Just curious, did you make it to Novigrad?

The first few time I tried to play it I did so with my usual completionist mindset, and got bored of wandering around the swamps before dropping it. I replayed it more recently, and just got to Novigrad as fast as possible, and that’s when it finally hooked me. Finished the main game and the expansions, finished all quests except the couple I skipped early game and couldn’t go back to. The start of the game is painfully slow, but when you get into the meat of it, it’s so good.

Same. Played a million hours of Skyrim and Fallout but I’d rather play Far Cry than Witcher

https://steamdb.info/app/292030/

Hearts of Stone is the best Witcher content they ever produced in my opinion. Highly recommend checking it out.

I'd say you only need to play Blood and Wine - Hearts of Stone isn't bad but it isn't what I'd call an expansion.

Probably cuz you got burnt out playing the base game? I am replaying the game right now and it's kinda exhausting because the gameplay isn't as great as I remember (I got so spoiled Souls games, they raised my standards too high lol) but it was fine once I installed a few mods to tweak things.

Also you can just play the DLCs alone instead of starting an entire new game just for them.

Hearts of Stone is the best story in the entire game. Blood and Wine takes you to the most beautiful place in the entire game (and one of the most beautiful places in gaming IMO).

Nothing. Some games do not appeal to you and that is fine.

I have the trilogy, played a bit, hated the characters and went back to Skyrim. I guess I like my main character less chatty.

I replayed the main game, and played the expansions for the first time a few months ago. It still feels like a new game to me, and since they did a big graphics update in 2022, so it pretty much is. The movement is a little clunky to me, but that’s the only thing that even comes close to letting it down. I had a hard time getting into it when it was new, but this time around it got me hooked line and sinker. I find it strikes a really good balance between a story driven narrative, and rpg, and I just got so invested in it. It was a little sad when I ran out of content, so I’m really looking forward to the new expansion.

So if not obvious, I highly recommend it.

It's better than the vast majority of games released today and still looks really good. Highly recommend it IF you like open world RPGs as it's pretty much the gold standard.

One thing Witcher 3 does better than most open world RPGs even now is being able to make consistent small-scale side quests that are arguably more interesting & well written than the main quest. Almost every village has a unique monster quest that could act as a short story in an anthology series. The tutorial zone, White Orchard, is a perfect example of this. Every questline links to another, and clever players can put together a storyline for the whole village over the course of several years.

Aside from that, the DLCs are amazing. Gwent is a blast, and the soundtrack is still one of the best I've ever heard in gaming. Geralt is a wonderful protagonist too, he's not the fantasy Batman that the marketing likes to portray him as. He's curious, empathetic, and isn't afraid to make a fool out of himself.

Its not really an old game, though i guess that depends on your age, given you've had a 20 year break from gaming you likely aren't young. The game is younger than both GTA:V and skyrim though, in saying that there is nothing wrong with old games. The half-life and portal games still hold up great, Witcher 3 is no different, its a pretty decent game. If you like this sort of thing. If you like story heavy third-person open world games with a fleshed out world then yes. Also, gwent. Ignore the standalone version, but the in-game card game is extremely addictive. Multiple endings, new game +, nothing like a souls game but it isn't a cake walk either, unless you want that.

I played W3 a few years ago over a period of a couple years. it holds up just fine in this patient gamer's opinion. I certainly lost a good number of nights playing it. I did get fatigue about a year in and stopped like one quest from the main story ending, and came back a year later to do that and start the expansions. it's a good game with decent mechanics, graphics, environment, and good ambience.

note that I don't really play the newest games, except for group stuff like when Siege first came out or DbD. otherwise I play through my backlog of too many excellent games, and play an awful lot of Minecraft. like I just started playing SOMA in the past year finally