Netflix is gearing up to release its show The Witcher on December 20, but if you just can’t wait to dive into Geralt’s world and you don’t want to spend much money, you can start playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on Xbox Game Pass even earlier.
Available on December 19 as part of Xbox Game Pass, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been heralded as one of the best role-playing games of all time, with an enormous scale that can easily lead to you sinking hundreds of hours into side content while barely scratching the surface of the story. Even the most trivial quests have excellent writing backing them up, with great characters that feel like real people rather than targets you need to defeat in order to progress.
You don’t need to have played the previous two Witcher games in order to enjoy The Witcher 3 on Xbox Game Pass, though the extra background you’ll get on Geralt and his associates will certainly help. Even if you aren’t usually a fan of large-scale role-playing adventures, the work CD Projekt Red put in to make the game as immaculate as it is can’t be overlooked, and because it’s part of Xbox Game Pass, you have very little to lose by trying it out.
It’s also a great time to try out Xbox Game Pass, too, including the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate bundle that also features Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass for PC. During the holiday season, you can get your first three months for $1, and the subscription will give you a month of EA Access, three months of Discord Nitro, and six months of Spotify Premium. EA Access means you’ll get even more games to play for that same price, and since you can’t even get lunch at McDonald’s for $1 anymore, we suggest diving in.
The Witcher television series stars Henry Cavill as Geralt and is based on the books — the same source material as the video game trilogy, which takes place afterward. It has already been renewed for a second season, and features many of the same characters from the video games in prominent roles.