Ahead of the official launch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's forthcoming Blood & Wine DLC, the developers at CD Projekt Red release a massive patch in preparation.
Although The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's Blood & Wine DLC isn't scheduled for release until next Tuesday on May 31, the fine folks over at CD Projekt Red have decided to get fans' hard drives ready for what is going to be a pretty big download, as the studio will release Patch 1.20 ahead of the expansion's launch. Developers have yet to announce exactly when the update will be available, but it's being reported that The Witcher 3's Xbox One players will need to free up 2.9 GB for Patch 1.20, while its size for PC and PlayStation 4 have not been revealed as of writing.
According to Patch 1.20's list of improvements for The Witcher 3 (which can be found in full right here), CD Projekt Red has put in a lot of work on refining its wildly successful action-RPG. For starters, the first entry in the update's notes mentions a book called "A Miraculous Guide to Gwent," which is supposed to display the number of Gwent cards that are missing from players' collections in the base game.
The Gwent book can be received either from the scholar in the Prologue, or in the Gildorf district of Novigrad near St. Gregory’s Bridge from the merchant. Furthermore, the text provides details on where fans can find the cards they lack, and states that upon completing the collection, players will nab the "Collect 'Em All" achievement. For those unaware, though, it's worth mentioning that the quest will be marked as failed if the Milva, Vampire Bruxa, and Dandelion Gwent cards don't go on to be gathered during A Matter of Life and Death's tournament.
On top of all the Gwent-related updates in Witcher 3's latest patch, two of the more noteworthy enhancements in the game will be the ability to to enable enemy level upscaling, as well as the choice to disable the automatic drawing and sheathing of Geralt’s sword. Plus, CD Projekt Red is providing Blood & Wine with better graphics, while also giving upgrades the visuals, making repairs on the Hearts of Stone expansion, and the game as a whole.
Taking into consideration the fact that CD Projekt Red has said that Blood & Wine marks the end of The Witcher franchise for now, it makes sense for the studio to pack the game out with so many major improvements, if only to send Geralt off with a proper bang. Though the title's director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has claimed he hopes there will be more games in the future, after Blood & Wine releases, it will probably be an extremely long time before fans get another taste of the series. After all, CD Projekt Red is already working on its next project with Cyberpunk 2077, and its development plans are set through the year 2021.
What do you think about all of the changes in store for The Witcher 3 with Patch 1.20? Are you excited about Blood & Wine's release? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is out now and is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, while its Blood & Wine expansion is set to release on May 31, 2016.
Source: CD Projekt Red (via VG 24/7)