f13.net

Has anyone been following this? I've seen a few previews and the IGN hands-on sounded mostly favorable.

Preordered. Wish the special edition were available here - art is gorgeous. Seems hack and slashy. Has boobs. I give it a 13/10.

For some reason, I fear it's going to perform for shit though.

Well, the IGN hands-on mentioned "a few hitches and bugs." I'm hoping it's not Gothic 3 levels of bad coding but the storyline and game play sounded really interesting.

It IS eastern european. I can't think of a non SRPG from the bloc that isn't a buggy POS.

It's been in development forever and has been due for release "this Christmas" for something like 3-4 consecutive years now.

I saw a demo at E306 and, while they talked a good game, they didn't have much to actually show for all the time spent.

After seeing schild's mention of it having boobies, I thought you're quote was "a few bitches and hugs." Damn stream of consciousness.

One thing that I thought was funny, if you have sex with a woman in the game you get some kind of trading card. Finally, a collectible card game based off of screwing loose virtual women!

That's almost as good as the gay trading cards in Shadow Hearts 2.

I don't think I'd really looked at this game until this post and I gotta say, I'm intrigued. I'm a little disappointed that you can't roll up your own character (at least that's the way it looks) but looking at some of the features, it looks like it's still a pretty engaging game. I was considering Hellgate for the end of the month, but his might get my money instead.

Because it's got undead boobies.

Does Hellgate have boobies, undead or otherwise?

http://pc.ign.com/articles/828/828211p2.html (http://pc.ign.com/articles/828/828211p2.html)

I'm interested in the allegedly morally grey decisions you can alledgely make, so that saving someone's life might bite you in the ass, but letting them die might not be a good thing either.

I love games set in fantasy-medieval Europe where the player and all the NPCs have American accents. It's immersive.

Also, that trailer got really fucking old by the end of it, I've heard a better version of that monologue in countless films.

Has any game really succeeded yet at a game with morally grey decisions?  I struggling to come up with anything other than the completely black and white choices that most non-linear RPG's have run with.

Depends on how strictly you define 'morally grey'. Fallout & Fallout 2 did, in my opinion, provide that variety.

"Your momma suck dwarf's cock"

 :awesome_for_real: I think they just set a new trend for 'gritty' medieval dialogue. And the story came from Europe? :O

Yeah, I love Japanese games, set in Japan where everyone looks like a Westerner and speaks with American accents.

 :awesome_for_real:
I'm not sure if they have original voice-acting in Polish(?) in the Euro version,

Oh, someone in RPGCodex in Europe has played it and shows us a few of the 'sex' card rewards.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=20967&start=25

I wonder if those cards will end up censored in America. I know I'm gonna get razzed but those were more tasteful than I thought and actually pretty decent artwork.

Hmmm....

Lots of stuff in the US edition is getting censored. I'm buying the US edition and acquiring the British one. Because let's be fair, tits.

This censor shit pisses me off. If I got the British one would it work on my computer? I guess I'd need a region free DVD player or something. Is there a list of what's getting censored?

(One of the devs on The Witcher dev team on NeoGAF said it was) Region free. Just buy it. problem is, I don't know where to buy it from to get it on launch (digital download).

You're fine as long as you don't have comcast!

I want to support non-japanese RPG development even if it is largely FPS hybrid/Bad third person action with a keyboard.

I found this website that will ship it to you:

game.co.uk (http://game.co.uk)

I don't know about digital download options. The collectors edition sounds sweet, it has an art book, soundtrack, a medallion, and a few other things.

It's also in Polish.

Looks like I'll be hunting the foreign version as well. Land of the Free  :roll:

D'oh! Have you ever noticed how other countries get sweet collector's editions and we get a making of dvd? Especially on Japanese RPgs. Some of those have made me wish I read Japanese. (if I didn't suck at foreign languages I'd consider trying to learn it.)

On quite a few NA releases of JP games, the NA version is a localized "director's cut".  Just saying.  I think Rogue Galaxy is a recent example.

Yeah but I was just trying to point out that things like this happen all the time and it's kind of silly to pick out one game to criticize for it.

I broke down and ordered the UK version. Apparently it's not region specific which was my big worry. Screw censorship. I want my boobies!

The more I've thought about this, the more it bothers me and the more I want to get a foreign, uncensored version. Not because of teh bewbs (though those cards are well-done) or anything, just because it goes against american values (the old, pre-pussification values) to censor stuff. I've fucking had it with religious douches who feel like it's their job to tell others what is and isn't indecent...censorship is what I find indecent.

Schild, I really wish you /wouldn't/ buy a US version, that nobody here buy it. UK pplz, please list some good, legit sites to order from and EVERYONE get them there.

(I also dig quite a few eastern bloc games, bugs or not)

You mean before the Puritans arrived?  If I get this game, it will be the uncensored version.  I'm incensed at censure!

Puritans were English refugees from political oppression long before there was an america. I'm talking about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. Jackass.

Tried to order at game.co.uk, can't get past the final confirmation at checkout, very vague reason (none, really) given. Trying to contact their tech support. Dammit.

Look for the red. I had that  problem and I had to put my "title". IE Mr.

Exchange rate is going to hurt on this one.

Agreed. I hope this game isn't "Eastern European suck". Because with exchange I think I spent almost $90. Still....I think it's worth it to let Atari know I'm not buying censored shit.

I triple checked everything.

Also, it kept clearing my state out when I made other mistakes.

There's a digital download option listed on the Atari site, but I suspect that gets you the US version.  It was easier with Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy because they actually had different names.  It doesn't seem like this one is going out of its way to differentiate between the "has boobs" and "has no boobs" versions, though.

I have to wonder if the German version will have all of the extreme violence removed and replaced by something wholesome. Like hardcore rubbersex and bestiality.

For the Children.

I'm wondering if Australia will be getting the uncensored European version or the censored US version.

Also, how long before I can dl a patch that turns the censored version into the uncensored version.

I live in Singapore.  :|

I imagine it's a pretty safe bet that we'll be getting the censored version. I also imagine that if I check this game out that it'll be via our friends at British Telecom to evaluate it before I order it from the UK, sight unseen. Something I haven't done in some time..

I've always been under the impression that we tend to get the Euro/British stuff of the censorship divide, rather than the American one. Could be mistaken though.

Well, I got an email from games.co.uk that my game will ship soon and I should get it on release day. (It's a form letter so I'm guessing it doesn't take into account overseas shipping time.)

You should be able to order it off of amazon.co.uk too, if you can't get it on games.co.uk. I've had no problem sending orders to the US from there, although they were all books.

It's probably more likely you can get it from games.co.uk than Amazon UK, actually.  They're funny about games.  I just don't know if this game will be worth paying double for just to have boobies and stuff.

This is about freedom from censorship. You know how people flew off the handle when I tried to kill SW:G conversation. Same thing. Only this has nipples.

http://dvd.co.uk/ (http://dvd.co.uk/) has it cheaper than amazon and also says they'll ship to the USA.

*edit* Australia too.

So, has anyone actually played it yet? Is it actually any good or are we all just railing against Puritan America? :hello_thar:

Thats what I'm wondering also Yoru.

Almost $90 for a game? You poor thing. :x

Go gamer has the UK import for $49.95

Is GoGamer good?

GoGamer is good for getting UK imports, but they seem to be down the food chain so they don't always get games on release days.

I think I mentioned before that they were supposed to release a demo but never did.  That sort of made me suspicious and I didn't pre-order.  I might wait until after it's released and you guys give me the dirt on it.

I'm interested in the game, but I'm wary of it too. Based on NWN combat? Where clicking at the right time is important? Could be magic, could be tear-your-hear-out frustrating.

And it hails from the Warsaw Pact, which means there's a decent chance it's a giant mess of bugs and broken features.

Quote:
5. Patch 1.1 Major Fixes
- Fixes for sex scene with nurses in Act 5.   :pedobear:
 :awesome_for_real:

First of all, reading about your woes with importing games from Europe brings tears of joy to my eyes! Finally,
To add more salt to the injury - not only we got it uncensored, with decent voice acting, 5 days before you but it costs 29.99$.

Other than unfortunately it is ridden with bugs and poor preformace (do not approach without core duo and at least GF x800). Writing is industry standard, but when compared to books it's based on it plain simply sucks. Also, no jumping. In TPP game with atrocious control scheme.

Only really strong point - boobies.

Gogamer has both domestic and international versions. Look for the (I) for the international one. I also preordered HG:L.

I am broken.

That is all.

Please add preordered to the spell checker. Thank you in advance for your compliance.

? have you played the game?

Mini-Review! (yay for friend who is willing to express ship.)

I'm probably about 5-6 hours in and so far I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Yes, there are SOME bugs, but they're not game breaking. I patched to 1.1 right away and I've only once encountered 1 crash that wasn't my own fault and I honestly think it had to do with me not rebooting after install and patching.

Combat
Can be repetitive, but the styles at flavor and a bit of strategy to the game. As you progress through the game and upgrade your weapon skills the animations change for how you strike in combat. The combos seem a bit tacked on, but aren't too bad. The magic (signs in the game) doesn't feel all that useful, but I like to dice people up, so it could be me. Some of the quests involve the use of magic to further the plot line (knocking down walls for example.) So far the combat AI isn't too spectacular and it can be a bit annoying.
Using the isometric views is not recommended as the camera can spaz out and cause you to lose track of enemies. I suggest the OTS (over the shoulder) cam from the get go. You can still pause and figure things out during combat in that mode without a problem.

Story
I'm rather liking it. Of course it's not the BEST THING EVAR, but compared to the effort put into most RPG story lines this one is up there. The voice acting adds a lot and it's not shitty. There's nothing like hearing "Your mother sucks dwarf cock" shouted at you. Yes, I'm serious when I say that's a line spouted at you. Some of the characters come off as generic, luckily the main character doesn't and actually has a twisted sense of morality. Often I find myself thinking "Oh fuck, here comes generic hero line of kindness" and I'm surprise to hear him say the complete opposite or something I never expected.

Gameplay
Some of the quests are pretty generic, where as some a bit unique in their execution and how your character reacts to the situation. Due to the boobies and sex there are quests that actually center around you getting laid as the reward. Seriously. Why hasn't someone done this before? Screw FedEx or collection quests. TnA quests for the win! Now, I don't know if they use the word "scene" loosely over there, but there really isn't sex SCENES. More like a default video playing in the background as you obtain the, uh, card.
There isn't a shortage of quests, or women to have sex with for that matter. Sometimes it almost feels overwhelming because some quests are given to you out of order. These are often side quests that do this. It's a minor nuisance and hasn't happened that often. I'm actually adjusting to this small flaw.
The atmosphere set out by the game really plays through in how the world looks and the people act. It's actually quite surprising how the AI reacts to certain things like monsters and the rain. Small things that make things seem a bit more believable. You can also chase swans.

Sound?
I don't know. Some of you people demand good music/voice overs. It has both. Even well voiced moaning. ENJOY!

I can't think of anything else that you might want to know. As for JoeTFs claims that it's ridden with bugs and has poor performance. I wouldn't agree on the whole. The loading between levels can become a pain, but that's me not wanting to turn down the textures because the game actually looks pretty damn good. I've not encountered a bug that made me hate the game or want to turn it off. There's a few minor camera ones during dialogue, but it only seems to happen while talking to minor NPCs because they're constantly moving about. Thinking about it, I haven't seen some bugs that I see in other game. Mobs don't clip or flip out randomly, all dialogue works fine and generally everything goes off without a hitch.

Overall: I'm having fun and it was worth the money.

Edit: Here are my specs (which the game auto'd to full and runs pretty damn well.)
Athlon 64 3700+
2GB of RAM (DDR)
BFG 8600 GTS OC

It becomes a bit more SCENIC later on, two or three seconds of an actual "sharp" cutscene before the card appears. My latest was a somewhat bloody foursome with vampire-whores.

I found that somewhat morally dubious. A witcher is supposed to kill vampires, not screw them  :inluv:

PS: Good mini-review.

Been playing this game for a few days now, at chapter 4 currently. I've really liked the game so far. Don't let the cliched
plot start put you off, it's pretty solid stuff afterwards. The all-spoken dialogue really adds to the game and most of it is
pretty decent. There are numerous decisions that will come to haunt you much later in game, so your decisions carry
weight and there's quite a bit of replay value with doing things differently the next time.

The game does have its bugs, I patched straight to 1.1a before I started playing. Some occasional crashes (practically always
on loading screens when changing zones). The autosave works well enough for me, and I haven't lost so much progress for it
to annoy me. The only thing that annoys me is the constant loading when entering/leaving buildings etc. Sometimes it feels like
I'm playing on some god damn console.

I started to think that this is the first cRPG I've played that's clearly made for adults (and no, hentai jRPGs don't count). It's
very refreshing to play a game that isn't afraid of letting characters curse, do drugs, get naked (and not just topless!), have
sex, etc. There are quests involving rapists and people with weird sexual fetishes. The game world just feels more real than
the most of the happy happy fantasy settings out there.

I wish more developers would realise that most of the gamers aren't teens anymore but pushing past 30. More of this, please!

Speak for yourself!

I can't say I'm 30, but I agree fully with this. It really is distracting when you know how everyone in the real world would react to something, but since the game is pushing for the teen market you get some shitty light response that really doesn't make sense. People don't always resolve their difference and Witcher portrays the grit and hate that comes along with that very well. Hopefully they continue to make more.

I agree with the 'adult themes' sentiment. While of course you need games for kids, why the motherfuck can't we have adult games (without it being a seedy money grab to capitalize on the shock factor BMXXX or whatever)? This is why I'm trying to order the international version of the game. I'm failing, game.co.uk definitely does not want me to order it for some reason I can't fathom and their CS hasn't replied from last week.

Any comprehensive lists of what the differences between the versions are?

as I type this, whatadifference.org is being advertised.

Boobies.

I got that ad, too. "Your friend is living with mental illness. What do you do?" Hell, feed it like there's no tomorrow. "Yes, the zombies are real....and here they come!"

Are you guys sure the (I) is the international version? If so I'm going to order it.

I just trashed my old system and got a new one to play it. With 8600GT it's pretty smooth with the Grass effect turned off, but I've got an audio issue. It starts fine but as I played it, it gets progressively worse with skipping and crackles when sounds are played. I'm not sure what's the problem here, I'm using an onboard audio card (RealTek HD Audio) and updated the driver to the ones they hosted on their website, tried turning off Hardware Acceleration in dxdiag, but still no dice, sound keeps popping and crackling.

anyone know any fix for this?

Not to be a smart ass but the fix is to put in a real soundcard. This onboard shit usually sucks.

I shdn't have trashed my old Sb audigy...   :|

You might be right.  Sorry.   :?  All sorts of goofy things like that were happening to me, too, in games until I bought a sound card.  I don't listen to music much with this computer so I basically threw in what you trashed and haven't had a problem since.

Can anyone confirm that Australia is getting the international version? Witcher has been rated MA15+ for


which would seem to indicate an uncensored version was coming out. However my search-fu is weak, I am tired and would like to know for sure.

I happened to stumble across exactly the information all of you were seeking, in a post on the IGDA (http://www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.php?s=2737dfefdcb3d98088c5a1881646e50b&threadid=29603) forums about this game. The post is by Sande Chen, one of the producers:

To what extent?

If I had to guess I'd say they put bikinis tops on some of them like in the Gothic games.

I like to think that some enterprising hacker(s) will figure out what needs to be patched and bring the uncensored version out of the product being sold in the U.S. Normally, companies don't take the time to actually re-work the assets (although the cards are probably edited), they just throw an extra texture on. Anyone remember Giants: Citizen Kabuto? One small patch to a file was all it took to get Delphi's top off. And Oblivion as well. Somebody will poke their nose in and figure it out.

That change got Oblivion recalled though.

I'm waiting for the penny to drop on The Witcher as someone tells the media that their sons or daughters might be playing a game that isn't Puritan Happy Fun World.

http://www.shacknews.com/screenshots.x?gallery=8544&id=108103
 :cry: they took away the nipples

I paid extra for my nipples damn it. Long live Britain! when they're doing bad things to the Irish and Scottish

Got the international version via download. Worth a few extra bucks imo, though the 5.6GB download was tedious. I took a nap. I don't normally buy downloads, but for some reason getting it shipped here was becoming troublesome, so fuck it.

Really enjoying the game, I'm thinking this might replace Gothic as my favorite rpg right now (especially since Gothic 3 was meh). The bewbs are fun, but they actually make the game a bit more believable. I mean, what's more motivation, doing something for a pat on the back or for the charms of the local brothel?

Great graphics and style, great setting. I like the way it's 'gritty', though I dislike that terminology. The character is slightly more believable a hero than the normal guy who does good things just because that's how he's written. And there's a bit of an Elric 007 vibe going on, too.

Where's a good place to buy and download the international version?  Direct2drive didn't seem to have any version of the game. 

Edit:  So, apparently it was as simple as checking out the official web page.  Go me. 

I just finished chapter 2. LONG game. They're not kidding when they said it's a 50 hour game.  :awesome_for_real:
A little bugs on combat here n there but overall nothing serious to deprive me of my enjoyment. The lack of dialogue skills may seem like an issue, but it never preached itself to be a customizable character like Fallout.

 I percieve it as a hybrid of Diablo and Baldur's Gate with some 'dirty' aspects in the medieval setting. Two thumbs up for CD Projekt imo.

I don't get the boobs issue. There's been a few games with boobs quite prominent, most notibly God of War. Why is it such a no-no for this game?

International Developer?

I bought my copy from Gogamer.com, they had the international version for $2 more than the normal one. It shipped today.

I don't know. I can't help thinknig back to me trying to buy one of those Japanese Hentai games and being told they no longer ship to my state. Perhaps there is a perception that the U.S. is tightening up on "immoral" things in gaming, like nipples.

If I am going to pay for a game, I want the whole fucking thing. Not some watered down version thats what some religious nut *thinks* is ok for me to see.

Game arrived today. Ill start it later.

My uncensored copy is on its way.  TAKE THAT, PURITAN AMERICA!

Man, just finished it. Good stuff. 1.5 chapters of boredom followed by 3.5 of awesomeness. They really did what Obsidian couldn't do with Aurora engine, make a believable city that has day and night cycle and fluid movements in and out of combat. And the cinematic is top notch, Blizzard-shiny standard! Plenty of plot twists and even a teaser ending. I hope they can keep this up, there's some rough edges on the translation and slight bugs. A little optimization on the loading times and it could turn out to be a classic series.

I'mma take a break and prepare for work next week.  :-P Good weekend spent!

I'm loving the game so far.  Fun combat, though it takes a little getting used to, and while it is a little slow to get going, great story.  The only problem is the occasional crash, and sometimes you have to run around to get an enemy  to change position so that they can be targeted instead of just vainly running into them.  My only real complaint is that for whatever reason, the plant/vine monster is a bitch to get an attack to go through because it has no target ring that shows up, and the spot I choose to click on will stop working, even though the plant hasn't moved.  Because it can't move and all.  Makes fighting them alot harder than it should be. 

Also, one thing I noticed is that with at least one quest, you have to actually check your log to 'notice' that someone made off with the item in your possession before the option to ask about it shows up in conversation. 

Wow, I've been playing what I consider to be a LOT of the Witcher, and I just got to Chapter 3. Chapter 2 was long as hell, though I guess I do play a bit slowly.

I agree the biggest negative is the loading times, or more correctly the save time. Loads aren't actually too bad but the autosaves are killers.

The plant/vine things were really fucking me over early on with their projectiles, but then they got real easy. Not sure if it was my talent choices or what. You get no target ring, but with the ability to pause and rotate the camera, getting shots in on them shouldn't be too tough. I did notice attacking from pause is very buggy, I'd say over half the time it doesn't carry out the action you attempt, but once I got used to it everything works ok.

Maybe you're using the wrong attack style/weapon? Both are critical. Sometimes if it seems like I can't attack, even though I'm using a correct style and weapon, I cast a quick spell and then I can attack again (whether it's a bug or the knockback from my spell broke the combat lock, I don't know).

I should really open the manual at some point :)

Well, the normal green ones aren't so bad, once you figure out how to fight them, like you mention.  The ones currently kicking my ass are the red ones in the swamp.  Even deflecting a decent amount of their projectile attacks (Yay arrow deflect talent), I'm getting torn to shreds.  Maybe I should play dice to get the money for the upgraded armor or something, because I'm taking hits for 40 damage a swipe, and they attack fast.  I'll probably just have to run in and out, using a Swallow potion.  Downside of that is, running away, the projectiles always hit, and those are for like 20 damage.  I'll figure it out, only problem is I don't look forward to doing it over and over.  There definitely seems to be alot of them in the swamp. 

Really, the target problem with them is the killer.  I can knock them down with Aird, but they're up before I can get an attack to even try to work.  Maybe a patch'll fix that up. 

Hmm. I just cleared the swamp yesterday. Like I said, they started out tough and then I just steamrolled them. I never bought any new armor, heck, I haven't even upgraded my weapons because I can't figure out how (again, need to rtfm, which I haven't cracked open yet). I do apply whet or grind stones before heading out to chop things up. I'm using the witcher silver sword you get at the start of chapter 2 and the named blade you get near the end of chapter 2 (replacing my blue meteorite sword), so nothing too fancy. I also don't remember too many, I ran away from a couple (when they were destroying me), then finally killed one (for a quest) and never saw another.

I use fire spells, might be more effective against them, too. Make sure to buy up all the books you can, especially if you plan on doing alchemy. The journal in this game is a bit cumbersome, but very useful.

As far as I can tell buying the Meteoric Sword IS upgrading your sword. I had 2 blue runes, and 1 red and it gave me one sword option to "buy". I bought another blue rune and all of a sudden there is 2 options to buy.

Yeah, that threw me at first.  They call it reforging, and act like it's using the starting sword, but it's just getting a new sword.  I have a Witcher sword in the inn bank now that I had the blue sword made.  I thought of selling it, but it seems like something you wouldn't want to sell.

My import version of this just arrived.  Now I have to decide whether to play it now or to finish Sam and Max Season 1 first.   :grin:

Once you start, be prepared to be sucked in pretty hard.  I spent most the weekend playing, and I'm only partway through chapter 2.  Granted, I've been exploring every nook and cranny.  Even then, I know of two or three things I missed out on that I'd rather not have. 

Peer.pressure++;  :grin:

Use your sign against it and then you can run in and go combo-happy with the sword.

Yeah, I've been trying to come up with a strip idea for this one, but besides the game's name (which has already been done by PA) I'm coming up with nothing.  Other than that, great game.  They made it sort of Diablo-like while removing all the shit I didn't like about Diablo.

I'm a completist which means I'm being very obsessive about finding the trading cards. I'm only in Chapter 1 and to my knowledge have found the 3 there. I'm loving the game so far. It started a bit slow but is good otherwise.

My only real complaint is that I get sick of the camera rocking in OTS mode. It's kind of annoying and distracting, but OTS mode is also my preferred mode so I deal with it.

Don't think this is a spoiler, let me know if it is and I'll shrink it. Zomg the teleporter Kalkstein throws together is wicked.

Did a little of Chap3 last night, also cleaned up a couple things from Chap2. Really like the characters in this one. I like when a game makes me want to influence characters, like Siegfreid...great character and I just want to convince him he's allied with some wackos. I'll probably end up opposed to him because ultimately I think I'll side with the non-humans if it comes down to it.

OTS camera is the only way imo. I was looking at some screenshots from the new NWN2 game/expansion/whatever and Obsidian needs to pack it in. CDProjekt just embarassed them imo.

On swords: meteorite swords are new swords. You also get runes, some of which seem temporary and some permanent, that you can put on your sword somehow to enhance it. I just can't figure out how :) Just got my third red meteorite last night and decided it wasn't quite enough to upgrade the named sword I got (which I can never remember the name of).

I agree. I just wish I had an option to turn off that rocking motion. It gets really annoying and is the number one thing that keeps me from playing the game for ridiculous amounts of time.

Just started into Chapter 3 last night.  I wish I could just go on vacation a day or two and keep playing.  Unfortunately, I think I inadvertantly put myself on the path to side against the non humans last night by helping out Siegfried.  That seems to have had bigger consequences than I expected, as well as closing off a quest chain I had.  So...yay.  Not that the non humans are a pile of roses either.  Which, really, is a definite plus for the game. 

Also, the confrontation at the tower, and all of the investigating and stuff that led up to it was awesome as hell.  For once, reading the obscure books pays off in a game. 

I mentioned earlier how useful the journal was, I'm not kidding. I try to read everything in there, it's packed with good info. And yes, I'm trying to read all in-game books, you're about to hit another bit if you haven't already, that rewards having read Kalkstein's book. Even after reading and understanding it, I still needed a copy to answer all the questions.

I think at the end of Chapter 2 you can split the story three ways, humans/nonhumans/neutral. Triss kinda chewed me out for being neutral. Part of why I like the Siegfreid character, even though I had all the bad experiences with his faction in Chapter 1, I just couldn't side against him. Great stuff.

Anyone who likes western rpg should really pick this game up (the international version, because jesus loves nipples).

So I got to the swamp last night, and holy fuck, those red plants just rip me up, any advice would be helpful. I dont have trouble fighting anything but those, even when I get close and start comboing they still kill me before I can kill them. I tried both swords and so far its plants 7, me 0.

Same one that gave me trouble.  What's even more fun is when they sprout with friends. 

Basically, the way I finally got it to work was go in using strong silver style, with a Swallow potion going.  If you can get in position before it's sprouted, charge up a fire attack as it's coming out of the ground, and hit it with that.  Otherwise, fire as you can.  Get in a position to its right or left, that lowers the chances of the game deciding you're wanting to run at it instead of attack it.  If you have the ignite talent for your fire attacks, that will help a good bit.  It's still doable without, it'll just take longer.  When you're at a 1/3 or so, you might want to run like hell out of range of its spit attack and let the Swallow potion restore your health back up, and then run in and finish.  The first one I fought, as I've mentioned earlier, was a pain in the ass, but using the tactics above, I finally got him down.  The next one I found, I had learned ignite, so it went alot easier once he caught on fire. 

Most annoying monster, in fact, would not be those things anymore.  The giant leech things are my most hated enemy, because no matter how quickly and how far I run as they die, the damn acid explosion hits me every time.  I can see why the bestiary entry for them says to not use group style, at least.  I can envision that being painful. 

As to choosing sides, the end of Chapter 2 indicated that I'd gone human, but I still kinda got bitched at by Triss about not taking a side.  So, while I could probably still go nonhuman, it'd be a harder road, as I know I've burned bridges with some of the nonhumans.  And while alot of the humans are pricks, choosing against them would kinda screw over people I do like, like Siegfried.

This game, long as it is, definitely seems like one I'll play once or twice more, just to take some different paths.  I can't think of a RPG I've loved this much in a long, long time.  Hell, a game period.  Yeah, it's buggy in parts, but 99% of it is just pure gold.  I can't wait to see what further games have in store from these guys. 

Dont run, do an evasive move. If your playing in OTS cam, double tap a direction and he will jump away in that direction. I can get out of the acid explosion about 75% of the time like that.

I always forget about the dodge option. I always swing the camera around and run away just as I finish the final combo on those acidic guys. Actually, when I did my final swamp sweep, I was aggroing a bunch of drowned folks and leading them to an acid guy. Then kill the acid guy, run out of range, and he explodes acid all over the drowned, killing them :)

Vs the plant guys, it may have been the fire power that made it so much easier for me, because there's also a silver style that's linked to incineration, so you do extra sword damage if they're on fire or something. Some nice interdependence in the skill trees and you can customize them to your playstyle pretty well. I was initially worried about having enough talents (to cover all three styles for both swords), but by the end of Chapter 2 I almost had too many bronze talents, I was buying up stuff outside my core vision of the character.

Potion for a free silver talent was nice in Chapter 2, as well.

To fight those acid exploding guys without worrying too much of the explosion, brew a potion that resists acid damage. Drink it, Aard, Stab. :) Or give em 2 strong slashes then follow up with one cast of Igni from range. Double tap a direction key to make sure you won't get hit.

Later on (when you pack enough hitpoints) you would use those leech things as grenades against drowned things.

Plants are SUPER EASY after you get little idea - burn the damn weed. Set it aflame and watch it die from distance, really satisying:)

Worst part for me was 3 act boss - scripted and buggy as hell. You don't really fight the boss but dumb programmer who botched the script.

There is one that is right past the clay pits that I guess is a boss (it drops a trophy). It tore me up till I drank a blizzard (pretty much makes you invincible).

I was kind of wishing there would be more boss type monsters, I seem to have only gotten 2 (cockatrice and that plant thing).

Apparently this is an unsung song of PC gaming? I decided to get this after seeing SomethingAwful's 10/10 review of it.  The discussion here helped though! But it was funny to see that my local gaming store didn't carry it.  Online delivery FTW...

Welcome to the club. Enjoy the art. And Saving the World...15 seconds at a time.

That's because all the real gamersare playing Hellgate: London. That game has phat lewtz, yo.

The fighting sucked at first, but the game dragged me in anyway. That definitely makes it the spiritual successor of Gothic.

My opinion of this game puts it on the level of Deus Ex. After a couple of hours of play I realized that I had been doing the PC equivalent of watching Disney films my entire life, and have now happened upon Blade Runner. I bought it on Friday, beat it after some intense gaming by Thursday morning, and immediately wanted to play through it again to see the alternate resolutions.

Cons: Long loading times, resource-hog in some areas.

Pros: Morally relativity, unpredictable characters, adult storyline, excellent cutscenes and progression.

I found the fighting to be quite fun when you pump a few silver talents into group silver or steel... there's nothing like wandering into a pack of enemies and leaving a lot of headless corpses in your wake. Magic is useful, and the game can  actually be pretty tough on the higher difficulty - I had a lot of trouble with some bosses, most especially the Beast at the end of chapter 1.

Some of the situations were just too awesome. Dicing for Alvin's life, choosing between a women's rights vampire orgy and a puritan rescue mission, and the deeply troubling ending come to mind. Some parts actually made me laugh, which is shocking - try telling the Lady of the Lake you want to quest for the Holy Grail, for example.

There were a lot of flaws, of course - chapter five and the epilogue didn't measure up to their predecessors, some of the translations seem a bit weird, and a couple of monologues about "global cooling" seemed really out of place. Still amazing though.

And you get to fight **EDITED FOR SPOILERS** a prominent character from the Cthulhu mythos. How fucking awesome is that? Who knew they had even heard of **EDITED** H.P. Lovecraft?

HEY THANKS FOR TEH SPOILER

Wtf?

Anyway, there's one point where a character asks you to invite someone to a party. I invited the obvious character and the game progressed as expected. I reloaded and brought a hooker instead, hoping for a threesome or something and she got all insulted I'd bring a hooker, and the other character had already had relations with the hooker. It was pretty funny and showed that they put a little thought into different events.

I'm going to play this game now. If you are wrong, I'm going to stab you in the face with a syringe full of lupus.

It's one of those games that everyone needs to try, basically.  It's going to be hard to go back to alot of console RPGs after playing this one.  It's just that good.  It's like a mishmash of Baldur's Gate, Planescape, and Fallout, and just pure awesome. 

Also, the combat can take a little getting used to at first, especially if you just skipped reading the manual at first like I did.  It's not 'click-click-click' like Diablo, timing's important, and clicking too soon in a series of attacks will interrupt the chain.  After the first chapter or so, you also have to be ready to fight smart, just wading in to a big group of baddies can get your ass handed to you real quick.  Like in the robbery mission.  Granted, I've not focused on the group styles as much, so I could see how that might change things, but really, the 2nd and 3rd chapters have taught me the value of using alchemy and the different traits of the spells.  And as best as I can tell, trying to use the group style against enemies in armor is the quickest way to get a beat down. 

As to that party, I ended up taking the hooker, because the few I tried to ask, there wasn't the option to ask.  It was definitely entertaining though.  Some of the other stuff mentioned here, I'm not at yet, but some of it sounds like something I somehow missed.  Which encourages a 2nd play through even more. 

I think that's what made the game for me: the proliferation of non-combat related content serves to break up the pace and provides interesting opportunities for player input. Picking an NPC to bring to a party and getting different results depending on whether you take the drunken dwarf, the hooker, or the uptight Knight? That's awesome. I played through that party four times to see different reactions for each person.

Fighting through an army of thugs to free a damsel is pretty cool too, but i've done it a million times in dozens of games. That's not the type of material that's going to have me reloading just to try a different style.

Some of the non-combat stuff is pure gold.  Like when some of your friends grab you and you all go drinking. 

That goddamned lush Dandelion convinced me to spend a few talents in drunken skills. That boy likes to drink.

That spoiler edit was entirely ineffective. I think you're also wandering into spoiler territory listing the npcs you can bring to the party. I was intentionally keeping it vague....C'mon, let's try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. Maybe start a new thread if you need to post spoilers to discuss things, I still haven't read the Bioshock spoilertastic thread.

How was that even considered a spoiler edit?  :roll:

for those who liked the flashback arts take a look at these spoilerish gallery.  :inluv:
I think they shd've included a gallery in the game for us to take a look at it...
http://www.gamebanshee.com/thewitcher/flashbackimages.php#null

HEY FUCKERS. ENOUGH WITH THE SPOILERS!

That's like taking spoiler to the whole new level  :-o
I'm going to look at it after I played a few times just to be sure I didn't miss anything, but not bloody now.

ugh last time I order a game from the UK.  my copy from dvd.co.uk still hasn't arrived yet  :x :x :x

I used Gogamer.com they had my international copy on my door on release day.

I'm left wondering how I missed this.

The Thread, The Hype, the Whole Fucking Game.

Hmmm.  I may pop out to the shops now.

I think the reason you missed all the hype is because there hasn't been any. The only reason I knew about it is because I was big into NWN a few years ago when The Witcher was announced and a few of the sites I frequented mentioned it because it would be using the same engine.

Also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv46t7ZqaGE

The only reason I know of the game is because of this site.  I haven't even seen it on the shelves here in town.  I consider myself very fortunate to have given it a shot though.  I've pretty much been praising the game to everyone I know to try to get more people to play it. 

It's about time that a game with real choices and consequences has rolled around. And whaddaya know...gamers arent complaining about it...they're liking it. Witcher and MotB give hope that real RPGs still get produced.

The swamp section is irritating me.  I hope I'm done with it soon.

Seconded.  Plants and constant Drowned Dead attacks are getting on my nerves.  Sometimes you just want to go from point A to point B without hacking your way there.

Eh, often I just run past them and fight whatever sticks around when I get to my destination.

Try equipping one of the charmed red ribbons in your ring slot. Keeps drowners from getting anywhere near you (unless you run up to them).

This game just ate my Wednesday. D:

Finally had time to finish the game today, and...wow.  Hard to sum it up with any other word.  Pure excellence all around, and some of the turns at the end, especially after the last boss, were very fun.  I really, really hope we see a sequel/continuance from these guys. 

Just through chapter 1. 

This game really reminds me of KOTOR, but with an adult slant and a lot more morally gray.

The combat isn't fantastic, but it is interesting looking.  It's not really a better system than one found in NWN, KOTOR, Oblivion or your average MMO, but at least it's different.  Actually, I think it's better than Oblivion.  This sort of automated hit/miss is better than half-assed FPS style combat.

Character advancement is interesting, but you can somewhat gimp yourself.  I wasn't built that well for dealing with the Beast, but with alchemy up-the-yin-yang it was possible.

The loading times are brutal.  Just brutal, it really slows down the action at times and makes it difficult to get something done in a small chunk of time. And the game doesn't run that well on my machine, but this is the first PC game that has me thinking about some budget upgrades until I can build/buy a new one.  Fuck Crysis and its bleeding edge ilk, but I want to run this thing a little better and bonus if TF2 runs a little smoother.

I'm excited for the rest of the game.  The first chapter just sets the tone for the game so well , and I'm very interested in seeing how your choices affect the game later.  This is a game that may push everything out to the periphery, even with the amount of good stuff abounds.  :grin:

And... poontang quests ftw.

I'm probably near finished in chapter two. I'm becoming paranoid about finding all the girls and there's no FAQ out there.

Also, I can't find the missing boy in the swamp. Help! Is there a way to fight some underwater boss in the swamp? I did the negotiation route with the axe.

How many girlies did you find in chapter 1 and 2? I'm suspecting I'm missing some, especially in chap 2, and I want to get them before I leave. I got the peasant (gossip), the nymph, the main girl at the party forget her name, a hooker (but not THE hooker who you help clear the streets for, no option there?). For chap 1 I got the witch, poor peasant, and the barmaid girl at the mill.

Currently have all but the last tower thing, I've figured out what was going on with the detective, exonerated everyone and gotten extra XP for it, only thing left is I haven't found the boy, anyone else to fight, anyone else to gamble with except for one person all chapter. I'm waiting for the next step, not sure where to go or what to do, everyone's gonna get back to me or something. Just finished the party and got me some tail. I took the hooker just for fun, but then reloaded and took the dwarf :)

I played the beast fight for about 2 hours. I have a superfast brand new raptor 10k drive so the load times aren't brutal, but when you're retrying like that it's ugly. I picked the non-lynch ending so I wanted to play until I could beat it without her dying. I figured it would make a difference, though later I found companions just fall over and then get back up after the battle. Wish I had known.

As far as combat goes, I'm gaming it pretty hard. I put points into the primary stats first since they give a lot of bonuses, maxed out the fire spell, then spreading them out evenly over the combat styles with a slight favor towards the group styles. I started getting silver points to spend midway though act 2. So far, there's been no combat that's come near the difficulty of the beast. I think I was just gimping myself. Using the right sword, right style (defaulting to group generally) and opening with fire goes a long way. Incineration is just devastating especially when you get the 'add damage when incinerated' talent.

The only thing that's really annoying is all the alchemical items.. There are so many I have to store them at the inn and then walk through and pick out the ones I want when I want to craft a potion. Ugh. I'd much rather have had a separate backpack type thing and have them auto-craft from it, or be able to auto-brew from them while at the inn.

I couldn't find the boy, either. He'll show up, I forget where. I wrote off that quest and he turned up after the story progressed.

The women, I don't really remember. I'd have to load it up and run down the list. We should've had cards like that in the band days.

Also, my hdd is also a 10k raptor and the load/save is obnoxious. I'm taking a short break from the load/save to play Kunark and GH3. Love the game, but it's tough to play after a while.

I have 4 seagate cheetahs (7200 regulars) in RAID 0, and the load times are -still- gawd awful. I got stuck on the first chapter's boss mob and I had to reload that sonbish to many times I was ready scream. I was so frustrated I loaded a saved game from about 4 hours back and replayed it so I'd buy the motherforking Specter Oil that essentially changes the fight from nigh impossible to trivial.

Am I the only person who didn't have trouble with the Chapter 1 boss? He wasn't easy, but I did beat him my first time through. Maybe I had just minmaxed into a better early setup?

You can cheese him pretty effectively with the right set up.  Did you use the Blizzard potion at all or have any of the drinking talents (ignoring pain makes him a puppy dog, I didn't have it)?  Those can decrease the difficulty by a significant amount.  Also, if the girl stays upright (heh heh) you'll benefit from her healing the entire time.

I think spectral oil helps also in the encounter.  Once I used the appropriate potions/oil, I one shotted it.

I thought I'd have time to prepare for him, so I didn't pack any oils. I did have the slo-mo potion, but that was it. Hampering me was the fact that all effects go away from when you exit the cave, so 'buffing up' before the battle was impossible. The only thing I could make stick was the grindstone. What was really stopping me was the fact I was trying to defend myself and someone else -- she wouldn't stay up. That, and the drinking talent (which I didn't realize would help and still haven't took) I didn't have -- I got pretty much destroyed every 5 seconds in the middle of my combo, then frozen for another 5.

You guys are doing way, way too much. It's like you're changing out injectors and the fuel filter and the fuel line before you open up the fuel tank to inspect the fuel pump, and only then do you realize the gas tank is empty.

Do you want to kiill the beast?

Push 1 to select that knockdown magic.

Get next to the beast. Right click.

push W for about 1 second to advance. Left click.

Congrats, you've successfully killed the beast.

Ya, this is pretty much the magic insta win combo for a bunch of the content through chapter 2.

Beast didn't stay down very long.  :-P

What I have gathered from various forums and sites and is working well for me as far as talent progression.

1.) First, Intel, alc till you can make oil. Potions and oils are huge to the extent that if you know what your going to fight, you can prepair and make the fight much easier.

2.) Str, Dex stamina. Hit harder, dodge, parry more.

3.) AArd, you want the stun. YOU WANT THE STUN. Also your second (fire) sign. Late in act 2 your going to need to take out some bad ass plants in the swamp. The fire sign really shines here.

4.) Then your sword styles and in act 2 your silver sword styles.

You get enough bronze talents to do pretty much everthing you can do with them.

If your having trouble with the beast (act 1 boss) buy the spector sword oil from the witch. I hit him once, aard to stun and left clicked to pin his doggy but to the ground.

General notes: if you combo and did not hurt your enemy, change styles.

Girl notes: You can do a peasant girl in act 1, you need tulips. Find some on a corpse. You can do the gossip in act 2. You will need woman's gloves (any kind) in your inventory. You can find these for free in the hospital. Look in the laundry basket.

If you did not do Carmen's quest (the prostitute by the hairy bear) I think you are one of those girl mans. If you do not take the working girls money, they will all lay with you for the cost of a flower. At this point my quest progression slowed to a crawl.

I love this game  :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

Great RPG, great atmosphere, Great story.

They are apparently working on a patch to be ready before Christmas that's supposed to solve the loading problems, and crash bugs.  I'll be holding off for my second play through to see how that patch turns out. 

Also, some minorly spoilerific advice for people starting chapter 5:


  When you can use Dandelion as a bank at the beginning, use that opportunity to make any potions you might possibly need for a long while.  I made the mistake of thinking that you'd have another option for storage, or a way to get back to him.  Unfortunately, unless I missed it, I did not, which made the latter parts of the Chapter alot more frustrating than they should have been. 

More general advice:  Stats first, always, then abilities.  Aard is a lifesaver magic wise.  To be honest, I wish there'd been more late game talents so I could play around with magic more. 

I Put my new PC together today and just got done playing for the first time - up to the part of gathereing the second batch of ingredients for Triss. My load times have al been under a minute - I'd be suprised if they were 30 seconds. THe new WD 750gig HD must be as fast as they say it is.

The WD 750 GB is blazing fast. It's comparable to the 10K Raptor's in many benchmarks even though it's a 7200 RPM drive because of the much higher data density (more data on each platter means faster transfer rates).

Oh god, I started chapter three (do you get anywhere with Shani after chapter two or did I miss the boat?) and the graphics are lagging to hell suddenly and it's crashing a lot more.   :cry:

I just started this game.

This goddamn game. It's really good. Really really good. Not Uncharted good (the cutscenes are uber stiff and combat is innovative but wonky, you can tell it's a first try. But still, pretty awesome.

This year rocks my socks way too much.

I focused on Dex first, Str second, early on. Points went into fire, not sure if I used it. I did, however, dump points into silver styles. I also held aggro from Beast, and must've gotten healed? I don't really remember. I don't think I used any magic except maybe to open up. No potions and I've yet to make any oils, either. Must've gotten lucky.

The witch will heal you if you sided with her.  So... ya, you probally got healed by her.

For the cutscenes, turn of depth of field.  It was making mine laggy as hell.  But I doubt they'd be PS3 quality anyhow.

Loading doesn't seem to be bad in Vizima (sp), but it's still bad.

Am totally loving this game. Although, the long load sequences suck raging donkey nuts. The story is interesting, the combat does add a little change to the normal laziness game creators revel in.

On a side note anyone figured out how to attach the runes to the silver sword yet?

Need to get 3 runes and then reforge the sword at a blacksmith.

Guys.

The UI makes me fucking hate this game.

I love the game. But the UI invades my motherfucking. I just can't ignore the fucking thing. It was laid out by a blind man. Does anyone know if any of those engineery dork type websites that might be redesigning it and hacking it apart? :(

I want to play this through :(

The poor UI and insane loading times have made me put this game down near the start of chapter 3. Nifty game, but taking a minute to load every time I go in/out of a house is just too annoying.

Same here. I hear the next patch is supposed to help with the stupid loading times so I've given up on the game until it's available.

Yeah, chapter 3 is where it expects you to go from one massive zone to another and back again every few minutes. Until Chapter 3 I wasn't sure why everyone was bitching about load times.

I'm fine with the UI in general. It works. What needs to be scrapped is the inventory system - completely. I've got no idea what is needed for each potion. I just gather everything I can, buy a shitload of booze, and ROLL THE DICE when I hit the campfire.

Something about this game drove me to reinstall KOTOR2.  The plot of the Witcher is good, to understate it, but the game mechanics are awkward and simple.  I might come back and finish this game just out of curiosity to see where the story takes me, but the story will be the only thing I'm enjoying.

I have to agree, in general. The UI is utter crap, and the inventory system in particular was designed by someone with a serious case of the :uhrr:. I'm not particularly fond of the combat UI either; enemies keep moving out from under my cursor JUST AS I go to click for the next combo attack in line. So instead Master Swordsman Dumbass runs off into the woods with a pack of dudes beating on him.

Also, the swamps in chapter 2 own my face off, meaning I either save every two steps (lame) or lose 30 minutes of progress when I run into YET ANOTHER spawn while chasing after one last idiot enemy, resulting in a face-torn-off-reload-you-know-what-FUCK-THIS-GAME-where's-my-DS-it's-Phoenix-Wright-time fit.

Oh, and another thing. I like how the journal sometimes gives you entirely misleading instructions. I'm in Dudeface's house, journal says "Talk to Dudeface about whatsis", I talk to Dudeface, "Yo." "Uh... nothing to say. Later." WTF. Okay, so I go out, wander around, do some other quests, come back later. Oh, hey, "Talk to Dudeface" just meant "go to Dudeface's house, but only and ONLY during the day, and get jumped by a cutscene". Or even when you track a quest for a dude, and the tracker points at the inn. Only Dumbass MacQuestgiver is only at the inn for 4 hours a day and the rest of the time is wandering the streets, so you end up visiting the inn repeatedly waiting for him to show up. Argh.

I want to like it, I really do, I like the story and the choices, but the UI and facerape make baby Jesus cry.

Get a little red ribbon for your finger, and Drowners ignore you. Then get the garlic, and vampires ignore you. Quite nice, as you can still kill them and get their bits.

Yoru, are you using the OTS view? I haven't had combat issues at all. Actually, none of the stuff you guys mention bothers me, except the loading time. I also stalled in Chapter 3, and that's why. During a load I would pick up my guitar and by the time it was loaded in I was more interested in playing guitar.

I have no idea why people seem to have so many problems with the swamps in Chapter Two, but it does seem common. I was pretty buff and found it almost trivial, though I did finally run out of heal potions at one point.

Yeah, I've primarily been using OTS because I'd rather use WASD than click-to-move over long distances, and trying to use WASD in either overhead mode actually also requires you to hold down the middle mouse button and guide yourself with mouselook. Terrible, TERRIBLE fucking UI.

Also, I have no idea how you don't have issues with the shit directions the journal gives, but maybe that's my quest ADD talking. I tend to do a stage of a quest and then re-examine my journal for whatever other quest I can do without meditating, since half of them seem to be "Okay, we're done talking, now go over here at (Nighttime|Daytime|Evening|2AM on the night of a full moon)". Overuse of scheduling mechanics for the lose.

No, I've found they queue up pretty good. Haven't had to rest just to move the game forward hardly at all. But then, I'll put things off, too. Like I know the bard is going to want to drink, so I wait until I've finished a bunch of stuff in the day and have to do something at night. Get drunk with him, stumble to a rest spot and rest off the drunk, and voila, time to do evening quests.

I dunno, I find it as odd as it must sound to all of you guys that I haven't had any of these problems, at all! Only the longish loads.

I too had a problem with the swamp and I think it was because I was fighting one of the 'boss' killer plants of doom. After that it was pretty easy, with the exception of the wyverns.

Holy crap. Just finished it. Wow! Absolutely loved it. With MotB, this year has been great for RPGs. Was Gothic 3 this year too? I forget.

BTW on the hard drive front, I found a 150 gig Seagate 15K rpm HD on sale for $129. Im going to pick it up :)

SAS drives do not work with standard desktop SATA controllers. You will need to buy another controller to handle that drive unless you happen to have a workstation or server motherboard with one already.

One of my Raid 0 drives died, and the back up I have of my system pre-dates my Witcher installation by 24 hours, so although I'm back up and running, I have to replay EVERYTHING to the point I was at, which is the danged swamp area, towards the end. FUCK.

I'm in chapter 2 and I really like this game.  I don't understand the complaints with the UI.  Seems fine to me.

My annoyances:

Load times are brutal.  Also, I need a SoW potion or something.  Combat can be sorta glitchy and frustrating sometimes.   I would like more inventory space.  Separate bag for herbs and potions would help so much.  Finally, the cutscenes are not polished at all.  Voice acting is pretty good, writing is good, but the characters can't seem to talk correctly.  Half of the time their mouth just stays still while they perform a ventriloquism act. 

Those things are definitely not enough to deter me from wasting all of my time on the game, that's for sure.

In the overhead view you can simply hold down left mouse button on your character, and he starts running ahead, move mouse to either side (still holding LMB) and he'll make turn in that direction with camera swinging automatically to follow.

Took me getting up to half of chapter 2 to find it out by accident, and removed most annoyances i had with movement while out of combat... why it's not mentioned in starting tutorial, will never know.

http://www.thewitcher.com/registration/en/www/patch.html



I'll hopefully get to test out the patch tonight, I'd been waiting to play through the game again until this patch hit. 

I don't see reworked gui as one of the patch things.

My computer chokes on this game  :geezer:

Different people enjoy different games. I enjoy a lot of game types but I can get crazy about a good RPG with a good story/atmosphere. Before the witcher my robot Jesus was vampire the masquerade bloodlines. The witcher has the atmosphere/story in spades. It is OK if you do not appreciate it but you should be able to see it for what it is. Does it have issues? ya it does but for a Indy developer it is stinking magic. I am downloading the patch as I type this but if they can reduce load times I think they have a very popular game on there hands. This site is about games and this title has blown a fresh wind into a gender that has seen little activity over the past few years. It is gold. Very true to its self. Very gritty world, choices? ya but gray vs gray. Dispair is everywhere. Great storytelling. This is a game I will savor. Replay after replay.

 :ye_gods: Paragraphs.

Fixed load times might actually get me back to playing this.  As is, I don't like to suffer for my fun.

Me too. I haven't played it since before Mass Effect came out and I actually tried a couple of times.

Frustrating swamp plants + long load = frustration.

BTW, I read on here to use fire on the plants. I tried but it doesn't seem to work very well. Do I need to be real close to them when I do it? My fire goes out in a big wave and doesn't seem to really effect the plant.

Yes, you have to be close, it's a PBAoE cone. You can level up the range on the talents screen.

I hope the save/load optimizations are good. It's really the only knock I have against the game.

I think I am going to start playing this again. I sort of drifted off and the load timee (Auto save times) got really annoying.

I think you just have to wait until you get the "ignited" message, and then your heavy attacks will do more damage (assuming you have points in the talent that does that).

Also, there are two kinds of plants in the swamp: red ones and green ones.  I don't have any trouble with the green ones (maybe they're tougher on hard or something), and I think there is only one red one (though it spawns in a bunch of places) so you only have to kill it once.  The red plant is kind of a boss, so I just potioned up before I fought it and managed to beat it by spending a lot of consumables (before that, I thought there were a bunch of them, so I didn't want to blow potions every time I saw one).

I now have all the bronze talent points thanks to a glitch that let you reuse talent points infinitely. and a good chunk of the silvers too.

Yeah, but does the patch actually fix the save/load times?

Yes.

And the talent glitch as well. 

I'm not that far in yet, but so far the save/load times do seem to be quicker overall.  Though the very first time I go to load or save a game after starting up, the screen takes awhile to transfer over, which is new.  That used to only happen after I'd been playing for quite awhile in one stretch. 

Where's the most legit place to buy this online? For download.

For the US version:  http://www.atari.com/us/thewitcherbuy/

For the EU boobified version:  http://boutique.gamesplanet.com/campagne/promo.html?partenaire=15&jeu=TheWitcher&affilie=official


With the exchange rate where it is at the moment, the EU version will probably be around $70-75, unless it's changed drastically since a month or two ago. 

How nice of them to sell you features Steam provides (and better) for free.   :awesome_for_real:

I have been wanting this game since it came out but I refused to pay for the version the censor deemed fit to provide me access to.  Anyway I found out that Fry electronic's sells the UK version in the U.S. and you don't have to go through t he US dollar to pound conversion ratio.  Just a heads up for anyone else out there who might have been like me, wanting to purchase the uncensored version without being raped by US to foreign conversion rates.

I really don't care to pay 25 dollars more for like 3 CGI boobs.  You guys are loopy.

If you read the thread you will notice that gogamer has the international version for like $3 more.

Or you can just download the mod (http://www.mininova.org/tor/1016762), if you want.  Has all the european cards in it.  Doesn't change the in-game models, but that's like one character, I think.

This game is a lot better than I thought it'd be. This is what I hoped Oblivion would be. And man is it long as fuck, either that or I just suck.

New patch is out guys. Load times are better. They are still there but shorter pauses. Life is good.

This thread needs to be +spoilers so I can effusively praise the game.

Made my top 20.

I stalled as well due to save/load times. That and I just banged Shani so that conquest was completed!

Might have to fire her back up.

You can bang shani again and get a second card later on.

Ok, I'm in Act 3 now. I replayed about an hour of Act 2 to bang Shani.

Great game with the fixed load times. I took a small break from it to play some Orange Box and because I had a CTD and lost about 45 minutes of progress. (I'd gotten lazy about quick saving. D'oh!)

I really do enjoy the hell out of this game.

Nice. Looks like I'll start playin again...LOL

And the new patch is great. Soooooo much better now.

If gogamer would stop fucking around and find a copy of the game to send me I'd be playing this.  As it stands, they may or may not be out of stock right now.   :mob:

Just finished it. LONG GAME.  With  better load times and a lot less running back and forth I think it could have been shorter. The end reveal was umm, predictable (in a good way, nice subtle textual clues)  before the big, obvious clue.  Of course, depending on what action you pick, Geralt may just shrug it off (this somewhat bothered me) and fail  to (or purposely not) connect the dots.

I can't help but feel I made some major wrong choices in the game, but I think that's perhaps just how the game is.  I don't think the game is meant for any decision to have warm and fuzzy consequences (some do), but chosing between the racist zealots and the civilian killing terrorists was a no win situation.  On side is morally repugnant and misguided while trying to do the right thing and the other side is delusionally idealistic and murdering civilians like it's going out of style. It was a choice of "you're doing it wrong" and "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG". Perhaps I should have stayed neutral, but choosing the lesser of two evils seemed to be the right choice at the time.   One gripe I have with the decisions is that your motivations for choosing a particular path isn't always represented in why Geralt chooses a side.  Some additional clarifying points in dialog options would have been nice, but they have done better in this respect than most games.

Liked the game a lot, flaws and all.  Some of the last portions of the game seem to have been put together quickly with some glariing design omissions, but they did a good enough job.  I could have used a little more closure with the main relationship option I chose.  Hell, at least the entire prologue was stable.  I didn't have a single CTD, when there seem to have been plenty from act 4&5. 

Closing thought/edit: This game may be good enough to make my top 20, but I'm still a little bit on a high from finishing it.  It's definitely one of the best western RPGs I've played in a long time and a completely different beast than Mass Effect.  A little more polish and this would have been an instant classic.

I'm on chapter 2 right now.  Got the game basically because of this thread, otherwise I never would have heard of it.  It's pretty sweet.  I'm pretty sure my guy has superaids by now, but hey, he's having fun. 

Oh, and Rasix, you can choose not to help either the racist fucks or the non human resistance.  I stayed neutral.  I play my character as a decent dude, but I'm not picking up causes that don't concern me.  Oh, and there was some hardcore shit being said by Dandelion at Shani's party.  Some seriously HARDCORE shit.

Also, I bought the game after the new patch came out, and haven't noticed any long loading times.  However, my comp is a behemoth, so ymmv.

Yah, I know. I just guess I really didn't like the Squirrels and their tactics. Just sucks at the end when you realize what you helped establish.  :oh_i_see:

Has anyone here read any Sapkowski?

I think his books are supposed to be 'fairly' dark, I haven't had time to read them unfortunately.

I got the first one from Amazon UK. I guess I am 1/3 of the way through. It is very much like the game. A really gritty world. The only bright spot is sex and that is really bright. A little more of Gerald's thoughts and feelings but not much different then the game. I think at least the first of the novels will be published in the US this spring. It could well be all of them (6?). I am not sure as I type this.

Beautiful and very fun game, it's a refreshing and quite innovating RPG. I liked the combat and the alchemy systems very much.

Definitely a must try, especially if you're fond of RPG games. While sometimes the loading times can be bothering (it has been improved with the latest patch) and the UI is a bit cumbersome, it has a very interesting story and a fun gameplay.

hmm bought the game hesitating to open it up as my desktop falls a bit short on specs

AMD 64 2200+ (or maybe that is 2000+ :P)
2 gig ddr ram
geforce 8600 GTS 512mb
WD 100gig 7200rpm

anyone playing this, and able to enjoy it on an older system/cpu?

Your processor's about the same as mine, but you have more RAM so you shouldn't have any problems.

Yahtzee does The Witcher (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2831-Zero-Punctuation-The-Witcher).  He is not amused.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with him that it's basically a single player mamorpiguh.  That might be why I sort of lost interest in it after a while.  I still plan to finish it someday, but the fact that playing through Vampire:Bloodlines for the 9th time is a higher priority for me than going back to The Witcher is pretty telling.

I restarted it due to a system rebuild (forgot to save the savegames) and lost interest in the first chapter. Even with the faster loading times, it's not much fun a second time through.

He has valid gripes.  The UI is bad, the combat is uninspired, and there's a lot of running around.  The "collect 10 ghoul wangs" type quests though are purely side quests, completely skippable, and can be completed by doing stuff for the main quest in just about every instance.  The combat, uninspired as it is, is at least fun to watch and not annoying, unlike recent games I've played PotBS (avatar) and Assassin's Creed where it was a bother.  At times playing either of those games I found myself wishing it was more like Witcher's combat.

Funny enough though, tend to like the single player MMO type games since not ironically, I like to play most MMOs like single player games. Morrowind, Oblivion, Mount & Blade have all been games that have grabbed me for a while mainly due to the freedom they allow.  Witcher is much, much more on rails than the games I have mentioned though.  The world shrinks and expands based purely on where you are in the story.

The story is what I really liked in the game (and what's somewhat lacking in Beth Soft's take on this type of game).  It's pretty well done and gives you choices that make a difference in how future events unfold.  Sure it's just branching parts of a timeline that lead to the same end, but it's better than your choices just moving the good/evil slider and not much beyond that.  At times I actually regretted decisions I made and felt bad about them when I saw how it played out.  That doesn't happen very often in any games I play anymore. 

Obviously I didn't find enough wrong to stop me playing the game once my technical difficulties were taken care of.  I can see how some would get put off; the game is a fun experience in a package that at times can be pretty shabby.

What Rasix said.

Yahtzee never had a chance to see the story and the story changes due to your decisions. As that is what makes the Witcher what it is, a first look at that game can never do it justice.

Plus, Yahtzee admits that he doesn't like CRPGs, so he might not be the one to ask about their quality.

Good thing I watch him because he is funny.  :-)

(http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9778/yahtzeemmorpgze2.jpg)

I feel like I should pay him to review an MMORPG.

Note: I got about as far as Yahtzee. He's right. PC Master Race indeed. :awesome_for_real:

He did review TR

I said MMORPG.

Not MMORPS.

Thats not an insult you know. I always felt superior to the short attention span Nintendo generation and told them so. And they can't even remember to do anything about it. Its like Memento all over again!  :drill:

Me too.  Turns out, I like other people in my MMOs.

Also, I laughed when he said that out loud.

Tebonas

Don't believe his lies.

Edit/deletion: I evidently hit reply rather than edit...

Paying for a better version is highway robbery. This should be patch.

What a bunch of jerks.

That. 

I think you need to read carefully on what they're doing. People jump to conclusions too easily.
I recommend a later edit of your jerk statement in green.  :oh_i_see:

The rest of the press release:

I don't see "For Free" anywhere in that bolded section. 

I wouldn't see a problem with charging a small amount for the mod editor and the new content.  However, from the thread here (http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=10550.15) (from red name Dziadu down near the end of the page):

OK. Now they're not jerks.  I performance improvements + inventory enhancements would make trying out the new dialog worth it. 

I can see the other stuff being worth something, just not much to someone that already has the game.  Depends on the quality of the additional pre-game modules and the mod editor not sucking.

According to a .pdf (http://www.thewitcher.com/resources/upload/img/news/2008/02/Enhanced%20Edition%20fact%20sheet.pdf) they have up with the press release, the modules and the mod editor are supposed to be available for download on March 14th, so we'll at least be seeing that stuff sooner rather than later.

I think some one GETS it. This is an excellent Role Playing Game. Great story. It is not twitch, FPS, it is being inside of a movie. Pure entertainment. Pure story and story telling. I cheer this decision. It may not be your cup of tea but it is on target and as an inty studio they have done well.

Well neat. I'll finally get to play the game.

Damn, kind of bummed about this. I mean its a good thing. But I started playing this again last week and am finally near the end. I really like the game, but I dont think I would want to play through it twice.

Kinda glad I waited on purchasing this game now.  I'll check it out when the new version hits.

I've had a copy of this sitting on my shelf for a while that I was planning to start this week.

Guess I'll hold off.  :-)

Seconded. We'll have to shelve it and hope the improvements get us through playing through all the mumorpuger content. Again.

CD Projekt Group also just acquired a majority ownership in another Polish developer, Metropolis. (http://pc.ign.com/articles/852/852937p1.html)  I'm not sure why exactly, since Metropolis has pretty much only released shitty games, but there you go.

I just ordered this game from the UK a few days ago, should be here in a week or two (works out to cost about half the lcoal price). I guess it will go into the great pile of "to be played eventually" games.

Cool, now I'm glad I set it aside for a while, I'm only in the second or third chapter. The loading times were one of the biggest things that drove me away.

And I love modding tools.

The loading times where already drastically reduced in a patch, thats why I went back and started playing again.

Mine arrived finally. Any idea when this "repaired edition" patch will be released?

I was reading in a print mag (ZOMG) about a patch that restores the original script translation that was apparently censored up good.

PC Magazine, iirc.

I remember reading about some fan made patches that restore the script, but I think something like that might also be included in the 2.0 patch for the game.  Too bad they couldn't have just kept it original from the beginning, I do like the voice acting in the game overall. 

As to the repair patch, the email they sent out has May as the time of release. 

Righto, into the shelf it goes for the next three months.

Shame I heard about this patch right after I ordered it. Damn thing would have been a good chunk cheaper by the time I get to play it. Or better yet, replaced by the fixed one...

New patch today:

So we can make more sex? :grin:

Does the new patch include orgasmic rape like Mass Effect?

Just completed this the other day and must say I enjoyed nearly every minute of it (not the crashing everytime my main quest was updated) cool fight sequences and some decent storyline. One of my favourite games of old is one called Legends of Valour which was unplayable due to bugs but the whole idea of it made it nearly worth playing til the game perma crashed & in some ways. Witcher reminded me of it on an atmospeheric level, medieval slums and narrow alleyways with seedy dwarfs trying to pick up hookers. Also I like the way you aren't micro managing your inv overly much this can be a problem in some RPGs if you enjoy that sort of thing try NWN2. Some of the ingame visuals were awesome reminded me of "Ocarina of time" sun setting and moon rising you could sit there over the lake and watch this really immersive.     (slight spoiler>>>) The end sequence is long/cool enough to make it a just reward (I hate games that give you a crappy short end sequence after the hours you put in best one ever was Snatcher).

Hmmm wonder if they'll make a sequel that isn't bugged to shit

I hope so.  More witcherness is very appreciated.

*edit* Btw, the massive script/UI/uberness patch hasn't come out yet has it?  I've been waiting for that patch before replaying it.

Not yet.  That'll be next month (or so I'm seeing from the forums).   Time to re-shelve it for another month then. =/

Edit: should really check dates on my email...

Hey, it's June now. Did that patch come out yet?

Nope.  The enhanced edition is delayed no new date yet (or so it said last week when I checked)

:(

I guess I can wait to finally play it again.  I've waited 6 or so months already.

I always read polishing like they mean making it more Polish (the nationality).

I still have a new box, unopened, awaiting that patch.

Exactly what he said.

Just a heads up for those interested, the Enhanced Edition (http://www.thewitcher.com/community/en/www/ee_description.html) goes on sale on the 16th in NA, 19th elsewhere.

If you bought the original version you should be able to download all the extra content (~2Gb) on the 19th, according to their forums: (http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=16536.0)

I'm really excited for that patch.  The 19th can't come soon enough.

I like how the idea behind GOG crosses over to the games they make. I hope this company gets more projects.

So! Anyone seen a place where you can get the Euro Enhanced version? (I don't care for nudity either way, but I like to see "what the artist intended." I also waste a lot of money on "Director's Cut" DVDs.)

I'm curious as well, since I purchased the original release from a Euro site - how easy it will be to make sure I get the Euro update.

From what I remember Stormwaltz, it wasnt very hard to find a Euro downlod site for the game.

They may still have the download sites linked on their front page, that's how I bought it way back when. 

As to the patch, assuming it will matter, I wager the files you can access are related to what cd key you used to register.  I don't think any art assets are changed for the Enhanced Edition, so I don't think the 1.4 patch would mess with them. 

I have to register? Damn, that means cracking open the shrinkwrap. :uhrr:

So far my search has come up with a load of nothin'. No links on their web site except to NA digital distributors (selling the censored version), it's not even available on Amazon.ca, and while Amazon.com has it, they won't sell anything to Canadians (we're shafted with their ghetto .ca, which has 1/3 to 1/2 the selection of .com). Googling variations of "purchase witcher enhanced edition mail uk" has only produced news articles about it, not actual places to buy it.

EDIT: Apparently, the magic bullet is to remove "mail." Durrrr.

pm sent.

Their server is getting hammered for the dl of the extended patch.  By hammered I mean why the fuck didn't they go torrent?

Its so that even when they give away stuff for free we still have something to whine about. Because only a whiny gamer is a happy gamer!  :awesome_for_real:

This is not the holy grail of downloading you make it out to be. The average person trying to get this patch is greedy and wouldn't seed anyway. Which leaves them with providing their own seeds and the same problem existing.

"If we could give people a magic hat that would create for them the exact RPG experience they'd always dreamed of, they'd complain about the color of the hat."
- Drew Karpyshyn

Fileplanet picked up a combo patch.  One download gets everything, even does it all on one install.  Well worth bypassing the polish fileserver for fileplanet. 

Even if most people don't seed, peers still take a load off of the content providing server, which is more than you can say for direct http downloads.

So I patched and played for a good 6 hours last night.  This'll be my second time through the game.

I'm VERY impressed.  The game feels extremely polished at this point and I'm actually enjoying the story and VA instead of cringing at it.  I have a week off coming up here quick and I'm looking forward to playing through this again.

OOoo, It's out ?

I'll be in my bunk.

Registering appears to be fucked.  For me at least.

Poo.

Yep, managed to download all the updates in under a couple hours, go to install - "You must register your game".

Oh, ok, welll I assumed that since I'd played and patched the game I must have registered it, I guess not. I pull up the email from my online order and it shows the following:

Your Serial Number is:


Yep, that's it. So now I join the long list of people waiting to see which email I sent will respond with a serial number. Way to go guys. Apparently if you bought the boxed version in Canada, every single one came without a serial number.

God I love anti piracy messures that cause more harm to the legit purchaser than anyone else.

Registering the game on the witcher site worked the other day.  Hopefully they'll have it up soon for ya.  (gotta have the key in your manual to do it)

It's virtually unplayable for me right now though... all sound is distorted and coming out of only the left speaker.  Gotta wait for a fix or something.  

So, although I live in the US, I got hold of the UK copy. When I go to download the patch from http://www.thewitcher.com/community/en/www/ee_update_faq.html, it directs me to a polish site which downloads at about 1/3rd of a 'normal' download, so I will be here a while. Is everyone relegated to polish servers, or did the website automagically detect my UK version and hence is patching from Poland?

Seems that way. I was relegated to the polish server as well. Worked out well. though.

Are you using the onboard sound chip? I read over on the QT3 forum that someone with a problem sounding like yours fixed it by turning down the hardware acceleration.

I am using onboard sound.  Sadly, jerking around with the hardware acceleration in windows didn't do jack.  Thanks for the tip though. 

I got it up and running with the new patch. Unfortunately, I'm so far behind in the story (still in the first village) due to a computer switch, that I don't know if I have the incentive to play it through again. The combat is still completely retarded in this game.

You can just power up that whirlwind slash and the fire and breeze through the game...

its not hard. just retarded.

So, finally finished it after holding back until the Enhaced Patch.

That was superb storytelling. The ending twist blew my mind and the fact that comments you made in the past influenced the main villain is beyond awesome.

I should stop reading some of the item walkthroughs for this cause I read that only 3 decisions actually influenced the ending. I know you make a considerable amount more, but only 3 are vital to the ending.

Vital maybe, but there are quite more decisions that change little things around.

Has anyone picked up the Enhanced Edition retail box yet?  If so, what's the DRM on it?  (US version from Atari, or the UK "Import" version)  I've been running across mixed reports that the US edition uses the Tages DRM that breaks your game in subtle and not-so-subtle ways if it thinks you're a pirate (e.g., because it doesn't like the kind of DVD drive you use).

All I want is to be able to purchase games, install and play them without an Internet connection, and re-play them on my latest PC 5+ years from now even if the publisher or developer goes under.  I hate having to risk a dubious fix for a game I've purchased just to make it run, and I don't do torrents or other downloads even for products I've purchased.

The protection on Enhanced Edition is SolidShield. AFAIK it's not invasive and is a simple cd-check. I can't imagine the Witcher guys (aka, the Gog.com guys) allowing invasive shit on their disc based games. I would imagine that Atari forced SolidShield on them at minimum.


However, The Witcher one does not use the last 2 and if you want to play without a disc, I'm pretty sure all you need is an unwrapped EXE. Anyway, it's not "bad" as far as DRM goes. Note: I don't have the game yet, but I would've installed it without a thought.

:awesome_for_real:

Really, you never patch your games?

I patch games I've bought when the DRM keeps me from being able to play them (a couple of systems ago, lots of games flaked out on my old CDROM and would usually fail to recognize the original CD).  However, I'd really rather not have to do that.  I'm more concerned about activation schemes not activating (and not always being patchable) several years from now.

I accumulate game (bug) patches on older hard drives, so I don't always have to re-download them.  Yes, my system is usually connected to the intarwebs, but I don't like having to rely on my Comcastic connection being up and some publisher/dev still having a live server when I have a hankering for some single-player game.

http://www.impulsedriven.com/

I do not understand the asterisk, but I do believe Stardock hates DRM.

New Console Witcher announced: link (http://www.thewitcher.com/newsletter/en/2008-12.html)

trailer at witcher.com

I had heard so much about this game, I really wanted to get into it.

But the multiple unintuitive control sets and horrid combat put an end to that dream real quick. I assume they'll retool that whole system for the consoles, and hopefully make combat a bit more fun than watching your cursor change colors.

Thank God.  Everyone's all "Oh Witcher this" and "Witcher that".  So I try to install it and it runs like a slideshow.

My PC gaming days may be coming to a close, barring Flash games and Football Manager. 

NECRO'D FOR HUMOR.

So I got Atari's Enhanced Edition box recently.

It comes with a map of the world, a booklet with a chapter or so of the first Witcher novel, a "game guide" that tells you how to play through the whole thing, a DVD "making of", a CD soundtrack, and a CD of music inspired by the game -- not actually in the game, just... kind of aural fan fiction, I guess.

But no manual.

 :uhrr:

With all those extras, there was no room in the box for it.

The euro version has one, so maybe you just got a "pre-opened" copy?

Great avatar

If so, Best Buy has a lot of 'splainin to do.

edit: checking Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witcher_(video_game)) only the Russian version didn't have manual for some reason. It should be included in any other box.

My copy of the encahnced version came with all that and the manual.

Very possibly. I bought a MMO from Best Buy once some years ago and found that the copy had already been registered. Took it back, got irate, and one clerk stationed over by the games quietly admitted to me after I calmed down and was browsing titles that they'd had a problem with a guy who'd been fired for opening boxes, snatching registrations and reshrinkwrapping stuff. I dunno whether he was just trying to placate me--there are other points in the process where someone could harvest registrations--but it wouldn't surprise me. There have been all sorts of pretty credible stories about BB's Geek Squad running amok with data on machines they service, so moosing around with inventory doesn't seem like so muh of a stretch from that.

Internal Witcher 2 video leaked!   :drill:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/09/18/the-witcher-2-presentation-video-leaked/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JciyoGmnGyo

WTB original language-pack for Witcher 2.

I'm hoping it's just an internal guy doing the VO work right now for the purposes of the demo.

Yah, that's placeholders. In any case i think one of features in EE they added was ability to run the original voice pack with english/whatever subtitles so that should cover Xuri's request, since i doubt they'll remove such option from the new game.

So happy Witcher did so well,completely deserved. I love seeing these awesome games turning up from completely unknown foreign studios.

"six years later..."  :necromancy:

So, I just beat the game for the first time (probably took me around 60 hours or a bit more); like I said in another post, in my previous attempts the whole swamp mess in Chapter 2 represented a big hurdle for my overall enjoyment.
------------

Such an ambitious and, in the end, very good game, if you consider this was their maiden attempt at producing something of this scale: it's sparse and incoherent in places (not uncommon when it comes to european CRPGs, in that I would compare it to Larian's projects, especially the first 'Divinity' game), but also fascinating and quite atmospheric, thanks to the setting created by the original author of the books.

They could have easily trimmed down a lot of secondary stuff: the plot is quite good as it is, the characterization of Geralt excellent without the need of endless trips around Vizima or in THOSE DAMN FIELDS IN CHAPTER 4 (hate you, Alina-Celina quest  :uhrr:).

I played it on "normal" difficulty, so I ended up with a lot of spare ingredients, and without the need for many potions. Combat is...Yeah well, good for what it is, although I prefer other approaches.

Now, of course, I'm eager to move on to the second chapter of the series.

Finally, as far as personal tastes go with european CRPGs, I would put it below Gothic 1 (yep, really) but slightly above Divine Divinity (for fairness, I'm only taking into account the first game of those series).