As part of the usual heat up in news when a new game starts to creep up to its release date, CD Projekt has released two new screenshots to whet the appetite of hungry Witcher fans. These screens, which are looking gorgeous at 1920×1080, hopefully quiet the rumblings of those who claim the game has been downgraded since its debut.

Adam Badowski, the studio lead, explained why things have looked different:

Geralt is more perfect [in new trailers]—he has better shaders, for example. We added tons of details, improved the facial expressions and lip sync significantly. We have voice-overs in seven languages so we’re not able to record the changes on actor’s faces in performance capture technology like in Call of Duty, for example. It wouldn’t fit into three Blu-ray discs. So we used a dynamic system based on sounds, similarly to TW1 and TW2 where it came out poorly. In The Witcher 3 it’s incomparably better made; we raised the bar for the whole industry compared to games that have to use the same system (like Bioware games) and that also cannot be seen in that trailer.

What is subjective [however] is the quality of lighting and exposure in that trailer. We made a mistake [in] that some of the scenes [were] rendered in dark and grey-ish colours. Such option was simply drawn by the engine. I think there will be places where the game will look stunning and none will accuse us that it looks different than the first trailer. Unfortunately, there will be also fragments where the game will look worse. It’s the same with GTA—when the squall comes and it’s all grey, especially in the forest, the game will come out as worse than the one from the living city illuminated by neons.

The third chapter in The Witcher saga, in which you can finally learn more about Ciri in ways that don’t involve tavern rumors, is due this May 19th.