CD Projekt's Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.0 + Phantom Liberty Expansion Thread

[Gargaune]

That's my main gripe. CPDR tried to make a rendition of the source material and then bring it to modern audiences. I get that, I really do.

I get that the 80s Blade Runner aesthetic may not be cool anymore, but look at Deus Ex : Human Revolution. I know the game had a tepid reception, but I find the Prague design so beautiful. Mix of classic city with a futuristic twist.

I'm not even sure it's a "modern audiences" problem, I don't think there's anything about the tech noir aesthetic that wouldn't work for the contemporary consumer, but rather that CDPR aspired to keep it more "intellectually" relevant with this conceptual update rather than engage in retrofuturism, which the '80s-inspired aesthetics would've been.

Eidos Montreal spun up a whole proprietary art style for Human Revolution which they called "Neo-Renaissance" or "Cyber-Renaissance", it's its own thing. It was an interesting exercise, though I was happy they toned it down a bit through Mankind Divided because it was a very big gap to bridge to the original Deus Ex.

I think where Cyberpunk fucked up the most is the open world design. A game like this shines more in a hub kind of design. They could have made very big hub zones and hyperfocus the action there. Instead , I feel lots of times playing a GTA clone where half the content is there just for the sake of being.

That's not by accident, GTA was TW3's structural reference for its open world and interactions. I'm not bothered by CDPR going the open-world route, but they failed to appreciate how much of a difference setting a FPP adventure in a dense urban environment would skew players' expectations for exploration and interactivity. Night City should've played more like Boston in Fallout 4, Novigrad-on-steroids just can't cut it. But if we start breaking down the details, we'll be here till next Friday, it's all as interwoven as the average CBP mod setup.

That's CP2022 though. It's very much Gibson's Bridge trilogy - gritty, dirty urban wasteland/jungle, without the noir elements people often associate with cyberpunk because they saw Blade Runner.

That's fair enough, I'm not really qualified to comment on the source material, but I just don't find it as compelling as the tech noir approach. Blade Runner was more of the reverse, defining for tech noir while having little to do with cyberpunk, but my preferred reference would be Ghost in the Shell '95. I get a better groove off the visuals in something like the non-cyberpunk Terminator than those of Dredd 2012. If that aesthetic expectation's become widespread, I wouldn't say it's necessarily on account of public ignorance, but rather because the glove fits.

I'd agree he's a fine character, but his presence completely fucks the game in so many ways, it's kind hard for me to enjoy his presence on the screen.

I know what you mean, but the fault lies elsewhere. If you'd like to stare into the abyss for a minute, imagine the exact same Cyberpunk 2077 we got, except without Silverhand looming over your shoulder...

 

[luj1]

Part of the problem is the glossiness of the presentation

But the gloss is part of Pondsmith's work. All style, no substance world driven by corporate mandated consumption, where the punk thing to do is try and retain a shred of identity beyond what the brand of shoes you wear or the synthetic taste of your morning soda allows you to have.

I think this vision of cyberpunk is darker and sadder than any perpetually rainy night from Blade Runner could ever be, because it intentionally misrepresents itself in an insidious fashion. It's a toxic waste barrel painted in Skittles™ rainbows.

I agree that the gloss is kinda part of the vision of Pondsmith , but compare this stuff from sourcebooks (see attachments)

And compare it with screenshots from the actual game

If I show you that screenshot without context, you might as well say that's from Saints Row. And that's where Cyberpunk 2077 fails , in bringing up the ruggedness , oppression and shit that corpos and corruption bring to the common people, plus the punk part of anarchy and fighting chance. It is just too shiny in many places.

The source material was part funny, comedic, satiric and terrying. A great example a codexer gave was RoboCop's Detroit.

i spoke about this a lot

c2077 is not cyberpunk, its contemporary futurism

altho its what the creators wanted (another GTA)

 

[mediocrepoet]

Part of the problem is the glossiness of the presentation

But the gloss is part of Pondsmith's work. All style, no substance world driven by corporate mandated consumption, where the punk thing to do is try and retain a shred of identity beyond what the brand of shoes you wear or the synthetic taste of your morning soda allows you to have.

I think this vision of cyberpunk is darker and sadder than any perpetually rainy night from Blade Runner could ever be, because it intentionally misrepresents itself in an insidious fashion. It's a toxic waste barrel painted in Skittles™ rainbows.

This isn't true though. Pondsmith explicitly describes the classical Cyberpunk adventure in the tabletop as being rain-slicked streets and foggy nights; he did the same in the first promotional video of Cyberpunk advertising his involvement, specifically calling out his time in Seattle (which, spoiler alert, is not dry Cali weather).

This may be part of the setting technically (as in, it doesn't exist in a world where sunny days don't exist), but to pretend like it is some stylistic choice in the tabletop and on the part of Pondsmith is the opposite of reality.

There is some degree of gloss, but it is deliberate, and mostly to differentiate how the wealthy live and how fucked common people are.

I kinda like the mega building where V lives. Even if his/her apartment is just too lavish.

One thing I noticed last night is if I got a police star in a shit area, the cops were easy to evade and gave up quickly. However, when I got into a mild fender bender (might have also run over a ped, don't remember) downtown around the corp centres, those fuckers were all over me, shooting and chasing, at one star. It took forever to shake them because there were cops all over the place.

I thought that was awesome for conveying the: don't start trouble in rich areas, but go nuts in the ghettos.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

This isn't true though.

"Night City today is a rapidly growing urban region, still rife with urban violence and street crime, but with strong economic growth in the Corporate sector. It is the quintessential city of the Cyberpunk future- gritty, dangerous, but possessing an urban slick and stylish cool that makes it unique."

We can discuss what that actually means, but it's clearly more than just the studio set night streets and rain machines.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

You'll have to provide an example of what you consider a model cyberpunk setting, cos NC feels plenty dystopian to me.

Certainly californian palm trees and sunshine don't help, blame that on cybernegro prime Pondsmith and globalwarmthinkery (maybe). He could have put Night City in Washington state rather than on the (central?) Californian coastline. At least make it rain or be foggy 90% of the time as people already mentioned.

Even though Night City is located on the Californian coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco, it was depicted as having weather closer to that of Seattle, though perhaps with even more rain. People claiming otherwise don't seem to have bothered reviewing the artwork of Cyberpunk 2013/2020 products or the text describing Night City. CDPR made an intentional choice to give Night City weather appropriate to the actual Los Angeles or San Diego rather than weather appropriate for a cyberpunk aesthetic, just as they set daytime to last for about 17 hours of every 24 even though it's physically impossible for that location even on the summer solstice.

From "Welcome to Night City: A Sourcebook for Cyberpunk 2013", by Mike Pondsmith, 1988. Atmosphere is defined as a critical element of the game, and this includes gloominess, unceasing rain, and lack of sunshine.

 

[Zeriel]

This isn't true though.

"Night City today is a rapidly growing urban region, still rife with urban violence and street crime, but with strong economic growth in the Corporate sector. It is the quintessential city of the Cyberpunk future- gritty, dangerous, but possessing an urban slick and stylish cool that makes it unique."

We can discuss what that actually means, but it's clearly more than just the studio set night streets and rain machines.

Sorry, I meant to say that I was responding to the idea of it being about a sunny, optimistic place and that was just a design direction from the tabletop. After posting I realized you didn't specifically call that out, though it was part of the greater conversation.

 

[Zeriel]

You'll have to provide an example of what you consider a model cyberpunk setting, cos NC feels plenty dystopian to me.

Certainly californian palm trees and sunshine don't help, blame that on cybernegro prime Pondsmith and globalwarmthinkery (maybe). He could have put Night City in Washington state rather than on the (central?) Californian coastline. At least make it rain or be foggy 90% of the time as people already mentioned.

Even though Night City is located on the Californian coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco, it was depicted as having weather closer to that of Seattle, though perhaps with even more rain. People claiming otherwise don't seem to have bothered reviewing the artwork of Cyberpunk 2013/2020 products or the text describing Night City. CDPR made an intentional choice to give Night City weather appropriate to the actual Los Angeles or San Diego rather than weather appropriate for a cyberpunk aesthetic, just as they set daytime to last for about 17 hours of every 24 even though it's physically impossible for that location even on the summer solstice.

From "Welcome to Night City: A Sourcebook for Cyberpunk 2013", by Mike Pondsmith, 1988. Atmosphere is defined as a critical element of the game, and this includes gloominess, unceasing rain, and lack of sunshine.

The other thing is I think a lot of people (not even apparently the CDPR designers) don't understand that he was probably referring to the Bay area? The Bay area is notorious for being much cooler, foggy, etc. It is in fact namedropped in some of the early interviews about 2077 talking to Pondsmith.

People who live there understand this of course, but it seems like to people outside Cali they think the state is the same sundrenched picture everywhere.

 

[Hellion]

Dammit, I reached the point where you have to choose between Songbird (A) and Reed (B), I read that (B) leads to the most depressing ending of all but if you take into account everything that occurs/is revealed until the very end then selecting (A) pretty much makes you an irredeemable gigantic simpcuck too. There's no way to win in Night City

 

[Zeriel]

Dammit, I reached the point where you have to choose between Songbird (A) and Reed (B), I read that (B) leads to the most depressing ending of all but if you take into account everything that occurs/is revealed until the very end then selecting (A) pretty much makes you an irredeemable gigantic simpcuck too. There's no way to win in Night City

From what I heard, the "depressing" ending for others in PL is actually completely non-depressing to me. So very in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Hellion]

Yeah I guess it is a matter of perspective. In this ending you survive, Johnny is gone forever, but basically you become a weak NPC that can't use implants, and almost everyone that mattered in your life has either forgotten you, died, or moved on. Pretty dark fate imo.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

From "Welcome to Night City: A Sourcebook for Cyberpunk 2013", by Mike Pondsmith, 1988.

Sure, but the 2020 Night City is already a vastly different place, with plenty of daylight everywhere. You can walk the down town streets and have the illusion of safety, you can take your kids to the park (during the day, the night belongs to the cannibals), you can take a mag lev train to Westbrook and be turned around cos you don't have a coded ID pass (Westbrook's still a "suburb").

There's even a call out to the improving atmospheric conditions. You only need to buy air during the summer. In fact, I think 2077 has some public announcements about air quality being within human tolerance levels.

 

[Utgard-Loki]

a white bartender just shapeshifted into a nigger right before my eyes, this is going beyond parody right now. hava nagila is going to play any minute now.

 

[Zeriel]

Yeah I guess it is a matter of perspective. In this ending you survive, Johnny is gone forever, but basically you become a weak NPC that can't use implants, and almost everyone that mattered in your life has either forgotten you, died, or moved on. Pretty dark fate imo.

It's only a dark fate if you cared about any of them. Personally I just find almost everyone you are supposed to side with in 2077 annoying as fuck, so that's the good ending imo.

 

[Vyvian]

people listen to the ingame radio?

Vexelstrom and Morris Rock Radio because I get a kick out of Pondsmith's talking segments.

 

[Justicar]

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

Man, that G String thing looks pretty cool. A bit more post-apocalyptic than what I typically associate with cyberpunk, but interesting.



Not sure how distribution works, though, seems you've got a free 2011 mod version on ModDB and then a 2020 commercial version on Steam, but an "ultimate" version is being worked on since 2023...

The free version was one of the best mods for HL2 (that I tried), but I can't recommend it after all the copyrighted music in it was removed, and you can't even watch an old playthrough on youtube to see what you're missing since they automatically remove copyrighted music. The commercial version is a total overhaul and is more in line with any other mod turned into a sold product, with much bigger production values, voice acting which isn't just a Korean woman talking through a distortion filter, and other team members helping out with different parts of the game. They didn't just slap a pricetag on the mod, they rebuilt assets from scratch and it's a very different experience. The opening alone is completely different.

The ultimate version is going to be a slight modification to the buyable version in response to criticism. I wouldn't wait for that, it's not just perfectly playable as it is but a great time in the current state.

It's funny that you'd say that cyberpunk isn't post-apocalyptic, because when I hear the word I think about things like Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? where Earth is a radioactive polluted hellhole that most people would leave if they could, which is also what Blade Runner was loosely based on. G String is also a bit like Akira, with the psychic powers that you use instead of a gravity gun, and the later part of that was post-apocalyptic too.

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

Once you spergs have gotten burnt by the current thing, which in this case is a P*lish neo-FMV game featuring the favorite e-celebs of reddit with ESG propaganda crammed in to the brim and light Ubisoft "gameplay" stapled on, these are the games you should play to be welcomed back to the gamer race.

 

[Cryomancer]

Brought the game and as the company has a ESG score, brought in Argentine pesos with 40% off on steam to reduce the maximum the money which I'm giving to a esg company. Any mod which adds magic? I wanna be a technomancer. Just kidding, I'll play without mods for the first time. I just wanna know, how is sniping in this game? There is crazy EMP grenades and ammo to disable cybernetics?

And how is the weapon customization? Can I change the barrel, trigger, stock, etc and do crazy shit like putting a thermal scope in a pistol?

Sniping seems good.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Brought the game and as the company has a ESG score, brought in Argentine pesos with 40% off on steam to reduce the maximum the money which I'm giving to a esg company. Any mod which adds magic? I wanna be a technomancer. Just kidding, I'll play without mods for the first time. I just wanna know, how is sniping in this game? There is crazy EMP grenades and ammo to disable cybernetics?

And how is the weapon customization? Can I change the barrel, trigger, stock, etc and do crazy shit like putting a thermal scope in a pistol?

Sniping seems good.

Please virtue signal harder.

 

[Trithne]

Any mod which adds magic? I wanna be a technomancer.

You mean a techno-necromancer from Alpha Centauri.

 

[Cryomancer]

Please virtue signal harder.

Is not virtue signaling. I'm just saying what I did so if other people who hate esg and don't wanna to use piracy. Here is the prices per country : https://steamdb.info/sub/367653/

Anyway, back to the game, a video comparing bugthesda adaptation of this movie( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274518/ ) with cyberbug 2077

 

[Vic]

Please virtue signal harder.

Is not virtue signaling. I'm just saying what I did so if other people who hate esg and don't wanna to use piracy. Here is the prices per country : https://steamdb.info/sub/367653/

Anyway, back to the game, a video comparing bugthesda adaptation of this movie( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274518/ ) with cyberbug 2077

you dumb cocksucker

 

[Rhobar121]

Please virtue signal harder.

Is not virtue signaling. I'm just saying what I did so if other people who hate esg and don't wanna to use piracy. Here is the prices per country : https://steamdb.info/sub/367653/

Anyway, back to the game, a video comparing bugthesda adaptation of this movie( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274518/ ) with cyberbug 2077

you dumb cocksucker

You idiot, do you really think that Bethesha will actually waste her time patching the game? The only time this happened was during the release of f76 and only because the game was in an unplayable state.
The number of bugfixes a month after the premiere should make you think, the game will not be improved in any way unless a bunch of autistic modders who are going to devote hundreds of hours to this garbage take care of it. Nothing less will be able to fix the game.
Considering they didn't care about f4 do you really think they will care about starfield which is even more crap?
Unless your main goal is to install a million nfsw mods, because that's practically the majority of mods that will probably be created.

 

[Cryomancer]

Bethestard butthurt

Yes, before 2.0 seems like Cyberbug 2077 was a early access version of the game. But the game still much cheaper than wokefield. If is up to me to speculate, I would say that the game was made by diversity hires to boost esg score and them, after the flop, cdpr hired based on merit to fix the game. Anyway, is interesting how weapons in cdpr game looks like guns, even the most fictional guns. In wokefield, they look like toys.

This is pre 2.0 and looks amazing :

You idiot, do you really think that Bethesha will actually waste her time patching the game? The only time this happened was during the release of f76 and only because the game was in an unplayable state.
The number of bugfixes a month after the premiere should make you think, the game will not be improved in any way unless a bunch of autistic modders who are going to devote hundreds of hours to this garbage take care of it. Nothing less will be able to fix the game.
Considering they didn't care about f4 do you really think they will care about starfield which is even more crap?

Yep. Well said.

Also, this modders would make a much better use of their work and talent if they decide to contribute with the OpenMW project than to FL4/76 and wokefield.

 

[Justicar]

Please virtue signal harder.

Is not virtue signaling. I'm just saying what I did so if other people who hate esg and don't wanna to use piracy. Here is the prices per country : https://steamdb.info/sub/367653/

Anyway, back to the game, a video comparing bugthesda adaptation of this movie( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274518/ ) with cyberbug 2077

you dumb cocksucker

You really are a subhuman bethedadrone time to end youreself.