The Witcher 2 - Skill Trees, Alchemy, Australian Censorship
 

Here's a handful of Witcher 2 newsbits we've collected.
SegmentNext has a Character Skils and Talent Tree Guide, if you'd like to check over the character development options (thank, Zohaib).
The Witcher Vault has an interview specifically on Alchemy, with Tomasz Gop answering questions. There are also tips, comments and screens, so worth a look if you like the Alchemy aspect.
Games On Net notes the Australian version has been changed slightly to fit censorship rules:
(thanks Zohaib for a similar submission)
More information.

I was getting ready to bag Aussies censorship, but wow… that's all that got altered?
From the same country that banned Risen? Did a serious shake up happen across the ditch while I wasn't looking?

Well one state is likely to be getting an R classification for games (amusingly, the state which originally prevented the country from getting an R classification in the first place), but that doesn't really affect the changes in this instance.

Couldn't the developers have changed the quest to give an item reward with something a little extra on the side *cough*, rather than making 2 versions of the game? I suppose that is still a compromise in the end…

Damnit, no sex for quests?
Looks like that VPN to the US will be coming in useful again.

Not that I would ever choose sex as a reward. I think most RPGers would choose the big sword reward over sex, that is pretty much a given if you play RPGs ;)
"Hey baby, come back to my place, I have some kick arse RPGs" Doesn't really cut it does it.

Was Fallout: New Vegas censored in AUS? That questline in The Thorn ends with sex as a reward.

So they have an issue with sex in the game, but no problem with hacking people up with a sword?

I've always found that logic strange. We have the same type of censorship in the US, but not as extreme.

Not so much of an issue with sex, but sex as a reward.

But yeah, certain religious groups have far more power than they should when it comes to manipulating politics.

It's not as simple as that. The censorship laws (which do need overhauling) have a sensible basis, even if it's not well applied. They specifically don't like violence mixed with sex (eg, killing hookers then stealing their money in GTAx), for example.

Sex as a quest reward being unsuitable for an M15 rating doesn't sound extreme to me per se; what we need is a wider ratings system.

As for the US, you guys are far more extreme than us when it comes to TV, so both systems are flawed.

The US is not really extreme with TV, some of the stuff on cable over there - Game of Thrones, True Blood, Dexter etc (all great shows, btw) are all very explicit.

Anyway, on GoG's Facebook page they strongly implied that although Australia would get a slightly censored release, there would be mods available basically on release day to restore the content.

Yeah, it's only our public airwaves that are monitored and censored to hell and back. Cable channels are pretty out there, especially premium channels.

One point that is given little work in so called RPGs and has not progressed much: the levelling system. Heroes of their game universe starting from the bottom and climbing the ladder.

I don't find US cable channels to be extraordinarily explicit. With violence yes, but certainly not with sex. I guess everyone has a different idea of what's considered explicit though.

Lots of info here (I don't mind being spoiled on game mechanics).

Mixed bag of changes, some go toward streamlining and some toward adding more depth
and complexity.

Very interesting to see how it plays in the end but I see no Red flags here at least.
(sad to see albedo etc go though, I kinda liked combining ingredients to get that secondary
effect/extra potency :()

From a quick glance it looks like you are taking damage while blocking ….

Also there are a lot of +vitality skills which i think is good for players like me who play on very easy.

The funny thing is that many Anthropologists nowadays tend more and more to believe that this "sex as an reward" scheme was developed early within the development of humanity.

Which is essentially the reason why this game was banned for.

We have evolved through this, and some anthropologists even believe that humankind came to walking because of that.

The theory is - in short - that men began to "bind" women and their sex exclusively to them through providing them with food.

And that could have led to the use of the arms for carrying things, rather than for walking.

And now, Australian censorship bans a game for what made humans walking entities ? Silly.

Here is the complete article : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n…ssils-sex.html

Well there is not a ton of nudity on basic cable but those channels are chock full of sex if you ask me. Sex is freaking everywhere. Then on premium channels you have nudity as well.

I'm sure it's subjective though. I know certain countries have topless women on game shows and crazy stuff like that.

Very minor nudity, yes. It's about on par with a typical R rated movie. You might see some breast here and there, but rarely anything beyond that.

HBO and such do constant full frontals and tons of nudity.

As I´ve mentioned already somewhere, I like the trees.
Thematically fitting, not filled with miniscule increments or outrageous abilities.
The alchemy tree seems to be going well hand in hand with how drinking potions works in the game.
Each specialization seems viable and, also adding mutagens to the mix, I think I´ll have fun trying to come up with the most effective jack of all trades build.
Hopefully on hard the game will be hard this time.

Also, if I understand it correctly, Geralt is able to cast basic versions of each sign right from the start and that´s good, the first game imo didn´t go well about this - by the time player was able to learn all the signs, he has most likely invested into the first two available (aard, igni) and since these were also the most useful ones, there was little incentive to invest into others.
I´m also glad the bronze/silver/gold talent mechanics is no longer present as it made character development in the first game waaay too straightforward.

I wonder how social skills fit into this. Are they tied to some of the existing skills or?

All in all, the system seems good to me, hopefully it´ll "perform" well in-game.

You're greatly exaggerating, and still missing the point anyways.

The sexual content is still nowhere near the level of violence. In quantity or graphic realism.