Lexx

Finished it. I think I needed approx 30 to 40 hours and it was fun. So for me it was worth the money that I've spend on it. The ending wasn't as bad as I've imagined after all the chatting from other folks. Also it is true that chapter 3 is very short. But I'll have to say that I like it that way- The chapter has a very tense and "hurry up!"-feeling. So adding more fillerstuff in here would have just ended badly and annoying. Can't say much about the choice & consequence now. The game definitive has a lot of it, but I am not sure how big the impact is. Guess I'll have to play the game again, at least once. The game really was hard. The hardest game I've played since years. At the end of chapter 1 I've actually switched from "normal" to "easy" because I just couldn't stand all that reloading anymore. :> Though, I think the game is much better on "normal," when you have to prepare better- oils and potions, etc. But this also requires a deeper need of research *and* luck. I've tried hard, but often I couldn't figure out what enemies I might face in the next step, so I couldn't really prepare for that... and then you simply fail, as the enemy is pwning you like the whimp you are. On easy-mode, you barely need anything of that- like in Witcher 1, a sword and lots of jumping and clicking is enough, which is a bit sad. Graphics are nice. The area that was stressing my computer the most was the forest in Floatsam. Everything after this was running pretty good, with only some stuttering when the game was loading the next part of an area and textures. The gameworld has a really nice atmosphere and the sound / ambient music is really great too. It's just strange that you hear dogs and ducks and stuff here and there, but never see any (or maybe I am just blind... at least *I* never saw any). Last but not least, the obvious: Generally I think Witcher 2 is a great game. Cinematic and story-driven, which also makes it look pretty linear in times, though. Don't expect the next super fancy big roleplaying game when playing Witcher 2, because it just isn't. Feels to me more like a better Mass Effect.... But here again, I don't see anything bad in it. It's just how it is.

Hope that CDP will release some mod tools anytime soon. I am tensed to do something. :>

I don't have anything against it as well. I just wished it wouldn't have been thrown in just like that, without explanation.

Yeh, like the second game more as well. Especially because I stopped the first game in the swamps. :> But Witcher 2 also has some elements that feel unneeded for me. As example,

I've managed it after turning the game back to "easy" - in normal, they pwnd me like the last boss monster I've killed. You shouldn't go to that house if you are right in the beginning of Chapter 2, I'll guess. Better get some better gear first. There are various new armor and weapon sets to be obtained, which can help quite a lot. I think tomorrow I will have finished Chapter 2. So far the game is still fun to play and damn, it even punished me in some quests because I've been unwary and full of generic rpg cliches. Often things seem to become not what one wanted it to be, that's why I am now much more careful in my choices.

I know that my ironman playthrough would end after 5 minutes. :> Switched to "easy" now as well. The last two boss fights both required me to reload a ****load of times and I just couldn't stand it anymore. It's pretty annoying that I can beat every mob in the gameworld but as soon as there comes a boss-like battle, I can't see land anymore and get pwned without any mercy.

Can't edit my old post anymore, so I do some horrible double post. :> I've finally finished Honest Hearts now. Despite the thin story and the fetch-quests, I like it quite a lot. Needed approx 7 to 8 hours (with exploring, not plain-quest time), which is roughly the same time I needed for Dead Money. I like the gameworld, the exploration and the new stuff that was added. There could be more dialog in the DLC, but beside this it was fine for me. It's obviously that HH is made with exploration in mind and I don't mind that. It's quite a lot different than Dead Money and I don't think it's a problem if not everyone likes every DLC, as they differ a lot in style and all. I am pretty sure that the next two DLCs will feel a lot different as well, with a totally different subject (my wild guess: Old World Blues will be more about scientific things and technological item crafting). Graphic-wise I like Zion as well. Now after playing HH for a few hours, I find the Mojave to be pretty drab, heh. I liked the endgame-slides too. This time there was more text and more slides than in Dead Money. What I didn't liked was the part after that: You are teleported in front of the cave that leads back to the Mojave and in front of you is the locker with Daniel and Grahams items. Sawyer said that this is a gift of the two-- but I really wished the game would have said that as well. Either in a mini-dialog where one NPC says "yadda-yadda thanks for ye help, here take that turf!" or even if it would have been just a simple letter with the text "Thanks, here some stuff -Daniel / Graham" on the footlocker. I would have felt more happy about it. So much about it... For me, HH is worth the 10 euro.

I didn't know that you get it from that npc. Especially because I didn't saw him anymore later anyway. Just found him again later by accident, because I've waited some hours (then he showed up again on the old spot).

If it just wouldn't eat up grenades that fast. :> /Edit: Heh, that's pretty much what's missing. A White Leg with a grenade machinegun. It's tempting to create a modification for this...

Damnit, was searching like forever to find formular stuff for grapeshot bombs until I finally found out where to look (thanks internet). That was a pretty non-obvious scene, which could have needed at least a little ingame-hint. Also, does someone know how exactly that mutagen stuff works? I know that I can add them to some skills in the character screen, but how exactly do they work then? Only if the skill where one has been added is somehow active or activated or do they work always? Feels a bit strange to add some regeneration and poison and whatever mutagen to a skill that allowes Geralt to block arrows.

Does someone know if it's possible to disable the million videos that run on gamestart? I don't want to hammer esc button all the time.

I'll agree on that. Now it feels like you really have to prepare for a combat-- doing research, preparing the equipment, etc. Not just running up to the foe, kicking the sword.

Yeah, I wonder what's going on with the mouse in there. It doesn't seem to be a performance problem, though. Maybe the wobbly controls are done on purpose?

Heh, is it true that if you play on easy, the girls in the game ignore Geralt and make mocking comments when his back is turned?

After Dead Money, you can talk with Veronica about Father Elijah, if you found some letter stuff. Honest Hearts has no influence on the main game, as far as I know.

Hm. Possible that it crashs on area loading only because of autosave? I'll guess it's worth a try. Will check it out this evening, if I can find the time.

Heh, was the same by me. Game crashed and I switched over to Witcher 2. At this speed, it will take a while until I am done with the DLC.

Yep, enemie equipment is scalled by level. Few folks said that it is stupid to see tribals with Anti-Materiel Rifle and stuff, but I actually like this. Removes at least *a little bit* of cliche tribals and makes them more of a serious treat (like the story is making them to). It's also ok-ish explained in the game, why this happens, so I don't really mind.

Continued playing today in chapter 1. Didn't had much time, but I noticed that the game runs smooth in the forest as well (someone mentioned it kicked down his fps). Loading times are a bit longer there, though. Got myself a new silver sword and learned how to craft stuff, so I am getting better with the general game controls as well. What I found a bit annoying was a group of bandits very close to an "open" loading zone in the forest. I've been running up to them, new zone loads, I am attacking, they attack me, so I'll run away... into the loading zone, when the loading is done, I noticed that the bandits are walking away again, so I follow them... into the loading zone again. This happened like 3 or 4 times until I've killed them. A bit badly placed, that mobs.

Yeah, pretty funny. Dead Money was too hard and linear. Wonder what the general public will say about Old World Blues then.

I've updated my No Dialog Tags mod with a file for Honest Hearts. Wasn't much text to edit this time, with just very few skill checks.

I like it so far, I am only in the beginning yet, though. For me it was worth the money already now, despite of a few annoying flaws. Will most likely write something bigger and deeper about it when I've finished it.

But someone is WRONG on the internet! :>

lolz, had exactly the same problem and didn't noticed it. It's because that dude shoot at me... at least it looked like that, so my reflex was to send some ammo into his head. I only noticed this 10 minutes later because of my quest arrow that pointed to a task from which I heard nothing about. It just made no sense to me, so I restarted... Second time I nearly killed him again, because *again* it looked like he is shooting at me. Then he opened the dialog screen and all was clear for me. Good that I still had an autosave-- because I forgot to make a real savepoint before starting the dlc. What I find uber annoying is Grahams looping animation on the weapon table. As you can't even see him talking (because you can't see his mouth), it looks so unreal and annoying... The same animation over and over again while you hear someone talking. The beginning was really good, though. The background information on the tribes, etc. The 80s, White Legs and so on. This is what I like, I want more background information on everything. :> /Edit: Btw. I've created the ending slides text page on The Vault wiki already. HH has lots of more (end)text and slides than DM, which is also pretty cool. /Edit

Finished the prologue now and entered chapter 1. Was fun so far, but 100% linear- hope the world will open up now. I think until now I played approx 4 or 5 hours.