So im in this port town, and theese people are about to be hanged and the game forces me into a fist fight with a guard, but the problem is that I cant see any letters, well they appear for a millisecond or so, so im usually just standing there taking hits and dying, been doing this for an hour and a half.

so how do I slow the letters on the screen so they may appear for more then a millisecond, im playing on easy i believe.
been googling for awhile, i seem to be the only one having this problem.
I managed to survive the prison fist fight by rolling my head on the keyboard in the hopes of pressing all the buttons at once, thankfully that worked, but it isn't now.

my setup is:
intel core i5 2500
8gb ram
radeon 6950 graphics card
p67a mobo
and using windows 7 64 bit

something about disabling QTE (quick time events). if you have them disabled it wont show hints for certain things, (right mouse click to dodge the dragon, WASD for fist fights etc)

try checking your settings

Nope, still not working, im not seeing the letters im supposed to press, i managed to beat the guard, but then i had to fist fight with the executioner with 50% hp and i got owned :p

It's even worse for me. I finally figured out (after about 12 tries) how to play that stupid game but it doesn't matter; I knock out the hangman and then still get a blank screen with a reload.

This is arcade style foolishness that I do not like at all. I'm quitting for a few days to think about it. Right now, I'm very disappointed with it.

I found this fistfighting guide online
"During the short time when hints are displayed, you will be able to view the fight in slow motion. Failing to press the right key will result in being hit by the opponent, and multiple failures in losing the fight."

Im not going into slow motion when the key's appear :P
would explain why I cant see them at all :p

While I am really thoroughly enjoying this game...there are parts like that where I really start to miss TW1.

I found fist fighting really difficult at first but then I had a bit of a lightbulb moment about it.

I've got hard QTEs disabled btw so this may not apply if you have the higher difficulty ones switched on:

Stop trying to read the letters, just look at the person you're fighting. You can see the circles flash up as you are fighting - and the letters always appear in the same places, which correspond to the WASD key layout. So if you see a yellow circle flash to the left, hit A, to the right hit D, to the top, hit W, and centre bottom, hit S. Some moves require 2 buttons one after the other but the same applies.

Once I'd realised this and stopped trying to actually read the letters in the circles and concentrated on their position on the screen instead, it all became clear.

This last fist fight is the last straw. Fistfights weren't required in Witcher 1. It's way too annoying to find that "button-mashing" and "whack-a-button", the worst of console gaming, is impossible to avoid in Witcher 2! My Rating for this game is now 2.

I hope they release a patch to disable the "QTE's". Do nothing but break the flow and annoy the gamer. Mini-games and side quests is the place for that stuff.

if you play this game on a xbox 360 controller,
the fist fights are really easy, haven't lost a fight yet ;)

Agreed.
I think the controls are much easier with a 360 controller, not just for fistfights.

The only thing I don't like about using a controller is you can't use the mouse in the Inventory.

yeah totally agree with you there, and also picking up items haha i end up spamming the x button to pick it up

these QTEs are very esay, the QTE in the port town is the same in games like god of war, the trick is to not look for the letter but for the direction. you always have your left hand on your WASD, so when a letter appear on top it is always W, on left is A right D. etc...

Thank you all for the helpful posts -- I was ready to give up at the first fight scene with the two guards in prison that have weapons. I finally took out one of the guards which opened up the ability to have a regular fight scene as described in this thread. The hand to hand combat reminded me of the typing programs where the user is learning the qwerty keyboard -- I hadn't played that typing game in about 25 or more years, but I hadn't lost my touch.

I'm concerned that the official witcher 2 forum at thewitcher.com may routinely delete older posts, which defeats the purpose of having the forum serve as an archive for people like me who search Google looking for help months or years down the road. So I signed up for an account here and will not waste my time posting solutions elsewhere.

Thanks again -- greatly appreciated!

The ******** fist fights are the thing that made me throw this game out with the garbage, and give it a final rating of 2/10.

It's a crying shame, I was really enjoying my self up to this stupidity. Why-o-why did the dev's think that these fist fights would be a good idea? They must have been drunk at the time.

I was having difficulty with the fistfights too (on a pc), until I fell upon the same technique as Epona's above. Just put your fingers on WAD, look at the middle of the screen and let your periferal vision do the work. You won't really be able to watch the fight, you can't read the letters, but if something flashes on the left, hit A,. On the right, hit D. On top, hit W. On the bottom, move your finger down and hit S.

The letters always flash in the same place. It is fairly easy once you get the trick of it. I don't like it since I can't watch the fight graphics as once I start doing that, I miss the letters flashing. But at least I can get past that section.

Now I find fist fights a breeze. Arm wrestling on the other hand..........