The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

Not a true PC game and it handles like a Console to PC port. The GFX are console-ish so is the game play. It has all kinds of bugs and all the fun options that The Witcher 1 had are gone most likely because of the Console games. Don't buy this until they improve it to be as good as the 1st Witcher

I left a negative review about the first Witcher game. I stand by what I said there, and I'll let it be read as is. Witcher 2 was made in 2012, and is worse in many important ways. First of all, it took up TWENTY GIGABYTES on my hard drive! I can handle the capacity easily, but I have yet to see another game take up even half that space. While the graphics looked better than Witcher 1 when I eventually saw them, the game decided my system was not up to snuff and dialed everything down to rock bottom. Despite this adjustment, the game was laggy, choppy, and slow to respond. I have newer and more graphics-intensive games that perform BETTER than this one with their settings at medium or higher. I can see why some other reviewers complained about headaches. I could take a meclizine (motion sickness pill) and try to deal with it, except that the terrible performance also affects the gameplay. Motions flail wildly out of control, while the mouse pointer creeps along painfully in menus. THEN I got to the combat scenes--my absolute dealbreaker for Witcher 1. Moving the attack types to the mouse was good, but I have to hit ALT, SPACE, and move my character in some sequence or at the same time to parry and dodge. NO! Because, aside from not wanting to dance my hand awkwardly all over my keyboard just to play a fricking this game, I can't even time anything like that effectively due to the awful lag and jerkiness described above. It's probably yet another of too many games originally meant for controllers that was translated poorly to keyboard. Last but not least, the character takes up way too much space in the view, as other reviewers have described. I can't recommend this or Witcher 1 at all to other PC users. Don't pay more than $3 for this title.

Since everyone seems to love this game series I thought that I would give it another try. I played Witcher 1 but quit after about an hour due to clunky controls, bad camera angles, and horrible consolesque combat. This Witcher was no different. Very cool looking graphics, but the experience is absolutely ruined by the primitive interface. I find games like this fine as long as they port over from consoles well. If they keep the depth of control afforded to PC gamers from being restricted by gamepad-tuned combat and movement it's all good. However this game feels horrible when played with a mouse and keyboard. I don't like gamepads either, so in the vault it goes.

I'm trying not to go in depth, but in brief I avoided this series until now, due to the reputation for titillation and being excessively 'grimdark'. Now that I'm finally playing it, my biggest problem is not the 'power fantasy', where you are enjoying a young boy's fantasy of every female character in the game wanting to get into your pants. The sex cards from W1 didn't bother me. My problem is the other side of it - OK, you're playing through a power fantasy, all the women want you and are young / beautiful / dressed in revealing clothing, fine! But why does it all seem so miserable? Why are women constantly getting called or calling each other b****es and s**ts and w***es? Why is it every woman in a position of 'power' is called sexual slurs or has her sexual availability commented on? Is that a key part of the fantasy? Is it hard to imagine women choosing to sleep with you if they also feel valued and respected for things beyond their sexuality? Or is this all for the sake of realism? But does it make sense to argue that it was 'for the sake of realism' when we are also fighting magical monsters and shooting fire from our hands? If this is what you imagine might bother you as well about a game like this, I found Witcher 2 to be a much worse offender than Witcher 1. At least that game was silly and juvenile about it. This game dials up the angst to 11, especially when it comes to the 'grimdark' fates of almost all of the major female characters. The constant side remarks 'must be her time of the month' 'time to go to the brothel again' 'phew we can talk freely now that the women are gone' etc are just the cherry on top. It might be 'realistic' or it might not but again, if we can shoot fire from our hands, clearly there have been some editorial choices about what 'realism' is and isn't integral to this fantasy.

And this is tale hails from Poland. A mysterious country in eastern Europe. A place proud of it's heritage and proud of their artisans. One such artisan a grumpy old fellow named Sapkowski decides to write a series of novels that will soon capture the attention of reader inland and from shores far away. In fact said tale is captivating that it spawned a slew of media projects So why the 1 star you are asking? Welp unlike most gamers I tend to foster an esoteric hobby of mine which is called reading. I was a kid back then and there I read a captivating story about doomed hero. A white wolf. His skin? The color of bleached skull. His sword? A creation of chaos. His fate? Doomed in a changing world. His profession? That of a mercenary Now here is the confusing part. His name? Elric of Melnibone. Wait a second! Who dared to plagiarize Sapkowski legendary novel? None other than its original creator. An amicable old fellow named Michael Moorecock So? who cares? Sapkowski only copied the character. Did you know that GRRM (a song of ice and fire) has a character called John Snow who owns an albino wolf with red eyes? Yes I do. In fact old boy George and Michael are good friends. GRRM never attempts to lie about the homage he is paying to his friend So what's your point snob? Sapkowski copied all concept from Elric of Melnibone. All of it.