The Witcher 2's hotly anticipated 2.0 patch, perhaps its witchiest to date, is just around the corner, but CD Projekt's not letting Geralt hang up his monster-killing swords and lady-killing, well, equipment just yet. There's plenty more on the way, the developer said during the Eurogamer Expo. As for precisely when it's coming, well, that's a bit less clear.

"We still have at least one big title ahead of us in The Witcher franchise," designer and writer Jan Bartkowicz told Eurogamer. "All I can say is - outside of when the preproduction starts and finishes - with the story team we were probably in preproduction for The Witcher 3 during making The Witcher 2."

He then went on to say more than "all" he could say:

"Of course we're not announcing anything. We cannot say, I cannot say - I don't know if it's going to be The Witcher 3 or something else that covers the story, but there's probably going to be some releases in the future."

In the meantime, though, The Witcher 2 2.0 is hardly the incredible fantasy sequel's swan song.

"All I can say is we're planning on releasing something," Bartkowicz explained. " not the last update for The Witcher 2. That's what I can assure you."

A new update has landed for The Witcher 2. Evil Avatar spotted the fix list on The Witcher 2 site where the patch is available to download now. It makes a number of small but useful fixes to a few quests, some scientists in Flotsam get proper names and, importantly, "Game exe files are no longer treated as a threat by popular antivirus software." You'll find the full patch notes below.


Issue with shadows in 3D Vision mode has been resolved.
Screenshots to savegames made in 3D Vision are now visible in load menu.
Issue with Steam achievements not being registered has been resolved.
Blood texture glitches in game with ubersampling option turned on have been fixed.
Pocket item counter is properly updated after picking up an item which is already selected.
Issue with ingredient counter when brewing multiple Thunderbolt potions has been resolved.
Finished “Scent of incencse” quest is no longer marked as failed when entering Loredo’s residence at the end of Chapter 1.
Corrections have been made in the greater mutagen drop rate.
Deleting savegame after entering memories and flashbacks menu no longer causes “Loading available flashbacks” message to appear.
Game exe files are no longer treated as a threat by popular antivirus software.
Patching the game automatically right after installation no longer causes Launcher.exe error on Windows XP systems.
Game installation folder is not recognized if diacritic signs were used in folder name on Windows which doesn’t support them. Patch now properly informs about the cause of the problem.
Name of two scientists in Flotsam have been corrected.
Storage chest description have been corrected.
Description of Mahakaman Rune Sihill imported from The Witcher savegame have been corrected.

 

The upcoming 1.3 patch for The Witcher 2 will add free DLC, according to a new post on The Witcher 2 site. The new DLC will slot add some bonus witchering to chapter two, with a quest called "A Sackful of Fluff," and "will prove most rewarding to those who demonstrate patience." There's no news on what the quest will contain. Hopefully witches.

The patch will also fix a lot of UI irritations. A much needed "junk" section in your items menu should help avoid the embarrassing situation where Geralt is carrying so many looted toenails he can't physically move any more. If you simply must keep all of those toenails, inns now provide item storage. Haters of annoying imp creatures will also be pleased to know that a "problem with some nekkers being immortal has been resolved," and a random woman in Vergen will be pleased to hear that "option to fist fight woman praying at a statue in Vergen has been deactivated." Full patch notes follow.


New FREE DLC - "A Sackful of Fluff" is a new quest in Chapter 2 of the game. To start the quest, visit the eccentric Elthon, who inhabits a solitary hut near the quarry outside Vergen. The quest will prove most rewarding to those who demonstrate patience.
Game now supports 4:3, 5:4, 16:10 aspect ratios.
Item storage has been added. Players can now store items from their Inventory at inns. To leave items in storage or collect previously stored items, talk to innkeepers.
A Junk‟ panel has been added to Inventory to provide greater clarity in item classification.
New menu option added in Extras‟ - enables players to view in-game animated sequences (flashbacks, memory flashes, dreams stolen by harpies) outside of the game.
A Quickload option has been added under the F9 key.
The game's HUD can now be hidden in order to produce HUD-free screenshots! On newly installed game copies, the option to hide/show the HUD is available by default under the 'H' key. Users who have modified the key assignments on their installations should go to the 'Input Settings' dialogue of the Witcher 2 Configuration Tool to assign a key to this option. Please note that the game cannot be played with the HUD hidden.
Issue involving the game not running at 2560x1440 resolution has been resolved.
Issues with nVidia 3D Vision technology have been resolved. Players no longer need to uninstall the related drivers.
Key bindings have been corrected to enable configuration of mouse buttons for use by left-handed players.
Assorted key binding options have been added to facilitate configuration of controls and quick access to various in-game panels.
Issue related to game settings being reset to defaults upon patch installation has been resolved. Patches no longer reset game settings.
The configuration file is no longer over-written when the launcher/configuration tool is patched and over-written.
The launcher now closes while the game is being patched, thus eliminating the resulting game patching error.
The launcher now closes completely and no longer continues to operate in the background.
Installed game version is invalid or incomplete‟ error in updater when free space on system drive is insufficient - message has been corrected to reflect more accurately the nature of the error.
Mutagens are now alchemy ingredients. Minor mutagens drop more frequently than do major mutagens, though the overall mutagen drop rate has been reduced.
Corrections have been made in the mutagen drop rate and in Thorak‟s store.
The dragon section of Prologue does not become available until after all assault-related sections have been completed, thereby softening the difficulty curve at the start of the game.
During the fight against the kayran, when the bridge collapses, a map pin appears at the end of the bridge to facilitate player navigation and quest completion.
Map pins have been corrected in many quests.
Quen Sign slightly de-buffed - Sign dissipates 20% faster after foes land a blow. Assorted minor balance issues related to this Sign have also been resolved.
Issue with Dragon's Dream bombs has been resolved. Damage to bosses from cast daggers has been reduced by one-half.
Several optimization improvements have been made in the tavern in Vergen.
Problem with music accompanying stealth sequences has been resolved.
Issue related to arm wrestling Bart Bargee has been resolved. Players can no longer win coin from this character endlessly.
Option to fist fight woman praying at a statue in Vergen has been deactivated.
Mini-game contestants at one of the in-game taverns now switch positions correctly without blocking one another.
Problem involving Fenn‟s sword in combat has been resolved.
Problems with herbalist's gloves have been resolved.
In the Prologue, Geralt retains his steel long sword throughout, i.e., he is no longer automatically equipped with his default sword for the Assault‟ sequence.
Problem with some nekkers being immortal has been resolved.
Issue with triggered black screens blocking game progress has been resolved.
Interactions no longer appear on nekker nests after these have been destroyed.
The "Scent of Incense" quest no longer shows up as failed after being completed successfully.
Sudden switch to gameplay just prior to cut scene involving Cynthia and Philippa has been eliminated.
Triss, Roche and Iorveth are now de-spawned before the final credits roll.
Guard pacing cycles have been corrected.
The Redanian messenger in Henselt‟s tent can no longer be killed, preventing him from re-spawning.
Elf woman in Vergen no longer strikes a T-pose.
Rotfiends feeding on corpses no longer re-spawn after corpse is burned.
Several fixes have been made in the functioning of in-game populaces.
Numerous problems with cameras in dialogue sequences have been resolved.
Assorted corrections have been made in dialogue sequences (including King Foltest‟s gestures on the town walls in the Prologue).
A progression break in the In the Claws of Madness quest has been eliminated
 

We like being the first to tell you about a game. It's rare, though, that we announce something that's a mere two months away. Flying Wild Hog, a new studio, is releasing its debut game this September. It's called Hard Reset, and it's a PC-exclusive "dark sci-fi" FPS. Roughly, it's Blade Runner, The Matrix, and Painkiller rolled into a single-player-only flour tortilla.

Like some kind of Polish, game-developing Voltron, Flying Wild Hog was formed from members of People Can Fly (Painkiller), CD Projekt RED (The Witcher 2), and City Interactive (Sniper: Ghost Warrior). Read on for more details, the first trailer, and first screenshots.




Pre-emptively asked questions:

What's the engine?
Proprietary, impressively enough. It's called "Road Hog." And because a built-from-scratch engine is a serious investment, we'll probably see more games on it from the developer.

What's the plot?
Hostile robot takeover. Only one human city remains--the bastion of Bezoar. It's here that Major Fletcher, your character (the guy with the laser eye patch), takes to arms against the robot hordes.

When, and how much?
September 2011. Pricing isn't announced, though we'd suspect it'll fall somewhere between AAA releases like Battlefield 3 and lighter-weight "downloadable" FPSes.

Do they have a website, Facebook, and Twitter thing I can click on?
Yup, yes, and indeed.








I think this announcement was just pick-me-up we needed to brighten up the moody weather that's circling San Francisco. We'll have a hands-on preview of Hard Reset in our next issue, and an exclusive Q&A with Flying Wild Hog later this week. Full press release, including plot details, follow:

Flying Wild Hog Announces Hard Reset, a Dark Sci-Fi Shooter for PC
Polish Studio Comprised of Painkiller, Bulletstorm and Witcher 2 Vets Announces its Atmospheric and Action-Packed Cyberpunk Debut

Warsaw, Poland – July 13. Flying Wild Hog announced its debut game, the dark sci-fi first-person shooter, Hard Reset. The PC-exclusive title transports players to a haunting, dystopian future, with humanity on the verge of extinction, confined to its last standing city and under constant threat from the robotic hordes that aim to annihilate mankind. Hard Reset is scheduled for release in September 2011.

In the only remaining human city of Bezoar, Major Fletcher, an Army Combat Veteran and soldier of the CLN, is dragged into a conflict between two of mankind's greatest enemies. He is to discover that nothing is what it seems to be.

Hard Reset may be Flying Wild Hog’s debut title, but the 35-person studio is comprised of veterans of Warsaw’s bustling development scene, with past experience at such renowned developers as People Can Fly, CD Projekt RED and City Interactive, where they worked on acclaimed games like Bulletstorm, Painkiller, The Witcher 2, Sniper and more. Hard Reset is built upon the studio’s own Road Hog technology, which delivers stunning visuals that bring the game’s incredible atmosphere to life.

Given the game’s rapidly approaching release date, expect much more information and footage of Hard Reset in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, visit http://hardresetgame.com and follow the game’s progress on Twitter and Facebook.

The recent Steam Summer Camp Sale has brought new achievements and in-game rewards, along with a bumper selection of cheap games. Today is "Encore Day!" Unless Valve go for a stadium-satisfying multi-encore finish, it's your final chance to download a bargain. All the games are picked from the week's top sellers.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 for £4.99/$7.50, Terraria for £2.99/$4.99 and Magicka for £2.71/$3.39? Yes please. Click through for more details of today's deals.

You've got just over six hours to grab these bargains:


Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition - £7.50/$7.50

Just Cause 2 - £3.49/$4.99

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - £5.00/$7:50

Sanctum - £2.49/$3.75

Portal 2 - £14.99/$24.99

Dawn of War: Retribution - £14.99/$14.99

Total War: Shogun 2 - £17.99/$29.99

The Witcher 2 - £23.44/$33.49

Terraria - £2.99/$4.99

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - £14.99/$19.99

Fallout New Vegas - £8.99/$14.99

Two Worlds 2 - £8.50/$17.00

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City - £6.24/$9.99

Magicka - £2.71/$3.39

 
What's the best bargain you've ever picked up in a Steam sale? Back in 2008, £6.99 was a great price for Team Fortress 2. How naive.

Gamepur are reporting that Namco Bandai, who published the retail version of the Witcher 2 in Europe, have filed a lawsuit against the game's developers, CD Projekt RED, for breach of contract. The suit alleges that the developers broke contract twice, firstly by removing DRM from retail versions of The Witcher 2 and secondly by switching publishers to THQ for the console version of the game.

Adam Kicinski, CEO of CD Projekt RED said: "As with most cases, we first tried to end the dispute peacefully. Attempts failed and because of this, we hoped that our partner would send the case to the court. The agreement that we signed last year, concerned only the distribution of “The Witcher 2 for PC. The records were carefully clarified to avoid any ambiguity.

Regarding the partnership with THQ he said: "Namco Bandai have options when choosing the priority of our distributor’s version of the Xbox 360. It could use, but not taken advantage of certain preferences. In this situation, we chose the offer that THQ made us." Adding: "Our financial situation is very good at the moment and the lack of a few million does not have any impact on current activities. Withholding of payments means only that after some time, our partner will have to give us the money."

"I hope that the whole thing will end with a pre-litigation settlement. If it doesn’t, I am sure that we will win the case and then the loser will pay for our lawyers."

Our Witcher 2 review can be found here or check out our tweaks guide.

The 1.2 Patch for The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings came out today, and with it the DLC "Barbers and Coiffeuses" which allows Geralt to... change his hairstyle. Which I think we can all agree is what the game was really missing.

Full Patch notes within.


All previously released DLC packages are installed with Patch 1.2
Patch 1.2 adds a new free DLC package titled “Barbers and Coiffeuses.” To take advantage of barbershop and hairstyling services, look for Einar Gausel in Chapter 1 of the game, Sambor in Henselt’s Camp in Chapter 2, Felicia Cori in Chapter 2 if you travel to Vergen, and Felicia Cori once again in Chapter 3.
Game saves are now compressed automatically, lowering the amount of disk space they utilize.
An option has been added to the game menu allowing game saves to be deleted. To delete a game save, highlight the relevant item and press the ‘Delete’ key.
The game menu now loads at a markedly accelerated pace.
The game now supports Logitech G35 headphones and other USB headsets with on-board sound cards.
A number of fixes have been added to the key binding functionality (actions can now be mapped to number pad and cursor/arrow keys).
Analog sticks on gamepads now work correctly in the GUI panels.
A number of game balance fixes have been introduced in the Prologue.
Lock on targets is not lost when the distance to targets increases.
A number of fixes have been made in blocking functionality during combat. Also, player character responsiveness in combat has been improved, and Geralt can attack more than one target during normal combat.
A number of corrections have been made in the statistics displayed in item diagrams in the Crafting panel.
The Witcher 1 saves are now imported correctly.
An auto–save has been added before the fight against the draug.
Flare bomb duration is now 2 (two) minutes.
Issue involving the equipping of bombs (or other items) even if they were not present in the character Inventory has been fixed.
Islamic–themed and similar textures have been deleted and/or replaced.
A number of fixes have been made in game dialogues.
Issue that blocked advancement to the next level at the start of Chapter 3 has been fixed.
Issue involving the occurrence of T-poses upon the destruction of nekker nests has been corrected.
Guards can no longer block Geralt when he is on a ladder.
Knives no longer affect friendly NPCs.
Bug related to using some containers has been fixed.
Ostmurk (an ingredient required to complete a quest) can no longer be sold.
Ingredients required to complete the “Melitele's Heart” quest have been added to the game.
A fix has been introduced in the “Troll Trouble” quest whereby the she–troll’s head can be won in a game of dice poker.
The Ghost of the Banner can no longer be killed by wraiths.
Issue involving the Operator being neutral and thus susceptible to being killed before any conversation occurs has been fixed.
A number of fixes have been introduced to prevent selected NPCs from being blocked (king in siege tower, knights when destroying a gate in the Prologue, etc.).
The “Three Sisters” quest has been fixed so that the door does not remain locked forever once the quest has been completed.
A number of progression breaks have been fixed, including instances of blocked meditation, inability to save game, and blocked combat after use of static cameras (e.g. game could not be saved after completion of the “Indecent Proposal” quest).
The progression break during the fight against the dragon in Chapter 3 (exploration not working properly) has been fixed.
The progression break during the fight against Dethmold (whereby he sometimes remained behind his barrier, doing nothing) has been fixed.
The progression break (black screen) in the "Little Shop of Dreams" quest has been fixed.
The progression break following failure to complete the ritual with Anezka has been fixed.
The progression break during the dialogue on the beach in the “Hung Over” quest has been fixed.

 
Aaaaannndd breath.

That's a lot of patch.

CD Projekt were planning to release the first major patch for the Witcher 2 yesterday, but an unexpected problem has delayed the launch. A message on The Witcher 2 site tells the story. "The good news is that the patch is ready. The bad news is that we have encountered some problems with the server infrastructure, making downloading DLCs impossible." There's no revised date for the patch, yet. "We will update you when we know more," reads the official announcement. The patch notes promise to make significant performance improvements of up to 30% for owners of the retail edition.

The first patch for The Witcher 2 is set to go live this evening. The update contains fixes for problems some players are having with free DLC downloads, and key remapping now extends to arrow and number keys, but the most welcome improvements will be the ones made to the game's performance.

CD Projekt say that there will be between 5% and 30% framerate improvement for most players, especially those with the retail version of the game. CD Projekt are also planning another patch for next week, which will hopefully tackle the difficulty issues encountered by many players. Get the full patch notes below.

To squeeze even more frames per second out of your copy of The Witcher 2, check out our Witcher 2 tweak guide.

Patch 1.1

Simpler and more reliable game installation and activation. Details to be revealed soon.
Fixed the free Troll Trouble DLC download. It is now included n the patch so there's no need to download and install it separately.
Fixed an issue that prevented some users from downloading other free DLCs (the ones given out with some pre-orders, special promotions, etc). The launcher now properly refreshes the list of available DLCs and allows for installation.
Performance improvements: approximately 5% to 30% better framerate and faster game loading for many users, depending on their individual systems and game versions. Owners of retail versions can expect the biggest improvements.
Fixed random crashes occurring on some systems, especially after saving and loading saves.
Key mapping – allows the arrow and number keys to be used for movement.
Added the option to invert the mouse.
nVidia surround vision now works properly.
More accurate assessment provided by the "auto-detect settings" option will help improve game performance.
Removed a bug that prevented completion of the "Blood Curse" quest.
Fixed a bug that prevented the additional link in "Extras" from being unlocked after winning the dice game against the GOG.com monk.
GOG.com credits now work properly.

 

The Witcher 2 is one of the most beautiful games you'll play this year, but getting it to run well can be problematic. To switch on every graphical option and crank up the fidelity, you'll need a beast of a computer. For everything else, follow this guide to squeezing a few more frames per second out of the action without compromising its ability to impress you.

First things first: When you have to choose between frame-rate and graphics, choose frame-rate. The Witcher 2 is incredibly sensitive to choppy action during combat, where timing is absolutely essential and you will die if you can't respond immediately to what's happening on screen.

One of the most common recommendations on Nvidia systems is to go into Control Panel and remove the 3D specific drivers. Both Nvidia and ATI systems have issues at the moment, but should be fixed with the first patches - due out very soon. Don't try to fiddle with the visual options from the Control Panel, as you're only likely to end up staring at half-rendered screens.

Most of the options in the Settings application go without saying. It currently seems to struggle with getting the right balance for many systems though, so take its definitions of Low, Medium, High and Ultra with a grain of salt. As ever, the higher quality you set effects like shadows, the slower your game will be, you'll get a big boost by changing down the resolution (at the expense of the graphics looking much more smeared), and the smaller the textures the game has to deal with, the better it'll handle lower spec graphics cards. If you're on anything less than a decent dual core with a graphics card from the last couple of years that has at least 1GB of RAM, along with 4GB of regular memory, expect to have to compromise to get a decent frame rate as well as snappy looks - although even on the lower settings, The Witcher 2's raw assets makes it look a hell of a lot better than most other RPGs.

By far the biggest performance killer is Ubersampling. If you don't have a monster PC, switch it off immediately. Next, if you're getting a lot of crashes, turn the texture memory size down a couple of notches - especially if you're trying to run on less than 1GB of video memory (which really, you shouldn't be). Switch off the rarely used Blur effects, including Motion Blur, and deactivate regular Depth of Field. The Cinematic version may help too, but only kicks in for dialogue and cut-scenes where a steady frame-rate isn't required. You can also happily switch off Vertical Sync, which won't make much difference to the game, but will boost your performance by a good chunk. Keep SSAO active if you can.

With all these switched off, fire up the game. You want - at minimum - a decent 20-25FPS if the game is going to be playable. (If you don't have a dedicated frame counter, try FRAPS). The opening cut-scene of Geralt in the woods isn't an ideal test for this. See how the performance is during the opening flashbacks by leaping into a fight and watching how well the system performs. The easiest way to do this is to jump into the second of the flashbacks, which begins with a pitched battle. The animations and controls are already clunkier than many other games, so don't expect perfect smoothness out of the game. It's worth making a savegame just before this fight so that you can jump straight back into the action - as long as you don't leave the siege tower, you should be able to do this with no problem. Once you've confirmed that this is running okay, head back and start turning the graphical options back on, saving Ubersampling for last (possibly compensating by dropping other settings, like antialiasing).

For other tweaks, you need to leave the setting screen. If you need to invert the mouse, open the user.ini file in your Witcher 2 directory, find 'MouseSensitivityY" and change it to a negative number.

Moving away from performance, the first mods have only just started to come out - but a few are worth grabbing. The first is Remove Intros, which gets rid of the eighteen billion pointless cut-scenes every time you start the game up. We also suggest checking out Zero Item Weight, which is something of a cheat, but not one that will actually impact the game very much, except to save you the bother of having to clean house using the ghastly inventory UI when you just want to pick up a new bit of armour. There's also an Increased Capacity Mod if you don't want to take things that far. Neither is essential, but you might find them useful. The other mods out there are the moment are much cheatier, including the ability to slap mutagens onto all of your skills (a major game unbalancer) and to make potions and oils last longer (less problematic, since ingredients are very rarely in short supply - but definitely not in keeping with the point of the alchemy system). The game is already unbalanced enough without these though, especially when this stuff would kick in, so we'd suggest steering clear for the moment.

Have you found any tweaks that helped you get better performance? Share them here...