GoodGuyA: (regarding cutscenes) so I feel I must.

Remember how in The Witcher you would get these occasional still photos that gradually revealed to you their nature as it related to the story, showing you your choices along the way? Well, as you probably know, in TW2 they did just that but decided to make it a lot less... Mature or visually appealing. Is it simply just me, or has it just been the silent minority that got really outraged at the full cutscenes?

When you first start on the track to recover your memory, you're treated with a cartoon. This wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't use what I call "editor's animation". Basically it's a tactic where you don't attach all parts of the character's body in one drawing, and simply animate them in post. It looks to procedural, like no one ever has any hesitation in their movement. What really killed it though was the art style of it. Far too comic book like. I know these cutscenes are told by the perspective of people on Geralt's side (probably interpretations of Dandelion's tales), but why the radical shift from the epic paintings of the first game to a more frenetic and gruesome style for this one?

The thing that really kills me about it is that every aspect of this game is simply beautiful. The only way I can describe it to people is talking about it like a water color painting, which - "coincidentally" enough - are exactly the style of paintings used in the first game. I guess I just don't understand the visual switch. Was it to keep things moving at all times? Because if that was the choice, they undermined the production values a bit. I, personally, would love to go back to the romanticized versions of Geralt's tales in a painting rather than a brutal but silly animation. What do we all think on this?

vAddicatedGamer: I take it that you mean the flashbacks of Geralt's old memory?

GoodGuyA: All of them are presented in that style, but there are a few which address the story at hand such as your decision with

*END OF ACT 2 SPOILER*







King Henselt

RuaridhGoG: I guess the cutscenes are ok, they are different.

Your right though, they are to comicy, i prefered the seriousness of the witchers graphic cut scenes, they fitted the game, where as these with the very different representation style don't seem to do it. I would have prefered a continuation to the first games style, i looked forward to them, if i am correct the stills were done in the first game using computer software i noticed the looseness as well as the precioun of a pointer tool.

The cutscenes from the first game and the second game differ, the first games cutscenes were more like stills, showing an event, no movement, no cartoons just a picture it and it worked well, it also look realistic, the second game if i am correct is a far more graphic approach a massive change in style to the first games and very comic bookish, with the heavy use of black lines, block colour and the distinct illustriave style used for example with the faces it portays.

As an Artist myself, although a painter, i realy liked how taking something and making it very rough and fast can give it movement and a realism that cannot be gotten through finer photographic procedure.

curlyhairedboy: would you like the scenes better if they weren't animated? if they were just lineart stills?

227: I liked and disliked both for various reasons.

You know my absolute favorite method of flashbacks, though? Writing. Good ol' words without any fancy voiceovers.

Planescape did it well, but Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360 pulled it off better than any game I've ever played.

Skip to ~38 seconds for an example of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqiRc4amcAU

curlyhairedboy: oh my god, lost odyssey had the best little stories in there. each one was a heartbreaker ;_;