Cyberpunk 2077

[Xero Kaiser]

Well we had...

Animal Crossing New Horizons,
Half Life Alyx,
Spider-Man Miles Morales,
Ghost of Tsushima,
Immortals Fenyx Rising,
AC: Valhalla,
Demon's Souls Remastered.
The Last of Us Part II (which granted I wasn't hot for, but a lot of people really did like it).

I'll add DOOM Eternal, Nioh 2, FF7R, Wasteland 3 and DOOM Eternal (you heard me)

What, this year has been great for gaming.

I can't sign off on this. Even with the mess of bugs and glitched there's a good game here.

A great game, I'd say. At least on PC (and I assume PS5 and XSX since I haven't heard any complaints about those). Too bad the shitty last-gen versions are going to overshadow everything else for the foreseeable future.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

What, this year has been great for gaming.

There have been high profile disappointments, granted. Marvel's Avengers was a huge one. Cyberpunk likewise. Even when the game has worked, it's been criticized for not being as innovative and groundbreaking as people expected. It's at best going to be a solidly above average game and better than the Watch Dogs games but it's not gonna be a classic/masterpiece of our time.

Too bad the shitty last-gen versions are going to overshadow everything else for the foreseeable future.

There are plenty of bugs on the PC version too. Like a save game file that corrupts the game if it exceeds 8MB and so on.

It's not as outright appalling in the PS4/XBONE but it's not great.

[Godlike13]

I'd say it was an average year. Ghost of Tsushima was the standout for me. Other then then there were a bunch of remasters and re-releases, which are cool but don't get me that excited. There were certainly good games, but ya Avengers, Godfall, Cyberpunk, even the TLoU2 was a disappointment for me.

[Immortal Weapon]

There have been high profile disappointments, granted. Marvel's Avengers was a huge one. Cyberpunk likewise. Even when the game has worked, it's been criticized for not being as innovative and groundbreaking as people expected. It's at best going to be a solidly above average game and better than the Watch Dogs games but it's not gonna be a classic/masterpiece of our time.



There are plenty of bugs on the PC version too. Like a save game file that corrupts the game if it exceeds 8MB and so on.

It's not as outright appalling in the PS4/XBONE but it's not great.

PC version is playable despite all those bugs though. The save corruption is the biggest problem it has right now.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

PC version is playable despite all those bugs though. The save corruption is the biggest problem it has right now.

The fact is that the PC version isn't bereft of bugs either. And it also seems that the best performance is available to people who can afford to have high-end gaming PCs can actually play this game...that's a criticism when made towards Crytek so I don't know why it's not a criticism when it's directed to CDPR.

Leaving aside the technical stuff, the actual game...aside from some well-written missions and stuff, is above average at best. In terms of narrative and themes, it's not doing anything that the Deus Ex series haven't done before in terms of dealing with transhumanism, technology and humanity merging and so on. As far as expressing a nightmare vision of capitalism run amok, even Bioshock (a game I am not too much of a fan of) does that better. That's not to mention the movies whether it's Blade Runner or Blade Runner 2049, or The Matrix 1, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report and so on, have all done this kind of stuff better, to say nothing of the obscure stuff like Strange Days or New Rose Hotel. I can say that Cyberpunk 2077 handles the same material and ideas in one game that Ubisoft have failed to do in three different Watch Dogs games but that's faint praise. Even with that, the last Watch Dogs game Legion with its play-as-anyone mechanic (however poorly implemented) is at least doing a brand new concept that might be worth improving.

CDPR in the Witcher games had Sapkowski's material to work with, and the Witcher stories within the genre provide a solid foundation, a set of cool characters and other concepts to work with. Now you'll say that the games are sequels to the books and stories, and yes that's true but again the characters, stories and ideas which CDPR introduced was all following the example and pattern and signposts set by the books, so they could riff off that material very well. I know a lot of Witcher games fans liked the games more than the books, but again the success of the Netflix show (which rather faithfully adapts the short stories and so on) proves that the material there is really solid and good.

Cyberpunk 2077 which comes from a tabletop RPG game doesn't have the same depth of characters and material as Sapkowski's books and it's a little out of their depth.

[Starter Set]

As cyberpunk ambiance goes i really prefer the 3 Shadowrun games for being honest.

[Immortal Weapon]

The fact is that the PC version isn't bereft of bugs either. And it also seems that the best performance is available to people who can afford to have high-end gaming PCs can actually play this game...that's a criticism when made towards Crytek so I don't know why it's not a criticism when it's directed to CDPR.

Leaving aside the technical stuff, the actual game...aside from some well-written missions and stuff, is above average at best. In terms of narrative and themes, it's not doing anything that the Deus Ex series haven't done before in terms of dealing with transhumanism, technology and humanity merging and so on. As far as expressing a nightmare vision of capitalism run amok, even Bioshock (a game I am not too much of a fan of) does that better. That's not to mention the movies whether it's Blade Runner or Blade Runner 2049, or The Matrix 1, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report and so on, have all done this kind of stuff better, to say nothing of the obscure stuff like Strange Days or New Rose Hotel. I can say that Cyberpunk 2077 handles the same material and ideas in one game that Ubisoft have failed to do in three different Watch Dogs games but that's faint praise. Even with that, the last Watch Dogs game Legion with its play-as-anyone mechanic (however poorly implemented) is at least doing a brand new concept that might be worth improving.

CDPR in the Witcher games had Sapkowski's material to work with, and the Witcher stories within the genre provide a solid foundation, a set of cool characters and other concepts to work with. Now you'll say that the games are sequels to the books and stories, and yes that's true but again the characters, stories and ideas which CDPR introduced was all following the example and pattern and signposts set by the books, so they could riff off that material very well. I know a lot of Witcher games fans liked the games more than the books, but again the success of the Netflix show (which rather faithfully adapts the short stories and so on) proves that the material there is really solid and good.

Cyberpunk 2077 which comes from a tabletop RPG game doesn't have the same depth of characters and material as Sapkowski's books and it's a little out of their depth.

Because a high end PC isn't needed to run the game. Someone doesn't need to drop 4 figures on a PC to get that version of the game to run well. You only have too if you want all the bells and whistles. Benchmark wise, Cyberpunk is the new Crysis.

As for the game's narrative, I'll definitely take this over Bioshock. I'll not a fan of how Bioshock chose to tell it's story and none of it's characters stayed with me. I'm not deep into the main plot of Cyberpunk and I'm liking all the stories and characters I came across in the side content. Panam and River are great. I like that Johnny isn't limited to just the main quest.

[Hiromi]

hotfix just removed the 8mb save limit, thank God I was a bit closer than I wanted to be

[Grunty]

I was looking forward to this game since the original trailer dropped back in 2012. When the premise was to play a Max-Tac officer hunting down Cyberpsychos (which now that i think about it was basicly a sci-fi Witcher pitch...).
Being a fan of futuristic RPG settings (nothing against the various classic fantasy types or hybrids), i thought it was nice that there would be another mid to high production level one using the cyberpunk genre.

Years later the next trailer came out, showcasing how their new vision for the game looked.
The perspective was changed from linear missions as Max-Tac to playing a customizable street merc, in a fully designed city which wouldn't depend on constant night to look like a dystopian world. This actualy got me carefully excited for the game and once the 2018 gameplay showcase hit i was set on wanting to play it
Though my expectations weren't for it to be a revolutionary game, but more like a modern counterpart to the Shadowrun game that came out for Sega Genesis back in the 90's, with vehicles and verticality added in.

But then the release date came closer and the bad news started dropping in. The dreaded crunch period was applied, which broke a promises made about the treatment of their work force, no gameplay was shown for consoles (especialy the base versions) and contradicting behind the scenes info on the state of the game started to be thrown around. With the worst indicating a disconnect between the development team and the management. All topped by the release date being pushed back at almost last minute (metaphorical).
So when the game finaly came out it turned out that even with the delay it was quite undercooked, badly optimized for consoles and full of bugs and glitches even in the PC version.

Still i got the PS4 version as gift (my PC is not up to the task) and decided to make the best out of it, hoping the patches following it's release would get the performance to an okay level. And what can i say, playing it right now i actualy rather like it.
Again i think it helps that i wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking.

But i also constantly get the feeling the game could have been so much more if it stuck closer to the RPG roots in multiple areas, applying them dynamicaly to the more action oriented combat, rather than watering them down. Both character building and choices (dialoge or action) feel far too simple and the gear system is in my opinion, quite the wrong choice for a setting like this (and done badly on top of that).

For example.
In a world where your visual appearance is meant to be so important (they made a full trailer about fashion in the world) and you are mostly wearing street or fine clothes, why are said clothes treated like the interchangable generic armor pieces in fantasy RPGs?
And why are the same weapons appearing with different level qualities and split up into 4 non sensical classes of common, uncommon, epic and legendary (why is a 200+ year old samurai sword less "legendary" than a random pistol?) mostly at random, like in a hack and slash looter game ala Diablo, even though the game is a story driven narrative adventure?
Leveled randomized gear should not be a thing in a story and quest driven RPGs with a exploration based world. They have their use in linear action rpgs with repeatable dungeon crawls, like the mentioned Diablo or recently Nioh though.

The answer seems to be, because somewhere in development they decided to just copy the gear system from The Witcher 3, which i can't remember anyone actualy praising, merely tolerating because the rest of the world actualy kept them interested.
Perhaps they chose it because they were more familiar with it, or because someone in creative controll decided that it's "their style" and they should keep it regardless of setting. Regardless of reason, the game is now settled with a system created for looters
The end result is a contradiction of world vs. gameplay that sticks out far more in this game than it does in Witcher.

Though Witcher and Cyberpunk aren't the only offenders in this regard. Even the highly praised Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 suffer from it in my opinion. It's a bad trend for RPGs which should be heavily reconsidered.

For such a world a locked gear system ala Fallout New Vegas feels more appropiate in my opinion. Where the power of a weapon is not the arbitrary level but the type, the origin, the quality of it's model and its price tag. Especialy when the better gear also requires better stats to be wielded correctly, making your weapon selection and your character progression interwoven (Cyberpunk does have stat requirements for some weapons but they are so low you hardly notice).
Your gear should be something that carries you well even if you find better or simply more fitting options by having the money to buy it (making traders actualy usefull to seek out rather than just a drop off point for trash), find it on bosses or in explored locations. Because it's the character who makes the weapon work well.

The same possible split between "should we do Witcher again or make something more fitting" seems to hit the story too. While i do enjoy it and find it well made, i also find it runs against how the game world is made as wide open sandbox. You have this large scale city which could be so full of big and small stories you could encounter as urban mercenary, but the actual story of the game is about a linear race against the time with occasional often bare side gigs (which because of the main story feel out of place), something that could have just as easily be done in sectors ala Deus Ex.

This is also what i find harms V as an RPG character a lot. They are too defined as character and in personality (also too limited in further customization options past the start) to be really the player's own creation, but also too customizable to ever neatly fit into lore of the setting and the RPG system, or into a sequel game without creating the usualy headaches for the writing (avoid describing them as much as possible or settle for a generic standard version).
It makes me think, that with the way they did the story, it would have been easier to just have V as a fixed character like Geralt in The Witcher. After all i did enjoy the story, it's well done, but it feels like V as customizable character is neither quite right nor fully wrong in it.

And that's before you factor in that the story overall feels (at least to me) more like the epiloge to the Cyberpunk 2020 lore and it's heros, rather than the beginning of a new chapter in the world, with new heros/villains. At the end there seems to be no new Solos around to rival Morgan Blackhand or Rogue, no Netrunners who could rival Spider or Alt, no evil henchmen who could replace Adam Smasher. At the end of the story, the old guard had their last dance, but the new guard is nowhere in sight or just left with V.

And that's the thing that gets me most. They can fix the glitches and bugs, improve the AI, create a proper crime system and improve driving, but it seems the oversimplified RPG system, lackluster visuals of the protagonist's cybernetics, limited character customization and unrealised game world seems to be there to stay. Leaving the game as okay to good, but not getting close to the potential someone like me feels could be there.

Because after all, the city they made is GREAT in my opinion. They really nailed the feel of the city as described in lore. The buildings, the media, the fashion and the vehicles. All are spot on. But the stat system, gear progression, side mission number and story just don't complement it as well as they could.

Sorry for the long rant.

[Immortal Weapon]

hotfix just removed the 8mb save limit, thank God I was a bit closer than I wanted to be

I'm 64 hours in and my most recent save was 4MB. This patch came just in time.

[Midvillian1322]

New patch on Ps4 yesterday made the game unplayable. Literally won't load, I've tried pressing continue and loading from a save file both the game hits an infinite load screen until it crashes.

[Midvillian1322]

I'd say it was an average year. Ghost of Tsushima was the standout for me. Other then then there were a bunch of remasters and re-releases, which are cool but don't get me that excited. There were certainly good games, but ya Avengers, Godfall, Cyberpunk, even the TLoU2 was a disappointment for me.

It had some bugs but I think Assssins creed Valhalla was up there with Ghost of Tsushima for me. Even if it's another character who isn't actually an Assasin. The gameplay and story were great imo.

[Immortal Weapon]

The game sold $13 million copies. The terrible launch and the relaunch were taken into account with the sales numbers.

https://www.engadget.com/cyberpunk-2...203600086.html

Still a mega success with all the issues surrounding it and CD Project. Surely, the sales will be at a standstill with it being pulled from the PS store.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The game sold $13 million copies. The terrible launch and the relaunch were taken into account with the sales numbers.

https://www.engadget.com/cyberpunk-2...203600086.html

Still a mega success with all the issues surrounding it and CD Project. Surely, the sales will be at a standstill with it being pulled from the PS store.

(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-after-refund)

Bloomberg paints a different picture of that number.

It seems like the marketing, promotion and hype led Cyberpunk to make a big launch but that also means they may have hit a plateau and sales will drop and decline sharply, making it hard for CDPR to exceed Witcher III leave alone approach the sky high bar set by GTA V.

[Starter Set]

They wont get any money from me at at least, not after all the lies and plain scam that are the ps4 and xbox one versions.