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[blueteainfusion]

huh? Not talking about the games but about the books. Are the new translators working on the sequel to Last Wish?

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-french/12/17b/31

This is the same guy who translated Times of Contempt and Baptism of Fire. And yes, it seems like Sword of Destiny will be released in near future, maybe even before TW3 comes out.

 

[kanuuna]

I re-watched the 37 min gameplay footage of TW3 after having just completed DA:I. Man, that demo was on a completely different level... ...even the way the camera moves and cutscenes are framed.

I sat through that thing again for a second time and this really stands out. I can't think of any RPG with camera work that even comes close to what was shown. An absolutely huge step up from The Witcher 2, and definitely setting a new standard for the kind of choose-your-adventure RPG genre if the rest of the game stands up to that quality. Facial animation, too, looks like it's from another decade when compared to Assassin's of Kings.

I've played through Assassin's of Kings thrice now (latest being from a few weeks ago, finally decided to go through every journal update, any in-game books and read up on some wikis), though I always made more or less the same decisions throughout those runs. I'll save the other path for when I've finished 3. Can't wait.

While on the topic, I sorely hope they've put more effort towards the audio in TW3. I didn't dislike the music and there was nothing to complain about the audio quality of the dialogue, but I thought the mix was incredibly poorly handled. The score would be terribly loud during dialogue and ambient sounds in places would be a whole lot louder than I was comfortable with. Sliders helped, but only so much.

 

[GravyButt]

So cannot wait. May seems so far away.

 

[sublimit]

If you want to learn more about the lore and setting of the series without having to play the games or watch lets plays i think this is a pretty good series of videos (although the narration is a bit cheesy IMO) to prepare you for TW3:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7pGJQV-jlzCMqEAP49QApVHNJeZxxdL9

 

[Deified Data]

Attempting to use kb/m over gamepad with TW2...damn, you just can't win. Combat is a pain with the former, menus are a pain with the latter. I guess I just have to choose which one is more annoying. If the game is even marginally difficult I can't imagine having to search around for hotkeys, dodge with space, and remove my fingers from WASD to access the quick menu in intense fights, so gamepad it is I guess.

Also I think I'm somehow getting stuck in the tutorial. In the part where it teaches you to allocate skills it gives me one talent point, which I spend, but the quest never updates. Just keeps telling me to spend "all" of my points, which suggests there might be more than one? Is this a bug or am I just clueless?

I really want to get into it but it's so much less accessible than TW1, there's just so much going on.

 

[phaze]

Attempting to use kb/m over gamepad with TW2...damn, you just can't win. Combat is a pain with the former, menus are a pain with the latter. I guess I just have to choose which one is more annoying. If the game is even marginally difficult I can't imagine having to search around for hotkeys, dodge with space, and remove my fingers from WASD to access the quick menu in intense fights, so gamepad it is I guess.

Isn't that under ctrl ? Pinky is your friend.

Also I think I'm somehow getting stuck in the tutorial. In the part where it teaches you to allocate skills it gives me one talent point, which I spend, but the quest never updates. Just keeps telling me to spend "all" of my points, which suggests there might be more than one? Is this a bug or am I just clueless?

If after spending the talent, it says you have 0 left available in the character abilities screen then it's probably just a bug or just something that was never meant to be updated. Dunno.

Reading your impressions makes me realize how much I forgot of the game. Should finally play the game with a Alchemy build.

 

[Krappadizzle]

While on the topic, I sorely hope they've put more effort towards the audio in TW3. I didn't dislike the music and there was nothing to complain about the audio quality of the dialogue, but I thought the mix was incredibly poorly handled. The score would be terribly loud during dialogue and ambient sounds in places would be a whole lot louder than I was comfortable with. Sliders helped, but only so much.

Completely agree. I liked the score and OST in general, but at points it's too loud.

 

[Deified Data]

Isn't that under ctrl ? Pinky is your friend.




If after spending the talent, it says you have 0 left available in the character abilities screen then it's probably just a bug or just something that was never meant to be updated. Dunno.

Reading your impressions makes me realize how much I forgot of the game. Should finally play the game with a Alchemy build.

I had to spend a mutagen as well, apparently. That updated the quest.

Completed tutorial and recommended difficulty...easy, lol. I'll just start on normal and hope that's a fluke.

 

[RDreamer]

Chapter 2, the swamp is a huuuuge roadblock and drags really long. Power through it and the game gets tighter/more interesting again.

The swamp itself didn't slow me down. Hell, I feel like I spent maybe 15% of my time in chapter 2 in the swamp. The running back and forth was what did it.

 

[Deified Data]

Alright, made it through the prologue. Coming off of playing Dragon Age: Inquisition I almost feel TW2 is the better-looking game, aside from the faces. I'm amazed at what CDPR managed to pull off on last-gen hardware.

I find it's usually best to ask these questions early instead of finding out the hard way later. Are there any techniques, signs, abilities, etc. that are pretty much dead-ends and better left ignored? Is parry/riposte ever a preferable option to simply dodging?

 

[misho8723]

Witcher 1/2 are almost my favorite RPG games out there - Vampire Bloodlines is my favorite not only RPG game but overall my favorite game of all time

Witcher 1 has some really strong sides - like the characters, story, slavic atmosphere (which in games is really exotic), the music, the pacing is really good except the chapter in swamps, the "adventure genre" approach to many quests, many great and hard choices and consequences, the combat isn't perfect but I had my fun with it and I really like some of the animations of moves that Geralt can perform, the enemy variety is great, all my favorite monsters are in this game - vampires, werewolves, witches, ghouls, wyverns, even race like from the Lovecraf's stories and books (Dagon), it is a long game - took me about 60 hours to complete it even on the second playthrough

Witcher 2 is something more generic than W1, the atmosphere and music aren't so slavic and exotic, it's shorter than W1, but the story and dialogs are improved from the first game, the combat is somewhat more tactical (on higher difficulties), but I never had any problems with dying - it's not a hard game, if you can atleast use a little of your brain and not go unprepared to a fight.. the boss battles were fun, I have nothing to complain about, not even about the Kayran boss battle.. I had the feeling that W2 didn't had that many choices in comparison to W1, but on the other hand the choices in W2 had a bigger impact on the world and story than in W1.. the old characters were better written and they were more akin to themselves from the books, and the new characters were written as good as the old ones.. the overall pacing of the game was maybe a little bit to fast and the enemy varienty wasn't as strong and good as in W1.. but man, the trolls in this game are perfect in every was possible and because of that on choice in chapter 1 it is recommended to play this game atleast two times

So yeah, W1/2 are both great games but both has some flaws.. as it seems right now, W3 is trying to put together the strong points of both titles together and it could be the best game in the series and one of the best RPG games of all time.. so fingers crossed

 

[Deified Data]

Can anyone brief me on what the icons next to certain dialogue options mean? I selected one and Geralt tried to use a sign...but failed. What determined success with that option?

 

[Enosh]

Can anyone brief me on what the icons next to certain dialogue options mean? I selected one and Geralt tried to use a sign...but failed. What determined success with that option?

iirc the sign one is magic control, the red eye is intimidations and the normal eye is persuasion, from what i understood they all force the person you are talking with to reveal secret/give stuff for free etc

idk for the second part, I just found that whatever I decided to use first always worked and the others didn't so I just stuck with the magic one

also just yesterday finished W2 finally for the first time, saw that gameplay demo for W3 and decided "yep now it's the time to finally play W2" really enjoyed it even through I'm stupid and needed help from wiki on a quest or two ^^ played with a controller, the menus were a bit of a pain, but the combat felt much better, and the game supports switching between gamepad and mouse on the fly anyway so when the menu stuff got to annoying I just used the mouse for five second

loved all the choices there were available, especially since the consequences of those weren't just pushed into a 2 mins cutscene after the ending,

Spoiler

will need to maybe replay it to side with the elves, but man I hate that fucker, Roche is cool otoh and the best bro ever, decided to tell him to not be retarded and not kill the king, I fully expected him to whine about it like characters usually do when they don't get their way but he was just like "nah you're right man" hope he returns in W3

also loved the setting, nice to see a more "realistic" (I'm mostly talking about armor and weapon designs here, amazing to see a game where swords aren't just portrayed as blunt clubs but actual swords, more or less) and slavic take on the usual fantasy genre, there was also the usual amount of grim dark backstabbing politics going on too, always nice

some annoying shit, mostly related to climbing and Geralt taking his sweet ass time pulling a weapon after a cutscene, time you can't move while the enemy is already hacking off your limbs, but seems W3 is fixing most of that

 

[Braag]

Can anyone brief me on what the icons next to certain dialogue options mean? I selected one and Geralt tried to use a sign...but failed. What determined success with that option?

I don't know what the success rates are but it's fairly high I would say since I've failed very few times with those.
As Enosh said, the red eye is for intimidation, the yellow colored eye for persuasion and the triangle is Axii sign which is sort of like a jedi mind trick.
Also these "skills" level up. If you go to the character tab where you select skills, there should be a place where you can check your attributes and there you should find, Persuasion, Intimidation and Axii Sign. They can level up to 3 times and each time you manage to for example persuade someone your persuasion skill levels up once, until it's at 3/3 which is max and pretty much a guaranteed success.

There are a whole lot of other "attribute points" which you will get throughout the game, some you get based on the choices you make, some you get for doing certains tasks (something as simple as walking into bonfire and getting burned for example) and some you get for exploring and finding certain objects. The attribute points usually give you stats, such as being more durable against ranged attacks or increasing your crit chance, to some fairly drastic changes such as changing the element of some of your signs (such as making Aard do ice damage for instance).

 

[Deified Data]

Just got to Flotsam and met Dandelion again. Glad to see his VA improved a bit from the first game. Triss, too. They were both pretty terrible.

Upon entering town I saw I got a quest to reforge a silver sword that completed itself automatically. It said I lost my silver sword but I still had one in my inventory. Is that because I ported my TW1 save?

 

[HK-47]

Just got to Flotsam and met Dandelion again. Glad to see his VA improved a bit from the first game. Triss, too. They were both pretty terrible.

Upon entering town I saw I got a quest to reforge a silver sword that completed itself automatically. It said I lost my silver sword but I still had one in my inventory. Is that because I ported my TW1 save?

Yes

 

[Deified Data]

Oh shit you can change Geralt's hairstyle.

Predictably enough I've gotten distracted by tavern diversions. What were we doing again? Oh yeah, the assassin. Wonder if he plays dice.

 

[SargerusBR]

Played a couple of hours from the first Witcher, absolute awful gameplay. TW2 does it better but you need time to adapt to it. I do like how every game feels like a self-contained story.

 

[Jay Shadow]

Just got to Flotsam and met Dandelion again. Glad to see his VA improved a bit from the first game. Triss, too. They were both pretty terrible.

Yeah, Witcher 1 Dandelion is the most uncharismatic bard ever. Definitely needed a recast going into Witcher 2.

Both him and Triss have been the 2 disappointments for me in their game incarnations. Although in Dandelion's case it's because the bar is set so high. Triss's problem is that they sucked out her personality and gave her the same stock personality every other Sorceress has.

 

[RDreamer]

I'm not digging the choice between the Order and the Scoia'Tael so far in Witcher 1. Order is pretty blah. I suppose they're not terrible so far, just I dunno, boring. Also they seem like they should be the wrong choice, since Geralt has all these nonhuman friends, etc. But then there's the Scoia'Tael who seem like a bunch of assholes. Like, the game has done absolutely nothing to get me to like them at all. It seems like they push me into the Order. Siegfried's always been helpful, what with helping me kill that Cockatrice. He's all like let's save everyone. Meanwhile that elf dude is like KILL ALL THE HUMANS. EVERY ONE OF THEM. AND IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO HELP US KILL HUMANS, YOU'RE OUR ENEMY FOREVER!

Seems to be a problem with Western RPGs a lot of the time. They don't want some obvious choice, so they give a ton of downfalls to 'em. Then it ends up that every choice you can make kind of fucking sucks.

 

[Fevaweva]

I am on Chapter 3 of The Witcher 2. Man it is SO much better than the first one in just about every conceivable way.

 

[Jay Shadow]

Seems to be a problem with Western RPGs a lot of the time. They don't want some obvious choice, so they give a ton of downfalls to 'em. Then it ends up that every choice you can make kind of fucking sucks.

You can eventually be neutral in one choice that'll send you down a neutral path for the rest of the game. I didn't even know that the first time I played.

 

[Deified Data]

You can eventually be neutral in one choice that'll send you down a neutral path for the rest of the game. I didn't even know that the first time I played.

Same. I wasn't satisfied with what I perceived to be the two choices either but I ended up siding with the Order because Siegfried was a bro. I'd have been sad if I had to fight him.

 

[Ledhead]

Beat Witcher 2 three times. Replaying Witcher 1 right now. I'm a huge Witcher fanboy, even went out and got all of Sapkowski's books. Can't wait for the Wild Hunt

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

Beat Witcher 2 three times. Replaying Witcher 1 right now. I'm a huge Witcher fanboy, even went out and got all of Sapkowski's books. Can't wait for the Wild Hunt

High five. Even though for me it's 3 times TW1 and 7 times TW2. Could have been 8 but I finally got kind of bored to do the 4th time on Roche's path.

 

[misho8723]

Ok, if we are talking (writting) about the Witcher games, right now the journalists from all over the world are getting thier hands on on Witcher 3 in Poland..
And they have there this bus

And T-Shirts

 

[Deified Data]

Man, the Witcher games have their faults but they handle questing like none other. Every quest you perform feels interconnected with main questline of the area, and even notice board stuff which winds up being "collect X bear pelts" fodder in most games can feel like main quests. Did a few quests in Flotsam last night that stood out:

The Smell of Incense -

Spoiler

I can think of so many ways this quest could have panned out, and its joined at the hip to another quest that has you shutting down the merchant selling the incense. Getting out of that cave alive was the first time in the game that I had to sit down and think "what resources do I have that will let me pull this off...". Of course your gear is right there in front of the cell, but I didn't realize it until after I'd killed everyone with bombs and signs.

Trouble with Trolls -

Spoiler

Poor troll. Excellent creature design, not what I was expecting at all. Like how if you spent any time in Lobinden before heading into the woods that you probably would have seen the she-troll's mounted head before hearing that the troll's wife was decapitated. Having the troll be a (relatively) benevolent guardian of the bridge is a fun twist on traditional mythology that this series does so well.

Malena -

Spoiler

I like having my expectations upturned and my socially liberal tendencies thrown back in my face in games, I don't know why. I guess they're not worth having if they're not challenged every once in a while? But anyway, you see this small elf woman being threatened by this gang of angry human males and your instincts tell you which party is in the right. So even after discovering the arrow-riddled bodies in the caves you figure she's got to be telling the truth, there must be something more to this quest that makes it fit my worldview. But nope, she exploits your naiveté and tries to have you killed. Good riddance, lady. I remember why I sided with the Order in TW1.

 

[Messofanego]

Ok, if we are talking (writting) about the Witcher games, right now the journalists from all over the world are getting thier hands on on Witcher 3 in Poland..
And they have there this bus

And T-Shirts

Silly but funny at the same time. Journalists must feel weirded out on this kind of stuff by now, trying best to ignore it and just get the hands on cause they don't want stupid swag influencing their interest.

 

[frontovik]

Wild Hunt story recap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuS4wLX06Q

 

[misho8723]

Wild Hunt story recap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuS4wLX06Q

This needs a thread for it self..
New players (especially console players - but mainly PS players) need to see this video and I think this videos about the witchers and their world are going to be so more, so yes, a thread only for this video(s) is a good idea I think

 

[Deified Data]

Kayran is dead! That took more tries than it should have. Feeling out what part of the tentacle had to hit the Yrden took a lot of time. The kayran traps weren't very useful - seems like the only difference they made as instantly destroying a tentacle instead of having you cut it off, but either way immobilizing it is the hard part.

Fight made me switch from kb/m back to gamepad.

 

[Quotient]

I played Witcher 1 and 2 on a PC - well i7 imac dual-booted into windows. I plan on getting Witcher 3 for the PS4, though i am concerned they may gimp the console versions, i.e. not thoroughly optimized.

Time will tell.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

Awesome thread! Just last week and this one I was playing for the very first time both games on my Mac book Pro, played 30 hours of the first game, amazing by the way! Ended up joining the Squirrels, and man, I was impressed with how many ways I could complete quests, and how side quests shaped the main story.

I was incredibly hyped going into Assassins of Kings, and then realising that my Mac Book Pro has an integrated Intel graphics processor, and drivers that are not supported by the game, making the screen go white in certain angles in wide areas, up to the point where I could not talk to King Henselt in his tent. Was pretty disappointed, but got up to date with YouTube videos that made every decision that I would do to.

But I do have a question, what does TW2 consider as default decisions? I hope that The Wild Hunt explicitly says what the default decisions are, considering I'm going for the PS4 version and CD Projekt isn't going to allow for custom profiles like the Mass Effect game. Not like care, both major decisions are pretty good, but I do love Roche.

And I'm definitely getting the books after TW3, heck might just learn Polish to read the originals.

 

[Jay Shadow]

But I do have a question, what does TW2 consider as default decisions? I hope that The Wild Hunt explicitly says what the default decisions are, considering I'm going for the PS4 version and CD Projekt isn't going to allow for custom profiles like the Mass Effect game. Not like care, both major decisions are pretty good, but I do love Roche.

I really don't think the decisions are gonna matter much. Wild Hunt takes place in a different location than the one that your decisions effected. No Flotsum, No Pontar Valley, no Aederan, no Kaedwin, and in the end cinematic

Spoiler

Nilfgaard takes over Temaria no matter what. Who has the heir probably doesn't matter. Saskia's fate doesn't really matter cause once again, no Pontar Valley.

Redania is always stable no matter what, so Novegrad isn't effected by anything. You're pretty much playing with a clean slate, much like the transition between W1 to W2. CDPR gives you big decisions within a game, but they don't do multigame decision arcs like Mass Effect.

 

[Verger]

I still prefer the Roche path in Witcher 2. It was just a "fuck all you assholes" revenge kind of path, the way I played it anyway. It was so satisfying going through those sequences and killing all the bad guys I had grown to despise.

I am actually trying to go into the Witcher 3 media blind. I have not seen much of it and have only glimpsed the trailers and not lingered on much that I'd recollect. I am looking forward to it.

 

[Deified Data]

Fighting Letho and failing.

Man, this game's combat mechanics really don't support the style of combat they wish to have. It's ambitious, but the framework really isn't there to make a deadly one-on-one duel. It feels like "how can I best cheese you with signs"...practice makes perfect, I guess. Dumping you into a random boss fight without any prep time is sort of against the spirit of the series, but I'll stop whining and beat it already.

 

[phaze]

Fighting Letho and failing.

Man, this game's combat mechanics really don't support the style of combat they wish to have. It's ambitious, but the framework really isn't there to make a deadly one-on-one duel. It feels like "how can I best cheese you with signs"...practice makes perfect, I guess. Dumping you into a random boss fight without any prep time is sort of against the spirit of the series, but I'll stop whining and beat it already.

It's by far the most difficult fight in the game. Aard will take care of his shield iirc.

 

[Deified Data]

It's by far the most difficult fight in the game. Aard will take care of his shield iirc.

Oh good, I didn't have to deplete all his health - unless you're thinking of a later fight with him that I don't know about - I just beat him in Flotsam. All Aard did was stagger him unfortunately, his shield was still active. Just tried to chain as many consecutive Aards on him as possible before he got his shields back.

I keep having to switch to gamepad to take on difficult bosses and then switch back to kb/m, only to have to switch to gamepad again later.

 

[LosDaddie]

Nice thread.

I actually just started Witcher 2 on X360 last week. Snagged it when it was on sale for $10 since I've heard great things. WRPGs are generally the best. I'm only about 5hrs into the game, and getting my ass handed to me so far.

I'm probably going to preorder Witcher 3 on PS4 soon.

 

[Loakum]

I've never played any of The Witcher games, but I am definitely fascinated by it's lore. I pre ordered in full the Collector's Edition of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt for the PS4, because I was absolutely blown away by it's 37 min demo. I can see myself being fully immersed in it's world.

 

[mindfreak191]

I've had the chance to read all the books (since they're translated in my language too), and all I have to say is DAMN! The way the story and lore is crafted, just marvelous....there is also a plot twist at the end of the last book that's just freaking mind blowing. I played trough the games, in my opinion, one of the best RPG's out there. Can't wait to play the third one (even though I'll have to play on my cousins pc since my laptop sucks :/ ). Can't wait to play as Ciri, that girl is a legend

 

[PFD]

It's by far the most difficult fight in the game. Aard will take care of his shield iirc.

No that would be

Spoiler

the Operator

, especially on harder difficulties

 

[Deified Data]

So the novels are pretty good, then? If I read only the ones that have been translated into English would I get a decently cohesive narrative?

 

[eot]

No that would be

Spoiler

the Operator

, especially on harder difficulties

I'd forgotten about that bastard. Don't think he's worth the effort though.

 

[Deleted member 80556]

I really don't think the decisions are gonna matter much. Wild Hunt takes place in a different location than the one that your decisions effected. No Flotsum, No Pontar Valley, no Aederan, no Kaedwin, and in the end cinematic

Spoiler

Nilfgaard takes over Temaria no matter what. Who has the heir probably doesn't matter. Saskia's fate doesn't really matter cause once again, no Pontar Valley.

Redania is always stable no matter what, so Novegrad isn't effected by anything. You're pretty much playing with a clean slate, much like the transition between W1 to W2. CDPR gives you big decisions within a game, but they don't do multigame decision arcs like Mass Effect.

Yeah, that's constant and the have done very well doing the games self contained, but others like being enemy or ally to certain characters that will probably come back

Spoiler

(like Roche)

do make me wonder.

 

[-Deimos]

So the novels are pretty good, then? If I read only the ones that have been translated into English would I get a decently cohesive narrative?

The untranslated books have unofficial fan translations which are just as good as the official ones. You'd be missing out on the second short story collection, which provides important background information, and the last two novels.

 

[Dunbar]

I'm playing through Witcher 1 now, just beat the first two chapters. Are the other 3 chapters about as long as the first two? If so, I'm on pace for a 50+ hour game since it's taken me 21 to beat the first two. Longer game than I realized. Also, is there another area in the rest of the game like the swamp? Because that... wasn't great.

 

[Deified Data]

So is

Spoiler

Roche

supposed to lose the fight against

Spoiler

Iorveth

in the flashback? It wouldn't let me dodge so I assume it's impossible?

I'm playing through Witcher 1 now, just beat the first two chapters. Are the other 3 chapters about as long as the first two? If so, I'm on pace for a 50+ hour game since it's taken me 21 to beat the first two. Longer game than I realized. Also, is there another area in the rest of the game like the swamp? Because that... wasn't great.

Nope, if I recall you basically just have the outskirts and the swamp as far as big outdoor areas go. Excepting an end-game area.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

I'm playing through Witcher 1 now, just beat the first two chapters. Are the other 3 chapters about as long as the first two? If so, I'm on pace for a 50+ hour game since it's taken me 21 to beat the first two. Longer game than I realized. Also, is there another area in the rest of the game like the swamp? Because that... wasn't great.

there are some sweet side quests in chapter 4 iirc, you could probably rush through that one, but i wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Schreckstoff]

I played Witcher 2 a couple years ago and it wasn't till last summer, when I played TW1, that I started disliking it.
I tried replaying it but it made me realize it's really not that good a sequel.

Atrocious Act 3 aside it's too linear and too political, Shani was just retconned and let's not pretend Triss wasn't a bitch in TW1, it was also never explained why Geralt was even working for Foltest which is very unwitchery,...

The untranslated books have unofficial fan translations which are just as good as the official ones. You'd be missing out on the second short story collection, which provides important background information, and the last two novels.

The official english translation is supposedly rather bad in general, I'm reading them in german, which is very odd for me not having a read a book in my mother tongue for nearly half a decade, but I was advised not to purchase them in english both online and my local fantasy bookstore.