Our new testing platform-tentatively named Shyamlal-will allow us to bench eighth-gen titles free of bottlenecks.

From here on out, all IGNdia benchmark tests will be done on our new desktop testing platform with the following specs: Which brings us to some good news: After the GTA V settings analysis we did last month, Asus India sent over a GTX 780 Direct CUII OC to add to our new testing platform-that’s right-no more laptop shenanigans. To be honest, though, we tested The Witcher 3 on a system with a 780 Ti and, given the sheer scale of the game, it’s not likely that The Witcher 3 would’ve run on anything-let alone the consoles-if CDPR hadn’t toned the graphics down. CDPR has received quite a lot of flak from the PC community for creating an inferior console port, held back by the weak hardware in eighth-gen consoles. Characters look a bit better than their counterparts in The Witcher 2, and the open world is strongly reminiscent of heavily modded Skyrim. It doesn’t mean the game’s ugly by any measure. First off, yes, The Witcher 3’s visuals have definitely been toned down quite a bit from the trailers, especially so when compared to the jaw-dropping gameplay snippet we saw in late 2013. Let’s get the elephant in the room, the “downgrading” fiasco, out of the way. As far as the game itself is concerned, The Witcher 3 wholeheartedly deserves the positive reviews it received.īut we’re here to talk about graphics.

Personally, the last time I felt quite like this was upon exiting the tutorial sewer in Oblivion and seeing Cyrodil spread out in front of me. It’s a very special feeling, an awe-inspiring sense of place. It’s only in the first few hours of The Witcher 3, when you’re deposited near the village of White Orchard and see the wide open expanse of land all around you, that you fully realise just how far CD Projekt RED has pushed the envelope in the past four years. The moral greyness was refreshing, but with the clunky controls and hub-like environments, it just felt like something to tide me over till the next Mass Effect.

I rather liked, but didn’t love, The Witcher 2. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the concept that a game this deep, this lovingly crafted, yet on such a tremendous scale, actually exists. As far as gameplay is concerned, picture this: Mass Effect levels of character development and interaction in a setting that’s three times the size of Skyrim. I still can’t quite believe it’s out, not even after a three-hour session with the game yesterday.

Witcher 3 gameplay options