Every week, keen screen-grabber Ben Griffin brings you a sumptuous 4K resolution gallery to celebrate PC gaming's prettiest places.

The Witcher 2 was a watershed moment for videogame visuals when it launched in May 2011. From the river port of Flotsam set deep in a misty forest, the bleached bricks of the towering La Valette Castle, the sprawling Kaedweni camp and the lush green wilds beyond, it buckled all but the best rigs. In anticipation of the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which comes out early next year, enjoy these 4K screenshots of its picturesque predecessor.



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Some claim that summer doesn t start until the 21st, but Valve says it s time for the Steam Summer Sale and we haven t heard anything from the solstice lobby so, happy first day of summer! As always, it s celebrated with a ridiculous store-wide Steam sale renowned for its low prices and intoxicating effect on the PC gaming community. Everything looks great when it s 80% off, but before you start filling up your library, here are our favorite picks of day one.

Reminder: if a game isn't a daily deal or a flash sale, it could pop up later in the sale for an even lower price. If you want to be safe, wait until June 30 to pick up a sale-long deal.

5 - Trine Complete
85% off: $3.74 / 2.69 - Steam store page
What Trine lacks in challenge it's not very difficult as platformers go it more than makes up for in magical fairy tale charm. The sequel, Trine 2, improves upon the formula just about every way, particularly through the addition of cooperative multiplayer action. And with the original game about to undergo a dramatic (and free!) overhaul thanks to the coming Trine Enchanted Edition, this bundle at this price is a must-have by any measure.

4 - Hotline Miami
85% off: $1.49 / 1.04 Steam store page | Flash sale: Buy it before 8 p.m. EST
No game revels in ultraviolence like Hotline Miami, which turns pixelated murder sprees into an art form. It's brutal, stylish, and challenging in that perfect way: once you make a perfect run through a level without stopping, mowing down a dozen thugs with a knife and then a pipe and then a shotgun, you'll feel like the god of sleazy Miami murders. You'll want some practice now, since Hotline Miami 2 includes a level editor that will let you craft your own murder rooms. Get it fast the flash sale on Hotline Miami won't last long.

3 - Far Cry 3
75% off: $7.49 / 3.74 - Steam store page
Attacking outposts is our favorite part of Far Cry 3. The sandbox shooter s story is a strange and meandering mixture of Alice in Wonderland and the spring break trip you made in college, but dismantling the dozens of bases that populate Far Cry 3 s islands however you want is scrappy, open-ended FPS combat at its best. Now s a good time to jump in before Far Cry 4releases later this year.

2 - The Witcher 2
80% off: $3.99 / 2.99 - Steam store page
You ve got until early 2015 before The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt releases, and it s looking fantastic. That s plenty of time to catch up on one of our favorite modern RPG series not only is The Witcher 2 on sale, the first game is only $1.99 / 1.39. Bonus value: The Witcher 2's fantastic story splits into two completely separate arcs in its second act, so if you want to experience both paths, you've got two playthroughs ahead of you.

1 - XCOM: Complete
67% off: $16.49 / 8.24 - Steam store page
Our favorite strategy game of 2012, conveniently collected into bundle form with the equally-great Enemy Within expansion, has one of the best campaigns in gaming. Hand-building your alien defense force replicates the feeling of running imaginary missions with action figures in your living room. Except this time, G.I. Joe can die for reals. Thoughtful strategy, a tense metagame, and detailed maps that explode into pieces make XCOM the second-best digital board game available (Civilization V would be the first).

Other great deals today:
Rising Storm: Game of the Year Edition (50% off) $9.99 / 7.49
Tomb Raider (50% off) $9.99 / 7.49
Max Payne 3 (70% off) $5.99 / 4.49
Mirror s Edge (75% off) $4.99 / 2.49
The Witcher Enhanced Edition (80% off) $1.99 / 1.39
Papers, Please (50% off) $4.99 / 3.49
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (50% off) $4.99 / 3.74

I sat in a dark room at E3 on Tuesday while CD Projekt Red cheerfully played through 45 minutes of The Witcher 3, showing off a very small part of the new open world that series hero Geralt will be able to explore. That was hours ago, and I still can't fully come to grips with the idea of a game as rich and challenging and complex as The Witcher 2 blown out into a massive world. While CD Projekt Red made sure to point out just how big the world was, their hands-off demo mostly focused on the more intricate details of combat and questing.

I went into the Witcher 3 demo hoping to answer two questions: is the scope of the game world going to compromise The Witcher's interesting quests and complex political plotlines? And does the game really look as stunning as it has in CD Projekt's trailers?

The 46 minutes I saw weren't enough to answer the first question, but they showed that The Witcher 3 isn't messing with the elements that its prequel got right. Quests and dialogue options are essentially identical. Monster hunter Geralt of Rivia still has two swords for fighting man and beast, magical signs for casting spells, potions to buff his strength. Familiar monsters like drowners showed up to be cut down by Geralt's blade. There are decapitations now, and Geralt often delivers killing blows that sever heads with a brutally quick strike.



"We wanted to make the combat more responsive, so we raised the number of combat animations like five times," said Michal Gilewski, CD Projekt's Head of Marketing. "It was around 20 something in The Witcher 2 and now we have over 90 different sequences of actions and dodges, so it makes the fight more fluid, but it looks amazing."

I talked to Gilewski along with The Witcher 3's lead programmer, Grzegorz Mocarski, after the demo. Mocarski added that Geralt now has two different dodge moves. "We're still working on it, but right now you can already see...one is the dodge move, the other is the pirouette," he said. "This time you're having many possibilities for the fights as well. You've got signs, swords, crossbows, bombs, different moves you can use. Not all features will work in all situations. We wanted to give a little more control to the player and make the fight a little more tactical."

One of Geralt's new toys, a small crossbow, kicked time into slow motion when he pulled it out and aimed. Combat looked as challenging as it did in the first half of The Witcher 2, with enemies quickly racking up damage on Geralt unless he dodged constantly and made liberal use of his magic powers. Mocarski said that enemies actually had lower health for the sake of our time-constrained demo.



My second question proved easier to answer. The Witcher 3 doesn't look quite as good when Geralt's walking around in real-time as it does in the trailers. I noticed some screen tearing and a framerate that slowed noticeably in some open areas, particularly approaching Novigrad, the largest city in The Witcher 3. The lighting at midday in a sunny area also washed out the screen, limiting the gorgeous dynamic range of lighting dominating CD Projekt's trailers. But those are nitpicks, criticizing about two minutes out of the 45 I saw. And the rest of the time, the game really does look incredible.

Soft, warm rays of light filter through trees. Rock faces are craggy and textured and the world is covered in verdant plant life. The vistas are stunning, and CD Projekt pointed out three times that any place you can see on the horizon, you can walk to. There are no invisible walls in The Witcher 3. To reach the tops of cliffs and stare slack-jawed into the sunset, Geralt can now jump and clamber up cliff faces.

Geralt's beard. Man, let's talk about Geralt's beard. Faces in The Witcher 3 are some of the most impressive I've seen in a game, though I don't think they're pushing the bar for realism. But they're expressive and and look hand-sculpted where many faces now look realistically motion capped. Geralt's beard has some incredibly detailed hair and stubble. If it's not the beard of 2015, I'll be shocked.



The Witcher 3's entire world is, of course, just as lovingly crafted as Geralt's stubbly face. I asked if it was built procedurally or assembled in unique pieces; Mocarski didn't go into much detail, but he did say that "the whole world is filled with custom points of interest, hand-crafted places that you're going to see from a distance that you're going to want to visit, and you can visit."

"If there is a point that you're seeing that is interesting, there's a huge chance that you'll be able to get there," he added. "You may not be able to get there at the beginning because of your skills and the monster that may be in the way, but later you'll be able to get there."

I never doubted CD Projekt Red could handle the basics of The Witcher a third time, or that it could make one of the best-looking games on PC. It's still impossible to tell if parts of The Witcher 3 will suffer from its ambitious scope. But the only criticisms I had so far, minor performance hiccups, Mocarski brought up himself when I asked him what kind of settings the game was running at.

"It's not yet optimized," he said simply. "You can expect the game to look way better than that."

Stay up to date with the very latest PC gaming news from E3 2014

I sat in a dark room at E3 on Tuesday while CD Projekt Red cheerfully played through 45 minutes of The Witcher 3, showing off a very small part of the new open world that series hero Geralt will be able to explore. That was hours ago, and I still can't fully come to grips with the idea of a game as rich and challenging and complex as The Witcher 2 blown out into a massive world. While CD Projekt Red made sure to point out just how big the world was, their hands-off demo mostly focused on the more intricate details of combat and questing.

I went into the Witcher 3 demo hoping to answer two questions: is the scope of the game world going to compromise The Witcher's interesting quests and complex political plotlines? And does the game really look as stunning as it has in CD Projekt's trailers?

The 46 minutes I saw weren't enough to answer the first question, but they showed that The Witcher 3 isn't messing with the elements that its prequel got right. Quests and dialogue options are essentially identical. Monster hunter Geralt of Rivia still has two swords for fighting man and beast, magical signs for casting spells, potions to buff his strength. Familiar monsters like drowners showed up to be cut down by Geralt's blade. There are decapitations now, and Geralt often delivers killing blows that sever heads with a brutally quick strike.



"We wanted to make the combat more responsive, so we raised the number of combat animations like five times," said Michal Gilewski, CD Projekt's Head of Marketing. "It was around 20 something in The Witcher 2 and now we have over 90 different sequences of actions and dodges, so it makes the fight more fluid, but it looks amazing."

I talked to Gilewski along with The Witcher 3's lead programmer, Grzegorz Mocarski, after the demo. Mocarski added that Geralt now has two different dodge moves. "We're still working on it, but right now you can already see...one is the dodge move, the other is the pirouette," he said. "This time you're having many possibilities for the fights as well. You've got signs, swords, crossbows, bombs, different moves you can use. Not all features will work in all situations. We wanted to give a little more control to the player and make the fight a little more tactical."

One of Geralt's new toys, a small crossbow, kicked time into slow motion when he pulled it out and aimed. Combat looked as challenging as it did in the first half of The Witcher 2, with enemies quickly racking up damage on Geralt unless he dodged constantly and made liberal use of his magic powers. Mocarski said that enemies actually had lower health for the sake of our time-constrained demo.



My second question proved easier to answer. The Witcher 3 doesn't look quite as good when Geralt's walking around in real-time as it does in the trailers. I noticed some screen tearing and a framerate that slowed noticeably in some open areas, particularly approaching Novigrad, the largest city in The Witcher 3. The lighting at midday in a sunny area also washed out the screen, limiting the gorgeous dynamic range of lighting dominating CD Projekt's trailers. But those are nitpicks, criticizing about two minutes out of the 45 I saw. And the rest of the time, the game really does look incredible.

Soft, warm rays of light filter through trees. Rock faces are craggy and textured and the world is covered in verdant plant life. The vistas are stunning, and CD Projekt pointed out three times that any place you can see on the horizon, you can walk to. There are no invisible walls in The Witcher 3. To reach the tops of cliffs and stare slack-jawed into the sunset, Geralt can now jump and clamber up cliff faces.

Geralt's beard. Man, let's talk about Geralt's beard. Faces in The Witcher 3 are some of the most impressive I've seen in a game, though I don't think they're pushing the bar for realism. But they're expressive and and look hand-sculpted where many faces now look realistically motion capped. Geralt's beard has some incredibly detailed hair and stubble. If it's not the beard of 2015, I'll be shocked.



The Witcher 3's entire world is, of course, just as lovingly crafted as Geralt's stubbly face. I asked if it was built procedurally or assembled in unique pieces; Mocarski didn't go into much detail, but he did say that "the whole world is filled with custom points of interest, hand-crafted places that you're going to see from a distance that you're going to want to visit, and you can visit."

"If there is a point that you're seeing that is interesting, there's a huge chance that you'll be able to get there," he added. "You may not be able to get there at the beginning because of your skills and the monster that may be in the way, but later you'll be able to get there."

I never doubted CD Projekt Red could handle the basics of The Witcher a third time, or that it could make one of the best-looking games on PC. It's still impossible to tell if parts of The Witcher 3 will suffer from its ambitious scope. But the only criticisms I had so far, minor performance hiccups, Mocarski brought up himself when I asked him what kind of settings the game was running at.

"It's not yet optimized," he said simply. "You can expect the game to look way better than that."

Stay up to date with the very latest PC gaming news from E3 2014

When most of us think of the Witcher series, we see an intelligent, original story that throws your moral beliefs into question. There’s still good and evil in The Witcher’s world, but they’re not painted in the traditional black and white we’ve seen before. Games would be worse off if The Witcher hadn’t grown to be the staple of video game storytelling that it has. The scary thing is, The Witcher almost died from the start.

Eurogamer ran a profile on the Witcher dev, where they visited CD Projekt’s offices in Warsaw, Poland and soon learned that The Witcher could have been the first and only game in the series. According to CD Projekt CEO and co-founder Marcin Iwiński, the company had poured most of its money into a console version of the original Witcher called The Witcher: White Wolf. which never came to fruition.

CD Projekt put a French studio called Widescreen Games in charge of porting the White Wolf to consoles, but kept running into frustrating roadblocks throughout development. According to Iwiński, Widescreen kept asking for more money, developers, and time to the point where CD Projekt was paying the developer more than CD Projekt itself. Eventually, the team at CD Projekt concluded this model wasn’t sustainable, and told Atari (which published The Witcher), that The Witcher: White Wolf had to be scrapped and CD Projekt had a gaping hole in place of their profits.

Many other things happened during that time, but after all was said and done, CD Projekt focused all of its efforts on getting The Witcher 2 — a game that lacked a complete engine at that point — out the door. Despite the setbacks, CD Projekt managed to pull through and create a one of the most compelling RPGs we have seen in a long time.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

To celebrate the final week of GOG.com's fifth anniversary, CD Projekt RED are giving away one of their own games. Buy anything on the distribution site between now and October 17th, and you'll get a free copy of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. That includes if you buy a copy of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, so you probably don't want to do that.

What you might want to buy instead is something from the range of classic EA games that are currently on sale, including Sim City 2000, Populous, Theme Hospital, Ultima, Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate, Wing Commander, or Alpha Centuri. If, though some major malfunction, there's nothing in that list you want, Divinity: Dragon Commander is also on sale at 40% off. There's other stuff too, but you'll have to go and find it yourself.

If you don't already own The Witcher, it's certainly worth getting for what is effectively free. It's ropey to the extreme, takes forever to get into the swing of things, and has voice acting so bad that I had to switch it to the original Polish language version so I could ignore how cheesy it all was. Then there are the collect-'em-up sex cards. Despite all that, it does some interesting things, specifically with its questing and morality choices. If nothing else, it's an interesting curio that leads nicely into the much better Witcher 2.

Remember when buying a game didn’t feel like a guarantee of seeing the ending? There are still hard games out there, Dark Souls flying the flag most recently, but increasingly, the challenge has dripped out or at least softened, often leading to sadly wasted opportunities. What would Skyrim be like, for instance, if its ice and snow wasn’t simply cosmetic, but actually punished you for going mountain climbing in your underpants?

With a quick mod – Frostfall in this case – you’re forced to dress up warm before facing the elements, and things become much more interesting. That’s just one example, and over the next couple of pages you’ll find plenty more. These aren’t mods that just do something cheap like double your enemy’s hit-points, they’re full rebalances and total conversions. Face their challenge, and they’ll reward you with both a whole new experience and the satisfaction of going above and beyond the call of duty.

Misery
Game: Stalker: Call of Pripyat
Link: ModDB



All those weapons scattered around? Gone. Anomalies? Now more dangerous. Magic mini-map? Forget it. Valuable quest rewards? Good luck. Things you do get: thirsty, and factions who send goons after you if you anger them. On the plus side Pripyat is much more active, with a complete sound overhaul, and new NPCs to meet – who all have to play by the rules too, with no more infinite ammo. If you can survive here, you’ve got a good chance when the actual apocalypse comes.

Project Nevada
Fallout: New Vegas
Link: Nexus Mods



Nevada is a good example of making things more difficult without being openly psychotic. Levelling is slower, players and NPCs get less health, and obvious features are now in, such as armour only being a factor in headshots if the target actually has head protection. It’s also possible to toggle some extra-hardcore options, such as food no longer healing and taking care of hunger/thirst/ sleep on the move. There’s a sack of new content, and an Extra Options mod is also available, offering even more control.

Brutal Doom
Game: Doom
Link: ModDB



Despite what modern ‘old-school’ shooters would have you think, Doom was a relatively sedate experience – fast running speed, yes, but lots of skulking in the dark and going slow. Not any more! Brutal Doom cranks everything up to 11, then yawns and goes right for 25.6. We’re talking extra shrapnel, execution attacks, tougher and faster monsters, metal music, and blood, blood, blood as far as your exploding eyes can see. It’s compatible with just about any level you can throw at it, turning even E1M1 into charnel house devastation. The enemies don’t get it all their own way, as Doomguy now starts with an assault rifle rather than simply a pistol, and a whole arsenal of new guns has been added to the Doom collection – including the BFG’s big brother.



Full Combat Rebalance 2
Game: The Witcher 2
Link: RedKit



This streamlines the combat and makes the action closer to how Geralt’s adventure might have played out in the books. He’s more responsive, can automatically parry incoming attacks, begins with his Witcher skills unlocked, and no longer has to spend most fights rolling around like a circus acrobat. But he’s in a tougher world, with monsters now figuring out counterattacks much faster, enemies balanced based on equipment rather than levels, and experience only gained from quests, not combat. Be warned this is a 1.5GB file, not the megabyte Hotfix that’s claimed.

Requiem
Game: Skyrim
Link: Nexus



Elder Scrolls games get ever more streamlined, and further from the classic RPG experience. Requiem drags Skyrim back, kicking and screaming. The world is no longer levelled for your convenience. Bandits deliver one-hit kills from the start. The undead mock arrows, quietly pointing out their lack of internal organs with a quick bonk to your head. Gods hold back their favour from those who displease them. Most importantly, stamina is now practically a curse. Heavy armour and no training can drain it even if you’re standing still, and running out in battle is Very Bad News. Combine this with Frostfall, and Skyrim finally becomes the cold, unforgiving place it claims to be.

Radious
Total War: Shogun 2
Link: TWCenter



Not only is this one of the most comprehensive mods any Total War game has ever seen, its modular nature makes it easy to pick and choose the changes that work best for the experience you want. Together, the campaign AI is reworked, as are the skills and experience systems, diplomacy and technology trees. There are over 100 new units. Campaigns are also longer, providing more time to play with all this, with easier access to the good stuff early on in the name of variety. There’s even a sound module that adds oomph to rifles. Add everything, or only the bits you want. It’s as much of a tactical decision as anything else on the road to conquering Japan.

Game of Thrones
Game: Crusader Kings II
Link: ModDB



Real history doesn’t have enough bite for you? Recast the whole thing with Starks, Lannisters, Freys and the rest and it will. This doesn’t simply swap a few names around, but works with the engine to recreate specific scenarios in the war for the Iron Throne. Individual characters’ traits are pushed into the foreground, especially when duels break out. Wildlings care little about who your daddy was. It’s best to know a fair amount about the world before jumping in, and the scenarios themselves contain spoilers, but you’re absolutely not restricted to just following the story laid down in the books.



Realistic Weapons
Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
Link: GTAGarage



Guess what this one does. A bowling league for Roman? Cars that drive themselves? A character who appears to tell Niko “You have $30,000 in your pocket, you don’t need to goon for assholes” after Act 2? No, of course not. These guns put a little reality back into the cartoon that is GTA. The missions weren’t written with that in mind, obviously, but there’s nothing stopping you from giving it a shot. Worst case: murdering random civilians on the street is much quicker, easier and more satisfying. At least until the cops show up to spoil the fun. Range, accuracy, damage, ammo and fire rate are all covered, though be warned that you shouldn’t expect perfect accuracy from your upgraded hardware. This is GTA after all. Realism is not baked into its combat engine.

The Long War
Game: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Link: NexusMods



You’re looking at eight soldier classes, many more missions, invaders as focused on upgrades as your own science team, and a much longer path to victory. Research is slow, not least to make early weapon upgrades more useful, while the aliens are constantly getting more powerful. Their ships are better, their terror missions are more regular, and more of them show up for battle. In exchange, you get to field more Interceptors, the council is easier to appease, and the ETs don’t cheat as much.

Ziggy's Mod
Game: Far Cry 3
Link: NexusMods



Ziggy makes Rook Island a more natural place, removing mission requirements for skills, cutting some of the easier ways to earn XP, increasing spawn rates to make the island busier, and throwing away the magic mini-map in favour of a compass. The second island is also unlocked from the start. Smaller changes include randomised ammo from dropped weapons, being able to climb hills that you should realistically be able to, and wingsuit abilities made available earlier to get more out of them.

Terrafirmacraft
Game: Minecraft
Link: Terrafirmacraft



Minecraft has a Survival mode, but it’s not desperately challenging. Terrafirmacraft takes it seriously, with hunger and thirst that must be dealt with at all times, and key elements added such as the need to construct support beams while mining to prevent cave-ins, and a seasonal cycle that determines whether or not trees will produce fruit. Many more features are to be added, but there’s enough here already to make survival about much more than throwing together a Creeper-proof fort.



Synergies Mod
Game: Torchlight II
Link: Synergies Mod



This adds a new act to the game, over a hundred monsters, new rare bosses, a new class – the Necromancer – more and tougher monsters and the gear to take them on. There are also endgame raids to add challenge once the world is saved yet again, and more on the way – including two new classes (Paladin and Warlock). It’s the top-ranked Torchlight II mod on Steam Workshop, and easily the most popular. Be aware that it’s still in development, and has a few rough edges.

Civilization Nights
Game: Civilization V
Link: Steam Workshop



While Brave New World has officially given Civ V a big shake up, for many players Nights remains its most popular add-on. It’s a comprehensive upgrade, adding new buildings, wonders, technologies and units, with a heavy focus on policies and making the AI better. The single biggest change is how it calculates happiness, citizens adding cheer simply by existing, but the slow march of war and other miseries detracting from the good times. Annexed a city? Don’t expect too many ticker-tape parades. Yet keeping happiness up is crucial, as it’s also the core of a strong military. This rebalancing completely changes how you play, while the other additions offer plenty of scope for new tactics and even more carefully designed civilisations.

Ultimate Difficulty Mod
Game: Dishonored
Link: TTLG Forums



This makes Dishonored’s enemies more attentive, faster and able to hear a pin drop from the other side of the map. When you get into a fight, it quickly becomes an all-out street war. The biggest change is to Dishonored’s second most abusable ability: the Lean (Blink of course being #1). Corvo can no longer sit behind scenery, lean out into an enemy’s face and be politely ignored. He’s now much more likely to be spotted – especially in ghost runs, where his advantages are now limited to the Outsider’s gifts rather than the Overseers’ continued lack of a local Specsavers.

Hardcore
Game: Deus Ex
Link: ModDB



New augmentations! Altered AI! Randomised inventories! Also a few time-savers: instead of separate keys and multitools for instance, a special keyring has both, while upgrades are used automatically if necessary. Difficulty also changes the balance considerably, from the standard game to ‘Realistic’ mode where you only get nine inventory slots, to ‘Unrealistic’, which makes JC Denton the cyborg killing machine he’s meant to be, but at the cost of facing opponents who warrant it. In this mode he gets double-jumping powers, and automatically gobbles health items when he gets badly wounded. Good luck though, I still got nowhere.

After an absurd number of free patches and updates, you would think you'd finally be able to play The Witcher 2 (Enhanced Edition (Director's Cut)) safe in the certainty that there couldn't possibly be any more changes made to the game. But while the official support may have slowed, one mod project is set to significantly overhaul the game - and it does come with a connection to CD Projekt RED. The mod, Full Combat Rebalance 2, is being developed by Andrzej Kwiatkowski, a Gameplay Designer on The Witcher 3.

The aim of the mod is to increase Geralt's overall responsiveness on combat - changing and adding animations to make combat smoother and snappier. But quickened reactions aren't the only addition: the difficulty has been reworked and the game balance extensively tweaked.

Full Combat Rebalance 2 is due to release later this week.

And now you might want to grab a pot of tea. This changelist is going to take a while to work through:

Core Changes


Up to 80% increase in responsiveness per Geralt's animations.
Up to 50% increase in responsiveness per NPCs animations.
Added strafing while being locked on an enemy and walking.
Geralt can block while moving ( NEW ANIMATIONS ). Static Guard Stance is no longer required to parry enemy attacks.
Geralt automatically parries enemy sword attacks and deflects incoming arrows. It doesn't mean Geralt is invincible. It's not a 100% chance to parry and the value is not constant. It changes depending on how many hits you block in a short time and from where does the hit land.
Geralt and his attackers are no longer bouncing off parry. It allows to continue attack sequence.
Monster attacks still cannot be parried with a sword.
While using Guard Stance Geralt channels an active Quen shield.Above listed changes to defence mechanics decreased importance of rolling in combat.


Enemies


Durability of enemies is based on their defensive skills and armor, not just high vitality.
Mages and assassins don't use duration based shields, instead they have a chance to block each attack seperately, including witcher Signs. This removes the duration godmode from enemies that forced player to run away.
Letho and elite assassins will counterattack when player is relentlessly attacking them.
Arachas and Endriaga Queens learn they should defend against sword attacks after receiving few hits.
Removed knockdown effect from enemy swordsmen attacks.


Character Development


Decreased the number of skills to ensure quality over quantity. Experience rewards and leveling were adjusted to current character development.
Geralt now starts with core witcher skills already learned. No need to go through Training tree before unlocking other branches.
Removed many passives from skill tree to replace them with more active abilities. Remaining passives are changed to make them more attractive.
All skills now have one level ( previously 2 ).
Aard and Igni Signs have been changed from projectile to cone area of effect.
Riposte doesn't require Guard Stance to activate, only attacking in a timed window.
Changed riposte animations ( NEW ANIMATIONS, DUH ) to prevent Geralt from sliding on enemies.
Experience points are given only for progressing through quests, not for killing enemies. This encourages role-playing without worrying about missing experience.
Geralt no longer buys witcher specific recipies from random merchants. He recalls lost memories as a part of character development.


Balance


Each enemy is balanced according to his constitution, combat skill, combat style, weapon and armor type. Following this pattern allowed to created consistent rules that every character follows. A barechested bandit won't survive more hits than a knight in platemail just because the bandit was encountered later in game.
Decreased the disproportion in stats between starting equipment and late game equipment.
Changed Geralt's starting equipment. He now carries core alchemical recipies and schematic for silver sword.
Moved the weight of character power from equipment to character development. Learned skills should have as big impact on Geralt's badass factor as items.
Geralt's armors are split into 4 categories: leather jackets, heavy leather jackets, combat jackets and heavy combat jackets. Heavier armors impose small damage penalty on Geralt. Players need to choose between max damage and protection.
Items imported from The Witcher savegames are of the same quality as in the first game. An exceptional armor and weapon remains valuable. This makes the game easier, but it is an intentional reward.
Set elixirs and oils duration to 1 hour.
Added potion overdose and heavy overdose debuffs on toxicity thresholds 55 and 65.
Removed Fatigue penalty that decreased sword damage and damage reduction on block when Vigor was spent on Signs or Parry. It discouraged some players from using Signs becaused it decreased Geralt's sword DPS.
NPCs deal full damage to other NPCs.
Removed 50% Hit Points condition for throwing enemy off height with Aard.
Decreased Riposte damage multiplier to 1.0, but added 30% enemy parry chance debuff.
Riposte no longer costs Vigor.
Silver throwing daggers are considered as silver weapons for damage calculations against monsters.
Made range weapons ignore armors when calculating damage -- armor penetration.
Inceneration, Bleeding and Poisoning effects are allowed to be active at the same time.
Made quest experience rewards more consistent. There are no longer any situations where player is rewarded with 50 experience points for one quests and 2000 for another.
Made moral choices in quests equally rewarding in terms of experience and items. Players should be encouraged more to role-play instead of weighing quest rewards.
Geralt gains knowledge about monsters faster.
Changed rewards for gaining knowledge about monsters to monster specific oils for swords.
Set minimal damage dealt by Geralt to zero ( was 5 ).
Removed bonus damage for backstabs. Geralt is not parrying attacks coming from behind, so there is a penalty already. Backstab damage bonus would be an overkill. As for the the enemies, this change removes the urge for immersion breaking behavior, like constantly rolling behind an enemy for bonus damage.
Changed arena item rewards for each wave to fit mod item progression.
Decreased amount of enemies in few arena waves.
Finally soaked boots in tutorial weigh more than dry boots!!


Economy


Moved DLC armors from starting equipment to quest rewards and shops.
Decreased the number of armors and weapons present in game. Amount of equipment is adjusted to provide smoother item progression without making huge amount of items useless stat-wise.
Weapons and armors that are present in the game were picked according to these rules: visual differentiation, witcher low level magic setting. Some items available in game assets but not used in original game were reintroduced.
Moved more quality items from quest rewards to shops and distributed them among Chapters. Player should be encouraged to regulary spend money in shops.
Decreased buying cost of swords and armors. Player should be able to buy items more often, not hoard money.
Decreased amount of loot dropped from enemies.
Removed some of the junk items from container definitions.
Made vendors specialize in certain type of merchandize.
Witcher specific recipies cannot be bought but also cannot be sold to merchants.


Visuals


Added Focused Combat Stance. Geralt enters focused state during challenging encounters. It's a visual eyecandy, so it happens automatically based on calculated combat threat level.
While in Focused Stance Geralt performs piruettes ( NEW ANIMATION ) instead of rolling and uses Guard Stance idle animation.
Enemies explode when killed by mage spells. Does not apply to witcher Signs - they are not that powerful.
Made finisher animations which use Signs unlocked by upgrading Aard and Igni in character development.
Removed cutscene swords. Geralt will use his currently equipped sword in all cutscenes.
Equipped enemies with swords according to their social status, wealth and current situation in the game. For example, soldiers patrolling areas near ghost fog in Act 2 are equipped with silver swords like the story suggests.
Decreased camera shake effect used on each step of huge creatures like trolls and golems.
Removed green cloud effect from enemy poisoning FX.


Fixes


Tweaked anim events in all combat animations to improve timings and responsivness.
Fixed sword oils not providing bonus damage against monsters.
Fixed Circle of Power: Endurance giving Circle of Power: Vitality bonus.
Fixed a bug where Geralt was always doing 2 more steps after roll before stopping.

Other


Decreased cooldown for returning to exploration after combat from 7 to 2 seconds. Geralt will be able to interact with environment quicker after combat.
Removed necessity to enter meditation panel to learn new skills on difficulty levels above Normal.
Changed item rarity names to reflect witcher's low level magic setting. Items are no longer MAGICAL and EPIC.
Decreased attacked enemy importance for targetting to make switching enemies easier.
Many, many other changes that were required to make features listed above work.


Thanks, NeoGAF.

The press conferences that precede E3 set the tone for the event, they determine the conversations and questions that follow. With no single unifying organisation to set up such an event, it's one of those rare occasions when the open nature of the PC can prove a detriment. The consoles have had their say, now we can't help but wonder what a similar a show for the PC would look like. Who would take the stage? What would they show? What song-and-dance numbers would we get?

Take your seat, make yourself comfortable and put those Doritos away as we welcome you to this year's purely hypothetical show, the E3 2013 conference that PC gamers deserve.

Introducing - our host! A lone spotlight picks out a trundling figure on a wide, dark stage. It grinds noisily to a halt to rapturous applause and spreads its tiny plastic arms wide. "GREETINGS. I am Medianbot," it drones, bionic monotone dripping with the collective charisma of a platoon of Microsoft presenters. "I have been selected by a vast conglomerate of PC developers as a completely impartial neutral representative for this event. My collective masters to remind you that not one of them owns the platform. We are multitude. We make things we think you might like, and we'd like to show some of those to you this evening. Enjoy."

The auditorium goes dark. A Roman appears on a huge main screen, charging up a beach as flaming rocks soar overhead. XBox One conference attendees sigh, for a moment they think it's the new Roman hack-'em-up, Ryse.

It isn't. The camera's pulling out. There are dozens of Romans. Hundreds. Thousands charging battlements under a a storm of arrows. A mouse cursor appears and it's controlling every last one of them. It's Rome 2. The Creative Assembly are on stage. They talk about diplomacy, subterfuge, politics and war on a huge scale. They talk about players crafting their own stories on the stage of history. They explain that there's no grunting and quick time events. This is a game for grown-ups.



It's Blizzard's turn. Dustin Browder takes to the stage and introduces a trailer for Legacy for the Void, but when the lights come back up, two booths have appeared on stage. In one, Flash, in the other, Life - veteran StarCraft and StarCraft 2 esports players. Browder explains talks about the PC not just as a platform for space adventure, but as a field for sport. He introduces top shoutcasters Tasteless and Artosis as our commentators, and the contestants go to war. There's no awkward, staged banter, only two athletes, laser focused on their screens.

In the coming ten minutes both players demonstrate the agility and quick-thinking that makes them masters of their game. The retiring "GG" is met by a resounding cheer.

A tough act to follow? Perhaps not, when you have a huge open world RPG to show off. CD Projekt RED take the mic. They talk about Geralt's final adventure, they show us the cities and forests we'll be able to explore in The Witcher 3. We've had competition, we've had huge strategy, now we're getting a huge explorable RPG. The showing of their debut trailer sends a ripple of excitement through the crowd.



But CD Projekt RED change tack. New zones, monsters and characters start appearing on the conference screens. They're not officially part of The Witcher 2, or The Witcher 3, it's a modding showcase. It's not about picking out individual examples, it's a catalogue of creations only possible on PC - whole new free campaigns, weapons and options, and the power to reshape entire worlds. Another video plays. Geralt walks into the swampy town of Flotsam - familiar to players of The Witcher 2 - only instead the tyranny of a malicious local thug, the Witcher finds that the town is under attack from a twenty foot tall fire-breathing horse. Modding at its finest.

Medianbot rolls back onstage to thunderous applause. "Greetings and thank you revellers. The soundwaves generated by your slapping meat-paws sustains me. I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the angry man with two swords doing things, but not less or much more than any prior or following presentation, for this is about mathematically identical representation for all aspects of the platform. Farewell."

ANGRY MACHINE NOISE. STROBE LIGHTING. It's DICE. It's Battlefield 4. It's running on PC live. It's big. It's loud. It's full of guns. Now, a while tundra - the THUMP of an AT-AT's boot crunching into the snow. It's Star Wars: Battlefront. Then it's Respawn's mech-blasty game, Titanfall. It's loud and angry, polished and beautiful, because the PC can do all of that too, but faster, and prettier.



Another changeover. A video. A montage, devoted to the low-budget, innovative games that wouldn't normally get their time in the limelight. We see interactive fiction games, Dwarf Fortress, Princess Maker, Kentucky Route Zero, Receiver. As if in a frenzied music video, bouncing between everything from Transistor to Minecraft to Project Zomboid to Frozen Synapse in quick but stunningly done style and backed by anything except bloody dubstep. Anything but that.

The lights come up again, and the stage is full of figures playing games on big screens. It looks like the indie showcase that the PS4 put on, but it's vast. Dozens and dozens of developers are playing their games on tiers and tiers of screens. Look - three tiers up on the left - Koakim "Konjak" Sandberg is playing the latest build of Iconoclasts. Hey, down there on the right - Introversion are quelling a riot in Prison Architect. Over there, Mitu Khandaker is climbing a starship's social ladder in Redshirt. Here, in the front row, the Fullbright developers are showing Gone Home. The message here is simple. Yes, you can play some fun games on console. On PC though, you get a whole world of gaming that no one company controls. And it's brimming with honest-to-god new ideas.

But it's not just about the games. The Oculus Rift developers take to the stage arm and arm with the Omni Treadmill creators. They talk about how hardware is advancing all the time, how static systems will inevitably fade in the face of new hardware from the big PC manufacturers. They mention that the consoles are still talking in familiar terms, about streaming via Twitch, about a camera that watches and listens to you, as though such concepts haven't existed on the PC for years already. The PC is a tool, they say, not a living room lifestyle choice. It does what you tell it, and it can show you the future.

Then up on stage, we get the Oculus Rift team to show off their latest prototype, along with the Omni Treadmill and the Epoc mind-reading headset. In front of a gasping audience, we see - live - someone step into Skyrim and kill a mud crab with his mind.



A cheerful Belarusian fellow walks out now. Who is he? It's hard to tell, but it's clear before he's even said anything that he loves tanks, because he's wearing a T-shirt that says "I <3 TANKS." Aha! it's Wargamng CEO Victor Kislyi, and he's here to talk about World of Tanks, kicking off a section about all the games you can play on the PC right now for no money. Quality games like League of Legends, Tribes Ascend, Team Fortress 2. Games that demonstrate that, while the initial cost of the PC may be expensive, a single buy opens up a world of free entertainment. Oh, and it does Netflix. AND you don't need to pay a monthly subscription to go online and try your free games out.

It's been a few hours. But who walks out now, at the end of it all? Is it Newell, talking about Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, how Valve think player-created content that adds value to their games should be rewarded monetarily? Is it CCP CEO Hilmar, talking about player run economies, betrayal and intrigue in Eve Online? Is it Bioware, talking about how they plan to tell stories on the PC we've never seen before? Is it SOE, talking about how they managed to get hundreds of players to fight a galactic war on a single battlefield in Planetside 2? Is it Arenanet, talking about dynamic MMO battlegrounds in Guild Wars 2? The question is posed to Medianbot. Its chrome head explodes.

It should be all of them. Perhaps PC gaming is just too big for one conference. Too varied, too niche, too wonderfully weird to play the same PR game as the platform holders.

Oh, what the hell. Let's go with Gabe.

Microsoft has demoed the Xbox One. Sony has shown off the Playstation 4. Then, in an equally big hall, the lights go down, Gabe Newell steps onto the stage. He says nothing. He just coughs. He points at the screen. A Half-Life 3 logo appears. The crowd goes wild. He walks off, still silent.

Then a minute later, he casually pokes his head back round the curtain. "Wait, did I forget to mention it's free and available on Steam right now?" he asks. "Sorry it took so long. Also, you can trade Steam games now. Don't mind that noise, it's just a pig taking off. Ah, one second. Someone needs to Heimlich Steve Ballmer's tongue out of his throat."

But before he can leave, a single voice cries from the audience. "Why, oh Gaben? Why?"

And the man pauses, the sound of choking from somewhere off stage echoing slightly. Slowly, he pulls on a pair of sunglasses. Half-turns. Smiles. Replies, quite simply, "Because we can."

For the latest from E3, check out our complete coverage and our pick of the best games of E3 2013 so far.