The Game Of The Decade Is Here!

The original Witcher was a great game, whereas the sequel was even better, bigger and more beautiful in every aspect. Following on this trend of building upon and improving their achievements, CD PROJEKT RED, the small Polish developer that has humbled gaming behemoths for years, released their best game yet. And what a game THE WITCHER III: WILD HUNT is!

THE BEST VIRTUAL WORLD I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED

Yes, the world of The Witcher III is huge, far larger than Skyrim. Far more importantly though, it feels more real and it is full of life.

The game throws you in a world of unparalleled beauty with details that keep unfolding the closer you observe it. Every spade of grass and every pebble looks real and obeys the laws of physics as set by the new REDengine. From the night and day and weather cycles to gear that gets damaged and needs to be repaired by blacksmiths and from growing facial hair to NPCs with real lives, the world of The Witcher absorbs you in and never, ever lets you go. The flames of Igni feel absolutely real as do bodies of water. Beasts and humans will do the unexpected whereas the skies sheltering your travels are absolutely mesmerizing. One can easily spend hours in the game simply observing the gorgeous world around him.

There are some concessions to absolute realism one can take advantage off (quick traveling and in-battle repairs for example); however, purists can ignore them and sink in the extra hours to go old school. 

Now, all these come at a price. A couple of weeks ago, I made sure to upgrade to a nVidia 960 (pouring with a brand new 352.86 driver) and 12GB of RAM just for this game (at some point, CD PROJEKT has to ask ASUS for dividends!) and the game runs smoothly at Ultra. 

(Also, no save-files crashes this time around. So far).

AN EPIC SCORE FOR AN EPIC STORY
Once more, the music is an essential part of both the atmosphere and the gaming experience. The composers are different than those of the previous games and this translates into a novel approach to the world of Geralt of Rivia. You will recognize a number of variations on themes from the previous games and it feels like meeting old friends, matured yet still dear to you; however, I found the music more subtle and effective and not less powerful.

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS OF DESTRUCTION WISELY
Remember the days form the very first Witcher when you basically finished the game with the same sword and kept saving every last oren to buy the 5,000O leather jacket? Well, Geralt not only yields an extra crossbow but he also enjoys an ever growing choice of armor and weapons. Combine this with a huge library of books and an endless supply of potion and bombs ingredients and you will soon find your hero to be overburdened. And then you realize that there is no storage chest! Not to worry, the game now employes Roach's saddlebag (buy it as soon as possible and enlarged it). This way your storage is always close by. And, take my advice, do not sell anything! From ingredients to older swords, you will need them for crafting. And even find loot is abundant, it always feel great to gather all the ingredients to finally forge a sword or a piece of armor whose schematics you had been carrying for some time.

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROLLING THE WORLD AROUND YOU
Some people have been complaining about the PC controls and, up to a point, I can understand why. As with all games, I remap almost everything so that I am able to use only the right end of the keyboard (arrows for movement are default here but I use the Num-keys 1-5 to select my Sign, Num-0 to use it, / for the steel sword, * for the silver one, and so on). The game is enjoyable when set at the highest difficulty one can survive at so having quickly accessible controls are essential. That is why I hope to see a key-rebinding option Menu soon and not have to dive in the input.settings file.


The Expansion Pass will cover the Expansion (as per CD PROJEKT RED's practices, all DLCs are to be free). And if they are known for anything is offering a more than fair value for the released products.

WITH MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATIONS!

Nothing Is Sacred Anymore...

The original Sacred was a great game that, although not exactly groundbreaking, it offered many hours of action-cRPG fun. What is more, its publisher had the good sense to price it reasonably from the start and thus fight piracy in the most effective way.

Sacred II, although enjoys more demanding environmental graphics and spell effects, is just another victim of clueless gaming industry executives. Instead of learning from the history of their own game, they'd rather idiotically jump on the "SecuROM/Limited Activations" bandwagon. After all, if they can hide behind the "everyone is doing it" excuse, who can blame them when the game does poorly?

They are obviously under the illusion that selling at full price a game that is actually rented will fail to be...noticed! Respect is a two way street - and underestimating gamers' intelligence is not a good start.

It is a shame that Sacred II got shot in the foot by its own publisher. Now, instead of being another success, it will simply be another game sacrificed on the alter of corporate Greed and marketing incompetency.

Avoid.

Deus Manifestare

During this ongoing Dark Age for PC gaming, when corporate Greed has coupled with pseudo-DRM schemes to stifle any original idea or creative process, I found myself, again and again, reaching for the classics. And Deus Ex is definitely a classic masterpiece.

Set in the near future, infused with equal doses of cyberpunk mentality and noir atmosphere, playing like an FPS with strong RPG elements (inventory, character development, modifiable equipment, secondary quests) - and yet one is better off avoiding shooting more often than not!. Whoever played Deus Ex can attest that this game will stay with you. Forever. And rightly so.

This is a game infused with life. The characters act natural. The script is brilliantly paranoid. And the whole setting will immerse you into this twisted world of technological possibilities and power.

In a perfect world, David Lynch would have realized William Gibson's Neuromancer. Short of that, we have been offered Deus Ex.

Sure the graphics may look dated. But I promise you that you will find no lip-synced modern game more appealing than Deus Ex  Even 5+ years old PCs will be able to render its full potential (although the game's strengths are hardly limited to its appearance) - and it is DRM-free.

And The Outliers Shall Inherit The Earth

Outliers and oddities are the signs of any healthy group or population. And by healthy I mean fit-to-survive. Because when change comes (and it inevitably comes), there will be blood but there will also be options. What was considered strange will now prove invaluable, and what was scorned will now be coveted.

The Gaming Industry is run by a small number of people at the top. They are no better or worse than the average Joe. They too have instances of brilliance and weeks of mental slumber; they too rely on luck and intimidation and connections to jump ahead; they too get scared and frustrated and greedy. Petty competition breeds fear and fear is not the best consul for one's character. The problem is that, because of the power they yield in the industry, their flaws get amplified and their bad decisions have a far greater impact. And nothing can take ways the bad aftertaste of been treated like cattle, to be herded in and milked again and again.

By buying out (and closing up) numerous gaming studios they have managed to consolidate their market share and lay the tracks towards their pay-per-play vision of the future. It all seems uniform and homogenized and inescapable. But, we only think there are no alternative options. There are plenty. And the experience they can offer far surpasses the miserly pay-for-as-long-as-our-servers-will-tolerate-you. Indie developers and independent studios are like grass and wild flowers: no matter how much ferroconcrete and weedkiller is applied, life and human creativity will find a way to break trough and thrive. 

A great example is CD PROJEKT RED, a small gaming studio from Poland. These guys came out of nowhere to bring us, so far, two of the greatest cRPG games ever produced, The Witcher and The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings. And that is not all. They proved to both stand behind their product and to show respect to their customers. Each game got a totally redesigned edition a year following its release. They gave it away to their customers for free. The did the same thing with every single DLC that was released: their customers received them for free as well.

This added value to their product, convincing more people to buy it. And when we do, we feel like valued friends. 

It is game developers and gaming studios like that we need to keep supporting. They are the hope that when it hits the fan (and it always does at the end!), there will be a robust PC gaming community to carry on.

Some days ago The Witcher III was announced. It is to be the last of the Geralt of Rivia Trilogy. I think it is the only game that can persuade me to switch from my trusted WindowsXP to Win7. And that is saying a lot. 

The Moment They Cemented It In DRM, It Is Not Business. It Is Personal

Puzo's & Coppola's The Godfather may be the I-Ching of western men but this installment, like Sollozzo the Turk's proposal, is an infamita.

With The Godfather II, EA's pezzonovante, they come not in respect. They come not asking to be our friends. Not once. Even though we keep financing their very existence. They only ask greedily for more.

In a sneaky Hyman Roth fashion, EA tries once more to infect our domains with SecuROM RootKits and make us pay again and again for the same game by Limiting its installations. By claiming to fight piracy (ironic from day one...) EA wants to keeps squeezing its own customers. And they are ready to badmouth and brand as "pirates" anyone who might stand up to their rule.

But, just like Don Fanucci, behind the white suit of an ever-menacing EULA hides nothing. Forced to accept an agreement under pain of suffering the financial loss of a worthless non-refundable product nullifies any stipulation in said agreement before any court of law. They only rule on our fear.

But we shall fear no more. Because this is cosa nostra. We have been in PC gaming long before these accountants ruined this beautiful artform.

Make them an offer they can't refuse: let this horses' head soil the silk sheets as EA is slumbering. Eventually they will wake up. And they will do so screaming.

Gamers, I salut!

A Chest Of Gems. Some Polished, Others Raw

I have a confession to make: when the first IceWind Dale came out I bought maybe the first copy and rushed home to immerse into it. It was summer of 2000 and I had just polished off the excellent Baldur's Gate and the incomparable Planescape: Torment. A day into IceWind Dale and I absolutely hated it!

The graphics were comparable (all three games share the same engine) and the gameplay was almost identical. The music was excellent and certain tunes stayed with me ever since. The storyline was nothing to complain about - after all, any story set in "the spine of the world" can hardly go wrong! What I did not appreciate was the rushed feeling of a job on an impossible deadline.

In order to prolong the duration of the game, much smaller maps were stuffed with a far greater number of powerful foes - and almost nothing could be solved without combat. As a result, what was expected to be an enjoyable experience turned into a chore of endless autopausing, retargeting and constant battling.

Having said the above, I must admit that, in hindsight, my complains seem trivial. Little did I know at the time how far into hell greed would drive the gaming industry. Compared to 3-4 hour games, extra charges for essential content, Limited Installations and RootKits (of the likes of StarFORCE and SecuROM), well, games such as the IceWind Dale saga stand out as landmarks in PC-gaming history.

The expansion (The Heart of Winter) improved things somewhat but the series did not find its stride until the very good IceWind Dale II. I remember spending endless hours with the sequel and can compare it to the original Baldur's Gate.

A Good Old Soul Can Only Learn A Few New Tricks

The original Fate was the PG version of Diablo: cartoonish graphics, simplified quests, very limited gore and a cute child/hero running, fighting (and fishing!) in armor. The dungeons were endlessly random, the beasts well deserving their fate and the weapons and trinkets imaginative (and surprisingly expensive!). Overall, very fun to play!

Its first sequel, Fate: Undiscovered Realms, offered more of the same in a second set of dungeons. And now the second sequel improves little beyond offering yet another set.

Very few things are new in Fate: The Traitor Soul, this new standalone incarnation. True, you can now choose amongst four races (Human, Shadow Elf, Half-Orc and Cogger). The best one is still Human, a true Jack-of-all-trades: Elves are agile but have a very hard time defending themselves; Orcs are clumsy tanks, strong but with low dexterity; whereas Coggers are strong geeks but with no magical abilities.

There are new armor sets, new weapons and spells and new pets. On the other hand, I could discern no change in the graphics and sounds compared to the previous installments.

Finally, the two previous dungeons each get twenty extra levels to explore and plunder. This is a steal because for the price I remember paying for the first game you now get both the original game and its first expansion. On the other hand, you may find exploring all three dungeons and completing one run-and-fetch quest after another a bit tedious. Nevertheless, it is still good casual fun.

The Brand New PostApocalyptic Dawn Is Now Complete

I am old enough to have played the original game when it first came out in 1997. I was a great fan of the series that followed and, thus, was very eager to get my hands on this latest installment. In a short sentence: Fallout 3 is a dream come true! And now the dream is complete.

It is a cRPG game in which the player can alternate between the First and Third person perspective roaming a world comparable in size with Oblivion. The action has moved from Vault 13 and Southern California to Vault 101 and Washington, D.C. and the story brakes away from the previous bloodlines. However, the atmosphere of the original has been maintained and its scents sharpened: veterans will find it fitting like and old glove - whereas the new gamers are in store for a bag of pleasant surprises.

The graphics are wonderful, the guns detailed and the environments highly interactive. Short of a screenshot, imagine what would HalfLife 2 would look if released today. And similar to HL2, Fallout 3 does not require an...ubercomputer to run smoothly. Once you see a NPC move though, you understand where the corners were cut.

Character customization is carried out in great style using the new and improved PIP-BOY at the beginning. You exit the vault and the harsh reality of a world that barely survived annihilation slaps you on the face. Adapt or perish.

The main storyline is there to be followed but Fallout 3 offers the greatest number of alternative choices I have ever encountered in a game! There is always a great number of paths to follow in order to achieve any goal - but every choice comes with a consequences tag. This is common feature of most classic cRPGs but in Fallout 3 I saw it implemented like never before. If nothing else, this sends replayability through the roof.

Side-quests offer little besides distraction and experience points (XP) to be spend on character improvement. XP are gained solely by completing quests, emerging victorious from fights, finding locations, picking locks and hacking terminals - and they are not limited by the action they were earned. Leveling up is based on 7 basic attributes [Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility & Luck - acronym?;)] that, in turn, affect your (13) specific skills. Leveling up used to be capped at Level-20 (increased to 30 by installing the DLCs), as the game designers wanted to encourage replaying the game. However, with this increase, now your character can realize its full potential. Replaying the game is still a joy though.

The game is violent and gory but well within tasteful limits. Not so with the language - but it is trade off with realism. In a radioactive world, Sunday-school niceties are bound to go out the window.

What deserves a special mention is V.A.T.S. (:Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which opens new vistas in cRPG design. It is an ingenious system which lets you pause the game and target specific body parts of your opponents. The success of your attack still depends on your skills but the end effect is cinematic and amazing (remember Swordfish?).

This GOTY edition includes all 5 DLCs released so far: Operation: Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta. Compared to the basic Fallout 3  applying the above improves the experience immensely! As mentioned above, since one used to reach the Level 20 cap long before the endgame, increasing this by 10 levels will give you a brand new ballgame.

Augmented weapons, new territories, novel foes and unexpected story branching - all for the price of the original game. I own the original game and coveted after these DLCs in the past months, waiting for a complete edition such as this GOTY one. When it became available I jumped at the opportunity to get them all. And did not regret it for a moment.

After the nuclear summer of 2008 (with all the Limited-Installation/defective EA releases), this seems like a post-apocalyptic dawn indeed! Bethesda decided to listen to the gaming community and did not cripple this beautiful game with any idiotic DRM scheme. Inputting a serial number and a DVD-check is more than reasonable.

The publishers of Fallout 3 understand that there is a fine balance between "protecting the product" and..."insulting your own customers". And they obviously view respect as the two way street that it is - and for this they deserve our support: buy this game, today.

Voting with our wallets is the only argument the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore. And it is about time to cast some well deserved positive votes.

An Experience Just Short Of A Holodeck

Now this is what I call immersion!

In the past, Bioware has shown a tendency to surpass itself whenever developing a sequel (remember how much better Baldur's Gate II was compared to I - and the original Baldur's Gate was already excellent). Well, compared to this second installment, the original Mass Effect now seems like a typical space-RPG/Shooter.

Having played the original game will not only help you better insert yourself into Commander Shepard's boots (you can actually import your original character form the first game - choices and all) - but also appreciate the improvements more.

The story in Mass Effect 2 is darker and (without spoiling it) the choices harder to live with. Combat has been streamlined, with tactical decisions (using cover, taking the high ground) now being more important, without the game loosing its shooter character though.

Both the visuals and the sounds are exquisite. Not only are the graphics really impressive (and I am running WinXP so that is DirecX-9 mind you) and the sounds dramatic but the voice acting and dialogue integration should be taught in game-design seminars.

In this second installment there is no actual inventory to speak of (more on this later), loading times are shorter and better concealed (remember those endless elevator rides? Now forget about them), and accessing your special abilities menu has been simplified.

In a true Bioware tradition, the available companions all come with their own special abilities and personal stories to explore.

The selection of armor and guns has been reduced. There are about 15-20 guns to choose from and very limited loot. The guns I do not mind. Personally, I'd rather have a small number of well designed and fun to use guns at my disposal than a myriad of guns that in the end make no real difference (I am looking at you, Borderlands?).

Having said that, I missed the thrill of looting and upgrading my equipment (not to mention having a real inventory). I mean, that is a great part of the fun in any cRPG! I am not holding my breath but maybe one of the upcoming DLCs could take care of that?

And if I am to open the improvements-request file, how about speeding up those minigames in the next patch?

Finally, you also get a personal apartment aboard Normandy (an excellent idea introduced in Fallout 3) which you can equip with various ornaments and personal items (from fish for your aquarium to a...space-hamster - I call mine Boo).

As for the DRM scheme used, the game does contain SecuROM but (similar to Dragon Age: Origins and Fallout 3)  it only uses a disk-check. Mass Effect 2 neither requires any online activation nor does it limit the numbers of its installations. It is not the best solution possible but it is a compromise I can live with. If you still find this objectionable, you can now make an informed decision.

All in all, I found Mass Effect 2 to be a beautiful RolePlaying Movie of a game, an immersive cinematic-action shooter with limited loot and more story than equipment choices. In other words, Mass Effect 2 may not be a pure cRPG or a cRPS experience (Dragon Age: Origins and Fallout 3 still rule those segments) but nevertheless it is an experience well worth its admission price.

Go for the light-sensors Boo! Go for the light-sensors!!

(no, I am not explaining that...)