My gaming thoughts.

Don't worry, it's justified. I'm constantly having to make concessions in other areas of my life in order to afford my gaming habbit - the passion of a gamer always makes the purchase worthwhile. I bought the original Borderlands when I couldn't really afford it and I think you'll agree it was worth it. 
 
I loved the blog by the way, I really like your "voice" as a writer. 

Totally agreed when it comes to the Mass Effect series and The Witcher. The vast majority of games simply will not come close.

@AhmadMetallic: I definitely come down on your side when it comes down to appreciation of The Witcher 1 vs The Witcher 2. TW2 was a spectacular game and a good game to me, but no more than that, whereas TW1 in comparison was the best PC RPG I'd played in nearly a decade at the time I played it.

The biggest problem in TW2 is the pacing. The game consists of one drawn out introductory chapter, then 3 main chapters of story - the first of which is excellent, the second of which is IMO largely tedious and the last of which is over in a flash. As a result the plot feels kind of lopsided and insubstantial. Not only that but you don't start making a proper dent in any of the 3 distinct skill trees until nearly the end of the first chapter. That's nearly 50% of the game - the better 50%, too - where you're hardly shaping Geralt's fighting style at all! Not to mention 25% of the game which is stupidly tough if you're going for an Alchemy build (I know the Alchemy upgrades get very useful as you work further down the tree).

The plot felt more focused in TW1 too. Simple revenge against a shady organisation is a plot that always has a lot of momentum, plus TW1 threw in some cool variations on that formula. In comparison, I barely understood or cared what Geralt's connection to events was in TW2. It summed it up for me when at one point Triss tells Geralt to quit all his political meddling so that the two of them can go off and be happy together - you/Geralt can choose to agree with her, but then Roche shows up and pretty much says 'OK, whatever, but seriously, you have to finish the game first.' 

For me, CDP had a grand vision in TW2 which their decisions didn't quite live up to. The plot and pacing was one thing, but it didn't play quite right for me either. Everything they did with the game engine, sound and graphics was superb, but when it came to specific elements and mechanics it all disappointed me a bit. It all seemed geared towards unforgiving 'die-memorise-repeat' style gameplay, in the form of unintuitive QTEs, combat based mostly on complete hit-avoidance and stuff like having to drink potions outside combat (which requires prior knowledge of where the combat will be). All that didn't fit the atmosphere of the series very well for me. The difficulty veers up and down ridiculously, partly as a result of that. Then when you have a game which is designed to be that unforgiving, it needs to have a good UI and very fluid movement and collision detection, but, putting it kindly, it didn't have those things.

I enjoyed TW2. Really enjoyed it at times, but also felt indifferent towards it and hated it some other times. I stalled on my second play through and feel no need to go back. In comparison, I love TW1. Nothing in TW2 gave me the feeling TW1 did at the Chapter 1 Big Choice, or exploring Vizima or Lakeside for the first time. Especially Lakeside... that part of the game won huge respect from me because it was a rare example of a late-game chapter in an RPG which was obviously as lovingly crafted as the early chapters, and that's without going into the unique pagan/lovecraftian/nightmare mix of atmospheres in that section. I didn't feel the burning urge to discuss the plot of TW2 when I was done, either, unlike TW1 where I rushed straight to the forums.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

...I sigh, nothing seems to make sense anymore as I wait for my favorite games to be remade or continued.
Remembering what started my gaming drive is easy, the entry barrier was much smaller back then and a lot of households dabbled in home consoles ranging from MSX to Snes, but trying to remember why I'm still gaming right now is a whole other matter.
I want to be blown away and I have been, The Witcher 2 made damn sure of that, but back then every game seemed to be a unique experience.
Sequels were highly anticipated and played with renewed fervor but I can't seem to muster that same kind of enthusiasm anymore for most titles.
"Exceptions, there are." Said Yoda in my head and I must agree, I won't speak against that.
For me this generation started when my little brother bought a Xbox360 at launch and convinced his sister, the fanatical Nintendo fangirl, to try out two games on it.
Saint's Row was a lot of fun and I remember with a smile how I made a typical trailer trash kind of guy, complete with beer gut, mullet and only a pair of jeans on his body, armed him with a shotgun and had loads of fun doing just about nothing.
(Saint's Row is now one of my favorite franchises, just so you know)
It was just another San Andreas though I told him, wrongly so but I would not learn that until later, and asked him to boot up the second game.
I waited for the intro and company logo's to finish and I felt a longing to return to my own room and play my beloved gamecube, Phantasy Star Online was waiting for me to three hit my way into a finger injury with its infuriating yet so satisfying gameplay that promised the prize of rare and powerful weapons, but I stayed put and I'm glad I did.
The Elder Scrolls? Oblivion? I remember playing a Morrowind of some sorts and enjoying it, but not its extensive load screens, so I focus on the screen a little more in a effort to understand the game.

Besides that there's games that have amazing ideas but seriously lack in story, gameplay or other departments so I decide not to boot up Renegade Ops or Duke Nukem Forever and close Steam again.
Sitting behind my desk I wonder where my will to game went, my only longings right now being a round of Defense of the Ancients 2 or doing a quick skirmish in Lord of the Rings Online.
Am I spoiled? Are we all? Yes, I think we are.
I love high quality games, like The Witcher 2 recently, but it does seem to totally kill my enthusiasm for anything lesser.
I appreciate the games, for sure, but after seeing Lord of the Rings you just won't settle for Eragon.
After being drowned in the worlds of Batman Arkham City, The Witcher 2 and Metro 2033 I feel a emptiness when I start up a game like Frozen Synapse or Magicka.
Somehow their concepts and worlds don't seem to pull me in anymore and their selling point, the gameplay, loses its charm way quicker than it should have....

Perhaps I'm just getting older, growing up in a way, and I confess I have enough to do on a daily basis that I should still cut down on the time I spend gaming or on gaming forums....

Wow, that was really cool @TaliciaDragonsong . Your writing really captured your feelings well. Thanks for sharing that, that was a fun read! Geez I can see why you like to write, you obviously have talent for it.

dunno if it will have the same impression on you as it did me , but Dragon's Dogma just did for me what Witcher 2 did for you. I'm into my second playthrough right now. I know I really really like a game if I can see its' flaws and still really enjoy it. The reviews out there are pretty fair in its' shortcomings, but it didn't phase me one bit. Not sure why Dragon's Dogma checked my boxes so to speak, maybe it was that old style of exploration (no fast travel) with great combat mechanics that sucked me in. That has kept it dynamic for me for a lot longer than I ever expected. I've got over two hundred play hours into the game now, and am not remotely tired of it yet.

FWIW I've been "gamed out" before too. It happened really badly to me about 5-ish years ago. Nothing seemed interesting, nothing surprised me, nothing had the old escapism magic that once occupied my waking thoughts and dreams. I had (and still do actually) an absolutely enormous backlog that was so big and intimidating it felt like an overwhelming chore more than something to look forward to. To top it all off, my personal life fell completely apart. I felt done. I thought I was basically going to give up gaming and pretty much did.

but for whatever reason, last year the old fire of gaming desire came back. Perhaps it was because my personal life had achieved its' new normal and the emotional stability that came with it. Perhaps it was just because I hadn't seen games in awhile so they felt fresher and newer again just due to abscence. Perhaps it's because I have less time to play them now, so I don't overexpose myself to their digital worlds to the point of overload and leaves me wanting more. Or perhaps it was just the passage of time itself.

I can't say for sure what it was. But that break did wonders for me as a gamer. And while I don't game anywhere near the intensity or hours I once did, I find I'm enjoying it and savoring what time I do play like I once did.

@TaliciaDragonsong: It's cool, thanks for sharing your thoughts either way. My experience with The Witcher series is that discussing them with other fans is usually a pleasure regardless of their perspective. I remember encountering people of all types on the official forums back in the day, including a massive female fanbase and some gamers who, if you believed them, were not just old but elderly - all just sharing their enthusiasm (and frequent frustration with the mechanics, of course). For a series lazily dismissed for its 'misogyny' (usually by those who haven't played it), it somehow managed to be very inclusive, demographically speaking.

As for being burnt out on games, after over 2 decades of gaming I certainly feel that way now more than ever. In the words of the judeochristian god (supposedly), 'What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.' I've found that I can almost never get caught up in pre-release game hype... It just feels alienating, because the things that get everyone else excited usually leave me parroting Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon. I would say, though, that if I were you I'd feel encouraged by the fact that several of your most impactful games are pretty recent, by developers who are still active and committed to high levels of quality. 

It sounds like you enjoy monolithic, transportive games with lots of depth to their world. I'm the same, although I do sometimes enjoy shamelessly one dimensional games which are all about dumb fun, such as Renegade Ops, which was one of my favourite games of last year. I'm not sure if this is a throwback to my past with early consoles or if it's an adaptation to the fact that the industry is now so bottom heavy with the latter type of game, due to the growing expense of development and the caution of publishers. FWIW, RO did feel to me like a lovingly crafted throwback to games like Desert Strike. I was so delighted with the similarity that I sent a drunken email to Avalanche to the tune of 'HOLT SIHT PLZ MAEK A 'STRIKE' GAME U GUYS', thinking that they may not have realised the similarity between their game and the old EA series. I only discovered afterwards that Desert Strike, etc. had been a big direct influence on RO.

Like you I also bit the bullet and preordered a couple of big name titles recently (the new Hitman and the PC version of Dark Souls for me). I very, very rarely do this and it was especially weird of me to do so since I was thoroughly turned off by most of the pre-release info for each. However I figured that I needed to build up my faith in the industry again and the quickest way to do so was take a leap. We'll see how it works out...