Unless you’re one of those extremely elitist passionate, strictly-PC gamers and/or a big-fan of European sci-fi/fantasy books, you may very well be unaware of The Witcher franchise. Like any transmedia series worth its mettle, we must educate ourselves about the original canon before we can truly understand what the whole franchise is truly about. Or something.
The Witcher was originally the title of a collection of fantasy-themed short and novella-esque stories by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. They centered around mythical beast hunter and all-around fucking badass Geralt of Rivia, essentially documenting his incredibly entertaining and refreshing exploits in both mythical monster hunting and semi-immortal lady-wooing. And everything you could possibly think of in between.
To make a long story short, it was immediately apparent that The Witcher (later re-translated into The Last Wish for its subsequent English-speaking country translations) series as a whole was practically tailor-made to become a video game. And an absolutely fantastic video game at that.
Naturally, as with seemingly everything in the realm of entertainment, it wasn’t “officially” decided that The Witcher canon should be made into a video game until after The Last Wish was translated into English. You know, so we could make sure it was of a high enough caliber to please us in any ways we deemed fit, etc. etc.
Thankfully though, The Witcher series true potential was not lost on our English-speaking tribunal and the stars were aligned, the tectonic plates shifted into their proper place. At long last, Polish developer/publisher CD Projekt made the universe right once again for the small-but-rabid fans of the books with the subsequent release of The Witcher for PC in October 2007.
Receiving mostly enthusiastic and positive reviews (it currently has an 86.24 percent score on GameRankings.com), a sequel was inevitable was ultimately set in stone via The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. This too received mostly positive reviews, with many of them expressing a pleasantly surprised delight at how vastly-improved the gameplay seemed. Not to mention how much more polished and fluid the engine ran the game against. Such praise had CD Projekt’s decision to switch up from using Bioware’s “Aurora” engine in favor of their own custom-built “RED Engine” for the sequel to thank.
Up until the time of The Witcher 2‘s release — just as with the books — the game had enjoyed a small-but-incredibly-enthusiastic cult following. The sequel, however — what with its smooth, fast-and-frantically-visceral combat, gameplay and positively gorgeous graphics… changed things some. More specifically, they propelled The Witcher series — both books and games — from little-known-but-appreciated cult classics to practical mainstream-blockbuster status. Unfortunately, this was only the case for the select few possessing a PC powerful enough to run The Witcher 2 as it was truly meant to be played experienced.
"Dude, it's two-versus-one... what could possibly go wrong!?"
You see, therein lied the problem with the Witcher games — at least up until recently. True, it had grown incredibly popular and widely-renowned following the release of the second game, but it was a PC-exclusive that ultimately caused any console-gamer unlucky enough to stumble upon its existence to essentially weep uncontrollably forevermore. It was awful, I tell you. Quite awful.
Thankfully for all of us who don’t own a military-grade PC gaming rig though, CD Projekt has decided to bring all of the Assassins of Kings gaming and combat goodness to consoles. Or to be more specific, Microsoft consoles. If you only have a Playstation 3 or Wii… well, I’m sorry but you’re pretty much shit out of luck.
Rumors of the exact release date has been fraught with speculation and hearsay, but according to the official Witcher Facebook page (run by CD Projekt themselves), there’s some big revelations about to be revealed tomorrow regarding Assassins of Kings 360 port. Including (but not limited to) a definitive release date, a brand-new trailer and general tidbits and delicious morsels about the additional content that will be Xbox 360-version exclusive.
I don’t know about you, but it practically feels like it’s Christmas Eve for me. Regardless of how ridiculously dorky and pathetic as that may sound.
If you’re in the market for an entertaining and video game-related tie-in books to read, then look no further than The Last Wish and Blood of Elves. Not that you need to in order to be entirely-too-excited about this game like I am. But seriously, they’re quite fantastic.
Be sure to stay tuned here on OWNT for up-to-the-minute updates and breaking news regarding The Witcher 2 Xbox 360-port press conference set for tomorrow at 1PM EST sharp.
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Josh Galligan first got his illustrious start gaming by annoying his older brothers relentlessly until they finally let him run Sonic through the loop-dee-loops on the Sega Genesis. A miniscule start, indeed, but a passionate one! While presently an avid and frequent gamer, he also enjoys reading, writing, watching/gambling on football, MMA, pretending he knows how to cook and -- most of all -- attending and enjoying tea parties with his two year-old daughter. |
