Witcher - What if CD Projekt RED Remade it?

Fixing up Witcher 1 sounds like a good thing to me. I wouldn't want to mess with it as much as the article writer(s), though - wedging in some open world?? Getting the game into a more modern engine would already be a massive undertaking. Then re-release the whole series in one big box, ME:L style.

The Witcher series is in the (pretty rare?) position of having its games get far more popular as it went along. I think there are many, many people out there who played Witcher 3 but aren't about to wade through the old Aurora engine to play the first game. If you give them a box with all three, I bet they would get a lot more sales. (Though maybe wait a little longer so they can even make some upgrades to W3's engine.)

P.S. And put in a gratuitous Dandelion butt shot, just for lol's.
 
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Reading through this thread, I feel I'm the only one who feels like the Witcher has run its course, and it's time for new games, with new lore, in new settings. Three games + a Netflix show and whatever comics/novels/spinoffs are out there is already a generous amount of spotlight for something that doesn't run so deep - a white haired dude that kills monsters for a living.

Yeah, I'm not really interested in more of The Witcher story itself. I didn't like the TV show, I didn't think much of the books, and I think three games with Geralt is quite enough.

I think, though, they are very likely to stick with the Witcher universe, as the IP has achieved such recognition that the marketing value is enormous. And, as fantasy worlds go, I think it's a pretty good one. I think they could make some excellent World of Witcher games, with fresh stories.
 
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Yeah, I'm not really interested in more of The Witcher story itself. I didn't like the TV show, I didn't think much of the books, and I think three games with Geralt is quite enough.

I'm a little surprised you didn't like the show. I was originally quite negative about it leading up to the release, but it surprised me. The cast far exceeded my expectations.. especially Cavill who I have to grudgingly admit I was wrong about.
 
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What does them being collectible have to do with what I said? If you don't like them, don't collect them. It really is that simple.

The fact that the sexual partners are treated as collectibles is what's bothering me and what makes it sexist or at the very least highly immature. It being optional doesn't make it go away. It was designed that way by the devs, it didn't just come to existence by itself. Thankfully they moved on from it and made more mature depictions of sex and romance in the later games (I didn't play Cyberpunk so I don't know about that).
 
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The fact that the sexual partners are treated as collectibles is what's bothering me and what makes it sexist or at the very least highly immature. It being optional doesn't make it go away. It was designed that way by the devs, it didn't just come to existence by itself. Thankfully they moved on from it and made more mature depictions of sex and romance in the later games (I didn't play Cyberpunk so I don't know about that).

I imagine a lot of things bother you.
 
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I also think it's better to move on to another franchise. I haven't played CP but from here it doesn't look like there's anything deep, so it could be something entirely new. Sure they'll capitalize on CP with DLCs for those who want more of that, but @Couchpotato mentioned two unannounced RPGs, curious to see what they are.
Something to do with Witcher and Cyberpunk. It was hinted at their last meeting.
 
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They really need to work on a new loot system though.

I agree with you very much. There is too much loot in games now and the loot you pick up might as well just automatically transform into gold.

Just did another playthrough of Might & Magic 6/7/8 and those 3 games really nail character progression which comes in 3 main forms; Attributes, Skills, & Gear. For 95% of those games you are meaningfully improving your characters in all 3 categories... when you find a new sword your tank can use, it will be meaningfully better than the one you had.

MM6/7/8 are 3 games where I keep lying to myself... "just gonna go upgrade X then I'll quit for the night" and next thing you know the sun's coming up.
 
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Great game, shit article.

The Witcher is fantastic and still holds up well today. It's amazing what they did with the Aurora Engine for that game. The soundtrack is also one of my all-time favorites.

The Aurora Engine is ONLY used for scripting and dialogues. Grafix and sound are the first iteration of the REDengine AFAIK.
 
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I never played the first one, for a few reasons, (I tend to be super picky) but I would be interested if they remade it, and changed the combat system to either Witcher 3 style or even better, turn based combat.

Otherwise, I would like to play a new Witcher game, but where the protagonist is not pre-set, but we get to make the character from the ground up. And with more variety, like not only having to be a master swordsman/hunter type with spells, but we could choose to be a wizard, or assassin (bring back the Assassin class, damn it! so tired of PC nonsense "oh, the assassin is too scary or evil" - bullcrap) or thief, or druid, etc.

That sounds like a nice game. No Witcher game, though. Even if there are more witchers, it is Gerald's story (yes, Yennifer and Ciri are supporting characters) and it always will be.
 
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Reading through this thread, I feel I'm the only one who feels like the Witcher has run its course, and it's time for new games, with new lore, in new settings. Three games + a Netflix show and whatever comics/novels/spinoffs are out there is already a generous amount of spotlight for something that doesn't run so deep - a white haired dude that kills monsters for a living.

Did you actually READ the novels? It is about so much more things: A lot of relevant topics (racism, sexism, capitalism, environment, fate vs choice and so on) and it is a stroke of genius as literature.
 
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The Aurora Engine is ONLY used for scripting and dialogues. Grafix and sound are the first iteration of the REDengine AFAIK.

Idk.. I'm pretty sure it's mostly a heavily modified Aurora Engine. There was other software involved but not the REDengine. The REDengine was developed for TW2.
 
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Idk.. I'm pretty sure it's mostly a heavily modified Aurora Engine. There was other software involved but not the REDengine. The REDengine was developed for TW2.

From the Bioware Wikipedia article

The Polish studio CD Projekt Red used the Aurora Engine to develop The Witcher, the 2007 video game adaptation of the Polish fantasy novel series, although the rendering module was rewritten from scratch.

So, what exactly was the rendering module rewritten from scratch?

And from the Witcher Wikipedia article:

One of the most important changes to the Aurora Engine involved developing the in-game environments in 3ds Max and then exporting them into the game engine, rather than using a tile-based system. […] CD Projekt's version of the engine also supports lightmaps generated in 3ds Max. Shadows created this way are reported to look more realistic, and provide better game performance.

The modified engine also includes texture paint, a special tool that allows the developer to paint the environment using custom textures. New realistic skyboxes and water effects designed specifically for The Witcher were added to the engine. Natural light during various phases of the day is realistically altered, and the day and night transitions serve to enrich the game's ambiance. The weather can dynamically change between various states, such as clear skies, light rainfall or thunderstorms.

Other significant changes include motion-captured animation, improved physics modeling, new mechanics, and a new combat system. Additional modifications include the introduction of portals and the inclusion of other graphical effects, such as glows, advanced dynamic shadows, blurs and others.
 
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The fact that the developers dumped the card thing and went on to still include sexual relationships in the Witchers 2&3, both serious and one night stand-ish, tells me that they were/are well aware that the approach in The Witcher 1 was crass and immature, and that they wanted to do better. And imo they did do better, much better. The romantic interactions in those two games are better than virtually any such interactions in any other RPG in my opinon. Bioware should have taken notes.
I don't entirely agree on TW2, but you've got a point with TW3. That said, I suspect that game benefits from having a mostly preset character with predetermined love interests; Geralt already has a history with both Yennefer and Triss (and Shani, if we take Hearts of Stone) and what the player gets to decide is not so much whether he is interested in them but if he gets back with one or the other, or neither. That approach is not really transferrable to Bioware games.
 
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Did you actually READ the novels? It is about so much more things: A lot of relevant topics (racism, sexism, capitalism, environment, fate vs choice and so on) and it is a stroke of genius as literature.

Creating opinion about Witcher based on games and Netflix series is like creating opinion about Lord of the rings based on movies or talking about pizza while you only had frozen one from supermarket.
 
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Eh, not necessary. TW1 is still perfectly playable.

Did you actually READ the novels? It is about so much more things: A lot of relevant topics (racism, sexism, capitalism, environment, fate vs choice and so on) and it is a stroke of genius as literature.

Agreed! I love the world building and lore (it's very coherent and plausible imo) and the stories in their own right. The world is very morally grey.

I also really liked the show (so much so I already re-watched it 3 times) and I thought they did a bang-up job translating the books to the screen. Even Cavill, who I really don't like, was an excellent Geralt.
 
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