[Madam Corvax]

I will perform a bit of shameless self-promotion for my country by giving you all this link:
http://www.thewitcher.com/

Be warned, however, that the site will ask you for age verification, allegedly because the opening movie of the game which can be seen in this website is pretty gory... And the game is 18+ due to blood, violence and sexual content.

It was made by a Polish company CDprojekw in co-operation with Bioware (KOTOR!) using their Aurora Engine. It boasts that it is a true RPG, meaning you are not only collecting items and gain XP, but there is true character development. Graphics is pretty impressve, almost like Oblivion and the faces are prettier.

The thing is those who did not read the story on which the game was based may not easily understand what is going on. The stories were quire a hit in Poland in late nineties, taking a post-modernist view on fantasy Tolkien-like world (wizards, elves, dwarves, dragons, etc). ANyway, at least enjoy the graphic.

[SimeSublime]

Already pre-ordered a copy, so I'll pass on the movie so as to minimalise spoilers. I'll let you know what I think when it comes in.

[Madam Corvax]

Did you really? Great - I thought that the marketing campaign they allegedly put up was not so effective. Anyway, I am looking forward to your view on the game.

[SimeSublime]

Well, I haven't heard anything in the way of advertising, but a few of my friends have and they talked me into it.

[SimeSublime]

I'm getting quite into it. The setting is interesting, and the character has a nice cynical view of things. The gameplay itself is a bit wooden, and poorly explained, but the world more then makes up for the difficulties. The locations I've been to so far have actually done a good job of convincing me it's a real place, though I have to say it's constantly dark. It rains every day

[David-kyo]

And crashes every five minutes.

[SimeSublime]

Bad luck with that, I'm yet to see a single glitch.

[David-kyo]

Switching over to 800x600 helped, apparently 1 Gbyte RAM is just not enough for this game to run in a higher resolution. The looooooong loading screens remain, which is a major turnoff. Also, in 800x600 it's just impossible to make out what the heck the inventory items want to resemble. But that's my private problem, I guess, it just makes me a bit mad that I bought a new computer in summer and I already have to switch over to low graphics when playing a recent game.

I have to say that I like the dark atmosphere of the game, as well as the monsters, which are quite unique. However, the battle system can only be called clumsy if I want to be polite. Completely screwed-up slapdash piece of shite if I don't.

I haven't finished act 1 yet, because I have very little time for gaming right now, but my opinion is that it seems like a decent game so far.

[SimeSublime]

I'd completely agree with the combat. Hell, the fist fighting is completely broken. But I do love the atmosphere and general racism and despondency shown by the townsfolk. Also, I thought the end of Act 1 was pretty neat.

[Madam Corvax]

Guys, I agree with you on several things
loading time - I mean, I can make toast and a cup of tea and the bloody game has not yet loaded.

Combat. I have chosen the easiest option, and so far I have only been killed off once. It is all the matter of selecting the style, loading on elixirs and then watch out and click on burning sword pointer. Actually, not much worse than KOTOR . I can see that the programming guys were trying very hard to come up with something new. Fist fighting is far too easy, almost impossible NOT to win.

Mini game die poker is really neatly made, though.

I also did not like the inventory, it is too small, and one thing really got into me - you cannot pick up additional weapon and then carry it to sell. Why the f.. not? Even the Temerian dagger cost 40, and money is in dire need if you want to have better elixirs and complete quests. And when you come back, items disappear. And the selection of weapon is not that impressive, and I quite like to dress my character like in KOTOR or Oblicion, but it seems that the main hero would always look the same.

Now a personal questions - how many girls have you er... scored so far? That one in the old mill make quite a lot of noise...I must say I was even a bit embarassed...

And I don't know how they did it in translation, but in Polish verision which this time is the original the swearing of some characters is really excessive, especially the villains.

Anyway, I am halfway through Act II and looking forward to playing it some more.

[SimeSublime]

With the Girls, let's see. In the prologue there's Trish (I think that's her name). In act 1 there is the barmaid, the witch and a random villager (have to give her tulips). In act 2 there's the prostitutes, the gossip (give her gloves) and although I haven't done it yet, a dryad has asked for a wolf pelt. That's all I've seen so far.

As for the swearing, there's quite a bit of it compared to an American game, but as it fits in with the game's atmosphere it never seems excessive. Rather, it does an excellent job of setting the mood.

I'm playing the game at the medium difficulty level, and haven't run into too many difficult battles, though I'm currently trying to take on six wyrvens simultaneously without luck. But that seems to be a completely optional battle, so it's not a big worry. One thing I didn't like was a plant boss monster that attacked me at random in the swamps. There was no warning it would be there, and killed me quite efficiently. The randomness of it was quite frustrating. As for the general combat, there are times when the enemy attacks you and it breaks your rythem. So I click on the enemy to attack again and nothing happens. If I click again it says "too fast", but if I don't click Geralt just seems to stand there doing nothing. I've discovered that if this happens, the best bet is to pause the game, switch fighting styles (say from fast to strong) then switch back again without unpausing, and you should be able to attack as normal. As for the fist fighting, the manual says you should click when the fist lights up to continue the attack. In reality you have to click just after it lights up. Before I knew that the fist fights were very difficult, now they're a bit of a joke.

I find the alchemy a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it's quite realistic with all the ingredients and so on, but on the other hand it causes havoc with your inventory. I have to carry around about 5 different alcohols and a couple of different fats, plus a huge array of different components. It would be nice if there was a way to distil the components into their various essences (a la Neverwinter Nights 2) so that I only have six stacks, rather then thirty odd.

Other gripes: Money. I wander out into the wilderness and hunt down dangerous monsters and they only pay me 100-150 orens? Hell, I can get that in a single game of poker! And then they go and make the books cost a few hundred orens to buy. Not to mention that nice suit of armour that's going for 5000. All this whilst spending about 30 orens a pop on bottles of whiskey just so I can make some healing potions. That's harsh.
Loading times. Bit of a bitch with saving/loading, but on the upside there isn't much loading done whilst wandering the map. As long as you aren't going into and out of buildings too much it's allright.

Ok, after all that it seems pretty negative, but I have to stress that the world by far makes up for it. I'm really getting into the game.

[David-kyo]

Spoilers ahoy.
How do you get together with the barmaid in act 1? I exhausted every dialogue option and all I managed to achieve was a loud "How dare you, GTFO!". I'm past the point of slaughtering half those bastard villagers in defence of the witch chick. The flower collecting chick just gave me a tulip for a flower I'd given her and that's it. (Can I get back to this after killing the beast, the reverend and his mob? I really couldn't stand those hypocritical fuckers' faces.)
Score with a dryad?! That's even lower than furfags.
Fistfights. I thought you needed to purchase some strength and dexterity skills in order to unlock the better moves for it, although it's really not necessary to waste your talents on in my opinion (in easy mode at least, sorry, I prefer leveling up fast since WoW).
Which reminds me. Gaining levels. Passive skills are the best ones. I really don't give a darn about spellcasting if I've got a hefty bastard sword slung upon me back, so I don't screw around with signs much, and only purchased herbalism in Intelligence. I've maxed out the bronze skills in strong steel and silver (even though I haven't got the silver sword yet, did I miss it, or it just comes along later?), and got about half of the fast skills. Got some passive skills in stamina too, for regeneration and resistances. Is this good if I just want a head basher who doesn't want to shell out an extortionate amount of dosh for potion ingredients?

[Madam Corvax]

Spoilers!
With the barmaid, you have to defend her during the night outside the tavern and then walk her home. She suggests date at the old mill. Once you've killed the mob, there is no going back at all to that village - so I started the game once again to hook up with the girl, because I killed the mob before going on to this date.

I didn't get the villager or the gossip, never occured to me to give them presents. I wonder how you figure out how a given character will respond to a present. In order to gain access to Shani, the doctor, you have to give her landlady wine, then she lets you go upstairs, but I've wasted quite a lot of time before I got into that.

The silver sword is given to you in a prison after completing Act 1, I don't know how did you NOT get it.

IMHO, signs are quite handy. You don't have to swing so much with the sword, you stun the monster with Aard sign and then just finish it off, I quite like the graphical side of it, Geralt does some cool acrobatics.

Concerning money, I quite agree, I'm skint most of the time. I wish you could sell the potion you make, like in Oblivion, where it was the main source of my income. But then you need at least 20 orens worth of alcohol, so it is expensive to mix potions.

Also, what annoys me a bit, you cannot see what time is it, or did I miss it? I would like to know how much time it is till dusk or dawn, especially, as you noticed, it rains quite often.

[SimeSublime]

David is still in act 1 (albeit at the end of it), hence he only has the one sword.

Flower girl - You're talking about the wrong girl. There's one girl who looks like a regular pesant, when Geralt talks to her she says something nice and Geralt mentions something about how she's more trusting of strangers then other villagers. She says she likes strangers, the last one gave her flowers. The gift pannel will open, and if you give her non-lillies she'll say she likes lillies, giving her lillies will result in the sex scene.

As for the gossip, you have to ask her about witchers (or something similar) and she talks about you. It doesn't always work for some reason though.

Also, possible glitch in act 2. Make sure you have a wolf pelt with you before you talk to the dryad. If the trading screen opens and you don't have one, you won't get another chance.

As for stats, I haven't touched endurance yet. The resistances seem nice, but the endurance regeneration only effects spellcasting, which I don't do much of. Just the occasional knockdown combat spell and fire spell for campfires.

[David-kyo]

I don't like the second chapter at all. Too many of the quests are only difficult 'cos I can't find the questgivers at their post 'cos it's the wrong time of day, and there's no 'loiter around' option like in the Elder Scrolls games. No, you have to enter the nearest safehouse, meditate, get out again, wait for the loading screen to go away, and hope that the guy you've been waiting for has gotten there by now.

Also, I haven't been able to figure out what the small and large weapons are good for, they don't cause any better damage than the swords and they seem a lot less useful as well.

This post has been edited by David-kyo: 02 December 2007 - 04:58 AM