You know how you're always saying that you'll get around to playing The Witcher games, but when they're on sale and you've got a chance. Well, look, they're all on sale at GOG, and you've got that spare afternoon coming up!
]]>The Northern Kingdoms of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] is a realm ravaged by war, pestilence, and greed. And, try as he might, Geralt continually finds himself trapped between the political maneuverings of the Northern Kingdom's most ambitious contenders. So it's easy to forget that Geralt's true calling in life is as a monster slayer. Lucky for him the Northern Kingdoms has no shortage of monsters.
While some of these beasts have enjoyed plenty of spotlight in other fiction, CD Projekt Red have dug deep into their own Eastern and Northern European ancestry to bring to life a mythology underrepresented in the echelons of generic fantasy creatures. We're all familiar with dragons and vampires, but what about the lesser known beasts that bloody Geralt's blade? The leshen, alps and botchlings? I've rounded up some of my favorite monsters from the Witcher series and the legends that inspired them so that we can contrast their depictions in the game, while getting a mythology lesson at the same time.
]]>The Witcher 3 [official site] brings to a close one of the strangest trilogies in games. Unlike a series like Mass Effect, where the first game's design laid a foundation for each subsequent instalment, The Witcher series completely reinvented itself at every turn. Yet despite the way CD Projekt Red lurched from one design to another, the series also retained an undeniably unique and consistent identity.
How much of The Witcher series' evolution was by design, and how much was improvised? It's hard to say, even for the CDP veterans who oversaw Geralt's video game odyssey from beginning to end. I know because I asked.
]]>Not long to go now. Just under three weeks, in fact, until one of - if not the - most-anticipated PC games of the year arrives. Certainly, it's the most-anticipated RPG in our corner of the internet. But I'm curious as to how many of you intend to make a date with The Witcher 3 [official site] on May 19?
]]>What is a roleplaying game without an extravagant pre-rendered introductory cutscene these days, eh? One I can start playing that much quicker, that's what. But The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt means to take its place in the RPG premiership, and it's got the CGI to prove it. Killings! Fire! Vast armies! Decapitated horsies! Devouring earth! Tribal drums! Yodelling! Beardmen!
]]>We've no new Witcher 3 videos of late, but if you scroll through these really, really quickly, it'll be just like watching a low frame rate, abysmally edited video. Make some sword-swooshing noises as you do it, for added effect. The genesis and/or novelty of these 65 1080p screenshots of CDP's next massive roleplaying game is somewhat indeterminate at present, but I'm sure a good number of them will be fresh to your eyes. PCs with low memory should perhaps be wary of this doubtless RAM-hungry post.
]]>Here's a wee piece of software with an odd status. On the one hand, it's billed merely as a mod for CD Projekt's mostly splendid RPG The Witcher 2. Yeah, yeah, people do that for roleplaying games all the time. On the other hand, the mod is made by CDP staffers, so it sort of becomes a sort of kind of official update, sort of. Kind of. "This is a private afterwork project. It is not a patch", says the description, sternly.
Its primary focus is to remix the way combat works in the game - specifically, "to increase Geralt’s responsiveness and mobility." We've reported on its planned existence recently already, but now we can report on its actual existence. As in, go download this massive sonuvagun right now.
]]>This may look like a blog post but it's actually a combination of confessional booth and news stand. Gather round and confess the mistakes of your past as I do the same, then pick up the evening papers on the way out. As the headline suggests, my sin relates to The Witcher 2. I've never finished it. Or started it for that matter. The reason I haven't started it is because I haven't finished the first Witcher game, so I should probably do that. But what's this? A small leaflet on the news stand informs us that Andrzej 'Flash' Kwiatkowski, an ex-modder and now 'Gameplay Designer' at CD Projekt, has returned to modding in an effort to rebalance the combat in Witcher 2. The file size is currently 8 gigabytes, which is too many floppy disks to consider, but should be smaller by release. Which should be very soon. Details below.
]]>I haven't played The Witcher II, but I know at thing or two about it. The first thing I know about it is that it is good. The second thing I know about it is that it needed more content. I have today learned a third thing about it: the mod tools have been released. Hey, that might mean there's more content available, which makes my second thing invalid, and the third thing has become the second thing, and I know less now than I did at the start of this paragraph. It's making me dumber! Stop stealing knowledge from me, Witcher II!
]]>I'm calling it now: It's only a matter of time until someone designs a Game of Thrones mod for The Witcher 2. And that matter (note: I'm pretty sure "matter" isn't a real unit of time measurement) just got a lot shorter, because CD Projekt's tossing yet another hefty offering into The Witcher's overflowing cauldron with official mod tools. Unfortunately, CD Projekt has also informed RPS that Steam Workshop support's not on the table - at least, for now.
]]>Witcher 2, you seem different somehow. Did you get a haircut? Have you been working out? Are you pregnant with a future barbershop owner who will also be a professional body-builder? No? Well then, color me stumped. Unless... no way. Is today the launch of your Enhanced Edition, which has been heralded incessantly by a procession of myths, prophecies, and, like, a million trailers? Truly astounding. I jest, however, because I love, and I certainly can't complain about gobs of free fixes and content. But what about an altered ending (yes, just like that one thing) and general acceptance of "mature" content in the gaming industry? Are these things worthy of my trusty torchfork, the latest in pitchfork, torch, and duct tape technology? I spoke with CD Projekt Red managing director Adam Badowski to find out.
]]>The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition patch is now making the game even witcherier than before, although my game remains in a pre-enhancement state because the patch preload appears to have vanished up its own witcheroo. I'm not entirely sure how to decipher my own sentence but there appears to be a problem with a borked file in the preload so I have been forced to reinstall the entire game. CDP have discovered a possible way to avoid my tribulations, details of whicher here. Go forth and witch.
]]>I think I'm going to buy CD Projekt a cookie basket. Yes, that's what I'm going to do. What other language, after all, can express misty eyed gratitude in a more nuanced way? One cookie, I think, will be a witch, and another will be an emergency room. Spelling out "Enhanced Edition" in sight gags will be slightly more difficult, but I'm up to the challenge. So, why all the affectionate confections? Because CDP took the stage during a streaming conference to announce - among other things - an extra DRM-free copy of Witcher 2 for all previous owners regardless of which platform they originally nabbed it on and pre-load details for the Enhanced Edition. More info can be found in this post's briny depths.
]]>Deep trailer voice: “In a world where the choice between life and death is as thin as a blade of grass balanced on the edge of a knife seen through a pair of binoculars held the wrong way, a king can be dethroned in the blink of a hummingbird's eye when it gets a bit grit stuck in there. RPS presents the new intro to The Witcher II Enhanced Edition..."
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