I have never been much of a PC gamer, as I've made clear in the past. More recently my experience with PCs, specifically laptop-based gaming, has been limited to demoing console releases via the OnLive streaming service. By no means a perfect replacement for either consoles or PCs, the service still offers a novel approach to this generation's gaming options. During one of my several timed demos with OnLive, I sampled a good 25-30 minutes of The Witcher. A surprise hit during its original release, The Witcher gathered a substantial following thanks to the craftsmanship of Polish developer CDProjekt; a unique blend of mature story and sophisticated combat mechanics.
A few years down the road a sequel was released, which enhanced the Witcher's tight combat/magic controls and added to the deep lore of the original. The resulting game was another very polished (Polish'ed?) release from a still relatively unknown Eastern European developer. With my total experience limited to a taste of what the series had to offer I knew I had two choices: buy a better laptop, or pray for a console release.
How many Polish developers does it take to ship a smash-hit RPG?
Lo and behold, the gods of gaming were good to loyal fans and delivered a controller-friendly port of the PC hit sequel. Before I spend some time with our crazy monster-hunting anti-hero Geralt, let's take minute to check out the finished product. Not really a collector's edition but an "Enhanced Edition". There's the standard game on a couple discs as well as a soundtrack CD. Behold the rest of the goodies below.
Game, cardboard sleeve and Quest Handbook.
The handbook is black and white, but still a nice extra.
Oh, paper maps. You'll always have a place in my heart.
And what's this, double-sided you say? Now you're not playing fair.
Gamestop exclusive wolf head keychain.
It's got a nice gunmetal finish and is surprisingly heavy.
That's all I've got for now. By next week I should I have invested some time in the game's story and can relay how awesome it is. Stay tuned and keep reading!
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