skeletonbow: I haven't even made it to Skellige yet and I've been playing every single day for 8+ hours since it came out more or less. I can't fully trust the in-game tracker though as I have left the game running while making food or doing chores a few times and last night I fell asleep with the game ALT-TAB'd so there's some number of unknown hours of game time that was not actual gameplay.
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So, I'm basically screwed and can't play the game anymore until I figure out why the hell it wont load. I might uninstall it and wipe the directory then reinstall it WITHOUT the 2 new DLC as that's the only thing that changed since it worked.
Ingame tracker is known to give goofy data - one day it told me I've been playing 4 days 6 hours, next day it told me I've been playing 7 days 16 hours. LOL, some new math it is. :) But generally after reboot it resets to normal, believable data, and I think data given to me is correct one.
I also alt-tabbed a lot, especially in first days after release, but I think game counts only time you've been actually playing, not staying in menu. Could be wrong though.
As for your inability to launch game, we are in same boat, mate, I haven't installed anything new, but couldn't run game yesterday. I tried to install new stuff, but to same result. So I have no idea what's the difference between romanced Yen, and not romanced one. So far very little, as it seems. :D
But try to get to Skellige - as much as I like our Eastern Europe landscapes, Skellige is just better. I wonder if Nordic countries sponsored CDPR for making Skellige better looking. :D
GrayCarlyle: I needed 170 hours. But I skipped many "?" in Skellige. I am now on my second, modded, playthrough.
I think around 80 of those "?" on Skellige are just smuggler's caches and spoils of war with rubbush-grade loot. I clean-picked them all (by the Emperor, I HATE sirens), but found very few good items. In this aspect, Velen's treasures may be fewer, but loot there was far better for me. So if anyone wonders, skip those, it's unlikely you'll find something decent. Land-based question-marks could contain something good, picked nice Freya Warriors suit - light, yet with good protection. Zirael is still better, of course.