Recently, CD Projekt Red has been keen on revisiting their finished titles. After its launch, Cyberpunk 2077 has been recieveing iterative work and starting meet the expectations set prior to launch.

Similarly, the publisher has released a free update for the title that put them on the global map – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

With this update I went back to the Xbox One X (XBO-X) version and compared it to the Xbox Series X (XSX) upgrades. I did not have an Xbox Series S, so I was not able to see some of the updates there. Please be aware this is not a review of The Witcher 3 – I’m only discussing the upgrades. For a full look at the game as whole, you can find our initial coverage here, a second opinion here, and reviews of the DLC content, Hearts of Stone as well as Blood and Wine.

Now, the next-gen upgrade.

Basic improvements are immediately apparent when booting up the title, as the load times are massively improved from getting to the main menu and into game, though one still has to wade through the obligatory legal screens. In the last generation of consoles, there was narration over the loading screens that informed the user of their progress. These moments of narration barely have time to finish on Xbox Series X before entering play, which is a relief as those loads could be beefy.  

The Quick Resume feature is a blessing too. Going back to the XBO-X and loading up my save to play for 15-20 minutes felt like I was wasting my time, as this is a game that takes a while to get going and dipping in and out for a single mission is not how it begs to be experienced. On the XSX version there was a brief load and a save data sync, and then I was right back where I left off. It’s a strange thing to be praising, but that speed allowed me to collect a few herbs, kill a couple of monsters and track down an errant side quest without feeling like there was a huge obligation to dump hours in because getting through the loading time was such a commitment. The knowledge that I could more quickly get in and out had me going back more regularly.

Now for the more obvious upgrades – the visual fidelity.

Personally, I thought that a lot of the non-metal texture upgrades were nice, but not groundbreaking. Things like horsehair and burnished leather are improved from the slightly flatter-looking XBO-X textures, but aren’t enough to merit a replay. The armor fares worse, as the shiny effect feels like a little too much given how grimy the rest of The Witcher 3 is, and it’s distracting. That said, some of the work done on the level of detail at long distances and the lighting are great. On XBO-X, The Witcher 3 looked impressive as I would crest a hill and look down into a valley littered with houses and trees, but on the XSX the draw distance takes it to the next level thanks to more incidental detail in everything and beautiful lighting – the sunset and sunrise are breathtaking, and the effect in small chalets adds a warmth to the surroundings as if bathed in a deep amber hue. In the bigger city, the effect is even more noticeable with rays coming down through buildings and enriching the pageantry and pomp.  

The character models have all received a bit of an upgrade, though some more than others. Geralt is now more heavily detailed and the supporting cast are all improved, but it doesn’t hide some of the more robotic NPCs who have dialogue. NPC modeling has apparently not gotten much attention, though I’m not sure it would make sense considering how many NPCs there are in a game this big.

Other than that, there’s not much more to say – the mechanics and storytelling seem untouched. If someone bounced off The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt previously, this update won’t pull them in and for fans who’ve exhausted the content available and want a fresh reason to dive back in, this won’t be enough. However, for those already wanting to return to the world of The Witcher or for those who haven’t yet been, this is the perfect time.

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HIGH It scratches the exploration itch like few open-world games can.

LOW My base PS4 can’t handle it at times.

WTF I really need to stop romancing almost every character I talk to.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla launched with the odds stacked against it.

For starters, it’s yet another massive open-worlder coming on the heels of Odyssey, one of the most critically-acclaimed titles in the franchise – a tough act to follow. There was also stiff competition from Sony with its own historically-themed open-worlder in Ghost of Tsushima, prompting debate as to whether another AC game could deliver.

Valhalla is also releasing in a year of highly-publicized controversy surrounding management at Ubisoft. After months of damning headlines and intense focus on industry crunch, sexual harassment, abuse and the poor treatment of minorities, there were questions about how it would be received.

With all that said, my assessment of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is that it’s not only a solid third-person action-adventure, but arguably a high point for a series (and a publisher) struggling to redefine itself.

Taking place in the year 873 AD, players assume the role (and select the gender) of Eivor, a viking warrior who decides to settle in England when war and overcrowding ravages Norway. After a few hours of prologue and finally settling in an upgradable encampment called Ravensthorpe, players are free to explore the world and its different regions.

This exploration is Valhalla’s biggest strength. Unlike past Creeds, I never felt like I was forced to walk through guided corridors or to follow markers on a map. Instead, I was able to take the world in at my own pace. Every inch of the map has something to see or do, from the ruins of Roman structures to secret treasures hidden in underground tunnels. Everything I found was something I managed to stumble upon between story quests, and was never pointed out to me by an arbitrary marker.

Because Valhalla nails exploration better than most, I was more than happy to venture off the critical path and mess around in the world. Each region is varied and full of distractions like war-torn castles, wide-open wilderness teeming with wildlife,even the occasional cursed area inhabited by ancient spirits warding off visitors.

It’s good that the sense of exploration is so strong in Valhalla because the central storyline is weak. The plot surrounding Eivor follows the same basic structure of Odyssey, detailing themes of obtaining power and the dangers of hubris. Eivor (regardless of the gender players pick) is nowhere near as interesting or as charming as Odyssey’s Kassandra.

Fortunately, while the central arc was uninteresting, the side stories are what really hooked me. As Eivor rides around trying to form allegiances throughout England, each region has a different issue – bandits overrunning farms, a king that won’t play nice with his people, personal ambition is causing havoc, and more. It’s almost like a historically-based TV drama, with every new situation being its own episode.

Supporting these sidestories are the same sort of dialogue options seen in Odyssey. As in some other RPGs featuring emergent narrative, events can affect progress in ways that surprised me. For example, I accidentally killed a character I could not charm into giving me information. Instead of punishing me, Valhalla adapted to this circumstance and let me to collect the information from the corpse. Later dialogue even referenced this situation, and such responsiveness made it seem like every action I took mattered.

Valhalla isn’t just talking and exploring, though. Similar to the last two games in the series, combat feels closer to something more akin to Dark Souls than older Creeds due to an emphasis on heavy and light attacks, and a new stamina meter that requires players to think strategically about how to approach harder fights.

Shields also return (noticeably absent in Odyssey) and players now have a lot of choice in what they carry. Each of Eivor’s hands can hold a different one-handed weapon like axes, shields, and daggers, and there are some interesting combinations to be had here.

Once in the thick of it, combat is meaty and brutal, with decapitations common after some combos. While not as deep as other combat systems, I loved the simplicity and responsiveness. Taking on a group of enemies and then unleashing a flurry of throwing axes never got old, and the ability to call a wolf companion to take care of lower-level grunts was great.

Instead of offering enemies that scale higher as the player progresses, each region has a set level that never changes. There isn’t a bunch of loot to worry about either, so Eivor’s early weapons can simply be upgraded throughout the course of the game. This, coupled with a skill tree that can be respec’d anytime makes Valhalla one of the most accessible action-RPGs on the market. Ubisoft has successfully streamlined these aspects into an experience where micromanagement is not required and advancing the character never feels like a chore.

While the new changes and directions in Valhalla are good ones, the only thing holding the experience back is the hardware I played it on – my PlayStation 4 was clearly being pushed to its limits. The load times are excruciatingly long, many animations were either delayed or simplified, and the framerate was a bit unstable throughout. None of these were huge issues, but annoyances nonetheless. In fact, this specific review is a big reason why I’m actively seeking a PS5 now, and I decided to pause my playthrough of Valhalla after more than 50 hours – I need to see this in its full glory.

Despite the PS4-specific issues and a main story that isn’t on par with the best of the series, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla remains a solid adventure that I can’t wait to keep playing on better hardware. The focus on exploration coupled with a wealth of secrets to uncover made this adventure a thoroughly-enjoyable timesink, and I can’t wait to continue my domination of England on PS5.

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Ubisoft. It is available on PS4, PS5, PC, XBO, XBX/S and Stadia. This copy was obtained via publisher and was reviewed on PS4. Approximately 55 hours were spent in single-player and was not completed (still playing). There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol. This is an action-adventure game in which players assume the role of a Viking mercenary (Eivor) who travels through England to forge alliances, lead raids, and defeat rival clans/rulers. Players explore open-world environments, perform missions (e.g., hunting for items, battling enemies), and use stealth to discreetly kill human targets. Players also use swords, axes, arrows, and siege weapons to kill multiple enemies (e.g., soldiers, mythic boss characters) in frenetic melee-style combat. Combat is highlighted by screams of pain and frequent blood-splatter effects. Some weapons allow players to decapitate enemies; zoomed-in sequences depict victims’ bones, organs, and muscles getting damaged by players’ blade. The game contains some sexual material: a mission taking place in a brothel; topless women straddling men; a character agreeing to “lay with” a man (kissing is depicted before the scene fades to black). A handful of sequences depict screen distortion/discoloration and impaired movements after players’ character consumes mushrooms or inhales mushroom-based fumes (dialogue states, “I may still be buzzing from these mushrooms.”). Players’ character can also engage in a drinking contests; later sequences depict the character stumbling as the screen tilts and blurs. The words “f**k” and “c*nt” appear in the dialogue.

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: I spent most of my time playing the game on mute and found no issues. Everything has some visual cue and the subtitles could be resized. There is also the option to include closed captioning to clearly label every noise in the game world. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, the controls are remappable and there is a control diagram. The Y-axis can be changed.

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Some readers may be disappointed that nobody in Tower of Fools ever draws a pair of swords and begins an elegant dance of death. Although this novel comes from the pen of Andrzej Sapkowski, best known in America for writing the Witcher stories, it has no counterpart for his most famous character. Nonetheless, Reinmar of Bielawa (the protagonist of Tower of Fools) may seem somewhat familiar to Witcher fans because he’s much like Geralt of Rivia’s bard companion, Jaskier.

Like Geralt’s favorite jongleur, Reinmar is a well-educated minor noble, a bit of a cad, and impetuous to boot. We are introduced to him amidst his affair with a married man’s wife, which results in an entirely familiar and expected kind of trouble. He is forced to flee his home thanks to the cuckolded man’s family, which is unfortunate, as it results in the discovery of his alchemical laboratory.

Tower of Fools is set in Silesia in the 1420s, which was not a particularly good place or time for one’s alembics to be discovered — especially if, like Reinmar, one actually knows a few spells. Sapkowski’s Europe is a land that exists as people imagined it at the time, so magic is real and fantastic creatures abound.

Of course, the Roman Catholic Church is present as well, and particularly interested in what transpires in Silesia because neighboring Bohemia is, at this time, dominated by the Hussite faithful. These Czechs (and their allies) are viewed as heretics in part because they believe communion should consist of both bread and wine, but mostly because they believe priests should be poor.

With the Inquisition and angry noblemen on his trail, Reinmar is barely able to call on a few allies for help. He ultimately teams up with an ex-priest by the name of Scharley, and a very large man named Samson who may or may not be possessed by a strange spirit. Their plan is to escape to Hungary, but this keeps going awry due to ill luck and Reinmar’s perpetually bad judgment.

The resulting odyssey feels unfocused and sprawling. Nearly every significant development in the story results from coincidental encounters, which is a style of storytelling I find unsatisfying. Chance brings famous historical figures such as Nicholas of Cusa or Johannes Gutenberg into the story momentarily, but these rarely constitute anything more than a cameos or digressions. Less historically-significant characters that Reinmar knows are always turning up at just the wrong moment (or, more rarely, just the right one), and their plans, when they even exist, have no force against God’s dice.

It is also a disappointment that Tower of Fools is a sausage fest. The Witcher novels were notable for the way they centered on intelligent, powerful women. Such characters do exist in Reinmar’s adventure, but they flit around the edges, sliding onto the page for only a chapter or two and then disappearing again. This is especially noticeable since Reinmar himself is such a foolish, feckless character.

As time goes on, Reinmar is drawn inexorably into the Catholic-Hussite conflict. However, the coincidental nature of the story’s plot makes all of this feel like happenstance, rather than fate or intent. David French’s take on Sapkowski’s prose makes Tower of Fools an easy, entertaining read, but its lack of a strong character at its center or a recognizable arc for its adventure overall makes it feel flat and aimless.

Tower of Fools is written by Andrzej Sapkowski and translated into English by David French. It was published October 27, 2020 by Orbit Books. A copy of the book was provided for review by the publisher.

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