The game is so much better now but it still falls short IMO, and it'll never live up to its original promise. Plus, the game was soooo bad on release that they decided to kill all future DLC except for this one. Which means the game is never getting another major update, no more fixes and no more work towards delivering on the original vision.

For what it’s worth, it’s almost never worth it to give any company “the benefit of the doubt”. For single player games, there’s pretty much no reason to play it right when it releases unless you’re impatient. I choose to think of the games release date as a beta release. If I’m super excited, I may choose to play a game in beta but usually I’ll wait for the final release. Then when all the initial issues (which all games have, just some way more than others) have been fixed, I’ll consider the game actually released and buy it for a fraction of the initial cost.

I don’t know that I’ve played a single game that’s released this year yet. And those games will still be just as good next year (likely better) for less cost.

For real. I don't understand why people keep doing that.

They also did the closest thing to a Steam competitor and brought a lot of popular-but-unavailable games back to the light of day via doing legwork to track rights down and pick up the right to re-release them.

That may not be game development, other than in putting together compatibility software and some client software, but it was successful. Probably had a bigger impact than The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 2 was highly praised alone with the Witcher 3.

you can, there is an option for it

As the other person said, you can directly start there. I was skeptical and started fresh but once I made it through the DLC I realized I wouldn't have missed anything if I had used the option to start right from the DLC.

Same. I started playing on my PS4 when it came out, then restarted on my XsX when it was actually playable.

I'm really burned out on the game and really don't feel like starting a third playthrough.

Frankly I think whether or not V survives is largely a headcanon thing. Maybe you head off into the sunset with the Caldos and find help. Maybe you knock over the space casino and buy yourself something like the Relic with all of your stupid new wealth. Maybe you turn into an AI and become a ghost in the machine.

Or maybe you develop natural charisma and an impressive cock, who knows.

Point is they left it vague and uncertain on purpose in several of the good (ish) endings. I get why, but it always felt kinda cheap to me. But it IS a noir story and those aren't known for fairy tale endings.

SPOILERS BELOW

Yes, if you side against Songbird, NUSA honors the agreement to get you treatment. It leaves V with neural degradation and unable to ever use cyberware again, and in a coma for 2 years but gives you the only ending with a confirmation that V survives

Yes, but you could in the original game too.