"I don't know if later books do that much politicking" you have no idea.

I actually found the plot of Witcher 2 to be very refreshing when compared to the typical fantasy RPGs where you take the role of a random Chosen One to fight the bad guy and save the world, the first game definitely had more of this atmosphere from the short stories though.

I don't understand his "pre-written" criticism... I mean every single game is pre-written... all consequences are pre-written. What is he on about?

A little correction regarding Geralt's knowledge of "The Lodge". I think Triss is less suprised about his knowledge of the term itself (which everyone in this world knows), and more about the fact that he knows the lodge is fully resuurected and operating (since the original Lodge was disbanded on Thanned), as that was something that was kept largely secret from the rest of the world.

George, I love your channel at all, but I feel like you remembered a few things incorrectly, or didn't quite understand everything. Triss, for example, wasn't shocked that Geralt knew about the Lodge. She was surprised that he knew it was back and operating, rather than being a disbanded organization like the public thinks.
The idea of the combat was to get in a few hits, then dodge away. The backstop bonus was there to discourage running into the middle of a group of enemies and mashing the mouse. Plus the first perk Geralt can unlock under the swordmaster skill tree removes the backstab bonus enemies get on him.
Alchemy still came in handy. If Geralt is in the woods on a side quest, or going into a cave or something, you knew he would encounter some enemies.
The traps and bombs worked fine. In the middle of combat Geralt could quickly dodge away and place a trap.

10:22

"It had *game changing consequences*, but the hyperbole is a little bit of a misnomer. They're all preplanned and written for you."

What do you think changes drop out of the sky? This isn't a straight RPG like New Vegas, its an adventure RPG. And you admitted a less than a minute ago the branches were like two separate campaigns. That one criticism is completely ridiculous.

I think we can all agree that when this game is $3.50 on GOG or steam its a steal. That's a lot of content for the price of dinner at mcdonalds.

It was a shame you barely touched on the characterisation. A brief "characterisation is strong" felt like it deserved being expanded upon, given this was one of the reasons why this was so acclaimed.

I can not tell you, how much not only I appreciate the spoiler alert, but how it was placed, and even just the bell ringing over it.
Might seems like a minor thing, but I am sure I don't stand alone on thanks, thanks again, heh.

"He's been depressed into alcoholism because the townfolks slaughtered his wife"
"AND THAT'S FREAKING GREAT!"

I really didn't find the story to be that confusing, even going in the first time around without reading any of the books.

"Crasser version of Dragon Age"
Interesting. I always thought this game was what Dragon Age was trying to be. I remember how Origins loved to boast about how dark and edgy it was that it actually came off as kind of silly. It desperately wanted to be this gritty, harsh fantasy game, but at the end of the day it just didn't have the flavor. That was never a problem I had with any of the Witcher games. They know exactly what kind of identity they want to maintain and keep in touch with it. Dragon Age, on the other hand, was more of this heroic fantasy adventure that wanted to be something it wasn't. And that was such a shame because it worked fine as just that. It didn't have to pretend to be something else.

The Witcher 2 is to me a weird but functioning experiment that was needed in order for The Witcher 3 to be created.

I killed Letho because I thought the fight would be cool. I feel kinda bad about it.

Regarding story I simply can't agree with you. I've played both games twice as well. And I think that if you put the time and effort into these games, the story can't get better. Besides, it was a totally different experience once I had read all the books.

It's weird that the UI was designed for consoles, because even on the 360, TW2 is...kind of an unwieldy mess to play. The menus take an eternity to navigate and the combat felt like it was eternal dicerolls for what animation I was going to do. Would Geralt leap forward at the guy that was actually there, or roll, or just slash ineffectively at the air?

I'm in a weird position of having all your complaints about the game - clunky controls, convoluted events, etc. while all the same I enjoyed the hell out of it. It might have just been the writing, or the gather-mix-buff cycle, or the crafting (which I'm almost always a sucker for) or the few times that the controls worked well and felt good to play overshadowing the rest somehow.

Wow never thought you would dislike this one so much, it's my favorite after the third. The video is very enjoyable as always.

I watched an advert for you George, a 3min advert. That's how much you mean to me. It was for a watch I'll never buy.

As someone who never actually finished the first game due to its god-awful combat, so maybe a little biased. I love the shit out of TW2's messy, unclear plot and here's why. In so many RPGs, the messy politics are the vastly more interesting "B" plot to the "A" plot of "Save the world from generic villain". I fucking hate saving the world from generic villains, Dragon Age Origins peaked at the landsmeet and went nothing but downhill from there, I've always wanted to play a game about that and TW2 delivers on that experience for me.

The other thing that bothers me as a general trend in RPGs is the player characters completely unbelievable ability to utterly change the world in vast sweeping ways. Honestly I like how in TW2, Geralt ultimately can't change much, the Mages still get pogrom-ed, Saksia still gets fucked over, Temeria still falls apart, you can't actually stop or undo the damage Letho was doing and most people still think he killed Foltest. Because he's just one guy and that would be silly to change all of that. It would be shit if every game did it, but it's definably a refreshing twist on the genre.

Thankfully The Witcher 3 went back to the overall feel of the first game and became not just a great sequel, but a 'witcher simulator'. They combined the best aspects of both TW1 and 2; the former's atmosphere and scope and emphasis on the personal and the supernatural, and the latter's combat (greatly improved) and pacing.