I’ve played the original Witcher for about 12 hours. For some reason I never came back to it but I enjoyed what I played. In those opening hours of this massive game, it was pretty apparent it was very much a PC RPG through and through. So there are many wondering how The Witcher 2 will fair on consoles, and find out what is in store for PC users.
The presentation was split up into parts. The first tackled with the enhancements to the PC version of the game, dubbed The Witcher 2 version 2.0. A new and more extensive tutorial mode has been added which will help new players to get the grips of The Witcher’s complex systems and overcome the brutal opening hours. Along with this they have added a new difficulty mode called “Dark mode” which is nearly as difficult as insane but will allow players to save their game. In this mode you also have access to 18 new items, a new dark armour, swords and other dark elements/themes which they haven’t gone into specifics yet. The biggest new enhancement to The Witcher Version 2 Part 2 is the Arena mode, a horde style game where you face waves of enemies which will get progressively harder, you earn awards which can be used to upgrade equipment and a shop offering gear and enhancements. This mode also has a new type of enemy, a werewolf and you can be accompanied by 3 new characters, a mage, knight and a dwarven fighter. Scores can be compared to friends and can be posted on Facebook and The Witcher forums. This upgrade will be free available on for new and existing users, it also come with all 9 previous DLC packs and patches. The Witcher 2 Version 2 Episode 2 will be coming out on the 29th September.
The other part of the presentation sheds more light on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Along with a trailer we got to see live gameplay of the game running on the console. They were constantly mentioning how beautiful and stunning the game looks and I can’t help but agree. Sure you weren’t going to get the same textural detail as the PC but this still looks impressive with no noticeable frame rate issues and is still densely detailed. The engine being used is Projekt RED’s own RED engine which has been optimised for use on PC and 360. They claim that the 360 version will look just as good as the game does on medium settings on PC.
How the game plays wasn’t shown in great detail. The demonstration was mainly shown to show off how the game looks. But from what I would gather it’s similar to the way Dragon Age 2 works on consoles only without the squad style tactical combat. Magic spells can be changed by holding down a button and moving the analog stick to pick it. The userface has been redesigned to better suit consoles and the targeting system has been modified. The controls will also be different and improved from using an xbox pad on the PC version. As a nice bonus all features from Version 2.0 will be in this. As of now it is coming along nicely the game looking amazing easily currently one of the best looking titles on the 360 and is something to look out for if you want to experience The Witcher and don’t have a PC able to run it. Expect The Witcher 2 in 2012.
