The Witcher 3’s next-gen update will remedy one of the game’s most annoying issues: its ridiculously high fall damage.
Ahead of the release of The Witcher 3’s next-gen update on December 14, the official patch notes (opens in new tab) for the upgrade have been released, detailing what improvements we can expect. Among other crucial yet subtle gameplay changes, like the incorporation of community-made mods, the notes confirm that the minimum height at which Geralt will suffer fall damage has been raised considerably.
Although widely regarded as one of the best RPGs out there, anyone who’s played The Witcher 3 is bound to have fallen prey to possibly its most fatally irritating trapping. You’ve just slain a Wyvern on the craggy shores of The Continent, but as you swoop to claim your trophy, disaster strikes: Geralt suffers a damning four-inch drop from one boulder to another, toppling gently to his demise with not so much as an emphatic grunt of annoyance.
Thankfully, this will be amended for players when the long-awaited next-gen update lands. According to the patch notes, developer CD Projekt RED has “adjusted the minimum height for fall damage, allowing the player to survive falls from higher heights.” This means I can finally bounce around the beaches of Skellige without fearing for my life whenever I spot a perilous one-foot drop.
The annoyingly low height at which you receive fall damage is one aspect that I’ve never been able to wrap my head around. Geralt is a powerful superhuman monster-slayer, able to withstand onslaughts of vampires, necrophages, and not to mention how he knocks back all those shady Witcher tonics like cheap whiskey. I’m excited to finally be able to go frolicking in the safe assurance that a little slip won’t cost me my life.
A whole new world
Another exciting new feature highlighted in the patch notes is a new default map mode to help you out if, like me, you struggle with the visual chaos that comes with a map filled with question marks. “The new [map] filter hides some icons such as ‘?’ and boat icons in order to reduce icon clutter,” the patch notes read. “These icons can be turned back on with the ‘All’ map mode toggle.”
Finally, we will be getting a brand new quest to embark on in the realm of Velen. The quest, now confirmed as ‘In The Eternal Fire’s Shadow’, offers rewards that are “inspired by Netflix's The Witcher series.” There seems to be a host of TV series crossovers being implemented in the next-gen update, including a new Jaskier-inspired character skin for Dandelion and some Nilfgaardian armor that might also strike fans of the show as familiar.
All these changes are coming to PS5, Xbox Series X│S, and PC copies of the game on December 14. If you’re a past-gen console user, fret not; the patch notes also mention an update for Xbox One and PS4 players will be on its way soon, with details still to come.
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