The last few games you beat and rate them 5

[Romang67]

Are they still fun to play despite being so much older now and lacking the QoL adjustments made to Elden Ring?

For the most part, I think they're holding up well. Demon's Souls has aged less than gracefully, IMO, but the other two I didn't have any real issues with in terms of design choices. Big difference from Elden Ring is, of course, that you can't scamper off elsewhere if you get stuck somewhere. But at this point, if you've played Elden Ring, I think the risk of your getting hard stuck on a boss is minimal. The one thing that would make me hesitate to recommend trying both of them is that I think you need to give DS2 a fair bit of time before deciding whether you like it or not. The early levels without high enough adaptability are ROUGH.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

DS2 was, and continues to be, much maligned. Much of the criticism was deserved, some of it wasn't though. But I had a ton of fun with it back in the day. I think your review is pretty spot on about its strengths and weaknesses, the DLC were certainly awesome, but I did enjoy the base game as well.

Have fun with bloodborne, it's awesome.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Dark Souls 2 is not a Miyazaki game and it shows. It feels like it's a game made by fans that have their own interpretation about what Dark Souls is all about.

I loved the worlds and lore presented in games like Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Dark Souls 1 and 3, Sekiro and Elden Ring. I could not give a rat's ass about the one in Dark Souls 2.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Long rant/train of thought ahead but i decided to play Tears of the Kingdom again and i think i dislike it much more now than when i did at launch.

When it came out, i played through it, liked it, but there was a strange feeling left afterwards that left me thinking "something isn't right here, but i can't figure out what." Was it the fact they recycled the same Hyrule? Not sure. But after i came back this time i think i can finally put my finger on it; this game, that is positioned as a sequel isn't actually a sequel at all and that it should have stayed as DLC like it started its life as. (And these thoughts come from someone who played Breath of the Wild again earlier in the year as well, and i can say that game still hits the mark for me)

The big thing the devs pushed in marketing advertising was the sky islands. The game starts you in the sky which is the right call because it's such a grand spectacle and truly gives you a sense of wonder as you want to explore those weird floating islands out on the horizon. And for the first little bit? It's fantastic. But then you start to realize pretty much all the islands follow the same pattern; large islands with a shrine telling you to go fetch the big stupid crystal in pretty much the same way. Those big circular islands? yup, just the same boss fight for the umpteenth time. Those big ass mazes that are now floating in the sky for some reason? yup, those are all the same.

What about the depths? That weird underground/clear dark world allegory that somehow eluded everyone until the community actually got their hands on the game? Also junk. Once again, same deal. At first it's like "woah holy shit what is this place?" as you cautiously explore the dark hellhole for the first few hours. After that, it's the exact same thing as the sky islands; Everything looks, and is the same outside of the occasional lava flow, yiga hideout or zonite spot. (Which is why the depths under Death Mountain is actually sick, because it's different than the same drab shit the other 85% of the depths has.) Outside of zonite and a small quest, there's nothing worth exploring down here because the rewards are junk too. Oh boy, i found another pair of Link's pants from a past game! Not like you can use them because upgrading is incredibly tedious/obnoxious.

Ultrahand is a cool mechanic especially if you have a creative side, but even this is extremely costly since you either need Zonai parts on hand, or to be carrying zonite which will be a hefty price depending on how intricate your build is. This is why pretty much everyone and their grandmother ends up building the same shitty hoverbike to travel because it's cheap and easy. The hoverbike will last a full 30 in game minutes, other stuff, namely the wings which a lot of people use as a base for flying vehicles poof out of existence within a minute? Why? Why promote creativity then smack the player with a ruler for actually being creative?

At the same time, this creative aspect of the game in a lot a ways i think works against it. Shrines in BOTW were more in line with standard Zelda puzzles; a small room with a specific solution that requires the player to work within its limitations to find the solution. Shrines in TOTK go a different direction, turning themselves more into an excuse for the player to muck around the physics engine. (which credit where it's due, they did a fantastic job with it and i imagine a good chunk of the 6 years needed to make this alone) in some cases, it works, but in other cases the shrines open themselves up to the player realizing the same idea (like say, using recall to just do some platform jankery) in multiple places which kills creativity. This is assuming of course the shrine you stumbled on isn't one of 48 (out of 150) "blessing shrines" which is just an altar that gives you the stuff needed for upgrades

Dungeons get hit especially hard by this conflict with the exception of the Lightning Temple. You can straight up break the Fire and Water Temples with a vehicle to the point the dungeons become trivial. (Not that the dungeons are any good anyway outside of the Lightning one since it feels like a more traditionally designed one) And i can't stand the opinion of "well THAT'S NOT HOW THEY INTENDED YOU TO DO IT" Wrong, if i can do it without having to use a weird bug/glitch/flaw, it's intended. And that's on the devs.

The game is straight up a mile wide, and about a foot deep.

As for the "this game isn't a sequel part" this really hit me on my second playthrough. This game is supposed to take place a few years after BOTW. If that's the case, why is there no mention of the fact the Calamity Ganon was the manifestation of the dickhead locked underneath the castle? It's made of malice/gloom and we already know Ganondorf was gaining strength in the lead up to this game and during it. Why does no one remember who Link is given he saved the entire world from destruction? Why do the characters, sans a few exceptions who clearly interact with Link not remember who he is? Why did all the Shiekah tech the first game was essentially built on just vanish?

Timeline stuff is nonsense but even i can't really ignore the fact this game is the supposed "founding" of Hyrule...even though we already had that established with Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword which is obviously a contradiction.

If you played this game without Breath of the Wild, you'd miss nothing. Even the characters who showed up in the first like Riju or Sidon could easily be new characters. Story in this game is a mess with the devs letting you discover it out of order along with creating plotholes as it goes. Not ideal/


The only reason why i don't let this affect my view of the formula BOTW laid out is because the devs have admitted multiple times this game started out as DLC and it got to the point where they kept adding shit to it and went "man, we should just make it a full game" ala Mario Galaxy 2. Which is why it probably feels so uneven too. That, and the new game coming in just over a week looks like it might be a best of both worlds situation with the combo of new aged expression/open world gameplay and traditional dungeons.

 

[x Tame Impala]

@Blitzkrug Right there with ya man. I think some people just REALLY like the building aspect of TOTK.

BOTW is far and away the better game, or I had much more fun playing it. In the first game Hyrule is basically the main character and Link is really just your vehicle for experiencing the map. You have to climb and glide around every inch of that place, dealing with the elements, finding food, and struggle to stay alive. You’re given some basic abilities and then you’re off to do things as you see fit. You develop an intimate relationship with Hyrule and the immersion is crazy.

TOTK erases 90% because of the reasons you mentioned above.

 

[Blitzkrug]

@Blitzkrug Right there with ya man. I think some people just REALLY like the building aspect of TOTK.

BOTW is far and away the better game, or I had much more fun playing it. In the first game Hyrule is basically the main character and Link is really just your vehicle for experiencing the map. You have to climb and glide around every inch of that place, dealing with the elements, finding food, and struggle to stay alive. You’re given some basic abilities and then you’re off to do things as you see fit. You develop an intimate relationship with Hyrule and the immersion is crazy.

TOTK erases 90% because of the reasons you mentioned above.

There's a great video that does a deep (and by deep i mean cavernous) dive somebody did on TOTK and all the problems the game has. I watched most of it and i honestly find myself agreeing with most of their points. They completely tear this game apart and outside of a few reaches imo (comparing the caves to gacha games is a bit of a stretch) it's pretty well thought out.



(i did say it was cavernous lol)

 

[Albatros]

Assassin's Creed: Mirage (6.5/10)

A remarkable game in that it has been improved almost entirely by subtraction, real improvements are few and far between but the makers have done a fairly decent job removing weak elements of previous titles so that the newest release feels significantly more balanced if also smaller and shorter in comparison. Unfortunately the story is still much too weak to get emotionally invested in and amounts to little more than an excuse for completing somewhat repetitive puzzles. Not a bad experience either, the gameplay is generally fun enough, but a lot of lost potential.

 

[pistolpete11]

Are they still fun to play despite being so much older now and lacking the QoL adjustments made to Elden Ring?

The lack of QoL additions is negated by how much easier they are (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 anyway, haven't played Dark Souls 2 yet) than Elden Ring, Sekiro, and Bloodborne IMO. There are a couple of long run backs, but when you only have to do it a couple of times, it's not that bad....except the one in Dark Souls 1 that everyone bitches about.

 

[The Merchant]

After 100%-ing the game, I'm confident in saying that not only is this the greatest platformer PlayStation has ever published, but it's also the beginning of a franchise and mascot that they can finally hang their hat on. The levels and power-ups are diverse, vibrant and creative. You're almost always rewarded for exploration of the environments and due to its immaculate design, frustration is virtually non-existant. I was absolutely blown away by the sheer amount of polish that is present. The game plays like butter and controls as responsively as any platformer on the market. It should also be noted that I experienced zero noticeable bugs or framerate hiccups.

If there's one thing that's consistent throughout a playthrough of Astro Bot, it's the evocation of joy and nostalgia. If you've been a PlayStation fan from the beginning, you'll be rewarded with an overwhelming amount of fanservice (special shout out to the Ape Escape fans in the building).

If there's anything holding it back from a perfect score, it's the general lack of enemy variety and an ultimately forgettable final foe. Astro is a phenomenal protagonist, but he still needs his Bowser. If you're a fan of platformers, love PlayStation or are simply in need of a blissful gaming experience then it doesn't get much better than this.

9.5/10

 

[Frankie Spankie]

The Typing of The Dead: Overkill - 8/10

This is seriously some stupid fun. You quite literally type words to kill zombies, err, mutants as they run at you from every angle in an on rails experience. Each level takes about 15-20 minutes so you can time things out accordingly if you only have a short time to play something.

The best part of the game though is the cheesy B horror movie story that is more comedy than horror. So many stupid scenes throughout the cutscenes that had me laughing so hard. It's short, it's sweet, it's worth your time.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I Expect You To Die 2 - 8/10

I Expect You To Die 2 is a solid sequel that really just offers more of the same. It doesn't really innovate over the first but it doesn't have to. It's 6 more fun missions to go through. It's a fun escape room experience with some good humor involved. I would definitely recommend the series if you have VR, they're plenty fun to figure out.

 

[Shareefruck]

2024 Games Played:

T1. Black Myth: Wukong - 3.5 or 4.0 (Great/Immaculate)
Finally finished. I suspect that FromSoft games are more uncompromisingly beautiful/tight in terms of mechanics/design, but this feels like the exact gateway I needed (perfect sweet-spot difficulty-wise). The builds/upgrades are a lot of fun, and I had zero issues with boss frequency or sudden difficult spikes-- Was surprised the hidden super-boss and final boss weren't that grueling (did side stuff that maybe made it easier, though). There are well documented issues like invisible walls, occasional bugs, overly small subtitles, or poor main character dubbing, but they seemed a bit blown out of proportion/didn't bother me much.

Love the art direction, musical choices, thematic exploration, world building, and tasteful conceptualization-- an awe-inspiring love letter to the source (might be abstract/not fully understandable if unfamiliar, but should still be intriguing/touching/thought-provoking regardless). Those chapter animations/short films in particular are spectacular and easily the highlight of the game. Kind of made me love and appreciate the actual substance of the source material all over again (which growing up, was easy to dismiss as a fun but hollow Dragonball-esque thing).

That said, despite allowing a framework for great things, I think the base story concept is still kind of lame, and find its thematic conclusion clumsy/sends mixed messages (somewhat undermines the point of the original, unless interpreted in a way that MIGHT be intended, but isn't intuitive).

My major disconnect with audiences: A common complaint is that it's too linear but thankfully opens up as you go. Meanwhile, I found it tight when linear and meandering/unfocused when open (especially the last chapter). Too much freedom can be bad, IMO.

T1. Animal Well - 3.5 or 4.0 (Great/Immaculate) [can't decide between this and Wukong as I'm more impressed by its design/minimalism/elegance, but definitely didn't end up as obsessed by the world, and I found the final stretch a bit underwhelming]
3. Cocoon - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive) [hard to rate-- the concept is clever/ambitious, the effect/experience is really modest/limited (not in a bad way per say), but for what it's going for, it's perfect/tasteful]
4. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - 1.5 or 2.0 (Neutral/Positive) [obviously obsessed, but for every detail I love about it (especially characterization), others infuriate me or feel creatively inept/borderline insulting]
5. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - 1.0 (Negative) [mechanically sound but something about it just felt soulless]

Expecting to like: Thank Goodness You're Here
Positive interest but skeptical: Astrobot, Balatro, Pepper Grinder, Shadow of the Ninja: Reborn
Ambivalent interest: Echoes of Wisdom, Yakuza: Infinite Wealth, Unicorn Overlord, 1000x Resist
Negative/lost interest: Stellar Blade, Blasphemous 2, Plucky Squire, Schim

 

[Blitzkrug]

Finished Echoes of Wisdom. Really enjoyed it!

There was a bit squabbling going amongst Zelda fans on what exactly this game was going to be with the advertising showing off what appeared to be both elements from the newer and older games. After playing it i can say i think it honestly leans harder in the traditional direction rather than the more open ended, open world games.

The game is pretty much as shown in the videos Nintendo put out; Zelda gets kidnapped again and Link goes to smack Ganon around. Except this time, the aftermath reverses the roles. Link gets sucked in by this strange void and Zelda left to pick up the pieces. No seriously, the prologue of the game is the void basically causing so much havoc to the point the entire kingdom, including her own dad in the king turns on her and sentences her to death. Zelda is left with no option to flee and go out into the vast world of Hyrule to try and fix everything. Outside of that, it's a pretty by the numbers story for this series, even complete with the old style of splitting the game into 3 acts.

Gameplay wise, as i said it's a mix of the old and new; Hyrule is open to explore right out of the prologue...with some caveats. There are three acts, two of which have 3 specific areas you have to go to ala Breath of The Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. You can do them in any order you see fit. The caveat being there's actually 6 (7 if you count the final sorta dungeon at the end of the game) dungeons but the back 3 are gated off by story progression similar to pretty much every game pre Link Between Worlds. So you could, say visit the Faron Wetlands where one of the later dungeons are, but you won't be able to access it and a lot of the other stuff like sidequests/mini dungeons are also gated behind progression.

As for Zelda, she obviously has her own way of confronting the world in front of her. She has 3 primary tools; Her staff, Tri (the little dude you meet in the prologue) and the Sword of Might. Her staff allows you to copy pretty much anything in the overworld from enemies to smaller objects and then summon them at will (with obvious limits of how much you can summon at once.) This will be your main tool. As pretty much all puzzles, combat encounters and sidequests will involve you using this tool in some way. The amount of stuff that can be done with this in terms of problem solving is quite frankly spectacular and Nintendo weaponizes it to create some pretty fun stuff in both cases of traversal and making the player think. Completely blows Tears of the Kingdom and its 67 variations of "get Crystal from A to B" puzzle out of the water. Tri is a bit more simple. All he can really do is bind things. Essentially a very basic/torn down version of TOTK's ultrahand that lets you grab things and move with it in sync. So if you jump, the thing you're binding jumps with you. Even this simple idea opens up a wealth of options to use it in a puzzle. Finally, the sword of might is essentially zelda's answer to the magic meter. For a brief time, when activated Zelda transforms into a Link doppleganger that allows you to...well, play as Link for a bit. You can't use it much at first but with progression you can upgrade both the size of the meter and the strength of the sword. Combine that with the smoothie system (more basic version of TOTK/BOTW cooking) and you can use this for a sizable chunk of the game which i think is a good way to throw all those people who wanted traditional combat a bone while being a clever role reversal (Link is a swordsman by trade, but can learn a bit of magic. Hence the meter. Zelda is essentially the reverse)

The biggest win for me in this game is the dungeons. Praise the f***ing gods but for once when Nintendo said "yeah traditional dungeons are back this time" they actually meant it. The dungeon progression in this game reminds me of older 3D era games like Wind Waker/Ocarina of Time. The first couple are nothing special and are more of a set of rooms to teach the player how the game works. The second half of the game is where the really cool dungeons are. Dungeons that essentially force the player to understand the layout and how all the rooms tie into a single mechanic/concept. Without spoiling, one dungeon in particular reminded me heavily of the Skull Woods dungeon in a Link to the Past. The other dungeon you do in Hebra was also fantastic. There's even mini-dungeons as sidequests that are essentially throwbacks/tributes to older Zelda games.

In terms of negatives, this game does suffer a little bit from the same issues that TOTK/BOTW did. Firstly, sidequests outside of a select few (the ones that tie into mini dungeons) are all mostly the same fetch junk. Trying to find a specific echo to summon is an absolute nightmare as it uses the same shitty linear menu TOTK/BOTW used and combat can sometimes be a tad janky when you have to rely on summons. Also for some reason this game has a really hard time maintaining a consistent framerate.

All in all, a pretty good game and props to Grezzo for shining when given a chance to work alongside Nintendo on something that isn't a remake of a Zelda game. 8.5/10

 

[Frankie Spankie]

War Mongrels - 8.5/10
War Mongrels is a great real time stealth tactics game. I fell in love with the genre after playing Mimimi titles, even if it's a very niche genre, and I'm glad to have run into this game because it handles really well. You control a group of soldiers during WWII as you work your way to quietly take down enemies as you work towards your objective.

Comparing this to Mimimi titles, this is a much more realistic setting. There's not super powers like you'll run into with those games. It's a nice change of pace when everything feels realistic. One interesting thing that War Mongrels does is allow a "combat mode." You can run around and play it almost like a twin stick shooter if you'd like but again, it's pretty realistic, and you won't survive taking on too many enemies, so you want to use it sporadically.

The fun in these kinds of games is treating it as much as a puzzle game as a tactics game. You want to try to find the most effective ways to move to your next objective and there's nothing more satisfying that performing a coordinated strike that takes out 5-6 enemies at once while using multiple characters. You get that same feel here.

My only complaints are some minor bugs. Going through the reviews, I seem to have faced fewer bugs than most others so I suspect the devs have continued patching the game over time. Beyond that, the controls felt a little wonky at times. There were several times I'd have to reload a save because I'd slightly miss a mouse click and it would make me lose control of a character, making them get spotted. It happened often enough for it to start getting annoying at times.

One last recommendation I'd love to see as a change is to include a fast forward button! Mimimi added one after Shadow Tactics and the quality of life improvement is so much better. It always drags when you miss your timing and have to wait a minute for the patrol to return. Adding a fast forward button would make the slow moments of the game feel so much better!

Overall, this is a great stealth tactics game. I'm glad I ran into this in a Humble Bundle because I see the devs just made a new title in a similar style. I haven't heard of this game elsewhere so I doubt I would have ran into either title if it wasn't for that Humble Bundle. I'll definitely be picking up the dev's new title and look forward to see what they improved on in the next title!

 

[Albatros]

Wreckfest (8.5/10)

Never stop the madness! With vague memories of the original Destruction Derby video games I decided to give Wreckfest a try, and what a jackpot that was. Despite being a decidedly arcade racer it is also a serious driving game underneath, the usual rubberband effect rarely feels excessively unnatural but rather skillfully maintains the suspense, keeps you walking the thin edge between control and ensuing chaos at all times. Having to nurture a nearly wrecked car to the finish line over several laps through mayhem is a genuine thriller. Game modes are sufficient for the genre and provide enough variety to keep the play interesting, with custom races doing the rest. A small minus for making the otherwise fine base game car list focus on American vehicles, especially having an essential like the VW Beetle as DLC feels a tad unnecessary. Still, highly recommended.



Project Cars 2 (6/10)

This is one game I had some cautious hopes for. A relatively ambitious sim racer for Playstation, what's not to like? Well, the driving model felt so dull with a pad that in the end I didn't bother taking the wheel out at all. I like the fairly advanced customization options and the number of different paths in motorsports available, the career mode while straightforward is still decidedly better than what you get in Gran Turismo or so. But in details a lot is unpolished and at times breaks the immersion, it's nice that the weather is dynamic but a bit of snowfall probably shouldn't lead to hazardously icy surfaces within one lap etc. In the end it's a game that in some aspects reminds me of the EA Sports NHL series, perfectly playable and occasionally fun if it's your only option, but with a number of other titles available that do the fundamentals better why bother?

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Wreckfest (8.5/10)

Never stop the madness! With vague memories of the original Destruction Derby video games I decided to give Wreckfest a try, and what a jackpot that was. Despite being a decidedly arcade racer it is also a serious driving game underneath, the usual rubberband effect rarely feels excessively unnatural but rather skillfully maintains the suspense, keeps you walking the thin edge between control and ensuing chaos at all times. Having to nurture a nearly wrecked car to the finish line over several laps through mayhem is a genuine thriller. Game modes are sufficient for the genre and provide enough variety to keep the play interesting, with custom races doing the rest. A small minus for making the otherwise fine base game car list focus on American vehicles, especially having an essential like the VW Beetle as DLC feels a tad unnecessary. Still, highly recommended.

Wreckfest is a ton of fun! I loved playing multiplayer and basically having a nemesis system in my head. I never had a problem with bumping and grinding but for the most part, I'd still try to race clean. Then when someone corner bombs you or spins you out, I target them until I get my revenge, giving up a race to do it. It was always a ton of fun, never got mad at people trolling, I would have fun winning the race, I would have fun finishing last.

Rage 2 - 7/10

Rage 2 is one of those solid 7/10 titles. I'd love to speak of the story but half the time I moved even a little bit while talking to a character, it would just cut the dialogue short and I have no idea what they were even talking about. I got the general gist of the story, not that it's overly complicated, but it was such a strange bug.

I'll start with the negatives first I suppose. The game takes place in a post apocalyptic wasteland. It's open world and it's interesting to see how lifeless it feels, begging the question why it's an open world game in the first place, and then mixing it with how repetitive the content that is there actually is. There are lots of landmarks around the world and every single one is just kill this group of enemies or destroy the gas tanks. That's it. The game actually forces you to take these landmarks on in order to progress the story as you need to level up your relation with 3 different characters to level 5 to unlock the next mission. Fortunately, it doesn't take too long.

A big problem with it is in the end, there are three characters, you get missions for and each one only has two, then you're already thrusted into the final mission. It feels like the game is just trying to pad the length of the game by forcing you into this side content in order to progress to hide the fact that the story is probably only 3-4 hours long.

Another thing I disliked was all of the abilities and weapons were hidden in Arks. You had to seek them out and enter them to find them. I couldn't really be bothered to look for them and as a result, I only found about half the guns/abilities the game even had to offer. I don't care if you want to lock more powerful versions of these guns/abilities behind exploration but at least give me access to them as I progress through the story.

That being said, id is still the master of gun play as far as I'm concerned. While I only got to use half the guns, they all felt very impactful and great to handle. I may have mostly used the assault rifle but the assault rifle felt incredible to use. The main reason I even wanted to play this despite the mixed reviews was the gun play and the game did not disappoint in that regard. The few abilities I did find were fun to use and added some nice variety to the combat.

I thought the vehicular combat left a bit to be desired but for being so simple, I still enjoyed it. It would have been cool if they fleshed it out more and made it more involved like Mad Max. It was a decent game in the end. If you can pick it up cheap, I'd still recommend it. There are plenty of flaws and it can feel repetitive but the game play is still a lot of fun and helps carry the game.

 

[Osprey]

I just finished World of Goo 2 and was a little disappointed with it. The core gameplay is the same as the original, which initially seemed like a good thing, but ended up feeling like I was playing that game over again, just with modern polish. There are additions, but many felt gimmicky and weren't much fun. It's a puzzle game in which the challenge was often just figuring out what the designers expected me to do, and once I figured it out, the solution was rather simple. Near the end of the game, instead of the levels getting harder and more complicated, they just get more experimental and easier. In fact, the very last puzzle, which you'd expect to be the hardest, is perhaps the shortest and simplest in the entire game. Overall, about half of the game was enjoyable and challenging and the other half wasn't. I can't say that it was worth the 15-year wait.

 

[Dolemite]

…

 

[Unholy Diver]

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Complete Edition - 9/10

Game still holds up great, this was my 2nd playthrough, and first with the expansions, which added some great extra content, an all time classic that is well worth the large time investment

 

[x Tame Impala]

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Complete Edition - 9/10

Game still holds up great, this was my 2nd playthrough, and first with the expansions, which added some great extra content, an all time classic that is well worth the large time investment

How long are the DLC’s? The base game is taking me long enough. Can’t wait to jump into the expansions in a few weeks.

 

[PeteWorrell]

How long are the DLC’s? The base game is taking me long enough. Can’t wait to jump into the expansions in a few weeks.

Each is at least 10 hours if you follow the main storyline. A lot more if you want to do most of the content.

Blood and wine is a narrative conclusion to Geralt's journey so you want to leave it for last.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I feel like Hearts of Stone was about 10 hours long and Blood & Wine was 15.

I really loved the story in Hearts of Stone though, I thought it was better than Blood & Wine. There was also a lot more side content in Blood & Wine since it's in a whole new map.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Both DLCs were stellar. Hearts of Stone with the misdirections making you wonder who the characters really are and i just love the fairy tale land that is Toussaint in Blood and Wine. The return of a certain character in the last DLC also has a lot of meaning for book readers and he was portrayed very well in the game.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Celeste - 8/10

I don't think Celeste is the masterpiece many people make it out to be but it is a solid platformer with tight controls and a great soundtrack. The story was pretty interesting as you climb, I don't want to spoil it but it was pretty well done while also being fairly minimal throughout the climb. None of the rooms are overly challenging in my opinion, they're just challenging enough. I never got mad at what I thought was a poorly designed level and had fun all the way through.

 

[Bocephus86]

How long are the DLC’s? The base game is taking me long enough. Can’t wait to jump into the expansions in a few weeks.

For what it's worth, Blood & Wine won the Best RPG of the Year award in 2016, the only DLC to ever do that. I spent a lot of time with it when I played the first time, but I loved the new map and really didn't want my Witcher 3 experience to end so I was dragging it out.

I'll reiterate the others: HoS has an outstanding story and should be done first (and before end game ideally), Blood & Wine should be last and after the main story. Both can be done after the main story though without any issue, it just fit better for me to tackle them that way.

Also I love one of the 'new' (to the game, not the world) characters you meet in B&W, one of my favorites of the whole game.