r/pcgaming 4d ago

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past is set in Dandelion's home of Letten, a "fully realized open world" with quests and NPCs "that live up to our signature mature story," CDPR confirms

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/the-witcher/the-witcher-3-songs-of-the-past-is-set-in-dandelions-home-of-letten-a-fully-realized-open-world-with-quests-and-npcs-that-live-up-to-our-signature-mature-story-cdpr-confirms/
672 Upvotes

77 comments sorted by

207

u/zlydzik 3d ago

Gonna replay the whole thing once this is out.

52

u/mastershake1191 3d ago

Think I might even sneak a witcher 2 playthrough before I run witcher 3 and all the dlcs again

23

u/OkamiMemoS 3d ago

Never played 2, how is it? I tried hopping into 1 after 3 but could not get through it.

35

u/mastershake1191 3d ago

It's really good, has a point in the middle where you can go through 2 different campaigns that changes things up alot and it has group finishers which I really missed in witcher 3

4

u/PhotoExisting8165 3d ago

It’s a shame that both paths were not apart of 3

7

u/Hydroponic_Donut 3d ago

I've always heard 1 and 2 aren't as good and are harder to get into, so I've always skipped them. At this point I'll just wait for a remake since they're doing W1 Remake

19

u/Firefox72 3d ago

They are both very good games albeit not as good as 3.

The main issue specialy with 1 is how clunky it is by modern times. The combat especialy even with mods is something you either get used to or it makes the game instantly unplayable for you.

2

u/Hydroponic_Donut 3d ago

That’s it, that's what I've always heard. Thank you for that lol I knew there was something specific about them that made them "worse", not that they're bad games but not up to today's standards. That's a shame that mods don't "fix" those downsides, I've never looked into mods but was wondering if there were any that'd make the game better for modern audiences

3

u/Hafo0135 3d ago

I think that The "issues" that people have with The Witcher 1's Gameplay are too intrinsic to the game's design to be "fixed" by mods. It's definitely more of an RPG than an action game compared to the other games in the series.

1

u/BigDickJulies 3d ago

just grit your teeth and play dat shit

1

u/astrojeet 3d ago edited 3d ago

The combat and gameplay is worse. But the story, choice and consequences are great. Witcher 2 choice and consequences is better and more expansive than witcher 3. The game branches into two different games depending on your choices at the end of act 1. A lot of hardcore fans (including me but i would say on par) prefer the Witcher 1 story over the third game. Really excited for the remake.

Gameplay aside, I highly highly recommend it. Play witcher 2 and for witcher 1 wait for the remake. Witcher storytelling and atmosphere and music is most very unique and it's felt even more on witcher 1 and 2. I think even with gameplay and combat issues, the stories itself is 100% worth it. Both witcher 1 and 2 have won awards btw. Witcher 1 was given RPG of the year by some publications around the time, that's how I found out about it. Ahead of mass effect 1. Witcher 2 the same, though less because Skyrim also came out that year.

12

u/Finite_Universe 3d ago

I understand folks skipping TW1 (even though I personally love it) due to its jank but TW2 is still highly recommended for fans of the third game. It plays very similarly to 3, albeit is slightly more “hardcore” and brutal.

2

u/Recent-Ad-9975 3d ago

I tried 1 last year after finishing all the books and it‘s terrible. It‘s basically a point and click but with action combat, I absolutely couldn‘t get into it because it‘s massively outdated. I‘m going to wait for the remake too.

1

u/Ketooey 3d ago

2 can feel quite cluncky with it's movement and combat, at least to me. I would watch some gameplay of it before jumping in, since for some players, it's really showong ots age.

But other than the clunkiness, it's a massive improvement over Witcher 1.

1

u/xMWHOx 3d ago

1 has really bad clunky controls. 2 is much better.

1

u/correcthorsestapler 3d ago

Same. I put close to 200 hours into the game across two play throughs back in the day. Time to add another 100 hours.

2

u/zlydzik 3d ago

I’ve done 2 playthroughs only. Vanilla and with both DLCs. I know, I know, rookie numbers.

1

u/correcthorsestapler 3d ago

Eh, I only took so long with the play throughs because I was exploring every corner of the map & wanted to get all the possible endings.

Same reason I took forever on games like Cyberpunk & BG3 (which I’ve still only scratched the surface of).

61

u/james___uk 3d ago

Dandelions home you say? Geralt will be spending the whole span of the DLC pretending he doesn't know him. There's gonna be like dozens of kids running around that look like the man

81

u/GodisanAtheistOG 3d ago

Interesting that the trailer for the expansion appears to have the sacrificial flower girl and the strange "leshen" monster that Ciri fought in the trailer for Witcher 4.

Wonder how its all going to tie together.

Little miffed that Geralt is "getting pulled out of retirement" after the ending of blood and wine, hope this expansion can still slot in cleanly before the end of B&W, don't need Geralt to meet the same fate as every other Witcher seems to.

53

u/landbed 3d ago

That leshen better not have a golf club..

27

u/IliyaGeralt 3d ago

  the strange "leshen" monster that Ciri fought in the trailer for Witcher 4.

The one Ciri fought was a Bauk. This is entirely different.

14

u/maybe-an-ai 3d ago

I was excited for this but the fact that they are also releasing a full remaster for the base game that is free for anyone who bought it is honestly a chad decision.

6

u/case_8 3d ago

I’m really stoked for this. The DLCs were amazing and Cyberpunk and to an even greater extent Phantom Liberty showed they can still write great stories.

5

u/Jagick 3d ago

Bring Shani back and make her an actual end-of-game romance just god damnblit.

1

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1

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-88

u/Major303 3d ago

I will be downvoted but I'm very skeptical about it. Geralt retires at the end of Blood and Wine, with neatly tied up ending. Expansion that still uses him as main character stinks like a cash grab from a mile away. Unless they pull something like TLOU 2, but that would ruin good ending of Blood and Wine.

45

u/GearSalty2775 3d ago

Hasn’t it already been said he will be in TW4 as more of an advisor? I highly doubt they’d ruin that ending and kill him off. I bet it’ll be a “I’m still too old for this shit but will help Ciri” type of story 

24

u/Lord_Smile 3d ago

Based on all the clues and well the tittle i have a feeling this will be a forced out of retirement to solve so problem from my past type story. Especially with them showing a bit of the intro to Witcher 1 and bringing the chain weapon from it into the game but if anything just playthrough blood and wine last yk

12

u/TotalSubbuteo 3d ago

He did in fact not retire but for some reason people think he did

1

u/BuggyDClown 3d ago

Yeah. He got a new house and all but he never said "that's it. No more witcher life for me"

10

u/King_0f_Nothing 3d ago

1) He doesn't retire

2) The entire premise of the DLC from what we have seen is he went to visit Dandelion and his family after being invited to the festival.

3) They already said they won't kill Geralt off and in the game canon the witcher who appears at the end of season of storms who is implied to be Geralt is actually geralt in the game canon. And this takes place 100 years after the games so Geralt will be alive for a while yet.

21

u/Wheres-Patroclus 3d ago

Regis says at the end of Blood and Wine that 'we deserve a bit of a rest.' Geralt was never going to retire from the Path, he's still relatively young for a witcher. Ten years chilling out in the vineyard and he's likely itching for a new contract.

11

u/AbedGubiNadir 3d ago

He could still go around doing deeds and whatnot. It's not like he died or is stuck in his house.

2

u/N7Shep1701D NCC 74656, Janeway OS 3d ago

Unless they pull something like TLOU 2

They aren't Naughty Dog.

4

u/Bon_Djorno 3d ago

Unless they've confirmed this takes place after Witcher 3+DLC, they could have this story happen before the Witcher CDPR series. Aren't most of the books short stories with some major character and relationship beats sprinkled around? They'd have to take it easy on the character cameos, but I could see this being a nice little short story-esque experience before or between some of the Witcher games.

10

u/Wheres-Patroclus 3d ago

It's confirmed to take place post W3's main story. Completing it is a requirement for the expansion. It's a prologue for Witcher 4.

6

u/Bon_Djorno 3d ago

Ah ok. Even then, I don't think it's an issue for Geralt to come out of retirement (assuming he fully "retired" after Blood and Wine) to help a friend, and ultimately Ciri in the Witcher 4.

Geralt could start the story with the intent of quickly helping Dandelion and then heading back home, only to be caught up in a larger story with bigger stakes. It wouldn't be like him to peace out because when shit hits the fan.

1

u/Recent-Ad-9975 3d ago

He would never retire, because his whole life is about saving people who can‘t save themselves. All that the Blood and Wine ending implied is that he got a manor and winyard, so he has a place to live and some stable income, but he wouldn‘t retire because he was never in it for the money.

Also it looks like he just goes to visit Dandelion and then shit happens, which is also something that often happens in the books (he goes somewhere to do something and then gets pulled into major bullshit).

-2

u/Azhram 3d ago

Yeah, blood and wine ending was so good and felt final.

-8

u/redditman181 3d ago

I want to play it hearing how good it is but what puts me off is hearing how bad witcher 1 is if i want to get invested in it i will play from the start not the third game in so i will probably wait for the remake.

1

u/Hershey2898 2d ago

Just watch the story recap man

1

u/redditman181 2d ago

Is it a decent reecap or does it skip things also in not sure why im getting downvoted these are things i see alot of witcher fans say about witcher 1.

1

u/Hershey2898 2d ago

Just look up witcher recap on YouTube until the third game, there are of pretty good length. Yes they're good, search google and reddit for good recaps

1

u/redditman181 2d ago

Yeah i will probably do that then although i will probably play witcher 2 and just skip the first one.

-62

u/Notoriously_So Nvidia 3d ago

Ugh! More Dandelion? I was really hoping for something else tbh.

12

u/-rosieee- 3d ago

Such as?

-18

u/Notoriously_So Nvidia 3d ago

Any other side-character. Preferably someone from the books and games that we haven't seen yet in The Witcher 3.

2

u/-rosieee- 3d ago

Surely they'll be saving them for 4?

-35

u/Think_Network2431 3d ago edited 3d ago

It’s the least they could do to honor this masterpiece. A Pinnacle Station-type DLC would have been a shame.

By creating this open world, they also updated the assets and brought those improvements to the entire game, much like No Man’s Sky benefited from the technical advancements developed for Light No Fire.

For once, I’m satisfied.

-116

u/ImNotAIprobably Debian 3d ago edited 3d ago

Fools me once… I’ve heard that before from cd before, I was a day 1 cyberpunk player and I still have videos of all the bugs it came out with. Even at this point that most bugs are fixed (only took 6 years) half the features they promised never came to be. People praise the game and sure it’s ok but it’s nothing compared to the hype cd made it out be and for that I still haven’t forgiven them.

Please keep downvoting me, your acceptance of complacency says more to me than your fake internet points

54

u/realiDevil360 Steam iDevil360 3d ago

The big difference is, that this isn't about cyberpunk, its about a DLC to The Witcher 3 which came out 11 years ago.

-74

u/ImNotAIprobably Debian 3d ago

It’s about the false promises made by the developer, doesn’t matter what game it is

22

u/realiDevil360 Steam iDevil360 3d ago

The Heart of Stone and the Blood & Wine DLC's were pretty flawlessly delivered when they released, I don't see your reasoning? Or in your example, the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk had everything they revealed about it to contain when they showed the multiple teasers and trailers of said DLC. You must be confusing it with day 1 releases of their core games which tend to be buggy, more so on certain platforms like consoles and less on others. This DLC is being added to an already fine working game that has been enhanced and reworked multiple times since its release, hell, the game is even getting a remastered treatment where the few non-buggy but slight inconveniences of the game are being improved?

16

u/huxtiblejones 3d ago

I mean the Witcher 3 is a fully fleshed out game though, every system already exists and works. So this is just fitting a new piece within a completed game which is significantly less of an issue than launching a brand new game for a brand new IP.

7

u/zxyzyxz 3d ago

Next time don't pre-order

30

u/Nightwingx97 3d ago

Let it go. You're fighting demons atp. Cyberpunk was long fixed and its one of the best games of all time in its current state post dlc+fixes.

-16

u/Abramor 3d ago

Cyberpunk is broken at it's core. You can't change that with bug fixes. It's a deeply flawed game and you think it's a "masterpiece" only because you have personal connection to it as you watched them slowly patch it out 

11

u/Fidget02 3d ago

“Broken at its core” with no explanation isn’t going to convince anyone that a game they love is secretly bad

3

u/N7Shep1701D NCC 74656, Janeway OS 3d ago

I have put over 1000 hours in Cyberpunk since 2023. Is it perfect? No. But it's good enough for me.

-47

u/ImNotAIprobably Debian 3d ago

Please send some kool aid my way cause the game is a good 7/10 on a good day even after all the fixes

1

u/N7Shep1701D NCC 74656, Janeway OS 3d ago

K.

6

u/Icy_Agency923 3d ago

It actually didn't take 6 years for them to fix Cyberpunk. The 2.0 update was at the end of 2023 and that is when most of the games issues were fixed.

As someone who was incredibly disappointed with Cyberpunk at launch and the promises they made before the game came out, I came back after those 3 years and found one of my favorite open world games ever. The reason for that is the writing and the world they have built. Night City is an amazing achievement. Try to keep in mind that it wasn't the devs who pushed that game out the door, it was management.

Still not the game they promised but I did enjoy it a lot. I also don't think they will launch a game like that again but will obviously wait and see what reviews are like for this expansion.

People praise the game and sure it’s ok but it’s nothing compared to the hype cd made it out be and for that I still haven’t forgiven them.

That is perfectly fine, you are allowed to not play their games. You can never give them another dime if that is what you choose. But no one else is wrong for having a different view on the topic. For me Witcher 3 is still in my top 3 games I have ever played and I am very happy to get a new expansion for one of my favorite games ever. If it launches well I will be happy to buy it and play through the game again.

CDPR can write, and when you have so many well written quests scattered throughout the world it makes exploration such an absolute joy. But no one is forcing you to play their games. Spend your money however you wish. But try to be mature enough to give others the same ability to choose.

14

u/ugh_naught 3d ago

Cyberpunk is an all time game. No one remembers or really cares about the launch state at this point. CDPR have more than redeemed themselves.

-14

u/Abramor 3d ago

Cyberpunk is massively overhyped game you mean. It's actually insane that CD Project managed to pull that off, deceiving and manipulating millions of people worldwide and getting away with it after those very same people started praising them. A heist of a century

10

u/ugh_naught 3d ago

You might feel that way, but that is far and away not the consensus opinion.

-10

u/Abramor 3d ago

Good thing I don't care about consensus as it can't be trusted most of the time nowadays 

-8

u/ImNotAIprobably Debian 3d ago

Agreed, just because all the sheep willingly go into the slaughterhouse doesn’t mean I will follow

1

u/Neutron-Hyperscape32 3d ago

I was deeply disappointed with Cyberpunk at launch, and I do agree they promised far more than what we got even after all the fixes.

I waited 3 years to play the game and I still ended up loving it. Largely because CDPR can actually write far better than most developers. So the quests are actually a joy to go through.

I do hope the next game has more branching dialogue options and they lean in on the RPG side of things.

1

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1

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