Witcher 2 Released!

[Taluntain]

As per our news...

It's so dead in this forum you'd think nobody is going to get it, but I'm sure it'll be even more popular than the first one. Who's playing already?

[Erod]

I am! Just finished with the prologue which took a few hours. Simply awesome so far. Tons better than DA2 which I also just began playing yesterday, or anything else for that matter. Although there are a few minor bugs still to be found. Also, if you play this with a NVIDIA card and are experiencing slow performance, reinstall the drivers without the 3D Vision drivers, that should help. Certainly did for me, as I am running it on everything maxed out except for the UberSampling setting (which apparently renders the same frame several times for the best possible image quality and thus requires a lot of horsepower). But more on the game when I have time to play it a bit further.

[Taluntain]

Which graphics card do you have?

[Erod]

Ah, forgot that... Q9650, GTX580, 4 GB, Vista 64.

[olimikrig]

Yep this game looks absolutely amazing on Ultra. And it runs really smooth here as well (i7 950, gtx 580, 12gb cl9 1600MHz).

[Chandos the Red]

(i7 950, gtx 580, 12gb cl9 1600MHz).

... I wonder how it will run on my 9800GT?

[olimikrig]

I think it should be able to run on that, just, you know, not on ultra .

I've made an album with some screenies if anyone is interested. I'll keep it as spoiler free as possible.

[Taluntain]

Cool... send me some interesting ones for SotW too!

[Rawgrim]

Ugh...I deffinatly can? t run this on my PC. Any news on when it will come out for consoles?

[olimikrig]

I'll try to get some good ones for you Tal. It's just hard to get good combat screenshots at least, because of the way combat works (you have to dodge and block blows yourself, etc).

I'm a bit annoyed that saving works the same way it did in the first game (you can't overwrite old saves, but make a new one every time). The saves folder get really cluttered fast and takes up a large amount of space (just cleaned out my folder, 3.2GBs).

EDIT: ooh just found the quicksave button, and quicksaves overwrites the old one it seems !

[Darion]

Originally Posted by olimikrig

I think it should be able to run on that, just, you know, not on ultra .

I've made an album with some screenies if anyone is interested. I'll keep it as spoiler free as possible.

Cool screens! Keep 'em coming.
I still have a bit of waiting to do, till my copy arrives!

[olimikrig]

I bought it digitally. Pre-ordered from GOG and could download all but 100MB of the game on May 10, so could play the game literally minutes after release . And I got 16$ store credit to use on extra games since apparently Europeans pay more for the game than Americans do.

No worries, I'll keep 'em coming! Can barely stop taking screenshots all the time; the game is just so gorgeous.

[Topken]

I wish I could play it but my pentium dualcore E2180 is not up to the job even tho my Nvidia GTS250 is. This sucks having a weak cpu like this but I got this pc for free becuase one of my clients left it behind when the harddrive failed and they were opsopse to get a new one but never did.

[joacqin]

It is on my to-play list which has gotten rather bloated lately. Want to play the first one first and I think Shogun 2 is ahead in hte list as well. Possibly even New Vegas not to mention I have been spending all my money on weekend trips and booze instead of games lately.

[olimikrig]

Aye you should play the first game before the second one .

[Taluntain]

Originally Posted by olimikrig

I'll try to get some good ones for you Tal. It's just hard to get good combat screenshots at least, because of the way combat works (you have to dodge and block blows yourself, etc).

I'm a bit annoyed that saving works the same way it did in the first game (you can't overwrite old saves, but make a new one every time). The saves folder get really cluttered fast and takes up a large amount of space (just cleaned out my folder, 3.2GBs).

EDIT: ooh just found the quicksave button, and quicksaves overwrites the old one it seems !

Does it finally have in-game screenshot taking via the Print Screen button now? I couldn't believe that the original didn't have it.

Also, any good looking screenshot is valid for the Featured Shot, doesn't have to be combat.

[olimikrig]

Don't think it does, no. At least there's no screenshots in my Witcher folder. I use Fraps though (have it taking the screenshot when I hit Print Screen, so I know that button isn't used to take SS's).

[Darion]

A quick question!

If my rig was able to run the first Witcher with Texture mod on full, smoothly, what are my chances of running W2 smoothly?

[Chandos the Red]

Great. Thanks, Olimikrig. Cool screen shots as well. Beautiful game.

[Taluntain]

Originally Posted by olimikrig

Don't think it does, no. At least there's no screenshots in my Witcher folder. I use Fraps though (have it taking the screenshot when I hit Print Screen, so I know that button isn't used to take SS's).

I don't know what's wrong with these people... as if they didn't want to make screenshot taking and sharing possible. I can't think of any RPG that doesn't have internal screenshot-taking except the Witchers.

[henkie]

As I recall they were saying that you could import a save from the original in to The Witcher 2. Do you already have an idea of how much of this is noticeable in the game, Olimikrig?

[olimikrig]

Hmm, I haven't noticed it much at all. I did start with Raven's Armor and moonblade though .

Btw Rawgrim I don't think there's any specific plans to get it out on consoles. As far as I've read it's meant to be a PC exclusive tittle, at least for now, with the posibility that it might be ported to consoles at some time.

[Erod]

You will also start with Gwalhir if you had it. Although the swords are quite basic in TW2 and you will get better ones soon, especially steel swords.

[olimikrig]

Ok, I used G'valchir, it didn't import .

[Ragusa]

Witcher 2 runs smoothly on an Intel quad 9450 with 8 GB with an ATI 4870. As for my other experiences, I'll just quote myself:

Originally Posted by Ragusa

First impression re: Witcher 2 - graphics are gorgeous, game visuals are brilliant, 'costumes' are medieval and realistic, fighting is fast paced and action packed. Fun! And you see the first naked chick five minutes in the game.

---------- Added 0 hours, 23 minutes and 34 seconds later... ----------

I note I haven't mentioned that "fast paced and action packed" means 'you die a lot until you get used to it'. It's fun though Flanking matters, enemies cooperate when they gang up on you. Beware of knights with shields. And healing? Ugh, have yet to find out how to do that in combat.

Originally Posted by Ragusa

Can't say I like that (quite console-ish) fistfight mini game (or to be precise: quick time event), even more so since they made it mandatory - i.e. you can't progress in the story unless you beat some particular opponent at fistfighting. Meh. Second time they had a game passage like that. It's a b*tch to play with the keyboard [EDIT: They use four input variables - the triangle, the square etc or whatever - translated into WASD, to be pressed on cue. While I type blind mostly, I have to look up the keys, and until then the cues on the screen are already gone, and Geralt gets his ass handed. Game over. Reload and click through that dialogue again, which, though funny, gets ever more annoying with every successive reload].

---------- Added 9 hours, 56 minutes and 55 seconds later... ----------

Have to say, gave it a couple more tries, I am stuck at that particular fistfight and can't progress in the storyline atm. I really suck at this boxing game, and currently it is for me almost unplayable with keyboard. I only beat the first fistfight with sheer luck. In the second one, you need to beat two opponents one after another, apparently with no recovery in between, and even on easy I apparently can't get it done. This crappy mini game (quick time event) is clearly optimised for consoles And it isn't even optional. Well, too bad for PC players.

Except for this major nuisance I am very happy with the game. Fighting is still as 'manoeuvreous' with the mouse as it was, but that isn't really a problem on easy and it is ok on normal.

Re: compagnions - you have people accompanying you during parts of the game but you do your exploration solo. I don't see much of a departure from the original game in this.

---------- Added 5 hours, 10 minutes and 48 seconds later... ----------

Update: Frustrated as I was because of that boxing minigame (quick time event) I ordered a game pad controller for my PC. Me! I hate controllers. Meh. I just figured it'd be better than dumping an otherwise good game altogether.

Except for these moronic quick time events, Witcher 2 is brilliant game. Boxing was fine and worked well in the original Witcher. Why fix what ain't broken? Well, they had to 'consolize' it. The controls are pretty identical conceptually to what you find (and what I hate) in about every Playstation or X-Box game. 'Consolizing' is the single most pernicious trend in gaming today. It was also precisely what made Deus Ex 2 such a crappy successor to Deus Ex (well that and the lame story). Just look at what it did to Dragon Age 2.

Also, the bigger the company, the greater apparently the urge to engage in 'cross-platform releases' to maximise market share (which is reasonable from a business point of view, and, of course, because apparently such buzzwords get hammered into the mindless heads of BS students). While that succeeds, more or less, it is at the expense of the quality of games - in particular the quality of interfaces (usually dumbed down) and game dynamics. In that respect Witcher 2 compares very favourably to the over-the-top and utterly consolish 'let's kick body parts around wielding house-sized swords' nonsense of Dragon Age 2.

That cross platform thing and unified UIs, well, to my dismay, I feel that it is there to stay Cross-platform releases aim on cutting development costs and are an attempt to appeal to the broadest possible audience. They have IMO 'levelled' the sequels of good games into mediocre or outright crappy products. The same crap dynamic makes sure that pop music remains as uniform, stale and boring as it is. And you see a lot of sequels since originality is not a big strength of large gaming software houses like EA. As a gaming exec once told me, established brands are considered a lower development risk. I for my part have a hunch my gaming future lies with smaller companies. I may eventually give the prequel to Drakensang a shot.

I mean, it is said they have 'shooterised' ME 3, in order to attract more shooter players (i.e. the HALO morons) to that game? Just as if it was too much of an RPG in the first place? Excuse me? A joke. Hey, why not add cat ears, tails, and manga eyes and manga boobs to bag that target audience as well? Soo sad! Hopefully Deus Ex 3 will avoid these mistakes, but given my recent experiences I am sceptical. /rant