The Witcher 3 Has No Fast Travel Load Screens On Xbox Series X

With the Xbox Series X launch line-up looking pretty thin, much of the appeal for new console owners will come from revisiting older titles and seeing how the new system's features enhances them. Now, thanks to one streamer's video of The Witcher 3 running on a Series X, we can check out the advantages of super-boosted loading times. (You can also read our Xbox Series X review right now for a more in-depth analysis. Our Xbox Series S review is on the way.)

YouTuber rubhen925 has shared nearly two hours of footage, showing the The Witcher 3 running on the Xbox Series X. While the full video is worth a watch, the most exciting part, funnily enough, comes when fast travel is used. The GIF from the video below happens just past the 1 hour 14 minute mark in the video, and it shows what happens when you fast travel. There's no loading screen now--in fact, the environment loads in so fast that it kind of looks like a glitch.

It's a bit uglier than a loading screen, perhaps, but it's much more convenient.

We saw a similarly impressive change in Demon's Souls on PS5, which lets you shift between areas with almost no wait, eliminating the game's loading screens. Unlike The Witcher 3, the Demon's Souls remake was made from the ground-up for PS5. It's expected that next-gen games will, generally speaking, feature very short loading times.

The Witcher 3 is coming to Xbox Series X and PS5 with an improved next-gen edition. It'll feature ray tracing for the first time, and will be available as a free upgrade for owners of the game on a previous system within the same console family.

The Witcher 3 is one of the highlights of the PS4/Xbox One console generation, earning a rare 10/10 from GameSpot.

Developer CD Projekt Red's next game is Cyberpunk 2077, which was recently delayed into December thanks to some issues with the PS4/Xbox One builds. The Witcher fans will also have to hope the show's second season arrives on time, as its production is currently shut down due to a COVID infection. It's the second time it has happened since the pandemic started.