I don't know if anyone (official) has said anything about finishing moves yet, as in how they'll work..

And if no one has confirmed anything yet, how would you want it to be?

There surely must be stealthy and combat finishers, but would you want it so that you can choose to use a finisher or not?

Would there be button combos? (God I hope not)

Will stealth finishers would it kill them in one hit?

Would it be better to have the finishers work like in Assassins Creed where you parry off an attack and follow through with a killing blow?

Or any other ideas toward how this system might work..

I think they have to have enough HP left so that it will kill them and it has to be a power attack. I know I heard this in one of the many articles that came out during the demo a few weeks ago but I don't remember which.

A finishing move replaces the last time you hit an enemy before he dies. Otherwise the combat is just like Oblivion.

Wow. I thought this thread was going to be about something else entirely.

I imagine Finishers are going to be what happens when you score a critical hit on the enemy, and it winds up killing them.

This is basically what Todd has said. They happen at random, sometimes replacing your final strike with a finisher animation.

Its not going to be like Oblivion at all. Combat is being completely revamped. No more wild swinging, no more back-pedaling faster than enemies can run forward. No more pin cushion. No more holding block. Its going to be way better than Oblivion.

You also can't cast magic if both hands are taken by weapons.

But now you can simultaneously use a weapon and a spell, or even two spells at once. It just sounds so awesome to be able to wail on an enemy's face, while using an Area of Effect fire spell to keep yourself from getting flanked. Where as in Oblivion, you had to wait through the brief animation before you could take any action again.

Finishers are going to be a nice and refreshing mechanic to melee combat. However, wouldn't it be better if finishing moves could work on more than just one enemy at a time? The Witcher 2 will have up to a three person finisher if the player sets up the battle properly, and gets the proper skills in the Sword Tree. This is merely a suggestion, but having more variety instead of just one enemy finishers would keep the mechanic fresh and exciting every time.

Do you think if we're dual wielding weapons and we hold both attack buttons down, we'll do a power move with each weapon?

Finishers are dependant upon the PC's weapon and the enemy he is fighting. i.e. different finisher for each weapon on each enemy. (ex. longsword finisher on a bandit will be different from the longsword finisher on a wolf)

i want to impale someone on a polearm like dracula BLAH i want to svck your bloood

You in no way actually addressed my post, and I'm quite aware of how finishers will work as I have a copy of the Skyrim GI exclusive. What I am referring to is having finisher moves that involve more than just one enemy. Just check out the latest combat video of The Witcher 2, and you will see what I mean by multi-person finisher moves. I think it's a legitimate idea BGS could look at, as it would make finishers more exciting than just activating on one opponent at a time.

No offense intended, I was just addressing the part where you said that it would add more variety in an attempt to express my hopes that there will already be a variety of finishers. Not bashing on or trying to correct you or anything.

If it's not something already implemented they probably aren't going to rework the combat system. In the new German video interview, Todd says that with the amount of stuff their games do, they accept some games will do certain things better.

No problem. I probably should have re-worded my previous post more appropriately. In terms of variety, I meant interactions with various enemies. From what we know of finishing moves, yes the weapon and enemy will affect how they animate, but they only seem to work on one opponent at a time. I would just like for that to be expanded to more than one. Obviously, that would require more extensive animation work and what not, but it would really make the system unique.

@Dragonborn1- Perhaps. I just think it would be a nice addition to the already great addition of finishing moves, which will definitely be fun.

While that would be extremely awesome, I would be worried that the animations would open you up for a hit from an enemy that you weren't currently dispatching, assuming you wouldn't have any control over your character during said animations.

BGS could probably limit the 3-person finisher to only happen when there are only three actual enemies left. Or they could just prevent any other enemies from attacking, but that wouldn't be as effective in my opinion.

I think it would be fine if it was only possible with three hostile NPCs left. But circumstances would have to be just right. All three would have to be on their last bit of health, close enough to each other, and attacked with a power attack. This way, over-use of the finisher would be avoided, and the feeling of awe wouldn't be lost as quickly.