The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt next-gen update brings new content to enjoy, which includes a brand new side quest titled In The Eternal Fire's Shadow, graphical updates, new appearances, and more. This update will go live on December 14, 2022.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was initially released on May 18, 2015, and only grew in popularity once the television adaption of the franchise was released in 2019. The main protagonist in the series is named Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter that has been mutated by magic. Those who suffer from this mutation and undergo intense training become known as Witchers, and spend their days hunting the most magnificent beasts and horrendous monsters known to humankind. Though Geralt is prepared for even the most terrifying of beasts, he is not prepared for people who appear to be even more horrible than any beasts he has encountered, making it hard for him to find his place in the world.
With the latest update to the game comes new content for fans of the franchise to enjoy. We first learned about this update back in 2020 for release in 2021. It then came out that it would be delayed once more to 2022, but now we have an official release date for the elusive update as well as a full list of features. One feature that was included was actually quite surprising; a new side quest. As of right now, there aren't many details about this side quest available, but we do know that you will need to venture to Velen to start the new quest once the update goes live. The rewards that you can obtain for completing this new quest are inspired by the Netflix television series, The Witcher.
On top of the new side quest, new appearances have been added, which were also inspired by the Netflix series. This includes an alternative appearance for Dandelion and an alternative Nilfgaardian Armor set. Both of these appearances can be toggled on and off in the "Options" menu, where you will select "Gameplay" to enable them.
There have also been a few updates to the game's graphics, for both PC and Console. Ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion have been added to both platforms, as well as community-made and community-inspired mods to bring the gameplay up a notch. The mods that will be included in the update are The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project by HalkHogan, HD Monsters Reworked by Denroth, Immersive Real-time Cutscenes by teiji25, and World Map Fixes by Terg500. There are more mods to come with the update, but as of right now they have not been mentioned.
There have been several amazing features added for ambiance and immersion, including environmental improvements, 4k graphic optimization and so many more we can't list them all here. To read the full list of features that have been added, head to the official Witcher website.
