Geekly Review #83

After a Bank holiday weekend, a normal weekend just goes far too quickly…

As you can probably guess I’m still playing a lot of the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Although I did get an invite to the Fable Legends beta this weekend. But unfortunately anyone playing the beta is under NDA and therefore can’t actually talk about the game, which kind of sucks. I believe there are meant to be a few beta tests running, and I’m hoping that at some point the NDA will be lifted, and if it is then I will share my experience of it with you.

Back to the Witcher though, I’ve done most of the main quest lines in Velen and Novigrad now, and my next destination is the islands of Skellige, but before I head there I want to finish up more of the side quests and Witcher contracts. I’ve also been playing a lot of Gwent, and trying to win all the unique cards as part of the Gwent quests. So far I’ve have the Baron’s card although I didn’t beat him to get it. However, I’ve beaten the Soothsayer, Oreton, Haddy and Vimme Vivaldi. Now that I’ve started to build up a good Northern Relms deck, I’m actually starting to do pretty well in most games. Also, the players related to the quests definitely play in a pattern so once you figure that out it’s not too difficult to beat them.

I really hope that Gwent becomes a separate game as an app or something. It’s so hugely addictive. I’ve seen printable versions pop up on reddit too, so I’m kind of tempted to print them off.

I’ve been playing for pretty much bang on 24 hours now, and I don’t even feel like I’ve really made much of a dent in the game. I have a huge list of Witcher contracts pilling up, and still handfuls of ? around the map to go and check out. The game is simply huge.

I also really wanted to try out the Trials of Osiris on Destiny this weekend, which is the new Crucible mode available with the House of Wolves. The problem is, is that there is no match making with it, so you need to find two other people to play with. I hit up reddit to look for fire teams needing an extra player. The problem I face is I’m currently lvl 32, and everyone else seems to be 33 or 34. With Trials of Osiris ‘power matters’, basically, like the Iron Banner the higher your level the better you defence. As a level 32 player I might find it harder to dish out damage, which therefore meant people didn’t really want to play with me – which I can understand, because if you lose 3 matches you’re out of the game mode, and need a token to get back in. After almost an hour I gave up trying to message people to play with.

It kind of sucks feeling like you can’t really play the new mode which is essentially the main part of the DLC. Plus the fact that it only runs over the weekend, which gives you quite a limited time frame to play. I guess I will try again next weekend….

– Will
I can sum up my week since the last Geekly Review in 3 words. Lego and Witcher.

So it’s no secret I do enjoy a spot of Lego building, but unfortunately It can be quite an expensive hobby. Well It’s the first payslip in some time where a birthday, stag do or other expense hasn’t occurred so I could indulge in some of Lego’s finest.

I opted to splash some of my cash on the Lego Batman Tumbler.

I actually prefer building vehicles in Lego. Specifically famous ones if possible (currently have Ecto 1 and Delorean already). So this was quite an exciting purchase. I do plan on putting a post up here later on to review the build and show the progress through the way. But for now I can say that it was one hell of a fun build stretching over 4 days. Not continuous obviously, but the spare hours I had I put into this managing to pull myself away from Witcher. And here’s what the final thing looked like.

Aside from Lego I’ve been pouring the rest of my spare time on Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. Which I imagine most people are that haven’t got Destiny.

I’m now touching up to 30 hours of game play and just short of hitting level 15. I’ve spent about the last 7 or 8 hours in Novigrad working on quests for Triss Merrigold, finding Dandelion, Finding Whoreson Junior and travelling back and forth to Oxenfurt. It’s an absolute blast. Apparently I’m meant to be heading onto Skellige, but I find my quest line is still full of things to do in Novigrad, and I like the place so will be sticking around.

Other than Lego and Witcher, I did watch some TV and movies in the evenings. I’ve been in quite the Star Wars mood as we see more and more of Battlefront 3 and Episode 7. However rather than watch or play any Star Wars things, I opted to watch Family Guy: Blue Harvest the Star Wars parody of Episode 4: A New Hope. I’ve got them all on DVD so will continue with the parody saga in the next few evenings.

And last night I finally watched a film I’d been curious to watch for quite some time, but never had the guts to put it on. Guillermo Del Toro produced horror flick Mama. I do like my horror films and had heard that this one was particularly scary. The beginning and middle of it did actually keep me on the edge of my seat for quite some time. But it did get pretty silly towards the end. Still would recommend.

– Murr

NEWS ROUND-UP

More E3 Hype

We’re still getting hyped about E3 2015. It’s only a couple of weeks away. Last week we took a look at what EA and Ubisoft might have to offer. This week we will be looking at the big guns, Sony and Microsoft.