Infor for Steam W2 users...
The following is a cut & paste of mine from the Steam forums. Hopefully, this information will help some other Steam users with Witcher 2 patching to 2.0 and W2 hanging at the wolf's head loading icon:
Here's what I noticed when W2 1.3.5 started hanging at the wolf's head. I'm on a wireless connection to the Internet (Win7 x64) and when my box failed to contact Steam even though my windows connectivity systray icon indicated that I *should be connecting* (white bars), I really wasn't connected to the Internet and Steam would get confused (I'm guessing) and simply hang. Sometimes Windows does this with wireless I've noticed--you'll get the white bar icon in the systray indicating that you are connected when you are not, and you'll sometimes get the white bar/yellow triangle icon indicating you are not connected when you actually are connected. Definitely a Win7 bugaboo.
Anyway, I noticed that when the game would hang at the wolf's head, if I manually *disconnected* my wireless source from the SSID window *then* the game would run in offline mode! But the game would hang if I wasn't connected but the systray icon indicated that I *should be* connected. Confusing, eh? Not really, if you think about it. By disconnecting from the systray SSID menu all confusion was eliminated and Steam *knew* I was disconnected and offered me the chance to run in offline mode. I think Steam hangs at the wolf's head simply because it doesn't know whether to offer me offline mode or whether to contact the steam servers normally--Steam gets stuck in the middle, literally.
Anyway--this is the only time the game hangs for me at the wolf's head, as many of you have described. And that's how it was fixed in my case. To recap: If the windows Internet connectivity icon in the systray is white bars *and* I am actually connected then the game will contact the Steam servers and run online. If I disconnect from my wireless SSID source then Steam will offer me the chance to run in offline mode. If, however, windows indicates I am wirelessly connected to the Internet when I am not--W2 will hang at the wolf's head load icon. This happens the same way, every time, in my system. Maybe this info can help someone else.
OK, my problem has not been playing the game full screen--I can play at 1920x1080 all day full screen--my monitor's native res. My problem has been *getting the 2.0 patch.* For the last couple of days Steam keeps on running the game at 1.3.5 and simply refuses to update.
As per an earlier poster's suggestion, I went into steam and added the letters OFF to the file extensions of the two .blob files (changed them to .blobOFF and ran W2 Steam online again--and it rebuilt my .blobs *and* is now installing the 2.0 patch! So, I couldn't install the patch because my .blob files were messed up for some reason and apparently were telling Steam that my W2 copy was already updated enough...
I'd say that Valve has some work to do with Steam.
The following is a cut & paste of mine from the Steam forums. Hopefully, this information will help some other Steam users with Witcher 2 patching to 2.0 and W2 hanging at the wolf's head loading icon:
Here's what I noticed when W2 1.3.5 started hanging at the wolf's head. I'm on a wireless connection to the Internet (Win7 x64) and when my box failed to contact Steam even though my windows connectivity systray icon indicated that I *should be connecting* (white bars), I really wasn't connected to the Internet and Steam would get confused (I'm guessing) and simply hang. Sometimes Windows does this with wireless I've noticed--you'll get the white bar icon in the systray indicating that you are connected when you are not, and you'll sometimes get the white bar/yellow triangle icon indicating you are not connected when you actually are connected. Definitely a Win7 bugaboo.
Anyway, I noticed that when the game would hang at the wolf's head, if I manually *disconnected* my wireless source from the SSID window *then* the game would run in offline mode! But the game would hang if I wasn't connected but the systray icon indicated that I *should be* connected. Confusing, eh? Not really, if you think about it. By disconnecting from the systray SSID menu all confusion was eliminated and Steam *knew* I was disconnected and offered me the chance to run in offline mode. I think Steam hangs at the wolf's head simply because it doesn't know whether to offer me offline mode or whether to contact the steam servers normally--Steam gets stuck in the middle, literally.
Anyway--this is the only time the game hangs for me at the wolf's head, as many of you have described. And that's how it was fixed in my case. To recap: If the windows Internet connectivity icon in the systray is white bars *and* I am actually connected then the game will contact the Steam servers and run online. If I disconnect from my wireless SSID source then Steam will offer me the chance to run in offline mode. If, however, windows indicates I am wirelessly connected to the Internet when I am not--W2 will hang at the wolf's head load icon. This happens the same way, every time, in my system. Maybe this info can help someone else.
OK, my problem has not been playing the game full screen--I can play at 1920x1080 all day full screen--my monitor's native res. My problem has been *getting the 2.0 patch.* For the last couple of days Steam keeps on running the game at 1.3.5 and simply refuses to update.
As per an earlier poster's suggestion, I went into steam and added the letters OFF to the file extensions of the two .blob files (changed them to .blobOFF and ran W2 Steam online again--and it rebuilt my .blobs *and* is now installing the 2.0 patch! So, I couldn't install the patch because my .blob files were messed up for some reason and apparently were telling Steam that my W2 copy was already updated enough...
I'd say that Valve has some work to do with Steam.