The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[rk47]

"Daddy has a game for you guys...check it out..."
"What is it daddy?"
"Ooh looks like it's finished install...it's about this monster slayer..Geralt. From Poland!"
"Ooooh, scary.. where is that?"
"*laughs* Doesn't matter...you'll learn...let's try....New game!"

*Watches the intro.*

 

*Closes the laptop*

"Malia. Sasha. Go to your room. Now."

[disKret]

Another patch today (1.2) with lots of goodies inside - fixing probably all of bugs mentioned in the thread

http://www.en.thewitcher.com/patch1-2/

What they are talking about???

"Islamic–themed and similar textures have been deleted and/or replaced."

[tgr]

According to the changelog comments, a carpet in one of the brothels had islamic looking textures.

That's all, a carpet had an islamic LOOKING textures! And the mob was already enraged and mailbombed ProjectRed that they should remove it or else..

If this is serious: Sigh.

[tmp]

Can't believe someone would visit a brothel and watch the wrong kind of carpets.

[Miasma]

I haven't read the thread for fear of spoilers but have a question.

I very much liked the first Witcher but it was really, really rough and buggy until it was all patched up.  How is this game doing bug wise, should I buy it now or wait six months for their "fixed" version like they did with the first?

[tmp]

Only experienced a one bug really, although it's quite annoying -- occasionally if you toss the petards the camera manages to get stuck in odd mode which pretty much renders you unable to fight until you take some damage and the view mode resets back to normal. Don't know yet if it's fixed in the most recent patch. And the petards aren't really needed on the lower difficulty levels, i'd gather.

Other than that it seems solid (if hard, especially in the beginning)

[Mazakiel]

Overall, most of the bugs have been minor. 

Except for one.  During the last two fights in the game, somehow the game decided that bombs would fill my adrenaline bar instead of magic, so I was unable to use the heliotrope sign at all during them.  It would have probably been helpful. 

[Minvaren]

On sale for $5 less than the preorder price on Steam...   

[kildorn]

Overall, most of the bugs have been minor. 

Except for one.  During the last two fights in the game, somehow the game decided that bombs would fill my adrenaline bar instead of magic, so I was unable to use the heliotrope sign at all during them.  It would have probably been helpful. 

Heliotrope doesn't work at all on the second to the last fight anyways ;)

My main bug was when trying to throw bombs or daggers, I'd randomly get locked into a funky state where I couldn't move the mouse or press any button but movement keys until I took damage (actual damage, quen hits didn't count), and this would keep happening in fights where getting hit = lolyoudied, especially when you couldn't turn to avoid it being a back hit <3

[Miasma]

While I like much of the game I can barely stand to play it because the combat and other systems are so badly done.  With all the years of fantasy games how could they make the simple act of opening and going through a door so incredibly awkward and frustrating?  Every single instance of the "quick mash this button over and over again" mechanic is also really damn lame.  It's like I have to wade through shit to get to the good parts.

[ffc]

While this made me laugh, the last laugh was on me since my moldy DVD drive decided it wasn't going to read disc 1.

[rk47]

Finished it twice. Well worth the play. Some parts could be improved, but got overall good feeling from it. Looking forward for more.

[ffc]

The Panel Tweaks mod (unzip and drag into CookedPC) makes sorely needed inventory / crafting improvements.  Dedicated junk tab, inventory sorting, better crafting ingredient selection, etc.  I also tweaked the user.ini for graphical and fps boosts which I can post later if anyone wants it.

If the side quests stay as engaging as the incense side quest in Flotsam (at least 5 different ways to proceed in conversation, thank you OCD) and combat doesn't start grating on me in the way it has for others in this thread then I'll stay quite happy and impressed with how far this has come from the first Witcher.

[rk47]

wITCHER 2 news

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103810-cd-projekt-red-sued-over-the-witcher-2s-drm-removal.html

When THQ announced it had obtained the European publishing rights to The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for Xbox 360, that apparently surprised Namco Bandai, who had signed a distribution deal with developer CD Projekt Red for the European release of the PC version.

Atari will be publishing The Witcher II on Xbox 360 here in the US. Complicating matters, Atari Europe was acquired by Namco Bandai in 2009, gobbling up Atari's European distribution.

Namco Bandai is also arguing CD Projekt Red broke its contract with Namco Bandai by removing DRM from the PC version of the game without its permission.

Naturally, Optimus and CD Projekt Red believe both are in the clear.

"Namco's claims are unfounded," reads the statement.

As a consequence of the lawsuit, Namco Bandai is withholding payments of 1,225,000 Euros (roughly $1.75 million dollars).

"In the opinion of the [Optimus] management board, Namco consequently claim the desire to continue cooperation in the distribution [of] CDP RED products after the recent release of games released on PC, due to the expected potential sales of this title for console Xbox 360," concluded the company. (Also, I blame Google Translate for the awkward phrasing.)

LOL....

[disKret]

New patch on horizon (1.3) with i.e inventory junk tab and item storage in inns.

http://www.pl.thewitcher.com/media/upload/Changelog%201.3.pdf

[Ingmar]

So, there's some big 2.0 version coming next week:

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings version 2.0 is an update to The Witcher 2 even bigger than The Witcher: Enhanced Edition was to the original game. Version 2.0 is featuring a completely new Tutorial System perfect for all newcomers, a new difficulty setting called Dark crafted to appeal to hardcore fans, and an entirely new arcade-style game mode called Arena. Aside from this new content, version 2.0 includes all of the previously-released DLC – nine packs in all – as well as more than 100 technical improvements made to date, and an additional 40+ new technical and gameplay enhancements. All this makes The Witcher 2 version 2.0 the most polished and definitive edition of the game since the original release.

I don't see patching in the fun on the listed features, but I will probably give it another chance when this comes out.

[rk47]

Just forget about it. If it ain't fun, it can't be fixed.

[Selby]

I don't see patching in the fun on the listed features, but I will probably give it another chance when this comes out.

I was tempted to pick this up but all the "this ain't fun!" from people really soured me on it.  I want a good game to play sadly and haven't had a good candidate lately.

[Paelos]

Why wasn't it fun?

[rk47]

Why wasn't it fun?

Cause people die a lot even at lowest difficulty. Goddamn pollacks, why can't they make games without challenge that scales to the player's levels?
I wish they follow Bioware's footsteps of easing the difficulty level that made me feel like a Champion and partake in felicitations that involve cute elves with funny lines and witty repartee, not these dirty, grimdark for the sake of being grimdark foul-mouthed elves and other denizens of Witcher World. I find it hilarious that it's the best thing they can come up in an already established IP. I'm not familiar with Sapkowsky's work, but my god David Gaider made him look juvenile.

[Ingmar]

My complaints are upthread somewhere, and on the game-feature side, difficulty level wasn't really my issue, so much as it was responsiveness and interface stuff. I think it felt hard mostly because Geralt would often not do what I wanted him to. I have hopes they've cleaned that up by now, but I as I am spending this weekend blowing away my system due to mysterious Windows lockups I won't know anytime soon. (I still think QTEs have no place in an RPG, too.)

I'm sure the story/dialogue are as strange as ever but I can get past that as long as the actual gameplay is... playable.

[Venkman]

This one is definitely on the gut-punch side of eurogames. It reminds me of early EQ1, where it was so easy to fuck up, that alone made or broke you as a fan. They don't explain enough about how things work and the pre-2.0 UI was unresponsive enough it made Dragon Age 2 look like Modern Warfare 2.

That's been improved alot; however, the stupid GCD associated with spell-casting is still there. Or, lemme say, I assume it's some sort of GCD. That's the only logical reason I could see spells sometimes instantly firing and other times require a random number of Q or # key hits.

Once you get into the teen levels, and as long as you didn't gimp yourself, things start to feel more like how modern Western games usually start you out. None of that prelude insta-death. The arena really helped though. And man I wish the new tutorial was there at launch. I'm kinda surprised they released so much content now, but maybe they're pushing a holiday marketing effort so wanted to lower the barrier. This is the perfect game for the summer lull. Not sure it'll stack well against the Fall set.

[JWIV]

I'm kinda surprised they released so much content now, but maybe they're pushing a holiday marketing effort so wanted to lower the barrier. This is the perfect game for the summer lull. Not sure it'll stack well against the Fall set.

They're a little nutty about going above and beyond the long tail of support as it were.  Witcher I was much the same way.

[Sand]

Just downloaded it. Need an RPG fix. Will see how it goes.

[Sand]

Didnt go well. Wont run worth a crap on my system. $40 down the drain sense Steam doesnt do refunds. 

[ffc]

Try these settings if you have a 6850 1gb or equivalent (works great for me at 1920x1080, lowest fps i see is 40ish) by pasting into X:\Users\Sand\Documents\Witcher 2\Config\User.ini (make sure to use this user.ini, there's two of them!) and don't open the settings gui editor after pasting (edit: just paste the [Engine] part to enable custom settings and put in your own resolution under [Viewport]):


Set VSync to 0 if tearing doesn't bother you and you can lower shadows.  If you have more ram on your card (2gb+) you can up TextureMemoryBudget, or less than 1gb lower it.

[UnSub]

I believe this is new - the intro from the Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition:

Assassination of a king - it's beautifully handled CGI

Xbox 360 edition coming out soon.

[Muffled]

Damn, I'd forgotten how much I love that bald-headed jerk's character design.  That is one sexy intro.

[MournelitheCalix]

Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition April 17th Yay!


Behold You Stand Before a Head Crowned (New Cutscene):


The Trailer for the Enhanced Edition:


Improvements:
-  New Cutscenes
-  Apparantly "Hours" of brand new content
-  All of the Improvements & DLC
-  New Interface & Controls
-  New Intro and Outro
-  Addition of many new characters and locations including some that have not been announced.
-  New "adventures"


Best of all those of you who are like me and bought it on PC,  this is going to be yours apparantly for free. 

[rk47]

Pollacks giving away non shit games. What are they thinking?

[Tebonas]

They already did this in the Witcher 1 as well. Its called customer service, and they take that quite seriously.

I'm waiting for this Enhanced Edition to grapple the game again. So I'm quite excited they game me a date. Yay!

[PalmTrees]

New controls, huh? The difficulty I had controlling Geralt was my biggest complaint, maybe I'll give it another go.

[JWIV]

Well shit.  I just upgraded my RAM, so was about to pick this back up, but if the EE is right around the corner, I think I'll hold off.  God I love these guys though.  Awesome support for their games.

[Rasix]

Guess I should wait for the next Witcher game to get an EE before I purchase it.  I can see this getting me to play it through.  Witcher 2 was a day one purchase for me, but it was such a pain in the ass to play that I didn't get very far. 

Looking forward to this.  Date is a little close to D3 release date for comfort (will take a herculean effort to beat in time).  Sorry, SWTOR, doesn't look like I'm going to have time for you anymore.

[Sky]

I never got around to the second one, really enjoyed the first one. Looking forward to this on steam xmas sale 2012.