Witcher 2

[Kyyla]

Dunno. Zero issues here.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I've been reading from the people who've played the game so far that the design has been "adjusted" for the controllers and the TV.

Everything from the menus which are easier to navigate with keyb. arrows to the combat system:

no combat styles choosing (high/low stance, fast/slow style), but fast/power attack, like it's made for button mashing
dodge and block with just two buttons, and are not skill-based, all you need to do is lots of clicking
dropping bombs Spliter Cell-style, where you can't just mouse click to dropped them where you want
QTEs and lots of them in boss fighs, GoW-style
journal/skill tree like Bioware did with DA2
highlighting of the items, TV sitting distance-friendly
auto-aim/auto locks

If you try to mash buttons (or klick buttons) in the game you will die. Every time. It's not an easy game. If you don't know what you are doing and don't use traps, bombs, spells (to single out enemies for example) and potions you have no chance in all but the smallest enemy encounters. It's reminding me a bit of Demon's Souls, even though it's not quite as elegant and refined. Still good, though.

 

[John Reynolds]

Still waiting for the download to finish from Steam, going really slow.

John, I have read that if you set your desktop resolution to 1080, and leave the game set to whatever res you want to run it at, that works for some people, or try running it in a window.

Also, Avast will quarantine "witcher2.exe."

Yeah, unchecking fullscreen got it working for me. It would keep going back to the launcher, and after the activation/patch issues I assumed it was still a server issue.

 

[Refreshment]

That's too bad since PC games should be designed to be played with a mouse, keyboard and a nearby monitor first and foremost. Any other config options should have second priority. This isn't the case of a game where it doesn't really matter what kind of an input device is used and in which environment it's played, but when it has a significant affect on game design and mechanics, which are simplified to compensate for those defincies.

Not necesarily true.

As a matter of fact combat is a lot more challenging this time around as it requires the player to use all of its aspects. Potion spamming is removed. Trap setting is an important combat strategy now. Hard mode is actually a difficult experience. Planing in advance is now very important because a group of enemies can reduce all of the witcher vitality in 3-5 seconds.

Some cons: Only DX9 CPR could have applyed a better button mapping for the pad, think that of the pc centered devs, Crytek is the one that nailed it perfectly.

In general with the sequel so far, more steps forwards than backwards for this series.

 

[suryad]

That was a refreshing post...Refreshment...har har har. That's good. I just installed the game yesterday without issues through GOG and it downloaded and installed the patch no issues again. Then it fired up the setup screen and I let it auto detect and it maxed everything out at 2560 x 1600 except for the texture memory and the ubersampling...so that made me quite happy. I have not fired up the game yet but I am definitely encouraged. I am probably going to wait and see what more patches get released before I play it in anger.

 

[Refreshment]

T Then it fired up the setup screen and I let it auto detect and it maxed everything out at 2560 x 1600 except for the texture memory and the ubersampling...so that made me quite happy. I have not fired up the game yet but I am definitely encouraged. I am probably going to wait and see what more patches get released before I play it in anger.

To be honest, i don't want to f*ck it up by talking way ahead of future performance events since i just fooled around with the introductory parts of the adventure. But i most admit im worried to some extent, because some users where quiet happy with the visuals in the prologue until they advanced to other areas, where performance took a significant nose dive.

Performance leachers are the usual suspects: DoF (gameplay) and its cinematic variety, leaving DoF for just cinemas is ok. Motion Blur, CPR AA solution, SSAO. Biggest culprit isUbber sampling, not worth it giving the throughput impact and its visual difference in relation to ultra preset is not that significant from my point of view. Something that took folks by surprise was that aniso filtering was demanding more than we've being acostume to in recent years/card generations.

Stuff that helps the visuals and are to some extent lightweight are the Bloom, Vignette, lightshafts. Bloom is note worthy because it works in some scenes and detract from others.

 

[pcchen]

I bought it from GOG, although I normally buy games from Steam. It's always nice to see someone willing to release a good game without DRM, so I want to support them (although, it has to be a good game. DRM-free is not a free pass for junks).

This is actually the first time I bought anything from GOG, although my account shows that I joined some 900 days ago Downloading is fast at about 1100KB/s. There's no problem installing the game.

However, after launching the game (the auto detect feature suggest a "high setting" for me), it showed a weird error about parsing user.ini. Then the resolution and quality setting doesn't seem to be right, as the setting should be 1920x1200 but it clearly isn't. So I decided to check it out and found some posts on the internet about this error. They said I have to put an additional character in front of the user.ini file to make the parsing error go away (and, well, parse the correct setting). This is a weird bug and apparently only happens in Chinese version (or maybe all DBCS version) of Windows. Anyway, as long as there is a temporary fix I'm happy, but they should fix this problem as soon as possible.

I have no problem in game so far. Graphics is good. Voice acting is good. Music... I didn't notice, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I chose "Normal" difficulty but I still died a lot. This is a game which you really want to read the manual, as the in game tutorial is not very complete. For example, I didn't know how to drink a potion at first. The in game tutorial simply suggests that I should "drink potion to be prepared for battle." Then quite a lot later it suggest "one can meditate to drink a potion" but still doesn't tell me how to meditate! (or maybe I just missed it) I have to consult the manual to find out the hotkey for meditation (hotkey setting isn't available in game, unfortunately, as the setting is done in a separate program).

There are only a few times where the game silently closed itself when loading a save. I have yet to encounter such bug in playing, so that's not too bad.

Right now this game reminds me of those old school RPG, where you can do things on your own pace and not being pushed around and you are free to explore in the game world. Most importantly, there seems to be actual things to be explored, with interesting people and interesting side quests, not just an empty world. I like that.

Of course, I haven't yet to play too much into it since I don't have much time, but what I have seen now looks good, and if it continues as is, it's a good game for me.

 

[homerdog]

In the first Witcher you had to sit by a fireplace to meditate.

 

[suryad]

To be honest, i don't want to f*ck it up by talking way ahead of future performance events since i just fooled around with the introductory parts of the adventure. But i most admit im worried to some extent, because some users where quiet happy with the visuals in the prologue until they advanced to other areas, where performance took a significant nose dive.

Performance leachers are the usual suspects: DoF (gameplay) and its cinematic variety, leaving DoF for just cinemas is ok. Motion Blur, CPR AA solution, SSAO. Biggest culprit isUbber sampling, not worth it giving the throughput impact and its visual difference in relation to ultra preset is not that significant from my point of view. Something that took folks by surprise was that aniso filtering was demanding more than we've being acostume to in recent years/card generations.

Stuff that helps the visuals and are to some extent lightweight are the Bloom, Vignette, lightshafts. Bloom is note worthy because it works in some scenes and detract from others.

Yeah I am definitely not gonna rock the ubersampling. I am gonna try it out for curiosity's sake but to be honest after seeing screenshots I was not necessarily wowed because I could not notice that much of a difference. As long as it plays with everything else maxed out at 2560 x 1600 I am happy

 

[green.pixel]

 

[MfA]

Okay, broke down and bought it :/ I'm a hypocrit ... hope it sucks or I'm going to be forced to buy a 6950.

BTW ... the troll trouble DLC install was a bit iffy. First the game fakes you out by pretending you need a redeem code when you can just push download, then you have to restart the UI as administrator to be actually able to install the DLC. That's a bit unpolished.

PS. I can't get invert mouse look to work, and I can't play without it :/ I edited user.ini, input_qwerty.ini both in the user directory and in the program directory and still nada.

PPS. I actually had to change MouseSensitivityY in user.ini to a negative value (might only show up if you have configured sensitivity? Dunno). So yay, I can play without looking at the sky or the ceiling.

 

[joker454]

I think I need a bit of a primer on how to handle combat as I'm finding it incredibly difficult. I'm at a section where you have to fight 6 guys at one time, 3 are easy guys and 3 are tougher guys. It's right near the part where you come out from the underground area, just after that. I can't seem to beat this part even on normal level. I tried going up the stairs to fight them one at a time but that is fatal beause once a bunch of them corner you then you can'tdodge and get away, and you die. I tried using parry but the tougher guys just seem to slice right through my parry, and the strongest guy kills me in 2 or 3 hits. I tried fighting one guy at a time but with 6 enemies to fight that's almost impossible as one enemy inevitably hits you from behind then I'm insta-killed. I tried using potions but it won't let me meditate to use them anywhere near this area so that's out. I tried using signs which help a little, but you have to run for a while and be really far away before using them otherwise they chop you up really fast. So far the best result for me was the running method, basically single out the 3 weakest guys first and run around like a goofball for ages until I can get a single hit on one of them, then run away again, rinse and repeat. I got them down to two guys before the big dude with the horns instal-kileld me, and anyways the running around method takes forever and is extremely boring to play that way so that can't be right.

I presume I'm missing something here and I don't really understand how combat is handled in this game yet. Any tips? Your character dies extremely quick and in these battles with multiple foes it just takes one single mistake and bam your dead!

 

[Kyyla]

I think I need a bit of a primer on how to handle combat as I'm finding it incredibly difficult. I'm at a section where you have to fight 6 guys at one time, 3 are easy guys and 3 are tougher guys. It's right near the part where you come out from the underground area, just after that. I can't seem to beat this part even on normal level. I tried going up the stairs to fight them one at a time but that is fatal beause once a bunch of them corner you then you can'tdodge and get away, and you die. I tried using parry but the tougher guys just seem to slice right through my parry, and the strongest guy kills me in 2 or 3 hits. I tried fighting one guy at a time but with 6 enemies to fight that's almost impossible as one enemy inevitably hits you from behind then I'm insta-killed. I tried using potions but it won't let me meditate to use them anywhere near this area so that's out. I tried using signs which help a little, but you have to run for a while and be really far away before using them otherwise they chop you up really fast. So far the best result for me was the running method, basically single out the 3 weakest guys first and run around like a goofball for ages until I can get a single hit on one of them, then run away again, rinse and repeat. I got them down to two guys before the big dude with the horns instal-kileld me, and anyways the running around method takes forever and is extremely boring to play that way so that can't be right.

I presume I'm missing something here and I don't really understand how combat is handled in this game yet. Any tips? Your character dies extremely quick and in these battles with multiple foes it just takes one single mistake and bam your dead!

I had a hard time with those knights too. I used tons of the sign that blocks damage combined with hit and run tactics. I don't remember if you have any bombs/traps in that part of the game, but if you do, use them. Now that I can see the full skill tree, there are skills for swords that make it possible to hit multiple enemies at once, I suppose that will help with mobs later on.

 

[joker454]

I had a hard time with those knights too. I used tons of the sign that blocks damage combined with hit and run tactics. I don't remember if you have any bombs/traps in that part of the game, but if you do, use them. Now that I can see the full skill tree, there are skills for swords that make it possible to hit multiple enemies at once, I suppose that will help with mobs later on.

Yeah I finally ended up beating them the same way, using the Quen sign a lot to absorb damage and running around picking them off as I could. Man what a pain! The game starts to look somewhat better after that first part, pretty neat so far. Six hours into the game and overall it's pretty good aside from those darned 6 knights, but I have the block from multiple directions skill now so that should really help. Need to find a blacksmith and toy with crafting now while in the town.

 

[Sigfried1977]

Make sure you get your your silver blade back as soon as possible. Even the little Nekkids will make minced meat out of your ass if you don't.

I'm about 10 hours in so far. The combat was a bit frustrating at first (and the game doesn't really do a good job at introducing the player to its intricacies), but now I'm doing well enough. It's no Demon's Souls, but it's still good enough and the game more than makes up for it elsewhere. Love the game. Love the rpg aspects in particular. Really seems like the game properly branches out according to your decisions. Also, the game is just sooooo pretty now that I figured out that the whole GTX 500 series seems to have a weird bug with 120 Hz refresh rates.

 

[John Reynolds]

I'm still early on, level 3, and the only area I'm able to put talent points into is the Witcher skill tree. Of course I haven't read the manual yet, so could be overlooking the obvious, but when are you able to start upgrading the other trees?

The combat is a bit too jerky/twitchy for me, it doesn't feel quite smooth enough. It's certainly no Batman: AA, which I've seen it compared to on various boards. The game is gorgeous, no doubt, but I had to turn both motion blur and DoF off.

 

[MfA]

How do you parry any way? All I'm doing now is kiting, kiting and more kiting.

 

[Lightman]

I will be starting it today after remaining 4GB downloads from Steam!
Well, hopefully HD6970 is enough for decent framerate @1920x1200(1080?) with ultra settings and no Ubersampling.

I have my save ready to be imported, checked it last night. I've finished first game only 5 months ago so I remember all the events quite well. Can't wait to see how everything progress in new game.

Anyway here are few screens borrowed from fellow member at XS:

 

[daRodrikz]

Hugely dissapointed with the game release . Bought through Steam Tuesday evening, left it all night downloading; yesterday it was 3 hours trying to make it launch or even activate (I'm not sure if necessary with steam version). In any case it won't launch, only the configuration exe in the /bin folder actually works, all other executables (launcher, witcher2) run for an instant and then close again with no error.

This is the first of 40+ plus games bought on Steam that give me ANY kind of problems to actually play. I've tried all the solutions I've seen in different forums including disabling UAC, setting all exe to run as administrator, lowering desktop res , verifying game files integrity (never encounter a corrupted file). I can't disable A/V because I ain't got one so I can also discard this being the reason of the problem which btw is actually happening to a lot of folks out there, who have some of the installation files removed and quarantined by their AV software.

I am starting to lose faith I'll be able to play soon, I guess at the very least I'll have to wait for a patch but this situation is quite aggravating. I don't wanna think about not being able to play this weekend arrrggggg......

In case anyone else is in this situation or knows about another fix, I'm on Win 7 x64, Q6600@3200 and GTX285.

 

[Refreshment]

I presume I'm missing something here and I don't really understand how combat is handled in this game yet. Any tips? Your character dies extremely quick and in these battles with multiple foes it just takes one single mistake and bam your dead!

Asume you are playing on hard?

First of all, save system in this game is very generous, its very segmented, so it helps to deal with the tricky parts. So you can opt to go to a previous save, meditate and use a potion before the battle.

Remember your ofensive options expand beyond signs and swords, there are traps, bombs, throwing knifes, etc. The idea for combat in the game is to correclty juggle these options. Since the Witcher is a mutant with super human habilities it can easily outrun its enemies, also use the enviroment to your advantage by creating choke/bottleneck points for rivals and get some breathing room to use attacks that require down time.

I think i already pass the part you allude to and its tricky in hard mode. As soon as entering the area a trap was set up, turned left down the hallway, set up 2 Yrden while moving. So by the time i entered the hallway in the opposite side, the group was already disseminated. Two guards runing closer to the witcher, Aard on one to to drop it down and isolate the other, feed them the sword sandwich. Lure the others between a colum and the wall, used a bomb, the one ramaining in their feet got some sword diet too.

I like how combat feels slighty clumsy but at the same time the user charges with most of the blame when failling because it didn't take the safests or more optimal choices.

Targetting system both manual and auto needs work though.

Demon's Souls' enemies hit incredibly hard as well, but so does your own character (despite the fact that he/she, unlike Geralt, is supposed to be perceived as weak, tiny and insignificant).

Want to play Demon Souls so much, if at least BandaiNamco allowed a port of Dark Souls for PC