Even with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt arrives this month and looks set to bring an insane amount of improvements to the game.
Available free to anyone that already owns the game, these improvements were outlined in a CD Projekt Red The Witcher Netflix series. These are the best parts of the massive Next-Gen update.
Higher Resolution Textures And Better Character Models
Given how well it holds up today, it's hard to believe that The Witcher 3 is a 7-year-old game a lot of the time but one of the clearest signs of its age is in some of the game's textures. Whilst it's hardly a game-ruining detail, bringing all the textures up to scratch and improving the character models too will go a long way to making the game feel current-gen again.
That's not even all as better environmental assets and more foliage promise to make the game's backdrops look a lot more convincing. It's especially impressive given there are full-price remasters that do less to improve a game's visual quality.
More Varied NPC Models
For any ambitious game to be made on a reasonable budget and time scale, there always has to be some compromise, and thankfully most of the concessions The Witcher 3 made only proved mild distractions at most. However, it has to be said that the consistent reuse of NPC models was one of the bigger annoyances.
Luckily, the Next-Gen update promises to address this with more varied models for NPCs, particularly when it comes to cut scenes when they were most noticeable before. Considering The Witcher 3's Continent is already a fantasy world fans would want to live in, this change should only make it more immersive.
New Performance Modes
Console players on PS5 and Xbox Series X (though not the Xbox Series S) will now be presented with a tough choice when playing The Witcher 3 thanks to the new performance options added in with the Next-Gen Update. These are the 30FPS "Quality" mode, which will have ray-tracing , and the 60FPS "Performance" mode for players with more practical priorities.
There's also plenty of reason for PC players to get excited as Nvidia revealed the extent to which ray tracing will be ed in the update, promising more immersive and realistic lighting than ever along with ray-traced reflections and so much more. It looks to be a massive step-up in visual quality.
A New Quick Cast Feature For Casting Signs
Having to open the radial menu to cast a Sign could be a minor inconvenience in a normal playthrough and a real pain to players going for Sign builds so a new "Quick Cast" feature could be a game-changer that's going overlooked. It promises to make the awkwardness of swapping Signs in the menu before casting a thing of the past.
Given this was a feature of some of The Witcher 3's countless great quality-of-life mods, it's clearly something fans have quietly been wanting for a long time, and it's exciting that the feature is finally here.
New Camera Settings
A new "Quick Cast" option for casting signs is far from the only quality-of-life improvement set to breathe new life into The Witcher 3 and arguably this one could have even more impact. One complaint that some had about the original game was how zoomed-out the camera was by default, especially during combat, and this new setting is set to address that.
That's because it brings a new camera setting that will place the camera significantly closer to Geralt, above his right shoulder, for a slightly more immersive perspective. The new camera can be applied for combat, exploration on foot, and riding on Roach, meaning it will be massive for players that had issues with the old camera.
Extra Quality-Of-Life Features
To round out the features that are set to make The Witcher 3 massively more playable, there are a bunch of other excellent quality-of-life features coming with the next-gen update. For example, a small but far from insignificant improvement will be to load times when loading a save or after fast-traveling.
The Next-Gen update will also bring the ability to pause during cut-scenes. Whilst The Witcher 3's cut-scenes aren't egregiously long, just having the option to pause and come back at any time will be great for players that can't always commit themselves to play for long, uninterrupted periods.
Rebalanced Enemy Scaling
For players that enjoy playing with enemy scaling turned on, which is understandable given how it allows low-level enemies to keep up as the game continues and prevent things from getting too boring, the new update will finally bring balance changes to deal with some of its frustrating aspects.
Rather than making the game's iconic bosses appropriately difficult, it did far more to make minor enemies such as rats suddenly become the most ridiculous challenge in the game. Luckily, this is one of the main things that will be addressed in the new balance changes.
Integrated Mods
Whilst this is one of the details that CD Projekt Red went into the least detail about when describing the details of the new Next-Gen update, that's also what makes it one of the most intriguing. The Witcher 3 is endlessly replayable and mods have helped that remain the case over the years.
With only the promise that a variety of community favorites will now be integrated into the base game, the developers have left a lot up to the imagination yet, given the talent of the creators in The Witcher 3 community, there's now doubt it will only enhance what has made the gameplay experience so iconic already.
Saving And Cross-Progression Across Platforms
Since it was initially only released for Windows, PS4, and Xbox One back in 2015 and a bunch of new consoles have appeared since then, it's fair to assume that many players have more than one copy of the game across different platforms. Luckily, the Next-Gen update will make it far easier to manage different saves.
That's because it promises to bring complete cross-progression across different platforms, meaning it should be easy for the player to pick up their latest saved game from one platform to another. Covering PC as well as console, it's a change that will be a gift to any fan that juggles multiple saves across different platforms
New Content Based On The Witcher Netflix Series
For all the quality-of-life changes that will make the game more attractive and more fun to play, there's one feature in the Next-Gen update that will no doubt take the headlines and that's the weight of new content that's coming. In particular, a new storyline based on the Netflix series The Witcher, which is still widely beloved for the excellent casting of Henry Cavill, will make for an exciting expansion to the content already in the game.
Content will also be expanded to include visual options that will bring Dandelion and the design of the Nilfgaardian soldiers into line with their appearance in the show, and Geralt will get a new armor set based on Cavill's portrayal of the character.
