The Witcher Act V

I just hit The Witcher's Act V. It's been a road of gaming goodness paved with equal doses of cringing and rejoicing. The English translation of the games continues to put the pork product in hamming it up. It's a double whammy of cheesy actors and bad dialogue. Occasionally I'm treated to the trifecta: bad acting, enigmatic translation, and hilariously mismatched character animation.

Still, it's the truest RPG I've played all year. Even more true-blue than Mass Effect. The basic plot outline is compelling even when its mechanics fail it. And even more often than Mass Effect, The Witcher poses choices that affect the game's outcome. The most common themes, racism and individual choice versus destiny, are common fantasy fodder, but are told through a European lens and consequently seem more fresh and interesting.

The Poland based company that developed The Witcher is releasing a special edition of the game next month that fixes bugs, but more importantly, rewrites and rerecords most of the game's dialogue. It seems the company took to heart all the criticism directed at the game's biggest weakness. You can buy this new version retail, but peeps that already own the game will be able to download and patch the new content for free.

So if you haven't tried the game out yet, next month might be your best opportunity.