PC Masterpiece, The Witcher 2, Revisited in 2020; Digital Foundry.

Coincidentally I finished The Witcher 2 last night and was impressed by it all over again because the game was ahead of its time. Then I opened Youtube and came across this recent video by digital foundry on this timeless masterpiece. Much to learn from the video!

That's the power of a proper pc exclusive. Witcher 2 was robbed.

Biggest issue the game had was how it worked with CPU solutions. U need at minimum a 9000 series intel CPU currently to even run ubersampling at rock solid 60 fps at this day of age because of it. He's wrong about ubersampling only increasing resolution tho.

Game was a looker for sure.

Enjoyed Witcher 2 barring those bizarre shitty out of place stealth sections.

Visually yea, still holds up well, esp with mods.

Couldn’t finish the game. I don’t like geralt from the games.

probably best witcher game. not saying much because original was terrible and 3 is boring open world game.

I enjoyed the game but videos like these are just cringe.

One of the more immersive stories I've played. Should probably replay it at some point; I like The Witcher franchise, but I've spent a couple hundred hours with The Witcher 3 and not so much with Witcher 2.

Loved TW2 but 3 was superior.

Witcher 2 was alright but Witcher 3 is still superior in every step of the way.

Witcher 1 and 2 had a much better character building system than Witcher3. You could be full mage or full alchemist bomb dude, on any fight unlike Witcher 3 where many bosses and npcs are immune and full Swords just is 10x better.

But Witcher 3 did everything else far better, so it's the better game by far.

Yep, that's why AAA PC exclusives are always ahead of there time it's a damn travesty that they don't exist anymore those where the golden years of PC gaming.

Total War will melt Console CPUs.

You're right. Overall TW3 is better than 2. And 2 is better than 1. But all of em are still worth playing. I'm going through whole trilogy again. After TW1 and 2. Now gonna start my walkthrough of TW3. All of em deal with different subjects. First one is about detective work. Second about politics. Third is personal journey and tying up loose ends, so you can live in peace with family. Great trilogy.

To be fair, The Witcher 2 was better than alright. Are you saying it's alright only compared to The Witcher 3? Lol

I mean, really, it's kind of amazing what they've done. Look at Gears, it's been almost literally the same since the first game, and I'd say for the most part, many people agree that the Gears games aren't much better than the previous iterations, maybe a tiny bit better, but not like day and night that CD Projekt managed to do with Witcher.

It's a testament to how good of dev they are, to ramp up game production and have it be so much more incredible than every previous game. That's why I'm so excited for Cyberpunk. They seem to learn so many things with each new game they create.

Technical marvel that it is, much like the third game the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, albeit the third game is at least closer to being good, and not straight trash like the first game or just lousy like the second.

I dig the characters, music, n moment to moment writing of cdpr stuff enough tho, so I’m happy they are stepping away from melee combat, since the lion share of western game development is fucking garbage at it.

A more deus exish type game should better play to cdprs strengths.

Yeah, I get sad everytime I think about it. What if devs started doing full fledged PC exclusive games again? Gaming would be so much further ahead than it is right now. Consoles and their popularity are seriously holding back the evolution of videogames.

They are, and I play both on console and PC so I don't say that as a PC fanboy but gaming as a whole is better when a system isn't being held back because of money. Unfortunately now the gaming industry is more greedy and corrupted then ever before and I just see it getting worst. Its ridiculous how the gaming industry just decided to stop making them could you imagine what a new Crysis and F.E.A.R. could be like this day and age if it was built for the ground up on PC with no dumbing down in graphics or gameplay.

Indeed. And yes, I can imagine. That, plus the fact that AAA PC exclusive games would probably do really well today as well since more people than ever own gaming PCs, makes it so frustrating that these games aren't being made anymore. After Crytek fucked over themselves, and Valve noticed they could earn enough money by sitting on their asses instead of making games, no one else took over because of the Call of Duty console money.

I play on both PC and consoles as well. Still hate seeing videogames not evolving like they could. People want to play Call of Duty 23 on their PlayStation 9 instead of games made for PC, and it's just sad to see.

3-1-2. In that order, number 2 felt tiny in comparison to the first one.

2 is actually my least favorite of the series. 1 has many many flaws but I actually preferred EVEN its weird rhythm game combat to 2, where Geralt handled like a freaking boat. 1 also did a way better job presenting the weird gritty mysterious world and characters of TW universe; 2 is quite generic fantasy (albeit with a very high caliber presentation), presented in tight little zones with little to do in them actually. The most remarkable thing about 2 is its strong branching storytelling

@xantufrog: Agreed. 1 and 3 is better than 2.

I do hope to see another FEAR PC oriented one but Crysis as much as I love it. it play like any other console shooter with ADS and console sprint and checkpoint system.

beside, Doom and soon to be Doom Eternal absolutely destroy Crysis in every way.

Iorveth still has the best character model in gaming. God he looks so awesome

Just a personal taste in terms of gameplay and while Witcher 2 is fastly different then Witcher 3, Witcher 2 is the least of my favorite in the series and once I got a taste of Witcher 3, it's really hard for me to go back and play it. Witcher 1, I can do that.

And yeah, I already pre-order Cyberpunk 2077 on GoG and very hype for it, I took a 1 week off work just to play it!

Witcher 1 is most unique of em all. Despite flaws it feels proud of what it is. At times it is odd but in a likable way. Plus it's fun to unlock new moves and see him become an unstoppable butcher towards the end. The main issue I have with Witcher 1 is backtracking. It greatly rewards exploration but the world is so so so much bigger than the Witcher 2 that it desperately needed a fast travel. Witcher 2's world was smaller but was more detailed.

OMFG. I missed him to death in Witcher 3. Even when credits rolled out, I expected him to appear out of nowhere in some post credit scene. That's how much I missed him. Such a great character. I hope he'll be brought back in Witcher 4 if it ever happens.

I think we've reached a point where the only thing that's stopping innovation is developers themselves and not the hardware. As a PC gamer I believe that Console hardware of today is capable of doing wonders and it'll only get better during next generation. A lot of games this gen either went back to their old school roots or brought something new on the table (Middle Earth, Hellblade etc). Plus most games this gen were made for PCs primarily as consoles share same PC architecture so most of the lines of codes are the same across all platforms. Not to mention great customization and good controls both on Keyboard Mouse setup and a controller. Traditional ports don't exist anymore as they used to a decade ago. Every now and then we still get a exclusive to use PC hardware only however like Total War games for example.

Exactly my friend, in 7th gen, 360 and PS3 hardware were so weak thats why games has to be dumbed down.

the new generation console can run 10 crysis games. its not even that ambitious. I mean look at Cyberpunk 2077. how ambitious it is. it wont be possible on 360/PS3 era unless you dumbed it down. but it is possible and working this gen and also next gen.

@Cloud_imperium: Yeah, true that developers are more to blame. However, despite the fact that consoles are powerful enough for wonders, PC is powerful enough for wonder..er wonders.

But yeah, it's mostly devs who needs to break their habits and shake up their templates on game crafting..

Witcher 2 is closely behind Witcher 3 for me. Top notch atmosphere, music, art direction, story (closely intertwined with politics), characters. It was a more focused experience owing to it not being open world.

I'm disappointed that Star Citizen hasn't started a new wave of AAA PC exclusives pushing hardware since the amount of crowdfunding that game has gotten has more than proven that there is still a market for them. Heck PUBG has sold 50+ million copies on PC and that is a game that can't be ran on potato PCs even a GTX 960 will have some trouble running the game on "competitive" settings. You're right devs have gotten complacent with the multiplatform development lowering the bar and just pushing out the same old templates.

Enough games that push PC.

Go look into the RTS segment or simulation segment.

Agreed. We are nearing photo realism in simulation genre.

Sq 42 is scheduled for later this year. Expecting another minor delay. 2021 seems like a done deal for the campaign. Could turn some heads. Shaping up to be an epic title imo.

You're right.

You're right. Pacing was a lot better in Witcher 2 because of its linear chapter based design. There are next to no distractions from the main plot. However I prefer Dice mini game from Witcher 1. It felt more well developed than in the Witcher 2.