You read the headline right: I am just now getting around to reviewing The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. It’s not that the game went under my radar. I actually went against my “never pre-order” rule to support GOG.com, which is completely DRM-free and handed out discounts to anybody who owned previous Witcher titles. So I’ve had The Witcher 3 since its release on May 19th, and yet I just finished it. My final gametime clocked in at exactly 100 hours, and I still had a couple of treasure hunts left unfinished.

Given the above, I don’t have to elaborate on how much time you can sink into The Witcher 3. But just because a game is lengthy doesn’t mean that the time you spend within it is worthwhile. I have 200 hours logged in Destiny, yet the vast majority of that time was spent re-playing the same old missions ad-infinitum. Similarly, I spent almost 80 hours in Metal Gear Solid V, but the majority of that was in Side Missions, which re-use environments that are already present in the main game. Even in other huge-scale RPGs, like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Bethesda’s RPGs (Elder Scrolls, Fallout), a handful of quests are interesting and memorable and the majority are fetch quests or “go here and kill this monster” missions.

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(This review contains very small details about Metal Gear Solid V. It is written to be as spoiler lite as possible while still discussing the game. Those who have not played should be safe from anything that could diminish their enjoyment, but if you would rather not know a single thing about the story, you may want to avoid reading)

For a couple of decades, we’ve come accustomed as to what to expect from a Metal Gear Solid title. A crazy convoluted story, ruminations on the horrors of war and other real-world problems, absurd humor, fourth-wall breaking exposition, and generally clunky gameplay. It’s a wholly unique franchise, one where its weaknesses and the idiosyncrasies of its creator, Hideo Kojima (whose name was removed from the game’s cover, but is ALL OVER the game itself), actually add to its charm. So, when Metal Gear Solid V was announced, it was not a stretch to expect more of the same.

In a way, this assumption wouldn’t be wrong, either. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain contains almost all of the things we’ve come to expect from a Metal Gear series. The story adds complications which further muddle the already-too-complicated narrative. A large focus is placed on the death of cultures alongside their languages and English’s role as a plague of assimilation. And yet, characters still tell you to press the action button, you can make your horse poop on command, and you can sled down hills in a cardboard box if you’d like.

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My review of The Flock, as seen on Unknown Hosts! You can catch our live show every Wednesday at 8 pm ET/7 CT/6 MT/5 PT!

http://twitch.tv/unknownhosts

(The first half of this article is spoiler-free. The second half contains only light spoilers, but goes into the game’s mechanics in a way that could limit one’s enjoyment. The transition is clearly marked, so if you intend to play Until Dawn, please do not read that section until you are finished)

If you’ve played Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls,  Life is Strange, or any of the recent Telltale Games series’, then you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Until Dawn. Dawn uses the same “Your actions have consequences” framework as its predecessors, and works with the same combination of choice and quicktime events that made most of them enjoyable.

The difference, here, is the genre. Unlike the heavy drama often found in these narrative-choice games, Until Dawn exists wholly within the b-movie slasher-horror realm. All major characters are teenagers (appropriately portrayed by actors and actresses well into their 20s and 30s), the location is a creepy house hidden away from civilization on a mountain (with a series of cabins, mineshafts, and an insane asylum to boot!), and there are tons of cheap scares and red herrings to keep things interesting.

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My video review of Portal Stories: Mel, a superb Portal 2 mod. As originally seen on Unknown Hosts!