Witcher 2 'leaked' video

[Gorgon]

Being defeated by a 1 foot obstacle and having to backtrack was certainly not very fun.

[Slowtrain]

Perhaps. But I still enjoyed the pixel boobs more than I've ever enjoyed a Bioware romance.

 

 

I can't argue that. Personally, I'd take the boobie cards as well. AT least they don't have bad dialogue.

[Slowtrain]

Being defeated by a 1 foot obstacle and having to backtrack was certainly not very fun.

 

 

I agree. The whole movement system in Witcher 1 felt quite primitive. That's one thing I would definitely appreciate seeing changed.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Perhaps. But I still enjoyed the pixel boobs more than I've ever enjoyed a Bioware romance.

 

 

I can't argue that. Personally, I'd take the boobie cards as well. AT least they don't have bad dialogue.

 

With the notable exception of Jaheira I agree.

 

On the whole the boobie cards were some sort of ultimate argument against the Witcher made by people who hadn't actually played the game through and for some reason wanted to deliberately ignore its other qualities.

[Spider]

Perhaps. But I still enjoyed the pixel boobs more than I've ever enjoyed a Bioware romance.

 

 

I can't argue that. Personally, I'd take the boobie cards as well. AT least they don't have bad dialogue.

 

I don't know. True enough for the cards themselves, but the dialogue you had to suffer through to get them was at times quite horrendous.

[Tigranes]

Being defeated by a 1 foot obstacle and having to backtrack was certainly not very fun.

 

Instead, now you'll have 3.2 foot obstacles that force you to backtrack because you can only jump 3 feet, and you now waste time hopping like a moron to find out.

 

Climbing sounds fun though.

[Gorth]

Perhaps. But I still enjoyed the pixel boobs more than I've ever enjoyed a Bioware romance.

 

 

I can't argue that. Personally, I'd take the boobie cards as well. AT least they don't have bad dialogue.

 

I don't know. True enough for the cards themselves, but the dialogue you had to suffer through to get them was at times quite horrendous.

"Nice dress, lets have sex!"... whats so bad about that dialogue?

[Slowtrain]

Perhaps. But I still enjoyed the pixel boobs more than I've ever enjoyed a Bioware romance.

 

 

I can't argue that. Personally, I'd take the boobie cards as well. AT least they don't have bad dialogue.

 

I don't know. True enough for the cards themselves, but the dialogue you had to suffer through to get them was at times quite horrendous.

 

 

argh. This is becoming too complicated.

 

true enough the sex dialogues in the Witcher were usually inane, but at least they were mostly short and, ahem, to the point, no?

 

With the exception of the Triss/Shani choice, there wasn't much to endure.

[Starwars]

I do hope they improve as much as they claim here (though with all the claims on awards and how amazing the Witcher is from CD Projekt you'd think there isn't much to improve). Aside from a wonderfully realized setting (and I do mean that, the atmosphere was amazing), there was not much I liked about the Witcher. Most of the things had a lot of promise and potential but ended up falling short.

[WorstUsernameEver]

New informations, apparently from a Polish 'press pack', directly from The Witcher forums :

 

Story’s background:

 

After suppressing Order’s rebellion and saving Foltest’s life, Geralt enter right into middle of political mess in the Kingdom of Temeria. The witcher is helping king with restoring peace. Order’s last stand finally surrenders. Now the only thing standing on way to peace is rebellious castle of Baroness La Valette, which separated herself from the Kingdom. A month after attempt of Foltest’s assassination, his army stands in front of Baroness's castle, preparing for the final battle. In the meantime Geralt, busy with protecting the King, is not able to solve the mysterious witcher - assassin case. Case, which may answer many questions…

 

Short story’s description:

 

Geralt starts his adventure with attempt to explain identity of group of killers, which are responsible for assassination [in Polish “assassination” and “assassination’s attempt” is the same word so we don’t know whether these ones were successful] on Kings of Northern Kingdoms. He wants to find their connections to witchers and theirs motives. Lead follows Pontar river’s upstream, into restless lands between Temeria, Kaedwen and Aedrin – the place, where Geralt will come just into the middle of conflict of the most powerful forces of the world

 

Story’s details:

 

• 3 different paths, each with alternate events and side missions, leading into many various endings.

• Story’s development as well as ending is fully up to player and his decisions.

• In comparison to W1, gameplay will be shorter, however story will be more intense and full of events.

• Mature, multithreaded story presented in understandable way. It takes place on two plains – the wider, political one, which concentrates on search for assassins – and second, the personal one, in which Geralt follows lead of witchers-assassins in search for his own identity. Both [story’s plains] lead into discovering secret of powerful forces, which have impact on our lot and understanding part which was given to us

• Mature dialogues (just like in Sapkowski’s books and W1) presented in theatrical way

• Enhanced flashbacks system. Scenes, in which Geralt finds out about consequences of his decision are more realistic and better joint with game

• Sex and erotica is more realistic and mature than in W1

• Unique and complex world created by Sapkowski’s books

• Realistically behaving characters with their own motivations and targets. While travelling, Geralt will meet common people, soldiers, rebels, powerful wizards, kings and assassins. Depending on our choices, we will meet different characters and their attitude to us will have influence onto upcoming events

• Different, breath-taking locations

• Living world with unique character, every one of them living with their own rules. Our actions will impact our relations to them and their communities. Depending on player’s choices, some options of interaction with game’s world will be closed and some will be active

• Geralt can jump and climb walls and rocks

 

New mechanics and technology:

 

• Full non-linearity. [blah, blah – they explain what it is, but it’s written few lines up]

• Unique additional missions more connected to the story than it was in W1. No “FedEx” missions.

• More expanded character’s development system. It bases on three specialties: the sword, the magic, the alchemy. They can be joint, giving possibility of creating a mixed fight style

• No-level scaling – while developing your character, opponents become easier to fight with

• New mutagens system, which gives you possibility of expanding effects of different characteristics. For example – increasing power of magic

• System of own items creation. You can make about 200 different items (weapon and armor) while in W1 there was 10 blades only

• More armor’s elements – cuirass, gloves, belts, calf-shield [yeah, congrats for my dictionary] – you can improve every element.

• You can make weapons from parts – about 300 different swords-making combinations

• Random items characteristics

• Improved equipment system – no boundaries on carried items. Improved sorting."

Edited March 27, 2010 by WorstUsernameEver

[Starwars]

Great changes on paper, hope they are up to the task to implementing them in a good way.

[Slowtrain]

A lot of it looks good. On paper anyway, as Starwars says.

 

Don't like the fact its going to be shorter though. The Witcher wasn't a terribly long game to begin with, and a good rpg needs to time and space to play and explore.

 

But at least there is no freaking level-scaling.

 

More than other developers these guys seem to understand what makes a crpg a crpg and not a shooter or adventure game.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Another preview.

[RPGmasterBoo]

I must say I'm impressed so far. I like that they've dared to change so much and apparently, for the better.

[Tigranes]

Don't like the fact its going to be shorter though. The Witcher wasn't a terribly long game to begin with, and a good rpg needs to time and space to play and explore.

 

The Witcher felt very long, even when I was enjoying it, though. Not sure what I clocked in in terms of hours. Hrm.

[Pidesco]

The Witcher felt pretty damn long. Longer than any PC RPG since BG2. Admittedly, a lot of that was due to grinding and commuting.

[Slowtrain]

I dunno. To me it felt long the first time I played it because I had a difficlt time figuring out what to do next and who to talk to, especially in chapter 2, so there was a kit if wandering oaround Vizima. But when I replayed it, the whole game zipped right by.

 

The first time I played it, I really enjoyed it.

 

The second time, I absolutely loved it.

[Tigranes]

That was the case for me too, I guess the big wish is that in W2 they have as good a city as Vizima in Ch2 - lots of stuff to do and lots to figure out. It wasn't perfect but it was very fun.

 

That said, I hope W2 will start to explore more 'outlandish' areas in the setting - no swamps & sewers this time please.

[~Di]

Since I enjoyed W1 overall very much despite the puerile boob cards, I'll probably give W2 a try as well. I'm a bit concerned that it's shorter, but it really depends on how much shorter. I'll wait for player feedback before I buy.

[Slowtrain]

That was the case for me too, I guess the big wish is that in W2 they have as good a city as Vizima in Ch2 - lots of stuff to do and lots to figure out. It wasn't perfect but it was very fun.

 

 

The second time through I really enjoyed the complexity involved in unwinding the narrative threads in Chapter 1 and 2, (which seemed the most complex, narratively, of the chapters), but the first time through it was a bit much in places. AT times things felt a bit bogged down. I'd love to see the devs clean up the narrative a bit (no quest markers though, plz). So if that's what they mean by a shorter game (less confused wandering), than that's probably a good thing.

 

However, if I am still going to have to wander around a lot trying to figure out what to do next and the game is still shorter despite the wander around time (ie they make the game shorter by cutting content not by making things clearer), then that won't be so great.

 

 

That said, I hope W2 will start to explore more 'outlandish' areas in the setting - no swamps & sewers this time please.

 

 

Definitely. Although overall, I though Vizima was one of the best crpg cities I've experienced.

[skuld1]

The Witcher felt pretty damn long. Longer than any PC RPG since BG2. Admittedly, a lot of that was due to grinding and commuting.

 

...and for the players who played pre-patch, LOADING

[Humodour]

Read: Placeholder voices

i was just about to say that. as i recall, the witcher 1 had OK voice acting.

 

Uhhh really? I thought it was pretty poor quality, even for an indie game, when I played the first 10 minutes of it. Will play the game fully when I get a better comp, but I can't see voice acting being one of its positive points.

[Slowtrain]

Read: Placeholder voices

i was just about to say that. as i recall, the witcher 1 had OK voice acting.

 

Uhhh really? I thought it was pretty poor quality, even for an indie game, when I played the first 10 minutes of it. Will play the game fully when I get a better comp, but I can't see voice acting being one of its positive points.

 

 

The voice acting was pretty good for the most part, compared to other games. AT least in the US English version.

[Pidesco]

The Enhanced Edition had relatively competent voice acting. The original version, not so much.

[Starwars]

I think the voiceactors themselves seem fairly competent actually, but it feels like they've gotten little to no direction. It often seems like the actors have not gotten information on the nature of the conversations, it often feels very disjointed like the actors don't have a clue what they're acting against so to speak.

 

That and the clunky writing/translation makes the conversations have a pretty bad flow to them.