Another look: The Witcher 3 next-gen without next-gen hardware

And this means that after the arrival of the long-awaited next-gen update, just I can’t take full advantage of all the graphical and technical improvements that the update brings.whether it’s ray tracing or maybe DLSS 3. Convinced that it’s not just the best reflections of the water surface, I nevertheless completely immersed myself in Geralt of Rivia’s latest gaming adventure to at least find out what kind of experience now awaits players who also don’t have the latest hardware or next-gen consoles. And while there’s been quite a bit of negative feedback since the release of the update, I can honestly say that I’m not disappointed at all.

However, I can not say that everything went without problems. For example, the GOG Galaxy client did not offer me an update to the original version of the game, complete with all the free add-ons and both expansions (to which I remain loyal, despite the existence of a separate and slightly more complete edition of “Game of the Year”). ) firstly. So it only remained to first check the integrity of the game files, so that the download finally began. However, not only title updates that had been installed for years began to be downloaded, but the entire game was less than 50 GB in size..

However, once I got through the download and figured out restarting most of the settings due to a lot of changes and switching the game to English, nothing stopped me from playing. I didn’t even run into any startup errors due to the fact that I’m using graphics card drivers that are about half a year old.which I intentionally left outdated to see how finicky The Witcher 3 is with controllers.

After that, everything went like clockwork. Old saved position loads without a hitch, and so I successfully picked up all Western White Tiger Armor and the Nine-Tailed Fox Sword, inspired by the newly added Korean and Chinese localizations, directly from Yennefer’s chest in Vizim Imperial Palace. At that moment, I was also pleased to find that she was as reliable as ever. Yennefer left a letter in the chest explaining the existence of the new equipment., although its origin is, of course, shrouded in mystery. I also found a thousand flower armor and the Dol Blathanna sword in the chest, which you get if you log in with your GOG account. Cyberpunk 2077 also offered similar rewards upon its release in late 2020.

I could already observe during the first steps leading to the collection of all equipment significantly better game performance while maintaining higher graphics settings, which appears to be due to the addition of FSR 2.1 support. from AMD. Not for a moment did I record a drop below 60 fps, and even all indications are that The Witcher 3 is now less demanding on hardware thanks to FSR.which owners of old cars will certainly appreciate. In places where until now the high graphics settings of The Witcher 3 caused sounds reminiscent of the launch of a spaceship in the depths of an insufficiently cooled PC, it suddenly becomes quiet, like in the grave of that vampire from Novigrad, who, having opened the sarcophagus, asks if the year is already 1358. Only to get disparaging answers sent Geralt in the ass.

In the same time even without active ray tracing, it’s not difficult to notice the improvement in graphics, which seems to have been mostly taken care of by implementing various community modifications. Many character or object models and textures now have a much better impression, and there has been a visible improvement in the handling of vegetation, weather, or skies. And I don’t get the impression for a second that CD Projekt RED has forgotten about players who can’t afford the latest hardware, so they’d like to keep playing the Witcher 3 they’ve had so far.

A good impression of the visuals and performance of the game has not changed even when passing a new task, at the end of which you will find reward in the form of drawings of witcher armor worn by Henry Cavill as Geralt in the first series Witcher from Netflix. And if you put in the effort to get all the ingredients, you can upgrade it to Grandmaster level, which for a change is almost like Geralt’s Batman armor from Season 2.

While both Netflix-inspired armors are better than I originally expected, I think the task itself is worth more attention, as it is not just a snack for a few minutes. It has just about everything that a real Witcher 3 quest should have, whether it’s an interesting plot, decision-making, a quirky setting, or a well-thought-out script. I don’t want to reveal too much here, but perhaps I can say that the Devil’s Pit location in Velen has finally found its worthy use and that the quest and subsequent collection task more than satisfactorily explains where the different design armor came from with a completely different wolf medallion.

The developers at CD Projekt RED definitely deserve credit for really trying to come up with an explanation for where the objects came from, which might seem a bit out of place in the world of The Witcher 3. Unfortunately (or maybe God) we didn’t get an explanation, why nilfgaardian soldiers look like clowns at best and complete morons at worst after enabling a certain option in the game settings.

Yes, I’m talking about the newly added Nilfgaardian soldier alternate skin based on the first season of the Netflix series and the terrifying design that most closely resembles certain sensitive parts of the male body. And still is a laughingstock for many fans. Fortunately, this is really an optional thing that you can turn on and off in the settings as you like, so it’s easy to pretend that nothing like this enriched The Witcher 3. The same can be said for Daisy’s alternate look, which I don’t think is the best either.

In any case, my activity after downloading the next-gen update meant I had a full inventory of new hardware, so it was time to use that to properly test fresh photo mode. I’m certainly glad that CD Projekt RED added it and that we no longer have to rely on the capabilities of Nvidia’s now forgotten Ansel system, but I must say that the photo mode disappointed me a little. Compared to other games, including Cyberpunk 2077, it offers fewer features. and some of them I find almost useless. This is especially true of the depth of field setting, which seems to me somewhat disturbed.

However, I tried to create something in photo mode. You can see the results right in this article while when creating screenshots, I mainly focused on new game content. You can also notice a small flaw in the form of black bars at the bottom and top of the screen. It looks like CD Projekt RED didn’t expect anyone else to be able to use 16:10 resolution, and no amount of fiddling with resolution and graphics settings has changed the situation.

But I can forgive the creators of this, because they finally heard the calls of many players and finally added new travel point in Vranohrad in Velen. So if you want to visit, for example, a local pair of blacksmiths, you no longer have to run tediously from the lower gate to the top of the hill every time. While it’s true that all this running around would at least give a ton of opportunities to test out an alternate camera setup that’s now much closer to Geralt during any move, fight or ride.