The developer of Balatro has confirmed the reason his viral hit poker game doesn’t have any microtransactions or ads is because seeing games with those types of things “makes me want to put my computer in the dishwasher and set it to pots and pans.”
“The honest reason I don’t have microtransactions/season pass/ads/100 DLCs/etc in Balatro isn’t just about the ethics of those practices, but because when I play other games that have those things it makes me want to put my computer in the dishwasher and set it to pots and pans,” Localthunk posted on Bluesky.
“Like, I get why people add those things, but you’re shooting your UX in the foot if players are having their first impression and also being bombarded with a bunch of nonsense that isn’t actually the game.”
When asked if he was “subskeeting” free to download digital collectible card game Marvel Snap, Localthunk replied: “This isn’t about them, but I’m not letting them off the hook either lol. There’s, like, a 95% chance that if the game is [free-to-play] then the main menu UI is more complicated than the actual game UI.”
Localthunk was recently compelled to denounce AI art after a subreddit moderator erroneously claimed neither the developer nor publisher Playstack had an “issue” with AI-generated art. Localthunk came out on the record to say: “Neither Playstack nor I condone AI ‘art’. I don’t use it in my game, I think it does real harm to artists of all kinds. The actions of this mod do not reflect how Playstack feels or how I feel on the topic. We have removed this moderator from the moderation team.”
Balatro is the viral deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping and outrageous combos. IGN’s Balatro review returned a 9/10. We said: “A deck-building poker roguelike of endlessly satisfying proportions, Balatro is the sort of fun that threatens to derail whole weekend plans.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Following the recently-concluded invasion of Super Earth, Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have decided to keep on chugging with the invasions. Yep, in the most Helldivers 2 development ever to hit Helldivers 2, an Illuminate invasion has given way to an Automaton invasion.
The game’s Galactic War is a genuine forever war, and I continue to enjoy watching Arrowhead find new ways to kick its community of bed and shout ‘come on, you’ve got new things to do’.
Takaya Imamura, renowned artist behind the likes of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, F-Zero, and Star Fox may soon be lending his talents to Nightmare Busters Rebirth, an upcoming remake of the SNES run ‘n’ gun 2013 title, Nightmare Busters (thanks, Time Extension).
His involvement hinges upon a stretch goal within the ongoing Kickstarter campaign. Currently sitting at a total of €131,745 with 15 days remaining, the campaign will need to secure €150,000 to bring Imamura onboard. The good news is that the game itself is fully funded, with an initial goal set at €60,000.
The developers of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 have essentially said “it’s what the Emperor would have wanted” and made a big weapon change in the game not for balance reasons, but because it’s just really, really cool.
Saber Interactive released patch notes for the Siege Update (Patch 8), which is available now on the Public Test Realm (PTS) for PC players, and in those confirmed it had extended the weapon arsenal in PvE to add the Thunder Hammer for the Bulwark class.
Thunder Hammers are perfect for bonking the crap out of Tyranids and Chaos Marines with wide, swinging attacks that have great reach, but the weapon type is limited to the Assault class. The Bulwark class is also great, with its huge shield and overpowered, game-saving abilities. But up to this point the Bulwark was unable to wield a Thunder Hammer. It made sense that it couldn’t, given you need two hands to bring a Thunder Hammer to bear on a heretic’s noggin, and you can’t do that while holding a Storm Shield.
Now, a Bulkwark can equip a Thunder Hammer, but there is an understandable catch: if the Bulwark uses a Thunder Hammer, it can’t also use a Storm Shield. This significantly changes what the Bulwark is all about, which is being a Space Marine who hunkers down for proper last stand stuff. The class has various abilities tied to using the Storm Shield, such as Shield Bash, which when using a Thunder Hammer are no longer available.
What I love is the patch notes explanation from Saber Interactive justifying this change. It basically amounts to an admission that it doesn’t make a great deal of sense lore wise, but they’re doing it anyway for FUN.
“We are adding this option only because we think it will be very cool and it’s a shame that only one class can use the Thunder Hammer,” Saber explained. “We are not done with Bulwark, more interesting gameplay things are to come.”
As a result, the Bulwark’s perks have been updated, which you can find detailed in the patch notes below.
Elsewhere, there is a hugely exciting tease for expanded customization options coming to Space Marine 2, one that’s already got fans hyped for what’s to come in future patches.
We are preparing a very big update for customisation, players will be able to reuse chapter champion armour parts on other classes (with lore accuracy, clipping and technical restrictions). While it’s not going to be in this patch, we wanted to mention this in this patch notes to assure you that we are going to continue expanding our customization system.
The patch notes do not reveal any new weapons or Operations mode maps, so it seems the focus here is squarely on Siege, which arrives in fully fleshed out form as part of Patch 8 on June 26. But Saber has confirmed new content is set to hit the game, including a new class. Season 4 also includes a new game mode for PvP and a new Chaos enemy. Check out IGN’s exclusive interview with Saber on Space Marine 2’s Siege mode for more information.
Siege Mode expands on our PvE operations, emphasizing endless enemy waves that challenge even the strongest teams. When overwhelmed, players may call reinforcements for assistance. Engage in intense battles across three distinctive sectors, each requiring strategic adaptation. Side objectives emerge during combat, providing essential resources used to summon elite Space Marines or a formidable Dreadnought, drastically shifting battlefield dynamics.
The Battlefield
The battle unfolds within a fortified Imperial stronghold on Kadaku, relentlessly attacked by endless waves of Tyranid and Thousand Sons enemies. The fortress has three rotating sectors: Defensive Positions, the Arsenal, and the Control Room. In each sector, you will face five waves of enemies before your squad advances to the next sector, ultimately cycling back to reinforce earlier positions.
Survival Against Waves
Face increasingly challenging enemy waves, with direct assaults from Tyranids and cunning sabotage by Chaos forces. Brief (1 minute) intermissions between waves offer strategic opportunities, clearly indicated through UI notifications.
Side Objectives
Dynamic tasks such as capturing strategic points or retrieving Data-slates from fallen allies deepen tactical gameplay and supply critical resources essential for continued survival.
Shop and Reinforcements
Earn Siege Mode resources through successful combat and Side Objective completion. You can spend these resources at the fortress Shop. You can:
1) Buy ammunition, medicae stimms, equipment, armour boosts, guardian relic (these items have the same exact behaviour as in Operations Mode).
2) Summon specialized Space Marines providing targeted support and bonuses. Each player can have only one summoned Space Marine.
3) Deploy Cadian Troopers to provide additional firepower.
4) Collectively pool your resources to unleash the devastating power of a Dreadnought.
Boss Encounters
Every fifth wave introduces formidable boss battles, occasionally facing multiple elite foes simultaneously. Triumph in these encounters to progress to new fortress sectors.
Infinite Waves
If your resolve endures through fifteen brutal waves, prepare for endless combat of increasing difficulty, reduced resources, and shorter preparation times. Even the Primarch of the Ultramarines understands that ultimate victory here is unlikely — but your bravery will echo through the halls of eternity.”
Added option to disable bots spawn in Private Mode.
Perfect if you’re looking for a challenge
RTAO experimental feature added — enables in in-game video settings
DLSS 4 — better upscale for 50xx series cards.
New Season Pass Content
Added White Scars Chapter Champion.
Added White Scars Chapter Weapon Skin Pack.
Added White Scars Chapter Customisation Pack.
Added Blood Angels Customisation Pack.
GAMEPLAY AND BALANCING TWEAKS
Extended Weapon arsenal in PvE
Added Thunder Hammer for Bulwark. Picking this weapon will prevent you from using the Storm Shield.
We are adding this option only because we think it will be very cool and it’s a shame that only 1 class can use the Thunder Hammer. We are not done with Bulwark, more interesting gameplay things are to come.
New Finishers for Bulwark
Adding new finishers for Bulwark with shield — 1 for Hormagaunts and 1 for Tzaangors.
Terminus Update for Absolute Difficulty
A second Terminus can now appear during a mission.
The Terminus’s HP has been increased by 66% and additional enemy packs will appear upon its spawn and again when its HP is reduced to 50%
These additional packs are now slightly more challenging featuring more Extremis enemies
Mission with final bosses can now also spawn Terminus enemies (previously, missions like “Decapitation” didn’t allow any Terminus spawns)”.
This change is made according to the community poll that we made a while ago. We think that Absolute difficulty wasn’t that hard to begin with and now with a slight power creep of constant weapons buffs, perk buffs and prestige perks the situation is much worse.
After doing multiple test we have scrapped the idea of having 2 Terminus enemies in Operations mode at the same time (except in Siege mode), because this meant that you would have to encounter them all of the time, otherwise one run with dual terminus spawns would be much harder than a run with 2 Terminus enemies spawning one by one.
Instead we’ve tried to make Terminus spawns harder and more intense. We are going to continue to monitor how Absolute Difficulty is, and make necessary tweaks.
Prestige Perks Class Update
Bulwark Prestige Perks Update
“Rally Point”: The perk has been reworked. The new perk is “Emboldened Stand”.
Old: “Chapter Banner additionally removes negative Status Effects while active.”
New: “When the Chapter Banner is active, all Squad Members do not lose control upon taking Heavy Hits and cannot be knocked back within its zone.”
Assault Prestige Perks Update
“Boosted Recharge”: The perk has been reworked. The new perk is “Unyielding Oath”.
Old: “Collecting an Armour Boost restores Ability Charge by 100%.”
New: “When charging a Ground Pound, you become Invulnerable for 3 seconds.”
Sniper Prestige Perks Update
”Boosted Recharge”: The perk has been reworked. The new perk is “Materiel Upgrade”.
Old: “Collecting an Armour Boost restores Ability Charge by 100%.”
New: “Equipment Damage radius increases by 15%.”
Heavy Prestige Perks Update
“Restorative Capacity”: The perk has been reworked. The new perk is “Honed Precision”.
Old: ”Activating Iron Halo removes negative Status Effects.”
New: “Equipped Weapon’s Maximum Spread decreases by 25% when firing without aiming.”
Tactical Prestige Perks Update
“Skilled Supplier”: Fixed a bug preventing the player from getting the maximum ammo.
Class Perks Updates
Bulwark Perks Update
Perks have been updated to reflect the addition of the Thunder Hammer to the Bulwark’s arsenal.
“Forward Momentum”: The perk has been updated.
Old: “After a Shield Bash, Melee Damage increases by 30% for 10 seconds.”
New: “After a Shield Bash or Thunder Hammer Pommel Smash, Melee Damage increases by 30% for 10 seconds”.
“Concussive Force”: The perk has been updated.
Old: “Shield Bash deals 200% more Damage.”
New: “Shield Bash deals 200% more Damage. Thunder Hammer Pommel Smash deals 100% more Damage and deals area-of-effect Damage within a 7-metre radius. Cooldown is 5 seconds.”
“Merciless Resolve”: The perk has been updated.
Old: “After a Shield Bash, Melee Damage increases by 15%, you do not lose control upon taking Heavy Hits and you cannot be knocked back for 10 seconds.”
New: “After a Shield Bash or Thunder Hammer Pommel Smash, Melee Damage increases by 15%, you do not lose control upon taking Heavy Hits, and you cannot be knocked back for 10 seconds”.
“Focused Restoration”: The perk has been buffed.
“Every 40 seconds, all Squad Members automatically restore 1 Armour Segment “ -> Cooldown decreased from40 to 30 seconds.
Tactical Perks Update
“Final Shot”: The perk has been reworked.The new perk is “Emperor’s Judgement”.
Old: “After a Finisher, the equipped Ranged Weapon reloads automatically.”
New: “After a Finisher, the equipped Ranged Weapon reloads automatically, and your Primary Weapon deals 20% more Damage for 10 seconds”.
“Communion of Fire”: The perk has been reworked. The new perk is “Secure Stockpile”.
Old: “Recoil is reduced by 25% and Ranged damage against Extremis-level enemies is increased by 10% for all Squad Members.”
New: “Equipment Charge is restored by 1 for all Squad Members. Cooldown is 60 seconds.”
“Steady Aim”: The perk has been buffed.
“Weapon Spread and Recoil is reduced by 20% and Ranged Damage against Terminus-level enemies is increased by 10%” -> Ranged Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%.
Assault Perks Update
“Winged Fury”: The perk has been buffed.
“Damage from Melee Attacks executed while sprinting or dashing increases by 40%.” -> Damage increased from 40% to 100%.
“Hammer of Wrath”: The perk has been buffed.
“After a Ground Pound, you take 15% less Ranged Damage, do not lose control upon taking Heavy Hits and you cannot be knocked back for 10 seconds” -> Damage reduction increased from 15% to 20%. Knock back immunity duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds.
Vanguard Perks Update
“Moving Target”: The perk has been buffed.
“Each Melee Attack you land reduces the Ranged Damage you take by 2% (up to 20%). If you do not land a Melee Attack for 5 seconds, the effect ends.” -> Consecutive hit multiplier increased from 2% to 5%. Max bonus increased from 20% to 30%.
“Retribution”: The perk has been buffed.
“After you are grabbed or knocked back, you deal 25% more Melee Damage for 15 seconds.” -> Bonus damage increased from 25% to 30%. Duration increased from 15 to 20 seconds.
Sniper Perks Update
“Precision Targeting”: The perk has been buffed.
“Weapon Spread is reduced by 25% and Ranged Damage against Extremis-level enemies is increased by 10% for all Squad Members.” -> Ranged Damage increased from 10 to 15%.
“Dexterous Hands”: Instigator Bolt Carbine is now also affected.
“Bolt Carbines reload 20% faster, and their Weapon Spread and Recoil are reduced by 15%.”
Weapon Perks Update
Inferno Pistol Perk Update
“Know no fear”: The perk has been reworked.
Old: “When your Health is below 10%, Reload Speed increases by 30%.”
New: “If your Armour is fully depleted, Reload Speed increases by 20%.”
Neo-Volkite Pistol Perk Update
“Combustive momentum”: The perk has been buffed.
“After a Gun Strike, heating speed increases by 30% for 6 seconds.” -> Duration increased from 2 to 6 seconds.
Combat QoL
If a Sniper type enemy aims at you, using Assault’s Jump Pack ability will allow you to dodge the shot. The sniper will shoot instantly, but the shot will miss.
Fixed an issue where Neurothropes’ Warp Storm afterblasts could stun-lock the player with heavy hits. Now, afterblasts will damage the player but not control them. Additionally, Neurothropes’ shots now have a slightly longer delay between them.
Fixed a lot of minor issues improving overall combat responsiveness
Firearms (PvE Only)
There are not many weapon balance tweaks in this patch because our statistics show that usage and win rate for all weapons is in a good spot right now. With the next big update we are going to focus on weapon versions balance inside each archetype, because this is where we see a big room for improvements.
Bolt Pistol
Hip-Fire spread decreased by 50%.
Velocity of spread increasing in minizoom state is decreased by 15%.
Inferno Pistol
Gun Strike Damage increased by 20%.
PvP
With the next patch we are going to take a closer look at PvP weapon balance.
Large amount of small fixes in level geometry collision.
Lots of minor fixes for private lobbies gameplay modificators.
AI
Spore Mines: Explosion damage is reduced by 55%.
Neurothrope: Temporary invulnerability is replaced with high damage resistance when it flies up from the ground.
Lots of minor animation fixes for various enemies.
Customisation
We are preparing a very big update for customisation, players will be able to reuse chapter champion armour parts on other classes (with lore accuracy, clipping and technical restrictions). While it’s not going to be in this patch, we wanted to mention this in this patch notes to assure you that we are going to continue expanding our customization system.
Added Red, White and Blue weapon skins as Siege mode rewards
Added Prestige reward shoulder pad on left shoulder as well.
Added left pauldron decal “Ultramarine Sergeant”.
Lots of other minor fixes for customizations of armour parts and emblems.
Levels
Large amounts of small fixes in level geometry collision and Terminus enemies getting stuck in some areas.
General Fixes
Fixed an issue where spore mines could spawn on top of the player.
Fixed several cases where contested health may decrease while performing a finisher.
Fixed: Combining Sniper’s prestige perk “Emperor’s Grace” with “Lingering Concealment” perk drains the ability charge while linger is active
Fixed: Weapon perk “Reloaded Restauration” was not activated by the Sniper’s perk “Efficient Readiness“.
Fixed an issue where the Bulwark perk’s “Intimidating Aura” was not triggering with a Perfect Block.
Intimidating Aura is probably the most overpowered perk right now, but we think that it should still work independently from selected weapon
Fixed a bug with the “Final Shot” perk not increasing damage in some cases.
Fixed a bug affecting Heavy’s “Bonds of brotherhood” perk not granting full health when the player is revived by a bot.
Fixed an issue where some pick ups were inaccessible as a consequence of the interaction button failing to appear.
Fixed rare camera bugs after finisher.
Lots of minor animation fixes for the player.
Minor UI, sound and VFX fixes and improvements
Tech
Crash fixes and general stability improvements.
Matchmaking and network stability fixes.
Minor memory optimization.
Improvements to game modding capabilities.
Main Known Issues
PvE Quick Match – Returning to the Battle Barge from a PvE mission in Quick Match makes the game switch to Offline.
Performances: Horde Mode – FPS drops may occur.
PvP – The players are assigned to a random server instead of the one closest to them, which may result in higher latency than usual.
Localization is not fully integrated in other languages than English.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Oblivion is really a game about the Imperial Watch. Forget all the Mehrunes Dagon stuff and that Hero of Kvatch – the real stars of the show are the stupid guards who pop out of the ether to tell you it’s time to pay the fine for your long list of misdeeds or head off to jail.
One Oblivion Remastered modder clearly feels the same way, as they’ve just fleshed out the Imperial Watch and Forestry divisions into joinable factions, via the addition of some new radiant quests and systems. These kinds of mods have become a bit of a hobby for the modder in question, ColdTyrant, and I spoke to them about it pretty recently.
I currently do not have time to play Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, the game Katherine (RPS in peace) called a “spiritual successor” to (unbelievably good stealth tactics game) Invisible Inc. So, I’m writing about its release from early access as a sort of vicarious joy substitute. Because, boy, does it tick several big honking megaboxes for me. The idea is that you’ll be pulling off cyberpunky heists with a squad of mercs, planning and executing while keeping the future fuzz off your backs. There’s also lots of dense RPG multiclassing stuff I’ll talk about in a second. Here’s a launch trailer.
The Nintendo Switch 2’s launch is imminent, and with it, free Switch 2 updates for more than ten existing games from the original Switch’s library. A pair of these are Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, which are pretty widely criticized for their relatively poor performance on the Switch. I got to play the newly updated Pokémon Scarlet on the Nintendo Switch 2 for thirty minutes, and the Switch 2 upgrades are incredibly clear.
The official Nintendo website says the free Switch 2 updates for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet include:
“Visuals: Optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs for improved image quality.”
“Frame rate: Improved for smoother movement on Nintendo Switch 2.”
The vague description definitely put me off at first, but now I know Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet on the Nintendo Switch 2 run in 4K at 60FPS. Or, at least, those are the settings–I didn’t have the equipment to measure if that 60FPS is indeed steady–but by the naked eye, I can still recognize it as markedly improved. As soon as I loaded into the game, on a huge 4K TV, I was stunned by how nice everything looked. No jagged pixelated edges on blades of grass, or even Pokémon, here.
The Switch 2 updates have also increased the number of Pokémon that can appear on screen, and from a further distance. For instance, flying over Casseroya Lake on the Switch 2 was a drastically different experience compared to on the Switch: I saw numerous Pokémon swim along the surface from a distance and didn’t experience any noticeable stuttering once I began to swim. Even when it began to rain, Pokémon Scarlet on the Switch 2 still didn’t struggle even a little. In fact, it continued playing like normal, as if the weather effects were meant to just… work.
Even when it began to rain, Pokémon Scarlet on the Switch 2 still didn’t struggle even a little.
The framerate improvements are especially immediately obvious when viewing faraway moving objects, like the windmills by West Province (Area One) – Central, or distant Pokémon and people. I also didn’t experience stalling or glitches when in a raid battle or when Terastalizing. I didn’t get to play online or co-op, however, so we’ve yet to see if the updates improved those aspects (that desperately need it.)
Visuals are subjective, so there’s only so much I can say to emphasize that the difference is certainly noticeable, but you can watch the comparison video on this page. I can also report on some favorable loading time comparisons that will let you judge for yourself.
These approximate comparisons are between Pokémon Violet running on a V2 Switch (the Monster Hunter Rise special edition, specifically) in 1080p, and Pokémon Scarlet running on a brand new Nintendo Switch 2 in 4K.
Loading from title screen:
Switch: 19 seconds
Switch 2: 5 seconds
Fast travel from North Province (Area One) to Casseroya Lake:
Switch: 9 seconds
Switch 2: 4 seconds
Fast travel from Blueberry Academy to Paldea:
Switch: 17 seconds
Switch 2: 5 seconds
Besides the fast travel loading time improvements, the menus are also so much snappier. Models in menus load in pretty much immediately, a stark contrast to the agonizing seconds you’d have to wait on the original Switch between trying on clothes in the menu; or hairstyles or accessories in stores.
To be completely honest, the performance of these games didn’t prevent me from enjoying them the first time around. I still appreciated the new open-world format, more fleshed-out characters, and never-before-seen new Pokémon friends, lag be damned. I certainly was frustrated enough that I avoided switching out Pokémon because of how long it took, sure, but overall, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet were fun for me regardless. However, now that I’ve played it on the Switch 2, the performance and visual issues of the original are certainly less ignorable, and thankfully I never need to play it on an original Switch again.
This, I’m relieved to say, isn’t the case on the Switch 2. Sure, they’re still not perfect–I did experience one stutter when dashing on Koraidon, and there are still texture issues and texture pop-ins–but the visuals and performance are far from garbage. They’re so much better, in fact, that I’m tempted to say the free Switch 2 updates are closer to a light remaster than just an optimization – even though it really should’ve just run better to begin with. I’m that impressed, but to be fair, I did go in with somewhat low expectations–how much better could a simple update make a game that ran with so many issues in 1080p on the original Switch?
Just how well Scarlet runs on the Switch 2 makes me question if this iteration of Pokémon was planned for the Switch 2 all along. The update does this much and is free? Suspicious.
Conspiracy theories aside, if the performance of Scarlet and Violet on the original Switch turned you off from playing, it’s absolutely worth giving them another shot on the Switch 2. I’m certainly going to go back and play more of the Indigo Disk DLC with these updates intact. These games are right at home on the Switch 2 and feel like they should have been here all along, and this gives me so much hope for the performance of the Switch 2 version of Pokémon Legends: Z-A later this year.
These were my first impressions from just thirty minutes of hands-on play, so there could certainly be issues I missed or that reveal themselves later, but I encountered significantly less issues in these thirty minutes on the Switch 2 compared to the thirty minutes on the original Switch I spent capturing the comparison footage. You’ll be able to see the differences between the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet Switch versions for yourself once the free updates are out on June 5, alongside the launch of the Switch 2. Simply connect your Switch 2 to the internet and perform a system update to download free updates.
We’ll also begin re-reviewing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet on the Switch 2, so look out for that full evaluation in the near future!
Sega has hyped up Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds as having the “largest” roster ever in a Sonic Racing game. It’s set to include characters from across the Sega Universe, but it seems there could be even more surprises on the way…
Ahead of the Summer Games Fest, a new leak has reportedly emerged and it’s revealed a possible cameo racer. According to footage circulating online, the new Sonic Racing entry will feature…spoiler alert…a playable version of SpongeBob SquarePants. Yep, the Nickelodeon character who lives in a pineapple under the sea.
In a huge reveal at this week’s Unreal Fest Orlando, Epic Games and developer CD Projekt Red showcased a technical demonstration of The Witcher 4. Built in Unreal Engine 5 using many of the latest tools and technologies, it offers a window into the future of The Witcher; not just in terms of what Ciri’s saga will (hopefully) look like, but also the people we’ll meet, the places we’ll go, and the general vibe of the game we’ll one day get our hands on.
There was plenty to see in the 14 minutes of demonstration footage, so we’re here to break it down with the help of CD Projekt Red and Epic Games. Here are the 10 most important things we’ve learned about The Witcher 4 and its new tech demo.
1. The Demo is Not Gameplay
The demo we saw was played live on stage by CD Projekt Red’s Cinematic Director, Kajetan Kapuściński. But while Kapuściński was literally moving Ciri around the game world, the studio is keen to emphasise that the demo is not a true slice of the game. While the mountain region, forest, and port town you saw will be part of The Witcher 4, the quest being played and the characters Ciri interacts with may not be featured in the final game.
As Kapuściński explains to me, this “was a demo that [CD Projekt Red and Epic Games] crafted so both companies can work on some technology that will be powering The Witcher 4 in the future. So it’s not gameplay of The Witcher 4, per se.”
So if it’s not gameplay, what can we learn from it? “It shows our artistic direction and how we would like to approach some things,” Kapuściński explains. And so everything you see – the scope of the world, the density of the foliage, the way Ciri and NPCs react to each other, and how cinematic cutscenes blend with the interactive parts – is CD Project Red’s ambition. It’s how the studio currently envisions the game and what the team is working towards.
The visual quality of this tech demo is astonishing, but we’ve been here before. Many people will remember the first footage of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or Cyberpunk 2077, which turned out to be more ambitious, at least visually, than the final product. In The Witcher 4’s case, it’s especially easy to be skeptical, as this demonstration was running on a regular PlayStation 5 (not even a PS5 Pro!) at 60 frames per second. I asked Wyeth Johnson, Senior Director of Product Strategy at Epic Games, if this quality was genuinely something players could expect to experience on a base PS5.
“Oh absolutely. We can’t lie here,” he says. “I mean the technology that we’re making has to be directly relevant for what players expect, and players across the entire hardware spectrum are asking for amazing 60 frames per second gameplay.”
The new advancements in Unreal Engine 5.6 are allowing developers to run complex tech more efficiently. As explained in an Unreal blog post, “The Hardware Ray Tracing (HWRT) system enhancements are designed to deliver even greater performance for Lumen Global Illumination. By eliminating key CPU bottlenecks, you can author more complex scenes while maintaining a smoother 60 FPS frame rate.” The promise of all this is that the experiences that are currently typically locked behind a 30 frames-per-second ‘Quality’ mode will be available at 60fps – all without requiring new hardware.
“The goal that we set at the very beginning, to make this demo and play it live on a standard PlayStation 5 in 60 frames per second, that was a challenge on its own,” says Kapuściński. “And pushing towards that allowed us to achieve these optimizations that allow us to use technology on a bigger scale.”
3. We’re Headed North. Very North
The technical demo takes place in Kovir, a region in the very north of The Continent, the world in which The Witcher takes place. It’s situated north-west of the lands of Redania and Temeria, locations you’ll be familiar with from The Witcher 3. Its mountainous terrain is resource-rich, and so mining is one of the kingdom’s key industries. Kovir is the world’s leading exporter of minerals, and among those minerals is salt; you’ll have noticed that Ciri’s quest in this demonstration is to investigate a salt merchant’s missing cargo.
Fans of The Witcher books have waited a long time to visit Kovir, but creating it for a video game is no easy task. As Game Director Sebastian Kalemba explained as part of the demonstration, “So much of The Witcher world is natural, organic, especially Kovir with its dense forests and wild nature.” The Witcher 3 featured some grand woodland environments that remain impressive even 10 years later, but the forest shown in this demo is a league ahead of them. It stretches as far as the eye can see, with detailed pine trees creating a blanket of green through the mountain’s ravine. Both vertically and horizontally, there’s an astonishing amount of foliage detail.
“I think for the Witcher franchise, the forest is definitely the soul of the game,” says Charles Tremblay, VP of Technology at CD Projekt Red. “And this is something that we were struggling [with] since the beginning of the project. How are we going to make the next generation of foliage?” The answer was Nanite Foliage, a new Unreal technology that has a whole new approach to how assets like leaves, flowers, and pine needles are loaded into the environment. It allows for a much more detailed natural world without the need for constant load times and pop-in – and it was that that has helped CD Project Red work on a seamless forest environment that is so richly detailed.
4. A Horse Named Kelpie
For hundreds of hours we travelled around The Continent on a very beloved steed. But Roach was Geralt’s horse. Ciri needs her own mount, and luckily she has one. Kelpie is a black horse and we can see her in action for the first time in this tech demo. While Kelpie is new to the games, this horse has roots in The Witcher books. Originally belonging to a member of the Guild of Merchants named Hotspurn, Ciri took ownership of Kelpie when he died. Recognised as a magnificent horse wherever she goes, Kelpie’s best trick is that she can be summoned by rubbing a magical bracelet (it’s as if she were written to be a video game horse).
In the books, Kelpie is said to be able to jump over seven-foot-tall walls with ease. Anyone who’s played The Witcher 3 will tell you that’s an impossibility with Roach – he’s more likely to disappear and end up on a roof. And so all this begs the question: will Kelpie be easier and more enjoyable to control than Geralt’s old steed?
“No offense to Roach, but when you have this jank it can get you out of the immersion, that’s for sure,” admits Tremblay. “We want [players] to explore the world with [Kelpie] as a companion and it has to be close to perfection, for sure.” New tech like Unreal’s multi-character motion matching should hopefully ensure riding Kelpie is a smooth experience.
Like so many of The Witcher’s creatures, Kelpie has a mythological connection. In Scottish folklore, a Kelpie is a shape-shifting water spirit that has the ability to disguise itself as a horse when on dry land. Could this name hint at Kelpie also being able to take Ciri across spans of water? We’ll just have to wait and see.
5. The Quest and The Manticore
As we’ve established, this showcase is a technical demonstration rather than a slice of the game, and so there’s not really a quest to see, at least not in the game sense of the word. But Kalemba wanted to ensure the demo had a sense of narrative running through it – this is CD Projekt Red, after all.
“The big challenge was how to make a tech demo, but in a way that we’ll also be able to incorporate story and bits and pieces from this world,” he explains. “I love that narrative layer in this entire piece, [it] actually even helps to boost the technical achievements behind the entire demo.”
In that narrative layer, we see that Ciri has taken on a classic bit of Witcher work. She’s accepted a contract from a salt merchant to find his missing cargo and crew. Unluckily for him, both his salt and men are long gone. Luckily for Ciri, their grisly fate arrived via the blood-soaked jaws of a manticore. And, as we all know, killing monsters is exactly what Witchers are known for.
It’s a pleasant surprise to see a manticore in this demo. Production materials that were leaked during the development of The Witcher 3 suggested that manticores were planned to be part of Wild Hunt, but they were cut from the final game. While this tech demonstration is by no means confirmation of anything appearing in The Witcher 4, we at the very least have been able to see one of the beasts rendered in Unreal Engine 5. Hopefully we’ll get to fight it in the final version of the game.
Including this quest was important to Kalemba. “One of the common denominators between the writing [in the] books and the games is a cocktail of genres. It’s a cocktail of experience,” he says. The reveal trailer shown at The Game Awards last year, he explains, was a more “grounded” experience that showed the ugly realities of living in the world of The Witcher. “Here you have this adventurous vibe, you know what I mean?”
6. Welcome to Valdrest, Population: Over 300
As Ciri adventures through Kovir, she returns to Valdrest, the port town that’s home to the trader who gave her the salt contract. It’s also home to over 300 other people, thanks to a whole host of tech optimisations and Unreal Engine’s new animation framework. That means larger, more realistic crowds – Novigrad will hopefully feel primitive in comparison.
Among the town’s population we see men, women, and children, a marketplace full of traders and guards, several dwarves, a few sex workers, entertainers, and a number of different animals, including a tamed bear. Perhaps most impressive is the variety of body types and unique animations on display; it feels like everyone is an individual, something emphasised by unique characteristics, such as a disabled man walking with a crutch, or a mother wrapping her arm around her child. It’s an example of Epic’s metahuman technology bringing ever-increasingly lifelike and varied characters to video games. Something that can also be seen in the way they interact with each other…
7. A Responsive, Living World
The NPCs in Valdrest are interesting for many reasons beyond just their visual variety. As Kalemba explained during the demo, “Notice how responsive the world is. Character actions directly affect what happens around you, sometimes even setting off chain reactions. Everything is working together.” We see this in action as Ciri bumps into a merchant carrying a crate of apples, which causes him to lose balance and drop his fruit all over the floor. The apples, fully rendered with physics, begin to roll down the hill. A nearby chicken, startled by the noise, clucks and flaps away.
We also see how NPCs can react to Ciri – upon spotting her, a guard says “Oh bugger, not her again,” and spits at Ciri as she walks past. It’s reactive behaviour like this that helps sell a Witcher’s shadowy reputation. Many people are prejudiced against these mutated monster hunters. “The idea is that there are physical interactions that when you get poked at, you get a reaction to it in a way that feels plausible to you,” says Johnson. “All of these things keep you in the world.”
There are a number of other cool events we see, such as a man being thrown out of a tavern (apparently for cheating at Gwent – does this mean our beloved card game will be back for another round?). It’s unclear if these behaviours are scripted or dynamic based on schedules or routines à la The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, and when asked, CD Projekt Red would not say what its ambitions were there. But the goal is a living, breathing world.
“For us, the world words we are creating, it’s super important for us to actually make them as vivid and as believable as possible,” says Kapuściński. “Naturally behaving, properly looking NPCs are an important part of it. So yeah, we’ve proved that with previous games, and we’re not aiming any lower than that.”
8. Seamless Cinematics
Because this is a technical demonstration and not actual gameplay, we didn’t see a lot of “game” – you’ll no doubt have noticed how the camera swung away from Ciri’s conversation with the merchant before any kind of dialogue system and UI could be shown. But what we did see is a vision of how dialogue sequences in The Witcher 4 will begin, and it’s completely seamless. The Witcher 3 featured brief loading screens as it transitioned from the gameplay camera to the cinematic camera, but all that’s gone now thanks to Unreal Engine’s tools. Now, as Ciri approaches the geographic trigger point for a dialogue – in this case, a balustrade – the camera automatically ‘unhooks’ itself from its regular game position behind Ciri and begins to frame the scene as required for the cinematic.
CD Projekt Red first achieved seamless game-to-cinematic transitions in Cyberpunk 2077, where it was vital to maintaining the first-person immersion. While things are a little different here, thanks to the third-person perspective, it’s cool to see the studio’s vision for keeping the experience flowing naturally.
9. A Small Gift for All Witcher Fans
Right at the end of the demo, Kalemba said that the demo was going to finish with “a small gift for all Witcher fans.” That gift was a first look at Lan Exeter.
While it is briefly mentioned by characters in both The Witcher 3 and its expansion, Blood and Wine, this is the first time we are seeing this grand city rendered for a video game. Lan Exeter is a port city in Kovir and the kingdom’s winter capital (there is also a summer capital, called Pont Vanis) that features in Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher books. With no pedestrian walkways, the only way to navigate Lan Exeter is via its canal network. Unsurprisingly, the city is essentially a wintry, fantasy Venice.
The Great Canal that runs through Lan Exeter leads to a number of important places, but the most important of them all is Ensenada Palace; the residence of the King of Kovir and Poviss. On the boat ride to the palace, a visitor would also be able to see the grand homes of many admirals and business magnates. It seems a sure bet that we’ll be visiting at least one or two of those estates when we visit Lan Exeter in The Witcher 4.
10. The Next Generation of Open World RPGs
As the demo draws to a close, Kalemba says, “I think what we’re doing together [with Epic Games] is going to bring in a new generation of open world RPGs.” But what exactly does that mean?
“For us, story [and] quest is always key,” says Tremblay. “And now with the immersion, we want people to experience this world, but the technology should not be in the way. We want people to feel like they belong to this world, they interact with the world, that they can experience the emotion of the character, feeling that they are connected to the story. With our partnership and all the tools we build and all the technology, I think it’ll be yet another level for us going forward.”
“For us, we don’t want to get in the way of artistic vision,” says Johnson. “We want everybody who uses Unreal Engine to come at the tools and the technology unburdened by what they imagine and believe that it can’t do. We want [them] to come to the technology with a vision of ‘Here’s what we want to achieve. We’re going to dream big, and we hope that the engine moves out of our way as efficiently and effectively as possible and allows us to achieve it.’”
