The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Luke and Alex talk The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action role-playing game developed and published by CD Projekt Red. The game takes place in a fictional fantasy world based on Slavic mythology. You control Geralt of Rivia, a monster slayer for hire known as a Witcher, and search for his adopted daughter Ciri who is on the run from the otherworldly Wild Hunt. Players battle the game's many dangers with weapons and magic, interact with non-player characters, and complete quests to acquire experience points and gold, which are used to increase Geralt's abilities and purchase equipment. The game's story has three possible endings, determined by the player's choices at key points in the narrative.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in May 2015, with a Nintendo Switch version released in October 2019, and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions titled The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition which was released in December 2022. The game received critical acclaim, with praise for its gameplay, narrative, world design, combat, and visuals, although it received minor criticism due to technical issues. It holds more than 200 game of the year awards and has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. As of publication of this podcast, the PC version of the game has a Metascore of 93 and a User Score of 9.1 on metacritic.com.

Alex played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on his PC and Steam Deck, he first played the game on his Nintendo Switch. Luke first played the game on his PS4, but this time around played on the Xbox Series X. Both hosts have beaten the base game. Alex has finished the Heats of Stone Expansion and has started Blood and Wine. Luke has dabbled in both DLCs but hasn't finished either. This was Luke's second time beating the base game. Alex didn't replay the base game for this episode, but rather took the opportunity to continue questing for all the Witcher gear and to tackle the game's DLC for the first time.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by snow days.

Sidequestin':

Alex: Sega CD, Metroid Prime Remastered, House of X and Powers of X (X-Men comics)

Luke: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Hi-Fi Rush, The Witcher (Netflix)

Referenced Podcast that we'll be guesting on in April:

• Pixel Project Radio (Death's Door)
• Tales from The Backlog (Read Dead Redemption 2)

Transcript

Luke: 0:21

All right, so I see you read your local notice board and you found this podcast contract and uh you have accepted. We will haggle over will I give you two hundred dollars or will I yell at you over two hundred and nine dollars? Maybe we will beat in the middle at $204. But regardless, hey, you took the contract. How you doing? This is low five gaming. I'm Luke. What up, Luke? This is Alex co-host. I should have like come up with a way more desperate tale about how like my daughter was like murdered by wolves or something. But you get the point. If you've played The Witcher, you're like, that was a dumb intro, but hey, you're you're buckled up, you're ready to go. How are we doing today, Chair?

Alex: 0:58

I'm I'm peeling that I'm I'm taking that thing right off the board along with the other eight contracts that are up there.

Luke: 1:03

Right. This isn't a Ubisoft tower. This is different. This reveals points of interest on the map in a different, unique way.

Alex: 1:12

Yes, sir. I'm on weeding a lot. Tight. Just jump right into the weeds. Uh I open every single fucking thing. You do not read them. But I don't read them, dude. But I open it. I open everything.

Luke: 1:26

I thought you. Well, yeah, because you gotta clear the notification. I'm not a not uncultured. Uh but, anyways, this is LoFive Gaming. Welcome. You made it. We are a backlog book club. I am the sexy host, and then we have my uh brother who we're gonna start a YouTube channel just so that people can know. But uh, you know, I'm joined here with my co-host Alex, who uh is wearing a very crispy Japanese Nintendo hoodie with the Japanese writing that you know we're both suckers for Japanese writing that we don't know, but we can infer, we can surmise.

Alex: 2:01

Dude, you brought it up, so I'm gonna jump in and tell the story about that right now. Sure. Because I need to pick up the notes. I was worried I found this, so I I wanted the yeah, right. I wanted the N64 hoodie, and I like it was one of those things I had this vision. I was like, there's gotta be like the Japanese like like logo or whatever out there. Couldn't find it. I found it on Redbubble, uh, you know, so somebody like definitely not Nintendo approved, but I was like, well shit, I can't just buy this and then be wearing it around it says like big butthole on it or something, right? Well so what I did, dude, is I looked, I searched Google Images. Um, when did the Nintendo 64 release in Japan? And then I looked up Christmas, like I don't remember exactly what I looked up, but I looked up like box open I looked up like Nintendo 64 openings and I found this picture of a kid.

Luke: 2:50

Alex signed up at a local community college to get some some Japanese basics.

Alex: 2:56

I found this Japanese kid opened up his N64 super stoked on Christmas or some shit, and I scrolled and zoomed fucking in on that and I looked and I checked character for character to make sure it was correct. Shoot.

Luke: 3:08

So that's a great transition to if you want to get to know Alex some more after that fun tale, you can join us on Discord.

Alex: 3:15

Yes, sir.

Luke: 3:16

Where you can see me currently cream my pants over a year that involves the City Skylines 2 and a Civilization 7 announced within like two weeks of each other. So it's a pretty, you know, things are all looking things are all looking up for Little Brother here. So we're doing great. So uh yeah, any other any other shots. Hit our Discord.

Alex: 3:40

That's uh that's a place to to get our attention, our full attention. Luke's not on any other socials. I do manage other socials with low five gaming everywhere else. So I'm putting the content out there, creating some other content a little, you know, adjacent to the pod. So some of my collection stuff you'll get to get a little taste of that kind of thing. But yeah, low five gaming just about everywhere. And lowfivegaming.com, check us out. That's where you can find a link to the Discord. You can also find it in the show notes.

Luke: 4:03

Sick. That's usually why Alex does the intros. All right, moving forward. So we're doing the Witcher.

Alex: 4:09

Yes, sir.

Luke: 4:10

Uh he's gonna, he's got, we'll we'll add in some of our own grunts, and then Alex maybe will edit in some Witcher music because it's some good music. The big ol', you know, it's been out for a while. What is 2017, I want to say? 1516, somewhere in that range. Regardless, it got a big sexy glow up for the next gen update. And in classic good version of CD Project Red, they let it be for free. Yeah, if you're and if you're like an upgrade of your game should be for free, I would like to point you to Sony when they make uh Naughty Dog's The Last of Us 2 or 1. When they remake that game, they're like, it's $60 again. Right. Or uh even smaller, like Obsidian, they made uh their Fallout like Outer Worlds. There's a $10 upgrade. Ooh. What do I do?

Alex: 5:20

Yeah, do you think that City Project Red would have been so gracious with this update if they didn't it were like weren't in such hot water with their fucking uh cyberpunk release? You think they would?

Luke: 5:32

I think the cyberpunk stuff was not good. I think there's a lot of reasons that didn't go well. That's more or less over now. A lot that game is getting a lot more love. Still not perfect, but I think that had a lot to do with like publishers uh and some other stuff and like businessy things. But anyway, uh weren't all the DLCs free for the Witcher. Yeah, haven't they always been free?

Alex: 5:53

Well, I'm not for sure, dude, because I got this game way after everybody else. Uh sure and I would have I would have got the like game of the year edition, which has everything in it.

Luke: 6:03

So yeah, I don't think it was free. But the game was always supported for a really long time, and there were lots of free updates. So I do think that they don't really mind the hot water edge. I think that the next gen update was just a great thing to get people like me to spend what was it like $10, $12, whatever it was on sale to get it on their new systems. And I will say it is one of the sexier games on the current gen. Uh I'm playing it on the Series X, and you're playing on uh like a little computer, little desktop, little uh janky.

Alex: 6:36

You wouldn't think it was that little, but uh but yeah, dude, I'm playing it on my PC. Dude, I guess I am playing it on my PC and on my Steam Deck, so it's you know got some wow because it's uh because I'm playing via Steam, I'm I'm able to do it that way.

Luke: 6:52

Close to your roots, I'll introduce my like history of the game. Is I played it a few years after release. Uh Ace, you won't have to wait long for your first shout-out this month, but he borrowed me The Witcher and told me to play it, and I said no, it looks stupid. And then I played it and I didn't like it because it was hard and it was janky. I was like, I don't like this. And then he goes, No, you should play it. And then like a few months went by and I beat whatever game I was obsessing over, and then I went back to it and I played all of it and forgot a bunch but loved it. Yeah. And then the Netflix stuff came out, and that kind of like gave me some buy-in to watch that. And then once again, with the new update, I was like, I should dig back in now that I have a newfound appreciation for the lore and the world and all that. So I was pretty pumped. So I guess uh to clean up real quick, I played it on the PS4 and then most recently on the Series X, whereas you start from very humble beginnings, and I think it's kind of hilarious to think of anybody playing this game on this system.

Alex: 7:47

Yeah, Doc. So I've I've loved Vid's games for forever, but I took a little break in college and then it took me a while to ramp back up and I'm full of. Ten years after college, that's generous. Doc, yeah, but like so uh I bring this up because like for the longest time my only console was um uh a Switch, right? Right. So uh early panty, I want to say GameStop had a pretty ridiculous sale on a bunch of of games, and you know, not just these digital games, we're talking you know, physical games, so I was all over that. Now The Witcher 3 was one that was heavily discounted. I heard some great things about it, and I was like, fuck it, I'll get this game, try it out. Uh I tried it out similar to you, and I was like, hmm, nope, bounced off real quick, dude. I was like, this is I didn't really like it. It was just overly hard. Like saying that now is silly because I don't think it the game is overly hard, but the the entry point, I was like, fuck this game, this is difficult. Like all these these, like you know, I didn't quite understand the buttons. It's it like throws you right in totally. I mean it's it's Witcher 3, right? So there's one and two, so like you're coming in, like there's pre-story that it doesn't matter, you can start with three. Yeah, that's totally fine. Like, I think I don't know a single person that's played one or two, just right anecdotally and like in this game, you know, this is this game like uh allows you to if you played those, you can it has this little section where it allows you to interject what choices you made in those first two games to to allow you to bring those into the to the storyline of Witcher 3. Uh, this is all getting the weeds, bro. But the point is there's too much going on here. Like, this game is not fun for me. I don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Luke: 9:22

Like signs, potions, gear, and all this stuff that it gets nitty-gritty right away. And you're bouncing reading. Yeah, yeah, I bounced off and I was like, ugh, not and you suck at games, so yeah, whatever.

Alex: 9:39

But uh just to be a dick. So I was so basically, you know, then I don't know, some a couple months went by or whatever, and uh at the time my wife was in nursing school and like studying and long story longer, I picked up the Witcher 3 again. And I this was in the old apartment, and I had my my little office there as well. And I I essentially got really hooked. I think Anna was uh she was watching uh so yeah, I played, I had it for the switch, played a lot on the handheld, and then I started playing a lot on the really long time to say I played it on the switch. Yeah, dog, but here's the deal around that time, a little later, you know, I had probably gotten I would say maybe 60, 40, between 40 and 60 hours into this game before I got my PC. Right beautiful thing about CD Project Red and Nintendo in this case, and I actually uh Epic as well, so which is this is unheard of, but you are able to to cross save between the Switch, Epic, and Steam. So I was able to take all my progress, and I already thought this game on the Switch was beautiful, which is so funny, dude, because it's like Switch, whatever, but it was beautiful. Like I was really enjoying it, and I thought it was a really good looking game on the Switch, and then I moved it to my computer, which has a 3080 to it. It blew my mind, and it was so cool to be able to start playing PC. And I put like another, like honestly, another like I've probably put over 200 hours into this game. It's one of the most play games that I have, and you know, so I I basically it has been minted, recently minted is your your third best of all the time.

Luke: 11:13

I have thoughts we made it five. Oh, okay. You slid it down already, or no, I thought it was three.

Alex: 11:19

In our episode, no, that was a thing. In our episode, I think I named it as five, and then you gave me some like you didn't take the opportunity to make Witcher 3 number three, and I was like, sure. And you know what? If we ever revisit that list, I might bump it up. But but yeah, so my saga was Witcher 3, bro.

Luke: 11:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. More on that.

Alex: 11:36

Uh played a bunch on PC, basically stopped playing it on the Switch because it is way more beautiful on the PC. And then when we revisited it for the this past month for the pod, I wanted to play it for I was hoping that the Xbox Series X would do a similar thing where I could move my save there and play it there, because I did I swooped it as well for for 10 bucks or whatever that nice little because they're just the whole base game they're giving for 10 bucks uh prior to the or not even just the base game with the DLC. So the whole like complete edition, 10 bucks. That's great. So I picked that shit up and it is beautiful. I like played the first, I don't know, 20 minutes, half hour, and I was like, wow, this looks great on the Xbox Series X, but it will it doesn't let you bring your save over, which I was bummed about. So I went back to the computer and it's not that big of a deal because the computer looks great there too. But yeah, so for this, I continue to play on PC, and I also have it on the Steam Deck, so it does bring down the uh the graphic fidelity a little bit, unless I'm streaming it to the Steam Deck, and then I still get that sexy, but there's some stuttering sometimes. So yeah, there's like 20 minutes on uh my journey with how I played this damn game.

Luke: 12:35

Brought to you by too much caffeine, real quick, because I want to move on, but like in no pastries. Does it look like way better on the Steam Deck when you're playing it from the Steam Deck than it does on the Switch?

Alex: 12:47

Uh it is slightly better. I mean, okay. So it's it's so Steam Deck is basically a little PC euro, so you can like you can adjust the what the graphics are, whereas the switch is not gonna let you. The switch is just like this is what you fucking get.

Luke: 12:59

Okay. Well, before the pod, uh I was joking, so I've played it once, but it was early on enough where there's some moments I definitely actually remembered while I was this most recent playthrough, but it was like pretty close to like a brand new experience for me. There's stuff that I had foggy memory of, but it's not like when I try to pick up Breath of the Wild and I know all the beats for the most part, and I just can't really recapture it. Like most of my uh my wonderlust was mostly recaptured, but I joked before the pod that uh I didn't hit you with the hour count, but uh I started playing this uh last month before we recorded this month. So, like, you want to take a guess how many hours? Dude, I know.

Alex: 13:39

But you want to guess 80 hours into a game and then be like, oh, this is the one you gotta catch up on, try and beat and then I can make fun of you if you don't beat it.

Luke: 13:45

I wish I wish I only did 80 hours, dude. I think I'm like at 100, 110 since like the beginning of I know, dude. It got grimy, but I'll explain that later. Um, but I joked that I probably should have recorded this pod at the 30 to 50 hour mark because I would have been like, this is the top five game of all time. I like I gotta move it onto my list, it's the best. Whereas um extra hours made it fall off for you. I mean, yeah, but it's also a compliment that a game can last that long where you start to really see the warts, so to speak. But anyway, right now we're just gonna focus on what really caused that pretty absurd high that we started off with. So, like, what makes this game so good? To briefly describe to those of you who are not aware of the Rich or The Witcher, it's like an open world game of its time, very much so. Um, when you're thinking of there's things that set it apart, but um just if you're in your mind's eye, if you somehow haven't played this game, you're a monster hunter. It's not the game Monster Hunter, though. You have you're a monster hunter, there's a story around it, but it kind of turns into like your classic open world game where you have tons of side quests, you have all these different things, but what really sets it apart, in my opinion, is uh how heavily curated a lot of the story in the lore and the characters are, and that's really what stands out almost immediately. What do you think?

Alex: 15:10

No, I agree, man. I I know that in our back and forth on the Discord and chatting and stuff, you're like, I don't like I love this game, but I'm not like super into the story. See, I am curious to like because I think the story is actually quite good, but because you're revisiting it a second time and because you have all this like the the TV, I think it's like maybe it's a little played out, or it's not as like exciting for you the first time around. Um so I do think the story is is good, but I agree with you that as far as like an open world goes, I felt that the world is a lot more immersive than many other games, and like the weird side quests you do all seem intricate and important, even if it's like a fetch quest or if you're just going to kill some stupid thing, like there's like a story behind it, and PC is involved, and it just seems it's cool, like you're living in you're living in that world, and I really like that.

Luke: 16:00

Yeah, and it it subverts your expectations a lot, it plays off of them often and kind of throws you these twists. And this is like in the side content, and it's like you can kind of just keep digging deeper and deeper. I would say like it's a good story in the sense that like I mean it's not bad, but it's not like it's not like you know, The Last of Us, where it's like this game's biggest draw is how much of a story it is. Like it's it's definitely it gets the job done, it gets you from point A to point B, it gives you motivation. There's a decent amount of freedom involved, which I think is cool. Like you can tackle things, you're leveled uh as far as leveling up RBG style, but you're leveled to certain quests at certain times, so there is somewhat of a path. But I know that I did things like even when we were arguing about Yen and Triss, which we'll get into later, you were like, Oh, the game pushes you towards Jennefer first, blah blah blah. And I was like, that actually wasn't true in my most recent playthrough. Like I did all of uh Triss's side stuff before I even met back up with uh Yennefer. So there's different freedoms in the way you do things, but my favorite, my favorite, favorite, favorite is the Witcher contracts. Right on. And that and that's like kind of gets you into it's like it's like the core essence of being a witcher. Like it also highlights like the coolest things about the game. You get to a notice board, which we joked earlier, is just a Ubisoft tower. Think of Assassin's Creed, you climb to the top of a church and you scan the area. In this game, you find a an out uh a message board and it'll show you different points of interest on the map. But they give you missions on there too, some of them being a witcher contract. Somebody needs to hire a witcher to kill an animal. So you talk to the person, you start your investigation. I would say monster, bro. That's what I say.

Alex: 17:47

An animal, I'm just fucking with you.

Luke: 17:48

Oh, word, yeah, I know a monster. Well, sometimes the human was the monster all along. Who's the monster? Um quite literally that plays out a handful of different times. It does. And then you do this investigation, it's akin to the Batman games where like you're not really actively problem-solving yourself, it's also kind of like a narrative, like you're looking around the clues as holding L2 and running around. Holding L2 and following a red trail, or like your hundredth set of footsteps. And that's kind of what I mean. Once you get into hours 50, 60, 70, you're like, all right, I'm following another creature. Like but in the beginning, and then you find out what it is after your investigation, and then you prepare, you look at your bestiary, which has all this cool information about all the different uh uh monsters, not animals, monsters you're gonna face, and then you prep, and what's your strategy? And it's like all so fucking cool, and then you face off.

Alex: 18:47

We're coming off a guest podcast with uh Dave of Tales from the Backlog where we did Red Dead Redemption 2, and there is a I think there's a bestiary in that too. They might call it something else, like in your compendium where they got all the animals and stuff.

Luke: 18:59

Yeah, this one's far more like applicable, though. Like it's pretty S like it's pretty essential to playing the game correctly, in my opinion. Like you could hack and slash your way through it, but like sometimes the mission literally tells you like optional, like read your bestiary. Right, right. And it gives you like different information.

Alex: 19:13

But like do you do you actually spend time trying to figure out what kind of spells or what kind of potions are gonna help you defeat certain monsters?

Luke: 19:23

Uh the game so a critique I recently heard is that the game streamlines that process too much for you. So you don't actually have to read, you just kind of go into the bestia, find your animal, that'll give you the sign that's most effective, uh, the type of potion or the type of blade oil. But I always look at that. I think it's part of the hunt. I think it's really cool.

Alex: 19:43

So you fuck with blade oils and shit? I just go in there like a tank. All the time.

Luke: 19:48

Just roll around and hold on.

Alex: 19:50

So early in the game, yeah.

Luke: 19:52

Early in the game, you can take some Witcher contracts that are like a little bit more powerful than you, and you're not OP yet, so like it's dangerous. And I actually thought that was super cool. So there's a really distinct one. It's probably long enough, uh, long enough for you to know, remember, but I'm curious. There's one where you um are trying to find a guy's wife, and his wife's sister try to tell you not to go into the woods, tries to pay you not to, and then like, oh, this is like suspicious, and then he ends up being a werewolf, and like he goes to this area to hide out, and like, do you remember any of that? I do.

Alex: 20:27

That was a long time ago. So when I when we revisited this, I revisited the DLC as opposed to starting from square one. Yeah, but I do remember I do remember that contract.

Luke: 20:35

That's why, like, early in the game, this super crafted like a twist, and like, who are you gonna kill? And like it's deeper than you thought. That type of stuff really shines. I already spoiled it a little bit, but I don't want to get too spoilery in case you somehow haven't played this game. That's like stuff where I went to work and I was literally like talking to Tyler. I was like, dude, and then it looked like it was this, but really it was this. And then those fights, though, like if you like the werewolf was kind of hard for me at first. So like if you had the right oil, and I don't know. Like I roll in like playing scrim, I roll in like a tank all the time. So like to actually think about what I'm gonna do and then like have a strategy feels really cool. Um any other strong points?

Alex: 21:20

No, I I agree with you on that point where it's like early game. I think that stuff played in a little bit more. You definitely get way overpowered by the end, but it you kind of once you enter the DLC, they they definitely the the enemies are are bumped right up to be difficult again, but it doesn't take too long to to you know get Gerald up to up to snuff. Uh but one of the great reasons I bounced off the game when I first tried it is because the enemies were really difficult, and I wasn't spending the time to figure out what sword was gonna, you know, whether the silver or the steel sword was gonna be better or whether I was putting some weird oils on there or whatever. So I and the reason and what kind of the turning point for me is I looked up uh I don't remember exactly what I looked up at the time, but basically I found out early game, like where to find like a good sword early game, like a good silver sword. And there's like they're all over the map, dude. But there's one that's like in some river near one of the early towns. If you like jump in and grab it, and it's like way more powerful than the shit that you start with. That like helped me once I had that. I was like killing some monsters. I was like, oh, this is fucking fun now. Yeah.

Luke: 22:22

Uh I there's like some so there's Witcher gear, so you have leveled gear. Once again, this game is of its time in the sense where it influenced a lot of games in the following years, and it reminds you of some of the games in the previous years, but you have like leveled gear. Blue is like slightly above common, and then like yellow is like what is it? They call it magic, and then there's like rare or relic. So you probably found something like that. I got super obsessed with the Witcher gear, which is uh both my favorite things in the game and my least favorite things, because one, it's sick, it's got cool powers, is very like worth hunting down, but on the other hand, I have spent probably a quarter of my playtime either finding the diagrams or gathering the resources in order to make them. And I was like, I've had times where I'm playing this game and I'm like, is this fun anymore? It's yeah, dude.

Alex: 23:17

I'm with you on that. When I uh when I when I completed the base game, that's what I started to do, is say very similar to what you did is started to find all of the um what do you what do you call those again? The the little pieces of paper that you bring to the like diagrams or something like that, yeah. So like you can, you know, I started like looking up to see where those things are on the internet, and then I go find them. Then you gotta go bring them to like the master blacksmith, which is has a whole like side quest around that. You gotta like discover her and everything, which is all really cool, dude. But um same, like and and something I mentioned in our Discord that when I first started, you know, when we started playing this game again, is I was disappointed because I was like, oh man, like when the cutscenes he's not wearing the armor that I have on. That's whack. And you're like, well, that's weird because he is for me. Uh but I'm just a dummy dude, and I was like wearing the wrong thing. Like, I don't know. It's like Boomer hour in Al's house. But uh, but yeah, no, I love that about this game, and that's why I was like really confused when I like made that. I was like, that's so weird. I thought that was something that was cool about this game, and it is, man. So that's like that. I think adds an extra layer to why it's so fun to get all that gear. Because not only is it like really overpowered and awesome gear, it looks really cool. Each let oh man, and then each so not only do you get this gear, but you can upgrade the gear, and as you upgrade it, it starts to look even cooler. Yeah.

Luke: 24:33

Um, feedback.

Alex: 24:37

And if you're wearing it, it shows up in the cutscenes, and that's fucking dope, dude. And another thing that's cool in addition to this gear is you get like these glyphs and stuff that you can put onto your armor. Uh, so it's like I like uh what is it called? I can't remember, but it's like the glyphs that uh essentially um add more power to your swords because like I said, I approach this kind of like a tank. So they're purple, dude. So basically, uh and then when you when you do that though, the blade of your sword ends up like getting a different whatever color the glyph is, like it glows in that color uh uh on the sword in the in-game and shit.

Luke: 25:11

Dope.

Alex: 25:11

So it looks kind of like you're like, I got my purple lightsaber out there, dude. It's fucking nope.

Luke: 25:17

That also highlights how dense it is and why it's really cool as you get into that medium length of the game, whereas in the beginning you're like, I have to do it the what? And then there's a glyph I put in my sword, and there's two swords, and then there's my armor, and then there's the whatever they call the same thing as the glyph, but for the armor, and then there's the signs I gotta cast. I like I'm a cast boy. What's your build? Not to be all over the map. So you can basically be really potion focused, combat focused, or sign focused, and then there's like kind of a little miscellaneous one because it's an RPG where you upgrade certain skills and you can slot them in and out, but you can only do so much at once, uh, which is interesting. So I'm a very intense sign and then fight guy. How about you? Yeah, you remember the signs.

Alex: 26:05

Uh so I'm a big combat guy. They're the sign, one sign that I use all the time is the one that basically gives you a shield. What's that one called again? Uh Quen, I believe. Yeah, so I'm like, I'm like, Quen, fuck 'em up, Quen, fuck 'em up. Roll around, Quen, fuck 'em up. Just Quen, Quen and Hard.

Luke: 26:21

That's been that's been like the cornerstone of all three games, I'm told, is that you've always just been able to fucking destroy folk with like being safe.

Alex: 26:31

But there's like igni and stuff, like the when you shoot, like, and that's just it. Fire. Once you, yeah, so I mean, we we touched on this a little bit uh already, but basically, early game, and once you get overpowered, that's what you can do is you can just Quen roll, fuck them up, Quen, you know, like if they hit you. Um, but when you're when you're not overpowered, it makes a lot more sense to integrate some of those other signs, etc. And then once you enter the DLCs, it happens again. Like a lot of, you know, like so. I find myself because sometimes it's not fun to just roll around and like have your shield on, like, you want a little flavor. So I'll shoot fire at people, that kind of thing. I do that a lot of time. You know, because that's especially uh especially when they have shields and stuff, because it'll just like hold up their shield and you're banging on the shield, like, goddamn it. So you like shoot some fire at them, and that helps. What is the there's like the sign basically does the big uh does like the big glyph on the ground and um it's like a year in or something, yeah. Yeah, so that one's really nice when you're fighting like uh not ghosts, but like the banshees and that kind of thing, yeah. Spectres. There's so many different things.

Luke: 27:33

Somebody didn't read their bestiary before this fucking podcast.

Alex: 27:36

No. No, but he doesn't even know what a necrophage is or an insectoid. No, I mean, actually, when you say those things, I have a visual in my mind, but like, no, I wouldn't. If I you're like list off all the names.

Luke: 27:50

I should have I should have said like the drachnoids or the cursed or something a little bit less uh less obvious than insectoid, but anyway, yeah, I'll do those fucking bloaters. Or like in the beginning of the game, like there's a lot of dialogue talking about how easy it is, like uh it's like taking down some drowners, but in the beginning of the game, like drowners would fuck me up.

Alex: 28:11

I know. There's also like three different types of vampires. Um it's all cool shit, but it's all like in the weeds.

Luke: 28:19

Yeah, no, I mean, and it's like the characters are what's so cool about this game. Uh, there's other RPGs where you're fighting a lot of the same dudes or monsters or creatures. The Witcher's enemies are really your lifeblood of the game.

Alex: 28:34

Doug, we're we're too far into this conversation to not acknowledge that this game is just a vessel for Gwent.

Luke: 28:42

Oh, we'll get to that later. I thought you were gonna say a romance simulator for our man Geralt, and I was like, now we do Yen Interest. I refuse to play Gwent, even though I know I probably put another 400 hours into the game, dog. Shh, I think that's it, though. Is it was another system, and I didn't quite get it when they tried. They forced you to play, and I didn't quite get it. And I was like, I'm sure I could watch a YouTube video. I'm sure I could just ask somebody, but I just refused. I was like, there's too much going on already.

Alex: 29:10

So I did the same thing. That was uh when I first started playing this game, I was like, this is a layer that is not necessary and that I do not want to learn right now because I'm learning the rest of the game because they teach it to you in the first half hour of the game or whatever. Yeah, but eventually I was like, if I had enough time into the game, where it's like, ah, fuck it, I'll learn how to play this, Gwent. And it's it's fun, dude. It's like super fun.

Luke: 29:30

It looks cool, and I wonder, like, do they sell Gwent? Like, I know there's it's called Orlog in Assassin's Creed, the newest one. I spent like at least a few hours playing Orlog, and it's like this Nordic dice game that I actually like. I'm not usually a mini game guy, but I was really, really into these. Uh, but anyway, Gwent sucks. Uh title, it's so good. Don't even pretend, man. Gwent is boring.

Alex: 29:54

Just like you, you'll see the light one day. You'll see the light one day. And I've never failed, so like this entire time. I'm like you it keeps track of all your missions, all your contracts and everything. And it says all of your completed missions and it says all of your failed missions, right? Out of all the fucking missions I've done, I've never failed a mission except for the one mission where you have to beat this dude in Gwent early ish game. Uh to get it. I think it is the Baron, dude. And like I at that time I wasn't I didn't have my Gwent on. So I was like, ah fuck it, I'll just I don't care. And to this day, I look at my list of all my completed contracts, and there's only one reminder that I did not catch them all.

Luke: 30:33

Yeah. No, and it's got a contract.

Alex: 30:35

I can never have a full deck. I can yeah, he does. So like I can never I can never have a complete uh a complete Quentin deck. But anyway. Yen or Triss dog. Uh I'm like debating on how much I want to just like fucking keep talking about Quent even though you didn't play it. Dude, it's so fucking fun. Uh you can just start playing.

Luke: 30:58

Yen or Triss and why do you hate gingers?

Alex: 31:00

Sit up the Discord and we can talk about Gwent together. Yeah, someone needs to.

Luke: 31:03

I'm a bad co-host for this one. The cards look pretty, I'll give you that.

Alex: 31:09

So like you mentioned earlier, they do, man. And you can get like you can go around. I buy up all the cards from all of the uh if I can if I ever run into um uh what is you know, one of the sales folk, whatever that is walk around like I always merchant. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, dude. I'm on my coffee tip today.

Luke: 31:27

I run into one of them stores where they sell you goods at an agreed-upon price. Occasionally you can haggle. I don't know.

Alex: 31:33

Dude, so I that's why I always buy up the cards. Like I and you can win cards off folks. Like in the DLC, there's extra Gwen quests. There's Gwen quests in the main game too that are really fun. There's like this big tournament, like a high-stakes tournament that was that was a great one to follow.

Luke: 31:45

I heard that's dope. Uh the reason I hate Gwent is sometimes it's the dialogue options, so I just want to fucking move on or do something. And I'm like, let's play Gwent. And I'm locked into a thing, and then I gotta lose money just to get out. It's usually just like a buck, but I'm like, oh my gosh.

Alex: 31:59

You almost every time that that's like so it's okay. So like part of the dialogue options, they'll be a different shades, right? If it's yellow, it's like a mission, part of the mission or whatever, and it's white, then it's just like a regular dialogue that you can go by. Um, but a lot of times those are like are you can win special cards from those, dude. You gotta play quit.

Luke: 32:18

I'm aware. That's just at this point, I'm like, uh it's probably a hard match, and I don't have a deck set up, and I just you know it's too much.

Alex: 32:25

I've got like strategy too. Like, I would love to actually I don't want to, but but like I do think about this as like I have a strategy that I'm pretty sure works well against the computer AI, and I don't know if it would work well in real life against a human, like the way that I play Gwen. Like, I like but I don't know. We like whatever. The point is I'm team Yen.

Luke: 32:45

The point is, uh, you know, I couldn't do it. So the dialogue in this game, we'll we have that honorable point. The dialogue's really good. A lot of times I skip through the dialogue in games. The voice acting's great in this, the choices that you have are weighty, they're not always like they do give the appearance of weightiness, but there is actually some real ramifications from a lot of the decisions you make, and I think that's really cool.

Alex: 33:09

Gives me anxiety, bro.

Luke: 33:10

Yeah, yeah, it does.

Alex: 33:12

Uh I'm not even gonna lie, I look up, I look up outcomes sometimes because I'm like a lot of times. Like when I can tell that it's like this is like uh gonna have like impact in the game, I look it up.

Luke: 33:22

I try not to, but that whispering tree root thing against the crones, I was like, uh, who do I trust? Uh and being in between a rock and a hard place is like the definition of this game as far as like uh the show really bangs at home, but the the the lesser evil in that gray area and like how there is no such thing, like that's it's very much the ethos of this game, which is really dope. But the reason I like Tris 2. Yes, the reason I like Tris and why we are happily ever after in whatever place, Kavir, is because she was actually really hard to romance. You could fuck that up a handful of ways. I had to load a save because I was like, no, I thought that would look needy, and like you're coming off of a romance with her in The Witcher 2, and like everyone's talking about it. It's the hottest gos in town, and I have no idea what's going on. But her and Yen are not happy about whatever that was. Yeah, no. Uh and it's whatever. I don't care. Uh, you know, we made sweet love and a lighthouse, so that's hilarious. And you can still have some fun on the unicorn later with Yen if you just do things in this order. You just don't tell her you love her, or else they you know conspire against you and you don't live happily ever after in a hilarious way that's actually worth having happen. That's what happened to me the first time I played. I do remember that because I was like, no.

Alex: 34:41

Oh, you got you got what happened to you? Not to spoil it. Like they entice you, and then like, yeah, okay.

Luke: 34:46

Yeah, not to spoil it in case you do that. But like all I'm saying is if it's your first time playing, tell them you both love them, and uh the coolest outcome possible comes of it. It's totally worth it.

Alex: 34:55

Yeah, dog. You uh you mentioned a little bit earlier, but uh you are correct that in the beginning of this game, it definitely introduces you to Triss first, and it makes it it definitely like you're on a path to like make it make it make sense where you would pursue Tris.

Luke: 35:10

I disagree. They constantly want you to be with Yen.

Alex: 35:13

It's like you rubber, but isn't she but Triss is like introduced early on and it makes sense to like pursue that, right?

Luke: 35:19

You see you see Yen first because she works with the Emperor, but everyone's always telling you that Yen plays you and that she's mean and she is mean and she's like pretty ruthless. Triss is just one a ginger, and I am a ginger, and we need to respect our peoples, and two just like nice and like you know, trustworthy and like altruistic, whereas Yen like got all these bad vibes, and but everyone's like making fun of me or telling me I should be with her, it's confusing.

Alex: 35:50

I like I I'm team Yen. I like I'm team both, but we all know how that goes. So but uh but yeah, no, I did go, I did pursue Yen in the Yen, and there's some cool scenes, and like I think that there's the the whole like trifecta of of um Siri Yen and Geralt, I think is is cool, and they're like this weird little family.

Luke: 36:13

Yeah, Siri's like your adopted daughter, and this definitely came out during the datification of games, so I think it fits in those dad game genre of just like I have to she's like a daughter to me. Yeah, all those weird hugs, like the little wholesome hugs towards the mid-end of the game. I was like, alright, we've had enough like wholesome hug time, like let's go, let's go finish the steal. So, yeah, like the choices are dope. I try my best to just let it happen. I did look up some things because sometimes like I can tell that the blood and wine expansion, I'm gonna have to look some stuff up, but yeah, I can tell. Uh just while wrapping up some things I really liked about the game in the DLC, I wish they would have given you an estate in the base game. I think it's really cool. I always I'm a sucker for a game where you have an estate that you can upgrade.

Alex: 36:59

Good word, yeah.

Luke: 37:00

Um, the whole game, like the map is I think it's supposed to be France. Yeah, it's like it's clear inspiration. Toussaint in the Blood and Wine. Uh yes. It's gotta be France. Uh, I love how like almost saturated it is, like with the colors. Super colorful.

Alex: 37:16

Yeah, especially someone with uh a couple of and we didn't even really touch on it, but like the like I said, I have that switch complete edition or whatever, and I have the collector edition, so it cut it came with like a paper map, and someday I'll get that framed because it's cool, man. Oh, that's dope. Yeah, and the um the the map in this game is massive, and it is you can go to all these. What is it?

Luke: 37:40

I mean I always like set a marker and then I run, and I'm just like, it's gonna take forever, and then I'm there in like 12.

Alex: 37:47

I'm like I'm constantly confused how far away this thing is. He didn't get it. It's a big game, so Roach goes fast. But uh okay, so it's like I guess there since 2015 when this game dropped. Like I think it was massive for 2015, uh, when it first came out. And then then there's all these, yeah. Yeah, and I guess it's like as a comprehensive map, like as okay, when you're in one spot, maybe or in one area, like one city or whatever, I guess it's not huge, but then there's like four or five different other areas where you can go and you can explore that as well, you know.

Luke: 38:21

I mean, the cities are really cool, they feel lively. It's not like Red Dead 2 where you're like you can follow an NPC.

Alex: 38:28

Right. So that's a that's a good that's a good like comparison point because Red Dead 2, it's like you're just on that map. There's no loading, right? So that is a huge map. Whereas this is you're right, the map itself, like each area is large, but it's not massive, it's not open world in that sense. Like you can it is an open world game, but like you have to load up, like if you decide that you're gonna go to Skellig or whatever, like it's gonna be a little bit of load screen.

Luke: 38:52

You mean Skyrim? No, there's no, it's just when I was playing in Skeliga, I was like, this is Skyrim. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure, dude. For sure. And that's when I was like looking for gear and stuff, and I was like, this feels like a I like am I just playing Skyrim right now? Like I'm searching for loot, and I'm like, oh, this is I got like a headache. Um the map's gorgeous. The map is very detailed, it has a lot of character to it. There's some bloat to it, like any game of this ilk, but it's it's pretty dope.

Alex: 39:23

Totally. Uh I love how like when you like the you know, you were talking about grabbing the Witcher contracts and all that populate things. You can just like kind of naturally run into things too. Like you'll when you're like on the map, and it's always kind of fun. Not not to the degree I would say of like how special some of those interactions are in like Red Dead Redemption 2, but still cool where you like organically come across like a cool monster and be like, oh shit, and then you like take it down, and then later you might get to the board, and then you'll get experience points because you've completed a quest that you didn't even know you had yet.

Luke: 39:55

Um more of the stuff where that's cool because quests don't always wait for you to spark them, so you can actually kill a monster, and then there's a contract out on that monster, so you go talk to the person, they're like, dude, dope, thanks for handling that. Yeah, like you solved the mystery, and then someone's like, dude, thanks. So like it's really cool that the world is working in that way, but a lot of those things, like when you stumble into things, like I remember early on in the game I ran into a camp of cannibals, and I was like, This is so creepy, yeah, this is so cool. But like once you've played enough of the game, it's just like all those little question marks. I'm like, all right, that's probably a bandit camp. That's this, that's that. So like the magic.

Alex: 40:36

200 hours in the magic's a little less, but you know, that you also put two hours 200 hours into this game. What do you expect?

Luke: 40:43

Uh total, yes, probably through both playthroughs, but this time through it was around 100 hours. Anyway, moving forward, what I don't like. There is some jank. I've been like really the last like probably 20 hours. I've been really ready to just rail on some jank today. I got killed by a wild boar today.

Alex: 41:00

What?

Luke: 41:01

So I'm on roach and I'm hitting for him to get off a roach, and you hold B, and he like gets hit by a wild boar, half his health goes off, and then I hit B again, and the wild boar killed me, and I'm like, this game really could have sped that up. You get stuck on your horse on everything. You're constantly trying to tell your horse to move. You tell him to do something, he does the other thing. You run into the smallest thing, and you're like stuck in the environment all the time. Like, not like game-breaking glitch, but just like, god damn it. There's like a few chase scenes in the game where they're like, chase this person, and I'm like, Great, I need to perfectly align with this ladder so I can tap A skillfully, and uh, it's just so brutal.

Alex: 41:42

There was a time in the sense that uh like you know, to bring up Red Dead, you're on a horse in Red Dead as well, and in that, like at least you can like plow through the forest in this, and it doesn't matter. Like, I think that's one of the reasons to read it.

Luke: 41:57

This complaint made me think of Assassin's Creed a lot, actually, because in those games, you can, although they have their own jank when it comes to jumping off and not doing the right thing, it's a lot smoother. So those games deserve a little bit more credit. I try you there's also you cannot fall more than four feet without dying, and you can't climb anything further than a bunny hop. If it's the slightest incline, you're gonna slip down it, and it's like frustratingly so on the map. Yeah. Uh there's this time I started sliding down a hill and then I got stuck behind a tree, and there was no way for me to get rid of the sliding animation, and I was stuck in the tree. Oh, you hit a weird glitch, huh? And I had to I had to hit a save. I had to load up. I had to load, and I lost a bunch of progress when I was doing some mindless looting, and I was so that's a bummer.

Alex: 42:52

This game does a pretty good job of doing a quick save for you. Not even a quick save, but like an autosave for you.

Luke: 42:56

And you can quick save I don't know how that works in Xbox, but this is like nitpicking because like the world is huge and gorgeous and awesome. You have all these interacting things, but like, yeah, it's got some jank in it. Sure. And then uh there is some balls.

Alex: 43:12

I feel yeah, I feel like you do have to like you start to forgive that stuff once you get into it, you know, because you know it is a big game and there's enough good stuff going on, but definitely like when I pick this game up again, especially after revisiting Red Dead 2 and just being removed for it from it for a while. Like some of the weird controls around riding Roach were I don't know, it's a you I feel like it's easy to forgive it once you get into it, but you totally like and even some of the movements, like it can be really when you're like trying to focus in on a particular item you want to pick up, it can be really touchy about like you know, like here's the item, I'm looking right at fucking at it, but it's like nope, you gotta like tweak it just a little bit so that it's like it is focused better. Yeah, but whatever, you know. I don't know.

Luke: 43:58

Um the detective stuff, fix your shit CD project red right.

Alex: 44:02

Fix your shit.

Luke: 44:03

With the the detective stuff, I'm not too worried about that being more intricate. I thought that did the job just fine. I'll follow a red trail forever. It's whatever. Uh the combat to briefly abscribe, other than the preparing and like the tactfulness we talked about earlier, that makes up for the fact that your combat is essentially light attack, heavy attack, light roll, heavy roll, or light dodge roll. Right, right. Um, and a sign casting, which is enough. I think it's actually good. Uh, although as you get down that RPG tree, it would be really cool if they had like some combos or something like that, because you're killing a lot of things and people and bandits and stuff. So like it'd be fun. How far is the RPG tree though? Because you can add a spinny sweet attack. That's about it. Yeah, so this okay.

Alex: 44:50

This is like this is like a heavy attack, like a special attack. Maybe that's what you're talking about. Because you can you can as you level up Geralds or whatever, you can. I wish it was just everything, kind of like you know, if you approach some of the Sony games like Spider-Man or whatever, and you fill out that tree, it kind of just like unleashes if it's full, like this is my full powers. Whereas this has like that RPG aspect where it's okay, I have to pick and choose which of these items to you know for my build, which is cool, but at the same time, I'm like yeah, I mean, and it's it's okay because you do get overpowered.

Luke: 45:22

That's a different before I move on to that. Uh the I don't know, was it in the base game, or is that something that was really polished for the new release? But like the dismemberment and like the finishing stuff on people, like chopping off dudes' heads and legs and arms, like it's really cool.

Alex: 45:36

And uh yeah, it's always been there for well since I've played it in the the game of the year edition. I always something that really does bug me, bro. I fucking can't handle your your capacity limit. That's it shouldn't be in games.

Luke: 45:50

Like, I don't know what that's you should be able to carry 130 swords. Yes, you should. I think I think they do a good job of they only have weight limits on like some stuff, but there's like a ton of stuff that does not have a weight that takes up. So like it's pretty generous. And I can't carry you're getting a little greedy here.

Alex: 46:11

Yeah, I know. This is this is also me just like looting everything and like bringing it to merchants and being like, buy all these shitty swords I'm never gonna use.

Luke: 46:20

And I wish that I could, you know, like the game also gives you the illusion that you're gonna need a lot of these things, and you really don't. So like you're looking at the case.

Alex: 46:27

Because all these swords have cool names and shit too. It's like which one's important, which one's not? None of them.

Luke: 46:30

I mean, or even like if they're like a ladder, you're like, Oh, I'll probably be the ladder until you've run into 130 ladders and you're like, you'll never use a ladder. And it's like crap.

Alex: 46:39

What is it called? Fish tech or something? The weird drug, like a cocaine drug that they got. You can't do any of it though, so like you can just hold on to it. Yeah, you could there's like certain missions where you like kill fish tech dealers or whatever. I I might have made that up. There's some there's a cool one with a priest early on.

Luke: 46:53

Uh okay, cool, cool.

Alex: 46:54

Yeah, yeah. But like, you know, I'm just like, you can you can carry so much because you like at least the way I played it out, it's like Garrett wasn't into it. He's like, this is a bad thing you guys shouldn't be doing. But it's so funny because I've like I always got a fucking bag of fish tech on me, dude.

Luke: 47:06

All time, along with like 30 human skulls that no one's questioned me about, yeah, and other we ashes of people because I accidentally said, Yeah, I'll take the ashes into my inventory. So yeah, it's it's a lot. But you know you get overpowered, and then the you are right though, the the DLC when you go to the new region, it's good again. But I actually had to turn up the difficulty for the last like third to fourth of the game, and that's a common complaint.

Alex: 47:35

Yeah, because like I don't mind being a fucking I don't mind going in there and just being able to destroy everything.

Luke: 47:44

Yes, but also I was getting a little bored of just cutting through butter. And what it came down to was like humans and bandits and lower level enemies, because even turning up the difficulty or the new region don't address this. A griffin should always be hard. Okay, yeah, I guess that's maybe a serious one. A troll should always be hard. But like I don't need like that wild boar that killed me was like a level 40 wild boar.

Alex: 48:09

Like that's yeah, or why is it that like guards in whatever town like can always fuck you right up? It's because they don't want you to kill people in town, probably, but it's like it's silly.

Luke: 48:19

You like how you can loot half the world, but then sometimes they're like, hey, you can't loot that. Yeah, like I just robbed half a town blind with my obsessive compulsion. Um then lastly, Gwent is for weenies.

Alex: 48:34

Get the fuck out of here, Gwent's so fucking tight, dude.

Luke: 48:37

It's on the outline, it's on the outline.

Alex: 48:40

I know Gwen is great though. Fuck it. Any other dude, oh man, it's so great.

Luke: 48:47

So other other than that, uh any other grievances you have or things you want to highlight, because I went on various rants, and there's no way to like encapsulate all that makes this game super dank, and I'm fresh off of a hundred hours, so I have far too much to say.

Alex: 49:04

Um yeah, no, I would say uh right. It's like um I will note that I just think it is a massive game. I really when I did the playthrough, the base playthrough, I like I did enjoy plowing through that storyline. I thought it was pretty and like the side missions are all great. I would say that the you know DLC isn't always appealing to me um in games, like uh, but the DLC in Witcher 3 is it's fantastic, dude. It like gives you multiple reasons. It gives you reason to read, like I really gave you a whole new region of the map, dude. That's sick for DLC, that's insane. Totally, and like just like I don't know, man. Like a lot of times DLC is just like extra shit where I'm like, I don't know, like I don't even really think I want to keep playing this game. Like the DLC in Witcher 3 like invigorated my love for the game. Like, I I played through the um the uh Hearts of Stone DLC for this past month, and like a lot of people will give that DLC grief because it's not as good as Blood and Wine, time will tell, because I have not played Blood and Wine all the way to its completion yet. But I will say that I really did enjoy that. There's some really fun missions in in Hearts of Stone and like some cool decision making, and like I don't know, one of my and granted it's like recency bias, but there's uh there's a fun mission where you go to this wedding and you're you're romancing somebody else, but you know, not to give too much away or anything, there's like this cool integration of this ghost that takes possession of of Geralt's body, and it's just like the storytelling in this game is just it's super fun, dude. Like the storytelling, like beyond like the story itself, like the main storyline, like the actual like telling of stories of each little side mission, it's it's so intricate and cool.

Luke: 50:44

I totally agree. I would just say that I've told you previously that the world and the characters are the most like interesting and fleshed out of almost any game I've ever played. And even like random NPCs, just the little twists and turns individual missions or side quests will take is fascinating. In the DLC right now, it's like you got this little uh this little vampire romp going on right now. It's like super cool. As far as like the main main story, I could give a shit. Uh it's fine. It's like it does the job, but it's just all what happens in between is really what sets it apart from all those side quests. All those side quests, but even like the main missions, is how we got to finding Siri or the different things, like that's all really interesting. Like the game could be set in this world without the main quest, and I still would find a way to have a great time. And that's that is a compliment, and that's what sets it apart from almost any other game.

Alex: 51:40

Right at home. Well, shit, man, I think we could keep talking about The Witcher 3 for hours and hours, but let's take a little break here from our unstationed sponsor and come back with our own side quests.

Luke: 51:49

Hell yeah.

Alex: 52:36

Oh, fucking it's snowing right now, bro.

Luke: 52:39

We're in the middle of another one. But when you pick, it's RPG season in the Midwest, where all you can do is sit in your house, and if you teach like me, you literally have days, so uh there's nothing I can really do. I live in a townhome, so I don't have to shovel all day.

Alex: 52:53

So I played I was curious about that actually. That's nice.

Luke: 52:56

President's Day, yeah, President's Day weekend, three days of way too much of the witcher, one day of work, two days of Tuesday, Thursday of Snow Day, or Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Wednesday, Thursday. I know my days. Days of the snow days of way too much Witcher, one more day of work, and then another weekend of way too much Witcher. That's how you get way too many hours in this game in a short period of time. Snow days. Slash, remember a kid when they would plow and you'd have those giant mountains? I do play on the biggest. We gotten so much snow this year, Minnesota.

Alex: 53:28

Uh top ten like all-time fucking snowfall seasons or some bullshit.

Luke: 53:33

So uh this is how you play too many hours of the Witcher in the middle of your busy life. Is that all you can do is hold a baby, keep a baby alive, go to work, play the Witcher. Brought to you by Snow Days.

Alex: 53:44

Snow Days are so different for me now. Like they're not fun, huh? Well, I mean, they're they're all right. Like I work for myself, so it's like I, you know, my office is in my home, so it's not like I can't go to the office. Uh, and I also have a handful of clients that um are restaurants, so on particularly bad snow days, those are fire drills for me because I'm putting out messaging and etc. for closures and working with my clients to make sure that you know they get all that tied up. So snow days are stressful for me these days.

Luke: 54:15

So but nostalgia though.

Alex: 54:18

Oh dog, I tell you what. And then but you know, here's the deal though. So with the with the snow day deal, we recently had like a snowmageddon thing in in Minnesota where they're like, you guys are gonna get so much fucking snow, everybody's gonna die. Uh not quite that extreme, but it was referred to as snow begann. And then I woke up in the morning and I was like, this is some bullshit. They were promised 20 inches, and we got like eight.

Luke: 54:41

Some of these numbers are are fudged a little, but it was overwhelming.

Alex: 54:46

So I'm in Minneapolis, dude. So different parts of the state did get some pretty heavy snow. But you know, it's one of those things, and it does call back to those snow days as a kid, dude, where like you didn't have to go to school, you play in the snow, and like you get all that snow and it's fucking sweet. So, like, but there's like so there's still part of me in my adult life that like I feel like I was shorted because I didn't get that full 20 inches.

Luke: 55:08

Yeah. Uh as a dude, it's also a pain in the ass with Murph.

Alex: 55:11

Murph, my dog, dude, because like he he like be pooping in the snow and stuff instead of the sidewalk, which yeah, I respect, you know, poop wherever you want, bro. But that means I gotta like go into these snowbanks with him. And it stresses him out, dude, because our snowbanks are so high now that he like like gets confused at whether he should be going up there or not, because I don't want to go up there with him, but like I will, but like, oh man, those snowbanks a lot more fun digging those tunnels than going up there to go retrieve poop.

Luke: 55:41

Right, it's adulthood crystallize. Uh students complain, they're like, we should have had a snow day today. This is stupid. And I just look at them like you think I want to fucking be here. It's my decision for us to fucking be here. But anyway, we're brought to you by the days where we weren't there. Snow days was good. And if you're adult the galaxy now and you don't get to just look back at them good old days.

Alex: 56:04

Yeah, and if you live in a part of the world, we get listeners from all over the world, it's pretty dope, and you don't get that snow. I'm sorry. It's just cool. Or maybe I'm maybe that's a good thing. Whatever you know, man. But anyway, I take it. It is pretty, dude. It is pretty. That's what it says. It says on the offline. Yes. Uh, yeah, man. So it's been a fun month. Like, I actually, I'll be completely honest, when you're like, we're playing the Witcher 3, I was like, well, I'm definitely not restarting that game. But uh, so I was like, but this is a perfect opportunity to jump in and tackle that DLC I've been putting off forever. Uh that said, I was like, so I selfishly was like, I'm gonna fucking pull Luke and like take this. No, I'm just fucking with you, but like I'm gonna take this one off a little bit, not even do the main quest that hard. But then I ended up getting really enthralled in the main quest. So I ended up like mostly most of my game time has been The Witch of Three, nonetheless, but I still found time to play around with other stuff, of course, and those things. So I've been I've been plugging away at Death's Door, which has been really fun. It's a Zelda in Indie Zelda like where you play this Reaper, it's this crow that goes around and collects souls.

Luke: 57:55

Um sick game, very beautiful, right?

Alex: 57:57

So that was that was recommended to me by you a while ago, but quite some time ago. You recommended this game to me before it even dropped on the Switch when it was only PC. So I dude, I commend you for playing a mouse and keyboard. This is not a mouse and keyboard game, in my opinion. The the controls are quite nice on the Switch, and I'm sure on any other platforms on now. But uh that's so per your recommendation, the folks over at Pixel Project Radio invited uh invited me to come on this talk a game and they let me choose. So I was I was wanting to knock this one off the backlog. So uh so we're gonna cover that. And I want to say in April of 2023, so go check out their uh podcast because I'll be I'll be guesting on on there talking a little bit more about Death's Door. But I've also been playing a bunch of Sega lately. I've got uh an analog SG, which is basically uh long story short, it's it's a Sega, but it's made for HG televisions, um FPGA technology. We don't really need to get anymore on that. Some people will know what I'm talking about, some will not. Uh but I also have this uh I've also been fucking around with Sega C D games, dude. And Sega C D is this weird period in Sega's history and technology where it was like so you got your Sega G you got the Sega Master System, then you got the Sega Genesis. There's a couple versions of the Genesis, and then instead of going right on to their next system, which would have been uh Sega Saturn, I believe, there was an in-between time where Sega Genesis started adding these peripherals to the Genesis system to beef it up. So like the Sega 32X, for example, is like this weird thing that you plop in the cartridge slot and it like ups like from 16 bit to 32 bit, uh, and then the C Sega C D is uh was a side peripheral that allowed you to play C D games uh with your Sega Genesis. All right, bro, you following me?

Luke: 59:52

Yeah.

Alex: 59:53

Uh locked in. Dude, but it's so dope, and it's like these games, these Sega C D games. It's such a weird period of time because you have the graphics are more or less the same as like your Sega game. So you have the 16-bit area era graphics, but CD technology allows actual allows like audio, like CD quality audio. So you have games that like the 16-bit visuals incorporating voiceovers and actual like high fidelity audio to their games. So it's like this weird in-between time and gaming where like the graphics aren't quite there, and you'll have like, and because of but because of CD, that also does allow them to do these like the really pixelated graphic videos. It's just like, dude, it's super nerdy shit, but like it's been really fun just like playing these different Sega CD games. Yeah, playing these Sega CD games, and it's just like I don't know, man. It's just this like weird period in time that's that it's been a lot of fun to explore. Uh Metroid Prime just got uh uh announced and released on the Switch, the remaster. I have not gotten super far into that because I would like to make that a podcast. Did you get a physical copy? I did, dude. I jumped on that fucking pre-order right away. Uh I should have got one for you. Who who would have thought who would have known that um there's so much desire for the physical copy that uh they cannot keep it in stock. So that shit is going for way too much money on the the uh the resale market right now.

Luke: 1:01:18

Uh that said PlayStation 5 at Target, but not Metroid Prime.

Alex: 1:01:21

Right. That's true, dude. Um But Nintendo has Nintendo has come out and said that they are trying, they they are gonna meet demands. So I think that we have waited long enough to play Metroid Prime remastered in its entirety.

Luke: 1:01:34

I think we can see yes, we will make money.

Alex: 1:01:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Uh so we can wait a little bit longer for you to physical copy. Like you could obviously go digital, but physical is more fun, dude. And uh so that that will be coming down. And I've only played the I've only like just got in there to see what the differences are and stuff, and the control scheme and everything is super nice, dude. Uh, I am very excited to continue playing that game a little later on. Now, my main side quest is not video game related, it is comic book related, bro. Uh, one of my homies, Tyler, shout out to Tyler Peterson, hit me up and was asking if I had been reading how if I've if I have read House of X and Powers of X, which is a series of uh X-Men comics uh after the Marvel reboot uh that he quite enjoyed, and he's like, I don't have anybody to talk to these about, so you should check them out. I was like, all right, cool, man. Like it's been a while since I've had a comic Sherpa used to be that for me. My buddy Steven used to do that for me, and uh now Tyler's filling that void. But it's been cool, man. So I signed up for a little trial period and I will likely continue using it, but um Marvel Unlimited, it's their app that you have access to a shit and like 10,000 comics or something ridiculous. Uh and I have if you have a tablet, I highly recommend getting a hold of this app. DC has like a their one too, and then like Comicology has uh something. They're all cool, but I'm I'm in because I wanted to read these particular ones, I'm really immersed in the whole Marvel world, and I don't know how much more money I want to be putting into subscriptions, but it's a it's a reasonable subscription, it's like ten dollars a month, and like if you think about it, if you're like collecting comics or whatever, it's like four or five bucks a comic. So uh it's worth it if you're reading them, and I think it's cool, dude. And fucking House of X Powers X is some of the best comics I've ever read in my life, dude. Like, I'm an X-Men fan, like not like I'm not like an X-Men stan, but like I've enjoyed X-Men comics and the X-Men shows and shit. Uh but this is such a weird, cool uh event uh and series, and I'm really excited to continue to pursue like this universe basically uh without getting too far into it, like Xavier. Um are you familiar with Moira or anybody like that? Like, I don't know how much X-Men 90s X-Men comics you read. Well, anyways, like there's some it's it's just crazy, man. There's all these different there's in the House of X and Powers of X, basically, Xavier is not the Xavier we're used to. He has seen the future via Moira, who has like shown that like that mutants always end up losing. So he's like created this new nation state called Kakao or Kokoa, and it's like, dude, it's there's just so much going on, and it's so cool, and it's so mind-bending and crazy. Like, it's it's been a really fun journey. So that's my my major side quest. House of X, powers of X, dope.

Luke: 1:04:14

Alison to the nitty-gritty this month, dog.

Alex: 1:04:18

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But I'm excited, man. Like the the X-Men comics, like that series has been dope. I'm a big Vader comics fan, and because like Star Wars is part of the the Marvel like shit now, or Disney or whatever, I have access to all the Vader series, so I'm excited to start that. Like, I really like Miles Morales, like the Into the Spider-Verse or whatever I thought was really dope. So I'm excited to read the Miles comics. Like, dude, for 10 bucks a month, like fucking, there's so much content, is dope shit. And I, you know, it's like I have uh my main work computer I bring around uh to clients and shit like that. And like when I'm not at my PC is my my iPad Pro, and it is like a fabulous vehicle for comic books. I the this um all these apps that I mentioned have really nice like phone, basically, where it goes in on the like your each box. It's like they have nice ways for it to show on the phone, but it just doesn't compare to like having like the full comic book sized screen. Um so if someone has a tablet like fucking and you're comic curious, check this shit out.

Luke: 1:05:26

Gave a shit for going into the nitty-gritty, and you're like three more minutes. Uh tight. Well, similar to Death Door, I'm playing Minish Cap because Death Door is a bit of a 2D Zelda like uh and with Nintendo dropping the NSO emulators of Game Boy, Game Boy Advance. I can finally get my Minish Cap on, and it's hard. Um, yeah, it's hard to do that. I've had to use a guide two, three yeah, it is really cool. Uh I've had to use a guide two or three times. That's humbling. And that I've been really witcher heavy. Uh very witcher heavy because I played like an uh few minutes of Moonlighter and it looked cool, but then I got sucked in the minish cap. And then lastly, uh three hours or so of Hi-Fi Rush. That game is gorgeous, that game is fun, that game is really cool, but it's a rhythm game, and uh, you know, dude.

Alex: 1:06:17

You really enjoyed Cadence of High Rule, though, didn't you?

Luke: 1:06:19

That one's a little easier. Uh, this one is still cool.

Alex: 1:06:22

You beat Cadence of Hyrule?

Luke: 1:06:24

Oh, you didn't know it's a good one. It's maybe a future pod someday. Nice. Uh, because it is spunky. Uh, and that'll be our transition.

Alex: 1:06:31

Do you want to announce the next pod or are you gonna you're gonna wring your hands about it for a few more what is uh yeah, I've been trying to narrow it down, but like I, you know, like I mentioned, we're running into some you know, like logistical issues, Nintendo not being able to deliver you a nice physical copy of Prime, so I'm gonna hold on that one. Uh I do think Moonlighter, you know, like check the Discord for the official announcement, but I do like the idea of Moonlighter.

Luke: 1:06:55

Cocktease.

Alex: 1:06:56

All right. Uh yeah, dog. I think that's what it's gonna be, but you better check that Discord. I'll be announcing that in the next couple days.

Luke: 1:07:03

And if you came here being like, how do they feel about Henry Cavill being replaced? I don't. He was dope.

Alex: 1:07:09

Oh how do we have a whole witcher talk and not even talk about the show that much? Yeah, dude. That's too much. Henry Cavill's fucking sexy.

Luke: 1:07:20

It's not like me and Sumworth isn't.

Alex: 1:07:22

Dude, but if you if you were like pick one, I'd go with Henry, bro. And he's been great, but uh and he's he's got he brings that nerd like angle where he like has a there's like are you familiar with Demois? Does your wife talk to you about Demois at all or anything? No, does she is she into that?

Luke: 1:07:37

He's been freed to do his other nerd stuff, so yeah, yeah, Warhammer and all that bullshit.

Alex: 1:07:42

Like, I don't know if I'm ready. But um I'll give Liam a shot.

Luke: 1:07:48

That's all I'm gonna say.

Alex: 1:07:48

You know what's funny, I bring up the Demois thing is because like, so that's are you familiar with Gossip Girl? Like the show Gossip Girl. All right, so it's kind of like that in the real world where it's like they're blind items, so people send in like these uh this people send in these things, dude. I need two minutes. I don't know that.

Luke: 1:08:06

You might tell me about the deep lore of Demois for the next 20 minutes.

Alex: 1:08:10

Luke's like, come on, I gotta go take care of my babies. I'm like, listen to me about this gossip.

Luke: 1:08:15

I was like, I don't know what this is.

Alex: 1:08:16

I'll make this quick. I'll make this real quick. Essentially, people send in these fucking like their their rumors, or maybe they're true, who knows? And then Demois will decide like whether or not that they they put it out there into the world. Uh there's like rumors about Henry Cavill, like one of the reasons that like he got kicked off the Witcher. And you know, there's a lot of stuff out there, why you know, speculation to why this happened, but so Demois was saying shit like he was too involved in his PC gaming and shit. So he would like he would stay up too late and he would like come to shootings and be like really like tired and shit because he'd been gaming all night and he's also like a womanizer and he was like giving people comedy and shit. Oh, I didn't hear that part. I heard he was like shit. Right, right. And like that, all that mayor name may not be true. I really enjoyed him in the Netflix series. I think he's a great Superman. I like the motherfucking guy from a surface level. I don't know him or anything. And like if he is a dick, if he is a dick, fuck you, man. Like, whatever.

Luke: 1:09:09

Uh really to reset my love for him.

Alex: 1:09:12

Right. Uh, but he uh I think he was a great Witcher. I really enjoyed that series. I will probably watch the Liam Hemor Hemsworth stuff, but I've like I've fizzled out on my Witcher. Like, I I got I loved the game, I love that Netflix series, uh season one and two. I started listening to the books on audiobooks, and I honestly just got burnt out on it. I was like, this is too much. Uh so we'll see if I care for Liam or not.

Luke: 1:09:35

I feel that. Uh it's best at the their animated movie is the coolest thing they made.

Alex: 1:09:41

Yeah, that shit is dope. All right, bro. Much love, everybody listening. Thanks for sticking with us this far. Uh, thanks for sticking with us for all these episodes. We're on like, I don't know, I don't know if I should know this kind of shit, but we're like past 20 episodes or some shit now, which is dope. Um, and it's it's really fun. It's fun having you all on the Discord, it's fun having you hit me up on social media. It's fun for the people that we get to see in real life that let us know about uh them listening to the podcast. Thanks so much. And uh, if this is your first time, fucking dope. Thanks so much for for sticking with us. Hit the you know, give us some uh some ratings that helps visibility. Come and nerd out with us in the Discord. That's what's up. Low5 gaming.com.

Luke: 1:10:19

Listen to us on silent, it still gives us the downloads. Get us those downloads.

Alex: 1:10:24

But it's not just the downloads, man. It's it's cool hanging out with you, it's cool hanging out with the people in the Discord. Much love to you and the fam. Thanks, Trish, for for watching the babies while Luke does his nerd shit. And uh much love to you all listening. Yeah. We'll we'll uh we'll see you next month. Most likely some moonlighter.

Luke: 1:10:43

No doubt.

Alex: 1:11:16

All good predictions rhyme. Toss a coin to your witcher, oh valley of plenty, oh valley of plenty, toss a coin to your witcher, oh valley of plenty.