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.

As we saw in its official E3 trailer the other day, The Witcher 3 is lookin' beautiful, thick with the same sort of tension-filled romance as meeting a former lover again. But will that former lover remember you now that you're older, wiser, and have played a thousand other games since you left it behind? That's what CD Projekt RED is aiming for, with the news that your <a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/tag/the-witcher-2/"Witcher 2 save file will carry over into The Witcher 3.

" will definitely impact your playthrough in The Witcher 3," says executive producer John Mamais, speaking to Videogamer.

The extent of this impact hasn't been revealed, but we can imagine that it'll cover minor plot and characters details as the Mass Effect series' save files did. If The Witcher 3 will be your first foray into the monster-hunting trilogy, or if you're crossing over from console territory, however, know that the developers at CD Projekt RED are trying to figure out how to accommodate you too. "We might try to create some kind of game state even if you haven’t played," says Mamais.

For the latest from E3, check out our complete coverage.

If you give PC gamers a chance, you'll see some special things happen. The deep and fascinating community that operates behind the Witcher 2 has begun to assemble and release tutorials for the REDkit mod tool set that recently entered its public beta phase.

The video tutorials are the work of Philipp "Benzenzimmern" Weber, the winner of the closed beta's best mod competition, and another man who works under the handle Klabautermann. So far their work focuses on story/quest creation and world building, but the videos are also a helpful look at how two experienced modders navigate the software itself, which can be intimidating to someone with little or no experience in mod creation.

Benzenzimmern's videos include English language captions, but when viewing Klabautermann's tutorial, be sure to activate the English subtitles feature inside the YouTube player under closed captioning. In addition, Witcher developer CD Projekt RED has also released its own basic English-language text guide to its mod tools, available here, and of course there is the official Wiki.

While the Witcher 2 is well-known for its incredible visuals, dark story, and comically strange characters, I was always fascinated by the sartorial side of the 2011 RPG. I would wander through the game world, finish every quest, and speak with every NPC, always with the hope that I might be able to find the perfect looking, and yet still incredibly effective, leather jacket. Maybe someday I'll get to fashion my own set of armor for Geralt that feels as ready for the circus as the battlefield.

You'll find Part 1 of Benzenzimmern's story-crafting video below. The image above is from Benzenzimmern's Lykaon mod via redkit.cdprojektred.com

Now that the Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt RED has opened its mod tools beta to the public, we get to see some of what was going on behind the scenes during the closed-beta phase. Moddb.com has an interview with the author of the closed beta's best mod, Philipp Weber aka Benzenzimmern.

Benzenzimmern reports that he worked in tandem with his girlfriend to complete the mod, called Lykaon, but he also got some help that was, for him, unexpected. He says the participants of the closed beta were in direct contact with the Witcher 2 developers as they figured out how to take advantage of the new mod tools.

"I imagined that I don't work with them at all," said Benzenzimmern in the interview. "I thought they would just give us some tools, maybe some tutorials and that's it. In reality we had a lot of help from CD Projekt, especially from one guy known as "Banan"—Paweł Panasiuk. I guess I couldn't have done anything if it wasn't for him. Sometimes we talked everyday about questions and ideas."

Lykaon has also been selected as the REDkit's first mod of the month, according to the beta's official page. Although technically unfinished, Benzenzimmern's mod offers new quest content and geography to explore within the Witcher universe of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. And yes, your favorite sidekick Dandelion is involved. Despite writing new dialogue for Geralt and company, the mod currently lacks voice acting and Benzenzimmern is on the hunt for voice talent to help him finish the project.

With CDProjekt RED having already outlined its development roadmap as we await the release of the Witcher 3, it's great to see such close collaboration between the modding community and a developer.

After last week's false start, CD Projekt RED have now officially released The Witcher 2's mod tool, REDKit. It's a powerful looking suite, giving you the opportunity to design quests, build lands, create NPCs, customise combat and "plant realistic forests in just a few clicks." That last one is probably the limit of what I'd be able to achieve.

In addition to the creation tools, the corresponding 3.4 patch for The Witcher 2 has been released. Called REDKit (Gamer's Edition), it adds a mod manager into the game, letting you sample the community's creations. Once the community have actually made some.

Here's REDKit's official trailer, for those who love both game editing tools and HEAVY ROCK:



You can download REDKit here.

Yesterday morning, the site for the Witcher 2's official modding tools, REDKit, accidentally went live for a brief period of time. The domain was quickly put under password protection, but direct links to the files themselves were still available for some time afterward, and are currently circulating in peer-to-peer channels. CD Projekt RED has clarified that the files were not meant to be available until Monday, but those who have already downloaded them are free to start going to town.

"Just a word of clarification.... We were running some tests on the website and it went public for a brief moment," Community Manager Marcin Momont explained on the official forums. "Those of you who have downloaded the REDkit files—have fun—they are official so don't worry!"

Polygon reports that the direct links were finally killed due to "poor performance," and that CD Projekt plans to go live with new ones on Monday for the official release. It's currently still possible to get the released files from someone else who downloaded them, but as always, be cautious about the source. There are likely to be fake versions lurking around infected with malware and other nastiness that won't enhance your modding experience.

Oh, and there's a new trailer for REDKit, which you can have a look at way back at the top, there. If you're hoping to see what some modders have already done in the closed beta for the toolset, look no further than this batch of screens.