The Witcher 3 and Mass Effect Andromeda thread

I can't really speak for Skyrim's romances, but FO4's are fun, albeit horribly cheesy a lot of the time (especially Curie's). The companion content in general is pretty good though, especially Nick Valentine's, who was a pleasant surprise.

Skyrim's romance invovles wearing a medalion, asking a random npc on the street to marry you...and then go get hitched at a temple. You can adopt kids and move into a house, but there is no romance, it is just marriage and then nothing. It's better than the Fables series (just drop presents into anyone's hands in the street and they want to marry you), but not by much.

have you ever heard of SWTOR one? It was an industry, I am telling ya, a veritable cottage industry, the gifts in SWTOR

What??? I love the gift mechanic! I want everyone to be my friend, and I'm lazy and don't like to put in the work! 

I agree, that's why I am keeping fingers crossed for Cyberpunk to see how it turns out. I always assumed it will have CC, but an article posted this march threw a shade of doubt on it, as it exclusively referred to protagonist as he and young man. But it could be that it was just to facilitate the writing.

I get the feeling that one of the biggest reasons they had to use Geralt is because fans of the books would complain with questions about why they can't play as him. 

As for the 3/10 survival rate, that doesn't really matter, does it? You'd just be the character that survived

Don't know how it is for other people but for me it mostly depends on the writing and execution how much I connect with characters. A bit of personal preference for sure. But ANYONE is relatable if presented in a way that is engaging.

W2 was fairly unemotional. Even the Triss romance was not engaging even though Geralt was faithful and dropped everything to save her. But it wasn't particularly romantic in its execution. And Geralt felt like a emotionless rock at the time. So while it was a really good game with an excellent plot, it left me emotionally cold for the most part. Geralt was meh.
This changed in W3, though some of it probably has to do with reading the novels. But he really is this scary-looking guy with a soft heart in W3 who tries do help everyone. Everything about Ciri was super emotional. Geralt is actually a very emotional person on the inside. I was FULLY invested in it all. Bioware grade invested.

I couldn't care less for the inquisitor. Worst Bioware protagonist ever at the time. Picking, gender, race and romance didn't help jackshit getting invested in such a boring character. Actually, the more set a character is the more invested I get in their story. I get attached to my CC characters after a while, even in Skyrim. Especially their faces. But good charismatic presentation is important to me. So Shepard and Hawke all the way. Boo to the inquisitor and soon probably boo to Ryder who seems to suffer from the same blandness.

EDIT: Forgot to address the second part...
It's true that Geralt's story didn't really allow for the option to play him gay. But the overall writing of non-straight characters in the games was not particular delicate. And they don't seem particularly concerned about political correctness. Very male gamer oriented narrative. I don't see this changing radically. Though we can't know for sure until Cyberpunk.

TW3 when you play as Ciri you can follow a male "romance" arc or shut it down by saying you prefer women.  They leave it up to the player.

Really looking forward to CP2077 and hoping they will open up the game with proper character customization instead of a set protagonist.  Considering the source material it would be really disappointing to see them go that route again.

That's pretty much canon though. Or rather, Ciri is bisexual in the novels.

The problem with 2 was that Geralt had almost no personality, and was constantly at the whim of everyone around him. In 3 he has far more charm and agency. I didn't really come to like him till I played 3. I loved the Inquisitor, but then the romance with Solas had me teary eyed so...

The difference with me is I need a voice acted and responsive character to really get invested (which is why I can never get invested with ant of my Wardens and really don't have a canonical one). I also love Ryder bunches, but we'll just chalk that up to divergent tastes.