I adapted to how Hungry Cat Picross has different rules than I'm used to -- a little reminiscent of SquareCells, but simpler. And I could tolerate the fidgety UI, particularly how dragging to paint could also change the paint color, when dragging to the bottom of the screen.

But what I totally ran out of patience for was that some of these puzzles have multiple solutions. Well, the hints have multiple solutions; only one of them is "right" for the puzzle. There were a handful of times when the puzzle was telling me I was wrong, even though all the hints were satisfied correctly.

In other words, some puzzles can't be solved purely by logical deduction; they're only solvable by guessing.

That's a hard pass.

One more aspect of Witcher 3 - actually, of the whole series - that I've been saving up praise for is Geralt's voice actor.

Most of the time, Geralt is a stubborn, cynical, sarcastic son of a bitch; and the delivery of his gravelly and wry lines is perfect. He sounds like exactly who I'd want to hire to clear the rotfiends out of my yard.

But then there are occasions where Geralt goes out of character - particularly the Kaer Morhen drinking scene, and the wedding sequence in Hearts of Stone - and these superb performances are some of the game's most memorable moments. "Drunk Geralt" and "Happy-Possessed Geralt" shine brightly in their contrast to the White Wolf from the rest of the game.

That such a somber and depressing world can still be livened-up in these moments is a testament, both to CD Projekt's writing, and to their voice actors' performances.

I'll miss Geralt, and fondly remember his journeys on the Path. 160 hours later, I've finally exhausted my quest list -- and though I'm sure there's even more to do! because there are still so many white question marks on my map; it's time to move on.

Progress: Level 54, all Gwent cards.

I am surprised it took this long for someone to take advantage of Factorio's extended development cycle. But I suppose it's ... Satisfactory.

The trailer looks good, pretty much like I'd expect a 3D treatment of build-your-own-factory to. (A little more elaborate than Infinifactory, since you can roam around in a buggy and there are indigenous lifeforms to beat up.) And the FAQ assuaged my fear that this would be a procedurally-generated, rogue-like, we-can't-be-bothered-to-QA-content operation:

Are there multiple procedurally generated planets?

No, there are no procedurally generated planets. Just one beautifully crafted, hand-made, 100% organic, vegan, GMO-free planet. Actually, it’s not even a whole planet. It’s just a small bit. But it’s still pretty big.

So, if the game can manage to be stable on release, maybe I'll finally get something like that factory-building game I've been looking forward to for almost four years.

Moments in this glorious trailer remind me of Watch Dogs and of Remember Me -- of an alluring, and specific theme: the dirty, dingy side of humanity tethering itself to high technology. Like Deus Ex HR/MD but a little less clinical and clean.

It especially reminded me of Watch Dogs and Remember Me because their storytelling was pretty terrible. CD Projekt should have no problems clearing that bar. And if they can make Cyberpunk as playable as Witcher 3 was, then I'll be more than happy spending dozens of hours, immersing myself in their world.

Most of Witcher 3's environmental influences have been "vaguely" European; aside from Skellige's nordic aesthetics (and Irish accents?), the lands of Velen and Novigrad generally felt, somehow, indistictly-but-obviously from somewhere between Central and Eastern Europe. The spoken accents and mythological references certainly seemed like they were picked from that rough set of inspirations.

Toussaint, the setting of Blood and Wine, is France.

This association is made loud and clear from the outset of the expansion: in how Toussaint's knights speak and act, in the layout of the beautiful, vineyard-dotted landscape, in how the people of Beauclair are always talking about wines and cheeses, and happily, in French puns like the Mere-Lachaiselongue Cemetery.

Wild Hunt and Hearts of Stone had their fair shares of humor, but it really feels like CD Projekt let loose and enjoyed themselves this time.

Which is not to say that Toussaint is all fun and games. Geralt is brought there to investigate a string of beastly murders, and the main questline is a thrilling, action-packed adventure about chivalry, secrets, betrayal, revenge, and vampires. The plot's intrigue, the characters' dialog, and the detail and care shown throughout the world is just as good as I've come to expect of The Witcher.

One aspect of Hearts of Stone that I'd glossed over was its effort to make boss fights more complex and challenging. While the main game's fights all tended to be solvable with enough button mashing, the expansion's bosses brought new mechanics that forced me to learn patterns, become better at dodging, and sometimes even solve a puzzle or riddle.

Blood and Wine has continued that trend, occasionally to an irritating extent -- the final boss, in particular, was somewhat long (with multiple phases) and was a real bitch to retry when I died.

(I actually have a similar complaint about a knights' tournament where, not wanting to accept defeat, I retried a sequence of time-consuming battles ... multiple times.)

But a small handful of frustrating moments are hardly enough to bring down the overall glory of this expansion. More than just a new storyline, Blood and Wine adds dozens of sidequests, new progression mechanics (granted the Mutations screen looks a little tacked-on), fascinating and tough foes, new background lore, a new Gwent deck, and a new map to explore that's just plain gorgeous.

And I've still got plenty of adventuring left to do.

Better than: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone
Not as good as: the sheer volume and gravitas of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's main campaign.
And I've still got plenty of sidequests to keep me busy: maybe until Cyberpunk 2077

Hearts of Stone doesn't change a whole lot about Witcher 3. The Runewright is cool in theory, but I never bothered actually using it (since I'm still replacing my equipment every few levels). There are just a few side-quests, one or two new monsters?, and only a small handful of new Gwent cards.

What it does offer is a story. A tale of mystery and intrigue, tragic heartbreak and sinister dealings, a wedding! a bank heist! and a magical alternate world. It's a tour de force of the same storytelling chops that made the main game such a pleasure. And its story content felt impressively varied; although I was a little let-down at how much of the heist was non-interactive -- overall, there simply wasn't a dull moment in this expansion's story quests.

So the fact that it doesn't do much else is totally fine, by me. Excellent storytelling is just what I want out of The Witcher, and Hearts of Stone delivered.

Better than: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dragonborn, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Not as good as: no, it's the best add-on story I've played so far.
That said: my early hours in Blood and Wine are pretty promising.

Back in White Orchard, I had no interest whatsoever in Gwent. I don't really like digital card games in general; representing game concepts as cards feels bland, to me. But in the doldrums of Witcher 3's levels 5-10, when I was putting off some story quests and everything else was too high-level for me -- Gwent was something to do.

Thus began several hours of Gwenting: learning how to build a good deck, discovering surprising and disruptive mechanics, following quests for competitive play, and eventually, hunting down every last Gwent-able NPC.

At first, getting into Gwent was a little frustrating: losing because my cards were bad, and being unable to get better cards ... because I was losing. Buying cards from vendors is expensive, in the early-game economy, and there just aren't that many opponents that the starter deck can compete with. I watched innkeepers and merchants place 10-strength cards and hero cards, use a Commander's Horn to double their strength, use cards with the Muster ability to collect their brethren; the numbers were just impossible for me to match.

But through quests and determination (and selling some monster organs to afford more cards), I scraped my way up the Gwent ladder. And what started as a way of earning experience points became a surprisingly deep minigame all its own. I still remember the first time I saw the Scorch card, and learned that placing strong cards early could make them vulnerable.

Personally, I'm still very fond of my Northern Realms deck. (I really like Foltest's ability to clear weather, and using the spy cards to build up a huge hand.) But all of my decks are powerhouses now. My only regret is that I've won at Gwent so much, that I can no longer win random cards; I already have all of them.

All of that said, Gwent still feels more like a diversion than a standalone game to me. It's something for Geralt to do inbetween monster-hunting and fetch-questing. Which is why I was excited to learn that Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is supposed to be getting some story-driven content, when it finally leaves beta.

Progress: Let's just say that I finished the Gwent tournament, and then collected all the main game's cards, well before I'd saved Ciri.

I briefly mentioned, last time, that Witcher 3 still has a few kinks in it. Take this scene, in which some unfortunate Nilfgaardian soldiers find themselves trapped in a pathfinding black hole:

The last few story missions were definitely a bit weird, but ultimately everything resolved in a really satisfying and fun-to-watch way. And yet, as much as I could go on about the fulfilling send-off, and the pathos of seeing my choices impact Geralt's story, and the intrigue of how things might have turned out differently...

I'd rather jump right back in. There are still plenty of sidequests to investigate, contracts to chase, and treasure hunts to track down. (Not to mention the Hearts of Stone story!)

Better than: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition
Not as good as: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in terms of mechanical fun.
... but: absolutely better than Breath of the Wild in terms of narrative interest, character development, and world engagement.

Though it's considerably more playable than its predecessors, Witcher 3 still has its share of oddities and frustrations. Like the dramatic disparity between how many skills you can invest points into (80) and how many can be activated at once (12). And how the Alchemy menu doesn't allow you to buy materials directly from its crafting screen, even though armor and weapon crafting does, and the menus are identical.

Foremost in my mind is how incredibly picky the game can be about context-specific actions. Being able to interact with an object requires both that Geralt is roughly facing it, and that the camera is somewhat centered on it; and so many times, Geralt's wide turning radius has resulted in me awkwardly trying to dance into the right position to press the 'A' button. It can be ... maddening.

But - and I feel I'm repeating myself, here - these inconveniences melt away in the face of the game's character and intrigue. The writing is so charmingly fitting, that it never fails to draw me into its world. Even when that world isn't exactly on my side.

Here's a story I recently relayed by text message:

So I did a couple quests this morning. One of them was killing the ghosts haunting that lighthouse island [Eldberg], it turned out to be a curse because the lighthouse keeper collaborated with some thieves to turn out the light, make ships wreck, and collect the loot. I let the keeper go but put some fear of Freya in him.

It was a contract, so I went back to town to report it to the contract giver. He was a friendly warrior who had previously told some xenophobic Skelligers to stop harassing me in the pub. Those same guys came back and wanted to fight the contract giver. So I joined him and fought the two guys.

They brought out swords and killed the nice dude (nothing I could do to stop it). So I killed the shit out of them. Then their dad was outside, apparently they were his only two sons, and he ordered me to stand trial for murdering his kids.

Went to trial by the "Madman" jarl. He kind-of bought my self-defense story, sentenced me to death for murder, but allowed me to pay off the life debt by doing him a favor. The jarl's son was off on a dumb quest to prove his manliness (I guess to be king) and the jarl knew he would fuck it up without my help.

So I went to help him, he asked why and I didn't say anything about his dad, figuring he would be too proud to accept that help. We went into a cave of "dreams" which legend said would confront us with our greatest fears. (Actually everyone took a bunch of hallucinogens.) Sure enough his greatest fear was his father thinking he was weak, so we fought a hallucination of his father.

Then we saw Geralt's fear which was the king of the Wild Hunt. Before I could kill him, Geralt passed out. He woke up on the ground and saw the jarl's son glaring down at him.

The son said a messenger had arrived while I was out, saying that I had been sent by his father. Since I told the son that I was just here for money (instead of repaying a debt to his father), he thought I was trying to steal from him. He gave me the money but told me to get lost and not talk to their people again.

So I saved the island from wraiths, some nordic hicks smack-talked me in a bar, and now their whole clan hates me.

Progress: Level 26, swept through the Isles, collecting some contracts.

Geralt, being a man of considerable influence, has many decisions to make throughout his journey. And as I've progressed in that journey, these decisions have come to resemble some of my least favorite parts of BioWare's games, Telltale's games, et al. More and more, I'm finding that the choice descriptions aren't really what I expected.

To wit, in my last few exchanges of words, options which I thought were cunning and sneaky ... immediately triggered open conflict and resulted in piles of bodies at my feet. Whoops.

But, Witcher 3 considerably softens the impact of this problem by just being fun and interesting either way. Sometimes I'll wonder about how things might have gone; but only one time did I bother looking that up online, afterward. (The time with the magic talking tree, which I was pretty sure was evil.)

When Geralt starts saying the opposite of what I meant to say, and an NPC gets all mad about it -- I'm just like, well, get ploughed I guess. And then he does.

I think it's fair to say that this game gets away with more than it might've, due to the strength of its narrative craftsmanship. I don't even mind seeing repeated NPC models, and hearing the same background voice actor, from time to time. The quality of that voice acting, and the thematic heft of their writing, is consistently effective at immersing me in their world.

Even beyond that baseline immersion, the events and characters in the game's main quests have been particularly thrilling. Witcher 3's plot structure is pretty damn smart: The high-level goal is simple and succinct, and following its trail continually pulls in other subplots, which have their own breadcrumbs to follow and backstories to pull from. Not only are the subplots more-than-sufficiently intriguing on their own; they also frequently refer back to the main story, keeping the whole scale of the plot visible.

I think it's the best attempt I've seen yet at telling a compelling story in an open world. Compare to, say, Skyrim which partitioned each of its storylines into a neat little package; preventing them from interfering with one another, but also limiting the strength of any one story. Or Batman: Arkham City which bet most of its chips on a rollercoaster ride of a main story, such that any diversions from that - including the story's own diversions, like the random appearance of a Mr. Freeze or a Ra's al-Ghul - just felt like they got in the way. Or Breath of the Wild which avoided storytelling awkwardness by not really telling a story at all.

Witcher 3 uses that simple, heirarchical plot structure to pull off a compelling narrative and make its diversions feel well-paced. This is a great approach to writing, and I hope other open world games are taking notice of it.

Progress: Level 14, investigating a heist.