The Witcher: Hexing a PS3 Near You?

Someone posting to N4G's news aggregator noticed that CD Projekt has a listing for a PS3 programmer up on its official The Witcher website, fueling speculation that the Poland-based publisher has a console version of its award-winning RPG in the kettle.

I contacted CD Projekt RED about a console port and received this response:

The Witcher was developed entirely with the PC audience in mind, and it was CD Projekt RED’s goal to create a top-quality role-playing game for that audience. If we do a console version, it will be optimized for console gaming; we won’t simply do a straight port. We want any version of the game to be a top-quality RPG at the time it's released, and not just a port of a game that came out a year ago.

Maybe, maybe not then, but no easy-bake forklifting if it happens. I know that's a somewhat obvious and easy to make claim, but we're talking about a publisher already willing to brave potential PC version saturation by going back to the original and refashioning much more than just another "gold" grab bag. I'm talking of course about the incoming "enhanced edition" for the PC, originally slated for May 2008 but delayed slightly until August/September for much more than a little fine tuning. According to Maciej Szczesnik, Project Manager for CD Projekt RED, the changes in the enhanced edition will in fact be manifold and comprehensive:

First and foremost, the English-language version will, for the most part, be completely re-done. The amount of text in that version was reduced compared to other language versions and that was said to cause a significant decrease in immersion and atmosphere. Now the English version will be as polished and atmospheric as the other language versions. Speaking of other language versions, most of them will be improved in some way. Significant changes will also be made in the German version, where we are planning to re-record the voices for many of the characters.

The most important improvements concern those elements of the game that players criticized the most. For example, over 50 new supporting character models will be added, so that the player won't run into the same person too often. The inventory panel will be re-designed and improved, and some elements of the main game screen will be polished. However, one of the biggest changes that will greatly increase the player's immersion in the game world will be improvements concerning dialogue scenes. Both Geralt and non-player characters will get over 100 new animated gestures which will make their body language during conversations much more natural. Additionally, the facial animation and lip-sync system will be re-created, making the faces of the speakers now even more natural, as well.

As some of you know, The Witcher was my RPG of 2007, and that it kind of grabbed me out of the blue when I initially took it for a spin last November.

Re-Play

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