I thought I already posted this once but here it goes.

I found this on the bioware forum but couldn't find a link to the site...

http://www.thewitcher.com/

Bought the collectors edition of 'The Witcher'
I'll post my findings as soon as possible.

Yes, post what you found within the package !

The Collectors edition contains: the game itself, a making of-dvd, a cd with the music, a double-sided map and a 204 pages long-artbook with some beatufill drawings!

I've never played this kind of combat system, you need to click at the right moment, if you click to early or to late your combo is broken and you'll probably get hit by the enemy. You have different fighting styles and you really need to change your style according to your enemy if you want to win. It's rather easy to change your style, you just press w, x or c(for azerty keyboards) to change your style into strong, quick or a group fighting style. Haven't played much yet, I now got my first sign(magic): Aard, a spell who knocks enemies down.

The intro is rather long, but tells an interesting story about Gareth, and you have many in-game cutscenes.

<<sigh!>> No medallion, then? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

I'll be very much interested in hearing about your experience with, and thoughts about, the game. It's one I've been watching for since it was first announced several years ago. (But I won't be able to play it until I get a new computer!)

At least one of the books (The Last Wish) has finally been translated and published in English... Just wish they'd step up the schedule for the other titles.

I read at RPGWatch that this is only available in eastern Europe countries.

Would be funny, walking around with the Wolf-medallion.

Things I like about the Witcher:
*The combat system; It's a completly new system for me, it seemed quiet boring at first, but how more I fight, how more I like it. Altough it may sound easy to click at the right, it can be rather hard at some points.
*The weapons; You can also use different weapons then your Silver and Steel swords(I only got my Steel one so far), but I think most people will prefer their swords as other weapons don't have the three fighting styles.
*The movement; I love this system, altough I'm still not completly used to it, it's rather usefull to be able to switch between keyboard and mouse and only mouse movement. The different views are also usefull. While fighting a single enemy I prefer using the over-the-shoulder camera, and when a new enemy appears out of nowhere, you just pause the game(if even necesary as the different views are hotkeyed to F1, F2 and F3) to change to the isometric view.

Things I don't like:
*camera adjusting during combat: well, the combat system is based on clicking at the right moment, so imagine you're fighting a group of enemies, you attack the first one, click at the right moment on the second one and then want to click the third one, but the game decides you would have a better view if the camera would have that angle. Your screen turns, you click somewhere on the ground because of this and you're combo is broken. OK, no big deal, it would only have been your third hit in the sequence, but imagine this happens during a 5 or even 6 hit combo->it sucks
*rather long load times: I don't know about other computers but when I go through a portal(I mean any kind of object that takes you into another place, requiring you to load, this could be a simple door) it can easily take up to 1 or 2 minutes. This can get rather enoying, especially if there's nothing really important in that specific zone.

I love the art-work book, it contains some beautifull drawings.
I'm not far in the game yet. Finished the Prologue, now I'm in act 1.

A patch decreased the load times, which are more acceptable now. A single house no longer loads for 30sec-1minute, but takes around 5-20seconds now.

How more I play how more I like the combat system, and if you invest some points in your weaponskills, you can do longer combo's and don't have to time your clicks every second. Instead Geralt makes longer combo's on his own.

Can't wait to see the flashbacksystem(when you encounter something that's been caused because of you, you see a flashback of when you had to choice and you see the answer you picked).

This game is surprisingly good. I'm surprised there was almost no hype for this game, it's one of the best RPG's I've played in a while.

NO HYPE ???

I guess you haven't read many gaming magazines or RPG web sites lately ? ...

The hype does seem to be a lot less here... possibly because Sapkowski isn't as well known? I actually did a walk about today, and checked five stores for "The Witcher": only two of them had it, and it wasn't prominently displayed in either.

The gaming magazines on the shelves here mention several games on the cover, but, again, "The Witcher" isn't one of them. "Hellgate: London" and "Bioshock" seem to be getting the most attention.

isorun, many thanks for your commentary thus far. Have you encountered any of the flashbacks yet? (I suppose you'd have to be well into the game to trigger them...)

Hm, I didn't know about him either, before the game.

But maybe it's because it's something rather off the mainstream ? I don't know.

Or maybe it just needs to get up & running ?

I must agree I didn't see any hype either, it was like I was the only one who knew it existed, and in our professional gaming store, they had only one copy displayed, and they didn't even display the collectors edition. I had to ask it myself.

I've encountered about 2 or 3 flashbacks now. The first one you encounter near the end of Act 1, and at the moment I'm still in act 2, I don't feel like rushing things.
At first the flashbacks seemed kinda weird. So instead of seeing you as you did it the moment itself, you see a piece of artwork of the option you chose at that specific moment. Watch out: possible spoiler!
In act 1 you are asked to protect some wares from a group of 'Drowners' who come out at night. The Drowners appear and at some point an elf appears and 'aids' you(I didn't even notice him until he approached me and my character automaticly said 'thanks for the help'), he then tells you the wares are ment for him and he offers you money. You can reject or accept the money, thus selecting to give the goods or don't give the goods. I 'sold' him the goods and a bit later in act 2, I found a man murdered. My character said: 'I know what caused these events' and you see a drawing where Geralt(your character) accepts money from an elf. At first I didn't realise this was the actual flashbacks, as I had never seen this picture before. So far, every time I saw a flashback, my character said: I know what caused these events, so it's pretty clear when you have a flashback.

I also get now why this game is rated 18+ in my country(tottaly off the record: i'm not 18 yet), and people who play the game will soon realise it too, why it has been rated 18+. Let's say that about after half an hour to 1 hour of actual gameplay, you'll have found you're first 'card' if you chose the right option. So far I have already found 4 'cards', I'm not sure but if you search around on the internet,you'll probably find out what these cards are, you can't do anything with them, they're more kinda 'trophies'.

I'm getting used to the combat system, and it's pretty fun after you developed your fighting skills a bit. Another thing I like is that you actually have to have some knowledge about the creatures you're fighting to get their valuable ingredients. i.e. you fight a ghoul whitout knowing anything about him. you beat him, but there is nothing on his corpse. A bit later you encounter a book about ghouls, reading it adds a file to your creature tab in your journal, if you would know beat a ghoul, you have a chance of findig some ghoul specific ingredients such as Ghoul blood. The same counts for herbs, if you don't know the herb, you can't extract it.

EDIT: Something that I both like and hate about this game: The auto-save function. You can't turn it off, but it did save me already a lot of time.
So when does it autosave? whenever one of your quests get's updated and you enter a new loading zone(i.e. you talk to a NPC who gives you some info about a certain quest you're on, the next time you enter a house or a new region, your game will be saved).It annoys me because sometimes you have to enter a house, talk to a person, and leave the house again. Say you got the quest outside, when you enter the house, the game saves(which takes longer then loading the house itself in my case), you talk to a person->your quest get's update, you leave the house, the game saves again.
Altough it comes in usefull, an option to toggle it off would have been nice. It could be that I've overlooked it, but i'm rather sure it isn't there.

I am really enjoying this game so far...

but the loading times are really killing me...

takes 1-10 minutes to load :S and saving another 30-150 seconds...

Wow ! You have been killed quite a lot of times, then ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Have you patched yet? After I installed patch 1.1a IIRC, my load times improved a lot.

I hear lots of good stuff about this RPG on several forums.
I would buy it, but my pc aint gonna run this one good, so I don't bother <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

no i have never been killed, im talking about the level loading times <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

and yes i have version 1.1a

Yes, but you wrote: "these loading times are killing me" ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" /> ah, yeah <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

I wonder how many are going to get this game? Despite some doubts, I will but I think I'll wait for a few more patches first. It seems a lot of people had to revert to earlier savegames due to bugs during critical quests, etc.

The dual sword system sounds interesting for sure but I don't know if I could ever adjust to such a combat system: see, hitting "keys" and stuff reminds me more of Street Fighter than a fantasy fighting game. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

And I think Prince of Persia:Sands of Time also did have a dual-sword system. Since I never played far enough, I can't speak much for it though there were also combos and timing you needed to pull off by using with the mouse. This was really intuitive as you learnt how to use it within minutes.

You don't use both swords at once, Raito <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> You use the two swords for different types of opponent.

The Witcher weapon system:
You get your Steel Sword from the start, the steel sword is most effective against humanoids. At a certain point in the game you will get your Silver Sword, silver swords are most effective against monsters. These two will be your primary weapons.
During the game you will encounter other weapons such as Axes, Daggers, Torches and also other swords. These can be equiped in your 2 extra weapon slots. I almost never use these weapons, but in some situations they can come in quite handy(the Torch deals almost no damage, but is a good light source in dark spaces, disabling the need of a Cat potion). Each weapon is used individually so you don't actually dual wield the swords. In fact both Swords are used as 2-handed weapons, altough you can change your weapon during combat, your combo sequence will be broken if you do.

After almost exclusively playing first person shooters for the last year, I decided to try an RPG again so I got this Witcher.

Quite surprised with it - the characters are interesting as are the tasks you get to do. Though I'm only on chapter 1.

Reminds me of Neverwinter Nights crossed with Fable.

I've restarted it for some reason, can't remember what exactly though, probably wanted to see the difference if I would have chosen another 'way'(I.E. not giving that elf the promised weapons). But I've gotten kinda addicted to WoW again, and the annoying load times kinda stop me from continuing the story, I'll probably give it another shot in the next week or so. I like the combat system, it's different then other games and how more I played how deeper the story pulled me, so this is definetly not the end for me.
Has anyone finished the game yet? How long did you do over it? Did you like the end(I'm aware of the fact that there are different endings)?

i haven't played the witcher yet, because until christmas i didn't have a computer that would run it. now that i do, it is one game that i am interested in getting and playing. from the things i have heard about it, i think it should be a good game and a lot of fun to play.

has anyone had any bad experiences with it or just didn't like it?

-shan <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I having some frustrating crashes with it though - even after the latest patch.

Could be Vista related - don't know really. Vista is stable in all other games.

I finished it. It's very good - and long. That said, how much of the 'long' is due to the obscene load times between screens is something else... That's the only actual problem I had with it, though, and it's a terrific game.

Everyone: thanks for your comments. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'll play this game soon and decide for myself. Then again, it's not like the violence is that bad... I've seen much worse in a comic though it's probably not the same thing. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

And another fact: Amazing... a writer of The Witcher voiced the main character in an indie adventure game? Wow... I'd always thought most game designers were more interested in stuff like pixel-shaders and highly complex game programming than in some classic-styled game that's really retro.

Witcher is hugely about the story. If you get into that, you'll love the game. It's very dark and definitely deserves its 18 rating, though.

thanks from me too everyone. your comments have been very helpful. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

it is definitely one that i will get and play. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

How is the fighting? Cause just left clicking at the right time all the time doesn't sound good enough for me to do it for more then a few hours

Altough a lot of the combat is about clicking at the right time, you will also have to rely on your magical powers. Using the right power at the right time can you save you a lot of trouble. You also got potions to help you out, but that's just a minor part of combat.
I don't know how the combat evolves later in the game, but I've played till I had all the powers (I think there were 4 or 5 different 'Signs'), it wasn't the combat system which made me quit though, as mentioned before it were the loading times that annoyed me, I love everything else about the game though(well an inventory that was a little more easier to manage would have been great, but it's doable as it is now).

Btw, anyone know if the plot for the game is taken from a book? Still, even if it wasn't, though the developers can certainly be praised for sticking to the original item descriptions and environment, much of the credit goes to the original writer as I suspect that otherwise the developers would really be screwed.

'Cos not every game studio can pull a Larian: that is, go completely crazy on the items and book descriptions and about almost everything else and STILL survive the process unscathed. Few developers are just that good at crafting their own environment and getting away with it: just look at all the cliched RPG environments, whether it be console or PC.

So far, I haven't had any time to play any games... *sighs* so maybe I'll be able to play TW in February.

From what I understand the game takes place after the books - so it's not based on any of them.

Combat in the Witcher is not just clicking at the right time. You also get to try evade, dodging and leaping over enemies. A good position can win you a nasty fight. Not to mention the style switching.

Each sword has three styles - fast (For quick enemies), Strong (for armoured enemies) and Group (For lots of enemies). Right sword + right style can give you a fairly easy victory in many fights - but you may have to switch both in a hurry.

Aha... so this means they DID base the environment from the books: 'cos though the game takes place after the books, they still needed to maintain some level of character and society, etc. consistency.

Very much so, from what I gather. Not speaking Polish myself, however, I cannot be certain <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

So, the writer deserves a lot of credit for world-building. Otherwise, the game would likely have had chinks all over the place.

Quite possibly <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well... few games are able to create a convincing atmosphere or environment and in many game projects, the designers are the ones trying to do the writers' work. Most designers are rather technical folks and possess commendable skills in programming, 3d skin rendering and even technical quest designs but aren't that good at sharp wit, two-bladed retorts and even clever dialogue/narration .

And no, adding tons of dialogues and books is one thing but in DD, I truly felt like I was in some awesome gameworld.

If I understood this correctly, the world is modelled after the books ... But I cannot say in which extend.

Started playing again, and well, with a few patches it seems like the loading times have almost completly disapeared. I remember the first time I played, that I really hated entering a house or other region, 'cause of the long loadtimes. Now I just enter houses to see what's inside, the loadtimes went from like 1 minute to less then 5 seconds for houses. For larger regions it almost never takes more then 30 seconds.
I started over and to experiment a bit, I went to kill the Freightener this time(first time, I 'saved' the lab). First, I was kinda stunned, wheter I chose to save the lab or to kill the freightener, the exact same events happend thereafter. Yet only after a while, the actual consequences became clear. I was playing and I remembered: ow yes, here this happens. Yet something different happend and I had a flashback, I then realised that that was the difference between the choices in the Prologue(the consequences only become clear somewherer in Act 1).
Also saved the barmaid again, the one which rewards you by letting you into the mill, or at least should allow you to go in. 'Cause it's the second time I saved here, and the second time the door just stays locked. First time I was late, I waited a whole day before I went to the mill, so it was normal that it was locked. But this time, she entered the mill right in front of my nose, and the door still states that it's 'locked'(I got the wine with me).

I just played the demo. I really really really like this game. It has a dark edge to it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

There's a new version of The witcher coming out. People who already have the Witcher will be able to download it as an upgrade. The ones who have not yet bought the Witcher, this is your chance!
Most significant to me is that loading times will be reduced with up to 80% compared to the original version. Other changes include the rewritting of certain dialogs.

What's "The Witcher"? Doesn't sound good... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sad.gif" alt="" /> What does it look like?

Official site for The Witcher is here Twoheadeddragon. Should answer your questions <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks Elliot! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

Witcher Update:

An Enhanced Edition will be released soon.
There will be a re-release of the game containing the Enhanced Edition, a new Bonus DVD(with the D'jinii Adventure Editor and two fully voiced Witcher-adventures), a new Making-Of DVD, a map, the game guide, a strategy guide, a short story written by Andrzej Sapkowski and 2 music cd's: one with music from the game and one with 'inspired by' music.

People who already own The Witcher will be able to download the Enhanced Edition upgrade.

The Enhanced Edition contains a lot of new NPC gestures, rewritten and re-recorded dialog, an inventory overhaul, decreased loading times and 9 voice overed languages. These are the major changes, but the Enhanced Edition contains a lot more of upgrades, fixes and improvements!

The D'jinii Editor is already available as a seperate download IIRC.

I'm waiting to start over (again, it's like 5th time already :p) til they release the Enhanced Edition, so I can fully benefit from it. I just hope I'll be able to keep focused on this game past Act III, cause it's a great game!

It was released about two weeks ago Isorun...

Übereil

o_O then why haven't they updated the download page yet? and shouldn't they be sending emails to their subscribed members to tell em it's online, cause I got a mail it will be avaible for download soon, but not that it's already avaible :s

EDIT:k, this is weird, they never updated their own homepage, but what you say is indeed correct Ubereil, the Enhanced Edition is avaible for download, k, this kinda sucks, not letting their subscribers now :s

EDIT 2: it seems that googling 'witcher enhanced edition' just brings you to an old newspage about releasing enhanced edition, so that's why I missed out on the release

They did update! Not all that obviously though. A true fanatic would have been digging around the site weeks before the release and bookmarking pages! It was crap trying to download it the day it was released anyway. I was up early that morning. Their servers couldn't handle the volume of downloaders, people were throwing up mirrors, but some of the files were corrupt in those copies, bleh. Got it eventually though!

The EE kicks ass. I had stopped my current game weeks ago in anticipation of the new release, not even knowing if old save games would be compatible. Luckily, they were. The inventory got a nice upgrade - it now separates alchemy ingredients from regular items, and there is a sort/stack function to keep it all organized. Load times are cut down a little bit, it seems. If I invested in some more RAM they would probably be next to nothing. Characters have more natural and fluid movements during the dialogue scenes, which is a nice touch. I can't do much more comparison, since I played so little of the original version.

Why am I posting about it instead of playing it? I'm off!

Played it...enjoyed it...must repeat it...(several times)
The game is simply awsome,atmosphere really gets you into that cruel world where you play an anti-hero (which I really like for a change),and all your decissions have great impact on the world around you.At some points it makes you really think about your decision because you have a feeling that you're some kind of judge for those poor Vizimans.For my first play I was neutral(as a Witcher should be), but I also intent to play with both sides(even Order ).
What too say more? All the great about the game was already said and I just hope that,if they're gonna do the part II, it must be as great as this one or even better(if it's possible).

For people who might be interested:

The Witcher is coming to PS3 and XBox 360. No need to wory, it's not a port, but a whole new story.
All the info you need can be found here .

I am worried ! A whole new story ? Console only ? And the PCs ???

In other words - same story, different engine. So I wouldn't worry, Alrik

Be interesting to see what console gamers make of it, though. They're not really used to Western-style RPGs, are they?

I regard that CDProjekt doesn't care about this.

Probably not. And good luck to them

Seems like I misread, I thought it was a new story :p sorry for the confusion

Has there been any news about a sequel for the Witcher?

Other than 'there will be one', no... But that much was a given, really

This is an awesome RPG. It's sort of what Gothic III SHOULD'VE been. I hope CDProjekt continues this with either a sequel or another dark medieval fantasy game.

It's sort of what every single character RPG should've been and couldn't live up to, let's be honest

Agreed.

I find the dice poker-minigame way to distracting, i spend more time playing poker than questing :p

ah damn... haven't played this game in 2 months now... i really should pick it up again. damn you fallout 3 !!!

Got to act 2 and really enjoyed the gameplay and story but eventually got bored with it due to having to replay some part time and time again due to crashes. Something about Vista makes it crash a lot.

I played it a while ago.
Defiantly one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played.
I liked the combat system, all tough it was a bit slower than I usually play in.
I also liked the dialogs. It almost as Divinity II's dialogs, but it's much more original and your character actually talks XD
The game also had a very easy-to-catch story which actually helped me doing my quests and missions.
The dialogs were attractive enough to make me listen and use what I've heard and read.

On the other hand, I hated the skill system, it was a bit lame - only a few skills were actually handy.
In addition to that, most of the skills were passive and on top of that - all of them were absolutely un-original.
I also didn't like that the game doesn't support jumping nor flying... it really messed up the gameplay in my opinion.

Basically it is a great game which lacks originality and key features which I must have to enjoy as much as I really like

The Witcher is one of the best PC RPG's in recent years.

And it's always great to see a company support the game like CD Projekt has -- with patch upgrades; the two small DLC additions; adding fan-made DLC they liked into a patch; releasing all the language packs; removing the game's DRM check of Tages; etc etc.