The Drunken Lizard Pub

I just noticed that The Witcher is out on the Mac App Store. Has anyone played it? It apparently takes a lot of system resources to run. But, my main question is whether or not it's worth getting involved with. I'm not a hack and slash fan, and it says the game is an action RPG (whatever that means). Apparently it's not turn-based. Sigh........

The Witcher or Witcher 2? I've heard of it but never played it. Lots of Youtube things though. Why not look at a few to see if it's for you? They brag about themselves winning a lot of awards.

Dragonlady wrote:The Witcher or Witcher 2? I've heard of it but never played it. Lots of Youtube things though. Why not look at a few to see if it's for you? They brag about themselves winning a lot of awards.

It's The Witcher 2. There doesn't seem to be a demo, and the price is $20, so I guess I want some encouragement before I plop down the dollars.

I haven't played this yet. But, I've heard good things about it.

If you're going to buy this, GOG has it on sale for $11.99 for the mac during their end of year sale. Plus a few other games for the mac also.

Have a very merry Christmas and New Years.

Ron

I tried to play it. It is too cinematic for my taste- the game seems to focus more on eloquent ways to behead your enemies, and not so much on stats and character development.

BasiliskWrangler wrote:I tried to play it. It is too cinematic for my taste- the game seems to focus more on eloquent ways to behead your enemies, and not so much on stats and character development.

Yep. That was my opinion too. Only played it enough to get disgusted.

Thanks guys. A little voice inside was telling me that I would have already heard good things about the game if it were something that appealed to CRPG fans.

The Witcher games have good atmosphere, but I don't much care for RT action combat. The first game could be played with the camera zoomed out and I could play it with liberal use of the pause button. The combat in second game was much too "actiony" for my taste with the up close "Over the shoulder" camera view.

It's funny how such an award-winning and universally appreciated game receives nothing but negative comments here. (Haven't played it myself, though). This forum is too hardcore for such mainstream products.

I like the Witcher games alot. Both of them, but I've got some pretty varied tastes. Other than sports ad racing games, I like alot of games from every genre.

I actually play and like Arpg's in some variations but the character control, camera and combat in the first one appalled me.

I dont have the second but ive heard better things about the gameplay for 2, but ive also heard the story in 1 was better.

But for the price, it might be worth a pickup if you get it around 10 bucks.

then again, 10 bucks is my price point to try a game ive been wary of since i could spend that on a lunch or a few snacks during a workday.

I got the first Witcher (enhanced edition) for $5 and the second (enhanced edition) for $7.50 both on Steam sales, so I don't really have alot of room to complain

I love both Witcher games dearly and consider The Witcher 2 to be the 3rd best RPG ever made. On the other hand, I'm heavily into story and characters and far less so into numbers and stats, so the cinematic, story-heavy style of the games is right up my alley.

I like the story and the atmosphere quite well myself, its just the twitchy combat that throws me.

I remember Dragon Age II and Witcher 2 came out at the same time, and CD Projekt Red really showed BioWare how games were supposed to be made. (Poland was so proud of the achievement, in fact, that their Prime Minister, when he came to visit the U.S. last year, gave a copy of Witcher 2 to Obama as a gift.) W2 really is an extraordinary game... visually, in gameplay, and the story elements are better than the vast majority of computer games out there. (Sadly, story and character is not given much consideration in game development.) Sure there're things that can be improved, but there always are, and in terms of the *kind* of game Team Red were making: it's really an extraordinary one.

The controls take a little getting used to after playing the original. (Or, after you've been away from the game a little while, of course.) I disagree that the storyline is weaker than the first. In #2, there are actually two distinct storylines (rather than the fake choice that the original offered); if you play it twice (I did), then the second way through will be a totally different game with totally different options and opportunities and outcomes (at least during the second act (there're three acts). The artwork and environment/city/town development is extraordinary. The signs are now all useful, not just two of them. Geralt's continued development is more interesting than in the first. No you must choose between one woman or another story-development gimmicks. The collect-the-chick cards are gone. In other words, it's more mature than the first.

They've since added more content for the third act, which was disappointingly short, as if they ran out of time (I'm willing to bet that that's what happened).

For $12, the game's a steal. (I paid $35 and still think it was worth it.) But I suspect it won't work well on Mac if you don't have a powerful system. The graphics and animation are very demanding. (Though the features/processes can be lowered or eliminated to reduce lag, if you need to — I didn't, ha ha! I can play anything!)

Witcher 3 is promising horses and boats. (They've got development screenshots and everything, over on FB.) ...Not too excited about that, and a little nervous about their promise of a 'huge wide-ranging world' with 'lots of choices'. But... it's Team Red, so I'm sure they know what they're doing.