Witcher The Witcher: first impressions - SPOILERS ABOUND

What is your #1 reason you love this game ?

interesting topic

http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=2979.0;topicseen

Yup.

I just realized another thing.

This is the first game I can ever (and I mean *ever*) recall playing without a single restart.

I always play the first "level" (area, whatnot) a few times, a few different ways, to get a feel for how the game plays, before really diving in. Not so with this one -- it pulled me in right from the intro, and I haven't looked back. In fact, I rarely even save -- the auto-save is frequent enough that I rarely lose much even if I get killed (which doesn't happen too often either).

I'm at the beginning of Act III, and it just keeps getting better. (Except one thing: Trade Quarter at daylight slows down my frame rate to a bit of a stutter. I've tried disabling various things with no significant impact. I think it's because it's too damn populated -- too many agents stealing CPU cycles?)

Jabberwocky said:

Oh curses!! I just found out that despite my reserving a copy in advance, I won't be getting this game until the 1st of November!! Apparently for my retarded games store, released on the 30th means shipped on 30th, with arrival in 2-3 days.

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Me too only slightly worse, Jabberwocky--my UK Import won't ship til Nov 02. "Delays from the shipper" supposedly, so I just grind my teeth and watch trailers.

Hopefully this means it's selling better than expected, though, which would be a good thing.

@MikeZZ--interesting thread, btw.

I often do the same as you Prime, but in this case there is no reason restart. Character building hardly has anything to say before you reach the silver points, which is well into chapter 2.

Also, I've had very little freedom so far, does that change in chapter 3? Can you actually go back to the temple district or are you forever locked in the trade district as you got locked in the Outskirts in chapter 1, and Temple District + Swamp in chapter 2? So far the structuring seems identical to NWN1, which is a bit of a shame, because I prefer the way it's done in NWN2/BG2/etc.

Yes, you can go back to the Temple District and the Swamp in Chapter 3. There's even a "fast travel" mechanic in place to move between the three (rather nicely done too IMO).

The Outskirts are still closed off (and I would expect them to stay that way).

I can't gather those flowers for the lumberjack. Do I need to buy a book first or something?

Edit: nvm I see I need the herbalism skill. My bad

Performance:
Disclaimer what I'm posting here is based upon comments made in the thread at the codex:

One person claimed to have it running ok with a IIRC XP2500, 768M, and 7600GS (IIRC) graphic details turned down, and view distance lowered. Poster implied that it was playable but the cut scenes didn't play, but then mentioned something about audio being out of synch in cut scenes(?)

Others said that the load times were horrible unless you had 2G of RAM, sort of like with G3, but that seemed to be ok with 1.5G or more. (Only played with 2G myself.)

The comments were all from pre-patch versions, so I don't know if the patch helped performance any. I'll not be getting this one myself for a while as I'm trying to force myself to finish the NWN2 OC so that I can move on to MotB, then I'll pick up an import UK version of Witcher. Ought to keep me busy until around Christmas, if I can manage to survive to the end of NWN2's OC. (Almost at end of Ch. 2, putzing around with the stronghold, and I can say so far I don't see where Ch. 2 is all that much better than Ch. 1 although they did significantly reduce the number of inane cutscenes in Ch. 2 which I always felt broke the flow in Ch. 1.)

Playing alot more on my AMD X2 4400, with 2GB and a 7800GTX. I am playing at a lower detail level than i need to. But i really love fuidgameplay. And i think the game look amazing anyway.

I really love the graphic style of this game, and can't stop thinking of my first experience with Gothic 2 (played it before Gothic), and this seems more like a proper gothic 3 than gothic 3 itself.

I am a sucker for careful camera angels and photo in films. And seeing they are trying the artistic way doing the cutscenes. I love them. I also like the music score. I really am a hero. *cough*, *cough*.

It would be nice to play this game on a really kick ass system not having any jerkiness around and having to view the game in all its glory. Will be interesting to see how the consequences plays out further on.

I was afraid that this would be a short game, feeling its very talkative and movish. Good to see its not just a 20 hour game. Too bad it might be too long to keep me interested. (i am an adventurer at heart, with a attention span of a 2 year old, and i hate loosing valuable time infront of my computer - its too bad i am addicted to rpgs and adventures... )

I starting to like to combat system to. Not soo in the beginning.

I wonder however what view you use when playing? Anybody using the OTS view?

I play in OTS. Never even tried the isometric views. Works very well for me.

I only have 1GB of ram and a amd 3200+ Everything was running fine untill I got to the trade quarter which seems to be alot more demanding than the rest.

btw could someone give me a hint to defeat those dwarfs in the basement of the bank? they are like tanks

I used to play it on my regular computer, but as I'm currently travelling (work) I had to play on my laptop. Suffice to say, trade quarter on an above average laptop (2GB ram, decent CPU, x1600 graphics card) is a bit of a pain. Also the loading times fly through the roof now, possibly due to lower HD speed, lower speed on the ram, mobility CPU and less HD space.

In general, mobility components do not perform as regular ones, and in The Witcher that fact becomes quite clear.

Poobz said:

btw could someone give me a hint to defeat those dwarfs in the basement of the bank? they are like tanks

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Take a Blizzard potion and you'll waltz through.

k thx I'll give it a try

Well, mine shipped from Ebgames tonight so I'll be playing it tommorow! Looking forward to it, though I really wish you could jump and from the sounds of it your inventory is really small.

Indeed, I have constant inventory problems.

Maylander; I feel your pain considering loading times. Having played the games for 4 straight hours now and i hestiate leaving my current level due to loading times. This thing really is a frustrating game design. But i had the same irritating experience with Kotor, which effectivly made me stop playing that game. (Altough, the battle in Witcher is MUCH more fun! )

I have reduced every possible graphiclever just to make sure there isn't a texture loading making the game take time from my experience.

Was it you Maylander that jokingly said that the game was 80 hours long, if you remove the loading time there is only half the amount... I think I agree upon that.

Sorry, to put a little negative, but agreed upon flaw, of this game.

The loading time will put some people off...

mute said:

Maylander; I feel your pain considering loading times. Having played the games for 4 straight hours now and i hestiate leaving my current level due to loading times. This thing really is a frustrating game design. But i had the same irritating experience with Kotor, which effectivly made me stop playing that game. (Altough, the battle in Witcher is MUCH more fun! )

I have reduced every possible graphiclever just to make sure there isn't a texture loading making the game take time from my experience.

Was it you Maylander that jokingly said that the game was 80 hours long, if you remove the loading time there is only half the amount... I think I agree upon that.

Sorry, to put a little negative, but agreed upon flaw, of this game.

The loading time will put some people off...

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don't worry, the devs are working on it, patch is getting close

Excellent! Right now it's the one, single issue that reviews and gamers alike mention. Other than that it is truly a remarkable game (as far as I've played anyway).