Quick, the world is in peril, your adopted daughter is under threat, and nearby villagers are being terrorised by monsters. What do you do? Oh, you're sitting down at a cosy table in the local tavern. You're playing a card game with a dude called "Aldert". The wind outside is howling, and so are the nightwraiths, but you're just sitting there. Playing another "cow" card. Okay.
Guess you'll be happy to learn that the Witcher 4 developers have more or less confirmed that Gwent will be making a return in the recently trailered Ciri-led sequel.
]]>Sad news, card pals: CD Project Red are pulling back from Gwent, with no new cards to be added after 2023. Beyond that the servers will stay online but the devs don't intend to release updates themselves, instead handing responsibility for balance changes over to the community via in-game tools.
Six years of active development seems like a pretty good run, to be fair.
]]>You might count yourself among those who thought the collectible card game Gwent was one of the best parts of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. If so, CD Projekt Red have just made your day by revealing the existence of a single-player standalone expansion for their Gwent game, dubbed Rogue Mage. Not only that, but the fantasy roguelike deckbuilder will be out tomorrow, July 7th.
]]>A new standalone singleplayer game of Gwent is coming this year, telling a new tale with the card game spun off from The Witcher 3. It's codenamed Project Golden Nekker and... that's about all we know for know. It's not another 'Witcher Tales' like the previous singleplayer Gwent game, like Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, and it is confirmed to have at least two (2) monsters. Possibly three (3) if you consider that man is the real monster. Or four (4) if you hate libraries.
]]>Last night, Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projekt Red posted an update about data leaks following the cyber attack they experienced earlier this year. This news really doesn't fit in with last night's Summer Game Fest celebrations however, because CDPR are concerned that current and former employee data might now be circulating online, in addition to game data.
]]>Hubbish bubbish, rhymes are rubbish, eye of newt and blah blah blah. Gosh, magic is a chore. If only we had a catalyst to... Oh, hello reader, what are you doing here? Well, as it happens, yes, you can help me out. Just stand over here while I scratch these runes around you. I’m trying to summon the 9 best magic spells in PC games, you see. Stand still, please. You won’t feel a thing.
]]>If a Netflix show and years of people going on about it have finally convinced you to consider giving The Witcher a go, good news: to celebrate the fifth birthday of The Witcher 3, the whole series is on sale. Both Steam and GOG have big Witcher sales, including the whole RPG series plus various spin-offs. £10 for The Witcher 3 and both expansions is a good price for so many grimaces and weary sighs, every one of them great.
]]>CD Projekt Red announced today that they have reached a new agreement with the author of The Witcher novels, Andrzej Sapkowski. The announcement is short and light on detail but is aptly timed to suggest new Witcher-related projects are in the works at the Polish games studio.
]]>It's best not to count a vampire out, but this launched yesterday already, so the Count is definitely out. Higher Vampire Dettlaff van der Eretein and his bat-winged horde have descended upon Gwent, CD Projekt's Witcher-spinoff CCG. Today's expansion, The Crimson Curse is the first major card expansion the game has seen since its open beta debut in 2017, a long time for a CCG to go without fresh blood. Fortunately, it looks like The Crimson Curse brings a juicy transfusion of new stuff to the meta, including five new leaders and 101 new cards and fun new rules to learn. Below, the developers walking through the new stuff.
]]>The Witcher’s spin-off card game Gwent will be bringing out a monster themed expansion called Crimson Curse at the end of this month. They’re teasing it now with a trailer full of blood: blood magic, blood moons, and a very enthusiastic looking vampire. Also, a prominent moth motif, because those winged wretches can be just as ominous as the teeth and claws everywhere else. You can check it out below.
]]>Vampires, werewolves, blood moons and all other things best suited to a Belmont than a Witcher will be the first focus of Gwent: The Witcher Card Game's first card expansion. Despite other online CCGs making expansions an annual or seasonal thing, Crimson Curse is set to be Gwent's first. While I feel that CD Projekt Red's card-slinger never drew the crowds the way Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering has (its solo expansion, Thronebreaker became its own standalone game), it's nice to see that the studio haven't thrown in the towel. See a portentous little teaser trailer below.
]]>I never would have dreamt that the compelling but much-joked-about card game in The Witcher 3 would become a single-player RPG, but Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is a reminder that anything is possible when you believe in the heart of the cards. Released today and exclusive to GOG, Thronebreaker is a major spinoff set in the world of The Witcher, using the supposedly-dwarven card game to represent its high-stakes, army-scale battles and even boss battles against massive beasties. Below, the launch trailer.
]]>Thronebreaker has been taking me for a ride. Fighting monsters and blackclad horsemen in this card-game-sorta-RPG is a bit like being on a bumpy mine cart. You’re going up and down and swiping lots of gold along the way, the ride is smooth then boring then exciting then dull. Sometimes it could use a diesel engine. Or something more environmentally friendly? I don’t know, this metaphor is breaking down. There’s been a cave in, the mine’s closed, everyone go home. What I'm trying to say is: Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales has a few problems with pacing and a dry story in places, but otherwise it's a decent singleplayer spin-off of Gwent and the cards are worth a shuffle.
]]>Gwent - Geralt of Rivia's favourite collectable card game - now steers the fate of nations in Witcher spinoff Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. CD Projekt Red have just released a 37 minute walkthrough of the card-RPG, introducing us to its characters, and the tweaked version of Gwent that the game uses to resolve its conflicts. It's genuinely interesting stuff, with the player's deck-building skills tested in battles that go far beyond the usual formula of the card game. Thronebreaker launches in a little under two weeks on October 23rd. The walkthrough video lurks below.
]]>After distracting Geralt on his adventures in The Witcher 3, the in-game card game Gwent is just about ready to make its proper debut in standalone games. Developers CD Projekt Red today announced that both the multiplayer Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and its singleplayer story spin-off Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales will launch on October 23rd. Gwent has been in public beta for months but this will be its full free-to-play launch, while Thronebreaker was due to be part of Gwent but has since become standalone. Hey, if I can get more story from the Witcher gang without any F2P guff in the way, that's good for me.
]]>Announced during an otherwise dull financial results conference streamed on Twitch, CD Projekt Red announced a minor surprise today. Their long-awaited Gwent singleplayer campaign has grown into a separate and self-contained game all of its own. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is its new, Gwent-free name, and while obviously related to the free-to-play card game, the company are calling it a lengthy RPG in its own right. As such, it will be sold as a standalone retail game.
]]>Collectible card games have been around for decades, but they've really been running hot ever since Blizzard unleashed Hearthstone four years ago. Since then, we've seen Shadowverse, Gwent, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Duelyst, Faeria - there are a lot of these things, if you haven't heard. They all put their own spin on rectangles with numbers on 'em, but they also universally take cues from Hearthstone and, just as often, each other, and as a result they regularly run into similar problems, the biggest two being how to balance a competitive system and how to price card packs fairly.
Artifact, Valve's upcoming Dota-inspired card game, is definitely using some pages from the same books, but it's also doing enough things differently that it has the potential to solve a lot of those problems.
]]>Welcome to Spawn Point, where we take something wonderful from the world of gaming and explain what it is, why it’s worth your time and how to get involved. This time: collectible card games (or at least, the videogame kind).
Hello, I would like to collect some cards please. Of course, friend. We have a wide variety of fantasy themed cards, ranging from hostile dragon to raving ghoul to –
Hang on, what are these numbers? Oh, ignore those, they’re nothing to worry about. Look at this wizard!
]]>If you've played through The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3, you've spent hundreds of hours with the character of Geralt of Rivia. But have you ever taken the time to go back to the beginning? I... absolutely have not. But I played enough Witcher over the years to have encountered people and quests from the first title that I had to fill in via Wiki work later. So I can see the value in going back to figure out where they all came from.
Today (and possibly tomorrow, there's no end point listed), you can get the first game in the series for free from GOG, along with a card keg for Gwent -- which contains five free cards. The process should only take one minute of your time and we have the details below.
]]>Perhaps I did not appreciate The Witcher 3 enough at launch. I have a personal reason: I was on deadline to churn out an interview for a 100 hour game and I had less than 48 hours in which to do it. It's as if games journalism has some broken cogs? I dunno, spitballin' here. But I keep dipping back into the game, finding new reasons to love it, and finding a new level of appreciation for just how many games live within this one shell. I'm simply never had time for Gwent, so I've been waiting for the game to launch proper to give it my full attention.
I've got to wait a bit longer for Gwent to leave beta, but based on yesterday's announcement it seems like CD Projekt Red knows that the wait will be worth it.
]]>A bug with Hearthstone's ranked play recently brought the mode crashing to its CC-knees, but it's now back on its feet again thanks to a hotfix from Blizzard. When the new competitive season rolled round on March 1st, something awry with the tweaks to the progression system meant that players rank stopped updating altogether. Blizzard disabled the mode while they worked on the problem, and they didn't get everything back up and running until 12pm today.
So, the joys of the Hearthstone ladder are once again available to all. Before you log back in though, why not keep reading for a minute or two more. I'm not saying you should stop playing Hearthstone. I'm just saying your life might be better if you tried one of these superior CCGs instead.
]]>That cheery fella Gaunter O'Dimm is back with another dark pact for us to sign, this time for the new Arena mode added today to Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Arena mode bends the rules of Gwent, having players build decks from a random selection cards across all the different factions then fight through a gauntlet of opponents hoping to grab the biggest prize. It's not quite the draft mode some expected, but it's sorta close. Arena isn't free to enter, requiring a ticket purchasable with the in-game currency of Ore or real cash. Developers CD Projekt Red are offering players three tickets for free to get started, at least.
]]>Android: Netrunner is a two-player card game set in a cyberpunk world where a hacker and a corporation angrily click their mouse buttons at each other until one of the following things happens:
1. The corporation researches a bunch of terrifying technology.
2. The hacker steals all the files the CEO accidentally left on his desktop.
3. The corporation runs out of ideas, and just sits there going: “Uhhh.”
4. The hacker dies from too much internet.
We have a much better explanation below. For now, let's say it’s a good game. The downside, however, is that it’s not a PC game. You can only play it in meatspace, with real, germ-spreading cards bought from fleshy human vendors of physical antiquities. At least, that’s how it seems. Turns out there’s an unofficial website called Jinteki.net that lets you play online for free. But is it worth the click? Matt and Brendan take a look.
]]>Despite being in open beta since May of last year, something has been missing from Gwent. No, it's not my fan fiction in which Gaunter O’Dimm teams up with the Witches of Crookback Bog to form the heavy metal supergroup, The Crookback Gaunters (make me an offer, CD Projekt Red.) It is, in fact, a draft mode. This staple of many collectible card games, from PC stalwarts like Hearthstone, to tabletop favorites such as Magic: The Gathering, has been curiously absent from the Witcher card game.
A new game mode for Gwent was announced last year, but the devs have remained tight-lipped as to the nature and mechanics of it. However, if this cheeky little teaser is anything to go by, it seems that they have listened to both fans and content creators and intend to implement the mode soon.
]]>Update Night is a fortnightly column in which Rich McCormick revisits games to find out whether they've been changed for better or worse.
I should’ve been out killing griffins, goblins, and other gribblies, but for much of my Witcher 3 save file, it was Gwent that had its claws in me. It says something about me, I guess, that I preferred to stay in the pub and play cards than go out into the dangerous world outside, but it’s clear that CD Projekt RED hit on something fairly special with its throwaway minigame.
]]>The single-player story campaign for Gwent, Thronebreaker, has been pushed back, CD Projekt Red announced yesterday. The studio is now aiming for 2018. The good news is that the scope of the campaign is being expanded, and the "tempo" of multiplayer updates is also being increased.
"Expect content additions," say the developers, "like cards, challenges, vanity items, but also game patches, and balance tweaks to be published more frequently."
]]>The Witcher creators are too busy making Cyberpunk 2077 and playing 200-card pick-up in Gwent to be working on a fourth game in the series, according to a translated interview with the developer’s president, Adam Kiciński. They’ve always said that the Witcher himself is retired as a character, following the Witcher 3’s last expansion. But Kiciński has taken a chance to remind us that this doesn’t mean they won’t return to the world in some form in the future. If they were to abandon that universe, he says, fans and investors would “not forgive us”.
]]>The singleplayer campaign of a free-to-play collectible card game is an unlikely item of interest, given that they're largely there to train players up for competitive play, but I am quite keen to see what's up with the story in Gwent [official site]. The campaign in the spin-off standalone version of The Witcher 3's fun minigame has folks who did heavy lifting on TW3's story, see. The hot Gwent news out of Gamescom is the unveiling of that campaign, named Thronebreaker. Here, have a look:
]]>Gwent [official site] is both one of the best PC minigames and one of its best collectible card games. Its first version, playable in The Witcher 3, is a smart minigame fantastically integrated into an RPG. Its free-to-play standalone version, which recently entered open beta, is a brilliant reinvention of the game for a multiplayer, competitive setting. Rather than opting merely to give a great minigame its own .exe, developers CD Projekt Red have clearly re-evaluated the rules from the ground up, radically altering Gwent so it works by itself. Gwent has retained its identity in the transition but it has also become a game that’s fun to play with other humans.
Gwent has evolved, and the continued existence of both versions provides a unique opportunity to ask how and why. Rarely do two games with the same structure and objectives exist side by side. It’s a terrific opportunity to investigate how Gwent has been adapted for its new purpose.
]]>The RPS podcast of yesteryear, the Electronic Wireless Show, is now the RPS podcast of presentyear after a triumphant return. In this episode (two in one week!) we chat about our E3 expectations, the asymmetrical multiplayer slasher Friday the 13th, Witchery card game Gwent, and maths-em-up CrossCells.
Also featuring listener's questions and Patch Adam, in which we jumble fake patch notes into a pile of real ones and ask Adam to guess which are true and which are false. This week: Crusader Kings II!
]]>Drizzle-soaked Welsh county and card game of tavern scoundrels, Gwent [official site], is now in open beta. Originally an in-game pastime from The Witcher 3, developers CD Projekt RED are casting it out into the world to see if it can survive on its own with naught but a pair of free-to-play clogs. It involves pitting your fightcards against the enemy’s fightcards on a wooden battlefield and borrows at least some ideas from the card game of sublime Italian cowardice Condottiere. But if you're unfamiliar, we have a trailer below which explains it much better.
]]>Oh Witcherful day! A Netflix show based on the original books is in the works, we heard this morning, and this afternoon game developers CD Projekt RED announced that Gwent: The Witcher Card Game [official site] will enter open beta on May 24th. That's next Wednesday! Gwent is, of course, a standalone, free-to-play spin-off of the card battle game CD Projekt made within The Witcher 3. This time, it'll come without the nagging feeling that you really should be off slaying devilish beasts and saving the world rather than gambling for pocket change in taverns.
]]>As December approaches like a runaway sled and we prepare to say our goodbyes to 2016, it's natural to reflect on the year as a whole. Those reflections could easily take the form of laments but we're keeping our focus firmly on the world of PC games, where we've identified ten trends that may not have defined 2016, but have certainly helped to shape it. We delve into Sorcery and synthwave, DOOM and Danganronpa, and much more besides.
]]>The last time we saw Gwent it was bundled with a gigantic mini-game where you travelled the world, levelled up and fought monsters. But now the monsters are nothing but cards, the levelling up revolves around getting (or spending) money to buy new cards, and you don’t so much travel the world but play cards against other people over the internet. It's that multiplayer portion that this new closed beta focuses on, rather than the single-player modes which will also be included in Gwent: The Witcher Card Game when it’s actually, properly out.
]]>These days it seems like you're not a true RPG unless you've got a card-game spin-off. Hearthstone. The Elder Scrolls Legends. Dark Souls Strip Poker. (Coming soon! And the rules are painfully simple. First, strip. Then comes the poker! Repeat! Again!)
The reason is of course entirely down to the opportunity to expand the world and find a new take on the characters, and nothing whatsoever to do with Blizzard proving that a successful attempt is a license to print money, to the point that the most ridiculous of games are giving it a try. Still, the two genres have had a longer history than you might think, from the original World of Warcraft trading card game, to Final Fantasy's Triple Triad, to Might and Magic's Arcomage. Much like Gwent, it began as something to kill time with in its game's taverns before being spun off into its own thing. Unlike Gwent, nobody cared. Even in Closed Beta, I can see lots of people caring about Gwent.
]]>Oh sure, Pokémon Go players may be pests, hanging around congested pavements and getting in the way, but they've nothing on Gwent players. Imagine if they asked you - all of them asked you - if you had any Gwent cards to sell and they bugged you for battles. Insufferable. NPCs in The Witcher 3 must've groaned every time they saw Geralt wandering the streets, deck in hand and a hopeful look on his face.
Thankfully, the free-to-play standalone spin-off Gwent: The Witcher Card Game [official site] will be more Hearthstone than Pokémon Go, with no strolling or nagging. We've no word yet on when Gwent will launch but it is now in closed beta, if you're feeling lucky.
]]>The breakout star of The Witcher 3 was in-world card game Gwent [official site], which proved so beloved that a full, free-to-play standalone spin-off was greenlit. It includes, of course, the all-important multiplayer mode, which The Witcher 3's strictly vs AI version lacked. Our Adam declared nu-Gwent to be "one of the best games at E3" when he had a fiddle with an early build back in June, and I do trust that boy's taste (I'm only saying that because he's away at the moment so won't read this). CD Projekt planned to release a beta next month, but sadly it's slipped.
]]>Can a free-to-play standalone version of a card game within an RPG really be one of the best games at E3? I played Gwent [official site] yesterday and I've been thinking about it ever since.
]]>That there Ian Video Games was telling the truth, you know: The Witcher 3's card game Gwent is being spun off into its own standalone game. Gwent: The Witcher Card Game [official site] will be free-to-play, and is due to enter beta in September.
]]>You'll never guess what Ian Video Games heard down at the trademark and patent office! Oh, yes, of course someone said "This is the daftest idea I've ever heard", you're right there. His patent does make a certain sort of sense if you think about it, though. Inevitably some Frankenstein will make a perpetual motion machine by strapping buttered toast to a cat and hurling it off a roof - but how will they safely attach the toast to the cat? Cushioned heat-resistant toast straps. Always thinking ahead, that Ian.
Anyway, no, the other thing he heard: someone filing a trademark for a standalone version of Gwent, the card game from The Witcher 3.
]]>I am the worst Witcher. Don't get me wrong - I'm very good at the actual hunting and preparation part of the monster-slaying business, so it's not all bad, but when it comes to the actual killing part, I am terrible. Rolling around in circles and trying to time attack animations just right is my least favourite part of The Witcher 3 [official site], a game that unexpectedly stole my heart. I'm over the moon to see the Hearts of Card mod, which replaces all combat with rounds of its card game Gwent.
]]>One of the best things about The Witcher 3 is its awareness that fetch quests are absolutely silly. The other fantastic thing is Gwent. I like Gwent. A lot. In case you don't know what it is, it's this in-game collectible card game that has two players take control of different armies and duke it out to see who is the better general-leader-hypothetical-head-of-army. While not the deepest mini-game I've encountered, it's certainly fun and has, to date, consumed a worrying amount of my time in the Witcher 3. And now it is available as a mod for Tabletop Simulator [official site], which is similarly awesome.
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