Visit the luxurious and corrupt city of Novigrad, face the frigid cold of the wind-swept Skellige islands, and challenge the dark forces roaming the forlorn, ravaged No Man’s Land. It's the perfect opportunity to enter this world for the first time or relive the adventure – on the go! The Complete Edition contains every piece of downloadable content released for the game, including two massive story expansions: Hearts of Stone & Blood and Wine. Your current contract? Tracking down the Child of Prophecy, a living weapon that can alter the shape of the world. Before you stands a war-torn, monster-infested continent you can explore at will.
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Maybe I'll just catch the Netflix series instead.Winner of over 250 Game of the Year awards, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a story-driven, open world adventure set in a dark fantasy universe, where you play as Geralt of Rivia, mercenary monster slayer.Īt your disposal is every tool of the trade: razor-sharp swords, lethal mixtures, stealthy crossbows, and powerful combat magic. Until then, Geralt of Rivia remains a mystery to me. But at this point, that seems far, far away. My friends with older kids tell me that it gets better, and that you slowly get back some of your time. An open world game like The Witcher 3 is just too much for a dad trying to adjust to a new reality of two kids.
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The Witcher, however, was designed with the home console or PC in mind, and requires the kind of uninterrupted attention that doesn't work on a handheld console. You could play for hours or try to solve a single puzzle. The open world Breath of the Wild worked in short bursts because Nintendo's developers specifically designed it for the Switch.
They weren't better games, but they offered a quick in-and-out experience I could finish in a short time. When I went back to the Switch, I'd play Dragonball Fighterz or NBA 2K19. Then another distraction showed up: Disney Plus, and its collection of nostalgia-tapping shows like Gargoyles and, of course, The Mandalorian and its precious Baby Yoda. I get that it's a big step down from the version seen in PCs and other higher powered consoles, but the fact that a game this massive is running on the Nintendo Switch without any real glitches is downright jaw-dropping.īut the focus on side missions and the slow progression of the main quest (my last mission was to track down the daughter of the Bloody Baron) struggled to keep my attention. I was continually amazed by the expansive world and the polished visuals. When you have the opportunity to do everything, you end up doing nothing. I did eventually get into more of a groove after a week, but the game made it tough to stay motivated. I killed a few ghouls and got on my horse. Here are my notes from my first session: "I went through the tutorial. A 30-minute train ride isn't going to cut it. Perhaps it was hubris, or more likely stupidity, but I thought I could juggle the game with my responsibilities as a new father of two.Īs with most open-world games, Witcher 3 requires a huge investment of time right off the bat.
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(Full disclosure: I received a free download code from CD Projekt.) A joyous occasion! I love my sons, though I had to get readjusted to life with extremely limited free time.Īnd it was around this time, just two months ago, that I started playing Witcher 3. Then came a new wrinkle: My second son was born. It was just easier to play on my Switch than turn on the television and risk waking him up. As my son got older and fell into a more predictable sleep pattern, I snuck in time at home to get in a few extra sessions. Nintendo's colorful console broke the years-long hiatus from video games sparked by the birth of my first child (I'm still stuck on an early level of Fallout 4, last played the night before my wife went into labor).īut with the Switch, I happily spent train and airplane rides chasing shrines in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or collecting power moons in Super Mario Odyssey. The ability to play triple-A video game titles is exactly why I got the console in the first place. That sort of thing is, after all, the Nintendo Switch's speciality.
I've spent years hearing about the brilliance of the Witcher 3 and, with a port coming to the Nintendo Switch, I figured I could live in the world of Geralt of Rivia for 30-minute spurts at a time on train rides to and from work. It's just not for a time-pressed father of two.ĭon't play open-world video games if you've got kids, a colleague warned me, but I couldn't resist. The Witcher 3 is a stunning game, even on the Nintendo Switch.