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Witcher

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting special 10th anniversary Xbox controllers

by admin May 22, 2025

CD Projekt has teamed up with Microsoft to create some fancy new Witcher 3-themed Xbox controllers to celebrate the game’s 10th anniversary – which I really can’t quite believe because I personally haven’t aged a day.

The controllers – officially known as the ‘Xbox Wireless Controller – The Witcher 3 10th Anniversary Special Edition’ and the ‘Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 – Core The Witcher 3 10th Anniversary Special Edition’ – are described as being “tempered and battle-ready”, and promise “intricately crafted details”.

They feature The Witcher 3’s wolf medallion iconography, as well as Glagolitic script. I personally don’t know what the script says, but apparently it can be translated and those symbols “are not random”. If you work out what it means, please let me know.

Introducing The Witcher 3 10th Anniversary Special Edition Controllers. Watch on YouTube

Away from the cosmetic sides of things, these chaps also boast all the features you’d expect from an Xbox controller. So, rubberised back grips, remappable controller inputs, Bluetooth support and so on. You can check how they look in the video above.

They’ve been created by CD Projekt’s own designers, with Gabriela Pešková from CD Projekt and Mekias Bekalu from Xbox calling this “such a special moment for both” teams.

“We explored a lot of directions when creating this controller, but from the beginning we knew we wanted to tell a story,” added CD Projekt design lead Joshua Flowers. “We wanted it to feel like something that has been with you on the path, something worn and personal. As we developed concepts, we began crafting the story of this controller – and how it might exist in The Witcher 3’s world. This narrative is what we fell in love with. It had to feel like it belonged in The Witcher 3 universe – like it had lived through battles and carried stories of its own.”

The Xbox Wireless Controller variant is available now for £74.99 while the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller costs £149.99. Both are exclusive to the Microsoft Store.

As for the future of the series, The Witcher 4 won’t be out until after 2026, but we got a first trailer at the end of last year. Earlier this week, Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle called out so-called fans as “stupid” for describing The Witcher 4 as “woke” for having Ciri as the protagonist.

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May 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

“Cannot wait for what is yet to come” As The Witcher 3 turns 10, CD Projekt devs share the defining memories it created and look to the future

by admin May 21, 2025

The Witcher 3 has just turned 10 years old. Yep, time flies when you’re running around The Continent slaying beasties and also saving the world from becoming a bit chilly. Naturally, a bunch of devs at CD Projekt have chosen to commemorate the anniversary be sharing their defining memories of the game’s development, as well as do a bit of looking forward.

Most of their thoughts were shared on Twitter, as a response to the studio putting out a post in recognition of it being ten years since TW3 debuted all the way back on May 18, 2015. God, I can’t even process how many hours of my life the game’s nicked since that point, and I was relatively late to the party with it – bouncing off a couple of times before things finally clicked.

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Starting off, Pawe&lstrok; Sasko – current associate game director on Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel and a quest designer on TW3, wrote as part of a thread: “I was there from the very first day, saw it develop from the first pitch, have been so lucky to impact it’s shape to some small degree, and never thought you will love it this much. Art does not exist without the audience and you all are an important part of this story.

“I want to make you proud of us and excited again,” he added, “Capture the lightning in the bottle, give you lifetime of memories, make you laugh and break down crying. So we can have another anniversary like this, one day again.”

Decade ago we have shipped The Witcher 3 — game that now only changed the course of my life, but impacted the future of the whole studio. I had such a high hopes regarding this game, but never really thought any of it is really possible. Feeling really blessed and thankful 🥺 pic.twitter.com/EE98kQNGDi

— Pawe&lstrok; Sasko (@PaweSasko) May 18, 2025

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Meanwhile, CD Projekt joint-CEO Micha&lstrok; Nowakowski recalled: “10 years ago, I remember being exhausted, anxious (to see the scores and players’ reactions), buzzing with excitement I think no one on the team had a decent sleep that night and we were all refreshing websites of media sites.

“In the year prior to that launch I spent more time on the road preaching W3 to our partners than I did at home with my family. If there ever was game changer in my professional life, I think that was it more than anything else before. Cheers to the fantastic CDPR Team and to all the fans that have been with us through all the good and bad. Cannot wait for what is yet to come.”

Those two were far from alone, with a number of devs currently working on The Witcher 4 and/or Cyberpunk 2 – including narrative director Philipp Weber, cinematic director Kajetan Kapu&sacute;ci&nacute;ski, and senior cinematic designer/coordinator Micha&lstrok; Zbrze&zacute;niak – joining in. “I still remember just watching the wind in the trees on an early version of Skellige,” Weber wrote.

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CD Projekt comms staffers Marcin Momot and Pawel Burza both wrote about firing the game up for the first time, and we even got a post from the voice of Geralt. “What a time it’s been friends…” wrote actor Doug Cockle, clearly keen to provide a line that’d sound cool in a gravelly voice ahead of featuring in a CD Projekt stream celebrating the anniversary that’s set for later today (May 19) – you can catch that stream here at 4PM BST/11AM ET.

What are your favorite Witcher 3 memories and how tough a task do you think the series’ currently under construction next entry will have following in its award-winning footsteps? Let us know below!

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May 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

The Witcher 4 being about Ciri isn’t “woke” and all the fuss is “stupid” Geralt himself says, fittingly in a video where he offers advice about talking to girls

by admin May 20, 2025

Remember all that whinging from internet weirdos when Ciri was revealed as The Witcher 4’s protagonist late last year? Well, having come out in support of the move at the time, Geralt’s voice actor has now doubled down in even more emphatic fashion, suggesting that you’re a fool if you think it was a “woke” thing to do.

Doug Cockle did so in a video for Fall Damage which saw him react to some Witcher memes. Seriously, at one point he explains that he understands what the distracted boyfriend is, but doesn’t reckon it accurately reflects big Gerry’s love triangle with Yenny from the block and the ginger one.

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Confronted with a post about people spamming “woke” when TW4’s trailer rocked up at last year’s Game Awards being “everything that is wrong with gaming culture”, the actor didn’t mince words.

“I wouldn’t say that’s everything that’s wrong with gaming culture, but I do think that’s just stupid,” he said, “It’s not woke. There’s nothing woke about it. It’s a cool character from The Witcher, and they’re gonna focus on that character, and that’s awesome.

“We can’t just have Geralt for every single game for The Witcher ad nauseam, out through eternity. Besides, we’ve seen the end of Geralt’s journey. Blood and Wine was supposed to wrap up Geralt’s journey. I celebrate Ciri. I celebrate her being the protagonist.” He then blew a raspberry at folks who still think it’s “woke”, whatever that word means aside from a thing I don’t like because it might be a tiny bit diverse.

Watch on YouTube

If you do still think it’s woke, the start of the video might help you. It sees Cockle advise us all to be a bit like Geralt and gather up the confidence enough to talk to girls – or whoever you might be interested in – because “they probably don’t bite”. Well, as the actor admitted, “unless you ask them to, probably”.

Later on in the video, Cockle also encounters one of those ‘I bet he’s thinking about other girls’ menes, and goes on to suggest that Geralt isn’t a distracted boyfriend, reasoning: “I think he’s pretty focused on the present. I think when Geralt’s with Yen, he’s thinking about Yen, and when he’s with Triss, he’s thinking about Triss.”

Yes, this is all as surreal to hear said in Geralt’s voice as you might think having just read it in text form.

For more Witcher-related news, you can check out some of its devs reminiscing as TW3 turned 10 the other day, or this mod that has a go at giving that game a Witcher 1-style skill system.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

The Witcher 3 Is Just $4 As Whole Trilogy Goes 88 Percent Off

by admin May 20, 2025

For less than the price of a Mission Impossible 8 movie ticket, you can hear the wind howling across three hardware generations just like our dear friend Geralt of Rivia. That’s because The Witcher 3 and the rest of CD Projekt Red’s fantasy RPG series is just $15 as the most recent entry celebrates its 10-year anniversary.

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If you don’t already own these games, what are you doing with your life? Or if you do, maybe you have a close acquaintance, or even a not-so-close one, who you’re looking to finally get Witcher-pilled? The Witcher sale on PC and console is the perfect time to do it. Running through May 25, you can get the entire trilogy for very cheap, including The Witcher 3 for as little as $4 on Steam and GOG which, quite frankly, might be pound-for-pound the best deal in gaming if, like me, you agree it’s one of the best games ever made.

Go up to $10 and, on PC, you can get 3‘s Complete Edition which includes the Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine DLC expansions, which are every bit as good as the base game, and in some ways even better. That version is $12 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, both of which received a “next-gen” upgrade in late 2022 that added a 60fps performance mode, better reflections, and tons of other improvements.

But don’t overlook The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings which is currently just $3 on PC and Xbox (the PS3 version never got ported forward). Less refined but also more linear than its successor, the second game in the trilogy still tells a gripping story of magic fables and grim politicking across a much less overwhelming map. You can get in and out in just 25 hours if you want, with smaller zones to explore and fewer RPG systems to tinker with, but still tons of great story scenes and character writing.

The Witcher 1 is also decent in its own way, though it’s much more of an acquired taste. Some still swear by it but I’ve found the fiddly menus, archaic controls, and opaque directions a chore to muddle through, even if the storytelling lays necessary groundwork for the sequels and goes to places you only ever hear about in the latest game. At just $1.50, though, there’s really no reason not to scoop it up with the rest. The Gwent-based campaign spin-off, Thronebreaker, is also just $4, or you can play the card game for free (it’s no longer updated by CDPR but is still maintained by the community).

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Fancy a Witcher 3 10th anniversary playthrough with extra “classic RPG feel”? Well, this new mod gives it a totally revamped Witcher 1-style skill system

by admin May 19, 2025

In case you missed it, The Witcher 3 is now a decade old. We’re all knee-deep in replays of old games right now, but if all the TW3 anniversary chat has you thinking about firing it up again, a new mod looks like it’ll offer an interesting twist for folks looking forward to The Witcher Remake.

After all, how best to switcher up your Witcher experience than swapping one Witcher skill system for a different Witcher skill system from an older Witcher game. That way, you can see Witcher is better. All right, I’ll stop mucking about.

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The mod is Gerwant30’s Witcher 1 talent trees remake for The Witcher 3, with its creator having previously scored second place on one of CD Projekt’s REDkit modding contests with a work that lets you explore a bit of Cintra.

Now, as part of their ongoing “Tales of the Witcher” project, they’ve had a go at adding their own version of first Witcher game’s skill system into TW3, with the goal of giving you “a lot more control” over Geralt’s development via “13 new talent trees and over 200 new skills”. “This mod attempts to recreate that feeling and philosophy within The Witcher 3,” Gerwant30 explained, “replacing the standard skill trees with a more layered and, hopefully, rewarding progression system.”

Watch on YouTube

As you can see in the showcase video above, the mod sees you work up and earn bronze, silver, and gold talents across trees dedicated to the likes of strength and dexterity as you level up. You’ll start off by earning bronzes early-game, then gradually move on the silvers and golds as you get more proficient and gradually morph into a master witcher.

There are four main skill trees including the two mentioned earlier, each with 17 skills, but that’s far from it. The five Witcher signs each have their own 18 skill strong tree “allowing for deep specialization”, and there are four combat skill trees aimed at “strong” and “fast” attacks with your steel and silver blades.

“Your power comes mostly from how you build your character,” the modder writes, “Skills, talents, and preparation define your strength, equipment statistics are less important.” Certainly a lot to tweak if you’re a fan of in-depth build engineering, though it’s worth noting that this being a beta, a fair amount of the skills and features are still very much a work-in-progress.

It’s also worth noting that Gerwant30’s designed the mod to work exclusively with “a fresh new game in the base version of The Witcher 3 only”, with them being very clear that existing saves and standalone playthroughs of the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine DLC won’t work as intended. They also intend for it to be used with another mod, SkylineR390’s ‘Alchemy’, so you’ll need to grab that if you fancy giving this skill tree mod a go.

PsychoCaki’s ‘SCAAR’ and a camera mod like TheMenxceX and ElementaryLewis’ ‘Immersive Camera for Next Gen’ are also on Gerwant30’s recommended list.

Did you prefer the first Witcher game’s more old-school approach to skills, or is how TW3 does things second nature at this point and not something you’d want to tweak? Let us know below!

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May 19, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Why we’re still playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10 years later

by admin May 19, 2025

Ten years! How many times in the last decade have we fetched that frying pan, whistled for Roach to give us a lift, sliced drowners in half, and used our Witcher senses to track a blood trail to a monster’s lair, only to find a tragic story at the end of what seemed like a simple hunt?

The Witcher 3 was a shoo-in for the canon of all-time PC RPGs as soon as it released in May 2015. A decade flew by in an instant, and not just because the passage of time is a haunting reminder of mortality for those of us without witcher mutagens keeping us spry for centuries.

It’s hard to believe The Witcher 3 is 10 years old becuase it feels like few games have bested it since. The writing, voice acting, and world still rival games being released in 2025.