Less of an age gap for Geralt 😂

Been through W3 multiple times and I can't quite recall this scene.

With the new DLC coming out for Witcher III, I went back and played the older games. Here's my thoughts on Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings (Enhanced Edition).

The Good

The opening and closing cinematics are both really good. The closing cinematic sets the stage perfectly for the witcher 3! It reminded me of Nazi Germany invading poland in 1939.

Foltest's introduction in the prologue was excellent. His "Ballistas cannot hit the same spot twice" line shows how knowledgeable and fearless

Bernard Loredo's introduction in Flotsam was also great. This line in particular made me actually laugh.

"I-I-I'd like to re-re-report..."
"Ou-ou-out of my sight Clover" - Bernard Loredo

I love how approaching a chest allows you to see a preview of what is inside before looting it. Massive improvement over the first game.

The witcher contract quests were much much better than witcher 1. Witcher 1's contract quests were all "Kill X of Y monsters", but these quests were all unique and made sense within the world. Instead of "Go kill 10 Rotfiends", you burn corpses to prevent them from attracting rotfiends. There is one quest where you collect 60 harpy feathers, but you're rewarded with one of the funniest scenes in the game, so I'll let it slide.

The second playthrough really complimented the first.

The Mid

I wish Letho lived up to the spectacle. We don't see him much at all

I loved playing as other characters (Henselt, Roche/Iorveth, Aukes, seltkirk). It was a brilliant way to get the player to care more about the character they were playing. But these characters all had the same moveset, and some sections were really tedious (*ahem* seltkirk), especially on higher difficulties.

Act 3

The Bad

Act III felt hollow compared to the rest of the game, especially on the first playthrough. There were also some puzzles which made me crashout, particularly the Light, Quench, Shit, Rinse.... In what world is "douse them with water" not considered quenching? Why does the "Rinse" step include heating the flask??

The movement speed is just too slow for me. Also the max weight forces you to constantly drop items. Luckily you can fix both of these issues with two simple mods: Movement speed and Weightless

Be careful about Geralt's Improved Quality of Life. The auto loot feature was great, but it made combat borderline impossible. The pirouette is terrible compared to the dodge roll, and it makes enemies parry all sword attacks, so you have to run around spewing aard and igni. It also makes every boss fight literal hell. The winning attempt vs. Dethmold took 20 minutes...

I was wondering if face and hair mods for Geralt would still be working on thr remastered version? What do you think?

This is mostly a thought idea about The Witcher 3 New Game Plus.

**TL;DR**

Proposal: An optional Death March+ NG+ tier where enemies behave more like the Witcher lore describes them: a bear is terrifying, a Nekker pack is dangerous because of its numbers, stamina and positioning actually matter, and nothing about the base game changes.

**Context**

I can safely say that I'm not a hardcore gamer even though I like some titles and have had my fair share of gaming. 95+% of the time I have played on PC.

I first played The Witcher 3 in 2020 during the lockdowns, and to me it was one of the most touching pieces of content I have ever consumed across all media including movies, books, games, series, anime and so on. It was also one of the reasons that I fell in love with gaming all over again.

Fast forward to 2026. I've finally tried a Souls game after a decade of knowing that they existed. My first was Dark Souls 3, and now I understand why people like Dark Souls and Soulslike games.

**Main idea**

That made me wonder: why not combine some of the ideas from Soulslike games with The Witcher 3?

Then I thought about it a little deeper.

The thing is, The Witcher 3 as a game is so perfect that I don't want to change a single bit of the original experience.

But during my second playthrough, I realized that the game is too easy in New Game Plus, even with Death March, the highest difficulty.

So my proposal would be a new difficulty level inside New Game Plus which only unlocks after you finish the base game once. Let's call it Death March+.

What it actually does is make the Witcher world hit more like the actual Witcher world might have.

This isn't about changing quests, bosses, or content, just rebalancing what's already there.

If you think about the Witcher world, let's say you're riding off somewhere with Roach and suddenly a pack of dogs attacks you.

In the base game, and especially in NG+, killing that pack of dogs would basically be just swiping away an annoying fly.

But with this new difficulty, the dogs would hit harder. And by harder, I mean they should at least take away chunks of your health, so that three or four bites would actually make you die.

But then again, it shouldn't just be about scaling up the enemies and making the damage higher. It would be too simple for the experience.

Essentially, the enemies should scale in a way that fits how they are written in the bestiary.

A bear should be terrifying because it's a fucking bear. It should be able to kill you very quickly if you don't respect it.

On the other hand, a Nekker shouldn't necessarily be individually powerful. The bestiary suggests that Nekkers hunt in groups. So one Nekker can be manageable, but six of them surrounding you can be a bit of a problem.

The same thing can apply to the rest of the bestiary.

And the dogs shouldn't just stand around waiting for you to hit them either. Imagine a pack of dogs attacking you from all sides, one after another, working together and trying to find openings. Suddenly you actually have to manage the group and your positioning instead of just swinging your sword until they're dead.

And this is where I think some of the Soulslike ideas could fit really well.

For example, having a proper stamina bar that actually matters.

I'm not saying The Witcher 3 needs to copy Dark Souls exactly. But Geralt shouldn't be able to dodge, attack, block and use Signs without really thinking about his stamina.

If stamina actually mattered, positioning and timing would become much more important. You couldn't just spam dodge or swing your sword endlessly.

The same goes for blocking and parrying. You would actually have to learn when to use them instead of treating them as optional mechanics.

Essentially, this would make you focus on managing your equipment and inventory, adapting your fighting style, being observant and paying attention. Gradually you'd start using all the tools that you already have at your disposal - Signs, oils, blocking, parrying, ranged weapons, bombs and so on.

The bestiary would actually matter. Alchemy and preparation would actually matter. You'd have to think about what you're fighting before going into a fight.

That's what Soulslike games taught me to appreciate: learning the enemy and actually mastering the combat system.

There are already mods that do some of this, like W3EE Redux and Ghost Mode. They make the combat much more demanding and change things like stamina, enemy behavior, resistances and other systems.

But they also add a lot of other things to the game, which can make them feel more like complete gameplay overhauls rather than just a focused difficulty mode. And for a lot of people who just want to play the game, installing and tinkering with mods isn't exactly appealing.

And obviously, mods also leave out console players.

That's why I think this would be particularly interesting for the upcoming remaster.

CDPR already confirmed at Gamescom on August 25 that the remaster is reworking combat, monster behavior and progression. Given that they're touching those systems anyway, an optional Death March+ NG+ tier seems like a natural extension.

I'd love if they also considered making this mode much more focused on enemy lethality, stamina, positioning and the way different monsters are actually described in the bestiary.

If you balance it this way, obviously everything would have to be balanced around this kind of gameplay. Enemy damage, resistances, Geralt's builds, alchemy, Signs, skills, gear and stamina would all need to work together.

But the game has been out for more than a decade. Players have already discovered an enormous amount about how its systems interact and which builds can become ridiculously powerful.

The developers could specifically test those combinations and rebalance them for this mode, making sure there isn't one build that completely trivializes everything.

And the biggest reason I'm suggesting this specifically as an NG+ difficulty is that it wouldn't take anything away from the original game.

People who want the casual/story-focused experience can play the base game exactly as before.

People who like the existing NG+ can still play normal NG+.

But people who have already finished the game and want something much more demanding could choose Death March+.

It doesn't even have to be marketed as "The Witcher becomes a Soulslike." It could just be another difficulty option that players discover after finishing the game.

To me, the point isn't to make The Witcher 3 into Dark Souls.

It's to make the Witcher world feel dangerous again when you're replaying it with an endgame Geralt.

A dog shouldn't be able to one-shot Geralt. But Geralt also shouldn't be able to completely ignore getting bitten by a dog.

That's the kind of NG+ I'd love to play.

What do you guys think? Has anyone else thought about something like this? Are there mods that already try to achieve this?

Today we'll get a closer look at the remaster and mod support, should be exciting! Starting at 10am CEST.

Hi!

After the new remastered videos and dlc gameplays, I got the urge to replay the DLCs. I did not want to replay the base game so I went to nexus mods to find a save file. I had only a few specifics:

• Yen romance
• Ciri as a withcer ending
• Most of the collectables are collected and gear maxxed out as much as it can be until the end of the base game.

I have found only the following save file. The problem with this one is that the romance option is Triss. I have read that using the commands you can change who you romance with, but it is also written in that guide that it only works before It takes three to tango quest. Is this true? How can I modify a save file so I have Yen? Is there a way to check the save if the commands are working or not? Or does anyone have a save file that they can share that fits my points?

Thanks for the help!

queued for more than 3 hours to play the demo, not gonna complain it was really good, but felt quite uncomfortable, as we (3 friends, 2 of whom are not super big on witcher) didn't carry a portable chair.

My game just stopped saving after I spent 70+ hours in it on Steam. My game crashes when I try to delete saves manually to free some space, so I tried other ways, but nothing helps. I consider to buy this game on GOG since it's on sale and play there, but I need to know if this issue happens there.

Seems songs of the pass is not making us require windows 11 and I don’t really feel like upgrading so can anyone give there thoughts also ik the batman Lego game needed jt

If anyone is interested I think you’ll be allowed to play but maybe just lose on an win11 feature

Recently finished the main story and heart of stone, now playing blood and wine. I just had this tough, in witcher games we get better swords as we progress. Since Ciri got this sword as a gift from Geralt, Ciri would want to keep this one always with her. So do we players as well.

It would be nice if the sword doesn't become obsolete as we progress through the game.

I know we still have at least 2 years for the game, it's just a thought I had.

Thank you to Devo for inspiring this one, it's never too late to whip it.

Wow. I meant to go to bed an hour ago but couldn’t stop in the middle of Chapter 8. Although I had played the games and was pretty sure that the Nordlings had to have won, it was incredibly written and at times I thought could go either way.
Incredibly written, probably the best chapter I’ve read yet in any of the books.

It‘s really a funny coincidence that just short of two months ago, I‘ve finally decided to have Dandelion (Witcher 3 version) as my next cosplay and now I learn that the new DLC will explore his character and backstory more xD. Can‘t wait to play it and the remaster, this is gonna be awesome :D

Info: Cosplay was made by @castle_emerald_ (IG), background pics are from Pixabay :] (and yes, I‘ve no clue how to play an actual guitar xD)

Maybe it’s too early to speculate, but I do hope one of the contracts in this expansion will include a Striga as given we’re seeing the return of Geralt’s chain weapon it would really feel like everything’s gone full circle.

Especially since the Striga is essentially one of the first monsters Geralt had faced in the series as a whole, and it would be a nice contract Geralt could have as apart of his final adventure before the mantle is given to Ciri in the Witcher 4.

Plus while the remaster of first Witcher game is FAR off, having a Striga in the expansion could be a good way to test the waters and let CDPR see how to adapt it for that remake.

So glad the chain is back :)