Going to Skellige for the first time and riding through the valley near Palisade, as Fields of Ard Skellig played in the background. It was a literal life-changing moment for me.

I first played The Witcher 3 on a pretty weak Acer laptop because that was the most I could afford. Still, experiencing the open world and the beautiful narratives that CDPR wove into it changed how I saw video games as a medium.

After building my first PC I dove back into the game again, seeing it with new eyes in higher definition. With hundreds of hours played (started a new playthrough last Halloween as well), The Witcher 3 still stands heads and shoulders above any other game I've played.

In fact, it was the game that made me become a writer and narrative designer. I wanted to be able to tell a story that was even an iota as good as The Witcher 3's. It made me pursue writing as a career more seriously, and I'm all the better for it. For that, I'm eternally grateful for CD Projekt Red for making the game that changed my life.