Planting Peonys and Killing Monsters

This month has been... unusual. On one hand, I've been very busy at work, and we've done a lot of rearranging in the garden lately. Today for instance, I've been hunched over all afternoon pulling out weeds while Mr moved two bushes and replanted some flowers. On the other hand however, this month has been incredibly lazy and hedonistic too, as both Mr and I delved into "the Witcher 3", gaming for hours and hours, enjoying all the little details of the world we both are so fascinated by. Boy am I lucky, I married a man who is just as nerdy as me!

So, about the game, for those of you who might be wondering, it's the best one I've ever played! One play-through easily takes 100 hours and though it may be filled with side quests, they are never boring, which is a mark of a good game. Compared to "Skyrim" for instance, which is an other open world game, the side quests are more motivating, more diverse, much more unpredictable and they play a more central role to the main protagonist Geralt. I'ts not just "run from point A, to point B, kill monster C, get D and return to get a reward", it's never that mundane. There is a real sense of motivation, of exploration and of building your character, not only in terms of getting more XP, but of actually getting to know who Geralt is. And the best part is that there are plenty of these little nuggets of gold in the game - even though I made it a point to explore the world thoroughly during the last play-through (I'm on the second one now), I still find new quests this time. Let me tell you, the game is HUGE!

An other thing that's really great is that, not unlike the series "Game of Thrones", the game is not about black and white, good and evil or any kinds of moral extremes. I love the fact that every choice has you debating and thinking things over. Very much unlike other games when there's really only one way I can possibly play, because, lest face it, I'm not a bad guy and I could never deal with the choices required. Nope, the game is filled with moral dilemmas, and I love it!

When it comes to the world itself, it's alive, really alive! It feels lives in, in a way I've never experienced in any other games. The people around you are like anyone you'll find in real life, there are greedy merchants, trying to suck up to you, there are bullies, who are just as annoying as real ones, there are smelly drunks and pious priests, intellectuals, scheming spies, poor orphans, gossiping women, cross-dressers, hard-working farmers, dimwits, maniacs, beggars, psychopaths, worried mothers, men's men, thieves, dandies, yellow-bellies, sad saps, know-it-alls and any other person you can possibly think of. And thy're all unique, with their own dialogue and appearance, each and every one of them believable. That is nothing short of amazing.

Finally, I have to say, that as a huge fan of Andrzej Sapkowski, who wrote the books the game is based on, as well as the previous games, I had pretty high expectations on the game. The previous two games were detailed in terms of lore, the voice acting of "the Witcher 2" was absolutely superb, the characters were detailed, the quest-line was very true to the books and the graphics was stunning. I wanted "the Witcher 3" to be like "Skyrim", but more detailed and alive, I wanted it to be like "The Witcher 2", but even more diverse and challenging, I wanted it to be like "Final Fantacy IX", but with an even more epic story and I wanted it to be like "Dragon Age 3", but with more detailed characters and more "soul". So, needless to say, I wanted the third game to be exceptional! I have to admit that I was a bit worried prior to the release - how could it possibly live up to all that? Well... the answer is, without a moment's doubt, YES! "The Witcher 3" is above and beyond! Wow! Just WOW!

/MrsHjort