The Witcher
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Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Association of Direct Wind Merchants?
They aren't MMORPGs but their combat isn't vastly different than WoW (except without all the abilities).
I mean, hey, there's a difference between walking up to an enemy then pressing keys a key to tell a character to repeatedly attack an enemy, and a more direct control where your positioning, dodging and timing has an effect. In a game like Dragon Age or world of warcraft, even if you run away from an enemy that has started hitting you, you`ll be hit even if you're 10 feet away. This is more indirect.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Actually that is mostly fixed in DA2 (the running away and getting hit thing) except missile weapons or spells, they curve and still hit.
Disgustipated
Deity
of course I have played the Witcher, I wouldn't be posting here if I hadn't. The witcher combat is okay, but really only the boss fights are challenging in any way. Some boss fights require good use of abilities. Killing ordinary monsters is kind of lame. You switch styles, but it's pretty similar clicking routine. Although I admit I don't play on the hard level (which doesn't give you clues on when to click), but I see no reason for the unecessary challenge. I'm not interested in playing an action game.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Rock Paper Shotgun have a hands on preview of The Witcher 2.
A few highlights from the article:
- Game starts during a siege with Geralt in the middle of two large opposing armies. The next chapter moves on to the more humble location of a medieval village with residents split over some issue and a dark forest probably filled with monsters.
- Combat is better and involves manual blocking and timing will be important against enemies (especially ones with shields). The AI will try to flank you (and that can be deadly) though Geralt can dodge roll around.
- Light and heavy blow styles, group is gone.
- As per the lore of the books and like in the first game, Geralt carries a silver sword to use against monsters and a steel sword for humans.
- Like in the first game there are not enough skill points to unlock every single upgrade, and there are many of them branching out and inter-connecting.
- How open ended the game is is still unclear, but as shown in preview videos the game looks to be a less-linear game but not completely open world.
- Quick time events are included for various actions in the game (like fist fighting) however don't despair, some of them apparently work really well.
- Plenty of dialogue and exposition to listen too and it is apparently well done overall with good voice acting.
- Triss Merigold returns as a major character and Geralt's lover (don't worry, there will still be opportunities for sex with other women though you won't be collecting cards of them iirc).
EDIT: One of the CD Projekt dev's (so I am told) responded to questions in the comments:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/14/projekting-hands-on-with-the-witcher-2/#comment-667201
A few highlights from the article:
- Game starts during a siege with Geralt in the middle of two large opposing armies. The next chapter moves on to the more humble location of a medieval village with residents split over some issue and a dark forest probably filled with monsters.
- Combat is better and involves manual blocking and timing will be important against enemies (especially ones with shields). The AI will try to flank you (and that can be deadly) though Geralt can dodge roll around.
- Light and heavy blow styles, group is gone.
- As per the lore of the books and like in the first game, Geralt carries a silver sword to use against monsters and a steel sword for humans.
- Like in the first game there are not enough skill points to unlock every single upgrade, and there are many of them branching out and inter-connecting.
- How open ended the game is is still unclear, but as shown in preview videos the game looks to be a less-linear game but not completely open world.
- Quick time events are included for various actions in the game (like fist fighting) however don't despair, some of them apparently work really well.
- Plenty of dialogue and exposition to listen too and it is apparently well done overall with good voice acting.
- Triss Merigold returns as a major character and Geralt's lover (don't worry, there will still be opportunities for sex with other women though you won't be collecting cards of them iirc).
EDIT: One of the CD Projekt dev's (so I am told) responded to questions in the comments:
Graphics settings: Yeah, the final game will have more detailed graphics settings.
Saves: There will be a manual save feature, don’t worry!
QTEs: Oh, they’re not so bad, and they add further variety to the gameplay.
Linearity: The game opens up significantly and has lots of variation based on the choices you make. As we’ve mentioned in previous demos, there are entire locations/portions of the game you will NOT see on your first play through. And, again, there are ultimately 16 different endings/end states based on your choices and actions.
Piracy stuff: We’re releasing the game DRM-free on GOG, and in an hour or so (during the CDP Conference) we’ll talk a bit more about copy protection in other versions. Needless to say, we’re not big fans of DRM. That said, we’re removing the excuses that pirates tend to throw out there… so just buy the game if you want to play it, eh? I don’t see how that’s a problem
16:9: Checking on this. If, worst case, there’s the letterbox (black up top and bottom) is that really a huge issue? It looks all cinematic-like, and that’s how many of us used to watch movies, remember? “Widescreen version” even though we didn’t have widescreen TVs?
How it’s an RPG: Well, there’s character development, the ability to make decisions that impact the gameplay, item collection and crafting, a story, and… well…. yeah, it’s an RPG.
Hope that clarifies some things!
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/14/projekting-hands-on-with-the-witcher-2/#comment-667201
Disgustipated
Deity
So I decided to start the Witcher over again. I got to the end of chapter 2 last year, but I forgot everything, so I just started from scratch. I'm to the end of chapter 2 again.
Having direct control is vastly overrated. I don't really care to play an action game. But apparently that's what some people want. The combat is one of the weaker points of the Witcher. The combat is endless. At first I was fighting everything in the swamp forest. And at night! I was getting overwhelmed, and I didn't want to have to take a swallow potion every time I went in there. I quickly learned to just run away from the monsters. There's little point in fighting every drowner. I hate respawning mobs with a passion. Everything in the Witcher respawns really quick.
My load times were horrible, but I figured out why that was. I have too many save files. I just deleted a whole bunch this morning. It seems every quick and autosave makes a new save alot. And I'm an obsessive saver. I hate replaying large chunks of the game. So I save every couple of minutes. I had over 400 save files between both games! That's why it took forever to load games. And save games too, but I usually just used the quicksave, as it took forever to get to the load and save game screens.
The dice poker is really tough. I read online that it's a great way to make money, but the AI is lucky as hell. They often get 4 of a kind, where as I never get them. So that almost necessitates reloads. Which as I mentioned above, used to take forever. What I usually do is play an opponent 2 times to get the quest update for winning. If I lose the first time, I'll play a second time and bet more money (to make up for the money I lost the first time). If I lose both games, then I'll reload. Sometimes I can win by betting a large amount, and having the opponent fold, but that doesn't happen often. It's hard to bluff when they can see what you got. The game is just a matter of having better luck than the AI, which isn't easy.
combat is repetitive, but I like it for the most part. But as I mentioned above, having direct control isn't all that great. You really don't have that much control in the Witcher. And I rarely find the need to dodge (in fact, I never do it). Offense is always > than defense. I just wish there was a way to stop pushing the enemy monsters back with your witcher sword combos. I often push them back into more mobs. One time at night, I swear I was fighting like half the swamp forest as I kept pushing the mobs back into other mobs. It was an endless amount of drowners (and those other guys). After that, I learned to just run away. I'm also an obsessive loot collector, so I would often have to finish off large groups of mobs so I can loot.
The witcher is a pretty good game, but far from perfect. The voice acting is pretty substandard. I'll attribute some of that to translation problems. The story is decent, but I still feel its overrated. The thing I enjoy most in the game is trying to bed every woman. I'm not sure if that's really what a game should be known for.
And I don't understand why
Having direct control is vastly overrated. I don't really care to play an action game. But apparently that's what some people want. The combat is one of the weaker points of the Witcher. The combat is endless. At first I was fighting everything in the swamp forest. And at night! I was getting overwhelmed, and I didn't want to have to take a swallow potion every time I went in there. I quickly learned to just run away from the monsters. There's little point in fighting every drowner. I hate respawning mobs with a passion. Everything in the Witcher respawns really quick.
My load times were horrible, but I figured out why that was. I have too many save files. I just deleted a whole bunch this morning. It seems every quick and autosave makes a new save alot. And I'm an obsessive saver. I hate replaying large chunks of the game. So I save every couple of minutes. I had over 400 save files between both games! That's why it took forever to load games. And save games too, but I usually just used the quicksave, as it took forever to get to the load and save game screens.
The dice poker is really tough. I read online that it's a great way to make money, but the AI is lucky as hell. They often get 4 of a kind, where as I never get them. So that almost necessitates reloads. Which as I mentioned above, used to take forever. What I usually do is play an opponent 2 times to get the quest update for winning. If I lose the first time, I'll play a second time and bet more money (to make up for the money I lost the first time). If I lose both games, then I'll reload. Sometimes I can win by betting a large amount, and having the opponent fold, but that doesn't happen often. It's hard to bluff when they can see what you got. The game is just a matter of having better luck than the AI, which isn't easy.
combat is repetitive, but I like it for the most part. But as I mentioned above, having direct control isn't all that great. You really don't have that much control in the Witcher. And I rarely find the need to dodge (in fact, I never do it). Offense is always > than defense. I just wish there was a way to stop pushing the enemy monsters back with your witcher sword combos. I often push them back into more mobs. One time at night, I swear I was fighting like half the swamp forest as I kept pushing the mobs back into other mobs. It was an endless amount of drowners (and those other guys). After that, I learned to just run away. I'm also an obsessive loot collector, so I would often have to finish off large groups of mobs so I can loot.
The witcher is a pretty good game, but far from perfect. The voice acting is pretty substandard. I'll attribute some of that to translation problems. The story is decent, but I still feel its overrated. The thing I enjoy most in the game is trying to bed every woman. I'm not sure if that's really what a game should be known for.
And I don't understand why
Spoiler :
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
It isn't quite direct control in The Witcher, you have to time your mouse clicks to when the cursor shows the bright flame on it. Direct control is what Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Mount&Blade have. The reason why the combat in The Wticher isn't quite direct control is because the developers weren't sure how to implement the fancy sword play witchers use for direct control, though yeah it isn't a strength of the game
.
Not quite everything, but yeah the Swamp gets old. Make sure you are using the group fighting style against the drowners, or the light style if only one of them is left. I played on normal and never really used that many potions, just the occasional one. On harder difficulties you definitely need to sue potions and alchemy to keep Geralt alive and kicking butt.
Good grief man thats ridiculous. Try to just keep like 4 main saves and resave over them each time. I assume you have the Enhanced edition right? I remember in the original demo the load times took freaking forever, thankfully the Enhanced edition reduced them by 80%!
I find most gambling minigames are rigged in most games, though I didn't have too big of a problem in The Witcher but I know exactly what you mean.
Are you sure you are using the right fighting styles? Yeah they still push them back but I usually finished off drowners in a few hits.
I'd say the overratedness is about on par with the average amount any game is overrated. The vast majority of games are pretty bad so even above-average games look great
Still excited for The Witcher 2 though, CD Projekt seems to have learned a lot from past mistakes (such as offering the Enhanced edition of The Witcher free to everyone who bought the original version and it vastly improved many things).
I have no idea either.
Say_my_name
Warlord
Disgustipated
Deity
Does anyone use bombs? I don't think I want to mess around with those. I still haven't invested the Intelligence points necessary to make them. What do bombs do exactly? Why would they be better than using swords?
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
I barely used them, and it was long ago enough I don't recall. I found myself carrying some of them but never actually using them because I "might really need them later".
Say_my_name
Warlord
Bombs do various things, mostly status effects. You use the like potions, only that Geralt throws the bomb on the ground in front of him. There's one bomb that stuns all enemies around you (called Samun i think) which is very useful to get out of hairy situations.
Disgustipated
Deity
I'm not investing in bombs yet. I haven't had any need for them. Signs seem to do pretty much the same things it seems.
I love how when the witcher is running if he gets close to a person he'll push them out of the way.
He even seems to do this with kids. I love that animation. 
I finished chapter 3 last night. It took a little while to figure out how to use the Aard sign to blow the supports down. I died like 4 times trying to get that right.
I love how when the witcher is running if he gets close to a person he'll push them out of the way.
He even seems to do this with kids. I love that animation. I finished chapter 3 last night. It took a little while to figure out how to use the Aard sign to blow the supports down. I died like 4 times trying to get that right.
Adam7Eight
Emperor
I'm only on Chapter 2. It does have a few small annoyances but overall I like it so far.
Disgustipated
Deity
I like the quote "nothing like a night at the whorehouse to clear your head"
This is a funny game. It's funny that drinking and having sex are pretty much necessary to advance certain quests. It's kind of cool in a way. A game like this would probably never be developed by a U.S. company. I'm hoping Witcher 2 will be good. I am looking forward to it. I'm starting to get more and more into the game as it goes along.
This is a funny game. It's funny that drinking and having sex are pretty much necessary to advance certain quests. It's kind of cool in a way. A game like this would probably never be developed by a U.S. company. I'm hoping Witcher 2 will be good. I am looking forward to it. I'm starting to get more and more into the game as it goes along.
Disgustipated
Deity
Oh, and the dice game actually gets easier as you go along. Surprisingly professional and sharper games were easier than my novice games. I'm not sure the reasoning behind that.
And this stupid kid Alvin is following me now. I kind of feel bad having sex with the lady of the lake with him watching.
And this stupid kid Alvin is following me now. I kind of feel bad having sex with the lady of the lake with him watching.
Disgustipated
Deity
Finally finished this game. Although I screwed up twice in Chapter 5 with sidequests. One annoyance with this game is the fact that some side quest items are also reagents for potions. Twice in chapter 5 I used up quest items while making potions. I didn't bother to micromanage what ingredients I use, I just use whatever goes into the slot automatically.
The worst part is I've been using only one save all chapter long to minimize the save games I'm creating, and all 4 autosaves were of recent caves I was going in and out of. So I had to replay all of chapter 5 (I was about 1/4 of the way through it already).
The second time it happened I was near the end of chapter 5, so I said screw it. I did every quest in the game except one. The Obsessive compulsive side of me hates that. I feel like the game is incomplete. The quest I couldn't get (unless I replayed chapter 5 again) was the Bruxia contract. I used the Bruxia blood in some potions apparently. I only had 5 when I need 6. And out of all the annoying respawning monsters in the game, Bruxia are not one of them. I searched high and low for that last blood, but I couldn't find it. I said screw it and moved onto the epilogue.
It's a pretty cool game that gets better as it goes along. I'm glad I finally finished it. There are some minor annoyances like I mentioned above. And the respawning monsters. And the drowners/drowned dead. I'll be happy if I never see another one of those again. There are insane numbers of them. I just ran away from all of them in chapter 5 (had to kill a few sometimes to get into a cave).
The final part of the game is really easy. I don't know what my character level was, but it was pretty high. I smashed everything in sight. The only challenging battle was the spider thingy in the catacombs in the manor. Although I'm thinking if the
The worst part is I've been using only one save all chapter long to minimize the save games I'm creating, and all 4 autosaves were of recent caves I was going in and out of. So I had to replay all of chapter 5 (I was about 1/4 of the way through it already).
The second time it happened I was near the end of chapter 5, so I said screw it. I did every quest in the game except one. The Obsessive compulsive side of me hates that. I feel like the game is incomplete. The quest I couldn't get (unless I replayed chapter 5 again) was the Bruxia contract. I used the Bruxia blood in some potions apparently. I only had 5 when I need 6. And out of all the annoying respawning monsters in the game, Bruxia are not one of them. I searched high and low for that last blood, but I couldn't find it. I said screw it and moved onto the epilogue.
It's a pretty cool game that gets better as it goes along. I'm glad I finally finished it. There are some minor annoyances like I mentioned above. And the respawning monsters. And the drowners/drowned dead. I'll be happy if I never see another one of those again. There are insane numbers of them. I just ran away from all of them in chapter 5 (had to kill a few sometimes to get into a cave).
The final part of the game is really easy. I don't know what my character level was, but it was pretty high. I smashed everything in sight. The only challenging battle was the spider thingy in the catacombs in the manor. Although I'm thinking if the
Spoiler :
I understand, I am a bit like that too although I managed to tone it down. Especially with games these days... With all the disappointment you get from actually completing the side quests "oh... yay... um... I managed to come back and complete this side quest that doesn't have any impact on the rest of the story and just gives me a thanks + 100 gold + 3 lines of new text. yay me"
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Yep, I'm saying, it's worth doing the sidequests when they pop up, but I don't, anymore, go out of my way to come back and complete every single side quest ever, or necessarily make sure that my second playthrough catches all the options I didn't get the first time... Because it's not worth it 99% of the time to do the effort. Just play the way things pop up.
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