Relapse

Last we talked about gaming, I had completed the Wolfenstein story line and was just mopping up some loose ends, which in Wolfenstein mean killing random Nazis. It was diverting but not addictive, and I only played for a few additional hours. 

Then on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I finally downloaded The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.  It took a while to complete the download, but when it was finally complete, up, and running, I started playing.  I've hardly done anything else since then.

Over Thanksgiving Day and the three-day weekend following the holiday, I managed to log a total of 58 hours of play time.  You do the math - over four days, that's an average of over 14 hours a day.  As a result, I didn't get any of the chores done that I had assigned for myself (other than watch some football, which we'll get to on another day) and had only minimal time left for those other things like eating, sleeping, using the toilet, etc.  It looks like my addiction back.

But that's not a bad thing - the game is quite a lot of fun.  So much so, in fact, that I'm deliberately taking my time through each level and not just stampeding ahead through the story line, but fully exploring every locale I find and taking every little side quest offered.  Like good sex, I'm trying to make this last for as long as I can.

I hate rating games against each other and declare that any one is better than the other - each one has it's own strengths and weaknesses - but I can objectively state that The Witcher has got to be a No. 1 contender in at least several categories - character, narrative, gameplay, and more.  I estimate I'm about halfway through - unlike books or movies, you can't judge your progress through a game by page numbers or time - but since I don't have four consecutive days off any time soon, the remaining half may take me much longer to complete.

I sincerely hope so.