Just an FYI for Witcher II owners (or those considering getting it). Many companies these days would sell this as DLC. Nice to see them doing so much in a patch.
http://www.thehighlandgamer.com/2011/09/witcher-2-20-patch-details.html
Loved the game, but kept getting distracted so I haven’t finished it. I’m gonna restart once the patch hits.
Not only are PC gamers getting this awesome patch, but the devs have said that all PC DLC will be FREE.
Love these guys!
I may have to make another go at this game - I made it part of the way in, but quit in annoyance after I discovered i’d advanced too far in the main plot to finish several side quests.
So the Polish developpers turn out to be fucking commies rather than good, honest capitalists. Big surprise. But where’s the outrage ?!
Seriously though, yeah, that’s mighty white of them. They’d already done something like that for the first Witcher, too - the release English version’s dialogue was absolutely horrible because they’d been pressed for time and short on budget. 6 months later they released a completely reworked version which improved graphics, added some quests, revamped game mechanics… oh, and replaced all dialogues with proper VAs and translation ;). All free of charge (if a bit weighty a download - 350 megs or so). Cool guys.
You know what I squeed at the most when reading that patch readme ?
To those who may be interested Steam is selling Witcher 2 at a 25% discount ($29.99). No idea if that is the best price to be had since I have not looked but seems a deal to me.
I have played the game through once and heartily recommend it. If this type of game is your thing can’t go wrong.
I have a vague recollection of a class in college talking about marketing mishaps. The conclusions was don’t screw your best customers.
Treat your loyal customers like loyal customers and you should do well.
Depends a bit on your biz, but it’s almost always good advice. I know some businesses in two specific fields who disobey that. The first are big contract manufacturers; they make exactly what they are told and send it out, and don’t much care if the client really needs it.
The other… are the video game publishers, and some of the key studios. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Few businesses are laxer about deadlines, as unpredictable about quality (even basic, non-artistic things), and as dedicated to giving their customers as sucky an experience as possible through limited downloads, required internet connections, etc.
Let’s say I have the first Witcher, but didn’t really get that into it. I liked the art style, but the combat system wasn’t intuitive enough to get me hooked. I probably only got 4-6 hours into the story before losing interest (mostly because I felt like I had no clue where to go next, or how the combat really worked.)
Would you recommend The Witcher II?
I never got past the opening of II (real life got in the way), but I’d say no. The combat is vaguely improved (honestly, I personally like I’s more, but this one is technically better, I think), but you’d be pretty lost in the opening without having finished 1. Maybe “lost” isn’t the right word, it explains everything well-ish enough, but I think you really miss out on a lot of depth without the background 1 provides.
Gamehat, I never finished Witcher I either, but I loved Witcher II and didn’t find that the lack of a back story was that big of a deal. Like you, I just couldn’t get into the Witcher I combo strike gameplay, but I found combat in WII much more enjoyable and the voice acting is MUCH improved.
ETA: There is also a Witcher wiki out there that can catch you up on the plot of WI
Nope, best place to get it is at gog.com. The price is also USD$29.99, but unlike Steam, the prices are adjusted for region (i.e. on Steam, Europeans pay 29.99 euros, Brits 29.99 GBP, etc.; on Gog, the price is almost identical in all regions). There is no DRM whatsoever nor client software in the Gog version (so no hassle playing offline, and if you have more than one PC at home there’s no fuss about installing it on all of them), I think you get a few extra goodies (not sure about that - I preordered the digital deluxe edition). And most important of all, Gog.com is basically a publishing arm of the developer of the Witcher games, so by buying it there you’re supporting the developer even more than by buying it on Steam.
So here, have a link! http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/the_witcher_2/ 
(Not knocking Steam - I’m a fan and heavy user - but CDProjekt RED are the most customer-friendly software developer I’ve ever encountered, so I want to support them.)
GameHat, I’d recommend the Witcher 2 under those circumstances. IMO the plot of 2 is “tighter” and more focused than 1, so there’s less risk of feeling lost. Couldn’t hurt to read up on the plot of 1, of course. Here’s a place to start (spoilers galore): The Witcher storyline | Witcher Wiki | Fandom
As for combat, in 2 I think it’s more intuitive, but also more difficult on the standard setting IMO. If you’re mostly in it for the plot you can turn the difficulty way down. I did, for a while.
ETA: Yep, you get extra goodies by buying the Gog.com version - art booklet, soundtrack, “Making of” videos, game guide, wallpapers, and more…
Yeah, there was a steep learning curve on the combat. I remember the first missions when you are still in the prologue being insanely hard at first, but then it kind of clicked.
As much as I love both games, I’d actually question that to some extend - Witcher 2 kicks off *in media res *and immediately segues into flashbacks that may or may not be sequential based on player choices. The fact that these flashbacks are dizzyingly action-heavy while still providing a lot of plot-important slivers of info doesn’t help, either.
Once you get to the starting town things get more focused (or rather, you quickly forget about the wider issues in your quest to fuck up the big river monster and trail the mountain of meat who framed you), but the first 2-4 hours can be quite boggling. Especially if you don’t know a thing about the gameworld, who these blokes are, what’s a Nilfgaard and so forth.
Granted, it’s still not as aimlessly confusing as the Outskirts of Vizima were in 1 (where the problem was the exact inverse: the prologue is tight, exposition nicely handled, pro- and antagonists and themes succintly but efficiently presented…then you’re dumped into the first town and suddenly you have no idea what the fuck.)
Sorry, Kobal2, you’re right - I was discounting the prologues of both games, and rather just thinking about acts 1 of each game. I imagine if one does the prologue of Witcher 2 out of order (a matter of dialogue choices) it could be quite confusing. And thinking back on my playthrough (just one, so far), the whole La Valette business ended up being irrelevant to me due to my choices in later acts. Still, the main points (main characters, most important aspects of setting) are established strongly enough IMO that I figure it still serves as a strong introduction. The other details could be overwhelming, but ultimately don’t really matter.
Comparing the acts 1 - Vizima outskirts vs. Flotsam - it’s much more focused, as you say. Elements relevant to the overarching plot in Vizima outskirts - Alvin arrives, a Salamandra cell is found are incidental to the act’s focus, fighting The Beast. In Flotsam, partly you’re looking for info about the Assassin of Kings (which obviously drives the storyline, being in the game’s title), and all major quests - including fighting the river beast (kayran) - provide plot-significant info along the way. I also feel it’s kept more grounded in that you’re often accompanied on quests by other major characters, like Triss or Roche.
To clarify, I’m not saying the details and plot-revelant points in the intro were overwhelming, quite the contrary. Looking back, they’re presented in this format:
"This guy is the Nilfgaardian ambassador, he’s a pretty impor… [SIZE=2]GET TO [/SIZE]THE BALLISTA I WANT YOU TO KILL THESE GUYS NOW. Now, as I was saying and as you know there’s a question of successioDRAGON OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE RUNRUNRUN and that’s why they sent this assassin which you FIGHT THESE GUYS OPEN THE DOOR QUICK.
I get why they wanted to start with a bang, but it’s not the best handling of such a start that I’ve ever seen, that’s all. Otherwise, yup, agree with you.
I’m not sure if it was this patch or a prior patch, but the fact that the game has a quickload button now fixes my BIGGEST pet peeve about the game. It did, however, bring a few more to light - quickloading sometimes crashes the game, and monsters sometimes respawn when you quickload. That one drove me CRAZY - i’d set myself up perfectly to try and fight an endrega queen, save, try and fight it, get killed, reload, and then have to fight off four respawns and thus ruin my perfect setup, so i’d have to set up again and save again, etc. (It did help me grind some alchemy ingredients, though.)
I never played the first game or read any of the books prior to to jumping into this game, but I wouldn’t say it was too tricky to get a feel for the game world. The copy I bought came with a map I pinned up next to my desk so I could reference the places the characters are talking about. Honestly, the thing that threw me off the most was how the naming conventions for the characters are a complete cutural mishmash with no rhyme or reason to them - there’s an empire called Nilfgaard (Nordic), with an ambassador whose surname is Fitz Osterlen (Norman and Germanic), and their emperor is titled Emir (arabic) and has the surname aep Morvudd (Welsh). I spent a couple hours trying to figure out which country was supposed to represent which real-world culture before I threw my hands in the air and gave up.
And there’s people running around wearing spectacles and neck-ruffs at the same time as people wearing tunics and leggings, and a character talks about the date “September 25th, 1271” even though we’re CLEARLY not in a world that uses the Gregorian calendar, and so forth.
That’s the thing, though. The SaporovitchVerse is at the same time medievaly backwards and quite advanced - they have inklings about genetics and modern chemistry/medicine alongside alchemy, they have 19th century philosophical notions and 13th century government, they’re more or less survival farmers but they have banks and shareholders… It really is a unique mishmash.
Not sure if it was fanwank of WordOfGod, but I remember reading that the world had essentially devolved from a relatively modern setting back into the Dark Ages due to some catastrophe or other. Or possibly because of magic (God knows *that *would fuck with our collective psyche)