The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PS5 and Xbox Series X | S: the news of the next-gen update

The Witcher 3

The date of December 14th is fast approaching: it is the day when the long-awaited next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will finally be made available. An update that fans of the CD Projekt RED series have been waiting for a long time, and which will allow the game to make the most of the hardware of the new platforms, therefore PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but obviously also the PC itself.

During a special REDstreams, the Polish studio officially presented the news of the next-gen update of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , which will obviously include various technical improvements, but also many precautions in terms of quality of life that they will make the whole experience more enjoyable, so as to ensure that our umpteenth game is fresh and offers a different point of view on Geralt of Rivia's latest adventure.

The PC version

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, an official artwork by Geralt The PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will also be able to count on a large series of technical improvements when the next-gen update will make its debut on December 14th. The first and most important is obviously the support for ray tracing applied to global illumination and ambient occlusion, which will give great depth to the already suggestive settings.

The developers have also enhanced the screen space reflection (previously it was applied only to water, now it works on all reflective surfaces), redesigned the vegetation assets, added new textures and introduced DLSS upscaling technologies 3 and FSR 2.1, as well as a dynamic scaler, in order to make all these improvements manageable from a wide range of configurations, decreasing the effective resolution to be able to obtain fluid and consistent frame rates net of a substantial boost in visual impact.

Several years have passed since the publication (by the way, here is the review of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ), the CD Projekt RED guys thought it was appropriate to implement new graphics options in order to take advantage of the latest generation graphics, so after the update we will also find the Ultra Plus settings in the game to further push the quality of scenarios and characters. It is not a preset, in any case, but individual adjustments.

The introduction of a photo mode (available, we imagine, on all platforms) will allow you to capture the renewed beauty of the settings and to shoot particularly evocative screenshots, acting on a set of items that includes the width of the field of view, depth of field, focus, focal distance, aperture and then again saturation, contrast, temperature, exposure and vignetting.

A new point of view

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Geralt of Rivia looks at us intensely Among the most important news of the next-gen update of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt there is the new view: a feature born practically by chance, thanks to the developers' experiments with the game's camera, but which has proved to be extremely interesting and effective in offering a different perspective compared to the classic experience with the action RPG based to the novels of Andrzej Sapkowski.

Once the update is installed it will therefore be possible to approach the view behind Geralt through three different options: exploration, combat and riding. This means that we will be able to decide how the camera will work depending on the situation, trying the various solutions and checking which setting we prefer. The final result, guarantees CD Projekt RED, adds a surprising freshness to the experience, even more so if it is the umpteenth run.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Geralt uses one of his special abilities The next-gen update of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will allow all owners of the game on PS4 and Xbox One to make a free upgrade to the PS5 and Xbox Series versions X|S, while those who do not yet own it will be able to purchase the new edition directly on the PlayStation Store or Xbox Store. Well, what are the features designed to make the most of the hardware of the Sony and Microsoft platforms?

First of all, the now traditional two graphics modes will be inserted: one at 4K and 30 fps with the addition of the ray tracing, the other presumably at 1440p and 60fps. Both will be able to count on the integration of FSR technology and a dynamic scaler that will allow the game to remain anchored to the reference frame rate, but above all they will boast improved assets exactly like on PC, with a general quality very close to ultra settings.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Ciri prepares to fight On PlayStation 5, the developers have also added support for the specific features of the DualSense controller, with haptic feedback and adaptive triggers that will add depth to the experience and in particular to the fight sequences, producing vibrations and resistances in line with what is happening on the screen in order to further increase the degree of involvement in the action.

Speaking of involvement, another feature born almost by chance and present both on consoles and on PC is the one relating to the use of the Signs: if in the original version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it was It is necessary to open a radial menu from time to time before being able to use this skill, with the next-gen update it will be possible to resort to it in a substantially more immediate way, without breaks and therefore without interrupting the rhythm of the clashes, which will be more frenetic.

Interface

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Geralt carries gruesome loot Changes have also been made on the interface front, starting with the map: the world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is full of things to do and see, but the feeling of the developers is that such an exhaustive list and with so many icons tended to force players to complete each task mechanically. For this they have inserted an optional filter that makes visible only the essential elements, leaving everything else to our exploratory ambitions, and at the same time they have added an option to hide the minimap and orient yourself in the old-fashioned way.

Always on the exploration plan, using a controller on both PC and console it will be possible to adjust Geralt's walk as happens in modern action adventures: a slight pressure on the analog stick will indicate to the character to walk, while a more decisive pressure will run. Finally, the subtitles have been optimized, introducing the possibility of changing their size to finally make them more readable when playing connected to a TV.

Additional content and cross-progression

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be able to count on even more fascinating settings with the next-gen update In addition to a whole series of more or less relevant fixes for the most well-known problems of the game, with the next-gen update The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will also see the integration of some of the most popular mods made by the community and the arrival of a DLC based on the television series produced by Netflix, with an unpublished mission whose contents are however still shrouded in mystery: it will be a pleasure to find out what it is starting December 14th. This content will also come to Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.

The latest announcement was the proverbial icing on the cake: support for cross-progression on PC and consoles. This means that we will eventually be able to resume our old save on Steam or GOG and continue the game on PS5 or Xbox Series X|S or vice versa, keeping all the progress made and avoiding losing even a small part of our experience with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Isn't that exciting?

Have you noticed any mistakes?