Witcher game walkthrough

Local Antiquaries will sell you books, and you can also recieve books from characters during quests and as loot. The most useful is the far Isometric camera. It lets you see more of the field, which is good for combat. Near Isometric is much of the same, but closer to Geralt. Third Person like in Gears of War puts the camera behind Geralt's shoulder. It's fun to run around outside of combat with this mode, since it makes the game world more immersive to be so close.

Targeting in combat while in third person mode is tricky, and reacting to multiple enemies is almost impossible. I use distant Isometric F1 for combat and most field navigation, and I use third person F3 for talking, quests, and boxing. Note: On my last playthrough with the new computer me and my girlfriend bought, I was able to jack all the graphical settings up to max, which made playing in the Third-Person camera mode an absolute joy.

Combat is more difficult in this mode, sure, but with a more reliable computer 8gb RAM, 2gb video card, and an 8-core 3. You left click on an enemy to attack, and when you get the flaming sword icon, you click again to advance to the next attack sequence in the attack chain. Where combat gets its depth is through the various styles, useful in different situations against different foes..

You also have various weapons with which to employ your syles. For a great portion of the game, your Witcher Steel will do more damage than any Normal weapons you find. Miscellaneous weapons are usually one-handed weapons, such as daggers, hand axes, flails, and so forth.

Your Witcher Silver weapon is your go-to weapon for any and all monsters you come across. Yes, you fight fire with fire. Fast opponents will only dodge Strong attacks. Once you level up a great deal, your attack rating will be high enough to hit faster enemies with the Strong Style.. It might be worth discarding the Fast Style just for the stupendous damage output of the Strong Style, once you can pull it off.

Fast opponents. You can really use this style against any foe, but your damage output will be sorely impared compared to using the Strong style. Against Fast opponents, this style is a must.. The damage output really ramps up when you've got a crowd to deal with. Keep in mind, against several powerful enemies, discretion is a better tactic than relying on the Group style.

Ideally behind the monster or back. This will make Geralt dodge out of the way. Only enemies with slow, powerful, obvious attacks make this ability useful, like wyverns. In most cases, it's a better idea to just keep the pressure up. In Third-Person camera mode you double click a direction button to dodge in that direction. Of course, it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm playing on a computer with no frameskips or not, I still can't dodge Bloedzuigers. Oh well. The best use of Geralt's ability to dodge is to escape sticky situations.

As long as Geralt has his sword out, Geralt will perform various acrobatics if you dodge. He's fully capable of vaulting over enemies, so if you're ever feeling boxed in, dodging 'towards' an enemy will allow Geralt to leap to safety. If you already have the selected weapon out and ready, pressing 'Q' again cycles through combat styles. E: Select second weapon typically reserved for silver sword. If you already have the selected weapon out and ready, pressing 'E' again cycles through combat styles.

R: Select third weapon substitute full-sized weapon. If you already have the selected weapon out and ready, pressing 'R' again cycles through combat styles. U: Select fourth weapon side-arm. Tab: Sheaths weapon. WASD: Directional movement buttons. Double-clicking one of these buttons while in combat will cause Geralt to tumble or dodge.

F: Quick degree spin. Causes Geralt to about-face. G: In OTS camera mode, causes the camera to shift between shoulder-views. Geralt has signs that deal direct damage Ingi , allows him to set disabling and damaging traps Yrden , knock around debris and enemies-potentially setting up even stronger enemies for one-hit kills Aard , create time-buying defensive barriers Quen , and charm enemies Axii.

It's a versatile group, and although it might seem limited, it really covers most of the basics without undue repeatition.

Still, Geralt's main tools are swords. You'll constantly find enemies resistant to status effects like most undead , and your Endurance level will limit the frequency with which Geralt can fall back on his Signs.

Granted, with some Gold Talents invested into Endurance and Intelligence his Endurance level and Endurance regeneration rate removes this limitation to a large degree, they're still limited in a way swords simply aren't.

Signs are wonderful-and I use a healthy mix of both to create a supremely potent Witcher-but you'll suffer more if you neglect your swords than you will if you neglect Signs. Once Chapter 3 starts Geralt can level quickly, easily, and often. With the investment of four Gold Talents and a dozen Silver Talents ideally purchased between levels 30 to 35 they can go from enemy softeners to downright fight winners.

No Sign shows this progression better than Igni. In Chapter 1, it's best used to light fires so you can rest. In Chapter 2, its inceneration can speed up select fights, but by Chapter 3 it can be used to clear out groups of enemies by itself-and rather economically, too. It's the first Witcher sign you learn, and it's also one of the best.

I still put it behind my Sword Styles in priority when it comes to leveling, but it's a handy ability to be able to get pressure off, knock down singular strong enemies, or disarm attackers. If you invest in charging the Sign up it'll gain a greater radius, which is nice for dealing with groups of humanoid elements-especially if you focus on improving the Knockdown, Stun, and especially the Disarm properties of the spell. It might seem like a waste to do this after all, no matter how many foes you effect, you'll only have to time to coup-de-grace one or two of them the fact that you can disable large groups gives you time to eliminate a few to take the pressure off, and while they're down you'll be regenerating Vitality and Endurance.

Ultimately Igni is a better crowd control spell, but the fact that Student, Apprentice, etc. In fact, if you're a fan of Aard, there really aren't any bogus talents in the tree. Although not initially impressive, Geralt learns the sign late enough that it can be quickly upgraded to absorb a fair amount of damage.

It's not, however, a defensive compliment, as attacking or casting another Sign will terminate your current barrier. It's therefore meant to buy you time to apply buffs, such as potions and oils, or to get into better position. Honestly, on the default difficulty it's not a terribly useful spell, and many of its upgrades aren't terribly necessary. On the other hand, the Acid and Fire Resistances aren't something that can really be replicated otherwise.

The charged-up version of the sign causes enemies to take damage when they attack you, and can even knock them down, making it an interesting passive-aggressive option that I can almost never find a real good reason to use. Once they do, the Sign triggers and the enemies take some minor damage, as well as being subjected to a host of status effects, including Pain, and with upgrades Poisoning and Blinding, as well as inflicting attack and dodge penalties.

It's a decent spell, and really, nothing else fills its niche. It's best used before you enter combat-cast the spell on a bottleneck, doorway, or other narrow path and lure enemies onto it. A few things prevent it from being great, however. First, many enemies are immune to its effects, and if you're dealing with humanoids, you might as well just use Aard.

Second, although it has multiple charges, its radius is rather small, and it will usually only effect an enemy once as they cross it. It would be infinitely more useful if it consistently attacked enemies standing upon it-and sometimes it does, if you stand behind the Sign and force them to attack over it-but most of the time it will not. Third, it just doesn't do enough damage.

If you want to harass enemies, Aard is better, if you want to damage them, Igni is better. If you charge the spell up, Geralt will stomp the ground, causing the Yrden Sign to automatically trigger and harm all enemies within a larger radius.

It's a nice area of effect attack, but it's much, much weaker than Igni, and once maxed Igni itself has a degree radius.. One more minor gripe is the fact that Yrden takes longer to cast than Aard and Igni. Still, its utility as an ambush-Sign gives Geralt a tactical option otherwise unavailable..

You can cast a Yrden before a big fight, wait for your Endurance to regenerate, lure the enemies onto it, and begin the fight at a decided advantage. You can only have one Yrden Sign active at once although using the charged, area-of-effect form won't dispel an active normal Yrden Sign. It's pretty weak at a first, but at higher levels its damage can get high enough to down Drowners in one shot.

The real fun part is the inceneration, which can deal heavy, persistent damage to enemies. At higher levels, it's often worth blasting a strong enemy before going at them with your sword in the hopes of setting them on fire..

It won't get you coup-de-graces like Aard will, but it still comes in handy. If you diligently level Endurance and Intelligence, Igni can become the best crowd-clearing attack at Geralt's disposal.

It can become so powerful that two shots can down even moderately powerful enemies, and Geralt's full Endurance bar can dispatch even the strongest of non-boss monsters. Last but not least, you can also use it to light Fireplaces, which eliminates the need for Flint entirely. The base spell which causes 'Hex' essentially gives you a chance to inflict the enemy with several incompatible statuses. Temporarily making the enemy an ally, for one, and on top of that putting them to sleep or blinding them.

If you convert an enemy, why would you want said convert to be sleeping or blind? On top of that, you can only affect one enemy at a time with Hex-targeting a new enemy dispels the Hex on the previous one. With the investment of a gold talent you can inflict another enemy with Hex. If you can't tell, I'm not a fan. On the other hand, the powered-up version of the spell can cause fear in a large radius around Geralt, and while I'm typically not much of a fan of enemies scattering, against particularly large groups of foes it can buy you some time and deflect some aggression.

Also, unlike the Hex function of the spell, causing fear doesn't render the affected foe s immune to your attacks-especially follow-up Igni blasts. Overall, I really can't recommend investing the points required to make this Sign powerful enough to use.

Once you've learned the spell that circle teaches, it'll persist as a replenishing power-up that will enhance the effectiveness of the related sign for a duration. It can be a pretty handy to activate a circle to empower your Igni or Aard sign before an engagement.

If you advance through the Intelligence tree and purchase the talents 'Knowledge of the Cleansing Ritual' and 'Knowledge of the Life Ritual', you'll gain the ability to perform those at Places of Power, too. If you perform the 'Ritual of Purification' you'll reduce your toxicity, and if you perform the 'Ritual of Life' you'll gain increased Vitality regeneration for an hour and a half.

All in all, Places of Power are pretty cool, especially since their best ritual doesn't require any talents. Half of them will box you, at which you make a wager you can always get them to go to at least twice their base wager. Left-click to hit them, then right click and hold to dodge. Some enemies you can just click away on and wail on them, others you have to hit-dodge to avoid taking damage. It doesn't matter, you're strong enough that it's really, REALLY hard to lose a fight, even against the quest fighters.

Which brings us to the moral of the story-don't get into fights with genetically modified mutant super-warriors. If you get the 'Brawl' talent you can charge up attacks and unleash a devastating cheap-shot.

It'll deal a huge amount of damage if it connects, if it doesn't win the fight outright. If you get the 'Fistfight' talent it'll unlock new moves, which Geralt will randomly perform during fistfights instead of normal attacks.

These are purely beneficial, and tend to strike twice for each successful hit, instead of once like normal attacks. Neither talent is necessary. The way to win every boxing match? Make an attack, left-click and immediately after the attack dodge right-click. Don't hold the dodge button down, as normal, just tap it. This resets the animations.

Immediately after letting go of the dodge button, attack again. Continue until victorious. I hate it. But it makes good money, especially in the later chapters. It's really simple, poker with dice, best two-out-of three rounds wins the game. I just save and reload until I win, and I'd be surprised if others do not. If you think it makes you gosu or hardcore, by all means, you play those dice without resetting. For me, I want positive cash flow.

As in normal poker, higher numbers win, so a two-of-a-kind of fours would beat a two-of-a-kind of ones. In a tie, the player with the next highest die wins. If you both have three-of-a-kind in threes, and you have a four as your next highest, and they have a six, they win. It is possible to draw, but this is rather unlikely. It may just be my paranoia, but it seems that the more aggressively you bet, the more often you tend to lose.

If you and your opponent have an even hand, and you bet the highest you can on the next hand, chances are they'll pull out an upset. If you're more modest, however, you seem to get better dice.

Of course, if you start out with a Full House, Three-of-a-Kind, or some other high hand and the opponent has nothing, by all means, bid aggressively. Chances are they'll just yeild. On that note, opponents behave differently depending on their 'intelligence' and skill level. You'll get less stupid mistakes with more talented players, and by the time you're playing Professionals, you can expect them to reliably play the odds.

You, however, should not necessarily play the odds. Normally if you had Two Pairs the best option would be to roll the lowest two and the useless third dice to attempt to get a Three-of-a-Kind or better. That makes sense, right? Three chances to get one number, it's a 3-in-6 chance.

Perhaps I'm just paranoid and with this mini-game, I'm almost certain I am but the computer seems to want you to take chances and roll for certain results. If you roll for the Full House, you are much more likely to get it than seems fair. Granted, you've got a 2-in-6 chance to get one of the numbers you need, but it seems to happen far more often than that. Likewise, if you are one dice away from a Five-High-Straight or Six- High-Straight, you should often go for the missing number, even if you have a Two-of-a-Kind.

The odds are for the Three-of-a-Kind, but my experience tells me that you're more likely to get the Straight. Lastly-and this might be karma-but the game seems to hate it if you try to win too often. In Chapter 2, playing a round of dice with Thaler is a good idea.

After all, it's Orens per game. Why wouldn't you keep playing him? That's some of the best money you can get at that point in the game. If you get greedy, however, the game seems to favor the computer. Call me crazy, or perhaps my luck sucks something horrible, but when I go on a streak against somebody without winning a single game..

Play sparingly- make it part of your boxing routine-but I tend to play one game until I win, then I go about my business until I'm ready to box again. Want good evidence of how much I suck at this game? I bothered to record my wins and losses at dice poker during the three playthroughs of this game around which this FAQ was written, and the results are as follows: Dice Poker Results W - L - 1T Paranoia, or is this mini-game a rat-bastard cheating piece of shit?

You decide, but as far as I'm concerned, my numbers decided for me. Mind you, these are the number of hands won, not games.

My girlfriend wants to point out that she had much better luck at this mini-game than I did, and when I bothered to watch her play, I really can't argue. Perhaps it's that fabled 'luck of the Irish', finally showing its face.

Doesn't help her win the lottery, but I'll be damned if it took her more than two tries to beat anybody in this game. Using the correct tools for the job can be helpful on the default difficulty, although I don't recall a single situation where it was mandatory. Still, there's no reason to deny yourself access to the tools of the trade because some blow-hard FAQ writer told you that you probably won't need to use them, is there?

These all come in varying degrees of potency, but the stronger the base the more slots for ingredients the base will have, and hence, the stronger items that base can create.

For example Soldier's Hooch is Strong Alcohol with three ingredient slots, Cherry Spirit Cordial is Strong Alcohol with four ingredient slots, and White Gull-technically a Potion used as a base for other Potions-has five ingredient slots. In addition to bases you'll need Alchemical Ingredients. There are scores of ingredients in the Witcher, but what matters are the elements contained within them. Ingredients contain one of seven primary element, and some also carried one of three secondary elements, as show below.

If you have a base, and the appropriate ingredients the item you want to make will be lit on the left side of the screen, otherwise it'll be greyed out..

You can also experiment blindly to make items, but with how many combinations there are.. Selecting a potion you know and can make will automatically distribute the ingredients, albeit not very wisely.

The computer never takes into account which components are more common and it doesn't take secondary components into consideration. If you're blindly creating items or using this guide's recipes to create items keep in mind that it won't be added to your Journal until you create and use the item. After that, the recipe will be added to your Journal and will be much easier to make.

Towards the end of Chapter 2 it might be a good idea to just create everything that interests you, so you won't have to bother with looking up the recipes again. Matching all the secondary elements will create a potion with added effects. For example, if you make a Cat potion Rebis and two Quebrith with Ruebedo as a secondary element in all three for example, a potion made with Green Mold and two Gravier Bones you'll get a Cat potion with Ruebedo as its dominant substance.

In addition to letting you see in the dark, this potion will increase your vitality regeneration. It might sound complex, but there are only three secondary elements: Albedo, Nitrol, and Rubedo. If you use components with the required primary elements and identical secondary elements, you'll get a secondary substance dominated potion. You still will get bronze talents at level 15, you'll just get silver as well.

After level 50, you will no longer gain talents from leveling up.. Still, at two Vitality per level after level 50, you might as well consider level 50 to be the unofficial level cap.

There's just no point in working to get higher than that. The higher level you are, the less you gain for killing enemies in combat. More specifically every level reduces the amount of experience gained by 5. Quests give static experience points, and generally a good number of them. To go from level zero to level one, you need one thousand experience. To go from level one to level two you need two thousand more a total of three thousand , and so on.

After you reach a satisfactory level or the enemies stop giving good experience doing the quests will further increase your level. You really dont need to do this at all to beat the game, as quests and incidental monster encounters will do fine getting you the basic experience you need.

If you want a powerful Geralt who can handle anything the game can throw at him, you'll grind at some point. The early-going will be tougher, but you'll save a bit of time.

The only trouble you'll have in this area is avoiding the quests 'Racists' up by the river and 'She's No Early Bird' outside of the gates leading to the Country Inn.

These quests trigger with proximity, and avoiding them prevents you from making a circut of the map when grinding. Still, it's no big deal if you complete those two quests and then grind.. To grind, just run around outside of the Country Inn, you can do a circut up to town either way you go. You'll mostly be fighting Barghests, but there's a Ghoul who spawns near the houses between the Country Inn and the Royal Huntsman, and groups of Drowners that spawn near the docks.

This all becomes much simpler if you brave the Crypt and kill several Ghouls in order to claim the Igni sign- then you don't need to rely on Flint or pay the Innkeeper 5 Orens to rest. To get access to the Crypt, talk to the 'Con Artist' in the Temple District near the sewer entrance he'll be there between and Agree to do a little grave-robbing and he'll give you a key to the crypt.

Note that level 15 is the suggested amount of grinding you should do to make life easier, but it's easy, if time-consuming, to reach higher levels here There is one thing you might have noticed about this area, however..

Instead, turn your gamma up to 2. It's ugly, to be sure, and certainly not the ideal way to play the game, but it works. Kill the several Graviers wandering about, ignore the Ghouls to save time, and rest at the campfire for an hour. Wash, rinse, repeat. In the Swamp Cave you'll find a pack of Cockatrices which give almost three times more experience than Graviers- factor in the dip in experience gained from Geralts level and this gap will only widen, so that at level 30 Geralt would gain only experience per Gravier, but still from Cockatrices-one Cockatrice kill would give more experience than an entire run through the Crypt in Chapter 2.

All you have to do is return to the Swamps, enter the Swamp Cave, and smite the Cockatrices. Head outside and rest at the Fireplace near the Swamp Cave entrance this time you'll need to rest 24 hours, rather than just one to respawn the enemies.

Repeat until satisfied. There's really only one dark tunnel to worry about, so no need for a Cat potion or gamma manipulation. The only annoying issues with this run are the Wolves that spawn in the cave they're trash mobs by now and the Drowners, Drowned Dead, Bloedzuigers, and Kikimores outside the cave. The latter give nice experience, but it's still meagre compared to what a Cockatrice kill gives you.

Also, since the Cockatrices in the Swamp Cave generally number from between six to ten, you can easily obtain experience per run.. No, not about how to level, that was all that grinding information I gave above.

This tells-in brief-how I generally go about building my Geralt. I'll admit, I'm fond of melee, and I tend to focus on only a few signs.

Granted, it's hard to do anything else with Geralt, and since the game is well- balanced, it's more worthwhile to discuss when to get what talents, instead of whether or not to get them.

Within the attribute trees, stick to talents that are the most universally useful. You dont need fist fighting talents at the beginning if ever , and powering up after being reduced to a low percent of your vitality isn't as good as taking talents that work all the time and thus prevent your vitality from being lowered in the first place! And most of all, don't forget Herbalism. You really should have it by the time you leave Kaer Morhen. Again, general bonuses are better than specific ones.

I'd say focus on all the styles fairly equally get them all up to level 2 and then focus on Group Steel. After all, groups of enemies are usually more dangerous than any single enemy-you're much more likely to get killed by a group of Barghests, Drowners, or Salamandra Assassins because you neglected the Group Style than you are likely to get killed by a singular strong foe for neglecting Strong Steel or Fast Steel..

As for Signs, you only start out with Aard. Never to fret, it's possibly the best sign in the game. Igni is good as well, and you get it in Chapter 1. Again, level up the base level of the sign, and ignore the talents like Student and Apprentice.

Get Stun, Gust and later Disarm. Now you should be able to simply use Aard on most opponents and stun them or knock them down, after which you can move in for the coup'de'grace. Once you hit Chapter 2 you're going to quickly want to focus on bringing your Silver Sword up to snuff, as it'll do more damage unleveled than your Steel Sword will leveled to monsters.

Once they become available, I typically turn my Geralt into a melee monster following the same general rules above-level up attributes first.. Then I focus on Strong Silver, since it's what I'll be using to kill the groups of necrophages that I'm grinding for experience.

They're fairly dangerous, and it's likely you'll end up fighting two or three Graviers at a time, so survivability is everything. After that, the major melee skills have been obtained, and I proceed to level up Stamina, Intelligence, the sword styles, and the signs, as normal.

Note that obtaining Ingredient Extraction in a timely manner will make this entire grinding process that much more profitable. Finish up attributes, spend your first Gold Talents to generally make Geralt stronger-then specialize to your hearts' content. Compared to the potency of your Attribute talent trees, it's almost not worth it to spend any Gold Talents on Signs and Sword Styles.

Pile on the Gold Talents on your Attribute Trees the same way you did with Silver Talents earlier, and specialize after you diversify. By this time Silver Talents will become somewhat more mundane, and Bronze Talents really only exist to allow you to level up your new Signs.

It's pretty simple to get to level 40 in Chapter 3 if you wish although it's excessive -Cockatrices give such good experience that even the cumulative five-point drop per level and the arithmathic increase in required experience per level will only slow you down a bit-rather than halt you entirely.

You'll need to respect the Cockatrices a little more, but it'll go absurdly quickly-in any event, I still recommend hitting level 35, at least. Not because the levels will be required to muscle your way through the game, but simply because this is a great opportunity to level up, and those gold talents are worth more than a dozen potions. Chapter 4 and beyond.. My advise for the bottom-of-the-barrel abilities?

Focus on the Igni and Aard signs, as they are by far the best. Ignore sign upgrades like 'Student', 'Apprentice', etc, as they are rarely worth the talents. Also, ignore all upgrades that activate only when your Vitality is low. The Vitality thresholds are too low to be useful, and ideally we'll be trying to avoid getting hurt.

Innkeepers all have secret tunnels beneath their taverns which transcend time and space and allow you to store any and all equipment you find and access your loot from the same storage regardless of which establishment you originally stored it at.

Bad for reality, good for pack rats. Kudos to CDProjekt here, really. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't play RPGs for the thrill of inventory management, and I've wasted more time on Oblivion and Fallout trying to cart around all the loot I want to collect than I care to recall. I just don't see the point in making a game world about dragons, demons, undead, and magic..

Don't make storing loot a project, dammit! Did that scare anybody off? Good, we didn't like those people anyways. Not just a story-based game, but one where there is rarely much black-and-white. What's the use of a deep, story- based game with complex moral issues that doesn't allow you to make choices? None, it's a contradiction in effect. On that note, there will be choices, you will have to pick sides, and there is rarely a clear right-or-wrong choice to make.

It's a major part of the game, and hence, it must be a major part of any guide written about this game that's worthy of your time. To manage to cover all sides, I played through the game with three different Witchers, ideologically seperated from each other. The division starts out simply. Early on, when you're getting your feet wet, there are two choices to make-whether you're a moral Witcher, or a consumate Witcher. The moral Witcher strives to be good being evil isn't so much of a possibility, but perhaps you could be morally ambiguous, with darker shades.

He will help those in danger, and views the term 'monster' loosely. A Ghoul is as much of a monster as a rapist, and both deserve the same fate-to feel the edge of a Witcher's sword. The consumate Witcher, however, stays true to the Witcher code-it is nearly impossible to implement, in effect, but all good codes are.

That doesn't mean it's not worth trying to adhere to, whenever possible. This code is simple-Witchers kill monsters and stay out of politics.

Beasts, undead, and magical aberations are all fair game-the local crime boss is not. Of course, self-defense is always allowed.. He won't necessarily be an unfeeling husk, either, but if given the choice to fight a horde of insectoids to help some misguided rebels escape after their caper or fighting those rebels, he'll kill the monsters. Of course, if he has to choose between fighting somebody else's political battle or running and earning the ire of both sides, he'll avoid the conflict entirely and lose friends.

The moral Witcher will not stay simple, either. Two competing factions drive the politics of the game, and without getting into details, they aren't friends.

And by that I mean they're fundamentally opposed to one another. Both factions have good and bad sides, and neither is wholly worthwhile of our support, nor incapable of evoking some sympathy. The representatives of either side are flawed, but interesting characters who genuinely feel they're in the right, and that their causes are worth fighting-and dying for.

The two moral Geralts will divide in their support for either faction.. These three Geralts will be refered to often in the guide-more frequently as we progress further into the story and plotlines diverge more and more.

The consumate Witcher will be synonymous with the 'neutral' Geralt, who avoids both factions and remains politically neutral. The other two 'moral' Geralts will bear the names of their respective factions, as they are introduced into the story and as events force us to pick sides. Normally I'm not too fond of using mods on games.. Yes, fixing broken things and making the game more enjoyable is just about the only reason I can see for using mods.

Unfortunately, I happen to be an American, which means my government wants to protect me by dictating what I should-and should not-be exposed to. For example, I was legally able to join the military three years before I could legally get drunk enough to induce me to wish to do so. Because drinking is dangerous, and getting shot at in a desert isn't quite so bad. In the face of this crazy logic, my games come pre-censored, and even though I could go to any public movie theatre and pay to see nudity in nearly any R-rated movie, some digital nipples might cause my eyeballs to explode.

I'm a 27 year-old adult male, certainly old enough to buy an M-rated game. When I found out that the Witcher had been censored, it became my immediate goal to uncensor it. No, I don't need nudie patches in games to make them worth playing, but the sheer fact that it was done in the first place I found insulting. After all, thousands of gamers in other places were able to withstand the mind-blowing shock of playing the Witcher uncensored, why couldn't I?

If you're of appropriate age, maturity, and inclination, I suggest you find a censorship fix for this game.

It just uncensors the sex cards and a few skins like for Morenn and some monsters. Yeah, it's not a big deal, and I don't see why it was censored in the first place.

It's not like there wasn't nudity in the God of War games, which was more widely distributed on a 'family-friendly' console! Of course, I'm not in the habit of providing links unless I'm getting paid for it.. If I found it, you can find it. It's out there. If you bought a mature-rated fantasy RPG, and you want to play a mature-rated fantasy RPG, and don't like censorship being dictated to you, by all means.

Maybe by the time I'm officially a dirty old man we Americans will be more worried about violence than nipples.. After all, books have inspired people to kill each other far more conspicuously and in greater numbers than any video game ever will, and even failing that, we can't censor imaginations. That's right, that scourge called DRM. Apparently since I wish to buy the retail version of the game off a store shelf, I'm a materialist, sue me I'm some sort of criminal and can't be trusted to make such commercial transactions without having the internet to check that I'm not pirating my games.

Ironically enough, this has made it so that the only way I can play games I would gladly pay for is through piracy. However, since I don't have any real way to download such immense files, and since I don't care to play a game with the inherent instability piracy brings, my only recourse is to wait until the day when I have the internet so I can validate the mindless, spineless, moronic, authoritative, consumer-unfriendly DRM that plagues all PC games..

Oh yeah, and the.. Honestly, however, who came up with this limp-dicked idea? Anybody pirating the game has been thwarting CD-Keys, codes, and other primitive forms of copy protection for years. Does anybody think that forcing honest gamers to validate their copies has affected a single pirate one bit?

No, it hasn't. If anything, this asinine restriction has just caused grief for honest gamers like myself. Whether it's restricting the number of computers-that you own-upon which you can install a game-that you own-or if it's some spyware installed upon your computer that actually makes the game unplayable for honest consumers unless you download a patch something the Witcher itself is conspicuously guilty of on Windows 7 or whether it requires online security checks and hence makes the game unplayable for folks without an internet connection, I can only imagine that all modern DRM has done for the PC gaming world is to alienate consumers and force otherwise eager, paying gamers to pirate games.

The solution? According to the books, Yennefer is Geralt's one true love, but will you swoon for the dark-haired temptress or is the red-headed Triss the one you fancy? Check out our Witcher 3 romance guide to see all the options. Fancy a game of Gwent? Of course you do, because Gwent is the card game of choice in the world of The Witcher 3, everyone from the Scoia'tael to the Nilfgaardian army plays Gwent, and we've got the locations of where to find every single one of the best Witcher 3 Gwent cards right here.

Geralt's five magical signs are one of the most useful mechanics you've got in combat, but they're pretty weak at the start of the game. In order to upgrade them, you need to visit Places of Power. These are enormous stones that glow when you're nearby, and Geralt will usually say something aloud to let you know you're near, but make sure you check our Witcher 3 Places of Power locations guide to know exactly where they are.

Side quests and contracts make up a huge portion of The Witcher 3, so make sure you look at our Witcher 3 side quests and contracts guide. From the White Orchard inn to the far reaches of Skellige and even the two expansions, we've got every side quest and contract covered. Did you know there's 36 possible Witcher 3 endings?

Good luck getting the best ending without help. Luckily for you, we've got a complete guide to getting the right Witcher 3 ending for you, so you finish the game on a high note.

Need help with a certain Witcher 3 quest? We've covered some of the more popular here which are usually anything where you have to make a potentially game changing decision. The Witcher 3 Ladies of the Wood is one of the most famous quests from the game because it's the first time you meet the curiously creepy Crones of Crookback Bog.

Supporters only Letter from the Editor: The trouble with game awards. Games have never been more diverse, but that's seldom reflected in games of the year lists. The 10 most popular stories of the day, delivered at 5pm UK time. Never miss a thing. Watch on YouTube. Eurogamer staff Contributor. Final Fantasy 6 pixel remaster due February Still under Locke and key. Final Fantasy 14 now most profitable game in the series Reaping the rewards. The Witcher 3 builds: The best alchemy, Death March, Sign builds and other combat builds to use How to make Geralt combat ready for any situation.

Premium only Off Topic: Hedra's astonishing page layouts revel in their giddy sense of invention 5x7. More Marlow. Supporters only Letter from the Editor: The trouble with game awards Games have never been more diverse, but that's seldom reflected in games of the year lists.