I played: The Witcher 3

Well, I ditched the plan to hold out on Witcher 3 and played it last weekend. The best of all, I got this game as a gift for completing a garden quest. Thank you!

The Witcher 3 was originally planned for early 2015 early but was later delayed. The game is a one of the highly anticipated titles in 2015 and the hype has been building since its debut. The developers CD projekt RED shown great confidence with its early release of review copies to major gaming news outlet. Their confidence was vindicated with many great reviews it has received. For me, it is every bit like the game journalists made it out to be...a very top notch experience so far.

Although I am abit new to the Witcher series (based off a series by a Polish novelist), the story is easy enough to follow. The gameplay is satisfying...be able to launch a heavy blow after a perfectly timed dodge feels awesome. The world is huge and got plenty to do...sometimes the quests are not as straightforward as they may seem. In one of them, I was helping someone to retrieve a box from a group of monsters surrounding a broken cart with a dead men. Turns out, the person that I am helping was actually the raider that killed the men but couldn't loot them before the monsters started appearing. It is this level of attention given by the developers to little side quests like these, that bodes well for the game as a whole.

The game is not free of its shares of issues, it is a large open-world game after all. However, the developers have been working very hard to swat any bugs and delivering patches on a regular basis.

Still there are some downsides I can think of, especially with the user interface and inventory management. Often times, I find it difficult to decide what to buy whenever I am at a merchant store. It would have been nice if as I buy, I can see how many of an item I already own in my inventory.

Another small gripe, is that the game requires me to be at a fast travel point, in order to fast travel, unlike Far Cry or Watch Dogs. Nonetheless, The Witcher 3 is so far the best AAA game this year..I look forward to the remaining 100 hours that I will be playing. Look for my full review once I have completed my first playthrough.