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[DJ]

But I'd still rather have troubles in this than having the group-combat style massacres from TW1.

But those massacres were the best part

[Virtz]

who the hell does backflips during close combat??

You've never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Nope. But I doubt the backflips were done in place, with no support and as part of an attack.

But I'd still rather have troubles in this than having the group-combat style massacres from TW1.

But those massacres were the best part

But it was very out of place compared to the books to effortlessly slash down half-dozens at a time. Better that it's challenging to take on groups of enemies, I think.

Another thing I just realized I prefer about the combat system here is that the animations do not lie. I recall that in TW1 in a solo fight, I could apparently stun-lock an enemy with a flury of attacks, but still receive damaging attacks as if they ignored it. Not so here.

[SeaBee]

The only things that bothered me immediately about Witcher 2 were the quick-time events (are those ever good in a game?) and the mouse smoothing/acceleration. I've turned off the "Difficult QTEs" to tone down some of the consolitis, then edited the configuration file to get rid of the mouse smoothing -- can't wait to play it again tonight with those changes.

The combat is tough, which reminds me of the books a lot more. He has to fight with hit-and-run attacks, using his speed and preparation to win fights.

The story so far is decent. About what I expected. Game looks very good with everything set to "Low" (I've only got an 8800GT), framerate is playable. Getting lazy in simple fights will get me killed, at least early in the game. Not sure if Geralt becomes some massive superman after his talents and abilities are earned.

In short, I'm not disappointed. Unless LA Noire comes out for PC, this will be my last AAA purchase this year.

[Mindmaker]

Hmm... I've been thinking about playing the first game for a while now, but I don't speak Polish yet.  Yeah, I know there's an English release, but still, I usually prefer the original flavor and so on and so forth.

I've heard the voice acting in the original is supposed to be pretty bad...
That's probably the favorite aspect of the game for me, along with the atmosphere and the lore the game provides (books and conversations update your journal with a lot of additional information).

Combat was a unusual idea, but nothing too exciting. Liked the animations.
Alchemy was not revolutionary, but well done.

Had The Witcher 2 pre-ordered for some time now and only just realized that it came out yesterday.
I really should hurry to finish the first one. Considering how I can't seriously play Touhou during the week, that shouldn't be too hard.

[Vector]

Ah, thank you.  I'll probably try out the English version sometime when I have access to better internet, then.

[kcwong]

In the early news, the one thing that worries me is the dialog system. With Dragon Age 2 I deleted Bioware from my RPG-maker list. I don't want the one remaining true CRPG to be Mass-Effected.

Then I heard the dialog system has some new elements introduced - you/NPCs can join and leave conversations freely. Is that true? Does the paraphrasing at least have one positive to it?

Or should I go back to other games and wait for Diablo 3 and HoMM6?

[umiman]

I wish I could actually install the game. It's like the DVD I have is corrupt or something. CRC errors and whatnot.

I tried for hours to fix it with all the instructions from all over the net, no dice. I simply am not allowed to play this by the god of gaming.

[Toady Two]

I had problems with the installation as well. Certain DVD drives are unable to read a single file on the disk.

My PC's built in drive could not handle it but when I attached a portable DVD drive it installed properly from there.

Another option is to copy all the files from the disk on a different computer that can read them and then trasfer them to the one that can't.

You will still need the disk for securom but you can install the game with only it's contents.

In other new I am enjoying this game immensely. The combat system is challenging and much better than in the original.

I find the characters in the Witcher 2 to be more believable than in other games of the genre. I especially liked the king from the prologue. While being royalty, he behaves and cusses like a thug while ruthlessly ordering his men around, including you. Despite this, somehow he is far more likable than say the fancy pansy do-gooder king from the beginning of Dragon Age.

The dialog options are informative and you can expect what Geralt will say after you pick one. A few times I click an option sarcastically and expect the same from Geralt but it ends up being actually dead serious.

[Soulwynd]

Dialog Option: "Very funny."
Actual Dialog: "Fuck you."

The dialog options go into wild tangents if you don't consider the following:

1. Geralt is always serious, if it seems like a joke about killing someone, it's not; he will kill someone.
2. The options resume on the following: Good for the person you're chatting with, bad for the person you're chatting with, and misc information. If it seems good, he will not fuck up the person, if it seems like the option is contesting the person in any way, expect that person to be killed. By you.
3. The game has a basic good/evil compass. You can be good, or you can fuck everyone up (and then fuck their wives and daughters). Ps. "Thanks for what you did to the castle."

The combat is challenging because the controls suck. Sometimes Geralt simply wont go in the blocking stance and no matter how many times you press or hold E, he will not do it. The auto target aims at the creature your screen is facing, so those of us who are used to aiming with WASD on 3rd person view to pick a creature to fuck (Batman, Prototype, etc), will not be pleased. You have to turn the mouse to aim at the creature, which makes combat really sluggish and hard to pick. If you have two creatures side-by-side, aiming is even worse, since it appears the aim is not the middle of the screen either, but some arbitrary that-guy feature while on decent games you'd just hold D for the right creature and A for the left creature. Not only that, but the light and hard hits are not what you'd expect. The light hit actually jumps long distances to hit someone and does absurd damage, while the hard hit seems like a punny slap on the face. I only use the hard hits when a creature is stunned, since then they become critical and tada, huge fucking damage, if not an instakill scene. Furthermore, the fact you have the pickup/interact/jump up/jump down commands all on the same button, which happens to be the attack button, gives some stupid results. Like trying to pick up loot but instead swinging your sword and stepping forward into a trap. Not only that but Geralt is incapable of turning 180 degrees without taking a step forward in the wrong direction, so if you stopped right by a trap and try to move back, he steps forward and kapew, trap.

Anyway. Overall the game is actually fun, despite the frustrating controls and horrible broken animations. The dialogs are mature and you get to see ass, bewbs, and the occasional poon. People aren't afraid to speak their mind either, so comments like "He can hold a bucket of water with his cock." will be heard. Of course, being a game based on a misogynistic book (Edit: As in, the setting is misogynistic, very), expect the constant presence of whores, rape, and usual women degradation. On the bright side, it appears women aren't collectible cards anymore (at least I haven't found any), since Geralt has a girlfriend now, which he doesn't fuck past the intro and instead bangs every other ho in the game.

[Il Palazzo]

The book is misogynistic? The world - certainly, but the book?
I'll have to read it again sometime.

[Soulwynd]

Is the world described in the book? How else would we know it was misogynistic?

I didn't mean as in, the book is all about fucking women up, but as in, yeah being women in this setting would suck unless you're a sorceress.

[Il Palazzo]

Ah, sorry then. I thought you mean the author's attitude.

Back to the topic:
I liked how in the first game you could, eh collect the infamous cards, because hell why not, another gamer's accomplishment. And then you got called on being the lecherous, egoistic dick that you were. It was one of those "I have candy get in the van" moments, when you go from "heh it's just a game" to "err, what did I just do?"
Generally, that game did a respectable job at making you feel the weigth of your deeds, and I think that was the best, most refreshing aspect of it.
Is the sequel similarly involving, or would you say it's worse/better in this area?

[Soulwynd]

Geralt is always called that, no matter what.

"Thanks for saving us from the monsters.... freak... get away from me. And don't fuck my daughter on the way out."

So it doesn't really matter if you're an asshole or what. People hate Geralt. So far the worst that has happened to Geralt, even after blowing up a castle, was getting a slap on the wrist. At least I think most of the world realizes you shouldn't mess with the white wolf, who has cat eyes, not wolf eyes. He destroys armies, armies of monsters, armies of everything... But then he gets stabbed to death by a kid with a pitchfork... or mobbed up by a tiny fraction of the army he just helped; more specifically, two men (notice, he can control minds, blow things up, shield himself, plant electrical traps, and yet two men mobbed him)... I think you get my point. He's all powerful and it's very arbitrary when he falls and most often it's not because of his deeds, but because of the storyline.

Sure, I mean, you see the horrible results when you decide everyone around you should be fucked up. But it doesn't weight on the character himself. So I guess it's involving as it shows nasty details, but he's Geralt.

As for the collectable women card game, it is misogynistic. But it's just a pc game, so I don't really care either way.


Ps. In the witcher 2, whenever you talk to women, they're assuming you want to fuck them. Even the women without dialogs say things relevant to being or not being fucked. "I'm a virtuous woman." Their version of "Get away from me, freak." .. Another example of the dialog-less women is one that simply sighs passionately whenever you try to talk to her.

[kotekzot]

Ah, wonderful. I'm glad you see us as all exactly the same people with the same values and attitudes.

Actually, I see the community as a collection of individuals that, for the most part, have a set of desirable qualities, one of which is not being hella dumb.

But seriously, its been said earlier, potions have been used pretty much the same way. Getting angry enough that you would snap the disk if you had it says you have far more problems with the game than you should

Except they don't, seeing how you can't use them in combat, so you have to either guzzle swallow like a CENSORED whenever there's a chance you'll be attacked or get killed because you couldn't heal yourself.

The only things that bothered me immediately about Witcher 2 were the quick-time events (are those ever good in a game?) and the mouse smoothing/acceleration. I've turned off the "Difficult QTEs" to tone down some of the consolitis, then edited the configuration file to get rid of the mouse smoothing -- can't wait to play it again tonight with those changes.

Mouse smoothing, of course! I forgot to rage about how the controls were akin to swimming in particularly thick jello. I'll remember to look into that if I work up the courage to tackle it again.

As for the collectable women card game, it is misogynistic. But it's just a pc game, so I don't really care either way.

So having a picture of your lover is equivalent to "collecting" them somehow? I'll have to keep that in mind.

Dialog Option: "Very funny."
Actual Dialog: "Fuck you."

The dialog options go into wild tangents if you don't consider the following:

1. Geralt is always serious, if it seems like a joke about killing someone, it's not; he will kill someone.
2. The options resume on the following: Good for the person you're chatting with, bad for the person you're chatting with, and misc information. If it seems good, he will not fuck up the person, if it seems like the option is contesting the person in any way, expect that person to be killed. By you.
3. The game has a basic good/evil compass. You can be good, or you can fuck everyone up (and then fuck their wives and daughters). Ps. "Thanks for what you did to the castle."

And you don't think that's totally inacceptable in a roleplaying game?

[Il Palazzo]

Come on, dude. "Acceptable"? Does a game need to be tailor suited to your specifications to earn the RPG badge? There are different kinds of RPGs, some are more sandbox'y and freeform, allowing you to randomly switch between the errant knight and batshit insane sociopath behaviour - because you felt like it. Others are strongly story-driven, and enforce certain act to further the plot. The Witcher is one of the latter, for better or worse. You're supposed to roleplay a very specific, well defined character here, that's all.

Besides, why do you rage so much?