The Witcher 3 leads off a big week in new gaming releases

By Will Fulton May 19, 2015

twig may 22 2015 witcher04 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Lots of anticipated game releases grace stores this week. The Witcher series has steadily grown in popularity and acclaim over the previous two entries, and the new, third game might be its breakout hit, and one of the first, defining RPGs of the new console generation. Meanwhile Destiny fans get another generous portion of juicy new content to feast on with the House of Wolves expansion. Life is Strange‘s action heats up with the third of five episodes in this time travel coming-of-age story. To fill the moments between bigger games, 3DS now has a spinoff of the popular Puzzles & Dragons match-3 series, with a special Mario twist.

What will you be playing this week?

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

PS4/Xbox One/Windows (May 19)
Return to the saga of Geralt of Rivia, a mutated, professional monster hunter whom everyone needs, but no one really wants to stick around (except for sexy sorceresses, of course). Adapted from a series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, this is developer CD Projekt Red’s largest entry in the series yet.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Launch Trailer ("Go Your Way")

Ciri, an immensely powerful young woman and one-time protege of Geralt, is on the run from a pack of relentless, spectral knights called the Wild Hunt, and Geralt is tasked with finding her before they do. Track her in a massive world with sprawling vistas full of secrets to discover and complicated ethical decisions to make.

Life is Strange: Episode 3 — Chaos Theory

PS3/PS4/Xbox 360/Xbox One, Windows (May 19)
The time travel and teen angst adventures of Max Caulfield continue in this third of five episodes for Dontnod and Square Enix’s episodic, narrative-driven adventure. Not everything is as placid as it seems in Arcadia Bay when Max Caulfield returns home. Her newly manifest ability to rewind time and change events allows Max to dig deeper into the web of secrets around the disappearance of a fellow student.

Life is Strange - Episode 3: Chaos Theory Launch Trailer | PS4, PS3

Episode 3 sees Max and Chloe getting closer to learning what happened to Rachel Amber, going so far as to break into Principal Wells’ office at night. Max will also apparently find a new use for her ability.

Destiny: House of Wolves

PS3/PS4/Xbox 360/Xbox One (May 19)
The Queen of the Awoken has been betrayed by the Fallen. She has sent a call out for Guardians to come out to her realm in the Reef at the edge of the solar system, with a promise of great rewards. This is the second major expansion for Bungie’s massive online shooter, Destiny.

Destiny Expansion II: House of Wolves - Launch Trailer | PS4, PS3

Although there is no new raid this time around, House of Wolves does add substantial new endgame content, such as a wave-based cooperative challenge at the Prison of Elders, or a new, high-level competition for the best of the best, the Trials of Osiris. It also adds a host of new weapons, armor, and missions, and reworks a number of the game’s systems.

Puzzles & Dragons Z/Super Mario Edition

3DS (May 22)
This Japanese mobile match-3 puzzler with elements of a roleplaying game has come to Nintendo’s handheld 3DS, and includes two fully featured games in one. Puzzles & Dragons Z adds even more RPG elements to the addictive, match puzzling gameplay, with towns to explore and NPCs to talk with. Puzzles & Dragons Super Mario Edition takes those same basic mechanics, but translates them into the world and characters of Mario, but with fewer RPG elements, instead using a traditional Mario level progression.

Nintendo 3DS - Puzzle and Dragons Z Teaser Trailer

Players assemble a team of characters to fight opponents. Matching like-colored gems triggers characters of the corresponding element to attack, with more gems and combos leading to more damage. The characters level up and grow more powerful through experience, and teams can be swapped in and out in order to best deal with the challenges of a particular level.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Gaming

The Witcher reveal repeats Cyberpunk 2077’s biggest mistake

A player points a gun at a cyborg in Cyberpunk 2077's reveal trailer.

On March 21, CD Projekt Red confirmed a new The Witcher game while revealing a new Unreal Engine 5 partnership with Epic Games. Shortly after that announcement, CD Projekt Red's Global PR Director Radek Grabowski had to clarify some crucial details about this new game and the Epic Games partnership in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/gamebowski/status/1506022957591797760
While this tweet clarifies the biggest misconceptions about CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement, it also highlights that the developer announced this game way too early and vaguely. CD Projekt Red is already losing control of some of the discourse around the game and risks repeating one of the biggest mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077's development and marketing: Overpromising.
Cyberpunk 2077's big mistake
CD Projekt Red announced Cyberpunk 2077 in May 2012 at a press conference. At the time, the developer promised features like a "gripping non-linear story filled with life and detail" and a variety of character classes, weapons, upgrades, implants, and more to choose from. It said the game would "set [a] new standard in the futuristic RPG genre with an exceptional gaming experience."
Cyberpunk 2077 would not release until December 2020, over eight years later. But in the meantime, CD Projekt Red continued to tease the title with trailers and interviews, highlighting the game's ambitious scope and vision. CD Projekt Red developers hyped up how the main story and sidequests intertwined, how the game would feature multiplayer, how cops would be very reactive, and more. Although the game looked and sounded very impressive prior to its release, many of these features and promises were either missing or half-baked in their implementation into Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer
For eight years, an RPG that was supposed to change the genre forever was promised, but in the end, all we got was a fairly standard open-world RPG with a bevy of technical problems at release. The massive backlash happened because people were so excited for Cyberpunk 2077, partly because CD Projekt Red hyped up all of these ambitious features over eight years.
The reality is that game development is an arduous journey that doesn't always go according to plan. Designs change, features are cut, and sometimes the finished product just doesn't come together. CD Projekt Red probably never meant to lie to its fans, but priorities and development timelines shifted and what the developer ultimately delivered with Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't up to snuff.
As CD Projekt Red made the mistake of announcing Cyberpunk 2077 too early and overpromising, I thought the studio would what to share more details on its next game until it was close to release. That was not the case.
Initial Confirmation
CD Projekt Red was not willing to share a development time frame or release window as part of The Witcher announcement, so it's likely that this game is still several years away. Although the developer didn't reveal many details at this time, announcing the next The Witcher game so early gives s the Polish studio plenty of time to do so. For example, the game's director is already promising that there will be no crunch during the development of this game, something people may hold him accountable for as stories about the game's development emerge. CD Projekt Red must be cautious about what it shares about this new game before launch if it doesn't want another PR disaster, and it already seems to be getting a bit out of hand.
Grabowski's tweet indicates that there are already some misconceptions about the game. That will likely exponentially worsen as CD Projekt Red continues to tease this title in job listings, interviews, and trailers. It's a dangerous approach, so why did the developer make this "initial confirmation" happen so early? There are several reasons why this could be the case. First off, most of this announcement was focused on CD Projekt Red's partnership with Epic Games and the use of Unreal Engine 5, and the developer wanted to confirm the first game that will be part of this partnership to make it more exciting for fans.

Meanwhile, CD Projekt Red is still recovering from the backlash toward Cyberpunk 2077's rocky launch. Announcing a follow-up title to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now not only restores a little bit of goodwill with fans and investors but will also attract some Unreal Engine-experienced developers who might be nervous to come to CD Projekt Red following Cyberpunk 2077. 2022 has been a year of anticlimatic and purposefully vague game announcements. CD Projekt Red's The Witcher announcement is simply the latest one to be part of this trend, but it's also one of the most worrying because this developer has made this mistake before.
While CD Projekt Red felt pressured to confirm this game early, they need to be very careful if they don't want to repeat the mistakes of Cyberpunk 2077. The best course of action for CD Projekt Red to take now is to stay completely silent until it has a clear idea of what the finished game will entail. If that isn't the case, this could all be building to disappointment in the year 2030.

Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 next-gen upgrades still on track for this year

Holding a gun to an enemy in Cyberpunk 2077

With just three months left in 2021, developer CD Projekt Red has some big plans to cap off what has been a difficult year for the company. In its latest financial report, the company revealed that it's still planning on releasing two games this year, both next-gen updates. According to the report, the previously announced next-gen versions of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 are still on track to arrive in "late 2021."

Details on what players can expect from the new versions of both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt are sparse. The financial report itself makes no mention of what will be included in the next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt's next-gen release on the other hand will come with all of the game's expansions and "visual upgrades," along with "extra items inspired by the Netflix series."

Gaming

The best single-player PC games

Trevor from Grand Theft Auto V.

Competitive gaming is more popular now than ever before, but that doesn't mean single-player titles have been thrown to the wayside. Expansive open-world games are a staple in the marketplace, and these types of outings are perfectly suited for a solo adventure. PC gamers also have access to several great strategy titles that can be enjoyed offline against NPC opponents.

No matter your taste, there's bound to be a single-player PC game you'll enjoy. The following list is by no means exhaustive, but these entries are among the best solo titles you can dive into on your computer.