Do you ever feel like you just need to punch something in the face? Like a drowner, or a wyvern? Because they don't just look monstrous, they are downright disgusting and I want to punch them in their bloated rotten faces.
I know, you are not supposed to, and I know how to use signs, oils and potions, but sometimes you just have to do things your way, and this game's tendency to hold your hand like a kindergarden teacher really frustrates me at times.

Using your silver sword against exceptionally ugly things is not only wise, it is forced upon you because Gerald automatically switches weapons if you dare swing with the wrong blade at your opponent. You can equip weapons during combat but you can't unequip them. I tried fighting monsters with no silver blade equipped, and I finally got some freedom of choice. I could freely switch between my fists or the axe I had instead of a steel sword (because I also felt like chopping up nekkers with an axe later. Don't judge me).
But the game was one step ahead of me: punching drowners stuns you, and using the axe does even less damage than your fists. Mind you, this was a lvl 4 drowner, against a lvl 15 witcher with a relic grade lvl 14 axe. What the hell?

I am the most dangerous bipedal on the face of this earth/sphere, I am the fist fighting champion of Velen and Novigrad, but I can't punch a drowner without staggering as if a samum bomb exploded in my face? If I had been fighting a rock troll, I might understand, but this makes no sense. I tried nekkers too, I think all silver-vulnerable monsters have this effect. Quen allows you to give one or two punches. Punching a bear to death is no problem, and my axe outdamages my fists here. I would think that the highest difficulty plus using inferior weapons like fists is challenging enough, but CD project insists on taking all the fun out of it.

So all I ask for is some more freedom and less hand holding. Just let me punch some drowners, please.

I think your post is highly amusing!

Reminds me of maxing out the hand-to-hand skill in Morrowind and punching cliff racers (~small dragons) right in their stupid faces.

Ah yes.. Back when there were still multiple skills in the ES games. The next one will probably just have Weapons, Magic and Armor.

Funny how they streamlined everything ain't it. And that hand-holding, although highly-irritating, is there to prevent casual players from throwing fits because they can't tell which end of the sword to stick baddies with. I guess it's understandable, i mean they were forced to do this in order to appeal to a wider audience and thus increase sales .
We are fighting a loosing battle here, this is the future of video games after all, might as well go with it.

But hell if it doesn't make you wanna punch a drowner.

i mean at the other extreme there are games like "daggerfall" which are so unstreamlined that you can literally spend hours walking through the wilderness without encountering a single enemy, interactive object, or point of interest.

While I love Daggerfall, it isn't for everyone. Morrowind was probably the best compromise of large open game world and hand-crafted. Daggerfall had almost zero hand-crafted and released in an incomplete state. Oblivion had a ton of hand-crafted things, but was a smaller feeling world with more limitations than Morrowind. I may be the only one who actually wants to see Oblivion and Skyrim in the Morrowind Engine than the other way around because graphics are secondary. I can't imagine why they got rid of some of the skill sets they did like spears and a few schools of magic. For all that they're supposed to be the same, Daggerfall and Skyrim don't take place in similar worlds, much less the same one.

And yes, I could punch a few drowners right now.

not to highjack this thread, but i agree with this so hard dude. gamers are such primitive creatures! the thing is, 99% of gamers will poop their pants at a new unreal engine tech demo but be all like "meh" at a truly innovative or substantive game. Even with Witcher 3 (a tremendous game on what many consider a miniscule budget), I can't help wondering how much further their ~$35 million would have taken the game if they had just used the Witcher 1 engine and graphics and used the leftover resources on content development. No one would buy that shit (except you and me), but think of the possibilities! Heck, at this very moment, I could be punching Saskia the dragon in her stupid face!

No - it will have one skill - called "Skill" and after you level it to 100 you can reset it and go to "prestige" like CoD games!

Geralt thinks they are the most ugliest thing in his world too - thats why he cant even touch them with his hands - he is stunned in a gisgust!
and about steel axe - well. maybe drowners have something like +1000 armor against woodcutters

Why would you want to punch Saskia? She's so cool, and nice, and pretty.

Oblivion did ruin the Elder Scrolls series for me though. I love how Skyrim was like "Oh okay, fine we'll make the world slightly interesting again, but in exchange we're taking away spell creation completely, fuck you fans.

I don't actually want to punch her. I'm just bummed that she's not in the game.

She is not becasue Aedirn was swallowed by Nilfgaard and is no more :P She is not relevant to the story. You will get her in the expansions hopefully :)

Nonsense. She is always relevant.

Well, your right is the only right, and the best right. Can't argue with that logic :*