[UPDATE] Our 10/10 Witcher 3 review is now live. Read it here.

The original story is below.

CD Projekt Red's highly anticipated role-playing game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is now available to pre-load on PC through Steam and GOG, as well as Xbox One. The PC edition on Origin and the PlayStation 4 version will be ready to pre-load "soon," the Polish developer explained in its announcement today.

Pre-loading, of course, applies to digital copies of The Witcher 3 only. The appeal of pre-loading is that you can download the 35GB game ahead of time so that you can play the second it unlocks.

Digital copies of The Witcher 3 unlock at 1 AM CET on May 19, which is actually the afternoon/evening of May 18 in the United States. Boxed copies of the game arrive on May 19.

Check back soon for lots more on The Witcher 3, as we'll post our review at 7 AM PDT / 10 AM EDT today.