Cyberpunk 2077

[Mr Bean]

So after years of delay, months of crunch they promised not to do, and way too much hype, CDPR's next big RPG is out tomorrow (or Wednesday depending on time zones).

Early reviews are saying that the game has fantastic characters and setting, a decent main story, and enough bugs to fill the world's entomology exhibits 40 times over.

Ars Technica
Kotaku
PC Gamer
Metacritic

This looks very much my jam so I think I'm probably going to push through the bugs and give it a try at or around launch. If nothing else, I want a chance to play with the character creator for a while. Anybody else looking at this one either now or in 6 months to a year when they finally have all the bugs ironed out?

 

[Oathbreaker]

Definitely also read this if you or anyone you know is vulnerable to epilepsy or seizures because left unchanged this game is going to cause more of them than any other modern game I can think of.
Epilepsy PSA

It's wildly astonishing that this level of seizure-triggering lighting effects made it in, much less ones that are almost the same as those used by doctors to diagnose epilepsy in a professional setting prepared to help the patient. Here's hoping that massive day 1 patch addresses this.

 

[WildcatJF]

Needs to be stated upfront that this game has had a strain of transphobia almost from the outset, and given our community we need to be sensitive to that. Resetera's Kyuuji has done an incredible job documenting all of it here.

Also key are these two articles from Polygon from trans writers:

Cyberpunk 2077 is dad rock, not new wave

CD Projekt Red’s open-world game does not exactly have a futuristic worldview

www.polygon.com

and

It sucks that Cyberpunk 2077’s edgelord marketing worked so well

CD Projekt Red sure has got everybody talking about this game

www.polygon.com

 

[Kishi]

This looks very much my jam so I think I'm probably going to push through the bugs and give it a try at or around launch. If nothing else, I want a chance to play with the character creator for a while. Anybody else looking at this one either now or in 6 months to a year when they finally have all the bugs ironed out?

I'm hoping you just weren't aware of all the exploitative and transphobic shit the publisher has engaged in. No one should play this game.

 

[Mr Bean]

Yeah, I was not. I had been purposely avoiding most of the coverage since I wanted to go in blind. The threads Wildcat posted were some really bad shit.

 

[John]

Definitely also read this if you or anyone you know is vulnerable to epilepsy or seizures because left unchanged this game is going to cause more of them than any other modern game I can think of.
Epilepsy PSA

It's wildly astonishing that this level of seizure-triggering lighting effects made it in, much less ones that are almost the same as those used by doctors to diagnose epilepsy in a professional setting prepared to help the patient. Here's hoping that massive day 1 patch addresses this.

No immediate patch, beyond adding a separate EULA-style agreement saying you agree that this product may harm you.

I haven't seen any comment from Microsoft/Sony on how they're allowing this on their platforms, since it shouldn'tve passed certification.

 

[Destil]

Devs I've heard said they're not sure if the cert process actually catches things like this or just "make sure your system won't catch on fire."

 

[Eusis]

I do wonder if they’ll pull the game from sale. Hope so TBH shit like this shouldn’t be tolerated.

Also suspect Nintendo captures it but they’re lawsuit averse AF.

 

[Fyonn]

Naturally, the person who broke the news of the epilepsy risks is now being sent tons of videos meant specifically to trigger her epilepsy because Of Course.

Eight years ago, when this was announced around the same time as Deus Ex: Human Revolution was still a Big Deal, I was very excited about this game. I had decided I was going to play this game eventually, years more down the line if and when it dropped to extremely cheap prices, as a sort of reflection on the ways I and the world had changed and had not changed.

Now that the game could potentially give me a surprise epilepsy diagnosis, I'm probably just going to play this game's primary competitor instead. You know, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Maybe Prey? I hear Syndicate wasn't awful. You know, I own both Prey and Mankind Divided and haven't played either of them.

 

[Peklo]

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is more cyber and punk than this game could ever be if anyone's itching for actually effective explorations of the genre's thematics in this medium.

 

[Fyonn]

Dang, I was coming back to start recommending increasingly absurd and barely-related-to-cyberpunk games instead of Cyberpunk 2077, but that recommendation - which I wholly agree with - blows any jokes I could make out of the water. (For posterity I was planning on bringing up Doom 2 and Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid, the latter of which just had Scorpina released as the final new character of Season 3.)

 

[estragon]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1336060457090740236

https://twitter.com/x/status/1336393995841392642

Anyways, my recommendations are Invisible, Inc. and Shadowrun Dragonfall.

 

[Trar]

How the hell did they think an unskippable seizure inducer was acceptable to put in their game.

 

[Fyonn]

Best case scenario: it was a coincidence and no one noticed.
Worst case scenario: it was on purpose because it never occurred to whoever put it in that someone vulnerable to it would play their game.

Either way I would not be surprised if the QA team is shouting "we fucking told you!" right now.

 

[Zef]

Most likely scenario: QA did warn them, but Product Management decided that removing the feature/downscaling it was out of scope and known negative impacts to vulnerable audiences were an acceptable flaw.

 

[Ludendorkk]

I audibly gasped when I saw video of the lights in question -- this was so incredibly, obviously dangerous that there is zero chance this wasn't repeatedly brought up to management at some point in development. It it straight up criminally negligent for the game to be released in the state it is in and it needs to be delayed again and pulled from shelves until this is fixed

 

[Felicia]

Reading about the justification for the transphobia as "it's supposed to show that the game world is bad", and then them using those same transphobic things in their marketing, I began to wonder what it would look like if the next Wolfenstein game was marketed with prominent swastika banners and nazi salutes. "I cosplayed as a jewish stereotype because I'm a really big fan of Wolfenstein!"

Anyway, if we're recommending cyberpunk games, I'll once again bring up Beyond A Steel Sky, the recent sequel to the classic Beneath A Steel Sky.

 

[Issun]

TIL GOG is not the super great alternative storefront I've been told that it is.

 

[madhair60]

I still use GoG, begrudgingly and exceptionally rarely (because I had built up a big library prior to their first transphobic outburst) and that's the absolute limit of CDPR seeing any money from me. I'd given them something of the benefit of the doubt in the original GoG social media incidents, because I was a fucking idiot. Someone kindly gifted me The Witcher 3, and I was pretty mad about that. lol.

Cyberpunk can go fuck itself. As far as I'm concerned it represents the sewer that gaming has become.

 

[Tiers in Rain]

I love the idea of a huge, intricate, open world cyberpunk city to explore. It's beautiful. And as someone who writes about the cyberpunk genre, I should be excited for this. But actually I've kind of been dreading its release for the reasons we've already seen and will continue to see for months. Aside from all the recent bullshit, my first impression of this game had nothing to do with the game itself. But rather, it was CDPR copyrighting the term "cyberpunk." I know they haven't initiated any sort of litigation, and said they wouldn't. But still. . .they started out on a bad foot with me on that. I was still willing to give it a chance, until everything else happened.

Add to that the abusive work culture, the transphobia, and now the epileptic light situation.

And then of course the abuse that some journalists, who have said the game is anything less than the second coming of Christ, have already gotten from The Gamers™ is the ultimate turnoff. I'm not really interested in giving this game any further attention outside of this thread.

 

[Exposition Owl]

You know, I own both Prey and Mankind Divided and haven't played either of them.

This is me, Talking Time's resident Prey superfan, dropping into this thread to urge you to play Prey as soon as your schedule permits.

 

[Pajaro Pete]

baba is you is unironically a better cyberpunk game, both due to a lack of problematic content, and also just like conceptually

 

[q 3]

My favorite cyberpunk is Untitled Goose Game. Also that one fetish porn RPG that has a trans lesbian cyborg lead a communist revolution on a robot moon colony

 

[FelixSH]

I hadn't heard about this game, before reading the thread. I was really into it for, like, 5 seconds, and then decided never to show any interest in this game again.

Also that one fetish porn RPG that has a trans lesbian cyborg lead a communist revolution on a robot moon colony

I think I need to play this game.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

My favorite cyberpunk is Untitled Goose Game. Also that one fetish porn RPG that has a trans lesbian cyborg lead a communist revolution on a robot moon colony

That's cyberHONK

 

[Mightyblue]

TIL GOG is not the super great alternative storefront I've been told that it is.

I still use GoG, begrudgingly and exceptionally rarely (because I had built up a big library prior to their first transphobic outburst) and that's the absolute limit of CDPR seeing any money from me. I'd given them something of the benefit of the doubt in the original GoG social media incidents, because I was a fucking idiot. Someone kindly gifted me The Witcher 3, and I was pretty mad about that. lol.

Cyberpunk can go fuck itself. As far as I'm concerned it represents the sewer that gaming has become.

Corporations are no one's friends, and I was pretty skeptical of CD Projekt Red after my attempt at playing Witchers 1 and 2 given how disposable and insubstantial the female characters are in both of those games. I mean, fucking in-game trading cards for sleeping with most of the named lady NPCs is just yiiiiiiiikes.

 

[Ludendorkk]

This is me, Talking Time's resident Prey superfan, dropping into this thread to urge you to play Prey as soon as your schedule permits.

Hey, that title belongs to me, bub

But yes, play Prey (2017)

 

[Octopus Prime]

Is Prey cyberpunk though? I chalk it up more to being like Alien than anything else. Of course, you Should play it regardless.

Invisible Inc and the SNES Shadowrun are the top of the heap of cyberpunk games for me, and not likely to be dethroned any time soon. Neon Chrome is also great if you want something with more ‘splodin’ and less numbers

 

[Exposition Owl]

Hey, that title belongs to me, bub

Fair enough. I should have said I was one of Talking Time's resident Prey superfans.

Is Prey cyberpunk though? I chalk it up more to being like Alien than anything else. Of course, you Should play it regardless.

You're right--it's not really cyberpunk at all, and I didn't mean to imply it was. It's just a good game that people should play.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Nobody can dispute that!