Is full of seemingly deliberate little shout outs to Red Dead Redemption, from the horse mechanics to the way you skin an animal (when you occasionally, in a quest, take a trophy that is.)
It’s pretty amazing to me just how hinky the 3D work and animation can be in a AAA title, though. I guess I notice this stuff more now even with my intermediate experience level, but holy crap the Witcher leaves environmental art to a standard I’d be embarrassed to release if I had their team and their budget.
In Witcher’s defense, they were trying to push the envelope while also trying to make the game run on as many machines as possible. There are tons of articles around stating that the game was dumbed down not only for consoles but currently owned PCs as well.
Here is an example:
One of many rumors out there about a 2013 demo that had much more detail than the released game