So it turns out The Witcher is pretty fun

[ControlD]

I swear I have tried to start playing the original Witcher game at least four times in the past few years and I never made it more than a couple of hours into the game before giving it up. Seeing all this talk about The Witcher 3 got me wanting to play that game, but I felt like I would enjoy it more if I had played at least one of the previous titles. I reinstalled my copy (which now seems to include the Director's Cut) and started playing yet again.

Now I am about 12 hours into the game and man it is a blast. I have no idea why I never could get going with it before. Plus, boobs. But really the game is pretty fun! I have no idea how long the game is, but it feels pretty substantial so far as I am only in the second chapter.

 

[VashHT]

Yeah I enjoyed it quite a bit, like you I had to start it a few times before I actually played through the whole game. I believe I beat it somewhere around 50 hours or so, but I did all the side quests I could find so it may be shorter if you just go straight through it. I thought the ending was pretty awesome and there were a lot of good stories and characters throughout the game. There were a couple parts the felt a little slow to me but it's worth it to push through them for the rest of the game imo.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Plus, boobs.

FTW!

 

[frozentundra123456]

I just started W3. I am somewhat undecided yet, but am liking it OK so far. Seems like a combination of a host of RPGs. Still seems buggy to me though, especially finding stuff with the Witcher senses. Kind of like DA:I. You can be in the search area and look forever and not find something, then just walk away and come back, or reload, and you can find it, or it directs you to the wrong area entirely. For instance, in the quest where you have to find the dead soldier's shield, the quest tracker said I was in the right area, but I finally had to go to youtube and find a video, which showed I was not even close. But I am finding the game much easier to get into than the first 2 games, neither of which I came close to finishing. I am assuming that the storyline eventually develops into more than trying to track down an old girl friend.

 

[Merad]

Glad you're enjoying it. :thumbsup: You'll have to play through it and TW2 now so you're caught up on the story before hitting number 3. You probably have a solid 200+ hours of gaming ahead, and the quality increases exponentially from where you are now.

 

[Artorias]

The only part I didn't like about the 1st is the swamp area, I thought it was a good location overall but my goodness that area seemed to drag on forever, I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter and get out of there after like the 6th trip back.

 

[escrow4]

I just started W3. I am somewhat undecided yet, but am liking it OK so far. Seems like a combination of a host of RPGs. Still seems buggy to me though, especially finding stuff with the Witcher senses. Kind of like DA:I. You can be in the search area and look forever and not find something, then just walk away and come back, or reload, and you can find it, or it directs you to the wrong area entirely. For instance, in the quest where you have to find the dead soldier's shield, the quest tracker said I was in the right area, but I finally had to go to youtube and find a video, which showed I was not even close. But I am finding the game much easier to get into than the first 2 games, neither of which I came close to finishing. I am assuming that the storyline eventually develops into more than trying to track down an old girl friend.

Way off. Geralt invoked the law of surprise as a reward for a contract once, not gold for a change, and Ciri was it. Thing is, Ciri isn't an ordinary woman. She's the Polish version of the prophecy/god trope in Western fantasy. She can make the world or break the world. It goes beyond good or evil.

 

[rivethead]

The only part I didn't like about the 1st is the swamp area, I thought it was a good location overall but my goodness that area seemed to drag on forever, I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter and get out of there after like the 6th trip back.

Yup.

I loved TW1. Took me two attempts to get into it.....60 hours to complete.....all side quests I could do included.

But the swamp....yeah drowners got old after awhile.

OP enjoy the ride. I found TW2 to be great too....just slightly less great than TW1 but that's my opinion. I'll play TW3 next year when bugs are patched and it's dirt cheap......

 

[DaveSimmons]

The only part I didn't like about the 1st is the swamp area, I thought it was a good location overall but my goodness that area seemed to drag on forever, I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter and get out of there after like the 6th trip back.

Yes, that's where my play through got (ahem) bogged down.

I should finish playing it one of these days . . . .

 

[Gryz]

Get the texture-pack and the model-pack from Nexus. They give the game a really good graphics overhaul. Then enable SSAO in your videocard control panel. And/or 4xSGSSAO. The game will look gorgeous.

I bought the game when it was released. Played Prologue, Act I and Act II a few months later. But at the start of Act III (Trade Quarter in Vizima), my computer didn't cut it anymore. That was 7 years ago. Earlier this year I decided to finally finish TW1. I still had my old savefiles. Started at Act III. Awesome game. After I finished it, I replayed Prologue+Act1/2 (on the hardest mode this time). Really nice. Good preparation for TW3 too.

 

[tidy]

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[ControlD]

I thought about modding this with some higher resolution texture packs, but honestly the game looks pretty decent as it is to me. Then again, most of my time is spent playing roguelikes so most other games look good to me! I haven't looked into how this game is modded, but I would hate to trash my install and lose my progress up to this point.

 

[tidy]

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[ControlD]

I'm still having fun with this game, but man you sure can get lost at times. At times it is refreshing to have a game that doesn't lead you by the nose, but I am completely lost right now. I am going for a spoiler free game, so I'll just keep exploring till I get back on track.

 

[mizzou]

my current pc still cant handle the original witcher

 

[pathos]

The only part I didn't like about the 1st is the swamp area, I thought it was a good location overall but my goodness that area seemed to drag on forever, I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter and get out of there after like the 6th trip back.

The swamp is the place I always got bogged down in every attempt I've had to play the game. I'd think I'd be done there, go back to town, and find 20 more quests for that place. Rinse and repeat over and over again.

I really wanted a fast travel option for that map alone. But, I don't have all that much patience anymore.

 

[Gryz]

I really wanted a fast travel option for that map alone. But, I don't have all that much patience anymore.

There is a fast travel option to go back. Find the "place of power" near the entry (with the boat). When clicking on the stone, you get the option to teleport to Kalkstein's house in the city. Or Triss's place. Very convenient.

There is also another bidirectional teleport from Kalkstein's house later in the game. But I think it might not be before act III that you have access to that one.

If you mean SGSSAA, then I don't recommend that. Last time I tried SGSSAA in the Witcher (with a GTX 780 Ti) it had major issues with blurring. Standard nvidia transparency supersampling does seem to work however (surprisingly thorough coverage, unlike it's usual behavior).

SGSSAA worked fine for me, I did not see any blurring.
Note, I also used SweetFX, with sharpening.

The one issue I had was with the combination of SSAO and SGSSAA. I swore that I had it working fine when I started playing the game again this year. But at some point in time, I installed new nVidia drivers. Which overwrote my Witcher1's settings (in NVCPL ofc, not in game). Since then I was able to get either SGSSAA to work, or SSAO. Never both at the same time.

Yeah, I forgot to mention. Using SweetFX can improve the game too. I thought TW1 looked a little too bleak. SweetFX gave it more color. And better (shades of) shadows. Although TW1 does a weird thing with it's gamma setting. It doesn't adjust it's frames for gamma, no, it messes with the Windows colors ! (Basically overwriting the ICC profile). I calibrated my monitor a few months back (with a Spyder Pro4). And since then I use a utility (CPKeeper) to make sure I always use the proper calibration. I noticed that TW1 kept changing the ICC profile, and my utility kept changing it back. Luckily TW3 doesn't have this madness.

 

[finglobes]

I tried Witcher I and II and thought graphics were great, but the boring fetch quests and klunky, whiz-bang combat wore me down. The tutorial for Witcher II was hellacious.

I thought I might stay open minded to Witcher III - given some positive reviews - but then I saw review below and it seems the game has the same elements I didn't like in earlier versions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIeEZeKN8JE

 

[Gryz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIeEZeKN8JE

That guy is the biggest wanker I've seen on YouTube.
I can understand that he doesn't like the combat. Fine.
But all his other complaints ? The world is not open enough ? The horse is too smart ? His crossbow doesn't come in his favorite color pink ?

Anyone complaining about this game is a spoiled dumbass brat. If this game is not good enough for you, I wonder what is ? These complainers will have a very hard time in the rest of their life. Because with an attitude like that, they will never be happy. Evar.

 

[bystander36]

That guy is the biggest wanker I've seen on YouTube.
I can understand that he doesn't like the combat. Fine.
But all his other complaints ? The world is not open enough ? The horse is too smart ? His crossbow doesn't come in his favorite color pink ?

Anyone complaining about this game is a spoiled dumbass brat. If this game is not good enough for you, I wonder what is ? These complainers will have a very hard time in the rest of their life. Because with an attitude like that, they will never be happy. Evar.

I haven't played 3, but I can understand people who didn't like the combat in 1 and 2. They are quite different than your typical game or RPG. If 3 is similar to 2, then it is understandable.

 

[tidy]

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[frozentundra123456]

That guy is the biggest wanker I've seen on YouTube.
I can understand that he doesn't like the combat. Fine.
But all his other complaints ? The world is not open enough ? The horse is too smart ? His crossbow doesn't come in his favorite color pink ?

Anyone complaining about this game is a spoiled dumbass brat. If this game is not good enough for you, I wonder what is ? These complainers will have a very hard time in the rest of their life. Because with an attitude like that, they will never be happy. Evar.

Or perhaps you could say the same thing about someone who thinks a persons whole life will be forever unhappy because they dont happen to like the same game you do.

 

[bystander36]

3 is closer to 2 than 2 is to 1. 2 is far removed from 1. I think 1 is the outlier, where the combat could really turn people off the game. 2 shouldn't be too hard for the average person to handle.

None of them are much good, not 1, 2 nor 3. They all look very 'gamey' and overly smooth.

2 and even 1 was not hard to handle. They just weren't all that fun and far removed from PC RPG mechanics (especially 1). Do get me wrong, I did enjoy both games, but it wasn't due to the combat.

 

[lazybedone]

Witcher is a fun game to play. really dont like the swamp area in the begining though.

 

[tidy]

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