CD Projekt Red recently unleashed The Witcher 3: Next Gen, a big ole 4.0 update with new items, quests, graphical enhancements, a revamped camera, and ray traced lighting that nobody’s GPU can handle. It was, of course, time for a replay, and I’m obsessive and neurotic about these enormous RPGs where choices carry from game to game, so replaying The Witcher 3 means replaying The Witcher saga. I tore through The Witcher making the same choices I always do (what kind of hall monitor sides with the Order of the Flaming Rose anyway?) and arrived at The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.
This is the game that put CD Projekt on the map, a graphical powerhouse that laid rigs low with übersampling. It’s a memetic icon of RPG choice with two completely different second acts! Amidst the rise of tablets, the ascendancy of the Xbox 360, and a premature declaration of “the death of the PC,” The Witcher 2 said, “PC gaming ain’t going anywhere, baby.” But I’ve got a horrible, terrible, unspeakable secret: I just don’t like this one very much.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is easily one of my favourite games. It’s one they hand you with your PC gamer card alongside Half-Life and Doom for a reason. The Witcher, meanwhile, is a wonderful, ambitious, Eurojank throwback. A charismatic relic that, despite a notoriously botched English translation, still has that wonderful pagan rites meet the Brothers Grimm vibe I’ve come to demand from the Witcher-verse.
Denne historien er fra April 2023-utgaven av PC Gamer.
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Denne historien er fra April 2023-utgaven av PC Gamer.
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SUNDOWNER
Wipe out a cult with one bullet in CHILDREN OF THE SUN
KENWAY AHEAD
Smooth sailing and pearly whites in ASSASSIN'S CREED IV BLACK FLAG
COUNTER INTUITIVE
PICK & POKE your way through this gorgeous tabletop roguelite
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Whatever happened to MULTI-GPU setups?
MICROPHONES
A good microphone can be the difference between a professional sounding triumph, or a crackly, tinny disaster
BORING PLATFORMER
In a good way! The superb drilling of PEPPER GRINDER is sublimely chaotic
MEIER'S BASTARDISATION
MILLENNIA attempts a spirited but messy coup to Civ's throne
LOOSE MORALS
BROKEN ROADS: a cerebral narrative adventure
CROWN WARS: THE BLACK PRINCE
Tactical medieval combat with a gory edge
NO REST FOR THE WICKED
One of the smartest Soulslikes I've played in a long time