The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[BleedTheFreak]

The hell?

He's afraid I'm right. I am too.

[Tim James]

It's Joe M. If it's not another playthrough of ME2, it sucks.

To be fair there are glimmers of "brief/novellete" and "incomprehensible" -- enough that I won't apply the standard "batshit insane" tag to him. But the game is so damn rich and it's such a pleasure to find an RPG where I'm truly interested in the characters.

By the way, I'm almost done with Last Wish. I wouldn't say it's expanded my appreciation of the universe or the games too much, other than some pretty funny Dandelion stuff. I'm in the middle of the last section with Yennefer, so I'm eager to see what she's all about. Crazy ass witch.

[TurinTur]

It's Joe M. If it's not another playthrough of ME2, it sucks.

But ME2 is no longer than Witcher 2, so him calling Witche 2 a novellete without content doesn't make much sense :P

[farfrael]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKMpzn7VJjk
some 2nd hand/commentary video of parts of the conference. Still haven't found the raw initial footage online ...

[Paul_cze]

Lots of news!

First, amazing interview on RPS regarding all things Witcher, once again proving they are #1 Developer/Publisher in the world.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...witcher-2-2-0/

Next, changelog of 2.0. Looks like combat will be very improved:

http://thewitcher.com/public/files/d...Version2.0.pdf

Finally, nice article on eurogamer about upcoming console version:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ox-360-details

And QA part of their eurogamer expo presentation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HEUzpmjnSk

[TurinTur]

Mmm i am not sure i like these changes:

-Parrying is now unlimited (even when Vigor is completely depleted), though parries no longer cancel all damage (maximum 50% reduction once the relevant ability has been acquired).
-Geralt‟s attacks are no longer interrupted by attacking opponents. Attacks are now contiguous and foes cannot interrupt Geralt‟s attacks by landing a blow.

And all the responsiveness fixes... they seem good at first, but i have to try it, some of them makes me fear they over compensated and now Geralt will move and turn and attack without pause and without limits.

[Tim James]

Yeah we'll have to see how it plays.

After finishing the first book, I don't picture Geralt taking 50% damage while parrying the local guardsmen chumps in that universe.

[Telefrog]

Hmm. A prize to the first person that completes Dark mode? I expect that to be broken within the first few hours after it's released. Go, go internet!

[TurinTur]

Apart from some very specific a bit unresponsive animations/moments and some slightly wonky targeting issues on ocassions, i loved the combat as it was. Including having to take in account my stamina to parry (it was only an issue in the first two hours of the game, where you had a very slow stamina), having to avoid the enemy sometimes to recover it. And including having to think before attacking, noticing the positions of each enemy and my own location, and thinking ahead of the present moment, reading the flow of combat.
And i had to think in that way because my attacks could be interrupted, and i had to think because you have to invest in my movements and actions, i couldn't change them in the last moment, like in an arcade brawler. All together created a specific pace in the combat.

So right now you could say i fear change.

But maybe they are implemented in a very subtle way and all will be almost the same, and i am being silly right now.

[Paul_cze]

official forum:

Siven said:
Though im not too sure on the parrying change only blocking 50% damage. Also does parrying still deplete vigor now that we can still parry when we have no vigor?

Flash who works at CDP (same guy who made full combat rebalance mod for TW1 btw) :
This makes the bonuses to damage reduction while parrying useful. Before they had no impact on gameplay after buing 100% damage reduction on block talent.

Parrying still depletes vigor.

I see that there's confusion about interuption tweaks. Heavy hitters like trolls, enemies with halberds, charging enemies, etc. will always knock you down like before and you will be interupted when you are about to start attack sequence. What will change is that if you are in the middle of attack you will land a blow on your enemy, you won't be thrown away anymore. It is also more realistic, since one is not easily interupted when he gains enough momentum.

[Tim James]

I'm reading the RPS post now.

It's interesting the tutorial and arena are their own little mini areas in the game, with voiceovers and stuff. I guess I will go ahead and play the tutorial just for fun. On DLC:

I think it’s reasonable than when you buy our product, you can expect us to service it for you quite a long time after release, though less intensively as time goes by

We can so close to a hilarious foreign language translation gaffe. New CGI intro when the X360 version comes out:

One of those will be a new, four–minute CGI intro by Oscar nominated and BAFTA winning animator Tomasz Bagiński, who was also responsible for the intro and outro of The Witcher 1.

I don't remember those from TW1. Were they any good?

(A small advert, if I may: game developers, go to wwww.thewitcher.com to look for job opportunities; we need passionate, experienced devs to strengthen our team. And don’t be scared – Poland is a great country, the people are warm and friendly, the girls are positively beautiful, and we’ll help you relocate… So apply today!).

When they're not making frustrating boneheaded decisions (especially on the GOG side) I just love these goofballs. But to be serious, it sounds like they have some good old-fashioned values and concern about quality. It feels genuine.

Part of me secretly hopes they'll do the expansion pack, even if it delays TW3. I know I'm hopelessly out of date and low-cost, low-value DLC is the way of the future and the right business move. But a new chapter sized chunk of game a year from now would be absolutely perfect.

Have you guys seen any reports at the forum how arena character builds work? Does it use an in-game character, or one with separate skills? I wonder if there is experience gain or if you can make it completely custom.

[TurinTur]

I don't remember those from TW1. Were they any good?

Shame on you. They were very good, both the artistry and the direction.

[Telefrog]

Shame on you. They were very good, both the artistry and the direction.

They were okay. I watched them once or twice then never again. They were decent for CG, but that's not saying much.

Honestly, I think they could spend the money in better ways.

[Tim James]

This just proves the rule: never read comments anywhere. From RPS.

Hm… I have to say from the little I played of TW2 (I’m waiting for this new version now), I wasn’t overwhelmed. Yes, it was very good looking, but Triss’ animation in bed looked really wrong to me (No boob movements?) and Geralt’s foot clipped horribly with his boot when he put it on.

I mean they’re minor flaws, yes, but for me they broke immersion. That said, I’m definitely excited about this new patch.

[Blackadar]

I've decided to pick this up directly from GOG at the $30 price when 2.0 is released in a couple of days. I didn't finish the first game - in fact, I didn't particularly enjoy it all that much - but hopefully the 2nd game is "tighter" and as a maker of good, serious RPGs, I'd like to support them with my hard-earned dollars.

[farfrael]

They were okay. I watched them once or twice then never again. They were decent for CG, but that's not saying much.

Honestly, I think they could spend the money in better ways.

Have to say I disagree. I felt the intro movie was 1) quite beautiful, 2) well animated and 3) set the tone perfectly for the overall universe/adventure.

The outro fight I really, really liked for the animation

I was actually quite disappointed at the lack of "proper" intro movie for TW2 ....

[Matt Bowyer]

The Witcher 1's opening movie got a friend who watched it with me to both buy the game and read the books. I adored that thing.

[bandidoquest]

Have to say I disagree. I felt the intro movie was 1) quite beautiful, 2) well animated and 3) set the tone perfectly for the overall universe/adventure.

The outro fight I really, really liked for the animation

I was actually quite disappointed at the lack of "proper" intro movie for TW2 ....

I felt exactly the same when I loaded TW2 for the first time and found out there was no intro movie. Glad they're correcting it since I loved both the intro and the outro of the first game.

[Sebmojo]

Well, sure, if Skyrim is a midget. I was hoping to find out that they were adding some content to the brief, incomprehensible novelette of a RPG they shipped but it appears with 2.0 we get lolarena mode and re-textured items. Yay, I guess.

Good... troll, I guess?

[belgerog]

Apart from some very specific a bit unresponsive animations/moments and some slightly wonky targeting issues on ocassions, i loved the combat as it was. Including having to take in account my stamina to parry (it was only an issue in the first two hours of the game, where you had a very slow stamina), having to avoid the enemy sometimes to recover it. And including having to think before attacking, noticing the positions of each enemy and my own location, and thinking ahead of the present moment, reading the flow of combat.
And i had to think in that way because my attacks could be interrupted, and i had to think because you have to invest in my movements and actions, i couldn't change them in the last moment, like in an arcade brawler. All together created a specific pace in the combat.

My feelings too. Part of what makes the combat system in the Witcher 2 so great is that you have to be careful about what you do. The current system that requires good management of your vigor but negates all damage makes more sense to me. This is one of those games that doesn't frustrate me when I die, because I love doing a combat encounter more than once.

If their new system doesn't work well, I hope the old system can be modded back in. On the other hand, it's great that they're improving responsiveness.

[Tim James]

To continue guessing, I bet you'll still need to be smart about the flow of combat if you play at harder difficulty. You'll still take damage if you attack at the wrong time, even if you can't be interrupted past a certain point. And at high difficulty you'll take more damage than you did on normal. Maybe it will balance out, except now you have more responsive, less frustrating controls.

We'll see.

[TurinTur]

http://www.thewitcher.com/patch2/

It's out.

[Razgon]

Awesome - Thanks!

[Jab]

Played through the new tutorial, and it's definitely better having it all here as opposed to the first section, decided to start over in dark mode to see how it goes.

[Paul_cze]

Hmpf, first problem detected.

All previous patches contained all languages.
After applying 2.0, czech language as well as some others are gone. I hope they will release hotfix with all languages again, because czech translation was brilliant and it makes all the reading (journal etc) more comfortable for me.

[Balasarius]

I played the Arena for 5 minutes, it was meh.

[belgerog]

I tried out the arena too, and someone in the audience shouted "MAXIMUS! .. I mean, Geralt!"

[BleedTheFreak]

I played the Arena for 5 minutes, it was meh.

5 whole minutes? Way to be thorough.

[Tim James]

How does the arena work in terms of configuring your character?

[Paul_cze]

Tutorial was nice, if anyone struggles with the game after this tutorial they will need to have iq of 5 and/or motor skills of infant.

Arena...tried it on dark mode. Died in first wave in around 20 seconds. Will have to practice more :-).