Dhruin
SasqWatch
GameBanshee reviews the v2.0 release of The Witcher 2. They describe the Arena addition as the centre-piece but I'm going to take a quote on the balance and control changes:
More information.Perhaps tying in with the arena mode added, there are a large number of balance changes that have been made to combat, some of which are bigger than others, but all add up to make The Witcher 2 Patch 2.0's fighting feel quite different. While the fundamentals of dodging, parrying, and using silver and steel swords have remained the same, it's more in the actual handling of Geralt that things have seen an overhaul. Immediately, it's clear that the controls are a lot more responsive, striking a much better balance between realism and actual ease of use. Previously, it was possible to have an attack interrupted, and Geralt would be promptly stunlocked until death, as if he'd suddenly fallen into a Gothic game. Now, Geralt's attacks can't be interrupted nearly as easily, and the recovery period between actions is much smaller, meaning that now, when you attempt to perform an action, it actually occurs, and you won't find a single bad move completely ruining a fight for you. In some senses, this makes combat easier, but when combined with the fact that Geralt can now be killed by only a couple of attacks, it actually makes the game feel far more fair. Finally, parrying has been retooled to reduce damage up to a maximum of 50%, but since it no longer consumes Geralt's vigor meter, it's overall a much better trade-off than before.