I have played the game through 4 times so far and used as many options as i could to alter the outcome, but it seems to me there are only 2 endings, kill Letho or dont. Am i missing something?

There are many different ways of counting endings - one method comes up with around 168 endings if you look at all major political and life/death decisions. The count of 16 is based on CDPR's numbers and is probably/hopefully going to give variations in the start of the next game.

The :"16 endings" derive from four key decision points in the game. Three of them give different political endings for the Northern Kingdoms, the fourth isn't resolved within the game but has a significant potential impact.

If you look solely at political endings resolved within the game, there are actually 12 (14 if you imported from the first game), not 8.. The extra ones are fairly minor and CDPR is presumably going to ignore them.

They need to keep Geralt's personal ending fairly simple as there'll be a sequel.

What dragonbird said.

The way CDPR counted the 16 endings is by the 4 vital and binary decisions that give you different cinematics along the way. So:
Letting Arian live or kill him;
Choosing Roche or siding with Iorveth;
Who lives and who dies in chapter 2
Whom you rescue in chapter 3.

Each of those can have only two answers, so 16 combinations in general. But due to the lack of a narrated ending like in TW1 this is a bit more difficult to spot.

Thanks for your reply, I did kind of figure the "endings" really meant paths to certain solutions. but the endings are all only 2 choices, as i stated kill letho or don't, save Triss or don't, kill the dragon or don't. it all ends the same to me. only difference is who you walk through the gate with.

Well I'm quietly hoping maybe the "narrated ending" thing with 16 different stories will come with the XboX version. They've already promised to release all additional XboX stuff for the PC version for free :-)

It's already narrated (for the 8 resolved endings) in the Summit at Loc Muinne.
The Aryan decision is probably going to have an impact in the next game.

If you need to know what they are, I'd happily list the impact of each (yes, I've played them) . Is there any way of doing spoiler tags in this forum?

Dunno about the spoiler thing but you could just type that out in bold letters, or just PM them

SPOILER WARNING



Temeria:
If you rescue Anais, she will be "intended queen" with someone, either Radovid or Natalis, as regent. The exact status will vary depending on the decision you take after rescuing her, and on whether or not Adda is alive. If you rescue Triss, and Henselt is alive, he and Radovid will partition Temeria. If you rescue Triss and Henselt is dead, it will be in a state of chaos. If you took Iorveth path, it will always be partitioned between Henselt and Radovid.

Kaedwen:
If you kill Henselt, it will be in a state of chaos. Otherwise, it will be OK.

Aedirn (excluding Upper Pontar):
On Roche path, Stennis is always dead. If Henselt is alive, Aedirn will surrender to him, otherwise it will be in chaos. On Iorveth path, it will either be ruled by Stennis or, if Stennis dead, will be in chaos.

Upper Pontar:
On Roche path, if Henselt is alive, he will control it. Otherwise, the state is unknown - it was conquered, but with Henselt dead, we don't know what happens. On Iorveth path, Saskia will rule it if she's alive (even if still controlled by Philippa). Otherwise, again, the status is unclear - it is free, but has no ruler.

Council of Mages:
Simple one - if you rescue Triss, it's formed, otherwise there's a pogrom against mages and sorceresses.

There are a total of 8 combinations of these, if you don't count the minor variations for your decision on Anais, and what happens to Saskia if you rescue Triss on Iorveth path. The Aryan decision doubles the count, but isn'[t resolved.

Heh, Thanks for that,
Actually to some extent i think that is not a spoiler... more of information you should have available to you before making your choices lol. funny thing is playing it through 4 times trying to make all different choices i have encountered most of those results already :)

Yes, if you've done the four main playthroughs, i.e. the path and rescue choices, you've probably encountered them all as individual results, so you can probably work out the rest of them from that. It's only first-time players who are going to see spoilers (Whaddaya mean "Henselt dead"?).

Incidentally, even if Iorveth or Roche walk out the door with you, I think that they go their own separate ways afterwards - Roche to guard Anais, or Iorveth back to Vergen. So there's really only one personal outcome for Geralt. Going with Triss to find Yennefer and solve the mystery of the Wild Hunt.

In reality as for actual quests and things you do in game there are 4 play throughs. two for chapter 2 and then 2 more for chapter 3.

The 16 endings don't impact much of what you do in this game but might impact future games or expansions.