The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Vesper · 2012-04-16T19:16:08.000Z

No problems with the patch for me. I preloaded files a few days ago, and the last step ran without an issue. The new intro movie is pretty awesome.

mono · 2012-04-16T19:20:21.000Z

Manually grabbing parts 1 & 2 as per Lake’s post sorted it for me.

GreasyPig · 2012-04-16T19:21:34.000Z

For those that care. I had the same problem described by Telefrog.

I followed Lake’s remedy.

And… That worked.

triggercut · 2012-04-16T19:31:55.000Z

Tim James:

It looks about the same to me. I think the lighting changes in that Eurogamer article are from lack of bloom. I already ran without it my last time through the game. I prefer it that way.

Everything else seems the same in the first 15 minutes. I forgot how good the game looks: vibrant, crisp textures and soft SSAO. In this game I catch myself looking at the art and graphics more than the talking heads. But the graphics are still way ahead of the editing, direction, and animation transitions. I think CD Projekt needs one more game to get that stuff up to Bioware’s level (though they slipped a little with ME3).

No major change in performance either. I can’t hold 60 fps with my preferred settings, so I’ll wait until my next videocard as planned. For now I’m content to play it vicariously through all the new console gamers.

There’s no change in the lighting in the EE for PC version. Same lighting as in the regular PC version.

So far: new cinematic to open the game (which we’ve seen), and then a new cinematic with Dandelion dropping spoilers (!) before Chapter 1.

TimJames · 2012-04-16T19:58:37.000Z

Dandelion, you fucking idiot!

triggercut · 2012-04-16T20:15:47.000Z

Tim James:

Dandelion, you fucking idiot!

well played.

Balasarius · 2012-04-17T04:26:00.000Z

Now my launcher is busted. Guess I’ll re-download the whole thing.

Jazar · 2012-04-17T05:58:26.000Z

I wish they put in the controller tweaks into the PC version. I still have issues trying to select the right spell or target.

rdominick · 2012-04-17T07:59:36.000Z

The download issue seems to be fixed – I left TW2 EE installing this morning, and it was past the point where the error was popping up.

My launcher was broken after the aborted install too. You can just download the TW2 downloader from the Witcher web site.

Still kind of amazed that the download for the EE was bigger than the download for the original game itself…

Telefrog · 2012-04-17T08:03:09.000Z

GreasyPig:

For those that care. I had the same problem described by Telefrog.

I followed Lake’s remedy.

And… That worked.

I used the manual download as well and it worked.

TurinTur · 2012-04-17T08:05:28.000Z

Well, I suspect the EE patch is basically not a patch but basically all the game files updated to the last version. Now include a pair of new videos, a new epilogue, and the new content, the previous 2.0 content and baam, you have a bigger file size than the original.

Rorschach · 2012-04-17T09:05:00.000Z

My steam upgrade went well. Finished the prologue last night.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-04-17T09:37:13.000Z

I didn’t have any problems with the GOG version. I did notice that while my PC auto-detected everything at Ultra settings, the cursor on the tutorial and main menus is a bit floaty. This is NOT the case for regular game menus, like Inventory or what have you, so a bit puzzling.

Also, the tutorial towards the end told me to spend my talent point. I did, and then it kept telling me to spend my talent point and wouldn’t let me proceed. I didn’t need the tutorial, I just wanted a bit of a refresher before I dive back in for my second play through, but that was a bit odd, I felt.

mono · 2012-04-17T09:55:08.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

I didn’t have any problems with the GOG version. I did notice that while my PC auto-detected everything at Ultra settings, the cursor on the tutorial and main menus is a bit floaty. This is NOT the case for regular game menus, like Inventory or what have you, so a bit puzzling.

Also, the tutorial towards the end told me to spend my talent point. I did, and then it kept telling me to spend my talent point and wouldn’t let me proceed. I didn’t need the tutorial, I just wanted a bit of a refresher before I dive back in for my second play through, but that was a bit odd, I felt.

Same thing happened to me. I had to dig in and apply a mutate to a talent or some such and then things proceeded.

MattKeil · 2012-04-17T10:39:13.000Z

triggercut:

So far: new cinematic to open the game (which we’ve seen), and then a new cinematic with Dandelion dropping spoilers (!) before Chapter 1.

Two questions:

What spoilers does he drop? I didn’t notice any in that scene.
How can it be a spoiler if the game itself is what’s revealing the information? Can a narrative work spoil itself? The mind boggles.

Paul_cze · 2012-04-17T10:48:23.000Z

mono:

Same thing happened to me. I had to dig in and apply a mutate to a talent or some such and then things proceeded.

Yeah as far as I remember the game wants you to apply point and mutate a skill as well. I did the tutorial yesterday just for fun (before EE came out) to see what difficulty I would get in the arena (it told me to go Dark) and I remember having to use mutagen.

divedivedive · 2012-04-17T11:01:13.000Z

MattKeil:

Can a narrative work spoil itself? The mind boggles.

We are through the looking glass here, people.

As a side note, I am really looking forward to picking up my 360 copy tonight. My second attempted play through of the first game fell apart where my first attempt did, in the swamps of the second chapter. Oh well, I’ll just jump into the sequel blind.

MattKeil · 2012-04-17T11:44:49.000Z

You really don’t need to know anything about the first game’s story to play the second. There are a couple of minor references and of course recurring characters, but I feel like they managed to keep it all pretty self-contained. Besides, since almost no English-speaking players will have read the original books, any references to the first game just sort of blend in with all the other stuff we (and Geralt, thanks to his amnesia) don’t know about.

triggercut · 2012-04-17T13:23:44.000Z

MattKeil:

Two questions:

What spoilers does he drop? I didn’t notice any in that scene.

How can it be a spoiler if the game itself is what’s revealing the information? Can a narrative work spoil itself? The mind boggles.

Heh. My bad. Not a spoiler. He’s referring to an extra quest from TW1 in an offhand way.

tomchick · 2012-04-17T13:57:53.000Z

MattKeil:

You really don’t need to know anything about the first game’s story to play the second. There are a couple of minor references and of course recurring characters, but I feel like they managed to keep it all pretty self-contained.

One thing to note, however, is that the second game opens with a lot of stuff underway. If you’re new to the Witcher series, you might think it’s because – ack! – you didn’t play the first game so you’re hopelessly lost. But that’s not the case at all. That’s how Witcher 2 is for everyone who plays.

Matt’s totally right that this is a great RPG to jump into even if you didn’t play the first game.

-Tom