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Take care, big guy

geralt

Dude in the picture is Geralt of Rivea, a professional monster slayer and the protagonist of the Witcher books and computer games. I have spent a lot of time with this guy.

I know I’ve posted about Witcher 3 Wild Hunt before. It’s the last of the series and it is absolutely huge. Like, physically huge on disk (53 gigs, as opposed to Skyrim’s 14) and huge to play, with literally hundreds of side quests and places to visit. Which you can do in more or less any order you like, which makes it feel more like a place and less like a movie.

There’s even an in-world card game that you play against characters you meet, sometimes for important stakes.

The game has been an enormous hit, equally because it’s beautiful and because it’s well-written. Many of the side-quests are their own complete novellas. It’s won a shit-ton of awards. They announced from the beginning there would be two expansion packs (essentially, groups of new stories around a main story set in this world) and then that would be it.

I have just finished the second expansion.

And that’s it.

I feel surprisingly sad about it, the way I used to feel on the last page of a long book series that I enjoyed (I don’t read fiction any more; I’d almost forgotten that feeling).

Near the very end of the game, Geralt sits around a campfire drinking with one of his buds (he drinks a lot, which is fun) and shooting the shit about the future and he takes a big sip and says, “I think I deserve a rest, don’t you?” And then the sumbitch looks at me. Up there. That screen cap.

It’s supposed to be a bit of light fun, but I admit I kind of. Hm. Now I remember why I don’t read fiction any more.

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 13, 2016, 7:10 pm

Did I mention HIS BEARD GROWS? His beard grows and you have to haul him into town to get him a shave and a haircut from time to time.


Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: September 13, 2016, 10:24 pm

I used to have this problem with really good novels. I’d stop reading 15 or so pages from the end because that way the story was never finished…and still waiting for me to come back to it someday


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 13, 2016, 10:44 pm

Boo, I tried to uprate that, Some Veg, and my uprate is busted.

I never played the first game or read the books, but I did play the second, which came out in 2011. So this is the end of a five-year fictional experience.

Though, to be perfectly honest, the real reason I quit reading fiction is that I began to rate things that really happened so far above things that somebody imagined that it became an easy choice.

I mean, a great work of fiction is still the best reading experience there is, but how much shit fiction do you read before you find one you love? Time’s too short.


Comment from dreadpirateroberta
Time: September 14, 2016, 2:03 am

I have felt like that over the years when I read something amazing or heartbreaking. The Narnia Chronicles and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy left me pretty sad and discombobulated. I was always bothered when I realized that a favourite author was dead and there was no more work forthcoming! My old heart has a pretty low tolerance for heartbreak these days so I stick to the mostly happy stuff. Bill Bryson, Gerald Durrell and James Herriot come to mind. Not fiction but always a happy ending! A couple of years ago I started reading the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon. She is prolific so I was pretty excited. But I couldn’t take the stress of the books any more (what a coward I am) and I put them down before I keeled over from a heart attack.


Comment from Niña
Time: September 14, 2016, 2:54 am

This is why I read some books repeatedly. I’d dig these games better if they had an immortal pansy mode…because I really suck at them. Alas.


Comment from OldFert
Time: September 14, 2016, 3:26 am

Niña — don’t feel bad. My kids bought me Age of Empires III many years ago. I still play it only ‘single-player skirmish’ mode. And use the cheat codes for extra gold at the beginning so I can get lumber and food. Bought the Division when it came out, only got about an hour on it before I decided it was waaaaay beyond my capabilities. Offered it to my kids (now in their 30s). Daughter already beat it, son had stuff he was already involved with.
But I’m happy with AOEIII. Just wish I had a copy of the old Doom or Wolfenstein.


Comment from Niña
Time: September 14, 2016, 4:26 am

I used to play CaesarIII on my old Mac, and only because I had the cheat codes and could set up the entire board to my liking before it started. I loved it and would be very happy to be able to play it now on my Air.


Comment from Gromulin
Time: September 14, 2016, 8:24 pm

“Just wish I had a copy of the old Doom or Wolfenstein.”

Completely agree.

Or Descent or Redneck Rampage. Those were about the only PC games I ever got far enough in to enjoy.


Comment from LesterIII
Time: September 15, 2016, 5:24 am

To scratch your historical itch about video games, this site is pretty damn cool. Particularly this article:

http://thedoteaters.com/?p=7329


Comment from LesterIII
Time: September 15, 2016, 5:34 am

Whoops, here is the link I actually meant to post:

http://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=spacewar

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