I go away for one week, and nobody posts a picture of Geralt's shimmering feet? Luckily for you, dear reader, I'm back now. And that can only mean one thing. Glistening skin. Also news of GOG's big Witcher sale, I guess.
CD Projekt's distribution service is heavily discounting some the older games in CD Projekt's RPG series, and lopping 30% off The Witcher 3. That means you can get Geralt's most recent outing for around 35/$42. It's a tempting offer, to be sure.
Additionally, both Witchers 1 & 2 are 85% off. You can also get the digital adaptation of The Witcher board game for 60% off. Personally—perhaps controversially—I didn't think The Witcher 1 was much good. The sequel is, though, and also pretty important to the events of TW3.
You can find all the deals through this link. The sale runs for the next five-and-a-half days.
Emotional fulfillment is coming to players who found one of The Witcher 3's romance options lacking in conversational intrigue. Kotaku report that extra dialogue options will be added to solve that relationship's uncomfortable silences, and perhaps relieve the lingering dread that you might have taken the wrong path in life by choosing someone poorly suited to your grim Witcher lifestyle.
After all, she's a sophisticated sorceress and a respected socialite, and all you know is killing and Gwent. As Roach turns the corner she asks you whether the racial tensions in Novigrad can be resolved with so much indecision in the courts. You mumble something indistinct, disturbed by the sudden realisation that you smell like dead bear. An awkward silence passes, interrupted only by the scream of a peasant being eaten by a wolf.
"Do you think the presence of late game Monster Gwent decks in Oxenfurt distorts the meta?" you offer, hopefully. No answer. A cold wind blows across the fields; it smells like war. Somewhere nearby a bard starts playing The Sound of Silence. He is swiftly eaten by a griffin.
There's no date for this Witcher 3 update yet, but hopefully it will mend Geralt's mournful soul sooner rather than later.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has certainly received its fair share of heaping praise. After all, this is one of the most expansive and beautifully realized worlds to grace our screens in quite some time. But The Witcher 3 also faced some criticism at launch: about its graphics, and for its lack of cultural diversity, especially with the notable absence of any characters of color.
Back in June, Polygon published a controversial opinion piece by Tauriq Moosa criticizing the game for failing to include not only notable characters of color, but anyone from a race that wasn't characterized as white. During PAX Prime, members of The Witcher 3's narrative design team held a panel to discuss the challenges of adapting the source material, but they also addressed the issue.
"There are 16 different language versions of the Witcher 3," said Jakub Szmalek, a senior writer for The Witcher 3. "And we wanted each of these versions to feel like it was aimed at this very [specific] market. We don't want you to feel like you are playing a lesser translated version of the game."
"If we achieve this goal, the problem arises that you forget that you are playing a translated version of the game."
Szmalek went on to address the controversy surrounding the lack of racial diversity in the game, saying that some people assumed that it was some form of omission or a statement that the studio was trying to make.
"It is definitely not," Szmalek said. "It's just that we tackled certain issues from a different perspective."
Travis Currit, who was one of the team responsible for translating The Witcher 3 to English, suggested that for those living in more racially diverse areas, the lack of representation feels far more pronounced. He went on to say that while Poland is relatively "homogeneous" in terms of race, CD Projekt Red drew inspiration from the tensions that existed between the various cultures coexisting in the country.
"It's fifty shades of white," Szmalek said.
"Every day you read the papers there's a new controversy," Currit said. "That is a huge aspect of the reality in which the games and the books were created, and we feel like we make very direct references to those in-game. We had become so absorbed with hitting these issues that are absolutely at the forefront of Polish consciousness, that we didn't have time to address the issues that are bigger in other countries."
"That's the issue of making a game that releases to so many peoples and cultures," Szmalek added.
Beyond the challenges of developing a game with such a laser focus on the politics of Poland, the team also spent the hour discussing the difficulties inherent in bringing the words on a page to life on a screen. A lot of these problems stemmed from finding ways to take aspects of Polish culture and present them in a manner that wasn't alienating to foreign audiences. The team also had to find a balance between adherence to the lore of the story and concessions made in pursuit of a more enjoyable game.
In the books, for example, witchers strictly refuse to use a crossbow, a weapon that comprises a valuable component of Geralt's arsenal in the third game. French fans were also surprised to see Geralt and Yennefer climb on top of a unicorn in The Witcher 3's infamous love scene because, due to a translation error made in the French version of the books, Geralt and Yennefer were described as making love atop a stuffed rhinoceros.
"There's more room on a rhino, so there are advantages to it," Szmalek joked.
"It kind of lacks some of the romance," Currit countered.
When asked if the team would approach adapting a book again, however, the answer was still an overwhelming yes.
"We cannot overestimate the importance of the lore that we have at our disposal," Szmalek said.
As the first part of the panel ended and fans took to asking the team questions, the topic inevitably drifted toward the potential for a return to the Northern Kingdoms. Though the team was quick to express their excitement for the upcoming expansion packs, which they reiterated would be roughly the size of The Witcher 2, they were reluctant to discuss any future plans for The Witcher.
"The next book we're going to be adapting," Currit said, "is the Cyberpunk rule book."
I really miss The Witcher 3. It's one of those rare games that I kinda want to live inside. I don't really mind that rabid wolves and drowners roam around every corner. It's kinda like that here in Sydney, too. So it comes as welcome news that CD Projekt RED is drawing close to completing the long-awaited Heart of Stone expansion, which is due in October. According to DualShockers, the studio's Travis Currit says "it's almost ready".
That little tidbit was captured at PAX, which is happening in Seattle right now. During another panel, senior writer Jakub Szamalek mentioned that there is "some good news for Gwent players coming up". That presumably doesn't include a much-asked-for standalone edition of the game, as when asked about that Szamalek said he'd talk to his colleagues about it. No, this "good news" about Gwent must mean something else.
Whatever the case, the recently released NG+ DLC is definitely not the last word on Geralt, especially since CD Projekt intends to support the game well into 2016, after which they'll hopefully broach the topic of Cyberpunk 2077.
I worry about the people living in the world of The Witcher 3. They're basically surrounded by horrible monsters at all times, building their towns next to lakes filled with Drowners and watching the skies for griffins and wyverns they have no hope of killing. And, things are about to get much, much worse.
When activated, the Infection Mode mod summons a disgusting Devourer a few feet away from Geralt. For ten seconds it will stand there, being gross and sounding disgusting and, I must point out, not even wearing pants. Come on, monsters, get your act together.
After ten seconds, it will attack Geralt. Or, if you're the type of Witcher who spawns the monster next to a guard and then runs away, it will attack the guard. I have to assume guards are used to being attacked by all sorts of monsters, but Infection Mode is a little different. The moment the creature lands an attack on the guard, the guard turns into a monster himself. So, now there's two of them, both looking for a fresh victim.
I happened to be outside the town of Blandare, and with both of those monsters looking to carve off a piece of Geralt, I decided it was a great time to sprint into town and run a few errands. The monsters followed. People began screaming. Some tried to fight, others began to flee, many just shrieked and cowered. There really wasn't much of a difference, because everyone who was touched became a monster and touched someone else.
Within a minute or two most of the town had been infected. It appears the game will spawn more and more guards to replace those that have fallen, or maybe they just run in from other locations, but there always seemed to be a new pack of soldiers trying to fight off the infection, only to become stricken themselves.
I hate to say it, but even the children of Blandare became infected, turning into horribly adorable tiny monster kids. One scaly little boy turned, ran down the road past me and some cowering farmers to attack a group of soldiers. It infected one, which infected another, and soon everyone had come down with a nasty case of the monsters.
I eventually ran away, and fast-traveled to a different part of the world, then came back to see how everyone in Blandare was dealing with the problem. I would have to say... not well.
Needless to say, as well as not being great for the health of the NPCs, having roughly one million creepy naked monsters on your screen may result in some adverse effects. Twice, when the population of Blandare rose to roughly a hundred monsters, the game crashed. And, quite frankly, I was relieved it did, because gross!
I also don't know what this will do to your game if you save it in this condition, what with everyone in town becoming monsters and presumably unable to give quests or buy your pocketfuls of collected detritus, so I'd have to advise against saving your game while using this mod, or at least create a new save file for it.
To run the mod you'll need to have the updated debug console mod installed. I'm also pleased to see the Nexus Mod Manager now supports The Witcher 3 mods made using the toolkit, which makes installing mods much, much easier. You can find the Infection Mode mod here.
Just be careful. It didn't end well for any of us. Not the townspeople, not Roach, not all those cows in the field, and not Geralt.
In case there was any doubt that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was quite the success story, CD Projekt today announced that the RPG has sold more than six million copies in its first six weeks of release, resulting in record-setting revenues and profits. Even better for the company, a full one million copies were activated on GOG, its home-grown digital distribution platform, which also reported record sales.
"Owing to the release of The Witcher 3, revenues in the videogame development segment were approximately 7.5 times greater than the corresponding revenues in The Witcher 2 release period," CD Projekt Board Vice President Piotr Nielubowicz said in a financial results summary. "This year s net profitability of the videogame development segment is 54 percent, which marks the recent release as not only the largest but also the most profitable enterprise in CD Projekt s entire history."
CD Projekt also issued a less business-like statement discussing what the success of The Witcher 3 means to the people who made it: "Everyone here in CD Projekt Red is really attached to their work and how you, the gamers, perceive it. Red is full of artists, wild dreamers and people crazy about what they do (and sometimes just plain crazy)," Studio Head Adam Badowski said. "We lose sleep over that particular color the sun has when it sets over Velen, and argue over arranging the furniture in a house the majority of gamers will probably never see. We re not the kind of people who are easily satisfied and we always strive for more. I d like you to know that."
"Yes, six million copies is a great achievement for a company making RPGs, but this business is not only about that," he continued. "If our games are a gallery of sound, picture and text - you are the visitors of this gallery. To an artist, there s no sweeter sight than people enjoying their work. That s why, in the name of all the devs in the studio, I d like to say thanks to each and every one of you."
The last of 16 pieces of free Witcher 3 DLC, a New Game+ mode, was released last week, but two full-on expansions remain: Hearts of Stone in October, and then Blood and Wine in early 2016.
PC games have produced some beloved music, but there's a tiny irony in the fact that the technological advantages that the PC held over other platforms in the 1990s have actually hindered a music scene from forming around that original work.
We had CD-ROM, hard drives, and discrete soundcards years before anyone else, and those advances pushed many studios toward not only full-motion video but elaborate, orchestral music rather than the chiptunes possible on the NES, SNES, and other sound palettes—a sound that has become a beloved aesthetic and genre in and of itself. Nintendo s (and even Sega s) platforms inspire a ton of affection, but there s still a lot of worthy professional and amateur PC gaming floating around the web.
Mines, Spelunky
Songe is an unbelievably talented multi-instrumentalist, mixing everything from flutes, drums, and ocarinas (when appropriate) to multiple guitars and piano, to his own vocal backing, like on his terrific takes on
Warcraft II s Orc theme or the Skyrim Dragonborn theme. Among his dozens of tracks, his Spelunky Mines Medley stands out as a reverent interpretation of a song heard thousands of times by any dedicated Spelunker.
The only piece of game music to
win a Grammy, this performance by a Los Angeles choir is my favorite among the many that have been recorded. Composer Christopher Tin was, interestingly enough, the roommate of Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson.
Performed by: Angel City Chorale Original composer: Christopher Tin Buy on
Amazon
UNATCO, Deus Ex
This rock-metal cover of UNATCO (the organization of which Deus Ex s JC Denton is a member) was one of the
favorite things I found online, mainly due to how restrained it is. So many of the metal covers of game music fall drift dangerously close to parody with over-applied kick pedaling and overlong guitar solos. Skilton keeps it simple here while producing an exciting take on what was a pretty sedate, austere tune originally.
We really like Ben Prunty s stuff around here—so much so that we asked him to compose an original song for
our podcast—so it s great to see an FTL track covered so well by Canadian guitarist James Mills. Give Mills System Shock 2, Hearthstone, StarCraft, and Dragon Age: Inquisition tracks a listen too.
From the Weird Al genre we have this rap from Captain Spalding, a regular on the PC Gamer TF2 server circa 2008-2010.
Doom: The Dark Side of Phobos
Way back in 2005 OCRemix, the web's biggest game remix community, assembled a team (that included Super Meat Boy composer Danny Baranowsky) to produce a massive two-disc, 23-track tribute to Doom. The best way to get it is by downloading it through OCRemix's official torrent.
Performed by: variousOriginal composer: Bobby Prince
Suicide Mission, Mass Effect 2
There s an insane amount of Mass Effect covers out there paying homage to Jack Wall (and others ) incredible work. Sadly, an uncomfortable amount of it is dubstep. Tim Skilton s take on the wonderful Suicide Mission theme isn t, thank goodness.
Danny Baranowsky is absolutely prolific, having most recently composed for musical dungeon crawler Crypt of the Necrodancer. With his style of mixing modern composition with instrumentation from the 8- and 16-bit era, it s no surprise that Baranowsky got his start on OCRemix. Super Meat Boy remains his essential work and while the official Super Meat Boy album contains a bunch of covers, I love the official piano collection by Brent Kennedy, a 10-track set that can be had for $5.
A list of PC gaming music wouldn't be complete without Frank Klepacki. Almost two decades after its release Red Alert's "Hell March" track gets the most play, but rather than recommending one of many, many takes on that boot-stomping classic, I think stuff like "Act on Instinct" represents Klepacki's grinding, industrial oeuvre much better.
You won t see X-COM getting a lot of recognition for its music in remixing communities, but this track from Fnotte manages to make something good out of the memorable
intro sequence to UFO Defense.
Performed by: Fnotte Original composer: John Broomhall
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)
Adding 16 free lots of new quests, items, outfits and modes to a game which already had a hundred million things> in it was an ostensibly generous move from the creators of The Witcher 3 [official site]. But how substantial is this stuff, really? I took a look at what’s really in each DLC, how satisfying it is, and where in the Northern Kingdoms you can find it all.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)
it’s 2015: if you’re not streaming your game while you play it, you will be summarily asked to leave society. Don’t you dare try to play a game by yourself any more. Privacy is dead: everyone wants an audience, always and forever. Do you want to watch me shower? No? Well, how about watch me ineffectually flail at a pack of Nekkers in The Witcher 3? No? Well, how about you take remotely control and fight those Nekkers for me, to put everyone involved out of their misery. NVIDIA have, in theory, a way to make that happen. … [visit site to read more]
