The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition

[Ulminati]

Does it make the game not shit? Regular Twitcher2 was pretty awful.

Oh wait. For xbox live. CDPotato Red finally found its audience

 

[Toffeli]

Does it work with gog release?

Of course? o_O

 

[sea]

New patch has some welcome changes but they should have been in the game to begin with. The default UI for The Witcher 2 is atrocious, all form and no function. List menus suck (and they have icons, they could have done a grid-based menu instead!!1), some of the hotkeys and button inputs/conventions are inconsistent, some screens like the character sheet are a complete mess, etc. It's amazing how we went from the very solid and usable UI in the first game to this one. So I guess what I'm saying is "mods already did this" and "they're polishing a turd."

 

[hiver]

console game... what did anyone expect...

 

[sea]

console game... what did anyone expect...

You say that as if console games can't have good UIs.

 

[hiver]

well...i dont know... good for consoles?

im saying that, as everyone knows, w2 was designed as a console game from the start.
its a console port from the start - that was just released for pc first.
qtes, interface, no open areas they have been blatantly lying about throughout the pr hype before release...retarded boss encounters with console visual design and mechanics... and probably a lot of other stuff i dont want to think about anymore.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

well...i dont know... good for consoles?

im saying that, as everyone knows, w2 was designed as a console game from the start.

O RLY? Care to explain why it took a year to come to consoles after the PC version?

its a console port from the start - that was just released for pc first.

It isn't a port if the PC version was made and released first.

qtes,

There's about three in the entire game.

interface

Been improved in every patch, although I think it was just fine the way it was. It is obviously made for mouse & keyboard, not controller.

no open areas

Flotsam and pretty much all of Chapter 2 prove this is another stupid lie.

they have been blatantly lying about throughout the pr hype before release

Takes one liar to know another, I suppose.

...retarded boss encounters with console visual design and mechanics...

The Kayran was one of the best boss fights I've seen in a video game. The difficulty alone makes it worth praising. The amount of butthurt over that was incredible, and it was actually more from the casual, modern crowd than people who liked older games, where hard boss fights were common.

and probably a lot of other stuff i dont want to think about anymore.

Thinking hurts.

 

[DraQ]

I think it was just fine the way it was.

(...)

The Kayran was one of the best boss fights I've seen in a video game.

Get the fuck out and never return.

 

[Mrowak]

well...i dont know... good for consoles?

im saying that, as everyone knows, w2 was designed as a console game from the start.

O RLY? Care to explain why it took a year to come to consoles after the PC version?

Because they released it in PCs first? The fact remains that the design is very console-oriented. They even admited in a number of interviews that they went for more console approach in order to be able to make a port later on. It is a console game throygh and through, which doesn't mean it is bad.

its a console port from the start - that was just released for pc first.

It isn't a port if the PC version was made and released first.

It is. See above.

qtes,

There's about three in the entire game.

interface

Been improved in every patch, although I think it was just fine the way it was. It is obviously made for mouse & keyboard, not controller.

...

Ok, I am lost here. Frankly, I ditched the mouse just after the prologue and went with Xbox pad. Even in the early stages gameplay with gamepad was much more fluid. Navigating through menus was a little bit of a pain, but whatever.

no open areas

Flotsam and pretty much all of Chapter 2 prove this is another stupid lie.

The problem is those areas are only partially open. They open up when the plot permits, but not before. There are areas you can't visit because they are invisible/unreachable until magical plot device makes Geralt spot them. Inability to jump contrubites to it. Console design.

they have been blatantly lying about throughout the pr hype before release

Takes one liar to know another, I suppose.

whatever.

...retarded boss encounters with console visual design and mechanics...

The Kayran was one of the best boss fights I've seen in a video game. The difficulty alone makes it worth praising. The amount of butthurt over that was incredible, and it was actually more from the casual, modern crowd than people who liked older games, where hard boss fights were common.

Oh... my... fucking... god. Kayran is the epitome of consoley-arcadey boss battle design. The formula is simple: 1) Make the boss invulnerable to attacks save for one trick which paralyzes it 2) Make the player use that one trick a number of times 3) In between player's volleys force him dodge boss's ultra-powerful attacks. 4) Rince and repeat.

Here is a much better boss-battle which follows exactly this model:



Frankly, in comparsion with the battles in real console-arcade games all the main boss encounters in TW2 are very weak.

and probably a lot of other stuff i dont want to think about anymore.

Thinking hurts.

 

[DraQ]

Keyran battle was shit because for most part you never knew what exactly you were trying to do.

For what player knows Geralt's plan essentially was:

1. Immobilize tentacles.

2. Hack at tentacles (what will it accomplish apart from less tentacles?).

3. ???

4. ???

?. ???

QTE elements added insult to injury because they remove the ability to infer actions from interface. If I have controls for, say, running, attacking, blocking, signs, items and rolling I know what elements I'm working with to solve the combat - I perceive the elements of the environment as stuff that can be attacked, blocked moved to or away from, moved on, or interacted with using items or signs. If, OTOH, game suddenly tells me to "press X to not die" I have no clue how I would die, how will this not dying be accomplished nor what situation will it leave me in.

HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS I N COMBAT IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING?

 

[Metro]

Waiting for 75% off~

 

[hiver]

QTEs were in every fist fight and ... probably somewhere i dont remember anymore, fortunately. Oh yeah...at the start when youre supposed to operate some siege machinery? right?
And when the dragons tries to get you the first time... (i didnt get to the next time at all...) and i think they were thrown into even more places - EVEN THOUGH i tried to disable them in options.

also, yeah... pre-game the whole areas of it were touted as completely free to walk through. Whole fucking chapters. And they showed several places while saying that - that were only accessible through loading screens inside those chapters. and paths through the areas are limited and walled in. in addition to many not opening at all until you passed through specific story points.
fuck all of them.

Mrowak, thanx for saving me the effort of responding to that garbage.

 

[DraQ]

QTEs were in every fist fight

Fortunately fist fights don't have any mechanics to figure out or be aware of so you just click the buttons you're told to.

Seriously retarded, but easy and relatively benign, being limited to a self-contained minigame.

Oh yeah...at the start when youre supposed to operate some siege machinery? right?

Clicking really fast, although obnoxious, doesn't really count as QTE and was present in games since at least c64 era.

And when the dragons tries to get you the first time...

Yeah, this one was bad and unnecessary, as you were given controls to perform the needed actions manually if the scripting didn't depend on you QTEing correctly.

(i didnt get to the next time at all...) and i think they were thrown into even more places - EVEN THOUGH i tried to disable them in options.

Disabling QTEs does remove some and simplify the rest. Given that QTEs are such a shitty mechanics (or rather non-mechanics) it's for the better.

 

[hiver]

I know. But if im told i can fucking disable QTES then i expect them to be fucking gone.
And whenever they were and however contained it was ... i dont give a fuck.

they shouldnt be there at all in the first place.
i played only until beginning of vergen so i dont know if there are more and where.

knowing they made a console port then sold it on PC, only because that was their market they got popular in, with the first game... just fills me with extra joy.
not to mention anything else that went on.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

It is obviously made for mouse & keyboard, not controller.

Thinking hurts.

Did I hear "ouch!" after that sentence?

Waiting for 75% off~

Don't. It's really not worth it.

 

[hiver]

Its actually better than anything bioware or bethesda crapped out that is in the same category (skyrim isnt since thats an open sandbox world game where the most fun and enjoyment is derived from that with which W2 cannot compete being railed along like KOTOR, except branching in two at one point, etc).

The dialogue, writing, art style, design of towns and characters and locations is great, visually and thematically.(voices overs are among best ive heard)
Setting is more grim-adult fantasy than not, and the story, the main plot is pretty decent for such a game.
But it is a consolized action RPG game that often falls on its face in mechanics, C&C area (DA has deepr C&C) - and other stuff.
Which causes it to look very cheap and shallow too many times.
It creates a serious disconnect and makes the whole of it much worse.

It was not hyped as such at all.

Also, read at RPS in interview about the new cyberpunk game, how one of the devs of CDprojekt is amazed by D3 always online DRM and how he thinks it can be monetized more and how industry will go into that direction and yeah...

 

[aris]

Pff. Interface in the witcher 2, especially now, is just fine for the PC. Also, I'd take witcher 2's combat, where you at the very least have to stay awake over the piss boring in the witcher 1, any day. As for qte, I don't like them either, and would prefer to have the option to remove them completely. But it's definitely not a deal breaker. As for C&C (damn I hate that stupid buzz word), which other game gives you a whole other part with a seperate story line for a huge chunk of the game, based on your choices? Can anyone name any?

 

[Gerrard]

It had the worst UI among PC games released in recent years, but then Skyrim came out.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Both Witcher 2 and Skyrim had awful UIs obviously made for consoles (surprise, surprise). Still, the interface, despite being an absolute trainwreck, is not even close to being game's biggest flaw, which says it all, really.

 

[Roguey]

List menus suck (and they have icons, they could have done a grid-based menu instead!!1), some of the hotkeys and button inputs/conventions are inconsistent, some screens like the character sheet are a complete mess, etc. It's amazing how we went from the very solid and usable UI in the first game to this one. So I guess what I'm saying is "mods already did this" and "they're polishing a turd."

I thought this way once too, then I remembered that Witcher's icon-based menu with those dozens of dozens alchemical ingredients and all those potions were a pain in the ass since you have to mouse-over each and every one of them to see what their properties are. So for those particular items, a list is preferable. Perhaps it's more trouble than it's worth to create a list for ingredients/potions/recipes/things-that-are-not-very-distinguishable-with-just-a-graphic and a grid for everything else.

 

[Excidium]

List is much better than grid. The problem is with these console games and their lists that can't show more than 5 items at the same time because you need to read it from across the room, so a full inventory becomes a scrolling nightmare.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Would it really be so hard to add a button that switches between grid and list view?

 

[Roguey]

List is much better than grid. The problem is with these console games and their lists that can't show more than 5 items at the same time because you need to read it from across the room, so a full inventory becomes a scrolling nightmare.

I thought it was funny how you had that large text and wasted space in the list itself but the pop-up description text was so fucking small. Fixed in the 360 version of course.

 

[Rivmusique]

Shit man, did we play different games? Kayran best boss fight and interface designed for m&k, how can anyone think this?

which other game gives you a whole other part with a seperate story line for a huge chunk of the game, based on your choices?

Choice. And not a subtle one at all, it was very "BRO THIS CHOICE WILL HAVE MAD IMPACTS THINK VERY CAREFULLY! SRSLY BRO YOU SURE!?!". The way they made 2 act 2's was pretty ballsy though, they had to know that a fair bit of the audience would not see ~1/5 of the game they had created due to not doing multiple playthroughs, not something that is acceptable for most AAA devs ("Everyone should be able to see everything" seems to be the common design choice). Hopefully they can stick with it and give us even more variety based on choices and playstyle in future games.

 

[aris]

Actually. It was very subtle and not clear at all when you were choosing which side to take in act 2, and you only had a couple of seconds to make the choice at all.