HoonDing

Imprisonment disagrees. No loot says you're wrong. Depends. A solo sorcerer for instance doesn't really need loot, save Staff of Magi & Robe of Vecna. It's quite satisfying running around untouchable and owning everything with one spell. Of course, all the major enemies are immune to Imprisonment (save Yaga-Shura).

Since save is made at -4 penalty, you'd have to be damn lucky to save without Chaotic Commands. Things is, I don't think it's even possible to get Chaotic Commands in BG1.

That's what you get for trusting an Elf.

I wonder who at CD Projekt thought it was a good idea to scatter 30+ snare traps in the woods outside Flotsam. Each snare trap does 40-50 damage... pile enough of them on top of each other and you can cheese everything.

Imprisonment disagrees.

Ves' tight ass and the general badassery of the Blue Stripes, combined with the Scoia'tael's continued pathethic-ness, made the choice pretty easy for me. Only likable Elf in Witcher setting is Toruviel, and unfortunately she's dead in my game.

In Oblivion one didn't have to read an item description via a 5 second autocue each time, let alone use different buttons to open, navigate and close it. The UI is almost as worse as Alpha Protocol.

I'm sure you can kill everything in the game by using Quen, dodging & spamming the appropriate bombs. Samum for crowd control, and then a dragon dream or grapeshot. Or just put Conflagration traps in plain sight and let the retarded enemies walk over them. Since there's so much crap scattered about everywhere, crafting is not exactly a problem either. Basically a "Green Goblin" Geralt, which would make a rather hilarious playthrough. Maybe I'll try it on a second playthrough. I'm focusing on swordsmanship, but the combat is pretty terrible.

It seems the closest we'll ever get is Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I'm starting to think... how hard would a Insane run be for a magic/alchemy Geralt focusing on traps and bombs? Do enemies have higher resistances on higher difficulties?

CONE OF COLD! Worst damage spell ever.

In the Witcher setting, a lot of scientific and medical knowledge went awol during the revolt on Thanedd island prior to the war with Nilfgaard, when the majority of sorcerers & sorceresses in the North were killed. There's a codex entry in TW1 about the most talented healers being mages who develop vaccines and such, but at the time of the game there doesn't seem to be any left. Catriona's plague in Vizima for instance, has no vaccine nor is anyone even researching it. At the time of the Witcher, there's basically only the Lodge of Sorceresses (about 10-15 female mages), some male court mages and a couple of rogue sorcerers left. And most of these seem to be more worried about political intrigue and advancing their own power rather than scientific research. The situation in Nilfgaard might be wholly different. I'm guessing this area is much more advanced and civilized, but also keeping a tight rein on mages.

Someone at CD Projekt failed biology class.

Witcher setting is fair game, Sapkowski doesn't give a damn about what CD Projekt does with it. He wasn't involved in development at all, unlike the first game where he supposedly gave a few pointers on the story. The game is about the eternal loser/anti-hero who gets drawn into world-changing events against his will, and no matter his choices everything goes to ****, all he can do is merely delaying the inevitable. It's almost Elric of Melnibon

Blasphemy, BW is just doing away with all those unnecessary things like: continuity, suspension of disbelief, plot, conflict. It's going to be a landmark in the history of games. A game without a story. All that matters is blue babies.

Axii failed for me on the soldiers that wanted to butcher civilians in La Vallette village.

They're overdoing it here, especially with The Witcher 2 out at the moment. Dungeon Siege? Dark? Allow me a 'R00fles!'.

If only.

I did neither. Wonder if it will have any effect. Since the game is trying so very hard to beat you over the head with C&C, even for saving a kitty from a tree, I bet it will.

The game's bit of a buggy mess. My Geralt started with Aerondight, the dragon flew off with Aerondight, yet Geralt still had it on his back in any cutscene thereafter... then when I arrived in Flotsam a finished quest appeared out of nowhere in my journal, mentioning Geralt had gotten a new silver sword from the local Dwarven blacksmith which he hadn't even met... and this new silver sword was none other than Aerondight. I don't get it. It has also happened many times that after doing combat inside a town, Geralt is stuck in combat mode forever unless he gets killed by guards or I reload a save.

I'm dividing my time between Witcher 2 and Fable 3. I'm having more fun with Fable 3 so far. I don't like all the streamlining, but it looks great, runs great, plays great and it is occasionally hilarious. It's fun, while I really need to drag myself through the Witcher 2's bad combat.

Use Quen. It's pretty retarded how Foltest, Triss & Roche can just run through unharmed, though. In fact, Quen seems to be WIN!-button in the game, along with those stun bombs.

Sure, why not? Heavy Rain & LA Noire are two examples of story-driven console games that did or are doing alright.

I died once in the prologue, during the dragon QTE... then I turned QTE off. Killing Aryan (lol) La Valette and his cronies really badly showcased the combat system. Somehow soldiers with shields take several seconds to turn around after you roll away from their attack leaving them completely open for a couple of heavy strikes. Blocking a strike makes an enemy stagger for two seconds, making them sitting ducks. Monsters are a bit tougher, but not by much. One on one combat is a joke, I'm guessing this is why they come in groups 90% of the time.

Nice. You must have been one hell of a prosecutor. Prosecutor during the day, masked avenger during the night.