The Witcher II

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

@ Arclight, thanks a bunch for the screenies, game looks a lot better than the first 1.
Time has 'healed' this game.
Can't help but notice the mini map and the red dots and waypoint arrow, reminds me of DragonAge? Kind of...
And prob. a dozen other games which i can't for the life of me think of right now.
Are the trees, grass, and any other things that could move, 'active'? A gust of wind moves the tall grass, or moves the leaves in the trees etc?
Once again, thanks for your time posting screenies.

My pleasure.

The environments are very dynamic. Guess you would have to see it in motion, see if I can manage that.

Most believable world I've seen to date.

And yeah, there are markers on the map. That's it though; no magical golden arrows or things like that floating around in the actual world.

It's reminiscent of Dragon Age, same genre after all. Perhaps comparable to a less chatty, DA2-done-right: not the vast scale of DA1, but more focused and condensed like the 2nd one, but without the failings of, for example, copy-paste environments.

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Er, come again?

Er, maybe not. Why does that matter? Those visuals with a constant minimum of 40fps isn't good enough?

It is, kinda nice to have something that actually uses the resources of my PC for a change. Not much point buying decent hardware were it not for titles like these.
Console ports tend to be the shodiest of them all. Playing on a console can be fun, granted, but their influence improves absolutely nothing.

If you want to skip it for TES5, then by all means. I just don't follow the reasoning.

In the past I've played my share of shoddy console ports, but in recent years the problem seems to have gone away, at least in terms of graphics (controls can still be an issue but that's something else). All of the console ports I currently own (Mass Effect 2, Dead Space, Batman: Arkham Asylum, DiRT, GRID, F.E.A.R. 2, Mirror's Edge, and some other's I'm too embarrassed to list here) run at a constant v-sync'd 60fps on my modest GTX 260, with all details turned on, 1366x768 resolution, and 4x MSAA. Seems to me that as a general rule, anything that runs on a console at 30fps will run on my machine at 60fps. In contrast, all of the PC-exclusives I own suffer frame rate drops and stutters, even old ones like F.E.A.R. and Company of Heroes.

And once you've gotten used to a v-sync'd 60fps, anything else looks bloody horrible.

My GTX 260 will soon be upgraded to a top-end card, but by the sound of it that won't help me in Witcher 2... at least not on Ultra. But then, if those shots you posted are taken on High... well, they do look nice...

[Arclight]

F.E.A.R. ran over 100fps full open on the old 8800, never had any trouble with CoH. Had trouble with the original ME (overheating) and GTA4 (fps drops), to name a few examples.

Just saying that the worst games I've seen are invariably console ports, not that every console port is shoddy.

At any rate, I don't see how more than 30-40fps would help you here, but if reaching higher is a requirement then it falls short.


* ah, glimpse of it in motion. Well, the environment, anyway:

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Arclight

F.E.A.R. ran over 100fps full open on the old 8800, never had any trouble with CoH. Had trouble with the original ME (overheating) and GTA4 (fps drops), to name a few examples.

Just saying that the worst games I've seen are invariably console ports, not that every console port is shoddy.

At any rate, I don't see how more than 30-40fps would help you here, but if reaching higher is a requirement then it falls short.


* ah, glimpse of it in motion. Well, the environment, anyway:

I can understand why you can't understand, but I'm used to 60fps. Nowadays when I look at a game doing ~40fps I wonder how I ever found such horrific tearing (v-sync off) or stuttering (v-sync on) tolerable. Triple buffering helps a little... but only a little. There's really no substitute for a stable frametime.

I've seen that Witcher 2 has motion blur. Generally I find a v-synced 30fps (linked to a 60Hz screen refresh) with good motion blur is an acceptable alternative to 60fps, especially in games that don't require twitch reactions, but PC games almost never offer this option (RUSE and World In Conflict being notable exceptions). Have you seen that option anywhere in the settings?

[Arclight]

I do get you on the 60fps thing, I just dont think it's relevant unless it's something that requires fine control, like a shooter or racing game. That's from a technical standpoint though, can't argue on personal preference.

You can control both V-sync and the blur, but I've not seen an option to lock it to a framerate. Don't see an option to that end in the .ini either.

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Arclight

I do get you on the 60fps thing, I just dont think it's relevant unless it's something that requires fine control, like a shooter or racing game. That's from a technical standpoint though, can't argue on personal preference.

You can control both V-sync and the blur, but I've not seen an option to lock it to a framerate. Don't see an option to that end in the .ini either.

Okay, thank you for looking

[Dowly]

Why, oh why, they had to change the controls in Witcher 2?

Witcher 1 had Q and E for Steel/Silver sword, 1-5 keys for the signs, 6-8 for potions, LMB/RMB for attack/use sign and Z, X, C for the different fighting methods. And that worked very well.

Witcher 2 changes this to: Q to use sign, E to use item, 1-2 for steel/silver sword, LMB/RMB to attack/power attack. Oh and no hotkeys (I think) for signs. Just confusing as hell, especially as I just came from playing Witcher 1.


Other than that, looks nice.

[kiwi_2005]

This looks good.
I never finished the first Witcher my pc at the time struggled a bit, and now with a better rig I can't be bothered replaying the game. But Witcher 2 I want to play maybe later on as i'm trying to finish Risen. Risen is not easy man . Risen makes sure you get pwn by mobs easily even with good gear (I hope its not just me that thinks its hard ). Spam the quick save button! Though Risen I am determined to finish about three quarters of the way through then will try out this W2.

[Dowly]

I'd recommend to play Witcher 1 first as the story pretty much continues from the end of it in W2. Also, you can import your W1 save to W2 and have your decisions carry over to W2 ala Mass Effect.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by Dowly

I'd recommend to play Witcher 1 first as the story pretty much continues from the end of it in W2. Also, you can import your W1 save to W2 and have your decisions carry over to W2 ala Mass Effect.

Ok I might just do that, wonder how many hours it takes to complete the game if I only did the main storyline missions I'll try and speed through it so I can move to W2.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

Ok I might just do that, wonder how many hours it takes to complete the game if I only did the main storyline missions I'll try and speed through it so I can move to W2.

Unfortunately, the quests in W1 are ridiculously long (run 9 times from end to end of the same darn area for example). Took me 23-25 hours to complete it by only doing the main quests.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Took me 23-25 hours to complete it by only doing the main quests.

Ok I was dreading more but 25hrs is bearable.

Meanwhile im in Risen I have to get pass a pack of wolves 5 of them just 5 not 10 or 20 but a measly 5. I got nice bandit armor I worked my ass off for, a big nasty sword I made using one of the profession skills & my keys setup for combo attacks - well actually spacebar and A or D key spamming. Ive died twice trying to kill these wolves. Sometimes its a walk in the park so it sucks you in to thinking the next pack of wolves are going to be mincemeat, only for them to be a cunning pack with rabies.

And the dialog though its a German game translated to English so that might be the fault as the dialog goes on and on and on. Something like this:

NPC: Yes?

ME: Is there something I can do for you

NPC: I could use some help

ME: What help might that be

NPC: I need something for you to retrieve

ME: What is it you want me to retrieve

NPC: Something ancient

ME: How ancient

NPC: long ago it was lost

ME: How long ago



You get the picture. Some dialog can take a good 10-15min just reading it only to find out at the end I need to find his blardy sword.

Still its a good game providing you can bypass the boring parts and keep your sanity while fighting mobs. Risen same devs of Gothic 1 & 2, I think.

Anyways back on topic. Will try and complete W1 first.

[SgtPotato]

My dvd drive hated The Witcher 2.

[Feuer Frei!]

Has anyone encountered any bugs with questing so far?
In particular after completing a quest and the waypoint arrow not updating with the quest completed log, so that you are aimlessly wandering around, wondering where to go next to advance the storyline?

[Arclight]

No, but I didn't finish all of them. Some span several chapters though, so there's not always a marker.