Will Witcher II be a good looking game?

[Andhaira]

So TWiitcher I was pretty good looking for its time. Does TWitcher II look to follow suit?

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

graphix whore.

 

[Lesifoere]

The more important thing, Andhairia, is: will you be able to afford upgrading your PC to play it?

 

[commie]

Best looking RPG evah!(tm).

Provided they make the graphics with the PC in mind and not some console compromise then it probably will be the best looking RPG. Certainly looks like it given some of the gameplay videos so far.

 

[relootz]

The more important thing, Andhairia, is: Will you be able to get a job so will you be able to afford upgrading your PC to play it?

 

[Achilles]

It looks great in screenshots and videos.

 

[Jim Cojones]

Best looking RPG evah!(tm).

Lies, it looks good but it's far from Icewind Dale's greatness.

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

Best looking RPG evah!(tm).

Provided they make the graphics with the PC in mind and not some console compromise then it probably will be the best looking RPG. Certainly looks like it given some of the gameplay videos so far.

Since the guys at CD-Projekt don't have that much console-experience I think they will have the PC in mind, just like Piranha Bytes did with Risen.

But more important: What's with all the graphic whoring? The witcher 1 was pretty enough, some better animations would be nice but not really necessary.
Codex declining.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

But will it be good enough?

 

[1eyedking]

They better not fuck up the art direction. And I'm not only speaking about the visual design.

Music, writing, sounds, lore, atmosphere, characters, politics, locales. They better nail those right, too. The Witcher wasn't a good RPG, but a great adventure game nonetheless.

 

[Baron]

Computer graphics aside, I was just so impressed with the art direction of The Witcher; swamps, castles, poor areas and cemeteries all looked fantastic. Given it was built using the ugliest game engine ever conceived it was an accomplishment.

The only thing that's a little worrying was the earlier mass sackings/leavings that occured at CD-Projekt between the two releases. But the footage I've seen looks extremely promising.

Hopefully they'll release the toolset. They claim to have made great improvements to the conversations and quest editors.

 

[Mrowak]

They better not fuck up the art direction. And I'm not only speaking about the visual design.

Music, writing, sounds, lore, atmosphere, characters, politics, locales. They better nail those right, too. The Witcher wasn't a good RPG, but a great adventure game nonetheless.

This, this, this and this.

TWitcher may not the best RPG around but it is still an amazing game. I take its setting and ambience over most other great but somewhat lacking RPGs (I mean real RPG, not popamole bullcrap) like Arcanum, or Vampire:Bloodlines.

Hell, mods even saved broken combat for me (which wasn't that broken when compared to still awesome MOTB).

 

[Rhalle]

Computer graphics aside, I was just so impressed with the art direction of The Witcher; swamps, castles, poor areas and cemeteries all looked fantastic. Given it was built using the ugliest game engine ever conceived it was an accomplishment.

The only thing that's a little worrying was the earlier mass sackings/leavings that occured at CD-Projekt between the two releases. But the footage I've seen looks extremely promising.

Hopefully they'll release the toolset. They claim to have made great improvements to the conversations and quest editors.

Yep. They made a really good-looking, convincing, non-cartoony fantasy world with the Shitrora Engine, something Bioware could never do. CDPR clearly has technicians and artists superior to Bioware.

However, I'm surprised that it appears that CDPR has yet to invent a character-creation tool, even for their own use. They seem to still be making all character models from scratch.

This is really neat, on the one hand, as it gives everyone a hand-crafted and unique look; it also, of course, reduces the total number of NPCs with a unique look, which is not so neat. If they were really cool, perhaps they would do both.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't a reasonably powerful SDK/toolset, with as much efforst as they appear to have put into the rest of the engine.

Question:

Will CDPR make Witcher 2 a DLC/Post-Release content-fest? Do they even have the abiility to do that? That would probably have something to do with whether or not they released an SDK.

Also:

I wonder how long W2 will be. We've heard a bit from them about No FedEX quests, and they seem proud of that streamlining, so I have to wonder how many hours we'll be talking about.

 

[Twinkle]

Yes. It will surpass highest artistic standards set by the original.

 

[clockradiospeakers]

Hell, mods even saved broken combat for me (which wasn't that broken when compared to still awesome MOTB).

Which mods?

 

[Mrowak]

Hell, mods even saved broken combat for me (which wasn't that broken when compared to still awesome MOTB).

Which mods?

Well, the best I played is Full Combat Rebalance Mod

Pure awesome though it makes the game extremely hard (even on "normal" setting).

It really nerfes igni and aard, makes bombs actually useful. Human opponents have little hp - die in 1-2 slashes but also on account on having weapons - the same applies to yourself - they deal massive amount of damage in one attack. Forget about spamming group style - it was nerfed as well (though it's still useful). Monsters on the other hand are durable as hell, despite dealing relatively less damage, and hence are really really... well, monstrous.

If you add to that enemies totally immune to attacks unless treated with an appropriate sword and right oil; if you account for substantial changes in skill system (the way you can distribute your points on skills and the way those skils work), if you observe that various swords at blacksmith's and dropped by your enemies are actually useful; - you get a perfect combat rebalance mod. It still suffers from click, click - die syndrome, and unfortunately the swamps are still full with respawning drowners but at least the battles are far more intense and engaging.

The only gripe I have with the mod is that it destroys the balance between steel and silver sword styles - because most of the time you'll be facing monsters and even most powerful humans die in 3-4 attacks (except for boss fights ) silver sword rules all the way.

If you're going to replay TWitcher you might as well grab this mod. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

 

[Sentinel]

Computer graphics aside, I was just so impressed with the art direction of The Witcher; swamps, castles, poor areas and cemeteries all looked fantastic. Given it was built using the ugliest game engine ever conceived it was an accomplishment.

They claim to have rewritten most of the engine code, because Aurora was already outdated when the license was purchased. As always, Polish engineers have proven to be more competent than Polish suits.

 

[CrimHead]

Someone needs to photoshop Gerald in a tutu.

 

[Andhaira]

The more important thing, Andhairia, is: will you be able to afford upgrading your PC to play it?

Sadly, most likely not. I have yet to play all the great rpg's of the last decade, including TWitcher I, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Oblivion.

I need to get an Xbox.

 

[Phelot]

TW1 had some nice settings and the (albeit limited) character models seemed top notch. The art itself was also good.

It's a shame the rest of the game was horrid since the combat was lame which left us only with the will to follow the story which just so happened to be retarded. Sorry Poland, it's just a mediocre game.

EDIT: Oh yeah TW2... well of course the previews showcase all the most retarded elements such as showing off the cutscenes and tuff guy dialogue, but maybe there's other elements that are good.

 

[Lesifoere]

Computer graphics aside, I was just so impressed with the art direction of The Witcher; swamps, castles, poor areas and cemeteries all looked fantastic. Given it was built using the ugliest game engine ever conceived it was an accomplishment.

They claim to have rewritten most of the engine code, because Aurora was already outdated when the license was purchased. As always, Polish engineers have proven to be more competent than Polish suits.

It's pretty amazing what they could salvage out of Aurora's shittastic code, graphic assets, shitshitshit everything. Say what you will about TWitcher 1, the art direction and technical competence shown by CDPR were impressive. Yes, even with the long-ass loading pre-patch (which was patched soon enough), it still looked so much better than Aurora games. Arguably performed better too.

The more important thing, Andhairia, is: will you be able to afford upgrading your PC to play it?

Sadly, most likely not. I have yet to play all the great rpg's of the last decade, including TWitcher I, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Oblivion.

I need to get an Xbox.

I doubt TWitcher 2's graphics can be dumbed down enough to run on a Crapbox. A PS3 maybe, but barely. And if your PC can't run the first game/DA/ME/Oblivion, then you really need a new one, dude.