The Witcher

[havok1977]

I thought I might share one of the more satisfying experiences I've had in the last few years when it comes to gaming, a great RPG titled The Witcher.



This great game was originally released in 2007, developed by an independent Polish studio CD Projekt Red; and is a very non-lineal affair with lots of choices that have consequences that lead to very different points of view in terms of storyline and both main and NPC character development; making replay value quite interesting.

It follows a storyline that is a non canonical continuation to a great series of fantasy books with a much more mature tone than what is common to the genre by author Andrzej Sapkowski - which I am right in the middle of reading translated to my native language now, and loving every page Geralt of Rivia, the main character just kicks ass!

The original game was revamped for an "Enhanced Edition" in 2008, it was basically an upgrade in lots of aspects ranging from better dialogue translation and voiceovers to *lots* of languages, improvements to the combat system, etc; and was available to owners of the original as a free upgrade patch and to newcomers via a new disc release. A later patch was later released and touted as "Director's Cut", with further improvements.

As of now, I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, which is scheduled to be released in Q1 2011; and according to news sanctioned by the developers, saved games from the first game will be supported to act as a starting point... which is just awesome, and hopefully all inventory items and in game money will be transplanted seamlessly.

I think I found an excuse to get a new PC soon ... :icon_cool:

Hopefully someone here will enjoy this info

 

[Q2]

Between The Witcher 2 and Dragon Age 2 next year it's going to be keeping me pretty busy. I loved The Witcher and am excited for its sequel. I never played the two expansion packs though. Did you? Worth playing?

Here is the trailer for The Witcher 2.

 

[havok1977]

I loved The Witcher and am excited for its sequel. I never played the two expansion packs though. Did you? Worth playing?

Glad to hear you are a fellow fan

I did play the extra missions that came with the Enhanced Edition, and in a nutshell: I found them to be a quick fix for the addiction

One of them.. I dont remember the name ... is just a go, fetch, repeat affair without too much depth, while the other "The price of neutrality" actually attempts to retell one of the short stories that is part of the first book, and manages to be more interesting; yet changes in setting compared to the story were a bit of a let down for me... and both missions are rather short when you compare them to the scope of the main game.

 

[Farlander]

One of them.. I dont remember the name ... is just a go, fetch, repeat affair without too much depth, while the other "The price of neutrality" actually attempts to retell one of the short stories that is part of the first book, and manages to be more interesting; yet changes in setting compared to the story were a bit of a let down for me... and both missions are rather short when you compare them to the scope of the main game.

Well, the new missions are more like a sample of what can be easily done using their Djinni editor, and I think judging from that point of view they serve up their purposes pretty well.

PS. Russian translations of the Witcher rocks! (Well... to be honest, Non-EE translation, because they've changed some voices in the EE Russian version, and instead of making better, butchered it)

EDIT: And, I would like to add, the most meaningful walkthrough of the Witcher is the first one. It kind of defines your take on the story. What you think is right and what you think is wrong, even if in reality it's all a really gray area. I remember after my first playthrough in 2007, I decided to replay a second time making different choices, but found out that I kinda couldn't. And when EE came out in 2008 and I played it again, I found out that the only thing that really changed was my more serious take on alchemy and bombs and stuff, and a different set of skills I was using. I catched myself on the fact that most of the choices (the important ones, at least, if not the lesser ones) were basically the same as they were in my first playthrough.

 

[havok1977]

EDIT: And, I would like to add, the most meaningful walkthrough of the Witcher is the first one. It kind of defines your take on the story. What you think is right and what you think is wrong, even if in reality it's all a really gray area. I remember after my first playthrough in 2007, I decided to replay a second time making different choices, but found out that I kinda couldn't. And when EE came out in 2008 and I played it again, I found out that the only thing that really changed was my more serious take on alchemy and bombs and stuff, and a different set of skills I was using. I catched myself on the fact that most of the choices (the important ones, at least, if not the lesser ones) were basically the same as they were in my first playthrough.

Interesting that you mention that, I have played the full game once, and my choices were made in a way in which I sided with the Scoia'tel. I have been feeling the itch lately to replay and try the alternative, (and perhaps do some of the lesser things differently) but have had my doubts since I really don't like the other faction... so would you say there is nothing much else that changes, is it really all the same?

 

[Omaru1982]

how would you say this game plays? like baldur's gate, or fallout or dragon age? I've only played the latter and a handful of JPRGs so I'm not familiar with more traditional AD&D type stuff or Elder Scrolls Series type gaming. I like the idea of moral choices which always adds to the replayability to me (which is my main hook for bioware titles.)

 

[havok1977]

how would you say this game plays? like baldur's gate, or fallout or dragon age? I've only played the latter and a handful of JPRGs so I'm not familiar with more traditional AD&D type stuff or Elder Scrolls Series type gaming. I like the idea of moral choices which always adds to the replayability to me (which is my main hook for bioware titles.)

Did you ever play Neverwinter Nights? If you did and liked it, you will enjoy this because it uses the same Aurora engine slightly modified for its own specifics.

 

[Q2]

how would you say this game plays? like baldur's gate, or fallout or dragon age? I've only played the latter and a handful of JPRGs so I'm not familiar with more traditional AD&D type stuff or Elder Scrolls Series type gaming. I like the idea of moral choices which always adds to the replayability to me (which is my main hook for bioware titles.)

It's definitely it's own style. Third-person and more action oriented than RPG, but that's not to say it's not an RPG. It very much is. So in that regard I'd say it's more like Mass Effect if that helps.

 

[havok1977]

Further previews for the sequel:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/prison-break-the-witcher/705286

 

[Farlander]

Interesting that you mention that, I have played the full game once, and my choices were made in a way in which I sided with the Scoia'tel. I have been feeling the itch lately to replay and try the alternative, (and perhaps do some of the lesser things differently) but have had my doubts since I really don't like the other faction... so would you say there is nothing much else that changes, is it really all the same?

I never said that. I said that I couldn't morally make other choices than I've made during my first playthrough, because it made me feel uneasy. And even a year after I've played for the first time, I catched myself on making the same choices.

Though, regarding your post, I can say that the basic general plotline is basically the same for the whole game. But, AFAIK, the details vary greatly depending on what you choose, and because of those details - the course of the game and the endings may be vastly different.

Now, my further part of the post comes into spoiler territory, so... don't read it if you didn't play the game, I guess.

Reveal message

I never really liked the Scoa'tael (or however they're spelled in English variant). I was a bit more sympathetic towards the Order, but... still not much. I guess I was more of a neutral, and in the end I was kind of against both the humanoids and the Order. And it was a bit sad too, since I genuinely liked Siegfried, and befriended him during the course of the game, so it was a bit unpleasant for me to be on the different side of the barricade with him, though I couldn't fully side up with the Order.

Or, for example, I don't have any idea what will happen if we give Abigail to the villagers and don't defend her. I really have no idea, I saw some shit in those villages, and I just couldn't choose this variant even out of curiosity. So, yeah, I'm an Abigail defender

I really like the Witcher game in a sense that it helps you understand your personal view on the world, with all it's gray choices (where there, basically, is no real right or wrong) and uncertainty principle. And, you know, though I'm a fan of BioWare and love KotOR and Jade Empire, for example, the morality aspect of the Witcher kicks every BioWare's game's ass with their two-dimensional choices.

 

[havok1977]

I never said that. I said that I couldn't morally make other choices than I've made during my first playthrough, because it made me feel uneasy. And even a year after I've played for the first time, I catched myself on making the same choices.

Though, regarding your post, I can say that the basic general plotline is basically the same for the whole game. But, AFAIK, the details vary greatly depending on what you choose, and because of those details - the course of the game and the endings may be vastly different.

Now, my further part of the post comes into spoiler territory, so... don't read it if you didn't play the game, I guess.

Oh i misunderstood you the first time around then. I guess that probably I would go for the neutral path if I decide to play again then, the damned order is no good! - While I do agree that Siegfried is a good guy, the rest of them are a bunch of raving despot fanatics in my point of view :flame:

Oh and I'm all with you about Abigail, not only its do the right thing for her from a moral point of view; but also it opens the chance for you to meet her later on down in the caves...

 

[Q2]

The Witcher 2 is due out next week, and in preparation you can now pick up the Enhanced Director's Cut version of the original for $5 on GOG.com. If you like fantasy action RPG's this will be the best $5 you ever spend. FYI.

 

[havok1977]

I got it! And they kept their word, you can import your Witcher 1 finished savegame I get to keep all my orens!

It seems i might have to get a new PC to run it tho, I'm getting excessive ventilation and sluggishness... and I learned my lesson with a burnt motherboard already; perhaps its my chance to jump on the i7 bandwagon?

 

[Q2]

It seems i might have to get a new PC to run it tho, I'm getting excessive ventilation and sluggishness... and I learned my lesson with a burnt motherboard already; perhaps its my chance to jump on the i7 bandwagon?

Do you have an nVidia card? It's possible you're experiencing a bug. Unfortunately, there is an ever growing list of bugs that should have been squashed prior to release. To give you an idea: I have a Core i7 2.66GHz MoBo with 6GB RAM and an nVidia 260GTX. Even at the recommended setting of "High" the game is still sluggish, and the responsiveness, for me, feels like a console game. (I hate console controllers and the delayed response.) Anyway, if you have an nVidia card it might be the culprit.

 

[havok1977]

Wow, my specs are nowhere like yours...

But i do have an older NVidia card yes, 9500 M G to be precise... guess they are working on a patch for fixing performance with that brand of GPUs...

Edit: this is reaaaally helpful from the FAQ:

Very low performance in the game
In case of low performance in game please ensure that you have ubersampling turned off. To do this one need to enter advanced settings in graphic and language settings menu.
Also, players with NVIDIA graphic cards are advised to update their drivers to 275.27 beta version from may 17th, or newer.

 

[havok1977]

Update, here's how to do some further tweaking for better performance:

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=2688944&postcount=27