The Witcher 3 was meant to give Geralt a chain weapon 11 years ago, S…

Among the additions coming in the upcoming The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past DLC is a new kind of weapon for Geralt, a big old chain he uses to whip and lasso enemies. It's a cool, nifty piece of equipment, and something CD Projekt Red has had in its back pocket since making the original game, over a decade ago.

Two developers, Jakub Rokosz, game director on Songs of the Past, and Despoina Anetaki, senior quest designer at CDPR, discussed the subject with BBC News. "We were talking about implementing the chain even during the original The Witcher 3," Rokosz recalls.

"It was impossible to do at the time for various technological reasons and challenges," he continues. "A few things had to click together, and we were able to address those challenges and issues during the remaster, so then we were able to implement a weapon that feels just natural and very fluid." librea.one

He says it "realizes a fantasy" you may have if you've read the Witcher books, since Geralt wields a chain regularly in the novels from Andrzej Sapkowski. Further connectivity between the source material and the games is good to see, and having more combat options makes Songs of the Past even more appealing, since this is a real late-game addition.

Anetaki explained a little more about why it made sense to include the chain now. "It fits with the narrative theming of the Songs of the Past," she says. "It fits with all the new enemies that work with the chain. We were able to do crowd control with the swarmions, that swarm you and you have to keep them away from you."

She points out it's a "cool weapon" for people "who might be sick of the crossbow by now." More versatility is always welcome, and considering there are players who'll have put in hundreds of hours over the years, it's especially so here.

The Witcher 3's Songs of the Past expansion wouldn't be "possible" without the RPG's remaster, says CD Projekt Red: "The stars had to align."

After five years in early access, Valheim 1.0 finally launched this week with its final biome, a new boss, lots of extra weapons, armor, and monsters, and more than 50 achievements—though those cheevos were locked up tight if you used the command console to activate cheats.

That just changed, at least for Steam users. Twin patches were released for Valheim today containing a handful of bug fixes and tweaks, and one big change to achievements.

"The fixes include a function to let you opt into using achievements even though you have been blocked from doing so because of previous usage of devcommands," developer Iron Gate says. "We will leave it to your own judgement whether or not to activate this function–Oden will surely know if you use it dishonourably."

This new command is just for players on Steam, and it rolls right off the tongue:

"Achievements can now be opted into even if you have used devcommands or mods by the new devcommand 'yesiuseddevcommandsbutiwantmyachievementsanyway'."

If you're new to using cheats in Valheim, by the way, we've got you covered with our Valheim console commands guide, which we updated for 1.0 so you can spawn new Deep North materials, weapons, foods, and items. And now you can use them while still earning achievements, even if it means Oden will be disappointed in you. Nice!

Also in the patch, you can now repair your Deep North armor, which is good news, and you can no longer punch snow to remove it, which is bad news, because punching things should always solve problems in survival games (now you'll need to craft a shovel instead).

Amusingly, players discovered a couple of days ago that Valheim's new timberwood drawbridges were too narrow to fit a cart across—kind of an important feature for a bridge—but the devs promised a quick fix, and that's included in today's patch as well.

Here's the dual patch notes:

Patch 1.0.10 – All Platforms

• The heavy armour in Deep North can now be repaired
• Greydwarf Shamans in Deep North now deal appropriate amounts of damage and healing
• Punching no longer removes snow
• Landing on snow without directly walking now removes the snow
• Various sound effects updated for several creatures and the snow in Deep North

Patch 1.0.12 – Steam Only

• The following fixes are fully crossplay compatible and will be extended to all platforms in an upcoming hotfix, which we're pushing out as soon as possible.
• Using the Forge of Potential no longer unlocks recipes that should not be unlocked
• Items on armour stands and item stands no longer lose their durability & upgrade level IF the world has not yet been loaded in the 1.0 update (We are however looking into a better fix for this so do not remove high level items (fish, weapons, armour, etc) from your item stands without using backups if you have been playing 1.0!)
• Fixed a crash that could trigger when players tried to access a zone that wasn’t loaded
• Fixed a problem with banlist and whitelist that made them only compatible with new IDs (e.g. V_123456789) even though they should work with old IDs too (e.g. Steam_123456789)
• There is now a popup message to make it more clear when you can receive achievements again after them being temporarily disabled
• Achievements can be now be opted into even if you have used devcommands or mods by the new devcommand 'yesiuseddevcommandsbutiwantmyachievementsanyway'
• It’s now easier to fit the Cart through the Timberwood Drawbridge
• Jotun Puffs and Magecaps no longer look pickable when they have been picked

Search for the Needle codes can help you get a leg up when scouring through hay piles for a tiny needle. It's a tiresome task, and any boost that helps you clear the hay that little bit faster is a godsend, be it a useful Class skill like increased earnings or faster hay collection or some more cash to spend on better tools.

Thankfully, these Search for the Needle codes give you exactly that, usually in the form of Gems which you can exchange for Class Rerolls. Be careful, though, as you're not guaranteed a decent class, so think carefully before rerolling. Don't think before redeeming these codes, though, as they can expire at any time.

For other more general rewards that you can use across all of your experiences, then take a look at our list of the current Roblox promo codes you can use.

All Search for the Needle codes

These are all the valid Search for the Needle codes right now:

• ALIEN - 200x Gems, 200x Alien Coins

The code above is the first and only Search for the Needle code so far, as codes have only just been introduced to the popular game. I would expect future codes to grant similar rewards, though, including more Gems and update-specific coins that you can use to open update-specific chests for update-specific items!

How to redeem Search for the Needle codes

To redeem Search for the Needle codes, simply click on the Codes button on the right of the screen, indicated by the blue bird icon. Enter the code into the box and hit Redeem to receive your rewards.

Expired Search for the Needle codes

• There are no expired codes.

As the promo above is the first and only Search for the Needle code so far, you haven't yet missed out any free rewards. However, I've no doubt that this code, and future codes, will expire eventually, so redeem any promos as soon as you see them.

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