The Witcher 2 XBOX 360 Enhanced Edition

[Fiach]

This is being released worldwide on tuesday, its the 360 incarnation of one of the best RPG series ever .... (can two be a series?....why yes it can :P).

This is a very important release for a number of reasons, for example, can you have a decent PC RPG fit onto a console, its the proverbial task of trying to fit a gallon into a pint pot.

To put this into numerical values, a 360 disc can hold a little under 7 gig's of data....

The Witcher 2 as it currently stands on PC is Version 2.0, there are 10 gigs more data in just the add-on's that make up the extras in the enhanced package!

http://ie.xbox360.ign.com/articles/122/1222949p1.html

[fragger]

.... (can two be a series?....why yes it can :P).

:-D

Interesting review, sounds like a pretty cool game. If you've previously posted about the PC version Fiach, I must have missed it, sorry mate. I take it you've you played that?

Btw, I filled a pint-pot with a gallon once but I spilled about seven-eighths of it ????

[Fiach]

I have played the first Witcher game, its great and I recommend it highly, you can pick up its "enhanced version for $9.99 :

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/the_witcher

As regards the sequel, I bought the Collectors ed at release, but, at the time it had limited activations, as I wasnt sure if my PC would run the game, I didnt want to waste an activation, to find that I couldnt run it, so I've been holding off, until I can get a better gfx card. Also, there is no activation limit and the has no DRM anymore.

I have subsequently bought a second "premium" edition of the game that has it patched up to 2.00 and has made the game less system intensive and includes all the DLC. But I only got that a week or so ago. Now I am waiting until this new 360 "enhanced version" is released, because, all the extras that it has, will also be made available to owners of the PC version for free on the 17th april as well. (Thats the extra 10 gigs I was talking about.

Also, on 17th of april, all Witcher 2 owners can submit their codes to gog.com and it will entitle them to a free digital back up of the Witcher 2 game.

Now after all that, the bottom line is, I havent played it, but I have never seen a bad review of the game (or the first one either), they are based on a series of polish books by Andrzej Sapkowski, which are available in english, which I do intend to get, so they have an intrinsic lore of their own, they were also made into a table top game, so with that kind of pedigree, I think future iterations will be pretty special games too.

[Fiach]

A short video giving the back story of The Witcher 1, to help with plot understanding for Witcher 2, this is also the video linked in the review below, I just think its handier as a seperate link. :

The Story behind The Witcher 1

Witcher 2 review 9/10

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1475/pg1/the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings-enhanced-edition-xbox-360.html

[Fiach]

The Witcher 1 has been reduced to half price $5 (yankee dollah!), in honour of the release of Witcher 2 tomorrow.

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/the_witcher

[PZ]

$5 (yankee dollah!)

  I feel like I'm in Chinatown  :-()

[Art Blade]

I feel like hearing the Andrew Sisters.. drinking rum and cocaaaaa cola.

[PZ]

You've heard the Andrews sisters drinking rum and cola?  ????

[Art Blade]

I'm not falling for that one, PZ  :-()

[PZ]

Sorry... I must have misunderstood...

Apologies...

[Fiach]

Picked up The Witcher 2 for 360 this morning, it came in a normal dvd case with a cardboard sleeve, inside the cardboard sleeve was a map and a strategy guide, in the box, the game comes on 2 discs, with a third disc containing the sound track, all for a pretty normal 360 price of €55.

The fact that the game comes on 2 discs means that its about 14-15 gigs, this is the size of just the update for PC. At least I can just get the updated version from gog as one d/l instead of installing and patching seperately, handily, gog also is DRM free, so you can back up your download onto an external HD, just in case you need to replace stuff.

[Fiach]

I justy played up to the tutorial, to see how they handled it in this iteration and how it works on a 360 controller.

I think they did the best they could within the confines of the limited number of buttons on a controller, the approach they take is the following.

You carry two weapons as usual, steel and silver for human and magical enemies, same as before, the sword combat is very slick, you can parry riposte, lock on to targets, shift targets very swiftly even to behind you with the flick of the left stick, you can also dodge and roll.

The next bit of combat can take a bit of getting used to and can be a bit of information overload for a tutorial, so bear in mind that you wont be using all the different attacks in such quick succession during the game itself.

You equip your spells and ancilliary weapons (bombs, traps and daggers) to quick slots. They are accessed during combat by pressing and holding the Left Bumper (spells) and Right Bumper (traps, bombs etc.), holding the bumper slows down time significantly, you flick to eg the spell you want, then press the "Y" button to cast. You get a variety of spells like a defensive shield type, fire type, control enemies minds etc.

In the case of the bombs and daggers, you press the Right Bumper, this again allows you to select the item you want while time is slowed, but holding the right bumper also brings up a Target Reticle, so you can fine tune your aim for bombs and daggers. Traps are similar, you hold the right bumper, select the trap, aim where you wish to place it, you will then see the trap on the ground, plus a circle type of area highlighted around it, within which the trap will be activated.

So, all in all a very fluid and elegant system. It (with practice) becomes very easy to select a target, fire a flame spell at it, drop a trap in its path then do a coup de grace with your sword, which often comes with a nice blood thirsty animation.

I was able to get two of The Witcher books via kindle, I was well impressed with its ease of access, as I would not have been able to get them here in Ireland, they are very well translated into english from the original polish, unfortunately only two of the books are available in english out of (I think) five.