The Witcher 2 Catch-All

Or preload most of it from GOG a week before release.

Scratched wrote:

Or preload most of it from GOG a week before release.

I could, but I have been assimilated by the Borg of the Steam collective. I get ticked now when a game I want isn't on Steam.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

*cross posted in the "Finish it" thread*

52 hours later... Done (with The Witcher 1)! Wow, so many bad and good things about this game.

Bad: I wasted ridiculous amounts of time in combat. In many battles, I had to game the system, as in, get near enough to a group of opponents where one would see me, run away, finish him off, repeat. I definitely should have played the game on easy. Which reminds me, you can't change the difficulty after you start a game. What the hell? This game seems to require the use of the Wiki. I should have used it from the beginning and more often. I ended the game at level 32. After reading a bit, it looks like you can get at least up to 40. I probably should have done a few more side quests here and there to make my life a bit easier.

Good: The combat is extremely enjoyable and satisfying when it works. The story, while a bit silly most of the time, is kinda fun.

I can't wait for The Witcher 2 now because, hopefully, they will have fixed all of the silly problems that plague the first game.

Finally:

Spoiler:

The ending cutscene is f***ing bad ass. It was almost worth the 52 hours it took me to beat this damn game.

I'll probably cross post this in the Witcher 2 thread.

Interesting read. I've just started chapter 4, and I don't know what it is about this game, but I keep loosing momentum. I feel like I should be using a guide for this one. Looking back, I can see how I could probaly acomplish more in a shorter time, knowing how to do things together better. At least your spoiler (not really much of a spoiler) gives me some incentive to push on. I'd really like to finish this before W2 comes out.

I was stuck in act 4 for a long time but I thought the game picked up after that and I was glad I finished it.

Also, gametrailers put up a preview of The Witcher 2
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/pr...

Wakim wrote:

Interesting read. I've just started chapter 4, and I don't know what it is about this game, but I keep loosing momentum. I feel like I should be using a guide for this one. Looking back, I can see how I could probaly acomplish more in a shorter time, knowing how to do things together better. At least your spoiler (not really much of a spoiler) gives me some incentive to push on. I'd really like to finish this before W2 comes out.

I'm in two minds about the 'lack of momentum'. On one hand I like having clear objectives and knowing what needs to be done, but on the other I can also appreciate not knowing what needs to be done. I think the whole 'leading you by the hand' approach that you see in some games, where you're pointed to exactly what you need to do, diminishes the whole experience of some games where you are meant to be immersed and get lost in a world rather than seeking out linear paths from A to B by the most efficient way possible. Life is rarely efficient.

The investigation in TW1 act 2 is a good example of this, where you pretty much have to do what appear to be what other RPGs would call side quests, but while doing them you stumble onto information that's relevant to your main objective. This works for me in that in a more-real-world there's no distinction between "now I'm doing a primary quest" and "now I'm doing a secondary quest", it's just you doing stuff in the world.

From the RPS preview a few days ago, I'm glad that it looks like they're keeping most of the way they do quests in the world, there's just things to do that might help you along. Just so long as there isn't anything that's anti-player, such as time wasting filler quests.

I did the first one on Hard. The difficulty does feel off at times. The Beast took me a few tries, but after you get to the next chapter and potion ingredients were available, the difficulty went down dramatically. The thing that screwed me over was the plant monster and the unique version that kept appearing and absolutely wrecking me. Also, those swamp Wyrms are definitely not do-able for a newcomer until you get the specific blade coating and a good level of melee.

As for being swarmed, if you get that trip bonus from the group style, it becomes almost comical how many of them trip over and over when you slash in a big circle.

Honestly, playing on Normal I never found too much of a challenge. Using the right blade, style and Aard got me through pretty much everything. Not to say I never died, but never enough to get frustrating.

The other thing is research within the game. If you find the correct books to learn a creature's traits, then it helps a ton.

I hope they improve that in 2. That is the gamiest downward spiral on the game. Buy books to learn how to kill monsters and get alchemic ingredients, to make money to buy books...

Out of curiosity, how high did you guys level up before finishing TW1? I hit 32 when the game ended.

KingGorilla wrote:

I hope they improve that in 2. That is the gamiest downward spiral on the game. Buy books to learn how to kill monsters and get alchemic ingredients, to make money to buy books...

Or in other words, it's a bit grindy. I'm a couple of hours into chapter 4, and the last time I loged in, I sat and looked at my quest list for a couple of minutes, and thenexited the game and played TF2.

I'll keep slogging away though. I'm not trying to knock the game, it's incredibly impressive, it's just not grabbing me the way most RPG's do.

Oh yeah, how do I know what the heck level I am anyways? I'm a skilled witcher, whatever that means.

The thing is, the tip content of those books exists anyway whether you read them or not. You could go out and experiment with swords, styles, blade coatings, etc. You just buy the books to get an entry in your journal as a record, not to unlock their weakness to silver, etc.

You do need to read the books to harvest ingredients though. They will not drop without research.

Wakim wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:

I hope they improve that in 2. That is the gamiest downward spiral on the game. Buy books to learn how to kill monsters and get alchemic ingredients, to make money to buy books...

Or in other words, it's a bit grindy. I'm a couple of hours into chapter 4, and the last time I loged in, I sat and looked at my quest list for a couple of minutes, and thenexited the game and played TF2.

I'll keep slogging away though. I'm not trying to knock the game, it's incredibly impressive, it's just not grabbing me the way most RPG's do.

Oh yeah, how do I know what the heck level I am anyways? I'm a skilled witcher, whatever that means.

If you mouse over the "skilled witcher" part in the upper right hand corner, it will show you your experience level.

I know what you mean by "not grabbing me." I sorta felt that way until the chapter 2 investigation. At that point the game "grabbed me" for the most part. There were always a few annoying things here and there that took me out of the game.

KingGorilla wrote:

You do need to read the books to harvest ingredients though. They will not drop without research.

That is something they could change, it's not as though alchemy experimentation hasn't existed in other games, and reagents are plentiful enough (besides the ones from boss monsters) that you could have plenty of failed experiments without hindering yourself.

I watched the trailer in the OP again and not only is it a great trailer, but the voice acting is also pretty fantastic. Can't wait!!

I like how on TW2 map, the area involved with TW1 is a tiny little bit of it around 2-3% of the area displayed.

KingGorilla wrote:

I hope they improve that in 2. That is the gamiest downward spiral on the game. Buy books to learn how to kill monsters and get alchemic ingredients, to make money to buy books...

Yeah, and books are expensive! It's either books or armour.

So, I'm having a hard time deciding on the pre-order through Steam or the pre-order through GOG. The GOG one comes with that 200 page digital art book which might be fun to look through. I really hate ordering through anything but Steam if the game doesn't have a Steam activation, but I think I might have to break on this one. I can't decide! I guess I have some time to think about it.

Well, it's the usual GOG policies, you can redownload when you want, and no DRM (I think it's the only version with absolutely nothing) so you can back it up with no external dependencies. Once you add it to the steam library you get the overlay like any other 3rd party game, but the only thing I can see lacking is the auto-patching, and CDP haven't said how that's handled for non-steam versions. Personally, downloading patches is within my comfort zone, especially if there's a version checker built into the launcher like TW1.

Yeah, if I could download I would go GoG, just to vote 'No DRM' with my money. I need to buy the disc though.

Also, I like the idea of giving CDP more money so they make more games. When I get this, it'll be through GoG. And believe me, I'm right there with you on the whole "buy through Steam thing", Tuffalo. But I will make exceptions in special cases and this seems like a good one to me.

Nightmare wrote:

Also, I like the idea of giving CDP more money so they make more games. When I get this, it'll be through GoG. And believe me, I'm right there with you on the whole "buy through Steam thing", Tuffalo. But I will make exceptions in special cases and this seems like a good one to me.

Yeah, I've been leaning towards GoG because of this.

Only if Steam or D2D have pre downloads do I suggest them. Otherwise it may be a bit rough getting your game downloaded fast enough launch day.

KingGorilla wrote:

Only if Steam or D2D have pre downloads do I suggest them. Otherwise it may be a bit rough getting your game downloaded fast enough launch day.

I pre-ordered through Steam, and I have not thoughts about playing the game the day it comes out. I expect to download it overnight and start in some time later.

KingGorilla wrote:

Only if Steam or D2D have pre downloads do I suggest them. Otherwise it may be a bit rough getting your game downloaded fast enough launch day.

Only GOG will be offering pre-loads for The Witcher 2.

Swarfigo wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:

Only if Steam or D2D have pre downloads do I suggest them. Otherwise it may be a bit rough getting your game downloaded fast enough launch day.

Only GOG will be offering pre-loads for The Witcher 2.

Sold! I think I would have ended up going with GoG in the end anyways.

I don't know about other countires but even retail copies of W2 are, uh, preloaded in Poland. I'm supposed to get my physical preorder on 12th but like everybody else I'll have to wait till 17th.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...

From humble roots, we have our king-slayer.

Looks like you get a free game out of Beyond Divinity, Divine Divinity, Gothic 2: Gold Edition, Realms of Arkania 1 + 2 or Realms of Arkania 3 if you preorder through GOG. Any recommendations? Any of these worth playing these days?