Thoughts on Witcher 2

I don't know what to think of when it comes to Witcher 2.  Sometimes, it shines as  such a great game and sometimes I just want to bash my head into a wall.  My experience has been a combination of many things that I really take away from the experience, the first major factor being Wine's own glitches.

The more I play, the more I am convinced that I have to do something about the mouse warping because I am really, really hating the mouse controls that Wine is doing.  For game that is pretty darn difficult, fighting on the controls is pretty aggravating, so much so that the idea of installing it on Windows had crossed my mind many, many times.

The second Wine glitch is the cutting of audio and I am damn certain it's caused by Pulse Audio.  I play other games on Wine and experience the same cutting though not as severe as in this game.  It truly pulls me out of the experience when the audio cuts so frequently.

And someone please help me about the god damn resolution I have to play this game on.  The teeny tiny screen means I have to squint to play and if I try on a higher resolution, the game won't even load up!

Then there's the filling the bar QTEs of the game that is absolutely killing this.  I thought I was having an unusually tough time cocking the ballista but the stupid gate mechanism confirmed to me that something was damn wrong.  Witcher forums suggested dropping the resolution and I had to drop it to a microscopic screen for the QTE to work.  Damn what the hell?!

Lastly, it's the combat.  I am just not feeling this new style.  Witcher 1 was fine, but this game really reeks console game designs making Witcher 2 even more action-oriented and frantic.  The combat difficulty is also extremely unforgiving and it just hurts the game over all.  Having a difficult game is fine, but when I select easy, I expect an easier game!  Speaking of consoles, is it a coincidence that the game hit shelves on Xbox 360?  I think not.

The writing and story itself isn't perfect too.  I've found plenty to like with it, don't get me wrong, but somehow this game doesn't seem to adhere to my choices in Witcher 1.  Siding with the Scoia'tael doesn't seem to have any bearing because in Witcher 2, they are extremely hostile.  Triss and Geralt seem to be already a couple when in fact, I pissed her off in the first game.

Despite all this, Witcher 2 still feels like a splendid game in some respects.  When it hits its stride, you really enjoy it very much.  But there's plenty of things marring my experience.  I can only hope I get to the end.  I didn't spend 3 days downloading this to quit.