You can now pet Geralt's horse in The Witcher 3, and it's about time

The Witcher 3's free next-gen patch is out now, and it brings an awful lot to the game in the way of dramatically enhanced graphics, improved gameplay, additional content, and bug fixes. The most important change, though, doesn't appear in the patch notes. You can now pet Roach.

I first heard about this vital change from Witcher fan Neon Knight, who posted an "important Witcher 3 PSA" on Twitter. To be certain I wasn't falling victim to a prankster with animation software and an abundance of free time, I reached out to CD Projekt, who confirmed that, yes indeed, this is a new and official addition in the update. CD Projekt global PR director Radek Grabowski even shared his own clip of Geralt's new affection in action, noting how Roach demonstrates her appreciation in response.

The new move comes as a surprise not just because it's not listed in the patch notes, but because there's no in-game prompt for it either. To make it happen, you have to press and hold the jump button while you approach Roach. I expect we'll all be making it happen quite a bit over the next few days. It's a nice touch.

Petting Roach is clearly the big new thing to do in The Witcher 3, but we have helpful guidance on other fronts too: How to unlock the Nilfaardian ballsack armor and Henry Cavill's armor from The Witcher on Netflix, how to enable cross-platform progression, and how to get the good ending in the huge and tricky Family Matters quest. And if you're having performance issues with the update, which some players have reported, take heart: CD Projekt told us earlier today that it is "aware of the issues," and "will be providing an update on particular issues as soon as possible."