Continuing a (mostly) in-character diary of my adventures in The Witcher 3. No spoilers in this one.>

It’s in the trees. It’s coming. I’m coming. A grizzled thunderbolt, sprinting fury and hunger, a destination in mind but a supreme willingness to be distracted by anything en route. Snatch flowers, hurdle fences, charge and charge, looking for trouble, hoping for trouble. … [visit site to read more]

If you hadn’t guessed from the fact that developers CD Projekt RED have just released one of the finest, biggest, and prettiest open-world RPGs I’ve seen in a jolly long time, their other big RPG won’t be along any time soon. But how soon is not-soon, and how soon is now? When can we play, or at least see, Cyberpunk 2077 [official site]?

I wouldn’t expect to hear anything substantial about the game this year and maybe next, going by recent comments. We live in the time of The Witcher, you see.

… [visit site to read more]

I haven’t posted about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] since I started playing it so, as I won’t write any diaries or reviews or thinkpieces about it, please allow me a moment to say: oh my gosh isn’t it great? I only have a few words here so I’ll quickly say I’m delighted to see colours in an 18-rated game. The sunrises, sunsets, days, fields, buildings, decor – everything! it’s all so pretty.

Now, the news: developers CD Projekt RED today released the third and fourth free DLC bits for their RPG, bringing a new outfit for Yennefer and a new quest.

… [visit site to read more]

Continuing a (mostly) in-character diary of my adventures in The Witcher 3. Probably contains spoilers. N.B. critical opinion & technical complaints are happening elsewhere on the site.>

Hands up if you’re not a jerk. No-one? Thought not.

… [visit site to read more]

Continuing a (mostly) in-character diary of my adventures in The Witcher 3 [official site]. Probably contains spoilers. N.B. critical opinion & technical complaints are happening elsewhere on the site.>

I’m going on a bear hunt.I’m going to catch a big one.What a beautiful day!I’m not scared.

I’m also wearing nothing but my underpants. … [visit site to read more]

Note – some of the below images may constitute spoilers, if you’ve avoided most of the trailers and whatnot. >

Guess what I’m playing at the moment! [The Witcher 3? –Obviousness Ed] I’m actually feeling a touch trapped by it, caught between the need to get a review out and my enjoyment of just ambling around and doing Witcher stuff rather than barreling down the core path. It’s coming though! It’s coming as soon as I can, and you can probably tell that it’s going to be quite positive without the need for any fancy Witcher senses. One of the many things I’m appreciating about it though is something I’ve long found frustratingly missing from RPGs. I’m talking about respect – not for players, but for the monsters.

… [visit site to read more]

Why in the name of all that’s good and hairy do I care so much about having the Fancy Hair setting turned on in The Witcher 3? I can pretty much max out everything except that and shadow quality and be running it not too far shy of the hallowed 60 FPS, and frankly it looks extremely pretty, but I nonetheless struggle to accept that I’m missing out on a wavy ponytail or wind-ruffled bears. After so many years of flat, plasticky hair, don’t I deserve some fluttering?

A new patch for CDP’s RPG professes to further improve the performance of the GPU-slaying HairFX setting, as well as up texture quality and improve stability. Let’s see if Meer’s Fancy Hair Dream can come true. … [visit site to read more]

Continuing a (mostly) in-character diary of my adventures in The Witcher 3. Probably contains spoilers. N.B. critical opinion & technical complaints are happening elsewhere on the site.>

I got a man hanged today.

… [visit site to read more]

Update: that big ‘600 fixes’ patch was actually the launch day update, RED have clarified. Also, patch 1.03 just came out with performance improvements and graphics settings tweaks. So, the ini-editing patch… soonish?

If you have a snarling panther of a PC, a rig which belches black smoke, a box with so much airflow it hovers two inches above your floor, good news: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt [official site] will add options to make it even prettier. A future patch will expose editing .ini files to turn up flora density, push out draw distances, fiddle with post-processing effects like sharpening, and more.

… [visit site to read more]

Richard is handling opinions on The Witcher 3 [official site] (including tech issues and similar fun), but as a man without 200-odd hours to spare on questing, quaffing, sexing and beard-growing, I shall instead run a (mostly) in-character diary series covering my adventures in, presumably, just the earlier stages of CDP’s saucy roleplayer. But for the record, it runs OK if I turn Fancy Hair off but it has crashed twice so far. … [visit site to read more]