[Spoilers] What's your Opinion on Blood and Wine?

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Preventing vampires from attacking the city should have definitely been a player choice! I also wish there were more disastrous consequences like, several side quests failed because of the vampire attack on the city (because the quest givers died in the attack for example).
 
I feel the main story sells itself short and squanders interesting ideas and characters. It's not really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of the expansion, but it makes Blood and Wine miss the level set by Hearts of Stone by a notch or two.

And I think I might be getting a bit obsessive about it...
 
I wish we got the chance to get to know all the victims too. We only met one of the 4 victims.

I thought there was no point for being more than 4 victims. The people in Toussaint aren't used to seeing so much death and monsters so when they do see one they exaggerate a whole lot, just like they do in their lives. It was evident first and foremost by the sketches Milton shows Geralt.
Someone saw an Archespore and said that was the Beast. They saw a Slyzard and that was the Beast. They're all sketches of different monsters, all said to be the Beast of Beauclair.

I haven't finished all the side-quests yet but one of the victims(Crespi or some such) from what I was gathering was the owner of one of the biggest vineyards in Toussaint.

Overall, I thought the main story was great. Though, can't help but feel Hearts of Stone was better in terms of main story.
The plot and particularity the side-quests touched some interesting themes of Geralt duty as a monster hunter - what the main plot did not offer, the side-quests did.
It gave Regis some charterer development but the story isn't about him to begin with.
As this is supposed to be Geralt final chapter, his retirement If you'd like, I expected him to reach new realizations about his profession. His analytical mind was missing when it was needed the most - there were perfect opportunities for it too.
All that nonsense about retirement was out of the blue.

I think it was a weak send off for Geralt of Rivia, according to CDPR marketing this was supposed to be his biggest contract ever but in the end it just ended up being another contract under his belt.

Dettlaf character started well, from Regis description of him he sounded like a lion among wolves (prefers the company of lesser vampires) and one who was forced into unfortunate situation that showed us the Beast he is.
After we experience some of his memories we get to see Dettlaf felt guilty and remorseful for killing his friend, so much in fact that he cuts off his own hand. We also saw him hiding his claws after being pushed in line which really makes me wonder how he could slaughter an entire city.
Clearly it was because he was unaware of Syanna scheme, but that twist when he unleashes vampires on the whole city makes him looks one dimensional, losing what little depth his character had. In the end, we didn't see enough of him to justify that.

Toussaint is beautiful, a lot of colors everywhere and great atmosphere. They all catch the eye and are enough to divert your attention from the bad drawing distance.

My favorite side quest was A Knight's Tale, I think it's called. About Jacob the Woodcutter. Though, I haven't done a whole lot of them yet.
Also, I thought we were going to fight a manticore in the hunt for the Manticore Armor. Oh well.

One thing I really liked is the consistency in the monsters design. I recognized many of them from Witcher 1, especially the Kikimores. These little bastards look very similar to what we saw in Witcher 1.
 
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Finally finished the story (with some side quests, not all). Outstanding Expansion, thanks CDPR!

Loved the story for the most part, the characters, the region was so different from the one's in the main game and it was a joy to explore etc.
I was really glad they brought Regis back, now I wish they had done so sooner. Such a great character and the VA did a good job too. I liked Anna Henrietta too, wish she was the romance option instead of her crazy sister.

Syanna as the main villian was a bit underwhelming but at the end still paid off. Overall the expansions story (both of them) were much better than the main game's story with the Wild Hunt & Ciri which really left me cold (from Act 2 onwards at least).

Kind of sad now thats its over.
 
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Toussaint is absolutely beautiful, the change in scenery is very welcome and I like the brighter tone and colors. It feels good just walking around and enjoying the ambiance. There is a lot to explore and I still have a lot to do. New POI's, although not that different are also a welcome change. The new area is larger then I expected which is a pleasant surprise.

I really liked what they did with Regis and Anna Henrietta, both are very interesting and I enjoyed each interaction with them. Dettlaff and Syanna were also interesting enough to keep me engaged in the main storyline which I also liked. There is plenty of side content and the little moments like Geralt winking to that bank clerk, dropping in the water after picking up the sword, getting offered to stroke Reginald for free, the whole tournament quest or the discussion with Triss made me smile and I still look forward to discovering what else is there since I have plenty of side quests left to do.

Dyeing armor is nice, new mutations are welcome, more Gwent is always good and I like the Grandmaster armors. Corvo Bianco is a nice addition although it could have been better. I encountered a few bugs and glitches, but nothing game breaking. Overall I really enjoyed the expansion, it's a nice send off for Geralt and more than worth the price. Good job CDPR, thank you for the amazing experience and I really look forward to seeing what you guys do with Cyberpunk.
 
Awesome Addon like the rest of the game

There is only one thing i really really dislike. The Ending, the Farewell to Geralt was weak I mean really weak.

I expected a party like... ↓



View attachment 46921

This should happen in the final 5 min of the Addon tbh.
Everybody having a great time

nevertheless I still cried like a baby when i saw the credits roll.

:'(
 

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i'm at the beginning i think, doing side quests, searching for the upgrades for witcher gear, exploring, getting killed by the new awesome monsters, my gawd is this expansion amazing, every little detail, the landscape, new environments, perfect, the colours, the new monsters are really a challenge, you use all the tools at your disposal or you are as good as dead, this map is huge,
the bruxas move like in the trailer, thats awesome, very well done, trailer qualitiy right in the game
the cities, just wow, so many new npc's the new clothing, the detail, so beautiful, and a dialog that is just too much: to much awesomeness. i played it yesterday,
i'm still smiling! : at the harbor, in the brothel, Warning: don't read it unless you have already been there and talkd to every lady:
there is a lady there that thinks that geralt is disguised as a witcher and tells that some men want to be disguised as a witcher and the lady has to act like a succubus or a siren and then the man tells her that a witcher doesn't kill sentient conscious beeings and she has to give him something to fulfill his contract, some trophy, and then they go away happy
epic

---------- Updated at 05:59 PM ----------

is it just me or there are too few monsters on this map?
 
All in all Fantastic with a few but tolerable rough edges.

+ The story is great. Many may say the main villain was a weak character, bit like an impatient and impulsive teenager but he's the toughest boss fight.
+ Revised gameplay and bossfights. I like that I can no longer beat Trolls to death or hurt Giant Centepeds from behind. That s good but whats great is boss fights are now incredible. With 1.21 release, I fought Olgierd. Fighting him made more sense and also included more risk. You had to attack him in a very short window of time and any mistake would greatly deal damage to Geralt or even kill him. So when going for an opening you have to leave yourself a bit vulnerable. I liked that. Previously, we could just find a weak spot and exploit it with ease but now even after you learn how to deal with a boss, executing it is a lot more risky. This is the case with Olgierd and Dedlaff and I just love it. I'll just have to see if such changes have been made with Eredin fight.
+ Graphics performance seems improved and also the water and particle effects, especially fog looks better.
+ The new lighting. I have noticed that there is and exaggeration to the lighting style and yet there is also a subtlety to it. It could not have been easy to achieve. It is preposterous that the sky is turquoise but the effect of the light falling on the screen is amazing, just amazing. They've really managed to achieve a fairy tale and mediterranean summer feel with it. But maybe it could be toned down a little while maintaining the style/character of the light.
+ There seems to be richer environmental sound effects and the weapon sound effects seem better too.

- When keeping inventory items that are more than one in number like runes, hides, etc, when keeping them in stash I have to select how many I want to keep; and while taking them from stash I take all of them at once. This should have been exactly the opposite. When I stash, I just want to dump it all in the stash. I don't want to count. I want to make inventory as light as possible. Whereas I decide that I will to get some armor made, I know that I'll need things like bear hide, wolf hide, dimeritium cuffs, etc. for dismantling for crafting items. I know that I'll need no more than, say 10 bear hides but I'm forced to take all I have in stash, say 57. So I have to take 57 and again keep 47 of them back. This is annoying and waste time and also is currently a slow process, I mean there's input lag. This I totally dislike. I'd like to pick the number of things I want to take from stash. So CDPR, please reverse how this feature works.
- Armor dye. In most cases its hopeless. In some cases, its tolerable. In rare cases, its actually good. The worst thing is that the best armor in gaming, the Ursine set has suffered most for it. The Leather in the chest and base and enhanced gauntlets had a nice texture of green. Now its a solid color. Could the devs not change the hue of the previous/original set to match the different colored dyes? That would be better IMO. I think it could be done with green dye giving the original look and other colors changing the hue but not the texture. I hope the original chest and gauntlet piece comes back. I've never cared for armor stats if it didn't look good. Aesthetics is important as far as I'm concerned. As the armor dyes now stand, they serve only the color blind, which to my knowledge is most people in the world, which is unfortunate
- I wish I had a slightly better card so I could play with full settings because Toussaint deserves it. I played it at full settings for the first run anyway.

I know I've complained but you and I both know I'll be playing the singing shite out of this De La Croix.
 
Can't get much into spoilers so I didn't read the thread. Played only a few hours as it's been hard to find the hours to play like I used to. I miss that.
I just want to say that, man , I'm loving it! But that coming from a fan who played and replayed all The Witcher games like a manic for the past 8 years. However, after 1560 hours with TW3, this is my 12th playthrough and I'm really not in a hurry to finish it. Not only I still have all main quest to do, starting with going to Isle of Mists, after finishing some Skellige's tasks, I did HoS before that, got a level 70 Geralt in NG+ and in this run I'm clocking over 220 hours.

And there was the 7 months break, away from TW3. I can easily say that I'll take a really long time to finish B&W, in game hours. Because I don't know when I'll be able to replay it from start in NG, like I usually do after a NG+, I'm really taking my time, enjoying every little pixel on the map! If there's a stone in my way, I want to look under it to see it there's something the Reds placed there for maniac players like me to find! =) HoS was well over 50 hours to me.

B&W feels bigger and will prolly take me more than that in the first run. It's like a whole game. I pity those who rush through it and finish it in 10 hours and never touch the game again. There is always so much to be discovered and I think only one run through B&W won't be enough. Still praying that CDPR can change their minds in the coming years and give us a bit more of The Witcher.

Either with a new expansion or a whole new game, The whole Witcher series, TW3 in particular, (And Dragon Age Origins) is the only game I see myself playing with my kids in 10-20 years, after they are born! (or adopted since my wife couldn't have them despite all our effort and time is ruthless some times)
 
So, let's talk about the main story, since I couldn't leave it and played through it first, ignoring most sidequests.

I think it was amazing. If I would rank the storylines in Witcher 3, I would rank it the second best story after Hearts of Stone, and think it could have been better if worked on more and if it were longer.

I got the "worst" ending, where both sisters die, since I went to see the Unseen One. I did not read the books.

What I loved:
- Vampire theme: I think the vampire theme was spectacular, their history and lore extremely interesting. Loved the symbolism of the country of wine awash with blood, loved the attack on the city, their powers, all of it. Sapkowski wrote vampires very well, one of the best representation of vampires I've ever seen in modern fantasy.

- Regis: Probably the only character in the expansion that had been done justice. He's interesting, seems extremely intelligent but still likeable, has a great character arc with strong moral dilemmas. You really pity him for what he's gone through at the end. You really believe the friendship he and Geralt has.

- The dark parts of the story: While I liked some of the jokes and more easier scenes, the story really shines at its darkest, when it pits you before hard dilemmas and makes you really think about your decisions. I had that easier, since I got the "worst" ending, but from what I've heard about other endings, this one has probably the biggest emotional impact. It also creates a beautiful contrast between the idyllic Touissant and the horrors that lie within. Really kind of reminded me of Witcher 1 in some parts (the investigation, attack on the city).

- Meeting with Regis, Spoon wight, Tesham Mutna, Dining with vampires, Attack on the city, The Unseen One, Fight with Detlaff, Final drink with Regis: Nuff said. Amazing stuff, great writing. These will be the moments I'll look for while viewing Youtuber's playthroughs to see their reaction.​

What I didn't love:
- The underdevelopment of some characters:
- Annarieta: It's true I didn't read the books, but I couldn't really feel invested in her, and I feel it's partly because of her "detachment" from Geralt, the fact that she almost (except the time with the nude painting) never lets down her guard and seems cold and unapproachable. Would be really interesting to see her as a romance, but I know that the more hardcore Witcher fans wouldn't like that, since she was with Dandelion. But just a fun conversation over a glass of wine would be great to give her more likeability.

- Detlaff: I think, that if we had actually been given the chance to properly know the guy, the end would have much higher emotional impact than it already had. He seemed like a generic villain with his only interesting quality being that Regis really likes him. Would like to see conversations with him written more into the story.

- Syanna: Basically same as with Detlaff, didn't have any time to actually get to know her and start to like her except for one conversation at the end. She seemed very black and white, very simplistic. I wasn't really sold on her being a big mastermind behind everything, partly because of very little foreshadowing. True, didn't play the Syanna branch, so I might be proven wrong, and I'd love to be.

- The whole "wine" part:
I felt the wine investigation was just filler to prolong the story and broke the pacing a little bit for me. Partly because I couldn't get over the "magical" wine connosieur. Was just bored with that quest.

TLDR:
I really loved the story for its haunting storyline, great ideas, mostly great writing and interesting lore. Still felt it was slightly short of its true potential, mostly just because it seemed rushed in some parts, not giving enough time to get to know most characters. But it still gets a second place in my ranking of Witcher stories, just behind Master Mirror. Amazing job CDPR, but wish you would take more time to polish it more into utter perfection.

 
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So, after reloading a save game and played now the other final act and visited the fairytale land, i have a even bigger smile in my face.
It's just awesome.. hard to describe how much i like this. The look, the atmosphere....and i had a few good laughs also :D

Also the one- night day-stand with Syanna fits very well into it and was well made.
All in all a perfect little word. Very well made. After finished it, i just reloaded and played it again.

Damn...
it will take years until we get something to play like that again....
 
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The DLC I had the most pleasure to experience since Citadel, ends this perfect saga in such a high note, loved it.
 
I loved the expansion, especially the ending sitting there with Regis. (that look and smile in the camera though :hatsoff: )
I was really surprised they added the curse of the black sun in there, I am literary at that part (Blaviken) in the books in my reread. So it was a really nice touch. Though at some point the story was going quite fast forward and it seemed Geralt kind off solved it pretty quick, at least that was my experience.
I also loved it that Geralt at the end can get the choice to 'settle down' with Yen.

All in all, for me a perfect ending to the games.
 
I liked the vampire theme. Beautifull land with awfull people in it. Can't say I like the pompous chevalier theme that permeates the whole dlc, so that made it very bad.

For me Hearts of Sone is far superior to this dlc.
 
Personally, i liked the expansion quite a lot, story was fun (got the good ending). only few things were kinda strange to me, mostly technical, like the fact both Aerondight and Geralt of Rivia Sword (tourney reward) were kinda a lot bigger than other swords are in the game... they look a lot strange having them on the back.. feel like having some Japan fantasy swords, which is kinda ridiculous... one of the first things i modded out, was to replace the Aerondight Ep2 model with Aerondight (Maugrim) model from base game... i've lost the weapon glow in the process, but at least weapon size doesnt bug me everytime i look at that weapon hanging on Geralts back in my current NG+ replay...
 
Have not yet tackled it, but everyone says it's awesome and I do believe it and I am looking forward to get to it. Although I have been kinda disappointed that, given the fact that this is supposedly the last dlc released for W3, CDPR did not get to resolving things with Iorveth and Saskia. So, maybe that is on purpose either for some future project or maybe just as a reminder that the world of the Witcher is huge and some things just remain uknown (after all, given how the things went down, I kind of understand that Saskia and Iorveth both keep pretty low profile).
 
It was great, a few bugs notwithstanding (I'm sure they will be fixed eventually), but...
no sugar from the Duchess OR Yennefer? The former I can forgive, but Yennefer is, like, your wife. This is the final chapter, the end, Geralt's happily-ever-after. Couldn't we have one last treat before we said goodbye? It's rather disappointing when she goes to the bedroom and just stands there with her back to you, and you can't even talk to her anymore.
Yes, I am a dirty old man.
 
- Syanna: Basically same as with Detlaff, didn't have any time to actually get to know her and start to like her except for one conversation at the end. She seemed very black and white, very simplistic. I wasn't really sold on her being a big mastermind behind everything, partly because of very little foreshadowing. True, didn't play the Syanna branch, so I might be proven wrong, and I'd love to be.​

I disagree, if you follow the good ending path as I did, if your read all diary's entries and roam around with her in the fairy tales land, you really can see she's a really interesting and complex character for whom I felt even more empathy than towards the Bloody Baron. She was a carefree pest as a child who loved her sister and got banished, raped and tortured at like15 years old just because she was considered cursed (as in the books, the curse of the black sun brings in all sort of moral doubts, since it is unclear if it is the curse the cause of the wickedness or the fact that you are treat like s**t all your life for that) from people who are considered magnanimous kinghts (you can understand how upsetting can be seeing people who act evilly considered valiant and magnanimous while you are considered evil not for your actions but for your destiny). Even her one-night stand with Geralt is really understandable because it portrays well how sex is often regarded by people being abused in the past, a distorted way to say thank to him without commitment or involvement. I suggest you to replay the game with the good path, you will see all that little dialogs/interactions CDP made wonderfully in particular in the fairy tales land and you will agree with me.


Anyway really loved the expansion. I was only disappointed by the length of the main quest, it seems to me even shorter than the one of a smaller DLC like HoS. That's why maybe many people know arguing that HoS plot is by far superior. Because I don’t think that Olgierd or Gaunter are necessary better than Syanna or Dettlaff, but the more captivating and longer main plot of HoS makes believe so. Therefore, the premises were huge, the sensation of running against the clock at the beginning was awesome, but then the pacing really fell off and the plot is revealed too soon in my opinion. I really loved some moments tho: the inspection in Detlaff house with the music box and the dolls, the quest in the gardens, the quest with Syanna in the fairy tale illusion, the fight with Regis imprisoned. But as I said, the main quest was too short to have a better pacing and development of the plot. The tourney was a bit out of place too. They should have given us a sort of forced brake in the middle of the main quest and give us a better reason to participate. I did it only to completion but it really clashed against the hurry sensation of the main quest. And again, CDP quite fails to deliver great/ big/ crowded events that occurs in the witcher world: as for the coming of the wild hunt in Skellige (tho there I mostly blame the fact that all the act 3 was rushed) and the invasion of the vampires in the city, the tourney didn’t hit me properly, maybe they were too few npc, shortcuts, overviews or simply the surrounding environment was not enough dynamic, but these big events fails to deliver to me. If I can give to CDP a constructive critique is to try to orchestrate these types of events better with Cyberpunk: the music must carry all the scene, not 2-3 random cheers or cries of the npc, the cam direction must be more eclectic and environment noise must be more various and present. Besides that, it’s scary how can be so beautiful returning to play this awesome game, how little time you need to grow fond of the characters…I’ve read that after Cyberpunk CDP doesn’t want to make a Witcher 4 because after such acclaim they are afraid not to deliver and to maintain the same quality, but man, after playing these 2 dlc I would say I couldn’t get bored by 4 identical games with just different stories.
 
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I loved the top notch trope breaking RPG writing. A real level up from base game. People I've been arguing with are complaining about illogical results of their dialogue choices cos they've been used to being good/honest to the letter in rpgs resulting in the best possible endings; they rely on what their character will say rather than assessing what's going on in the story. Like with not telling the loverboy about Vivienne they think they've been faithful to Vivienne's wishes and expecting a reward for that but they don't consider telling the secret to this particular guy shouldn't harm Vivienne. There were more arguments especially how the main story resolves in different ways which I'll not go into. Base game tried to this but there were usually too little clue, too much pitfalls in many cases, I think they nearly perfected it in this one. Kudos.
 
Just finished the main quest. Regis, Geralt and Anna are all incredible characters in the expansion. Dettlaff was interesting, but not great as a character. As a boss, he is great. I probably died 5-6 times before I figured out the timing. I liked Syanna as well, but definitely think picking her as the romance option was a little strange.

Beyond Hill and Dale was a fantastic quest. Le Cage au Fou, the Knight and the Warble, the Party at Orinna's were all very good as well. I got the "happy ending" I think. I thought it was pretty well written. Although I don't think I could have forgiven Syanna if I was Anna, it seemed believable for her to do so.

I really like Geralt's little winery, as having a place to call your own (and a bed to sleep in) seems the perfect ending for Geralt of Rivia. He has earned it. Having said that the ending scene with Triss was a smidge underwhelming for me (I am interested to see the Yen version as she is the "canon" romance for me). I'm excited to hit up the rest of the contracts and side quests. The Witcher mutations system is interesting thus far, but I'm definitely going to need more time to play with it. I will say that the expansion seems a little more buggy to me than the base game did at release, but I could just be wearing nostalgia glasses.

Finally, the setting is perfect. It's my favorite region in the game. No question about it. The level designers and artists really outdid themselves with this expansion. The city of Beauclair and the Palace are things that I marvel at both from a distance and from within. Truly impressive.

Overall, B&W was very good IMHO. Not quite up to HoS standards, but definitely one of the best expansions / DLCs I've ever played. I have only played it as a post epilogue quest, but I think it falls best in time there. I loved the setting, very much liked the plot and new characters, and liked the game play additions.
 
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