The Witcher 2 (Now announced for Xbox 360!)

[Sméagol]

One of the PC games I'm looking forward too.

Just like Guild Wars 2, there's a series of gameplay videos on GameTrailers with some dev commentary. Obviously it's one big spoiler for this particular quest, but it's a good watch, they'll show you 2 complete different ways this quest can play out.

[iI]

[iII]

[iV]

[V]

[VI]

[VII]

[Nolan]

No time to watch all that now, but I'm hugely excited for The Witcher 2. The first was an excellent although flawed RPG. Hopefully with their own engine some of the little things won't be present now.

[GeeKay]

Yep, I'm looking forward to this too. Love the first one and as everyone is hoping - all the flaws are addressed.

[Aimless]

This is out in a couple of days, and whilst the complete lack of conversation doesn't give me much hope: will anyone else be gallivanting about as Geralt this week?

 

I trumped for pre-ordering it straight from CD Projekt via GOG.com thanks to their anti-DRM policy; you can get boxed copies for a couple of pounds less if you shop around.

 

Also, here's one of the newer trailers focusing on the game's environments:

 

[Nolan]

I'm already Gallivanting about as Geralt...albeit I'm replaying the first. Dunno if I'll get this right away but I will certainly be getting it.

[Magnus]

I still need to play the first game. I think I finished the first chapter before I had to stop playing. Since I'd need to play both games on my brother's computer, I've been reluctant to pick it up again/start over, as playing when he's not using his computer leads to a very fractured experience of maybe an hour a day. Not ideal for RPGs.

[Nolan]

It may be a fractured experience, but it would still be worth it.

[Magnus]

Oh, I'll definitely play it (eventually). I just felt like I should acknowledge that The Witcher 2 will likely be a good game and explain why I wasn't currently anticipating it the way I should.

 

Though if this game is really good, that may give me the motivation I need to start the first game over.

[Shorty]

I have The Witcher sitting on my PC desk but I just can't get into it. The fighting system seems a little archaic and the character annoys me. I haven't played a solid single-player RPG on PC for a long time though so I may just have to give it another try.

[Magnus]

You could always go back and play any older RPGs you may have missed.

 

I agree that The Witcher was missing compelling characters. Geralt wasn't very interesting and I really missed having companions who I could get to know over the course of the game. It made the experience a bit empty to me, but things may get better later on. I also always play RPGs on easy, but then that made the alchemy system - which is a big part of the game - completely pointless, so I may have to rethink that when I get back to it.

[Shorty]

So... do I just suck at this game or is it as impossibly hard as it seems? I'm finding pretty much every big fight to be a challenge.... "E" to parry only seems to work half the time, and magic is useless (fire does no damage, wind type attack stuns for a split second... and that ability which supposedly makes an enemy fight for you does literally nothing). Fighting off a knight, a bigger knight, two shielded enemies and two standard soldiers at once is so hard I feel like I'm doing it wrong. Might help if I could meditate before the fight and take a potion, but it inexplicably won't let me mediate anywhere.

 

Is there an immensely steep learning curve? Or have I been spoiled by the fast-regenerating health of the modern FPS :/

[Nolan]

I have heard that it's hard as hell, and until you start getting some skills dropping bombs is key to winning earlier fights.

[Aimless]

Here's a few thing to consider, Shorty:

• Axii, the mind domination skill, requires you to hold down Q to charge it up. It'll go off once fully charged, although presumably there's still a chance of it working if you let go earlier.
  
• You can only block whilst you have Vigor, the pips that also govern Sign usage. You can upgrade your block a lot via skills as you level up, but essentially the game is more about avoidance using rolls.
  
• Quen is damned useful as it allows you to shrug off a few hits. You can't upgrade your Signs until you've put a certain amount of talent points into the basic Witcher branch, but even its vanilla form allows you some breathing room.
  
• Yrden allows you to lay down paralysing traps. These are useful for shielded enemies as it will hold them in place — so long as they don't resist the effect — allowing you to flank them and bypass their defences.
  
• Bombs are especially useful for stunning enemies whilst your Vigor recharges. I can't remember which recipes you start with, although if you can't bring up the meditation menu to craft any I suppose it's something of a moot point.
  
• From the outset you want to be taking on enemies one at a time; any foes striking your flank will destroy your health. Until you've levelled up quite a bit you're only able to hit one enemy at a time with your sword strikes, so combat is quite a lot like Demon's Souls: crowd control is the order of the day, delaying tougher enemies via Signs whilst focussing your damage on the weakest links.
  

I'm playing on Normal and it's definitely a challenging game. That said some of the talents I'm working towards look like they'll make wading into combat more viable — notably the one that makes your strikes hit multiple opponents — so it could well get easier as things progress.

[Shorty]

Yeah I've been using Quen quite a lot, I didn't realise I needed vigor for parrying. The tutorials come up in these tiny little windows at inconvenient times, like during a fight you will surely lose if you stop to read, and disappear a moment later.

 

Thanks for the tips, I'll give it another shot

[Aimless]

Yeah, I completely missed almost all of the tutorial tips. You can always check them out via your journal (J), or I suppose even hold Ctrl to slow things down when they pop up.

 

I think the combat would be more fun if you could block at any time, parrying requiring you to tap the key as an enemy attacks. As is I find the system's in that slightly uncomfortable place between action game and stat-reliant RPG, a bit like the gunplay in the original Mass Effect.

[McPhee]

Finally got TW2 today! But... they've taken the activation servers offline to upload the patch...

 

FUCKING LAMERS. "Buy from gog.com, it'll be DRM free!". Lying bastards.

 

EDIT: Server is back up. Downloading 28692KB at 3KBps. Oh the unrelenting joy. Why do I pay for games again?

Edited May 23, 2011 by McPhee

[Aimless]

It is DRM-free from GOG; you don't need to activate the game to play it.

 

Incidentally this plays really well with a controller.

[McPhee]

Aye, it does. There's blatantly going to be a console port soon-ish (possibly even this year, depending on how long the actual porting takes). The UI and controls are pretty much there as it is.

 

Unlike most people, I'm loving the combat in this game. Just got to keep moving and make use of the signs. It's very fluid and fast (or it would be if the frame rate would stop tanking!). Done the prologue so far, which took a good couple of hours.

[Shorty]

It really is good with a controller! A brief moment's confusion as I expected the spells menu to be radial rather than a "left, right, up, down" kind of thing, but now I can play the Witcher 2 through my big telly

 

And suddenly I'm wondering if I should've waited til they announced a console version...

[BeerMonkey]

after reading the review of this and watching footage ill defo be picking this up i havent got a decent cpu so running it on a pc is out of the question so im glad there bringing it to xbox

[McPhee]

Xbox 360 trailer:

 

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-the-witcher/714516

 

It's not a straight port either;

 

CDProjekt RED Executive Producer John Mamais stated, “We’re very proud of The Witcher 2 and the highly positive reactions it has received from both our players and the media. Taking it to the Xbox 360 represents an exciting opportunity to introduce it to a new segment of the gaming audience. I’d like to stress that we are doing a full adaptation to the new platform, not just a straight port. Technology-wise, this means we are aiming to push its limits in order to get visual quality as close to high-end PCs as possible – and during E3, you’ll see how good the results we’ve already achieved are. Gameplay-wise, it means we are looking closely at all the feedback we have received about the PC release, and are addressing it during the adaptation process to be sure we provide a superb, completely polished gaming experience. Of course, we are not changing our vision. The Witcher 2 for Xbox 360 will have exactly same flavor, that of deep, mature, non-linear role-playing.”

 

I really hope they do well with this and that they get to work on The Witcher 3 soon. Their engine seems to be powerful enough that they could get at least another game out of it without any modification/enhancement so development time shouldn't be all that long (late 2012?).

[Shorty]

I'm enjoying this game so damn much on my PC, I'll probably pick it up again on the 360.

 

Although the graphics probably won't be as good

[flameboy]

Man wish this was coming to PS3 as well...its got a lot of coverage on podcasts this week and sounds so good.

[Aimless]

Is Atari publishing the 360 version? If so I wouldn't entirely rule out a PS3 release at some point, its current absence is likely more a case of bandwidth; it makes sense to gravitate towards the easier console port if you don't know if it'll be viable to do both.

 

Anyway, even on Low the game still looks nice. The 360 version should definitely be worthwhile for those without a competent PC.

[McPhee]

Completed it tonight. Enjoyed the ending, but this is definitely part 1 of a story.