Gabe

I just noticed that how fighting system was design for gamepad exclusively,afterplaying awhile with clunky keyboard&mouse question appeared to me why Witcher's old camera and point&click movement has gone,then immediately changed to gamepad controllers .
Results was great,reaction time increased,animation became fluid some combos revealed and even made some OHK ..Needles to say as an old habit playing rpg's with k&m era came to an end.

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Monolith

That's another reason why I thought they announced that the game was going to be multiplatform a while back.

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Crunchy in milk

esrb has it rated as a pc and 360 title.

There's talk of a console friendly announcement by CDP at the next e3, even if its not Witcher 2 (or 1) for consoles and is another title in the Witcher universe (that much is confirmed), if it uses the red engine... and it goes down well, its a good sign for 360 owners that Witcher 2 might eventuate after PC users get done beta testing it

Lasus

I recently purchased The First Witcher, to see how the game was. I am really impressed. It is so nice to have a game where you have to think about what you are doing. This game reminds me of games as they where in the "old days"

Sadly I will probably have to upgrade my computer to play the latest Witcher as I don't think my Nvidia 9500 graphics card will handle it.

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Crunchy in milk

It'll run on the lowest settings, but you won't enjoy it much. The combat is realtime in Witcher 2, no more waiting for the gold trail/flame sword to click. You fight groups of monsters in unforgiving combat that begs for 30 or more frames a second. You'll not get that with a 9500 even on lowest settings.

aries323

As for the first witcher the choices you make will make ripples, consequences, if you will, later in the game.

And the story, oh the story. Unique and creative it is. The monsters, too. Varying from bloodzuigers to drowners to ghouls, wraiths etc. And each monster requires you to read a book about how to defeat them...

Edit:
Really looking forward to Witcher 2 although my ATI 3650 probably will run it - ahem- very poorly - or not at all...

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Roper Klacks

My god! The Witcher 2 is even better than i was expecting, and i'm a massive fan os the first one. Dragon Age 2 is a joke compared with this, Bioware really needs to step up.

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Crunchy in milk

Bit of a heated slinging match in the Escapist forums over their official review of the Witcher 2, as it was done by the SAME guy who reviewed DA2 for the site.

The same guy who gave DA2 a perfect score card, is 'alleged' to have underscored The Witcher 2 for 'interface issues' and its steep learning curve. Its like a smack in the face to all the people who absolutely hated DA2 for having no learning curve at all, and lacking much need for human input from start to finish.

I'm certainly of the opinion that some tweaks could improve the interface in The Witcher 2, but provided you pay attention while using it, it does the job. I honestly enjoyed reading the Dandelion delivered commentary on who's who and what's what in the journal. Exposition was culled a little too savagely in Dragon Age 2.

In regards to the combat and its introduction, yeah I picked the Dragon first thing in the first conversation too.. assuming it was a sarcastic dig... joke's on me.

The game really does leave it up to you to learn it, and why not? Its not a difficult system to operate, its only difficult to learn when to use what you're capable of. And don't you feel like you've achieved a little something when you work out how to take down a group of differently armed humans? Every monster fights differently and you need to pay attention. When did you last feel like that when playing a single player game? It's called engaging.

The hilarity in the review is that he bemoans the difficulty and then gripes that Witcher 2's easy difficulty is too easy. Bioware made an ambitious attempt to make everyone swallow easy difficulty as the new normal... Two Fingers to that said CDP and good on them for it.

Also Obama got Witcher 2 as a gift... best (unexpected?) PR stunt ever.

Roper Klacks

If TW2 was a Bioware game and DA2 a CDProjekt game he would have given the perfect score to TW2. A lot of mainstream reviewers are very forgiving and biased to the big established developers.

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kuze

I've just finished The Witcher 2, and while I loved it and completely agree with the majority that DA2 is a pathetic piece of brown poo, The Witcher 2 is still flawed.

Balancing seems to be the major issue; the prologue and most parts of the first chapter are hard, which I rather liked. It was refreshing to be playing a challenging RPG where mashing the left mouse button wasn't enough to get through. During the second chapter the difficulty dropped drastically, and taking on any number of enemies or even bosses became a piece of cake. In the third chapter I switched to "hard", but it was still rather easy to beat.

My second issue with the game are, surprisingly, the locations. I would have loved to see more of the world, since the engine is clearly capable to handle anything an art designer could ever desire. There is a lot to see, but with those graphics I just want more. With maybe a little less stone.

Also, I felt like the first Witcher had more charm, I had more possibilities to interact with my friends, while the second Witcher focused too much on politics and politic intrigues, which was rather overwhelming and sometimes a little tiring. The non-existent face animation didn't help either.

On the other hand, there is so much this game just gets right. There are no real quest-fillers, every side-quest is an adventure. Choices do matter most of the time, which is nice and offers a reason to replay the game. The fighting system is beautiful and a definite improvement over the timed clicking of the first game. Finally, the game is drop-dead gorgeous.

In the end, if you liked the first game and its setting, and also have a good gaming rig, I'd definitely recommend buying The Witcher 2. Despite its flaws, it's still one of the best recent RPGs.

Niko

The Witcher 2 is great, on my 2nd playthrough atm, but after leaving chapter 1 i have to let off a big sigh. I think the Prologue & chapter 1 are great, but then chapter 2 is far too long, which leaves chapter 3 & the Epilogue, not a great location either, relatively empty in comparison & finishes the game on a low, imo.

Agree with Kuze, they could had added a bit more to the game location wise. Perhaps cut chapter 2 in half and added a new location for chapter 3, and made the actual chapter 3, the Eplilogue.

aries323

I'm playing some of the adventures from the first Witcher game. And I have to say, they keep up the quality of the first Witcher game. And after I've learned the proper way to fight, combat is (somewhat of) a breeze.

On topic:

The combat in Witcher 2 expands on the concept found in Witcher 1, I think?
Moving rapidly around, trying not to get hit, getting a thrust or a slicing in when the enemy, be it a monster or human, are not looking, or are vulnerable...

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Gabe

Completely agree with that ,actually lots of nice details missing from first game,
like no animals anymore but sounds(except crows and rats),more limited monster variety,i couldnt find anyplace selling booze either,chapter 3 ridiculously
short..
Now i'll finish with Iorveth and wonder missing things list get longer,anyway game maybe have the most exciting prologue ever, made me buy a new pc,wait a second, maybe that was the whole reason..

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plumgas

well at 400,000 copies sold it seems to be a popular game

kuze

Rightfully so, the devs fully deserve the recognition for their great work. Most of the issues people had with the game are being promptly addressed, the devs seem to truly care. My critiques, for one, are minor and very subjective, and they didn't prevent me from enjoying the game.

Can't wait for the sequel (still hoping that they'll take a more witchery approach this time instead of involving politics again).

rayvio

had a quick go and was rather annoyed by how pointless importing a save is. imported a save game where Geralt sided with the Scoia'tael and chose Shani yet the game starts with him in bed with Triss and a few bits of dialogue suggest he's on less than friendly terms with the Scoia'tael...


I knew already that Shani wasn't in the game (which was disappointing enough) but expected at least some acknowledgement of the choices
so anyway I decided to put Witcher 2 aside for now and replay Witcher 1 choosing Triss and Neutral so it fits better with the bloody damned 'cannon'

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Roper Klacks

Yeah i was a bit disapointed about the import feature too, besides the Raven armor it's pretty much meaningless. I didn't really cared for Shani, she's irrelevant in the books but it would be nice if they mentioned her for those that choose her in the previous game.

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aries323

Are there really no animals anymore on screen, only their sounds? And can you really not buy booze (alcohol) at inns any more e.g. weak alcohol and wine?
How does Geralt then get strong alcohol for making his potions?

Isn't this supposed to be 18+ game or 17+ game?

What I liked about the first game was the atmosphere, the cartoonish feel of it, and the great art direction. And that when I ran around in the swamp, birds would fly away when I got near to them. No such things in Witcher 2?

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Gabe

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kuze

Well, there are a few birds that do exactly that, but there aren't many.