2012: A year after CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 2, the studio released an Enhanced Edition with a major update including patch notes to prove it. The 102-item changelog details everything from fixing item descriptions to “Fixing Reverb in the Sewers in Chapter 3”, plus new quests, cinematics, ending sequences, and more. A long list of more substantial additions has been added. The fledgling CD Projekt did the same with the first Witcher back in 2008. I can’t find it online, but I swear I’ve looked through a multi-page PDF that explains all the changes made to the first adventure. I don’t know if there are any developers dedicated to documenting the details of changes to . (opens in new tab)in their own league).
“Even with Cyberpunk, this hasn’t really changed,” says communications director Robert Malinowski. “We don’t give up on the game. An Enhanced Edition of The Witcher was also created for a reason. It was a good game, but it could have been better.”
Witcher 3, which I was playing while talking to Malinowski about CD Projekt’s first RPG, was more than that. A masterpiece of 2015, made even better with a year of updates and expansions. However, I never officially got an enhanced edition of him. I wish CD Projekt had used this name for a long time. Because the next-gen update for The Witcher 3 is more than Rey’s shimmery coat of tracing.
Ray tracing may be the last reason to care about this update. Outdoors, you hardly even notice it’s on, other than having a dramatic framerate hit like every other game. Most of The Witcher 3’s exterior lighting hasn’t changed, including the breathtaking pink and orange sunsets. On the PlayStation 5 version I previewed, the ray tracing and his 4K output dropped the framerate to 30 fps, not worth the framerate trade-off for the “Quality” mode. I hope you never have to compromise on PC. With proper tuning, someone with high-end his hardware should be able to keep The Witcher 3’s frame rate at his 60 fps at a minimum.
With ray tracing enabled, we found a few realistic touches, such as the speckled reflection of the sun in the gray waters of Crookback Bog, but that’s about it. Indoors, directional lighting shines through windows, making ray-traced lighting more noticeable. There are some ray tracing features that are only available on PC, but I wouldn’t expect them to be amazing. This is clearly a game modified for ray tracing rather than designed with it in mind.
It would be a shame if the rest of the upgrade didn’t feel so natural, but the improvements are welcome.With DLSS3 and AMD FSR support, it performs great even without ray tracing. It doesn’t have as much detail as Cyberpunk 2077, but it does have a photo mode. There’s a new quest that rewards you with Geralt armor from the Netflix series Henry Cavill (and a pretty cool story, too). can now be harvested. CD Projekt has also gone through a major bugfix pass to fix a problem that has been lingering for years.
Some of them are deep cuts.
“If you remember, there was this ‘Slavic folk music stops’ meme where Geralt saw the key to Yennefer’s room described as a ‘common item,'” said the longtime PR lead. “We actually fixed it, so now it’s a rare item. When it launches, Reddit will be full of information people will try to dig out of the game.”
The Witcher 3: Enhanced-Edition-in-all-name-name also includes 5 mods including the HD Reworked project that has been downloaded over 5.2 million times on Nexusmods over the years. People love 4K textures. The other polishes the monster textures. Another rebalanced some abilities as well as fixing minor visual issues such as clipping, and was actually made by The Witcher 3 developers in their spare time.
I’m surprised that CD Projekt Red didn’t choose to make upgrades such as 4K textures under the hood. Surely the original assets were of higher quality than that, weren’t they? — but Malinowski explained simply. “Look, when work is good, work is good.”
“As a way for us to work with the community, if the community creates something great, why not take it and bring it into the game?” Grabowski said. “I can tell you that modders were thrilled to see their creations in versions available on GOG, Steam, and others.”
Other minor changes reflect the years of hindsight that CD Projekt’s designers have put into the game. My favorite thing is that most maps his icon (sea of question marks) is disabled by default. The HUD automatically hides to give you a better view of the breathtaking Toussaint countryside. On controllers, the quick cast feature allows you to throw axii or igni without using the radial menu. The new default camera option brings it closer to Geralt, making it feel subtly more God of War than his 2000s PC RPGs. (Don’t worry, 2000s PC RPG lovers: you can easily undo it).
These changes took a long time. CD Projekt announced it in September 2020, three months before Cyberpunk 2077 was coming. This update had its own development issues: it was delayed from 2021 to 2022 and was in the hands of external partner Saber Interactive until earlier this year, when CDPR adopted it internally. sounds like it’s worth the wait, and I think it’ll help build on one of the best games of the decade.
I wondered if there was any temptation to plant the seed in The Witcher 3 and see it blossom in future Witcher games. . Even hinting at something here is unfair. “
“You know, we try not to announce before we’re ready to do it,” he added with a laugh. “We’re pretty self-aware that way.”