The Witcher 2 Catch-All

No problem. Also: holy hell, the new intro cutscene is badass!

As a console peasant, this combat system is going to take a bit of getting used to. I can't remember the last time a game recommended that I knock the difficulty down. The targeting just didn't seem to work for me in the tutorial.

EDIT: or not...I just waded through my first couple of battles without any problems.

I have never in my life completed an RPG completely more than one time. Reading this thread makes me want to, but there are still plenty of good good games I own that I've never palyed once. We'll see.

I've put about an hour in, and my only major complaint is the camera stick being far too sensitive and there being no option that I can find to numb it. The sound mixing could use some work, too. Foltest is too loud, but when I lower the dialogue volume I can barely hear Geralt.

Squee9 wrote:

I have never in my life completed an RPG completely more than one time. Reading this thread makes me want to, but there are still plenty of good good games I own that I've never palyed once. We'll see.

The thing that's great about how TW2 does it is that while you get completion of the main story, and the main events that make up that story play out, it's two (plus multiple variations) paths around that main story that are very different, and show the other side effectively. I think many other studios would have tried to half-ass it and force it all into a one path game, which would have weakened it.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I've put about an hour in, and my only major complaint is the camera stick being far too sensitive and there being no option that I can find to numb it. The sound mixing could use some work, too. Foltest is too loud, but when I lower the dialogue volume I can barely hear Geralt.

The mixing (and other stuff) gets a lot better after the Prologue. I feel they dropped the ball on the entire opening chapter, and there doesn't seem to be much of an improvement with the EE patch. It has quite a few quirks here and there that could have done with some polish.

I've just stepped back into it on PC, and after a brief stint with a controller, I've found the mouse and keyboard to be much better. It might be something wrong on my end, but using the wired 360 pad is just a little sluggish all around. Button responsiveness, mainly. I advise anyone on PC with a gamepad to try both before settling in on one.

Hyetal wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I've put about an hour in, and my only major complaint is the camera stick being far too sensitive and there being no option that I can find to numb it. The sound mixing could use some work, too. Foltest is too loud, but when I lower the dialogue volume I can barely hear Geralt.

The mixing (and other stuff) gets a lot better after the Prologue. I feel they dropped the ball on the entire opening chapter, and there doesn't seem to be much of an improvement with the EE patch. It has quite a few quirks here and there that could have done with some polish.

I've just stepped back into it on PC, and after a brief stint with a controller, I've found the mouse and keyboard to be much better. It might be something wrong on my end, but using the wired 360 pad is just a little sluggish all around. Button responsiveness, mainly. I advise anyone on PC with a gamepad to try both before settling in on one.

IMAGE(http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/2/24/I_see_what_you_did_there_super.jpg)

Squee9 wrote:

I have never in my life completed an RPG completely more than one time. Reading this thread makes me want to, but there are still plenty of good good games I own that I've never palyed once. We'll see.

I've completed Mass Effect 1 & 2 twice each, but Witcher 2 was the first time I saw the credits roll and then immediately started a new one and played through till completion again.

Tanglebones wrote:

..frydoinghisthang...

I saw it just after I wrote the words. I don't know if it's good or bad that I subconsciously pun.

Hyetal wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

..frydoinghisthang...

I saw it just after I wrote the words. I don't know if it's good or bad that I subconsciously pun.

It's awesome.

Scratched wrote:
Squee9 wrote:

I have never in my life completed an RPG completely more than one time. Reading this thread makes me want to, but there are still plenty of good good games I own that I've never palyed once. We'll see.

The thing that's great about how TW2 does it is that while you get completion of the main story, and the main events that make up that story play out, it's two (plus multiple variations) paths around that main story that are very different, and show the other side effectively. I think many other studios would have tried to half-ass it and force it all into a one path game, which would have weakened it.

If there were ever a time to replay a game I guess this one is it. We'll see what happens during my next four day weekend.

I forgot how good TW2 is. Just got my Blasphemer set it's like a hot knife through butter. Now to find a way to kill off the screen effect.

Pretty impressive packaging for a standard ($60) title.

IMAGE(http://i.minus.com/jR2EZKoQQrWJQ.jpg)

- 30 page instruction manual and a 85 page "Quest Handbook"
- Reversible map
- Game soundtrack disc
- Slipcover & dvd case

I had no idea it shipped with all this stuff.

Scratched wrote:

I forgot how good TW2 is. Just got my Blasphemer set it's like a hot knife through butter. Now to find a way to kill off the screen effect.

There's this. It's not perfect, but it's better than dealing with that god damn screen filter
http://witcher.nexusmods.com/mods/221

Aaron D. wrote:

Pretty impressive packaging for a standard ($60) title.
...
I had no idea it shipped with all this stuff.

It's kind of interesting to compare the bundle of stuff this game comes with compared to pretty much every other 'big' game that gets released, where it seems like they want one of your kidneys for anything more than the base game. I'm not sure quite how big a deal it is, whether people only want the game, whether that's just what everyone is used to now, etc, but the little studio/publisher from Poland seems to make it work for themselves.

Hyetal wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I've put about an hour in, and my only major complaint is the camera stick being far too sensitive and there being no option that I can find to numb it. The sound mixing could use some work, too. Foltest is too loud, but when I lower the dialogue volume I can barely hear Geralt.

The mixing (and other stuff) gets a lot better after the Prologue. I feel they dropped the ball on the entire opening chapter, and there doesn't seem to be much of an improvement with the EE patch. It has quite a few quirks here and there that could have done with some polish.

That's good to hear, because I was honestly a little underwhelmed, but didn't get very far at all. I'm sure the game will ramp up. Off the bat I can say I like the combat less than most recent action-RPGs. Hopefully that's just because I don't have much to work with yet, and have not run into any interesting foes.

I played with the intro, heard darkmode was coming, started over again and got a little into Chap1, heard EE was coming, waited

Hopefully I will actually play it for real now

PS I preordered it as well :/

Blind_Evil wrote:

Off the bat I can say I like the combat less than most recent action-RPGs. Hopefully that's just because I don't have much to work with yet, and have not run into any interesting foes.

You may end up liking the combat eventually. It's very different from most everything. The closest thing like it are Batman AA and AC. It's not quite as snappy, but it can give a very similar feeling when you chain things together properly.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

Off the bat I can say I like the combat less than most recent action-RPGs. Hopefully that's just because I don't have much to work with yet, and have not run into any interesting foes.

You may end up liking the combat eventually. It's very different from most everything. The closest thing like it are Batman AA and AC. It's not quite as snappy, but it can give a very similar feeling when you chain things together properly.

I don't really like those games, natch.

However! Part of the reason I don't like them is that you rarely if ever need to do more than mash buttons to win. It seems in TW2 you get a similar toolbox but are required to utilize all of it. So I remain optimistic.

Blind_Evil wrote:

However! Part of the reason I don't like them is that you rarely if ever need to do more than mash buttons to win. It seems in TW2 you get a similar toolbox but are required to utilize all of it. So I remain optimistic.

Personally, I thought Batman AA required you to be very careful about your button choices. That might have been because I did it on the hardest difficulty and all the challenges to get a platinum trophy.

You will NOT be able to button mash your way through this game combat-wise.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

However! Part of the reason I don't like them is that you rarely if ever need to do more than mash buttons to win. It seems in TW2 you get a similar toolbox but are required to utilize all of it. So I remain optimistic.

Personally, I thought Batman AA required you to be very careful about your button choices. That might have been because I did it on the hardest difficulty and all the challenges to get a platinum trophy.

You will NOT be able to button mash your way through this game combat-wise. ;)

Yeah, I played AA on normal because I don't like Batman and was main-lining to the end. He's the least interesting part of his own damn universe. Geralt, I know, is the man. So long as CDPR handled him properly, that is.

I started a new game up yesterday with the EE patch and ran into one bug. Posting just in case someone else experiences it: Currently, if you use a 16:10 ratio monitor, the new cutscene videos will not play correctly (you will get audio with a black screen). The apparent workaround is to change the aspect ratio in the settings to 16:9.

Hmmm, it's working for me so far in 16:10, as in the pre-title screen videos play, but I haven't got to the point of seeing any in-game flashback videos yet. What I have had is if I spam the key to skip the pre-title screen videos too fast, I get a black screen I have to press one more time to get past.

Goddamn that intro is bad ass.

If anyone has trouble with Steam getting the game to realize it needs patching try checking the local content integrity.. I had some issues that needed fixing.. its now downloading the update

Word from the weary to 360 users - don't trust the autosave. I went through four combats and a couple cutscenes, then they decided then to introduce quick time events with no warning and kill me. I am back at the beginning of the combats.

Edit: and when you die it defaults to load your last autosave, not your last save.

Started playing on 360 last night (even though I have it unplayed on Steam, making this my first double dip) and loved it. I have a low tolerance for elves-and-potions fantasy, but this is one of the few times I've seen it done in a mature way. Reminds me of Game of Thrones in that way. I have been playing on Easy, though (as the game recommended), and I guess I need to bump it up because Easy is God mode. Also, the camera and character movement is way, way too loose.

I've been hearing a lot of concern over the too fast camera speed and the inability to adjust it. I'm hoping enough people voice it that the devs consider patching in a slider or something.

For myself, I got home last night, installed both discs, fired up the game...and played for about 10 minutes before heading to bed from exhaustion (stayed up too late Monday). :p

Hoping I can get some serious time in tonight.

One thing I noticed was that the text seemed pretty small on my HDTV. I noticed there was a text-size toggle for standard-def televisions. I'm not sure if it was just because I was so tired last night, but I do understand that there's a ton of universe lore wrapped up in text entries, so I may have to give this larger text mode a try.

There are issues, indeed. I'm using the "larger fonts" option as I don't find the regular fonts to be readable. And yeah, I would like to see them allow you to adjust the speed the camera swings. The gam is interesting but rough in a way Skyrim isn't, as crazy as it sounds. And currently those are the two games competing for my time.

Aaron D. wrote:

Pretty impressive packaging for a standard ($60) title.

- 30 page instruction manual and a 85 page "Quest Handbook"
- Reversible map
- Game soundtrack disc
- Slipcover & dvd case

I had no idea it shipped with all this stuff.

Just came home with my copy. I can't remember the last time a console game had this quality: heft.

Very awesome package. Can't wait to start.

Jayhawker wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:

Pretty impressive packaging for a standard ($60) title.

- 30 page instruction manual and a 85 page "Quest Handbook"
- Reversible map
- Game soundtrack disc
- Slipcover & dvd case

I had no idea it shipped with all this stuff.

Just came home with my copy. I can't remember the last time a console game had this quality: heft.

Very awesome package. Can't wait to start.

That's just the XBOX exclusive Dark Edition though, right?