DisturbedSwan

More songs announced: http://siftd.net/#!/content/3786/guitar-hero-live-adds-tenacious-d-pearl-jam-and-more Halestorm - "Love Bites (So Do I)" Tenacious D - "Tribute" Beartooth - "I Have A Problem" Pearl Jam - "Mind Your Manners" Rise Against - "Tragedy + Time" Soundgarden - "Been Away Too Long" Anthrax - "Got The Time" Architects - "Gravedigger" Chevelle - "The Clincher" A Day to Remember - "Right Back At It Again"

My game, Inking amiibo and T-Shirt bundle was despatched by Ninty UK today, not had a chance to play either of the online test-events but I'm very much looking forward to this, hoping the Single-Player side of things is good as well as the Multiplayer stuff.

April - updated Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (N3DS) - £33.85 The Talos Principle (PC) - £14.99 This War of Mine (PC) - £10.04 LEGO The Hobbit (PC) - £3.74 The LEGO Movie - The Videogame (PC) - £3.74 Batman: Arkham Knight (PC) - £23.99 Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments (PS4) - £11.99 Project CARS (PC) - £22.99 Star Wars: Battlefront (PC) - £27.99 F1 2015 (PC) - £19.99 Roundabout (PC) - £5.49 Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon & Call of Juarez - Gunslinger Double Pack (PC) - £4.99 DiRT Rally (PC) - £22.49 Thrustmaster F430 Racing Wheel - £33 May - updated. Splatoon with Squid amiibo Bundle (Wii U) - £38.65 The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (PC) - £1.04 Dead Island Collection (PC) - £4.99 Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC) - £7.99 Bayonetta 2 (WiiU) - £19 Cities: Skylines - Deluxe Edition (PC) - £11.99 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - Episode 1 (PC) - £2.49 Wasteland 2 (PC) - £13.99 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (WiiU) - £25

Played for 2 hours today, now 26 hours total, Level 11. Just finished Keira's quest-line and Geralt's first notch on his bed post really enjoyed that entire questline, loved Keira as a character as well, really interesting but with a sense of cheekiness, playfulness and capriciousness about her.

Cheers, fortunately I managed to suss this out pretty early on, been doing all the Green side-missions, Witcher Contracts, Treasure Hunts etc. that I had available, pretty much run out of side-quests and contracts to do now (too high level, all in Red) so I've been carrying on with the main questline for the past few hours or so, I'm pretty impressed with it so far, currently 24 hours in, Level 10.

Played another 3 hours so far today (going to put in another couple of hours later), 20 in total, now discovered all the notice boards in Velen and Novigrad, did all the side-quests I could at my Level (now Level 7) but couldn't do anymore as I was too low a level for them so had to move onto the main questline, did a few quests and these main-quests opened a few new side-quests and contracts, did a couple of these and then that was about it for me today thus far, absolutely loving this now, Novigrad was such an amazing place to experience, all the sights and sounds, it felt like a living, breathing city and was just an awesome sight to behold.

Patch 1.03 came out yesterday on PC, I haven't had any crashes since (I didn't have the desktop one, but had the inventory stalling bug) I must say.

May - updated. Splatoon with Squid amiibo Bundle (Wii U) - £38.65 The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (PC) - £1.04 Dead Island Collection (PC) - £4.99 Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC) - £7.99 Bayonetta 2 (WiiU) - £19 Cities: Skylines - Deluxe Edition (PC) - £11.99 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 - Episode 1 (PC) - £2.49 Wasteland 2 (PC) - £13.99

So Primer's the film of the week I guess, I'll give it a watch by Monday.

I think because I was just going from ? to ? on the map, all the gear just piled and piled up until I was just having to drop something out of necessity to carry on unfortunately, have taken your advice though and sold quite a few bits and pieces today, got some Relic-rated armour/weapons and sold some of them for a pretty penny, dumped some of the less desirable stuff outside of the Mulbrydale marker, went back there later on and it wasn't there...so either I have a very bad memory or the patch that came out today (1.03 on PC) fucked things up in that regard, I've dumped some more stuff in a similar place, I'll go back and see if it's there tomorrow, no big deal if not. I didn't know about the saddlebags or Alchemy crafting either, so cheers for that as well, one of the first things I did today was make up all the potions, items etc. that I could, tried to find a merchant that would sell me a saddlebag or too but without any luck... So yeah, 17 hours in now, Level 6, still hardly progressed the story and spent almost the entirety of today discovering all the areas with noticeboards in the lower parts of Velen and doing quite a few Contracts and side-quests, all utterly compelling, can't wait to play some more tomorrow.

CD Projekt respond to the Downgrade debacle: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-19-cd-projekt-red-tackles-the-witcher-3-graphics-downgrade-issue-head-on Will definitely be cool to see them gradually bring the PC version back upto the 2013/14 graphical levels over the next few months with patches and stuff, but it may never get back to that because they took out a lot of the Dynamic systems etc. that were in the game and swapped it for more robust ones, it makes sense, but I still think there was a bit of mis-marketing going on, and they should've maybe been more honest, but that's game development I guess, you have to sacrifice some aspects of a game's design to make it more stable or make the world more enjoyable and stuff. Put 12 hours into it so far (5 yesterday), and things have definitely started to click more today, finished up everything there was to do in White Orchid and moved the story on, absolutely loved the bit in the Castle, really cool stuff, loved it, couldn't for the life of me remember the decisions I made in TW2 though, the only one I remembered was I chose Iorveth over the other guy in Flotsam, pretty much guessed all the others after this I went out into the next area, Velen, which is an incredibly cool area. White Orchid felt like a more traditional vanilla-RPG environment to explore, and Velen feels like somewhere unique to The Witcher, it has a kind of melancholic beauty to everything, the lovely vistas the game puts out and the beauty of the world is in stark contrast to the battlefields strewn with mutilated corpses, monsters, mud and misery that you see all over the world and the swamp lands as well, Velen feels like a much darker, more atmospheric place, and has a bit of character and soul to it, I love just riding around and seeing the wind pick up and the trees all react, it really is in incredibly stunning game. Spent the entirety of my time in Velen going to each of the ? markers in the first area you come to and discovering what's there, couldn't do a few of them as I'm still only Level 4 and the monsters in some of these places are like 12+ at times, but picked up a lot of side-quests, found a lot of Bandit Camps, Monster Nests and Treasure Chests, attempted a side-quest but I managed to f*ck it up somehow so now I can't get the item that I needed and have to find another way to get it, it's cool that you can fail quests like this, but I was a bit miffed at the time as I didn't realise I'd fucked it up until it was too late to correct it. Love the hunting contracts as well, really well done, and it almost feels like hunting someone down using Detective vision in one of the Batman: Arkham games or something, genuinely compelling. Had an annoying bug today as well, crashed 3 or 4 times in the Inventory screen, just stalled and was unresponsive so I had to bring up the Task Manager and close it. The horse is really annoying me as well, I really wish he just ploughed through everything, it seem so picky about what he can or can't go over and when you have to make him jump or not, keep getting him stuck on trees, rather frustrating, the other annoyance is the loot system, I've already maxxed out my loot, and if you go over it you go over-encumbered, haven't found anywhere to store all my gear yet so may have to just dump it near a fast-travel point in a town or something and hope it stays there, 'tis rather annoying getting over-encumbered all the time, had to sell a load of stuff and dump a load of weapons just to make it by. But yeah, I was enjoying it today, I started to get into and even started to like Geralt a bit, the way the story has set out is really cool and intriguing as well which helps, just got to try not to be OCD with all the markers otherwise I may start to find it a chore again. Will continue on tomorrow.

Another 10 songs revealed: Royal Blood - "Little Monster" Marilyn Manson - "Disposable Teens" Killswitch Engage - "In Due Time" Marmozets - "Move Shake Hide" Of Mice & Men - "Bones Exposed" Deftones - "Diamond Eyes" Vista Chino - "Sweet Remain" Bring Me the Horizon - "Shadow Moses" Mastodon - "High Road" Trivium - "Strife"

Gave it a proper go today, played 3 hours and I still don't really know what to make of it, I spent the entirety of my time going around all the ? markers in White Orchid and seeing what was there, done a few side-quests and collected quite a bit of loot along the way as well, but it just hasn't really grabbed me, a lot of people have made a lot of the side-quests but so far they've just been your bog-standard RPG side-quests really, nothing special to them really but I'm still very early in for a game of this size, I found myself getting a bit bored as well, feeling like certain tasks and stuff were becoming a bit of a chore, and this is just 4 hours into the game. What I've taken away from my time with the game is that it feels quite a bit like Dragon Age 3 to play which is not a great sign at all for me...but we'll see how it goes, I'm staying positive for now, but the world is not grabbing me (just generic fantasy really) and I don't really give a shit about the characters either, feel myself zoning out of dialogue cutscenes already, and Geralt is just as much of an un-charismatic arsehole as he was in TW2. Probably what I like the most is the graphics, the game looks stunning I must say, not as good as the pre-downgrade screens still but it is still a pretty damn beautiful game. Will play some more tomorrow.

Well, this is officially out now, I got my code from CD Keys around 7:30pm yesterday. Pre-loaded straight away after that on GOG Galaxy (28gb install), and after I'd watched this week's Game of Thrones I fired her up, played the first hour or so (headphones ran out of juice otherwise I would've played more) can't really give any thorough impressions just yet but the combat still seems a bit shithouse to me (never liked it in The Witcher 2) and the graphics look pretty incredible (despite the downgrade) in almost fully-Ultra settings on PC. Just within that opening hour I've found myself wandering away from the main quest, exploring little villages and cubby holes so it bodes well for the rest of the game, shall give it a proper run-through later today.

Just checked Netflix and I've got a film in mind that we could all watch for this week, but don't know if Monkey wants to suggest something later today or something, see what happens I guess.

I prefer natural beauty in women, not even a massive fan of make-up, everything natural, can tell a mile off when a woman in an ad has been photoshopped, can't believe how many girls photoshop selfies just to put on instagram these days, boggles my mind. Nah, Battlefront won't look much like that trailer, I struggle to think that's even 'gameplay' anyway, just a cut-scene rendered 'in-engine', I think it's the initial awe of these vertical slices, they look incredible and you're like 'whoa, that games looks amazing, this is next-gen' or whatever, then it comes out and it doesn't look like that it is a bit disappointing is all, a bit underwhelming, with WD it was a bit different because they announced it and had long periods where they didn't say much, then it was almost out and people realised it was looking nowhere near as good as it did initially, and got outraged, maybe those expectations were unrealistic, yes, but disappointing nevertheless. With TW3 I think it's different, because they've shown it off a lot more, 2013, throughout 2014, all the slices of gameplay they showed looked better than the final product so people probably had more faith in Projekt Red that it would look as good as it did, but I guess it wasn't to be. I think we all just want to see this next-level of graphics, like we thought we'd get from Watch Dogs, The Witcher 3, Arkham Knight etc. these games were (rightly or wrongly) held aloft, as the bastions of what next-gen is, and so far, things haven't quite worked out that way and games don't look that much better than the previous generation. I still enjoyed Watch_Dogs (although many didn't), I've already pre-purchased Battlefront (knowing it'll look nothing like that trailer) because I was always going to get it Day 1 and I got it for a decent price.

Release Date Trailer:

Watched The Affair and Wayward Pines on Sky Atlantic and FOX UK. Watched the first two episodes of The Affair and I'm loving it, a really intriguing series so far, with great actor, great cinematography and fantastic production values with a unique way of telling the story. And Wayward Pines, I've seen the first episode of, extremely similar to Twin Peaks, very intriguing, mysterious and bewildering at times, interesting premise for a series but the actor was a bit below par and the production values were a bit 'average US TV' rather than 'HBO US TV' but still pretty good nevertheless, just doesn't have the attention to detail and the budget that other shows have unfortunately.

New Overwatch gameplay footage:

At 365games.co.uk: http://www.365games.co.uk/pc-games/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-cd-key-download-for-steam?utm_source=senderapp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=365+-+THU+Specials+-+2015-05-13&utm_keyword=/pc-games/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-cd-key-download-for-steam

I just think it's a bit disappointing is all, I'll never say a game is shit because the graphics aren't all that, that isn't what I was inferring, not at all, a game can have dogshite graphics, dogshite frame-rate and the gameplay can still be incredible and redeem it, I've thoroughly enjoyed numerous games in the past that have sub-par graphics and frame-rate. I just think there's a bit of double standards at play when the press/a lot of gamers can slate Ubi for Watch_Dogs but because CD Projekt Red are a 'liked' developer by the community (they are pretty likeable to be honest) they get a free pass, their Dev's aren't even admitting its been downgraded which is crazy really. As a PC gamer, I am disappointed that I won't get to experience this game as the Dev's intended with all the incredible particle effects, added atmosphere etc. that that next level of graphics provides, this game was meant to be a graphical showcase, CD Projekt were hyping it up as such and it has failed a bit in that regard, I'm sure it won't effect my enjoyment of the game that much (if the gameplay is decent enough) but it is nevertheless disappointing from a PC gaming point of view. I mean look at these two gifs: 2014: 2015: Look how much atmosphere is lost in that swamp environment by that downgrade, that's what all the added bells and whistles can do. The Day-1 patch apparently addresses all the frame-rate issues on consoles at least, so that won't be a problem hopefully. http://www.gamepur.com/news/18849-insider-tidux-showcase-witcher-3-wild-hunt-ps4-day-one-patch-performance.html

1 hour gameplay footage: 1st Boss Fight (Spoilers):

So, it seems this may of been downgraded for consoles... http://whatifgaming.com/developer-insider-the-witcher-3-was-downgraded-from-2013-list-of-all-features-taken-out-why Another site with Promised/Final game pictures: http://polygamia.pl/Polygamia/51,96455,17905381.html?i=3 If this was a Ubisoft game, the press would be going mental, apparently it has a dogshite frame-rate on consoles to...

Yeah, AC3 was dogshite.

91% average from Metacritic as well from 25 critic reviews: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt Still a little worried about the combat, I found it incredibly boring in TW2, and it looks like it's just the same here.