He didn't say anything about pirating it. Like he said above ^ , he played it at his friend's house. And i agree with him on the atmosphere. The Soundtrack isn't as "obscure" as the first one, and the gloomy , gritty nights are abscent. Rain is extremely rare, and the game has much fewer locations than the last one. And the interface is console oriented as well, comparing it to the first game that made good use of the mouse. So he has a point.

I believe the missing atmosphere that the OP mentioned stems from the fact that you had to roam and explore a lot in W1 in order to find certain monsters, search for missing people, etc... And thus you had to endure many rain storms, run through different environments, experience many sunrises/sundowns while doing all the sidequests. You basically lived the life of a Witcher.

The pacing in the second game is very different. It's the same world; it doesn't feel like you're on a different planet, but you're immediately accused of regicide, and there's a big sense of urgency throughout the game (clearing your name, catching the kingslayer, finding Triss, etc) which means you can't just wander aimlessly and slay random monsters as freely as you did in the first game. So the atmosphere here ends up being different from the first game. The Witcher 1 had a tranquil atmosphere that was full of mystery and sadness, whereas the Witcher 2 starts with an explosive prologue that creates a sense of urgency which only gets stronger as the game progresses.