[quote name='Jodou']Well aside from their server being down for activation when I got home, the 20 minutes I did play was trying to figure out where the keybindings were hidden. Either I didn't look hard enough or they simply consolized that menu. I'm getting so ing sick and tired of this shit. How, ing, hard is it to program a GUI for this? The game looks so good and they nailed graphical customization so I'm at a loss as to why the only option under gameplay would be 'choose your controller'. That and the mouse is so 'loose' in movement; I don't really like how it controls.
I'll mess around with config files tonight, but CD Projekt is better than that. It won't really get in the way of playing it, but it's disappointing.[/QUOTE]
The only key bindings I've seen are the ones you open up through the launcher. I'm not sure if you can change them once in the game or not.
Jodou, I have it on Steam so I am not sure if the others are the same but before it launches there is a very bland screen with all the customizable things in it for graphics where you pick high and such. On that menu there is a setting to customize the keys for both a KB/M and controller.
I agree with Draekon about the tutorial. Not only is it not up long but its to many clicks away from getting it back up. There is a loot all button so that you click once and then use the space bar to grab everything. I found it hard to even see those bags bodies leave behind and the medallion highlighting it with the same color pallet as the environment made it not much better. I might try the game with a controller to even though it sounds defeatist on a PC. I am normally all about the kb/m. I too turned up the mouse speed to combat the floaty controls. This thing has to be console bound.
That said I am about 7h in and loving it. I did hate that I count incorporate my last save since it was so long. That graphics engine is worthy enough to be sold out to others for use. Some of the little things that they are doing with it is great. Combat is kicking my a$$ for sure though. Not being able to heal in battle is a beast. I hit E to block and constantly feel like I am lagging in a network game. Since a parry or block uses the same vitality as that spell to block hits I end up out of the two bars you start with fast and then I am running. Luckily the enemies have a limit they are willing to chase you. But twice I have gotten stuck for an hour or more just pacing out a fight I felt should have blown by.
I picked up LA Noire yesterday too and currently have a huge backlog of game with GameFly sending more all the time but this is the one I am pumped to be playing right now. Going to make time to play more tonight.
Word. I had a feeling I would find the controls in some quirky menu like that, since a lot of PC games console ports have started doing that. So space bar is loot all? Nice. Maybe once I have everything assigned the way I like it I can actually start enjoying the game lol.
Well into Chapter 1. Just fought the mid boss working on ingredients for potions and runes for my swords for the real boss. I hear its a bitch of a fight. Taking the Alchemy tree.
Anyone find where to get Elemental Stones yet? I've killed just about everything I've come across and still haven't found any. I want some sexy Sun Runes for my swords
[quote name='Jodou']I did the exact same thing and it's painful trying to loot things (is there a hotkey for loot all?) since the menu speed is so slow. Also, arrow keys work for navigating dialogue options but there's no no way to select without clicking? It just blows my mind how they could make such a great game but fail on the simplest part lol.[/QUOTE]
Hit space to loot all. I'm pretty sure it tells you this in the tutorial tips which you can review by hitting J ingame and picking the appropriate category.
Also, make sure you have Vertical Synch disabled. VSynch is bugged and will kill your framerate. This pisses me off because I hate screen tearing but it drops me to 25 fps instead of 45.
Hotkeys can be set in the Config Tool in the Video Options part of the launcher.
Also, I bet space selects dialogue options since its the Accept hotkey.
Yeah, I found the keybindings menu completely hidden under the video options menu from the launcher. Thanks for the heads up guys, because GL finding it otherwise since it's horribly misplaced. I'll disable v-sync as well, even though my rig was playing at 30 FPS. I'm all about smoother frame rates.
OK, something is wrong with my load times because it takes 30 seconds to a minute just to load a save. In fact, my system pretty much locks up for a few seconds before finally loading the game again. I just updated drivers this month, so that's not it and this doesn't strike me as a display issue since lowering the settings makes no difference. What is disturbing is nobody else seems to have this issue, so it could be one of those hard to diagnose problems.
I know nVidia had issues with 3D drivers, but my card is a Radeon HD 5870 and that was simply an issue with frame rate. I double-checked my Win7 partition and both the install files and saves are running off the same HDD (C:\), so that's not it. I've tried booting the game from the launcher and direct .exe both under administration and not with zero difference. With their community forums still down, it's pretty hard to find anything outside of google and that brings up nothing.
Has anyone experienced something like this or even heard of this happening? I mean, it's playable and framerate is 30 FPS with max settings/uber-sampling on but I've been dying a lot trying to learn their combat system and waiting a minute to play again is wearing on my patience.
I saw something mentioned about ATI cards and a hotfix driver. I walked into that conversation though and didn't hear the whole thing. It suggests to me, however, that there is an issue that they're going to fix with a driver update. Now what issue that is, I have no idea. Maybe the problem you're having.
The game is supposed to be getting a patch soon as well, so a combination of a driver update and the patch when it comes out will probably fix a bunch of stuff. I remember in the first Witcher when it came out it took forever to load when going into and out of houses like 30 second+. A patch they released cut that down to a second or two.
It does take awhile to load a save for me and I'm running a fairly similar 4870. I don't know about a minute though. I'll time it real quick.
Ok it took 40 seconds to load when I first started the game, around 10-12 seconds to load a different game once I've already loaded a game, and about 15 seconds if I die and reload my latest save.
So I guess around a minute isn't too far off for the first load, but I'd say it shouldn't be taking so long after that initial load. I'm running the "legit" GOG version if that makes a difference.
I have a 6870 with latest drivers (Fresh format from last weekend) and I load a new game in 5 seconds and reloads take about 3. However I also have an i7 2600K, 16GB of DDR3 RAM (Mostly for heavy virtualization stuff when I'm not gaming) and 2x SSD in SATA III in RAID 0 that I'm currently testing. So it looks like hardware may offset faulty drivers? Or maybe it doesn't effect 6000 series drivers.
[quote name='panzerfaust']Is the story connected strongly with the original? I only made it like 30% in the first one.[/QUOTE]
Its like the second book in a series.
First game introduces Geralt and a bunch of the characters. He shapes his identity through your choices and you are introduced to the hunt and his missing memories.
Second game you've got all the characters still, you won't really know who the they are apart from that they know Geralt and he seems chill with them. Theres also the matter of King Folstest, such as why you're helping him or why he picked Geralt. A new story is happening in the second game, but it uses elements from the first.
I honestly can't think of a game where you HAVE to play the first to figure out whats happening in the second.
Also the original Witcher's gameplay is kind of ass without mods especially if you play 2 first, you won't want to go back to the original for gameplay.
the books take place before the games and are probably the reason why in the first game he loses his memory. its so you can makes choices as you want rather than what you think the character from the books would do.
I have been keeping an eye on Witcher 2 as it looked amazing. Never played the first. Since they had that GOG sale for 5 bucks, I d/l it and booted it up just to see if it ran OK.
I have been playing it nonstop since (runs fine, btw). Despite some minor flaws, I am totally on board with The Witcher. I can't wait to get to part 2. I will say that I hope 2 has a little more polish and irons out some of the nags. But all things considered, I am really enjoying the first game.
Too bad I will probably have to upgrade my card to play 2 (or get it on console if it looks decent).
What is wrong with the save importing? I thought that was a feature of 2...
[quote name='crystalklear64']I saw something mentioned about ATI cards and a hotfix driver. I walked into that conversation though and didn't hear the whole thing. It suggests to me, however, that there is an issue that they're going to fix with a driver update. Now what issue that is, I have no idea. Maybe the problem you're having.
The game is supposed to be getting a patch soon as well, so a combination of a driver update and the patch when it comes out will probably fix a bunch of stuff. I remember in the first Witcher when it came out it took forever to load when going into and out of houses like 30 second+. A patch they released cut that down to a second or two.
It does take awhile to load a save for me and I'm running a fairly similar 4870. I don't know about a minute though. I'll time it real quick.
Ok it took 40 seconds to load when I first started the game, around 10-12 seconds to load a different game once I've already loaded a game, and about 15 seconds if I die and reload my latest save.
So I guess around a minute isn't too far off for the first load, but I'd say it shouldn't be taking so long after that initial load. I'm running the "legit" GOG version if that makes a difference.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I remember the first game having that problem too, but everyone was having it. This one, it's pretty much me. I'll just keep waiting on a patch I guess and play LA Noire for now.
So I have an idea why my load times are off and I really hope I'm wrong. According to reports from GoG, both FPS and load times are affected by the DRM they included on retail copies. They state that if you swap (crack) the .exe with the one provided for GoG copies (digital, yuck) then you should see upwards of 10 FPS increase and lowered load times. The caveat is there could be other issues from using one .exe over the other, but it's not confirmed either way.
There official forums are still down and the patch is supposed to be sometime this week, but I'm not holding my breath it will fix my minute long load times. If the DRM is truly the cause, then CDPR has lost my business since they initially claimed no DRM would be used. Their publisher 'forced' them to add it, but should they fail to issue a removal tool soon then I'll simply demand a refund and move on. I shouldn't be punished for buying a retail copy, especially given how digital anything is on thin ice thanks to Sony's up.
Looks like it's heading to consoles (at least the 360) probably will be announced at E3. Can't say I didn't see this coming, kind of sad but oh well more people who can play the game is a good thing (I think lol).
Anyways I haven't been able to play the game as much as I have wanted to so far, I think I'm almost done with Chapter 1. The Prologue was a slight disappointment to me, it just didn't grab me at all. Once I started Chapter 1 I warmed up to the game and am now enjoying it a lot. It is much harder than the first game imo, at least the beginning was. I feel like the difficulty has eased up in Chapter 1, the Prologue was just brutal to me. I have started down the Swordsmanship ability tree, I wanted to go one of the other two ways but the skills you get at the end of the trees just look better to me in the Swordsmanship path.
I had some technical issues at first (Avast anti-virus is not a fan of this game) but got them squared away. I was able to import my save from the first game ok but I can't really tell what may be different in 2 because of the save. Nothing large has jumped out at me yet (maybe it never will who knows).
Apparently the patch will finally be out today as well. They don't have a complete patch notes up, but it does make mention of performance and load times especially for retail copies, so fingers crossed.
I also noticed my desktop was starting to freeze up when turning my monitor on and off until I noticed my GPU was acting as though it was under full load (99% usage). Took a reboot to solve the issue, but if it happens again after the patch this game is getting uninstalled and I may have to reinstall win7. I hate to jump to conclusions, but after testing my PC with other games last night and seeing no recurrence I can only assume there are some major issues with it. Really disappointed right now.
I'd be surprised if the DRM is whats causing your problems. I know someone who got the retail version from amazon and they just got a 6870 and were testing the game out. Load times were way faster than mine and I have the GOG version. We're talking 8 seconds for the first load here. I was also jealous that he could run it on Ultra at 50 fps with the ubersampling off. Thinking about updating my PC for this and the upcoming BF3.
Which is why I'm keeping an open mind and tried different things to fix the issue. ATI is supposed to have a hotfix for W2 some day and the 1.1 patch is still waiting to be released. Either of these things could solve the problem or do nothing for me. No other game has given me any troubles, so at least I've ruled out faulty hardware.
CD Projekt RED announces the release of Patch 1.1, which brings important improvements to The Witcher 2, the highly acclaimed game released a week ago. The most noticeable change is the removal of the DRM protection world-wide. This gives players the freedom to install and play the game on any number of computers, and no activation code is required.
You had me at DRM-free. I knew CDPR wouldn't let me down!
After patching ZERO issues, everything was resolved. Either they fixed some issue that was locking me up or it was in fact the DRM. Either way, extremely happy I can finally start plowing through this!
[quote name='Jodou']You had me at DRM-free. I knew CDPR wouldn't let me down!
After patching ZERO issues, everything was resolved. Either they fixed some issue that was locking me up or it was in fact the DRM. Either way, extremely happy I can finally start plowing through this![/QUOTE]
Good to hear that. I assumed the issue you were having would be resolved after I read about the patch and the removal of the DRM. Go CDPR, go!
I have both the retail version and the Steam version, but installed the Steam version for no DRM and cheese mints. It's not a big deal as I patched it in an hour, but still stupid and just kills my SSD ever so slightly faster.
I'm seriously blown away with how they used depth of field in their cinematics; the cave scene at the start of Chapter 1 is truly impressive. It's honestly the best looking game I've seen since Crysis and ubersampling is ridiculous. I turned it off because you lose some sharpness, but on certain textures such as hair it really brings it to life.
On a side note, the animated sequences were quite a surprise and pretty awesome. These guys have story-telling nailed.
I agree, this game looks outstanding. I loved a lot of what was done in Crysis 2 also but there is so much more here. I hope they license this out to others to build upon.
I cant wait to get my new PC in and see how this looks on there.
Ive never played a PC game before but this game has been tempting me to rush out and buy it. Thing is that I don't know if my PC is up to it. I have an XPS with a core i7 running at 2.9ghz, 8gbs of ddr3 and an ati 4850 with a gig of memory. Can anyone please tell me if the game would run at a good clip. Thanks in advance.
[quote name='fr33l33']Ive never played a PC game before but this game has been tempting me to rush out and buy it. Thing is that I don't know if my PC is up to it. I have an XPS with a core i7 running at 2.9ghz, 8gbs of ddr3 and an ati 4850 with a gig of memory. Can anyone please tell me if the game would run at a good clip. Thanks in advance.[/QUOTE]
Try this.
[quote name='Megazell']
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Free DLC is a nice touch, but after never having mine DL properly I just finished the game without bothering.
You know, this game feels like such a cocktease. The first chapter and prologue are tough, engaging, really atmospheric -- just plain awesome. Then chapter 2 happens and the story weakens, the choices you make don't seem to carry as much weight, and things just get confusing. Without spoiling anything, only one choice at the end of chapter 1 seems to really effect the game in terms of what side of the map you play on for the first half of chapter 2. To top it off, it's one of those split-second choices where you're forced to make a decision in a matter of seconds.
That in itself doesn't really bother me, but the fact that your decisions allude to having some impact and then ultimately amount to nothing is disappointing. It's entirely possible that behind the scenes they do make a difference, but as you're playing through the first time you'd hardly notice. In fact, I had one quest go completely unresolved due to a choice I made and the quest even states that I should wait until later but after the credits rolled nothing came of it.
The ending and reveals are (I chose to spoiler this because while I don't reveal anything plotwise, don't read it if you don't want to be let down)
worthless, basically a summation of things you've already discovered up to that point so don't build yourself up for an epic climax like I did. The choices you make at the end are worthless as well, because I actually reloaded a few saves and took the other choice: zero difference except for a few lines of dialogue. I almost have to wonder if these are some sort of investment for Witcher 3, as if importing a save in those games would make some big deal. Yeah, probably not.
CDPR stated they were huge fans of 'weight' in Demon's Souls, but their combat system is just artificially hard at the start. By the time I was level 10 or 15 the game was an absolute joke for difficulty. I chose the swordsman tree to invest in and just worked all the way to the end picking up defensive abilities mostly. Once you have some key modifiers, you're basically invincible unless you're a complete drooler and can't use space bar to dodge efficiently. Bosses would just fall over dead after I'd dodge roll behind them and spam right-click. It's pretty obvious a lot of love went into chapter one, because it's the most balanced and polished part of the game. After that, the game just breaks down and nothing is difficult again.
I keep referring to chapter one because it also feels most like a Witcher game. Taking bounties on monsters, engaging huge beasts, that sort of thing. After chapter one, you're mostly fighting conscripts or elves and running errands around town. There's also entirely too much exposition and downtime, with few fights in between. This is a game that requires exploring to get any real sense of fun, because the quests become hollow and boring after chapter one. It's easy to get lost in a busy plot and subplots that quite frankly, aren't that interesting either.
It probably sounds like I hated the game, but the truth is that chapter one was just a cocktease for me. It's so good and rewarding that had it ended there, I would have been satisfied. That said, I'd still recommend it to anyone and I'm sure some people will enjoy chapter 2 & 3 more than I did. Just go in knowing that the choices you take won't make or break the ending. Just choose what comes natural and enjoy the ride.
Which side did you choose for Chapter 2? And the final decision in chapter 1 wasn't a split second decision. I could choose either side and complete any remaining sidequests after speaking with them (Just had to make sure I didn't choose the 'Lets GTFO!' option in the conversation). The way they wrote the lines for that part made it sound like it was suppose to be a rushed decision though.
[quote name='Draekon']Which side did you choose for Chapter 2? And the final decision in chapter 1 wasn't a split second decision. I could choose either side and complete any remaining sidequests after speaking with them (Just had to make sure I didn't choose the 'Lets GTFO!' option in the conversation). The way they wrote the lines for that part made it sound like it was suppose to be a rushed decision though.[/QUOTE]
I went with Roche. The split-second decision I'm referring to was timed for sure. You basically had 5-10 seconds to chose who you were going to help because a fight was erupting around you. Granted, I don't actually know what would happen if you didn't choose, but I remember there being a little clock counting down next to the options.
Elven Ruins right before the fight with Letho where you decide to give Iorveth the sword or not
? If so,
I gave it
and could choose either side afterwords. I'm not sure what happens if you go the other way as I didn't bother reloading that branch to check the other decision.
And also, the decisions at the end of the game definitely seem to be set up to be imported into a sequel. I kindof wonder what happens if you don't
rescue Triss from jail. Also the Saskia related stuff, which I don't know if they were big on the Roche side.
Elven Ruins right before the fight with Letho where you decide to give Iorveth the sword or not
? If so,
I gave it
and could choose either side afterwords. I'm not sure what happens if you go the other way as I didn't bother reloading that branch to check the other decision.
And also, the decisions at the end of the game definitely seem to be set up to be imported into a sequel. I kindof wonder what happens if you don't
rescue Triss from jail. Also the Saskia related stuff, which I don't know if they were big on the Roche side.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that's the one. I also
rescued Triss, the political agenda. I'm almost inclined to say that you're meant to pick that option, since Roche comes back alive with the kid anyways. He's just pissed Dethmold gets away, like I give a shit lol.
Not sure if you plan to play it again, but there's almost nothing related to Saskia if you help Roche instead. It's pretty boring honestly, just running errands for Dethmold and curing the king of a curse. You end up crossing the river mid-chapter though, as I'd assume you do the same if you helped the Scoia'tael.
rescued Triss, the political agenda. I'm almost inclined to say that you're meant to pick that option, since Roche comes back alive with the kid anyways. He's just pissed Dethmold gets away, like I give a shit lol.
Not sure if you plan to play it again, but there's almost nothing related to Saskia if you help Roche instead. It's pretty boring honestly, just running errands for Dethmold and curing the king of a curse. You end up crossing the river mid-chapter though, as I'd assume you do the same if you helped the Scoia'tael.
[/QUOTE]
You're correct about the mid-chapter thing. However I wouldn't say that the other side is
'helping the Scoia'tael" really. It focuses on human/non-human relations. It feels like it's the path you were meant to choose as Geralt has always been one for equality.
I feel kind of cheated now, as if my decision was the wrong one. It's pretty obvious CDPR wants you to play through it again, but I really don't feel a driving need to do so. I feel kind of cheated that the game is so short because they split chapter 2 into two playthroughs. Sure I could change specs, make different choices, but in practice I never do. Meh.
All previously released DLC packages are installed with Patch 1.2:
“Blue Stripes Combat Jacket”
Ultimate Alchemist’s Outfit”
Ultimate Mage’s Outfit”
“Ultimate Swordsman’s Outfit”
“Finisher Pack”
“Mysterious Merchant”
“Troll Trouble”
Patch 1.2 adds a new free DLC package titled “Barbers and Coiffeuses.” To take advantage of barbershop and hairstyling services, look for Einar Gausel in Chapter 1 of the game, Sambor in Henselt’s Camp in Chapter 2, Felicia Cori in Chapter 2 if you travel to Vergen, and Felicia Cori once again in Chapter 3.
Game saves are now compressed automatically, lowering the amount of disk space they utilize.
An option has been added to the game menu allowing game saves to be deleted. To delete a game save, highlight the relevant item and press the ‘Delete’ key.
The game menu now loads at a markedly accelerated pace.
The game now supports Logitech G35 headphones and other USB headsets with on-board sound cards.
A number of fixes have been added to the key binding functionality (actions can now be mapped to number pad and cursor/arrow keys).
Analog sticks on gamepads now work correctly in the GUI panels.
A number of game balance fixes have been introduced in the Prologue.
Lock on targets is not lost when the distance to targets increases.
A number of fixes have been made in blocking functionality during combat. Also, player character responsiveness in combat has been improved, and Geralt can attack more than one target during normal combat.
A number of corrections have been made in the statistics displayed in item diagrams in the Crafting panel.
The Witcher 1 saves are now imported correctly.
An auto–save has been added before the fight against the draug.
Flare bomb duration is now 2 (two) minutes.
Issue involving the equipping of bombs (or other items) even if they were not present in the character Inventory has been fixed.
Islamic–themed and similar textures have been deleted and/or replaced.
A number of fixes have been made in game dialogues.
Issue that blocked advancement to the next level at the start of Chapter 3 has been fixed.
Issue involving the occurrence of T-poses upon the destruction of nekker nests has been corrected.
Guards can no longer block Geralt when he is on a ladder.
Knives no longer affect friendly NPCs.
Bug related to using some containers has been fixed.
Ostmurk (an ingredient required to complete a quest) can no longer be sold.
Ingredients required to complete the “Melitele’s Heart” quest have been added to the game.
A fix has been introduced in the “Troll Trouble” quest whereby the she–troll’s head can be won in a game of dice poker.
The Ghost of the Banner can no longer be killed by wraiths.
Issue involving the Operator being neutral and thus susceptible to being killed before any conversation occurs has been fixed.
A number of fixes have been introduced to prevent selected NPCs from being blocked (king in siege tower, knights when destroying a gate in the Prologue, etc.).
The “Three Sisters” quest has been fixed so that the door does not remain locked forever once the quest has been completed.
A number of progression breaks have been fixed, including instances of blocked meditation, inability to save game, and blocked combat after use of static cameras (e.g. game could not be saved after completion of the “Indecent Proposal” quest).
The progression break during the fight against the dragon in Chapter 3 (exploration not working properly) has been fixed.
The progression break during the fight against Dethmold (whereby he sometimes remained behind his barrier, doing nothing) has been fixed.
The progression break (black screen) in the “Little Shop of Dreams” quest has been fixed.
The progression break following failure to complete the ritual with Anezka has been fixed.
The progression break during the dialogue on the beach in the “Hung Over” quest has been fixed.
You didn't miss much with any of the DLC except for Troll Trouble. That troll in particular is awesome. I got the DLC from the Witcher 2 site when 1.1 released. The rest of the DLC isn't terribly useful beyond chapter 1. As for the new free DLC package, it looks like it's only a barber.
Oh, I got Troll Trouble in 1.1 and yeah, it was easily the best quest in the game lol. If every quest had been that good, I would've given the game 5*'s. Was mysterious merchant the dude selling perfume?
Just wondering...are you guys using a controller or keyboard and mouse? I'm still pretty early in the game(basically, the part where you run into Geralt's friends from the first game), but it seems like everything is optimized for using a controller.
I was not going to get The Witcher 2 because I was not sure if my laptop could handle it (I have an Alienware M11x R2) but it runs great, 25-40 FPS on medium graphic settings)
ing sick and tired of this shit. How, 
