CD Projekt Red has had a few days to iron out early problems in The Witcher 3 Remastered, and the latest hotfix now allows players to roll back the years and play on the ‘classic’ version of the game, meaning Patch 1.32, originally released in November 2018. This has long been an option, but it was broken for a period of time after the remaster arrived as a free update on September 29.

Alternatively, PC players may also roll back to the Next-Gen update (Patch 4.04), which brought features such as ray tracing, faster loading times, integrated mods, and a new DLC pack inspired by the popular Netflix series. We imagine rolling back to Next-Gen will be more popular, but now Classic is back if you want an even more vanilla experience.

The Witcher 3 Remastered Hotfix 5.00c patch notes

CD Projekt Red has released a couple of patches since launch day, with the latest being Hotfix 5.00c on October 1. You can find the full patch notes below, including the fix for the Classic (1.32) version. Users can access the Classic and Next-Gen versions on Steam and GOG via beta channel settings (official guide here), but it’s not possible to roll back on the Epic Games Store version.

Hotfix 5.00c is now available for download for the Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, Battle.net, and Xbox Play Anywhere (PC) versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered. You’ll find the patch notes below:

• Fixed an issue where the game couldn’t be saved or loaded if the path to the Documents folder contained special characters.
• Fixed an issue where voiceover audio could become significantly quieter than other in-game audio after navigating through the pause menu tabs.
• Made various visual adjustments in Velen, including tweaks to Bloom, vegetation lighting, saturation, and Path Tracing lighting.
• Reverted a change that caused significant performance and visual issues with HairWorks enabled for some users.
• Fixed an issue where marketing telemetry settings weren’t saved properly.
• Fixed an issue on GOG where achievements wouldn’t appear in the unlocked list after being earned.
• Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to launch the Classic (1.32) version of the game.

Source: CD Projekt Red

The Witcher 3 Remastered is still getting negative reviews on Steam, generally due to performance issues, but it has been calming down in the days since launch. Most notably, AMD was a few hours late to deliver driver support for the update, and Radeon GPU owners faced various rendering problems, but it was soon fixed. Some users (AMD and Nvidia) continue to complain regardless. As such, rolling back to an older version is ideal if you’re having problems with the latest version following the remaster update.

With the remastered update, CD Projekt Red brought a range of visual and gameplay improvements, including path tracing, ray-traced HairWorks and support for NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction, AMD FSR 4 and Intel XeSS 2.0. It also introduces revamped combat animations, new finishers, an overhauled skill tree, improved textures, lighting, and foliage, alongside expanded photo mode and cross-platform mod support. The update is free for existing owners and includes both the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.