Witcher II - Impressions Forthcoming

[Daehawk]

I've lost me dwarf. I have no idea where he has gotten to.

Also that Knight of the Flaming Rose in camp in Chapter 2. Whats up with him? I helped them in the first game and all he does is attack me when I talk to him. I never get to loot the body and the worst part is each time I leave the area and come back he has respawned and I get to kill him again lol.

And where are all the other Witchers at? In the first game there were at least 5 or so others that split up from me to do stuff. We had a whole castle of them. Why am I alone in all this?

Ill say this again....having to meditate to drink a potion is damn annoying.

Anyone know what those big rocks at the old quarry do? They make my amulet buzz and they glow for interaction but i can't do anything with them...yet maybe?

[Daehawk]

The time is quickly approaching where I have some HARD decisions to make. this game has about 10 or more different endings to see. I want to go the path that the Witcher himself would seem to go but it may be wrong. Like I think i should rescue Triss but from reading it seems that rescuing the little child heir to be is the right path to take to see the better and correct ending. Lots of stuff to decide....kill the dragon or let it lives, kill the king or let him live...same with Dethmold . Im not sure i like the way some of this is going to go. It's just like a lot of folks said before I bought it even...the end part seems hurried and cut off. I guess Ill just do my thing then watch all the alternative endings on YouTube lol.

[Daehawk]

DaAAAAaaaaaamnit. Im at that last castle area and for F's sake I have now purchased an item 4 times only to find something better as i explore the damn place. Ive wasted 4ooo gold!!!!!! and all i get back in selling the stuff once I find something better is about 90 gold. *^%&*^$*&%

[Daehawk]

Did anyone pick any reward from the guardian in the sewers? I said no thanks. I didn't need my skills reset and I could not kill him for a chance at his 4 loot drops.

I can get some super nice armor made but i need 2000 gold. How am I supposed to make big money in here? I suck at poker and it sucks at payoffs. Im great at arm wrestling and can maybe get 200g per win which is easy but i cant find anyone in this last castle to wrestle except a strongman..i beat him and he wont speak any more.

[Daehawk]

Done! LOVED IT!

It was epic in scope but I still think I liked the first one a little better. Not sure why. Had a hell of a great time playing this one and now that it is over i'm a tad sad. Fine work they did on this baby. Really looking forward to The Witcher 3. Wonder what they will do with it?

[Smoove_B]

No idea what my problem is, but I just can't get into this game. The best I can figure is that because it's 3rd person, my brain has somehow been trained to only enjoy those types of games on the Xbox360 -- which works out since it will be released for consoles in April. It's just so strange because I loved the first one...but for some reason, this just isn't grabbing me.

[triggercut]

Surprised there's so little talk about the upcoming changes to what already is the best game--any genre--I played in 2011.

For starters, give it up to CDPR. If there's a better developer out there, I'm not sure who they'd be. These folks just seem to "get it".

And so ok, the first thing about all this stuff is that it's in conjunction with the April 17 release on the 360. So. What do we have here?

1. New intro cinematic created by the guy who did the amazing intro for the first game, and who I guess got nominated for an animation Academy Award. The new cinematic is amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwTl2YojJ0I (What you'll also notice is that the 360 is published in North America by WB Games and not Atari. Hopefully that means some marketing flex for a deserving franchise.)

2. The 360 version is being billed as the "Enhanced Edition", and will contain new quests, characters, and locations. CDPR is giving that content to PC owners for free. The new content adds 3-5 hours of gameplay. There are also new bug and balance fixes (they finally nerfed Quen!) to the game. Finally, the "Enhanced Edition" will contain a bunch of new cinematics to help flesh out the somewhat convoluted story a bit more for players.

3. If you own a copy of The Witcher 2 in any format--physical disks, Amazon, D2D, Steam, whatever--you can punch in your code in a week or so and CDPR will be giving you a backup copy of the game (a DRM-free GOG.com copy)--actually a download code--to either keep or give to a friend. Really. They're doing that.

4. As part of the marketing run-up to this, they've been cranking out cinematics:

4a. (SPOILERS!) Want to know what happens in The first game? Here's the five-minute video summary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPHgWfWFr9k
4b. Still don't get what a Witcher is or does? Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzfFPONyjSw
4c. Just something kind of neat here. The cinematics guys made a little story piece (that doesn't take place in either game) that sort of details a day in the life of Geralt called "52 And A Half". It's good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMc1ySC6Qao

5. Want to review The Witcher 2? Convince CDPR that you've got the writing and creativity chops to do it, and they'll have you review it. They're sending out 1,000 review copies to folks to review if they're fan enough. I mean...that's just brilliant marketing right there. Presumably none of these free reviews are metacritic or gamerankings aggregated sites, so they've got no worries about "integrity" here; this is all about fan service.

[hepcat]

As much as I love the witcher series (and I do....I really do) I only made it about half way through 2 because of stupid gaming ADD and the numerous releases that distracted shortly after it's release. I think I may just start over again. I did the exact same thing with Witcher 1 after they released the director's cut of that and I had a hoot.

[triggercut]

Original Witcher 2 game files from GOG.com: 10.3 GB

Just pre-loaded the Enhanced Edition stuff (doesn't unlock 'til next week): 11.9 GB.

[hepcat]

I'm downloading the pre-patch for the enhanced edition now. Do you know if that will work with a digital copy purchased from the old direct2drive.com site (now gamefly.com)?

[triggercut]

I'm downloading the pre-patch for the enhanced edition now. Do you know if that will work with a digital copy purchased from the old direct2drive.com site (now gamefly.com)?

First off...gah. Why D2D on this? EDIT: nvm, didn't think about sale pricing.

Secondly, though...I don't know. I think so--they're saying that only the Steam version will need proprietary patching.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to download the pre-patch, except that I keep getting "sorry the files could not be downloaded" via the prepatcher. Guess I'll have to just wait until the patch actually comes out and the autoupdater recognizes it.

[triggercut]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to download the pre-patch, except that I keep getting "sorry the files could not be downloaded" via the prepatcher. Guess I'll have to just wait until the patch actually comes out and the autoupdater recognizes it.

This link didn't work for you?

I would say keep trying, it may have been down for a bit. The good news is that once it starts rolling if you've got the bandwidth it'll pour it on. I was getting between 2-2.5 mbps with it, so it took just a little more than 90 minutes to get the whole thing.

Also worth trying: make sure you're updated to version 2.1 of the game.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, looks like their server was just getting hammered, I was able to download the patch after retrying the next day.

Can't wait to go through another playthrough of this.

[triggercut]

Hai guyz, last night at about 6pm a 10gb patch to make the best computer role playing game of the current generation even better went live.

In case anyone was interested...

[hepcat]

Just installed it (wish I'd known it was live last night or I would've started playing then instead of having to wait until after work tonight). Can't say I'm too pleased with having to restart my computer after the update though. I don't like it when a game requires a restart. Makes me very wary about what was done.

Anyway, too late now. Gonna just enjoy it and start over with a new game tonight in order to enjoy all the new stuff. I was only less than halfway through act 2 anyway.

[IceBear]

I'm installing it now...it's doing some .Net updates...that's probably why the restart was needed

[triggercut]

Yeah the Dot Net update is probably the restart. (Game launcher uses it for auto patching.)

BTW, don't expect sweeping changes off the bat in the game. The first thing I noticed was a new cinematic before the start of chapter 1 (spoilers, Dandelion! Goodness!). Other than that I've seen ducks and a goat in and around Flotsam...but most of the bigger changes will hit later in the game to fill out what was previously a sparse and rather abrupt Chapter 3.

Oh, and that Quen nerf has me playing a little smarter with the sword, relying better on dodges and parries.

[cheeba]

Did they get rid of the stupid QTE's?

[hepcat]

I hope not.

[IceBear]

I haven't gotten to a QTE yet, but in the options Difficult QTE was checked on by default, so I image if you uncheck it they will be so easy as to basically not be in the game

[triggercut]

Did they get rid of the stupid QTE's?

Nope.

[NickAragua]

Played a bit of this last night, after spending some considerable amount of time troubleshooting corrupt pre-loaded files, and then dealing with a crash to desktop on startup. Had to disable my DaemonTools to get rid of the CTD. Not like I need it too much nowadays, thanks to Steam and other digital delivery platforms.

So far, I only played through the Arena a little bit - got my clock cleaned by a bunch of elven archers. Geralt gets sword-whacked, falls on the ground, and while he's rolling around like a pussy a swordsman comes in and finishes him off. I wish I'd gotten that "be able to block attacks from all directions" skill.

The main quest line is unaffected for the most part so far. The game is still pretty difficult, I got killed on "normal" difficulty in one of the initial towers during the castle assault. BTW, for those of you who want to know how to hit that red plumed jackass with the ballista, the trick is to aim at the guy in the middle, not the guy on the left.

From the patch notes, I won't be seeing any of the new content until some time into the game. I sure as hell am not doing "dark mode" though. Good god.

[cheeba]

I haven't gotten to a QTE yet, but in the options Difficult QTE was checked on by default, so I image if you uncheck it they will be so easy as to basically not be in the game

The problem isn't difficulty, it's that they seem horribly out of place.

[hepcat]

Started up a new game yesterday and immediately lost 3 hours. It really is a great RPG experience. I wanted to start fresh so I could encounter everything that has changed but also because I really wanted to follow the story more closely than I did when I played to Act 2 last fall.

The combat feels more fluid now, but it may just be my imagination. When defending against a two handed weapon, it seems easier to get past the enemy's guard once they've completed their swing. Before I always had trouble timing that.

Cranked up to the highest graphical settings the game is smooth as butter too.

[triggercut]

Started up a new game yesterday and immediately lost 3 hours. It really is a great RPG experience. I wanted to start fresh so I could encounter everything that has changed but also because I really wanted to follow the story more closely than I did when I played to Act 2 last fall.

The combat feels more fluid now, but it may just be my imagination. When defending against a two handed weapon, it seems easier to get past the enemy's guard once they've completed their swing. Before I always had trouble timing that.

Cranked up to the highest graphical settings the game is smooth as butter too.

It really is the best RPG I've ever played. I wish that all of us converts didn't have to beg the rest of the world to play it.

I wrote this about something as simple as the new opening cinematic over at Qt3, sorry for the crosspost:

So that opening cinematic. I'm perplexed that so few folks have remarked on how it helps the player through the early stages of the game.

I mean...yes, yes. It looks freaking great, and as a promotional tool for the EE version of the game on 360 and PC you couldn't ask for better. Let's say, though, you're like me, and sometimes have difficulty remember fantasy names (and the importance imputed to same) of characters you never met and won't meet.

That was me in the original version of TW2. There's a cutscene at the beginning of Chapter 1 in both versions of the game, with the title card of "4 Months Earlier". When I first played the game, that scene made zero sense to me. Who's head was that. Why was it in a crown? Was that Foltest? That didn't look like his crown...and I'm pretty sure he didn't get ol' King Sister Lover's head when he killed him, either. I was confused. I'm guessing there was a journal entry that mentioned someone named Demavend. I know I heard folks like Triss and Dandelion talking about him. I also know that I didn't connect him in any way with the plot, my over-arching quest in the game, or any motivations that I as a player or Geralt as a character might have.

So. Now in the EE you get that amazing cinematic, and now when the later cutscene with Iorveth and Big Boy plays, you know *exactly* who's head that is, and *exactly* what importance is ascribed to him in the story. That's a neat--and difficult--feat to pull off.

See, you care about Foltest and what happens to him because of the interactive nature of the Prologue. Your motivations as player become one with Geralt's as a character because you participated in saving the King throughout the Prologue, only to be left helpless at the end. Well done, that. The trick is, they've always wanted us to think strongly of Demavend too--in fact, the events as they play out in Chapter 2 kind of need to the player be thinking about the title of the game a great deal, and the whole "Who's next?" aspect of things.

In the first version of the game, I guess Geralt puts those things together, and it becomes a piece of his motivation in the quest as a character...but as a player I had trouble sorting out who Demavend was or why I should care, and that separated my motivation from the guy I was controlling in the game. CDPR had to fix things so that as a player I would know who Demavend was and care about what happened to him in a larger context, without the participation aspect that's there with Foltest's fate. That's a tall order for a cinematic. That it succeeded beyond any rights is something to be hailed, and why I'm bloviating so much about it.

With that new intro, you get all sorts of foreshadowing with Foltest throughout the prologue that wasn't there before. When that intro cutscene to chapter 1 plays, the whole plot makes a ton of sense, and when folks talk about stupid, doomed Demavend of Aedirn, you know exactly who they're talking about and vividly envision his passing because that cinematic is so amazing, and it ties together everything wondefully in the game's tricky political plot going forward.

[EzeKieL]

Arise ye olde thread!

I've just finished it and without spoiling anything I have one question.

Is it worth mutliple playthroughs for different endings and so on? Is it worth it or are they minor changes?


I can't wait for The Witcher 3, this one really rocked <3

[NickAragua]

From what I understand, Chapter 2 (the one after you leave Flotsam) is completely different depending on which side you pick (elves or humans).