While it does have a story that can be followed and is fairly linear in what order it happens in, everything else in-between is butter and you're the bread. I've been playing this game since Day 1 and now I"m on my 3rd full game. I own it on GOG and the Sony store. I've played and loved all the previous Witcher games, even taking a chance on the very 1st one and was ridiculously surprised what they did with Bioware's engine back in the day. The 3rd game is the charm. With 4 coming out in the next year or 2 it's going to be hard to top TW3. It's just THAT good. I'm not writing anything anyone on the planet hasn't seen yet. Truly an epic, HUGE, twisting and endearing and dangerous. It has EVERYTHING you'd ever want in an open world rpg plus everything you didn't think you'd need or want. The ONLY thing that could have made this masterpiece any better would have been to make oils and potions ABSOLUTELY necessary to win certain fights. While you can amp up the difficulty it's not quite the same. A Witcher is a Witcher for a reason. While they're aces in combat, the oils and potions is what mutates them and makes them excel. Still, it's fantastic. Play it. Especially now in 2025 if you've been too young, sleeping, in a coma or just downright finally finding your rpg legs. There's a reason it's the 2nd highest rated rpg of all time.
First, one of the best Lovecraftian games around. Secondly, it works at 3440x1440 rez. I was floored. However, it's an older game so don't expect 4k graphics. However, I was pleasantly surprised it worked at all let alone at that rez. GoG did a fantastic job of "fixing" the game so it runs on modern hardware. Get it. You'll be happy you did.
First and foremost, Elex is a grand world designed in classic PB architecture and design. It's huge. It's open and it's dangerous. It's also quite beautiful, the world that is. However, things start to fall apart slightly when taking your eyes OFF of the world and start looking at everything else. Textures don't seem to scale properly. While I have beautiful world textures everything else from facial textures, armor and clothing textures and even set design pieces are lacking in proper upgraded textures. Some of them are downright ugly. On a UWHD monitor playing at 3440x1440 (21:9, which is supported!) some HUD elements and menus are stretched oddly. Which makes me think they didn't quite implement 100% 21:9 support. Keyboard controls need fixed asap. When I stop pressing the W key I expect my character to STOP moving. he doesn't. He likes to keep walking a few more steps every now and again. This can get you in a clutch in combat quickly. Dodging? Iffy even more. If I'm in combat sometimes my character will want to roll (I do press 2x with WAS or D) but he'll jump and fall off a cliff. Not fun. Combat focus gets wonky as well with it sometimes not properly keeping your enemy focused when battling. Again, annoyance that will get you killed. Sound design? It's not the symphonies we've heard in Gothic 3 or the Risen series but it's good. Sound effects are spot on. Weapon effects, procs, all done well too. Dialogue? It's good. I keep reading "reviews" about how terrible the voice dialogue is and I'm like, "Are we playing the same game?" It's done well. However, lip synch is atrocious at times. Other times, it's decent enough but it still could be better even for a low budget game. Voice actors do a good job also. Set design and world design is fantastic though. Thoroughly well done with secrets and dungeons, different exploration options, etc. Easily a 6-7 for now until a few patches fix what problems the game does have.
First and foremost, Emergence is a really special game in the Homeworld franchise. Personally, I think it to be the better of the whole series so far. However, the game has NOT aged well. Not at all. While everything is basically intact, getting it to run on a 1080 screen, let alone UHD Widescreen, is about irritating. While I, most definitely, appreciate the hurdles GoG has gone through to get the game released it needs some technical love asap. My experiences with the game so far, multiple (think about 20x) the game did some weird glitching where it bounced on and off the screen just getting to the Menu screen. Then, adjusting the option panel to go as close to 1080 or above that I could resulted in the same screen bouncing as before. Also, on a UHD Widescreen this game just looks downright terrible. It's blobs, you're controlling blobs, you're attacking blobs, etc. Not pretty. Even dialing down the UHD to a native 1200 doesn't do it any wonders. It's just ugly. However, the game is very much intact. Everything you remember is there. No weird alterations or glitches, just pure Emergence gameplay. Now, while it is going to take me half the day just to get used to the blobs those with regular 1080 screens or even smaller, the game may look fantastic to you. Just an FYI to those with UHD Widescreens that run at 1440x? or above. Also, where it counts, having GoG release Emergence is not only unexpected, but it could be a boon to the franchise as well. Seeing as we've had the last two original Homeworld games re-released in HD could mean Emergence may get the same treatment. One can only hope. Because, well, it most definitely needs it. Especially with the hardware people are running today. Myself included in that bracket. If you get the game running on a 1080 screen or smaller you're in for a treat. While I don't think Emergence has the same beautiful rendering as H1 and H2 (even though it's on the same engine) it's probably the best in gameplay.Hands down
When I saw TQ Anniversary Edition pop up in my Steam feed the day AFTER launch I was stunned, to say the least. How did this get past me so quietly and without much fanfare? So, well, INSTABUY. Cha-ching! I can say I am really pleased with the work THQ Nordic has done on the game. It shows instantly. Let's get to a get run down, shall we? 1st, the game looks amazing in 1080, looks even better running on trip mons at 5760x1080, and yes, it runs at that resolution (all AMD rig btw). With the game being combined with Immortal Throne AND upgraded to run on modern rigs the love shows. Shadows are crisper. Characters pop in HD now. Spell effects and weapon sparks look amazingly better. The day/night cycles seem to take advantage of the upgrade as well and just seem to cycle through the world better as well. Sound works as it did before and runs fabulous in 5.1 without any noticeable flaws. No crackling, no popping (some experienced this prior years ago) and voice-overs seem to have a noticeably better HD pickup done to them as well (not sure if it was done, but it does seem nicer). Creature design and level design was already top notch and now it looks better popping out in 1080 or higher. Running dual Sapphire Tri-X R9 290s, AMD FX 8350 BE, 16GB or Gskill, Win10 and 1TB WD Velociraptor all on an Asus Sabertooth 990FX Gen3 mobo and the game runs pretty much flawlessly. Loading times even seem to be better this time around and I've encountered no problems. So, in closing, if you where a fan of TQ before it's worth the purchase. Easily. If you're a fan of rpgs in the vein of Diablo1,2 and 3, Grim Dawn, Path of Exile, Van Helsing trilogy, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Nox, Divinity (any of them), Sacred 1 or 2, etc, etc, then you should have this in your library. Asap. I should also say I own the game on Steam as I owned the digital copies on that platform. However, I wanted to add my 2 cents as I'm a huge supporter of GOG and all their good old games as well.
Wow. Where to start. Dead Space 1 and 2 are pinnacles for the survival horror genre. I originally bought DS1 on the PS3 and got so sucked in and enamored by it I had to purchase it for PC as well. After that, DS2 and 3 were pretty much auto-buys for me. It is everything the survival horror genre seemed to have forgotten about for years. HORROR. SURVIVAL. Period. In everything that the Dead Space franchise has done with itself over the years the SOUND DESIGN is second to none. Seriously. Throw on a pair of cans and up the volume and prepare yourself for one of the most immersive games to ever use sound as a weapon to scare bodily fluids out of you. Seriously. No jokes. It has probably given grown men massive heart palpitations. The game excels in graphical presentation, set design and monster creation. Make no doubt about it. Dead Space was created by a group of men and women that LOVED the genre and wanted to see it improved beyond anything that was available at the time. They succeeded. In immense strides they succeeded. By using simple acts as a stomp, or your in-game "quest marker", or even the ability to use tools not even intended as weapons to not only have 1 but 2 abilities to help you in your survival quest, DS1 is one of the best, most immersive and, actually, beautiful games you'll ever play. Funny story quick. Now, this game came out in '08 so I was 39 then. A grown man with 3 kids, wife, mortgage, etc, etc. Now, bought this on a game shopping trip and came home. Put the kids to bed that evening, loaded up the PS3, put on my headphones and sat on a pillow on the floor leaning against the couch. Wife turned on a very small light and curled up next to me on the couch to read a good book. After an hour or so I was so absorbed, so immersed in the world the devs created that I completely lost any contact with the world outside of my headphones and game. Totally forgot about my wife reading behind me. JUST AS I'm getting into a nice scary encounter the wife leaned over and touched my on the shoulder. THAT'S IT!! I probably jumped and screamed like a small child. NEVER, not once, in my whole life have I ever been "jump scared". Not once. This game, yeah, it got me. To this day my wife brings it up in conversation and makes fun of me. While funny after the fact, I damn near lost bodily fluids that evening. It's that immersive. So, what are you waiting for? Dead Space is a pinnacle achievement in game design and sound. Easily one of the absolute best survival horror games you'll ever play. If GOG ever releases Dead Space 2 you should purchase it immediately. It's even better than the first. However, enjoy 3 for the action, definitely not the scares.
I'll be honest. I own the game over on Steam. I really do wish GOG could get the newer releases like this as soon as they're available. This was a Day 1 purchase, easily, for me. Now, saying all of that, Homeworld 1 & 2 are, simply, masterpieces of space strategy. Without making a difficult to control game the original devs created a simple point-n-click strategy game that went beyond anything that had ever been created before. The depth to the game is almost un-ending as is the difficulty if you so chose. With wonderfully created and fiery allies and enemies the amount of horsepower in your fleet is only controlled by your imagination and, well, money. The Remastered version is an upgraded HD version of both games. Homeworld 1 is remastered in Homeworld 2's engine with some bumps in geometry and detail and, obviously, screen sizes. Homeworld 2 is a "repainted" version of the engine with better detail, geometry, pathfinding and screen sizes. While, not fully "1080P" versions, it's hard to tell with the work that's been done on the games. They both look exceedingly well done and the work that's been put into the "redux" versions is really, really nice. It's worth, most definitely, playing through every single version available. I started with the original 1 & 2 and then went to the upgraded versions for my playthrough. It's well worth it to notice the subtle and glaring differences made to the respective engines. I had an absolute blast playing through these again as I had lost my original discs to the games some years ago. I'm really glad they finally made an appearance on GOG for those that want true DRM free games. On a side note, there are a TON, and I mean a TON, of available mods available for the originals as well as redone mods for the upgraded versions. Many of them are worthy of your attention. Of course, once you've finished the main campaigns. There may be some tricks involved, but they work.
Just wanted to throw this out there in "review land". 204 hours. That's how much time I've invested into this game just to finish the main story line. 204 hours of constant entertainment and fun. 204 hours I'll never regret. Not once. The Witcher 3 is a pinnacle of interactive arts entertainment. Runs amazingly well on an all AMD rig (FX 8350 BE, Dual Sapphire Tri-X R9 290s, 16 GB Ram). I'll be honest I don't think I've ever put this much time into a game on a single run, in recent memory. Oblivion and Skyrim came close. Divine Divinity, while fantastic, only got me about 100 hours or so. Don't get me wrong, I've done a few multiple playthroughs of games that clocked in some hours, but, a single run at over 200 hours and never got bored once? Yeah, that's probably never happening again. All in all, when it's all said and done, TW3 has got to be the most entertaining, involved and exciting RPG I've ever played. At 40+ years of age, this game will most definitely sit atop my vast collection of RPGs with pride. It's an achievement I'm going to experience more of as I go on and tackle the additional DLCs I've barely touched. Looking forward to it all. Amazing. Just amazing.
First, I must commend CDPR on a job well done. Blood & Wine is perhaps the finest piece of DLC I've yet to experience. Not only is the add-on simply astonishing in the amount of time you can have a go at, but, it's also the most beautiful addition I've ever purchased. The new land areas are amazingly vibrant. The beautiful hillsides and valleys and lush forested areas, the blaze of colors in the garb of the townspeople, the additional horse armors and Witcher weapons and armor, simply amazing. The voice over work is, simply put, astonishing. Every actor I've come across (NPCs) just flows so well, so natural. There's a complete immersion factor happening when you can get voice actors to make it seem like it wasn't work, but a natural extension of who they may be. There's no stilted garbling or off-kilter dialect. It all works wonderfully. The DLC adds a variety of new mobs and enemies and it has been a pleasure to, most times, attempt to slay them. Varied enemy AI and new move sets for enemies makes it a nice challenge. I haven't always been successful but that's the fun in it. New enemies come faster and harder it seems as well and they won't hesitate to flank and surround you. Staying on your toes, doing your research, is paramount in this DLC. Without a little light reading in the bestiary you may very well find yourself hitting the "reload" screen multiple times. The added weapons and armors make monster slaying only slightly easier but it's all good having a good go-round attempting to do so. Running an all AMD system (dual Sapphire R9 290s, AMD FX 8350 BE, etc) and not a single hiccup so far. No crashes, no delays in loading, just smooth 60fps gameplay. I've got 16 GBs of RAM and the added horsepower doesn't hurt when cranking the game to Ultra. If you're on the fence I'd suggest you not wait, but jump right in and give it a go. For what CDPR is asking for the DLC I'd say it's criminally low. In my book, one of the finest DLCs ever created.
