But…moving the game isn't any harder then going into menus? They are almost the same effort, in fact one doesn't have to re-download if they move the install files, only if they want to try the new update.
The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Version apparently won't be separate version on PC (update: original version can still be downloaded on Steam and GOG)
- Thread starter dex3108
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It does, but I was thinking more in the perspective of the dev.
But yeah, keeping specific versions of a game indefinitely just seems unnecessary to me when there are tools available for this purpose already.
No, we need to wait and see what the problem is. This is all conjecture and worrying over something that may not even exist. The game may continue to work just as well as it always did on those old toasters as long as you don't turn on any of the new features.
As for RE2, I hope no one actually thinks that they made those accommodations because of mods.
People keep bringing up RE2 as an example of this "happening before". But they also seem to imply that it happens all the time, so let's see some other examples.
You gotta know when yo hold and fold em op.
This aint a hill to die on, especially when the hill doesnt even exist yet
This aint a hill to die on, especially when the hill doesnt even exist yet
Yeah, this is the problem for me. I could simply download the current version of the game from Steam, copy the install folder to a backup drive, but it's a 50GB game. Why not just do the very easy and simple thing and have a branch version on Steam so anyone could easily download and install the current version at anytime?I wonder why I wouldn't want to keep 40gb backups of my games rather than a 5-10 minutes download when I need it.
It sure eludes me.
Well that sucks - from a preservation perspective, I don't know why companies are so eager to wipe out their original visions of their games. Hopefully they get the message and consider adding a legacy branch option. edit: or better yet, a seperate SKU that completely resolves all these issues.
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I wonder if it would be practical at all for a community downgrade patch to exist. I didn't read which mods cared about it, but I remember looking through one of those comprehensive mod guides for Witcher 3 they already recommend you download 1.31 from GOG, and if not possible because you are using Steam then to use the 1.32 -> 1.31 community downgrade patch.
I'm guessing the comprehensive nature of the remaster update probably makes that less feasible as a patch would probably be updating every file at this point.
I'm guessing the comprehensive nature of the remaster update probably makes that less feasible as a patch would probably be updating every file at this point.
From a modding standpoint, I get it. Bethesda fucked over a lot of mods when they just upgraded the Skyrim Special Edition to the Anniversary Edition and changed the DLLs. At that point it was a 10 year old game and suddenly tons of mods became incompatible overnight, even though many modders have moved on, died etc over the years. The result is that many mods are still broken, a year after the release of the Skyrim Anniversary Edition.
So I get it. Witcher 3 might only be 7 years old, but it still sucks that it's probably going to break a ton of mods.
That's not a permanent, problem-free solution and you know it. If your SSD dies, you're stuck with only the new version or piracy.
So I get it. Witcher 3 might only be 7 years old, but it still sucks that it's probably going to break a ton of mods.
That's not a permanent, problem-free solution and you know it. If your SSD dies, you're stuck with only the new version or piracy.
I kinda get it from a company perspective. They don't really gain anything from preservation of an outdated version. Makes more sense for them to have just one version of the game to maintain. Reduces confusion for casual buyers and there's no question as to which version gets supported.
From a user perspective though, it certainly does bother me how easily games can be erased from existence. Say what you want about physical media but at least I can plug in a disk and know what I'm getting.
Would you rather have a Guacamelee 1 issue where there are like 3 different versions of the same game? Would you rather have a new entry in your library of the same game without any achievements done? Sorry but that is waste of library space to me.
You can hide games in your library. I'd rather be able to play any version of a game if I wanted to. Can't say I've ever cared that there are two versions of Guacamelee in my library.
It is possible to download old versions from Steam
Sure - it's easy to do if you're aware of this change before it auto-updates on your system, and still have access to the old files - and you don't care about Steam integration (achievements etc) when playing the game.
If you don't have access to them, downgrading via Steam is a pain in the ass, unless the developer makes the old version available as a 'beta'.
All people here are saying is "please don't break things with the update" - because it's very easily avoided with minor changes on the back-end prior to release.
- By adding a new "remastered" or "enhanced edition" entry to the library.
- Or by making the current version available as a 'beta'.
In this case, the original version of Bioshock is better than the remaster, if you are willing to spend a few minutes modding it.
Bioshock 2 is a bit more mixed, since the person that figured out how to fix the physics in the original game abandoned the project when the remasters were announced - so Bioshock 2 is stuck at 30Hz in the original release.
But there are changes that were made to the remaster which are not faithful to the original - so people may still prefer to stick with it despite that.
The worst thing that can happen is when a developer releases a remaster as a new product (rather than a second entry in your library) and delists the original from sale.
You cannot buy the original version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution any more, for example.
Only the "Director's Cut" is available now - and that is a port of the downgraded Wii U version, which was originally based on older PC code. So it's downgraded visually, and has many bugs that were fixed in the original release.
It's not a good thing. There is no way to play the Steam version of the original Half-Life with EAX or A3D audio any more. They completely removed that audio system from the game.
I believe there are also things which have been broken in Half-Life 2 over the years, as they have released updates to it.
It takes literally seconds to hide an entry from your Steam library.
I suppose if you care about Steam achievements, that point is valid; but the old version could be offered as a 'beta' instead of a separate entry as well.
Or it's easily fixed via Steam Achievement Manager, but that's a similar solution to "just copy the files yourself" or manually downloading depots from Steam.
I thought the new version is on a different engine? This is unfortunate since it's likely most mods will break and performance will be worse on weaker systems.
I guess we will see in a few weeks but it's a bit puzzling on why they went this route.
I guess we will see in a few weeks but it's a bit puzzling on why they went this route.
You tell that to the people that accidentally bought the outdated version instead of the newer one.
"Problem" solved.
Half-Life 2 had several bugs introduced because of this. For instance, blinking was broken for several years. Like the G Man didn't blink in the opening cutscene.
This is not a good thing.
Yes, all content will be touched up. For e.g. RayTracing will cover Vanilla, HoS and B&W.
Game preservation vs an additional 0.23 nanoseconds of scrolling through your Steam library. It's a battle for the ages.
Insane that people are looking for problems. These are going to be JUST graphical settings. You don't have to turn on ray tracing or better textures if you don't want to.
You didn't have to turn on Ray tracing for RE2R or RE3R for the updated versions to run worse. Which is what people here have an issue with and which is why Capcom eventually did make it possible to download older versions. People aren't looking for problems you're just ignorant of the situation/haven't read the thread.
They will have to port Witcher 3 to DX12 to make RT work. It's not just going to be graphical settings. Considering there will be DLSS 3.0 support as well, it's fair to assume the game will be ported to a recent version of REDengine.
I am so glad I'm not finished with the DLC yet. It's going to be a blast, playing them with updated graphics.
That's interesting. Maybe Steam should mention there is a new version available on the old version's page, like Amazon does for its products.
I've never seen people complain en masse over an added entry in their library. That sounds like a level of pettiness any developer would realistically ignore.
Yep or Bioshock or Skyrim or say GTA and so on. There are very valid reasons besides just conservation to keep older versions and Steam (and GoG) offer many ways to accomplish that.
But no, it's very hard to hide a title on Steam apparently.
People are not asking for a new release of the game, but for a second item (tied to the same purchase) to be added to the library - like most other games do.
Or there could be an option to stick with the older version in the beta tab - which would be less convenient, but retain the current achievement status (assuming it's actually required for that).
In case anyone didn't notice it and want the original game, steam has moved it into a beta branch.
OP
OP
Its nice that they listened. And I hope that after this launch that is problematic on PC people understand why it is important to have this choice.
This definitely comes in handy. See, people? Some of us just wanted something like this.
Just read the first page.
Asking for a separate SKU instead of replacing the existing one is "overreacting" an a "non issue".
And yet here we are, same situation as before with RE2. Who could have seen it coming
FWIW I think you can easily install the old version with beta branches at least, same as RE2 though that case took like a week of complaining.
But yeah a new PC build years later is almost never a "non issue". Bonus points if it's a dx12 RT update apparently lol.
Maybe I'm missing something but both RE2 and The Witcher 3 have the possibility to download the original versions, you can see OG TW3 just one post before your.
Maybe it's time for mods to change the title.
Yes, but when the thread was created they hadn't communicated this, and only GoG's back versions were able to be downloaded. The problem is, many people were dismissing this concern and making fun of people who were worried that the new version would replace the original install with no way of going back if the new version has performance or other issues.
As the updated game is broken for me (constant CtD's, loading issues and crashing when in the menu) I'd like to be able to play the non-broken version. I do have the SSD space for both, luckily.
I haven't read it all but yeah, having the ability to access to OG version is a must and always should be like that.
I have to say that shouting alarmism before the thing was even released was a bit too much, it started based on a thought and for me wasn't really the case especially considering that GOG always had the option to extra downloads as well as Steam with it's beta versions.
Better to (rightfully) complain about this stuff when it actually happen, otherwise it's just a discussion about nothing ^^
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