Lurking in your game library right now, ladies and gentlemen, is the prettiest, shiniest Geralt you've ever seen. A free next-gen update for The Witcher 3 has been released, improving graphics, tweaking gameplay, and integrating some of the game's most popular mods. However, according to some players, they have encountered freezes and frame rate drops, most of which seem to be related to the game's ray tracing and DX12 implementation.

Of the 2000 or so Steam reviews The Witcher 3 received over the past day, 418 were negative. Most of the complaints were performance-related, with reviewers questioning why their powerful graphics cards take such a dramatic hit from the game's ray tracing, even at 1080p (opens in new tab). Meanwhile, some Reddit users have reported crashes (opens in new tab) and DX12 issues (opens in new tab) in addition to ray-tracing problems (opens in new tab).

Still, it's worth a try if you've been looking forward to it. After all, the other 1,600 Steam reviews the game has earned today are positive, and other Reddit users are enjoying the update. Furthermore, the patch costs nothing more than bandwidth. Still, be prepared to turn off ray tracing (or roll back to the old patch (open in a new tab)) if you encounter problems.

CD Projekt told me that it is "aware of the issues PC players have reported since the release of last night's update" and that it is "actively investigating all reports and will provide updates on specific issues as soon as possible." The company also tweeted (opens in new tab) to the same effect.

Some of you may have somehow missed the information about the patch since it was announced (opens in new tab) way back in September 2020, but this is a free upgrade for all owners of The Witcher 3, which includes ray tracing, DLSS, high-resolution textures, and other various graphical bells and whistles will be added. It also adds armor from the Netflix series (open in a new tab), some quality of life changes (for example, you no longer need to open the loot menu to harvest herbs), and integrates several graphics and bug fix mods.

For those who stay out of trouble, it's a great treat and a welcome return to one of the best RPGs ever (opens in new tab). For the rest of us, well, we hope the patch comes soon. If there are still people who can't enjoy a properly raytraced tube of Geralt, I don't think I'll be able to enjoy Christmas.