Good Looking Gear

Every time I re-play The Witcher 3 I try to mix it up a little bit with some different choices.  One departure I chose this time around was to opt for some of the non-standard craftable witcher gear sets.  You can purchase fragments of maps from various vendors that unlock the standard gear treasure hunts (your griffin, cat, bear, and wolf sets).  There are a few other gear sets that are separate and I usually don't pay much attention to them, but I decided to give them a go this time around.

The last big patch to the game added in a new story type of quest to investigate The Devil's Pit for a priest of the Eternal Fire whose colleague had gone missing.  There's an entire story that involves a long-lost Wolf School witcher who had been tricked into battling a particularly devious type of monster that had then possessed him.  The boss fight is a bit trickier than other fights because you have to figure out the sequence of skills to free the witcher from parasitic monster that is possessing him (it's not that hard though--just a couple of different signs).  After completing this mission the ghost of the witcher offers to share with Geralt the location of plans for a unique set of gear.  This gear is inspired by Netflix's "The Witcher" series and is called the Forgotten School of the Wolf (I posted pictures of it a couple of weeks ago).  The stats are similar to other gear sets but the level requirements are slightly different and the look of the gear doesn't change depending on the crafting level.

Another set of gear that I never checked out is part of the "Hearts of Stone" expansion. As part of the main story mission Geralt has to steal Horst Borsodi's house for Olgierd von Everec.  Geralt finds himself in the company of Vimme Vivaldi, the dwarven banker/entrepreneur from Novigrad, and is introduced to several of his acquaintances while waiting for an auction to start.  One of those acquaintances is the Countess Mignole, an older, very rich woman who is an avid collector of witcher-related items.  She offers to sell Geralt a set of armor plans (...and Vimme of course gets his cut).  I usually pass on her offer, but this time decided to check it out.  The armor is an upgraded version of the Viper armor from the beginning of the game and has a slightly flashier look.  The swords are found separately in two different main story missions (one as part of the auction house heist and the other in the final mission if you choose to solve Gaunter O' Dimm's riddle).  The silver sword is very easy to miss because it is tucked into a side area during the timed mission to solve the riddle.  Overall, the entire set is very nice looking (it's called Viper Venomous).

Since I had opted for these non-traditional armor sets I didn't feel like having to go through crafting all the lower-level versions of the more standard witcher sets once I was ready for the grandmaster level.  Instead, I decided I would check out the one grandmaster set that stands on its own--the manticore gear.  It's definitely a bit more of a hunt to cobble together the entire set--rather than finding all the plans in one place, Geralt must explore multiple locations related to the witcher Merten.  Merten apparently found religion and decided to join the followers of the prophet Lebioda in Toussaint.  As a result, the plans are scattered among the locations related to the prophet.  It turns out that the manticore set is some very handsome gear.  I really like the look.

Geralt in full Manticore glory.

 Like Geralt, we should all be enjoying the fine weather of sunny Toussaint.  I'm planning on enjoying the few days of nice, sunny weather where I live.  Have a sunny, beautiful weekend!
 

The Best Price is Free

Nope, I'm actually not talking about an Epic giveaway (shockingly).  I grabbed a couple of free titles from Steam this week.  And before you think it, yes, I will most likely play them!  You too should grab them if you feel somewhat interested.  What exactly did I snatch for the magical cost of $0?

The first title is a bit of a niche genre that I enjoy, so it might not be everyone's cup o' tea.  Steam has a fairly consistent rolling calendar of genre-specific events/sales and this week happened to be Hidden Object Fest.  I'll admit that I enjoy a light, hidden-object game from time to time (my personal favorite is the classic Hidden Folks).  I decided to check out some of the sale titles that are part of this event and stumbled upon an entire series of cat-themed games that involve locating hidden cats in a number of very artistic environments.  One entry in the series is free to play--An Arcade Full of Cats.  I happily added it to my library and am looking forward to giving it a try (the series seems to have a pretty avid fanbase).

The other game I grabbed is a bit of a classic but has positive reviews.  Graveyard Keeper has been around since 2018, but it's one of those pixel games, so it's not like age is going to make a huge difference.  I had checked it out in the past but never pulled the trigger, so it's something nice to have in my back log (not my pile of shame...hopefully!).

If you're looking to flesh out your back log (...and not your pile of shame!) give these titles a gander.  There's no better price than $0, so what's there to lose?  

One Decision I Won't Change

Unsurprisingly, I'm still playing through The Witcher 3--and I have both "Hearts of Stone" and "Blood and Wine" left too, so it's going to be awhile.  Last week I wrote about a few new quest experiences that I encountered, but this week I had the realization that there's one side decision that I've never ventured away from.  I just can't do it...and that's saying a lot because I have even made choices that have led to the "bad" ending (which sucks and is sad).

Geralt in the Netflix series inspired gear set.

I'm talking about the mission to participate in the assassination of Radovid, but more so the end of that mission.  I've experienced both outcomes of Geralt either refusing to participate in the mission or completing it, but there's another decision after the main event (Philippa Eilhart emerging to get her revenge on the psychopath that is the King of Redania).  After Radovid's demise, Geralt and crew flee to the abandoned theater to meet up with their other co-consiprators (one Sigismund Djikstra and Thaler) under the guise of celebrating their victory and cementing their post-assassination plans.  It's here that a side-plot is revealed--Roche, Ves, and Thaler have negotiated a deal with Emhyr that Temeria will stop resisting Nilfgaardian rule in exchange for becoming an independent vassal state.  It's not exactly the free Temeria that Roche and Ves seem to be fighting for, but it's basically the lesser of two evils.

I particularly like the swords for this set.

It's here the Djikstra emerges from backstage and reveals that he actually has his own plan--he will replace Radovid as the new king of Redania (umm, ok?) and will continue the fight against Nilfgaard.  A pack of his minions emerges and Geralt can make the decision to either leave Roche and Ves to their fate (will they be able to fight off all of Djikstra's goons?) or to defend them.  I've never chosen to leave--it just feels wrong abandoning Roche and Ves given that they helped fight off the Wild Hunt at Kaer Morhen.  I am a bit curious about how things would differ if Djikstra was in charge--maybe a decision for next playthrough.

It's a beautiful day where I live, so I'll likely do some adventuring away from the ol' PC.  I hope everyone has a nice weekend either spent outdoors on a lovely spring day or inside with a nice, cozy game.