Shamelog #024 - Witchers Work
The indecision to play The Witcher 3 with or without playing 1 & 2 first has plagued me for months, but I finally landed on a decision - give the first game a go, and if I couldn’t get it to stick by this post, abandon it and move on.
Turns out, The first Witcher game is excellent.
I’m deep into the second of five acts, and I’m enthralled. There’s a certain air of seeing through the seems going on, for sure - clunk abounds, the voice work is just scraping by, even the writing has it’s ups and downs - yet, this world evokes… something that piques my curiosity. I don’t know what it is, but I’m keen to keep playing to find out.
While all this was happening, I was keenly aware of what date this week included - the 27th October, 2017. Assassin’s Creed Origins, Wolfenstein 2, and most importantly… Super Mario Odyssey. I have to admit, this one was hard. When I set out with the goal of Pile of Shame: 0, I set a major stipulation - no buying games to play. I’ve stuck to my word there - I have made some purchases for collectors reasons, with no real intentions to play (a story for another time) - but all in all, nothing that I’ve wanted to buy so badly has come to be. I know they will always be there, for a cheaper price, with all the bug fixes, when I’m ready for them. I may not even see some games, due to their ephemeral nature (looking at you Destiny 2) but I’ve made peace with moving passed that.
Assassins Creed, well, I have a bunch more entries to play first. Wolfenstein, I know will be $5 by hte time I get around to playing it. But Mario… there’s something about Nintendo’s biggest franchises that just have that special je ne sais quoi, you know? Seeing all the trailers, all the hype, all the reviews, all the screenshots, the gifs, the videos… much like Breath of the Wild, this was an event. This was something special, something I did not want to miss. But! Still, I stuck to word. I avoided every shop that sells games like the plague on Friday afternoon, with the knowledge that The Witcher was waiting for me at home.
So when Loren came home on Saturday afternoon, leaned over the couch next to me and surprised me with Super Mario Odyssey along with accompanying 3 pack of amiibo in her hands, I was speechless.
Needless to say, this weekend has seen the use of my Switch spike considerably. There’s plenty of words online for you to read about that game, and that isn’t the point of this project, so I’ll just leave you with this - y’all, Super Mario Odyssey is so fricken good!
The coming weeks are going to see me travelling around quite a bit, so the plan at this stage is to alternate between The Witcher and Super Mario Odyssey. Weirdly enough, they actually compliment each other perfectly - a hardcore heavy RPG on the PC, with a lighthearted warm hug on the couch / on the go. This is going to be a fantastic couple of weeks.
Also, honestly am thinking about relaxing my big rule just a little. Maybe adjust it to “only allowed to purchase and play up to 3 games a year” or something along those lines? Will have to think on that.
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Statistics
Games left to play: 114
Current game: The Witcher, Super Mario Odyssey