I just bought the Witcher II but my wife read some good reviews and decided that she wanted to watch... Fifteen minutes into the game, she asked that we play the original Witcher. No problem, I say, fish out my old copy, and install it.

Well, I cannot register the game. Whether I use my old account, or whether I try to create a new one, I get "Cannot connect to the server". I cannot get on the Witcher forums, I cannot install the patches, and of course, I cannot run the unpatched game either, because I have Windows 7, and it is not fond of whatever DRM driver the game game with, back in 2008.

What is really frustrating is that I have replayed the WItcher three times - 2008, 2009 (EE), 2010 (1.5) and I do not remember having problems at any point. Is seems to me that something is down at CD Project's end.

Any advice?

I wouldn't say the boxed version is "tricky" or "hard" to install. It's really easy. Just install it (also use Windows 7). That's it. Updating will still be as hard as the GoG version since both can't access the registrationservers.

Right?

GOG version is fully updated already.

I'm cautious about installs...scouring the forums, it was advised to go through a fairly tedious process when installing on Win7. Between that and patches and the bonuses here, I'd rather just pay the five bucks, but that's me.

I don't know about the disc retail version - but the Enhanced Edition from Direct2Drive was a straightforward install for me on Windows 7. If people have UAC enabled then they may have to run the installer as Administrator, but installing outside of Program Files will tend to negate most issues.

I managed to get all of the patches when I first purchased The Witcher 1 quite a while ago - I am surprised that the official forums are still down/having issues, it has been a while since TW2 launched and I would think a priority would be getting those information portals back up.

@ The OP - did you try the link supplied by chautemoc? Does it work?

If the official DL site page is down here is a link to Fileplanet's Witcher patch downloads page: http://www.fileplanet.com/107955/0/0/0/1/section/Patches

I think you will need the Enhanced Edition Ultimate patch (and/or the 1.5 patch) at the minimum. Patch 1.5 is the one that removes DRM from the game and I am unsure as to whether the Enhanced Edition does that [I am thinking it does not as my D2D copy still had DRM until I installed the 1.5 and then the Directors Cut].

The link above also has a download for the Directors Cut - which finishes up the fixes/updates and removes censorship.

As a side note: Fileplanet no longer requires user registration to download their files [from public servers at least].

> @ The OP - did you try the link supplied by chautemoc? Does it work?

Yes, the link works, but the patches require registration, which requires servers that are down. I'll just have to wait 'till CD Project get their act together. Annoying, but not the end of the world.

They require registration to download? Or to install? I don't remember my patches requiring log in information. I know I had to register to download them in the first place, but I think that was the limit [I could be remembering wrong though].

The Fileplanet links do not require registration w/ CD Projekt to download.

To install. The other one would not have been a problem.