Did you buy the original version of The Witcher? Atari loves you and wants to reward you by giving you a copy of the new "Enhanced Edition" for free! Did you not buy The Witcher? Well, here's a good excuse to do so, because with the new enhanced edition you'll find that the game has been considerably...uh...enhanced.
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition doesn't just include the complete game. They've re-recorded around 5000 lines of dialogue and re-synced it with the animation, tweaked the lighting and visuals, and reduced load times 75-80%. Plus, the edition includes a soundtrack, a making of the game, the original folklore story that inspired the game, and a "create your own adventure" deal.
If you're not familiar with The Witcher, he basically a no morals type of guy, a dark monster and bounty hunter, an anti-hero. As you play the titular main character, it's up to you to decide if you want to be evil or good.
Being the type of guy that you are, with the job that you have, there's a lot of combat. You use glyphs - callings - to use different combat styles, and you can go into a "group stance" in order to better fight groups of enemies. In addition to those, you have coup de grace moves, which will kill an enemy fairly graphically - such as beheading them or using the hilt of your sword. Combat is based off timed clicks of the mouse, not just frantically clicking. You have to wait until just the right time to click.
In addition, the game does have RPG aspects. You can get drunk, for instance, but be careful you don't get robbed while passed out in the gutter. You can learn how to make potions, bombs, or oils that coat your weapons. The potions also have a toxicity level that keeps you from being able to drink too many of them. As you kill enemies, you gain trophies that you carry around with you. Everything about the character is on the screen.
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a PC title looking at a September release. Console fans can take heart to know that they're considering a PS3 and/or an Xbox 360 port, but for now, it's just PC.
I'm a 29 year old senior network and systems engineer for a consulting firm in the DC area. I'm mostly into MMOs and FPSes (on the console), and I'm a big pro football fan. In my other spare time I like to write and tend to read copious amounts of history and military sci-fi. I'm also into cooking and bad action movies.
