Who here is a huge fan of The Witcher 2?

Steelbom

Senior member
Sep 1, 2009
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Who here is a huge fan of The Witcher 2?

I think I've finished at least five playthroughs, one on Normal, two on Hard, and two on Dark. I'm currently doing another on Dark, on the Alchemists Path, without using Quen.

I'm looking forward to doing the extra content added in the EE :D
 

Dkcode

Senior member
May 1, 2005
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Wow you really got your moneys worth bro.

I started again last night with the new content on dark. Its a great game, challanging with a story that does not treat you like a retard. The best RPG i played since Dragon Age: Origins.

You read any of the Witcher books?
 

Steelbom

Senior member
Sep 1, 2009
438
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Wow you really got your moneys worth bro.

I started again last night with the new content on dark. Its a great game, challanging with a story that does not treat you like a retard. The best RPG i played since Dragon Age: Origins.

You read any of the Witcher books?
Indeed I did!

True that, I started a Dragon Age: Origins playthrough again while I was waiting for the EE for The Witcher 2 to come out, it's a great game too.

I've read a few samples, and I've considered buying them too. You?
 

Dkcode

Senior member
May 1, 2005
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I picked up the Last Wish last year, at the time it was the only book that was translated into English. I wanted to get a better understanding of the world and its politics, sometimes the game caught me out as to what was going on lol.

Anyway how is the alchemist path working out for you?
 

Steelbom

Senior member
Sep 1, 2009
438
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I picked up the Last Wish last year, at the time it was the only book that was translated into English. I wanted to get a better understanding of the world and its politics, sometimes the game caught me out as to what was going on lol.
Ah cool, I've seen two of the books available for $12.99 (AU) in the iBook Store, and I'm considering getting them. I liked the samples I read.
Anyway how is the alchemist path working out for you?

Spoiler's ahead:

It's great fun, I find it quite easy. I collected about thirty traps in the forests in Chapter 1, and placed about 10-15 in front of the Queen Endrega's, and they practically killed themselves walking over to me. Bombs are great for large groups and small groups or single enemies alike, they go well with traps too lol.

I've got one point in Alchemist (+30% bomb and trap damage) and my next level will make that two (+100%) and I've got two points in Harvester (+100% Alchemical ingredients harvested) which combined with my Herbalist Gloves gives me four ingredients from bushes, which is nice for making lots of bombs. I've got one point in Catalysis (+10% positive effects for potions, -30% negative effects for potions) and I plan to up that to two points (+30% positive, -80% negative) after I've put that point in the Alchemist skill. On top of that I plan to max Impregnation and get really strong mutagens.

So... bombs, traps, potions... lots of damage, lots of fun... :D
 

Dkcode

Senior member
May 1, 2005
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Nice one!

The first time I played through I balanced out with a mix of alchemy, fighting and magic. I made quite a lot of use of bombs and potions but not so much on traps.

I'll bare that strategy in mind, I am still on the prologue atm.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
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I really liked it. Great visuals, an awesome story, and characters that aren't your stereotypical fantasy genre cookie cutouts of good or evil.

I've only done a single playthrough (Normal, Swordfighter tree). I just started up a new game on Dark difficulty and I think I'm going to go for the Magic tree this time. But since I've beat it once, I doubt I'll progress through that fast even with the additional EE content to check out.
 

Steelbom

Senior member
Sep 1, 2009
438
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Nice one!

The first time I played through I balanced out with a mix of alchemy, fighting and magic. I made quite a lot of use of bombs and potions but not so much on traps.

I'll bare that strategy in mind, I am still on the prologue atm.
Ah, neat. The most I've done is have a few points in the Mage path, a few in Alchemy, and the rest in the Swordsman path.

Traps are really great against the big monsters when you've got some time to place them, like with the monster I mentioned in the spoiler in my above post. It's very tough to take down, but it's literally ten seconds with 15 of those traps I mentioned.

There's only one con to playing a Mage or Alchemist, and that's:
When you're removing the curse Sabrina cast near Upper Aedirn, as the level removes your ability to use traps, bombs, potions, magic, but also relies on your damage and armour, as well as Swordsman skills such as Riposte. (And Parry in the Training (?) path.)

It took me fifteen seconds to beat the level with the Draughir and the three swordsman, but four hours as an Alchemist. Hopefully they've nerfed that level in the EE.

Enjoy :D
 
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Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
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Another Witcher fan reporting in. Currently the only RPG series that's worth a damn to me.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
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I finally started playing the first game. I heard that the combat is supposedly better in the sequel, but how did they change it? Personally, I find the combat rather boring in The Witcher. The problem for me is that is that I prefer the sort of frantic, kid-on-a-sugar-rush, action RPG style of combat (it can get really nerve wracking), which The Witcher is like some weird hybrid between that and... and... something crappy.

I guess I just want more than click, wait one second (or however long it takes the sword to be fiery), click and repeat ad nauseum.
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
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The Witcher 2 is my favorite RPG of all time. I love the combat in it, where you really have to plan things out and have good agility to avoid death. I just really like what they did with the game.
 

Dankk

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2008
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Witcher 2 > Skyrim

/dodges arrow to the knee

It's so true though. The Witcher 2 is such a better RPG than Skyrim, it hurts. :p I don't know how a game that's so incredibly generic and empty gets such high praise.

I didn't actually buy Skyrim (it was gifted to me), but sometimes I throw $60 in the toilet so I feel like I have.

[goes into full-circlejerk mode]
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,488
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Witcher 2 > Skyrim

/dodges arrow to the knee

Skyrim really disappointed me, since I had just finished playing the Witcher 2 about 2 weeks before playing Skyrim. The Witcher had better Graphics, better UI, better controls, better combat, better story, better loot, better pacing, and was just plain more fun. Once I got over the fact that Skyrim wasn't as good as Witcher 2, and toned down my expectations, I was able to have quite a bit of fun with Skyrim. It does have a bigger open world than the Witcher 2, but the Witcher 2 is far from small and is far from being on rails as well. TW2 strikes a great balance between size, openness, and focus on an objective.
 

sigurros81

Platinum Member
Nov 30, 2010
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Skyrim really disappointed me, since I had just finished playing the Witcher 2 about 2 weeks before playing Skyrim. The Witcher had better Graphics, better UI, better controls, better combat, better story, better loot, better pacing, and was just plain more fun. Once I got over the fact that Skyrim wasn't as good as Witcher 2, and toned down my expectations, I was able to have quite a bit of fun with Skyrim. It does have a bigger open world than the Witcher 2, but the Witcher 2 is far from small and is far from being on rails as well. TW2 strikes a great balance between size, openness, and focus on an objective.

Well said, I feel exactly the same. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Skyrim, but I feel Witcher 2 is such a better game on so many different levels. I actually lost motivation to beat Skyrim--I spend most the time in that game exploring, but when I play the Witcher 2, I keep wanting to see what happens next to the characters.
 

Dkcode

Senior member
May 1, 2005
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I picked up Skyrim for £20 and I still feel like I wasted my money with it.

So many things you can do and all of it is equally boring, there is hardly anything there in terms of RPG either, saying that the Witcher has less focus on stats and more on perks but it packs in much more quality overall.

Anyway I was never a massive fan of Bethesda since Oblivion so I should have learned my lesson by now.
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
28,799
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I just picked up The Witcher 2 somewhat recently (thanks to suggestions from people here, and the fact that got it for $20 (non-EE) and got said EE upgrade for free), and I have got to say... even after only recently finishing the tutorial and making a brief foray into Chapter 1 thus far, I am really, really enjoying this.

For this type of game, a really good story makes it that much better on its own (I've got other titles if I want mindless entertainment), and I must say, on my first play through, I am already attempting to figure out second and third-order effects of choices.
If I enjoy it enough, it might also be the first game I ever even think about playing again and actual mean to finish up.
With the promise of missing possibly hours of content throughout the game due to choices made, I really want to play different roles for this game. [I have said that before for other games and it never happened, so... we'll see. :D]

But the combat, for an RPG, I've really enjoyed, and it's super early in the game.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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The Witcher games are much better than the Elder Scrolls games. As a bonus, after being on the market for a year, CDP knocks the price down to the uber cheap range . . .where Bethesda's crap is still 50-60 dollars.
 
Feb 6, 2007
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I haven't played it, but I'm interested in it (partially because I built a new rig and I want something pretty to show it off). Where can I get it cheap though? It's still 50 bucks through Steam.
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
28,799
359
126
The Witcher games are much better than the Elder Scrolls games. As a bonus, after being on the market for a year, CDP knocks the price down to the uber cheap range . . .where Bethesda's crap is still 50-60 dollars.

Except for when they are re-spun with the EE bundled.
Digitally, it's impossible to find the non-EE version. And once the EE version drops and the price falls on the original physical media, those sell out quickly (as I found out).
 

destrekor

Lifer
Nov 18, 2005
28,799
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I haven't played it, but I'm interested in it (partially because I built a new rig and I want something pretty to show it off). Where can I get it cheap though? It's still 50 bucks through Steam.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Witcher-2-.../dp/B003VJNPPE

Cheapest I could find it right now (at a site I've heard of and would trust). It's not the pre-bundled Enhanced Edition, but once bought, you can go to gog.com and download a DRM-free "backup copy" that has the EE content already.

I had got a physical copy at a nearby Target store of the same version and did the above. Never had to touch the DVDs either. :)
[again, I had done that at the suggestion of members here]


At 1080p, my SLI GTX 560 Ti 2GB cards STILL can't handle that game at max quality with Uber Sampling. lol it did look quite good with US enabled, but dipped below 30FPS in the opening moments of the Tutorial, so I decided against that. I turned that off, left everything else enabled, turned off then in-game AA and instead used the SMAA Injector (much much better than FXAA, either injector-method or using the option in Nvidia's latest drivers). I have that set to Ultra, game capped at 60fps, and forced 16xAF in the driver profile.... damn, game is gorgeous and stays at my cap almost constantly (dips into mid 40s at times but oh well).
't'is a beautiful DX9 engine, for sure.