Preview More Previews for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[Karuto]

Now unfortunately, this can also end up having completely opposite the intended effect. Although it is a cool feature, not having the ability to know the exact necessary details for some quests can lead to some head-scratching, along with plenty of moments where the game just up and leaves you to your own device. Whether it is telling you to find this person or discover this item or anything of that nature, a lot of the time it will simply not tell you where you actually need to go.

The Horror, Horror...
This and the whining about Wither world being "sexist", Welcome to the world of castrated imbecils.

Hah, sorry about that. I figured I'd turn people the wrong way bringing this up, but it happened a few times pretty damn early in the preview build. Spoilers below on two of these sidequest events...

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First off, an elf is accused of killing somebody. Geralt goes to investigate, and finds arrows in a dead body belonging to the "Squirrels" which pinpoints her as the true culprit. Geralt lies to the guards, meets her at a waterfall. She creates an ambush and runs away. The game tells me to find her after I kill the elves, but after running all over the forest she is nowhere to be found.

Second quest: Geralt gets caught up in drinking and mini games. He wakes up on a beach having lost all his equipment and what transpired the night before. I have to bribe some villager to tell me what happened, and he tells me to visit a hooker named Madame something-or-other. I bribe her, who tells me to talk to the lady soldier in our ragtag group who stayed lucid during the experience. She doesn't say anything about the event, and no matter what I do, I can't trigger it. Namco never replied back telling me how to fix this, so I am assuming it's a bug. Problem is, one of the items I had on my person was very important in taking a different path rather than the rather inhumane one for the main plot of the story.

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So, these and others kind of making the game relish in making you feel rather lost and flailing. Of course, from another perspective, it makes the sequel more open-ended in nature (save for the second example, of course). However, because the preview build was short, these were the only real experiences I could pull away from the time spent on it, so I do apologize if I came across as a little bit of a whiny bitch but I had to bring it up. Hope you understand.

Oh, and by the way, I loved the original Witcher to death and actually bought it the first day it came out, and actually own multiple copies (both the digital and boxed versions of the original, as well as the digital and boxed versions of the Enhanced Edition). I am not so callous as to question whom the game is being marketed towards. I find it to be a very adult game that is directed as such. For example, while people like the staffer at IGN who previewed the game bitched about the difficulty on Easy mode, I think the sequel just does a better job in showing that this series is meant to be a more strenuous adventure, if you get what I'm saying.

 

[made]

Download link to preview build or gtfo.

 

[Elwro]

:D Thanks for the explanation, Karuto!

 

[Karuto]

Download link to preview build or gtfo.

Hah! As much as I'm sure everyone would love that, I'm pretty sure Namco would never send me a final copy of this or any other game if I decided to do that. But hey, we're only a month away, and the preview build lacks enough features that I think it's worth waiting until then.

 

[Stalin]

Karuto




Joined: 24 Apr 2011
Posts: 2

 

[Kalin]

[...] or cute details like the way the kids in town start following him around asking “White Wolf, are you the one who ate Red Riding Hood?” or asking if he carries two swords because he keeps losing one.

Well I sure hope those little runts aren't invulnerable.

Yep. Welcome to The Witcher 2. Remember that ‘good’ king from earlier? Even he doesn’t bat an eyelid at mention of his soldiers raping and pillaging. Insults like ‘cunt’ and ‘whoreson’ are thrown around like confetti. Even a sympathetic troll who’s sunk into alcoholism after the death of his ‘woman’ mostly bemoans the fact that nobody’s cooking meat for him at home any more.

One big change from original Witcher is that while the silly collectible sex cards from the first game are out, fully animated sex scenes are now in, with no shame or censor bars. At the very start of the game for instance, Geralt’s sorceress friend/lover Triss is lying stark naked in his bed, and barely upgrades to a towel for a chat. If you hire a prostitute at the inn (for research purposes, of course…), this isn’t a game that just gives you a fade to black for the coin you’re about to get a Quickload Refund on.

Weird, since I am sure that many players skipped the romance drivel and kept Triss at a distance. Hopefully, the sex will at least be optionable in the same way that it was in the original, because one of the last things I want to see is that ghoulish creature humping away on screen.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

No, it does not really make sense. What good does it do to compare Kirkwall of DA2 with a town in TW2? And who actually benefits from such a comparison? I'd say "not much" and "no-one, really".

[...]

The other mention of DA2 - the graphics - seems equally unnecessary.

[...]

Other than that I see no reasons why he did as he did. And certainly no viable reasons.

The way you and that commentator say it, it's like the comparison physically hurt someone. WHY DID YOU COMPARE IT TO DA2, BRO? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS, BRO! That's where the butthurt seems to be coming from. It's just a comparison about the sheer population size of two towns, there's no one to "actually benefit from it" or any "good to come from it".

Dunno about why you think that DA2 not being meant to be graphically impressive is relevant. The whole thing seems pretty simple - "Hey, you know Kirkwall? Well, it's a ghost town compared to this town in TW2". By extension, so is that little shitty city in TW1.

 

[Smiffy]

For me the mentioning of DA2 in this preview is just an extension of the hype. For this reviewer DA2 seems to be the assumed reference when it comes to current RPGs, a game the assumed readers of the preview most likely can relate to. Nevermind that DA2 seems to be shit-game with mediocre sales, it comes from Bioware, it is the second part of "the best RPG since BG2", it is supposedly AAA and it has been hyped. Either that or he is taking delight in taking stabs at DA2.

Yes, the reviewer mentioned it only twice, in half a sentence. And I think the commentator is exaggerating quite a bit in his critique. But I think basically he is right. A comparison with a supposedly shit-game with mediocre sales is just not called for in a reviewish preview of TW2. No good will come from it, no-one will benefit, it will help no-one: This is bad journalism in that the reviewer has answered this first and foremost question of journalism in a very, very superficial way, or not at all.

The whole thing seems pretty simple - "Hey, you know Kirkwall? Well, it's a ghost town compared to this town in TW2".

As far as I know Kirkwall is a ghost town even without being compared to better towns in other games. So why mention it at all? It is not the quality of DA2, it is not the popularity of the game, it is the hype that made him do it. Or DA2 being his pet peeve. In either case, just bad journalism.

As a whole I think the preview is really a good one actually and I'm not bothered by any of the stuff I regard as flaws. But I do think that Garfunkel is quite wrong in his comments on the commentator.