Imlerith – The Witcher 3

Encountered in the Bald Mountain mission, Imlerith may seem tough with his enormous shield and mace. Fortunately, he’s easy to trap with Yrden and slice away from behind. Bombs like Grapeshot and Samum are also useful, and destroying his Frost Shield isn’t tough either. Take advantage of his slow movement and victory is assured.

There is very little doubt that CD Projekt RED has some serious interest in the budding Virtual Reality technology. That doesn’t appear to mean the company is ever going to use it on games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Konrad Tomaszkiewicz recently sat down with Examiner.com and talked about what his company felt about the VR tech and why they likely won’t be using it.

“With great curiosity, just like every other emerging technology. As for your other question. Pretty hard to say, the technology is still very young. Plus, The Witcher is a [third-person perspective] game and VR is something that gravitates naturally to [first-person perspective],” Tomaszkiewicz said.

With that in mind, we can still get excited about the game’s final piece of DLC, which will likely always be for the console only. Check out our interview about Geralt’s final mission for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and get ready for the last DLC to land at the end of this month.

GamingBolt had a chance to speak to CD Projekt RED senior writer Karolina Stachyra about the various aspects of Blood and Wine, it’s overall length and what players can look forward to.

"Hearts of Stone was full of stuff a witcher would not normally do ­­ a wedding? Deals with the devil? Toussaint is kind of like that."

Several awards later, we are finally on to the last piece of content for what is this generation’s greatest game. How do you feel?

Karolina Stachyra: Flattered that you’re calling Wild Hunt this generation’s greatest game, that’s for sure! We feel great, it’s the last stretch, so we’re tired, but definitely feel great. Blood and Wine is Geralt’s final adventure, and we have some really awesome stuff up our sleeves to send him off with a bang!

With the support that Hearts of Stone received, what’s the current studio vibe with Blood and Wine? Did anything change in development or was there a desire to go even “bigger” than before?

Karolina Stachyra: Making Blood and Wine bigger than Hearts of Stone was the plan all along. When we announced the expansions way back, we estimated that Hearts of Stone would provide about 10 hours of content, and Blood and Wine would double that. I mean, we’re introducing a whole new region after all ­­ it needs to be filled with the stuff The Witcher fans love: quests, monster hunts and secrets when they’re on the road.

What can you tell us about Toussaint at this stage and how it will play into The Witcher 3‘s universe?

Karolina Stachyra: You know how we like to play with convention, right? Hearts of Stone was full of stuff a witcher would not normally do ­­ a wedding? Deals with the devil? Toussaint is kind of like that. It seemingly doesn’t fit The Witcher world ­­ it’s just so… happy. They don’t have an army, only wandering knights, they’re always drinking wine and not caring about anything, really. And this is where it gets twisted: death comes to the land of summer, things start happening, people are dying. Guess who they’re gonna call? And it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

With this a major new area for The Witcher 3, what kind of scale can players look forward to? Is it more along the lines of Velen or scattered like Skellige?

Karolina Stachyra: It’s going to be big. Remember the feeling you got when when it dawned on you Velen is not the only place you’ll traverse in Wild Hunt, when you saw Skellige? I’m not comparing both in sizes, just trying to work on your imagination. Hopefully, you’ll feel that again.

"One of the new mechanics that I like are witcher armor dyes. For me, being a witcher means always being on the road. You have your gear, your swords, your potions. It’s you and the unknown, right?"

Hearts of Stone was praised for the design of its side quests and story missions, especially with regards to their unique nature. What kind of unique scenarios can be expected in Blood and Wine?

Karolina Stachyra: For those of you who had not yet finished Hearts of Stone, beware, here be spoilers! The story told in Hearts of Stone was divided into distinctive parts: first you made the deal with Mr. Mirror, then there was the wedding, then the heist, and the Mansion. Although each of them propelled the story somehow, they were not exactly connected with each other. It’s different in Blood and Wine. BaW is not broken up into distinctive pieces, but more seamless in the way the narrative flows. It plays with you, twists things when you expect that the least. And it’s definitely more grim, despite Toussaint itself is very fairy tale in nature.

What kind of new mechanics can be expected in Blood and Wine? Will there be anything like Runewords? For that matter, will we see new types of Runewords?

Karolina Stachyra: One of the new mechanics that I like are witcher armor dyes. For me, being a witcher means always being on the road. You have your gear, your swords, your potions. It’s you and the unknown, right? What I love about dying your stuff is the sense of personalization it adds to that on­ the ­road experience. I know that’s an out­ of ­place comparison, but it’s a bit like soldiers customizing their equipment. Geralt’s not a soldier, but he’s a professional, he does that, too. That really adds to the RPG experience for me.

What kinds of new Gwent cards can players expect, if there are any at all?

Karolina Stachyra: Ever wanted to play with a Skellige deck? Well, I know from a well informed source that soon you’ll be able to!

The length of an expansion is always questioned in this day and age but CD Projekt RED proved that value is as important with Hearts of Stone. What will be the goal with Blood and Wine given its relatively larger size?

Karolina Stachyra: We estimate that it will take gamers about 30 hours to finish the main story arc of Blood and Wine.

"This is Geralt’s final quest, yes. But there’s a ton of stuff you can dig into like comic books (House of Glass and Fox Children), you’ve got the board game, which is pretty cool. And, if you’re like me, you can always re­-read the books!"

What kind of new content can be expected after the release of Blood and Wine? Will support continue till 2016 end?

Karolina Stachyra: We’ll definitely support the game as a whole. In terms of expansions, Blood and Wine is Geralt’s final quest.

Can fans expect an Enhanced Edition of The Witcher 3 to release later this year with all the expansions include?

Karolina Stachyra: Oh, this not a question for me, really.

With this being the final expansion pack, is it time to say good bye to our good old Geralt of Rivia?

Karolina Stachyra: This is Geralt’s final quest, yes. But there’s a ton of stuff you can dig into like comic books (House of Glass and Fox Children), you’ve got the board game, which is pretty cool. And, if you’re like me, you can always re­-read the books! *laughs*

You have slowly but surely started to speak a bit about Cyberpunk 2077. Now I won’t push you to reveal all of it, but how different is it from The Witcher experience?

Karolina Stachyra: Let’s see… it’s in the future, it doesn’t have Geralt as the main character, and it’s not set in a fantasy world (although the world is fantastic!). Does that answer your question? *laughs*

Is there anything else you want to tell us to The Witcher 3 fans before we let you go?

Karolina Stachyra: We love you guys and gals! Thank you for playing The Witcher and I hope you’ll have an amazing time playing Blood and Wine!

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be receiving its second and final expansion later this month with Blood and Wine. It will be much larger than Hearts of Stone, adding a new region called Toussaint, lots of new side quests, a brand new story, new gear and weapons, and much more.

Though it was initially thought that the expansion would be preceded by an update that was 10 to 15 GB in size, CD Projekt RED CEO Marcin Momot confirmed to GameSpot that this file size is for the expansion itself. There will be an update arriving alongside the expansion but smaller in size.

Blood and Wine is expected to be the last time we’ll venture forth with Geralt for a good long while. CD Projekt RED will be shifting its development resources to Cyberpunk 2077, which could release any time between 2017 and 2021. It also has some other unannounced projects in development, one which will be revealed later this year so stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

CD Projekt RED’s next expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, namely Blood and Wine, will be massive with 90 news quests, new weapons and armour and much more. However, it will also be the final piece of content for Geralt’s epic adventure that began almost a year ago.

In conversation with Eurogamer, game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has confirmed that, “This is the last thing we deliver and we focus on Cyberpunk.”

Cyberpunk 2077 will be the developer’s next magnum opus and it’s working hard on making it even better than The Witcher 3. However, Tomaszkiewicz did note that patches for the game would continue. There will be a patch before Blood and Wine releases and another likely coming after that.

We may also see an Enhanced Edition or Game of the Year Edition for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its expansions. Regardless, what are your thoughts on Blood and Wine, releasing on May 31st, being the last expansion? Let us know in the comments.

CD Projekt RED has confirmed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt‘s next expansion Blood and Wine will be releasing on May 31st. This is after a leaked listing for the same appeared on Steam.

That’s not all though – the developer also unveiled a boatload of details for the expansion. With more than 90 quests, Blood and Wine will be a +30 hour expansion with 14,000 new lines of dialogue.

Toussaint will rival both Velen and Novigrad in size and includes 40 new points of interest, a dynamic system wherein clearing enemies from one location will thin their numbers in adjacent places, 30 new weapons, 100 individual armour pieces, 20 new monsters, 12 new mutations (which can be unlocked in New Game Plus) and a new “Skellige” Gwent deck.

The user interface will also see a redesign along with New Game Plus now going up to level 100, new armour dyes for your gear that can be acquired from merchants, recipes and such (but only in Toussaint).

What are your thoughts on all the new content coming with Blood and Wine? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Blood and Wine is coming on May 31st!
Pre-order now at: https://t.co/WyxKZU932c pic.twitter.com/wjL4eDVF8E

— The Witcher (@witchergame) May 10, 2016

CD Projekt RED has promised lots of information on Blood & Wine, the next expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, this month but it seems that we may have a release date.

Many users revealed that a release date for May 30th had been unveiled on Steam. As per Wario64 on Twitter, a screencap (below) clearly shows the listing and release date. Of course, the page has since been pulled so it’s possible that someone pushed the button too early.

Blood & Wine is slated to be quite likely the largest expansion CD Projekt RED has made for any of its games till date. It will feature a brand new region, a new story wrought with twists and turns and new missions possibly involving vampires.

What are your thoughts on Blood & Wine releasing this month? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for official comment from the developer.

If you haven’t played CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and are a fan of open world games, it’s well worth a look. With high critical praise and early Game of the Year awards, Geralt’s quest has won over more than its fair share of fans, especially with 6 million units of the game sold thus far. The developer has thus released a new trailer to hype up the other two adventures of Geralt – Hearts of Stone and the upcoming Blood and Wine – for those who may be interested in the Expansion Pass. Check it out below.

Hearts of Stone recently released and promises 10 hours of gameplay with Geralt running into the Man of Glass and completing a series of missions for him. The adventure saw the return of popular Witcher character Shani and was a huge hit. Blood and Wine will be out next year and promises a new zone along with 20 hours of gameplay. CD Projekt RED is also still working on updates to fix bugs and other issues but new features like New Game Plus could be coming in the future.

What are your thoughts on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its Expansion Pass? Let us know in the comments.