Slashman wrote on Dec 27, 2020, 01:15:
... ...
All that is fine and I don't have an issue with free games in general. I just don't want any from Epic. Hell sketchy shit is coming out about what their launcher is doing in the background now. I'm fine missing out if it means that I can avoid all that drama.

Yes, preoccupying stuff.
Bad programming or underhanded practices, either not good, I hope it gets clarified.

For others reading, will paste here some proposed partial solutions if they missed them in another thread (thanks to posters !!)
Didn't try them yet myself,

Avus,
"Epic Games Launcher Causing Temperature Spikes
1) open EGS client
2) go to Settings (gear icon)
3) UNCHECK Minimize to System Tray
4) UNCHECK Run When My Computer Starts
5) UNCHECK Enable Debug Logging
Enjoy free games"

WaltC,
"Epic has some games that DONT require the launcher running to play them.
I run those games from the exe, bypassing the Epic launcher.

Ditto Steam-- a number of games do not require Steamworks to run
and run from their exe's--Witcher 3, is one of them

GOG, never have to run Galaxy to play an installed GOG game."

Hey, Steam worked, just run
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\x64\witcher3.exe
About half game in, my first play through, sweet game !