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.

Earlier this week, CD Projekt RED posted a gallery of closed beta creations built with its REDkit mod tools. Oh, the places we'll go! Experienced modders accepted into the beta program have already used The Witcher 2 tinkering suite to sculpt cliffs, lakes, and rivers lavished with robust forests.

I'm ready to lace up my hiking boots, and according to the official REDkit page, the tools should be out of closed beta soon. Until then, fill your eyes with more green screens:

It's the perfect storm: April Fools' Day and a Bank Holiday Monday. It's all but guaranteed that the only news to come out of developers or publishers today will be wrapped in japes and hijinks. Ah well, if you can't beat 'em, report 'em. That's what my nan used to say. She was a notorious snitch.

Read on for an ambitious Minecraft update, a surprising Starcraft balance patch, and the return of the most terrifying game of recent years. Everything you're about to read is a lie. Unless it isn't, and we're being meta-April fooled into thinking it is. Oh god, when will it end?

Deus Ex: Human Defiance



"Introducing Deus Ex: Human Defiance, the first adventures of Adam Jensen in full, glorious 8-bit. Human Revolution brought about the cyber-Renaissance, Human Defiance marks the beginning of a Digital Golden Age. Human Revolution was all about triangles. Now we're doubling down, flipping one over and revelling at its brand new form: the square... the pixel. It's a natural evolution!"

Very good guys. Now stop messing around and make this.

World of Tanks vs. Zombies



The scariest part of this update is the marriage of the words "zombie" and "escort" in one press release: "World of Tanks will feature the Zombie Escort survival mode, where players will have to navigate from point A to point B, while fighting their way through swarms of zombies. The new mode is aimed at a more hardcore audience, as it requires extra skills from tankmen. Among other tricks, the undead enemy will be able to infect the tank crew, damage external modules, and block the main gun." The horror.

Dishonored



In this revealing Dishonored commentary, co-creators Raf Colantonio and Harvey Smith explain just how deep Dishonored's simulation goes. Includes: "Many, many useless conversations."

Starcraft 2: The Warhound Returns



The Warhound - a Terran mech planned for release in Heart of the Swarm, but scrapped in multiplayer for being rubbish against Zerg - is back. The Blizzard post announcing their return is a beautiful lampooning of the community's more petulant complaints:

"After watching the MLG Winter Championship, we noticed that Life was able to beat Flash a little too easily in the finals. Had Flash been able to build Warhounds, our favorite race (Terran) may have won the tournament. As usual, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision based on this match and immediately set about rebalancing the game."

Load up the game, and you'll find the mechs have replaced every faction's standard worker unit. GG, Blizz.

Crusader Kings Z





A brief one from Paradox: the above screenshots were posted to the Crusader Kings 2 Facebook page announcing their zombie sequel. If you're listening Paradox, I would totally play this.

Europa Universalis: The Musical



Paradox also revealed the next step in grand strategy, courtesy of Europa Universalis: The Musical. Not only can you see a glimpse of its making in the video above, but you also get to download the ditties from their forums. They are ridiculously catchy, to a song.

Minecraft 2.0



Mojang not only announce a mammoth 2.0 update for Minecraft, but also give it to the community so they can make a plethora of update videos. The one I've embedded above isn't necessarily the best, but it is short - which makes it a winner in my book.

Also on the announcement page are the "planned" patch notes. Special commendation to Mojang for this tight layering of nonsense:


"Overhauled fishing mechanics.
"New special types of fish may be found in various different biomes.
"Fish may become scared if too much noise is made nearby.
"Added 28 new achievements for fishing.
"Rare chance for extra items to drop when fishing, such as armor and maps.
"Removed fishing.
"Having a fish in your possession will drain your health by 1 each second, to help phase out fishing."

Football Manager 1888





Those screenshot mock-ups are sublime, and there are more available on this announcement page for Sports Interactive's Football Manager 1888.

"You will experience real life problems of the era, such as; players being called up to the army leaving you with a hole in your squad and players having to retire from football with immediate effect following a serious injury."

Again: I would absolutely buy this.

GOG Go Retro



GOG solve the problem of being a service called Good Old Games, yet hosting suspiciously recent looking titles in its catalogue. The RetroMeter 4000 imagines a world in which the Witcher 2 was a low-res, chunky UI'd classic.

Bonus points for a feature list that's full of light-hearted snark: "Eliminate the regenerating health/shields and limited weapon inventories from shooters. Add back in the other 8 gun slots that Carmack intended!"

Creepy Watson 2



The weird Watson AI in Sherlock Holmes Nemesis led to the original Creepy Watson back in 2008. In an admirably self-deprecating move, Focus Interactive have released a trailer for Creepy Watson: The Return. It may be a joke, but it's still ten times scarier than Slenderman.

Super Adventure Box



ArenaNet go the extra mile, with a full Guild Wars 2 update that adds a new 8-bit instance. Chris has the details here.

That's your lot... for now. Inevitably more will crop up throughout the day. Pop any good stunts you've seen in the comments, and I'll add in the best.

CD Projekt RED have outlined their upcoming development roadmap in a corporate report posted to their site. It's a wide-ranging list of plans, including things we already knew about (The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077's release), things we at PC Gamer highly approve of (fuller mod support and long-term Witcher 3 update plans), and things we at PC Gamer highly disapprove of (mobile games?!)

It also makes mention of two smaller games supporting one of their product lines. No further details are available, but presumably that means spin-off titles for either The Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk 2077. Amazingly, CD Projekt RED define "smaller" as around 20 hours of game time. Please, nobody tell them how long most games really are these days.

CD Projekt sent Kotaku the translated version of the roadmap:

Open REDkit beta and further support the modding community.
Premiere of the first non-computer game set in the Witcher world.
Launch of a local branch of CD Projekt RED in the United States, focused on marketing and PR for both Americas, especially the US.
2014-2016 - launch of The Witcher 3 for at least three strong platforms including PC and PS4.
Launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
Two smaller (about 20 hours of gameplay) but top-quality games supporting one of the product lines.
A cross-platform mobile game based on one of CDPR's brands.
Start of license sales for REDengine.
Long-term Witcher 3 support involving completely new mechanics.
Launch of the full version of the REDkit and further modding community support.
Launch of further local CDPR branches in key territories.

And don't worry mobile games, I love you really. And by "you", I mean Drop7.

Cloud gaming service OnLive was rumored to have laid off the entirety of its staff last August, leading to speculation of the company closing up shop for good after reports surfaced of an alleged bankruptcy filing. Now, OnLive chairman Gary Lauder writes a blog post to clear up confusions over the company's future, calling upon Mark Twain's "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

"When the restructuring of OnLive happened in August, many misunderstood it to mean that the service and company were shutting down," Lauder writes. "Neither occurred, nor did we go bankrupt. We should have communicated better. As Mark Twain wrote, 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.' Same with us. Our service continued without interruption both in the USA and overseas, and we have about 90 employees."

So, OnLive's still alive. Lauder also mentions that more games and publishers are being added to the service's library, with the The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings being the most recent addition last month. He plans to expand the platform for use in businesses, government, and other organizations, saying, "The game service and the desktop are two great examples of what can be done with OnLive's core technology, but they are just the beginning."

CD Projekt Red's devotion for the PC shines through its stance on piracy and DRM as well as its dedication to packing a powerful graphical punch in its Witcher games, but it's also devoted to taking advantage of the most power from whichever platform offers it. In a GamesIndustry interview, studio head Adam Badowski suggests the PC's dominance "might change in the future" as console hardware catches up.

"The PC was the lead platform for Witcher 2 because it was the most powerful, but that might change in the future," he says. "The PC allows for more at the moment, but new platforms are stepping up. In the future, it should be much easier to unify the requirements. Some things, like control schemes, will still need to be tailored to the platforms but the new platforms will unify requirements.

Badowski goes on to explain CD Projekt's stance of tailoring their efforts to "maximize the quality for each platform" and to "use their particular strengths and weaknesses." Larger technical decisions such as DirectX 11 and 64-bit support are made globally, but each platform gets treated differently.

"Usually the weakest platform dictates the quality for all platforms, but high-quality visuals are our trademark, so we need to approach each platform as individually as possible," Badowski says.

From what we've seen so far of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Geralt's final monster-slaying adventure, the capabilities of CD Projekt Red's engine looks powerful indeed.