Rock, Paper, Shotgun

One of our favourite things about CDP was the fact that they didn’t just give up on The Witcher and move on, they redid the voice acting and the animation, as well as fixing a whole buinch of bugs with their Enhanced Edition. They’re doing something similar with The Witcher 2, although this time the changes are more substantial, with new features and content. The big features are listed below, but include a load of entirely new locations and characters, extended the game significantly. GoG reports that anyone who purchases the game before the release of the Enhanced Edition (17th April) will get the upgrade for free.
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Remember how we all cheered when CD Projekt removed the DRM from The Witcher 2? Although the GoG version was always free of the legitimate-customers-only punishing code, all other sources came with the straitjacket. Post launch, however, they patched it out, letting customers enjoy the game without concern. It seemed an all-round sensible way to behave, and despite piracy they sold over a million copies of the game. A happy story. Except, well, now according to TorrentFreak (and seemingly corroborated here, along with mentions of a few other titles) the publisher is reportedly threatening alleged (but unproven) pirates with ludicrous legal letters demanding large amounts of money.

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Confusingly-named The Witcher 2 mega-patch, 2.0, is now live. I’ve posted the full list of its contents below. It’s a big list. A list that address many of the criticisms from my review. For even more elucidation of what is going on with TW2 check out this interview with the development director. (I also notice that the game is $29.99 on GoG for the next week. It’s a cracking thing, and I’d recommend anyone who hasn’t yet taken the plunge to do so now. It’s going to be in my top five games of 2011.)

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EDIT: Boo! Looks like the patch has been delayed after all, due to an issue with DLC compatibility. “We will update when we know more,” say CD Projekt.

Inbound at some point this evening is a v1.1 patch for The Witcher 2. Anything exciting in there? Ah, not really, it’s all bugfixes and performance upgrades. That said, the patch notes promise an “approximately 5% to 30% better framerate and faster game loading for many users, depending on their individual systems and game versions. Owners of retail versions can expect the biggest improvements.” So, mostly of interest to twitching luddites who insist on owning DVDs and any of you who bought the absurd Collector’s Edition, then.

v1.1 will also bring with it an option to invert the mouse, for those of you who think Geralt is an aeroplane. The developers are promising a second patch next week, and you’ll find the full patch notes after the jump.
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So. Finished. I even had a little time to play through some of the alternate storyline stuff. What do I think? Well, I don’t think I’ll be putting any spoilers in this review, so you can read my thoughts on the subject with some degree of safety. If something else needs go above the jump here, it should probably be this: The Witcher 2 is going end up being talked about for a very long time to come.

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Still not quite ready for the WIT, but I have some more thoughts on The Witcher 2, below. Share your impressions too, if you are playing!
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UPDATE: Hurray, made some progress. Seem to have unblocked the storyline and carrying on towards chapter two. To clear up some misconceptions from the comments below: I’m playing the retail version patched the same as anyone who would have bought the game today. My saves from the preview build do not work, and I am not using them – or I’d already be hours into chapter two!

Also, I am talking to CDP directly about this stuff. They are super-helpful, and annoying as it was to not get any early code, I certainly don’t bear any silly grudges. This is a huge game for the PC, and I’m just keep the conversation going over here.

There so seem to be some driver issues, too. Take a look in the comments below and you’ll see a bunch of updates for people with issues.

The game is clearly going to be patched a whole bunch more, and that’s a shame. I’ll be reviewing it as soon as I get it finished, whatever state it might be in at that time.

Why not? Well, I’m afraid our code only unlocked at midday yesterday, and I’m not going to rush this for anyone. We’d been told to expect to get the game last week, but CD Projekt later insisted that RPS, Eurogamer, and a number of other online outlets wait for their day zero patch, which they completed on Sunday. You will see some print magazine reviews go up today, these are based on early code which CDP described to us as “outdated”. We’ll be reviewing what you’ll actually be playing this week. I have some early thoughts below, and will follow with further impressions and then a full WIT later in the week.
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Oh, this is just odd. Ahead of The Witcher 2′s release date tomorrow CD Projekt have released a total of four launch trailers across four different sites. Why don’t you watch them all (and rate them from best to worst, or something?) while I consult the video game handbook as to whether this is allowed. They’re all after the jump.
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