As we celebrate our 10th Birthday here at Reticule Towers, we’re going to take a chance to look at our favourite games of the Reticule Years. There are few, if any, rules set for what we will write about. So hit the break, and see what we have chosen as Our Favourite Games of The Reticule Years. …
The Witcher 2 has been out on the PC for nearly a year now (May 17th 2011 was the release date) and the game has come a long way since the initial release with big updates coming in September last year with the 2.0 release and last week the Enhanced Edition was released at the same time as the very well received Xbox 360 version. When I originally played The Witcher 2 at release last year, I was impressed by what the game was attempting, but I was left aghast at the difficulty of the Prologue and a poor hints and tips system which left me unsure how to use traps and bombs and little understanding of the different spells Geralt can cast. Nearly a year on and my experience of the first few hours is now much more enjoyable. Early game spoilers after the jump. …
The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition might have been released as a full new release on the Xbox 360 today (read Kevin’s Red Mist rated review here) but us PC gamers aren’t being left out as a massive 11GB update for the epic RPG is now available through Steam and GoG.com.
The full patch list can be read after the jump, but be aware that it does contain spoilers. In short, you can expect to find four hours worth of new quests, cut-scenes and cinematics and over 100 other improvements over the original release.
This is all free, which in a time when such big updates normally get labelled as DLC and require a few pounds to access is a brilliant example of how customers should be treated by developers and publishers. I’m still downloading my update, but I can’t wait to get back into the game from the start once more. …
Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, is a Witcher. Witchers are warriors who possess magic powers and superior abilities due to being taken in as children and given potions and martial training for most of their young lives. This special training can cause adverse side affects and sometimes even death, the result of this is that only 40% of children survive the final trial and go on to become Witchers. Once fully trained Witchers use their unique abilities to make a living killing wild beasts and often people who get in their way. Geralt was special, being able to take on larger doses of the mutagen as a child and undergo extra experiments to further increase his abilities. He was lucky to escape with the only side effect of the experiments being his hair turning sheet white. Without giving too much away the game begins with Geralt recalling his story of battle beside King Foltest who he recently saved from an assassination attempt. The King is retaliating against a revolt by the noble families of his kingdom who are unhappy with his rule and Geralt, knowing better than to refuse a King, has taken to becoming his personal guard. …
I have just come out of the Witcher 2 developer session at the Eurogamer Expo, and for me this one was the most interesting, we got some really good information about the upcoming release of version 2.0 for the PC as well as the 360 version of the game. CD Projekt Red’s Jan Kryzysztof Bielecki delivered the very informative presentation Hit the jump for more details. …
The Witcher 2 sees us returning to the world of Geralt of Rivia, an amnesiac albino monster hunter, who seems to have a habit of getting caught up in world-shaping events he wishes he could avoid. One of the key strengths of the first Witcher game was how it handled important choices, with consequences often coming back to haunt you, hours after you made the initial decision. It was almost unique in an RPG (or any game for that matter) that you weren’t immediately made privy to how your actions affect the world. It would then, have been disappointing if the sequel subtitled Assassin’s of Kings had bypassed that in favour of a more linear route, but, if anything, developers CD Projekt RED have gone the opposite way. …
Tom Clancy is a weird fellow.
For an author, the guy doesn’t actually do very much writing, having built up one hell of a reputation for his military detail and whatnot from back when he actually did write. Nowadays he makes money of selling his name to Ubisoft, and the crazy thing is that it works very well indeed.