CD Projekt hypes Witcher 2 Xbox visuals

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 14 June, 2011

Aiming for PC graphics on medium settings.

CD Projekt RED aims to make the Xbox 360 version of fantasy role-playing game The Witcher 2 look almost as good as the PC version when played on medium specs.

At the very least, it'll look better than the PC version does on minimum settings, the developer promised.

"The Xbox version is going to look better than the minimum settings on the PC," senior producer Tomasz Gop told Eurogamer.

"Don't hold my word for this, but the goal we have right now is to be close to the medium specs of the PC version."

CD Projekt RED demonstrated an early version of the game running on Xbox 360 at E3 2011 last week.

Witcher 2 Xbox 360, due out later this year, has some way to go, but the Polish developer is convinced it will look great on console.

Still, for Gop, the visuals are more about art direction than fidelity.

"There's a huge dose of exaggeration in the fact that a lot of boys like to compare their sizes of textures and amount of memory," Gop said.

"It's not about the size of the boat. It's about the motion of the ocean.

"We believe the main strength of The Witcher franchise is the art direction. Even guys who played the PC version on the lowest specs and lowest graphical settings still said the game looks fine."

Eurogamer's The Witcher 2 review rolled a 9/10.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • Rack #1 12 months ago

    Wow, that's some serious optimisation considering the monstrocity you need for medium settings. Maybe we could get a port of that when it's done?

  • Inmediasress #2 12 months ago

    But at least they are honest about it they don't say shit like other devs would that it will ook the same on the consoles as well.
    That is admirable in todays neutral PR bulshit.

  • Shikasama #3 12 months ago

    On the low PC settings the game is amazing, on the Ultra PC settings it is quite literaly the most gorgeous game ever produced.

    If they can get something in between to work on the xbox, I might end up buying it again for achievements. Because I'm a dirty, dirty whore.

  • customfirmware #4 12 months ago

    Well I hope not. I don't want my xbox catching fire again.

  • pauleyc #5 12 months ago

    At the very least, it'll look better than the PC version does on minimum settings, the developer promised.

    "The Xbox version is going to look better than the minimum settings on the PC," senior producer Tomasz Gop told Eurogamer.

    Heh, well written.

    @Rack: The medium setting hardly requires a monster PC to run. A quad-core CPU and a 4890 work great with most options set to high.

  • telboy007 #6 12 months ago

    "There's a huge dose of exaggeration in the fact that a lot of boys like to compare their sizes of textures and amount of memory," Gop said.

    "It's not about the size of the boat. It's about the motion of the ocean."

    He is talking about penis size here right?!? :D

  • StolenGlory #7 12 months ago

    I'm just chuffed that those folks who maybe don't have enough money to have a PC which would allow them to run the game in a decent fashion, will actually now get a chance to play it.

    The more people that experience the game the better IMHO.

    Which is also vote in the ballot box for the eventual PS3 version too.

  • udat #8 12 months ago

    I am playing it on medium on my ex-ninja 2-year old gaming PC and it looks gorgeous. The art direction really is superb, and the level design also. Levels are "dressed" beautifully. Everything seems to fit, monster placement, layout of streets, everything internally consistent. The Witcher 2 has absorbed me more than any RPG game since KOTOR.

  • Kanselier #9 12 months ago

    Unfortunately I have to play The Witcher 2 on Low (lack of proper gaming rig) but even on Low the game looks better than the average console game. Not bashing/fanboying here, just a friendly note so people know The Witcher 2 on Medium looks fantastic (I do have a mate with a demi-decent gaming rig :))

  • casodi #10 12 months ago

    I really hope this comes to ps3 as well.

  • GamesConnoisseur #11 12 months ago

    Very highly likely will comes to PS3, just a matter of getting manpower or porting out to experienced PS3 devs.

    Medium setting is very good and agreed tired of the BS of consoles same as PC, I got good PC but still find myself gravitating to consoles, such a dirty whore I m at trying to up one my mates in trophies/achievements.

    Might buy the game again on consoles, such an enjoyable game.

  • DiamondIce #12 12 months ago

    My laptop (which spec wise is a lot more powerful than my 360) cannot even run the video on this page very well so this is good news.

    I would sacrifice a level of detail for a smoother not-too-choppy experience.
    Edited by DiamondIce at 14/06/11 @ 13:39

  • uknortherner2000 #13 12 months ago

    Eurogamer.cz has some Xbox 360 screens here: [link url=http://www.eurogamer.cz/gallery.php?game_id=15459&article_id=1369334#anchor
    ]http://www.eurogamer.cz/gallery.php?game...[/link]

    They also had some comparison shots between the 360/PC versions that I can't seem to find now. Basically, the only areas that seem to suffer is the lighting (no god-rays for instance) and shadows. The textures themselves still look sharp.

  • dagas #14 12 months ago

    This says a lot about the age of the 360 when it can maybe look as good as medium settings on PC. Not played Witcher 2, but I never game on anything less than high, medium just sounds so crappy, but people say that medium still looks good in this game and graphics isn't everything. Either way I rather play on 360 these days.

  • Rack #15 12 months ago

    @Pauley C That is a monstrous PC though, how many Xbox's would be needed to get that kind of power? 8? 16? They're trying to get it running on low-range tech from 6 years ago, not highish end tech today.

  • infernox1 #16 12 months ago

    @pauleyc since it'll be very hard to find a HD4890 these days, you need a HD5830/HD6790 to run it at medium specs. I'd also recommend a sandy bridge quad core cpu, they're all good and pretty cheap aswell.

  • Eldritch #17 12 months ago

    "I never game on anything less than high"
    "Either way I rather play on 360 these days. "

    Then, by PC standards, you're actually playing way below Medium. Just saying.

  • Platinum_2011 #18 12 months ago

    What about SubHD vs FullHD, 30fps vs 60fps, 8xAA vs none, 16x Anisotropic vs none, Soft Shadows vs hard shadows, Ambient occlusion vs nothing, HighRes Textures vs LowRes blurryness, and the list goes on and on.

    What's next? An Ipad2 version in ultra running at 320x256 with 5fps?
    Edited by Platinum_2011 at 14/06/11 @ 13:54

  • P1GEONPOO #19 12 months ago

    Has there ever been a better year for the rpg with witcher2, dark souls and skyrim? Day one for all of them for me.

  • munki83 #20 12 months ago

    Worked fine on high detail on my quad core a q9950 I think 4gb of ram and a 1gb gtx460. Ok its not 60fps or anything but very playable and the game is stunning to look at..especialy the waterfalls.I'm really interested to seeing this run on a 360. I think that they are being realistic by saying they are going for medium settings...lets hope they go for at least 720p resolution.

  • Eldritch #21 12 months ago

    Same here, runnning smoothly on my Q9400 with 4 GB and a GTX 275 @ 1680x1050. But I should be very surprised to see an even remotely similar graphics quality on the 360. Anybody remember Mass Effect's texture popping on the 360?

  • Tryhard #22 12 months ago

    Pc medium settings and my xbox freezing every 10 minutes.No, gameplay over graphics.

  • geeza2020 #23 12 months ago

    Sweet, as long as it runs smoothly, im not too fussed about high res textures or 60 fps or other such pathetic rubbish that certain pc fanboy posters (mostly Platinum_2011) here are concerned about. Whats the problem? Butthurt that a PC exclusive is going to get to be played by more fans on a platform other than your precious PC? Grow up.

    Personally, I cant wait for the game now!

  • nuanimal #24 12 months ago

    "The Xbox version is going to look better than the minimum settings on the PC,"

    With a glowing endorsement like that - how could any one refuse!?

  • Snake_2011 #25 12 months ago

    is there a reason PS3 users are not being given the same game? confused as to why people have negged me for asking a question strange folk on here.
    Edited by Snake_2011 at 15/06/11 @ 02:04

  • ronuds #26 12 months ago

    @uknortherner

    Thanks! I think it looks great.

  • DiamondIce #27 12 months ago

    @Platinum_2011

    That sounds like some interesting thoughts you have there. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter. I believe my life will remain unfulfilled until I can get me some soft shadows and a touch of 16x Anisotropic added for good measure.

  • mashk #28 12 months ago

    I played through the PC version on low details on my rig. Amazed they're getting it to run on medium on the relatively low specced 360, as my PC is vastly superior to it. Perhaps they ought to also concentrate on optimising the PC version for customers who've already paid for the game.

  • linksdad #29 12 months ago

    Almost as good as medium at sub 1/4 of the resolution! This game kicks the shit out my machine at 1920*1200 on medium. Not an uber rig by any means but pretty tasty two years ago.

  • coomber #30 12 months ago

    I'm just chuffed that those folks who maybe don't have enough money to have a PC which would allow them to run the game in a decent fashion, will actually now get a chance to play it.

    Yes, because anyone without a PC must have less money than you.

  • japstersam #31 11 months ago

    I have this game on PC and I played it on mostly high...and it looks fantastic....I read this and tried everything on low to see....and it looks fantastic still :D everyone is a winner with this - everyone on 360 (and hopefully eventually PS3) gets to play a great game, CD Projekt get more money to make more great games, which in turn means the next PC game will be even greater. yaaaaay :D

  • Velvetmeds #32 11 months ago

    Game is very bad and doesn't even look that good. All shine and no substance

  • des #33 11 months ago

    Crysis 2 looks much better than this,not sure why people are hyping this game(graphically).PC fans,lolz

  • UncleLou #34 11 months ago

    Crysis 2 looks much better than this,not sure why people are hyping this game(graphically)

    More experience than you, and better eyesight.

  • rottingyoda #35 11 months ago

    @des

    Yeah I agree. Happens alot in gaming. I think DOOM looks waay better than super mario too.

  • TRUTH #36 11 months ago

    PC are great but continuesly need upgrading and a lot of fiddling around to get games working. This can become rather tedious and confusing. I last played Crysis 1 on PC; looked amazing - but I has so much strange messages about settings, I gave up and couldn't be bothered...PC's advantage and disadvantage is it's openness to create your own rig, esp when playing games.

    Really looking forward to The Witcher 2 on 360 (so I can play in comfort infront of my 50" plasma).

  • thesnowman #37 11 months ago

    very pleased that it is coming to the Xbox, all my computers are now laptops and I dont think I could get away with spending a ton of money on "another games machine" as the missues would call it.

  • UncleLou #38 11 months ago

    Really looking forward to The Witcher 2 on 360 (so I can play in comfort infront of my 50" plasma).

    It bears repeating, never has it been easier to connect a PC to TVs. All it takes these days is a single HDMI cable (yes, that includes sound). Rest of your post is fair enough, but the couch/TV argument really doesn't hold any water whatsoever these days. A PC will also make less noise. :p

  • ro-kurorai #39 11 months ago

    Crysis 2 looks much better than this,not sure why people are hyping this game(graphically).PC fans,lolz

    No, it doesn't. I was disappointed with Crysis 2's graphics, yet W2 blew me away (playing on Ultra at 1920x1200 px).
    Right Now Witcher 2 is the best looking game. Only Battlefield 3 may come close this year.

  • jamesi #40 11 months ago

    Anyone who has seen assasins creed brothethood dirt 3 la noire will know xbox is capable of stunning graphics without pcs hassle.this will look amazing on xbox.the xbox 720 and ps4 will prob be better than current high end pcs in terms of graphical ability.so??everyone is going to play an amazing game on all formats

  • TRUTH #41 11 months ago

    I'm just glad it coming to XB360 - A rpg that's not dumbed down or simplistic like Fable. The Witcher 2, Dark Souls, Skyrim...awesome time for console Rpg'ing.