CD Projekt lays out why you should play The Witcher 3 Remastered

The Witcher 3 Remastered is coming out on September 29, which is tomorrow. That doesn't leave you a lot of time to make up your mind about whether you want to jump back in. So I, with a certain amount of assistance from CD Projekt Red, am here to help.

To begin, we must answer a question:

HAVE YOU PLAYED THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT?

If you answered no, and you have any appreciation for RPGs at all, then your situation just got a whole lot easier because, resoundingly, yes. Yes, you do want to jump in. With that out of the way, I will refer you to our guide to Witcher 3 Remastered release times around the world, so you can get on it.

If you answered yes, on the other hand, it gets a bit more complicated. We've already covered the lighting that had us like, 'Damn,' and wetter Tub Geralt, surely a compelling argument in favor. But if it's details you're after, here's the lowdown on what CD Projekt says are "the most important changes" coming to the new game.

Actually, before we get to that, we've also now got full and detailed system specs for a range of systems—CD Projekt revealed the new minimum spec earlier this year, but this new listing goes all the way up to the very high end. Note one change from the previously announced minimum: 60GB of SSD drive space is required instead of the previously indicated 70GB, but you'll need 95GB if you get The Witcher 3 Remastered on the Epic Games Store. (I don't know why, sorry.)

As far as the rest of the rundown on "important changes," there's a lot going on here and it's not just a visual glow-up. A handful o' highlights:

Of particular note are the new Accessibility options, including the new "Bard's Ballad" preset that aims to "reduce cognitive load for players who experience mental fatigue or have difficulty concentrating" by streamlining or disabling certain mechanics and features "for a smoother, more focused adventure."

I think this is a great idea: I generally like The Witcher's fussy systems (don't forget to brew your potions before a big fight!) but I can also easily understand why some people would want to just get to the good stuff without having to futz around.

Also note, for veteran Witcher-players who are still on the fence, that all of this is free for existing owners—consider yourselves nudged in the direction of do it.

Anyway, finally, here it is: Every change in The Witcher 3 Remastered that CD Projekt felt was important enough to write down.

Visual and Rendering

• Implemented an improved shading model.
• Updated multiple textures and models based on assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project.
• Improved lighting and shading for grass and foliage.
• Updated the visual effects of Signs, including their upgrade versions.
• Added new visual effects for skills.
• The game now features native DirectX 12 rendering with multithreading for better performance and visuals.
• Updated tone mapping for improved colors, lighting, contrast and detail.
• Added GTAO (Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion) as a new Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option.
• Added Ray-Traced Local Shadows.
• Updated Screen Space Reflections.
• Updated Screen Space Shadows.
• Updated the HDR calibration panel by adding new options and other improvements.
• Improved Motion Blur with a higher-quality, more cinematic look.
• Updated Subsurface Scattering for more natural skin rendering.
• Improved terrain and material rendering for more natural lighting, shadows, reflections, and highlights.
• Implemented new Image-Based Lighting (IBL) for improved ambient lighting and reflections across different environments.
• Reworked Bloom for more improved lighting effects across different environments.

Gameplay

• Improved the skill system. Skills are now organized into a skill tree and each skill has three ranks. Unlocking new skills now requires having the necessary prerequisite skills rather than spending a set number of skill points. IMPORTANT: As a result of these changes, your skill points have been reset.
• Rebalanced the skill tree by refining skill bonus values, effects and synergies.
• Renamed some skills to better reflect their effects.
• You can now Reforge your equipment to change its appearance without affecting its stats. Only master craftsmen (Yoana and Hattori) offer this service. Unlock appearances by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory. Dyes from Blood and Wine applied to equipment will carry over to the reforged item.
• Polished the combat behavior of many non-boss monsters, including their attack patterns, counterattacks, movement, reactions, flight and the application of effects.
• Added a new "Horse control input sensitivity" slider in Settings → Controls.
• Improved Roach's and Geralt's movement, player control and animations:
• Refined Geralt's jumping animation so that it feels more natural and polished. Note: This doesn't affect jump distance and height.
• Added new finisher animations for Geralt.
• Added new idle animations for Geralt.
• Improved Geralt's ledge climbing, ladder climbing and vaulting animations as well as his speed for more responsive, fluid movement.
• Improved Geralt's gap closing animations in combat for smoother gameplay.
• Added a new exploration camera with increased FOV.
• Added a new dynamic combat camera to increase visibility when fighting enemies.
• Improved target-lock switching when moving the camera in combat.
• Updated collision avoidance when riding Roach.
• Polished animations for mounting and dismounting Roach, as well as cantering and galloping.

UI/UX

• Meditation now features a timelapse instead of a UI screen for a more immersive feel.
• The skill screen is now reorganized into a more intuitive skill tree layout.
• Updated the map screen to make switching between tracked quests easier. Untracked quests now have a distinct marker and can be tracked by selecting it.
• Increased the number of maximum markers on the map.
• Added new map markers.
• You can now hide herbs, boats and corpses on the minimap in Settings → Video → Interface for a cleaner, less distracting view.
• Improved quest notifications by combining quest updates into a single HUD notification.
• Nearby loot can now be grouped into a single window, so you no longer need to browse through multiple loot windows. You can enable this feature in Settings → Gameplay.
• Added a loot feed that displays recently collected items on the left side of the screen. You can disable it in Settings → Gameplay.
• Added item tooltips to the loot window, allowing you to preview an item's details before picking it up.
• Renamed the "HUD Configuration" section in Settings to "Interface".
• Updated the CD PROJEKT RED Account connection, My Rewards and telemetry consent menus.

Photo Mode

• Updated the Photo Mode UI and vastly expanded its features and options:
• You can now choose from multiple different characters to place in your shot.
• Added a selection of poses and expressions for Geralt and placeable characters.
• Added a confirmation prompt before exiting Photo Mode to help prevent accidental exits.
• You can now lock the camera position in Photo Mode to make sure you capture the perfect shot.
• Added the option to apply different environment presets to your scene.
• Added the option to save camera presets, allowing you to save and reuse camera positions and angles.
• You can now change the aspect ratio of your screenshot.
• Added the option to toggle a first-person camera mode so you can see the world through Geralt's eyes.
• You can now enable or disable camera collisions with objects and walls.
• Set the perfect scene by changing the weather and time of day.
• Adjust the intensity of weather effects like rain or storms.
• Added an option to toggle Rule of Thirds lines in various aspect ratios, with optional cinematic black bars.
• Camera coordinates will now be visible in the UI.
• Added an option to hide surrounding NPCs.
• Added placeable props, giving you even more ways to create the perfect scene. Just don't ask where they all came from.
• The cursor is now visible in Photo Mode on PC when using a mouse.

Accessibility

• Added a new Accessibility section to the Settings menu. Moved existing accessibility-related options there.
• Added the Bard's Ballad preset. You can enable it when starting a new game on the Just the Story difficulty or during the game in the Accessibility section. It is designed to reduce cognitive load for players who experience mental fatigue or have difficulty concentrating. It streamlines gameplay by simplifying certain mechanics and disabling select features for a smoother, more focused adventure. You can enable the preset in the Accessibility tab and customize it by enabling or disabling the following options:
• Vitality Regeneration Boost - Gives the possibility to adjust its activation threshold ("Activates below (%) Vitality") and the rate at which Vitality increases ("Regeneration Intensity").
• Infinite Breath - Geralt can't run out of oxygen while swimming and diving.
• Unlimited Item Durability - Your gear will never wear down, so there's no need to visit craftsmen for repairs.
• Unlimited Boat Durability - Boats are indestructible, making jagged rocks and sirens no longer a concern.
• Ignore Item Weight - Travel the Path carrying as much as you want.
• Faster Boats - Sail faster across the seas. The seas around Skellige just got a little bit smaller.
• Toggle Witcher Sense - Toggle on and off without having to hold the button.

Quality of Life

• Streamlined tutorials to keep them concise and focused on teaching core game mechanics. We think Vesemir would approve.
• Added an option to quickly disengage from combat. Hold the dodge button (Alt/〇/B) to unlock from your target, then press the sprint button (L Shift/X/A) to run away.
• You can now collect loot without dismounting Roach.

Modding

• Added Cross Platform Mod Support, an in-game tool powered by mod.io that allows you to easily browse and install player-created mods to customize your game. You can find it in the game's main menu in Mods. Log in with your CD PROJEKT RED Account, connect it to mod.io and start browsing. You can find more information about the Mod Manager here.
• Various engine, UI and other improvements for REDkit, making it easier for modders to create, manage and customize their content.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where it wasn't possible to change Right Stick Sensitivity if the settings were accessed directly from the main menu.
• It's now possible to set Stick Sensitivity to the value of 0.69.
• Fixed an issue where HDR settings would sometimes not appear on consoles.
• In the Eternal Fire's Shadow - Fixed an issue where the Forgotten Wolf School Gear Diagrams weren't displayed in the UI after being received as a reward.
• Wine is Sacred – Fixed an issue where fast traveling out of Toussaint during the "Search the wine cellar with Anna Henrietta" objective could block quest progression. This fix is not retroactive, so players who encountered this issue will need to load a save from before it occurred.

Other

• Added Ukrainian text localization.
• Added support for Xbox Play Anywhere.

PC-specific

• IMPORTANT: Make sure you have the latest graphics drivers installed. Grab them here: NVIDIA, AMD, Intel.
  • Added support for Path Tracing.
  • Added support for NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, together with Ray Reconstruction.
  • Added support for AMD FSR 4, including Frame Generation and Anti-Lag 2. FSR 4 is supported on AMD Radeon RX 7000 Series and newer graphics cards. On unsupported GPUs, the game will use FSR 2 instead.
  • Added support for Intel XeSS 2.0, together with Frame Generation and Low Latency.
  • Added Ray-Traced HairWorks for improved lighting and shading on hair.
  • Added support for DualSense controller haptic feedback.