I thought I'd have the misfortune of working through it, but I managed to get the earlier shift so I could do some things before shops closed, and realised I'd be able to watch this, so I took notes and have now written them into coherent sentences, for all you that care.

GOG STUFF

Since it's inception is the Autumn of 2008, GOG.com has grown a substantial amount, with over 1,000,000 unique visitors a month and almost 400 DRM free games. Soon they'll have sold their 6,000,000th game, and when that happens, everyone who has previously purchased a game from them will be able to download Brokensword: Shadow of the Templars for free; for 48 hours after the 6,000,000th purchase. They'll announce when this happens via email and twitter. Also, the person who completes the 6,000,000th transaction, will win the entire back catalogue of games from GOG.com. Yes, all ~400 of them.

As we're coming up to their 2nd anniversary there will be a big sale on their most wanted games. Their most wanted games being the 9 D&D games: Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights, D&D Dragonshard, The Temple of Elemental Evil, and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone. The big sale gimmick with these is, the more you buy at once the more you get off. Starting at 20% and climbing to 60% off. So if you buy all 9 you get them for 40% of the price; and if you already own, for example, 4 and you want just one more you could get that at 40% off straight away. So if have paid any attention to Dave Snider, you'll know you will want to take advantage of this sale; and if I didn't already own them, I would too.

CD PROJEKT STUFF

I like that they called autumn autumn.

So far they have breached the 1,000,000 sales mark. No actual figure though. Oops I missed a bit, from next Thursday 'til October 6th the game will be $30. And from now on the game is cheaper, $40 £25 €40 and AU$60. It's a shame a game by a Polish dev is the same amount of Dollars as it is Euros, but that's because Atari suck.

Version 2.0

The reason they have created this Version 2.0 is because they want to make the game the best they possibly can. Included in this update are 40 new technical and gameplay enhancements; no word on anything more specific than this though. All 9 of the DLC pack previously released will be included in this version also, even though the included them all in the last patch they made.

Now the three biggest inclusions in this update are:

A new extensive tutorial. In which we are shown all of the games mechanics, with on screen prompts, and tasks created just precisely for, with this tutorial. And it actually has some light story elements to it, with the introduction to the arena (from what I could gather). The reason for this tutorial is the many complaints about how hard the opening chapter is and how poorly people felt the game's mechanics were shown too i.e. not at all.

Dark Mode. This is the game's new difficulty setting, with it sitting just below insane mode -- in that you can reload if you die. Also added in this mode are new armour sets and swords sets, three of each to be precise; so that's 3 silver swords, 3 steel swords, and a set of light, medium, and heavy armour respectively. These items will likely be the best in the game, and will help players against the increased difficulty, and I know we'll all be happy for that. This mode also comes with three new miniquests, as they call them, but there was no detail on these other than that they are new. The last thing to be said on this mode, is that the dark items, yeah they're cursed. Until you have the complete set, your health will drain every time you draw you sword; and whilst you have your sword drawn, the screen will go... darker. From what I could tell it seems like a bit of a gimmick, one close to the stupid jam smears of CoD, but maybe it'll be more refined when it's not being shown on a poor 360p stream. A big point for this mode: the first person to complete this mode will win a prize. (Bolded due to importance for skimmers)

Arena Mode. You can probably guess most of the details about this, and you're right, it's an arena mode: a mode where you fight off hordes of enemies, that are thrown at you in waves. The aim though, is to keep going, for as long as you can, until you die, and when you do die your score will be calculated and you can upload it to the official leadboards on their website, and -- shudder -- Facebook. Each round, the quicker you defeat the wave, the more points you will acquire; and you will be able to choose from three prizes each round. The audience will act dynamically to your actions: play poorly and take too long, they'll boo you and throw their shoes at you; play well though, and they'll cheer you and keep their shoes on. One thing unique to this mode, is the werewolf, a new adversary created specifically for this mode No real details were included though, but he has his own cage. Lastly, you can hire Mercenaries to help you with the fights, they come in various play styles I believe, with at least standard swordsman and sorceress (probably the only two styles, but there might be more).

All of these things will be added, for free, in a patch we can all download come the 29th of September (1 week from this post).

The Xbox 360 version

As we all know by now, they have also been coding away to create a Xbox 360 version of the game, due out Winter 2012 (Q1). Now this section of the conference was mostly just them narrating footage of the gameplay -- in which I found out that Geralt is a bad ass, and Iorveth is a really, really bad elf) which was actual 360 gameplay, but there were a few details. For example, this version will come with a 4 minute CG introduction at the beginning of the game, directed by none other than Tomasz Baginski. Yeah I dunno who he is either, but they assured me this was a good thing, and that he also did the intro and outro for the first game. There will be also be some other features to come with the Xbox version, but they didn't announce any past this. And for all of us who already bought the game on PC I am pretty sure we'll be getting them too, I know for a fact we'll get the intro.

Those are the facts anyway, now for the opinions: the game looked beautiful, obviously nowhere near as beautiful as the PC version, understandably, but still pretty beautiful -- it will probably take the title of the best looking 360 game for sure. They said that they managed to retain a lot of the graphical features from the PC version, including SSAO and dynamic shadows and lighting; but I must say the lighting didn't look nearly as good and didn't wow me at all like it did with the PC version, but the vegetation looks as alive as it does now, and the characters still look pretty detailed. One issue I did have though was the audio, and it may well have been because of the stream although it wasn't present when they showed footage from the PC version. It sounded echoey, and a bit like they'd recorded it in their bathroom (which led me to think it was the stream), but then we all know the sound will have to be heavily compressed, to fit on the 360's meagre 9GB DVDs, so I guess this is kind of a non-issue. And lastly, they showed us a cover art: Geralt in the middle of some scenery, but not scenerey at the same time. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it properly, but I can say I didn't really care for it, at least not compared to the cover art it already has.

Thank you for reading this, and if haven't already go buy the damn game, you won't regret it.

I thought I'd have the misfortune of working through it, but I managed to get the earlier shift so I could do some things before shops closed, and realised I'd be able to watch this, so I took notes and have now written them into coherent sentences, for all you that care.

GOG STUFF

Since it's inception is the Autumn of 2008, GOG.com has grown a substantial amount, with over 1,000,000 unique visitors a month and almost 400 DRM free games. Soon they'll have sold their 6,000,000th game, and when that happens, everyone who has previously purchased a game from them will be able to download Brokensword: Shadow of the Templars for free; for 48 hours after the 6,000,000th purchase. They'll announce when this happens via email and twitter. Also, the person who completes the 6,000,000th transaction, will win the entire back catalogue of games from GOG.com. Yes, all ~400 of them.

As we're coming up to their 2nd anniversary there will be a big sale on their most wanted games. Their most wanted games being the 9 D&D games: Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights, D&D Dragonshard, The Temple of Elemental Evil, and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone. The big sale gimmick with these is, the more you buy at once the more you get off. Starting at 20% and climbing to 60% off. So if you buy all 9 you get them for 40% of the price; and if you already own, for example, 4 and you want just one more you could get that at 40% off straight away. So if have paid any attention to Dave Snider, you'll know you will want to take advantage of this sale; and if I didn't already own them, I would too.

CD PROJEKT STUFF

I like that they called autumn autumn.

So far they have breached the 1,000,000 sales mark. No actual figure though. Oops I missed a bit, from next Thursday 'til October 6th the game will be $30. And from now on the game is cheaper, $40 £25 €40 and AU$60. It's a shame a game by a Polish dev is the same amount of Dollars as it is Euros, but that's because Atari suck.

Version 2.0

The reason they have created this Version 2.0 is because they want to make the game the best they possibly can. Included in this update are 40 new technical and gameplay enhancements; no word on anything more specific than this though. All 9 of the DLC pack previously released will be included in this version also, even though the included them all in the last patch they made.

Now the three biggest inclusions in this update are:

A new extensive tutorial. In which we are shown all of the games mechanics, with on screen prompts, and tasks created just precisely for, with this tutorial. And it actually has some light story elements to it, with the introduction to the arena (from what I could gather). The reason for this tutorial is the many complaints about how hard the opening chapter is and how poorly people felt the game's mechanics were shown too i.e. not at all.

Dark Mode. This is the game's new difficulty setting, with it sitting just below insane mode -- in that you can reload if you die. Also added in this mode are new armour sets and swords sets, three of each to be precise; so that's 3 silver swords, 3 steel swords, and a set of light, medium, and heavy armour respectively. These items will likely be the best in the game, and will help players against the increased difficulty, and I know we'll all be happy for that. This mode also comes with three new miniquests, as they call them, but there was no detail on these other than that they are new. The last thing to be said on this mode, is that the dark items, yeah they're cursed. Until you have the complete set, your health will drain every time you draw you sword; and whilst you have your sword drawn, the screen will go... darker. From what I could tell it seems like a bit of a gimmick, one close to the stupid jam smears of CoD, but maybe it'll be more refined when it's not being shown on a poor 360p stream. A big point for this mode: the first person to complete this mode will win a prize. (Bolded due to importance for skimmers)

Arena Mode. You can probably guess most of the details about this, and you're right, it's an arena mode: a mode where you fight off hordes of enemies, that are thrown at you in waves. The aim though, is to keep going, for as long as you can, until you die, and when you do die your score will be calculated and you can upload it to the official leadboards on their website, and -- shudder -- Facebook. Each round, the quicker you defeat the wave, the more points you will acquire; and you will be able to choose from three prizes each round. The audience will act dynamically to your actions: play poorly and take too long, they'll boo you and throw their shoes at you; play well though, and they'll cheer you and keep their shoes on. One thing unique to this mode, is the werewolf, a new adversary created specifically for this mode No real details were included though, but he has his own cage. Lastly, you can hire Mercenaries to help you with the fights, they come in various play styles I believe, with at least standard swordsman and sorceress (probably the only two styles, but there might be more).

All of these things will be added, for free, in a patch we can all download come the 29th of September (1 week from this post).

The Xbox 360 version

As we all know by now, they have also been coding away to create a Xbox 360 version of the game, due out Winter 2012 (Q1). Now this section of the conference was mostly just them narrating footage of the gameplay -- in which I found out that Geralt is a bad ass, and Iorveth is a really, really bad elf) which was actual 360 gameplay, but there were a few details. For example, this version will come with a 4 minute CG introduction at the beginning of the game, directed by none other than Tomasz Baginski. Yeah I dunno who he is either, but they assured me this was a good thing, and that he also did the intro and outro for the first game. There will be also be some other features to come with the Xbox version, but they didn't announce any past this. And for all of us who already bought the game on PC I am pretty sure we'll be getting them too, I know for a fact we'll get the intro.

Those are the facts anyway, now for the opinions: the game looked beautiful, obviously nowhere near as beautiful as the PC version, understandably, but still pretty beautiful -- it will probably take the title of the best looking 360 game for sure. They said that they managed to retain a lot of the graphical features from the PC version, including SSAO and dynamic shadows and lighting; but I must say the lighting didn't look nearly as good and didn't wow me at all like it did with the PC version, but the vegetation looks as alive as it does now, and the characters still look pretty detailed. One issue I did have though was the audio, and it may well have been because of the stream although it wasn't present when they showed footage from the PC version. It sounded echoey, and a bit like they'd recorded it in their bathroom (which led me to think it was the stream), but then we all know the sound will have to be heavily compressed, to fit on the 360's meagre 9GB DVDs, so I guess this is kind of a non-issue. And lastly, they showed us a cover art: Geralt in the middle of some scenery, but not scenerey at the same time. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it properly, but I can say I didn't really care for it, at least not compared to the cover art it already has.

Thank you for reading this, and if haven't already go buy the damn game, you won't regret it.

Looking forward to replaying this fantastic game in the near future. It has real replay value, really interested to see how the game changes when I totally make opposite choices.

@Sooty: Yeah I am also looking forward to siding with the other, well, side. I'd have done it by but I have tonnes of other games to play.

Looking forward to the Dark Mode. I like the whole Cursed items idea. Can't possibly wait for version 2.0.

Stoked about this. Thanks for posting.

I'm glad CDPR is continuing to add content. I'm looking forward to diving into The Witcher 2 again.

Oh I forgot to say, the game is now cheaper. $40 £25 €40 AU$60. And between next Thursday and the 6th of October the game will be $30 on GOG and then whatever that translates as in your own currency, they didn't specify, and GOG works in Dollars.