The Witcher 2 is gearing up for release on 17 May 2011 in South Africa, and it is set to improve on all the things done right with the first entry in the series. Players can expect a redesigned Geralt, both in appearance and personality. Reports on the pre-release code suggest that the story is hugely divergent, with choice and consequence resulting in players having some wide ranging experiences, and never being able to experience all the content in one play-through.

The engine is brand spanking new as well, with Cd Projekt RED ditching the modified version of BioWare’s Aurora Engine used in the first game. The environments are streamed constantly, meaning no immersion-breaking loading times while travelling about.

Combat has been tweaked, with touches such as potions that cannot be chugged mid-battle. Potions will also deliver a negative side-effect along with their positives. Players will have to plan ahead their battles, and cannot simply wade in, swords swinging, hoping for the best.

Not only is there a whole lot of cool dark-fantasy gameplay and story in store, but CD Projekt RED isn’t shy about the fact that the game carries adult themes. In fact, to market the game in Europe, female lead character Triss Merigold has been featured on the cover of the Polish Playboy magazine (I’m sure you can find the scans if you look hard enough) and in Russia, Ukranian model Klodi Monsoon has helped to produce a saucy Witcher 2 calendar (Google is your friend).

RipTen journalist Dave Oshrey, aside from taking a moment to brag about his admittedly drool-worthy PC rig, has posted 250 ‘Ultra’ quality Witcher 2 screenshots from chapter 1 of the game – and some are even NSFW. Shocking. RipTen’s servers seem to be taking a bit of strain due to the popularity of their gallery, so don’t be surprised if things load a bit slowly for now.

Because MyGaming is trying to maintain a grease-paper thin veneer of being family-friendly, feast your eye-tongues on the Witcher 2 screen-pops scattered around this article, and then head on over to RipTen to see the naughty bits (protip: check out page 5).

Did you spot any awesome screenshots? << Let us know in the MyGaming forums