Big News in Witcher World!

Last night I logged onto the ol' socials to do some scrolling and got a pleasant surprise--one of the first things that popped up was the brand new trailer for the upcoming Witcher title!  As someone who is a huge Witcher fan, this is something I wasn't anticipating for quite awhile.  The next game in the series will be titled The Witcher IV (kind of uninspired, but continues the progression) and it seems that Ciri is the protagonist.  If you haven't had the chance to take a gander at it yet, here it is in all it's sparkly glory:

I'm sure in the coming days we'll get a bajillion analysis videos of people trying to pick apart every tiny detail.  It's inevitable, so why not simply join the fray?

I completely expect there to be an entire discourse about Ciri being a witcher for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, Ciri never underwent the full mutations to become a witcher.  Geralt and company didn't want to put her through that torture.  This doesn't mean that she's not capable of fighting off monsters, after all she trained with witchers AND she is gifted with extremely powerful magical abilities.  Curiously, her powerful abilities do not feature at all in this trailer.  Anyone who played The Witcher 3 knows that one of her best abilities is blinking as a form of dodging.  As the Lady of Time and Space, Ciri might not need those witcher mutations to be a top notch monster slayer.  I'm betting that people will also call out the fact that Ciri gulps down a witcher potion in the trailer--something that she likely shouldn't be able to do per the lore of the game.

(Spoilers below about The Witcher 3 endings!)

The second discourse will likely be about the the fact that choices that led to certain endings in The Witcher 3 seem not to matter--Ciri becomes a witcher appears to be the canon ending.  There will probably be some sad panda folks griping about the fact that their choices don't matter...blah, blah.  Honestly, Ciri becoming a witcher is my favorite ending and was the one that made the most sense for a potential sequel.

(ADDENDUM: The Game Director has addressed the questions about Ciri not being a full witcher and revealed that in the fourth game she is a full witcher--she took the trial of the grasses in the time between the third and fourth game.  It makes sense given the fact that she has gone the route of being a witcher--I am curious if it will be something detailed in story.  It's also bound to stir up some controversy because the Kaer Mohren witchers stated that they didn't want to ever have to do it again [during the scene where they administer the trial to Uma/Avallach].  Ciri becoming a full witcher tracks with me--there's a moment in the "becomes a witcher" ending where Geralt implies that she'll never be as fast or as good as a real witcher since she hasn't had the mutations.  I could totally see her making the big decisions to go through with it.  We'll just have to wait and see how it ties into the story.) *My sourcing for this isn't great--it was posted on a fan page with no source listed.  It seems plausible to me though.

There are a few other details that I've seen some discussion around.  The very beginning of the trailer mentions that it's rendered with a "unreleased NVIDIA GPU," so I think folks can expect the 50 series cards to be dropping in the near future (*the folks who want to spend $2k on a GPU).  The trailer does look amazing though.

Personally, I enjoyed the fact that the same core Witcher vibes are present in this video.  You've got the scared villagers bowing to actually needing a witcher while simultaneously disliking them; you've got the whole "who's the real monster?" message hanging over the scenario--it's one of the best parts of the series.  I'm hoping that the new game keeps that core in place.

One thing that stood out to me is that Ciri is plainly older (*people will also probably complain that her VA seems to be different) and more seasoned.  Maybe part of the story will address the endings and the time between the end of The Witcher 3 and this new game?  Maybe Ciri's been honing her skills with Geralt (who, in my game, is living the good life in Corvo Bianco in Toussaint)?  Maybe she's been conquering the world with Nilfgaard (not my favorite ending)?  I'm curious about how this will be addressed.

I found the 2025 release date to be a bit surprising--it seems like next year has the potential to be a big year in gaming with the release of Grand Theft Auto VI and now The Witcher IV.  I've been thinking about building a new PC (it's getting to be that time) and maybe it's finally time.  In reality, CD Projekt games are usually delayed (*with the exception of the absolute fiasco that was the CyberPunk 2077 release--and I don't expect them to make that mistake twice) and they seem like they want to avoid a bad release.  We'll see what happens.

Overall, I'm pretty pumped about this trailer.  Lots of fans were hoping that they'd get a game with Ciri as protagonist.  I'm very interested to see where they take the lore since there aren't any more books.

Surviving the Onslaught

Even though every holiday sale makes me want to start scratching titles off my Steam wishlist, I managed to contain my purchases to just one game (and collected DLC).  The best part--all of it was under $15!  I've been mostly managing to die, but I did survive once (and it was downright magical).  Of what title do I speak?  Vampire Survivors, my friends.

What is it?

Steam uses the following tags: action roguelike, bullet hell, pixel graphics, and 2D.  Basically, you pick a character (who is maybe a vampire?), you pick a map, and you try to survive the onslaught of enemies and run out the clock.  You gain experience from picking up various crystals that drop from killed enemies.  That experience is used to gain new abilities.  Much of the gameplay is avoiding enemies, snatching up crystals, and trying to figure out the synergy between different abilities.  Basic, right?  It's anything but simple though.

How much playtime will you get?

Potentially an infinite amount.  There are a ton of unlockables that will keep you playing.  Most maps have a time limit (basically the point at which you are killed...in the rare case that you manage to make it that long) around 30 minutes.

Pros:

+ Almost infinite playtime for a low, low price.  I snagged the base game for $3.74 as part of the Steam Autumn sale.  I enjoyed it so much that I decided to grab all the DLC for an additional $10-ish.  If you're someone who doesn't have a lot of money to spend on games, it's the perfect option.

+ Deceptively simple gameplay.  The entire premise of the game is surviving as long as you can.  Actually doing that is quite challenging.  A big part of the challenge is figuring out which combination of weapons/buffs work best.  There's definitely some strategizing involved.  Each time you level up you get to choose from a list of 3-4 random options--some are offensive/weapon options and some are buffs (like speed).

+ Roguelike elements.  Each map and the progression of enemies stays the same, but drops can vary.  One of the best parts are enemies that occasionally drop treasure chests.  These chests will give you one upgrade to an ability plus a certain amount of gold.  Gold can be used to unlock new characters or purchase permanent character buffs (such as +5% speed) that apply across the board.  Basically, your character gets slightly stronger with these buffs (that you can choose to purchase...or not, if you're super leet).

The character selection screen.  There's a scroll bar, so that's only a few.

+ Tons of unlockables. Certain characters are only unlockable once you've reached specific milestones.  New maps are also unlockable (again, they require accomplishing a specific goal).  Even if you just stick with the base game, there are a lot of options.  Each character starts with a certain ability and has their own strengths (and weaknesses).  It's a lot of fun figuring out how to play each character and picking out favorites.  There's also an entire system of weapon evolution that unlocks largely through discovery and picking the correct combination of items (you could always look it up, but that spoils the fun).

+ Low requirements.  Got an older PC?  This is a perfect choice.

+ Crossover content from other games/fandoms.  I'm not very familiar with them, but the newest DLC is Castlevania themed.

+ A fun soundtrack of high energy music.

+ Controller support.

Weapon/ability unlockables.  I've barely made a dent.

+ Multiple gameplay modes.  There's the regular survival mode and then "adventure" mode (*might be a DLC feature) which lets you play a story-based mode.  Each map in adventure mode has a specific goal that has to be accomplished before the next map unlocks.  Characters, weapons, and abilities from adventure mode can then be played in the base game.

+ 4-player local co-op.  Perfect for couch play with friends.

Cons:

- Moments of feeling repetitive.  The basic premise of the gameplay is always the same--run around, avoid enemies, kill as many as you can, and try to survive.  Mostly the roguelike elements make it feel fresh, but it's the kind of game that's best if played in shorter sessions.

- Can feel frustrating.  There's definitely a learning curve for figuring out which abilities work best together and you fail a lot.  I still haven't fully figured it out.

- No tutorial or explanation about certain aspects of gameplay.  The basic premise of the game is so simple that it doesn't really need a tutorial, but I was boggled by the concept of evolving weapons and had to look it up.  (Certain weapons and abilities work together and when fully upgraded can unlock a new, more powerful form of a weapon)   There are relics located on each map but no explanation about what that means (relics are items that unlock new, helpful features of gameplay--for example, finding the map of the Milky Way will unlock a map of each level that shows where certain permanent power-ups and, more importantly, coffins--which contain new, unlockable characters but require the ability to kill off all the guardians of the coffin--are located).  Expect to be doing some Googling to figure it out.

The one time I won.

Recommendation:

Vampire Survivors is an enjoyable game that is extremely affordable.  The almost infinite replayability and low requirements mean that it's perfect for a lot of gamers.  It has moments of feeling repetitive and frustrating, but mostly it's a lot of fun.  I would recommend grabbing it (even at full price--which is only $4.99).