I started my insane run but died (epic fail i know) in the prologue where the dragon attacks and you take cover in the hordings or whatever they are called. From the fires geez!.

Im used to play at maxed diff every game so far but because of work i play pretty late around 00:00 and 02:00 and been a little tired doesnt help.Mistakes happens and Insane i admit is too much for me cause of the perma thing.

So there is a way to play at max difficulty but without the perma death thing?

PS:Im not complain about the permadeath thing really.If there is no other way to max diff then i will keep playing on Hard.....me sad panda....:(

Yes, Hard is basically Insane, but without the perma-death penalty.

The two modes are identical in everything else. I would only run insane after finishing the game at least once to enjoy the story, and to get familiar with all of its mechanics.

My suggestion is that you start an Insane run with that part so you get it out of the way if you survive and then go back to the other parts of the Prologue.

I think Insane is harder than Hard. I only play Insane now, after a couple of runs in Hard. Mouse over the difficulty selection options when starting a New Game. It says it there.

I remember an interview with Tomasz Gop in which he said that Insane is not just Hard+permadeath, but that enemies use some new special tactics on Insane that they don't use on the lower settings. Can't tell myself though, I finished the game 4 times on Hard now and I'm waiting for some patches before doing it again.

Not officially, but you can always mod your game. I just stumbled over this: http://www.witchernexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=112

There's an insane save restore tool, made by a user named Demoniko.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/insane_mode_complete_saves_marked_dead/page1

Is there an Insane mode character build guide? I really wanna try it, but Act 1 Letho always kills me 5-6 times before I beat him.

Permadeath seems a little bit excessive forcing a full restart. It should have at least maybe like 5 checkpoints in the game total

Only play Hardcore mode if you're a Hardcore gamer, I'd say. It is not excessive when it makes you try so hard to stay alive that you may eventually actually stay alive and beat the game. There's no better feeling than that! Checkpoints would ruin it, making you accept death "under some circustances" because you can avoid the price.

You don't challenge someone with a gun to your head to shoot you, unless you're absolutely sure that the gun is empty!