2012: A 12 months after CD Projekt Purple launched The Witcher 2, the studio adopted with the Enhanced Version, an infinite replace with the patch notes to show it. A 102 merchandise changelog detailed every little thing from corrected merchandise descriptions to “fastened reverb in sewers in Chapter 3,” on high of a prolonged checklist of extra substantial additions: new quests, cinematics, and ending sequences. A fledgling CD Projekt had finished the identical factor with the primary Witcher in 2008, and although I can not discover it on-line, I swear I as soon as pored over a multi-page PDF describing each change made to that first journey. I do not know if any developer is extra dedicated to documenting the minutia of modifications to an enormous sport (apart from Bay12 Video games with Dwarf Fortress (opens in new tab), which is in a league of its personal).
“Even for Cyberpunk, that is one thing that hasn’t actually modified,” says communications director Robert Malinowski. “We do not abandon video games. The Enhanced Version of The Witcher was made for a purpose, as effectively. It was a sport that was good, however it may’ve been higher.”
The Witcher 3, which I used to be enjoying as I talked to Malinowski about CD Projekt’s first RPG, was greater than good. It was a masterpiece in 2015, and made higher by a 12 months of updates and expansions. It by no means formally obtained its Enhanced Version, although, and I want CD Projekt had used the identify right here, for outdated time’s sake. As a result of The Witcher 3’s next-gen replace is rather more than a glittery coat of ray tracing.
Ray tracing could even be the final purpose to care about this replace. Open air, you are unlikely to even discover it is on, exterior of the dramatic framerate hit it causes as in each different sport; most of The Witcher 3’s outside lighting, together with its breathtaking pink and orange sunsets, stays unchanged. On the PlayStation 5 model I previewed, ray tracing and 4K output undoubtedly wasn’t definitely worth the framerate trade-off of “High quality” mode, dropping the framerate to a stodgy 30 fps. I am hopeful on PC that we can’t must make that compromise, and with the fitting tweaks these with high-end {hardware} can have preserve The Witcher 3’s framerate at a minimal 60 fps the place it belongs.
I did spot a couple of reasonable touches with ray tracing enabled, just like the solar’s speckled reflection on the grey waters of Crookback Bathroom, however that is it. Indoors, the ray traced lighting is extra pronounced, with directional illumination coming in by way of home windows. There are some ray tracing options that may solely be obtainable on PC, however I do not anticipate these to be revelatory, both. That is clearly a sport retrofitted for ray tracing relatively than being designed with it in thoughts.
That’d be disappointing if the remainder of the upgrades weren’t such pure, welcome enhancements. There’s DLSS3 and AMD FSR help, which will probably be nice for efficiency even with out ray tracing. There is a photograph mode, although it isn’t fairly as detailed at Cyberpunk 2077’s. There is a new quest that rewards you with Henry Cavill’s Geralt armor from the Netflix sequence (and it is obtained a reasonably cool little bit of story, too). A newly nimble-fingered Geralt can now harvest herbs with a single click on with out opening up a loot menu. And CD Projekt has finished a significant bug fixing go to repair points which have lingered for years.
A few of them are deep cuts.
“When you bear in mind, there was this ‘Slavic people music stops’ meme the place Geralt sees that the important thing to Yennefer’s room is described as a ‘frequent merchandise,'” says longtime PR lead Radek Grabowski. “We truly fastened that, so now it is a uncommon merchandise. As soon as it launches, Reddit will probably be filled with these tidbits individuals are going to dig out from the sport.”
The Witcher 3: Enhanced-Version-in-all-but-name additionally incorporates 5 mods, together with the HD Reworked undertaking, which has racked up greater than 5.2 million downloads on Nexusmods through the years. Individuals love their 4K textures. One other polishes monster textures; one other fixes little visible points like clipping but additionally rebalances some talents, and was truly created by a Witcher 3 developer in his spare time.
I used to be shocked that CD Projekt Purple did not choose to tackle upgrades like 4K textures internally—absolutely the unique property had been larger high quality than that, proper?—however Malinowski had a easy rationalization. “You already know, when work is nice, work is nice.”
“The best way we work with the neighborhood, if the neighborhood creates one thing superior, why not embrace it and have it within the sport?” Grabowski mentioned. “I can say that the modders had been excited to have their work featured within the model you may get from GOG and Steam and whatnot.”
Different small modifications replicate the years of hindsight CD Projekt’s designers have on the sport. My favourite contact is that a lot of the map icons (that daunting sea of query marks) at the moment are disabled by default; the HUD can autohide to present you a cleaner view of the Toussaint countryside, which stays breathtaking. On controllers, a fast solid function permits you to toss out an axii or igni with out utilizing the radial menu. A brand new default digicam choice pulls in nearer to Geralt, feeling subtly extra God of Warfare and fewer 2000s PC RPG. (Don’t be concerned, 2000s PC RPG lovers: you possibly can simply change it again).
These modifications have been a very long time coming; CD Projekt introduced it in September 2020, three months earlier than Cyberpunk 2077 arrived, and… effectively, you in all probability know the remainder. This replace has had its personal improvement troubles: It was delayed from 2021 to 2022, and in exterior accomplice Saber Interactive’s arms till earlier this 12 months when CDPR took it in-house. However the outcome appears definitely worth the wait—it helps to have one of many most interesting video games of the last decade to work from as a base, I assume.
I puzzled if there was any temptation to plant seeds in The Witcher 3 that will blossom within the upcoming Witcher video games, however Malisowski mentioned that is simply too distant—and never what this replace is about. “Lots of time will go earlier than one thing occurs,” he mentioned. It might be unfair to even trace at one thing right here.”
“You already know, we strive to not announce earlier than we’re able to announce,” he added with amusing. “We’re fairly self-aware in that manner.”