The Witcher 2 first impressions

Originally Posted by JDR13

I have one complaint so far, and it's a big one. You apparently can't remap keys to anything but the main part of your keyboard. No Arrow keys, and no Numberpad. Probably not a big deal to most people, but it annoys the shit out of me as I like to use the Numberpad for movement. Seriously CD Projeckt? That's inexcusable for a modern game.

Thank you for the info JDR.

As much as I'd love to get my hands on witcher 2, after reading this I won't. I always use arrow keys for movement and numpad keys for other tasks. So I leave this game at the shelf untill a fix is released.

The options menu in game is surprisingly minimalistic. I'm sure they will address that soon enough because the engine seems to be capable of more fine tuning than what they are giving within the game itself.

All changes to graphic settings (save for really simple stuff like brightness) have to be made outside the game too which is somewhat irksome when you are trying to play around with the various settings to come up with the best performance to visuals ratio for your particular rig.

Can I ask you how far you are? It is not for me, but for me friends over at gameboomers. They're having trouble with the barricade & the barrista the prologue.
Here's the thread
http://www.gameboomers.com/forum/ubb…tml#Post725088

Hope at least some of you are that far - and have gotten passed this section.

And didn't I read somewhere that the Witcher 2 can be played with a gamepad?

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'm actually regretting my decision to play on Hard. I made the mistake of assuming it was going to be like the first game, where Hard was more like Normal. At this point I'm considering starting over.

Can't you change the difficulty level on the fly (as opposed to TW 1)? Just asking, my copy is waiting for me at home so I can't check; but maybe it's not necessary to start over?

So my first impression, very bad.

Day of release, no collector edition available, I checked 5 big shops, perhaps too late in the evening, but hey I have a job damit.

Anyway from shop keeper I learned only very few collector box has been provided to each shop and I mean to very big shop. And now back at home totally disgusted after some search on Internet I discover the collector edition was limited but I don't remember ever have seen that mention on their site.

I had bought initial collector edition of The Witcher 1, then a special edition and finally the EE. I feel now like let on border of the road. I search the official forums to shout my hate here and instead discover they have closed them and just get instead their crap shiny site that stink big money.

So yeah my very first impression couldn't be worse. And that's it, I had planed, no collector no buy, so does it and now I'll wait cheap editions. Anyway with all the hype around I feel like forced to enjoy it, something I don't like.

I hate so much when there's such organized rarity, it stinks manipulation.

I assume you checked amazon I ordered collectors edition on sunday night showed up this morning with free release day shipping.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I assume you checked amazon I ordered collectors edition on sunday night showed up this morning with free release day shipping.

No I don't mean in general nor for any country, and even less on Internet, I don't order any box on Internet but few indie or rare stuff not a A game.

My first problem is not not have known it was a limited edition, but I'm not sure it is, the clear reference I have seen about that is for Poland.

My second problem is you can't have shortage on day one with this not being known and planed. And that stinks.

Otherwise ok I'll survive and I prefer wait some month and a new computer probably at end of year. But what's sure is that now my money won't support them. Not significant they manipulated the players masses so well that it's obvious ton will sell and during some weeks it will be the perfect and best game ever released.

I do remember seeing that the CE was limited so that's why I got in on it. It seems like this time around the bulk of the supply went to mail order. At least in the US, Gamestop did not have it available for in store pickup on pre-order. You had to mail order it. My suspicion is that retailers may have been reluctant to stock it due to the high price and probably figured people who really wanted it would just mail order it.

Played this for 3-4 hours now.

So far: Absolutely fantastic.

I won't be able to play this until some time next year. I loved the first Witcher until almost the end. I just got tired of the running around and boring combat.

Still, looking forward to picking this up in about 10 months…

k…all installed been playing around a bit…running great on high graphics…Major thing I am not liking is not being able to have multi saves…I sometimes like to rush in and see what happens then go back in with a game plan…oh well what can we do…
One quest how many of us started a new game and how many loaded from their last saved game
Not sure what differance that will make

Originally Posted by Motoki
…My suspicion is that retailers may have been reluctant to stock it due to the high price and probably figured people who really wanted it would just mail order it.

You are perhaps right, it won't be first time a shop keeper lie me on purpose. But the limited edition is something very unclear, and unfair to not have been clear about it.

I also dislike a lot how they stop provide any official forum. So this is it? They are already far above among the stars, taking distance with players?

The official forum is coming back. It is only down temporarily. It would have been nice if they had it up for the release though.

I might have been wrong there does seem to be multi saves…
I hope now that they have the Red engine they are already working on 3 though I am sure I will play this 4 times to go with all 4 starting options.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Played this for 3-4 hours now.

So far: Absolutely fantastic.

How so? A little more would (in this case) be appreciated…. what? a Dart post less than 3 pages?

Hmm, apparently the Bioware employee who rated DA2 10/10 (without disclosing his affiliation) rated TW2 0/10

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witc…itic_gives_the

He even went and wrote a long tirade about the evils of the game so as to not look like a common troll.

Wait-

I can't play as a female Dwarf?

OMG streamlined, dumbed down, RPGs suck nowadays, OMG!

Originally Posted by aries100
Can I ask you how far you are? It is not for me, but for me friends over at gameboomers. They're having trouble with the barricade & the barrista the prologue.

And didn't I read somewhere that the Witcher 2 can be played with a gamepad?

You just need to kill the guards and fire the ballista. Once the guards are dead, you just follow the on-screen icons to wind the ballista and then fire it. Iirc there's 3 waves of guards total you'll have to kill in that area. It was a real bitch for me on Hard difficulty.

Yes, you can play with a gamepad. It's in the options.

Originally Posted by Elwro
Can't you change the difficulty level on the fly (as opposed to TW 1)? Just asking, my copy is waiting for me at home so I can't check; but maybe it's not necessary to start over?

I don't think so. At least I don't see it in the options.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Played this for 3-4 hours now.

So far: Absolutely fantastic.

Are you finding it challenging enough on Normal? I'm still thinking of restarting.

Thank you, JDR. But I think the problem is how do you fire and aim the ballista?

As for the 0/10 on Metacritic from the alleged Bioware employee, this it not the case as Christ Priestly made a statement on this issue on the DA2 forums at the Bioware boards. And also mentioned that he really looked forward to playing Withcer 2.

I'm still in the prologue. Loving it so far. I am playing on low (Athlon 64X2 4400+, ATI 4800) as medium was a bit choppy. But actually it looks plenty good even in this mode. I think combat is great fun in an actiony, witchery sort of way, but you definitely need reflexes. Took me a while to figure out the important moves (both rolling and block prove really important, Ard sign too), but now it works well. I LOVE the voice acting, and the way the conversations flow - really cool and immersive how that flows and is acted out, nice camera work. Combat in general and finishing moves in particular are spectacularly animated.

Somebody asked about the ballista: hammer the mouse button until the bar is full. That is really rather pointless, but OK, it also is over rather quickly. I'll have to check if I should turn QTE off or leave them in.

Can't comment yet on choices and quests.