Which should I play first: Witcher 3 or MGS V?

I say play MGSV first. Mgs is the hot fuzz right now and meanwhile Witcher 3 is only getting better and better with the ongoing patching so theres no hurry there. I dont know how fast you play but Witcher is getting its first DLC soon aswell.

I think The Witcher 3 is going to be my GOTY unless Fallout 4 or something else unseats it. I'm really really enjoying MGSV right now. That said I reckon play MGSV while it's fresh and you can join the conversation and The Witcher 3 will still be really really good when there is a bit of a gaming lull and you want to fill a void. Just don't miss out on it altogether.

I'd play Metal Gear first to enjoy the things it does do well, before settling in to savor Witcher 3.

If nothing else, the main story of MGS V is shorter and even with all the side missions I still think it's a shorter game overall than Witcher 3. So I'd go with that first and then go back and play Witcher 3.

I would say play MGSV first because it's no where near as long and as far as I'm concerned no where near as good, so it won't be soured by playing the much better open world game that TW3 is. But this is all going on the assumption you'll personally like TW3 and possibly be looking to play the expansion that comes out October 13th.

Best bet is to go with what type of game you feel like playing really, do you want a long story driven RPG with a wide cast of characters and activities? Or do you want to attach a balloon to thousands of soldiers and occasionally watch a cutscene that tells a story that you have no interest in hearing?

Yes I'm bitter about MGSV.

Witcher is more story-based, MGS is more gameplay-focused. So I'd say choose by that.

I started The Witcher, but it's so damn long that I'm finishing MGS in the meantime. So if you plan on playing both, the 40 hours of MGS would probably be quicker.

I agree. The Witcher 3 is only going to get better with more patches, while MGSV his a lot more than can potentially get REALLY spoiled for you if you're not careful (if that sort of thing matters to you).

@baronsamedi: Me too, I couldn't agree more.

I highly recommend the Witcher 3, if I had to pick only one game I could play the rest of my life, it'd be this.
It's honestly my favorite game of all time, I love that universe.

I find it funny that you are calling mgs v "shorter." I put 70 hours into witcher 3 over a couple months, and loved loved loved it on my new video card (fist bump). That being said, I am that many hours into metal gear and have a long road ahead of me.

@chu52: Why is it funny? Withcer 3, if you actually play it all, is an order of magnitude longer unless you plan a TON of MGS FOB mode online. I easily have put 200 hours into the Witcher 3 and I'm not done, but that's because I'm literally doing everything, and enjoying NOT fast travelling a lot. I LOVE MGS V though, it's just not nearly as long or content-filled.

I don't think so really. I've played 120+ hours of MGSV and I have not finished the Main Story, half the Side OPs, or even touched online FOB mode.

I have roughly 180 in the Witcher and have finished everything except, oh, I dunno half of Skellige. So maybe Witcher 3 is bigger but we're comparing two titans here, it's not apples to oranges. Definitely not an "order of magnitude" in my mind.

They are both gigantic but MGS is based on replayability, the Witcher is more a one-shot deal. I mean, you literally cannot replay any quests, but half my time in MGS has been spent redoing missions just for the fun of it. No one can say how much any one person will replay a mission, so MGS game time is harder to measure in my eyes.

Anyways, I think time is an awful way to convince anyone of which game to play here, as both are huge and, more importantly, truly amazing.

I would say to play MGSV now because that is a game that can be spoiled and it's fun to play something when it's "The Game" everyone is talking about. Also, the Witcher 3 is like a fine wine. Only gets better with age.

@geraltitude: that is the right way. The internet is a minefield of MGSV spoilers, but the witcher leans towards, how did you handle x situation?

After playing metal gear I couldn't go back to the witcher, the gameplay is so much weaker

Sorry that I hijack this thread but how the hell did you guys manage to get so much time out of the Witcher? I've done the game, everything that can be done, every point of interest, every side mission, every match of Gwent, main missions and all of that on insane or whatever the highest difficulty is and it took me like 80 hours. And I didn't fast travel a lot. Only learned of fast traveling by the time I got to Skellige. So how is that possible? I'm confused :(

I love that these forums are, in advance of potential Game of the Year talks, boiling over into an all-out turf war between Metal Gear and The Witcher.

You're right, I think MGSV is marginally shorter. That, and a whole lot more susceptible to being spoiled. Witcher 3 is more about the experience than any big story revelations, and the ending is influenced by some amount of player choice anyway. Plus, not sure if you're a fan of the Metal Gear Scanlon series, but that's coming up soon.

MGSV seems like the one to get done now. Both are great, but wildly different. The thought that playing one would somehow impact the experience of the other seems insane to me. Like, do you just quit playing games when you find a new one you think you like the most?

@geraltitude: Ofc you can take both games to the extreame but its safe to say Witcher is the longer game. If you compare the playtimes of everyone who has completed the games i would expect the avarage being at least twice as long for witcher.

@lionslinden: Well i think its you that should tell how you did it. I have never heard of anyone 100% witcher 3 under 100h before.

I spent about 80 hours in MGS5, doing everything that pertain to story, and a lot of side ops (though haven't done many of the replay mission side ops), and I spent about 160 hours in The Witcher 3 doing everything; just, perhaps not all of the random encounters I'm sure, as I don't know how many there are of those. And I didn't hit every little question mark part in the open sea of Skellige, as I know for a fact it's just loot from boats, so it's not needed to me. As for what to play first... Whatever you'd like. The Witcher 3 is a fine choice. To get through them as quickly as possible (and this is obvious), you're going to be playing for hours straight in just a sitting, otherwise many new title releases will have come and gone; that said, you'll probably be willing to.

Play them concurrently. Also throw in some Destiny, Forza 6, and whatever else you've got lying around. Never finish anything. It's working out wonderfully for me.

Assuming you plan to play the other major releases that will eat of massive chunks of time? Do you think you could save the witcher 3 until after the last major DLC releases? By then there might be a sell on the game, should you not already own it, and the dlc, and you could play the game in a 'zeightgeist' similar to many poeple who will be NG+ing it at that point (like me).

Really though, they are wildly differnt games. Like, one is action and a lot of dialog/choice/story. The other is very much stealth and gameplay/base building. The story is secondary (and/or many many hours in). If the story of the witcher appeals to you more then the gameplay of MGS5, you have your answer. if you don't have a preference then..yah MGS5 likely.

haha it's a flat out tie

Play The Witcher 3 first. For real.

@geraltitude: so if witcher is like a fine wine then what would mgs 5 be?

i would play them concurrently so you don't get burnt out on either since both can be over 100 hours.

50% to 51% haha. A mathematically impossible outcome!

I think MGSV is the better game, but I would probably play The Witcher 3 first. It would be really hard for me to go straight from the awesome MGS gameplay to playing maybe a 100 hours of "alright" Witcher 3 gameplay.

Witcher 3 is better in just about every way but maybe the controls, and even then I got used to it pretty fast. Try it first, then get MGS outta your system so you can play it again on NG+

Whatever you do, damn duder, don't play them back-to-back. You'll burn out on the second one, no matter which you try first. Unless you are a crazy person...are you? Then do it, fuck, what do I know? *flies away on cartoon jet*

@magusmaleficus: Nah I'll probably play something in the middle... like Fallout 4 (jokes)

Let the legend come back to life!

(That means play MGSV.)

I'd say play The Witcher 3, although its coming from someone who hasn't been 'grabbed' by MGS5 a few hours in, whereas The Witcher 3 grabbed me from its opening sequence.

I think witcher is a better game in a lot more ways than mgs 5. I put 50 hours in mgs and stopped. And started witcher 3 ng + and can not wait for expansion.

Witcher probably has more story, but I personally think Witcher plays terribly, so getting to the story isn't any fun. I bought it near launch and have only put maybe 4-5 hours into it. MGSV on the other hand I absolutely devoured.

I haven't played The Witcher 3, so I shouldn't really be voting seeing as I haven't played both games, but I cannot deny how good MGSV is. I've put about 115 hours into it and am still only 75% completion. Just got the trophy for completing every side op and I'm thinking about deleting my file so I can start again.Though the story in Metal Gear is kinda sparse, what's there is good. Besides I'm pretty sure with the new DLC announced for The Witcher, a GOTY edition will be released soon enough.

depends on what you like more i'd say, witcher 3 if you like RPGs more, or MGSV if you like a bit of shooting and stealth.

Go with Metal Gear for the zeitgeist as you mentioned and to reduce your potential exposure to spoilers. Metal Gear games always are deeply impacted by spoilers given how Kojima weaves his tales.

Also if you play MGS V now you can participate in MGO at your leisure when that's ready (and presumably at the height of its activity).

Witcher still has more Siingle Player content DLC enroute,so there actually is a small benefit to waiting on that one.

It depends on what you're looking for. The Witcher has far and away better storytelling, but Metal Gear has dramatically better gameplay. What are you in the mood for?

I love the Witcher but it has a lot of flaws. play MGS V first.

Witcher 3 is a better game on the whole in my opinion but I'd play MGS V right now since that's the thing just now.

Witcher 3 is the slightly better game in my opinion, but both of them are some of the greatest game ever made, so it saddens me a little that people here shit on one to highlight the other, but I guess that's the nature of things. They have to do the same on the game of the year deliberations.

I was kind of in a similar situation in that I intend to play both games and hadn't already started the Witcher 3 when MGSV came out, and I decided to play MGSV first mainly because I want to be able to enjoy the story for myself before it gets spoiled for me, and I really want to watch the next installment of Metal Gear Scanlon as that goes up. So yeah, my vote is for MGSV - not necessarily because I think YOU should do the same, but if I was in your position (and I guess I kind of was) that's what I would do (and did!). Either way, you're still going to end up playing 2 of this year's best games so you can't really make a wrong decision. Enjoy! :D

@edgaras1103: Clearly, if The Witcher 3 is like a fine wine (it only gets better with age), MGS V is like the dankest of hydroponic bud (it gets better with a little age... ahem, curing... meaning a couple patches are needed and some fixes to the online connectivity as well - but then it starts to only get a bit more stale because there won't be any DLC or major addition/patches from then on, it seems).

2015 has been a fantastic year... Bloodborne, The Witcher 3, MGS V... and we still have Fallout 4, etc coming, as well as all the great indie titles and things like Until Dawn. What a GREAT YEAR!

Though, I disagree with some peoples' opinions that 2014 was a shitty year, because I enjoyed the hell out of some of those games as well, like Far Cry 4 (the best 2-player coop game ever made, hands down!), and GTA 5 (yeah, ok, it came out at the end of 2014, but really came into it's own in 2014 with GTA Online finally being functional, and then the next gen & PC releases...)

@historyinrust: ewait until fall out 4 joins the discussion. People are also forgetting another 10/10 game. Mother trucking mario maker What a game

Start playing the Witcher 3 now. In a couple weeks the first DLC will drop and you'll be able to jump directly into that. The game's a blast.

MGSV can wait until MGO is patched in.

As a big MGS fan I'd say play the Witcher 3 first.

They are so different though. One is an action game, the other a story heavy RPG.

My personal preference? I like action RPG's, but I don't think The Witcher 3 is going to make my top-10 this year. MGS5 is on top.

I've stopped listening to the bombcast because of the MGS V talk on there for now. There's nothing too much said about the witcher on there so I'd say finish MGSV first.

MGS V because Spoilers and because Witcher 3 still has Story DLC coming out, which MGS V likely won't have.

You should play MGS V, all my friends at work have been talking about it and I am actually considering getting it. The only thing that is holding me back is that I have never really been a fan of the series.

Start both and finish neither, the American way.

Orrrr alternate between the two and severely confuse yourself, or make up your own narrative about a soldier moving between both worlds and wondering which is reality and which is in his head.

MGS V is one of my favorite games I've ever played. I've barely scratched the surface with it and I feel pretty confident in that assessment. If it weren't for the microtransactions and timers it would be unmatched.

The Witcher 3 will probably keep dropping in price quicker than Metal Gear. I'd say grab Metal Gear and then pick up the Witcher 3 at a good low price. The Witcher 3 is also super good.