the-witcher-2 posts

Atari is making a slight change in its executive ranks. The publisher announced today that its president Jim Wilson will now also take over the CEO spot at the company. Wilson succeeds Jeff Lapin who is leaving the company. Lapin came to Atari as its Chief Operating Officer in May 2009 and became CEO in December 2009.

Wilson, who was also deputy CEO at Atari before today, is heading up the company as it prepares for its 2011 slate of titles. That includes major retail releases like Test Drive Unlimited 2, The Witcher 2 and Neverwinter along with a large line-up of downloadable titles including remakes of Star Raiders and Yar's Revenge, a new Ghostbusters game and the just announced Dungeons and Dragons Daggerdale.

The Witcher 2 is already one of the most anticipated PC games of 2011 but the upcoming fantasy RPG sequel from developer CD Projekt Red looks to also be one of the hardest games to play, at least according to how the game will set its highest end difficulty level.

There will be four difficulty levels in the game: easy, medium, hard and insane. How insane is the game's insane mode? Eurogamer reports that according to the lead gameplay designer Mateusz Kanik, "You can save the game, but when you die the saves are disabled." Yep, that means if you die at any point in the game you have to completely start over. And don't think you can simply avoid fighting your enemies in the game either. Kanik states, "We fixed that by giving all opponents special abilities which allow them to catch the Witcher,"

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US so while we won't be shutting down completely for the rest of the week like other gaming web sites we will be updating tomorrow and Friday on a reduced basis. We hope all of you have a wonderful and safe holiday.

• Steam has new automatic bug fix updates on Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Europa Universalis III Heir to the Throne, Bit.Trip.Beat and Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes.
• Here's a video showing off another Call of Duty Black Ops Easter Egg.
• PC Gamer has an exclusive on Trundle, a new Champion coming to League of Legends.
• Watch an extended scene from The Witcher 2 (warning; it's a bit adult in parts).
• Transformers War For Cybertron is having another 10x XP multiplayer weekend until Sunday.
• A cool replica of the Portal gun is being auctioned off with proceeds going to Child's Play.

The Witcher 2 may be released without any DRM set ups on GoG.com but that doesn't mean the game's developer CD Projekt Red doesn't care that its long awaited RPG could be pirated. Eurogamer reports that the developer plans to fine anyone it believes has download the game illegally and could even take those people to court if they don't pay the fine.

CD Projekt's co-founder Marcin Iwiński states, "I'm sure you've heard about stories in the US when recording companies were chasing people. We don't want to be so harsh, but there is a chance that this might happen to some people if they download illegally. There will be an initiative." The game itself is due for release in mid-May 2011.

Call of Duty Black Ops continues its run as the number one best selling PC game on the Steam PC download service. The Treyarch-developer first person shooter is on top of Steam's weekly top 10 sales list for the third week in a row. However there's a big surprise in the second place spot: The Witcher 2 Digital Premium Edition. Even though the RPG from CD Projekt Red isn't due out until May 2011, a lot of players didn't want to wait to pre-order the game.

The full top 10 list is as follows:
1. Call of Duty Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision
2. The Witcher 2 Digital Premium Edition - CD Projekt Red/Atari
3. Fallout New Vegas - Obsidian Entertainment/Bethesda Softworks
4. Football Manager 2011 - Sega
5. Sniper Ghost Warrior - City Interactive
6. Civilization V - Firaxis Games
7. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
8. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - DICE/EA
9. Counter-Strike Source - Valve
10. Risen - Piranha Bytes/Deep Silver

So you want to buy The Witcher 2? Well, first you have to decide which version and which retailer you want to buy CD Projekt Red's upcoming RPG sequel from. The developer has several options to choose from and revealed them today.

There are two downloadable versions of the game available for US owners. One is the previously revealed one that's now available for pre-order at GoG.com. This Digital Deluxe version of The Witcher 2 will not only be DRM-free but will be priced at just $44.99, a 10 percent discount, before its release on May 17, 2011. It will contain lots of extra downloadable content including a PDF manual, a behind-the-scenes video, the game's soundtrack and PDF files for maps, letters and papercraft characters. Plus the GoG.com version will let pre-order owners download exclusive content immediately including four bonus music tracks, 10 wallpapers, 10 avatars and a CD Projekt Red photo tour. Finally the GoG.com version will have exclusive content at launch including a downloadable art book and the player's choice of one of five games for free (Gothic 2 Gold, Realms of Arkania 1 + 2, Realms of Arkania 3, Divine Divinity, and Beyond Divinity). If you already own all five GoG.com will offer you an alternate free git.

Check beyond the jump for more pre-order info for The Witcher 2:

The Witcher 2 is due for release on May 17, 2011 and today Eurogamer is reporting that the downloadable version of CD Projekt Red's upcoming RPG sequel is going to be the first such game that will be sold on CD Projekt's GoG.com download service. Normally GoG.com sells older retro games for between $5.99 and $9.99 but this will be the first AAA game that will be offered on the PC game download service at the same time the game ships to stores.

Furthermore, the GoG.com version of The Witcher 2, like all the other older game on the online service, will be sold with no DRM set-up. The developer will be holding an online press conference later today to talk more about its plans for The Witcher 2.

The Witcher 2's development team at CD Projekt Red was supposed to reveal the contents of the upcoming RPG's collector's edition later this week. However it looks like the GameStop web site has jumped the gun and reveal the contents and the very high price ($199.99) for the game's Collector's Edition.

In addition to the game the Collector's Edition will contain a unique in-game item, the Vernon Roche Commando Jacket, that "noticeably boosts player's sword-fighting abilities" when used in the game. There's all sorts of other items in this edition including a behind-the-scenes DVD, the game's soundtrack CD, playing cards with a special rulebook, two papercraft figures, and lots more.

The Witcher 2 and its development team CD Projekt Red are wasting no time in announcing a specific release date for the sequel to the acclaimed fantasy RPG. Today the developer announced that the game would be out on May 17, 2010, although specific countries may have the game come out on different dates.

More info about the game's worldwide launch is scheduled to be announced on Thursday when CD Projekt holds an online press conference on the game's official web site. Info about pre-orders for The Witcher 2, the game's Collector's Editon and its DRM set-up, among other things, will be the subject of the conference.

In one of its more esoteric videos, CD Projekt discusses how the team conceptualized and developed the game engine for The Witcher 2. The Witcher 2 is a dark fantasy themed role-playing game based on a series of novels. Viewers with a great interest in game development may want to check this video out, which is just over nine minutes long and contains a good amount of technical detail. Also be aware that the video is in Polish with English subtitles. The game is currently expected to release sometime in the spring, 2011.

Download HD The Witcher 2 Developer Diary #2, Part 1 (499 MB)
Check out all The Witcher 2 downloads