i need a release date so i can start saving for a new mobo and proc
i have the monitor
i have the graphics card
i even have fresh undies
Don't forget to account for the special uber-uber multisampling that CDPR will have created for this game. It bends universal laws such that without certain specific video cards built to handle it, any computer that attempts to do so will detonate in an antimatter explosion.
Bumping this up from a few pages back as I've finally just finished Witcher 2. I bought it last holiday sale and attempted to play it around March only to be infuriated by the combat. After complaining about it in the Steam thread recently, I decided to give it another shot. After about 50 hours in 4 or 5 days, I finished it, Roche's path on Normal and found it to be pretty good, despite extensive jankiness.
And good god is the game janky. The engine itself does some of the weirdest damn things, like randomly deciding on whether or not it's going to show rain or shine, day or night, regardless of the time of day or state of weather, the way character models frequently assume default poses during pause screens only to snap back to where they were as soon as you unpause. The frequent unevenness of character voice volumes, I'm guessing that some of them are the result of some of the retranslations done for Enhanced Edition? But then there are scenes where Geralt's voice is significantly softer than anyone else in a scene, making him hard to hear over background sound.
Then there's the item rebalancing that they finally ended up settling on after all the tweaks through the preceding patches. Such as the good mutagens basically disappearing from existence, making the Impregnation talent a little pointless. I ended up tweaking the shops file so that the DLC merchant guy had mutagens in his shop. So it was cheaty, but I still had to buy them. And I suppose to be fair, my Swordsman/Alchemy critical effects build was almost completely broken once I got it going from about the end of Act 2 through the end. The whole gloves/boots/pants equipment thing seemed to be sort of half-baked. Throughout the whole game, you get items for those slots with completely negligible stats from each other, then at the end of the game, oh, here's a set of them that are significantly better than anything else in the game, pretty much for free.
I also ran into such a weird little bug right at the end of Act 2:
The big fight in the mines with Pangratt, at the end he's supposed to give you his silver sword, Nevde Seidhe, when you beat him. I did that fight twice, sparing him both times, and both times he said he gave me something but the game didn't give it to me. I did the fight again and killed him, and the only thing I got from his body was a Ysgith Rune. I went back to my first save where I spared him and sure enough, I got a Ysgith Rune from him. I figured, ok, they just screwed up the reward, oh well. I go through the rest of the Act, finish it, and when I start Act 3, I look in my inventory and now I have Nevde Seidhe. Fucking weird, man...
But despite complaints, I did enjoy the game. I liked the way the story went, more or less, and I really liked the way the game recognizes even small decisions you made and makes references to them later on. Makes it feel more together, I guess.
Also, Dice Poker is possibly the shittiest, most blind-luck god damn minigame ever. I hate it. In Act 3, the 5 people you have to beat for the quest, on the second guy I lost a good 6 times in a row before I finally won when he resigned, then I proceeded to win every single game after that by the opponent resigning because of my initial rolls. So silly.
At any rate, I'm sort of tempted to do another playthrough, both to do a straight mage type of path as well as to see the Iorveth side of Act 2, as I imagine it has to be pretty different. I doubt the rest of the acts change much, but it would be interesting to see that anyway. The game is almost deceptively long however, and man I couldn't stop playing... was almost as sticky as an MMO. I doubt even knowing where to go cuts off much time with all the running around...
A couple of things I thought of after I posted that, but despite how janky the engine seems, it was pretty stable. I did have like 2 crashes, which isn't bad over 50 hours. It handled my frequent alt-tabbing quite well, all things considered.
And another pretty infuriating part, Act 3 optional boss fight:
The Operator... my god that fight was annoying as fuck. Here's a tiny room to fight in with up to 3 opponents, 2 of which for some reason have a chain attack that covers about half of the length of the room and does 150 damage per hit. Oh, and if that isn't already bullshit, enjoy some random invisible geometry that you can get stuck on and makes the room even smaller than it appears!
I really didn't want to do the 'cheaty' thing of getting out of combat with him to heal up, but after 10 attempts of utter bullshit I just wanted it over.
And yes, Geralt didn't officially lose any games, but I still had to play them and it doesn't make the minigame any less bullshit. Not to mention how annoying it is to try to 'throw' the dice with a sensitive mouse without losing them over the table...
Hah. Well I was almost thinking of trying my Mage build on Dark mode but I'm not totally sure. I sort of figured out the build I'd go for, Signs/Alchemy for Impregnation and Madness mutagens, just doing everything to boost Sign damage as much as possible. From what I understand, the early going is a bit tricky and you end up using bombs mostly, but once you get going with Igni you just start rofl-stomping the game. I'm not sure what armor would be best... the Armor of Ysgith has good stats, an extra Vigor and some Vigor regen. But I know I saw at least one random armor set in Act 3 that had +5 Sign damage and vitality, don't remember what it was called. Strike that, the Armor of Ysgith also has +8 Sign damage so I think it's pretty definitively the best for a mage.
Presuming I did do it on Dark mode, the Act 3 Dark armor set seems pretty good as well...
Oh yeah, and one other thing I found kind of weird was the mines in Act 2... they were so dark that it almost looked like a bug. I mean, those braziers that are all over the place put off basically no light. I guess it was a place to encourage using Cat potions, since you don't really use them anywhere else? It just looked weird though.
I look forward to Witcher 3 having more careful balance than Witcher 2
If you had a non-Alchemy build in the second game you were effectively hobbling yourself. Last time I played I went full Alchemy and about the time I got "WAAAY more effective positive modifiers with like 10% effective negative modifiers" on potions I was unkillable
Hmm... actually, checking into what Sign intensity does, I'm going to have to re-think my build a bit. I've gotta max out Magic Intensification, really good investment per point. Just a shame it's on the opposite side of the tree from Enhanced Igni... I'm not totally sure how necessary having a lot of Vigor is if you get the in-combat regen talents... I guess I'll have to see just how fast it regens with those talents. I mean, by the time you get to Act 3 if you get all the Vigor points, you might regen faster than you can cast all your Vigor down anyway.
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grouch993Both a man and a numberRegistered Userregular
I just finished my first run through of Witcher 2. Chose Roche on normal. Next will be Iorveth on hard (or whatever the next bump up is).
I liked the game play, but the constant movies sort of irritated me. The start of the game seemed to be almost constant movies with little player input.
Have any of the details on 3 said if they will continue like 2?
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
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grouch993Both a man and a numberRegistered Userregular
edited December 2013
Sorry, was wondering if they will continue to have a lot of movie sequences interrupted occasionally by player input.
W2 seemed to have a lot of movies sections at the beginning with very little play segments. That changed around the first town and for a bit after that and then towards the end there seemed to be a lot more story related through movies instead of player interaction.
Sorry, was wondering if they will continue to have a lot of movie sequences interrupted occasionally by player input.
W2 seemed to have a lot of movies sections at the beginning with very little play segments. That changed around the first town and for a bit after that and then towards the end there seemed to be a lot more story related through movies instead of player interaction.
The Witcher, much like Mass Effect, is not your story or my story. It's Geralts story (or Commander Shepards, for Mass Effect). Sure, we get to choose between different flavors or permutations of Geralt, but the core Geralt identity is relatively fixed. At the end of the day, telling a coherent story like this means taking away control now and again.
I look forward to Witcher 3 having more careful balance than Witcher 2
If you had a non-Alchemy build in the second game you were effectively hobbling yourself. Last time I played I went full Alchemy and about the time I got "WAAAY more effective positive modifiers with like 10% effective negative modifiers" on potions I was unkillable
Really? I never tried alchemy, but I thought the sword tree made things pretty steadily easier, and full magic didn't strike me as hard, either.
I look forward to Witcher 3 having more careful balance than Witcher 2
If you had a non-Alchemy build in the second game you were effectively hobbling yourself. Last time I played I went full Alchemy and about the time I got "WAAAY more effective positive modifiers with like 10% effective negative modifiers" on potions I was unkillable
Really? I never tried alchemy, but I thought the sword tree made things pretty steadily easier, and full magic didn't strike me as hard, either.
It's true that the other paths are entirely viable; my first playthrough was on the sword path.
It's just that the alchemy path is more effective than the other two put together. You can do things like increase your armor rating by ridiculous percentages, enhance the duration and effectiveness of potions and mutagens, and give yourself big-ass stat boosts simply by pushing the limits of your toxicity rating.
If you could keep yourself in potions - and it's almost harder not to - you were effectively invincible. On Hard mode I did more damage to the last mandatory boss, per hit, than it did to me.
It's true that the other paths are entirely viable; my first playthrough was on the sword path.
It's just that the alchemy path is more effective than the other two put together. You can do things like increase your armor rating by ridiculous percentages, enhance the duration and effectiveness of potions and mutagens, and give yourself big-ass stat boosts simply by pushing the limits of your toxicity rating.
If you could keep yourself in potions - and it's almost harder not to - you were effectively invincible. On Hard mode I did more damage to the last mandatory boss, per hit, than it did to me.
Well, it's refreshing that a seemingly "side" path of development like that is powerful, then.
SoundsPlush on
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited December 2013
It's only a side path if you approach it as a normal action game. If you know Witchers, you would immediately note that it's going to be the main path, cos for Witchers, Alchemy = The Force. Them magic frazzle dazzles? Pfft, parlor tricks.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Posts
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
edit: gifs removed, sorry! check the forums link.
http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/37380-witcher-3-at-vgx-2013/
I have to assume this question makes more sense in the native tongue, because...uh.
Mmmm, gimme dat gameplay
i have the monitor
i have the graphics card
i even have fresh undies
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
I'll be giving this one to my wife for her to use as a general purpose/gaming computer, it'll run basically anything she wants
But when the GTX 800 series lands I want to have one of those for this bad boy
Don't forget to account for the special uber-uber multisampling that CDPR will have created for this game. It bends universal laws such that without certain specific video cards built to handle it, any computer that attempts to do so will detonate in an antimatter explosion.
And good god is the game janky. The engine itself does some of the weirdest damn things, like randomly deciding on whether or not it's going to show rain or shine, day or night, regardless of the time of day or state of weather, the way character models frequently assume default poses during pause screens only to snap back to where they were as soon as you unpause. The frequent unevenness of character voice volumes, I'm guessing that some of them are the result of some of the retranslations done for Enhanced Edition? But then there are scenes where Geralt's voice is significantly softer than anyone else in a scene, making him hard to hear over background sound.
Then there's the item rebalancing that they finally ended up settling on after all the tweaks through the preceding patches. Such as the good mutagens basically disappearing from existence, making the Impregnation talent a little pointless. I ended up tweaking the shops file so that the DLC merchant guy had mutagens in his shop. So it was cheaty, but I still had to buy them. And I suppose to be fair, my Swordsman/Alchemy critical effects build was almost completely broken once I got it going from about the end of Act 2 through the end. The whole gloves/boots/pants equipment thing seemed to be sort of half-baked. Throughout the whole game, you get items for those slots with completely negligible stats from each other, then at the end of the game, oh, here's a set of them that are significantly better than anything else in the game, pretty much for free.
I also ran into such a weird little bug right at the end of Act 2:
But despite complaints, I did enjoy the game. I liked the way the story went, more or less, and I really liked the way the game recognizes even small decisions you made and makes references to them later on. Makes it feel more together, I guess.
Also, Dice Poker is possibly the shittiest, most blind-luck god damn minigame ever. I hate it. In Act 3, the 5 people you have to beat for the quest, on the second guy I lost a good 6 times in a row before I finally won when he resigned, then I proceeded to win every single game after that by the opponent resigning because of my initial rolls. So silly.
At any rate, I'm sort of tempted to do another playthrough, both to do a straight mage type of path as well as to see the Iorveth side of Act 2, as I imagine it has to be pretty different. I doubt the rest of the acts change much, but it would be interesting to see that anyway. The game is almost deceptively long however, and man I couldn't stop playing... was almost as sticky as an MMO. I doubt even knowing where to go cuts off much time with all the running around...
THE POWER OF QUICKSAVE COMPELS YOU
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
And another pretty infuriating part, Act 3 optional boss fight:
I really didn't want to do the 'cheaty' thing of getting out of combat with him to heal up, but after 10 attempts of utter bullshit I just wanted it over.
And yes, Geralt didn't officially lose any games, but I still had to play them and it doesn't make the minigame any less bullshit. Not to mention how annoying it is to try to 'throw' the dice with a sensitive mouse without losing them over the table...
Presuming I did do it on Dark mode, the Act 3 Dark armor set seems pretty good as well...
Oh yeah, and one other thing I found kind of weird was the mines in Act 2... they were so dark that it almost looked like a bug. I mean, those braziers that are all over the place put off basically no light. I guess it was a place to encourage using Cat potions, since you don't really use them anywhere else? It just looked weird though.
If you had a non-Alchemy build in the second game you were effectively hobbling yourself. Last time I played I went full Alchemy and about the time I got "WAAAY more effective positive modifiers with like 10% effective negative modifiers" on potions I was unkillable
I liked the game play, but the constant movies sort of irritated me. The start of the game seemed to be almost constant movies with little player input.
Have any of the details on 3 said if they will continue like 2?
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
W2 seemed to have a lot of movies sections at the beginning with very little play segments. That changed around the first town and for a bit after that and then towards the end there seemed to be a lot more story related through movies instead of player interaction.
The Witcher, much like Mass Effect, is not your story or my story. It's Geralts story (or Commander Shepards, for Mass Effect). Sure, we get to choose between different flavors or permutations of Geralt, but the core Geralt identity is relatively fixed. At the end of the day, telling a coherent story like this means taking away control now and again.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Really? I never tried alchemy, but I thought the sword tree made things pretty steadily easier, and full magic didn't strike me as hard, either.
It's true that the other paths are entirely viable; my first playthrough was on the sword path.
It's just that the alchemy path is more effective than the other two put together. You can do things like increase your armor rating by ridiculous percentages, enhance the duration and effectiveness of potions and mutagens, and give yourself big-ass stat boosts simply by pushing the limits of your toxicity rating.
If you could keep yourself in potions - and it's almost harder not to - you were effectively invincible. On Hard mode I did more damage to the last mandatory boss, per hit, than it did to me.
I need to go orgasm now.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
What is the king saying? You cannot defy the [something] of our steel? Cold?
Well, it's refreshing that a seemingly "side" path of development like that is powerful, then.
Also HNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG WANT
The alchemy tree is about power from preparation. The Witcher 2 trees could be renamed swords, signs, and Batman.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
i thought he said the 'call of the masked steel' and seemed to make sense because then you see his face etc.
i'm probably wrong
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
that's pretty cool
The Great Sushi Hunt is on.
The new meme will be Geralt saying "I'm no Fish"
"What are you doing!?" "Boiling lobsters"
Better quality than the streaming versions.
14mb .gif of Geralt walking through a village
Nice to see that Gamersyde is still putting up the high quality goods, though.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
So before that happens will Cyberpunk 2077 have Oculus Rift support?
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA