The Witcher 2 Catch-All

Great screens, tuffalo! I'd love to see it running on a high-end machine. I have to play on Low on my 3-year old gaming laptop, but even that looks pretty nice. It won't run at all on my 6-year old desktop--the Nvidia screens stutter, and CPU hits 100%, requiring ctrl-alt-del to quit.

SpyNavy wrote:

Is the DLC out for the Steam version?

Yea you have to register the game through the launcher then you can download it through the downloadable content option.

I'm really ignorant about graphics cards these days. I know I have two ati 5750s "crossfired" but the most that means to me was "two of these together had a benchmark similar to a higher end, single card that would have cost me a lot more money in Greece".

So, when I see that The Witcher 2 has an issue with "crossfire profiles" I've no idea what that means.

Unless...when the installer auto-detected my hardware, it put me at a low-medium graphics. Which I thought was really odd. I put it to high and it's running fine.

Okay. I just loaded fraps, and it says I'm getting 30-45 fps. And I haven't noticed a single issue with textures, etc.

Is there something I should turn off to get higher fps? Will I notice it a lot? I've played up to the point of the evening meeting in Flotsam and it's all looked pretty, no choppiness when fighting 8 guys, etc.

Supposedly AMD is coming out with the necessary hotfix/profile for crossfire 'soon'. As far as what options are expensive for performance, take a look at the readme, it has a description for each one. I had the same thing with the detection which put me at low (it's meant to be a bit wrong with CPUs) and I'm running at high with some customisation.

My copy arrived, now to sit and stare at it on my desk for the next 8 hours, then go home and sacrifice a cat or two to Cthulu that it works.

No pre-order bonus comic, a pity but no biggie.

p.s. Can anyone tell me what this is exactly? Obviously it's a spoiler to follow the link cause dude I found something in the game..

the screenshot of interest

Spoiler:

I found it where a bunch of Nekkers were spawning in, or rising out of the ground, near Flotsam. I hit the z button, and this nest-looking thingie highlighted. Nothing to click on and I tried setting it on fire multiple times. Nothing

Seems Bioware is somewhat disturbed with in general unfavorable comparisons of Dragon Age 2 and The Witcher and well, here is some MUD-FLINGING for you:

http://www.thegx.co/news/1270/biowar...

http://www.metacritic.com/user/M_Sta...

and an official denial: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to... (bottom of page)

Roo wrote:

p.s. Can anyone tell me what this is exactly? Obviously it's a spoiler to follow the link cause dude I found something in the game..

the screenshot of interest

Spoiler:

I found it where a bunch of Nekkers were spawning in, or rising out of the ground, near Flotsam. I hit the z button, and this nest-looking thingie highlighted. Nothing to click on and I tried setting it on fire multiple times. Nothing

I haven't found one yet so this is just a guess but I assume that's...

Spoiler:

...one of the tunnel entrances you need to close to stop the nekkers from spawning fo the quest. you maybe need the quest first to activate it - or possibly use the 'force push' ability to collapse it?

stevenmack wrote:
Roo wrote:

p.s. Can anyone tell me what this is exactly? Obviously it's a spoiler to follow the link cause dude I found something in the game..

the screenshot of interest

Spoiler:

I found it where a bunch of Nekkers were spawning in, or rising out of the ground, near Flotsam. I hit the z button, and this nest-looking thingie highlighted. Nothing to click on and I tried setting it on fire multiple times. Nothing

I haven't found one yet so this is just a guess but I assume that's...

Spoiler:

...one of the tunnel entrances you need to close to stop the nekkers from spawning fo the quest. you maybe need the quest first to activate it - or possibly use the 'force push' ability to collapse it?

Spoiler:

The quest is found on the notice board outside the inn. As for destroying it... No signs necessary.

Edit: Oh, and something I figured out fairly recently. After you've read a book about a type of monster, hit C and go to your Knowledge pane. It'll show you exactly what you learned.

Also, in TW2 you can gain knowledge about monsters just by fighitng them. I still like to buy books, but you don't have to now.

I would not put it past those crafty Poles to manufacture this either-see gog shutdown hoax.

Anyhow I am loving this game so far. The controls are wonky in parts though. I am curious to know what design decision put potion drinking in meditation and not on the fly. Especially as most only last a few minutes still. Maybe there are skills to boost the duration later.

I switched to the controller, grimace. The quick menus is really odd, no rose wheel.

But the game is so beautiful. I agree that this really sets a high bar for RPGs going forward. And Triss boob in the prologue is always a good thing.

KingGorilla wrote:

Anyhow I am loving this game so far. The controls are wonky in parts though. I am curious to know what design decision put potion drinking in meditation and not on the fly. Especially as most only last a few minutes still. Maybe there are skills to boost the duration later.

I don't know how well it works in the game, or not, but in the fiction Geralt meditates before going into action against a major monster and takes his potions at the time. He does it before taking on the Striga.

Certis wrote:

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.

OK seriously, if you have a video card with a HDMI jack (or your TV has a "PC" connection) and a Xbox 360 controller you really need to try playing The Witcher 2 on a big screen. Holy **** WOW!

Gorgeous visuals: Check.
Great sound that makes the house vibrate: Check.
Easy to play with a controller: Check.

If your PC can handle even 720p (most can) it is worth hauling the PC box into the living room. The visuals/dialog/story are enough to even convince a lot of wives to watch you play. Name another game that does that?

It is even worth going out and buying a mini-HDMI to normal HDMI cable if you need one for your video card and a new (?wired?) Xbox controller.

If you want to see how a RPG is going to look on a console in say... 2020. Do this today!

Today, I said TODAY!

Remember When you started Ultima VII? I'm getting that same feeling. (And I normally don't get this enthusiastic)

So does turning off "hard QTEs" mean that you get no QTEs or easy ones? I haven't finished the last piece of the prologue so maybe it is still coming, but I did do the dragon part and there was no hint of QTE at all.

I got a few mash X to turn lever ones, but no Indigo Prophecy yet.

Ok, Finally got to sink my teeth into it last night and finish the prologue. Impressions

- Game is definitely better with the controller, particularly for movement. Moving Geralt with the keyboard just feels janky to me.
Missing out on hotkeys is unfortunate but manageable.

- Apart from some weird animations, the game is indeed gorgeous.

- The context-sensitive areas for looting and activating stuff are too picky for my liking. I wish it was more forgiving, it's just wasting my time making me pixel hunt.

- I love the plot, the characters, the direction, etc. English voice acting is better than the Witcher 1 but still weak - can't wait for Polish Language DLC.

- Combat is indeed tough, but quite rewarding.

All in all, it strikes me as a typical high-quality Eastern European game - while it lacks some of the polish (pun intended) of its western counterparts, it's doing imaginative things and moving the genre forward in ways that western developers don't.

Dysplastic wrote:

- The context-sensitive areas for looting and activating stuff are too picky for my liking. I wish it was more forgiving, it's just wasting my time making me pixel hunt.

You may be talking about something else, but activating your necklace by holding down z on the keyboard (not sure on the controller), will highlight all of the interactive objects in your area. It was mentioned a few pages back.

Dysplastic wrote:

- I love the plot, the characters, the direction, etc. English voice acting is better than the Witcher 1 but still weak - can't wait for Polish Language DLC.

It should be available now unless its a region specific thing - downloaded it yesterday from the DLC menu.

You may be talking about something else, but activating your necklace by holding down z on the keyboard (not sure on the controller), will highlight all of the interactive objects in your area. It was mentioned a few pages back.

By default that function is mapped to clicking the left stick.

Also, props for displaying the most realistic (though still very nice) breasts I've ever seen in a game. In the prologue, it seemed that Triss had just a touch of sag, not the standard half globe.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

- The context-sensitive areas for looting and activating stuff are too picky for my liking. I wish it was more forgiving, it's just wasting my time making me pixel hunt.

You may be talking about something else, but activating your necklace by holding down z on the keyboard (not sure on the controller), will highlight all of the interactive objects in your area. It was mentioned a few pages back.

Finding them isnt' the problem - I'll often run up to where it is, and the option won't be highlighted - I have to fiddle with Geralt and where he's facing to get the context button for "search" or "open" to appear. It's just a bit annoying and too unforgiving.

stevenmack wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

- I love the plot, the characters, the direction, etc. English voice acting is better than the Witcher 1 but still weak - can't wait for Polish Language DLC.

It should be available now unless its a region specific thing - downloaded it yesterday from the DLC menu.

Not available for me - all I saw last night were 2 "english language packs", which I thought was funny since I had an English version, both of which were broken and didn't download.

Nevin73 wrote:

Also, props for displaying the most realistic (though still very nice) breasts I've ever seen in a game. In the prologue, it seemed that Triss had just a touch of sag, not the standard half globe.

Yeah, I'm just glad the pyramid boob days are over.

Dysplastic wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

- The context-sensitive areas for looting and activating stuff are too picky for my liking. I wish it was more forgiving, it's just wasting my time making me pixel hunt.

You may be talking about something else, but activating your necklace by holding down z on the keyboard (not sure on the controller), will highlight all of the interactive objects in your area. It was mentioned a few pages back.

Finding them isnt' the problem - I'll often run up to where it is, and the option won't be highlighted - I have to fiddle with Geralt and where he's facing to get the context button for "search" or "open" to appear. It's just a bit annoying and too unforgiving.

That's what I thought you might be talking about. I haven't had a problem, but I'm using the mouse/keyboard config which might make the pixel hunting faster and less annoying.

As to the whole controller versus keyboard thing, I have not felt the urge to use my 360 controller as mouse/keyboard feels really good to me. Maybe I'll try it just to say I did, but that won't be until a second playthrough.

Minor gripe: I wish the mini map had either a North marker or always had North on the top. This spinning map is getting me lost. I have to revert to the main map to get my bearings.

Dysplastic wrote:

- The context-sensitive areas for looting and activating stuff are too picky for my liking. I wish it was more forgiving, it's just wasting my time making me pixel hunt.

Yea I just imagine a crosshair at the center of the screen and place the item there with the camera. Luckily the camera movement is fast.

BTW: Are people looting everything is sight to make money or looking for jobs? Both? Is money a issue?

Okay, so for anyone who is nervous of getting the game and trying to run it on a sub minimum graphics card.

I'm running a 9600 GSO 384 Meg and the game runs fine. Even on the lowest setting which it defaulted to it looks gorgeous, there is a bit of a wonky frame rate, but I haven't tested it with FRAPS.

After dying about 10 times running into a courtyard I decided to take a break, exited the game and hit the 'Autodetect' button and it bumped everything to high.

That didn't work out so well, so I turned it down to medium, turned off V-sync and turned up texture downscaling. Looks even better, a few frame rate hitches, but still playable.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Okay, so for anyone who is nervous of getting the game and trying to run it on a sub minimum graphics card.

I'm running a 9600 GSO 384 Meg and the game runs fine. Even on the lowest setting which it defaulted to it looks gorgeous, there is a bit of a wonky frame rate, but I haven't tested it with FRAPS.

After dying about 10 times running into a courtyard I decided to take a break, exited the game and hit the 'Autodetect' button and it bumped everything to high.

That didn't work out so well, so I turned it down to medium, turned off V-sync and turned up texture downscaling. Looks even better, a few frame rate hitches, but still playable.

Glad to hear it works for you!

MrDeVil909 wrote:

After dying about 10 times running into a courtyard I decided to take a break

Just so you don't get frustrated, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trdHM...

Main tip is you should take strong advantage of the Quen sign. And the combat gets much better later on, when you've had the chance to invest in some abilities.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Okay, so for anyone who is nervous of getting the game and trying to run it on a sub minimum graphics card.

I'm running a 9600 GSO 384 Meg and the game runs fine. Even on the lowest setting which it defaulted to it looks gorgeous, there is a bit of a wonky frame rate, but I haven't tested it with FRAPS.

After dying about 10 times running into a courtyard I decided to take a break, exited the game and hit the 'Autodetect' button and it bumped everything to high.

That didn't work out so well, so I turned it down to medium, turned off V-sync and turned up texture downscaling. Looks even better, a few frame rate hitches, but still playable.

Art style plus scalability, it works.

I'll be interested to see how this game goes down on the consoles if/when it gets ported. Hopefully they can work around whatever problems MS have with charging, to avoid Valve's problems where they don't want to charge for updates/content.