Based on a collection of fantasy novels & short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher is a brand new fantasy RPG for PCs.

While some I know have already imported the game from OS it should be coming out in Australia very soon.

The Witcher tells the story of Geralt, the White Wolf, one of the best of the Witchers. In Geralt's world Witchers are an almost extinct line of warrior mages who sell their services as monster hunters.

Rather than being gifted mercenaries Witchers are actually sterile mutants. At first glance they appear human but closer examination will reveal 'defects' in their physiology. Geralt for instance is very pale of skin, has cat like slits for pupils and golden eyes.



Through a combination of the forced genetic mutations that create witchers and the wide array of drugs and potions they keep on their person, an individual witcher can be a powerful and terrifying enemy.

As Geralt you traverse the world searching for the men responsible for a raid on one of the few remaining Witcher schools which saw a comrade fall and the mutagens that are the secret of the Witchers' power stolen.



The game is a fairly standard RPG in many respects but the world it takes place in with its moral shades of grey is an incredibly compelling one.

You go from town to town fulfilling monster hunting missions and all the while getting closer to your quarry.

As you do this you are called upon to make many moral choices that are far from simple decisions. These tend not to be black and white, good and evil style decisions but rather very grey. These decisions create a wonderful illusion of story control and you will often not find out about the impact of your decisions til a significant amount of time has past.



As you can tell by the screenies the game looks awesome. Believe it or not but this game is running on a heavily modified version of the Aurora Engine which powered the original Neverwinter Nights. The amount of incidental detail is awesome.

The story is intriguing and for the most part the voice acting is not too shabby. However there are some translation issues that leave certain scenes feeling a bit disjointed but nothing too bad.

And hey... the game also has tits.

I'm serious.

In this game you can shag your arse off and any girl you woo in to your bed will present you with an in-game booby card. Why? I have no idea. They just do. This card is the first you get and by far the most chaste but others get significantly more raunchy.



I won't ramble on much further, this is not meant to be a review. But I just wanted to generate some interest in this game and see if anyone else is playing it.

Oh and if you can handle the Nickelback here is a fairly nice little fan-made trailer for the game that I feel nicely captures the game's feel.

Ohh, new. I like. Think I might get into this one when it comes out.

Any confirmed release date?

And tits ftw.

It seems to be all over the place. My Atari press-release says the 2nd of November but no on has seen it in stores.

Another source gave me the 9th of November and EB has it listed on their system for the 22nd.

Lord knows. :P

I'm not understanding something here. I hear of all these complaints on combat being dull but why? Why is it dull? Is it similar to KOTOR or Gothic 3 and ES Oblivion? That's all I want to know.

None of the above.

The way combat works is that you click once on your enemy to initiate combat. This will begin a series of animations that rain down attacks on your foe. Towards the end of these animations you'll see your icon become a flaming sword very briefly. If you click when that happens the next part of the battle combo begins.

Combat is made interesting by the presence varying styles of combat: fast, strong and group which you select on the fly while you are battling oppoonents.

Then there is the whole two swords thing. Silver swords are best used on monsters while steel is best for poking in humans.

I personally don't mind the combat. I'd prefer something a little more strategic but this is fun enough. It certainly isn't the games strongest feature but on the other hand I never feel combat is a chore.

This does look incredibly interesting, if only for the decisions that the player has to make in order to progress... and the ultimate ramifications of their actions.

The best that the past had offered me was, if "a" then launch endgame "a" - if "b" then launch endgame "b" (mind you, i haven't played many true PC RPG's)

The card with the cat curled up in that particular spot... so... er... I'm guessing the carpet doesn't match the drapes? However, by the sounds of it, this game should stand up on its own merits rather than relying on popularity through the potentially controversial activities that the player can indulge in. (ie bonking)

The Witcher: The game Gothic 3 should have been? What do you think? The Witcher reminds me A LOT of G1 and G2.

Gonna hang my head and say that despite my love of the RPG genre the Gothic series remains one that is unplayed by myself so I really can't comment.

Both are European productions though... which may have something to do with the similar feel of each.

By the way this has now appeared on store shelves over here. Go grab a copy.

Sounds interesting Pres, you didn't steer me wrong at all with The Longest Journey / Dreamfall, will I have to follow your wisdom once again? :D

I like the idea of having 'grey' choices, in games like KOTOR the choices are too obvious and makes things feel disconected, things like

1. "is there anything I can do, for you to help me?"
2. "maybe some credits will change your mind"
3. "tell me what I want to know, or I will kill you and your family".

:P You know the types .. sounds like this game doesn't have that problem.

And hey, tits is always good :P

To give you an example, early on in the game you have to pass judgement between a community that have perpetrated significant evil and the woman who supplied the means to that evil but apparently was not involved directly in its propogation. There is no good option here. Everyone is to blame in one shape or form but to what extent?

Things get even more complicated because the person who is seemingly the least directly connected did just offer herself to you moments prior. Was this a legitimate display of affection or just a means to curry favour with you via a little rumpy pumpy.

The game is constantly throwing up situations like this. Apparently this is a running theme in the Sapkowski novels. The king of Vizima for instance had an incestuous relationship with his sister but has been shown to be largely a wise ruler with genuine affection for the daughter born out of this relationship with his own sister.

Even choice which appear to have no real moral colour will have repercusions for you further down the track. Another example is when hunting a cockatrice you happen upon a knight seeking the same foe. Noticing you're a Witcher he comments he'd love to join you and see a Witcher in action. Whether you accept or refuse you aren't really defining Geralt's moral and ethical standing, you're more roleplaying a personality trait. Do you want him to be a loner or should you make friends with people. Further down the track you will find yourself needing passage through a check point, depending on what your answer was to the knight you will either have free passage or will have to do something additional to get through. These little touches make the world seem so alive.

Wait until they fix some bugs to get it. It's a great game but long load times and alot of crashing for Vista users. Bogus.

Very interesting indeed, I'm liking what I'm hearing :)

As the issue is now out I can reveal my score for the game.

9/10.

An exceptional RPG everyone should pick up. Hopefully the score will get some of you up off your arses. :D

Yeah, I'll have to upgrade the PC first though ...

I decided to download the demo to see how the game runs on my PC, and as it expected very slow! I was actually suprised I was able to 'play' at all. So I played around with the settings, and when I put everything on "Low" the game runs a lot better, nice and smooth, but the graphics look ugly!

So then I tried to increase the Texture detail to Medium, leaving everything else on Low, and this improved the graphics quality quite signficantly, whilst still running at the stable framerate, so I think I found a pretty good compromise. I might have to get this game for a christmas present for myself or something :D

Mr. Presidente, what do you think? Will the game still enjoyable if I play with everything on Low, except for textures which are on medium? Game still looks pretty good like this, just not the wow next gen look of those screens.

Never mind ... since the demo ran great on the custom settings (i.e. not high) I decided to buy the game, as I really enjoyed the demo, fairly standard 'western RPG' stuff here, but I enjoy these games especially when the world they are set in are interesting and compelling, such is the case with The Witcher, I find myself drawn to the world ... Still early days in the game at the moment, but already I've noticed some interesting decisions you have to make, with no real "right or wrong answer", will be interesting to see how such decisions and future ones will effect the game later on.

Oh yeah and boobies!! :P

Good choice... sorry for not responding to your previous post. I have been missing Evo on my usual forum rounds. :P

Anyway my answer would have been to go for it which you obviously did regardless. I'm looking forward to hearing your impressions as you get further in to the game.

I am fucking addicted!! :o I've already played over 30 hours :o , I'm on break at the moment so yeah I've filled in the time, :lol:

I've just hit Chapter 3 now and things are starting to get quite interesting indeed, I quite enjoyed the whole investigation sequence in the second chapter. Regarding the moral decisions, I've found myself often freezing when these choices are presented trying to weigh up my options and make the best decision, I don't want to go in any details as Presidente has already provided some examples and if I provide any more it will only spoil more of the game, these kinds of choices are best when you have know prior knowledge of them and learn about them through the game itself.

Lets just say there was one choice in particular that I made, where I was not fully comfortable with, but the other choice would have been just has 'painful', it was a difficult decision and now I'll have to take a full position on a wider issue that it represents, again this isn't easy and I still don't know which way I'll decide yet!

Geralt feels kind of like a James Bond of the Middle Ages with all the sex he gets :lol: I suppose being immune to diseases as well as being infertile has its advantages for the sexually driven individuals of this world :P

So again, thanks a lot Presidente for making this thread, I wouldn’t have even known about this game otherwise, so your wisdom has once again provided an amazing gaming experience :D

I try my best. ;)

Got a friend who's addicted to the game, However I think it's best that I wait for a comp upgrade before I delve deep into the game.

Oh I'll want to play this again for sure, considiring the impacts your choices have on the game world, it will be interesting to see how things are different when you make different decisions. Though I will likely do this second play through when I have a new computer so I can also see everything in High quality as it should be! It'd be like playing a whole new game not only through the different choices I make but through the graphics quality :P