Are You Going To Play The Witcher 3?
3 weeks to go
Not long to go now. Just under three weeks, in fact, until one of - if not the - most-anticipated PC games of the year arrives. Certainly, it's the most-anticipated RPG in our corner of the internet. But I'm curious as to how many of you intend to make a date with The Witcher 3 [official site] on May 19?
Me, I'm not sure how quickly I'll rush into it. I liked rather than loved The Witcher 2 (it seemed to lose some oomph halfway through), and my not being terribly impressed by the first game led to my first major encounter with an online ragemob, so the question is whether now is the time that the series explodes into its full potential. Everything we've seen so far suggests it's playing with the biggest boys in town - if it lives up to its trailers it's going to make yer Dragon Ages and yer Pillars look ever so humble. Or maybe it's trying to do so damn much than the execution will be confused and bloated.
I hope not. I love the idea of this Eastern European studio making games based on until recently obscure-to-the-West fantasy novels and managing to totally overshadow the limitless resources of huge US publishers. I do love an underdog, and while CD Projekt RED aren't exactly scrabbling in the dirt these days, now's when, in theory, they go and stare Bioware right in the eyes.
So will I play The Witcher 3 in 2 weeks, 6 days and a handful of hours? Oh, probably. I won't handle the review myself because binging on a 200 hour game is incompatible with having a two-year-old creating tiny apocalypses in my house, but I might have a crack at a slower-burning diary series if it proves suitably non-linear.
What about you? Have you put your cash down without waiting for reviews? Are you taking time off work? Have you calculated exactly when those 200 hours will be? Has anyone ordered up a shiny new graphics card or processor for the occasion? Or are any of you wary of committing, based on the first two games and/or what you've seen so far? Basically: what will you be doing on May 19? And what kind of pullover will you be wearing at the time?