The Witcher 3

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8-Bit Scholar: Jan 23, 2016; by FactsAreUseless

The Witcher 3's writing is laudable for some fairly nerdy reasons. Particularly, and especially early on, it is an open-world game that nevertheless maintains a "theme" very well. Consistently throughout the game you run into situations where parenthood is the primary theme. A major early NPC needs you help in finding a missing child; a number of monster contracts include the monsters' young as motivation for their killings; family and bloodlines are a major narrative thread in Skellige as well as the main story; and children can live or die by your decisions.

The fact that the supporting cast is remarkably likable (even Dandelion has his charms!) and I'd say the Hearts of Stone DLC quest pack is one of the best pieces of content I've ever experienced in any video game, especially an RPG like this. It's a perfect storm that should never have come together as well as it did, but at the end of the day, the Witcher 3 manages to hearken back to the very best examples of the RPG genre. I hadn't felt this attached to a cast of characters since FFIX, and the overworld design is incredible. It's a game world that manages to be fantastical and lurid without losing its subtlety.

It's basically an R-rated fairy tale with a heart of gold and a dirty old man's sense of humor. It'll make you laugh and it'll make you cry, and isn't that exactly what a good piece of art should do?