The Witcher 2 Catch-All

For my TW1 import, I did a manual save just after you get teleported back from the ice planes after defeating the Grand Master/King of the Wild Hunt, there's a small window where you have control and you're meant to pick up the witcher secrets from the Grand Master's body, but before Dandelion talks to you and the outro plays. Besides the armour/weapon imports, I can't say I've seen too many effects of it yet. Don't worry about the gear too much, as it gets replaced quite quickly.

Generally I'm finding TW2 to be a quite well constructed game, it's 99.9% of the way there. The most major bug I've run into is listed in the readme: "A very random input block might occur when using bombs, during dynamic fistfights, and with some interactions. If you encounter this issue, please load a previous game save.", I had it bog down a bit while talking to NPCs who you can trade with which a restart fixed, and the only real awkwardness is lining up Geralt with items/NPCs you can interact with, which could use a little tuning. So long as they keep rolling out patches I'm sure the issues will be squished.

The world and how things happen in the world is awesome. A brilliant game so far.

My save was from the Ice Plains but I don't recall making any significant choices after the final fight, I remember the outcome being set at that point.

Real quickly before I get back into the game. The crossfire fix mentioned earlier seems to work like a charm. On ultra keeping vsync on and disabling ubersampling, I seem to be averaging a steady 50-60 fps with drops into the 30s and 40s when lots of stuff is going on. I've been taking lots of screenshots which can be seen on my steam profile (see sig below) if anyone is curious.

One other thing. I loaded an old save from my laptop and an actual ending save from my desktop which completely changes the beginning. That is just plain awesome. Completely different starts. This game is going to have some wicked replay value.

Now, back to the game.

Edit: Actually, the different beginnings were from making choices in a different order.

DrunkenSleipnir wrote:

I'm having trouble getting my Logitech gamepad to be recognized by the game - do I need to use the profiler? Anyone had any luck, or am I just a moron?

Here is the workaround I used, in case anyone wants to use a gamepad that ISN'T an Xbox controller:

http://www.murc.ws/showthread.php?p=...

The linked software at http://virusdev.ovh.org/files/ (called xinputemu) worked for me.

Wow I'm playing on normal and fighting a group is next to impossible!

Nuean wrote:

Wow I'm playing on normal and fighting a group is next to impossible!

There's a part I'm at now that I'm certain no one playtested. Love the game so far but gimme a break.

Nuean wrote:

Wow I'm playing on normal and fighting a group is next to impossible!

Yeah, it definitely takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it it's not so bad. Leveling up skills will make things much easier I suspect. I noticed you can level up something pretty quickly that allows you to block from any side. There's also something that will allow you to deflect arrows.

I don't think a video game has ever given me the chills from being so good. This one just did.

Nuean wrote:

Wow I'm playing on normal and fighting a group is next to impossible!

Spam the shield, and use it to run in and heavy attack the weak enemies. Then work in on the toughies.

Frickin' boss fights! ::rage quit::

Having a hard time getting into this one so far, but it was the same way with the first. That said:

The camera's in a really nasty place. Everything's swinging around very close in. Giving me a bit of a headache and making me a bit dizzy. And I'm that guy who has never understood how people can get motion sick playing video games. Might be in conjunction with my fps and something being just a bit off with the mouse sensitivity. (Yes, it's adjustable, but there's still something off.)

I've got a slightly above average system, and on moderate settings it's really chugging. I'm going to see if updating my drivers does anything.

Some of the voice acting is wonky again. Some of the lines are super flat, especially with Triss.

I had to go pretty deep into the manual to figure out some basic controls (meditation). I'm not sure I would have even thought to look in the manual if it hadn't been mentioned here. What century are we in again? I still have no idea how to use that dagger throwing ability I just bought.

That said, the combat system seems like it has some potential once I figure out how to get the controls, viewpoint and framerate set up properly.

Managed to play a few hours tonight. Combat is definitely challenging, I'd say I died a dozen times in the prologue before I started using my shield sign more. That one really, really helps in the early going. Beyond that, not mashing the buttons and timing your swings seems to help, same with being careful about rationing your energy so you have enough to parry when needed.

I know it's blasphemy, but I'm really enjoying this with the 360 controller. Interface is good without feeling watered down at all. I just miss being able to key off different signs without having to bring up the radial menu. I'll take the trade-off since leaning back and relaxing while I play totally rocks. Very tempted to get this working on my TV somehow.

As expected, the story so far feels a lot more grounded and ... well, true, than most games. It's kind of like reading a George RR Marting novel after finishing The Elf Stones of Shannara. It's not perfect by any stretch, but there are writing and plot moments in this game that run right against common tropes I've come to expect.

Overall it's showing me a LOT of what I was looking for in a sequel in terms of giving me more of what I loved and yanking or changing what dragged the first game down. Runs great, very stable and no bugs to report so far.

One technical quibble, though. I'm finding the sound balancing is a bit of a mess. I killed the music and left subtitles on mainly because some character dialogue was being drowned out by ambient sounds. Some of the voice recording sounds a bit ... off relative to where the character is on screen. Kind of distant and almost crackly? I don't know, just seems inconsistent. Also still not quite used to Triss sounding like she's from the mid-west while everyone else tends to be fairly English. It's settling in slowly, though.

All in all, it's going to take all my willpower to not play this to exhaustion tonight. Thank god it's a Canadian long weekend coming up.

Quick thoughts - I'm several hours in and I don't feel I've scratched the surface yet. I'm enjoying the story and the weighty decisions you have to make. Both sides to decisions seem to have layers. Keep in mind that I'm still really digging the game. It's just that since parts of the game are so good, the parts that irritate me stand out that much more.

Yeah, I'm kind of pissed that there is no key mapping in the options. Not that I'd change anything but it's a good way to see what keys were what. At no point did the game tell me that "E" was used to parry. I guess this is CD Project's way of taking us back to the days when manuals were used. Overall they did a really poor job teaching you how to play the game without reading the manual.

QTEs suck, really disappointed in the brawling mini-game.

The combat can be hard and you should save often. I found myself dying several times only to have discover that I hadn't saved in a while. Fallout autosaves during transitions spoiled me. For the most part you need to manually save all the time.

Movement - after playing Batman: AA and Assassin's Creed 2, I have to say that being blocked by minor foliage and having to find the hotspot to climb a ladder feel very cumbersome and painful. I have to think there were better ways for them to allow the player to move through the world.

Stupid bugs - For some strange reason, their launcher won't let me type into the text fields to register the game. There have been times when launching the game that I've been hit with an error stating that there was no CD in the drive. Why would they even bother with such a DRM check when their own GOG release is DRM free? In those cases, simply cancelling the error allowed me to launch the game, but still.

Yeah, I'm kind of pissed that there is no key mapping in the options. Not that I'd change anything but it's a good way to see what keys were what. At no point did the game tell me that "E" was used to parry. I guess this is CD Project's way of taking us back to the days when manuals were used. Overall they did a really poor job teaching you how to play the game without reading the manual.

The Video & Language option in the launch menu (before you run the game) has an Input Settings button on the bottom. You can re-map everything, not sure why they excluded it from in-game options, though.

Certis wrote:

One technical quibble, though. I'm finding the sound balancing is a bit of a mess. I killed the music and left subtitles on mainly because some character dialogue was being drowned out by ambient sounds. Some of the voice recording sounds a bit ... off relative to where the character is on screen. Kind of distant and almost crackly? I don't know, just seems inconsistent. Also still not quite used to Triss sounding like she's from the mid-west while everyone else tends to be fairly English. It's settling in slowly, though.

I had a problem with this too, and ended up turning subtitles back on as well. I wish there was a separate speech slider in addition to music/sound, because I can't even hear some lines of dialogue when I'm standing right in front of people.

My other beef is that there are a lot of things to interact with but the indicator is almost invisible to me. I'm finding myself clicking randomly around to loot rather then responding to visual queues. Not a biggie, but seems very fixable.

I'm just finishing the prologue, and have to say I absolutely love the game so far. It's a great sequel, and I'm finding the story really engaging right off the bat. Can't wait for the weekend when I can really dive in.

Make sure you use your "trap" magic. It holds the enemy in place and allows some strong hits, or is otherwise good for crowd control. Make sure if you see an enemy attacking your first thought is "parry" not "attack", unless it's a heavy swing, in which case you can get a light attack in to throw your attacker off balance. The combat definitely takes some getting used to but it is EXTREMELY satisfying compared to Witcher 1. Not sure if it's been mentioned but make sure you use your necklace thing ("Z on your keyboard") when looking for loot, it highlights anything you can loot in orange.

Finished the prologue and am a little bit into chapter 1. The game is just so damn beautiful. It just looks so good and runs so well that it's blowing my mind. I can't stop taking screenshots.

Stylez wrote:

Not sure if it's been mentioned but make sure you use your necklace thing ("Z on your keyboard") when looking for loot, it highlights anything you can loot in orange.

Sweet! I totally missed that.

Stylez wrote:

Make sure you use your "trap" magic. It holds the enemy in place and allows some strong hits, or is otherwise good for crowd control. Make sure if you see an enemy attacking your first thought is "parry" not "attack", unless it's a heavy swing, in which case you can get a light attack in to throw your attacker off balance. The combat definitely takes some getting used to but it is EXTREMELY satisfying compared to Witcher 1. Not sure if it's been mentioned but make sure you use your necklace thing ("Z on your keyboard") when looking for loot, it highlights anything you can loot in orange.

Is there a way to switch magic on the fly without hitting the control button, selecting magic X, using magic X, then going back to the "meditation" menu?

Oh man, I just noticed the "Lures" tab in the inventory. Fishing has been one of my favorite things to do in video games since Ocarina of Time. Can't wait.

Probably just fish=women if TW1 is any clue.

magic is by default bound to the number keys, and you can cycle through with 3 or 4 by default, can't remember which.

I find it handy to bind "shield" to "H", "trap" to "G", and use "Q" as the quick cast for aard or Igni.

Lures allow you to draw a specific enemy type to you if you need their bits for potions and such.

Stylez wrote:

Lures allow you to draw a specific enemy type to you if you need their bits for potions and such.

Edit: Looks like renaming "witcher2.exe" in the bin folder to "CompatAFR-1x1.exe" apparently gets crossfire working.

This fix improves the framerate for me, but not as much as disabling Crossfire altogether. I'm using the first scene, inside the tent and out as a quick benchmark and the results are a bit odd.

With Crossfire enabled, witcher2.exe I get ~50fps inside the tent and ~25fps outside the tent.
With Crossfire enabled, CompatAFR-1x1.exe I get ~70fps inside the tent and ~30fps outside the tent.
With Crossfire disabled, witcher2.exe I get ~60fps inside the tent and ~45 fps outside the tent.

This is with settings between High and Ultra, 2 5850s and a Q6600.

Guess I'll just wait for new crossfire profiles.

DFKQ wrote:
Edit: Looks like renaming "witcher2.exe" in the bin folder to "CompatAFR-1x1.exe" apparently gets crossfire working.

This fix improves the framerate for me, but not as much as disabling Crossfire altogether. I'm using the first scene, inside the tent and out as a quick benchmark and the results are a bit odd.

With Crossfire enabled, witcher2.exe I get ~50fps inside the tent and ~25fps outside the tent.
With Crossfire enabled, CompatAFR-1x1.exe I get ~70fps inside the tent and ~30fps outside the tent.
With Crossfire disabled, witcher2.exe I get ~60fps inside the tent and ~45 fps outside the tent.

This is with settings between High and Ultra, 2 5850s and a Q6600.

Guess I'll just wait for new crossfire profiles. :?

Interesting. I haven't tried the game disabling crossfire. I'm happy with the performance now on ultra w/ ubersampling disabled (I get mostly 50-60 fps with some drops into the 30s once in awhile), but if a true crossfire profile gives me even better performance I will be super happy. Even when it drops into the 30s during heavy spots I don't really notice except for the frame counter. The engine is so good that a 30+fps is pretty acceptable. Some games are extremely noticable with anything less than 50, but this one is a little different.

Gotta post my favorite screenshot so far before I go to sleep. Good lord this game is pretty. RPS's impressions article puts it "I’ve taken about 500 screenshots and none of them do the game justice.", and I totally agree.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/suw76l.jpg)

my screenshots

Seriously, Witcher 2 is such a positive surprise. I hope the game stays like that. I will keep it short, I quite liked Dragon Age 1, was disappointed by Dragon Age 2 and Witcher 2 is a lot better than all two + the first Witcher together.

I'll do a review when my enthusiasm has settled - I am probably heavily biased atm because I am really happy about this game and glad I bought it right away. *knocks on wood*

Just one little tip on combat early on - as others have said, keep your shield spell up but don't overlook the dodge/roll. (space+direction) It ended up being much more effective for me than parry at early levels. Even with larger groups I would get a couple hits in, then roll out of range without a scratch while stringing the group out - repeat. Just make sure to take out ranged enemies first.

Other than that... there are some definite "whoa" moments and utterly amazing visuals.

I'm almost done with act I, no low points so far, though bigger fights are plainly too hard. I always suck at sword combat in games, but here I had to load some fights dozen times and once resorted to changing difficulty to easy.

Like in W1 they put in some social commentary and local jokes in there, if at times you feel like there is something there you should be getting, then... well, you're probably right. (Although I'm sure some of these been ironed out in translation.)
For example: whole quest with trader&recipe in act I (not a spoiler, don't worry) is very much commentary on recent gov't policy regarding soft drugs in Poland.
Also, is use of swearing and overheard conversations as brilliant in English version? Those two are my favourite things in W2, but I'm not sure how some of that sounds to English ears.

UCRC wrote:

Also, is use of swearing and overheard conversations as brilliant in English version? Those two are my favourite things in W2, but I'm not sure how some of that sounds to English ears.

The dialogue, and voice acting, from the NPCs standing around is great in the English version I haven't heard all that much swearing yet (I've pretty much just started Act I) so I can't comment on that.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Gotta post my favorite screenshot so far before I go to sleep.

Nice! I love the look of that guy.

Reading this is getting me excited for mine to arrive tomorrow, very worried about my graphics card though. And an upgrade in the last two weeks of my job with no employment in sight would be astoundingly irresponsible.