"The Witcher" by CD Projekt

[True_Avery]

So, I've been doing some surfing around the internets and have come to learn there are 2 versions of the game: Censored and Uncensored. Pardon me for those that already know this...

 

The (I) version, or the one being released in the EU is the uncensored version and the North American is the censored. The difference is the American version has removal of most to all nudity in the game, a number of references to rape and murder removed from entire quests and conversations, certain quests removed from the game, as well as a number of smaller things.

 

I may be p***ed that the USA has decided to decide what is good for a clearly adult themed RPG... but I have no say in the matter. Damn I hate politics and censorship. They can release Larry, Magna Cum Lade on console and playboy mansion on console as an M 17+ game but they decide to censor a PC RPG game advertised to mature audiences and adults... I guess I'm not so much p***ed, but so much more disapointed.

 

Which one should I get? I can grab the USA version on tuesday, which is basically the same game dulled down for all the 12 year olds who are going to play it, or pre-order the uncensored (I) Euro version and wait 2 weeks to play it and get the real deal. I'm in a desperate need to want to play this game right now, but I like a mature RPG damnit. It is why "Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines" is my favorite RPG to date. Ah hell, I may as well just buy the Euro version because I'll just keep kicking myself if I get the normal

 

But yeah, there you go. Censored and uncensored. This probably happens a lot actually, but I notice it more when it happens to a game I happen to be looking forward to. But, some people do like a more censored game to feel more comfortable so this is a good thing to many I'm sure. Just a slap to the face to me.

 

For any American's interested in the uncensored version, gogamer.com has it for import:

http://www.gogamer.com/The-Witcher--I--Front-Page_stcVVproductId23661470VVcatId444710VVviewprod.htm

 

If anybody knows if there will be a patch out now, or in the future to uncensor the game please, -please- let my ignorant mind know.

 

I think that remains to be seen. Jade Empire was advertised as having an alignment system where good and evil didn't exist. The Way of the Open Palm means that you help people at the risk of them becoming dependent and the Way of the Closed Fist means that you allow people to make their own mistakes, a sort of 'survival of the fittest' philosophy. The game trips over its own internal philosophies and presents you with the Way of the Open Palm which means you aid people at the risk of them becoming dependent and the Way of the Closed Fist which involves eating babies.

 

I'll wait to see whether or not they deliver on this point.

I agree completely.

[legend222]

I got the game this morning and I only played a few minutes of it. The camera and combat took a little time to get used to but it's not bad. And yeah despite the short play time I noticed that women wear very little clothing even the female mage at the start had a huge cleavage(though I certanly don't mind).

[Wookiee Rrudolf]

I promised I would write something about the game when I play it, so here I am

First: my PC is old so I couldn't enjoy The Witcher as I would want to

-to be understood my procesor is AthlonXP 2500+ (officialy unsuported) I have 768MB of RAM (1GB required) and GF 5200 (officialy unsuported) so I won't tell you about graphic and animations

 

The story is good so far (I hardly stopped playing), started with an earthquake and it makes you want to play more and more to know what's next.

Dialogs are interesting and with sense of humor (especialy for those who have red the books about the Witcher).

I like the combat system with combos when one hit goes smoothly into another move (not so smoothly on my PC ) instead of just clicking your mouse to death

About the nudity in game: I played beyond first sex scene and it was made with taste and without any pornographic content (just erotic and this is a difference). So if you play in US version you loose really good painting-like images of women you can sleep with in the game.

[Char Ell]

The first patch is out.

DOH! CD Projekt has released a new patch to replace the patch they released this past Thursday. The Witcher Patch 1.1a

 

 

About the nudity in game: I played beyond first sex scene and it was made with taste and without any pornographic content (just erotic and this is a difference). So if you play in US version you loose really good painting-like images of women you can sleep with in the game.

But if I want my PC to live a celibate life and not sleep with any women in the game then it's a non-issue for me, right?

 

I hope for more feedback on this game, from its gameplay mechanics to its storyline, from those who end up playing it. I would especially welcome reviews from people like stoffe and True_Avery. I'm also interested in Arátoeldar's opinion but think that might take too long since he's not buying the game until the price drops.

[Wookiee Rrudolf]

But if I want my PC to live a celibate life and not sleep with any women in the game then it's a non-issue for me, right?

Heh theoretically you're right, but it is always good to have a choice especialy in RPG. If you choose not to use this option it's all right, but if someone makes the choice for you it is not.

I wonder what else was cut off in US version. Maybe fightig sequences becouse they're too brutal for adults LOL

[tk102]

(Got the U.S. digital download last night.)

You won't find much in the way violence censorship in America. I was a bit amazed to see Geralt deftly execute a coup de grace for the first time last night as the bandits head rolled away from its slumping body.

 

As for the other censorships, I don't have another version to compare the resources with, but there are a number .dds files and .2da files that suggest a good amount of sex is still present in the U.S. version.

 

So far I've enjoyed the first 30 minutes of the prologue. The camera is more intuitive than NWN2, IMO and you can toggle between over-the-shoulder and strategy view fairly quickly. The prologue is filled with bink movies and dialog cutscenes but I suppose that is necessary to set the stage for the game. My first impression of the character menu was that it looked slick and I spent a long time reading through the skill tree trying to decide how spend my first bronze talent points.

[Arátoeldar]

As for the other censorships, I don't have another version to compare the resources with, but there are a number .dds files and .2da files that suggest a good amount of sex is still present in the U.S. version.

 

The only differences are the covering up of nipples and other female body part.

[tk102]

I just came across an interview with CD Projekt's PR Manager from January that included an interesting portion:

How modding-friendly is Witcher‘s engine? Will players be able to create their own buildings, weapons, armors or even a complete new adventures?

 

We created our own toolset. It is named Djinni. It will be added with The Witcher. You can modify everything in the game using it, although some things would require 3D graphic programs and lots of plugins. Also some programming knowledge would come in handy.

 

You’ll be able to easily modify all the statistics, preferences, characters, etc. It will be possible to create new quests, although building locations from the beginning won’t be that easy. But you can always use and modify existing ones.

 

 

The according to a recent post on Witcher's own message board:

In one of the interviews developers said that D'jinni toolset would be included in the game. But it is not there. Can devs clarify this? Will it be available as separate download?

(...) Will it be available as separate download?

Yes.

If anyone needs a BIF ripper you can download one here. KGFF seems to handle the GFF 3.38 format alright though the language ID for the local substrings are different than Bioware's GFF 3.28 documentation. (English is labeled as Italian often.) The modules are MOD V1.0 so stoffe's ERF Edit works fine on those.

 

Edit:

 

After following a couple of links through The Witcher's message board it seems their SDK, MP3s, and maybe even official mods will be available in the next couple weeks for those who register their game. Nice to see the promise of extra content.

[tk102]

To my friends up north, it appears Atari didn't publish "Registration Application Key" (aka "Promotional Code") in the manual for Canada.

 

This is different than the Activation Key, which is published. You can still play the game.

 

The Registration Application Key is required for registering the game with CD Projekt, which in the future, will be required for downloading extra content and the SDK.

 

More here: http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=3308.0

[Char Ell]

tk102 = researching machine.

 

Thanks for all the great info. I hope CD Projekt finds a way to let Canadian players get the extra goodies. I will await your take on the SDK whenever CD Projekt releases it.

[tk102]

I've now played through the 1st chapter of this game and I wanted to take a moment to jot down some of the mental notes I've been accumulating so far. The Witcher has been pleasure to play and happily, has exceeded my expectations.

 

You play as Geralt, an albino, sword-swinging, Clint Eastwood who fights monsters for profit as a Witcher. (No choices here, you are very white male. Fortunately that means no wasting time during pre-game stat building.) Because of your genetics, you're nearly immune to disease and have strength and reflexes beyond normal humans. You have been brought back from death and although it is cliché, you have a amnesia. You've been reunited with a couple fellow Witchers, though you normally work alone.

 

Each attribute (Str, Sta, Dex, Int), each Sign (ie. the five different spells), and each sword style (3 styles for steel, 3 styles for silver) has a skill tree. When you gain a level, you gain talent points that you can spend in the various skill trees. Talent points come in Bronze, Silver, or Gold with the latter being required to unlock the highest level of skill. This forces the player to develop his foundation skills horizontally rather than becoming of one thing right at the beginning of the game. I this as a plus for realism.

 

Your steel and silver swords are your primary weapons which you specialize in though you can also carry an additional light weapon and heavy weapon on your person. In keeping with the original vision of Andrzej Sapkowski you do not use ranged weapons. I can't say that missed them, but it is a limitation of the game. As for inventory, I was quite happy to see no encumbrance listed anywhere. (I hate that.) Instead you have a fixed number of inventory slots and you can't carry more weapons than weapon slots. For other items, the stack size seems reasonable: I can stack about 20 herbs in one slot of the same type. For more room, you can store items at the inns. Unfortunately, the inventory icons are tiny and take some time to recognize. I found myself cursoring over each of them looking for a particular potion I just made.

 

The alchemy system is reminiscent of Morrowing/Oblivion which, as a sucker for crafting, I liked a lot. You can collect different ingredients from plants and corpses only after you've gained knowledge about them. While the names of the ingredients are esoteric, the names of the items you create are more ordinary with names like "Cat" or "Tawny Owl". Personally, I like that nicknaming better than "Nightvision" or "Increase Endurance".

 

The character models and textures are well done. Thank goodness for that because there are a number close-up cutscenes where you get to stare them in the face. That's a benefit of having only a single PC model I suppose. All the dialog is spoken including your own. The dialog trees are a bit rough sometimes. I noticed this especially when returning to the main dialog branch. I would say something long-winded and then hear the NPC abruptly say "Witcher!" instead of "Was there anything else?"

 

CD Projekt did a much better job implementing the camera controls that Obsidian did NWN2. You can use either over-the-shoulder or isometric viewpoints and can toggle between the two with F1/F2. Sometimes it's a little slow panning, but that can be fixed by holding down the middle mouse button.

 

Throughout the game I was just enjoying all the characteristics at the same time. Animations like seeing a guy straddle over the top of a crate and sit down by a campfire, good mood-setting music, seeing people run for shelter during a storm, attending a funeral in a cutscene (don't see that very often in RPGs), clever camera angles like panning the camera right through a cell door while keeping a closeup on the faces speaking to each other. And the cursing! Call me a gutter-mouth, but I found the occasional cursing adds greatly to the realism (and humor). It's not overly done, but it still snaps you right back into the mood of the game when you hear it.

 

Alcohol use is featured prominently if not blatantly throughout the game. Intoxication animations and visual effects present when Geralt is drunk. The designers depicted stumbling and blurry vision quite well. You are typically rewarded for outdrinking another person.

 

The sex, well I've got mixed emotions about it. I think the sex card-collecting is a bit tacky, but the idea of collecting cards in your journal is actually a pretty good one IMO. I think a great mod for this game would be to expand the card collecting to other highpoints in your quests as a visual record. I will say, it does encourage a collector's mentality which itself isn't a bad thing, but focusing it solely on seduction is a bit questionable.

 

The minigames I've seen so far (brawling, dice poker, and drinking contests) have been fun and helped fatten the purse at the beginning of the game.

 

What else... oh yes, the load times are long. I have defragged drive and 2GB of RAM and it still is easily 20-30 seconds between area and it seems like there a lot of areas. Fortunately the load screen artwork is evocative when coupled with the music so I can tolerate it. Unfortunately, at least with the v1.1 patch, the autosave is something you cannot turn off so after loading you will occasionally get another 20 seconds of autosaving whether you like it or not. I believe the next patch will address this.

 

I mentioned the overall rendering is very good. With an ATI x1600 Pro, I had knock back the settings to medium textures, anti-aliasing x2, anisotropic filtering x1, and 1024x768 resolution and it's still eye candy to me.

 

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Back to game!

[Char Ell]

That's a great write-up for the 1st chapter, tk! As as result I've got some questions but I think I'll wait until you're done playing the game before I ask them.

[Darth333]

To my friends up north, it appears Atari didn't publish "Registration Application Key" (aka "Promotional Code") in the manual for Canada.

 

This is different than the Activation Key, which is published. You can still play the game.

 

The Registration Application Key is required for registering the game with CD Projekt, which in the future, will be required for downloading extra content and the SDK.

Thanks for the heads up! I just got the uncensored European version instead. However, it seems that the only difference is the "nipples" texture So no big deal...especially if you're a girl Now, I wonder in what language I will install the game since English was not the original language...is anyone playing in French, Spanish or Italian?(German is not an option as my German is way too basic)

[Jeff]

Thanks for the heads up! I just got the uncensored European version instead. However, it seems that the only difference is the "nipples" texture So no big deal...especially if you're a girl

Darth333 you know you love it.

[tk102]

Moeller keeps it real.

 

You downloaded this I assume, Darth333? I had the install options of English, French Canadian or Spanish. I know all the subtitles for those languages are present, but I'm curious whether the voiceovers are also. Total download was about 5.6Gb for the North American version. If you truly have voiceovers for Italian and German as well, I'd suspect your download was quite a bit bigger.

[Darth333]

I decided to try the French version after reading the gamespot comments about the English version. The voice overs are there and so far so good...and it seems that my x1950xtx can handle max eyecandy (we'll see, I've only played 5 minutes)

 

@ Moeller: you're just jealous

[True_Avery]

Thanks for the heads up! I just got the uncensored European version instead. However, it seems that the only difference is the "nipples" texture So no big deal...especially if you're a girl Now, I wonder in what language I will install the game since English was not the original language...is anyone playing in French, Spanish or Italian?(German is not an option as my German is way too basic)

My copy has been in the mail for 2 weeks and still hasn't arrived. If it wasn't for the fact that I know it is coming, I'd probably just go down the street and buy it. And hey, if you are going to have topless chicks you might as well go all the way with it

[Darth333]

My copy has been in the mail for 2 weeks and still hasn't arrived. If it wasn't for the fact that I know it is coming, I'd probably just go down the street and buy it.

I downloaded it from the UK site. Good thing the Canadian loonie is at a high so it ended being not too expensive.

 

And hey, if you are going to have topless chicks you might as well go all the way with it

Well not that I care about the silicon filled boobs of the girls in that game but I find that kind of censorship quite stupid (boobs with no textured nipples = ok ; with nipple texture = bad...go figure... ). The depictions in the game are not vulgar and they are well done. Even the figures that appear on the Sistine chapel ceiling at the Vatican show more skin

 

As for the game, I can't say much about it yet as I have played very little time but it seems that now you have real choices to make (this one finally seems to have a true replay value) that are not only dialog choices that lead to slightly different answers. The camera is also good: easy to control, rather good angles...I wish the guys at Obsidian would have come up with something like that as the nwn2 camera almost made me throw my monitor out the window a few times.

[tk102]

Thank goodness we, the United States, have Walmart to save us from evils of media.

[tk102]

I uploaded a savegame ripper utility here.

 

The format is a bit strange. The resource table is packed at the end of the file rather than at the beginning. Also the first Here's the "TheWitcherSave" file format as far as I've determined:

Read from back of file

 

Coda:

Offset Size Type Description

-----------------------------------------

n-4 4 DWORD Number of resources in resource table

n-8 4 DWORD Offset to resource table

 

Resource table:

[Resource structs]

 

Resource struct:

Offset Size Type Description

-----------------------------------------

0 4 DWORD Size of resource name

4 var CHAR resource name

4+var 4 DWORD size of resource

8+var 4 DWORD resource offset

 

 

 

Header:

Offset Size Type Description

-----------------------------------------

0 4 CHAR "RGMH"

4 4 DWORD number of ? 0x0001

8 4 DWORD size of header 0x282000

12 12 NULL

24 16 ???? 0x604A7CEE 0x68459E45 0xBDDBD310 0x0BF2BC1C

40 30 Unicode "Lightning Storm"

70 2018 NULL

 

2088 var Unicode name of last area

 

???

 

I'll try to nail down the rest of the header and see which parts are variable and which parts are fixed/generic. Hopefully soon I'll get a savegame resource packer put together which would allow rudimentary savegame editing via GFF editor.

 

 

 

Edit:

I've submitted the above data into these wikis:

http://zeitwidrig.de/utwp/Category:FileFormats

http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

[Char Ell]

The camera is also good: easy to control, rather good angles...I wish the guys at Obsidian would have come up with something like that as the nwn2 camera almost made me throw my monitor out the window a few times.

Dang! Darth333 was on the verge of expressing anger in a physical form. Careful, D3. Anger leads to the dark side, don't you know? Oh. Yeah. I forgot, you're already a darksider. Ah well, I guess this was just true to form then.

 

I uploaded a savegame ripper utility here.

Very nice. Well I'm sure it is very nice for those that actually have the game and can make use of it. I wonder how soon CD Projekt will release the toolset for the game and what that will allow players to do with savegames, if anything.

 

I have a question for the women in this thread, though I somewhat hesitate to ask it...

 

<_<

>_>

 

Since this game doesn't offer the option of playing as a female PC, how will you female players deal with the sexual liaison opportunities this game offers? Will you avoid them altogether? Will it make a difference to you at all? I'm just curious how the women are going to deal with this aspect of the game, since you'll have no choice but to play as a male character.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

I am not a woman, however I have played a woman in internet chatrooms, and from that experience I can answer with a fair degree of certainty "whatever".

[stoffe]

Dang! Darth333 was on the verge of expressing anger in a physical form. Careful, D3.

 

If there is nothing that ever grates on your nerves you are either a droid or undead. Or an undead droid. Some aspects of otherwise good games could make the most calm person want to express violent thoughts.

 

Since this game doesn't offer the option of playing as a female PC, how will you female players deal with the sexual liaison opportunities this game offers?

 

I'd imagine the feelings are not entirely unlike those of a male player being forced to play a female character in the Tomb Raider games. The sexual liaison opportunities in The Witcher seems to be entirely optional and have no bearing on the story, from what I've heard, so you could just skip them if they bother you.

[Darth333]

Since this game doesn't offer the option of playing as a female PC, how will you female players deal with the sexual liaison opportunities this game offers? Will you avoid them altogether? Will it make a difference to you at all? I'm just curious how the women are going to deal with this aspect of the game, since you'll have no choice but to play as a male character.

It doesn't bother me as i can play both genders without problems: When I have the choice, I normally play a female char first and if I replay the game, it's always male chars.

 

I like playing female chars as it's more involving but somehow I always feel more restricted in my choices when I do so. I normally try to chose a PC that ressembles me physically but I tend to identify to the character and I just can't portray myself doing evil things...except throwing my monitor out of the window (but then I would ensure that there are no pedestrians nearby...I don't want to get sued! ) The drinking contests and the fistfights with drunk bar guys in the Witcher would also feel weird to me if I was playing a female char lol.

 

I also like to play male chars a lot because I feel that it gives me more freedom with the actions and char development and it's an excellent way to "let off the steam". Besides, the sex part in the game is totally optional but even if it wasn't it wouldn't bother me, at least not the way it's handled in The Witcher (In my game, Geralt's morals are rather loose and he is enjoying life at its fullest ).

[tk102]

I was looking through the files yesterday for the nwscript.nss but could not find it or any include files anywhere. The only .nss files I could find were little ones like exit scripts inside the modules. I saw at least one new function "SetCutsceneMode" being used. It appears a number of core NWN functions are still available like AssignCommand and GetObjectByTag. Some limited scripting could be available I suppose using the KotOR nwscript.nss and nwnnsscomp. Haven't tried anything yet though.