TW2 Playthrough: Technical difficulties

Hours In: 1 
Character Level: 1
My Score: 85 (no change)
Metacritic Score: 94
Player Score: 90 (-1)

What a battle! And no, I'm not talking about the opening sequence of The Witcher 2 (though that's pretty good too). I'm talking about my efforts to get the game running properly on my low-end system.

Initially the biggest issue was mouse lag, which simply made selecting anything annoying. I followed the advice of an anonymous reader out there and disabled Vertical Sync. That seems to have helped (thanks for that, Anonymous).

Now the only obvious glitch is that character lip-flapping is out of sync with dialogue. Plus there are some awkward pauses in conversation that don't seem to be intentional. Overall, not a big deal.

The real problem is combat. Specifically, I don't get the sense that I have much control over what happens in battle. I just mash buttons as Geralt spins out of control while getting stabbed from all directions. I'm not sure how much of this is due to lag based on technical issues with my system (and/or problems with NVIDIA cards that have been reported), how much is my own lack of skill, and how much is due to the funkiness of combat system itself. Whatever the case, I'm going to have to figure something out if I'm going to continue.

And I really would like to continue. I joked about the opening battle, but seriously, it's impressive. There's a level of authenticity to it - from the simple ways the soldiers interact to the towering siege weapons - that's unprecedented in RPGs. It makes Dragon Age 2's Battle of Ostagar look like a minor skirmish.