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[Ceebs]

God damn this retail install is FUCKED. After fucking extracting with poweriso and then launching from a virtual drive im still getting crc errors. Good news is hitting 'retry' seems to continue progress so the errors seem kinda random.

This is a disaster on their part.

I know it's probably not the ideal solution, but perhaps you could get it installed by downloading a one of the shady versions of the game and use that just to install, and simply use your legitimate CD key to activate as normal.

 

[Kyaw]

I remember struggling mightily with the combat in the original Witcher. I didn't read the manual either but this time around everything just felt like old hat since I knew what skills were at his disposal. Am I the only one who feels this way?

BTW, can you sell formulas and books once you've read them? Or do you not retain the knowledge? I remember in the first one, you can just sell them once you've read them..

Yeah i want to know this too. They don't really weigh anything though so its not much of a problem.

 

[Darklord]

Sigh. Still no reply from support. Can you do the troll DLC anytime or is it in a set place? I can't register my game so I can't get the DLC until support helps me.

 

[Salaadin]

Is there a Dice Poker questline in this that I havent come across yet? Is this activated at the inn?

EDIT:Found it.

 

[NIN90]

OK, time to be hated and scorned (or ignored), by the vast majority of a thread.

I have had very little free time, so I'm at the beginning of chapter 1, just got to Flotsam. I have to ask... does the corridor shooter/God of War FUCKING END?
Poorly done uninteresting QTEs, spam mouse button to turn levers, timed waves of enemies while turning said levers, point A to B to C led by the nose, what the fuck ??

If any other game had gone from a paragon of PC RPGs to this there would've been an uproar, I really believe this. The graphics are out of this world, the atmosphere insane, the combat great so far, the story seems to be very interesting, but does this style of play end?

Is it that I've been going through a console style tutorial so far? Do I get to experience the RPG part from now on? Please tell me that it is so.

I actually bought both the digital version from gog.com and the retail collector's. I loved the Witcher to death. I'm playing amidst a Geralt head on the desk, a map of the game on the wall, and the glorious box atop a shelf.

The Witcher 1's prologue was EXACTLY like that too.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Sigh. Still no reply from support. Can you do the troll DLC anytime or is it in a set place? I can't register my game so I can't get the DLC until support helps me.

The DLC takes place during Chapter 1.

Yeah i want to know this too. They don't really weigh anything though so its not much of a problem.

I don't think you can sell the formulas. They need to fix that in the patch, along with FUCKING NUMBER ON TRAPS/BOMBS IN QUICK SELECTION BAR!!!

 

[Kyaw]

Sigh. Still no reply from support. Can you do the troll DLC anytime or is it in a set place? I can't register my game so I can't get the DLC until support helps me.

The troll DLC is a tiny side quest. Stop sweating so much on it and enjoy the game.
You can load the save up later and do the quest if you want but you can't come back to the Chapter 1 area once you are in Chapter 2.

 

[Minsc]

The Witcher 1's prologue was EXACTLY like that too.

Even had to pull levers and open and close gates, timed waves of enemies and all

 

[HeadlessRoland]

I've been playing on hard and have died roughly 8 times and I'm mostly done with Act 1.

Do you pause and reload the instant before you die? If not I would have to claim you are full of shit. You have gone from prologue to chapter 2 on hard with 8 deaths? I have a hard time fathoming if this is even possible let alone with the current random bugginess. Did it take you 30 hours? With a guide? And you had also tested previous versions of the game?

 

[NIN90]

What's up with the monk in Flotsam's tavern?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Do you pause and reload the instant before you die? If not I would have to claim you are full of shit. You have gone from prologue to chapter 2 on hard with 8 deaths? I have a hard time fathoming if this is even possible let alone with the current random bugginess. Did it take you 30 hours? With a guide? And you had also tested previous versions of the game?

I've only died in combat twice on normal in the ten hours or so I've been playing. It doesn't seem that outlandish if you know what you're doing. One of those deaths was due to me getting cornered by those arachnid monsters in the forest and being unable to move or do anything.

 

[Kyaw]

Did you guys accept the testing thing where these two guys ask you to show up in Vizima in two years time?

 

[Tokubetsu]

I'm pretty sure this is the greatest game ever made. You know when you were playing those top down rpgs in the early naughts and you started imagining what those rpgs would look and feel like ten years from now? This is the game you were imagining. Oh Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

 

[JWong]

Did you guys accept the testing thing where these two guys ask you to show up in Vizima in two years time?

I said no... I wish it wouldn't just end there if I decided to go for it afterwards.

 

[Spookie]

Man this game must have one of the worst launchers I've ever encounters. What do you mean invalid key you piece of shit. I just set you to admin then restarted because you wouldn't install the free DLC.

Christ. So much work they should have just let me download it separately or, even better, PUT IT ON THE FUCKING DISC.

 

[Zeliard]

Do you pause and reload the instant before you die? If not I would have to claim you are full of shit. You have gone from prologue to chapter 2 on hard with 8 deaths? I have a hard time fathoming if this is even possible let alone with the current random bugginess. Did it take you 30 hours? With a guide? And you had also tested previous versions of the game?

I'm a good bit into Chapter 1 playing on Hard and probably 95% of my deaths so far came during the dragon section of the prologue. Given that combat essentially becomes easier as you get used to the combat and get more abilities, 8 deaths up to Chapter 2 isn't exactly hard to believe.

Hard can pretty tough at the start but it's more than manageable if you use the many tools you have at your disposal. I basically use everything in one way or another, dodging, alchemy, signs, daggers, bombs, traps, and good ol' fashioned swordplay.

 

[NIN90]

Did you guys accept the testing thing where these two guys ask you to show up in Vizima in two years time?

Yeah but I found it pretty strange that they didn't hand me anything to test?

I was like "Yeah sure ima test your stuff" and they were like "Cool. Laters!" and walked off.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

I've only died in combat twice on normal in the ten hours or so I've been playing. It doesn't seem that outlandish if you know what you're doing. One of those deaths was due to me getting cornered by those arachnid monsters in the forest and being unable to move or do anything.

Hard is an order of magnitude more difficult than normal. Just about any mob in the game can instant gib you on hard. You can die instantly while making no mistakes...repeatedly. I would be fairly impressed if someone defeated the prologue alone on hard without dying half a dozen times.

I'm a good bit into Chapter 1 playing on Hard and probably 95% of my deaths so far came during the dragon section of the prologue.

That other 5% is exponentially more deaths. I am pretty adept at games especially THESE games and it took me a dozen deaths to kill the two queens. And most of those deaths were AFTER I had min/maxed every aspect of battle. You die instantly from mistakes.

Edit: Not to mention a cheap boss fight where it kills you in two hits, kills you if you mess up a QTE or just kills you because what the hell why not.

Seriously just the QTE and general "random" bugginess guarantees legions of deaths on hard.

 

[Kyaw]

Yeah but I found it pretty strange that they didn't hand me anything to test?

I was like "Yeah sure ima test your stuff" and they were like "Cool. Laters!" and walked off.

Looks like we will find out in The Witcher 3.

Also gotta remove my Blue Stripes tattoo. That part was silly. ><

 

[Lostconfused]

I'm a good bit into Chapter 1 playing on Hard and probably 95% of my deaths so far came during the dragon section of the prologue. Given that combat essentially becomes easier as you get used to the combat and get more abilities, 8 deaths up to Chapter 2 isn't exactly hard to believe.

I find it hard to believe. Because the enemies get much harder in chapter 1 than anything in the prologue. The game doesn't get easier just because you get one more level.

Edit: Not to mention a cheap boss fight where it kills you in two hits, kills you if you mess up a QTE or just kills you because what the hell why not.

 

[Fox318]

What's up with the monk in Flotsam's tavern?

GOG restart/reboot monk reference.

 

[Blizzard]

I could have sworn that I checked to see if I had any potions before the dragon bridge at the very very start of the game, but I guess maybe I just overlooked them? Or is the key to not play that part of the prologue first? Having a swallow potion would probably have made me not have to die like 10-20 times on normal on that bridge.

I think I've only used a swallow potion once in game, actually on another prologue part. Weird question about the behavior of that. Since taking the swallow potion, I seemed to hardly take any damage, ouen (sp?) sign or not. Even after the swallow potion wore off, I hardly seemed to take any damage. I'll have to doublecheck and make sure I didn't accidentally turn the difficulty down to easy, but is there anything weird where you stop taking much damage? Earlier in the prologue, I would die to 2-4 hits from most anyone with a sword, but now I just see this weird red border at the edges of the screen occasionally and my health stays high. I just turned level 2 and got the +10 vitality, plus I found some gauntlets, but those shouldn't make much of a difference I assume.

 

[Exuro]

I find it hard to believe. Because the enemies get much harder in chapter 1 than anything in the prologue. The game doesn't get easier just because you get one more level.

After chapter 1 it gets a lot easier. Getting talents in combat decreases the difficulty drastically. I honestly think they need to buff the mobs in the later chapters.

 

[Kyaw]

Has anyone figured out how exactly reposte work?

I can never get the reposte sign/signal to come up just before the guy hit me while i'm blocking.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

After chapter 1 it gets a lot easier. Getting talents in combat decreases the difficulty drastically. I honestly think they need to buff the mobs in the later chapters.

Dude the queen bugs? The first encounter with wraiths? There is no "outsmarting" shit you have to die to learn.

 

[Zeliard]

I find it hard to believe. Because the enemies get much harder in chapter 1 than anything in the prologue. The game doesn't get easier just because you get one more level.

Doesn't feel that way to me. Once you get some of the dodging and parrying upgrades your defensive abilities are increased substantially. It's not that the enemies don't get tougher, it's that the talents you unlock as you level up can be pretty significant.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

Doesn't feel that way to me. Once you get some of the dodging and parrying upgrades your defensive abilities are increased substantially. It's not that the enemies don't get tougher, it's that the talents you unlock as you level up can be pretty significant.

I think the fact you turn the difficulty down for the hard parts is more pertinent to the results.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Hard is an order of magnitude more difficult than normal. Just about any mob in the game can instant gib you on hard. You can die instantly while making no mistakes...repeatedly. I would be fairly impressed if someone defeated the prologue alone on hard without dying half a dozen times.



That other 5% is exponentially more deaths. I am pretty adept at games especially THESE games and it took me a dozen deaths to kill the two queens. And most of those deaths were AFTER I had min/maxed every aspect of battle. You die instantly from mistakes.

I haven't tried hard yet, so I can't speak to that, but what is different? Is it just damage/health, or do enemies move faster, too? Now that I'm used to the combat system and have my dodge move at level 2, I barely ever get hit by most enemies anymore. The queens you mentioned never touched me.

If rolling around and getting behind monsters is more difficult on Hard, then I could understand, but if it's just more damage/health, then I doubt I'll have many problems.

 

[Facism]

flicking through the walkthrough, apparently Act 2 has different flow and story depending on what choices you made in act 1. Definately a replay sometime, then

 

[Zeliard]

I think the fact you turn the difficulty down for the hard parts is more pertinent to the results.

The what?

 

[Exuro]

Dude the queen bugs? The first encounter with wraiths? There is no "outsmarting" shit you have to die to learn.

Queens are slow and easy to evade. Wraiths are hard early on but later they're not so much of a menace. Even the Arachas becomes easy. Only thing I found hard after chapter 1 were bosses.

flicking through the walkthrough, apparently Act 2 has different flow and story depending on what choices you made in act 1. Definately a replay sometime, then

Yeah I'm going to start a hard difficulty run with choices that'll lead me here in a few. Looks like there will be quite a few differences.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Man this game must have one of the worst launchers I've ever encounters. What do you mean invalid key you piece of shit. I just set you to admin then restarted because you wouldn't install the free DLC.

Christ. So much work they should have just let me download it separately or, even better, PUT IT ON THE FUCKING DISC.

Really? I got it on GOG.com and the thing worked flawlessly for me on launch day. I pasted my key from my email, filled out the fields to register, and downloaded and installed the available content.

 

[Lostconfused]

Doesn't feel that way to me. Once you get some of the dodging and parrying upgrades your defensive abilities are increased substantially. It's not that the enemies don't get tougher, it's that the talents you unlock as you level up can be pretty significant.

Well you run into enemies that can two shot you before you can even unlock those talents. Rolling away is actually a bad idea if you don't have it upgraded because you apparently don't have invincible frames while rolling and you are rolling away from an enemy you get hit in the back which doubles the damage.

Has anyone figured out how exactly reposte work?

I can never get the reposte sign/signal to come up just before the guy hit me while i'm blocking.

The sign comes up before the attack animation, its very brief a second at most, although the timing is a bit loose on that. Also I don't think it comes up for every attack.

 

[poisonelf]

The Witcher 1's prologue was EXACTLY like that too.

Hey, no.

Witcher 1's prologue was definitely shorter, and while it had hand holding and going from A to B, there were no QTEs or mouse button spamming. Not to mention a tactical view.

But anyway, as it turns out I panic easily, it had to do with going through the first parts of Witcher 2 too slowly so I thought a significant part of it would be like this. My fault.

I already explore around the most living town I've seen in a game and I'm starting to adore this game.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Dude the queen bugs? The first encounter with wraiths? There is no "outsmarting" shit you have to die to learn.

Wraiths appear in groups of two. Yrden one, kill the other with your sword. Use Spectre Oil.

Queen Bug charges you and leaves her booty exposed (just like the regular bugs so you really should have expected it at that point). Dodge her charge and slash her arse to pieces. Use Insect Oil.

Basically use your brain.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

I haven't tried hard yet, so I can't speak to that, but what is different?

Sorry was confusing you and the other guy with a Z name, haha. I haven't really broken it down to compare been playing it on hard. It took me about 15-20 minutes alone to kill one queen beetle after min/maxing EVERYTHING for the fight. Probably about an hour or two in total (I was level 4-5 at the time).

HP's the damage they cause and usage of special effects all differ with difficulty. I am uncertain if aggressiveness/tactics also change.

Wraiths appear in groups of two. Yrden one, kill the other with your sword. Use Spectre Oil.

Yeah its amazing what one learns after they have completed something. I mean the instant a wraith appeared for the first time I instantly knew they come in pairs and mind controlling one is about the only way not to die in 2 seconds! I just puzzled that out like batman in the .5 seconds I had before they attacked.

 

[scorpscarx]

Just wanted to let you guys know that the downloadable soundtrack that came with the Steam version are all high quality lossless files, not mp3's, so nice.

It's 737mb's in total.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Sorry was confusing you and the other guy with a Z name, haha. I haven't really broken it down to compare been playing it on hard. It took me about 15-20 minutes alone to kill one queen beetle after min/maxing EVERYTHING for the fight. Probably about an hour or two in total (I was level 4-5 at the time).

HP's the damage they cause and usage of special effects all differ with difficulty. I am uncertain if aggressiveness/tactics also change.

Okay. I haven't tried hard, but on normal at least, you can relatively easily just roll around the back of the queens and chop the shit out of them. I didn't get hit once by either of them. Of course, I had 1 talent spent on my dodge roll at that point, so I imagine it's harder at level 4-5.

 

[RedSwirl]

The first time I saw those worm scorpion things show up in the Flotsam forest I was simultaneously all like "Aw hell naw I ain't fighting those!," and "holy shit look at the detail on those enemies!"

When a game has graphics this good, there's just something that makes everything else that much more awesome.

 

[Hixx]

The first time I saw those worm scorpion things show up in the Flotsam forest I was simultaneously all like "Aw hell naw I ain't fighting those!," and "holy shit look at the detail on those enemies!"

When a game has graphics this good, there's just something that makes everything else that much more awesome.

Those scorpion enemies are so weird. It's like they are just there for you to hit cos even when there's a few of them they very rarely attack :/

 

[Lostconfused]

Wraiths appear in groups of two. Yrden one, kill the other with your sword. Use Spectre Oil.

Or just use Quen and mash light attack until they die.

Its really not about "Using your brain" but rather trying a bunch of different things and finding the one that works for you.

 

[Vestal]

Queens are slow and easy to evade. Wraiths are hard early on but later they're not so much of a menace. Even the Arachas becomes easy. Only thing I found hard after chapter 1 were bosses.


Yeah I'm going to start a hard difficulty run with choices that'll lead me here in a few. Looks like there will be quite a few differences.

The wraiths can be easy but you have to learn how to kill them.. Aslong as you can keep them apart from each other you are golden.

As for the Queen, they are a bitch.. LONG ass fight and it gets worse when one of its friends shows up to help her. Queens just do too much damage, basically chewing through Quen in 1 hit.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Some talents are a must i.e. dodge, others don't work so well i.e. Riposte. Then again Swordmanship tree is still heavily favored, makes sense with Geralt having two swords.

 

[Zeliard]

Well you run into enemies that can two shot you before you can even unlock those talents. Rolling away is actually a bad idea if you don't have it upgraded because you apparently don't have invincible frames while rolling and you are rolling away from an enemy you get hit in the back which doubles the damage.

You can get hit while rolling, which is why you have to time it properly. Roll away while an enemy is in the act of swinging, for example. I try to always stay moving so I'm never surrounded. Rolling has worked beautifully for me as both a defensive and offensive move. I use it all the time to get into backstab range. The +100% rolling distance upgrade you can get once you hit level 8 or so is also huge.

Bombs and traps decimate enemies in this game even on Hard, at least up to the Chapter 1 mobs. People who die all the time are probably just ignoring those parts of the combat.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

Bombs and traps decimate enemies in this game even on Hard, at least up to the Chapter 1 mobs. People who die all the time are probably just ignoring those parts of the combat.

No people who die all the time aren't turning down the difficulty when it gets hard, haha.

 

[Exuro]

The wraiths can be easy but you have to learn how to kill them.. Aslong as you can keep them apart from each other you are golden.

As for the Queen, they are a bitch.. LONG ass fight and it gets worse when one of its friends shows up to help her. Queens just do too much damage, basically chewing through Quen in 1 hit.

And that's great but these are things from chapter 1. I never said chapter 1 was easy. The rest of the game gets much easier which I find a little disappointing.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

Or just use Quen and mash light attack until they die.

Its really not about "Using your brain" but rather trying a bunch of different things and finding the one that works for you.

Thats how you defeated the first wraths on hard?

 

[Zeliard]

No people who die all the time aren't turning down the difficulty when it gets hard, haha.

Poor guy. Has your ego been shattered?

 

[Lostconfused]

People who die all the time are probably just ignoring those parts of the combat.

Geralt dies in a few hits. Its really easy to die if you let your guard down for a second.

Thats how you defeated the first wraths on hard?

No, I am playing on normal. But yes Quen and mashing X non stop on my controller is how I handled all the wraiths.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Yeah its amazing what one learns after they have completed something. I mean the instant a wraith appeared for the first time I instantly knew they come in pairs and mind controlling one is about the only way not to die in 2 seconds! I just puzzled that out like batman in the .5 seconds I had before they attacked.

First off, Yrden is the trap sign, not the mind-control one. Second, the game makes it clear straight up that fighting groups of enemies will get you killed so you should have immediately started thinking about how to remove the second wraith so that you could take them down one at a time. Given that your primary CC is Yrden it's really not a stretch to assume that would be the most effective approach.

Or just use Quen like Lostconfused said. You don't need to die to figure it out, you need to use some common-sense.