Holiday Buyers’ Guides

In case you’re wondering what to shop for this holiday season or just looking for excuses to buy certain games, never fret because the gaming media can tell you what to buy.

IGN recommends BioShock and The Witcher.

It’s not often that the PC crowd gets an RPG with the The Witcher’ great world and gameplay. The game is all about choice as the main character Geralt, a mutated and magically imbued monster hunter, wanders the world searching for his identity. He finds it through NPC interaction and tough moral choices that can have consequences far down the line in the story. The mature story takes players through several different environments rife with enemies both monster and human. Players can choose to build Geralt’s skill set in different directions, use alchemy to create powerful stat-enhancing potions, and make decisions that shape the game world. Set in a visually gorgeous world and backed up by wonderful soundwork and an excellent musical score, The Witcher is an RPG fan’s dream.

1Up agrees and recommends the same games.

While The Witcher admittedly tends to dump the player from rollicking slay-a-thons to ponderous quiet far too quickly, there are still good times a-plenty with CD Projekt’s adventure game. “The Witcher offers such a solid experience (and such a strong endgame) that it’s worth contracting a minor case of twiddler’s thumb,” says Eric Neigher. “Combat, for example, is innovative and deep yet surprisingly simple to learn.”

GameSpy is a bit more expansive. No RPGs or Action RPGs/RPGFPSs we covered made their top list, but the “also recommended” list features Hellgate: London, Tabula Rasa, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and, oh yeah, the Witcher.

The Witcher is a fascinating new fantasy RPG set in the world of best-selling author Andrzej Sapkowki. The Witcher himself is a mutated monster-killer-for-hire pulled into a far-reaching plot involving the genetic secrets of his race. The real appeal of the game, though, is the moral ambiguity of its world — along with plenty of swordplay and flashing spells.