The Witcher: Enhanced Edition has been released on Steam, and for the next few days it's 30% off. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should go for this.
My concern is twofold:
1. The Witcher is known for its "mature content." I'm not an enormous fan of gratuitous sex or especially bloody violence, and do not consider those things "perks" in a game. Then again, I am a fan of good stories and good RPG gameplay, and if those are present in enough force, then I'm willing to ignore or forgive a lot of things.
2. My computer has a video card that was never intended for gaming, one of those Embedded Intel Chipsets. It's not actually a bad videocard, and I CAN play *some* graphically advanced games with it (Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Jade Empire, Halo 2)... but there's lag, even at the lowest settings. There's always lag, and the lag gets magnified with each additional moving figure or special effect on the screen. At a glance, it doesn't look like The Witcher is much more than my computer is capable of handling, especially if I don't have to worry about a disk, but I wish I knew how bad the lag would be, and if it would severely hamper my gameplay experience...

1. The US version is slightly censored, and you don't have to download the free DLC Steam has provided to make more nudity.
2. I'd run a benchmark to see how your computer fares with the title, on a site like yougamers.com.

1. The blood/gore in The Witcher really isn't any more gratuitous than that found in most games. The "sex" basically consists of seeing a card, which several of those "encounters" being avoidable. There's really very little to it.
2. This could be a problem; though I really don't know how The Witcher compares in that regard to Oblivion or Halo 2. I imagine it's higher end than Jade Empire.
Since The Witcher is considered one of the better RPG's of the last several years, and I've enjoyed playing it (the combat took some getting used to), I would certainly recommend that people play the game. Your integrated chipset concerns me, however.

To address both points, I'd simply recommend you try the demo. The sexual content is more suggested than anything. The violence isn't exactly extreme but there certainly are more mild games out there.

"This offer is not available in your region"
NNOOOooooooo!
Oh well, I'll get my hands on it eventually.

Not anymore. The version now on Steam (and the reason for the discount) is the EE DC version which replaces the censored content with the original uncensored content -- so it's now the same as that sold in Europe.

It would be quite fitting that it winds up on here in a year or two.

...There's a demo? What an extremely useful tool...
Thanks for the advice, all. I'll give the demo a shot, and give this issue a little more thought.

http://www.gamershell.com/download_22384.shtml
It's a pretty decent size too. If I remember rightly you get the prologue and some of the first chapter. Enough to base an opinion on at any rate.

My personal opinion is that the mature content in the Witcher is an integral part of the character and setting - of the very things that make it unique. When I played, it never felt "forced", but rather a intrinsic part of the whole experience.

Yeah, I don't see many problems for them there. They don't own the Witcher license, but they're in a good position to keep hold of their right to use it.
I agree. Furthermore, the boxed copy of the Enhanced Edition is so stuffed with extras it makes it even better value. You can't go wrong even at full price.

Its built into the game, that's why its called the DC edition now.

It''s a cool game. It came out around the same time as Mask of the Betrayer, which is a superior game in many ways, but it has its strenghts.
As others already pointed out, the violence aspect isn't overly gratuitous, but it isn't a game aimed for kids. As for the sex, most of the encounters are a bit juvenile but unless you're a politically correct feminist, you should find it at worst adolescent but not important enough to kill your enjoyment because the game is much more than that. It should be mentionned that while most of the time it's some kind of card collection side-quest done purely for fun, a few women will try to sleep with you in order to rally you to their cause. Sex isn't often represented that way in video games, and that's a much more mature use that I wish I could see more often.

Bah, I've tried it, and couldn't get past the opening fight sequence. Even with the graphics turned down as low as possible, the lag is intolerable... Well, at least I tried.