Ray tracing is the hot new thing in video game graphics - so hot in fact that Sony's already announced the PlayStation 5 will be capable of it. So we're starting to see existing games with the tech enabled - with impressive results.

Digital Foundry has already reported on Half-Life 2, Minecraft and Crysis with ray tracing enabled. But I wanted to point to a couple of videos that show what Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Witcher 3 look like with ray tracing.

First up we have Grand Theft Auto 5 with ray tracing. You can really see the improvement in lighting in Rockstar's open world epic, particularly with the car parked under the freeway. I also love what it does to the house interior - the tables look fantastic!

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Netflix has confirmed that its Witcher television adaptation will air toward the end of this year, putting it a little ahead of its originally anticipated 2020 release date.

The news comes via a Netflix investor call, as reported by Deadline, in which chief content officer Ted Sarandso revealed that the fantasy drama would arrive in Q4, narrowing its launch down to some time in the last three months of 2019.

Netflix's series, if you're unfamiliar, is explicitly based on Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels, rather than CD Projeckt's video game adaptation, with Sapkowski serving as creative consultant. Showrunning and writing duties are being handled by Lauren Hissrich.

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Earlier today, I drove to a place in North Dublin called Tower Bay, which is about five minutes from my house in Donabate - a small seaside town in Ireland.

Breathtaking cliffs leave you mesmerised as you walk down the path that has been carved into the cliff-face. It terminates at a gorgeous sandy beach. Along the way, you can view thundering waves lapping and locking, crashing together and falling apart, over and over again. Rocks jut upwards from unseeable depths, around which white foam shimmers. This is the landscape the archipelago of The Witcher 3's Skellige was based upon.

Skellige, named after real-life Irish islands Sceilg Mhic l and Sceilg Bheag - collectively known as the Skellig Islands - depicts a wild beauty that is truly Irish. From the familial clans to the rain-soaked hills painted a striking green, the rugged and treacherous landscape recalls the otherworldly presence of places like Connemara, the Cliffs of Moher and of course, the Skellig Islands themselves. In fact, Skellige has its own pair of Skellig Islands in The Witcher 3: Ard Skellig and An Skellig. The former means High Skellig in Irish, whereas the latter simply means The Skellig, resembling the Greater and Lesser Skelligs in reality.

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UPDATE 4PM GMT: Netflix has also confirmed a number of the other actors joining The Witcher cast, including the actress who'll play iconic sorceress Triss Merigold. Taking the role is Anna Shaffer, according to the Hollywood Reporter, who you may remember as Romilda Vane from Harry Potter - the girl who gave Harry a love potion. Shaffer also played Ruby Button in British soap opera Hollyoaks.

Other actors joining the cast include: Eamon Farren (The ABC Murders, Twin Peaks) as Cahir, Joey Batey (Knightfall, Strike) as Jaskier, Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards, Sherlock) as Stregobor, Royce Pierreson (Wanderlust, Judy) as Istredd, Maciej Musiał (1983) as Sir Lazlo, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte (Jamillah & Aladdin, Dickensian).

ORIGINAL STORY 3PM GMT: Netflix has given the world its first look at Superman actor Henry Cavill made up for his new role as mutant monster hunter Geralt, in the upcoming The Witcher television series.

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Netflix's highly anticipated television adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher series of novels has now found its Ciri and Yennefer.

Last month, Netflix confirmed that Superman star Henry Cavill would be donning beard and greying locks as series protagonist Geralt of Rivia; it's now been revealed that Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra will be starring alongside Cavill as Ciri and Yennefer respectively. Allan's most recent work includes TV shows The War of the Worlds and Into the Badlands, while Chalotra can be seen in The ABC Murders and Wanderlust.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news, over 50 roles have now been cast for Netflix's series. These include Jodhi May as Queen Calanthe, Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson as her husband Eist, Adam Levy as the druid Mousesack, and MyAnna Buring as Tissaia, head of the Aretuza magical academy. Additionally, Mimi Ndiweni and Therica Wilson-Read will star as novice sorcerers, and Millie Brady takes on the role of Princess Renfri.

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"Come on. Lighten up. Have a whiff."

It's late into Cyberpunk 2077's demo when Dum-Dum extends a claw toward V, offering a hit from a skull-adorned inhaler. Perhaps sensing the veiled hostility behind the supposed peace pipe being thrust under her nose, she obliges. Arachnid eye implants shine through a red haze. Dum-Dum takes his own hit, and flared nerves settle. Between all the talk of cred chips and bots, the tension that fuels this choice stems from a ritual as old as time. Breaking bread. Chinking cups. Passing the proverbial Dutchie to the left.

Adult games, as a medium, are often enamoured with their own portrayal of taboo subjects, but there's a streak of silently judgemental conservatism dulling the libertine sheen. By confining their use to grim settings, these stories condemn altered states of consciousness as the territory of society's dregs. At the same time, they're perfectly happy to hijack their aesthetics when it suits. Unexamined praise can be as useless as uninformed panic, of course, but let's be clear here: games are, for the most part, shit at doing drugs properly. Here's a brief history of drug use in games.

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UPDATE 15TH NOVEMBER: There was a minor update to this story during a call discussing CD Projekt's Q3 2018 earnings. Joint-CEO Adam Kiciński referred to the issue as "an open one", intimating no decision either way had been made.

"Until we have reached a significant milestone we intend to withhold comments," Kiciński told investors. "The issue is an open one, and when we feel we have information which can be shared with the world - in terms of specific outcomes - you will hear from us. For now, we will refrain from comments."

ORIGINAL STORY 2ND OCTOBER: Remember when Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of The Witcher fiction, told me he'd been "stupid" rejecting a percentage of the profits while selling the video game rights to CD Projekt Red all those years ago?

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Almost 10 years ago to the day, CD Projekt launched the online digital game store Good Old Games. The operation and scope was small - a handful of people salvaging iconic old PC games for modern operating systems - but the prices, customer service and DRM-free message were right, and slowly the service grew. And grew, and grew. And today things are different.

Today GOG employs more than 160 people and no longer restricts itself to good old games, so much so that the full meaning has been forgotten and replaced by the snappier acronym GOG. Today you find the newest and biggest independent games there, such as Pathfinder: Kingdom and A Bard's Tale 4, and they are kept up to date by the Steam-like client GOG Galaxy. And today CD Projekt is a household gaming name.

The Witcher games, developed under the same roof, have propelled GOG to new heights. They have been the first big new games on GOG and it has been the best place to find discounts for them. But never has CD Projekt flexed the family advantage as much as it will when selling Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales exclusively on GOG next month. Thronebreaker, based on the card game Gwent, may not be The Witcher 4, but it's a 30-hour, $30 standalone game made by people responsible for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt nonetheless. It's a big deal, and for GOG it could be massive.

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The search for the star of the Netflix Witcher series is over but I can't work out if it's a bird or a plane or... That's right, it's cleft-chinned British actor Henry Cavill, who launched to fame portraying Superman recently, playing the iconic witcher Geralt.

Show boss Lauren Hissrich said Cavill had been in the first meeting for the Witcher Netflix series, before scripts, before writers. "That was four months ago," she wrote, "and I've never forgotten the passion he brought. He IS Geralt. He always has been. I'm so thrilled to welcome HENRY CAVILL to the #Witcher family."

Cavill responded in good form on Facebook, quipping his new mailing address was Geralt at Kaer Morhen, the famed home of the wolf school of witchers (Geralt and pals).

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Two small script excerpts linked to the in-development Witcher Netflix show have leaked, and have been verified as authentic.

The scenes were posted on Reddit. One is between Yennefer and Geralt, as they prepare for a sorceress ball Geralt really doesn't want to go to, and the other is between Yennefer and a nameless King whose reign she's propping up but who repulses her.

The scenes were verified authentic by the series showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich, who told fans not to worry, she'd seen the leaks coming, which is why the excerpts were written for casting purposes only and will not be in the final show. "It happened. As we knew it would. Don't worry. All is okay in the Witcher world," Hissrich wrote on Twitter.

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