amazing visuals (not so sure on the Switch tho. huehuehue. :P) and the greatest card game in all of existence; GWENT!!!

 

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Just announced to release on October 15th at Opening Night Live. A new trailer was shown and while it does look a little bit rough in places (noticeable pop in for example) it still looks pretty good and having such a massive game to take with you on the go is just amazing. It wouldn't be my first place to play the game but if you've not got a gaming PC or any of the other home consoles, I really do recommend jumping in on the game as it's phenomenal.

 

Edited by Ganepark32

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That's earlier than expected! 

It does look rough but hopefully that's also seeing it in hi-def in Youtube - watching it running on the Switch will probably make it look better. But I hope they at least can keep it at a steady framerate - that's far more important to me.

I'll definitely get it but not until early next year, I think. There's just too many games on this side of Christmas and I do expect this to drop in price rather quickly. 

I'm currently reading the books and have made a dent in The Time of Contempt. Enjoying them thus far.

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The official Witcher YouTube page has uploaded a massive 40 odd minute gameplay overview video for those looking at picking up the Switch version.

Edit: the frame rate doesn't look too bad going through bits of that, like running around Novigrad. Admittedly, the areas where it struggled where in the bog in the opening area and in Velen so they'll be proper tests of the port but yeah, doesn't look that bad in motion on a small screen.

@MindFreak, I've been reading the books myself. Got Blood of Elves waiting to be started but took a break to read Metro 2033 but will definitely be heading back once I've finished that. Really enjoyed reading them and having the world fleshed out from what I've played in the Wild Hunt.

Edited by Ganepark32

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As if I didn't already have enough to play on the Switch, I've ended up picking this up (sorry DQ XI, I will be back). I just felt that, you know, 131 hours on the PS4 version wasn't enough and that with my PS4 broken, it was time to put some more time on the clock and start anew. Maybe this time I'll actually bother with the Gwent beyond White Orchard.

I may have played it before but I can't wait to get stuck in. I'm not bothered by the visual downgrade as having this for on the go play is perfect for me right now. I'll try and post thoughts later after getting some time in.

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I watched some of Digital Foundry's analysis and it looks surprisingly good, I have never played The Witcher 3 on any other system but have always intended to get it at some point and it seems like the Switch port is very much worthwhile. The way I play RPG's I'm more likely to play on the go so I'm more likely to pick up the Switch version than the PS4 one. There is just too much on my backlog already to warrant buying it now but watching that DF video definitely has me tempted to try it out.

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I've managed to play an hour and a half so far and as expected, I'm enjoying it. The Witcher 3 is my favourite game of this generation and of all time and even with the downgrades, it's still very impressive to be playing it on what is essentially a handheld.

Yes, things look a bit blurry and there's a few frame rate drops, especially during cutscenes, textures are more blurry and lack detail, but by and large it still looks the same. The amount they've managed to retain visually is astonishing given the hardware constraints. The lighting in particular still looks fantastic and given some of the visual downgrades, gives the game a slight watercolour look (I saw someone jokingly calling it The Witcher 3: Monet Edition). Character models still look great and things like enemies being sliced up during combat have been retained and look great as well.

Audio wise, it all still sounds great, though it sounds a little quiet out of the Lite's speakers. Definitely a headphones kind of game if you're playing handheld. I did notice the drop in quality for some of the speech, mainly in the scenes with Yennefer so far which sounded a bit tin-y. But other wise, it sounds good and hearing that soundtrack and all the ambient sounds as I was travelling around White Orchard have me real nostalgic feels and makes me so happy to be back in that world.

I'm still getting used to the controls and I'm definitely missing the shortcuts for getting to the inventory and map that there were on the PS4 courtesy of the touch pad. Perhaps there are some shortcuts there, I'll look later and see.

One tip: I will say for anyone who does pick it up, you can bug out the combat tutorial with Vesemir if you choose to do it (you can skip but I decided to do it as I wanted a refresher with it being on a new console). You'll have your task come up under the mini map on the right of the screen and then button press instructions on the left. If you just belt through the tutorial, those instructions don't keep up with you and so you can get stuck unless you reload your game file. So take the combat tutorial slowly and wait for each instruction to appear on screen and complete it then otherwise you'll have to reload. A weird bug but one most new players to the game shouldn't encounter.

But yeah, it's The Witcher 3 just with a visual downgrade but it's still fantastic. All the content is here to give you so much to play and I know I'm easily going to spend so much time in here again. CD Projekt Red and Saber Interactive have done a phenomenal job bringing the game to the console.

I don't know when I'll move on from White Orchard as I tend to do all the side quests so I probably won't update until I've hit Velen and got to Novigrad to see what the game is like there.

Edited by Ganepark32
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Santa is bringing me this for Christmas. Someone on Twitter posted a photo of the Switch version and it came with a map and other such goodies included in the package. Does anyone know if every version of The Switcher comes with this, or should I just be expecting it to be packaged like a regular Switch game?

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1 hour ago, Tim B said:

Does anyone know if every version of The Switcher comes with this, or should I just be expecting it to be packaged like a regular Switch game?

Knowing CD Projekt, I would be surprised if each copy didn't come with the goodies. The PS4 versions all had maps, iirc.

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Knowing CD Projekt, I would be surprised if each copy didn't come with the goodies. The PS4 versions all had maps, iirc.

The PS4 version i bought didn't come with a map...

 

Unless you are talking about the Complete Edition?

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2 minutes ago, bob said:

The PS4 version i bought didn't come with a map...

 

Unless you are talking about the Complete Edition?

My normal edition did. 

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My normal edition did. 
Isn't it still sealed on the shelf?
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1 minute ago, bob said:
2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:
My normal edition did. 

Isn't it still sealed on the shelf?

Nah. I opened it to get rid of the cardboard sleeve that was on it. Can't have that messing up the look and order of my games. :p 

Speaking of me playing it, a lad at work has been hounding me for the past couple of months to play the thing. I've still got zero motivation to start the thing. :D 

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7 minutes ago, bob said:

The PS4 version i bought didn't come with a map...

Mine did. It was the normal edition, too. 

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Well i swear my copy didn't come with a map, but I'm going to check when i get home. Maybe i accidentally bought the Sub-normal Edition

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2 minutes ago, bob said:

Maybe i accidentally bought the Sub-normal Edition

You mean the "bob Edition"?

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