The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is easily one of the most beloved single player action games of the eighth generation of consoles role playing, rightly so. Despite being released nearly a decade ago, the game looks and plays better than most modern AAA open world titles. The Witcher 3 is a monumental achievement in creating a living, breathing, open-world environment and masterful storytelling.
Whether it’s the main story missions or the many optional side missions, the writing in The Witcher 3 surpasses many modern AAA titles. While the branching and flawless story is the pinnacle of the “Witcher 3” experience, combat and overall gameplay are no less, giving players plenty of options for different builds and playstyles.
The Witcher 3, despite its age, is still one of the best looking games on consoles and PC. To make things even better, the game is getting a massive visual overhaul via a free “next-gen” patchreleasing on December 14, 2022, for current generation consoles, including the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, as well as PC.
Here’s what players can expect from the upcoming free next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt:
From visual upgrades to a full-fledged photo mode, here’s what players can expect from the upcoming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt update
Visual upgrades
The Witcher 3: wild hunt is already one of the most visually stunning open-world games out there, despite its age. Playing it on a high-end PC with the graphics settings on Ultra makes for a surreal gaming experience.
The environments in the game, including the lush forests and densely populated cities, feature some very intricately detailed textures that even shine on the latest generation consoles, namely PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
While the game looks great on last-gen consoles and PCs, CD Projekt Red has made improvements to the RED engine that deliver an even more visually appealing experience with the next-gen update. It features advanced “global lighting” that dramatically improves in-game lighting, shadows, and screen space reflections, with the addition of ray traced reflections and shadows.
The next-gen patch also boosts texture resolution to native 4K, which greatly improves the quality of in-game assets. Foliage rendering has also been significantly improved, with greater density and less aliasing.
In addition to all the graphical improvements, CD Projekt Red has also added support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 (FSR) and Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS).
Photo mode
One of the most requested features by fans for the next gen update of The Witcher 3, was the photo mode. With games on eighth-generation consoles and PCs reaching photo-realistic graphics quality, photo mode has become a mainstay for most AAA and indie titles.
While the Vanilla Witcher 3 experience lacked the ability to take custom in-game screenshots (without using third-party applications or overlays), the next-gen update adds the much-requested photo mode in The Witcher 3.
Like Cyberpunk 2077’s photo mode, players have plenty of presets and sliders to play with, including a field of view slider, aperture size control, and exposure control, along with a host of other features.
Quality of life improvements
From gameplay tweaks to overhauled controls, the next-gen update for Witcher 3 brings many new quality of life changes to the game based on player feedback. Here are all the gameplay tweaks the game will receive with the new update:
- New zoomed-in camera option: A more immersive over-the-shoulder camera option for players.
- Cast Quick Sign: Option to bind Geralt’s boards to special buttons, allowing players to quickly switch between boards without needing the Radial Menu.
- Minimap Hide Option: Players can hide the minimap while exploring the open world for a much more immersive experience.
- New Map Filters: Allows players to filter map icons according to their personal preference.
- Scale subtitles: Enable players to manually resize subtitles.
- Ability to pause cutscenes: A feature that was much needed in the base Witcher 3 experience, allowing players to pause cutscenes without the risk of skipping important dialogue.
Aside from these additions, CD Projekt Red made numerous bug fixes in the game, including for broken missions that were never patched in the Vanilla game, fixes for part of the dialogue localization, as well as a host of other minor improvements.
As a token of gratitude to players supporting and enjoying The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red has also added new gear and armor for Geralt based on the Netflix series, in addition to an alternate look for Dandelion and Nilfgaardian Soldiers.
CD Project red also added a few surprises for players in the form of hidden missions and rewards, which players will encounter while exploring the vast open world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
