The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt т.5 | Next-Gen Update

Mods made by the community include World Map Fixes by Terg500; Nitpicker's Patch - Various Visual Fixes by chuckcash; The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project by HalkHogan; FCR3 - Immersion and Gameplay Tweaks by Andrzej Kwiatkowski; and HDMR - HD Monsters Reworked Mod by Denroth.

There are some hidden surprises in the next-gen update that won't be detailed in the patch notes, including some new animations for Geralt and, more importantly, his horse Roach. "So we hid lots of new secrets and lots of new little details that we want people to find," said Philip Weber. Geralt now snatches herbs from plants, for example.

"Roach can walk backwards now. Or actually, if Roach is standing there's even now a hidden button that you can kick. Or I think Roach now lifts her head if you're in the water. We tried to put in lots of these small things for people to just find, that we won't even put into the patch notes."

Content additions by CDPR include: Quick Sign Casting; Alternative Camera; Dynamic Toggle for UI Visibility; New Default Map Mode; Character Model Improvements; Environmental Improvements; Environmental VFX/Tech Art; fall damage alteration; instant herb looting; slow walk with controller (three walk speeds are now available depending on how hard you push analogue stick); alternative sprint mode (tap left stick); radial menu improvements (you can switch inventory from the radial menu).

The Witcher Netflix DLC is a new scavenger hunt-style quest that takes place inside The Devil's Pit in Velen. The Devil's Pit is the place you find yourself immediately after leaving the starter zone of White Orchard. It's that big, circular, wooden-fence-ringed place where nothing seems to actually happen. Currently, there are only some humanoid enemies in there, and the big door to the mine is closed. This DLC opens those doors. The DLC is enjoyable but don't get your hopes up for something super substantial. It's just one quest. The mines are spooky and the showdown at the end is memorable, but it's about half-an-hour's worth, plus a bit more for a follow-up step. It was flagged as level 15 for me. I'm told there are a few ways it can end. The crafting diagram you're rewarded for finishing it is the Forgotten Wolven Gear, which looks like Henry Cavill's armour from the first season of The Witcher on Netflix. Philipp Weber told me that if you upgrade the armour to its mastercrafted version, its appearance changes to the look of Cavill's armour from season two.

Many elements of the HUD can now be switched on and off and rescaled, such as the mini-map but also enemy health bars and so on. This includes subtitle and dialogue text, which can be altered on a 1-10 scale. It goes quite big.

The new, closer, over-the-shoulder camera angle makes the world feel bigger and chunkier on newer machines, but it's not included on older machines for draw-distance and frame-rate reasons.

The alternate Netflix appearances for Jaskier/Dandelion, and the wrinkly Nilfgaardian armour, can be turned on and off in the game's menu (they're off by default). And CDPR is well aware people refer to the latter as "the ballsack armour". Weber laughed knowingly when I mentioned this. "We could guess how it would be," he said of the reaction. "We also know that the armour was changed in season two, but it is an iconic part now."

The fast travel signpost in Crow's Perch has been moved to the courtyard

"We won’t be adding any cloaks for Geralt."

"We have no plans to add the transmog feature."