The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[Rake]

Was browsing various sites when I came across a video of

.

 

Looks pretty sick to me, especially the combat.

[igyman]

Looks pretty good. I was wondering when we'll hear something about a sequel to The Witcher. I'm guessing that the main character voice actors haven't been brought in yet, since these voices sound like they're just there so we could hear something.

 

Oh, and at Geralt's ponytail.

[e-varmint]

WooHoo! I'll definitely keep an eye on this!

[DarthParametric]

Oh ye gods....quicktime events. Why do devs persist with that god-awful crap?

 

Otherwise it seems promising. They've wisely ditched Bioware's clunky Aurora engine, which was a bizarre choice anyway (especially seeing as they completely gutted the Open GL renderer and wrote their own DirectX one from scratch). I'm not sure what new engine they are using, but I assume it must be 3rd party given the quick turn-around. It doesn't look to be Unreal 3, which is the 3rd party engine of choice. I wonder if it might be Bioware's Eclipse engine (what they built for Dragon Age). It has that same kind of semi-outdated look as DA, and the "whore" scene shows some pretty obvious clipping of the hair through the body mesh which is an Eclipse trait (Bioware completely copped out on body mesh collision detection, although that's not unique to them),.

[mur'phon]

Looks good.

 

@DP it's an Alpha, the clipping might well be fixed.

[DarthParametric]

The official debut trailer is out - http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-debut-the-witcher/63501

 

They totally screwed up his face!

 

EDIT: Longer unedited version of the king-killer cutscene featured in the trailer here - http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/the-witcher-2-cutscene/342270

[Revan 411]

Great visuals!

 

 

I never played the original Witcher so I don't exactly know what the whole story is about with this series. But I do know that I'm going to play both the original and the sequel sometime soon. (Like, July 2010 I think.)

[Rake]

I really like his old face better, this one just looks way too pretty boy.

[Bob Lion54]

  Video said:

Quicktime events will be another innovation...

 

I think his English is a little off. He could not have meant "innovation." He must have meant "annoyance." Yea, that's it. Quicktime events are definitely not an innovation and I can't think of another likely word.

 

Otherwise, looks like it might be good. Still need to finish the first one, though.

[igyman]

The new trailer looks great, but Geralt's new ponytail is still hilarious. Can't wait for this game.

[True_Avery]

Agreed, I much preferred his old head better. Knowing the community and CDRed though, a mod will be up within the month of release so I'm not worried. The face, hair, etc I can get over but what really, really bugs me is his eyes are human and not cat-like anymore. That, more than anything, gave his face the proper character.

 

Still though, awesome news. I actually liked the first game more that DA:O and it easily lists in my top 5 RPGs. It felt quite refreshing to be placed into a non player made character for a change. I am, however, sad to hear they are changing the combat system since I actually really loved the combat in Witcher, which is why it was so hard for me to go back to the combat in DA:O.

 

That, and it sort of bothered me how similar the Wardens were to the Witchers in concept. Both took basically poison to become what they were, few survived, and the end result was the ability to fight the world's monsters with much better ease at great personal sacrifice. Both used to be highly regarded, but are now trying to repair their image in the eyes of the people and many are after their secrets, destruction, and reboot.

[Pavlos]

Captivating, mature, and non-linear story-line, eh? How gritty.

[DarthParametric]

Some in-game footage from CD Projekt RED's conference:

 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

 

The video quality is pretty piss-poor and it isn't helped by the constant flash photography. Still, it gives you an idea of where the game is at. It looks like they are going for more of an action-RPG style. Plus it seems they have caught Obsidian's disease and are going with timer-based dialogues, at least in part anyway.

 

Additionally, here are some comments from a dev on Geralt's funky new look - http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=28191.msg5397755#msg5397755

[Pavlos]

Seems that all DM's links but that for part 2 are dead. If you want to access the videos they are available here.

[DarthParametric]

New developer diary on story:

 

[youtube=hd]mUtkC0POdPA

 

Alt link - http://www.gametrailers.com/video/polish-developer-the-witcher/100992

[DarthParametric]

IGN has a brief preview up from an E3 demo - http://pc.ign.com/articles/109/1098720p1.html

 

Sounds like the same demo that was show at CDPR's conference back in March, although the boss fight sounds new. Speaking of which, I don't like the sound of the button mashing Quicktime-esque stuff at all. Why do devs persist with that crap?

[Wookiee Rrudolf]

Can you see what I see?

The Wither 2 is the best E3 game at the moment! With huge advantage over The Old Republic MMO. Go witcher, go!

Let's show Bioware what is better: great story-driven single player RPG or MMO based on great single player RPG. Your vote matter!

I only wish that crushing victory of The Witcher 2 will influence Bioware's (and Lucas Arts') bosses to make single player KotOR 3

[Astrotoy7]

I like how they are drawing on local European cultural influences. No hamburgers and skateboards

 

mtfbwya

[Miltiades]

  Rake said:

I really like his old face better, this one just looks way too pretty boy.

Agreed. Still, can't wait to play the game, it looks awesome.

[Q]

Hm. Hopefully the original game made CD Projekt enough money that they can afford better translators this time around...

[Wookiee Rrudolf]

  Evil Q said:

Hm. Hopefully the original game made CD Projekt enough money that they can afford better translators this time around...

Well, I never had any problems with translations since I played with original voices. But I heard that they rewrote English dialogues completely in Enhanced Edition. Now I heard they are making the second game in English from the start so there should be no problems like that.

[DarthParametric]

I don't recall there being anything too bad, and if anything I actually preferred most of the original versions of those lines that were changed for the EE. The dialogue was fairly corny in places, but then what game dialogue isn't?

[DarthParametric]

Here's a gameplay trailer from the prison level they've been showing off at the various conferences the last couple of months:

 

[youtube=hd]AuNOGpNFDNc

 

Takes the form of Triss and Zoltan telling slightly conflicting versions of the tale (with what would appear to be Dandelion sitting passed out to one side).

[Wookiee Rrudolf]

I've just watched the trailer myself and it's just pure genius The dialogues are smart and funny, action is fast and these tons of humour... just wait till the end (after The Witcher 2 logo).

[Ctrl Alt Del]

  Wookiee Rrudolf said:

I've just watched the trailer myself and it's just pure genius The dialogues are smart and funny, action is fast and these tons of humour... just wait till the end (after The Witcher 2 logo).

Can't wait either.