What is the best open world game of 2015? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games from throughout the year, and behind today’s door is…

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt!

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The first expansion for The Witcher 3 [official site], Hearts of Stone, let Geralt into new areas of the game’s map (and is pretty great, says Cobbo). Expansion number two, Blood and Wine, will be a larger affair visiting a whole new area of the Witching world, the France-y Toussaint. And what does Toussaint look like? A lovely place for your summer hols, going by the first two ‘screenshots’ (they look touched-up to me).

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I am the worst Witcher. Don’t get me wrong – I’m very good at the actual hunting and preparation part of the monster-slaying business, so it’s not all bad, but when it comes to the actual killing part, I am terrible. Rolling around in circles and trying to time attack animations just right is my least favourite part of The Witcher 3 [official site], a game that unexpectedly stole my heart. I’m over the moon to see the Hearts of Card mod, which replaces all combat with rounds of its card game Gwent.

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Oh boy, am I conflicted. Fallout 4 s main plotline requires that I do this thing> and as far as things> go, it s a pretty major thing> and a major thing> that you d expect someone with the maternal instinct of my character Halle to crack on with straight away. The trouble is, rather than doing this major thing>, for at least an hour now, she, and when I say she , I mean I , have been poking around Sanctuary, scrapping anything that glows yellow so I can salvage enough materials to build a house big enough for me and my Minutemen companions. I had largely avoided Bethesda s drip-feed of Fallout 4 pre-publicity but when I somehow found out that the game had settlement building, I think I might have involuntarily passed a little wind in joyous anticipation.

That’s because I ve felt a similar rosy inner glow while hanging around other hubs and houses in many other games I ve played. I think it s easy to underestimate the value of having a home base option, especially in open world games where there is a free-roaming element, but it’s a part of why I love certain games.

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One nice thing about digital sales is that no one ends up injured, arrested, or killed. If you want The Witcher 3 half-price, hey, don’t sweat it: GOG’s Thanksgiving-y sale lives entirely inside computers, so all shall be well as long as you don’t accidentally sit on your laptop. I’m not sure why it’s named the ‘Only On GOG.com’ sale when TW3 is the fanciest bargain there and is definitely not, you know, only on GOG, but hey! Also on sale: old Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons, and Warhammer games.

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The Northern Kingdoms of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] is a realm ravaged by war, pestilence, and greed. And, try as he might, Geralt continually finds himself trapped between the political maneuverings of the Northern Kingdom’s most ambitious contenders. So it’s easy to forget that Geralt’s true calling in life is as a monster slayer. Lucky for him the Northern Kingdoms has no shortage of monsters.

While some of these beasts have enjoyed plenty of spotlight in other fiction, CD Projekt Red have dug deep into their own Eastern and Northern European ancestry to bring to life a mythology underrepresented in the echelons of generic fantasy creatures. We’re all familiar with dragons and vampires, but what about the lesser known beasts that bloody Geralt’s blade? The leshen, alps and botchlings? I’ve rounded up some of my favorite monsters from the Witcher series and the legends that inspired them so that we can contrast their depictions in the game, while getting a mythology lesson at the same time.

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The Witcher III: Hearts of Stone [official site], the game’s first major story expansion, is out now. Hearts of Stone adds a new 10-hour quest involving Geralt and The Wild Hunt’s Olgierd von Everec. According to our review, it “shows just about every other company how it s done,” which is high praise from Richard Cobbett, a man who has played all games.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] patch 1.10 is a bit of a monster, it seems. It comprises some 600 fixes, none of which appear to be major but suggest an impressive commitment to refining an already slick game. If you want to find out what they all are, then you’ll need to sit down with large mug of tea and this here 13-page PDF file. … [visit site to read more]

The launch trailer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone [official site] expansion has been unveiled and, as you might expect, it looks very pretty. It’s out one week from today on October 13 and before I go any further, why not pop down below and take a look for yourself?

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Details about Cyberpunk 2077 [official site], CD Projekt RED’s long-in-the-making sci-fi RPG that will, so far as we know, be their follow-up to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site], are rarer than miracle cures for wartime Russian mycotoxins. Even rarer is the slightest implication of a release date. However, CDP are happy to reveal that this is no mere experimental side project – We’re really stepping into the unknown in terms of complexity and size.”

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