@off3nc3: Gameplay incorporates story elements in these games. So your statement is indicative of an old misunderstanding of the concept of game design and actuality, and needs to be addressed.

Think of gameplay as the core -- the heart, and brain -- of a game. All systems and design flow outwards and into it.

As Witcher 3 successfully challenges and iterates on others of its genre -- and has since likely strongly influenced games afterwards in the last five years almost -- and is accessible to even reluctant RPG players like myself, one would be hard-pressed to make a claim like yours. And such a claim just wouldn't hold up for a new player coming into a game, based on your POV... unless ofc they were exactly like you.

TBH, I'm all up for going against the grain and popular thought. I actually don't advocate story above all other things, don't like excessive dialogue and cutscenes, shy away from 100+ hour games now (don't have time or the attention), I think Witcher 1's mechanics have not aged well and its combat system was always unequivocally bad... and I am still advocating in favour of Witcher 3. What does that tell you?

@jenovaschilld: Please explain your thesis here. Otherwise, I shall briefly establish how the games themselves actually tie-in to the book plots.

Witcher 1 has backstory based on the books (particularly the Nilfgaardian-Nordling Wars), and AFAIK picks up a some years after Lady of the Lake, the last book (chronologically) in the saga; Geralt is searching for Yennefer after that whole "Ciri saga" is resolved and Ciri is worlds away (literally). Then he loses his memory, a sorcerer / assassin band attack Kaer Morhen, and we know the rest.

Witcher 2 has Geralt back on track, searching for Yen again IIRC, in the employ of Foltest's court, during a time when there is a build-up to yet another Nilfgaardian expansion war into Northern countries. So, again, it directly follows up the Second Nilfgaardian War (the great war the games refer to and the one that starts in Time of Contempt and the books that follow).

Witcher 3 is unofficially a proper sequel to the Ciri saga. Really doesn't get more connected to the plot of the books than that.

If you mean that the three games aren't yet considered canonical, sure, ok.

@mtb1646: It wasn't, but that doesn't mean the show deserved a 4/10. This is why I tell people to eschew these reviews until scoring is dropped or standardized!

Dang, there were exactly 69 comments until now.

@BabeNewelll: I'd rather have no third-party digital storefront and no DRM, but hey, those days are long gone. I would also rather not have divisive camps, zealots, try-hard keyboard warriors / tinfoil hat wearers, monopolies, sycophants, etc... all these together make for a bad combination, and a volatile situation when changes arise.

We should only have to put up with some of these elements, but with this market right now, it is all of them in spades. No. The attitudes must go.

@at0m1x: Smart, because who knows if your Steam licenses could or would ever get revoked. Spares are always good -- and you're legally entitled to make spares of stuff you own anyway!

@artiebuco: At least you're honest, in-the-know and self-aware! lol

@jsprunk: We still haven't; it has not come out yet AFAIK, but the tense you use suggests that it has? The VR one with Alyx, right?

Not really a grammar nazi but am just pointing out the semantics of your post and my takeaway -- there's confusion caused. If the VR title has come out, I apologize.

Also, do we really count VR titles as main entries or even popular ones, regardless if they're official or not? lol. Just messing with you.

@mogan: Don't they have to disclose if they're articles are paid for? If so, if nobody is disclosing it, well then, doesn't really take a degree to figure out that Gamespot, etc. isn't "shilling" for Epic.

@CTBradums: Even if that were true, EGS is still young. Everything else has had its turn to be shilled, legitimately or fairly promoted, shine in the limelight, evolve, etc. Everything else will still continue to do so, regardless of Epic's existence or their supposed business relationship with GameSpot. So there's nothing to really be particularly concerned with.