The Witcher 2 Catch-All

Squee9 wrote:

Ugh, the Mass Effect 2 scene was about the weakest payoff for a romance plot line ever. The Dragonage scenes aren't much better, but the lead up to the sex is good at least. There are some decent portrayals of adult relationships in those games.

The actual sex scenes in the Witcher series might be better, but I think the relationship between Triss and Geralt isn't developed that well. It seems like he has a deeper relationship with Yennefer - a woman we haven't even met yet! - than with Triss.

I always just sort of thought Triss and Geralt as "friends with benefits". I was never really sure that anything too deep was even supposed to be going on.

What about the Steam Digital Deluxe version, which is said to be the "2.0" version with 9 DLCs? Where does that stand in the hierarchy of releases? I'm confused...

imbiginjapan wrote:

I always just sort of thought Triss and Geralt as "friends with benefits". I was never really sure that anything too deep was even supposed to be going on.

I think there's certainly a bit of that. It was explored a bit in TW1 that because of his being a witcher, both in profession and what it changed in him physiologically, he couldn't really 'settle down'. Triss gets mad at Geralt in TW1 if you side with Shani, that's a more practical thing relating to Alvin, but it does make her colder to you. I think both Geralt and Triss recognise that their relationship will come and go because of their roles in life and their alliances, and it makes me very interested to see what they do owing to what I perceive as Triss being untrustworthy and manipulating Geralt for the lodge.

Also his character is a bit of a man-slut (*), but that's just fitting into the world in general.

* I do wonder how TW would be received if Geralt was a woman. It would seem like an interesting antidote to a lot of portrayals of women in games with the chainmail bikini stereotype.

Robear wrote:

What about the Steam Digital Deluxe version, which is said to be the "2.0" version with 9 DLCs? Where does that stand in the hierarchy of releases? I'm confused...

If I remember right, the actual updates are delivered through The Witcher 2's Launcher program, not Steam, which is how all versions end up being the same.

No, I mean, if you read the Steam page, it sounds like the Enhanced Edition already. What's the deal?

Man this game is awesome now that it's not crashing anymore. That is all.

Spoiler:

The difficulty curve is a little messed...it went from being Dark Souls hard to being a mindless button masher and now in chapter 3 it's getting harder again, but not as bad as before...

Aw man, I was about to click the order button on Amazon to get the Premium Edition with all its goodies, when I thought "I wonder if TW2 has Steam achievements". Of course they do and you can't register external keys on Steam. Basterds!

For those of you thinking about picking it up, I would recommend buying the GoG version rather than the Steam version. The Steam version has always had issues with patching and the Steam overlay doesn't work. With the GoG version, all the money goes to the dev, and you can just add the program to Steam. The Steam overlay actually works with the GoG version.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

For those of you thinking about picking it up, I would recommend buying the GoG version rather than the Steam version. The Steam version has always had issues with patching and the Steam overlay doesn't work. With the GoG version, all the money goes to the dev, and you can just add the program to Steam. The Steam overlay actually works with the GoG version.

+1

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

For those of you thinking about picking it up, I would recommend buying the GoG version rather than the Steam version. The Steam version has always had issues with patching and the Steam overlay doesn't work. With the GoG version, all the money goes to the dev, and you can just add the program to Steam. The Steam overlay actually works with the GoG version.

The overlay also works on the boxed version that I have. That's funny it doesn't work with the Steam version.

Squee9 wrote:

It seems like he has a deeper relationship with Yennefer - a woman we haven't even met yet! - than with Triss.

In the books, he and Yennefer are in a crazy, semi-destructive sort of passionate relationship, while Triss is simply a friend/acquaintance. The games take some liberty with that by having TW1 open with Geralt having lost his memory, so Triss jumps in and pretends like she and Geralt were a thing. I really don't know how the Yennefer romance could be portrayed with any sort of honesty in an interactive game, which is likely why she's left out.

Squee9 wrote:

Also his character is a bit of a man-slut (*), but that's just fitting into the world in general.

In the english-translated books (2, last time I checked), there's no man-sluttery going on with Geralt. In fact, I only recall him getting busy once and it's with Yennefer. From what I've heard, he's somewhat of a man-slut in some of the other books though. I guess that comes with his sterility and being Mr. Cool Monster Fighter Guy From Out of Town.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

For those of you thinking about picking it up, I would recommend buying the GoG version rather than the Steam version. The Steam version has always had issues with patching and the Steam overlay doesn't work. With the GoG version, all the money goes to the dev, and you can just add the program to Steam. The Steam overlay actually works with the GoG version.

The overlay also works on the boxed version that I have. That's funny it doesn't work with the Steam version.

Yeah, I have the GoG version, but I've heard from others that it doesn't work. It's really weird.

For those of you thinking about picking it up, I would recommend buying the GoG version rather than the Steam version. The Steam version has always had issues with patching and the Steam overlay doesn't work. With the GoG version, all the money goes to the dev, and you can just add the program to Steam. The Steam overlay actually works with the GoG version.

Yeah. Then they can pay some advertising agency fifty grand to pretend they are going out of business again...

This is still on my wishlist and all the awesome things I'm hearing only make me want it more. Nice to see this level of commitment from developers.

Okay so I finished this one already. Awesome game.

A few thoughts:

Spoiler:

First of all, the choice system in this game is pretty impressive. Beyond the fact that literally my ENTIRE game was different because of one choice I made early on, the choices themselves are often SO gray-area that the only way I can figure out how to decide is to actually roleplay the character. What is Geralt's code? What are the real motivations of these other characters? What would I have done in their shoes? And that is full of win. I don't know if any other video games have ever made me feel that way.

Secondly:

Spoiler:

I kind of missed the utter darkness of the first Witcher game in the second one. Also, the Witcher 1 had so many of its choice branches resolved in a single story that the variation was kind of staggering. I feel like the choices in the Witcher 2 have the chance to make Witcher 3 an absolutely incredible game that could literally be completely different from one player to the next, unlike Mass Effect and Dragon Age which have only basic superficial connections between the games.

And lastly (sorry for all the spoiler text):

Spoiler:

As I think someone mentioned in this thread, how interesting is it that the "end boss" of this game can (as it was in my game) literally just be a conversation with no fighting to be had? Makes the ending of Dragon Age 2 look squeamish and without confidence in its audience by comparison.

Anyway, loved it. Yay pile-progress!

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Okay so I finished this one already. Awesome game.

A few thoughts:

Spoiler:

First of all, the choice system in this game is pretty impressive. Beyond the fact that literally my ENTIRE game was different because of one choice I made early on, the choices themselves are often SO gray-area that the only way I can figure out how to decide is to actually roleplay the character. What is Geralt's code? What are the real motivations of these other characters? What would I have done in their shoes? And that is full of win. I don't know if any other video games have ever made me feel that way.

Secondly:

Spoiler:

I kind of missed the utter darkness of the first Witcher game in the second one. Also, the Witcher 1 had so many of its choice branches resolved in a single story that the variation was kind of staggering. I feel like the choices in the Witcher 2 have the chance to make Witcher 3 an absolutely incredible game that could literally be completely different from one player to the next, unlike Mass Effect and Dragon Age which have only basic superficial connections between the games.

And lastly (sorry for all the spoiler text):

Spoiler:

As I think someone mentioned in this thread, how interesting is it that the "end boss" of this game can (as it was in my game) literally just be a conversation with no fighting to be had? Makes the ending of Dragon Age 2 look squeamish and without confidence in its audience by comparison.

Anyway, loved it. Yay pile-progress!

Gratz! I agree with all the stuff you said. I was one of the people to love the end-boss choice too.

Yeah, I don't exactly know how different they are but TW2 apparently has 16 endings to find. I find it a bit funny when some developers are locking down what a player can do to make one experience almost on rails and hiding it behind big explosions, then along comes CDPR who make their game, plan from the start to give the player some agency in the world, make it one of the best looking games, and it's cheaper than a whole load of ther games too.

As much as rollercoaster games aren't going away, I hope TW2 does have broad success to make other developers take notice of what makes it great, and copy those aspects.

Best thing about different endings is that they don't feel artificial. I SUPPOSE: I only finished it once, but felt like my way could have been the only way that plot could have resolved. It's so great when a lot of potential different outcomes are so subtle that it's hard to notice some of them.

I didn't say that man-slut thing! I'm all about open pre-marital sex, and people that have lots of it aren't nessecarily sluts.

I can see the friends with benefits thing. Seriously, who wouldn't want to get levitated around by a hot sorceress girl mid-coitus? You know Triss does some crazy stuff. I guess the point of not fleshing out the relationship underscored the fact that it wasn't a big deal.

Squee9 wrote:

I didn't say that man-slut thing! I'm all about open pre-marital sex, and people that have lots of it aren't nessecarily sluts.

I can see the friends with benefits thing. Seriously, who wouldn't want to get levitated around by a hot sorceress girl mid-coitus? You know Triss does some crazy stuff. I guess the point of not fleshing out the relationship underscored the fact that it wasn't a big deal.

I thought it was kind of funny that they just totally threw out the "professing your love-let's settle down and raise a kid" choice from Witcher 1 and had Geralt and Triss just go back to casual f-buddies with a hint of maybe more.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:
Squee9 wrote:

I didn't say that man-slut thing! I'm all about open pre-marital sex, and people that have lots of it aren't nessecarily sluts.

I can see the friends with benefits thing. Seriously, who wouldn't want to get levitated around by a hot sorceress girl mid-coitus? You know Triss does some crazy stuff. I guess the point of not fleshing out the relationship underscored the fact that it wasn't a big deal.

I thought it was kind of funny that they just totally threw out the "professing your love-let's settle down and raise a kid" choice from Witcher 1 and had Geralt and Triss just go back to casual f-buddies with a hint of maybe more.

I agree. That's the storyline I went with in TW, and two minutes in to TW2 I'm rolling out and naked Triss tryst.

Spoiler:

I guess the Shani thing didn't work out...

Squee9 wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:
Squee9 wrote:

I didn't say that man-slut thing! I'm all about open pre-marital sex, and people that have lots of it aren't nessecarily sluts.

I can see the friends with benefits thing. Seriously, who wouldn't want to get levitated around by a hot sorceress girl mid-coitus? You know Triss does some crazy stuff. I guess the point of not fleshing out the relationship underscored the fact that it wasn't a big deal.

I thought it was kind of funny that they just totally threw out the "professing your love-let's settle down and raise a kid" choice from Witcher 1 and had Geralt and Triss just go back to casual f-buddies with a hint of maybe more.

I agree. That's the storyline I went with in TW, and two minutes in to TW2 I'm rolling out and naked Triss tryst.

Spoiler:

I guess the Shani thing didn't work out...

I also did the same thing. Triss was not very nice to me in TW1. Her personality was at least improved a bit in TW2.

Squee9 wrote:
Spoiler:

I guess the Shani thing didn't work out...

I haven't played much of TW2 but that really bothered me.

I guess that's down to how they paid more attention to a relationship to Shani in TW1. The party was a great quest.

Although she was a medic, and Foltest's army would need medics, I get the impression in Vizima her group wasn't really welcomed with open arms. with the larger plotline of the assassins and Geralt's hunt for the wild hunt and Yen, Triss was probably more use and was more allied with the witchers. By comparison Shani seems more of a friend Geralt meets every now and then on his travels.

Scratched wrote:

I guess that's down to how they paid more attention to a relationship to Shani in TW1. The party was a great quest.

Although she was a medic, and Foltest's army would need medics, I get the impression in Vizima her group wasn't really welcomed with open arms. with the larger plotline of the assassins and Geralt's hunt for the wild hunt and Yen, Triss was probably more use and was more allied with the witchers. By comparison Shani seems more of a friend Geralt meets every now and then on his travels.

Spoiler:

Sure, but if I remember my ending of TW1 right, Triss was not pleased with me at all. Then TW2 starts and we're back to awesome again. It's like it never happened and settling down with Shani was never on the table.

gregrampage wrote:
Scratched wrote:

I guess that's down to how they paid more attention to a relationship to Shani in TW1. The party was a great quest.

Although she was a medic, and Foltest's army would need medics, I get the impression in Vizima her group wasn't really welcomed with open arms. with the larger plotline of the assassins and Geralt's hunt for the wild hunt and Yen, Triss was probably more use and was more allied with the witchers. By comparison Shani seems more of a friend Geralt meets every now and then on his travels.

Spoiler:

Sure, but if I remember my ending of TW1 right, Triss was not pleased with me at all. Then TW2 starts and we're back to awesome again. It's like it never happened and settling down with Shani was never on the table.

Yeah, Triss was pissed at me. Trissed?

Agreed. I guess Mass Effect spoiled me by connection my decisions bewteen then first and second games. I didn't always like how they did it, but they at least aknowledge that I had made a decision. I like the decision making in TW better than in ME, but it sucks that TW kind of disregards your TW1 decisions. You'd figure if you helped the elves/flaming roses in TW1 then that group would be a little more friendly in TW2 right?

A couple throw away lines letting me know they had at least thoguht about it was all I needed.

PS. So far we got Trissed and Triss Tryst. Keep 'em coming.

I could kind of understand if there's a split between being professionally pissed off (you gave the magic kid to Shani) and romantically pissed off. That said, it does seem like a bit of a ret-con, and it wouldn't have killed them to put in some reference to what happened to Shani, even if Geralt did realise he can't be in a proper 'husband and wife' relationship and broke off whatever he had going.

Scratched wrote:

I could kind of understand if there's a split between being professionally pissed off (you gave the magic kid to Shani) and romantically pissed off. That said, it does seem like a bit of a ret-con, and it wouldn't have killed them to put in some reference to what happened to Shani, even if Geralt did realise he can't be in a proper 'husband and wife' relationship and broke off whatever he had going.

Right and if there was a decent sized break in time between the two games I wouldn't mind but isn't TW2 just weeks after TW1 ends?

gregrampage wrote:

Right and if there was a decent sized break in time between the two games I wouldn't mind but isn't TW2 just weeks after TW1 ends?

I don't think so. I got an impression that it was quite a bit longer. Like a year+.