The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[Rasix]

I was able to kick off the install before heading to work.  Yay.

[Wasted]

The boobies start nice and early.

[JWIV]

The boobies start nice and early.

Time to Tits  should replace Time to Crate as the standard by which all games are judged.

[Rasix]

So, do you import a save?

[Tarami]

Speaking of saves, should one play the first game before getting this?

[cosapi]

Dunno if anyone's interested but I just picked this up at frys for 35 bux. No idea how long they're gonna have that deal for though. It was listed as 50 bucks on the box but they had the price listed on the shelf for 35 bux and some guy who works there told me I'd have to have him print out a paper that I would take up to the front. (bastards didn't have any mint chocolate chip astronaut ice cream) Made buying a game I was already gonna get all that much easier. Loved the fact the regular edition had extra goodies for the heck of it like the soundtrack, coin/letter, papercraft, folded map. I wanted the giant geralt head super edition but they didn't have it and I probably wouldn't have been able to justify the price for something like that anyways  Between this and Terraria (just beat portal 2 the other day, got that at 30 bux during a sale) I'm pretty much set for the time being. 

I never did beat the first witcher though... got to the end and got bored. 

[tgr]

I got bored and realized I had the witcher somewhere in the games list on my steam account, and I fired it up. Is it just me or did they make the tits on the initial mage extremely jelly-like, or was it just something I imagined?

[jakonovski]

Sounds like a great niche for some middleware. Can be used for man-boobs as well.

[Mazakiel]

I'd like to be posting some initial first thoughts on the game, but apparently they're 'optimizing' the Witcher 2 servers.  So you can't activate the game to finish installation and play. 

 

[tgr]

Hm? Which servers are you talking about? Steam's?

Because I just googled and found http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-17-valve-calms-the-witcher-2-drm-concern

[ffc]

I thought only direct from GoG was SecuROM free? That post makes it seem all versions might be DRM free. I want to use my credit at Amazon but I can't figure out what if any DRM it has.

Dunno if anyone's interested but I just picked this up at frys for 35 bux.

Is there an online activation key in your retail copy (besides the optional key to register for future DLC) you have to enter after installing to play?

Edit: Seems retail has (removable) activations. (Hope for Amazon DD you say?) At least there's no double-dip on Steam.

[Ingmar]

My understanding is the retail buy-a-box has SecureROM but electronic distributions don't, they just have some left over dummy files.

[cosapi]

Yeah I had to put in some activation code for securom. :/

Had I known about this I'd probably have grabbed it off GoG instead. :P

[kildorn]

Plot is fun. Dialog is fun. Game is pretty. Combat is now absolutely pants on head retarded, however. And the "how do you play" tutorial bits... don't explain a fucking thing because they always pop up and then immediately auto close for a cutscene.

[Fordel]

Which NPC has the best rack so far?

[Xuri]

Still in the prologue, and it is as kildorn said. Pretty, good dialogue, etc. But there is a serious lack of proper tutorials, in many cases telling me how to do stuff AFTER I've struggled for a bit to actually do it and then move on.

The thing that's really starting to annoy the shit out of me though, is the half second after every weapon-swing (unless you do a series of swings) where my character refuses to move. It's as if they added a "Do Not Move"-flag to the attacks so you can't move while attacking, but then proceeded to make the attacks not actually "end" until the entire animation has played out through the swing and then slowly and painfully back to the "idle stance". Gah.

[kildorn]

Which NPC has the best rack so far?

Oddly, I've only seen one rack!

Given that it's the witcher, I totally expected a shag with the blonde officer they keep focusing the camera on the ass of. Didn't happen, but she's still on the boat with us, so I'm going with "90% of your screen time is your ass, you get nude at some point during this game"

[rk47]

VGG

I really want to go home NAO  N   PWAYYYY!

[Mazakiel]

Hm? Which servers are you talking about? Steam's?

Because I just googled and found http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-17-valve-calms-the-witcher-2-drm-concern

The game (retail box version at least) had to download some sort of activation patch before I could start playing the game.  The servers did eventually come back up. 

Overall, I'm liking the game so far, but the combat's feeling sorta bland.  Hopefully there's tricks to it I haven't picked up yet, because as has been mentioned, the tutorials are a bit lackluster at times.  Dice poker is back, so are the fist fights though they're now done via QTE.  They also added arm wrestling.  Once I sit down to mess with them all, should hopefully provide some cash, because so far I'm feeling very broke.  There's stealth portions to certain missions now, and you can't always fight your way out of being caught to finish the quest it seems. 

Plotwise, I'm liking it so far although I'm not far in.  I've already had some choices I made go sour pretty quick, so that looks to have carried over pretty well. 

[Ingmar]

VGG

I really want to go home NAO  N   PWAYYYY!

Not until you finish your Arcanum playthrough. 

[Xilren's Twin]

The boobies start nice and early.

Time to Tits  should replace Time to Crate as the standard by which all games are judged.

The Witcher 2 even has pre-game tits, as in right on the paper map they include in the box. That's gotta to be a new record...
Lot's of neat stuff in the package besides that, though Im a bit surprised they included a full printed game guide right in the box.

On the downside, it's been long enough from W1 that don't freaking remember the major characters or plot points from the first game, and W2 kinds throws you in as if you had just completed the first game mere minutes before.
Despite the customary "main character has amensia" BS, 10 minutes in Im still like could someone give me a plot summary of how I eneded up here with the nekkid sorceress again?  I mean hell, they start you with several minuites worth of cutscenes where you arent doing anything but they aren't terribly helpful from the "in our last episdode" variety...

[JWIV]

On the downside, it's been long enough from W1 that don't freaking remember the major characters or plot points from the first game, and W2 kinds throws you in as if you had just completed the first game mere minutes before.
Despite the customary "main character has amensia" BS, 10 minutes in Im still like could someone give me a plot summary of how I eneded up here with the nekkid sorceress again?  I mean hell, they start you with several minuites worth of cutscenes where you arent doing anything but they aren't terribly helpful from the "in our last episdode" variety...

The journal entries go a long way in helping to fill in the gaps (Hit "J").  But yah, it'd be nice if they were a little more obvious/helpful at the start.

[Lantyssa]

On the downside, it's been long enough from W1 that don't freaking remember the major characters or plot points from the first game, and W2 kinds throws you in as if you had just completed the first game mere minutes before.
Despite the customary "main character has amensia" BS, 10 minutes in Im still like could someone give me a plot summary of how I eneded up here with the nekkid sorceress again?  I mean hell, they start you with several minuites worth of cutscenes where you arent doing anything but they aren't terribly helpful from the "in our last episdode" variety...

Don't drink so much next time.

[tmp]

Lot's of neat stuff in the package besides that, though Im a bit surprised they included a full printed game guide right in the box.

They had that in the first game as well. V. handy if you get stuck at some point.

[ffc]

I emailed CD Projekt and apparently other digital distributions outside of GoG and Steam have SecuROM.

[Mazakiel]

So..... at one point you can hang out with the Blue Stripes and start drinking, making bets, and all that.......

[Fordel]

What happened to the 'raft' :O

[Mazakiel]

Returned soggy but undamaged, apparently. 

[Xilren's Twin]

Apparently, my forgetting the first game has also apparently translated into me sucking at the combat in this one. I know it's different than W1, but the whole fighting multiple enemies where getting hit pain stuns you for a second makes combat harder than it should be.  One on one enemies, even heavies, no problem.  Two or three enemies? Doable with taking some damage.  But me vs 3 light and 3 heavy in the monastery courtyard = multiple deaths.  I can dispatch the lights easy enough, but no matter what hit and run or sign based tactics i have tried, the 3 heavies staying together make it very hard to hit one enough times to kill it without taking too many blows from the other ones.  Last couple of tries involved me using hit and run while under the shield sign, but apparently the damage received overloads the shield and it goes down in like 2 blows from the heavies, which doesn't give me time for more than 1 swing, and since you usually have to wait until you block before getting an opening on a heavy, kiting just wasn't working too well. 

I bought "throw dagger" skill on my level up, but can't seem to make that work (can't find a command for it and for all i know i have to buy/find throwing daggers too) so ranging them seems out.  The fire sign is too slow and not damaging enough; the push sign again, not enough.  I was hoping to find a way to unlock the gate and let in the king and other troops but haven't found a way to do that yet either. Trap sign i am going to play around with next, but it seems like a lot of work for a level 2 fight vs normal mobs this early in the game. (plus, i had to pull out the manual to even figure out what the signs did again; why aren't they listed in the journal?)

I'm probably missing something obvious that will make me feel like an idiot when i figure it out, but the best word I could use to describe the combat right now is "unforgiving".  Kind of like the ballista capture where if you charge straight at it, you might only learn there's two guys with crossbows hiding behind barricades near it when you die to bolts in the back.  While in an of itself combat being Hard is not a bad thing, it probably makes W2 less accessible to new players too.  I wonder what boss fights will be like in this game.

Oh yeah, one other thing in the early game that struck me as poorly designed..
 

My frustrations aside, I do like it.  Good ole dark and gritty fantasy world where it seems everyone is a right bastard from the king on down.  I have picked up so many herbs, plants and other miscellaneous crap for crafting that I cant wait to dabble in that.  Plus, I've been bored out of my skull for weeks with nothing to play other than Portal2, which while fun, doesn't take long to complete.

[tmp]

For the courtyard fight i've cut down the light guys first (entered the fight with the shield sign active to avoid any extra damage) then for the last three guys i've used couple of the stun bombs you start with -- a hit does some minor aoe damage but more importantly has a chance to stun each of the targets, and then you can one-hit kill these. Lacking bombs you could probably just keep firing the Ard at them, that one has a chance to stun and open the one-hit kill option too.

Took me quite a few tries too, but that's since i'm too stubborn to switch to the normal mode. yet.

edit: btw, i like the narrator's exaggeration in this one more than in Dragon Age 2, not in the least because it's ever-present in the journal entries.

edit 2: for the dagger throw think you need to buy/make them and then have them in the "selected item" slot, then you throw them with R key like you use the other consumables. Should be in the manual somewhere.

edit 3: oh yeah, and you get description for each sign in the in-game journal after you use it for the first time.

[Ingmar]

Game makes me a little motion sick, which is something I usually have no trouble with. 

[Zetor]

Game makes me a little motion sick, which is something I usually have no trouble with. 

I thought I was the only one!

I actually have to take a break after 1h due to nausea, and this is the first game I've ever played where this was an issue for me.

[kildorn]

Turn off the motion blur and see if it helps? It's pretty excessive.

So after getting to act 2:

Combat is easier when you give it some time. I got annoyed, started over, and waltzed through most of act 1 the second time around. Things I learned:

1) Why does geralt get his ass kicked in multi target fights? It's combination of the "hit" interrupt causing stunlocks, and hits to the back causing double damage. So if you get hit by a knight while rolling away, there goes half your health instantly.

2) Once you leave the castle, throwing knives are the most lethal weapon in this game world, and I just made a stack of 30 or so and used them to cheese stupid monsters (the two queens from act 1? three traps and a lot of knives! My silver sword hits one for 12, my knife hits it for ~40)

3) The new combat system rewards rapid application of force, NOT skulking around trying to use parry and whatnot. It wants you to have the highest damage sword available, and just lay into things. Also: donut touch WASD while starting a swing. It will interpret that as something stupid, while just clicking swing will cause geralt to use the appropriate attack at the time.

4) Quen (the shield one) is the single best sign this time around. Not only does it absorb damage for your tiny health pool, it also prevents the "I got hit" staggers. So you quen up, run in and beat on someone, then roll out when quen drops and reapply. Note: in general DO NOT PARRY WITH IT UP. Your vigor regen is halted while quen is up, so parrying just burns vigor.


For the courtyard fight, I killed the lights, then just did a few loops of the courtyard while slowly chipping away with Igni.

So the controls are still touchy as hell and like to target the wrong thing (like swinging at something off screen, or being unable to loot certain bags because there's no way to get line of sight to it for a loot icon), and for fucks sake every time there's a cutscene Geralt loses a goddamned sword in it ("mommy, why does that man have two swords? Does he lose them a lot?") And this game should have been called The Witcher 2: Geralt copes with Monogamy. I actually like it. Triss is a bit of a HUGE SNARKY BITCH every time another woman appears on screen, but she seems to be a good influence on Geralt.

[Mazakiel]

To echo that, once I learned to to switch between the signs and be willing to use them all in combats, things got a lot better.  Quen can be a life saver, and if you go into the magic tree, it'll start damaging opponents who hit it.

[Ingmar]

I also need to figure out if I can turn on hardware mouse somehow, the responsiveness is awful by default.