The Witcher 2

[LuckyDeath]

It will be mine...

 

As soon as I am finished with all my EA week games (Dead Space, Crysis, Bad Co. 2).

[InCrYsIs]

I received my collector's edition yesterday right before I left for Las Cruces. Opened it up and everything was in order. The bust of Geralt had a few smudges on it, but nothing that a little spit and a paper towel couldn't clean up. It feels like it is made out of refined concrete or something, very heavy but also very smooth.

 

Alas though, I have not been able to play it any yet since I've been busy with LA Noire. I'll post up some impressions of The Witcher 2 before long however.

 

You paid for that? *smack* *smack*

[bp9801]

You paid for that? *smack* *smack*

 

Well its more than just a bust. There is a huge art book in it that was well worth it. Some extra content, soundtrack, that kind of stuff. I'm a big fan of the novels, so this just adds to the collection of stuff I already have. The music is absolutely killer.

[LuckyDeath]

I'm hearing absolutely awesome things about this game. It is definitely going to take some restraint to wait for the price to drop (Soon as I see it for $30-something I'm all over it).

[krazypoloc]

Started playing last night and its giving my rig quite the workout.

 

The game looks absolutely gorgeous and IMO they got the controls spot on. I never played the first one so I can't compare the two. To me it feels like a blend of Oblivion and Assasins Creed...without the shortcomings of either.

[bp9801]

Speaking of Assassin's Creed, there is apparently a little easter egg in The Witcher 2 poking fun at AC.

 

I'll load up the game tonight, see how the controls compare to the first one. Everything I've heard puts the sequel as having better controls and no timing mini-game to attack. From what krazypoloc says, it looks like the controls should be fairly easy to grasp. I know people had issues with the controls in the first game, so perhaps those have been rectified in the second game.

[InCrYsIs]

http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings/review/the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings-review/a-201105171466879070/g-20100323131251436086

 

 

Very nice review

[krazypoloc]

Speaking of Assassin's Creed, there is apparently a little easter egg in The Witcher 2 poking fun at AC.

 

I'll load up the game tonight, see how the controls compare to the first one. Everything I've heard puts the sequel as having better controls and no timing mini-game to attack. From what krazypoloc says, it looks like the controls should be fairly easy to grasp. I know people had issues with the controls in the first game, so perhaps those have been rectified in the second game.

Haha....thats awesome. I couldn't ever stand any of those titles for more than a few hours....

 

Its also obvious that this game was made by pc gamers for pc gamers, it really comes out with the humor and just the general attitude of the game. You can tell it wasn't held back at all by some corporate stooge that wants to power the hole world with windmills. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to actually enjoy the cut scenes and the dialogue, its been a long time since I can say that between the EA's and IW's of the world...

Edited May 19, 2011 by krazypoloc

[sack_patrol]

I just installed the game and played for about 5 minutes and I actually got quite a bit out of that time.

 

First of all I wanna say that I'm still half way through the first game and I enjoy it quite a bit.

 

As for the second game, it seems to be a great improvement over the first one in many aspects. The music is excellent as well as the voice acting and writing. I'm a bit bothered that they didn't use the same voice that Geralt had in the first game but that's fine. The gameplay has changed for the better with an improved combat system that I like better than the one in the first game although it was fun to be able to switch between the three fighting styles even if it's a bit tedious at first. I like the Quick menu that only slows down the game and the ability to meditate wherever you want. I also like the improved inventory menu that also allows to equip other clothes and armor. I'm not sure if there is a place where you can place potions for quick access and it would be kind of inconvenient if it was removed but not a big problem since I often just opened the inventory in battle and used potions from there. There's also lot's of little tabs for different stuff which is cool. Map and journal are more detailed and I like that too.

 

I particularly enjoy the Insane difficulty setting that they have included. Insane is basically like Diablo 2's Hardcore mode. If you die once, you die forever. There are no limits on the Saves as far as I know so this kind of makes it a bit easier as you can exit the game if you are about to die ( again, a bit like in D2) but I still enjoy this little challenge. It's not something that you see in many games. The only little problem is that the game isn't as optimized as it could be so I'm getting low fps and I died in the first battle cuz it was way too choppy.

 

The graphics are kind of funky cuz some things look pretty damn good where as others are not detailed at all like the curtain decorations, hands of the characters and clothes though the environment is quite rich and varied. It overall looks pretty good, but if you focus on individual details, they aren't top notch. The difference between the Lowest and Highest settings isn't that big either but I can personally see those differences being someone that intends to work on 3D animation later as my career so it's kind of like a pebble in my shoe but I don't really mind it since graphics aren't that important for me although it's nice to be able to run the game on max since it does look quite nice.

 

Lip-sync isn't that good either but it will do I guess.

 

I hope the patch next week optimizes the game a bit because on the highest settings I get very low fps. I didn't check but I'm guessing that on average it's about 20-30 and even though the game looks good, I don't think that this is quite right.

Edited May 19, 2011 by sack_patrol

[InCrYsIs]

Seems like the 2 biggest complaints are the difficulty of the game even on normal and the graphics optimization.

 

Patch next week? Is that documented somewhere?

Edited May 19, 2011 by InCrYsIs

[sack_patrol]

Patch next week? Is that documented somewhere?

yea just google "Witcher 2 Patch" and you'll see it.

[krazypoloc]

Seems like the 2 biggest complaints are the difficulty of the game even on normal and the graphics optimization.

 

Patch next week? Is that documented somewhere?

Having never played this before, and not being an RPG guy at all, I didn't find it difficult. I found it quite balance, I would say challenging....I guess most RPG'ers are used to WoW or whatever where all you do is spam buttons.

 

The graphics could certainly use optimizing, especially with multi-GPU setups. AMD in particular really dropped the ball on this one as crossfire doesn't have any performance scaling at all from what I can see....maybe a 10% increase with a second card...patch from AMD is supposed to be coming promptly though.