The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Impressions, Mods and Mac in the fall!

[hepcat]

So, I am really disappointed in this game..  Its just not doing it for me this time around...

Combat is too hard, and  uhmmm..  I cant quaff potions like I could in dungeon siege..  

Allot tits and cussing too....

Yea, very disappointed.  

are you being facetious?  

Running the game on ultra settings and it's smooth as butter so far.  might have to grab the new nvidia beta drivers to see how they enhance the game. 

so far the game is exactly what i wanted: geralt, magic, swords, adult decisions, etc..  having a blast.  hope it remains that way!

[Zinfan]

Ok Steam is taking forever with my sad DSL connection so I went to Best Buy and bought the game (I'll give it to my brother once my steam version finishes downloading sometime next week).  Now I have it installed but I cannot register it and therefore am unable to play it even now.  Tried going to thewitcher.com page and even there I can't create an account nor register my game.  Anyone else having this problem?  I thought it might be my Firefox Noscript addon messing with the page but I tried it using IE 8 with the same results.

[Morgul]

So, I am really disappointed in this game..  Its just not doing it for me this time around...

Combat is too hard, and  uhmmm..  I cant quaff potions like I could in dungeon siege..  

Allot tits and cussing too....

Yea, very disappointed.  

are you being facetious?  

Running the game on ultra settings and it's smooth as butter so far.  might have to grab the new nvidia beta drivers to see how they enhance the game.  

so far the game is exactly what i wanted: geralt, magic, swords, adult decisions, etc..  having a blast.  hope it remains that way!

I been waiting for this game for seems like forever, pre ordered,  took off work today, and ugh...

Never mind me..

I got the video card blues.  New egg don't fail me now.

Gamesradar seems to like it too, they gave it a 10.

copy/paste:

You'll love
Beautifully realized world
Unapologetically mature tone
Difficult decisions that actually have consequences

You'll hate
Optimization isn't the greatest
The rapid deterioration of your social life
You don't have a gaming PC

[Autistic Angel]

So, did anyone else find the very early-game "cameo" by a popular parkour assassin?

Spoiler for Hiden:

During the prologue chapters, Geralt has to climb down some scaffolding to prime and aim a ballista.  If you go past the weapon and hang a right at the end of the wall, I found Altair's corpse lying beside the wreckage of a hay-filled wagon.

Geralt quips, "Heh, guess they'll never learn."

I   ed.

It also unlocked some sort of perk, but I haven't flipped through my character sheet to see if it's actually functional, or just some sort of Achievement.

EDIT: Yep: perk grants a permanent +25% damage when striking from behind.

-Autistic Angel

[Zinfan]

Well I uninstalled and re-installed the game and this time I got a screen to input my code in on.  I never saw it the first time, weird.  Game is working now.

[hepcat]

for seems like forever, pre ordered,  took off work today, and ugh...

Never mind me..

I got the video card blues.  New egg don't fail me now.

  don't worry, we've all been where you're at at one time or another.  you'll get your card, you'll run the game at ultra settings and you'll enjoy the hell out of it.   

[shon]

I just upgraded my 5770 to the 6950 and glad I did this game is a beast.

The combat is a little clunky if you are used to other action RPG's combat as you can't pull off moves as fast as you want.  You do have to use timing quite a bit but it could use more fluidity.
I found that after certain moves Geralt's has an animation that takes a step forward and you can't stop it which causes me to get hit.   Some of the AI's moves can be tricky to time but since
I unlocked the parry from anywhere perk that has helped a lot. 

They did a great job with the graphics but they need to do more work with the facial animations as they are very stiff with no emotion at all in the face just the mouth moving.  When you are in the journal it puts the newest item at the bottom of the list which should have been caught in QA since you have to scroll down everytime to see new items.  Just minor nitpicks.

The first may be a little linear but you do get to choose the order of the "stories" and I guess the order effects the outcomes a little differently which I like.

Best Part so far.....

Spoiler for Hiden:

Female nudity within the first 30 minutes played.

[Reemul]

Well I have an i5 quad running at 4.0 ghz with 4 gig ram and a Radeon 5770. Running at 1920 res most on high and shadow low with blur off it seems to run fine.

Great game as well.

[Falcon554]

Running a GTX 285 with a 3gz duel core, runs like butter, but you have to turn off ubersampling, that really kills it. Fantastic game so far

[hepcat]

After a few more battles, I now agree with Morgul that it's odd that I can't drink potions in the middle of a fight.  Having to meditate to do so seems odd when I can produce a trap, lay it on the ground and enable it in the middle of a fight; but can't pull a bottle out of my pocket, flick the cork out with my thumb and raise it to my lips.  

Other than that, I'm back in love with the Witcher series.  This game has just about everything I loved about the original and fixed what I didn't (for the most part).  I'm keeping the difficulty on normal after a particular tough fight last night with multiple enemies.  Weaving in and out of corridors as I tried to single out my foes, throwing out force waves and combustion spells (LOVE the way it slows the game down when you hit CNTL to change signs/weapons instead of pausing), and using the dodge/roll keys to get out of sticky situations made the fight extremely satisfying.  Sure, I had to reload a few times after getting killed, but that happened in the original game as well.  

The game's also a bit more complex this time around.  I had to refer to the manual a few times just to figure out how to do stuff.  They've added quite a few stat sheets and on screen prompts with damage/situational information to help you tweak your character.  Thankfully, it's not a game that's all about min/maxing your alt, though.  But it's nice to see a D&D type output of what's happening during a sword fight.

Looking forward to getting some more time into the game tonight.

[CeeKay]

After a few more battles, I now agree with Morgul that it's odd that I can't drink potions in the middle of a fight.  Having to meditate to do so seems odd when I can produce a trap, lay it on the ground and enable it in the middle of a fight; but can't pull a bottle out of my pocket, flick the cork out with my thumb and raise it to my lips.  

IIRC drinking potions in the middle of combat wasn't very effective in the first game since there was no real healing potion, just stuff that would up your regeneration.  did they keep in the toxic aspect, where you had to keep an eye on how toxic a brew made you which forced you to balance what you drank?

[hepcat]

After a few more battles, I now agree with Morgul that it's odd that I can't drink potions in the middle of a fight.  Having to meditate to do so seems odd when I can produce a trap, lay it on the ground and enable it in the middle of a fight; but can't pull a bottle out of my pocket, flick the cork out with my thumb and raise it to my lips.  

IIRC drinking potions in the middle of combat wasn't very effective in the first game since there was no real healing potion, just stuff that would up your regeneration.  did they keep in the toxic aspect, where you had to keep an eye on how toxic a brew made you which forced you to balance what you drank?

Being able to regenerate health quicker IS basically a healing potion.    

Drinking potions in a fight was quite effective, imho.  Short of reloading after seeing what you were up against, it helped avoid wasting potions when drinking them before an expected fight, only to find out it wasn't actually needed.  Combined with the effects of toxicity (which are in the sequel...and more dangerous it seems), i often found it helpful to chug down a brewski mid-battle in the original.

[TiLT]

I think they're trying to add a bit more atmosphere to the concept of potion drinking in this game compared to the vanilla RPG style. Remember that a witcher's potions are poisonous to most people, and even witchers seem to have to concentrate not to die from them. I assume that's why you have to sit down and mediate, so that the poison doesn't overwhelm your systems. That, and downing a potion in the middle of a swordfight is ridiculous, something we only accept because it has been a standard in RPGs for ages. Even the 4th edition of D&D started moving away from the potion concept.

[Razgon]

Yes, but its a slippery slope ! Next people will be demanding we get rid of the healthbar, and add realistic damage instead there being no difference between having 1 hp and 200000 hitpoints! Crazy!

There are a LOT of pop-culture references in the game, both spoken and visual - not all equally well done, though. Episode 2 is  bit hamfisted at the beginning with them, unfortunately.

Yes, that's really the only criticism I can come up with so far :-D

[hepcat]

Yes, but its a slippery slope ! Next people will be demanding we get rid of the healthbar, and add realistic damage instead there being no difference between having 1 hp and 200000 hitpoints! Crazy!

I'm going with Tilt's explanation since the slippery slope line of reasoning makes baby jesus' brain hurt.

[Greg Wak]

So, did anyone else find the very early-game "cameo" by a popular parkour assassin?

Spoiler for Hiden:

During the prologue chapters, Geralt has to climb down some scaffolding to prime and aim a ballista.  If you go past the weapon and hang a right at the end of the wall, I found Altair's corpse lying beside the wreckage of a hay-filled wagon.

Geralt quips, "Heh, guess they'll never learn."

I   ed.

It also unlocked some sort of perk, but I haven't flipped through my character sheet to see if it's actually functional, or just some sort of Achievement.

EDIT: Yep: perk grants a permanent +25% damage when striking from behind.

-Autistic Angel

Drat,I missed that! I was so trying to learn the game I wasn't thinking about exploring much. Dumb. I would have liked to have seen that.
Anybody else have a lot of trouble with "test of fire"? Took me a bit to figure out what they wanted there.

[Vindel]

Ok I have a question, I have a

AMD Athlon II quad core 3.2
ATI Radeon 5770 1 gig
4 gigs of memory
Windows 7 64bit

Do you think my rig will be able to run the game good? With ubersampling turned off.

[Soulchilde]

So I pulled the trigger on this and ordered from Amazon with 15.00 credit I am getting for 29.99 and it was eligible for another 10.00 credit.  love Amazon

[CeeKay]

So I pulled the trigger on this and ordered from Amazon with 15.00 credit I am getting for 29.99 and it was eligible for another 10.00 credit.  love Amazon

Amazon is becoming my new favorite for digital downloads. It seems like they cut their prices right away, and with their credits you are more likely to get something new for around 30 bucks.

[Greg Wak]

Ok I have a question, I have a

AMD Athlon II quad core 3.2
ATI Radeon 5770 1 gig
4 gigs of memory
Windows 7 64bit

Do you think my rig will be able to run the game good? With ubersampling turned off.

As always-what resolution do you like to play at? Seems people often forget to include that. You would have no problem on medium and could probably do high depending how fluid you like it.

[Vindel]

Oh crud, sorry about that, I would like to play at 1920x1050 but would be ok with 1650x1080 I think that's it.

[Greg Wak]

Okay Vindel. Seems like that card is squarely midrange. I would think you could play it on medium with acceptible frame rates. And the game looks fantastic on medium.

[Vindel]

Okay Vindel. Seems like that card is squarely midrange. I would think you could play it on medium with acceptible frame rates. And the game looks fantastic on medium.

Ok cool, thank you for the feedback 

[EddieA]

Ok I have a question, I have a

AMD Athlon II quad core 3.2
ATI Radeon 5770 1 gig
4 gigs of memory
Windows 7 64bit

Do you think my rig will be able to run the game good? With ubersampling turned off.

I have a dual-core 3.2 GHz, an nVidia GT440 with 1 GB, 4 GB of RAM, and Windows 7 64 bit, and I the game runs fine (at least in the beginning) on High settings.

[Vindel]

Ok I have a question, I have a

AMD Athlon II quad core 3.2
ATI Radeon 5770 1 gig
4 gigs of memory
Windows 7 64bit

Do you think my rig will be able to run the game good? With ubersampling turned off.

I have a dual-core 3.2 GHz, an nVidia GT440 with 1 GB, 4 GB of RAM, and Windows 7 64 bit, and I the game runs fine (at least in the beginning) on High settings.

Great, that is even better news, thanks for sharing 

[Azhag]

I have a:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz
4.00 GB ram
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB

I've been playing it pretty well on high at 1650x1080, looks great. Minor choppiness at times, but doesn't affect gameplay.

[hepcat]

i5 760 overclocked to 3.0 (stock cooling, didn't wanna risk going higher)
PNY 470 nvidia card (1.3 gigs RAM)
win 7 64 bit w/ 4 gigs RAM
 
running on ultra with ubersampling turned on and with a res of 1680x1050.

it's smooth as silk for me.  i love this card.    

[ericb]

Ok I have a question, I have a

AMD Athlon II quad core 3.2
ATI Radeon 5770 1 gig
4 gigs of memory
Windows 7 64bit

Do you think my rig will be able to run the game good? With ubersampling turned off.

I have a Intel dual core, ATI 5750, 6GB of ram and Win7 64 bit and I'm running 1900x1200 with most things on high/ultra except shadows at medium (ubersampling on) and it runs great.  No slowdown, hitches and load times are 1-2 secs after the initial load start time.

[Vindel]

Thanks all for the spec input. Makes me feel a bit more comfortable on getting the game. Really looking forward to playing it.

[EddieA]

Ok I have a question, I have a

AMD Athlon II quad core 3.2
ATI Radeon 5770 1 gig
4 gigs of memory
Windows 7 64bit

Do you think my rig will be able to run the game good? With ubersampling turned off.

I have a dual-core 3.2 GHz, an nVidia GT440 with 1 GB, 4 GB of RAM, and Windows 7 64 bit, and I the game runs fine (at least in the beginning) on High settings.

Oops - I forget to mention that I'm running at 1280x720.

[Razgon]

So, finished the game - I'm interested in what choices people took?

Spoiler for Hiden:

I went with Iovarth, and decided to spare Letho at the end. There was a few quests I didnt do, like the Gargoyle one I didnt finish, and the manuscript one.

I saved Triss instead of going with Iovarth...sooo much to do in second and third playthrough - I even let Sile live...and the dragon - I guess my witcher is a big softie :-D

I'd have liked to find the sword of the space elf though - I love the Wild hunt idea. Anyone found this?

Btw - since this is a spoiler thread, I assume there's no need mark massive spoilers about this post?

Warning - END GAME SPOILERS HERE!

[MonkeyFinger]

I was surprised when I couldn't find a way to invert the mouse from the menu, so googled around and found this. Don't think it has been mentioned yet, so posting it here in case anyone has the same need.

Edit the "User.ini" file in your "My Documents/Witcher 2/Config" folder and add the following 2 lines:

MouseSensitivityX=0.307692
MouseSensitivityY=-0.192308

All of the posts I found showed these same numbers, which seem to work fine for me, the key here is using a negative number on the axis you want to invert.

[Gratch]

So, finished the game - I'm interested in what choices people took?

Spoiler for Hiden:

I went with Iovarth, and decided to spare Letho at the end. There was a few quests I didnt do, like the Gargoyle one I didnt finish, and the manuscript one.

I saved Triss instead of going with Iovarth...sooo much to do in second and third playthrough - I even let Sile live...and the dragon - I guess my witcher is a big softie :-D

I'd have liked to find the sword of the space elf though - I love the Wild hunt idea. Anyone found this?

Btw - since this is a spoiler thread, I assume there's no need mark massive spoilers about this post?

Warning - END GAME SPOILERS HERE!

You've already finished a game that came out 2 days ago?   

[Scraper]

So, finished the game - I'm interested in what choices people took?

Spoiler for Hiden:

I went with Iovarth, and decided to spare Letho at the end. There was a few quests I didnt do, like the Gargoyle one I didnt finish, and the manuscript one.

I saved Triss instead of going with Iovarth...sooo much to do in second and third playthrough - I even let Sile live...and the dragon - I guess my witcher is a big softie :-D

I'd have liked to find the sword of the space elf though - I love the Wild hunt idea. Anyone found this?

Btw - since this is a spoiler thread, I assume there's no need mark massive spoilers about this post?

Warning - END GAME SPOILERS HERE!

What was your play through time?

[Razgon]

I have no idea - 30 hours?? 25? Can I tell somewhere? Bought the GOG version and not steam

There's very few positives about loosing ones job, but having time to play is one of them :-)

[Reemul]

On chapter 1 atm, love the dwarf, just how I imagined a dwarf to be, great Scottish accent as well, really fits wll imo.

[Gratch]

There's very few positives about loosing ones job, but having time to play is one of them :-)

That sucks...sorry Raz.  

Glad to hear it can be finished in 30'ish hours though.  Unless a game is ridiculously good, I have a really hard time keeping attention much longer than that.

[hepcat]

Dang Raz, I hope your situation is a short term one!     Fingers are crossed for you, buddy.

[Razgon]

Thanks guys - Appreciate it! hopefully, it will be temporary! :-)

[CeeKay]

Get a job ya bum.

oh, wait, I'm supposed to wait a few weeks for that one.   ummm....

sorry you lost your job slacker!

there, all better 

* CeeKay puts 'How to Deal With People' written by Gregory House back on the shelf.

on a side note, apparently they were nice enough not to require the disc be in the drive to the retail version.