I don’t know that you can lay it on the pandemic though. I started playing Odyssey recently, and a lot of what you describe above is all over that one. Even two years and a bit after release. I haven’t run into anything quest or game breaking that can’t be resolved with restarting the game and reloading a save (though…

I buy such games 2-3 years later. By then, bugs are ironed out, there is a GOTY edition with all expansions and the price is right. I see no downsides.

“It mostly works. How much more can we really expect?”

This kind of article makes it hard to steer around cynicism. I have mostly taken the messiness of AC:Valhalla in stride. It mostly works. How much more can we really expect?

This is the Witcher based on the Book the Witcher, based on the Character Geralt in The Witcher, if you weren’t playing as Geralt, then it wouldn’t have been called The Witcher.