The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Xbox 360 Previews

In case you’re wondering how CD Projekt’s The Witcher 2 fares in the transition from PC to Xbox 360, we’ve rounded up some impressions of the press from an E3 presentation, and they all seem pretty positive, although they do note some hiccups at this stage.

IGN has a short piece and some cam footage:

One of the lingering questions about The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 is how it’ll look. On powerful PCs CD Projekt Red’s role-playing game is one of the prettiest out there, and considering how some games suffer in their transition to consoles, it’s reasonable to be concerned about the overall visual quality. Well, based on what CD Projekt Red showed off, an early section of the game set in a prison, there’s no reason to worry. As expected, it’s not as pretty as the PC version on highest settings, but it still boasts an impressive amount of detail in the character models and environments, nice lightning effects and decent draw distances just outside the prison’s walls. That should be great news for Xbox 360 owners looking forward to the game, which is supposed to ship before the end of 2011.

GameSpot goes a little bit more in-depth:

But chances are you know about the extraordinary ways in which choice manifests itself in The Witcher 2. Your more pressing question may very well be: How does it look? The version we saw was a pre-alpha build, so it did not represent how the game will look at release. But our first reaction was, “Hey, this game looks really great on the Xbox 360.” CD Projekt is aiming for the equivalent of the PC version’s medium settings on the Xbox 360, and we noticed some animation hitches, screen tears, and a few frame rate dips, but that’s par for the course at this stage. The art design still shone through, and Gop was proud of how the art design was always the team’s first concern with the visuals. He stated that even Witcher 2 players enjoying the game on low settings are incredibly pleased with how the game looks. The team’s goal is to make sure that The Witcher 2 runs smoothly at 30 frames per second minimum.

gamrReview:

There is one area where the game takes a noticeable hit, and that’s in visuals. While the art direction of The Witcher 2 is great, there are times when the differences between the 360 version and the PC version’s better settings were a little jarring. In particular, I noticed that Geralt’s hair doesn’t flow, and is a solid object, and the facial expressions seemed a little off, and less-detailed. Again, I reiterate that this is a pre-alpha build, and not necessarily representative of the final product, but at the current level it’s more like the PC version on low or medium-low. It’s still a great looking game though, and 360-only players should have few complaints.