I've been an RPG'er for more years than I care to say (The old D&D Goldbox games, Ultima 1+, Bards Tale, Might and Magic, Dragons Age, Drakensang, Mass Effect 1,2). I loved the first Witcher. And while this is a beautiful game, it is no RPG. What a let down from the first one. The Prologue was a exercise is frustration. This feels like a shooter wrapped in fantasy clothing. Who though that having the player die repeatedly would be a great start?

I'm sure there are those that are enjoying this, but I didn't want God of War, I wanted The Witcher 1, with better visuals. I hope this gets better.

Oh, and who designed the save system. I can't overwrite, I can't delete..there are 41 saves in the directory.

As for the saves - use the quicksave (F5) it makes just one and deletes the previous. Hope they'll patch it up.

And yes it does get much better! Sad thing is the "tutorial" part of the game isn't very tutoring, and the difficulty curve rises sharply. I suggest lowering the difficulty levels, and reading up on strategies if you like, or find them out yourself, until you get used to the new combat system. It really can get very rewarding.

And I assure you - the stry is marvelous, the choices multiple, the characters interesting, and the mood darker, edgier, grittier. It's worth it, don't get discouraged!

Good luck!

Dying repeatedly worked pretty well in Demon's Souls, which the Witcher 2 is far more similar to than God of War, which is a good thing.. I agree with the save issue, that is very annoying. At least in Witcher 1 one could delete surplus saves from the game itself. You can delete them manually from the witcher 2 folder in your documents folder, which is not ideal, but it works. Eh.

The save mechanic is pretty silly without overwrite option, but you can use quicksave. Press F5, the quicksave only reserved one slot so you'll overwrite it.

You can delete the save file manually located at Documents \ Witcher 2. But i strongly suggest you make another backup before removing the files completely from recycle bin, because i have encountered lost all of my save files although i only deleted some of them (Load screen inside the game show 0 save file). Then i restored it back from my recycle bin, it's appears again inside the game. Try deleting one by one first, see if it works.

Yeah, I finished the tutorial and, while the story was interesting and told in an entertaining way, I was a little disappointed to die so often.

I blame:
- the fact that the combat controls are totally different than The Witcher 1, so it takes time to get accustomed.
- the fact that the locking system is far from being great, which means that combat with multiple foes can be a real pain.
- the fact that you can no longer drink potions "on the fly" during a combat. You HAVE to go to meditation mode, then drink the potion. So basically, the technique is: drink potion - go to combat - watch for the timer of the potion to be 0:00 - drink another potion. A little counter intuitive and rythm-breaking.

Once you have the reflex to drink potions, to use a lot the space bar to avoid strikes and to hit-and-run (hit a guy 2-3 times, back away, repeat), combats are easier.

damn i instaled fable 3 because i can t play witcher 2 because of the resolution text problem,i really envy all who play it now,when i play fable 3 i think of witcher in my mind,don t like fable but it s a new rpg.....when will they relase that patch for widescreen?i check every hour since 17 may

Yes, the beginning is hard. But my god, I think many of us gamers have grown very soft in the last 10 years. Witcher 2 isn't nearly as difficult as some of the games the OP says he/she's played. Especialy Drakensanng and ME1/2 those games are stupid easy. Drakensang, as far as a classic CRPG is concerned is way too easy.

I think the difficulty of the Witcher 2 is pretty spot on. I wouldnt want anything to hold my hand in my favorite genre of game. Let me tell you though once you get used to the combat and wisen up about how you need to approach each fight the game gets easier for sure. Trust me, thats the only hard part!

I chose Realms of Arkania as my bonus game, i'm surprised. That game is like hundreds time harder than The Witcher 2, but maybe it isn't fair comparison because one is CRPG another one is Action oriented RPG. But you get my idea, older CRPG mostly are far more unforgiving than this game but why people can't tolerate The Witcher 2 like they did to CRPG?

Good question! And for those people that prefer a quicker or easier end to the battles; theres no shame on lowering the difficulty, I replayed the into on easy and normal there's a big difference.

41? Lol. I have over 400 files, which equals over 200 saves in my folder. :p You must not be very far.

There is a steep learning curve for the combat system..

TW1 satisfied more my RPG/story side, and this game satisfies more my action/graphics side

But the cool thing is..both games have elements of all of these

It's not disappointing to me, it's a change...and I find it amazing that this is an RPG game and it has better graphics than any other game out there.

God, all you whiners are going to make them patch the normal mode into brain-dead easy-land like Bioware did Dragon Age Origins.

I know. I fear the worst. I'd like to give the OP some advice to ease his pain but saying "Shooter wrapped in fantasy" is a crock of shit. He's just mad the game is handing him his ass over and over. You can't namedrop ME2 and then say TW2 isn't an rpg, come the fuck on!

Here's my tip to the OP: READ THE MANUAL and play better. It's not the game's fault you're dying, it's because you had terrible positioning or weren't utilizing all of the offensive tools.

This game has NOTHING to do with God of War so if you're going to slyly try to bring in "consolized" talk, at least compare it to the games that infulenced TW2 like Arkham Asylum and Demon's Souls.

Care to elaborate what is there to learn beside kiting, throwing bombs and spells?

Not trolling, I'm honestly starved to learn

I like how you throw those three things out as if it's nothing. Using bombs, spells and movement effectively is very important, and something you have to work at.