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If You Love The Witcher, Read ‘Blood Of Elves’


Posted on March 16, 2017 by Les Major

Blood Of Elves Novel Cover

Blood of Elves (available from Hachette Book Group), the first full novel about Geralt of Rivia is a testament to how well written the games are. As backward as that statement sounds you need to remember that the novels came first. Written by Andrzej Sapkowski who began the tales in a submission to Polish sci-fi / fantasy magazine Fantastyka in the 1986. The submission was for a contest the magazine was running and Andrzej won third place! So while Europeans were first powering up the original Nintendo Entertainment System for the first time, an absolute legend in video game history was being born.

While I realize these novels are translations of the original Polish publications, there is no way to deny the tone that Andrzej clearly inspired in the games is here. Blood of Elves feels like you’re experiencing the third Witcher game specifically. The game itself is fantastic and should certainly be added to your collection if it’s not already. Wild Hunt, the third game in the series, conveys dialogue and story in a masterful way that really hasn’t been so perfect in video games before. Not only that but the combat and action flow beautifully, better than ever in the series. What is most interesting is how at home players will feel reading Blood of Elves.

The novel gets right to it, introducing you to many of the series characters within the first fifty pages. It also drops enough names to fill any seasoned player of Wild Hunt with enough familiarity to draw them right in. Again, it’s incredible to realize just how reversed these references are. This isn’t a novel doing a video game justice. It’s a talented writer bringing his world to life in a way that inspired one of video games greatest titles ever! We’ve all heard Doug Cockle’s excellent rendition of The Witcher’s gruff voice as he’s spoken the myriad of locations, names, and terms that series fans know and love. Having an understanding of those pronunciations makes the novel flow like butter when reading through conversations between the characters.

That doesn’t mean fantasy fans who aren’t into the games will be lost here. The book is well paced and eases readers into the world of The Witcher. References feel more like professional nods to various factions in other pop culture such as if you’d read a passing mention of the Empire in Star Wars without knowing who they are. It’s not a confusing jumble of terms and names, but instead a very well crafted acknowledgement of the world the characters live in making the novels worthwhile to read again for a deeper experience. Andrzej’s creation is well done and polished, even if this is a translation. It’s the spirit of the writing, the flow and overall storyboard that stand out. Much like the games, especially Wild Hunt, Blood of Elves comes across as a hidden gem that is clearly a blockbuster.

Much like The Witcher’s themselves, this series isn’t what it appears and within no time at all you can become familiar with it and see it for how amazing it truly is.

Want to see for yourself? Read an extract from the first chapter from Hachette Book Group!


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Witcher 4 already being planned


Posted on December 5, 2015 by Fionna Schweit

While the Witcher 3 saw the end of Geralt’s story, CDProjekt Reds CEO Adam Kicinski has said “it would not be fair to fans, to not make a Witcher 4” “It’s too early to talk about it, but it’s not like we’re forgetting about this brand,” he said on Polish TV station TVN24 BiS, as translated by Gamepressure. “It wouldn’t be fair towards the fans. We work within this universe for over a dozen years now and I don’t think it’s going to be the end of it.”

This should really surprise no one, as the Witcher series has been a huge success to the point that it basically funded the founding of a whole Game distribution platform. The witcher 3 was a huge sucess even winning best overall game of the year at the game awards. It also sold over 6 million copies, a number usually reserved for the yearly COD and Battlefield releases.  The developer had previously stated that Geralt (the main character from the first three games) was finished with his saga after The Witcher 3, so I am already excited to see more of the world of the Witcher, with a new mail character.

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I find this particularity interesting since just a few months ago CDProjekt Red was quite involved with saying nonononono we are not working on another Witcher game! I guess 6 million units sold changed their mind. in Augst we heard  “It deserves some rest,” from Marcin Iwiński co-founder of the studio “The world of The Witcher is gigantic and it’s great to tell these stories, but I don’t know when [a sequel] will happen.”, now it seems the tune has changed and I for one hope that we get to see that new game pretty quickly.

 


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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Announced By CD Projekt RED


Posted on February 5, 2013 by Joshua Rust

The ever popular magazine Game Informer has just revealed their cover for their March issue. On that cover is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt RED’s next installment to The Witcher franchise. The writer of the article forGame Informer, Adam Biessner, gave this quote to get you drooling in anticipation for this issue to reach your eyes:

“Our March cover story gives a world-exclusive peek into the next generation of RPGs with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This standalone sequel takes the fascinating stories and characters, non-linear plotlines, and difficult decisions that the franchise is known for and puts them all in an open world 30 times larger than the previous game – an enormous setting even larger than Skyrim’s vast expanse, made possible with the new REDengine 3 technology that developer CD Projekt RED is debuting with the game.”

There have been statements released about the size of this open world being around 20% larger than Bethesda’s TES V: Skyrim. Hopefully in this game they will stick to what the roots of a Witcher actually is: a monster hunter. It has also been said that you will be able to research tactics, via books and townsfolk, in order to take monsters down – with time of day/night being a factor in how you handle some of these creatures.

It sounds like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is going to be amazing…and we just barely began to hear details about it!

Game Informer has also posted up a video for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt detailing what you can expect in the upcoming sequel:

[youtube id=”8gIsYuPIKco” width=”600″ height=”350″]

So when can you get your hands onThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?CD Projekt RED states that it will release 2014 on PC and “all high-end platforms available.” Which basically means to us Playstation 4 and whatever the heck Microsoft is calling their new system (presumably just Xbox).


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CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk RPG Announced


Posted on May 30, 2012 by Daniel Shannon

CD Projekt RED announced that it is developing a new game based on Mike Pondsmith’s venerable Cyberpunk 2020 RPG (originally known as Cyberpunk 2013 when it was first released in the late 1980s). As is typical of this sort of thing, Cyberpunk is set in a future dystopia where the United States is a borderline police state run by ruthless, nearly omnipotent corporations (the rest of the world isn’t doing too hot either).
Speaking at CD Projekt’s Summer Conference, co-founder Marcin Iwinski promised that the RPG will follow in the Witcher series’ footsteps. It’ll be non-linear, morally ambiguous, and “mature.” Unlike the Witcher series, the upcoming cyberpunk game will allow players to create unique characters with different classes. Presumably this means that you will be able to hack and sleep your way through the game or, alternatively, spend your time tasering protestors on behalf of a company using homeless people in their human-animal hybrid experiments.

So far we don’t know what platforms it will be released on (given CD Projekt’s history, it’s a good bet that it’ll be released for the PC) or when it will see the light of day. We’ll keep you posted.


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CD Projekt RED Releases Witcher Recap Trailer


Posted on April 3, 2012 by Daniel Shannon

In anticipation of the April 17th release of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition for PC and Xbox 360, developers CD Projekt RED have released a short video summarizing the plot of The Witcher. CD Projekt RED has stated that it’s not necessary to play through The Witcher to enjoy its sequel, but the video, which you may view below, should bring everyone up to speed regarding Geralt of Rivia’s previous exploits.

 

[youtube id=”RPHgWfWFr9k” width=”600″ height=”350″]

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