The Witcher has a lot of potential but it doesn't so many things wrong. The character control is poor. The battle system is amateur. The save system is infuriating (auto-saves in random places but not before big battle, where you have to sit through cut-scenes and other nonsense to get back there). The difficulty is ridiculous - on normal it's usually far too easy and then they slap in absurd battles that are virtually impossible.

I love the game in many respects but in others it fucks me right off. ARGHHH!!!!

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Founder of the "I Hate Smiley Fitz" society

Remember: Riley has autism. He has trouble communicating, and in an overstimulating
environment, he can get frightened and run away, leaving his parents frantic. - Auburn

I am still playing it and started last night. It is a bit addicting. At first, I didn't like it because of the controls. Then, I got into it when the true RPG part started.

The game has never crashed on me and the loading times are 10-15 secs for big hubs and 5 for interiors. True, the loading times are long enough that I've started to think of routing/doing everything I can in an outdoor area before I transition to a new place, but that's it.

And this is the best RPG to come out since long before Oblivion (which was great and all but sucked as an RPG).

It's nowehere near 50% of the time. With a normal setup it's 10-15 secs of loading when going into a mayor hub, 5 secs into an interior. Exactly the same as NWN1.

But this RPG is actually a good rpg and a good game, not an engine demo like NWN1 was.


This comment was edited on Dec 16, 08:32.

The repeating character models thing is big straw man.

It's typical reviewer fodder, an example of bad over reporting. In reality, it is something you notice once, go 'oh, I do see that they reused these models' and then it exits your mind, because it's only street people who have the 'problem', and there is enough diversity there considering you don't need much. The main characters are all well done and distinctive.

Load times are long...ish. Nowhere near Gothic3; ten to fifteen seconds if you have a sensible harddrive setup (pagefile on a seperate drive from game/os). It gets kinda irritating, but the RPG is so good I'd be lying if I said it wasn't worth it.

Dude, if you're into Fallout, Baldur's Gate, or Plansescape: Torment, get this game. Screw the demo, it might give a bad impression (I dunno and wouldn't care)...get the game. It's a classic and belongs in the lineup I mentioned above. Yes, it is that good.

And that is with the butchered translation. Go download the community fix which adds in the original translation done by CDProject inhouse (before it was cut down [badly] to keep voice over costs down), and you get an RPG with some deep and interesting (and funny!) conversation, catapulting this to an equal footing with PS:T.

This game has never crashed for me.

Trade quarter does run slow, though...I think it's a LOD thing (not enough LODs, bad LOD management...it's the long streets with long viewdistances and thus lots ofhouses in view at the same time). I want that 1.2 patch for loading time optimisations and removal of autosave.

I have XP Pro with roughly 3.25gb main memory and a SATA HD; my load times are 15-20 seconds. But this game is worth it; its one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

its worth waiting for at least one more patch before playing the full game. Nice that a demo came out though.

This comment was edited on Dec 15, 09:06.

Seriously guys, it's one of the best CRPGs I've ever played. This is a game with some real depth to it. It's worth picking up.

Crap. And a week ago I just installed Gothic 3, shortly after that they came out with a 'community patch', and last night they killed the DVD check. And I spent the last week, not really playing, but tweaking the piece of shit to actually work acceptably. Now I'm loving it.

THEN, they come out with a Witcher demo. Fuck. Who ever said 'PC gaming is dead' is an idiot.

I haven't seen any unreasonable load times so far. Starting the demo and loading my save right after the intro to Act I took just over 25 seconds, and walking in and out of the tavern there takes 3 and 4 seconds respectively. Granted, this is with 4GB in Vista64, perhaps that makes the difference?

I'll admit I wasn't impressed at first, but this game get's sooo much better as you get into it. Seriously guys, it's one of the best CRPGs I've ever played. This is a game with some real depth to it. It's worth picking up.


"Grab a napkin, homie. You just got served."
- Wolowitz

The OTS is kinda weird at first but you get used it. I wish there was a way to turn down the wobbling, though.

Is there anyway, aside from some pretty hardcore drugs, that they could have come up with an even worse camera?? The OTS camera is.. sheesh. I dunno. I can't even move. I tried the isometric views, but that just disables the mouse look. Is there a way to make this game have a "normal" camera system? I was thinking about buying it, but it's a definite no after trying the demo.

Edit: wrong camera name
This comment was edited on Dec 14, 23:44.

Ah, that worked. It seems to be sensitive to where you stand. *shrugs* NEway, the game has a lot of potential but the control system is pretty terrible - the F3 view mode is the best but doesn't act like a proper 3rd person camera, like Rune or Tomb Raider. Considering they spent time including different control systems it seems a shame that they omit the most logical one. The engine seems fine and loads well... I didn't notice excessive load times but I didn't play it for a huge amount of time.

I really want to like it but it's just not quite right.

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Founder of the "I Hate Smiley Fitz" society

Remember: Riley has autism. He has trouble communicating, and in an overstimulating
environment, he can get frightened and run away, leaving his parents frantic. - Auburn

Aim at the debris, select 1 to ready the Ard, then right-click iirc.

^m^

Nice maybe this will sell a few more games for them but I would have rather seen a patch to disable auto saves and fix loading times.

Actually, that patch is due out before XMas according to the developer. Check the Witcher forum for more details.

I have to say that I have put in 10 hours into the game so far. I have had 4 crashes. But the frequency and lenght of the loading time is the single greatest technical flaw.

Are you using XP or Vista? Either way, you might want to check the tech forum on the Witcher site. There are a lot of published FAQs that may improve or eliminate crashes completely. They have helped a number of people.

The main forums are here: http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/

Well, it's interesting. The problem is I'm now meant to use the Ard on some debris but I don't having a bloody clue how to do it... I select it, or press 1, and it doesn't do anything or let me select anything. I'm completely stumped. It's probably something stupidly simple but I can't figure it out.

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Founder of the "I Hate Smiley Fitz" society

Remember: Riley has autism. He has trouble communicating, and in an overstimulating
environment, he can get frightened and run away, leaving his parents frantic. - Auburn

Game of the Fucking YEAR!
Use RAID 0 and loads up fast.

This comment was edited on Dec 14, 17:46.