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The Witcher 3: One Deadly Bug That Will End Your Game

Let me clarify a few points:

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an amazing game. It really is.

2. I have no interest in bashing the developer because of what appears to be an isolated and very rare incident.

That being said, I think we all have to accept that CD Projekt Red's game is simply too unstable and probably wasn't ready to launch. I also have a responsibility to my fellow gamers; I want to warn them in case they encounter the same issue. Now, I haven't been able to find evidence of this game-ending bug anywhere online (and trust me, I looked) and therefore, I have to assume I'm in the extreme minority.

Even so, if it can happen to me, I'm sure it can happen to someone else. Here's the scenario:

After you kill the Griffin in White Orchard and claim your prize, you're supposed to return to Vesemir and prepare to leave this opening introductory area. This is the last part of the Lilac and Gooseberries mission. What's supposed to happen is that you'll find Vesemir in the tavern, after which a brawl breaks out and you take off. The only reason I know this is because I had to look it up.

What happened to me is that after killing the Griffin, Vesemir is standing outside the tavern again. The main mission marker is right on him but he only repeats the same dialogue lines from before and nothing happens. Inside the tavern, it's a strange scene. There are some bandits there; some standing, some sitting, and if you talk to them, they respond with shouts and yells that imply they're in combat. Vesemir is still standing outside. And that's it. The game is stuck.

Un-installing and re-installing the game data does nothing, and neither does returning to a previous save file (guess I didn't have one that went back far enough). Now I have no choice; I have to start over. Word of warning: Before you talk to Vesemir to trigger the Griffin encounter, create a Manual Save and DON'T overwrite it after killing the Griffin. Maybe, if the game does break after, you can return to the save before the fight and try again. I don't know; it's just an idea.

This will delay my review indefinitely and I haven't decided yet what sort of impact this incident should have on the score.

Related Game(s): The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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DIsmael85
DIsmael85
8 years ago

I'm at least 26 hours into the game doing side quest after side quest and have not once experiences a game break bug. Some frame rate slow downs of course, but on the PS4 this game has been simply amazing. Sorry for all those suffering bugs, but I don't think this is very wide spread.

Ben Dutka PSXE
Ben Dutka PSXE
8 years ago

I said it wasn't very widespread.

DIsmael85
DIsmael85
8 years ago

I guess this was just a blog update then? Rather than news. Sorry was a bit confused.

Axe99
Axe99
8 years ago

This is still news – I want to know if I need to keep a range of saves for W3 rather than start again 40 hours in. This also isn't the only game-breaking bug in the game.

That said, whenever playing a big game like this, I try and keep three saves – one before the current 'mission', one 5-15 minutes ago and one current (so 5-15 minutes is the gap between the recent and current save). Has saved me from game breaking bugs in pretty much every Bethesda game I've ever played, and a range of others.

Temjin001
Temjin001
8 years ago

Hopefully the 600 fixes coming in the next patch fixes that problem. I can live with lots of little bugs and slowdown but I don't want hours of progress destroyed.


Last edited by Temjin001 on 5/22/2015 9:18:11 PM

PHOENIXZERO
PHOENIXZERO
8 years ago

I know I'm late but that was a misunderstanding, the 600 fixes patch was the day one patch.

berserk
berserk
8 years ago

Wow i thought you had way more time sinked in it , that s 10 hours max ( what it took me to complete that map ) of game time . I hope no other bug like that will happen to you , those suck ( forcing you to restart .

Ben Dutka PSXE
Ben Dutka PSXE
8 years ago

No, it was maybe 8 hours and I was going slow. I'm on track to do it in a little more than half the time now.

Oxvial
Oxvial
8 years ago

Only 7 hours here all safe without slow downs, today I was going to play more but… all this reports just scared me, gonna wait for the patch.

Corvo
Corvo
8 years ago

The only bug I've encountered is since I love exploring, I went and found a bandit camp and wiped everyone out. Well it turns out, it was connected to a side quest I had started, but not finished and it turns out the side quest led to the bandit camp I cleared out hours ago and so now I can never achieve 100% completion unless they release a patch to fix it.

It sucks, but the game is massive. Its expected.

Beamboom
Beamboom
8 years ago

So you killed someone before you received the task to kill them, and now that task can't be completed?

Well yeah I guess that can be called a bug. But it goes to show as just one tiny example of how complicated the task of making a game and a story in an open world is.


Last edited by Beamboom on 5/23/2015 2:03:34 AM

Zeronoz
Zeronoz
8 years ago

My copy was defective…It always crashed after the CDPR logo (after the startup screen). Patched and/or unpatched the same thing still happened. I googled it and there is nothing about it…

Snaaaake
Snaaaake
8 years ago

The game being big is no excuse for game-breaking bug.
Though it probably will get a pass like Skyrim.

Solid Fantasy
Solid Fantasy
8 years ago

Thanks for the heads up. I'm working my way up to the Griffin battle and, although rare, it's an easy precaution.

Broady
Broady
8 years ago

Haven't got round to my purchase yet, will hold off another couple of months to wait for patches, etc. Might also pick up on the pc instead of ps4, not sure yet.

Aerifale
Aerifale
8 years ago

Anyone else finding the long load times a bit of a drag.

Thought I'd left that all behind with BloodBorne XD


Last edited by Aerifale on 5/23/2015 8:08:19 AM

Squirreleatsman
Squirreleatsman
8 years ago

I'm sorry to hear this Ben. So far I haven't run into any major bugs or glitches, just a few minor ones like Geralt"s climbing animation or an enemy AI issues.

I'll be honest, I would have some issues with repeating the first 8 hours, and I guess I would tailor my review to whether or not my interest was in the game was able to overlook that major flaw and restart.
For example if I had run into a game breaking bug in Bloodborne, that would have been it for me…thankfully I didn't.

On the upside the Griffin battle can be finished in about 2-3 hours of starting the game.

All I can say is that it's very unfortunate that CD Projekt Red launched the game with so many issues. I understand that it is a massive game, and putting it out on 2 consoles and PC's must have been quite an undertaking, but this trend can't continue.
Personally I think that if you experience this game breaking glitch that the review and score should suffer the full weight of this flaw. Then, write and update to the review with and updated score, but always keep the original comments and score on record. I think its unfortunate that so many major gaming sites allow this sort of thing to be swept under the rug, not only are they doing a disservice to gamer but to the developer as well. Developers need to know that these flaw often ruin or taint the entire experience, so that they will spend the money and effort to insure these issues are as minimal as possible upon release.

Ben Dutka PSXE
Ben Dutka PSXE
8 years ago

"On the upside the Griffin battle can be finished in about 2-3 hours of starting the game."

That's true but I always want to do all the extra stuff, unfortunately. Good news is is I'm ripping through White Orchard pretty fast now; it only took a couple hours for the Griffin battle to be available.

Squirreleatsman
Squirreleatsman
8 years ago

On another note Witcher 3's save system needs some serious work I was exploring located a piece of a treasure hunt, discover two separate treasures from my mission, kept exploring and got killed and it restarted me all they way back as if i had done none of this. This is a little ridiculous for an open world game. Also had hair and beard glitch where i had a shaved head, hair hand beard were floating beside me….definitely shipped to early.

Squirreleatsman
Squirreleatsman
8 years ago

Yeah, it's pretty frustrating to have to decide between getting back to where you were as fast as you can or repeating the same quests you already did.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
8 years ago

You can change his hair? I only got some option about a beard.

Squirreleatsman
Squirreleatsman
8 years ago

yeah there at least 3 hair options that i know, however this was a glitch I hadn't change his hair at this point, it was simply detached from his head as was his beard and floating in the air beside him.

Also just had the world start render to some levels of the landscape at chest level for all characters, others at foot level then the game crashed. This may be the buggiest game I've ever liked.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
8 years ago

where do i go for a haircut?

Squirreleatsman
Squirreleatsman
8 years ago

noviguard square has one hair cut place it will be identified by the scissors on your map, but there are supposed to be more.

matt99
matt99
8 years ago

I have a save system to try and avoid these things, I keep one manual save slot that I save over every hour, one that I save over every 2 hours. And the rest I alternate through as often as I need. That way I hopefully will only ever lose 2 hours max. I know the feeling of losing all your progress..it sucks, and it must suck even more when you need to write a review for the game.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
8 years ago

I was okay and things are good so far, except when I press the game to act like a console game. Then it kinda falls apart. People inside other people, my body inside a hill, stuttering. There's always the difference when you play PC style games and it tends to be in the bug camp.

I'm also reviewing Arcania Complete Tale for PS4 and holy cow, while it's still a low budget open world RPG the difference between it and the PS3 version are night and day. I'm even spending some Witcher time with that game instead because it has a certain simple charm whereas Witcher is kind of overwhelming Sometimes I prefer the weirdness of Arcania. The world of the Witcher is a bit Old West for me.

If I had told that guy not to cut my beard would it have stayed ?


Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 5/23/2015 2:12:25 PM

Squirreleatsman
Squirreleatsman
8 years ago

I'm highly contemplating taking a break from Witcher 3 until a new patch comes out. As of right now Witcher 3 is more frustrating than fun with its' multitude of bugs, glitches, control issues and presentation flaws (tiny text). Eventually Witcher 3 will be a great game but right now its a very unfinished work in progress. This product feel like a beta. CD Projekt Red should've delayed the console versions until they were ready.


Last edited by Squirreleatsman on 5/23/2015 3:35:54 PM

bmart
bmart
8 years ago

Sorry to hear about the glitches particularly the game breaking ones that some of you have experienced!

I am around 25-30 hours in and have run across only one bug so far. The camera moved above Geralt's head and you just kind of floated above him and were unable to interact with anything. I made a new save, exited to the main menu, then loaded the new save and all was well. That being said after past experiences with Fallout 3 I learned to keep a few save files and update them at least every half hour with some older saves at key points. Unfortunately this game has a limit on save files unlike Fallout 3 where I have at least 50 save files.

My only other critique is the extremely small text for some of the menus. Other than that I have been having a blast!

Happy Gaming All!


Last edited by bmart on 5/23/2015 7:40:46 PM

PHOENIXZERO
PHOENIXZERO
8 years ago

I've seen other complaints on corrupt saves and stuff like that. I still have the first two games to play though so hopefully by the time I'm done with that the game will be more stable and most of the major issues will be ironed out.

Rachet_JC_FTW
Rachet_JC_FTW
8 years ago

interesting well i haven't got the game yet but i will be sure to keep an eye out when i do

happy gaming

big6
big6
8 years ago

Sorry to hear about that, Ben.
However, this shouldn't ever happen with me. See…I'm one of those people who accumulate a massive amount of saves when I play a game. (basically as much as the game will allow)

For example, playing Fallout 3, I used up the max number of save slots (30?) and just write over the earliest save as I progress.
Some games, like Metal Gear Solid, allow unlimited saves, and I think by the time I fnished MGS4, I had probably 200-300 saves! lol

Yeah, I'm paranoid at losing my save, after investing so much time into a game.

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