The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine Is the Biggest Witcher Expansion Yet

If you’re a The Witcher 3 fan (or just a fan of the series), you’ve probably been waiting with bated breath for The Witcher 3 to get its second epic expansion, Blood and Wine. Not only does Blood and Wine contain, according to developer CD Projekt RED, about as much content as the previous full game in the series (The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings), it offers new types of gameplay, completely different locales and biomes to wander in, and – of course – new cards for eminently popular in-game minigame Gwent.

First things first: Blood and Wine requires the original The Witcher 3 in order to play. If you bought the expansion pass, you’re good; otherwise, you’ll need to buy it separately. Blood and Wine is for higher-level characters, though you won’t need to have completed the original The Witcher 3 story to unlock it. If it’s anything like the previous expansion, Hearts of Stone, it’s worth going back to pump up your character’s stats.

Blood and Wine takes place in a new land, called Toussaint, which has a more colorful aesthetic than the darker, more Gothic look of the base game. However, rumor has it that the base game areas, like Velen and Novigrad, will also be getting additional territory. What sorts of folks will be in Toussaint, CD Projekt RED hasn’t said… but we know that they’ll be different in both look and demeanor from the folks in The Witcher 3’s original territory. There will also be new skills, new enemies (including what will surely be some epic boss battles), and a pile of new weapons and equipment.

If you’ve played The Witcher 3 already, you should be getting pretty darned psyched by this point. If you haven’t, you must be nuts to have missed one of the very best games of 2015 – so get on it already!

Blood and Wine is out now, and it’s only $19.99. Even better, CD Projekt RED is offering the expansion, along with the previous one, Hearts of Stone, for just $24.99 as a single package. That’s good news for gamers on a budget, as well as those who just love what has become one of the best action-RPGs ever made.