Eurogamer
When the original Witcher launched back in 2007, the game received plenty of positive reviews, but the utilisation of BioWare's Aurora technology disappointed many. Developer CD Projekt RED's response? A state-of-the-art engine that powered one of the most technically accomplished, outright beautiful releases ever seen on PC: The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings, released in May last year.
Many believed that a worthwhile console conversion of this game would be impossible, but it's somehow fitting that the RED Engine's debut on Xbox 360 is in many ways even more astonishing than it was on PC. While there are some understandable downgrades, the overall look is extremely close - the insane level of detail in both surroundings and characters, the immense sense of scale in the richly defined, beautifully animated environments, the vast array of post-processing effects and atmospheric rendering techniques - in every way that matters, the 360 game delivers.
Perhaps most impressive of all is how The Witcher 2 handles light and shadow: everything is dynamically rendered in real-time and a multitude of light sources can be in play at any given point, with the game also supporting a full day/night time cycle in the appropriate environments. Nothing appears to be pre-rendered or "baked" into the levels as is often the case in console titles; there are no shortcuts here - a philosophy that extends to all areas of the game's technological make-up.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-witcher-2-tech-analysis
CD Projekt did an awesome job?





















