Witcher gold!

[dwolfe]

That’s what kept me from getting farther in the game. The controls felt really detached and strange with a mouse, and a controller replacing m&k probably would have helped me. Something about third person perspective requires two thumbsticks now, probably just force of habit. Mass Effect barely squeaked by for me on the strength of it being more of a shooter and the accuracy being worth it.

Hrm…on the 360 for Mass Effect, i just hit the right-bumper to pause the action while selecting powers to allow time for precision aiming. It also gave me time to actually get a look at the battlefield. This also helped when I’d run with Liara, who would usually die in <5 seconds unless I could find and take out the sniper/rocket attackers with a well-timed lift/stasis/etc.

[Lizard_King]

Hrm…on the 360 for Mass Effect, i just hit the right-bumper to pause the action while selecting powers to allow time for precision aiming. It also gave me time to actually get a look at the battlefield. This also helped when I’d run with Liara, who would usually die in <5 seconds unless I could find and take out the sniper/rocket attackers with a well-timed lift/stasis/etc.

Well, with ME it’s a little more complicated. The interface is superior in every way on the PC, I just don’t need the precision of the mouse so I’d rather kick back and coast through on analog sticks. You still have the pause aiming and everything. I beat it twice on the 360, I just got the pc version now so I’d have a character to build on for ME2 now that I have a decent computer. It’s the only way I’ll get to play the game since I’m positive my wife will monopolize the 360 copy.

[Chris_Nahr]

It’s a Games for Windows game. Doesn’t it work on the PC with a 360 controller? I thought that was part of the GfW requirements.

No, it’s not. If the game supports a controller it must be the 360 controller, but the game can opt to not support a controller at all.

[Lum]

Any word on the legal issues around the console versions getting resolved? I didn’t get all that far on the PC version, but from what I saw, the combat seemed like it would be much more suited to a console controller.

The console version was cancelled, though supposedly they are working on a new game.

[TurinTur]

The meat of the gameplay is more in equipping and leveling than actually fighting. That and navigating the dialogs and huge and cool branching quest system. The combat itself isn’t much more complicated than Diablo, which is fine by me.

The meat of the game is not the fighting, or equipping (there is very little loot!). The meat of the game is the adventure. There is a complex plot, intertwined quests, good dialogue and interesting characters, and all of that in a cool gritty fantasy setting.

[Paul_cze]

For me the fighting was part of the meat : ).

Play on hard difficulty, you have to observe Geralt’s movement and time the attacks, use alchemy, correct stances, correct weapons, plus magic signs. Plus the animations they made for Geralt are totally awesome.Watching Geralt slice his foes made me wet since I am huge fan of the 7 book saga.

[Tom_Ohle]

The console version was cancelled, though supposedly they are working on a new game.

Development was suspended, kind sir :). There’s always a chance we’ll come back to it at some point.

[Tom_Ohle]

For me the fighting was part of the meat : ).

Play on hard difficulty, you have to observe Geralt’s movement and time the attacks, use alchemy, correct stances, correct weapons, plus magic signs. Plus the animations they made for Geralt are totally awesome.Watching Geralt slice his foes made me wet since I am huge fan of the 7 book saga.

I think playing on hard really changes the way combat feels. You have to be much better prepared and more engaged in the fight.

[zengonzo]

Development was suspended, kind sir :). There’s always a chance we’ll come back to it at some point.

Just do it, you tease. It seems such a great fit.

[mashakos]

For me the fighting was part of the meat : ).

Play on hard difficulty, you have to observe Geralt’s movement and time the attacks, use alchemy, correct stances, correct weapons, plus magic signs. Plus the animations they made for Geralt are totally awesome.Watching Geralt slice his foes made me wet since I am huge fan of the 7 book saga.

Interesting. I’m a big fighting game fan, any attempt at a deep fighting system gets me excited. I’ll definitely be playing on hard once I purchase the full game.

[Paul_cze]

I would definitely recommend that.
And for a second playthrough (which is inevitable with the game being so awesome), try Full Combat Rebalance mod.

[Alistair]

I don’t think you’d call it deep, even on hard. Working out the alchemical preparations is quite fun though.

[Paul_cze]

Well it’s deeper than Diablo, and since this game offers about hundred other things that Diablo games don’t, I would say it is great enough.Plus, watching Geralt fight is just awesome.

[Pogo]

well it wasn’t that clear!

Anyway, just tried the demo and after figuring it out I was able to get into the swing of things. The fighting is like Streets of Rage in slo-mo. I would have preferred a fighting system with more control, but overall the game has some great atmosphere.

It’s kind of shallow at first, but you get the hang of it and after upgrading your combos you’ll be killing the first guy in two swings, click on the next guy to initiate the 3rd attack in the combo and knock him down, and then fucking obliterate the 4th guy in the most powerful final move of your combo, and then click on that 3rd guy to run up to him and stab him through the neck before he gets up. It’s absolutely awesome once you get the hang of it.

I think what threw me off at first is that at no point do you need to use WASD to maneuver your character, except against single more powerful enemies where you may want to dodge. Just click on a guy and you’ll run to him and start whooping ass. It’s kind of automated in that respect.

Throw in the force runes and some of the other things you can do, study the weaknesses of the enemies through lore (where you actually have to read and remember the weaknesses), and you’ll see how deep the combat system actually is.

[BigWeather]

Development was suspended, kind sir :). There’s always a chance we’ll come back to it at some point.

Please come back to it! I was really looking forward to it. Unless of course what you have moved on to is a party turn-based RPG then I can wait patiently for you to get back to Witcher for the 360.

[Jakub]

HALP

So I’m doing the Memory of a Blade quest and I need to talk to Zoltan, who is supposed to be at the Hairy Bear, but he’s not. The quest marker guides me there but he’s not in that inn at any time of day, nor is he to be found on the streets.

[Fugitive]

HALP

So I’m doing the Memory of a Blade quest and I need to talk to Zoltan, who is supposed to be at the Hairy Bear, but he’s not. The quest marker guides me there but he’s not in that inn at any time of day, nor is he to be found on the streets.

He does wander in the streets quite a bit, and can also be found at Vivaldi’s house sometimes, so check there as well.

[Alistair]

Witcher 2 video…

[TimJames]

Witcher 2 video…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JciyoGmnGyo

Cool, looks pretty similar so far which is fine. I only ever complained about a bit too much running through corridors in the maps. The boss fight QTEs made me groan but I can’t wait to enjoy another round of this.

Though Assassins of Kings is a bit awkward sounding.

[Joe_M]

Awesome link, thanks Alistair!