The Witcher World Downloads
The Witcher Game Demo
Download the demo thru Filefront
If you are looking for something that is not addicting, and will not kill your school grades, will not destroy any life you had outside of the game world, I strongly suggest any game EXCEPT the Witcher. It is seriously addicting. Trust me on this one.
I played Oblivion, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Daggerfall (also Bethesda Softworks, but before Morrowind), Planescape Torrent... all addictively. I will say, if you liked them, you will LOVE, TOTALLY LOVE the Witcher. It has much more depth of character and story than the aforementioned, they are all great games, but The Witcher builds upon what came before it, it takes what is great about those games and then learned from them, built upon them, to create a truely fantastic game.
This game gives you a complex story with depth, and nothing but nothing is black and white, good vs. evil. No matter what your choices and decisions, you will see both good and bad outcomes, people's reactions to your choices are not always what you hoped for, or expected. And there is depth, beauty, realism, life can be heaven, it can be hell. You will encounter both.
Geralt works mostly alone, but a lot of the game's story involves friendships as well... and you actually can get pretty attached to the characters. I played some of it where my choices in the game (and I'm not giving away spoilers) were based on Geralt's friendships and making choices more from friendship than from political or whatever. There's actually a great scene where Geralt sits and gets drunk in a bar with some of his buddies. So yes, you can chill and hang in a bar, talk to people, and visit with friends.
The game has sunny and beautiful scenes, not just dark and gloomy (though it has plenty of those also). It has day and night, and is particularly beautiful, when the sun is coming up in the town. There is one whole area that is just stunningly beautiful with meadows and flowers and scenic shorelines.... I would just stand there in the game and admire the sunrise or the moonlit sky over the lake. And if you don't like it in the dark, you can just rest at night and do most (but not all) of your quests in the daytime.
So, I would say, go buy The Witcher, but wait until summer vacation, so you don't totally flunk out of school..
