The Witcher II
 

Thought we already had one of these. :hmmm:

Anyway; dev diaries 3&4: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...dev-diary-3-4/
1&2 are linked to in there.

Some more reading and viewing, case you missed it:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...the-witcher-2/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...e-pre-ordered/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010...e-screenshots/

Well, plenty more really, can't link everything: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/page/2/?s=witcher


* ah, my bad: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/page/2/?s=witcher

Mod please merge or delete. Sorry for my failure in forum skillz.

Almost forgot, was headed for bed but it has to be said: game is available for pre-load on Good old Games. Of course, there would be someone who would really appreciate it if you followed the Amazon link here on SubSim for your pre-order, but I would find myself negligent if I failed to mention what you get on GoG.

The developer, CD Projekt Red, is a sister company (I think) of that distributor. So why go there? Well, you get it DRM free for one. And you get a classic RPG for free: decided to go for Gothic 2 myself. Also, if you pay in Euros, you get $16,- store credit, since we Europeans always end up paying that much more. Netted myself Baldur's Gate 2 and Panzer Elite (that hardcore original, Steel Beasts-goes-WWII) with that. And, yes there's more, there's additional goodies on top of the normal deluxe stuff, available immediatly. Nothing too spectacular, but nice non the less.


At any rate, it's coming the 17th and I suspect it's going to hit hard. :sunny:

Also on GoG, you can get the first Witcher (the complete edition of it at that) for 5 bucks today, quite a deal!

I grabbed it since the game was highly recommended to me before. Probably will be some time before I can actually free up some time to play it but hey, worth it in my book...

Have they revamped the graphics?
Or still the same engine?

I believe its a totally different engine, the first game used the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine

Righto, review: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...sins-of-kings/

And some thoughts I suppose:

First things first: it's absolutely gorgeous. And I mean far beyond smooth and fancy filters: if you slow down to walk and drag your eyes up a little from their usual loot-scanning mode, you'll see things that can really make you stop and stare, like some creature captivated by a shiny bauble.

The sun's rays falling through the leaves, a flock of birds dashing off from their tree-top across a setting sun, thin layers of fog drifting on a marsh; all comes together to form a superb atmosphere.

The gameplay is pretty standard RPG fare, but well executed. There's no stat-tinkering: they advance with level and can be augmented in various ways. You can fully customise the skill tree though, of which there are 4 distinct directions/specializations.

There's still some evidence of a die-roll based RPG, , but it's transparant. You hit the button to attack, bit of text pops up to show the results. If the enemy blocked or dodged, it shows something like that the enemy absorbed all damage, while if it connects proper it gives damage and possibly a critical effect such as bleeding or poison. It plays like an action-RPG, but there's definetly more going on beneath, with damage and resistenses all being carefully calculated under the hood.

(clever they gave that bit of text feedback as proof. Both handy and demonstrating carefull game design)

About combat... takes some getting used. Controls are kinda "sticky". Hard to master, but very rewarding. Really shines if you can get a 1v1 fight.

Hmm, plenty of side-quests too, should keep you busy for a while.

Lovely music, never bothersome but can't recall anything particularly impressive either.

Inventory can be ordered by tabs (weapons, armor, etc), but in those tabs it's a right mess. Think they simply order newest-to-oldest.

Characters are great, pretty much everyone you talk to is believable. Together with all the life in the towns it really makes it feel like a real world. For example, people gather around a fire at night to listen to old tales, and groups of people having conversations.

It's not really a looting game, unless you have a crafting- and alchemy fetish. You'll find more crafting components than you can use (plants regenerate as well, unlimited alchemy), but fancy swords and armor are few. It does make a noticeable difference when you upgrade though, that's actually really nice.

* bad things... those controls I'd say. Also really no form of tutorial. Some tips will pop up as you get into a situation where you need the info, but that's too late. Luckily you can read all those bits in the journal, with the game paused. With the lack of the game teaching and the finicky controls, it's more off a difficulty wall than a curve. Prepare for a bit of frustration through the introduction bits.

Brilliant game. It's on my to buy list on my next game shopping.

Bought it, No sound, everyone with a G35 headset doesent have any sound.

Waiting desperately for a fix :X

Oh dear. Thanks for the heads up.

Assuming a fix does come, I have questions about this game!

1) What kind of specs are required to get it to run at 60fps at 1366x768?
2) What is the game like to newcomers? I've not played the first Witcher, so will I be able understand everything that's going on?

1. GTX460 will get you to about a stable 40 on "high", 1680x1050. (haven't tried ultra)

It will (nearly) use the full 2GB it can, so 3-4GB system minimal. Pretty heavy on my CPU, so I guess a fast quad is desirable, say 3GHz Core2 or equivalent.
2. Didn't have a clue what was going on, but then, I usually don't. Think having played the first would have helped though.

I played the first one and finished it, wasn't too bad.
Looking forward to this 1.
I've heard a lot of stories about bugs a plenty with people having installation errors, things like "disc 2 not found" and a few other issues...
Yes, these people had bought the game.
Not sure about the dig d/l one...
Anyone have this game?
Screenshots would be a good thing, would love to see what it looks like, compared to the first one.
Cheers.

Got the download from GoG. Can't say I ran into any bugs, few containers that were unreachable, but never anything important in there.

Full resolution on the first 2

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...5-19_00003.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...5-19_00002.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...5-56-14-86.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...2-26-30-19.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...2-17-25-51.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...2-26-40-66.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...5-54-28-23.jpg

Thanks Arclight. So GTX460 = 40fps on high? So basically there's no card in existence that can run this game at 60fps on Ultra. Well that's typical of a PC exclusive (and I suppose it explains why the frame rate in the trailers is invariably awful). If there's one good thing about the dominance of consoles it's that it forces cross-platform developers to learn how to optimize their code! /rant off

LOL @ your response to 2.

Hmm... maybe I'll just wait for Skyrim.

@ Arclight, thanks a bunch for the screenies, :yeah: 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.

Er, come again? :doh:
Er, maybe not. Why does that matter? Those visuals with a constant minimum of 40fps isn't good enough? :06:
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. :hmmm:

My pleasure. ;)

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

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.

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...

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. :hmmm:

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: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1sDnNsmKSY

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?

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.