The Witcher - Enhanced Edition Available in May
 

True to their word, the official Witcher site has posted the following news about new content this spring. It will be in the form of an 'Enhanced Edition,' and will include improvements to the load times and other technical polishing, the D'jinni toolkit, two new mods with 5 additonal hours of play, and significant improvements in translation for all language versions, especially the English and German. It's a very long document, and there is also an associated pdf file, so I will only be quoting a few snips:
For those who already own The Witcher, the new content will be available as a download:
And a short description of the mod content:
Head over to the links above for more details. (You can also read the same text, but with bigger screenshots, in the forum announcement.)
More information.

That sounds very good. I've been holding off on witcher in anticipation of something like this. And seems I did the right thing. I'm sure the game is much more enjoyable with this thing. Seems like the game is already in pretty good shape from what i've heard but after this I expect a highly polished game.

I'll be buying this even though I already have the game (for multiple reasons). Now *that* is an enhanced edition!

But, yes, if you don't already own it I'd imagine waiting for this version would be a good idea.

I hope it sells well…and with all those goodies in it I think it probably will. Would have been nicer to have 10 hours or so of mod/additional content though instead of just 5…but I'll get over it.

Even though i own the original version, i will probably get this as well.

How is waiting the right thing if the new content is also available as a patch?

Well, the new version is still cooler than regular version + downloaded content. :) And stuff like the music CDs probably won't be in the download.

No that's amazing :)
I'm definitely going to buy this new edition!

50 new NPC, 100 new animations… I bet those were done before the first release. Anyway, I am getting this one as well, maybe I will have a new rig to play it at max 1920x1200 res.

This is great news and I thoroughly applaud it.

But seriously, buy it again? When you get most of the good stuff as a free download? If I needed another copy for some other reason I could see getting this new one as the way to go, but otherwise you're effectively doubling the cost of the game for yourself.

The only game I have two copies of is NWN, and that's because my second copy came free with the NWN2 collectors edition!

Yeah, not so much :) Otherwise they would have been in the original version.

"and significant improvements in translation for all language versions, especially the English and German"

This would really put The Witcher in the top rpg ratings for me, but, do I have to buy it again to get this?

No, if you already own The Witcher, you'll be able to download it for free.

This is mighty impressive, and that is the attitude that all developer companies should embrace (they won't of course, as they are money-hungry a$$holes). I'll definitely buy the Enhanced Edition. Well done, The Witcher team!

Thanks, too lazy to be reading press releases today.

This is what I've been waiting for too!

Don't forget the promo video which reveals that there is also a canadian mod team working on a third downloadable module.

http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=NvZH_fSZqyM

They are re-recording voice-overs - that is something absolutely amazing.

You did not understand what I mean.

I already have the music CD etc, from the Collectors edition I first bought, but I will definitely download the patch. I love this game!!

Sweet! I allready have the CE, so a patching it will be.

Now I just need a new PC to get off the low-setting option.

Or it could be that things left out of the press release and .pdf were left out for a good reason.

If you have the money, it's a nice way to thank the developers of the game for making so many improvements for free :)
Really looking forward to its release.

Someone's got to ask it: will there be only one version? Or one for mature adults that can handle nipples in their game without freaking out, and another for the US?

They haven't decided yet.

This will likely depend on Atari and ESRB.

These enhancements are going into place for a 360/ps3 release? It makes sense to polish it up for new reviews and a larger market.

I'm undecided.

I feel like "no, this isn't the real thing. Wait a few months and you'll get it, eventually".

*sighs*

And what are they going to do with the so far unsold copies of the game ?

I allready have the CE but in this case I dont want to get anything for free so Im more than willing to pay for that as an "addon". There are plenty of addons that dont last more than 5-10 hours (i.e in shooters) and this one comes with horde of other stuff too.

I need to make room for another bookshelf.

Now let the modding begin.

The D'jinni toolkit….It is a powerful protool - containing dialogue editor and quest editor, cutscenes can also be created with it and it comes with a comprehensive manual….sounds pretty good.

http://witchervault.ign.com/View.php…ls.Detail&id=2

Regarding the dialogue improvements…

Official CDProjekt's comment on the English version states that it's lack of quality was due to a time AND (espiecially) character limit in the dialogue lines. They have announced that over 5000 lines of dialogue will be rewritten and dubbed again (thet's kind of PRish, but sounds promising). This update will be released with the enhanced edition (therefore should be available to download for registered users from the Witcher's official site).

Wow. If that's true, that is pure rockage. :dance:

It says that in the .pdf, so it should be true.

On the other hand that's kind of a sting against Atari, if all these rumors are true that Atari cut down some dialogue lines.

They already talked about that - time dictated what they had in the current release (which is still fine if you ask me). The Witcher had already been given several time extensions but it was quite important to get it out when it did. Now that it is out they have the time to improve it further. Fine - it's their money, but personally the improvement to the game that redoing the dialogue would bring would not be worth the money IMHO - I'd rather they gave us something else for the money :) (Though, seeing as they are giving us lots of other things to I can't really complain :p )