[Thrakier]

If they also made blocking not take up vigor and instead just have you take chip damage, you got yourself a deal. Only certain skills have a slot on your skill tree to allow you to add a mutagen. Just highlight a skill that you added and has an empty circle on the top part of the icon and press Y if using a pad and you can select a mutagen. The prices are 24:1, so I would suggest just modding it so that's back to Witcher 1 scale of 5:1 http://www.witchernexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=67

24:1...why? O.o Weird. I now used some mutagens but I'm almost done with the game. Really, it feels like nothing matters. I didn't even touch most of the potions or skills. Quen + Roll is enough for everything if you wind new weapons from time to time. So yeah, lots of wasted potential here. Still a great game but I really hope they make the whole RPG elements more interessting for Witcher 3 and balance things better.

[Thrakier]

Hi

is anyone else noticing mad texture flickering sometimes? AF is set to 16x. Check the video. In the video it's far less pronounced than on my TV. In the video it looks almost like white flickering, but that isn't the case, it's just the texture which is flickering, there is no shift in color or whatsoever. So that video is not 100% accurate. It's less noticable on my monitor than on my tv. The TV is far biggher though, maybe that's a reason, don't know. It's almost not noticable on my monitor but not gone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ju47...ature=youtu.be

Any ideas? Depending on the area etc. it's more or less noticable, but it seems to be always there. Someone out there with the same problem?

EDIT

2nd video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS9tOqWtegw

[Yasae]

Because it doesn't matter. I found it incredibly easy to see in grassy areas. However you can notice it in floatsam as well. When you come out of the inn, just look at the vendors tent straight ahead. If you get closer to the tent, items will load. I never noticed it before someone mentioned though. But now I see the pop in everywhere and it's quite strong.

Alright, I'll look out for it.

[Thrakier]

So, finished it today...overall I would rate it 8 or 9 out of 10, but the potential was there to become my most favorite game of all time.

The strong point of the game really is the immersion. It's creaty by a believable world, great characters and AMAZING graphics. The last point makes everything fun in the game. It sounds stupid, but running and discovering the game world was a joy of it's own. Walking through the floatsam forest was so immersive that I totally forgot everything else.

The story was kinda meh. It had it's moments but shifted too strong to "fantasy politics" blablabla. I hate that. It's so unnecesary. I mean it's ok to have that, but don't focus that. Focus Geralt and Triss or whatever, make it more personal. I don't like that shit. Politics is boring as fuck, in reality as in fiction. And tbh I didn't understand even half of it because they throw names at you and past things and stuff like nothing and at some point I just didn't pay too much attention to it. Though I have to say that I loved the characters and just watching them interact. Geralt is so cool, one of the best game characters ever.

Also like already discussed, the battler and upgrade system is not without faults, especially the latter. The game was overall way too easy on normal. Way too easy. I only had problems in the very beginning but after I managed and mastered Quen I was undefeatable. I'm sure I could've beaten it without upgrading anything like swords or my skills.

While the tech is there and it looks amazing it comes with several quirks which are not so nice. The above mentioned texture flickering, some stuttering from time to time, heavy mouse lag, stuff like that...but the hell, it looks amazing, so who gives a fuck in the end.

So yeah, overall, the game excels at immersion and game world and that's important for an RPG. I love it for that, I really do. Floatsam was the best part though. Overall, the gameworld was realtively small. It feels big in the beginning but if you think about it now, ther is not much to discover (compared to f.e. Skyrim). So I really hope they hold on to their strengths and go all out for TW3 which could be the best game ever made.

[Solo]

The story was kinda meh.

[Kyaw]

Correct response! :lol

CDP has been pretty quiet, maybe GoG will have some kind of conference for 'Winter' soon? Maybe..

[burgerdog]

Perfect.

Also, I am finally doing Roch's side next week. Been long enough since I played it last(launch window.)

[Thrakier]

It was not? Was your typical OH RACISM IS BAD EVEN IN ELVEN LAND AND POLITICS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS shit.

[JaseC]

Having finished the game earlier, my only substantial gripe lies with its length. The campaign is far, far too short, and, in fact, I'd estimate that it lasts a good ~20 hours less than that of the original game.

Edit: Haha, that gif is so large that Firefox refuses to save it into cache.

[leng jai]

Having finished the game earlier, my only substantial gripe lies with its length. The campaign is far, far too short, and, in fact, I'd estimate that it lasts a good ~20 hours less than that of the original game.

The first was far too long. The last act in Witcher 2 could have used a few more hours though.

[Edgeward]

The first was far too long. The last act in Witcher 2 could have used a few more hours though.

Yeah, I gave up on the 1st one shortly after having to do the main quest in the swamp area. Although I probably woulda stuck with it if the game didn't run like ass on my dual core.

[JaseC]

The first was far too long. The last act in Witcher 2 could have used a few more hours though.

I'm sure there's some fat in the original that could've been trimmed (it's been quite a while since I played it), but I stand by my underlying point - the sequel wasn't nearly as meaty as I had hoped, and, yeah, Chapter 3 was insultingly short.

I'm not one for huge RPGs (After ~80 hours of Skyrim I don't have much desire to return to it), but I took no issue with the length of The Witcher.

[thetrin]

The game was overall way too easy on normal. Way too easy. I only had problems in the very beginning but after I managed and mastered Quen I was undefeatable. I'm sure I could've beaten it without upgrading anything like swords or my skills.

Funny thing is, the game was nowhere close to easy when the game first came out. Afaik, it was patched a bunch of times.

[Rpgmonkey]

Finished this last week. Great game, the characters and graphics especially.

Didn't expect to like Geralt so much. I liked that he had an established personality with his own perspective on the world around him, and the decisions you made were a little less about molding Geralt into the kind of person you want him to be, and more about what kind of experience Geralt's adventure will be like.

The game's difficulty is kind of off. I thought Chapter 1 was really difficult with preparation being really important for a lot of fights (it even kind of put me off the game for a while because I wasn't going into the game expecting this), but then in Chapter 2 and 3 you get to all these awesome abilities after leveling up some more, and almost every encounter becomes really easy. Even without Quen it wasn't too tough.

[Yasae]

Alright, I'll look out for it.

It appears I do indeed have this bug. Looked at twigs and stones on the ground along with grass meshes popping in. It happens very, VERY close to Geralt exactly like in the video. Definitely a confirmed bug considering how high my settings are (everything max save for cinematic depth of field - meh - and ubersampling of course.)

Actually on that note, cinematic depth of field causes the strangest sound bug. It made my sound interface "blank out" and crackle incessantly whenever cinematics were playing, as if it were trying to change the sample rate. Very odd and hard to find a link between.

I also got used to the combat, finally. The queen endregas still took some getting used to and a few deaths were involved, but I took the advice of a good friend: "Use quen and be a pussy." You've really gotta time your attacks, rolls, roll direction etc very well, and it's for that reason I still don't classify the difficulty as easy even on the lowest setting. Once you get past the initial hump of core battle strategy, the game does become perhaps too easy, where you can dodge nearly anything and spout off large amounts of damage.

There's a certain finesse you have to gain through practice - it's not quite just roll and use quen, even if those are the core tenets.

[Thrakier]

I wouldn't consider it a bug it's just how the engine works. LOD, that's all. Other games show the same or a smiliar behavior.

You could check if you find flickering textures with FSAA? You got an NVIDIA card?

[Maladict]

So I was planning on starting a new game yesterday using my old witcher 1 save, which I've used before without any problems, but the game just says that it can't find any witcher 1 saves. The save folder is in the right location so it can't be because of that. But I don't have witcher 1 installed at the moment (I've read that that might cause problems) and I can't install witcher 1 without going through alot of hassle since I removed my dvd drive some time ago. Does anyone know a workaround for this?

Oh and I've only had this problem since I reinstalled windows (and witcher 2).

[Yasae]

I wouldn't consider it a bug it's just how the engine works. LOD, that's all. Other games show the same or a smiliar behavior. You could check if you find flickering textures with FSAA? You got an NVIDIA card?

I feel it may have gotten a bit worse through performance tweaks in the patches. I don't remember quite so much LOD-pop (rocks and such magically warping in a foot in front of Geralt) in the earlier versions. Then again, it may be the core of how they got so much extra performance out of such a great looking game. The performance increases for me have been huge - probably a 60-100% increase in FPS in most places.

EDIT: I do have an Nvidia card, a GTX 460 1GB. I'll check for the texture flickering with it on.

[Masaki_]

It was not? Was your typical OH RACISM IS BAD EVEN IN ELVEN LAND AND POLITICS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS shit.

A simplification worthy of an idiot.

[RPGCrazied]

Got this yesterday. Finally a game that makes my PC sweat. Everything is at max. Sometimes it seems to hit 18fps or something, but damn if it don't look awesome. I guess ubersampling is killing my fps. :P

[jim-jam bongs]

I can't believe that thrakier is saying the game being easy on Normal is a flaw when it has three harder difficulty settings now.

Got this yesterday. Finally a game that makes my PC sweat. Everything is at max. Sometimes it seems to hit 18fps or something, but damn if it don't look awesome. I guess ubersampling is killing my fps. :P

I actually don't think ubersampling was even intended for current GPUs, so if you're running it without it dropping to the single digits that's pretty bloody impressive!

[RPGCrazied]

I can't believe that thrakier is saying the game being easy on Normal is a flaw when it has three harder difficulty settings now. I actually don't think ubersampling was even intended for current GPUs, so if you're running it without it dropping to the single digits that's pretty bloody impressive!

Well, it is jerky, but very playable. Not a slideshow or anything. I have a 6 core CPU with a 5770HD Radeon. Really nice card.

[Sinatar]

Got this yesterday. Finally a game that makes my PC sweat. Everything is at max. Sometimes it seems to hit 18fps or something, but damn if it don't look awesome. I guess ubersampling is killing my fps. :P

Turn off ubersampling and use regular AA and you should have no problems hovering in the 50-60 range.

[Thrakier]

I can't believe that thrakier is saying the game being easy on Normal is a flaw when it has three harder difficulty settings now.

If it's easy on normal, it's a flaw. It should be normal on normal. It should be the balanced difficulty setting. The way the dev wants me to play the game.

[RPGCrazied]

Turn off ubersampling and use regular AA and you should have no problems hovering in the 50-60 range.

I'll give it a go. So what does ubersampling do then, if you can just use AA? I see 0 jaggies, and notice a pretty sexy bloom effect.

[Thrakier]

I'll give it a go. So what does ubersampling do then, if you can just use AA? I see 0 jaggies, and notice a pretty sexy bloom effect.

You can see plenty of Jaggies with the ingame AA option and the bloom effect destroys the beauty of the whole game. ;D

[EatChildren]

I'll give it a go. So what does ubersampling do then, if you can just use AA? I see 0 jaggies, and notice a pretty sexy bloom effect.

It's souped up supersampling, rendering the game at a higher resolution than what is displayed, from multiple angles, and then downsamples the image to your display resolution for maximum texture clarity and minimal aliasing. It's essentially the best form of anti-aliasing around, but also requires a ton of processing power to use with stable framerates.

[reptilescorpio]

If it's easy on normal, it's a flaw. It should be normal on normal. It should be the balanced difficulty setting. The way the dev wants me to play the game.

The game has a tutorial where it even tells you what the recommended difficulty for you would be. Just because you thought Normal wasn't hard enough doesn't make it a flaw.

[Thrakier]

The game has a tutorial where it even tells you what the recommended difficulty for you would be. Just because you thought Normal wasn't hard enough doesn't make it a flaw.

I played that and it recommended easy. :) Even more flawed.

[Solo]

Thread is getting silly now

[Thrakier]

Why? It's what it is. Too easy. Quen more or less breaks the game, that is the problem. Not health or damage of the enemies. As soon as you leveld up Quen you have a win button. Game was hard on normal in the first few fights. When I did unterstand how to use quen. Since then it was piss easy. And it gets more and more easy to the end. I didn't even have to use quen. That's not "normal", it's "easy".

[Solo]

Don't use quen then. Problem solved.

[Thrakier]

Don't use quen then. Problem solved.

Why should I? The game offers it.

[codhand]

Why should I? The game offers it.

I used Quen and still felt challenged, often dying if I approached battles unprepared. This game is way better balanced than the first, but could still improve.

[Solo]

Why should I? The game offers it.

Because you are a human being with the power of choice. If you feel quen "breaks" the game, then don't use it and enjoy an "unbroken" game.

[JaseC]

I didn't level up Quen at all as I remained focused on the swordmaster tree, though this only became a problem when I encountered the "secret" boss. I ultimately decided to install the so-called "God mode" mod for the purpose of besting the bastard. :p

For the record, I played on Normal and, given my character, found the difficulty to fall within expectations.

[Thrakier]

Because you are a human being with the power of choice. If you feel quen "breaks" the game, then don't use it and enjoy an "unbroken" game.

That's not the way I play. I expect a game with a balanced quen. "Not using" something is like if you are a 100m sprinter and you are running against a slow guy and because of that you run withi just 50% power so that it's a bit more thrilling. It's stupid and it breaks the immersion. I'd rather prefer that Geralt is some sort of super uber duber super-spider-man-buffy-like whatever demon killer than ignoring Quen. It's there so I use it, it's part of Geralts abilities.

@JaseC

Difficulty? Besides the first few battles and the second boss fight I was never even close to dieing.

[Solo]

Well I'm just saying that all of your complaining in this thread could be alleviated quite easily.

[JaseC]

JaseC Difficulty? Besides the first few battles and the second boss fight I was never even close to dieing.

Like I said, I didn't level up Quen. Once I became accustomed to the combat and gained the riposte ability, I virtually stopped using it outside of bosses.

I'd say the one instance my lowly Quen power proved useful was during the final boss fight of the game.

[Thrakier]

Well I'm just saying that all of your complaining in this thread could be alleviated quite easily.

No, it can't. You don't understand the problem. Besides that, I already said that I love the game, it's one of the best I've ever played. There's just plenty of room for improvement. One of those is the combat and the difficulty.

[RPGCrazied]

I kinda like how it looks with it on. :) if it comes a slideshow later or something, I'll turn it off.

I'm finding the game to be quite hard though. I'm doing a quest, killing nekkars in a cave, and getting my ass kicked. I must be doing something wrong. I bought a new sword, got the new witcher sword, and new armor. Oh, its in the Floatsam area.

[Salaadin]

I kind of agree with Solo in that if a game gives you something and you dont like it, dont use it. I personally stopped using Quen all of the time because it kills vigor regen while active and I hate running out of vigor. There are times when Quen feels necessary but the bulk of the game is much more enjoyable without it.

I do agree about the difficulty modes though....normal should mean normal, not easy. I think my biggest issue with the difficulty is how inconsistent it was. The transition from Act 1 to Act 2 was almost like moving from one difficulty mode to an easier one and it had nothing to do with levels or upgraded skill sets. It was just easier.

I also dont approve of the lowered difficulty that came from the post release patches. Im slowly working my way through Dark Mode its not that difficult so far. Dark Mode almost feels like launch day Normal mode.

I kinda like how it looks with it on. :) if it comes a slideshow later or something, I'll turn it off. I'm finding the game to be quite hard though. I'm doing a quest, killing nekkars in a cave, and getting my ass kicked. I must be doing something wrong. I bought a new sword, got the new witcher sword, and new armor. Oh, its in the Floatsam area.

That nekkar cave is horrible because there are so many. Its possible to tip toe in there and only aggro a few a time if you want to try that. Otherwise, just use quen and roll dodge around them until a few die and the group becomes more manageable. Take them out a little bit at time with quick sword slashes and try to avoid big combos unless youre sure that you arent going to be hit from behind.

[JumpingTheGun]

Has the 360 release date been announced yet?

[Thrakier]

I kinda like how it looks with it on. :) if it comes a slideshow later or something, I'll turn it off. I'm finding the game to be quite hard though. I'm doing a quest, killing nekkars in a cave, and getting my ass kicked. I must be doing something wrong. I bought a new sword, got the new witcher sword, and new armor. Oh, its in the Floatsam area.

Enjoy it, it will be the only time your ass gets kicked. ;D

[Complistic]

I don't think so. And indeed CD Projekt can work on balancing a little bit. I mean it is their second game they ever created so they certainly get a pass on some things like this. I want an expansion or something.

[RPGCrazied]

Enjoy it, it will be the only time your ass gets kicked. ;D

Oh, one at a time they are fine. But I got mobbed by like 20 of them at once, haha.

[Solo]

No, it can't. You don't understand the problem.

Yes I do. But it's a completely moot and silly thing to be bitching about because the game doesn't force you to use quen. If you JUST HAVE to use every one of Geralt's skills, thats on you, not the game.

[toastyToast]

You need bombs for the nekkar cave otherwise it's a royal pain in the ass. Grape something is good for mobs

[Thrakier]

Yes I do. But it's a completely moot and silly thing to be bitching about because the game doesn't force you to use quen. If you JUST HAVE to use every one of Geralt's skills, thats on you, not the game.

Don't claim you do because you clearly don't. If you would you would understand me besides just doing things your way. Please read my analogy with the sprinter again, because it works. If you still don't get it I can't help you.

[subversus]

A simplification worthy of an idiot.

lol so true.