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The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings |OT| Plough 'Em All
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Mister_Bubbles
Member
I'm getting the same feeling I had when playing Baldur's Gate II for the first time all those years ago. The little details and the atmosphere are incredible; I'm loving it so far, though I'm playing it on hard and yeah the combat can be bloody unforgiving, especially as I don't think I ever used any signs other than Aard and Igni in either of my Witcher 1 playthroughs. It'll definitely take some adjusting to them being the least useful signs (at least so far).
Graphics-wise, everything's on ultra apart from Ubersampling and it looks gorgeous...
...walking out onto that collapsed bridge with the bells ringing and music striking up absolutely took my breath away.
Right, thanks for indulging my weeks-overdue drooling. Back to it!
Graphics-wise, everything's on ultra apart from Ubersampling and it looks gorgeous...
...walking out onto that collapsed bridge with the bells ringing and music striking up absolutely took my breath away.
Right, thanks for indulging my weeks-overdue drooling. Back to it!
AndersTheSwede said:
This got me the first few times, it's a shockingly poorly designed segment, but once you know how to do it it's silly easy. My problem was after cutting off the tenticles I ended up on the other end and it is no way obvious you're supposed to go the other side and up the bridge, so I'm just trying to hit him more while he tosses boulders at me, it was pretty frustrating. Next time I ended on the side with the bridge and then it was obvious.
I'm surprised to see how many people enjoyed the combat. I beat it going swords, maybe it's better if you go magic, but it was once again a pretty lousy combat system, just lousy in a different way from the first. They tried to ape an action system like Batman AA, but lacked all of its finesse, and it just ends up boring. They way to win fights is to either spam dodge or hold block, that's not fun.
wandering goat
Member
This was probably answered multiple times already, but are there any good videos or descriptions that kind of summarize the first Witcher? I want to know what happened before getting into the second game. With the amount of free time I have and my backlog, I think I'm just skipping the first.
Disagree with you completely. Combat was vastly improved from the first game's "click. click. click." My only problem was early unresponsiveness in combat, mostly fixed by the patches. Sometimes Geralt still has trouble dodging or blocking immediately after the command is made, but it's less of a problem than it was at launch. There are a few combat abilities I think should have been enabled by default (hitting multiple enemies at once, throwing knives, block in all directions), but those aren't a bother after the first few hours.coopolon said:
That said, I did play mage. Quen alleviates a lot of the combat's flaws. At its highest level it is basically god mode. Unresponsive button presses are not that big a deal when you can't be injured.
This game has been my go to game over the past 2 weekends, I just hit chapter 3 last night and called it quits for now.
So far the game has been a joy to play but without some major frustrations. The combat at the beginning was woeful, just fucking awful. The fact that they kept on surrounding you with guys, when the system seems broken for it, just made it all the more frustrating. It's gotten easier as time has gone on but i think that's only due to the fact that they actually started giving you 2 or so enemies at a time. There's very little "getting fucked by a group" going on, which doesn't make much sense at all from a progression standpoint.
The need to roll around like an idiot and block, counter things does kill the feel of the combat. There are times where you are able to swing the mouse around and target enemies, bouncing off them batman AA style but it's usually only on monsters and never humans. With humans it's always a block counter or roll around.
The lag between presses is also frustrating, BLOCK you white haired bastard, yet he refuses. I've had times when everything has just stopped working, the buttons just don't respond, Reload save!
The "boss" encounters are fucking terrible and poorly designed. The first two are just head against the wall designs. I'm shocked at how they totally fucked up the combat in this game because everything else is just so good.
Aside from the combat the game has been a joy to play. Just cruising around, doing side quests, talking shit to people, arm wrestling, owning in the fist fights, taking on monsters 1 by 1 is a joy. I haven't had this much fun in a long long time but the group combat and boss combat is the big let down and can make you hate the game in an instant.
I get the feeling i might finish it up next weekend or i will just cruise along through chapter 3 and get that done leaving the epil for the weekend after.
So far it's my GOTY without question, even though it's got some crazy flaws.
So far the game has been a joy to play but without some major frustrations. The combat at the beginning was woeful, just fucking awful. The fact that they kept on surrounding you with guys, when the system seems broken for it, just made it all the more frustrating. It's gotten easier as time has gone on but i think that's only due to the fact that they actually started giving you 2 or so enemies at a time. There's very little "getting fucked by a group" going on, which doesn't make much sense at all from a progression standpoint.
The need to roll around like an idiot and block, counter things does kill the feel of the combat. There are times where you are able to swing the mouse around and target enemies, bouncing off them batman AA style but it's usually only on monsters and never humans. With humans it's always a block counter or roll around.
The lag between presses is also frustrating, BLOCK you white haired bastard, yet he refuses. I've had times when everything has just stopped working, the buttons just don't respond, Reload save!
The "boss" encounters are fucking terrible and poorly designed. The first two are just head against the wall designs. I'm shocked at how they totally fucked up the combat in this game because everything else is just so good.
Aside from the combat the game has been a joy to play. Just cruising around, doing side quests, talking shit to people, arm wrestling, owning in the fist fights, taking on monsters 1 by 1 is a joy. I haven't had this much fun in a long long time but the group combat and boss combat is the big let down and can make you hate the game in an instant.
I get the feeling i might finish it up next weekend or i will just cruise along through chapter 3 and get that done leaving the epil for the weekend after.
So far it's my GOTY without question, even though it's got some crazy flaws.
DualShadow
Member
evlcookie said:
Chapter 3 is no where near as long as the other chapters, 10hours max. I recommend pushing ahead to at least finish one play through.
I was wondering what other gaf members think of the DOF effect they have in the game? Do most of you disable it or keep it on? I am really torn between liking it and disliking it.
On one hand, the atmosphere it can create during game play gives it a really nice CG look. But conversely, i can't help but feel that they used "too" much DOF in some areas. Case in point, the town Flotsam seems like it has too much DOF, yet the forest outside seem's perfectly fine with it on.
I think perhaps that because the game is 3rd person, it may be harder to control the DOF camera as opposed to a 1st person game? This comparison was brought up because I never had a problem with the DOF effect in Metro 2033.
On one hand, the atmosphere it can create during game play gives it a really nice CG look. But conversely, i can't help but feel that they used "too" much DOF in some areas. Case in point, the town Flotsam seems like it has too much DOF, yet the forest outside seem's perfectly fine with it on.
I think perhaps that because the game is 3rd person, it may be harder to control the DOF camera as opposed to a 1st person game? This comparison was brought up because I never had a problem with the DOF effect in Metro 2033.
Saren is Bad
Member
Asked this question in the performance thread but it's nearly a ghost town. Would appreciate any advice.
"I've been reading up on SLI performance, and am still confused. Changed the SLI flag and got excellent performance but had the light issue. Without the SLI flag I can't even get 60fps lock (no uber) with GTX580 SLI and 4.5Ghz 2600k.
Is still the best course of action to do the SLI flag and change the frame render in the nVidia control panel?"
"I've been reading up on SLI performance, and am still confused. Changed the SLI flag and got excellent performance but had the light issue. Without the SLI flag I can't even get 60fps lock (no uber) with GTX580 SLI and 4.5Ghz 2600k.
Is still the best course of action to do the SLI flag and change the frame render in the nVidia control panel?"
I knew i needed vigor to block but since i rarely use signs, I don't think that's causing the odd lag i feel when trying to block.
Hearing that chapter 3 is only about 10 hours, It's safe to say it might take me 20 to get through it all then. I seem to be really taking my time with this game, just going back and forward over things, checking every inch possible.
Hearing that chapter 3 is only about 10 hours, It's safe to say it might take me 20 to get through it all then. I seem to be really taking my time with this game, just going back and forward over things, checking every inch possible.
Burning Man
Neo Member
I just dodge, roll, run a bit, cast Yrden, run a bit more, pause, run in the opposite direction.
A lot of running, basically. Hardly any real fighting.
A lot of running, basically. Hardly any real fighting.
Burning Man
Neo Member
Zzoram said:
Witcher wiki is your friend, but to answer the q Yrden casts a trap on the ground that harms anyone who walks over it. Cast it where you are, run forward, have enemy follow you and run into aforementioned trap. Wait a bit if you need mana to replenish, rinse, repeat.
Zzoram said:
The game is really bad at telling you what the signs do, altough IIRC after you cast a sign there is a little tutorial window that tell you what it does.
But I an see how it would be frustrating for a new player seeing all this stuff in the combat menu and not knowing wtf any of it is.
it doesn't let you block when you're not out of previous move. And it doesn't let you make another move until the animation of the previous one is over. Combat is effectively turn-based, you SHOULDN'T mash buttons. But people don't get it. Also they don't get that using heavy blows makes a huge difference. They don't get what signs you need to use when there are more than 3 human enemies. Also bombs. And so on.
They should include a tutorial in the next game. "Young Geralt learns how to hold his sword!" and so on.
They should include a tutorial in the next game. "Young Geralt learns how to hold his sword!" and so on.
Zzoram said:
Well, you can't use a lot of moves with other weapons as Geralt is trained for swordfighting + if some other weapons have more damage than your sword, it's time to change (or upgrade) your sword.
and no, you can't remove them.
Zzoram said:
well, you have a tutorial for armwrestling with Zoltan. You should stay inside the slider by moving your mouse or stick, that's pretty easy.
As for dice refer to your manual, rules are explained there.
I remember how RDR tried to teach me to play poker.... not successfully. But poker dice are easier than poker.
â Narayan
Member
Didn't the last patch remove blocking's reliance on vigor?Yurt said:
DualShadow
Member
Zzoram said:
The icon in the middle of the slider is your cursor, it will probably take you few times to get the feel for it.
toastyToast
Member
Nah, it takes half now and recharges pretty fast. Plus if you block once you're still able the expend the vigor point with a sign.
wandering goat
Member
Started playing today. Got to the first chapter and called it a night, having a lot of fun so far. I played up until Chapter 2 of the original Witcher and I'm glad, since there's a lot of names being dropped and I can at least somewhat keep up (eg. Scoia-tael).
I did end up getting all the way up to the part where you
before I realized you had a bunch of signs other than Aard already available. That made fighting groups easier - I must have died like 5 times near the beginning where you have to
.
I'm liking, even so early on, how your decisions change up the game. Both
have had some effects. And man, this game is so gorgeous. It can stutter a bit with my 6850, but it's up to the task for the most part. After finishing, I could just feel how much warmer my room got from all my HW being pushed!
I did end up getting all the way up to the part where you
infiltrate the monastery
fire the trebuchet at the gate
I'm liking, even so early on, how your decisions change up the game. Both
dueling that elder son and talking sense into Newboy
Zzoram said:
yes. DON'T spam heavy attacks, if you click fast they won't come faster. Use heavy attacks after fast attacks building up combo. The best use of heavy attacks is when an enemy is stunned (or just pushed away by fast attacks).
Although I have the game since the release date I didn't really have time to play it until recently.
Completed chapter 1 yesterday, including all sidequests and sigh, are those glitches annoying. Enemies that just stand there, health bars not displaying, NPC that should walk but stay still. And here I thought that those 2 patches will resolve bugs like that.
Still, exploration aside (the "corridors" in the forest were a bit too narrow in my opinion) this game is just soo much better than the first part. Go Polish devs!
Completed chapter 1 yesterday, including all sidequests and sigh, are those glitches annoying. Enemies that just stand there, health bars not displaying, NPC that should walk but stay still. And here I thought that those 2 patches will resolve bugs like that.
Still, exploration aside (the "corridors" in the forest were a bit too narrow in my opinion) this game is just soo much better than the first part. Go Polish devs!
You can always use the alt key to lock on to a specific enemy.Zzoram said:
subversus said:
I didn't invest in alchemy, and it might be different if you do, but by the end of the game the bombs and traps were woefully underpowered against the creatures/soldiers I was fighting vs. just hitting them with my sword. And the status effects weren't at all necessary since it's so easy to just hold block and then counter or spam dodge to get behind them.
And I also was pretty disappointed in the potions. I understand that they were trying to make it have more depth by creating down sides to a lot of the potions, and also streamline it by making the entire process automated to the point where you hardly every interact with the ingredients unless you really want to, but I found that whenever there was a challenging fight the best solution was just chug a swallow, rook, and tawny owl and the fight became ridiculously easy. Maybe that gets better on the harder difficulties. And it's true that having to worry about alchemy bases in the first game sucked, figuring out secondary substances and which effect you wanted in the first game was actually pretty cool and I really missed it in this game.
nismogrendel
Member
I just changed from a 1920x1200 high performance config to a 2560x1600 pretty config. The game is running pretty good except it has slow down at the beginning of conversations sometimes.
I just talked to a merchant and it was dropping frames during the beginning of the conversation. When I opened the menu to trade the mouse cursor was sluggish and choppy. I hit esc and restarted the conversation and it was still laggy. I restarted it a third time and it was smooth.
Anyone else had this problem?
I just talked to a merchant and it was dropping frames during the beginning of the conversation. When I opened the menu to trade the mouse cursor was sluggish and choppy. I hit esc and restarted the conversation and it was still laggy. I restarted it a third time and it was smooth.
Anyone else had this problem?
Anton Sugar
Member
Zzoram said:
It's harder at first, but I generally find you can find your own "flow" to combat. Changing your targets/stunning opponents rapidly is the best way to manage multiple opponent combat.
Also ROLL TO SAFETY
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