The Witcher
Playtime: 28 hours
Before you ask, that upshot at the end was because the game was finally over, not because of an amazing ending.
The Witcher isn't a bad game, by any stretch. The combat is annoying, but acceptable...the world is well-realized, especially since it's drawn from a a series of novels. The sidequests can be interesting, and it's refreshing seeing the morality compass completely thrown out the window (though it gets a bit tiring to see that every nice person is secretly a rapist).
It's just incredibly long, and in the wrong way. I don't mind long games if it isn't a hassle to move around: Fallout is painfully long; much more than the Witcher, but it doesn't feel that way. Despite being sent on countless fetch quests, they make it EASY to travel. Even if you choose to physically walk from one side of the world to the other, you can jump, climb, take sewers, explore -- it's fun. And obviously you can fast travel, making it all incredibly convenient.
Perhaps this is because Witcher is based on a modified Aurora engine (used for top-down RPGs), but moving around is a serious pain. Quests are almost always resolved at the furthest possible point from their origin, and walking is a nightmare. There's no jumping, no vaulting, no anything...as I said in a previous post, if you come across a couple inch drop or incline, you have to go around. And since nothing is a straight shot, you end up having to weave through three quarters of the map just to get to the end. And then you have to go through 3 maps to get to the quest destination. Then you have to go back and tell the person you finished it.
Needless to say, after the first chapter or two, I skipped every single sidequest. Maybe it'll get better in Witcher 2, when they're coding their own engine.
I think the inclusion of the sex cards is why a majority of people like this game, and I'm all for in-game romances, but it gets silly. Every woman in the game wants to rip your clothes off; either for no reason at all, or because you treat them like a cheap hooker and give them a jewel. And afterwards they don't act any differently. They don't say or do anything else - it's basically a big checklist in an effort to see all the nudity in the game. There are two main romances, which are nice, but it goes from zero interest to total infatuation in no time (at least with Triss), with Geralt writing the most high school-y crush letter to her.
Which might be appropriate, who knows, because I certainly didn't see any character in him. I'm sure he is meant to be all cool and dark and brooding, but he just comes off like he had a lobotomy. Although there is a plus side to that; his complete lack of personality makes his quips, when given, a lot more amusing.
All in all, I would've liked the game a lot more with a bit more flexibility and a lot more believability. What the Witcher did do, however, was make me want to go play Neverwinter Nights 2 which uses the Aurora engine properly.
