Don't forget about the alternate Chapter 2.Originally Posted by Sean Tudor
I'm edging towards a video card upgrade - how do people think it would play with a GTX 460, Win7 for DX11, 3.0 Ghz dual core and 2 gig? Resolution is 1280x1024.
For reference I'm currently on a 9800 GT, WinXP and the same processor, resolution and memory and it's entirely playable on medium settings. BUT I DEMAND TEH PRETTIEZ
Not sure about the video card. Framerates don't seem very linear in this game. And the last time I checked, the CPU had a lot to do with it. I'd definitely find someone with the same parts if TW2 performance is critical for you.
Back to the game: I forgot how scary endregas are when they crawl down a tree at night.
I looked into some of the Dark Mode stuff. I don't think it's a spoiler to say it's not so much new quests but craftable weapon and armor sets. You can make one in each chapter. Apparently they're ludicrously expensive. People have had to grind arm wrestling matches and shit. I guess the swords do some special things and make the screen turn dark when you draw them.
Damn old school Euro developers. I might just leave that for YouTube. The rest of Dark Mode gets a shrug too so far. It seems to be mostly a hitpoint adjustment -- enemies take a lot more damage, and Geralt goes down to nearly a single backstab now. It's a little frustrating in Chapter 1, but I hope it'll pay off later and make combat more challenging toward the end.
After Crysis 2 and Rage, I still can't believe how good Witcher 2 looks, how much better than both those games.
Not to mention leagues and leagues better writing, world consistency, narrative, gameplay, fun, etc etc.
Dammit I know they are different genres, but it still seems so unfair that Rage has 85, Crysis 2 86, and Witcher 2 87 on Metacritic. I would rearrange it to Rage 50, Crysis 2 70, Witcher 2 95.
Dragon Age 2 50.
:)
I think that card is still god enough for a year more, minimum, the problem is the old dual core.
http://static.techspot.com/articles-...bench/CPU2.png
I know! They barely make a sound, and you see them coming down those gargantuan trees. That forest has such a great atmosphere. I had a similarly great moment when walking there at night, and saw the silhouettes of a bunch of drowners (or nekkers) running across my view in the distance. In fact I wish the game had even more of this dynamic monster ecology stuff.
Spoiler: Wait...
Belgerog - Thats exactly what it means - 2nd chapter is basically 2 x 10 hours of gameplay, which makes the game play out very differently depending on what you choose there.
That's awesome, I'll go for the other choice if I do a second play through.
Spoiler: Also
It definately seems like there would be, and I wonder how that would play out, or if you'd have the options I had if you went the other way. The game is mind blowing.
There's no rush. More than any other developer, it feels like CDP have so much upward momentum. I can see them getting better in leaps and bounds. They've still got a few things to work on though.
Do a second run for that path, the story is worth it.
I'm already on the edge of my seat for The Witcher 3. I hope they keep the combat, it's the closest thing to a Demon's Soul's style reward/fail system as I've ever seen on a PC game. It makes me really wish Dark Souls was also on the PC, now that I'm thinking about it.
Yes, those games are the only ones I feel like I'm missing out on from this console generation. Oh well.
Maybe, maybe, you will like then the alternative Act. But you have to play it to confirm it!
(:P)
edit: ok ok, Tim.
Last edited by TurinTur; 10-06-2011 at 08:08 AM.
Hey now, we all know "wink wink, you'll see" is just as bad as a spoiler.
I believe a few people died the last time that came up.
Chapter 1 on Dark Mode was some real Euro-hard bullshit at times. There were a couple of spots I had to reload again and again. Of course there's also a lot of running around, mostly free of danger.
I can't say it's forcing me to play better or be more tactical either. I admit I'm not always using traps, bombs, and potions because I'm trying to zip through, but often I feel like I've got a great plan coming together only to be chipped by an enemy and killed. That's not rewarding.
I actually like that enemies have more hitpoints because I can do more with them. I just wish Geralt had more too so I didn't have to kite and keep quen up all the time. As far as builds go, I'm not sure it's even worth trying to take extra vitality or even the backstab reduction. At most I think you'll survive an extra hit or two. Might as well go double or nothing and put those skill points to extra offense.
I'm going down the signs tree this time around. It's given me a greater appreciation for them. I even did one of the major Chapter 1 fights a new way this time:
I'm still trying to decide if I should bother with the powergaming build using Impregnate. I don't know how useful mutagens are for a signs build. And again I don't necessarily want to kill enemies faster. I want to toy with them.Spoiler: boss fight spoiler
Just got done. There's a lot to like here and I'll probably play through it again someday. But there's so much that I simply just didn't get. I probably didn't "get" half of it. I could never muster the energy to complete the original and I'm sure that's not helping.
Spoiler: SPOILER QUESTIONS BELOW
Again, it was a good game and I enjoyed it, but it was horrendously uneven. Beyond some major stretching of plot points, the game itself just wasn't as well paced as it should have been.
Spoiler: More Plot Spoilers
Spoiler: some explanations, one minor spoiler hint
A few of your questions
Spoiler: Witcher Spoilers re ending and stuff
Well the Dark Mode is supposed to be that, an special extra hard mode...
Well, I just loaded the game up, since I finally finished Witcher 1. My cpu is still an older dual core (3.0) + 4850 GPU, so my setup is definitely showing its age in this game. I'm due for a gaming box upgrade BUT that's not my question.
My question is with the controls. It seems that the controls are all over the place. Parry with E, use 4 to scroll through (wtf? scroll through?) quickslot buttons. Remember the correct numbers for your signs, etc. It's not that I mind having all these buttons, but more that they seem really unwieldy. Would a gamepad make this UI more user-friendly?
I never used the keyboard to select a sign or secondary, that's what the CNTRL button is for. I just used WASD to move, Q and R to cast a sign or use an item respectively, and the mouse for camera and attacking.
Since you played witcher 1, why don't you just remap the controls to the witcher1 setup. You just need to assign one additional key for blocking, one for heavy strikes and one for throwing bombs.
I used wasd for movement, 1-5 for signs, q and e for drawing the swords, middle mouse for block, r for bombs and right mouse for heavy strikes.
yes + CTRL slows things down (think bullet time), which helps when deciding what to do.
I'm still slowly doing a playthrough in Dark Mode, (absolutely no idea how this guy supposedly finished it in 3 hours) and quite enjoying it.
You can watch his playthrough
http://cs.twitch.tv/aphox/b/296336437
WTF, quen reduces the damage you do? I don't think I knew that. But like he says, later in the game you can't avoid it anyway.
This is why I want to find an expert's guide to combat on YouTube or in an article.
I'm in the heart of Chapter 2 on my second playthrough. It strikes me that if game designers have doomed us to reuse maps all the time, this is the way to do it. Go all in and put vastly different content in them.
It also helps that the content is fantastic. A couple of my favorite lines so far:
Spoiler: Vergen path
I don't know. I played through on Hard almost entirely without Quen, and only put the bare minimum of points into it to move up the magic tree. I busted it out for end last fight (well, the top of the tower fight). It's big weakness is that it stops your vigor regeneration.
I instead maxed out Fireballing, and that was far and away more powerful, especially once you unlock the Helietrope sign. A few quick blasts, Heliotrope, at which point you could easily generate enough vigor to cast enough signs to put Heliotrope back up indefinitely -- constant Time Slow + unlimited Fireballs at ~+75 damage.
I'm at the end of Chapter 2 and I've had to dial down to easy for every boss except for the Kayran.
Sidenote: I'm always disappointed when the new shiny awesome set of armor I find has a hood. Those things look goofy.
It's rough when you start, and I only jumped up to Hard the second time through. Your skill picks also affect the difficulty; I think Magic made for an easier playthrough than Swordsman for example (no idea about Mutation).
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