Topic: Cyberpunk 2077

[Chollis]

Couldn't find a thread for this.

Anyway CD Projekt Red are streaming some gameplay on Twitch right now, seems like they'll be doing it a bit in the lead up to launch (now postponed til November)

https://www.twitch.tv/cdprojektred

[Kryton]

As a fan of the pen and paper version, I've got really got high hopes for this and they seem ambitious. They don't seem to be rushing it out either which is reassuring.
I've heard rumours the game has been complete since March but they're just constantly tweaking things.


I'm just wonder how 'open city' it is though? GTA style or more like Deus ex?
Is the driving scripted or will it have certain areas in which we can drive?

I'm hoping melee and combat is optional?

[mobias]

I'm just wonder how 'open city' it is though? GTA style or more like Deus ex?
Is the driving scripted or will it have certain areas in which we can drive?

Its all open like GTA and you can drive and go where you like. I like the fact its not all city based and there's large areas of open world beyond Night City. Fundamentally it looks like a futuristic first person GTA with a huge labyrinthine plot and numerous sub plots similar to Witcher 3. I'm looking forward to it but I'd be more excited if it wasn't first person. I'm just not a fan of FP games. Maybe this one will convert me.   

My dilemma will be whether or not to get it for PC or console. I'll probably get it for console.

[Mister Six]

Yeah the gameplay trailer from last year went from hyper-detailed FPS view to third-person driving view (and back when there was a mid-car-chase shoot-out) pretty smoothly as I recalled. I was astonished at the level of detail.

That said, I don't know if I'd have the time to play something so absurdly massive. Wish I were a spotty teen or twentysomething now, not a bloke approaching 40 with a wife and a dog and hobbies and friends.

I had heard there had been some behind-the-scenes ruckuses or changes or something - enough for one of my mates who is in love with Witcher 3 to cool on the prospect. Has anyone heard about this?

[Consignia]

I had heard there had been some behind-the-scenes ruckuses or changes or something - enough for one of my mates who is in love with Witcher 3 to cool on the prospect. Has anyone heard about this?

CD Projekt Red are pretty famous for horrendous crunch work culture, worth a google. They work their staff to the bone to the detriment of their health. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I was vaguely interested in Cyberpunk, but it makes it harder ask hearing about the tales. Similarly, I've boycotted Red Dead Redemption 2, a game wanted to play, as they boasted about crunch before release. I know it's pissing on an inferno to put it out, but I couldn't reward such behaviour.

[mobias]

Similarly, I've boycotted Red Dead Redemption 2, a game wanted to play, as they boasted about crunch before release. I know it's pissing on an inferno to put it out, but I couldn't reward such behaviour.

Dan Houser from Rockstar, he who boasted about their crunch working, quietly left the studio, or perhaps was quietly booted out of the studio, back in March so maybe you can go a play it guilt free now.

From what I've heard The Last of Us 2 had a totally nightmare crunch period leading up to launch and they really were brutal on their staff.

[oustropique]

CD Projekt Red are pretty famous for horrendous crunch work culture

Yeah, this is grim. We're all expected to put up with it because everybody's doing it - Naughty Dog and Rockstar, like you and mobias say, for example - and it's okay, because they make 'good' games, which these days means 50+ hour, multi-million budget, sprawling open world experiences steeped in moral choice, that need stretches of development time the imagined average consumer (who also doesn't care about crunch) won't stomach.

The critics, who really should be speaking out on this, can't do so effectively, because then they don't get to do the sort of key pre-release coverage we're getting now. And even with the crunch, it's taken, what, 7 years at minimum, since the announcement? From an outside perspective, crunch hasn't given them many benefits.

The game looks brilliant, but I'd have been happy to wait years more for it from a zero-crunch culture CDPR.

My dilemma will be whether or not to get it for PC or console. I'll probably get it for console.

I think this is a safe bet, it'll have been designed from the ground up for a current-gen console, and you can still play it on the next-gens on launch day and get a free upgrade when the enhanced versions come out.

[bgmnts]

Yeah just dont buy them, or buy them used so they dont get your money.

[mobias]

The game looks brilliant, but I'd have been happy to wait years more for it from a zero-crunch culture CDPR.

From what I've heard we're going to start seeing a bit of a change in the ways games are made and sold to us next gen, in part to address the whole crunch working thing. Big AAA games like GTA will be made and sold in instalments. So for example a game like GTAVI will arrive with this huge game world but a relatively short singe player experience, maybe about 15 hours worth of story. Then more and more story will be sold as DLC. It won't please people who think you should buying a full game at launch but on the other hand the people making it won't be worked to death so much testing and making content for an epic game the size of GTAV or Cyberpunk or whatever.

[Mister Six]

So long as it costs about a quarter of the price of a standard GTA game, I'm fine with that.

Especially because I'm not going to buy any more GTA games, because they're shite.

[FerriswheelBueller]

Could be good this.

[Mobius]

Been looking forward to this for years. Hope it runs ok on the PS4!

[Inspector Norse]

Looking forward to this despite my doubts about how dated ”cyberpunk” is as a style.
Can you play as Keanu and make him sit on a bench and eat a sandwich?

[QDRPHNC]

Looking forward to this despite my doubts about how dated ”cyberpunk” is as a style.

I think we've come full circle and this game has made cyberpunk sound cool again.

[Thursday]

CD Projekt Red are pretty famous for horrendous crunch work culture, worth a google. They work their staff to the bone to the detriment of their health. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I was vaguely interested in Cyberpunk, but it makes it harder ask hearing about the tales. Similarly, I've boycotted Red Dead Redemption 2, a game wanted to play, as they boasted about crunch before release. I know it's pissing on an inferno to put it out, but I couldn't reward such behaviour.

My ridiculously weak gesture is getting these things pre-owned.

Does annoy me a lot though, seeing all the articles about crunch in the lead-up, and then when the games is released it's all

"WOW!!! Rockstar/Naughty Dog/CDPR/ Have really raised the bar and set a new standard for Triple AAA! How did they manage to achieve this???."

Has anyone ever even considered taking an actual stance on these things? It's fucking pissweak stuff.

[Bazooka]

Looking forward to this despite my doubts about how dated ”cyberpunk” is as a style.
Can you play as Keanu and make him sit on a bench and eat a sandwich?

I get ya, I'm kind of bored of science fiction and medieval fantasy, but its what we are gonna get, as long as it has interesting gameplay. 

[Kryton]

It's hard to explain what I want from this.

Can I visit every building, go inside for a nosey?

Is it going to be sandboxy - so I can just fuck off from the plot and go play arcade games like I could in Shenmue? I don't mean side quests, but stuff like just going into a bar and getting pissed or going cyber-bowling.

Is the hacking/tech stuff just going to be formulaic boring 'mini-games (like lock picking in Skyrim)' or will it have a number of surprises and be in depth? Like a hidden cyber world full of things you can brute-force and add viruses to? I've seen a scene of them hacking a punching robot training doll, which was alright I suppose.

What's the driving like? Can I run cops over? Or is it on the rails?

What about player housing? Can I buy an apartment and fill it with furniture and stuff?

I must admit the non-classed based multiple-branching tech tree sounds good. A lot of potential there.

[Mister Six]

Is the hacking/tech stuff just going to be formulaic boring 'mini-games (like lock picking in Skyrim)' or will it have a number of surprises and be in depth? Like a hidden cyber world full of things you can brute-force and add viruses to?

Yeah, I'd love a cyberspace that's a bit like BloodNet - a whole other world populated by avatars of other users, or AIs, or even the consciousnesses of people that have become detached from their bodies. Lots of potential there.

[Bazooka]

I really didn't mind Deus ex Mankind hacking, maybe something like that would be alright.

[mobias]

It's hard to explain what I want from this.

Can I visit every building, go inside for a nosey?

Is it going to be sandboxy - so I can just fuck off from the plot and go play arcade games like I could in Shenmue? I don't mean side quests, but stuff like just going into a bar and getting pissed or going cyber-bowling.

Is the hacking/tech stuff just going to be formulaic boring 'mini-games (like lock picking in Skyrim)' or will it have a number of surprises and be in depth? Like a hidden cyber world full of things you can brute-force and add viruses to? I've seen a scene of them hacking a punching robot training doll, which was alright I suppose.

What's the driving like? Can I run cops over? Or is it on the rails?

What about player housing? Can I buy an apartment and fill it with furniture and stuff?

Its basically a futuristic first person GTA with a similar branching storyline and dialogue system straight out of Witcher 3 from what I can see. So yes you can go out and run over people in your car and explore the city and the game world when you're not doing missions. Its just like any other sandbox game in that regard. You have an apartment to call home from what I've read.

I'm looking forward to it but I do have a few reservations about it over and above not much liking first person games. One of the reasons I loved Witcher 3 so much was that CD Projekt Red crafted some wonderfully loveable characters and that really got you emotionally invested in the game. From what I've seen of this it all seems rather filled with the usual computer game goons you get in something like GTA.

Now that they're showing what is pretty much the finished game its clear that since optimising it for the current gen consoles they've had to remove a lot of the NPC's populating the city. When the game was first revealed back at E3 a couple of years back a lot of journalists commented on how alive the city was with NPC's and the initial game play trailers seemed to show that. The city looked like it was alive and packed with people. If you compare that to the footage they showed yesterday the city seemed quite dead. There didn't even look like there was a lot of traffic on the roads. Its pretty obvious this game is really going to be understandably at its best on the next gen consoles. I may well hold off playing it until its on the PS5.  It'll be a buggy mess at launch anyway just like Witcher 3 was.

[Capt.Midnight]

I’m going to be a big old negative Nancy, apologies.

Could they not think of more imaginative names than ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ and ‘Night City’? Yawn.

I have similar issues with the Witcher 3 - the art direction doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. This is obviously not a problem for younger gamers who haven’t experienced the usual sci-fi fantasy tropes, but for such high budget games I’d expect at least some stylistic innovation. The character and enemy designs are pretty good though.

I hope it is good, I love the genre as a whole and this looks like a more beefed up Deus Ex. However, I’ve a sneaking feeling that this may well be shite...

[Zetetic]

Could they not think of more imaginative names than ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ and ‘Night City’?

These are taken directly from the 1988 Cyberpunk RPG that it's directly based on.

I do think there's a lot that does suggest a lack of imagination or creative risk-taking about what we've seen so far, but I'm not sure these names are part of it.

I have similar issues with the Witcher 3 - the art direction doesn’t really bring anything new to the table.

I think a large point of the Witcher stuff is to take the set-dressing of fantasy tropes and build upon them.

[Capt.Midnight]

These are taken directly from the 1988 Cyberpunk RPG that it's directly based on.

I do think there's a lot that does suggest a lack of imagination or creative risk-taking about what we've seen so far, but I'm not sure these names are part of it.

Ah fair enough, did not know that.

[Zetetic]

Although "why are you specifically interested in this RPG written before most of the people playing this were born?" is a fair question in its own right, particularly given the genre.

[mobias]

I do wonder how younger gamers will take to Cyberpunk's 80's retro take on what the future looks like design style. Maybe you have to be of a certain age to appreciate it. Then again maybe not.

[Famous Mortimer]

I do wonder how younger gamers will take to Cyberpunk's 80's retro take on what the future looks like design style. Maybe you have to be of a certain age to appreciate it. Then again maybe not.

Isn't that one of the defining things of the vaporwave aesthetic, which lots of gamer kids will be very familiar with?

[Zetetic]

I always thought vaporwave was meant to be rooted in actual '90s aesthetics (some of which were "futuristic").

But I don't think that the art style will be a stumbling block. "Cyberpunk" as an aesthetic has survived, somewhat disconnected from the '80s and '90s - Blade Runner 2049, the modern Deus Ex series, that sort of thing.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Yea do aesthetics even have waves anymore? Just constant repetition with little bits of innovation here and there

[Mister Six]

I always thought vaporwave was meant to be rooted in actual '90s aesthetics (some of which were "futuristic").

Yeah, vaporwave's ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ imagines a lost future in which Windows 95 and the 90s Mac OS became the core design texts, in the way that cyberpunk imagines a lost future based around installing a VHS player in your head and hacking into Wall Street with a ZX81.

That said vaporwave kind of stopped being a thing the kids liked somewhere around 2015. They're probably into some nonsense based around PS2s at this point.

[JamesTC]

I've just pre-ordered it. You can get it for less than £30 using a VPN in the GOG sale in a bundle with all The Witcher games. You have to log in as Russian through the VPN but it is in your English account and all the games add to your account as if you bought them anywhere so you've no need to worry in that regard.

Looking forward to this. I should probably find the time to play The Witcher 3 beforehand.