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     Witcher 3 was released in 2015 by CD PROJECT RED, it was an immediate success garnering great reviews and winning awards. A story driven RPG it follows Geralt of Rivia on his quest to find his missing adopted daughter, Ciri, who is seemingly on the run from the Wild Hunt. The Witcher series is based on a book series written by Andrzej Sapkowski.

       The story

    Geralt finds out from Yennefer that Ciri has reappeared after a long time of being missing. He is tasked by the Emperor of Nilfgard to find her. His quest takes him all over Velen, Novigrad and the Skellige Isles hoping to find his daughter alive and well. Along the way he enlists the help of numerous characters such as the Bloody Baron, Dandelion, Triss, Yennefer and Ermion. The journey announces itself to be a perilous one and as such Geralt need to prepare himself because finding Ciri might bring upon the world the very end itself.

                                        


      Gameplay

   The fighting needs a bit using to as it is a bit wonky and until Geralt reaches the first ten levels of the game you will be fighting to survive as he is surprisingly squishy early game. As you get used to the mechanics and you start forming your own playstyle by training your favorite skills you will find that the enemies you need to fight to complete the missions and the monster contracts become more manageable but still challenging at higher difficulties. To make things even easier you get to use the witchers extensive knowledges with herbs to crafts potions and traps to give you and edge over monster and human alike. The White Honey potion can become a lifesaver as it instantly heals you portion of your HP.

               

          Characters- The characters are a very important part of any RPG so I consider it mandatory to speak a little bit about the ones I consider to be the most important.
      Geralt is arguably the protagonist of the video-game series and a formidable a wise witcher. Although he prefers to play into the misconceptions of the populace towards his guild by acting emotionless and cold he is nothing but. He cares tremendously for his friends and lover (Yennefer or Triss).
      Yennefer, a beautiful and capricious sorceress, is the one that brought to Geralt the news of Ciri's return. Struggling with the realities of being a sorceress i.e. being infertile she attaches herself to Ciri loving her as a mother would love her own daughter. She also cares about Geralt profoundly even if she sometimes chooses to not show it. Their bickering is one of the cutest things you would ever see.
      Triss, a sorceress herself, is the one planning the mages escape from Novigrad as the Witch Hunter continue to hunt and torture them in the name of the Eternal Fire. A selfless woman she is always ready to lay down hew own life to save others.

Conclusion

If you love a well fleshed out story with well written characters, quests and even sidequests this is the game for you. Also for the lovers of captivating scenery you can find all that you need in the rough Velen, wild Skellige or the Free City, Novigrad. Even after all this years Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a game that deserves to be played through at least two times. 9/10

Civilization V is a turn-based 4x strategy game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. The game offers a perfect blend between the old and the new, offering the veterans of the series a familiarity while at the same time succeding to be a fresh and polished new game to attract new players.

     First few turns

The game begins as any other Civilization game, you are beginning with a single settler and a dream to create the worlds most successful nation, achieving this goal turn by turn. Being a strategy game, the position of your first city is very important so choose wisely as the resources found in the vicinity are extremely important for your advancement.



     Gameplay

   In this game there are multiple ways to win, and as such different ways to play. Every nation has its advantages and its disadvantages depending on the playstyle you wish to implement, and depending on the type of victory you want to achieve i.e. conquering all the other nations, being the first nation to launch a rocket outside the solar system or achieving cultural dominance. For example Venice is a nation that can't expand by conventional means i.e. annexing other cities, it can only puppet other cities, hindering its expansion but at the same time, Venice, has double the trade routes available making it a formidable trading powerhouse. Rome is a good nation for your first gameplay as its unique abilities and troops give you a leg above the competition early on allowing you to develop rapidly. Going to war is quite fun and strategy is very important if you want to ensure victory. Flanking your enemies (attacking from an adjacent tile) is a great way to damage enemy troops heavily, while attacking over a river is a very risky task and can lead to your defeat. Sieging a city is quite challenging because now, you not only have to fight the enemy troops to reach the city gates but you also have to contend with the city itself which, quite rudely, attacks you along the way. As such your attack force needs to be quite diverse, spearmen, infantry and cavalry to charge towards your enemy and archers or artillery to hurt the enemy troops or city from a comfortable distance keeping yourself quite safe. Also, the presence of a Great General (who you can recruit) will increase your troops efficiency when near them.  
   
      Graphics

  For a game that doesn't rely on its visual beauty to get its message across, the graphics are indeed something out of this world. Some may even say that this the best looking strategy game of all time (not myself I'll give that title to Xcom 2). The attention to details is astounding, the landscape is terribly beautiful and the resources are represented very well on the map making themselves very easy to spot if you know what you're looking for. As examples, you have horses grazing the prairies indicating a tile good for a pasture or on the ocean majestic whales indicating a source of food and gold.
 
     Conclusion

    Civilization 5 is a great strategy game that will challenge you to be better while also training your decision skills or strategic mind. All in all a great experience all around, and it does a great job at satisfying bot veterans of the series and new players alike. Great game to introduce yourself to the 4x strategy games genre. 8.5/10

Stellaris is a space-empire building game. If you like exploring and expanding your realm this is the game for you.

Published in 2016, Stellaris, is the creation of Paradox Interactive and it is sandbox-empire building game. You start by creating your own species and empire (you could also choose one of the premade ones if you so desire.) by choosing the way they look, the species trait, it's government and the planet they live on. After you choose the game's settings i.e. number of AI empires, the scale of the galaxy or the level of advancement of said empires you are allowed to begin. The gameplay spans over three stages: early game, mid game and late game.

Early game is the period at the start of the game in which you are supposed to explore and expand. This stage is full of anomalies to find and understand or events to trigger. The events are usually very well fleshed out and interesting often giving you useful boosts and interesting lore bits. To advance your empire you need to research technologies in the realm of physics, society and engineering. By building space stations orbiting important planet, colonizing or building different building on the surface of your capital or colonies you steadily improve your nation economy. As soon as you find your first alien empire you can choose to either ally with it or declare it to be a rival and prepare for war.
Mid game is the period the consists of mainly conquering, expanding your borders further or continuing your research. By now your empire should be a powerhouse in the galaxy. Your coffers are full, your fleet is uses state of the art tech and, quite possibly, your enemies are many. At this stage the exploration ceases to play an important role and the events and the anomalies of the early game dwindle in number. Expand by force or by forming alliances.
Late game is the last stretch of the game when fallen empires awoke, and crisis may arise to terrorize the galaxy. You and the other empires need to cease fighting and focus on defeating the crisis the threatens all live in the galaxy. The Prethoryn and the Interdimensional Invaders have different triggers, act differently and should be fought differently.

Stellaris, being a Paradox game, is constantly updated with new content and bugfixes, also new expansions are added frequently. The newest major expansion was Ancient Relics Story Pack which brings archaeological dig sites and powerful relics into the game. The next expansion is said to launch early 2020, probably late March, bringing a diplomacy revamp and more meaningful federations. The expansion is named Federations.
In conclusion, Stellaris, is a great game for the 4x enthusiasts by elevating the genre to a galaxy wide stage. The content is good, and it always can be added upon by purchasing DLCs or downloading mods creating by its wonderful community. I wholeheartedly recommend this game, and I hope we will find each other in the galaxy.