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[LiquidMetal14]

Come on now. A GTX 275 isn't far off from the power of a 460. Given what we've heard about the engine being well optimized, I think people are overestimating how taxing this game will be.

All I'm saying is that the CPU is more than adequate. Of course there's room for improvement everywhere.

 

[Teknoman]

Guess I better get to beating the first game.

 

[SneakyStephan]

What part of the game is the swamp btw? I always hear people say they give up during that bit?

You guys weren't kidding when you said the choices aren't black and white in this game, it really has been all grey area so far.
As it should be, I hated the patronising 'be an asshole or be a saint, or pick the right choice or your companions will fuck off' stuff from Origins.

 

[DarkChronic]

Great OP!

Just ordered my first set of PC parts and will be building my first rig this weekend. Finally made the jump to PC gaming after seeing this game. Absolutely stunning.

Just bought The Witcher 1 of gog.com (what a steal!). Can't wait to see what this is all about. Will probably load it up with a bunch of cheat mods so I can breeze through it and familiarize myself with the story and characters before I jump into the glory that is the sequel.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

Only 7 more days!

 

[Lostconfused]

What part of the game is the swamp btw? I always hear people say they give up during that bit?

2nd Half of chapter 2 and beginning of chapter 3? The problem with the swamp is that its a huge area and its a pain the ass to get around. And the quests are scattered all over the place, you are going to have to run back and forth all over the place to get things done. It really does grate on you.

 

[AppleSmack]

Just pre-ordered the game from gog.com FUCK YEAH! Witcher 2 here I come. I got inspired to finally do so due to the leak of the game. Pissed me off.

 

[DangerStepp]

Swap the 9800 out for a 460 and you will be flying along for years. I changed over last year from the trusty 9800+ and couldn't be happier, fairly cheap upgrade too.

I sincerely appreciate the info there; I'll look into it!

Also, this thread is sorely lack from Dennisk4 hype images/gifs.

 

[epmode]

So I won't have my new motherboard in time for the launch.

What the hell, I ordered the new GTX570 anyway. It won't be nearly as good in my old computer than it be in the new one (building in the next 1-3 weeks) but it'll be a nice improvement over my current 9800GTX.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Just wanna say the character art in this has game is very refreshing.

 

[Blast Processing]

OK, I'm rolling with a 512mb 4850 here, elsewhere a n i7 920 (I think) and 6gb RAM. Is this the game to upgrade for, and if so, to what? A 6850, maybe? I had been thinking of waiting until BF3...

 

[SneakyStephan]

OK, I'm rolling with a 512mb 4850 here, elsewhere a n i7 920 (I think) and 6gb RAM. Is this the game to upgrade for, and if so, to what? A 6850, maybe? I had been thinking of waiting until BF3...

6850 is slower than a 5850, 5850 is anywhere between 15-30 percent faster than a 4870 depending on which game, a bit more at higher resolutions.
4870 isn't much faster than a 4850 either.

Going to be a fairly marginal improvement (at least considering the price tag and how much time has passed since you probably got your 4850), if your 4850 can't max it then odds are the 6850 can't either, or minimum fps will still be too low and you'll still get stuttering framerates.

I'm in the same boat as you with my 4870 starting to slowly show it's age, and I'm not sure what to replace it with either (without having to spend almost 400 euros to actually get an exciting upgrade).

I intend to resist the temptation until the end of the year to get the next series of midrange cards.

 

[Luthos]

This will be me morning of release:

 

[zlatko]

I'm going into this without ever playing the first one. Just to make sure did CDProjekt mention there would be a recap before you start so I don't jump in totally blind? I think I remember them saying that in an interview when showing off the game in the scene where the lead character is in the dungeon.

 

[SneakyStephan]

I'd really suggest you play the first one, I'm only at the second chapter and a lot of parts from the w2 trailers already seem like a homage/full of references to the first.

The characters really grow on you too, what other reason is there to play an rpg than for the exploration and story anyways.

 

[Exuro]

I'm going into this without ever playing the first one. Just to make sure did CDProjekt mention there would be a recap before you start so I don't jump in totally blind? I think I remember them saying that in an interview when showing off the game in the scene where the lead character is in the dungeon.

Don't think there is. Most previews have said that those who haven't played the first are going to have to assume a few things such as Geralts friends as they don't really get introduced.

 

[ColonialRaptor]

OK, I'm rolling with a 512mb 4850 here, elsewhere a n i7 920 (I think) and 6gb RAM. Is this the game to upgrade for, and if so, to what? A 6850, maybe? I had been thinking of waiting until BF3...

If I were you, I'd upgrade for this. But I wouldn't suggest getting the 6850, it's just not the best card to choose for the price.

I'm guessing because you said the 6850 your budget limit for the card is about $150 - $200 right?

If you can possibly afford it I would suggest trying to pick up at 6950 which can be found for under $200 in the US I believe (don't quote me on that for sure because I'm an Aussie but this is what I believe).

Or, you're absolutely bound to find a 5850 for sub $200, perhaps even sub $150 second hand and you should definitely grab a 5850 over a 6850.

However, if you go the 5850 you're limiting yourself a little bit for future endeavours and you said you were planning to upgrade for BF3. If you can push yourself up in budget just a little and get a 6950 then make sure you get a reference design card, you can flash the BIOS and essentially make it at 6970. Then, when BF3 comes out, you can buy another one, Crossfire and have an ABSOLUTE BEAST. This is my recommendation. 1x 6950 flashed to 6970 now, buy another at BF3 and flash it to a 6970 at the time and run in crossfire and have more power than a 6990. Infact, you'd have virtually the second best setup you can get (2x 580s is the only thing better without spending your life savings on a tri SLI 580 setup).

 

[skullmuffins]

Ugh, I want this game now. Too bad I'm pretty broke . Give me money!

So, you can import a save from TW1... does the end-game save have any particular name or anything? It's been a while since I played it, and I've put together a new PC with a new OS in the meantime, so I don't know if I have my old saves. I found a couple saves in an old copy of the My Documents folder, but who knows where they're from (I don't have TW1 currently installed). I'll probably wind up using one of the linked saves in the OP if I can't find my old save... I have far too many games on the backlog to replay TW1 yet.

Also, I have a HD5770 (1GB), 4GB RAM, and a quad core 3.3ghz Athlon II (unlocked X3). TW2 should run sufficiently, yeah? I'm still suck with a 1280x1024 display for the time being :-/

 

[Tokubetsu]

Anyone still have that triss magic clothes gif?

 

[Chesskid1]

damn that mouse is awesome! i want it but dont think its available here.

 

[Blast Processing]

If I were you, I'd upgrade for this. But I wouldn't suggest getting the 6850, it's just not the best card to choose for the price.

I'm guessing because you said the 6850 your budget limit for the card is about $150 - $200 right?

If you can possibly afford it I would suggest trying to pick up at 6950 which can be found for under $200 in the US I believe (don't quote me on that for sure because I'm an Aussie but this is what I believe).

Or, you're absolutely bound to find a 5850 for sub $200, perhaps even sub $150 second hand and you should definitely grab a 5850 over a 6850.

However, if you go the 5850 you're limiting yourself a little bit for future endeavours and you said you were planning to upgrade for BF3. If you can push yourself up in budget just a little and get a 6950 then make sure you get a reference design card, you can flash the BIOS and essentially make it at 6970. Then, when BF3 comes out, you can buy another one, Crossfire and have an ABSOLUTE BEAST. This is my recommendation. 1x 6950 flashed to 6970 now, buy another at BF3 and flash it to a 6970 at the time and run in crossfire and have more power than a 6990. Infact, you'd have virtually the second best setup you can get (2x 580s is the only thing better without spending your life savings on a tri SLI 580 setup).

Thanks. I can probably afford to drop about $300 for an upgrade, so I'll look into a 6950. I'll wait until the game is out and see how I feel about how my 4850 performs with it, first.

 

[antonz]

damn that mouse is awesome! i want it but dont think its available here.

where :O

 

[Luthos]

EDIT: nm

 

[Lasthope106]

Holy shit! The game is downloading 3x the speed I get from Steam.

 

[MollyMillions]

The mouse is only available in Australia, right?

 

[reptilescorpio]

damn that mouse is awesome! i want it but dont think its available here.

Stupid ebgames wouldn't give me one because I spent $150 rather than $88. Aholes.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I wouldn't change the preorder, I preordered in zavvi.com when it was at 81€, but I'm not risking it for 6€.

The CE won't be available in Spain, but don't worry, zavvi.es is just a translation of the zavvi.com site, they don't have any warehouses in Spain, they ship directly from the UK, and always UK editions.

Thanks, will not change my preorder then.

 

[pseudocaesar]

Stupid ebgames wouldn't give me one because I spent $150 rather than $88. Aholes.

Same here! Fuckheads, I am thinking about cancelling my preorder and getting the mouse instead. Its probably worth more than the stuff in the big CE anyway

 

[Salazar]

Stupid ebgames wouldn't give me one because I spent $150 rather than $88. Aholes.

Zen: if you kick over a magazine rack in EB, does anybody give a shit ?

This will be my first proper PC game. I anticipate magnificence.

 

[ColonialRaptor]

Heh... $28 more and I could get the pack with the mouse and mousepad... probably sooner than the copy I ordered from Amazon US would arrive as well. But then I'd be getting the slightly changed version, and it would be more expensive... however, I'd be getting the game sooner...

Anyone who wants to get the mouse & mouse pad from the states and is willing to wait for it to be posted from Aus - I'm happy to pick it up for them (as long as they pay of course).

 

[Tokubetsu]

SO for anyone else who pre-loaded at GoG, the downloader paused it with around 100mb left to go. That's normal right? I'm assuming whenever it unlocks it'll download that last bit.

 

[leng jai]

Its crap that the preorder bonus is only for the standard edition. I'm really conflicted between the Collector's and the standard, especially with the mouse. Too bad its not wireless though, not good for comfy couch.

 

[JaseC]

where :O

...EB Games? Like it says right there on the image?

 

[jgminto]

I really don't understand the Aus censorship of this game. There is sex shown on free-to-air tv all the time. But the rating system is so inconsistant. We really need an R rating.

 

[JoeBoy101]

Its crap that the preorder bonus is only for the standard edition. I'm really conflicted between the Collector's and the standard, especially with the mouse. Too bad its not wireless though, not good for comfy couch.

I was really conflicted too, until I realized the standard came with Map, OST, papercraft and coin and was roughly 38% the cost of the Collector's. As much of it looks cool, I just can't justify the Collector's being almost triple the price of the standard. Not with LA Noire coming out same day.

 

[leng jai]

I was really conflicted too, until I realized the standard came with Map, OST, papercraft and coin and was roughly 38% the cost of the Collector's. As much of it looks cool, I just can't justify the Collector's being almost triple the price of the standard. Not with LA Noire coming out same day.

Yeah, I do really want the big ass box and the artbook though. The Geralt head is pretty terrible though.

 

[WaywardScribble]

Hey! So!
I am intensely interested in The Witcher! You guys all seem to KNOW about these GAMES, so I thought I would ask if I should grab the $5 GOG.com of The Witcher even though I own a lowly Mac! Will my purchase "stick around" long enough for me to get an appropriate gaming rig for it?

I would Bootcamp/Wine/ETC but my computer is running with around a GB of internal memory. I plan on upgrading this myself in a month or two manually, but in the meantime that isn't a option at all. Besides, I doubt that any Mac really has the specs to do the game justice.

Tell me how much I should play The Witcher GAF! Just do it!

 

[Van Buren]

Hey! So!
I am intensely interested in The Witcher! You guys all seem to KNOW about these GAMES, so I thought I would ask if I should grab the $5 GOG.com of The Witcher even though I own a lowly Mac! Will my purchase "stick around" long enough for me to get an appropriate gaming rig for it?

I would Bootcamp/Wine/ETC but my computer is running with around a GB of internal memory. I plan on upgrading this myself in a month or two manually, but in the meantime that isn't a option at all. Besides, I doubt that any Mac really has the specs to do the game justice.

Tell me how much I should play The Witcher GAF! Just do it!

The GOG price of $4.99 is a special promo that probably will not stick around after the sequel's release. So, you should certainly grab it if you are even remotely interested in seeing what the game's about.

How much is the game recommended ? When it plays to its strengths, it's comfortably the most refreshing RPG seen in years. Strong writing and dialog, a story that does not treat its audience like children, and morally ambiguous scenarios are but a few reasons why it is so highly recommended around these parts and elsewhere.

That said, certainly wait for the upgrade before firing up the actual game though; the game is like a good book - it takes its time to establish the world and characters before escalating the stakes. You wouldn't want to have slow machine performance negatively affect the rather sedate start of the game.

 

[darkwing]

Hey! So!
I am intensely interested in The Witcher! You guys all seem to KNOW about these GAMES, so I thought I would ask if I should grab the $5 GOG.com of The Witcher even though I own a lowly Mac! Will my purchase "stick around" long enough for me to get an appropriate gaming rig for it?

I would Bootcamp/Wine/ETC but my computer is running with around a GB of internal memory. I plan on upgrading this myself in a month or two manually, but in the meantime that isn't a option at all. Besides, I doubt that any Mac really has the specs to do the game justice.

Tell me how much I should play The Witcher GAF! Just do it!

do it, its $5

 

[Omikaru]

So I just pre-purchased this from GoG.com. Can anyone from EuroGAF who got in on the $16 account credit deal tell me when our accounts get credited? I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later, as I was planning on using it to pick up the first game while it's $5.

 

[Corto]

So I just pre-purchased this from GoG.com. Can anyone from EuroGAF who got in on the $16 account credit deal tell me when our accounts get credited? I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later, as I was planning on using it to pick up the first game while it's $5.

You'll get an email with the confirmation of your pre order and with 3 links. One for you to choose the free game (from a pool of 5), one other to redeem a 5,99$ usd code and a last one to redeem a 9,99$ usd code.

edit: You'll get that email shortly after you finish the transaction. A few minutes...

 

[Minsc]

So I won't have my new motherboard in time for the launch.

What the hell, I ordered the new GTX570 anyway. It won't be nearly as good in my old computer than it be in the new one (building in the next 1-3 weeks) but it'll be a nice improvement over my current 9800GTX.

Yea, that's a pretty sweet GPU upgrade. Should go from medium settings to ultra settings, if you have a quad core CPU.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Its probably a 5 dollars shit mouse with a witcher sticker. If you dont already have a better mouse for your PC, you are doing it wrong.

Thank god I bought last week a G9x logitech mouse, I had a shitty mouse before that and most of the time I wanted to throw it out the window.

 

[Omikaru]

You'll get an email with the confirmation of your pre order and with 3 links. One for you to choose the free game (from a pool of 5), one other to redeem a 5,99$ usd code and a last one to redeem a 9,99$ usd code.

edit: You'll get that email shortly after you finish the transaction. A few minutes...

Hmm, I got that email, but no discount codes on it. Is this valid for the UK?

Edit: Damn, looks like a small technicality is that they're only giving the account credit for people who pay in Euros and AUD, not pounds. A bit crappy, since we're in Europe too, but there you go.

Ah well, can't complain. I got a pretty good deal nonetheless.

 

[raphier]

Which free game on GOG do you guys recommend? I'd like to chosoe between Gothic and Divinity.

 

[Van Buren]

Which free game on GOG do oyu guys recommend? I'd like to chosoe between Gothic and Divinity.

The best RPG on there is Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail, but it might be too hardcore/old-school to recommend to everyone.

Choose Divine Divinity for an interesting Hack&Slash Rpg, or Gothic 2 for the best open world RPG released.

 

[Minsc]

The best RPG on there is Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail, but it might be too hardcore/old-school to recommend to everyone.

Choose Divine Divinity for an interesting Hack&Slash Rpg, or Gothic 2 for the best open world RPG released.

This is a little off-topic, but why do you prefer 2 over the graphically improved and seemingly well-received 3rd one? Some of the write-ups from GOG claim it to be "arguably the best of the Northlands Trilogy." I can confirm to the old-school factor, the Arkania games aren't for most people, and will take a serious commitment to get going with. Then again, I prefer Eye of the Beholder 1 to all the rest, just because I'm most familiar with it, and Lands of Lore to the sequel (but most people would agree there).

 

[Barberetti]

Just got an email from GAME telling me that they've reduced the price of my pre-ordered TW2 Collectors Edition to £69.99. Nice!

 

[Minsc]

New preview from RPGWatch. Highlights:

Story and characters are thrown at the player without much consideration for whether you've played (or remember) the first game.

The journal is written as a true journal - not just a quest log - and you'll need to read it regularly to keep up.

I didn't see the sort of "small garden fence" barriers that frustrated some gamers in the original game. More interesting terrain with a sense of height, allowing Geralt to climb down over rocks to reach a river below, for example

Sometimes you'll find mixed group encounters and I found these hectic and quite difficult; it did look a little silly rolling all over the place to avoid being struck from all directions but it seemed the most effective tactic.

I was particularly impressed when a common monster applied some tactics, rolling to avoid my blows - and then fled when close to death.

From a performance and stability perspective, things looks promising. I played the preview code on a laptop and the performance was passable on High and very good on Medium - I'd say any reasonable gaming rig should be acceptable and for those with high-end hardware, the game looks incredible. At any setting, the fantastic art direction still shines through (note: the screenshots in this article were taken on Medium).

Transitions into buildings took around three seconds and quick-saves were near instantaneous.

There's little doubt The Witcher 2 will be one of the biggest RPGs of the year and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. The combat is improved, the writing is better, there appears to be more choices - and the brooding Eastern European atmosphere is intoxicating. I can't wait to for the release.

The three second transitions to buildings don't surprise me too much, laptops have notoriously slow HDDs, even the better ones. More important is just further confirmation that the engine runs incredibly well, like we've been seeing, and looks great even on medium settings.

I also like how the game just throws you right in to the story, and doesn't waste any time on a recap or awkward flashbacks / references, and the journal being written like a real journal sounds cool too.

Abilities in TW2 are also said to all be much more active, and seemingly more powerful. Being able to pick abilities that all have a drastic, drastic effect on the gameplay (like the ability to dodge, parry, throw knives, use poisons, traps, etc) should keep multiple playthroughs interesting, if you're forced to choose heavily between abilities because of the level cap.

 

[WanderingWind]

This is a little off-topic, but why do you prefer 2 over the graphically improved and seemingly well-received 3rd one? Some of the write-ups from GOG claim it to be "arguably the best of the Northlands Trilogy." I can confirm to the old-school factor, the Arkania games aren't for most people, and will take a serious commitment to get going with. Then again, I prefer Eye of the Beholder 1 to all the rest, just because I'm most familiar with it, and Lands of Lore to the sequel (but most people would agree there).

Gothic 3 was received about as well as Dragon Age II was compared to Baldur's Gate 2. On release it was unplayable due to a basic glitch in the combat system that rendered any hit fatal, as you character couldn't stand up. It still hasn't been patched completely away, either.