The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past Screenshot
Image: CD Projekt RED

The Witcher 3 might be a decade old now, but CD Projekt Red's fantasy epic is as relevant as ever. Sitting at the top of our list of essential genre-blending RPGs, it has seen two great expansions and countless updates and enhancements. During the Gamescom opening show last night, Poland's biggest games studio dropped two more announcements for this silver fox of a game; our first proper look at Songs of the Past, the upcoming expansion set to bridge the gap between The Witcher 3 and its upcoming sequel, and (more surprisingly) a major 'remaster' update.

Songs of the Past won't be due out until 2027, with no release date nailed down, but it's already looking like a fun time. Geralt is coming out of semi-retirement for an expedition into the land of Letten, which looks to have a problem with ancient cursed woodlands and seemingly-related undead. So far, so Witcher. One surprise in the debut trailer is a new toy for Geralt to grapple with, or at least grapple other people with. A large hooked chain wrapped around his arm, able to be thrown out, snag enemies, and pull them into stabbing range.

Beyond that, there's not too much more info on the expansion. What we DO have significantly more details on is the upcoming Remastered edition of the game, coming as a free update to all existing players on September 29th, just a month from now. While the game has already seen some major tune-ups since release, the remastered edition boasts further-improved visuals, better-flowing combat (for both Geralt and the monsters, which have some new tricks up their sleeves), better traversal animations, improved horse-riding and more. For the PC tech crowd, native DLSS 4.5 support, full path tracing and ray reconstruction are coming, so those with beefy hardware should see some major improvements to the world's lighting.

To top it all off, anyone who owns the base version of the game is getting the best deal of all. Along with the upgrade to the Remastered version, if you didn't already own the first two expansions - Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine - you will soon. They're officially becoming part of the basic package, no purchase necessary. Obviously this is to drum up further publicity and goodwill for the ongoing series (and its surprisingly good TV show counterpart), but I can't deny that it's working. Good on you, CD Projekt.

For those wanting to jump in now on the cheap to get the remastered version when it drops, you're unfortunately out of luck. Despite going as cheap as £2.50/$3 in the past, The Witcher 3 is currently £40/$50 on Steam and only half price on GOG, CD Projekt's own storefront.