The Witcher 2 Has Gone Gold, Releases In 3 Weeks

[Dankk]

Damn, 9.3gb? That's a good couple hours of updating for me. (I could be much worse off though.)

Anyway, finally started TW2 just the other day. I'm really enjoying it; the storyline is just as strong as the first one. Also my Radeon HD 6950 churns out the game quite nicely on "High" settings at 1680x1050. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference the patch will make.

 

[PUN]

Damn, 9.3gb? That's a good couple hours of updating for me. (I could be much worse off though.)

Anyway, finally started TW2 just the other day. I'm really enjoying it; the storyline is just as strong as the first one. Also my Radeon HD 6950 churns out the game quite nicely on "High" settings at 1680x1050. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference the patch will make.

6950 should be able to do everything on Ultra @1650x1080

I have my 6970 @ 2560x1600 Ultra setting without ubersampling.

EDIT: Mine is 2GB 6970

 

[Arkaign]

Because of the way Steam does patch, it downloads all files that are effected by a patch, in this case one of the files is 9 gigs

Holy flaw! Any way around it? For many, that'd be many days of downloading.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

It's *not* because of the way steam patches. Not one other game on steam requires redownloading the whole frigging game for a patch. Plus, all you have to do is install one mod, and it becomes crystal clear that they could've just added the changed loose files to the manifest and they would've worked just fine.

This isn't accidental. This is CD Projeckt pushing their own digital platform by harassing their own customers who use another service.

Well, looks like I won't be playing Witcher 2 for a couple of days. And it's looking more and more unlikely I'll be playing Witcher 3 at all. Witcher 2 isn't anywhere near good enough to merit putting up with this.

 

[Dankk]

6950 should be able to do everything on Ultra @1650x1080

I have my 6970 @ 2560x1600 Ultra setting without ubersampling.

EDIT: Mine is 2GB 6970

I should've specified, mine is a 6950 1GB. I'm using the preconfigured "High" option, with one or two changes (I think I have LOD Distance set to "Normal" instead of "Low", or something like that.) Maybe I'll try everything on Ultra like you said. For now though, High still looks VERY good, and while it hesitates a little at times, it mostly runs quite smooth.

Edit:

This isn't accidental. This is CD Projeckt pushing their own digital platform by harassing their own customers who use another service.

Can you back this up a little better? Obviously CD Projekt isn't perfect by any means, but I can't imagine them "harassing" anyone. Especially their own customers. Not to mention, their endeavors to please their fans with free DLC, updates, and their stellar customer service just doesn't fit together here.

 

[CrystalBay]

Wow talk about a bad Polish joke , 9.5 GB .

 

[StinkyPinky]

It's *not* because of the way steam patches. Not one other game on steam requires redownloading the whole frigging game for a patch. Plus, all you have to do is install one mod, and it becomes crystal clear that they could've just added the changed loose files to the manifest and they would've worked just fine.

This isn't accidental. This is CD Projeckt pushing their own digital platform by harassing their own customers who use another service.

Well, looks like I won't be playing Witcher 2 for a couple of days. And it's looking more and more unlikely I'll be playing Witcher 3 at all. Witcher 2 isn't anywhere near good enough to merit putting up with this.

Calm down there grumps. This patch removes DRM does it not - perhaps that's why it needs to re download for Steam. Or perhaps it's just an error. No need to jump to conclusions.

 

[KaOTiK]

It's *not* because of the way steam patches. Not one other game on steam requires redownloading the whole frigging game for a patch. Plus, all you have to do is install one mod, and it becomes crystal clear that they could've just added the changed loose files to the manifest and they would've worked just fine.

This isn't accidental. This is CD Projeckt pushing their own digital platform by harassing their own customers who use another service.

Well, looks like I won't be playing Witcher 2 for a couple of days. And it's looking more and more unlikely I'll be playing Witcher 3 at all. Witcher 2 isn't anywhere near good enough to merit putting up with this.

Like I said, one of the files for TW2 is 9 gigs alone, the entire TW2 install is like 16 gigs.

Get your conspiracy theory shit out of here about CD Projeckt too.

 

[Carfax83]

Links to free DLC:

http://wpc.420C.edgecastcdn.net/00420C/files/InstalDLC/dlc_finishers.exe
http://wpc.420C.edgecastcdn.net/00420C/files/InstalDLC/roche_jacket.exe
http://wpc.420C.edgecastcdn.net/00420C/files/InstalDLC/magical_suit.exe
http://wpc.420C.edgecastcdn.net/00420C/files/InstalDLC/swordsman_suit.exe
http://wpc.420C.edgecastcdn.net/00420C/files/InstalDLC/merchant.exe
http://wpc.420C.edgecastcdn.net/00420C/files/InstalDLC/alchemy_suit.exe

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Like I said, one of the files for TW2 is 9 gigs alone, the entire TW2 install is like 16 gigs.

Get your conspiracy theory shit out of here about CD Projeckt too.

It's a 28MB patch on every other delivery method. That means for every actual byte of things that have changed, I'm downloading 300. That's at best incompetence of an epic level.

Perhaps they are just completely and totally incompetent - which is the only other option here. Genuine complete incompetence - because for this to happen, they had to repack all that data into that 9GB blob and just hand that over to Steam, with no thought whatsoever about the actual effects.

So, I've now had to wait 2 additional days to play the game because the pre-load was "GoG exclusive", and now I'm waiting another 2 days to play because they managed to turn a 28MB patch into a 9,500MB patch.

But maybe you're right. Sufficient stupidity is indistinguishable from Malice, as the saying goes.

That's not really an improvement.

Calm down there grumps. This patch removes DRM does it not - perhaps that's why it needs to re download for Steam. Or perhaps it's just an error. No need to jump to conclusions.

The retail patch isn't 9.5GB. And if it's an error, the damage is already done - once Steam starts patching, it has to complete. Either way, I'm not going to be playing for 2 days.

 

[KaOTiK]

It's a 28MB patch on every other delivery method. That means for every actual byte of things that have changed, I'm downloading 300. That's at best incompetence of an epic level.

Perhaps they are just completely and totally incompetent - which is the only other option here. Genuine complete incompetence - because for this to happen, they had to repack all that data into that 9GB blob and just hand that over to Steam, with no thought whatsoever about the actual effects.

So, I've now had to wait 2 additional days to play the game because the pre-load was "GoG exclusive", and now I'm waiting another 2 days to play because they managed to turn a 28MB patch into a 9,500MB patch.

But maybe you're right. Sufficient stupidity is indistinguishable from Malice, as the saying goes.

That's not really an improvement.



The retail patch isn't 9.5GB. And if it's an error, the damage is already done - once Steam starts patching, it has to complete. Either way, I'm not going to be playing for 2 days.

Yeah and as I said, it is because of the way Steam does patches with making you have to download the entire file all over again. Sure, CDP should not have had a single file be 9 gigs but in the end it is because of the way Steam does patches that you are having such a large download.

Also since, as you said everyone else just had to DL a 28meg patch, how is it that CDP is pushing their own digital download service when this is only a Steam problem.

As for the preload, yet it sucks, but most games on Steam don't have preloads, you aren't promised you will get one. You know, for all the problems you are complaining about, if you just bought it from GoG in the first place you wouldn't have had a single problem, gotten an extra free game for preordering and the developers would have gotten more money from the sale then from you buying it somewhere else.

 

[Mem]

Only 15.9Mb file for me if you do it manually(I've retail version already activated),details here http://en.thewitcher.com/patch/ .

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Every other publisher in the Steam catalog manages to deal with it's patching functionality without any trouble. If I've got 100 games on Steam and this is the only one with the problem, then I have a hard time attributing it to Steam.

Either way, hell with it. I wasn't especially enjoying the game anyway, so I might as well calm down. No sense in crying over spilled goat milk.

 

[Bateluer]

Why'd you buy TW2 on Steam to begin with? Buy it on GoG, service is just as good and it supports CDProjekt to continue to support that service.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

A number of reasons. Steam is always running on my machine, which means it automatically patches. This is usually a pretty big benefit - at least, when they're not dropping 9GB patches. Versus in game updaters, which only kick in when you start the game, it's typically actually a large plus. Usually means the game is up to date and I don't run into things like hundred megabyte patches when I load up the game to play, since they'd have been downloaded in the background. Now, clearly it didn't work out that way this time - but that wasn't exactly in the game's description.

Plus, they harp on quite a bit about being DRM free. Not having silly hoops to jump through is generally a good thing. But, Stardock sung that exact same song quite a bit. Turns out it was no DRM, but you have to register to patch, and the games really, really, really needed to be patched. Basically, instead of DRM on the game you got DRM on the patches and a half-baked game. It's made me very suspicious of any company that toots the no-DRM horn.

But the bottom line is that I don't really have any desire for another digital distribution method. I like Steam quite a bit, it works very well for me 99% of the time, and it's very convenient. I'm no more interested in GoG then I am in GFWL or D2D. It would just be another place I'd have to look to find a game, and I use steam as much as I do because I hate the disc version of 'find the software'. I'd rather not have a digital version of that.

It was "Buy on untested platform" vs "Buy on platform that's worked very well in the past." Didn't seem like a hard choice.




That said, I'm not exactly filled with confidence on any online service run by CDProjeckt just now. I tried to reinstall my retail copy of Witcher 1 while waiting on Witcher 2, go to install the patch to upgrade to the EE.....and couldn't, because the registration server for it is down, and you can't patch an unregistered retail version. As of now, the server is still not back up. A registration server being down for 2 weeks doesn't fill me with confidence on their ability to run a Digital Distribution platform.

 

[Dumac]

Oh man, I was looking forward to play W2 today, but 9GB patch D:

I'm not mad at CDP though, unlike some others

 

[Nintendesert]

I get multi gig patches all the time for the games I own due to STEAM. Just let it download and go get something to eat. Not much you can do other than manually updating everything instead of letting STEAM do it. I can't blame the devs of TW2 for it.

 

[TBSN]

I just excitedly downloaded the 9 megabyte patch from GOG and my frame rate went DOWN.

I was hoping for a little bit better performance but now it is even worse at the same settings minus antialiasing.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Oh man, I was looking forward to play W2 today, but 9GB patch D:

I'm not mad at CDP though, unlike some others

my GOG patch was 9mb

 

[Mem]

my GOG patch was 9mb

I think Steam version downloads the whole updated game hence the size,retail owners like myself only have a little 15.9mb file to worry about,guess you can blame Steam .

 

[CVSiN]

A number of reasons. Steam is always running on my machine, which means it automatically patches. This is usually a pretty big benefit - at least, when they're not dropping 9GB patches. Versus in game updaters, which only kick in when you start the game, it's typically actually a large plus. Usually means the game is up to date and I don't run into things like hundred megabyte patches when I load up the game to play, since they'd have been downloaded in the background. Now, clearly it didn't work out that way this time - but that wasn't exactly in the game's description.

Plus, they harp on quite a bit about being DRM free. Not having silly hoops to jump through is generally a good thing. But, Stardock sung that exact same song quite a bit. Turns out it was no DRM, but you have to register to patch, and the games really, really, really needed to be patched. Basically, instead of DRM on the game you got DRM on the patches and a half-baked game. It's made me very suspicious of any company that toots the no-DRM horn.

But the bottom line is that I don't really have any desire for another digital distribution method. I like Steam quite a bit, it works very well for me 99% of the time, and it's very convenient. I'm no more interested in GoG then I am in GFWL or D2D. It would just be another place I'd have to look to find a game, and I use steam as much as I do because I hate the disc version of 'find the software'. I'd rather not have a digital version of that.

It was "Buy on untested platform" vs "Buy on platform that's worked very well in the past." Didn't seem like a hard choice.




That said, I'm not exactly filled with confidence on any online service run by CDProjeckt just now. I tried to reinstall my retail copy of Witcher 1 while waiting on Witcher 2, go to install the patch to upgrade to the EE.....and couldn't, because the registration server for it is down, and you can't patch an unregistered retail version. As of now, the server is still not back up. A registration server being down for 2 weeks doesn't fill me with confidence on their ability to run a Digital Distribution platform.

Wow a Moron troll of Epic proportions..

If you had bothered to do your homework at all.. you would have known you don't have to have a client or service running at all on the GoG version.
Its a DRM free stand alone product. and it ran better than all the other versions as well..
Till the patch anyway because of the total absence of DRM.

9 gigs is nothing.. I download more HD movies per night than that. less than an hour to get that. Steam is ok.. not great yes it's convenient but is by far not the be all end all.
Sounds like you just have your panties in a twist and feel like moaning about something.

it's your loss if you don't play it.. it keeps getting better and better so far.

 

[TheUnk]

I agree with PhatoseAlpha.

Steam is much more convenient for me. Plus I use it's client all the time to voice chat with friends and arrange games.

I don't care what the other Digital sites offer, no way am I going to start adding collections from them when I already have so much invested in Steam

 

[sigurros81]

9 gigs is nothing.. I download more HD movies per night than that. less than an hour to get that. Steam is ok.. not great yes it's convenient but is by far not the be all end all.

We have a pirate. Please notify your local congressman.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Not enough pics in this thread.

I don't know how anyone could argue that this isn't one of the best-looking games to date.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I don't think anybody could deny it's an absolutely gorgeous game if you've got enough hardware to run it. And it actually looks pretty good even if you have to tone it down quite a bit.


Well, eventually I managed to continue play. Eventually, in this case being 9GB, followed up by an absolutely infuriating bug which prevent me from even launching the game. Three reboots, and two file verifications that turned up nothing later, it decided that it could, in fact find controls.csv.

Manged to finish the game. An interesting ride. It's not a bad game, but I'd be hard pressed to call it a great game either, even ignoring the maddening technical troubles. Great world design - certainly strange to be a monster slayer in a world which does so much to make me feel like everybody there needs to be eaten, but certainly immersive. Just as odd to be chasing down a Kingslayer when it's constantly trying to convince me that the Kings need to be eaten by a monster more then everybody else, especially since it does so very effectively.

Interesting, believable characters, but they're hard to like. Plenty of depth. The difficulty curve is bizzare though - like climbing Mt. Everest in the prologue, then coasting down it on a bicycle the rest of the game till you're an unstoppable juggernaut by the end. And think the underlying mechanics of many parts are poorly thought out.

I'd replay a bit of Witcher 1 to see how well it holds up. But the registration servers are still down.