Date an audiophile and you’ll never run out of quality cables. If you’re lucky, they might even agree to flog you with the Stax Lambda’s flat ribbon cable.
There is a setting for an alternative character control mode. Use it, the regular one is dogshit.
The level difference between Geralt and enemies is very important. A difference of +/- 4 can make fights ridiculously trivial or a one-hit KO. Same goes for jobs’ recommended difficulty.
Getting swarmed by level 50 sewer rats is not fun.
Look at what pirate repackers like fitgirl and dodi are putting out. They have a much lower throughput and often focus on popular indie or small studio titles.
At this point, the distinction between console and PC comes down to the corporate side. The PS4 and PS5 operating systems are based on a BSD (probably FreeBSD but not sure), and are capable of running a desktop OS (as long as hackers find a way to bypass Sony’s locked-down firmware). XBox One and Series use a Windows-based OS, also locked down by Microsoft to only run the applications they want.
Everything about the Steam Deck is designed with gaming in mind, but in terms of capabilities, it’s no different from a PC. You could hook it up to a USB-C dock and use it for work. I’d sooner call it a handheld PC than a console.
It’s a bit more obvious if you’ve played through AW1 and Max Payne recently. AW1 contains a couple of excerpts from Wake’s book The Sudden Stop, starring detective Alex Casey. They are written in the exact same style as Max Payne, and narrated by James McCaffrey, Payne’s VA.
I know. Rockstar acquired the rights to Max Payne at some point before releasing Max Payne 3. Remedy couldn’t just include a character they didn’t own, but they couldn’t stop Sam Lake being Sam Lake either. Plus Casey being the knock-off of two out-of-universe characters is funny.
There’s a portion of the map where you and the gang are wanted dead or alive because of the ferry heist. Entering it for most of the game will get you a maximum wanted level, headhunters will show up, and eventually the game kills you. That restriction is lifted in the final act.
The world opens up once you get out of the snow and settle down in the Horseshoe Overlook camp. You’ll still have linear story missions to do, but you can start those whenever you feel like, and explore as much as you want.