On December 14, 2022, everyone’s favorite witch Geralt has to come back from his well-deserved retirement, call Roach and get one or two more scars. Because then the next-gen version of the popular role-playing game The Witcher 3 will be released, which is always at the top of our editorial GameStar rankings.
If you live somewhere in the Redanian hinterland and want to refresh your knowledge about release times, new features and more, this is the best place to do it:
The Witcher 3
All questions about the NextGen update answered
Unfortunately, the first reports from the console version do not bode well. Our sister magazine GamePro has already been able to swing both silver and steel swords extensively and encountered all sorts of technical problems. This is probably due to the new prestige feature par excellence.
Ray tracing doesn’t make the PS5 and Xbox Series X shine
What is the main problem?
According to the experience of our colleagues, the particularly computationally intensive lighting technology now ensures that the frame rate on both consoles often falls well below the magical 30 FPS limit, which clearly affects the gaming experience and the RPG is hardly playable in isolated places.
Above all, the high-quality illumination of the game world via ray tracing is the focus of the NextGen update.
In performance mode, i.e. without ray tracing, the frame rate is much more stable and the targeted 60 FPS is often achieved. So all clear? Not quite, because the shadows are displayed much too brightly in performance mode, which means that a lot of contrast is lost.
Other issues reported by GamePro on the console versions:
- In ray tracing mode, objects in the distance, such as the mountains around Kaer Morhen, flicker
- The so-called
Pop-In
i.e. the abrupt appearance or fading in of grass and other objects in the game world, is still very strong - The Xbox version also suffers from screen tearing at the top of the screen
Our experienced editor Vesemir Nils has documented in detail in a video which graphical innovations you can expect on the PC:
13:35
This is how much the graphics change in the next-gen update for The Witcher 3
There is also a lot of good to report
So much for the negative knowledge about the current state of the console version of The Witcher 3 NextGen. But our testers also noticed all sorts of pleasant changes and improvements, which we don’t want to withhold from you:
- Hold on tight: Roach can now walk backwards! This will hopefully allow our beloved companion to steer a little more gallantly when we get stuck in a dead end again.
- The wind, which is omnipresent in the game world, no longer blows as strongly and therefore no longer causes the trees to snap over like rubber variants. This ensures a much calmer picture.
- The sky impresses with new weather effects, above all dreary, cloudy days should provide a thick plus atmosphere.
- The textures are noticeably sharper and more detailed in many places.
- Cutscenes can now be paused.
- Ingredients now go directly into your inventory when looted without a menu opening.
Let’s just let the experts have their say! Get all the full details firsthand from our GamePro tech guru Chris in his in-depth analysis:
The Witcher 3 NextGen-Update
The most important innovation turns the game into a jerky game
Are we also facing problems like this on the PC?
That remains to be seen, although we are optimistic in one respect: while the consoles were not ray tracing calculation monsters when they were released two years ago, the wheel on the PC has continued to turn diligently since then. Significantly more raw performance could therefore help to mitigate any problems here (at least for owners of the right hardware).
But we haven’t been able to take a look at the PC version of the NextGen update yet. You can find out more about the background and our article and video plans in the article: The Witcher 3: where is our next-gen update review?
. However, we will carry out our own tests, benchmarks and graphics comparisons for the free NextGen update as soon as possible and provide you with all the information about it.
One innovation of the NextGen version definitely seems to have become good across platforms: the new camera perspective, which brings us closer to the action. This suddenly makes the sword fights seem like they came straight out of an action movie:
The Witcher 3: Swordplay from the NextGen version looks like something out of a movie
What are your expectations for the next-gen update for The Witcher 3? Is this your thirtieth time beating the RPG colossus on PC, or will you just pop in to pet Roach and try out the new graphics features? Let us know your thoughts on this topic in the comments!
