The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine Critique

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Now that the Witcher series is over, let me know what games/series you want to see me cover in the future. Here are some timestamps for those that need them: Intro - 0:00 Hearts of Stone: Story - 3:11 Hearts of Stone: Other - 21:21 Blood and Wine: Story - 27:33 Blood and Wine: Other - 44:05 Conclusion - 1:02:53

[@jossricketts4452]

Well, it'd be nice to see some love for Gothic series.

[@kamil_z91_72]

Fallout or AC games

[@ivarisalie8759]

@@jossricketts4452 YES. Boooi, came to the comments to suggest Gothic series myself haha

[@really.not.important]

@@jossricketts4452/videos It would be great to see, Gothic 2 is my GOAT, but going beyond that it would just be a bunch of negative stuff.

[@KalleVilenius]

I'm going to suggest something a little different from what you usually do and say Lisa: The Painful. It's still an RPG filled with morally questionable actions.

[@broodwars64]

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the hallucination sidequest in Blood & Wine that has Roach talking to Geralt, which leads to Geralt hilariously breaking the 4th wall & asking questions about Roach's game mechanics. I stumbled across that quest completely by accident.

[@ducksauce2696]

"The difficulty of acquiring a house is probably self explanatory, particularly for millennials" - damn that one hurt mate. Another great vid, thanks for your hard work!

[@jazzx251]

We need to appeal to the older generation (and I'm 47) to let the drawbridge back down - maybe a song: "Toss a coin to your Twitcher, oh daddy of plenty, oh daddy of plenty - wo-o-oh ..."

[@wilfredwayne7139]

That difficult my brother is building his own in the middle of nowhere.

[@captainsavs]

43:37 When the cursed woman tells the story of her curse, the Gaunter O'Dimm theme song plays, so yeah.

O'Dimm was genius. The stuff he says about Ciri... it really makes you think about the decisions you make toward the end of the main storyline.

[@Maharani1991]

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[@alexandrustemate4461]

I was acctually very immersed in Touissant because if the underlying feeling that the prosperity of the region is a facade. The large amount of bandits, and conversations which show multiple failing businesses, and the focus on corruption within the Knights errand all point to a failing economy and destitute people, which we can see if we explore some more isolated areas, added to the hints of wavering support for Anna Henrietta before her death.

[@breadan1234]

depends on what you mean by a failing economy. the ducal treasury certainly isn't struggling, and the vineyards are still in full swing. loads of side quests have you clearing out caves for wine merchants, so clearly that's expanding too. so i'm not sure about that

[@isaacwilcox3010]

Anna Henrietta can actually die? How?

[@MrDueltube]

Yeah it's deceptive, when you first arrive in Toussaint it's sunny and everything looks beautiful in stark contrast to the base game map which was often dark and had signs of death & destruction all around (because of the war) the more time you spend though the more you see this place isn't the supposed paradise it's made out to be.

[@MrDueltube]

@@isaacwilcox3010 If you don't pick the right dialogue options with Sienna, she will hold her grudge against her sister. Later her sister will try to hug her and she will pull out her hair pin, then stab the queen in the neck. Just like that.

[@jackjager8790]

My favorite expansions of all time, truly the gold standard.

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

And they sell both of them for $25 together, they sell them separately as well but its obvious that $25 for 2 dlcs that are usually $15 seperate. Especially since each of them are basically new games

[@MrDueltube]

@@eyoshinthemaximum Yes and no. Can't argue with the pricing that's very true. However as awesome as Hearts of Stone is, doesn't have a new map it just uses pre-existing locations from the base game. It's excellent content but not truly big enough to be considered It's own game. Blood and Wine on the other hand, oh yeah definitely! I have seen other open world franchises where the base game is smaller, shorter, and has less overall content than just Blood and Wine.

[@donwild50]

@@eyoshinthemaximum I got the base game when the Netflix Witcher series first appeared. Steam put the base game on sale for just over 14 dollars and for just 4 dollars more you got all the DLC's...together it cost just over 18 bucks. And it was well timed for another reason...when Witcher 3 came out, my computer just wasn't capable of handling it, but a few years later when the series came out and the sales prices had tumbled, I had a new computer and got the who delicious banquet for a pittance. And CDPR gives out new content for free...Take that, EA.

[@colinvoorneveld]

My favorite is the shivering isles

[@sneaky5141]

i feel we should respect CDPR and go by their definitions. these are expansions, everything free they gave us was DLC

[@jazzx251]

Everything is DLC these days - even the main game! ("DownLoadable Content") I prefer the old terminology ... An expansion is a paid piece of work that adds significantly to the main game's experience ... and there can be no doubt that CDPR made the best two expansions in the history of computer games. A level that would have proudly been displayed as a main game for nearly every other studio - retailing at $60, gratefully lapped up by millions without complaint. DLC is when they let you give Yennefer a new look, or some golden horse armour ... all for free of course.

[@sneaky5141]

@@jazzx251 yes

[@konrad07dre]

The whole wedding quest in Hearts of Stone is one huge reference to the Polish literary classic, The Wedding by Stanisław Wyspiański. Still find it interesting how enjoyable the DLC for you was, considering the amount of in-game references and strong reliance on Polish folklore and (pop)culture there, not recognizable to non-Polish players obviously. That just proves the quality of the expansion itself.

[@Makrelacz]

I know its a bit too late now, but durring the tourney race you can hold the attack button and it slow down time, making it much easier to hit a target.

[@untruewalrus1323]

You can do WHAT

[@laanson5389]

UntrueWalrus isn’t there literally a tutorial message on this? Like in the practice of the race it already told you that

[@donwild50]

@@laanson5389 Yep...as you approach the dummies, hold down the attack button and you get Geralt's version of "bullet time" more than enough time to line up Roach with the target. Hold the course until you are absolutely level with the dummy to let fly and you hit it every time. The same holds true with the "Duel" with Anseis. Just position yourself to one side, hold down the attack button...you will slow and let fly when you are parallel to Anseis. He can turn around quickly but if you ride a bit further you will have time to turn. You only need to hit him 2 to 4 times to knock him out.

[@alluxander1219]

@@laanson5389 He probably skipped the tutorial, so he didn't get the message

[@Barajuana]

I also found the horse time trial in blood and wine difficult until I realised the holding the attack button slows time and allows you to maneuver and time your attacks with much more accuracy.

[@TriggEttan]

Been a year or so since I played The witcher 3 but from what I remember about Deadlaff and vampires is that their emotions are more "extreme". They rely on a hierarchy structure and not as much emotional or social structure humans have, also I think they love someone until they die. Regis have had more time socializing with humans and can control his emotions better, Deadlaff is more childlike because he recently started to socialize. I could be wrong and It's from some other story, but I think that's how I didn't see his outbursts as immersion breaking. Anyway keep the critique going, you are the only channel where I actually watch the whole video and not half listen to while I do other stuff. As for games recommendation how about The Talos Principle? It's sort of like Return of the Obra Dinn which is one of my all time favorite games, a "puzzle" game where you try to figure out what happened in the past. But the story is indirectly told compared to Obra Dinn. Another game: Observation, It's more of a point and click game and the story centers around you. It's like "2001: A space odyssey" the game. It's a shorter game too.

[@astrojeet]

You're wrong about Dettlaff. He's old but as Regis says he's very animalistic and driven by instinct and generally stays away from human society and does not understand them. Imagine a man who's primarily driven by his Id, that's what Dettlaff represents. From Regis' description of Dettlaff, his actions make complete sense.

[@josebrito3248]

the silver sword is not lost when you are arrested in the witcher 2 it's lost when you stuck it in the dragon mouth at the end of the prologue

[@moonknightish]

Or at least it's what is supposed to happen "in lore", because in gameplay it's the basic silver sword that is used (and lost) in that cutscene, not Aerondight

[@TamaraBloodhoof]

@@moonknightish Actually it is Aerondight if you brought it from Witcher 1, which most people who played through Witcher 1 would do. It's the best silver sword you can get without needing to kill every trophy monster where many people miss one or two. As such not just in lore, but in gameplay you also lose Aerondight as you travel from game 1 to 2.

[@Whizzer]

Not sure where you got the idea Anna Henrietta is a queen.

[@darthrevan926]

Well it kind of seems like it. Tough the title is mentioned a lot. But it doest really matter does it?

[@G0LD3NF1RE]

Isn't really that far of a reach honestly. Yeah if he payed a bit more attention he would know but the huge city and castle and the surrounding landscape is pretty much what you would see a king would rule in many other open world games (Elder Scrolls) guess he just didn't expect The Witchers scale. But ya I agree is kinda a amateur mistake for a video game critic/analyzer.

[@Spellweaver5]

Probably not far from the place where he got the idea that Skjall was killed by the Hunt.

[@GewalfofWivia]

She's effectively queen in her lands; just that her lands aren't independent.

[@Koblizzard]

@@G0LD3NF1RE Not much of a reach, but considering the video is a 1 hour in-depth critique which focuses mainly on the story, it's a little surprising how many small things about the story are inaccurate.

[@zamaskowany12]

9:00 There is no way Vesemir was a "youngest" becasue he's well over 200 years old. He is the only Witcher to see the purge of Kaer Morhen which would put him near the 400 years mark. Unless the lady is like 300 years old herself it's impossible for Vesemir to be a youngster during her youth.

[@ItsMeStrider]

Vesemir is easily over 300 years old.

[@K-Nyne]

But he may have looked more like a youngster, it's kind of vague how WItcher aging works, and it differs per Witcher. He may have looked like 40 instead of 60+ years old

[@ItsMeStrider]

We only know witchers age very slow, geralt is supposed to look like he's in his late 20s despite being well over 90 in the books (and over 100 in BoW). If that lady is in her 90s then vesemir was around his early-mid 200's when they met. Now, at above 300 he looks like he's in his 60's. He could still look young enough.

[@Armand-ue7om]

to be honest sometimes in my replay through of this game I couldn't wait to finish the main story so I could hop into Blood and wine. I just really enjoy that world next to skellige...

[@atomic_wait]

Blood and Wine puts other games' DLC to shame in terms of dollar to value.

[@ivarisalie8759]

Boi it puts to shame most full sized games.

[@Charok1]

B and W is better than the base game. I can't think of another game that is like that. Witcher 3 was a boring thumbs down until I played Blood and Wine. It was done right like Witcher 2.

[@SaberRexZealot]

@** I wouldn’t go that far. I think the main game was just 15 hours longer than it needed to be, whereas the DLCs cut a lot of the fat and felt more focused.

[@G0LD3NF1RE]

@@Charok1 I found some of the story stuff with B&W kinda stupid at some points (Detlaff) but yeah it is some of the best DLC content i have played.

[@mariosmatzoros3553]

@@mark.slater I know that everyone has different opinions but I just can't understand how someone would say that hollow knight is objectively better than the witcher.

[@ciapatyciapacz5354]

"I'm pretty sure Pan Twardowski never met Persian people" well as a nobleman he might met some on the battlefield, Poland was bordering the Ottoman Empire from the south and had multiple wars with it (many inhabitants of Rzeczpospolita were also sold into muslim slavery so called "jasyr"), because of this contacts traditional polish nobleman (szlachta) costumes looked pretty oriental. Also claiming that people vehemently oppose any non white characters in the Witcher is a strawman, what fans opposed was SJWs turning it into some sort of political issue that most Poles including CDPR devs wouldn't even understand. There was also this whole debacle with the Netflix show that actually racebends quite a few characters in ways that are not really compatible with the lore (black Fringilla Vigo might be the most egregious example) and added multiple non-white characters to populate medieval villages as a result it looks pretty generic, American rather than Polish or Slavic. Even Tomasz Bagiński when asked about the controversy didn't try to deny it but would rather deflect by saying that "slavicness" of Witcher is exaggerated or something along those lines but even if he's right (the series is pretty eclectic in it's inspirations (Sapkowski is not the most original author) it beggs a questions how many fantasy shows explore slavic theme, wouldn't that make it more unique, interesting and actually diverse rather than skin tones?

[@Princeps2]

You are absolutely right. It’s not about racism anymore. It is diversity for diversity’s sake and it makes the whole show look generic and cowardly. I’ve seen black people complain about Triss or aformentioned Fringilla Vigo being so different from the books. Putting diversity over quality and an actual template set by the books at all cost diminishes a lot of care that went to the show.

[@TheMilhouseExperience]

I’ve never read the books and I’ve only taken glimpses at the games through reviews and such, never really playing the games, but I thought the diversity in the show was garish/distracting compared to everything else in the show looking “lived in.” Certain things I assume were done well, the 2 ?sisters? who fell in love with the gold dragon, but other characters, named or otherwise just seemed to be off, Triss being the worst of it for me.

[@Spellweaver5]

​@@TheMilhouseExperience the two Zerrikanian girls are the ones who, in my opinion, suffered the most from this kind of inclusivity. They were no longer special, they no longer looked exotic and distinctly foregn to the North.

[@ohhoimork6844]

The issue with the show is a bit more complicated than most people here are giving it credit. It’s not about having diversity for the sake of diversity, it’s about not putting out a casting call that states “non-whites need not apply.”

[@SamButler22]

She's a duchess, not a queen

[@Maharani1991]

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[@DLibera]

@@Maharani1991 I was about to comment that.

[@SaberRexZealot]

All women are queens

[@FanksCast]

@@SaberRexZealot you clearly haven't dated the crazy bitches yet

[@legion999]

That Bank quest wasn't really meant to satirize tedium, it was more like reference to an Asterix scene.

[@gingerbeargames]

small thing, it's down to choices you've made through the game as to who will come to the vineyard

[@duke605]

When I saw the title screen for blood and wine, I had a had time finding my jaw afterwards. It was absolutely gorgeous. Everything about this DLC was gorgeous and well done.

[@onearmedwolf6512]

That professor shakeslock didn't make a deal with the man of glass. Olgierd went to the professor and asked him to find out who o dimm is and how to get rid of him. He went blind from the research and o dimm showed up and says it's due to the professor showing such interest and that o dimm returns that interest. The protection glyph was a "gift" from o dimm.

[@SamButler22]

The caretaker is in the regular world, not the painted world

[@AntiNihilist]

40:38 yes they are. Forgiveness isn't flexible. I've never understood the idea of forgiving someone but also punishing them, if anything you should forgive someone after their punishment, or perhaps due to how they changed due to the thing that they did. Forgiving someone and then having them sacrifice themselves just insults my intelligence. They weren't forgiven, they were killed without having the "good guy" do anything morally gray.

[@486693]

I wasnt allowed to game since young, when im of employment age I started to work part time while studying. Witcher 3 was one of the first game I got and damn, it set a really high bar to my expectations of games after.

[@marleyfa845]

Same for me. I wasn't allowed to own a console or something so I never found gaming easy or enjoyable later. Then I tried playing the witcher 3 in the middle of studying and it fascinated me in a way no other game will ever be able to. It set the bar too high. Sure, there are some good games but nothing will beat this magical first gaming experience.

[@MrAjking808]

@@marleyfa845 little kids 😂

[@neamraven]

41:03 You're right. Your salty dig at people offering legitimate criticism is an incredibly mature act. I mean isn't that why you speak in a nihilistic monotone, because you're so mature and not a pretentious, edgy pseudointellectual at all. At least Dettlaff looks good while being edgy (he's a vampire).

[@zoisantonopoulos7999]

At this point it's well know Chris is a leftist. Nothing wrong with thus but taking shots like that is very immature.

[@ortacreef8557]

On my first run-through of Blood and Wine - I didn't find it "incredibly easy" to avoid two dead princesses at Syanna's trial. Maybe it takes gamers understanding eachother's mentality to select the correct dialogue options to achieve this without a bit of luck.

[@DiZtheJedi]

Syanna's dialogue options in that conversation were pretty difficult to decipher. I save-scummed and looked up the right choices after I got her and Anna Henrietta killed the first time.

[@Sparkball]

Scenes from a marriage might be the greatest quest I’ve ever played

[@catgirlsupersoldier5306]

40:29 Technically she does get killed off. Ribbon is a "good" ending you get only if you complete all quests in fairytale zone. And without the ribbon she dies and you get another ending. p.s. I haven't finished the video yet, so if you mention it later then sorry >.>

[@twinmama42]

Deat Chris More than one hour about these fantastic expansions of an already masterpiece of a game. And I agree with almost everything, you mentioned in your video. But I have to mention some things knowing I may be nitpicking there. DLCs in CDPR's terminology are small additional pieces of content one does not have to pay for. HoS and BaW are add-ons or expansions with lots of new content and for which you have to pay an adequate sum of money. HoS brings a new area to the game, you just don't recognize it as it connects seamlessly to the Novigrad map. I never had problems with financing the rune-smith and/or the master-smith in Toussaint. I know, how much money I'm probably going to need in advance. So if I'm in the danger of being a little short, I collect some pirate's stashes in Skellige. Anna Henrietta (or for short Anarietta) is a duchess, not a queen. I really love the bank / bureaucracy quest as it is an homage to "Asterix and Obelix conquer Rome" one of my favourite childhood cartoons (yes, I'm that old). You didn't mention the bonding quest between Geralt and Roach, so I guess you didn't find it. You have to load an old safe-file and look for it. TW3 with both expansions is a world I don't want to leave, ever. So whenever I've had my little chat with Yen in Corvo Bianco, I have the urge to start reading the books again - and most of the time I do, squishing in half a chapter whenever I can. But then when I've finished the books I want to play again. But I know, it will take months of time I don't have to complete the third game. So I most of the time I decide against it. Yet, once every year I must play TW3. I'm coming back to the game as I only do it with Dragon Age Origins, once a year at minimum. Thank you for this video, it couldn't have come at a better date, btw. Happy anniversary and CU twinmama

[@OmegaEnvych]

Someone else remembers Asterix and Obelix cartoons? O_O

[@twinmama42]

@@OmegaEnvych Of course, the cartoon books were our way of learning a foreign language before there were DVDs with multiple languages, KZbin, or streaming services.

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

A small thing I always disliked about that old lady at the auction house and Vesemir and I mean it's a small thing, but witchers can live for hundreds of years Geralt himself is 100 or so years old. It's never openly stated how old Vesemir is at least not as far as I know but most people believe he's around 600 years old, he is the oldest living witcher and has trained many generations of witchers so there is no way vesemir was a young man when he met that lady unless she somehow is 600 years old as well.

[@SaberRexZealot]

I guess Vesemir’s looks accelerated sometime after taking Geralt in. The stress of having him most likely had an effect.

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

@@SaberRexZealot I guess stress can do that to a man, but still that would mean that at the age of about 500 Vesemir still looked like he was in his 20, that would be some crazy good genetics considering Geralt at 100 looks far beyond his 20.

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

@Eon Shred Really? Can you tell me how you know that.

[@ZanguSwe]

I disagree slightly with you when it comes to your disappointment with how the gameplay of HoS takes you out of the game. I'd probably not enjoy the expansion as much if they had segments like the wedding and the auction be basically elongated cutscenes. Because that's something I absolutely hated in, for example, Death Stranding, which had multiple longer cutscenes where I basically just put down my controller. I feel like the game then takes too many cues from a movie or a show. The great thing about video games is that you are in control of a character involved in the story. You get to make choices. To sit back and just let the game show you what a character will do lessens the impact of having the player be directly involved. I can agree that, especially during the painting quest, the "game" elements do ruin the immersion slightly. But I would not want it to lack more gameplay than it already does. I can understand your frustration though.

[@nathangreen4539]

I loved hearts of stone. The new characters where fantastic and the story kept me hooked, which was often struggle with in video games

[@blacklotus1606]

Despite watching hundreds of videos about Witcher 3, still can not stop watching more.

[@moonknightish]

The diversity issue in this decade is about the representation, in american media, of the ethnic groups that compose the social tissue of the modern american society. I think you can understand on your own how stupid it is to complain about diversity, aka complaining about the lack of representation of modern american society, in a polish piece of media. Asking to have black people or asian people in the form of people from the northern realms, it's the equivalent of asking to have white people playing native americans and to dress in native americans clothes, with the feathered hats. It's absurd.

[@OmegaEnvych]

To be fair - W2 an W3 were americanised heavily to have world-wide appeal. Even Base language for them is English, not Polish. I played with Polish voiceover and often it suffered from issues with timings similar to let's say, Russian (in which it's almost impossible to talk to Triss without her either saying something incredibly fast or REALLY-REALLY SLOW) or other languages that English simply doesn't have. But when it comes to actual visual then true - most characters are predominantly white. There are no mass-teleport in witcher and dark-skinned people should be relatively scarce in region that is mostly medieval Poland (Redania literally looks like Poland, and Olgierd's gang has appearance of Ukrainian Cossacks of mid 17th century. So does his background). So it makes sense. Also, there is enough racism in game as it is - Elfs and Dwarfs are literally second-class citizens if citizens at all, and for most considered lesser beings than humans. Though Elfs in Witcher are closer to something in between Native Americans and Gypsies. But of course when diversity is talked about, no one remembers Native Americans who still live in terrible conditions.

[@cashnelson2306]

lol this is such an embarrassing comment

[@moonknightish]

@@cashnelson2306 why?

[@MrJimmypickles]

The issue with the economy is a pretty easy fix, so long as you are fine with sailing around skellige to loot all the smugglers caches and then sell all of it to the grandmaster armourer. The smugglers cache is the only part of the game I find a little tedious and boring, yet all the money that can be made from selling the stuff really makes them worth looting. The most I ended up with on a normal play through (not new game plus) in the end after upgrading the runewright fully, corvo Bianco and having a couple grandmaster sets, was about 250,000 crowns

[@tinyspeaker]

Considering you've read the books and played the games, you make a lot of errors in your narration.

[@danieljung5862]

true

[@Julian-nd5cl]

the shakeslock thing is optional but I'm sure everyone did it cuz shani is great

[@FireFighter666999]

you didn't mention that the wedding quest is inspired by the book by a great polish writer Wyspianski ... "The wedding" i thought it was obvious but then i remembered that not everyone is polish soo ye .

[@VladTheRad]

*DLCs* : Temerian Armor Set, Beard and Hairstyle Set, Witcher Contract: Missing Miners, Alternate Look For Yennefer, Nilfgaardian Armor Set, etc... *Expansions* : Hearts of Stone, Blood & Wine

[@marchans-christianpiech3297]

In the previous video you said your opinion, I listened carefully and wrote a non-aggressive short response disagreeing with you and you come back with this 40:07. Your argument in the previous video was dumb and you yourself pointed out most of the reasons why without even realizing it. If you don´t want to rethink it, at least stop passive-aggressive coping please and rather focus on the game. Let´s pretend it never happened. Anyway I like your channel and your content.

[@Spellweaver5]

Imagine being a critic that is so afraid of growing as a person that you'd actually devote some parts of your video not to addressing the points you were given but portraying all who disagrees as angry racist. Wouldn't that be miserable?

[@HNav-qb3we]

Same dude, same lol

[@rogoth01themasterwizard11]

i'll leave this here: i was a little confused by your seemingly orgasm levels of praise for hearts of stone in regards to the storyline while simultaneously complaining about it being set in the same 'zones' as the 'base game', yes the subzone is the same on the world map, but the areas you go to and complete the tasks in (not counting the city hubs here) are entirely new and different as you will never go there during the wild hunt plotline, furthermore while Gaunter o'dimm is based on a folk tale within the witcher universe it is believed he is actually THE god, not the same thing as the judeo-christian version but a hybridisation of that god+devil to create a being that is all powerful while being sadistic and evil which is why he states that people who found out his true nature were either dead, or suffering a fate worse than death (aka gone insane). Not gonna touch your racial rant with a barge pole because i genuinely have no idea where that comes from so crack on. In regards to blood and wine i don't understand your confusion about the storyline at all, it's stated multiple times by Regis as well as in the bestiary/lore books for the characters that the higher vampires are all unique and have their own powers AS WELL AS their own character quirks that make them who they are, in the case of detlaff he is very much an anti social being who struggles to understand social interactions which is why he acts the way he does, relying more on his 'animal instinct' than what we would rely on in those circumstances and it's due to this that regis alongside his blood debt that he wants to help/protect detlaff because he knows that he is incapable of rational thought in some of these regards as seen by the fact he murders the people on the flash cards without question where most people would question it. Ignoring your blatant mistakes regarding characters and places, (DUCHESS Anna Henrietta etc), it's very clear to see that you don't give the time needed to see the full story and by that i mean playing through from an alternate POV, in your first (and seemingling only) playthrough you romanced yennifer and that's why she showed up at the vineyard for the epilogue, there's 4 potential endings for people who visit and 5 total where ciri has 2 outcomes depending on your choices previously at the end of the wild hunt story, you give a shoutout to some memorable quests yet fail to recognise that the bank quest is a direct parody of Asterix the gaul from the animated film 'the twelve tasks of Asterix' where one of the 'modern' tasks set for him is to go into a building and get a specific form but most people go insane from all the back and forth and eventually they must trick the owner of the building into giving them what they need (permit #838). Lastly you complain about the combat and while i can agree the combat mechanics in this game are clunky and could use a lot of work, the ways in which i dislike them are from a mechanical perspective, you're issues come down to you either playing the game in a way that makes it substantially harder for yourself and as a result having a harder time than normal, or you flat out ignore mechanics and get punished as a result, this is nothing wrong with the game in this sense and this is purely on you as the player, you complain about the fight with detlaff and his bat swarm ability, it's very clearly telegraphed with the 'windup' being him summoning the bats to him, and it's always in a frontal 'line' and you can see where he is at all times if you were to use the 'lock on' feature during single target encounters which will always make sure that the camera angle is set to a way so you can see your target clearly regardless of what you are doing with geralt at the time, furthermore there are plenty of 'builds' you can play that make you nigh indestructible in the 'normal' game and are just bonkers in terms of power level during NG+, which again is something you clearly haven't devoted any time to, you talk about spending '100 hours' on something, a full playthrough assuming you don't get a bugged instance of the game going for a full 100% completion (where possible) should take even an experienced player of this game 300-400 hours and that doesn't include a NG+. this is already long but suffice to say if you're going to critique something like this, you should at least have enough of an idea of what you're talking about ahead of time before trying to pass off your opinions as fact as you have done numerous times in this video, while you make some valid points the majority of your qualms are down to you as the player and nothing the game has done (or not done as the case may be), and if something is unfamiliar research it so you understand it because it was painful to sit through you talk about some aspects that i knew were the complete opposite of what you were banging on about.

[@Maharani1991]

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[@antoniobrown247]

Your comment is just mind blowing and the truth be it's sad your comment don't have so many likes.

[@asendimchev1996]

God gives you 5k crowns when you do his bidding? You can win more from Gwent. To me, Gaunter doesn't seem to do anything all that powerful except to outwit a few mortals and potentially be outwitted by them. He doesn't even know where Ciri is, so he's not omnipotent. He acts like a low-level demon or like a petty pagan deity such as Loki. The "Judeo-Christian" God is in fact very capable of deeds that seem worse than Gaunter's (such as flooding the entire world due to human wickedness). But in the end, a being of endless power also has a capacity for endless love and forgiveness (which is why I think giving Olgierd a chance in the end is the good ending). There's also an afterlife in the Witcher world and Geralt was even there with Yenefer, so I think Geralt was a bit nasty in not telling Iris that.

[@rogoth01themasterwizard11]

@@asendimchev1996 you completely missed the point, the character of Gaunter O'Dimm is BASED ON the judeo-christian version of God and the Devil combined into one being, but in the witcher universe that being isn't an all powerful deity and his main 'power' is that of words and how they are used, with regards to 'not knowing where ciri is' it's possible he does and that information is worth more to him than what geralt 'payed for' so he kept it to himself plus for gameplay it makes no difference to the story or the gameplay itself if he told you outright anyway as you have no way to getting there until you reach that part in the quest line anyway. in regards to him giving you 5k, while for seasoned players that's not a lot of money, in relation to the amount of money you get from a SINGLE payment for a contract/quest or from betting on anything it's a kingly sum of money by comparison which is also the same for the money offered to you by Emhyr in story terms it's a sum of money that is obscene for most things but in gameplay terms it's a drop in the ocean, it seems like you can't disconnect the two.

[@asendimchev1996]

​@@rogoth01themasterwizard11 But what Godly thing does he do? He seems exclusively focused on being deceptively evil (even the Crones in Witcher 3 proper do some good) and he's based on the Faustian version of Satan. God does good things in the Christian interpretation, while we only see O'Dim fulfill wishes with a catch, Needful Things style.

[@yescommander2458]

The signaling, so virtuous. The Twitch deerboi council would approve. That dig at people who posted on the previous video with comments like this was petty, Chris: "But when You are saying "white people", please do keep in mind that I, as a Polish person, have very little connection to someone who is French or Spanish or Swedish. Our cultures and history have been completely different. And while Velen, Novigrad and Skellige are fictional, they are based on real cultures, religions, beliefs, myths and tales. So I don't understand Your point about diversity. The game is clearly diverse. It shows different places with different cultures, myths, beliefs. What You want is more color for the sake of color." - firegon22 It's perfectly reasonable for Wakanda's population to be entirely African. Or would you say there wasn't enough Mexican representation? It's perfectly reasonable for Sekiro to contain only Japanese characters. Wait, my bad, it was _definitely_ lacking Australian aborigines. It's perfectly reasonable for a slavic game to be entirely populated by white people. It's not racist, and it's not even a commentary from the writers that needs addressing. A fictional setting is allowed to be narrow in scope. And when you're doing period(-ish) pieces like The Witcher's Northern Realms, or feudal Japan, or trying to describe a highly isolated society like Wakanda, the people in these small or remote regions of the world won't hit all the woke diversity check boxes. Nor should they be expected to.

[@TheHalogen131]

Yeah, those little jabs were quite pathetic. Like when he was "addressing" that trans character controversy (although controversy is clearly too big of a word, it was as usual blown out of proportion by gaming journalists). I get it, this format of a video is very subjective, but I feel like this is pandering to people who aren't even interested in video games, much less his content.

[@SaberRexZealot]

Agreed. It’s more authentic and believable that the world wouldn’t have as much diversity in skin tone yet. After all it’s a recreation of Europe from a Polish perspective. I never once believed CDProjektRED did this maliciously; they’re just writing what they know. In fact I got pulled out of the TV series precisely because they tried to do the opposite.

[@darthrevan926]

I think both arguments are annoying like it's a fantasy world, if it is diverse idc and if it's not diverse it doest really matter. But I don't understand people complaining about someone asking for diversity because it's "based" on medieval Poland it's not medieval poland. If it was a story about history I would agree asking for it is stupid. Like if it's historical inaccurate yes that's bad. But for example people complaing about the TV show because of someone is not withe enough seems over the top for me. If the actors are bad yes if the story suffers yes but if that's not the please be reasonable. Sekiro takes place in Japan (fantasy Japan) wakanda is a fictional country in Africa.

[@SaberRexZealot]

darth Revan fair enough. I draw the line at harassing actors on social media for things like this. It’s not their fault at the end of the day, unless they’ve done a really bad job but even then it’s still fiction. The amount of toxicity surrounding Triss’ TV show casting is frankly disgusting.

[@darthrevan926]

@Eon Shred I don't know much about the lore and world building if the witcher series. I read 4 books like 4 years ago and played the witcher games so I could be wrong. But didn't the humans come from a different planet (which could be earth) and therefore diversity would be possible in the lore and if not why would it be a problem? I personally dislike it when characters look a lot different than previously established. But it's not a huge deal and I don't get why people always overreact. Like "there is not enough diversity kill the producers" or "that characters was not black before let us boycott the movie"

[@uglarthenosmart4573]

Never see a film about slavic culture made in hollywood. But you preach about diversity and representation. And when we got chance to show you some our flavor we are too white. Not very fair for me. And racist.

[@carlosjohnson8625]

Don't worry,I appreciate Slavic culture. My first wife is Russian,I also was in a relationship with a Polish woman. CD Projekt Red is a Polish game studio,the Witcher 3 is one of the best games I've ever played,and I have played video games since '82.

[@MarkHogan994]

39:37 Um, her parents are the ones who ordered her exile. They're dead now. Hence why she isn't going after the people who ordered her exile. Besides, Syanna was more upset about the abuse she suffered than just the fact that the knights participated in taking her away.

[@takiszog]

Good video. Maybe it's just me, but I played the game using hard-lock on enemies. Combat felt really good this way.

[@Frikgeek]

I wouldn't exactly say that you're getting to know Vesimir as a "youngster". He's still 300 years old or possibly even older. His romance with Magnela was around 40 years ago, 50 if you really push it. Vesimir still wasn't a youngster, there's not that much difference between 250 and 300.

[@lunaredelvour2972]

I would happily purchase Blood and Wine as its own completely separate game. $30 for a game this good when most games are... what? Anywhere between $40-$60 these days? Those EA expansion packs selling at $40 just for more empty sims gameplay could never, I'll use that money on the Witcher games instead. Thank you CD Projeckt Red

[@kurt9395]

You still seem to continue your self-fellating over "muh diversity" and it's sad that you feel the need to point out this as a failing because it doesn't tick certain arbitrary checkboxes. Yet you fail to explain how this diminishes the story in any way. You fail because, rationally, you can't beyond just a conditioned emotional reflex and a misguided guilt complex. This was never an issue until certain busybody types strove to make it one. Case in point: Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, a 2007 Japanese anime masterpiece set in an analogue of an amalgam of ancient Japan and China. In the world built by the story, every person is obviously oriental and this seems normal and natural. There are (shudder) no black people or white people either and it doesn't detract from a great story at all. On the contrary, shoehorning "muh diversity" into that world would detract because it would create anachronisms and ruin the believability of the world that the creators strove for. White and black people dressed like Japanese peasants? Like having an ice cream truck parked outside the Colosseum in ancient Rome during gladiator matches. It seems the "muh diversity" types would rather see everyplace reduced to bland homogeneity rather than different places with their own unique cultures. And in case you haven't realized, people typically find those who preen their virtue to an audience annoying.

[@Koblizzard]

The problem I have with the diversity idea is that diversity in my opinion doesn't inherently make games better or worse, it just makes them different. This can be a good or bad thing depending on the execution, but there's nothing that would inherently make a game better or worse based on how diverse it is. Notice how nobody had a problem with the Ofieri story in HoS - because it made sense. The world that was envisioned by the developers was much like the one we have - with distinct kinds of people originating from various regions. The story of the Ofieri prince was believable and well executed, and I haven't seen a single person going "muh realism" about the inclusion of those people in W3. The problem is that diversity for the sake of diversity often (not always) produces characters and storylines which feel out of place and forced. If CDPR made people from Ofier white - it wouldn't have made the game better or worse, it would have made it different. Just like if everyone in Skyrim was black, it wouldn't have made it better or worse - it would have been different. Whether the product is a good and believable story is then a question of execution. TL;DR: diversity isn't inherently better or worse, it's just different

[@johnathanera5863]

True. But at least the rest of it is fair.

[@darthshaniqua8197]

Forced diversity is a shit idea. There's nothing to add to that. Kind of ruined the show.

[@TheLovescream]

Logical arguments are pretty rare to come by in these pseudo-progressive circles. Oftentimes it strikes me as an anti-white circlejerk (white of course being a unidimensional label based of the ethnical makeup of the US), which leads to people like Davis branding Witcher 3, a medival polish fantasy, as racist for being "too white" and therefor not diverse enough, while something like Black Panther is not seen as "too black" and not diverse enough. Fundamentally people like Davis adopt the same ethos as actual racists and nationalists, namely that skin color itself possesses some kind of inherent merit, and draw their differing behavior towards different skin colors from some confused concept of power as the deciding factor in the makeup of society, which is an incredibly broad thesis that is basically unfalsifiable by scientific means and certainly not solid enough to derive the absolute morale authority they seem to believe to be in possession of. It always comes down to what is essentially a morale argument, which of course means that its always highly subjective and heavily influenced by the sociocultural influences any one individual grew up in. Even if there is merit to any of the associated ideas, the nearly absolute US- and anglocentric worldview that seems to basically always be part of people arguing for this agenda makes it virtually useless a general global theory of social justice. Or whatever exactly it is supposed to be.

[@dani3po]

Ok racist.

[@fikujez]

Hearts of Stone does take place in the realms of the base game, but it actually expands the map and adds new areas, so it is not really true to say it only takes place on the old map.

[@mil0931]

To fully understand Heart of Stone you need to be familliar with Polish folk culture. There are so many little details that make perfect sense to Poles. For example: During the duel with Olgiert, he is saying lines from one of the most famous polish novels. The haircut, the clothes, language, character - it is all taken from medival polish traditions. I liked Blood and wine gameplay much more, but atmoshphere in Heart of stone is still superior.

[@madoqen]

You're right, but I wouldn't say medieval, he's more from the 17th century.

[@mil0931]

@@madoqen Yes, you're right. After reading so many books for school they blend together, and it is easy to mix it up. ;)

[@astrojeet]

It's not only Polish, Goethe's Faust is the same story. Many cultures have represented a very similar story. The concept of selling your soul to the devil is not exclusive to Pan Twardowski although I admit it takes direct inspiration as you said the hair, clothes, looks, etc.

[@mil0931]

@@astrojeet Maybe you're right. I am not familiar with any foreign folk culture. But because it's a Polish studio, I assumed that the core of the story will be based on Polish characters and legends

[@astrojeet]

@@mil0931 You're right, CDPR took inspiration from their own culture and that is what I love about Sapkowski's work. However, folk lore and mythology always coincide with different cultures. For example, the concept of the botchling exists in my native culture which is only a small part of eastern India. Folk lores and myths are stories that exist to teach us moral lessons and make sense of our realities. These lessons are long lasting and passed down for generations. It's natural that these lessons exists in all cultures (at least a culture which survives for a long time) but only manifest itself in different ways. Maybe, many centures from now, The Witcher will become folklore.

[@dude4962]

41:03 Chris, why do you have to make such passive-aggresive comments ? It's a game made in a Slavic setting, please don't tell me you're the kind of person to force diversity into everything, even if it ruins the 'realism' aspect of it. I thought you were better than this .. *sigh*

[@Danickas0]

"Ghosts of tsushima has too many yellow people" XD they will never make a point like this its all about dem whites

[@ItsMeStrider]

he is.

[@arek314]

34:00 I doubt that's the case. You can skip the whole fairytale area when you take one of two possible paths.

[@SirBigWater]

Another detail is that Orianna appeared about a year or so before Blood and Wine came out. In the "A Night to Remember" cinematic trailer as the vampire Geralt kills, and on the main menu screen as well (which is where the cinematic takes place).

[@karlbaresic4091]

Awesome analysis, Chris! Political strawmaning dosent suit you though. Listening to your comments in the last video, I agreed with your view up until you suggested that the developer had folded to racist pressure to hide any reference to other cultures or something. I think the way that CD treated ethnicity in the game is tasteful, internally logically consistent, and doesn't strike me as racist or overtly nationalist. You have to remember though that Poland isn't a western country, and traditions are as important to them as any other non secular country. I'm not supporting it, just Im not surprised to not see Marvel comics levels of diversity in the Witcher games just yet. Ironically strawman "bet this pissed off racists" arguments serve to show ones inability to see people for other than their skin colour when discussing culture, an Irishman has very little in common with Macedonian even though they share the same skin colour.

[@jacekekawa4498]

I don't believe one bit that CDPR was pressured in matters of race. In spite of what Western media outlets may tell you, extreme nationalism is not running rampant here yet, and won't be anytime soon. The government may play on xenophobic sentiments, but it's more to gain votes through sowing fear of the "other" than a systemic plan for persecution of people of colour. Poland is pretty uniform when it comes to skin colour, although when you dig deep, quite a few people have Jewish roots, or have their ancestries indiferent European countries. However, the world of the Witcher is NOT Poland. In the books there are a few nods, here and there, to Slavic and Polish folklore, culture, and stories, but the books draw on a pan-European heritage. In the games, Polish culture is more visible. I'm really tired of the race card being played. Both the books and the games condemn racism, fake patriotism and bigotry. Witcher 3 has at least one gay person and a drag queen/transvestite that fit seamlessly into the world instead of being "diversity checkboxes". I'd like to see more, but that's what we got.

[@Koblizzard]

Funnily enough, "Marvel levels of diversity" are in no way different than the "Polish levels of diversity" - both are representations of the cultures of their authors. If Marvel authors live in a diverse society, it's no surprise that their work will reflect that. That doesn't make it inherently better or worse, it's just different.

[@Spellweaver5]

@@Koblizzard apparently the very idea of non-diverse society existing is something that should be destroyed in the eyes of those people.

[@hollowtomato]

Please stop bringing your real world political ideology into these videos. And please stop painting your critics with strawman arguments. Witcher fans and fantasy fans overwhelmingly do not have a problem with different ethnic groups portrayed in their fantasy. The argument has always been: Lore first. And that what CDPR did with The Hearts of Stone DLC. You complained in your previous Witcher 3 video, that the cities of Witcher 3 were too white. And when people pointed out the reason being the setting of the story & lore, and the fact that Ofieri will show up in HoS DLC, you ignored them. Now that you have to acknowledge Ofieri, you try to paint this picture of your critics taking issue of them being in the game. And everyone who has a problem with forced diversity, for that matter. As if fans want this world to be populated only by white people. Just stop, please.

[@SledTillDead]

Yeah his comments were extremely out of place and forced

[@whodatninja439]

Also, when there are non-white people in the game, it's apparently still racist? wtf?

[@Gunnzier]

@@whodatninja439 (not native english speaker)it show that he is a real sjw. hate if something is missing and hate if not

[@hamiltonaraujoleite4049]

"Anna Henrietta Queen of Toussaint" Milton de Peyrac Peyran And Palmerin de Launfal: FOR THE DUCHESS.

[@TheKeyser94]

She is a Duchess, not a Queen, Henrietta is the ruler of a Duchy that is protectorate of the Nilfgaardian Empire, tecnically it would have been Syanna, because she is the older sister, but because she was banish, Henrietta assumed the role, that is another of spite that Syanna has against her sister, because she blame her because she thinks that she didnt take her side so she could become the duchess.

[@jazzx251]

she was a Queen in all but name. She didn't like it at all when I told her the truth in that crypt.

[@Wyttazs]

When you buy materials from merchants you can save the game. Then load that same save and merchant will have his materials again.

[@SamButler22]

Geralt can take the house, contents and all. I tricked Olgried initially, but every subsequent playthrough I've let him have the will

[@InquisitorBot]

its painfull to me seeing you not using the food regen lasts 20 minutes and you not having food in 1 of your 4 slots on the bottom right, also you're almost always on low health in these clips also anna henrietta is the dutches not the queen

[@max4077]

I truly love the quest Design of the dlcs i cant think of any repetitive quest at all

[@FatLarz]

Talk about the most pleasant surprise of the day, another Chris Davis video and on another great topic.

[@imaanwallace9298]

I don't know about anyone else, but I totally understand needing three days to calm down when I'm incensed 😂 if I took Syanna with me, it'd just likely make my emotional state worse. I think what Detlaff did makes sense. Sometimes people just need a complete and total escape from it all before they can think calmly and be level-headed 🤷‍♀️

That mage on the beach was one of the most difficult fights I had In the entire game.

[@neamraven]

Your mini rant about race in this video shows how little you understand the people insisting that the Northern Realms are by default and should remain white. You assume these people would also be offended that the Ofiri are not white. But why would they be offended, why are you making such a hilarious and nonsensical assumption? The Ofiri are not meant to be white in the first place, as Ofir is somewhat of an analog of North Africa or the Middle East. So the look of the Ofiri makes sense and no one has a problem with it. The Northern Kingdoms and most of Nilfgaard being a mishmash of skin color doesn't make sense, as they are an analog of Medieval Europe. How hard is this to understand anyway? No, the fact that this is fantasy and there are fantastical events and monsters in this fictional world doesn't change a thing.

[@AndresGrelan]

I’ll give some Eastern European perspective to this. We love the Witcher series because it’s one of those rare cases when something of such popularity is actually based on eastern european culture, myths and history. And Witcher is undoubtably is. And don’t get me wrong it has nothing to do with racism but seeing how fantasy world based on our culture suddenly becomes American in its spirit and racial geography is kinda disappointing. Our countries are predominantly white and when you see racial diversity you don’t think of your culture - you think of foreign culture. The only country in eastern europe which can be called multicultural to some extent is Russia thanks to its very sizable Muslim minority. So at least in my and my friends eyes this Americanization of something that we think to reflect our history is trivializing the whole experience. It quickly becomes generic Anglo-American fantasy and stops being interesting. Again, it’s only my and my friends perspective but I think that many people in this region would support us.

[@neamraven]

@@AndresGrelan Can confirm, am Eastern European myself. And the idea that diversity means different skin tones is shallow and untrue. Eastern Europeans are all white (the vast majority), yet we are all very diverse. We have commonalities but we are not the same. Bulgarians are different to Serbs who are different to Romanians who are different to Czechs who are different to Hungarians who are different to Poles. And so on. Just like the Northern Realms are all very diverse, even without any black people. We don't have a history of large groups of black or Asian people living here in the past, and even today when you go outside, you rarely if ever see a 'person of color'. This is just not part of our countries and societies and to see it represented as part of us in media is just incorrect. It looks foreign and unfamiliar and immediately breaks immersion. So yeah, in the end it feels like the one big Slavic IP we have gets turned into yet another generic, Americanized product.

[@Nathan_Coley]

I agree with you 100% Raven!

[@laanson5389]

This isn’t Earth. In fact, Cyberpunk, which is basically future Earth, was already referenced by Ciri as ‘another world’. So technically, while it’s quite similar to earth, the map and skin color etc is different.

[@neamraven]

@@laanson5389 You're missing the point. It doesn't matter that it isn't Earth, and nobody is arguing about that. The point is what it's based on and where the inspiration comes from. And it's based on Medieval Europe--that's what the Continent mimics. It's fantasy, so technically you can populate it with purple people if you wanted to, but again, that's simply missing the point.

[@leafpratt]

22:17 this whole thing is how you do diversity right not some hollow "look this guy who acts polish is cultural polish and for all we know thinks polish has black skin clap I'm progressive" that you seem to faun over

[@legion999]

First of all, this isn't the "historically accurate History of Poland, illustrated", these are fantasy worlds with elements of *some* nations or storylines loosely based on polish culture/literature. Secondly, why are implying it's impossible for a non-white person to "act polish, be culturally polish and think polish"? That person cannot be ethnically polish, but if they got fully integrated they can do all those other things. You're acting as though every country in the witcher world has to be like an ethnostate, and immigrants are impossible, because if one non-white character showed up in Redania or Temeria guys like you'd start flipping out about "forced diversity". Did you know that even Poland has small numbers of arabs, blacks and asians that were born here, and only speak polish? Wow!

[@leafpratt]

@@legion999 the Witcher world is a world based on medieval society so most kingdoms wouldn't be diverse apart from maybe Empires as well as the fact it's a very Racist and Discriminatory world I mean in the first book men try and kill geralt for sounding different so what do you think would happen to someone who looks different

[@leafpratt]

@@legion999 and I just think in order to be more diverse we shouldn't make nonwhite people appear in European inspired fantasy worlds but rather tell stories/make games inspired by noneuropean history

[@user-yr7mf3fr3e]

Leaf Pratt yes but not the Witcher it is based off European folklore and history as well as locations

[@zoisantonopoulos7999]

@@legion999 even though you wrote all that you really said nothing of substance. Black's did not / do not live in many European countries. I imagine you don't live in Europe. All i know is that i would feel extremely disrespected if they made a game in ancient Greek and had blacks in that. Oh wait..

[@hodes7562]

48:20 I am not sure if you not know this but you can hold down your mouse when riding a horse to slow down a time so it is easier to hit those target dummies. I never know this in main game so i hated horse combat but with this is much more enjoyable.

[@hmmurdockofids]

I love that, even when fighting a man that you have worked with and gotten to know, Geralt will still lead with the old reliable "Damn you're ugly." Works on everyone and everything.

[@Warfolomei]

As far as I could understand, The Three Wishes done with a proxy, were unrelated to the main wish. Those and meeting on the moon were the "Rome" to get his soul. Kind of a loophole.

[@mrkarbon]

The Blood and Wine DLC so beautifully adds to the whole world of Witcher 3. A beautiful sunny fairytale kingdom the main game lacked a bit. Hearts of Stone also a great story quest. Great value for money and we really need to appreciated what CDpr did there for us gamers…

[@DytoxPrime]

48:26 holding the button before attacking sliws down the time and when letting it go its very easy to hit, i figured that put when training. You can also do that in normal fight on horse back.

[@legion999]

I saw zero reason to rescue Olgierd too. I tried to once, out of curiosity, but then I reloaded and let Gaunter take him.

[@stanislasvillard2795]

I did it because I wanted the unique silver sword you get while looking for the reflection.

[@kurt9395]

Agree. Olgierd has done nothing that would make him worthy of redemption. Yet the game does a good job explaining his motivations which makes him a great character. I think the original plan was to let O'Dimm collect his due and the unique Witcher sword was meant to be one of the rewards offered by O'Dimm. He earlier says "As a Witcher, you might desire weapons supreme. I can give you those you've dreamt of." My feeling is that the choice to save Olgierd was added later in the process. Also, the whole optional quest with Professor Shakeslock kind of ruins the mystery of what O'Dimm is ultimately after.

[@smokingone]

i saved him, just to play into geralt's chaotic nature, theres no reason you should save him, and theres no reward. I really enjoyed when the game presented these type of options. like killing keira metz was totally avoidable, but based on how i felt geralt would act it became inevitable.

[@MrAjking808]

@@smokingone y’all are horrible at decision making

[@VaNDaIUKR]

41:43 I have one question Chris. Will Oldboy 2003 be a bit better if not everyone was asian?

[@cashnelson2306]

Oldboy takes place in a real place (and covers a LOT more ground, literally. Countries vs. a city) The witcher does not.

[@canadian0099]

My favourite game of all time and I’ve been around since the Atari days haha. Enjoyed the video! It’s a yearly tradition for me to play through this game at this point. I can’t see that changing any time soon.

[@zupremo9141]

lol! Wtf? Siana manipulated his feelings and made him kill people and one of them he considered a friend and you're saying he's immature and can't understand his reasons for doing what he did? Something is clearly wrong with you.

[@zupremo9141]

@Aleksa Petrovic I don't know what planet you are on but I live on Earth so I know that people kill for a much smaller reason like looking at them the wrong way.

[@zupremo9141]

@Aleksa Petrovic my point is. you're only saying that because it didn't happened to you. the guy killed his friend for Siana so it's totally understandable that he can do anything to anyone who betrayed him this way.

[@fbritannia]

Yeah, but you don-t decvlare war to a nation and murder multiple innocents just -cause you want some of the booty, that-s just not normal behaviour. Unless you are Thanos of course.

[@zupremo9141]

@@fbritannia 1st he is a vampire not a human and in the story they see human as food not an equal. 2nd you only say that because you don't have the power to do it but if you have I'm pretty sure you will probably do the same thing. what do you do when a ant bit you? do you find the specific ant who bitten you or you just stomp all of them?.

[@fbritannia]

@@zupremo9141 dude, you need help if you think that's normal, healthy behavior

[@OldEmixX]

Woah okay, I didn't expect to get the latest Star Wars movie spoiled in this video and yet we have 40:30 Guess it's a good thing nobody cares about the sequel trilogy so no harm done

[@stevecosmolove1045]

😂

[@silentlyscreaming9821]

DiSnEy BaD

[@nathanvincent8676]

The mysterious fella in black who talks to you outside borsodis can actually be found in the auction, but he's wearing glasses, great disguise

[@sambarrett871]

Just finished my third play through and went heavy alchemy it was a blast and a damn curse finding the ingredients for White Gull

[@sambarrett871]

Also blood and wine is the beat dlc I've ever played

[@piotrzwirowski8435]

The wedding was also inspired by a polish classic- Stanislaw Wsypianski’s drama “the wedding” whose plot revolves around a traditional folk wedding of a peasant girl with a poet. And- Olgierd himself was based off a character called Kmicic from another polish tale- the deluge. It is an archetypal haughty polish nobleman, who is extremely skilled in any form of combat, arrogant, very self confident, often wild and violent and whose overconfidence ultimately dooms them.

[@Nathan_Coley]

I agree with you. Witcher 3 = BEST GAME EVER! In my opinion.

[@alexmoch6914]

I felt the same way about the hearts of stone quests, as you did. However I felt that same way during the main game quest line as well. I started the game playing it like an RPG, but very early on I realized that this game was story driven. I ended up playing a lot of the main quests in order one after another because I wanted to know what happened next. I just couldn’t get enough of the characters, their backgrounds, and the story in general. I felt like I literally could just watch the cut scenes and not get bored at all. I felt like I was watching a movie almost. This for me applied for both the main game and hearts of stone. I loved those main game characters so much that I was actually kind of sad that none of the other characters that you meet during the base game really show up during the quests of the dlcs. I even ordered the Witcher books because of my love for this game 😅😅

[@tbrown5836]

I disagree javelin about the narrative side with dettlaf and syanna, it’s stated how vampires are extremely Emotionally unstable so dettkafs reaction was really well handled for a man madly in love with a woman to only be used, so that’s just generally wrong, and as for syanna it’s stated how all the people who ordered her exile are dead, because their her parents, and her sister was responsible for syannas exile, so it as good as HoS bit or the main quest but still great

[@jedimindtrick75]

I don't always agree with your takes and can't stand your obsession with racial stereotypes, but I really enjoyed these videos. Im fairly new to The Witcher but your videos accentuate my GP experience. I have watched them all... twice. Very glad I came across these. One point you make here that I see differently is when you use the confrontation with Caretaker as an example of how you felt it would be better if we knew what it is we were fighting and prepared accordingly. My take? It only makes sense that even the most seasoned witcher is bound to come across some forces of nature that they do not understand, can't read about, and don't have a potion for. I thought not knowing how to attack him made the fight more interesting. And don't troll me too hard guy but he killed me twice before I finally got him and no, I wasn't playing death march. I was on the 3rd highest difficulty. lol

[@elcidbob]

They weren't *spits* DLC. They were expansion packs.

[@irritatingtruth9121]

I have to agree boss. The whole race thing is ridiculous. If CD wants to show off its Polish roots, go for it. I’m not trying to flip the script here, but it comes off racist to want more diversity, imo. It’s like you need it to feel better about past feelings, or something. Idk. They did great and I think crazy criticism like that, is only going to hold back an artist from their original creation. Go donate money, or your time, if that makes you feel better. I think your vid is great! With solid points. Outside the race thing and not taking control. It’s a game, I do not pay 40/60 bucks for a glorified movie. But do you boss. Ppl will either sub, or not. But being you is the best thing you can do.

[@irritatingtruth9121]

Forgot to add, I unsubscribed. Good luck to you though

[@TheHofman]

Just this DLC, is something I would love so much to be standalone game, expansion in universe of Witcher, I want so much more to play with/around story of Dimm, and I always wanted more Vampire stories, and Witcher did is so nicely, I wish we could just somehow continue with Elder Vampire, and Orianna (altho yeah trailer kinda finishes that story but they could still ignore trailer and make us play it) It is so good, thanks for this video!

[@FireWolfDragon]

Geralt does know oriana is a vampire because Regis says “you know she do is a” and geralts response is “I know”

[@gamer4life505]

Actually if you choose the second option the curse is weakened The knight and Vivian then fall In love

[@perdedor3571]

For NG+ I saved ALL the Witcher contracts for the very end. After B&W I set out on the path, clearing all the contracts in Tousaint. Got bored and went to Skellige. From there I went back to Tousaint for a bit. Got some armor and then set back out on the path to Vellen. Finally I landed in Novigrad ending with the Hearts of Stone. It was a great time.

[@linusdn2777]

The act of reviewing games in this long format is becoming redundant, unless you bring something unique and interesting to the table, which you don't.

[@darthrevan926]

The act of criticising youtube videos in such short comments is quite uninteresting, unless you have some interesting or constructive points , which you don't.

[@Spellweaver5]

​@@darthrevan926 he does have a constructive point though. Even Chris admits at the very start of the previous video that he's basically just adding to the pile and not going to say anything unique. And sure enough, he didn't. It's yet another "lick the game all over and call it a criticism" video.

[@darthrevan926]

@@Spellweaver5 it's not constructive. If I give you a for example a mealy apple and tell you it's mealy and you go " I don't like this apple because its mealy" that is not constructive. In my opinion he can state his dislike for the video in the way he did. I have no issue with that. But I can do the same with his comment.

[@Spellweaver5]

@@darthrevan926 what's not constructive there? A flaw is stated pretty clearly. It's easy to understand what can be improved.

[@megamike15]

it does not help that it really feels like chris is parroting the common opinion of a game.

[@WhiteWolf-di2nh]

I love both of the Dlcs i can't say which I like more but I have a weakness for vampires and Regis and Dettlaff are one of the best characters ever written /although Dettlaff is not in the books / so i have to say that even when I love both - Blood and wine I just cant get enough of it and it will forever have a special place in my heart!

[@sumdolt8948]

Great vid, a thought on Mr odimm however. While we don't know who or what he is exactly. We definitely know 3 things for certain. Odimm is definitely not god and he definitely is not the devil and he definitely is not a jin. Not god? That's easy, he refuses to tell geralt his name. Gaunter O Dimm if he were god that would literally be giving his real name. Not a subtle misdirection, but factually saying it out loud . Further he gave himself this name as a way to mock god, so definitely not god. Not the devil? Nope, definitely not. The dog and cat make this very clear. They are very definitely demons. The story makes that statement outright. The dog and cat are actively in opposition of Mr odimm. While he does have power over demons, he certainly does not have their allegiance. They are definitely not on the same side as it were. A jin? No, he's far too powerful to be a jin. Further knowing a jin is a jin won't get you killed. Knowing their name certainly won't either. So definitely not a jin. Whatever odimm is, he is entirely unique and unlike anything we have come across before

[@bhagwatisinghrajawat1020]

I'm pretty sure you missed the 'crime and punishment quest in the base game , there's no way you wouldn't talk about it if you hadn't

[@tychovanvugt5531]

It's rather insignificant

[@bhagwatisinghrajawat1020]

@@tychovanvugt5531 Agreed , but majority of them are. Its a good example of classic CDprojekt storytelling and also references the book of same name

[@hubson1443]

I think the first wish Olgierd made was to curse that prince.

[@JohnnyValmaggia]

Good job, Chris.

[@carlogiurizzato2441]

You can fly from the USA to Japan by heading west. You can also reach Japan by heading East. This is surely, undeniable, irrefutable, concrete proof.... that there are 2 Japans.

[@AdityaKumar-xu6ug]

Did you really have to take a petty jab at the well-justified criticism about race from your last video? Couldn't you have just accepted it and moved on, and kept politics out of your videos? You're only hurting yourself and turning off potential fans of your content, which is otherwise great critique.

[@dani3po]

No, he is not hurting their real fans. Maybe you should look other channels more in line with your politics.

[@AdityaKumar-xu6ug]

Dani3po Note how I said he is turning off *potential fans* of his content because of his decision to not only bring in politics to his video, but a horribly bad stance as well.

[@Ravi9A]

@@dani3po enjoy your echo chamber then.

[@Spellweaver5]

​@@dani3po yeah, "real" fans, because people didn't come here for game criticism, they came here for confirmation bias on their political views.

[@zoisantonopoulos7999]

@@dani3po excuse me but this video is advertised as a review of the witcher 3 dlcs not a review of the wither 3 dlcs with my political views included. I got no problem with him saying that hilarious stuff but don't bait and switch the audience.

[@Ubeogesh]

Am I the only one who didn't realize you could actually convince Syanna not to kill Anarietta? She just felt so completely lost as a character to me, that I decided that the "better" ending was Syanna dying and Geralt going to jail.