The Witcher 2 - 360 Footage - Post #1674

[Mr. Gerbik]

It would be great if they released the Rise of the White Wolf, the cancelled console version of the first Witcher, after all. I would buy it and use it as an excuse to play it all over again Besides, the story in TW2 picks up right where the first one ended and there are constant references to the first game, it would be worth it for people who enjoyed the story and the lore of the second game.

The 360 version of The Witcher 2 looks amazing btw, far better than I was expecting. Good work from CD Projekt, I really hope the game is a massive success for them on either platform.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

360 version looks good from those shots. As we were saying before, there's no reason for it not to look good - Witcher 2 looks great even on low settings on PC.

[robdood]

my PC runs the game at extraordinary frame-rates, which means that everything flies around the screen much too fast for me to enjoy it!

This is the strangest sentence I've ever read.

[JoeK]

This is the strangest sentence I've ever read.

Yeah, I thought it might be

I think I meant that when it gets to the combat bits, I find that the animations and folk running at me all the time make it rather hard for me to beat the shit out of them, and I end up getting slaughtered all the time. It's a bit like when you bung on an old game on the PC, which was designed a few years ago, and there's no frame-rate lock or anything. Everything moves by far too fast to make the game playable?

I don't know what I mean...all I know is the game now runs at a pace which I can really get to grips with anymore, and I lack the skills to play it properly.

Yes, I know I'm shit.

Oh, that and holding the middle mouse button (scroll wheel) is a bugger too, as the one on my mouse is fucking useless.

[NecroMorrius]

You probably need to see it running to judge, even on lowest settings the models etc are still very high detail typically. The differences will be lighting and general performance during fights etc.

[NecroMorrius]

Finished!

Which bit was I meant to have problems with Footle? I found the difficulty was just right in chapter 3. I scraped by in some of the larger fights and the

dragon

took me two attempts, the first time I got hit quite a lot almost straight away, second time I concentrated on not getting hit and attacked him from the side when I had the chance, with Quen up all the time. I didn't think the last chapter was too easy or too hard.

Choices I made:

I sided with Roche whenever I could, but sided with Triss above all else because she's already proven that she tells the truth in the first game, and she has a nice arse. My final choice was to let Letho walk. I let Sile live too, though I'm not sure why I chose to do so. Gut Instinct. All I wanted from either of them was an explanation, which I got via a massive satisfying infodump in the last ten minutes. Killing them served no purpose beyond revenge, and I have no real affiliation to the North or the South, or the kings their respective conspiracies were taking out. Besides, they're powerful foes when all is said and done, and they might come in useful one day when the lines are redrawn. I tend to opt not to kill people out of revenge when I can, only in mercy or necessity. (I killed the wounded dragon for example, as it was either going to suffer until it died, or be saved and used again as weapon).

I loved the implication that the wild hunt were elves from an alternate reality, crossing into ours and stealing people.

The interesting thing about The Witcher is that you don't always know you're making game-altering decisions. I'll be interested to play through it again and see how the paths branch.

Anyway, great stuff. A layered conspiracy and a complex political storyline which is much more interesting than Darkspawn and the like. I found the length about right, though the first two chapters were much longer than the third. Saying that, I didn't bother with the Gargoyle quests as I really wanted to finish it.

I'm assuming the third will be a

trip to find Yennefer and having to choose between the North and South in the big impending war, whilst further investigating and maybe recruiting or battling the Wild Hunt, which sounds cool. Bring it on!

Yeah, I thought it might be

I think I meant that when it gets to the combat bits, I find that the animations and folk running at me all the time make it rather hard for me to beat the shit out of them, and I end up getting slaughtered all the time. It's a bit like when you bung on an old game on the PC, which was designed a few years ago, and there's no frame-rate lock or anything. Everything moves by far too fast to make the game playable?

I don't know what I mean...all I know is the game now runs at a pace which I can really get to grips with anymore, and I lack the skills to play it properly.

Yes, I know I'm shit.

Oh, that and holding the middle mouse button (scroll wheel) is a bugger too, as the one on my mouse is fucking useless.

The game speed doesn't change, you're just seeing more frames of animation per second. Why are you holding the middle mouse button?

[JoeK]

The game speed doesn't change, you're just seeing more frames of animation per second. Why are you holding the middle mouse button?

You need to hold the middle mouse button to spin the camera around in the top view position, unless there's a way to change that?

[NecroMorrius]

Oh are you talking about the first game?!

I didn't twig that sorry. Curse my skimming! My mistake.

[JoeK]

Oh are you talking about the first game?!

I didn't twig that sorry. Curse my skimming! My mistake.

Oh, and you're spoiler bit:

I'm assuming the third will be a

trip to find Yennefer and having to choose between the North and South in the big impending war, whilst further investigating and maybe recruiting or battling the Wild Hunt, which sounds cool. Bring it on!

Have you read the first book? Good stuff in there about the backstory - as least I know who she is now!

[Wiper]

Finished!

Which bit was I meant to have problems with Footle? I found the difficulty was just right in chapter 3. I scraped by in some of the larger fights and the

dragon

took me two attempts, the first time I got hit quite a lot almost straight away, second time I concentrated on not getting hit and attacked him from the side when I had the chance, with Quen up all the time. I didn't think the last chapter was too easy or too hard.

Choices I made:

I sided with Roche whenever I could, but sided with Triss above all else because she's already proven that she tells the truth in the first game, and she has a nice arse. My final choice was to let Letho walk. I let Sile live too, though I'm not sure why I chose to do so. Gut Instinct. All I wanted from either of them was an explanation, which I got via a massive satisfying infodump in the last ten minutes. Killing them served no purpose beyond revenge, and I have no real affiliation to the North or the South, or the kings their respective conspiracies were taking out. Besides, they're powerful foes when all is said and done, and they might come in useful one day when the lines are redrawn. I tend to opt not to kill people out of revenge when I can, only in mercy or necessity. (I killed the wounded dragon for example, as it was either going to suffer until it died, or be saved and used again as weapon).

I loved the implication that the wild hunt were elves from an alternate reality, crossing into ours and stealing people.

Almost the same as mine, but for a few differences:

Main difference being Triss. She didn't trust Geralt with letting him know about the Sorceress's conspiring, so she got to live with the consequences of her actions. Also, improving the soldier-guy's political clout by getting Roche to give him Anais seemed more important than trying to rescue Triss. Though, despite my not killing people for revenge, I did let Roche gut that whoreson of a king for what he did. I also sided with Iorveth in the opening fight (seeing as Roche had just ruined our chances of taking Letho down, while Iorveth had honoured his side of the bargain - wasn't about to let him get killed).

Just got to Flotsam for my second playthrough: it's time to help some squirrels, methinks!

[Mallet]

Have you read the first book? Good stuff in there about the backstory - as least I know who she is now!

Yeah, reading the books definitely helps with some of the characters introduced in the game. I'm in 2 minds about it as I think the game should stand on it's own but at the same time I realise that it's a continuation of Geralt's story so you can't just ignore

Yennefer and Ciri

, biggest issue for me personally is I can't read all the books as they aren't translated yet

The games are really true to the books as well, it must have been awesome to have been a fan of the books then play The Witcher.

[JoeK]

Yeah, reading the books definitely helps with some of the characters introduced in the game. I'm in 2 minds about it as I think the game should stand on it's own but at the same time I realise that it's a continuation of Geralt's story so you can't just ignore

Yennefer and Ciri

, biggest issue for me personally is I can't read all the books as they aren't translated yet

The games are really true to the books as well, it must have been awesome to have been a fan of the books then play The Witcher.

Also nice that (from what I can gather from wiki, that the games follow after the books. It must have been a huge boost to the developers (and probably a touch daunting!) that the author let them do that. Can't think of that happening with many established works.

[diggler]

Just finished; wow, hell of a game. Tits aside, there's a definite sense of maturity and intelligence in this (and to a lesser extent the first game) that you just don't find anywhere else. They don't spell everything out for you, they make you actually pay attention, and not being able to fast travel everywhere actually works in the game's favour as it really lets you see and take in the world.

I think overall I did prefer the locations in the first game, and I couldn't help but feel like the final chapter might have been pushed out before they could realise all the epic plans they had in store for it as it's tiny, but pretty much everything else is insanely polished and stunning. It boggles my mind to think what other directions the game could have gone if I'd made other choices too. Maybe one day I'll try a second play through. Particularly as I did get a bit lost here and there, plot-wise, with all the names and places they chuck at you constantly.

Aa much as I love Bioware, their recent games are kind of the anti-Witcher in many ways, stripping out the more hardcore elements and streamlining everything with waypoints and hand-holding. The Witcher games feel like Bioware in an alternate universe where they went down a completely different path after Baldur's Gate II.

[footle]

@Morrius, the third chapter had no problems at all (with the possible exception of the rune deciphering minigame) - suddenly far too easy as you're slaughtering soldiers six at a time with no preparation. Also, it felt like the game came quite suddenly to an end...

[footle]

Planning to wait a bit to see what other changes get made in later patches before doing a Roche play through with an elf-hating royalist witcher who's addicted to throwing knives at passersby whilst drinking any and every combination of lurid coloured drugs he can get his hands on.

[diggler]

Can someone give a brief spoilerific overview of the differences between the 2 paths?

[JoeK]

Oh maaan! The game just gets better and better.

Decision time in Flotsam, and I really can't choose

Actually - and to my terrible shame - I kind of have.

And it involves Vess.

I will be most upset if what I think might happen doesn't!

This is just such a stunning game - yup, there are a few annoyances, but I bloody love it. Best RPG I've played this 'gen' for sure.

[robdood]

You chose Roche so you can try and sleep with Vess? LOL

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Roche is a total bro so pick him anyway.

[CandyBob]

Is there an issue with combat and an Xbox pad in this? Geralt will often stop responding and stand there for 2-3 seconds after even the smallest exertion while I frantically try to do something. Getting block up also seems very hit and miss, especially when you really need it to work.

[NecroMorrius]

You can't block with no Vigor. (Yellow bar at the top left)

I think there were some issues which were patched out.

[NecroMorrius]

@Morrius, the third chapter had no problems at all (with the possible exception of the rune deciphering minigame) - suddenly far too easy as you're slaughtering soldiers six at a time with no preparation. Also, it felt like the game came quite suddenly to an end...

Ah I see, I didn't find it too easy but might have been that we made different choices. The end felt pretty logical to me, you get the answers you were seeking and you get set on a new path, credits roll.

[Mr. Gerbik]

Use the roll button, CandyBob!

[JoeK]

You chose Roche so you can try and sleep with Vess? LOL

BOO!

Never mind, I feel I owe Roche anyway. Anyhoo, it means another play through will surely beckon!

[Rudi von Starnberg]

BOO!

You won't be disappointed, trust me.

At least depending on future choices.

[robdood]

Is there an issue with combat and an Xbox pad in this? Geralt will often stop responding and stand there for 2-3 seconds after even the smallest exertion while I frantically try to do something. Getting block up also seems very hit and miss, especially when you really need it to work.

There are several issues with the combat, durig one of the boss fights my mouse just basically stopped responding for seconds at a time, amazing.

As has been pointed out, the blocking thing is because of your vigour bar (blocks under the health bar) though.

[NecroMorrius]

I had the thing where the mouse stops until you get hit again. Very strange. I think they fixed it in 1.2 though.

[CandyBob]

Doh on the blocking sorry.

I'm not enjoying this at the moment. I loved the first game and this looks gorgeous but the combat, argh the combat.

Maybe they have purposely made the early quests difficult but for a Witcher, I feel pretty helpless when fighting more than 2. A lot of the combat ends up becoming wars of attrition with copious amounts of kiting invloved. I don't mind this as it seems to be the bane of fantasy RPG's and have a lot of experience at it but there is one quest where you lie to get someone off the hook, gullibly arrage to meet them at the specified spot only to get jumped by 5 guys. This becomes a fight of luck more than anything, hoping that you get a stun and a cut-scene kill to thin the ranks.

Maybe I am missing something glaringly obvious here and all the fights have been doable with potions to be fair but fun they ain't. It didn't seem this bad in the first game. I'm still early doors though so maybe some more levels behind me will help.

[robdood]

It's not about potions! Well I found it wasn't. It's about Quen. Axii. Bombs. Rolling. I didn't use potions til a fair way in. Just chill out, run away. Make sure you don't back yourself into a corner. It is really hard, but some patience helps.

[Mr. Gerbik]

And for me it is all about potions, Yrden, and daggers

But whatever style you choose, rolling is definitely essential.