Video games dont exist in a bubble. The best games influence industry trends and set standards for what's to come; their achievements outweighing any of the more minor issues, coming together to inspire the future of the industry in every respect. These games give people hours of joy, and are destined to be remembered for years to come. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, is surely one such game. Yes, while 2015 saw a release of some great video games, The Witcher 3 was by far the best. It does almost everything right, to an unmatched degree. As intimate as it is grand, and complex as it is simple, Wild Hunt is the gold standard for how to make a AAA video game within the current industry climate work. It was a huge critical and financial success, and is so jam packed full of content that it continues to find life long after release - with even more DLC on the horizon. Frankly, there is a lot the video game industry could learn from The Witcher 3, especially given some of the grievances consumers have been having as of late. Developer CD Projekt RED took a lot of risks, at least according to the current trends purported by other publishers and developers, and it paid off handsomely. Geralt's final adventure did so much well, simply every other game and developer could learn a thing or two from its accomplishments.
10. How To Make Great Minigames
Its quite common for large open-world video games to be packed with minigames. Not only do they give the player a variety of things to do, but they make the world feel more believable and alive. Naturally however, these can vary in quality depending on how much time is given to developing them, and considering how big these types of games can be, its understandable if many feel half-baked. This is not the case with The Witcher 3. Not only is the card-battling Gwent a fantastic minigame, but its good enough to stand on its own. Clearly a lot of time and effort went towards making it, and the result is a wonderful supplement to a base experience already so good, it would have been fine without it. Gwent is addictive enough to the point where it can distract you from the main quests for hours, and how many other minigames can you say had the same effect? So, while the minigames of other titles end up being amusing distractions at best, The Witcher 3s Gwent is in a league all its own. The lesson here is that when as much creativity and hard work is given to these 'distractions' as the core game, the outcome is something that stands on its own, itself one hell of an accomplishment.
