The Witcher Enhanced Edition Preview

PAX 2008 Preview

Last year, The Witcher was an example of the little guys coming out on top. Developed by Polish developer CD Projekt, The Witcher seemingly came out of nowhere and became a critical and commercial success. Unfortunately, the game had some technical problems that mired it a bit. Luckily, the developers are still hard at work trying to bring the title up of expectations, and are planning on releasing a comprehensive version of the game with The Witcher: Enhanced Edition.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition will feature everything that the developers had originally wanted to add to the game when it released, but did not have the time or the assets to do so. This means that the Enhanced Edition will feature eight to ten more hours of gameplay, as well as brand new art effects, improved AI, fixed bugs, and added graphical improvements. Another big improvement is the mass reduction of the original title’s load times, with some load screens have been lowered by up to 80 percent.

The game will also feature 5,000 lines of re-recorded dialogue in a variety of languages, complete with new subtitles, as well. Graphically, the game will feature several improvements over the original, including color saturation, visible damage on opponents, and a much more stable framerate.

While news of a comprehensive version of The Witcher might sound like a slap in the face for fans who bought the original version when it released, CD Projekt is definitely not leaving anyone in the dust. A free patch with all of the new updates, content, and added features will be released day and date alongside the Enhanced Edition. Look for both the new edition and the patch to release in mid-September.

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