The Witcher

[Disgustipated]

So there is only 3 acts in this game? How is the total length of this game compared to the Witcher 1? I was very happy with the length of the Witcher 1. If you did all the sidequests, and lots of exploring, it took a while to finish that one.

 

[Adam7Eight]

I was very happy with the length of the Witcher 1. If you did all the sidequests, and lots of exploring, it took a while to finish that one.

I put in about 70 hours on my first playthrough.

Haven't got TW2 yet. I'm waiting for a monster sale.

 

[Maniacal]

The Witcher 2 is shorter than The Witcher 1 (which was about 70-80 hours) which I am perfectly fine with because TW1 was almost too long (although good). I'm at least 20 hours into TW2 and spent maybe two hours in Act II so far and from what I have heard TW2 is about 35-40 hours.

Also this game is totally worth getting retail for all the extra goodies, or if you must get it digital then GoG.com (owned by the same company) has the best digital version (No DRM at all) and all your money goes to the same company.

EDIT: Barack Obama got The Witcher II as a gift from the polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk

Damn they gave him the collector's edition too

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm definitely getting this, but I'm not sure what method. Wikipedia says gog.com is DRM free? Although I prefer steam, just because I'm familiar with steam. What is gog.com anyways? Are they reputable? What if they go out of business, do I still own the game?

 

[Maniacal]

Good Old Games is completely DRM free on all games, so you can downlaod and back them up as many times as you want.. its owned by CDProjekt (CDProjekt Red is the studio that develops The Witcher) and is 100% legit. Most of their games are older, and they have dozens of classic games like Baldur's Gate, Masters of Orion, Outcast, Duke Nukem 3D, Stronghold (and Crusader), etc. Every game is priced at either $5.99 or $9.99 USD (except The Witcher 2 which is $49.99). Many of the games come with bonus artwork, sound tracks, wallpapers, manuals, and other goodies available as additional downloads.

 

[Adam7Eight]

I'm definitely getting this, but I'm not sure what method. Wikipedia says gog.com is DRM free? Although I prefer steam, just because I'm familiar with steam. What is gog.com anyways? Are they reputable? What if they go out of business, do I still own the game?

Besides Steam and Impulse it's pretty good. Lot's of great older games and everything is DRM free. I definately recommend it.

 

[Rub'Rum]

steam, gog.com and gamersgate are the best and pretty much the only online services I use for gaming. gog.com is awesome for any gamer at heart who has been gaming for the past few decades... has a treasureful of memories.

 

[Maniacal]

Forgot to mention it again, but as noted twice on a previous page in this thread the 1.1 patch removed the DRM for the retail version of The Witcher 2 as well.

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm downloading TW2 from gog right now. It comes in several downloadable parts. Is this normal? How do I actually install the game? Is there an install file? I haven't checked the readme file to see if it has install instructions. I'm still only downloading the first section now. I have a slow internet connection. This is going to take a while at 283 kb/sec. But it's still the middle of my workweek. Hopefully by my weekend it will be ready to play.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Usually, one of the files is the obvious .exe file to boot. Just have them all in the same directory. Usually it's the first file of the batch. It should have a different icon I think.

EDIT: Here is my 3-files install for Neverwinter Nights...

 

[carmen510]

Just thought this was interesting:

Obama Receives the Collector's Edition of Witcher 2 as a gift from the Polish Prime Minister

 

[LDiCesare]

I started TW2. I loved the Witcher 1 but am hating the combat, console-interface, lack of decent save system, having to exit the game to change graphics quality and lots of other details. Plus I hate the combat which has become a clickfest. I hope I can get past the disgust vis a vis the combaat mechanics.

 

[Maniacal]

console-interface

What the heck is consoley abotu the interface? The inventory in particular is definately not controller friendly.

lack of decent save system

It saves pretty well for me. Though it could not keep EVERY SINGLE SAVE which TW1 did too... If you mean you cant save while in combat well many games don't let you do that and it kind of makes sense.

,having to exit the game to change graphics quality

Yeah a little odd and annoying, but once its set then there's no problem

Plus I hate the combat which has become a clickfest. I hope I can get past the disgust vis a vis the combaat mechanics.

Its no more of a clickfest than the first game, and its more of a roll and dodgefest with attacknig between on Normal. On Easy you don't really need ot use any strategy at all, just click.

 

[Disgustipated]

downloading part 2 now. yay. I guess it would be faster to buy the hard copy. Esp. since the patch removes drm. But that's okay. I already paid for it. Might as well not have any drm in the first place.

Why does the game not keep every single save? What do you mean by that? TW1 did, but I admit, I saved far too often. It'd keep every single quicksave. I had hundreds of files I had to delete, as the save and load screens were taking too long because of the number of files I had. I have the bad habit of quicksaving every couple of minutes.

As for the click fest, I haven't played yet. I admit I'm not into click fests, and the combat in TW1 wasn't the main reason I liked that game. It was probably last on my reasons for liking that game. The story and style made up for it. I'm not too keen on rolling and dodging, but I'm sure I can figure it out. I refuse to play on easy. I will find a way on normal even if I have to reload. I remember on Dragon Age (before the first patch), normal could be a little difficult (unless you used bubble exploits), but I eventually found some strategies that worked.

 

[Maniacal]

Most games give you a few different autosaves and quicksaves (or at least jsut one that it resaves over), whereas in the Witcher every time it saves it creates a new file. So you end up with dozens of save files. And unlike DAO on PC when it was released, Normal isn't just a harder than the consoel version (there is no console versino yet but that is irrelevant) Normal is rather hard in TW2, at least early on.

 

[Say_my_name]

You will die a lot if you treat the combat as a clickfest, and rolling is good but just using Quen to tank some damage is usually better.

 

[PhroX]

Never completed the first Witcher, but I've got a lot of free time over the next few months so I think I'm gonna give it another go. Before I start, are there any "must have" mods? I saw the combat rebalance one, but I was pretty crap at combat to begin with so making it harder probably ain't the best idea..

 

[Maniacal]

Its too early for mods, I didn't even know there were any besides people playing around with textures. Also just completed it, well, one of the paths. Awesome game, I can't wait for the next one (which they did kind of set up for but I think they did a good job of not making it a painful cliff hanger). It took me about 35 hours for one playthrough, and I will definitely play it through again a 2nd time (since Act II and Act III have two very different perspectives/paths you can take due to your actions in Act 1). I can also see myself playing it again later on too.

 

[LDiCesare]

What the heck is consoley abotu the interface? The inventory in particular is definately not controller friendly.

The lack of keyboard prompts. For instance, I would like to rename my saves.
The combat shortcuts: count the number of buttons used.
Now it may not be console-y, just not ergonomic. For instance the lack of pause when a new tutorial panel is shown is jut plain idiotic and has nothing to do with controllers.

Its no more of a clickfest than the first game, and its more of a roll and dodgefest with attacknig between on Normal. On Easy you don't really need ot use any strategy at all, just click.

'Just click' means clickfest to me. The first game required some timing when clicking. It wasn't hard, but I ended up liking it, although I'd rather have turn based combat but I know that won't be seen again. Plus when you have to click fast just to arm or aim a ballista, I call that clickfest.

 

[Maniacal]

The lack of keyboard prompts.

Please clarify what you mean.

For instance, I would like to rename my saves.

Yeah that would be nice especially if you are sharing the game with someone else in your house. Oblivion did the same thing, and its one thing Bioware series did right by separating the character saves.

The combat shortcuts: count the number of buttons used.

I don't see how that makes it anymore consoley than any other game like Mount&Blade or how it has had negative impact on the game. The first game didn't use a lot either.

Now it may not be console-y, just not ergonomic.

How is it not ergonomic? All the keys I used (except for a few usual menus like J for journal) are clustered quite comfortably around WASD.

For instance the lack of pause when a new tutorial panel is shown is jut plain idiotic and has nothing to do with controllers.

And has nothing to do with combat or anything else in the game. The tutorial is just barely there which is the main flaw in the game.

'Just click' means clickfest to me.

You just described every single PC game.

The first game required some timing when clicking. It wasn't hard, but I ended up liking it,

Yeah I wish they had used that again since now you can just spam clicks if you want (but 99% of them won't do anything, you're just spamming the button). After a little while I only clicked when Geralt was at the end of his swing as clickfesting is pointless.

although I'd rather have turn based combat but I know that won't be seen again.

Real time is a lot more fun

Plus when you have to click fast just to arm or aim a ballista, I call that clickfest.

You aim a ballista ONCE in the entire game. Although I assume you are referring to the quick time events and yeah there are a few (like, a half dozen) in the game where you have to spam the mouse button, but they don't last long and doesn't make the entire game a clickfest.

QTEs are quite sparingly used in the game and actually I quite enjoyed them. They really made the fist fighting a lot better. Indeed, you probably have as many QTEs in the fist fights as any others in the game, maybe more.