Why I find The Witcher games so much fun.

To prepare for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I have been playing through the first two Witcher games. I've had The Witcher 2 since it launched on Xbox 360 in 2012 but I didn't play it very much then. Back in 2013 I picked up the The Witcher during a Steam sale for $2.50. Originally I wasn't going to play it but the price was too good to pass up. I'm so glad I didn't skip The Witcher since it turns out it's one of the best RPGs ever made. There were so many great moments in the game. This article at Kotaku is just one small example of that particular author's experience with the game. I remember playing through the same chapter but my choices and thus my experience was completely different and that in and of itself is one of the many reasons the game is great.

It should comes as no surprise then to learn that The Witcher 2 also has a lot of great moments. During my first playthrough I encountered a quest so fun and interesting that after completing it I reloaded to an earlier save so I could play through the quest again trying out different outcomes. The rest of this post details my experiences with the quest and why I like it so much. Spoilers abound.

I'm not dead, yet.

I may have died, but I got better.  At any rate I'm not dead now so I might as well write something.  I have, of course, played a lot of games in the past 6+ months of no posting so I'll mention some highlights.  At least the ones I remember.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Final Thoughts

Recently I completed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.  My final play-time on Hard difficulty was 128:56:36.  That time includes both The Legend of Dead Kel and the Teeth of Naros downloadable content.  As always, possible spoilers ahead.

Skyrim: Dawnguard Final Thoughts

I have finally completed the vampire questline of Dawnguard.  It took awhile for a couple reasons.  First I went out of my way to ensure I completed all the side-quests in addition to the main quests.  The larger contributor to the delay, though, is I simply played Skyrim.  I became embroiled in other quests, found myself distracted by shiny objects, committed grievous acts of draconicide, et cetera.  I also moved my character and her wife from Whiterun to Solitude.  It took me some time to familiarize myself with the new city and all its shopkeepers and the house itself.  The move also necessitated several trips back and forth to move items over and organize them at the new home.

Dawnguard is complete, though, and I have a a few topics I wish to talk about:

• The changes to vampirism.
• Cool things Dawnguard added or changed.
• Serana

In other words, thpoilerth.

Skyrim: Dawnguard First Impressions

I recently got around to downloading the Dawnguard DLC for Skyrim.  I'm nowhere near completing it but I do have enough time into it to make some general comments on it.  There are some very minor spoilers about some of the things you may encounter in the DLC (nothing plot related).

Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut Addendum

I finally found some time to go through and check out the rest of the enhanced endings as part of Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut. I also have a couple additional thoughts about the end of the game I wish to share. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut

I just finished playing through the last couple hours of Mass Effect 3 with the new ending content provided by the Extended Cut DLC.  Here are my thoughts.  Obvious ending spoilers ahead.