Nice game, with some concerns...

First, the context from which this reviews originates. I’m not a gamer. I occasionally dabble with smaller games as time wasters, but I’m not a guy who “games” or has ever owned a “gaming system”. I downloaded this looking for a guilty pleasure that I seldom indulge in.

I’m running this on the latest version MBPr 15” (Haswell), with the fastest CPU option. The rest of the late 2013 MBPr 15” stats are standard for the model (16GB RAM, nVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, tons of SSD space).

For the game itself (plot, characters, graphic presentation), I would give 4 or 5 stars.

The 2 issues I have with the game involve the execution of the software….

1) The entire time I played this (on medium settings, as I have seen that many other users tend to go that way), my MBP’s fan was running at what sounded like full speed (or close to it), and the rear left part of the case ran hot enough that it periodically became uncomfortable enough for my knee to make me move the machine.

I don’t know if this machine was meant to operate at these temperatures for this length of time. I would guess that it’s putting quite a strain on it, and if I kept this up for very long, might limit the life of my laptop’s components.

As my laptop satisfies the requirements listed by the publisher for game play, I don’t know why this game can’t be designed to run more reasonably on the host machine.

2) I see I need to update the app again this morning. I’ve had the app for 2-3 days, and already had to update it once since the original download. These guys don’t do patches - every update is a 20GB+ download!! That’s ridiculous.

So, in summary, I think this game is best for desktop “gaming” systems. If you’ve a laptop, even the highest-end one available, there will be some annoyances, one of which will possibly limit the life of your machine (and, unlike desktop systems, the new MBPr’s are designed to be completely un user fixable - everything’s crammed into a completely sealed ecosystem, so repair is an obligatory send-in, and probably very expensive if not deemed a warrantable item).

*** UPDATE ***

So, again I’m being prompted to update my version of Witcher 2. And now I realize the App Store wants to update me from version 1.01….to 1.01…..at the time cost of a 21GB download. Clearly the version update feature here is broken. App Store directs you to the software maker for support. The software maker allows you to post on a user support forum, but there is no way to directly contact them evident on the support website.

Take off a star for frustrating support experience…..

jrmyeh about The Witcher 2