Topic: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

[Quemaqua]

Nice.  I wonder what we get in the Director's Cut?  Finally some good news from a company I don't have to hate.

[MysterD]

Nice.  I wonder what we get in the Director's Cut?  Finally some good news from a company I don't have to hate.

Anytime we hear the words "Director's Cut", I can already assume that this is gonna be Uncensored completely -- like the UK versions of the game. I'm betting for this version coming to the USA, the nudity is back in and they got the game approved at its Uncensored state at a ESRB rating of M (17+). I asked in the thread, so hopefully, we'll get an answer soon.

We know for sure, Director's Cut will be patched up to the upcoming Version 1.5 on disc.

For extras, don't know what OTHER extra goodies they'll toss in, after that. I'm sure we'll find out, soon enough, if there is anything.

[Quemaqua]

I hope it isn't just uncensoring it.  I bought the UK edition so my copy was never censored anyway.

[MysterD]

I hope it isn't just uncensoring it.  I bought the UK edition so my copy was never censored anyway.

Yeah, I also have the UK Edition.

Another thought occurred to me.

I do wonder if they are restoring/adding MORE content into this Director's Cut version that was never in any version of the game, as well.

There has been lots of requests for a long while by USA Gamers who got the Censored Edition directed towards CDPR on their boards that they'd like to see them take The Uncut Edition (such as The UK Version) and actually try to get that version rated by the ESRB -- since Atari forced the nudity out of the US Version BEFORE getting the game rated.

I think CDPR has to make some moves. I mean really Que, with The Witcher: Rise Of The White Wolf for the consoles basically being put on hold and God knows when they'll announce Witcher 2, they gotta find some way to get gamers who ain't bought Witcher yet a damn good reason to buy a re-release of it.

[MysterD]

More on the Director's Cut that's coming.
This is from NME of CDPR.

For all those asking about Director's Cut version. Good news, guys
It'll be distributed only digitally and it's gonna be a game without any censorship etc.

Hmmm...only digitally???
I have this funny feeling this Director's Cut that'll be sold might've garnered a AO Rating here from the ESRB.
I asked them.
We'll see what's up, soon enough...

EDIT:
Looks like The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - Director's Cut has been rated Mature by the ESRB, according to their website.

[MysterD]

Voodoo Extreme IGN got more info on (Upcoming) Patch 1.5 for The Witcher: EE.
Patch 1.5 is coming July 8th.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Patch Coming July 8th
Jun 22, 2009 at 8:11 AM - Andrew Burnes - 7 Comments
New patch from CD Projekt removes Digital Rights Management software, and installs five new quests:

The patch focuses mainly on removing troublesome DRM, allowing you to play the game without the disc, while providing additional hours of fun thanks to new adventures created by the fan community. Patch 1.5 is the next stage of The Witcher’s life, and is also a means of expressing our thanks to the modding community for their hard work on creating the adventures. The update will also be included in forthcoming The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut; more info on that product will be released shortly.

Patch 1.5 features:

Modifications:

# copy securities (DRM) are removed
# playing the game no longer requires the game disc in the drive
# patch solves problems with EAX and blurred graphics

Additionally:

# 5 bonus adventures made by the Witcher community: ‘Deceits’, ‘Blight of the Bogs’, ‘Wraiths of the Quiet Hamlet’, ‘Wedding’, ‘Merry Witchmas’.

In order to install patch 1.5 correctly, original Witcher game upgraded to 1.4 (enhanced edition) will be required.

[idolminds]

New patch. DRM and disc check removed, 5 new adventures added. Good times.

[Xessive]

Man, I love these guys! Not only have they maintained the game, they've consistently added new content!

[Quemaqua]

Makes me wish I actually had time to play the damned thing.

[MysterD]

Man, I love these guys! Not only have they maintained the game, they've consistently added new content!

They're one of the best, when it comes to supporting their game and releasing updates. Very few companies -- such as Blizzard, Studio 2 of Ascaron, Valve (when they actually do keep doing updates like they did with TF2 and not try to bone their game-owners like they did with L4D), and Id -- pump out patches like this. CD Projekt is on the list of those, if you ask me.

Removing the disc-check DRM is great news for the owners of Witcher: EE on disc -- since they were the only ones still stuck w/ the disc check. If you owned original Witcher, your disc check was removed a bit ago -- whether you upgraded to EE or not, didn't matter -- you still had no DRM check b/c of an early patch that removed it for Witcher Original owners.

It is Community-Made Content that was added, BTW.

Really, though -- for a company to endorse Community-Made Content and toss it right in their official patch, that does speak volumes of what they think of certain Mods. You don't really see that too often...

I've seen Epic and Egosoft do that before, add Community-Made content in official patches  -- can y'all think of any others?

[MysterD]

For anyone who owns International copies of The Witcher, this doesn't concern you -- since your version's already Uncensored. So, y'all can remain happy and whatnot!

For all you owners of The Witcher who have the Censored North American Version, here's the wonderful news and details on the upcoming Director's Cut.

Quick Intro For The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - Director's Cut
14.07.2009 15:55

CD Projekt RED is excited to announce the upcoming release of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut, allowing gamers in North America to experience the award-winning RPG as the developers originally envisioned. The Director’s Cut is set for release as both a free update for existing owners of the North American version of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition and as a stand-alone product at various digital distributors.

* What is The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut?
The Director’s Cut is the version of the game our developers originally intended for you to play. It is essentially the same game that gamers around the world have experienced – now available legitimately for the first time in North America.

* Where will The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut be available?
The Director’s Cut update will be available from TheWitcher.com and all applicable digital distributors in North America, including Steam, Impulse and Direct2Drive. We will announce the release date in the coming days, but as of that date, people who buy The Witcher: Enhanced Edition from digital distributors will be purchasing the Director’s Cut, as it will replace the existing Enhanced Edition on those sites.

* Will The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut obtained from digital distribution contain 1.5 patch features (i.e. additional adventures):
Yes, Director’s Cut version of the game will have all features of patch 1.5.

* Do I need The Witcher: Enhanced Edition to get the Director’s Cut?
If you want to just install the patch to get the Director’s Cut content, then you do need The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. If you’re just buying The Witcher for the first time (or feel like buying it again!) then you can just purchase the product via Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, etc. as they will offer the Director’s Cut as a full product already patched to the latest version.

* I don’t live in North America or I imported a copy of the game from outside of North America. Should I get the Director’s Cut?
You really already have the Director’s Cut if you have the international edition of the game and have installed the 1.5 patch!

* What is the age rating of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut?
The Director’s Cut has received an M rating from the ESRB, with Blood and Gore, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content and Violence.

EDIT - July 27th, 2009:
Director's Cut is coming July 31st

[MysterD]

North American Gamers who own the retail edition of the game, Witcher: EE - Director's Cut is now available to download!

Steam version will soon be getting this update.

[MysterD]

For those who own Witcher: EE from Steam, you can now DL the DLC to turn it into The Director's Cut.

For those who want to buy Witcher: EE - Director's Cut from Steam -- it's now 30% off.
It's $27.99 until August 12th.

[MysterD]

Currently over Impulse, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - Director's Cut is $27.99 for their Weekend Sale.

[MysterD]

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - Director's Cut is currently $19.99 on Steam.
Sale ends on Oct 29th.

[idolminds]

Its also $20 on Impulse, but if you use the SURVEY-2009 coupon code (expires Nov 1) it brings it down to $15.99.

[MysterD]

Even better of a deal, Idol - mad nice for those who don't have Witcher: EE - DC yet.
Though, that's gonna be A LOT of downloading, hehe.

[MysterD]

Witcher: Enhanced - Director's Cut = $9.99 on Impulse to download.
This weekend ONLY.

[Quemaqua]

Holy crap.  10 bucks?  That's amazing and a half.

[MysterD]

Holy crap.  10 bucks?  That's amazing and a half.

Yep, just 10 clams - great deal, for those who missed out on this amazing game (for some reason).
I don't think the digital edition comes w/ the novel, though...

[K-man]

I went and grabbed Oblivion GOTY edition for PC today and I almost grabbed The Witcher:  Enhanced Edition instead.  I bought Oblivion mainly to tool around with the mods (finishing the main quest finally on 360 last night piqued my interested), but I may grab this down the road as well.  Nice to see the package came with a soundtrack and making of DVD

[MysterD]

I went and grabbed Oblivion GOTY edition for PC today and I almost grabbed The Witcher:  Enhanced Edition instead.  I bought Oblivion mainly to tool around with the mods (finishing the main quest finally on 360 last night piqued my interested), but I may grab this down the road as well.  Nice to see the package came with a soundtrack and making of DVD

You cannot go wrong w/ Oblivion and/or The Witcher.
Both games are great.

EDIT:
I'mma have to pass on Witcher: EE - DC from Impulse b/c...
1.I want the extra goodies such as the short story novel and the other stuff on disc
2.and the huge EE Edition content on disc - especially since I still don't wanna take the time to re-DL the huge game (over 10 GB) and all the extra time to DL all the extra audio packs - I only DL'ed the Polish one, so far. Plus, the Original -> EE patch (Patch 1.4) free upgrade is huge and a pain-in-the-ass to install.

[K-man]

Yeah I mean I saw a copy at wal mart for 20 bucks today.  I'd say the extras make it more than worth the extra cost of admission

[MysterD]

Yeah I mean I saw a copy at wal mart for 20 bucks today.  I'd say the extras make it more than worth the extra cost of admission

Oh, it's so worth that - especially if you don't own the game already.

I already spend $50 + shipping on Witcher (Original), back when it first dropped. I'll eventually buy Witcher: EE on disc, for all the extras.

Same probably goes for FO3: GOTY Edition, as well - I namely want the DLC content on disc that I missed out on, since I bought FO3: CE upon release ($70).

[K-man]

Well I downloaded the demo of The Witcher.  I enjoyed what I played, but the cut scenes were like watching still frames on my system.  I've heard the Enhanced Edition really improves performance, but I'm still on the fence about whether I should even bother buying it.

I really need to grab a new video card.  It's definitely the bottleneck in my system.

[MysterD]

Well I downloaded the demo of The Witcher.  I enjoyed what I played, but the cut scenes were like watching still frames on my system.  I've heard the Enhanced Edition really improves performance, but I'm still on the fence about whether I should even bother buying it.

I really need to grab a new video card.  It's definitely the bottleneck in my system.

If I recall, turning OFF Depth of Field alone improves performance on lower systems by a mile. Try that.

[K-man]

That did the trick.  I also turned off anti-aliasing and turned down the filtering.  Runs a ton better now.

I'll probably be grabbing this today.  Demo got my interest piqued.

[MysterD]

That did the trick.  I also turned off anti-aliasing and turned down the filtering.  Runs a ton better now.

I'll probably be grabbing this today.  Demo got my interest piqued.

Glad you got it running better.
Enjoy the game.
It's freakin' great, if you ask me.

[K-man]

Just came home with it.  FYI there were two versions at my local wal mart.  One did not have a slipcover and was just in a case.  It was substantially heavier than the others they had with a cardboard slip cover.  Means they've probably digitized some of the extras in later runs of the game.

[K-man]

Well shit, looks like I got a faulty copy.  I've gotten an error twice upon attempting to install.  A data error (cyclic redundancy check) is what it says.  Apparently this is not uncommon upon doing some web searches.

Crap. 

[K-man]

Back with a new copy.  Lets hope this does the trick

[K-man]

New copy did it.  I had to grab a new copy in the sleeve though.  It doesn't come with the short story or map in printed form, and instead of two audio CD's the soundtrack is just one disc of MP3 files.

Thankfully I kept the stuff from the first one I bought and just returned the game.

Enjoying the game so-far. 

[MysterD]

New copy did it.  I had to grab a new copy in the sleeve though.  It doesn't come with the short story or map in printed form, and instead of two audio CD's the soundtrack is just one disc of MP3 files.

At least the MP3's are on a disc - can always cut those to audio CD's (CDA format), if necessary. Though, you were smart - and kept the CD's from first batch.

HGL: Collector's Ed did the same thing - threw soundtrack on a DVD and it tells you on disc to copy them to hard-drive and burn them to CD, if you like.

Thankfully I kept the stuff from the first one I bought and just returned the game.

Enjoying the game so-far. 

Cool.
Glad you got rid of your problems and whatnot.

Thanks for letting me know there's more than one version of Witcher: EE floating around on disc. Good to know, in case I see it cheap in-store.

[K-man]

I didn't keep the CD's from the first batch, just all the print materials that didn't come with the other edition.  Ultimately the soundtrack format doesn't bother me.  They'd get ripped to MP3 anyway.

[MysterD]

That works too, K-Man.

So - how far  you along, so far?

[K-man]

Well the Radeon HD 4850 my friend had just laying around certainly solved my bottleneck issues, haha.

D, not very far at all.  Just got to this town where i killed demon dogs.  Basically still feeling it out

[Quemaqua]

That's where it really starts.  The intro area is total crap.  No idea why they had that in the demo.  It gets better from there; the story starts to feel more coherent and the gameplay improves drastically.

[K-man]

Just finished all the quests in the first area and gained access to the city.  No glaring faults thus-far, except for the repetitiveness of the NPC's. 

[K-man]

I'm playing the crap out of this game.

[K-man]

Yeah so the first computer game I've played in a long time where I've had to just pull myself away for the sake of my relationship with my wife.  I basically neglected her from the moment I installed this thing. 

Whatever negatives that were present in the original game had to be drastically improved for this edition.  I love how it's in-depth enough to customize your character with skills but not so overwhelming that you're having to sit there and make serious choices like in NWN.

And really, this is sort of what I wish Dragon Age had been.