I know some folks around here got into The Witcher 3 relatively recently and figured maybe this was worth posting up.

The first Witcher game hasn't exactly aged amazingly well (and was an odd game with some problems when it first came out), but for those that really love The Witcher and have the patience to give it a shot, it can be a worthwhile experience. I won't exactly advise you to give it a shot unless you really dig The Witcher universe and have 40-50 hours to kill, but there is some fun to be had there if you're into it.

You also have to give your e-mail address to Ars Technica to get a code sent your way. But free is free, I guess.

P.S. I still recommend that anyone who enjoyed The Witcher 3 go back and give The Witcher 2 a go, as well. It's a great game in it's own right. I'd give the first Witcher a full recommendation, too, but it's just too wonky. It'd be a bit like telling someone who loved Skyrim to go play Morrowind--sure, there's obvious overlap there for someone who is really into that universe, but it just hasn't aged well and is really hard to go back to unless you really want to.

EDIT: It's only free for 48 hours, so get it while you can.

I know some folks around here got into The Witcher 3 relatively recently and figured maybe this was worth posting up.

The first Witcher game hasn't exactly aged amazingly well (and was an odd game with some problems when it first came out), but for those that really love The Witcher and have the patience to give it a shot, it can be a worthwhile experience. I won't exactly advise you to give it a shot unless you really dig The Witcher universe and have 40-50 hours to kill, but there is some fun to be had there if you're into it.

You also have to give your e-mail address to Ars Technica to get a code sent your way. But free is free, I guess.

P.S. I still recommend that anyone who enjoyed The Witcher 3 go back and give The Witcher 2 a go, as well. It's a great game in it's own right. I'd give the first Witcher a full recommendation, too, but it's just too wonky. It'd be a bit like telling someone who loved Skyrim to go play Morrowind--sure, there's obvious overlap there for someone who is really into that universe, but it just hasn't aged well and is really hard to go back to unless you really want to.

EDIT: It's only free for 48 hours, so get it while you can.

Done and done.

Morrowind is also the best game in the ES series, I think.

A lot of its bugs are being addressed in the OpenMW project, and for those who can't abandon the modern engines there are fan projects underway to add its content to Skyrim (Skywind) or Oblivion (Morroblivion) as well as an official expansion to Elder Scrolls Online this summer that adds Morrowind's territory to the game. (Not the plot content, just the area.)

Done and done.

Morrowind is also the best game in the ES series, I think.

Oh don't get my wrong--I absolutely agree. I'm about ten hours into a new play through (my first in probably three years) and enjoying it immensely. It's my favorite Elder Scrolls game by miles. That's partly due to nostalgia, for sure. I was 12 when Morrowind came out, and it was my first real RPG. I never had a PC, so missed out on all the great isometric RPGs. Ocarina of Time was the only real game I'd played that even approaches what Morrowind was. I think it, even more than Halo, was a revelation for me when I got my original Xbox.

But it's also just because I really do think it's a damn good game. It's main quest and story are more interesting than anything in Oblivion and Skyrim. It was cool to see a story where you have put a lot of effort into proving you're the hero, instead of being declared Dragonborn within 30 minutes of starting the game. Not too mention all the politics of Vvardenfell, between the great houses, the Temple and the Imperial Cult, the imperial occupation, legal slavery, etc.

More than anything I hope Bethesda go backs to that sort of questing and storytelling, but I'm not optimistic. They're becoming more and more invested in their radiant quest system, and while that was exciting and new in Oblivion, it's really unappealing now. With games like The Witcher 3 focusing on hand-crafted, awesome quests and stories, that random, radiant quest crap feels archaic and awful. If Elder Scrolls 6 is just Skyrim 2 (in terms of design philosophy), I'll be really disappointed. But given the direction they went with Fallout 4, that's really all I'm expecting.

A lot of its bugs are being addressed in the OpenMW project, and for those who can't abandon the modern engines there are fan projects underway to add its content to Skyrim (Skywind) or Oblivion (Morroblivion) as well as an official expansion to Elder Scrolls Online this summer that adds Morrowind's territory to the game. (Not the plot content, just the area.)

Skywind looks like it's shaping up to be something really cool, but it still seems like it's going to be years before we really see anything from it. I'll be ready to play when it finally hits, though.

Have you played Elder Scrolls Online? Can it be played alone, without really engaging in the more MMO elements? I've heard that it can, but maybe not satisfactorily. It certainly looks like a neat game, if only just as a tour of all of Tamriel, but I just don't feel like playing an MMO. That trailer for the Morrowind expansion looked cool, though.

In any case, The Witcher 1 isn't as beloved as Morrowind by any stretch. While the Enhanced Edition is improved over the initial release, it doesn't have anywhere near the mod support that any of the Elder Scrolls games benefit from. As I said, for folks who really enjoyed The Witcher 3 and want to experience more of that world, there's plenty of value there, but even at the price of free, it's not a game I'd recommend everyone just go play.

Have you played Elder Scrolls Online?

A bit, starting back with the beta on the Mac and then commercial launch on the Xbox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVCHX_Aofo0

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIof4Cp3-canjsSr_RY0QAqcp2nPebfGs

Can it be played alone, without really engaging in the more MMO elements?

No, not really.

I've heard that it can, but maybe not satisfactorily.

There are dungeons that even more than Destiny activities require a group because they physically don't allow solo players to enter (at least, at launch it was like that-- they have changed a lot). That said, those areas are not mandatory. You can take quests and complete them, for the most part, without a party, but playing alone makes the world feel simultaneously lonely and overcrowded.

I find it distracting as all heck that there are SO many players in every area all the time. The game, IMHO, needs to be aggressively sharded to provide for a good experience, but they seem stuck on big regional servers (EU vs USA).

It certainly looks like a neat game, if only just as a tour of all of Tamriel, but I just don't feel like playing an MMO. That trailer for the Morrowind expansion looked cool, though.

TESO is an MMO with an Elder Scrolls skin, rather than an Elder Scrolls game with cooperative play, which is what I really wanted.

Have you played Elder Scrolls Online?

A bit, starting back with the beta on the Mac and then commercial launch on the Xbox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVCHX_Aofo0

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIof4Cp3-canjsSr_RY0QAqcp2nPebfGs

Can it be played alone, without really engaging in the more MMO elements?

No, not really.

I've heard that it can, but maybe not satisfactorily.

There are dungeons that even more than Destiny activities require a group because they physically don't allow solo players to enter (at least, at launch it was like that-- they have changed a lot). That said, those areas are not mandatory. You can take quests and complete them, for the most part, without a party, but playing alone makes the world feel simultaneously lonely and overcrowded.

I find it distracting as all heck that there are SO many players in every area all the time. The game, IMHO, needs to be aggressively sharded to provide for a good experience, but they seem stuck on big regional servers (EU vs USA).

It certainly looks like a neat game, if only just as a tour of all of Tamriel, but I just don't feel like playing an MMO. That trailer for the Morrowind expansion looked cool, though.

TESO is an MMO with an Elder Scrolls skin, rather than an Elder Scrolls game with cooperative play, which is what I really wanted.

Yeah, same. I log on sometimes and it's always meh.

But I think it's not for us. It's for the WOW crowd.

I'll save this for my Witcher jag I plan on going on one day.